After her friends left Rainbow had a lot of time to think about what they said. She was just sitting at a register waiting for someone to arrive. So of course, she got lost in thought again.
How did they figure it out so easily? 'Didn't think I was that transparent. Wait...if they were able to notice it so quickly who's to bet Soarin didn't notice?! What am I supposed to do if he knows? Ugh, stupid heart, stupid feelings, stupid crush...
Rainbow Dash contemplated this thought for a few more moments before she was interrupted by her manager.
"Hey you! Get over here!" he shouted at her. This broke Rainbow's chain of thought and brought her back into reality.
"Uh, yes?" Rainbow Dash asked as she began walking toward him.
"I need you to start sweeping the floors I'm leaving in a half hour and need this place to be spotless." He said. Rainbow sighed before saying, "Yes sir." and left her register to grab the broom from the back room. That's when she remembered. The plan.
While she was in the back room searching for the broom, she noticed Fleetfoot and Thunderlane standing a distance away talking. They noticed she entered the room and Rainbow motioned for them to come over.
"What is it?" Thunderlane asked once they made their way over.
"You do remember the plan don't you? We have to change all the clocks now, the manager just told me that he's leaving in 30 minutes." Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh right! Thanks for the reminder. I'll go get the one in here, you two can decide who switches the other one." Fleetfoot said.
"Well, he just told me to start sweeping if he catches me doing anything other than that, I'm toast." Rainbow said.
"Okay, I'll get the one out there. Can you try to keep him distracted for me?" Thunderlane asked.
"Sure thing." Rainbow said.
"Alright cool, thanks." Thunderlane said.
"No problem." Rainbow said with a smile. They both walked into the main room of the store and Rainbow began to sweep near the clock. She kept watch as Thunderlane reset the clock to an hour and a half earlier than usual. Rainbow even set the clock on her phone to the changed time. Finally they were in the clear. Rainbow walked over to the manager and said, "Hey I finished the floors. Do you need me to do anything else before you leave?"
"Oh, uh...why don't you start counting the cash in the registers." The manager responded.
"Oh, uh sir just so I know, what time are you leaving?" Rainbow asked.
"I'm leaving at 6:30." He responded.
"Wait, it's only 4:30, why are we cleaning up now?" Rainbow said.
"It..It is? I thought it was 6:00?" The manager said confusedly. Rainbow opened up her phone and showed him the time. "I guess I just read the clock wrong..."
"Yeah I guess so." Rainbow said walking away. Once she turned away from him she had a smug grin on her face. She walked toward Thunderlane and Fleetfoot. "Alright, now he thinks that it's 4:30."
"Good. We can leave in an hour and lock him in like nothing ever happened." Fleetfoot said. They all had ill-natured grins written on their faces.
After an hour or so of helping the last 2-3 customers in the store. Rainbow, Thunderlane, and Fleetfoot all gathered their things and opened the door. Rainbow handed Fleetfoot the key she was given due to her having the opening shift this morning. There were three known keys to the store. The owners, the managers, and the one given to whichever employee was supposed to open in the morning. It was always given to the person the day before so they could get in in the morning without worry. Fleetfoot quickly looked through the glass and saw that their manager was still fast asleep. They locked each door and headed to their cars.
"Bye 'Crash, Flatfoot." Thunderlane said as he entered his car.
"Shut up dork." Rainbow said she got into her own vehicle.
"Bye guys." Fleetfoot said to both them.
"Bye." Rainbow said. Finally she was on the road. She looked at the clock. 7:20 nice, I actually have some time to spare. Before she knew it she was home. Rainbow parked her car and headed to her room to pack. She began to messily throw items into her backpack until it was full. She looked at the time again, it was 7:40 Okay, so I got maybe a half hour or so before I should leave. She decided to pick up a "Daring Do" book and read until it was time to leave.
Rainbow was already pretty far in her book. So much so, she read the last of it that night. It wasn't until she finished it that she checked the time. "It's 8:45!" She said out loud to herself. Rainbow was supposed to leave 35 minutes ago. The party of course didn't start until 9:00, but Rainbow lives about 45 minutes away from Pinkie. Guess she was just gonna be late. I'll text Pinkie on my way there that I'm gonna be a little late. She grabbed her backpack, phone, and car keys and sped out the door.
Rainbow decided to wait until she was at a stop light to text her friends. She was still freaking out a little bit that she didn't notice almost 40 minutes go by! Why doesn't this ever happen when I'm in school? She finally reached a stop light.
"RD: Hey guys, I'm gonna be running a little late."
"PP: What time are you gonna get here?"
"RD: Probably around 9:30-ish."
"PP: Okay, try to hurry! Don't want you to miss out on all the fun!"
"RD: See you guys there."
Rainbow just continued driving until she arrived at Pinkie's driveway. She decided to park a little bit up the road due to lack of space. She also didn't want to park in front of a random stranger's house. Pinkie came out and ran up to her the moment she got out of her car.
"RAINBOW!" She exclaimed.
"Hey Pinkie, sorry I'm late." Rainbow said.
"Don't feel bad, you didn't miss much." Pinkie responded.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow asked.
"That everyone in there is arguing over what game we should play first." Pinkie said dully. Pinkie was NOT a dull person. Most of the time she had more energy than she knew what to do with. But, that was surprising.
"Oh. Well, I guess we better get in there and try to fix it." Rainbow said.
"I guess so." Pinkie said. The two of them walked back to Pinkie's house and straight to her room.
"Howdy you two." Applejack greeted them.
"Oh, Rainbow darling, now that you're here you can help me by telling them we should do makeovers first!"
"Hi Rarity, it's great to see you too." Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. Both Pinkie and Rainbow sat down. Sunset decided to strike up a conversation with Rainbow, as she just got there.
"Rainbow, what took you so long to get here?" Sunset asked while everyone else, other than Fluttershy, talked amongst themselves about what to do first.
"At first I had a little bit of extra time to pass so I started reading Daring Do, but I uh kinda lost track of time in the process." Rainbow responded.
"Why am I not surprised?" Sunset responded jokingly.
"Yeah again, sorry about that. I can never seem to make it anywhere on time." Rainbow said with a chuckle.