A Few Bits Short

by RazBro

Help Wanted?

~A Few Bits Short~

Chapter Two: Help Wanted?

“I don’t understand.”

“…There’s a sink, soap, some steel wool, and a lot of pots and pans. What’s to understand?”

Rarity looked back at the dish room lead stallion, Sudsy Cloth, with cluelessness in her eyes.

“But they’re dirty.”

Sudsy raised a hoof to his forehead and willed the pending headache away. He had thought it a blessing the first time he had been working and the restaurant manager, Bottom Line, brought back a bill dodger to scrub the pots and pans. He thought it would ease his burden to split up the work, but more often than not he got high-society brats who thought they were above such mundane tasks.

“Tha’s the point, sugarcube,” Applejack said, stepping forward towards the sink and eying the job ahead. A kitchen staff-mare trotted by and dropped off three more pans into the sink with an unceremonious splash that Rarity took a step back from.

The six mares plus dragon were in the restaurants kitchen, specifically the corner of the kitchen where the sinks for scrubbing the pots and pans and the dishwasher for cleaning the plates and silverware resided.

Rarity eyed the whole corner with evident distaste. She looked at Twilight with pleading eyes, but the lavender unicorn replied with an annoyed stare.

“For the last time Rarity, I am not teleporting us home,” Twilight said.

“Oh, why me?” She replied, looking away and stifling a sob, but unable to throw herself on the ground dramatically because well, it was wet, there were several stains, and it kind of smelled.

“Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy, if you would accompany me please…” Bottom Line said as he led the three away towards their task.

~~~

Earlier

After their rather audible spat in the dining room regarding the mammoth bill they had incurred Bottom Line had led them all back to his office to talk privately about how to settle their debt.

“When we found out the Princess wasn’t going to be coming, the waiter had dropped off the bill and it was too late,” Twilight finished her explanation of events. Bottom Line considered their side of the story as he examined their bill, raising an eyebrow as most of the selections were among the most expensive on the menu- not only to the customer but also expensive for the restaurant to make.

“Be that as it may, we still stand at an impasse. I cannot allow the public to think I am letting you off easy. That oaf Blueblood already thinks this should be his personal dining hall,” Bottom Line said, rolling his eyes at the end of his statement.

“We’re terribly sorry for causing such a problem…” Fluttershy said, looking down and dragging her hoof across the ground.

Bottom Line sighed and looked back up across the six ponies. They all did seem genuinely repentant, save for the cyan pegasus, who just looked bored.

“Your story seems plausible. Normally for a bill this big I would have to involve the authorities. However, in this case I believe some labor may do the trick…” He said, already looking at his schedule to see where holes in his staff had appeared that night.

“L-labor?” Rarity said with widened eyes.

“I need extra workers back in the dishroom. And a few servers would be nice, it’s crowded tonight and a couple of my best waiters are out. You’ll work for the remainder of the night, and then we shall call it even. Will you accept these terms?” Bottom Line said without looking up and already assuming their answer as he started marking who would be placed where.

Twilight frowned slightly but more at the situation. She thought it was fair, and looked towards the others to see how they felt. After nodding their agreement, Twilight spoke up.

“If it clears our names, we’ll gladly help.”

“Excellent. Now, you three…” Bottom Line went on giving the mares and dragon their tasks.

~~~

“Stupid…Would you just…Augh!”

Twilight looked away from the mirror and back towards Rainbow Dash who was struggling to get her bow tie to lie correctly. Fluttershy trotted over to assist as she ripped it off her neck and threw it on the ground.

“Waitresses? Really? Come on, Twilight we don’t need this. Why can’t we just bail?” Rainbow said as she lifted her neck and allowed Fluttershy to attach the bow tie correctly to the jacket the waitstaff wore.

“What would it do for our reputation, Rainbow? Just think of it as the same as when we were helping Applejack with the cider harvest…We’re doing a public service,” Twilight said calmly. Admittedly, she wasn’t pleased with having to spend the rest of her evening here, but she accepted the consequences of their actions even if they weren’t necessarily their fault.

“Why don’t these jackets even make room for wings? Do they only hire earth ponies and unicorns here? Racist.” Rainbow grumbled as the jacket forced her wings to remain folded against her sides.

“Are you three about ready? There are tables already seated for you,” Bottom Line said from outside the restroom they had made their changing room.

Having finished Rainbow’s outfit, the three promptly exited and stood before the manager who eyed them up and down to be sure they looked professional enough for the job ahead. He scowled at Rainbow’s unkempt mane but looked past it.

“Good enough. Follow me. Here are some order pads and pens. Ask the kitchen staff if you need anything else. Remember people come here as much for the experience as for the cuisine. Be polite, courteous, and engaged in small talk and conversation if they decide to speak to you,” he said as he eyed the dining room through the window in the door.

“What about tips?” Rainbow asked.

“I’ll be keeping what you take in to help cover your tab,” the manager said without looking back at them.

“What! But what if we make more than the bill was?” Rainbow asked.

“Then I suppose I’ll have no more reason to keep you. Consider it an incentive,” Bottom Line said, looking back at them. “Alright, Twilight you will be covering section three, Fluttershy section five, and Rainbow Dash you have section two. There are already seated parties, so get out there.”

Fluttershy gulped as she looked out of the window and saw all the patrons. The three ponies walked through the door and headed to their respective sections.

~~~

“How about you handle this one, Applejack?”

The cowpony grit her teeth as she looked down at her precarious pile of pots and pans. Shooting a sidelong glance at Rarity she spoke in what had to be the last bit of quickly dwindling civility remaining.

“I’mma might busy here, Rarity. Why don’t you- is that the same pan you started with?” She asked incredulously.

Rarity’s eyes were wide and blank as you could almost see how she was trying to work her way out of, well, working. Finally, she tittered a nervous laugh.

“Why, of course not. They already, um, took my stack,” Rarity said unconvincingly. Applejack ignored her and let her off the hook as she continued scrubbing the stains and food remnants out of her pans.

Rarity used her magic to manipulate the scouring pad against the surface of her pan, trying to scrape off some stubbornly resistant dried sauce. The effort was half-hearted.

Of course, she was a guru of kitchen cleanliness and perfect preparation in her own home…But those were her messes. Or Sweetie Belle’s. But the point was, she knew those messes. These could have been caused by diseased changelings for all she knew. A few more weak telekinetic attempts at cleaning the pot finally broke Applejack’s patience, who had started watching her.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake…” She said as she put down her pan and stood next to Rarity. Suddenly she grabbed her hoof and shoved it into the sinkful of water and dishes.

Such a shrill, piercing shriek emitted from Rarity that it caused Spike, who was loading dishes into the dishwasher conveyor belt, to flinch and drop the plate he was holding. It broke apart into several pieces on the floor and he turned around to see what had happened.

“You. Did. Not. Justdothat!” Rarity said in a dangerous tone, retrieving her hoof from the dirty water and shaking off a clump of some wet food that had stuck to her.

“Put on some hoof covers and git on with it, the sooner ya put yer back inta it, the sooner we’ll be done!” Applejack said impatiently, going back to her own stack of pots and taking another one down to scrub. Rarity was still in shocked silence as she glared at her friend and then turned up her nose. She put on the appropriate gear to protect her hooves as much as she could and with an indignant, yet defeated air started to scrub her pot with a little more vigor.

“Hey, dragon! Keep loading, we’re gettin’ backed up over here!”

“And try not to break anymore plates, eh?”

Spike came back to his sense and turned back around towards the machine. To his left a belt of rollers carried trays full of dirty dishes, glasses, and silverware. A couple of ponies who worked to clear the trash and whole food from the plates before going into the dishwasher were starting to run out of room.

“Whoops! Sorry!” Spike called back and resumed grabbing plates and loading them onto the machine. This was the only job that Sudsy had found he was able to do, considering his arms were too short to reach into the sinks to clean the pots. Plus it was rather easy, and Sudsy didn’t want to put too much responsibility on the young dragon.

The dishwasher was industrial-sized, seeing as the restaurant was quite large and went through a great deal of dishware. A conveyer belt made of rows upon rows of three-inch plastic tines made a continuous rotation through the machine. All one had to do was place plates, glasses, and silverware on the belt and it would carry it through the machine to be cleaned and then removed and stored for future use on the other end. Steam and sprinkles of hot water escaped the flaps on the exiting end.

He quickly loaded the plates onto the belt, trying to make the most efficient use of the tines as they went by. On the other end, Pinkie Pie was working with Sudsy to take the clean dishes off the belt and stack them onto carts that would be carried away back to the storage cabinets.

She worked well and with a smile on her face taking the plates of and stacking them up to be taken away. Sudsy was actually mildly impressed by her work ethic.

Until she began to get bored.

“Ooh, watch this!”

She took a plate off the conveyor belt and then rolled it down her leg, across her shoulders, and down the other leg where it clattered to a stop on top of the other plates.

Sudsy blanched as he then watched her take another plate and balance it on her nose before setting it down.

“Please, no! Don’t-“

Another crashing noise was heard as Pinkie Pie looked towards Sudsy while stacking up ten glasses. They all came crashing down as she turned her attention towards the dish leader, who closed his eyes and winced as they all shattered on the ground.

“Oops…” Pinkie smiled sheepishly.

“Just unload them onto the cart… Please. No fancy stuff,” Sudsy said, as he sighed and collected a broom and dustpan to sweep up the broken glass. There wasn’t a penalty per se for breaking dishware, but if too much was lost in a single night, he wouldn’t put it past Bottom Line to start imposing a fine.

~~~

“Hmm…How are the greens? Are they green?”

“Cut fresh every day, ma’am,” Rainbow replied in a monotone voice that could have been mistaken for quiet professionalism, but really came from a profound sense of boredom.

“I think I’ll have that as my side then,” The older mare said as she looked at the list of options.

“Very well then,” she said as she scrawled the choice down on her notepad. She was already irritated that she couldn’t flex her wings, and having to walk around and deal with all these hoighty-toighty, high society ponies really didn’t do much for her mood.

“Oh! I didn’t see the sweet potatoes! Oh, but they’re two bits extra…What do you think, are they worth it?” She asked looking up from the menu.

“Uh…I haven’t had them before, I really wouldn’t know,” Rainbow replied as the mare clucked and then looked at her menu, musing over her options again.

“Ugh, come on already, lady! Just pick something, it all comes frozen anyway!” Dash though to herself in annoyance. The way she saw it, the faster she could serve these tables, the more parties she’d go through, the more tips she’d get, and the faster they could all get out of here. “Pick something already and get on with it, jeez.”

“Well, I’m sorry to inconvenience you!” the mare suddenly said repugnantly.

Dash broke out of her reverie and suddenly realized that she had voiced her last thought out loud. Flinching in embarrassment, she broke into a bad smile.

“Oh! I’m sorry I wasn’t, uh talking to you I was um…Talking to…Twilight! Hurry up and serve that table, they’ve been waiting!” Rainbow suddenly turned towards a few tables away where Twilight looked up in surprise and confusion.

The mare looked unconvinced.

“I’ll take the greens, then,” she said with her nose turned up.

“Good choice! Yea, fresh-cut! They’re great! Heh heh.”

“Well there goes that tip…” Rainbow thought to herself this time and brought the mare and her husband’s order back to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Twilight looked back towards the table she was currently serving.

“So you’ll have the daffodils with rosemary sauce over rice pilaf with our house white wine and you’re getting the artichoke heart soup with our Caesar salad and coffee, with cream and a hint of hazelnut,” Twilight said looking back over towards the couple as they stared towards her and her empty notepad.

“Why yes, that’s right. Very good, dear,” The elderly mare said with a smile. Twilight smiled back and trotted away, confident that she would have made an excellent waitress had she not been Celestia’s personal protégé. Not that she would have chosen that anyway.

Suddenly she felt something pinch against her flank and she yelped while rushing forward a few steps before looking back with wide eyes.

Sitting at the table she had just passed was a young stallion who was smirking haughtily and leering towards her. He offered her a lazy wink and then looked back at his group of two other stallions around the same age that were chuckling.

With one eye twitching and blood rising furiously to her cheeks, her mouth opened and closed a number of times as she processed just what she should be feeling and how she should respond. Finally, she turned and ducked quickly back into the kitchen. Her cheeks were still stained a bright crimson as she relayed the elderly couple’s order to the chefs.

“What happened to you?” Rainbow Dash asked as she prepared to head back out into the dining room, but stopped when she saw her flustered friend.

“He…He pinched me! As I was passing by, he just grabbed me!” Twilight finally stammered out, still somewhat in shock.

“What? Who?” Rainbow said, tilting her head to the side, though a slow grin was starting to spread across her face.

“One of the stallions in that party of three sitting just…Over there,” Twilight said, pointing to the table through the small window in the door.

Rainbow looked through and started chuckling.

“Hey, he’s pretty cute,” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow! That’s not the point!”

“I’m just saying,” Rainbow shrugged her shoulders, “flirt it up a little, he’ll leave a nice fat tip and we can all get out of here a little sooner!”

“F-…Flirt?” Twilight said nervously.

“You’ve never flirted with anypony before?” Rainbow said incredulously at first, but then as she thought about it she nodded, “Yea, I guess you are a bit of a shut-in.”

“Hey!”

“Is for ponies, and one of my tables. Gotta go. Just give it a try, whattaya got to lose?” Rainbow said as she laughed and walked back through the door, leaving an utterly confused and now nervous Twilight behind.

“He’s sort of cute…” She said to herself thoughtfully.

~~~

“This coffee is insipid. Get me a fresh cup.”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry sir. I’ll get that for you right away…I’ll be right back!” Fluttershy said as she took the glass and started back for the kitchens away from the older pegasus stallion who scowled while she walked away and continued picking at his meal.

“Hold it! Bring me fresh silverware too, you can see the water spots on these! Filthy,” he added, dropping his fork on the table in disgust. Fluttershy turned around and trotted back quickly.

“Oh dear. I’m so sorry, sir I’ll take care of that,” she said as she gathered up his silverware and turned around again for the kitchen.

“And you’ll address me as General. I am the 3rd Major General in Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force, after all. Don’t you recognize your superiors, girl?” he said gruffly.

“Of course sir- I mean General. I’m sorry. I’ll get your silverware and coffee just as soon as I can,” Fluttershy whimpered as she tried to back away.

“You’ll get it now. And just bring the cream with you. I’ll put it in. I might as well have been drinking pure sweetener. My wife could make better coffee.” He said before finally shooing her away.

”Yes, sir.” She said in an unintelligible whisper as she dashed back towards the kitchen.

“Oh my goodness…I want to go home…” She thought to herself, dreading the long night ahead.

Comments

[canius]

aww well thats how jobs are

[aporath25]

1028311

And it f###ing sucks!

[aporath25]

1028311

And it f###ing sucks! 1031682

Not the story, but the jobs. Great job on the chapter.

[canius]

I just thought of a way out of this mess

[canius]

I just thought of a way out of this mess

[RazBro]

haha, thanks for clarifying that, aporath. And thanks for the comments, too. I didn't intend for it to necessarily be a kind of sad ending, but there will be more! It will pick up, trust me.

[Themaskedferret]

Cute story, are you going to be continuing it or it is kinda dead'd?

[RazBro]

Well, first of all I was quite surprised to log in and see all the notifications hah. Thank you for the follows and favorites Ferret. In answer to your question, I don't want this fic to die I just haven't looked at it in a long time. Originally I had started writing them because I was bored at work and didn't have much else to do. However since then my work has really picked up and I haven't been able to write while there. When I get home I'm usually playing a game or somesuch so I just haven't found time for it although I do have ideas for the next chapter.

Christmas break is coming though and I have a lot of time off work. Perhaps a chapter might appear then...

[ChaoticHarmony]

D'aaaaaw this is good.

I can see problems happening already

[Skyeheart]

Fluttershy gulped as she looked out of the window and saw all the people

You mean ponies. If you think that use of word is too redundant, my patrons, diners, or customers.

[Seether00]

I get the feeling the author has put the worst possible characters for the job in those roles on purpose...

I approve.

[SuperChaosKG]

2048588

And you ignore all the griffons and changelings that could walk through that door.

Preposterous.

[OmniFox]

Could be worse for Twilight.