//------------------------------// // 13) This Job Sucks! It Needs to be 20% Cooler! // Story: Loyalty's Vision // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// {Rainbow Dash} After I was benched from fighting the Firewalls for medical reasons, I went back to my original assignment inside AI. When I got back Spitfire called me into her office.  "I heard you were put in the hospital for a couple of days," said Spitfire, "what happened? Are you okay?" I sighed, "Three words, partial sonic rainboom." "You crashed into something didn't you?" Spitfire asked. I nodded. "Yup." "Well that settles it!" Spitfire exclaimed. I tilted my head. "Settles what?" "I'm keeping an eye on you just like Kai is," Spitfire said. I sighed, "Great..." We heard a loud crash and went to go see what happened. We were shocked to see that one of the inventory racks had fallen over. I saw Gilda and other coworkers lift the rack up back to where it was. They searched frantically to see if anyone was underneath the mess.  Gilda let out a sigh of relief when she saw nobody had been hurt. "Oh good, no one's injured." "What happened?" I asked. Gilda shook her head. "Don't know, the thing just fell over or at least we think it did. We were just doing our jobs when we heard  a loud bang. We looked over and saw one of the racks had fallen over. Thankfully, no one got hurt underneath all of that mess." "Was there anyone around when it fell?" I said. "We didn't see anyone," another coworker said, "but it's possible someone could've been there when it fell. I've seen racks being knocked over by someone plenty of times before. I've worked here for ten years now. But a rack falling over by itself? That's never happened before!" "Huh," I said, "interesting." "Well, we'll just have to look at the video footage and see what happened," Spitfire said. I could tell by the look on the coworkers faces that they didn't like what just happened and trust me, I don't blame them. * * * {Discord} "Interesting," I said to myself after I just flipped over a rack with just a flick of a finger. I had no idea that was even possible!  "Did you hear that loud crash earlier?" I heard one of my coworkers say. I tried so hard to keep myself from rolling my eyes when I saw it was my coworker Laura.  "Yeah," I said. "I saw it happen and I don't know how but the inventory rack just fell over." "I've never heard of something like that happening before in a long while!" Laura exclaimed. "The last time that's happened was when I first started working here." "Wow," I said. I wondered if I looked amazed by this information because at the moment I wasn't.  "You don't seem too bothered by it," Laura stated. I shrugged. "Meh, stuff happens. I've been in the family business since I was sixteen! So yes, I've seen this before so it doesn't really bother me." Laura smiled at me, giving me a flirting smile. I knew Laura liked me but I had no feelings for her whatsoever. Laura's flirting smile then turned into a sheepish smile and I knew what she was going to ask next. "Um, so Gary," said Laura, "I was wondering, would you…"  I groaned and gave Laura an annoyed look. When Laura saw this she stammered, "I mean it doesn't have to be a date or anything like that. You know, um, we could just hang out? At least hang out with me, please Gary?" Even though I didn't want to 'hang out' with her, I did feel a little bit bad for her. She had recently broken up with her boyfriend and she was on the rebound. I sighed, "Sure Laura we can hang out, but only hang out no date got it?" Laura's face lit up and she had a twinkle in her eye. "Awesome! So how about we hang out tomorrow around six o'clock?" I raised an eyebrow. "You already planned this out didn't you?" Laura shifted her gaze a bit. "No, um, well I'll see you later." Laura walked away and I groaned because one would think that she would know I'm not interested in her. For the very simple fact that I haven't shown any interest in her by grabbing her butt or giving her a flower. Nope, I'm not interested and I don't think I will be anytime soon. * * * {Rainbow Dash} "Since I'm benched from fighting the Firewalls, what's going to be my outside of AI's assignment?" I asked. When I reported to Samantha's realm, I was curious of what she was going to do for my outside of AI's assignment. Of course Samantha naturally could hear my thoughts on the matter. "I have discussed this with the Founders and since you need to have an  eye kept on you anyway, you'll be using your pocket dimension to assist six-man squads to get to their breakout assignments." I looked at Samantha with confusion.  Samantha said, "Yes I know you wonder why you should even bother having a conversation with me because I already know what you're thinking. Unlike the other Predictors, I actually do like the conversations to go both ways. Since your pocket dimension is outside of the Machine, oops I mean AI it can be used for your assignment. It's only temporarily until we can figure out what's wrong with you. I have a hunch of what it might be, but until I have evidence I can't say what it is." Aw man, I thought, this job is going to suck, it needs to about- I stopped myself before I could finish my thought. Samantha knew what I was going to say because she couldn't keep herself from laughing.  "Ha, ha Samantha," I said as I rolled my eyes. "Gilda told me about your catchphrase back in Equestria," said Samantha. "And she told me about your new pet name, Awesominator." "That wasn't supposed to be a catchphrase!" I growled. Samantha snorted. "Are you sure about that?" "Yeah," I said, "I'm sure." "Okay, I'm done laughing," said Samantha, "for now. You can go back to your original assignment now."  * * * "I heard you said your favorite catchphrase!" Oliver teased.  I had just got back from Samantha's realm and I was putting away inventory when Oliver came around the corner.  "It's not a catchphrase!" I snapped. Oliver put his hands up and backed away. "Hey, I come in peace or does my teasing need to be 20% cooler?" I guess the look on my face said it because Oliver couldn't keep himself from laughing.  I'm seriously going to get Gilda back for this! I thought. I heard Gilda come around the corner laughing. I took a deep breath and held it because Gilda's teasing and Oliver adding fuel to the fire was getting on my nerves. I was using self-control to keep myself from doing something stupid. Oliver saw this and put a hand on Gilda's shoulder to get her to stop laughing.  "Uh, Nancy?" Gilda said. "You can breathe now before you pass out on us." I stopped holding my breath and calmed down but not much so I hissed, "You know something, just don't talk to me for the rest of the day Sia. Good thing you're not in griffon form or I'd be pulling out one of your feathers." I didn't say another word as I stormed off in anger. * * * Aw man, this job sucks big time! I thought. I was sitting in my pocket dimension waiting for the first group of agents to appear. When they did, they were definitely excited to see me. Of course, someone was sent to babysit me. Guess who was sent? Yup, Gilda was sent to babysit me, yay! Not really. I tried so hard not to roll my eyes at her. While she was trying so hard to keep a straight face.  "Wow," said one of the agents, "we're in Agent Rainbow Dash's pocket dimension!"  I rolled my eyes and thought, Why is everyone so excited to meet me? My pocket dimension lit up and announced itself to everyone, "I am Agent Rainbow Dash's pocket dimension. My name is Computer. I need to relay ground rules while you're here. Rule one: Do not touch any of the computers without authorization. Rule two: Do not sit in one of the chairs without asking Agent Rainbow Dash first.  Rule three: This rule is mostly for Agent Rainbow Dash and I don't think it really counts as a rule. Please contain your excitement while you're here. Agent Rainbow Dash is another agent that works for the Sixth just like you do. That being said, all agents in this room except for Agent Gilda and of course Agent Rainbow Dash say 'aye' if you agree with the rules." All of the Agents in the room said 'aye' in agreement. "Good," said Computer, "I have logged in your agreement with the rules, anyone breaking the rules will be escorted out of here immediately!"  When Gilda heard the rule about containing your excitement, she didn't bother to hide her laughter at it.  I groaned and gave her a sideways look. "Really Gilda?" "Contain your excitement?" Gilda laughed. "Really Rainbow? I think the rules need to be-" "Don't even finish that thought!" I snapped.  Gilda snorted. "Okay, okay fine!"  I saw the agents that were in the pocket dimension biting their bottom lips to keep themselves from laughing. I rolled my eyes at it. I slid my chair over to the computer and punched in the coordinates as to where this six-man squad was supposed to go. This happened all day. A variety of six-man squads arrived at my pocket dimension. I plugged in the coordinates and opened the portals needed to get to them to where they needed to go. Finally, Computer alerted me that my job was done for the day. I never thought I'd be thankful for a workday to end but this time I was. * * *  What I was going to do with my next day off, I had no idea. I went over to the cliff that I would normally do a fly-through but instead of flying, I just picked a spot and sat down. Gilda, who I now refer to as my babysitter, came and sat down beside me. "What?" Gilda asked. "Not going to do any flying today?" I shrugged. "How can I? It seems way too dangerous right now and I don't know why."  "With your partial out of control sonic rainbooms happening right now," said Gilda, "you really need to have an eye kept on you." I rolled my eyes. "You're doing a really good job of it!" Gilda laughed, "Why thank you for the compliment Rainbow! Or should I say thank you for the compliment Awesominator!" I snarled at her as I watched her burst into laughter.  "Oh come on Rainbow," said Gilda, "you really need to lighten up. Or does Loyalty need another nap?" "I'm not a freaking baby!" I snapped. "I don't need a babysitter, if anyone's off their rocker it's you, Samantha, Oliver, and Eli. You are constantly hovering over me and I can take care of myself!" "Until we figure out what's wrong with you," said Gilda, "you need to have people hovering over you."  "It's not going to keep happening for long mother," I heard Jude say. "Hey Jude," I said after giving Jude a hug.  Gilda looked at Jude in confusion. "Did you just call that guy Jude? Isn't your baby supposed to be about five years old by now? He looks like he's in his twenties!" I didn't feel like explaining things to Gilda so I just introduced Jude to her.  "Jude," I said, "meet my annoying Griffon babysitter Gilda." "Hey, I'm not a babysitter!" Gilda snapped.  "Well with your constant hovering," I growled, "I think you are! Anyway, Gilda, meet Jude."  Jude definitely found my introduction of Gilda funny because he started laughing and I joined in on the laughter just to be spiteful. "Fine then, if you don't stop laughing Rainbow, I'll put you in timeout!" Gilda mocked. When Gilda said that, I was on my back rolling on my stomach in laughter. "Here I thought you weren't my babysitter Gilda! Exactly how are you going to put me in timeout? Sit on me?" Jude finally composed himself as best as he could although it looked like he was going to start laughing again at a moment's notice.  "I think I've found a good pet name for you Gilda!" I said. "I'm going to dub you The Babysitter!" Well that pet name sent Jude into another fit of hard laughter and Gilda added more fuel to the fire or laughter in this case, when I saw her eye twitching. I didn't think the laughter was going to stop anytime soon because this was just way too funny. Finally the laughter stopped and Jude was able to speak. "So Jude," I said, "what are you doing here?" "I got bored on my day off so I thought I'd stop by for a visit," Jude said. "What?" I gasped. It was surprising to me that the ruler of AI actually got a day off. "Yeah I know," said Jude. "I think my coworkers think I'm going mental from being overworked or something so I decided to actually take a day off." "Well at least you're not doing partial sonic rainbooms to the point where people feel the need to hover over you all the time," I said. "I just got benched from my job because of medical reasons. Humph!" Jude nodded. "I heard about that. Firewall Eli told me about it. I don't blame people being worried about you. I have my suspicions about what's going on with you. I can't say what until I have more evidence for it." "That's exactly what Samantha told me!" I growled. I looked over at the edge of the cliff and kicked a rock over it with my hoof. After a short silence, Jude started having a conversation with Gilda and I just stood there listening to it. Then I jumped in and started talking too and I asked Jude how his wife Ivy was doing. He told me she was pregnant and was due in a few months. We didn't dare mention anything around Gilda about Jude being the ruler of AI. The conversation ended when I heard that me and Gilda were being summoned by the doorbell ringing in our ears. "We're being summoned," I said. "So it's time for us to go." Jude smiled. "Sure and as far as Gilda's new pet name goes, The Babysitter, I'll get Firewall Eli to spread the word for you." I snorted. "Sure, thanks for the help Jude. It's about time I got some payback on Gilda." "Hey!" Gilda said. I gave Jude a hug and I heard him laughing as we flew off to go report to Samantha's realm.  * * * After Gilda and I got back to our original assignment we went back to doing our jobs. I had been working with Spitfire sorting out some new inventory that had just come in. That was when I overheard Gilda and Discord talking. "Oh come on Sia!" Discord whined.  "For the last time Gary!" Gilda shouted. "I'm not watching over that thing! I get enough money doing my regular job, thank you very much!" I went around the corner to see what was going on and I covered my mouth to stifle a laugh at what I saw. Discord was holding a baby doll and was acting as if  it were a real child. He had it dressed like a real baby and everything. "But Sally here is a special little girl," Discord said. "She has very specific needs and I heard you're the best in the business! Isn't that right, Babysitter?" I had tears in my eyes as I bit my bottom lip to keep myself from laughing.  Gilda pointed at the baby doll. "Again Gary, that's a toy!" She pointed to herself. "I'm a living breathing person." She pointed to the baby doll. "That isn't living and it doesn't breathe! I'm not watching it!" Discord looked at me, smiled and winked as he kept begging Gilda to watch his fake daughter. I could tell Gilda was getting irritated to the point where she wanted to wring Discord's neck. Before she could even think about assaulting Discord, she exhaled slowly, "Fine, I'll think about babysitting your 'special little girl' but I can't make any promises."  "Yay!" Discord cheered. "So I can keep you on standby in case I need your help?" Gilda grit her teeth, "Fine…"  "Oh goodie!" Discord said. "Thank you so much for your help Babysitter!" At that point there was no way I could keep my laughter in even if I wanted to. I kept laughing as Gilda stormed off in anger. As Discord watched Gilda walk away he couldn't stop laughing either. I smiled. "Good job Gary! You really are a charmer, you know that?" "Hey, I just heard Sia's new nickname was the Babysitter," said Discord, "so I figured I'd get some more material for my next stand up comedy routine. It's always been a dream of mine to spread laughter everywhere I go." The way Discord said the words 'spread laughter' kind of irked me because it sounded a lot like something he would say back in Equestria. So I decided to end the conversation.  "Well Gary you're doing a good job of it now," I laughed. "Keep up the good work!" After Discord and I shared a good laugh, we went back to work.