Growing Sun

by MorbidTheBrony

First Day

Sunset Shimmer could not have had an even worse night than the one she just had. Not only was it, somehow, much colder but it also started raining. It wasn't very bad rain but it still ticked Sunset off that she had to sleep outside in it. Because of that, she barely any sleep last night.

Sunset picked herself up and stretched her back. "Ugh... What a night!" she groaned. "And on the first day as well." She rubbed her eyes and laid back down.

Her brain started working again.

"Oh crud! My first day of work!"

Sunset got up to her feet and started dashing through the streets of Canterlot City.

She stopped the first person she passed and asked them for the time to which they replied, "8:54."

This did it. Sunset when super sonic mode and sprinted down the road at the fastest her legs can possibly go. She was running so fast, she could pass through a single street in a matter of seconds.

By the time she would make it to the mall, her boots would either be extremely worn out or be in flames.

"Come on, Sunset! Only six minutes. You can make it!" she said to herself.

Along the way, Sunset barged passed quite literally everyone stood in her way.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Look where you're going!"

"My cake!!"

"You better be glad you're still running very fast!"

Sunset paid everyone no attention. She only had her mind set on one thing and she didn't plan to take her mind off of it for anything.

Sunset rounded the final corner leading to her destination. She didn't know what time it was but she was pretty sure she would make it on time. She passed the front door and continued sprinting for dear life. Every shop looked like a smudge from Sunset's peripheral vision as she ran by.

Sunset skidded to a stop as she finally arrived at her destination. She fell down to her knees and started gasping for air.

"Sweet Celestia! My lungs!" she managed to get out.

Sunset practically crawled through the door to the Japanese restaurant standing in front of her.

She pulled herself back to her feet when she was greeted by her new boss, Stove.

"Sunset Shimmer! You made it-" Stove paused as he took notice of Sunset's current get up. "What the heck happened to you?"

Sunset looked down at her clothes and realised her clothes were wet from sweat and rain and were very dirty from last night.

Sunset immediately looked for an excuse, "I, uh... fell in a deep puddle." She hoped Stove would by it.

"Right," he responded. "Well, it turns out I forgot to give you you're new uniform yesterday and boy, am I glad I did."

"Yeah, yeah!" Sunset said. "Where is this uniform so I can change?"

"It's hanging on a hook in my office," he told Sunset.

Sunset walked through the kitchen to Stove's office. She entered the well kept office and her eyes met a blue Japanese style uniform hanging alone on the set of hooks. She took it down and walked over to the female stalls to change. Sunset came out of the restroom, dirty clothes folded in hand. Stove looked at how Sunset suited her uniform.

"Very nice," he complimented Sunset. "Only thing I would change are those boots."

Sunset looked down at her footwear. "What's wrong with my boots?" she asked.

"Well, they both, don't go with the uniform and are very worn out around the bottom," he explained. "Hold on, I might have something."

Stove walked towards his office and came back out with a pair of wooden slippers.

He passed them over to Sunset. "Here. Try these instead."

Sunset took the slippers from her bosses hand and sat on the nearest seat. She took off her boots and replaced them with these new slippers. She stood back up and looked at herself.

"How's that feel?" Stove asked.

"I hate it," Sunset answered. "One thing is that these slippers are so uncomfortable and this uniform feels a bit tight around the waist."

Stove chuckled, "So does Ebi but we all gotta play our part, y'know?"

Sunset looked back at Stove. "I'm sorry, who's 'Ebi?'" she asked.

"Did she not introduce herself to you? Her name is Ebi Nigiri. You may remember her, she was the cashier girl from yesterday," he said.

Sunset looked back on yesterday's events and she could definitely remember the young girl who stood behind the counter that day.

That's when Sunset realised this Ebi Nigiri was nowhere to be seen. "Where is Ebi anyway?" asked Sunset.

"I don't know," he began. "If anything had happened, she might phone up any minute now. Anyway."

Stove clapped his hands together. "Anyway, let's talk about your new work station!" he said walking behind the counter.

"Regardless of whether Ebi will come to work or not, I've decided to make you, Sunset Shimmer..." he paused for dramatic affect. "The new cashier!" he announced silently cheering.

Sunset found her bosses forced excitement quite an amusing thing to look at and she was glad this is the job she was given. She definitely couldn't see herself cleaning the restrooms. Sunset would rather be found dead than to mop floors.

Stove invited Sunset behind the counter, "C'mere. I'll teach you the basics of working the cash register."

She followed Stove behind the counter and she was pointed to a rather heavy looking box with a wide variety of different buttons to push.

"Okay, so most of these buttons are very simple. You've got your numbers and your way of adding up the prices," Stove began explaining. "That button right there is the button to open the register." He opened the cash register to set an example. "You see all these little boxes?" he asked pointing to the opened tray of little boxes.

"Yeah?" Sunset replied.

"Each of them holds a different coin or bill. Make sure you don't get any of them mixed up," he explained further. "Got it?"

"Got it," she answered feeling quite bored.

Stove kept rambling on about how the register works, how prices work and how to treat customers. Round about after when Stove stopped talking about the cash register, Sunset just drifted off. She just stood there in a daze as Stove continued to explain. She was brought back down to Earth as she heard a phone ringing coming from Stove's office.

"That'll be for me, be right back," Stove said before he left Sunset alone.

Just as she heard the office door close, she heard the sound of a door opening. A young woman, who looked as though she was in college, entered the restaurant.

Sunset put on a genuine smile and greeted the customer, "Hey there. Can I take your order?"

The young woman looked at the menu behind Sunset's head and asked politely, "Can I get a mixed vegetables tempura with coffee, please?"

Sunset looked at the prices and added up the prices. "That'll be $7, m'am," Sunset told her.

Sunset was handed a $10 bill. She opened the register, slipped in the bill in the correct box and she handed the girl $3 worth of change.

It was at this moment that she suddenly remembered a word of advice from Stove as he was explaining the register. She remembered him saying, "When you've been given an order, write the order down on one of the little slips of paper provided and give it to the chef so he can cook it."

She did just that and walked back into the kitchen but it was still empty of a chef. Sunset heard murmuring coming from Stove's office. She was surprised he was still on the phone. Sunset pressed her ear against the door to listen in.

She heard Stove talking, "I hope she gets better soon. Okay. Goodbye."

Then she heard footsteps approaching the door so she took a step back. Stove walked out looking rather disappointed.

He spoke, "Okay, so it turns out that Ebi has come down with a serious case of the flu and will be staying off work for today."

"I'm surprised how I didn't get sick due of last night," Sunset whispered.

"What?" Stove asked her.

Sunset showed him the little slip of paper. "Order up," she said.

Stove took the order from Sunset and read it. "We already have a customer? How'd it go for your first time?" Stove asked her again.

"For my first time, it pretty much went perfectly. Heh. Told you I could do it," she said confidently.

Stove rolled his eyes and went over to his work station. "It may have been easy now, but just you wait," he said with little seriousness.

"Yeah, I'll wait to blow right through this work day with flying colours," Sunset returned.

Sunset made her way back over to the counter.

"Oh, you'll see..." Stove said silently.

~3 hours later~

"Thank you, sir. We'll get that ready very soon," Sunset was doing very well for the past few hours. Sure, she may be working and all but she felt very relaxed. That is... until she saw her next customer.

"Hello, m'am. What would you-?" Sunset could only stare at this customer. She couldn't think of anything to say, she just stared at her.

Then this girl stared directly at Sunset. "Sunset Shimmer? I-is that you?" Sunset was asked.

Words finally spilled out of Sunset's mouth, "Yes. Hello, Fluttershy. It's been quite some time," she said with no seriousness whatsoever.

"What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked. "I've never seen you here before."

"Yeah. I just got this job, it's my first day," she answered.

"Oh, um... Well, I hope everything's going well so far," Fluttershy gave Sunset a small smile.

"Uh-huh. Are you going to order something? We would very much prefer it if you didn't hold up the line," Sunset said pointing to the small line of people behind her.

"Of course. Umm... Can I order a bowl of miso soup, please?" she asked Sunset.

"$3," Sunset told her.

Fluttershy handed over $3 worth of $1 bills. Sunset slipped the dollar bills inside of the register and wrote down Fluttershy's order. She walked into the kitchen and it looked as if Stove was working in two places at once.

"I think you really need another chef in this kitchen, Stove," she told Stove handing him the order.

He shrugged at Sunset. "Well I was going to promote Ebi to chef to help a man out, seeing as you've taken her place as cashier," he said. "But, obviously she couldn't come today.

"Anyway, I gotta get these orders done and you gotta start collecting more orders."

Sunset walked back to her work station and started taking everyone's orders once again.

~53 minutes later~

"Sir! Would you please hurry up and order? You're holding up a large line," scolded Sunset.

"Hmm... Maybe I'll have the...? No," said the rather overweight male individual standing almost directly in front of Sunset.

Sunset hoped she wouldn't have to deal with a problem like this. That one customer who just can't make up his flippin' mind on what to order. She was mentally banging her head against the wall as this guy still didn't decide on his food. Then an idea came to Sunset's head.

"Listen," she started. "if you can't decide right now. Then at least step out of the way until you know what you want. That way I can take everybody else's orders."

But he just stood there, like he didn't listen to a single thing Sunset had just said. It's like his mind was only set on food.

"Unbelievable!" she said quietly, pinching the bridge of her nose.

~2 hours later~

Currently, Sunset wasn't doing anything. She had taken everyone's orders and Stove got most of them cooked and ready.

Sunset thought about it for a minute and smirked. "Guess I can have a break right now," she decided.

Just as she said that, the door to the male restroom had flung open with a man now stepping out approaching to the counter.

He started talking, "It's a... It's a mess in there. Like... Like it is absolutely horrible in there."

"And?" asked the now disgusted Sunset.

"Well I umm... I-I clogged it. Someone's gonna have to do something about it," he finished while walking away.

Sunset stared at him in pure and utter disgust as he left the restaurant.

"Stove?" Sunset called.

"Yeah?" Stove replied.

"Do you think you can take care of a clogged toilet in the mens' bathroom?" she asked.

"I'm uh, kinda busy cooking the rest of these orders. You're going to have to do it," he told her.

Sunset moaned and walked over to the janitorial closet. She pulled out a red plunger and a mop with a bucket. She went into the kitchen and filled the bucket with fresh water while shooting glares at Stove.

"Like I said, we all gotta play our part," he reminded Sunset.

It was her turn to roll her eyes at him. Sunset walked into the males' bathroom and as soon as she did, she immediately closed her nose at the foil smell that filled the room.

"Eeeuuugh!! What the heck happened in here?!!" Sunset just about shouted.

There were four stalls. One of them still being used so that only left three. Sunset approached one of the open stalls and to her dismay, it was the clogged one.

"Oh. My. Celestia!!" She yelled.

She wanted to look away but her eyes just wouldn't turn away or even close. The once clear toilet water was now... no longer clear.

Other than having no experience in cleaning before, this was the main reason why Sunset didn't want to be the cleaner.

"Okay, let's see what I can do," she said raising the plunger closer to her face.

Sunset placed the red rubber end of the plunger inside of the toilet. After that, she didn't know what to do next. She tried to take it back out but it wouldn't come out.

"What the? Is it stuck?" Sunset asked herself still trying to take it out. "How did I get it stuck?"

It was then the person in the closed stall spoke up, "You have to raise the plunger and lower it to unclog the toilet," he explained.

Sunset took his advice and raised and lowered the plunger. She continued this sequence until the toilet magically started flushing again.

"Huh, thanks," she said to the man.

"No problem," he returned.

Even though the toilet was fine now, the smell remained and Sunset didn't want to spend any other second in a smelly bathroom. She gasped for some of that fresh air as soon as she stepped out for the male restroom, forgetting about her mop and bucket.

"There is no way I'm ever doing that again," said Sunset returning to her work station.

~3 more hours later~

Nothing else special really happened after the toilet incident. All Sunset did was take more orders but that was about it. No complications or anything.

"What kind of business are you all running here?!" came a loud voice.

"Huh? What?" Sunset was caught out of her daydream.

Sunset stared at where the voice came from. It came from a middle-aged looking woman who looked very ticked off.

Sunset was rather curious as to what set this woman off. "What seems to be the problem, m'am?" she asked.

This woman replied with, "The problem is how your chef treats the customers orders! Let me talk to your manager!"

'Oh, this'll be fun,' Sunset thought. "The manager is the chef," she told her.

"Well go get him!" boomed the woman.

Sunset sighed through her nose. "Fine. Stove! Someone here would like to have a word with you," she couldn't help but get a bit of déjà vu after saying that.

"Can it wait?" Stove called back.

Sunset stared back at the woman. "No, it really can't," she said.

Stove came out of the kitchen and stood next to Sunset. "What's going on?" he asked.

"This woman here would like to file a complaint about the chef," Sunset explained.

"Oh, is that right?" he said looking at the woman.

"That is correct; I have a problem with how you cook your customer's orders. I ordered a california roll only to find it was undercooked. That is a health code violation!" The woman explained. "You'd be lucky if I don't sue this place for an irresponsible chef giving his customers food poisoning!"

Stove opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Sunset, "What exactly do you want him to do? Get down on his knees and pray for mercy while you give him very specific tasks to earn your forgiveness? I don't think so, miss!" Sunset wasn't finished yet. "This man has been working extremely hard all day and he's been doing it all on his own!"

"Sunset, what are you doing?" Stove whispered to Sunset.

"Standing my ground, that's what," she said. "If anything, he deserves some flipping respect for being able to practically work at three places at once! If you feel as though you have a problem with that, then you can just leave."

The woman was at a loss for words but then an idea sparked in her head, "Well, let's see what your other customers have to say about that."

She turned around to face everyone and called out, "Dear people of this establishment! Please give these lovely individuals your honest opinion on the food that this here chef has cooked up for you!"

Everyone's faces lit up with happiness.

"It's amazing!"

"I've never tasted anything like it."

"Mm-mm! Delish!"

"It's pretty good."

Sunset gave the woman a smug look. "Looks like the customers have a different opinion," she said.

The woman was aware that she no longer had ground to stand upon so she said, "You haven't seen the last of me!" And she then left the restaurant signifying that this was a win for Sunset.

"Wow. Sunset that was amazing. Thank you," Stove said.

"That was nothing, Stove. If anything, she was lucky I didn't go all out on her," she said laughing.

Stove chuckled and ruffled Sunset's bacon haired. "There's just one thing," Stove whispered something to her, "I maaaayyyy havepurposelyslightlyundercookedhermealtogetbackatherforpastactions."

Sunset stared at him with wide eyes. "Wait, what?" she asked confusingly. "You sneaky man."

"Trust me, if you knew her like I did, you'd probably want to go full throttle on her," he said half jokingly.

They both shared a laugh for a bit and went back to work.

~1 hour later~

It was closing time and the restaurant was completely empty. Stove packed things up for the day while Sunset was leaving to go to the laundrette down the mall. Stove held the door open for Sunset as she left.

"Hey, Sunset. Excellent work today," he said.

"Thank you, I'm glad I applied here," she said walking away.

She made her way down to the laundrette to get her clothes clean and yes, she still had her uniform on! She wasn't going to the laundrette naked!

She was finally getting somewhere with this new life. Soon enough, she won't have to sleep outside or in a school. It may have been hard for her at first, but she was managing it.

All she basically needs to do now is to by a home, get her own food and...

Sunset turned back to Stove. "Hey, Stove. Is it alright if I come in later for work during weekdays?" Sunset asked him.

"I guess, but why?" Clearly it wasn't very obvious for him.

"Oh nothing, just because of school," she finished.

"Alright but make sure you're down here by 5PM, got it?" He told Sunset.

"Don't worry," she started while walking away. "I will."

Author's Note:

Hoo-wee! That was really something to write.

This could've been out yesterday but something had happened and it deleted what I had already!

But in the end, at least I finished it. And hopefully I can get the next chapter out within the next few days.

Look forward for next time: "Starting Off Small".

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Heh, not bad. Sunset handled that first day far better than I expected. XD