Of Wages and Things

by themouthofmush

Of Wages and Things

Chapter 1-Of Wages and Things

The air around town was starting to lose its gentle warmth, giving way to wind that was cold yet warm at the same time. The leaves on the trees were shifting from their healthy green to differing shades of orange, brown, and yellow. Some ponies even decided to don a scarf or hat, something they wouldn’t wear if it wasn’t for the new chill in the air.

I breathed in the sweet, crisp autumn air and smiled. “Oh, how I love the fall.”

“Just because you love it doesn’t mean you have to keep talking about it.”

I turned to face the dumb annoying face of my ‘friend’ Pop Tart. “You’d think you would like the fall Pop. Doesn’t it usually mean that Berry Punch starts to bring out, and I quote, ‘some of the better stuff she has buried in that snatch of her’s.’?”

A mare looked at us as we passed her and her little filly. I tried to give her an apologetic smile, but she didn’t seem to want any of it.

I sighed, which brought a snicker to Pop.

“Why again are we friends?” I asked him.

“Because you know you love me,” he replied.

“I don’t think so, but I do know that I want to punch that stupid face of yours at times.”

“Sure sure,” he said as he looked around. “Anyway, where are we going again?”

“We’re going to Sugarcube Corner, remember?”

“Why are we going to do that again?”

I sighed and shook my head. “Swear, you are hopeless at times. We are going there to tell Pinkie that we are joining this year’s Running of the Leaves.”

“Why are we doing that again? The sign-ups for it were done at City Hall.”

I shrugged a little. “She just said to let her know if we did. Guess it’s to make it easier figuring out who to say participated in the event during the after party she’s going to have.”

After I didn’t hear some kind of lame comeback, I turned around and saw that there was no Pop Tart to be found. Usually I’d be okay with him being gone, but I just knew that something was going to go wrong, so I backtracked my steps.
Not even a minute in, I found him trying to chat up that mare we passed. She was falling for his stupid charms and I knew that if I didn’t do anything soon, Pop would be adding another mare onto his list. So it was up to me to do the most sensible thing in the world.

One quick ear yanking and annoying sounding stallion later, we ended up outside of Sugarcube Corner.

I never understood why the Cakes decided to change the exterior of their store into what it was now-the roof looked like somepony would find on a gingerbread house, complete with an amount of frosting a filly or colt would say was ‘just enough,’ what looked like a gumdrop tower sticking out on one side, and a candled cupcake jutting out of the middle. Granted, I got that making it stand out and making it whimsical helped it out with getting customers, but I also like to think that they let Pinkie design it and couldn’t bear to tell her no while she was doing it.

As soon as we entered the building, the smell of baked goods and sweets and the sounds of content ponies hit us.

“Seems like they are having a good day today.”

“Can we just get this over with?” Pop asked, glaring at me while rubbing his ear.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the pony behind the counter-a small, portly baby blue coated earth pony mare with a two-toned pink mane and tail that looked like it should be on top of a cone.

“Hello there, Mrs. Cake,” I said, giving her a warm smile.

“Hello there, Grey,” she replied, offering me an equally warm smile. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was wondering if you knew where Pinkie might be. She kind of told us to meet her here.”

“Pinkie’s upstairs,” she said as she restocked the counter window with some fresh muffins, which looked really good right now. “You are more than welcome to go upstairs to talk to her.”

“Thank you.” We went to go upstairs, but I turned to face her just before the first step. “Oh, I nearly forgot. Would you and Mr. Cakes still want me to help you out? Kind of forgot if it would be this weekend or the next one.”

She gave me a warm smile - I knew she wanted to laugh a little. “Yes, we would still like your help this weekend.”

“Okay then. I’ll try to make sure I remember. If I don’t, the two of you are more than welcome to come to my place and remind me that way.”

Now that got a giggle out of her.

We made our way upstairs, but weren’t even more than seven steps in when I was flat on my back and face to face with Pinkie.

“Hello there, Grey.”

“H-h-hey there P-pinkie.”

She looked from me to Pop and back. “Oh, oh. Are you two here to tell me that are you going to be running this year?”

I wasn’t sure if Pinkie noticed how close we were, or the warmth in my face – really hoped no pony recognized that – but some part of me felt like she didn’t. “Y-yeah, we are.”

“That is so awesome!” She hugged me, knocking my wind out in the process.

“Unless you want to give him mouth to mouth Pinkie, I think you should let him go,” Pop said.

“What do you-“she looked at me and realized what she was doing, releasing me from her hug. “I’m so sorry Grey. I didn’t mean to...”

“No, its okay,” I said raspy.

“Now, why don’t you two lovebirds get a room already,” Pop said in that tone of voice he knew irritated me.

Pinkie looked at me quizzically. “Lovebirds? What does he-“As soon as it dawned on her, her face showed a bit of red and she got off of me.

“S-so, about why you wanted us here...” I said, hoping to change the mood in the hallway.

“Oh, right.” She looked at us with her usual ‘serious party planner’ look. “I wanted the two of you to come for the party after the Running of the Leaves.”

“So, you asked us to come here just for party planning?” Pop asked her.

All she did was nod her head and Pop headed back down. “I’m out of here.”

“Pop, don’t be like that.”

He was halfway down the stairs when he turned to face me. “I could have been doing something besides this, Grey.”

“Oh, like what? Sleeping the whole day away like you normally do? Trying to pick up every mare you see? Or was it gonna be something else, something different? What was it going to be Pop? What was it going to be?”

“Stop it, right now,” a voice told us.

We turned to tell it off, to mind its own business, but gulped as we saw it was Icy.

“I-i-icy...”

“H-hey...”

He looked at us and sighed. “I apologize for their behavior, Mrs. Cake. They can’t seem to get along without me keeping them in check.” That got giggles out of Mrs. Cake and Pinkie.

“Oh, Icy, are you here about the Running of the Leaves too?” Pinkie asked him.

“Aye. Party planning?”

“Mhmm.”

“Pinkie, now that you are down here, can you help Mr. Cakes in the kitchen?”

“Okie dokie lokie.”

Seeing as the whole reason we were there was over, the three of us left the shop and did our typical aimless walk around town.

“So,” Pop started, “are we going to do our usual pointless contest this year?”

“See why not,” Icy replied.

“Well, what’s the point of a contest if there isn’t a prize for it?”

“We aren’t going to get at this again, Pop,” I told him. “You’ve been trying to get us to bet money on our placing, and neither me nor Icy are going to do that.”

Pop moved in front of us, stopping us in the process. “Hear me out, guys.”

Icy and me sighed and mumbled our grievances.

“Good to see you two have so much faith in me. Anyway, instead of money, since the two of you are cheap bastards about that“- our death glares seemed to have no effect on him – “we could use something else instead. The losers have to do whatever the winner tells them to do.”

“No,” Icy and I told him simultaneously.

“Come on! What about just one thing?”

“Why are you so adamant on this Pop? What do you want us to do for you if you win?”

“Simple: cover one of my drinking nights for me.”

Icy and I couldn’t even say “no” fast enough.

“Oh, come on! Isn’t there something, anything, you would want us to do?”

“No, why would-“

“Actually, there is something I’d like for the two of you do.”

“Icy, you can’t be serious. Are you actually thinking of agreeing to this? It’s one of his drinking nights! We’d be broke halfway through!”

“Maybe, but there’s an equal chance of me winning.”

I sighed and shook my head. “I can’t believe this.”

“So, what would you want us to do for you Icy? Cover one of your shifts or something?”

“No, nothing like that: I’d just want you two to do one of my training regiments.”

Me and Pop’s legs gave out just from thinking of what we’d have to do if that happened.

“Oh, come on you big babies. It wouldn’t be all that difficult to do. Just some core training, cardio, leg strengthening; you know, things like that.”

“Icy, buddy, last time I tried to do one of your regiments, I couldn’t move for a week, and that was just after an hour. I know you do a full four if you can help it, three if you can’t.”

“I don’t see your point there, Grey.”

“I swear; if that was a pun Icy,” Pop glared at him.

“Fine, fine fine fine fine.”

The two of them looked at me.

“If we are going to do this, then you two would have to try out my salsa until I think it’s spicy enough.”

“Oh, come on Grey. That’s cruel and unusual torture. At least with me, your wallet gets hurt; and with Icy, you’ll just be in pain for a few days. You’re going to kill our mouths if you make us do that.”

“As much as it pains me to say it, I have to agree with Tart.”

“Come on you two. You each chose one thing, let me choose mine. It’ll be the only way I’d even consider joining in on this stupid wager.”

“Wait, so if we agree to possibly doing that, you’d join the wager?”

I sighed. “Yes, Pop. That’s kind of what I said just now.”

Pop beamed at my words (swear, he could be a colt at times). “Good, free drinks here I come.”

Icy rolled his eye. “Keep dreaming Tart. You two are going to train.”

I sighed and looked to the sky. This isn’t going to end well for two of us.

Author's Note:

And so it becomes. If you guys like my story, dislike it, want to adopt it, or want to kill, let me know below. It'll help me out in some way and form.

Comments

[PonyJosiah13]

A few minor grammatical errors (you'll probably catch them if you take a closer look), but this seems good. I look forward to the ongoing adventures of Grey.

[themouthofmush]

7181208 in all fairness, if the errors are said in dialogue, they will be staying since that's how i see those characters actually talking. other than that, i'll reread the chapter after i'm done with the story.

[PonyJosiah13]

7181325 It's just little things like using "one" instead of "on." No worries.

[Magic Step]

“Thank you.” We went to go upstairs, but I turned to face her just before the first step. “Oh, I nearly forgot. Would you and Mr. Cakes still want me to help you out? Kind of forgot if it would be this weekend or the next one.”

I'm glad I decided to reread this; I know what was happening here now...

At least I think I do. Was he referring to his talent, or is this another odd job of his?

[Thatguywiththeface]

Anything that involves poptart stepping in front of a friend train would be awesome.