Rainbow Burger

by KelGrym

Here comes Tom

Lyra stood in front of Pinkamena with the book satchel in hoof.

“H-here. Y-you forgot this,” she said. A tiny bead of sweat made its way down her face.

Pinkamena looked at Lyra. Then she looked at the satchel. She looked at Lyra again, brow raised, eyes squinting.

“Thanks,” she said, putting her satchel up and turning back to her window duties.

Lyra had held her breath for the entire exchange. Her mint colored face was close to turning blue when she finally let herself breath. That was a close one. She turned to go back to finish the rest of her break, in the dining room, when suddenly she heard Pinkamena’s voice behind her.

“You didn’t go through my things did you?”

It felt as if a glacial hand from Tarturus erupted from the ground and latched onto her spine. She knows!, Lyra panicked in her mind. Composing herself quickly, she turned around and said, “Me? Why would I do that? I would never look through anyone’s stuff without permission!”

Lyra winced as Pinkamena’s head suddenly lurched around. Her eyes narrowed and Lyra could feel beams of scrutiny pierce through the secret chambers of her soul. The icy hand on her spine tightened as if to yank her down to eternal damnation.

“I believe you.”

And as suddenly as it appeared the evil hand released Lyra’s spine and descended back into the underworld from whence it came. Her breath came back again as her pounding heart settled.

“Y-you do?”

Pinkamena nodded, saying, “You’re a gossip whore, but not a snoop. That’s something I’d expect bug butt to do.”

Whew!, Lyra mentally congratulated herself, I’m in the clear!

Lyra watched as Pinkamena went back to her window duties. Pinkamena didn’t know. Pinkamena didn’t know that Lyra knew. Now what was she going to do?

As she returned to the dining area to finish the remainder of her break, however, her attention soon turned, through the window, to the red Mercedes speeding towards the parking lot.

“Is that?” she said under her breath.

Her eyes widened. It was.

Lyra squeed in joy.

The man smirked behind his shades as he revved his engine. Punching the gas, he pulled recklessly into the parking lot. The Mercedes’ tires screeched under the force of the sudden left turn then screeched again as he braked hard and skidded into the parking space closest to the restaurants’ side door. He let the engine idle for a bit before he finally killed the ignition and brought his shades down to his nose as he winked into his blue eyed reflection.

“Sexy beast,” he said seductively to his mirror image.

He opened his car door and stepped out running his hand through his short luscious blonde hair, under the overhanging parking lot light. The hair moved through his fingers like water and bounced back a bit after the strands fell away from the slack.

Standing a full six feet in his Rainbow Burger uniform, his body seemed chiseled perfectly from stone into the divine ideal of masculine physical form. Square jaw. Broad Shoulders. Muscular build. He was Adonis, and he carried himself with the same confidence of an ancient Greek god, too.

He flashed a grin full of flawless pearl teeth that reflected sunlight, even during the night, and slowly donned his uniform’s cap before turning to face the Rainbow Burger with his arms akimbo, chest stuck out, and head held high.

“Look out, Rainbow Burger,” his deep voice purred, “Here comes, Tom.”

“He’s here!” Lyra squealed, forgetting the dread in the satchel.

She left a cloud of dust in her wake as she clocked in from her break early, but before she got to the side door entrance near the window, she realized that she would be 'near the window'...where Pinkamena was. The dread came back to her. Lyra looked at the terminal, but it was too late to go back now.

Just act natural and forget about the...thing. This is Tom were talking about here. I need to prioritize.

Lyra walked the rest of the way as naturally as she could to stand by the door. Pinkamena glanced over at Lyra for a moment and rolled her eyes. Soon the door opened and Tom walked in, swinging the door open. As he stepped inside he crossed his arms across his puffed chest.

"Let's get ready to rumble," he said, smirking, a few seconds after the door shut behind him.

Lyra’s eyes glazed over and she began to trip over her words.

“Hom Tey, I-I mean, hey…Tom.”

Tom took off his shades with a flourished sweep of his hand and looked down at the gushing unicorn. He made a gesture of pointing at her with his index finger, thumb sticking out, and made a chk, chk sound as he passed by her.

Lyra melted to the floor with a sigh.

Pinkamena stared at her.

Lyra began to notice Pinkamena’s gaze on her after she shook her self of her lust struck stupor.

“You’re disgusting,” Pinkamena said.

Says the nutjob. Lyra mentally said, before replying, "You're missing out."

Pinkamena wrinkled her nose.

“Are you on the clock?”

“Yes.”

“If you had your head set on, you’d know we need three medium fries and one large down.”

“Pssh, as if were in a rush,” Lyra said as her horn glowed green, and she grabbed a hanging head set from the wall with her telekinetic magic.

“It’s called fast food for a reason,” Pinkamena said.

Lyra rolled her eyes. “You’re not my boss, so don’t talk to me like you are.”

Freaking psycho. Lyra thought.

Pinkamena was looking past her, but Lyra thought she was staring. It was unnerving. She didn't realize what she was staring at until she felt something brush by mane.

“She’s right, though.” Chrysalis said softly in Lyra's ear. She jumped in surprise and spun around.

"Mrs. Shift!"

Chrysalis laughed at the prank she played and said, "And she's right also," directing her comment towards Pinkamena. "I'm the boss. I give the orders...Get back on the fry station," She said to Lyra.

Lyra stood up straight and gave a nervous salute saying, “Yes, maam,” before she dashed to the fry station. Truthfully, she was just glad to get away from Pinkamena.

As they watched Lyra leave, Pinkamena scratched her chin and asked, “I see you put Tom on the board. If he's on board then who's going to be on grill?”

“Bon Bon,” Chrysalis replied, “She needs the practice, and I’ll be taking over her spot at the oven.”

Pinkamena shook her head and said, “That’s stupid.”

Chrysalis sputtered, “W-what?”

“I said that’s stupid.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and asked mockingly, “Oh and why, pray tell, O wise mistress of Rainbow Burger ways, is that stupid?”

She didn't get her answer immediately. Chrysalis had to wait for Pinkimena to finish her exchange with the customer before she replied. Ever the professional, Pinkamena left Chrysalis hanging to tend to the customer whenever she could.

“Because,” Pinkamena began after she was done, “Car. Car. Truck. Car. Van. Truck. Car,” she said in rapid precision.

Chrysalis’s eyes widened in comprehension.

A wicked smile played on Pinkamena’s lips.

“…Bus.”

Without hesitation Chrysalis shouted into the kitchen, “Bon Bon, get back to the oven! Tom, get on the grill!”

Their headsets beeped.

Occupants of the bus flooded into the building and even Sombra had to come out of his office to take orders at the front counter and pour a little magic into the grill. The workers on the other side of the kitchen had trouble keeping up. Chrysalis and her crew on the drive-side of the kitchen fared no better. The local polo team just won a big game.

Polo was serious business in Equestria. Human children ages 7-12 rode on pony back trying to knock a plastic ball with a mallet into the other team’s goal. It represented a trust between pony and human. Children on pony back were under the care of their rides on the field and the rides made sure things didn’t get too rough and everyone had fun.

However to Pinkamena it was just another symbol of pony subjugation to humanity. What better symbol could there be than the children of the master race being carried on the backs of ponies?

“Woo! Go Timberwolves!” Tom called out from the kitchen.

Pinkamena really didn’t like that guy.

A few of the kids cheered back at him, “Timber wolves, for the cup!”

Bon-Bon had a difficult time on her end. Orders for cupcakes came non-stop. Child or foal, it didn’t matter. Kid’s loved their cupcakes. Luckily, for the newbie, she was taken off grill at the last minute or else she would have been demolished. Hopefully, the rush hadn’t dissuaded her from her career choice at Rainbow Burger.

She’d be smart to cut her losses and run., Pinkamena thought.

Pinkamena had her own troubles at the window. She had to deal with three customers that were given the wrong order, two that didn’t know what a number one combo was, four that changed their mind at the last minute, and one that tried to pay in extra-dimensional currency again, and three others that were just rude to her.

As grueling as the two hour rush had been, Tom was still in high spirits. He took it all in stride and performed admirably for someone so fresh to the job. Pinkamena wondered if he had any prior experience. Tom must have felt her thinking about him, because after things started to slow down he came over to talk to her.

“So…” Tom began, “That was pretty intense, huh?”

She turned to look at him briefly. He was leaning against the edge of her terminal’s counter with one hand and the other was resting on his hip. He wore his sunglasses through the entire ordeal.

“Don’t you ever take those off?” She asked.

“Take what off? These?” He asked, pointing to his glasses, “Or these?” He pointed to his slacks.

Was this douche bag flirting with her? Or was he just full of himself? Pinkamena took a moment to let it sink in what he said. She decided it was both. She was about to say something along the lines of sexual harassment when opened his mouth again.

“I kid, I kid. The answer is yes.” He said as he took of his shades in that single choreographed motion he used before on Lyra. “To both.” He finished, flashing a cocky grin.

She couldn’t believe this steroid pumped ape.

“You know I’ve noticed you the past couple of days. You really know how to work the window over there, and I think the way you get under the assistant manager’s exoskeleton is really cool,” he said, drawing out the words ‘really’ and ‘cool’.

“Look at you, using big words.”

Tom chuckled. “Ooh, feisty. I like that.”

“I bet you would.”

“Well you could say I have a thing for Pie.”

Pinkamena blinked a bored look at him and said, “That’s cute, Tom. Back when I was in high school.” This prick had already gone too far. Time to drop the hammer.

“Make a sexual innuendo out of my name again and I’ll file sexual harassment charges so hard on you, you’ll be fishing you’re food out of a dumpster faster than that thing you drive outside to compensate for your dick size will be put on sale to pay for the cardboard box you’ll be living in,” she threatened in a sharp, even voice.

“Woah, now. Easy there, Nelly,” he began, holding up his hands in mock defense, “I’m just trying to be friendly…besides,” he put his shades back on in an exact reverse of his previous motion, “Even if you did, you’d just be wasting your time.” He ended, with a smug undertone in his voice.

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“Really,” he explained, “Do you know what my last name is?”

“Bottom feeder?”

“Allwhite,” Sombra said, suddenly appearing besides the two.

“Allwhite?” Pinkamena muttered under her breath.

Sombra put his hoof around Tom’s shoulder as if the two had been best friends for years and said, “This fine strapping young man right here is an Allwhite. Damn fine worker too.”

Pinkamena was confused. She saw the schedule earlier in the day and knew that Tom was suppose to be at work ten minutes before Big Mac’s shift ended. Tom was over ten minutes late, and Sombra was always all over his employees glutes, haunches, flanks, and asses about punctuality. Why was he acting all chummy with him?

Allwhite…Allwhite. Pinkie raked her brain trying to make the connection.

Her eyes lit up with realization. It couldn’t be.

She asked, “You mean to tell me he’s an Allwhite, as in a Krisp G. Allwhite kind of Allwhite?”

Sombra beamed with pride. “He sure is! Heir to the whole Rainbow Burger Empire!” Sombra exclaimed with a hoof gesturing towards everything around them. “And it’s an honor to have him aboard the team, isn’t that right sonny boy!”

Tom’s hand went to the bill of his hat as he flashed a grin and puffed his chest out saying, “It sure is.”

She didn’t let it show, but the revelation blew her away. Krisp G. Allwhite and Dona W. Brimsha were both the reclusive co-founders of the Rainbow Burger franchise. Rumor had it that Brimsha died in a terrible accident and Krisp stepped down as acting CEO of the company, placing it in the hooves of some unicorn no one really knew much about. She never heard anything about a son.

“Well,” Pinkamena said, “Don’t that beat all?”

Sombra pat Tom on the back and said to him, “Why don’t you take a load off and grab something to eat, while I talk to Pinkie Pie here. It’s on the house, you deserve a break!”

“Sure thing,” Tom said smirking, “I could use a little break. Forty five minutes?”

Sombra scoffed and said, “Take a whole hour off! That was a big rush and you could use some extra time to recuperate.”

“Oh I don’t mean to brag, but,” Tom said with a wink towards Pinkamena, “I don’t tire real easily.”

She glowered at him.

“But if you think I should, I guess it wouldn’t hurt. See you in an hour Mr. Darkheart…you too Pinkie Pie,” He said with a lewd look hidden behind his shades as he walked off into the dining area.

After he was gone, Sombra turned to Pinkie with a dark look. His eyes were glowing a furious green.

“Just what in Tartarus do you think you’re doing?” Sombra asked in a steel edged voice.

Pinkamena recoiled at the sudden change. She’s seen Sombra mad before, but never like this. Her brow furrowed and she met Sombra with her own burst of outrage.

“What am I doing? What are you doing!? That freak of nature shouldn’t be here!” She yelled her vehemence in Sombra’s face.

“What am I doing? Think! That’s the son of Krisp G. Allwhite! I’m trying to keep us from all being canned!”

“You mean you’re trying to hobnob with the big boss’s son like a good corporate sock puppet so you can help your own flank.”

Sombra’s temper flared. “Maybe you don’t realize this, but one word from Tom and we’ll be the one’s eating from a dumpster. You do realize how stupid that was in hindsight, don’t you?”

Pinkamena’s jaw dropped. Words nearly failed her.

“S-stupid?...stupid!”

Sombra realized he may have made a mistake. He began to take a few steps back and considered the look of bloody murder Pinkamena shot through him.

“Let’s start this from the top,” She said, “I start the day with you busting my chops for being a minute late. Then you had to go and give me that stupid name tag using that name that I’ve told you time after time to stop calling me, which you haven’t by the way, and then pretty boy here shows up late, hits on me, calls me Nelly, calls me Pinkie, eyes me like a piece of meat, and you mean to tell me he doesn’t even get a slap on the wrist? I’m within my rights!”

Sombra winced at the verbal onslaught. For a moment he looked a little guilty.

“Pinkamena,” he said, “I understand why you’re upset, but this is a delicate situation. I don’t like it anymore than you, but the sad fact is that’s the way the world works."

The way the world works, indeed. She knew it to be an undeniable fact of life, but loathed it all the same.

"Please be reasonable, and try not to let him get to you. He’s only funning around, anyways.”

She raised an eyebrow at this.

“Funning around?”

“Funning around,” he reassured her.

She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and began to shake. Sombra considered using Lyra as a meat shield to protect himself from possible assault. As suddenly as it started however, it ended. For all appearances, Pinkamena became very calm.

“Fine.”

Sombra blinked. “Fine?”

“Yes, fine. I’ll put up with this human shit, just like I put up with everything else, but…” She trailed off.

Sombra wondered what she was getting at.

“If I catch him funning around anywhere near my flat, I’m running him through with a chainsaw. No questions asked. And if one of the girls here ends up missing, or dead in a ditch, I don’t care. It’s on your head. You deal with it.”

Sombra gulped at that.

“That sounds…fair enough. But I don’t think it’s going to come to that.”

Pinkamena thrust her face into Sombra’s yelling, “It better bucking not!”

She brought in her rage again. She took a step back and breathed in and out a few times with purpose,

Finally she said, "I want a raise."

Sombra’s eye twitched. “You want a what, now?”

The night had finally dwindled to its end and Lyra walked towards her car. It had been a rough patch, but everything was going to be alright. Despite Tom making googly eyes with Pinkamena, instead of her, she could finally put as much distance between her and that crazy pink pony to figure out what she was going to do.

Lyra unlocked her car door and stepped inside the mint colored Campolina 100. It was a low budget Equestrian model with specialized seats for ponies. The model didn't come with a lot of features, but it had what mattered to her. Good gas mileage, magically rechargeable battery, air conditioning and a radio.

Cars were seen as a strange thing when they were first introduced to Equestria. The machine was a wonder, to be sure, but redundant. A skilled enough unicorn could take a single wooden wagon and automate it with ease, using a 'come to life' spell. However as time progressed, cars became a popular fad. 'A come to life spell' could only take a wagon so far and would run out of magical power long before a car would run out of fuel. Recent advances in technology with magically enhanced ethanol fuel rendered fossil fuels obsolete, making automobiles environmentally friendly, thus popular and convenient for magical and non magical Equestrians.

Lyra started her car and began her 20 minute drive back to her apartment.

Honestly, what does he see in that psychopath? Lyra thought, remembering how Tom attempt to woo Pinkamena at work.

She was as surprised as Pinkamena when she overheard that he was an Allwhite, though. A mare could count herself lucky indeed if someone as prestigious as that showed any interest in her at all. Lyra couldn't understand why Pinkamena was so uptight. If she wasn't a such a bigot she could have him eating out of her hoof and be living in a mansion!

Really dropped the ball on that one, Pinkie.

As her thoughts turned back to the mare in question, Lyra felt a pit grow in her stomach. What was she going to do about what she found in that book satchel? Call the police? If Pinkamena ever found out she'd kill her!

Relax Lyra, she doesn't know and it probably wasn't real anyways. It was just a plastic replica, there's no way that could have been a real skull. Lyra tried to convince herself. It wasn't working. Her mom worked as a mortician for ten years, that was definitely a real pony skull...but who's?

Lyra needed something to take her mind off things and switched the radio on.

Tonight on PNRC, the newscaster began on the radio, the eco-terrorist known as Fluttershy was subdued around 5pm by local authorities, after staging a hostage situation in order to prevent the city from razing a condemned part of the Everfree park. Not but an hour into her custody, the police van was found abandoned on the side of the road. Bear prints and blood splatter indicate...

"Yuck! Why would I want to listen to that?" Lyra said to herself as she changed the channel.

A soft jazzy melody started to play on the air, and Lyra smiled to herself. This was something that could calm her nerves on the road.

As she drove, shadow and light alternated on the road from the overhead street lamps. It had an hypnotic effect. Every time she passed under a street light, the interior of her car became dimly illuminated before being plunged in shadow again. She was beginning to think a trick was being played on her eyes. She could have sworn she saw something flash in her mirror, but it was gone. She started to look behind her seat to make sure, but as soon as she did she veered off road. She turned back, quickly correcting herself.

Suddenly, as she passed under another street lamp she felt that cold hand of death, that she felt earlier in the day, lay its clutches around her spine. That one fading glimpse of Pinkamena's wild eyed reflection in her rear view mirror was the only warning she got before a pink hoof shot out around her seat and held a cloth to her mouth.

As she struggled and ran off course, everything slowly faded to black.