Derpy arrived, and the first thing she looked for was the calendar near Karyn’s computer. The previous week’s Sunday had been crossed out, but in pink highlighter so that the activity—beach—could be seen underneath. Then her eyes drifted to the next Sunday to see what activity they had planned. But her view was obscured by Karyn sliding her head in from the right and booping Derpy’s nose with her finger.
“Hey, marefriend!”
“Hey…” Derpy searched for the equivalent word. “womanfriend!”
“Close! But good enough. How have you been? How was your week?”
“Good. You seem like you had a good one. Or are you anticipating another fun activity today?”
Karyn twirled and flopped on the bed, her sundress billowing around her. “Not particularly. Actually, I was hoping we wouldn’t be too tied town to the calendar. We can just do some fun things on a whim, right?”
“Sure. I made the calendar more to cheer you up. If you’re cheerier not doing the things on the calendar, then it’s doing its job. I think.”
“Definitely. Ready for breakfast?”
“Oh, yeah. And you’re already set to go out today. Good to see you in a better mood.” Derpy checked the calendar one more time. “I bet it was because of the beach that we went to last week. It loosened you up from all that tension.”
“I won’t say it didn’t. Splashing in the water was fun, and I’d like to do it again, even if I am all a grown-up now.”
Derpy looked at her with skepticism, but Karyn wasn’t sure if it was about her remark of being grown-up or of something deeper. “You’ve had quite a mood swing over the last month. From being so down that I couldn’t tell what was wrong to being so up that I can’t tell what’s right. Are you sure that you’re not worried about anything and just trying to cover it up?”
“Well, maybe I am. I’m nervous and excited both at the same time. It’s like that word that Pinkie Pie used….”
“Excivous?”
“No…yeah, that was probably it. I’m totally excivous.” She got up and skipped to the toaster to get breakfast ready.
“Are you going to make me go through a whole rigmarole to find out what caused it?”
“I won’t,” said Karyn, “but let’s get everything taken care of first. How about the apartment? Is it clean enough to suit my fastidious friend?”
Derpy scanned. “Did you dust?”
“I did. I found myself with some extra time this week. You know that I’m not in school anymore.”
“Well, I’m glad you put the time to good use. But how about looking for work?”
Before Karyn could answer, the toaster popped, and she busied herself with plates and spreading preserves over the pieces. Then her mouth was occupied with eating. Derpy decided to give up the fight for the moment and eat without talking about important things. Karyn finished first, a rare occurrence, and watched Derpy finish.
“You’re cute eating something like toast. The way you hold it between your hooves.”
“Enough about my eating. Talk.”
Karyn put the dishes in the sink and washed off the crumbs, but left the formal scrubbing for later. She turned to Derpy full on and said, “I’ve done it. I’ve been hired for a real IT job. Tomorrow will be my first day.”
“Congratulations! It’s not an internship?”
“It is kind of, but they’re not labeling it as such. I’m getting paid, but they understand that I’m leaving at the end of the summer. But they needed someone around who could do things like repair jammed printers or deal with users who forgot their passwords, and they needed them fast. Over the next two months they’ll do a longer hiring process, and probably my last week there I’ll be training my replacement.”
Much of this went over Derpy’s head, though she understood about forgotten passwords. “So it’s mostly support? Isn’t that the part you don’t like?”
“I don’t hanker for it, but it’s got to be done and I’ve got to learn it. If I’m ever a CIO I can give it up, but I’ll have done a lot beforehand.”
“Well, that’s a good attitude to have. I think I do a lot better when I talk to everypony I deliver to instead of just putting the mail in their boxes. Unless the pony isn’t home, then I don’t talk to them.”
Karyn laughed, louder than she had in some time. “Of course you wouldn’t.”
“So where is it?”
“The mail? Oh, the job! Duh. It’s at a school. I think that could be part of why I got the job is that the person who interviewed me started out as a teacher and picked up the IT on the job, so he was more impressed by someone who studied it and plans to make it a career.”
Derpy thought there might have been a story in that, but she was more interested in Karyn’s doings. “Is the school more like yours or is it something like where Dinky’s going?”
Karyn had an image of herself trying to explain some technical issue to a unicorn while Princess Celestia looked on, wondering why she couldn’t just magically fix it. “No, it’s not like either. This is a school for children, but not even like how Miss Cheerilee teaches. These children are underprivileged and have done bad things. In old times we would have called it a reform school, but that term’s not popular these days.”
“Oh, wow. So you’re with bad kids like how Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara used to be?”
“Probably even worse. But the good thing is that I won’t be working on the computers that they use. It was explained that they’re on a completely different network. So I’ll be safe from making any enemies, working in the office or the server room.”
“If there is any trouble, just send me a message across worlds and I’ll come flying to save you!” Derpy demonstrated by dashing around the room.
“Ha, I bet you will.”
“Well, I’m glad that everything’s finally going your way.”
Karyn’s smile broke for the first time. “It is, but at the same time, it’s not perfect. I don’t want to get stuck in the educational field for my whole career. Their equipment is outdated, and from what I hear they don’t get to upgrade very often. I want to be working with the newer stuff.”
“Yeah? That’s a shame. I would think that schools would be the places to put all the new stuff.”
“Again you’re thinking of places like the college I go to. What goes for these children is the bare minimum. The school isn’t run by the government, but they’re funded by them. That puts them in a kind of limbo. If it were a private school, they could charge tuition and finance themselves that way. If they were a government school, they’d get paid out of the taxes and not worry. But they’re a consultant to the government, and so they get paid as little as possible.”
“And so do you?”
Karyn blushed. “It’ll be enough for me to budget out with. Fortunately I had a good teacher in that department.”
“That’s the spirit! And if you get into a little bit of a deficit, you’ll make it up when you get back to school. Oh, did you plan to pay Gayle for the July rent?”
“Definitely. I’m just going to have to figure out how. Because I know she’s going to ask about it, and I know that when I try to give it to her she’s going to tell me that she doesn’t want it. She’s no businesswoman.”
“You should be grateful to have a friend like her.”
“Oh, I totally am! But debts are there to be paid, and I’m living in her house. Anyway, if I don’t pay it, I’ll just spend it frivolously. This is the first time I’m earning money and paying bills at the same time. In all the previous summers, I was just squirreling it away. I have to make sure I have enough for the term.”
Derpy nodded, and for a while she drifted off into her own thoughts. The idea that she had given advice to anyone, even if it wasn’t a pony, made her feel a little proud of herself. She was so deep in reverie that Karyn had to wave her hand in front of her face. Derpy realized that she had asked a question.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I asked you what you thought about when you first started with the post office.”
That threw Derpy for a loop. She hadn’t been thinking of her own work at all, and to have to think back over decades to when she was a newly-hired mailmare—mailmare nothing, she was closer to a mailfilly—put her out of the conversation for another few minutes.
“Oh, I see. Because you’re having your first day tomorrow. But it’s totally different. You’re doing this as the start of a career. When I went to the post office, it was because I needed a job to get money for food for Dinky and me. It was right after the family broke up and I had to learn how to do all that really fast.”
“Well, it’s not all by choice for me. Remember that my first choice would have been to raise kids with Mike, if his career would have turned out better. We both needed to grow up fast, I was just luckier to have parents who could afford to give me a few years to go to school and get a leg up on it.”
“You’re right,” said Derpy. “And I shouldn’t be putting a black cloud over your sunshine day.”
“Yes, definitely don’t do that.”
“I just said, I won’t.”
“Yes, but you could do it literally, and you could also mean it as…never mind.”
Derpy gave her a double-take look, as do most people when told to never mind. But she let it pass.
“So tell me. Tell me first about how you got the job.”
“Oh, wow. Let me see. I remember trying at a couple of private shops before I went to the post office, but the complete memory is a little hazy…wait! I remember. I wrote a letter to somepony—can’t remember who—asking for a little money to tide me over. And there was a notice at the office advertising for a situation.”
“And you applied,” said Karyn with assumption.
“No, because I wasn’t a situation, I was a pony. But once I got that confusion sorted out I did ask if I could join the post office. Well, it wasn’t considered the best job in Ponyville, but all they wanted to know was whether I knew my way around.”
“So Mr. Mintsugar hired you?”
“Oh, goodness, no!” Derpy winced as the memory came to the forefront of her mind. “He wasn’t there yet, and wouldn’t be for several years. No, I was hired by Mr. Beetroot. A much more sour personality. I don’t think he liked me all that much.”
“Why do you say that?”
Derpy thought about her answer for a while. “Some ponies do their job because they love it. And that’s great when you can find work like that. I mean, like, think about Applejack. There’s nothing she’d rather do that farm apples. Well, Mr. Beetroot was like that about the mail. He loved it. I think that sometimes he went back in the office and would sniff the letters. He was always talking about how important each piece of mail was to the sender and the receiver. Which I guess is true, but for me it was different. I like the flying, the opportunity to talk to ponies, and the fact that it pays me. But I’m not passionate about it. He kept trying to make me that way, and I resisted.
“Either that, or it was the bag of mail I lost on the third day. I still don’t know where it went.”
Karyn laughed at that, but didn’t ask for the story. She was worried that she was prying enough as is.
Derpy continued. “But the point is, at some point you get good enough, and you know enough about your job, that it becomes easier for your boss to work with you instead of over you. And if you make friends with them—not close friends, I mean, because there’s still an authority situation—then it becomes easier on everyone, including you.”
“I guess that makes sense, but at the same time, I probably won’t really understand it until I’m in there and can put it in my own words. Advice is usually like that.”
“Well, and there’s another difference between the two of us. You know how long your job is going to last. You can already look ahead to your last day. One you get into your career, you won’t do that.”
Karyn grinned. “You say that, but I’ll probably get one of those ‘countdown to retirement’ clocks. Or an app that can do it for me. I’ll have it on my computer at work.”
She looked at her friend, but Derpy didn’t return the smile. It was rare for Karyn to see Derpy frown, and when she did it was usually in anger, which quickly melted away. Far more seldom did she see the kind of pitying look that Derpy wore.
“Karyn, having said that I don’t have the kind of passion for my job that some people do, this may sound a little…what’s that word for when you say something and don’t follow through?”
“Hypocritical?”
“Yeah, like I’m a hypo-critter, but if you count the time until you leave, you’re just going to waste all of that time. And it’s too much to waste. I hope that you won’t take it the wrong way, because it’s not my place to tell you what to do, but I want to see you happy.”
Karyn got up and put her hand on Derpy’s hoof. “I understand that. I really do. But at the same time, tomorrow is my day one of who knows how many. It’s a little intimidating to think of having to do all of that work to make a career.”
“Then don’t. Just think about what you’re going to do tomorrow.”
“Right. Wait, what am I going to do tomorrow?”
“You’re going to work, remember?”
Karyn waved her hands. “No, I mean, yes, that’s what I’m doing, but what am I doing for it? What am I going to do there, and how am I going to make sure that I’m doing a good job?”
“On your first day, they won’t expect much. They’ll probably show you around and get you acclimated to the new environment. The worst part for me was trying to remember everypony’s name and where their stations were. I still have some trouble with that if we get somepony new.”
“But I want to start wowing them right from the start. Isn’t there a good way to make a first impression?”
Derpy pointed at the bathroom. “Obviously you want to put on your best face. Make sure that you wash up well. Don’t go too heavy on makeup. Get up early and eat a good breakfast. What are you going to wear?”
Karyn had been nodding, and thinking halfheartedly about taking notes, but Derpy’s last question caused her to freeze. “I haven’t even thought about that.”
“Well, you should. Unless they give you a uniform, which they did for me at the post office. It was actually one of the things I was glad for. Of course, most jobs can be done without clothes.”
“Not on Earth. Even if I got there I wouldn’t last a minute if I went naked.” Karyn had to make sure Derpy understood this. “But at the same time the only clothes I’ve really got suitable for work is the suit I’ve interviewed in. I can’t wear that every day and I don’t really want to wear it tomorrow. It’s uncomfortable.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“Go shopping!”
And as she said that, she grabbed her purse and was headed out the door. Derpy barely had time to get her invisibility spell out and follow her to the car. “Isn’t this a little sudden? And besides, what’s the point of making money if you’re going to spend it on clothes?”
“Trust me. In any case, I haven’t had the chance to do a full-on shopping spree since…well, since I came to college. It takes me back to when my girlfriends and I would get driven by one of our moms—never mine, though—down to the mall. We could spend all day there. I remember thinking how cool it would be if we could only drive ourselves. Well, I never did that kind of shopping afterwards because money was so tight. I resent it a little that I can’t go shopping just to look good, but this is as fine a time as any to get a new wardrobe.”
Derpy sucked air through her teeth. “It’s bad enough to get new clothes, but to buy furniture?”
It took Karyn a moment to get it. “Not that kind of wardrobe!”
But her spirit could not be dampened, not even when she realized that she did not know where the mall was in her college town, and driving to the mall that she used growing up, while nostalgic, was not worth the time or the cost in gas to get there. After searching on her phone, she found what purported to be a mall, though the word “strip” could have preceded it without argument. There was a department store at one end, though, and even though the food court comprised only a pizza place and a pretzel stand, it was still a mall, and Karyn breathed deeply the conditioned air as they entered.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “This is it.” She made her way at quick-march pace for the women’s section of the department store.
She ran up to the racks and started pulling outfits. With her phone, she snapped pictures of some of them. Derpy caught up and blew a puff of air with her wings to get Karyn’s attention.
“Please be responsible. You’re not even looking at the prices.”
“I know. That’s the idea. I’m going to use these outfits to wear with my changeling abilities. That way I’ll save money.”
Derpy backed off, but her mind was as jumbled as her eyes. “Are you sure that’s right to do?”
“I thought you would be happy for me to be saving money.”
“I am, but at the same time, it feels a little like stealing.”
Karyn shook her head. “I’m not depriving anyone of anything. They still have the same inventory as before.”
“I don’t know…”
“It’s all right. You’re not the first person to have ethical quandaries over something like this. When digital music first came out, we had the same debate.”
Derpy sounded relieved. “And you decided that it was OK to get music using your phone?”
“Well, kind of. We decided that it was impossible to stop people from doing it, so the music companies would use other means to make money. But I promise you that if the majority of humans become changeling queens, I’ll come back and buy clothing to keep them in business.”
“Oh, good.”
Karyn found some more outfits that she wanted, and soon had a photo album full on her phone. She did agree that it was only fair that she put them back on the racks before they left, since otherwise it meant making some retail worker do more work than necessary.
“It’s easier to not have to carry all those outfits home as well,” she said as they went back to the car. “I’ve got at least ten of them that I can use, so I won’t have to repeat more than once every two weeks. And I can tweak them depending on the dress code.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re happy and got a chance to go to the mall, and I’m sure that with your powers you can project the look you need. But don’t forget that it’s all about a positive attitude. I don’t begrudge you using your magic, since you earned it. But just like I hadn’t earned anything when I picked up my first mailbag, you’re going to have to work hard to get what you want out of this job. Both money and experience. Your attitude is more important than your outfit.”
“I know that up here,” said Karyn, pointing to her head, “but until I get in to that office and see how things work, I’m not going to know it here.” She pointed to her abdomen.
“It’ll come in time. I don’t know if I’ve said this, but I’m very proud of you.”
“Thanks. I’m a little happy and proud of myself. I only worry that it’ll mess with our Summer of Awesomeness.”
Derpy again took a while to respond. “It doesn’t have to. Believe me, there’s plenty of awesome to be found when you’re working. If there weren’t, it would be a much bigger problem. If nothing else, work hard all week and the day off will be that much sweeter.”
“Since I know I’m spending it with you, that would have to be awfully sweet.”