//------------------------------// // Order Up! // Story: A Few Bits Short // by RazBro //------------------------------// ~A Few Bits Short~ Chapter Three: Order Up! The stain. This stupid, stubborn, seemingly now malevolent stain. It was the bane of her existence. "Uh...You ok there, sugarcube?" Applejack asked in a more concerned tone than last she spoke to Rarity. Since Applejack's prodding, the white unicorn had resigned herself to have the ordeal over with as soon as she could help it. After all, she was already going to be treating herself to an extended stay with Aloe and Lotus tomorrow just for having set foot back here. She might as well really get into it now to make the trip truly worth it. However... It was, or had been, a pot used to make soup. Under Rarity's scouring steel wool and attention to detail it was spotless. Save for one. Burnt. Stain. "Ya' could jus' let that one soak for a while you know? Get through the other pans in your stack first?" Applejack suggested. Rarity was bent over the sink staring down the stain, her head almost inside of the pot itself and her mane long since wrapped in a net so as to preserve it as best she could. She was attacking the stain with grim determination, giving up on using her hooves to maneuver the scouring pad and now using magic while she held the pot steady. "Just a few more strokes, Applejack. I will see you gone!" the unicorn spoke to the offending stain. "...How long has she been at it?" Applejack looked back at one of the kitchen aides who had come back to pick up a clean set of dishes to bring back for use, a stallion with a curious look on his face. "More'n a few minutes I suspect. I wasn't really payin' attention until now," Applejack replied. "That pot has had that stain for months, you know," the stallion said as he started to stack cleaned pots and pans onto his rolling cart. "Yeh know yer pots 'n pans by the stains?" Applejack asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. The stallion merely shrugged in response. "I'd venture to say I've personally handled every piece of this dishware a thousand times over. You start to take notice. Strange, I know but you pick up on things," the stallion said dismissively. “What’s yer name?” Applejack asked, since she thought it might be helpful to get to know some of the kitchen staff. And he wasn’t half bad to look at either. With a pale grey coat, unkempt blonde mane, and a physique that suggested he definitely did his share of hard work, Applejack wouldn’t mind terribly getting to know him better “Grease,” he responded after a short pause. “Grease?” Applejack repeated, trying to hold back the smile for fear of offense. “That’s what everyone here calls me, anyway. My real name is…uh. Ellbogen. It’s a family name.” “Well shoot, no sense bein’ ashamed of a family name. The Apple name goes way, way back. I'm Applejack.” Before their conversation could continue, Rarity let out a considerable grunt of frustration. Grease looked over at the pot then back at Applejack. "Really, it's clean enough. I could uh...take it off her hooves perhaps?" Rarity, who had been muttering to herself whipped her head around suddenly and glared down the kitchen aide with sharp eyes. "No. This one is mine." "He knows that, darlin', but yer stack is really startin' to pile up... If yeh don't move on we'll be here all night!" Applejack cajoled, trying to use the incentive of getting out of here to break Rarity of her mission of absolute sterility. "I'll take that. Looks great, keep up the work," the kitchen aide said then, reaching over and taking the pot from Rarity. Soon a light blue magical aura enveloped the dish and started to tug back. "I'm not finished! It's positively filthy!" Rarity said, her voice starting to pitch upward. Applejack's ears flattened against her head, fearing the shrill tones to follow. "Lady, this pot is cleaner than it's been in months. You did a good job! Now...Just let me..." Grease struggled to put the pot onto the rolling cart against the aura's grip. "But! Filthy!" "It's fine!" "Filthy!" "Fi-!" Grease suddenly lost his grip on the pot as Rarity's magic overwhelmed his hooves. The pot flew back into Rarity's head with enough force to dunk her face into the sink water, the netting containing her mane also coming loose and sending her curls to a watery and soapy grave. Applejack's eyes had never been wider. Before the unicorn could react he turned to Grease. "Ye'll be wantin' to leave. You do not want to be around for this. Trust me." The stallion quickly gathered his cart and hurriedly made his way back to the kitchen. With a dramatic gasp, Rarity's head came back into the air, an utterly shocked and lost expression on her face. "I..." She looked down at her hooves, started feeling her mane, started looking around wildly. "I..." "Now Rarity..." Applejack said, moving over and trying to offer comfort. "I need a mirror." "It's really not that bad, there was soap in the water! Yeh jus'...Took a bath." "I need. A mirror." Applejack grit her teeth and handed her a pan that had been cleaned. It's shiny, copper surface provided an adequate reflection for Rarity to use. Eyes determined to find the slightest flaw focused intensely on the reflection. The water really had been mostly clean, seeing as Rarity hadn't quite done that much work yet. Yet the unicorn's eyes widened and started to tear up. There. On her nose. On her pristine, beautiful, daintily-upturned nose. Spinach. Wet, dripping, surely-contaminated spinach. ~~~ Princess Luna came to attention suddenly when the glass of the window she had been walking past suddenly shuddered slightly and then just as quickly stopped. She eyed the window curiously for a moment then continued on her way towards the Royal Study. "Well that was odd..." ~~~ Back in the kitchen, the dish area was relatively silent after what all the ponies present had just been accosted with. Even the roar of the dish machine seemed subtle by comparison. "Holy Mother of Celestia..." Applejack said as she tried to shake the ringing out of her ears. Rarity had collapsed into a sobbing pile after her shriek. "C'mon now, Rarity! I've seen you covered head ta' toe in mud without that kinda reaction. It's jus' a little water!" Applejack said as she somewhat playfully splashed a little bit of (clean) water onto her from the sink. Two steely eyes immediately seared themselves into Applejack's nightmares. "Ok, that was a mistake." "Just a little water? See how you like it!" Rarity raged as she splashed a large amount of water out of her sink straight at Applejack, hitting her square in the face and soaking her hat and mane. "Ah! Hey not tha' hat! Now it's gonna get all smelly..." the tan mare said, taking off her hat and trying to wipe away some of the moisture. "As if it weren't already!" Rarity said venomously, splashing another helping of liquid justice into the cowpony's face. She put up a hoof to block it and squinted against the onslaught. "Hey now missy, you don't wanna get me started..." "Or what? I bet this is the first time you've had a good soaking since applebucking season!" Rarity retorted. That was it. This prissy little unicorn was going down. Applejack set her Stetson back onto her head and with a controlled glare, picked up a pan full of soap and water and emptied it at Rarity. All sense of stability in the situation vanished. The stack of dirty pots and pans were forgotten. Rarity and Applejack were now locked in a battle of soapy proportions. It cascaded across Rarity's already dripping mane. It splattered off of Applejack's loosening braid. It glistened off of Rarity's flank. It was Spike's biggest, wettest dream come true. Spike had been watching Rarity out of the corner of his eye for the entirety of his work, but now that a full-out war of the suds situation was developing before him, the line of dishes ready to go through the washer started piling up. The two mares were soon completely drenched as Sudsy took notice of the situation and started to intervene. Spike felt a strange sensation between his legs. Like something tugging; subtle and gentle at first but starting to get stronger and more persistent. Drawn out of his daydream by the sensation he confusedly turned his head around to see what had gotten hold of his tail. “Uh oh…” Spike said, seeing that his tail had gotten caught in the rows of tines going through the dishwasher when he had turned around to watch the water fight. He quickly seized his tail and attempted to free himself but it was too late. The powerful motor driving the conveyor yanked him off his feet and off the stool he had been standing on and onto the belt. “Ah! Help!” His cry went unnoticed as Sudsy was holding Rarity back from dumping an entire soup well of water over Applejack’s head. Flecks of hissing water escaped the drapes that led to the inside of the machine. The jets of boiling hot water and plumes of steam now seemed intent on dragging him to his doom. “Nooooooo!” Spike cried as the drapes fell over him and he fell prey to the merciless machine. ~~~ Out on the dining floor, Twilight nervously approached the table of stallions she had previously served to check on their progress. Incidentally, this party also included the bold pony who had pinched Twilight's flank as she passed by. Encouraged by Rainbow to try out a little 'harmless' flirting to increase her tips she eyed the stallion in question as she approached. Nearby, Rainbow had just finished taking an order when she spotted Twilight approaching the table. Conveniently passing within earshot, she smirked. "This outta be good." "How is everything tasting tonight...uh..cuteness?" The stallions snickered to themselves while Rainbow nearly tripped upon passing and had to shove a hoof to her mouth to stop bursting out from laughing. "Everything's great, doll. How do you taste?" the stallion replied smugly. Twilight's lavender face suddenly burnt a bright feverish pink as she stammered unintelligibly, trying and failing to come up with a response. Rainbow's ear flicked in annoyance. Flirting was one thing, but being that forward with one of her friends? That crossed the line. She made her way over to the table and shouldered Twilight aside, who gratefully accepted the help. "Watch it, punk. She's not interested," Rainbow said bluntly. "Well that's a shame. I must say though whoever does the hiring here has fine taste in mares. How about you then, sugar? You getting ready to take off, or are you just happy to see me?" He said grinning. His two friends chuckled. Rainbow's wings had been straining against her server's jacket, naturally wanting to unfurl when she was getting angry. Her face burned, but more from the stallion's arrogance than any embarrassment. Twilight, sensing Rainbow about to lose it stepped back in, more confident this time. "I'll handle this, Rainbow" Twilight said. "Your check, gentlecolts," she ended sweetly, producing the black leather binder that contained their bill. The abrupt change of tone and subject caused the lead pony to nod his head at one of the other two, who rolled his eyes and took out his wallet. The bolder stallion then turned a leering gaze back on Twilight. "You in a hurry to get out of here, sweetheart? Maybe I could give you a ride," he said sneering. "That's funny. I was just about to offer you the same thing." Twilight said smoothly. The stallion and his companions shared a look and boorish grins. "Yea? Sounds wild." "You got it," Twilight finished, holding her head high and winking. With a flash and sharp pop, her magic engulfed the three stallions and teleported them out of the restaurant. Rainbow's jaw dropped. "That. Was. Awesome! Where did you send them?" The pegasus looked excitedly at Twilight. "Just the top of the mountain. In a pretty deep snow drift if I aimed right. That should cool them off. Oh look! What a generous tip. You're right, Rainbow, a little wink here and there does help," the unicorn said as she gathered up the bill and the left-behind wallet of the paying stallion. Rainbow watched Twilight walk away to the register with a new respect for her egghead friend. "Excuse me, young lady, our order?" an agitated voice called out. Rainbow snapped out of her reverie and forgot that she hadn't even placed the order from the last table she'd talked to yet. "Shoot...There goes another tip..." she thought to herself. "Coming right up!" ~~~ "Stop." The authoritative command halted Fluttershy in her tracks as she tried desperately to leave the General's table without incident after dropping off his coffee. She turned around, hiding behind her mane as the General added his own cream and took the mug to his lips shakily. Blowing on it a few times to cool it he finally took it into his mouth. Fluttershy trembled under his silence. "Adequate." Fluttershy let out a pent up breath of relief. "But I suppose you didn't really have much to do with that, now did you? Bring the next course when it's ready. Dismissed." "O-of course, sir. General! Of course G-General." she said turning around and trotting as quickly as she could back to the kitchen. Her bottom lip trembled at the thought of serving him again. He had only finished his first course, who knew how long he would be there? As she passed back into the kitchen, she nearly crashed into a serving cart laden with clean pots and pans. The pegasus began backpedaling abruptly, a profuse stream of apologies already started coming out of her mouth. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." She trailed off as her eyes watered from the stress of the situations. Grease had quickly maneuvered the cart out of the way and chuckled. "No big deal, don't worry about it. Hey uh...Are you ok?" he said, realizing the mare's fragile state. "I'm...fine." She said very quietly, and backing up towards the nearest door, attempting to leave the encounter. "You sure? Because you're about to trap yourself in the freezer," he said with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. Fluttershy looked behind her as she felt the chilly air roll out of the open freezer door. She lowered her head and dragged her front hoof across the ground, hoping he would go away. "Uh..I'm Grease. I'm guessing you're with the others, huh? Can't say I'd want to spend the rest of my night here if I didn't have to," the stallion said, trying to relieve the awkwardness of the situation. Fluttershy turned her head and remained silent. Grease scratched the back of his neck, still wanting to get to the bottom of what had obviously upset her. Noting the serving jacket she wore, he peeked out the window into the dining area and saw the General calmly sipping his coffee. He scowled. "Now it makes sense. Listen that guy's just a big pain in the flank. He's been on a power trip for years," Grease said turning back to Fluttershy who sniffled slightly. "I started out as a server you know. Until he become a regular. One night I just blew up at him and then bam. Kitchen duty ever since," Grease said, hoping maybe he could at least get something out of the yellow mare. She looked up with one clear eye. "Really?" She asked quietly. "Totally. He returned his dish three times because it was too cold, then too hot, then there was a hair in it...All my fault of course. He just likes to be in control," Grease finished. "It's more than that," Fluttershy said suddenly, "he's rude, and impatient, and mean, and I bet he doesn't like bunnies!" Fluttershy defiantly, yet somehow still timidly, stomped her hoof on the floor, feeling a little better after venting her frustration. "Oh dear...I didn't mean to shout like that..." She immediately retreated again into her mane. Considering her voice had never rose above the level of polite dinner conversation, Grease chuckled. "No worries. Just stand up to him, yea? You don't work here. You don't have to kiss his boots. What's the worst that could happen?" Fluttershy considered his suggestion as he shrugged and then took control of the cart again, heading towards the kitchen to drop them off. "Good luck," he called over his shoulder. Fluttershy looked out the window again at the patron in question, a thoughtful look in her eye. ~~~ Pinkie Pie had been diligently emptying the dishes from the back of the machine. Stacking plates and cups was monotonous work, and really the only reason she hadn't wandered off and found something better to do was because of Sudsy's constant vigilance. But now that he had hurried over to stop Applejack and Rarity from drowning each other she was left unsupervised. At first she wanted to see how tall she could stack the plates. She got to a stack of thirty before the round of plates Spike had previously loaded stopped and switched to bowls. So she began to stack those, but before they could reach an adequate height as well, the dishes coming through switched again. "Hmm... Give meeee....Cups!" she stared at the flaps that the conveyor belt slowly moved through. Sure enough the next item to come through were a set of glass cups. Pinkie clapped her hooves together excitedly and stacked them up. "Show me silverware!" A few crates of silverware sluggishly made their way through the flaps and into Pinkie's hooves, who by now distractedly set them aside on top of a pile of dirty rags. "What are you doing?" Grease, who had come back for more dishware stared at the pink pony who was now impatiently tapping her hoof, leaning against the machine, chanting, "Bowls, bowls, bowls...Bowls!" A high-pitched giggle escaped as she picked them up and tossed them over her shoulder, eager for the next set of dishes. "Hey! Watch it!" Grease reacted and tried to catch as many of the airborne bowls as he could, yet a few escaped his grasp and shattered against the floor. "Oops..." Pinkie turned around after hearing the crash. "Sorry. I got distracted. I'm guessing which dishes will come out of the machine next!" "...Right." Grease said, stacking the remaining bowls neatly onto his cart, as well as dividing the precarious stack of dishes already there. What was it with these crazy ponies? He supposed everypony had their own way of passing the time on a long shift though. "Bet'cha we get some salad plates next!" Pinkie said turning back to the machine. A short row of small plates rumbled through the flaps. "Four for four, baby!" Pinkie pumped her hoof and set the plates aside a little more gently this time. "Ten bits you don't get the next one," Grease said with a smirk. "You're on! Spoon me!" She said turning around dramatically and pointing at the machine. Grease cleared his throat and shifted his eyes at her rather awkward phrasing. The flaps started to part, preparing to divulge it's contents. "Spoons spoons spoons sp-...Spike?" The flaps unceremoniously parted to reveal Spike lying flat on his belly across the tines. He had freed his tail in the machine but was busily trying to rub the water out of his eyes. "Spike! Are you okay?" Pinkie gathered him up off the belt and set him gingerly on the ground. The baby dragon spat some water out of his mouth and coughed a couple times before clearing his throat and looking at the machine with a glare. "Just tell Twilight that I won't need a bath for a week at least," he said disdainfully. "Heh. You owe me ten bits," Grease said elbowing Pinkie. "Not fair! Spike, you cheated!" Pinkie Pie said. "Ah, as long as the kid's fine, don't worry about it," Grease said, filling up his cart and departing for the kitchens once more. Just then, yet another crash resounded throughout the dishroom, loud enough to finally get even Rarity and Applejack's attention, whom Sudsy was standing in between, now just as soaked as the mares. The line of dishes leading up to the dishwasher that were waiting for Spike to load finally became too backed up and toppled from the belt of rollers. At least a dozen plates, glasses, and silverware met their demise at the unforgiving floor. Spike winced with each piece of destroyed porcelain and looked up sheepishly at Sudsy, who facehoofed and let out a long exasperated sigh. "What in Celestia's name is going on back here?!" a voice roared across the room. Bottom Line strode angrily across the room, taking note of the broken bowls at the unloading end of the machine, and the strewn wreckage of dishware on Spike's end. Applejack and Rarity froze, just as Rarity was about to smear a ladle-full of dish soap into Applejack's mane. "Well she started it," Rarity huffed.