Bacchus and Benjy

Chapter 6

Time passes fairly slowly as the grand opening creeps closer.  I’ve got to break this suspense.  I walk over to the record player and pick out one of my favorite records.  I throw it on and the slow piano music begins.

Benjy yells from the warehouse, “Turn that crap off, I hate when you play my music”

He walks into the bar.

I turn to him and say enthusiastically, “Come on man, you could play the hell out of the piano.”

He laughs, “If only anyone else thought so.”

I switch it over to one of his random records and make one final sweep of the bar finally ending it right behind the bar.

“I do believe we are ready!”

I hear the familiar ring of the bell, as the door swings open and my first customer enters the bar. Well, I say 'first', six 'first' would be more accurate.

“Welcome girls!”  I say with hooves outstretched.

The girls walk in and sit down at the bar.

"I owe you girls a drink," I say as I start to take out tankards.

AJ holds up a hoof, "Ahm actually gonna wait on that sugarcube, gotta work on the farm and it's kinda hard ta buck when you're seein double."

I laugh, "you know, I find I buck best with a few drinks in me."

Benjy snickers, RD and Pinkie look at each other and bust out laughing, and the rest take a bit to get it but as soon as they do.  Twilight is clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable with a joke, a light pink shade appears on Rarity's face, Fluttershy turns almost as red as me, and AJ's face turns a bright red as I give her a wink.

As the laughter dies down and the blushing fades Rarity perks up.

“You must have not liked the present I made you!”  She said in a huff.

I look down only to see my bare neck.  “Oh no, no, no!  I love it Rarity!  It must have just slipped my mind with the whole grand opening going on!  Give me a second to go throw it on.”  I run back up to my room to throw on the bowtie with the sound of laughter filling the bar.  I try and put the bowtie on straight but bucking hell are these things hard to put on right.  I back into the bar to find an audience waiting for me.  “Ta da!”  I said, as I flailed my fore hooves in a fancy motion, stepping backwards to present the bar to the group of gathered ponies.

“Close darling.”  She says as her horn begins to glow.  My bowtie straightens itself out and gets sufficiently fluffed.

Applejack starts to leave shortly after that.

“Don’t forget to bring your family by for a few drinks later on.”

She tips her Stetson to me before she finally goes out the door.

The rest of the mares go back to their conversation and drinks.  I’m about to go back to talking to the mares when I hear the doorbell ring again and my first paying customer.  It’s the Mayor herself.

“Welcome to my humble business.”  I bow slightly as I say that.

“I’m always happy to see a business open up!”  The Mayor does seem generally excited about this.  She makes her way to the bar and takes a seat.  “Your finest cider, bartender!”  She smiles.  “I can’t wait to see how much money this brings into town.”  The Mayor clops her hooves as she says it.

I just smile and slide her a tankard of cider.

The doorbell rings again as a few more mares and stallions wander in and take a seat.  I knock Benjy’s shoulder as I wave over to them.  He nods as he goes to take their orders.  I turn back to the mares at the bar.

“You girls planning to get tanked tonight?”

Twilight was the first to speak up, “I don’t believe so, I just wanted to wish you good luck and get this cider you promised me.”

The rest of girls nod in agreement.

“Well thanks for coming out and supporting us.” I say as Benjy flies back.

“I need for 5 ciders for that table.”

I nod as I start to take out the tankards and start filling them up.  The doorbell jingles as three more mares walk in and take a seat at another table.  I send Benjy over to them as I try to put the 5 ciders on a platter so I can bring it over to the first table.  Success!  I make it over without spilling a single cider.  I pass out the drinks and collect my payment from my ponies.  I take the platter back to the bar finding Benjy pouring 3 more tankards of cider.  He puts them on the tray for me and I take them over to the table.  As I’m returning to the bar, the girls are getting up to go.  Rarity walks up to me and hugs me and gives me a peck on the cheek.  What the buck is go… oh right!  Alcohol!

“Good luck with the bar d-darling.” She says with only the slightest bit of stammer.

The other girls give me their well wishes and take their leave.  Good thing too.  We’re starting to have more and more ponies enter the bar.  I don’t need Benjy being distracted by… plot.

As far as I can see this is turning out to be a typical day for a bar in a big city, but it’s still running me ragged.  Trying to keep drinks filled, cleaning tankards, collecting payment, and generally trying to be social.  Benjy doesn’t seem to be slowing down but I can feel my energy draining as the night goes on.

There was one customer that made me laugh though.  A small, timid looking white pegasus with a blue and black striped mane wandered into and tried to get to the bar only to be blocked by much larger ponies.  He squeezed his way through these large stallions and tried to get my attention.

“Mr. Bar… Sir?”

It’s an odd accent to say the least.  I decide to be a little bit of a dick and ignore him for a bit longer.

“Runkkari!”  He yells.  I look directly at him with questioning look.   His face turns red and looks down.  “Can I haves a drinks?”  He says in broken Equestrian.

I grab a tankard and fill it up and slide it to him.  He thanks me and begins drinking his cider.  Later on into the evening, he got up onto a table and yelled “Call me Electric!” and started dancing.  I shook my head; it’s time to cut this colt off.  I drag him outside.  “Can you get back home on your own, Electric?”

He gives me a questioning look, “My name isn’t Electric; it’s Finnish, Finnish Dazzle.”  His wings start to flap as he speeds off.

That’s a strange pony right there.  I shake my head and return to the bar.

The tiring first day continues until dusk.  As the final ponies begin to leave, the doorbell and the Apple family enters with the addition of a caramel colored earth pony with a brown mane.

“Welcome everypony” I say in a tired voice.

“Sounds like ya’ll had an excitin’ night” AJ says, “This is Caramel, he helps on the farm during apple bucking season.  I was hoping you could hook him up with a couple drinks?”

“Anything for the Apples!”  Ha! Wordplay!

We all grab a drink and take a seat at one of the tables.  “So how was your first night?”

I lean back into my seat, “Exhausting, I think we may need to hire someone else. “

Benjy nods at that.

The evening draws to a close as we sit around joking about the day.  It’s good to unwind a bit after today.  I told them about Finnish and they all laughed about his antics.

“I’m sorry about this everypony, but I’ve really got to hit the hay.  Long day and all that.” I say with a yawn.

They leave and I immediately walk upstairs to my bed.  This has been a long time coming.  As soon as my head hits the pillow I’m out.

The blackness envelops me and a voice begins start to talk…