Virtigogo

Twilight Sparkle walked down an alley of Canterlot, tying an apron around herself as she went along. It was used and dirty, grease spotted it and it smelled of liquor. The young mare herself was disheveled, having spent the last couple hours trying to catch up on sleep after a particularly long study session. Not that Moondancer's party made studying possible, but she still tried. Having a roommate like that was starting to wear on Twilight and her grades, something which Celestia notice immediately. Of course, the Princess is not one to hoof out assistance to everypony, and she wanted Twilight to get used to having an actual job, so she politely suggested Twilight find some employment around town, to help pay for an actual dorm room.

And so here we find the young unicorn, grumbling to herself as she trotted up to the club. Being the beginning of the year for all the schools, most ponies had already found their part time jobs in town, so the only option left to Twilight was as a waitress at some new club called Club Basix. She had spoken to the owner in her interview, and it seemed like Basic Beats was a bit of a philanderer. Okay, he was a lot of a philanderer, and it showed. He had a habit of hiring cute college girls and dressing them up in tight outfits and the like. Luckily he knew how to avoid a lawsuit and had made it optional. But it still irked Twilight to no end. It was as if nopony had any sense of personal boundaries, but, Twilight figured, if they had all been as personal with Basic Beats as rumor had it, boundaries had already long been crossed for most of those employed.

She walked in the front door, waving her badge at the front door bouncer. He waved her in and she slipped past the throngs of ponies trying to sway the stallion into letting them in. She made her way down the entrance hall but before she could make it to the main floor, a stallion in a cowpony hat stepped in her way, bringing her to a halt.

"Well hello there, little lady!" He tipped his hat and raised his head, showing his eyes and a horn on his head. The unicorn smiled at Twilight." My dear, you appear to be too old to drink here, I'll have to see some I.D."

Twilight's deadpan stare did nothing to falter the stallion's smile, so she simply picked him up with her magic and moved him out of the way. "Look, I'm late for work in there. I don't know who you are, but you really need to learn who works here. Goodbye."

She turned to leave but was stopped by a hoof on her shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't know. What's your name?"

Twilight gently pushed the hoof off her shoulder and gave him a halfhearted smile. "It's Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. Now if you'll excuse me..."

She walked into the main hall while the stallion rubbed his head nervously. "Sure. Sure... You have a good night," he hollered after her.

The club was packed. It seemed everypony in town was dancing down on the floor. Twilight pushed her way to the tables section where the bar was, being shoved and hassled and she was pretty sure at one time, groped, through the throngs of dancing ponies not giving a damn to the world around them as the music flowed. Finally she reached the bar, where a middle aged pony with a rather pungent stoagie hanging out of his mouth.

"Evenin' Twilight. Sleep okay last night? You know those late night study sessions will kill you, right?" He said in a rather high pitched voice.

"It's those cigars that'll kill you, Hickory. Or at least give you cancer." She smirked at him while walking behind the bar. "Any orders ready to go out?"

"Get right into it tonight, huh Twilight? Okay then, table four has seven ciders and a Manehatten, table seven needs refills on their Applejacks and Colas, table two has two ponies from Neighpon and they're only drinking gin, but they'll only take it one shot at a time and only at their table, so keep an eye on them. And right now table five has some guy who's been a jerk to the last waitress who went over there, so if he calls you over, let me know and I'll send our new bouncer over to make sure nothing happens, okay?"

"Ehhhh, okay. I met that new bouncer too, what do you make of him?" Twilight asked, scanning the crowd as she did so, but couldn't find that hat anywhere.

"He's alright. Bit of a gambler though. I swear one of these days he'll put up a leg for a bet. But that makes him a sweet talker, and maybe a scoundrel, so watch yourself around him, okay? You're a nice girl, no need to get mixed up with our lot, "he finished with a wink.

"Heh, thanks Hickory. You're a good guy. I'll go get started now." She grabbed a tray full of cider and headed off to table four.

From there the night went as expected. Twilight zoomed about the room, taking orders and sending them out to tables with no detail unchecked. While Twilight liked working the tables, especially for the tips, her specialty was perfectly balanced mixed drink. She had studied the alcohol, the sugars and the sours, and the bitterness of each ingredient long before she had taken this job, and making drinks was as close as she could get to studying something near alchemy, or any form of studying while at work. Of course with such attention to detail making products that were truly noteworthy, ponies from all over town were coming in to try them. At least it kept Twilight busy, or at least that's what she told herself.

A few hours later, one of the other waitresses stomped back behind the bar, a hint of moisture in her eyes. "Complaint from table five, Twilight. He's requesting to speak to the pony who made his drink."

Twilight looked up from the bar, puzzled. "Dry martini, stirred, two olives?"

"That's the jerk alright!" The waitress said loudly across the bar. As she walked away, Twilight set the bottle in her magical grasp down, and quickly made her way to table five. There, was a rather rotund pony, a frosty mug emblazoned on his flank, and an empty martini glass in his hoof.

"Excuse me, sir, was there a problem with your drink?" she asked with the most painfully cheery facade she could muster.

The pony looked around as if somepony had hollered across the club, his drunken eyes eventually settling on Twilight. "Well it's about damned time!" he said. "I've been waiting here for nearly an hour for one of you air-headed fillies to come around!"

Inside, Twilight was berating herself for ever accepting such a position. I just made that drink ten minutes ago... she thought. But on the outside she retained her composure. "Well, I am sorry for the um, delay, what can I do to make it better?"

"Well first off, I'm not paying for this drink. I ordered a Martini, not vermouth with a splash of gin. Second, you could stay here and keep me entertained for the night." The stallion grinned a smile of brown teeth and have a hammy wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Eheh, okay... how about no?" Twilight backed up a bit and turned to head back to the bar. "I'll get you a new drink but... unfortunately I have to be making drinks, so I'll have to decline this time—"

"Oh Hell no!, You owe me one missy!" The stallion growled, wrapping his arms around Twilight's midsection. She froze as he touched her, shaking, unable to think of a spell to get him off, when suddenly, the stallion wasn't there anymore. A faint sound of gagging could be heard behind her, and slowly she turned to investigate.

The stallion was half dangling in the air, his back hoofs just scraping the floor. A dark blue aura of magic surrounded his throat and kept him aloft. Right next to him, his horn glowing, was the bouncer from earlier, his face stretched in a goofy smile. "I think it's time to cut you off," he said before tossing him toward a nearby fire exit, where two more bouncers stood waiting. They caught him and promptly tossed him out the door.

The bouncer turned to Twilight, but his smile dropped when he saw her. She stood stock still, two tears dripping down her cheeks. Her knees wobbly, he rushed over to hold her up. However, as soon as he touched her she grabbed him in a strangle hold-style hug, softly crying into his shoulder. "Shh, it's okay, he's not here anymore. You're okay."

He looked around a noticed half the club was staring. "C'mon, let's go someplace quieter," he whispered. She set her hooves back down and nodded, keeping her head down, following him past the bar and into the kitchen. The front end was busy, making appetizers for the drunken ponies outside. Towards the back, however, near the freezer, was a bit more quiet and even had a chair in which Twilight sat. The bouncer grabbed a glass and filled it with cold water. Twilight took it from him and drained the glass, her hooves still shaking.

"Better?" he asked. She nodded.

Never had something like that happen before?" She shook her head.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She shook her head again.

"Well, I really think you should. It'll make you feel better. I'll stay here all night if I have to but you really do need to talk about it."

Then Twilight's head shot up, glaring at him with red-rimmed eyes. "Oh, come on. I barely know you! And... and it's not even what happened that's the problem. Well, it is, but it isn't. Kinda." The sadness returned and her head drooped again.

"Okay, then my name's Howitzer. Howitzer Flintlock, but you can just call me Howie. Everypony else in this place does." He held out his hoof, the smile back. Twilight flicked her gaze up at the hoof before halfheartedly shaking it.

"M'Twilight."

"Heh, so I've heard. Listen, you seem like a really nice girl, and I hate to see nice girls get treated like that. Basic is a friend of mine, of sorts, and tomorrow night he and I and one other friend will be up in one of the V.I.P. suites to celebrate something around nine PM. If you'd like, you can come on up, and perhaps Basic and myself can help sort things out for you."

The corners of Twilight's mouth twitched upwards for a split second. "Maybe..." she mumbled.

"But don't expect a hoof out. Basic and I are business ponies, and will expect, well, something in return."

Twilight shot up, a look of horror plastered on her face. "Y-you mean?"

Howie jumped back, confusion in his face before his eyes widened. He shook his head vigorously. "No! No, no, no, nothing anywhere like that! Please, Twilight, don't think anything along those lines. We have a simple wager of sorts and we'll need your help determining the winner."

She calmed down with Howie's words, now sporting a shameful smile. "Oh. Okay. I think I can do that. Sorry about that, too."

Howie waved it off. "It's okay. I guess I should have worded it differently. I promise you, nothing sexual or something even near it. But do expect to get your hooves dirty."

"Okay. I'll be there. I have to work then anyway."

"Great!" He tipped his hat and with a wink trotted towards the exit. Just before, he stopped and spoke once more, "Oh, and take the rest of tonight off. I'll get Basic to pay you for the whole shift, I think you've certainly earned it."

And with that, he was gone, leaving a slightly less disheveled Twilight standing in the steaming kitchen, contemplating just what exactly she had gotten herself into.