It was 7:30 am and Vinyl felt like she just clawed her way out of tartarus. She was exhausted and she couldn't even say from what. Socializing? Pathetic. Those thoughts that had been silent last night bounced back almost immediately, almost like she had just recevied a delayed punch to the gut. If you died you wouldn't have to wake up. Her mind intelligently supplied as she groaned, rolling over and putting a pillow over her ears as if that'd stop the thoughts. Her alarm, blasting loud (usually enjoyable) music, was not helping her cause. She slammed her hoof down on it.
Her eyes began to drift close, and her mind began relaxing again. She turned her thoughts on what her plans were for today, kind of regretting not dying. Work didn't sound fun at all. Work was never fun. Faking a smile for customers and trying to care about their day was hard. She could probably skip it. Vinyl heaved a sigh and fell back asleep…
"WELCOME TO THE HOTEL CALIFOALNIA." Vinyl nearly jumped out of her own skin as she was woken up from her light slumber. Her alarm was once against playing music. Horseapples! She had put it on snooze, not off. Vinyl continued cursing herself and got up, rubbing her eyes with one good and turning it off more carefully this time with her other hoof.
It was 7:45am. Vinyl wanted to claw her eyes out from frustration, but all she had were stumps. And now she was fully awake. Vinyl gave a loud groan and went to the bathroom. Might as well go to work, she wasn't doing anything today anyways. She took a long shower- mainly because she wanted an excuse to be late to work. She then brushed her teeth and gave her hair a quick brush. "Should I eat?" She mumbled to herself, glancing at the clock. 8:29am. "Nah." She shrugged, turning to the closet and pulling out her uniform shirt and hat from the furthest depths of the closet.
Sweet Celestia, she hated it so much. She gave it a look of disgust. "I don't want to wear you," She grumbled, hoping the uniform heard her. The shirt was collared with purple and pinks horizontal stripes. Her name tag was bright gold. She threw it on, and placed the simple purple visor on her head. She was tempted to grab a mirror but she didn't think she was emotionally prepared to see what a mess she was looked.
"Today's gonna go great," She lied, adjusting her name tag before she grabbed her bag and began the walk to her job.
"Vinyl! Am I glad to see you!" She was immediately met with a pastel purple pegasus as Vinyl walked through the door.
"Hi Cloud Chaser," Vinyl greeted half-heartedly.
"It's been so boring in here, I'm glad for any company really." Cloud Chaser continued. Vinyl's ears flickered back. Was that an insult? It means that she was so bored and lonely you're her last resort. Her mind helpfully pointed out. Cloud Chaser noticed Vinyl's mixed reaction. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that! I meant like, ya know... I was kinda hoping Carrot Top would be here today but you're good too!"
"Thanks," Vinyl flatly replied and moved past the pegasus to the staff room.
"Well if you want to twist my words that's fine!" She heard Cloud Chaser call after her. Vinyl wanted to shrug it off, but couldn't help but wonder if she had really just made Cloud's words sound bad. She wouldn't be surprised with herself, really. She made a mental note to apologize to Cloud Chaser later.
She threw her bag in one of the few staff locker and clocked in via a machine in the corner of the small white room. "You are twenty minutes late." The machine chided loudly.
"I know," Vinyl grumbled at it, before walking back out. She nearly crashed into the pegasus. "Ah! Horseapples, Cloud. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"You're late again?" Cloud Chaser didn't seem all that surprised. "How do you managed to stay employed?" She narrowed her eyes at the unicorn. "If I was even five minutes late, Ms. Punch would chew my flank off!" Vinyl rolled her eyes, pushing past her. The sky blue maned pony moved away and trotted after Vinyl. "Like, why do you get special treatment? You're not even really-"
"Not what, Cloud?" Vinyl sighed, already feeling her frustration grow.
Cloud Chaser looked embarassed. "Ahh, it's nothing. Nevermind." Vinyl stated at her for a moment but didn't press on further. I'm not even really liked. I guess that's what she was going to say. Her shoulders sagged a bit at the thought. Cloud Chaser, if she noticed, didn't comment. "Uh… since there's no pony here yet, you can just stock a little bit." Cloud Chaser gave her a tiny smile. "Ok?"
"Sure, Cloud. Whatever you need." With that, she trotted to the shelves and began to work. The moment Cloud turned her back and trotted back to the staff room, she allowed herself to snort angrily. Vinyl didn't need the reminder that this job was awful, but Cloud seemed like she was trying her best to be that reminder.
Berry Punch only never noticed that she was late, it wasn't special treatment. Why would anypony give her special treatment? She was absolutely nothing but the worst. She was garbage and the filth ponies picked from under their hooves. Her stomach felt like it was being squeezed and twisted. Just stock. Her mind, finally working for her, demanded. She was able to push the thoughts away and focus on the mind numbingly boring task of putting away canned goods.
She began to read the labels to herself in order to calm her down. Tomato In A Can. Contains One Tomato. Good For A Salad. Fascinating. The bell behind the front doors chimed as it was touched by the opening door. She glanced over and saw a pony she didn't recognize.
The pony was rather nice, actually. Vinyl couldn't help but look her over. She was a purple unicorn, with a dark purple mane that fell into bangs in front of her forehead. She had pink and light purple streaks in her mane, and wore a simple red tie. Ponies didn't usually wear very many clothes, so this was interesting.
The other unicorn spotted Vinyl looking and Vinyl gulped, quickly looking away. Cans, cans, put away the cans-- "Excuse me." Vinyl's ears prickled upwards and she turned to look at the unicorn that caught her staring.
"Hello I--" Vinyl started to form her excuse.
"I was looking for…" The unicorn interrupted Vinyl, before looking sheepish. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. You can go ahead."
"Ahh, no!" Vinyl flailed her hooves for a brief second. "It wasn't important!" She calmed down, and continued: "Err, what were you saying?"
The other unicorn gave a small laugh, not unkindly. "Sorry, me and my friend were looking for-" She turned to look for her friend and looked befuzzled. "Uh.. She was right with me?" She craned her neck to look towards the enterance. "Fluttershy?" She called. Vinyl's heart started to race at the mention of her friend's name.
Fluttershy had mentioned that she shopped here but she didn't expect the pegasus to come in. And with another mare?? Of course she has lots of friends, Vinyl scolded herself. After what seemed like years, the yellow pegasus made her graceful appearance.
"Oh, sorry Twilight." Fluttershy apologized softly as she walked up towards the two. "There was this poor little baby bird who needed my help. She had fallen out of her nest.."
"It's ok, Fluttershy." Twilight nodded, cutting her off. Perhaps she was tired of hearing about Fluttershy's kindness, though Vinyl wasn't sure how that was possible.
"Vinyl!" Fluttershy perked up as if she had just seen the white unicorn for the first time. "Oh, I see you've met Twilight Sparkle. She's my best friend!"
Vinyl felt a stab of jealousy but waved it off. I've only known Fluttershy for two days, I need to chill out. "Hi Twilight, I'm Vinyl Scratch." She extended her hoof to the other unicorn.
Twilight flashed a smile and shook her hoof. "It's nice to meet you! Any friend of Fluttershy's is a friend of mine." Twilight looked back at the pegasus. "Speaking of which, Fluttershy, what were you here for again? Lettuce?"
"Yes, and carrots." Fluttershy nodded, then turning her attention back to Vinyl, added: "It's for Angel. I'm making his favorite treat- a veggie sundae!" Vinyl wanted to gag, but maybe rabbits just had bad taste buds.
"Right! I was just about to ask Vinyl here where they were." Twilight said, not taking her eyes off of Fluttershy. Fluttershy blinked and met the unicorn's gaze.
"Oh! Well, that's easy. I'll just take you, silly." Fluttershy nodded at Vinyl. "I'll see you later?"
"Of couse!" Vinyl chimed, watching as ponies began to walk to their desired aisle. "And it was great to meet you Twilight!"
"Likewise!" Twilight called back, before they disappeared around the corner.
"Wow." Vinyl jumped as she heard Cloud Chaser's voice behind her, and whirled around to see the pegasus leaning over a few stacked boxes. "They make a cute couple, don't they?"
"They're dating?" Vinyl gasped, glancing back at the spot she saw them last.
"Duh," Cloud chuckled. "You definitely saw the way the unicorn was looking at the pegasus right? And they were standing pretty close. You're so blind!"
Vinyl stuck out her tongue out at Cloud. "Am not." She wondered why Twilight had been so secretive about it. Same sex couples hadn't been a big deal since the old days. Did Vinyl look old-fashioned?
"Ok, ok, calm down little filly. I'm just kidding." Cloud tapped the boxes. "Anyways, finish cleaning this mess up and I'll ring 'em up. No worries."
"Sure," Vinyl reluctantly agreed. Cloud moved away and towards the empty cash register in the front of the store. Vinyl opened up the next box and was dismayed to see even more cans.
She stacked for what seemed to be hours, but was probably only one. She finally snapped out of her mundane task when she heard her name.
"Bye Vinyl!" Fluttershy waved at her from the doors. "I'll see you later!"
"Bye!" Vinyl waved back. Twilight was easily carrying six bags full of groceries with her magic, and still managed to wave the unicorn goodbye. So she must be the powerful unicorn Fluttershy was talking about. Vinyl thought.
If only she was that talented. Instead, she was weak and useless. What would happen if she ever needed to use her magic in a dangerous situation?
Vinyl couldn't shake the thought away, but pressed on with her work. As she put the cans away, she thought of worse and worse situations that could happen to her. She paused in her work to stare at the clock on the far left side of the store.
Only five more hours to go, she miserably thought.