In Hot Water
It had been a long day. After that morning’s harrowing exchange, she felt like she’d had enough emotions for a month, but an upsurge in deliveries had made sure no nap could stop her body from being as exhausted as her mind.
Just one more job to do, and she was done for the day. Puff Sugarsnack, the local baker, had received a very large order from the Canterlogic factory. Something about providing a morale boost to workers doing some much-needed overtime.
Of course, making a special delivery to the Canterlogic factory this late in the day meant dealing with one more issue...
Two ponies were waiting at the pristine reception office. Sunny waved to Toots, the rotund administrative assistant, who was desperately juggling several ledgers, an adding machine, and two phones. He couldn’t spare a hoof, but nodded back.
Alongside him, of course, was the source of the aforementioned issue, calmly filing the edge of her left forehoof. She looked at Sunny nonchalantly over the rim of her glasses.
“Sunny dearie, can I have a word with you?”
Phyllis Cloverleaf; sweet as sugar, and just as cloying.
Here we go again. Time to put on my best deliverypony face, I wouldn’t want to give Mr. Sugarsnack any issues.
“Of course, Mrs. Cloverleaf,” Sunny nodded with her best fake smile. “Just give me a moment to bring this to-”
“Oh, no, no, no, that won’t be necessary.” Phyllis shook her head. “Toots, would you bring these to the break room? Oh, and make sure there’s enough to go around, would you?”
Toots sighed. Awkwardly balancing a cordless phone against his ear and desperately trying to maintain his conversation with some assembly-line forepony, he slowly shuffled the cart out of the room, looking pitiful as ever.
Poor Toots… I hope she pays him enough to justify everything she puts him through.
“Now then!” Phyllis punctuated herself with a quick tap of her hoof, drawing Sunny’s baffled attention back to her. “Would you please join me in my office? You can call me Phyllis, you know? Your father and I go way back.”
Sunny needed to collect payment for the pastries, and she knew full well Phyllis would stall that until she’d gotten her spiel in.
Might as well get it out of the way now…
Phyllis’s office was a lot like its occupant: The lace doilies, potted plants, and framed pictures of a young Sprout put forth a welcoming image of a kindly middle-aged mother, while endless coldly-calculated files identified that as a shrewd businessmare’s approachable facade.
Sunny sat across the solid oak desk, facing Phyllis’s plush throne of an office chair.
Having shut the door so they ‘wouldn’t be bothered’, Phyllis sat down, then swiveled to face her.
“If this is about offering me a job again, Phyllis, you already know what I’m going to say.” Sunny leaned forward, stern but outwardly polite. “I’m not going to disrespect my father’s memory just for some wages.”
“Yes, yes, I know, I know,” Phylis waved a dismissive hoof. “This isn’t what this is about, though the offer stands if you decide you’re ready to move on from fairy tales. Canterlogic could use a sharp mind like yours if it weren’t so busy with follies.”
Sunny’s hoof pressed hard against the desk surface. Her foreleg trembled.
“In any case, dear, despite my… let’s say… differences with your father, I did always have great respect for Argyle’s well-meaning heart and clear head. His delusions about the other tribes aside, he was a pillar of our community, and I feel like I owe it to him, at least a little, to keep an eye out for you. Somepony has to make sure you’re not getting in trouble, that kind of thing. It’s not fair that a filly your age is having to fend for herself just like that.”
Sunny nodded impassively.
If you cared so much about other ponies, you wouldn’t be creating defenses against most of them.
Phyllis removed her glasses and gently wiped a smudge off of them with a pink lacy handkerchief. “It’s been brought to my attention that you’ve been making a lot less of a ruckus about your father’s ideas lately. According to Sprout, he and Hitch hardly ever see you around town anymore. Is everything okay, Sunny? You haven’t been getting involved in anything… nefarious, have you?”
Okay, Sunny, big smile. You can do this.
“Thanks for your concern, Ma’am, but I assure you I’m doing just fine. I’ve been busy with some personal matters, but it’s nothing you and Sprout need to concern yourselves with, I promise.”
Phyllis nodded with a smile of her own and a single satisfied clap of her hooves.
“Excellent. I’m happy to hear that, but please, Sunny, really do consider my offer. It’s not healthy for a mare to be gallivanting off chasing after imaginary friends.”
Sunny’s eyes grew wide. Her artificial smile collapsed into a genuine scowl, and she rose out of her chair, leaning over the desk.
You rotten old…!
“You take that back! He’s not imagina-”
Wait, wait, nonono! Backpedal! Backpedal!
She cut herself short, and took a deep stabilizing breath, forcing herself back into a neutral expression and straightening back up, away from Phyllis.
“What I mean to say is that my father wasn’t just imagining things. He had very good reasons to believe what he did, and made that very clear to all of us. I know you don’t agree, but that doesn’t mean you get to insult him!”
Phyllis gave no real sign of remorse, instead maintaining a cocky little smile. “Oh, I’m so sorry, dearie. That must be a sore spot, and I got a little carried away. Well, in any case, I suppose I’ve held you up long enough.”
She unlocked a drawer and counted out the necessary payment.
“Now, you’d best be going. I can’t have Puff waiting; Canterlogic has a reputation to maintain.”
Sunny snatched up the bills and tucked them away into her bag, glaring daggers. “It sure does,” she muttered under her breath while fumbling with the door handle.
“Stay out of trouble, now!” Phyllis waved her off, all smiles. “And Sunny, don’t forget! To be scared is…”
Sunny rolled her eyes and saw herself out, doing all she could to resist the urge to slam the door. “... to be safe. I know, I know…”
“Now you’re getting it!” Phyllis giggled sweetly.
Stats
Page generated in 0.046 seconds
Total duration
1,051 users online
2,141,521 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
STFU Phyllis.
Solid chapter, makes me wonder Phyllis’s involvement in the overall narrative.
...is it wrong that my mind immediately went to this?
images.ctfassets.net/usf1vwtuqyxm/1O29yImCdKS8AaqQUgkc6A/67cd680cfe058a2c04aee36efd2c2b97/DoloresUmbridge_WB_F5_UmbridgeAtHerDesk_Still_080615_Land.jpg
Oh, it gets even better! Not only is the supposed "threat" those defenses are defending against not appeared in so long that most of their generation hasn't even see a member of another tribe in person before, they're not even effective defenses--Phyllis is just exploiting the paranoia to hock goods nopony actually needs...probably at a substantial mark-up, too.
Really, Phyllis is no opposing political activist, she's just a devious business pony that's a little more in it for the bits than the ethics, and really probably only protests so strongly to the likes of Sunny simply because, if Sunny's viewpoints were to gain traction, there'd go a large share of her business, and, of course, like ALL business owners, they generally despise the idea of getting less money.
Fortunately, she seems to come around on at least this particular matter after the movie, but we're not there yet, and I'd imagine even that wouldn't stop her from still being a devious business pony at least a little still in the future...her overall approach and tactics would just shift to match the new climate.
Eh, I'd slam it anyway.
11136501
Where do you think I got the idea?
I'm glad that vibe got through.
A fun 'director's cut' moment: When I sat down to write this chapter, I initially wanted to portray Phyllis as set in her ways but genuinely concerned about Sunny... and then the writer autopilot came on and Phyllis said "Nope, I'm going to be a total nag!"
So I just ran with it and followed that to its conclusion, which you see here.
aww, it's nice to see this glimpse of Sunny's tense relationship with Phyllis in the time before the movie. and everything from the description of her office to the passive-aggressive way she speaks is just so spot-on for her, good job with this one!