My name is Pantene
Power is something that can get to even the most sophisticated of ponies. Power comes in many forms and can strike in either positive or negative forms. There was a mare of a rather popular Hair care products company who was too caught up in her power to realize she was causing aggression amongst her staff. Pantene sat in her office as she did on a regular basis. She sat there loving how she got paid watching others slave over chemical science. She realized she could use something to drink so it was best to call her secretary. Pantene leaned forward using a hoof to press a button on her desk.
“Sweetheart would you please get me some coffee.” She said in a soft tone of voice. Pantene was not one to be angry. Well she preferred to get what she wanted by being somewhat kind. If she did not get what she wanted she would find herself being rather cruel. Her secretary entered levitating a pot of coffee. The mare was a light mulberry color with violet shaded irises that always seemed to be staring off. Her mane and was in a ponytail and her wings hidden as usual under the suit that she was wearing.
“Sorry Pantene but we were out so I had to quickly brew you a cup.” Said the secretary said as she levitated the mug onto the desk. She gave a look of concern as she waited to see if Pantene wished for anything else. “If you need anything else mam I am here for you.”
“That is all for now dear, please do fill out this paperwork for me. It would definitely make me consider giving you that raise you still wish for.” Pantene said as she sipped her coffee. “Also there is a group of men in the experimental testing area that have been brewing something all morning that I must say has done nothing but make my muzzle itch. If you would ever so kindly tell them to dump that crap down the drain, I would appreciate it.” Pantene said as she raised her hind legs to cross across the top of her desk. Her blueish Main silky as ever for she always used her won product to keep her hair healthy.
“No problem mam, I will get right to floor B and I will tell them to dump it. I suppose I will also do your paperwork for you.” The secretary said as she levitated the paperwork with her rapidly changing magical aura. Pantene watched her secretary leave her eyes watching her very closely. She looked back to her magazine as the smell of the rancid test Shampoo was growing much stronger. Those stallions were going to regret it is they made her get up and make them dump it. She didn’t pay them to stink up the place. The rules for experimental shampoo making were always the same. Rule one do not randomly mix chemicals without writing down what you have put in. The biggest and most important rule was the one that they seemed to have forgotten. Dump the rancid smells so you do not make Pantene mad. Pantene sniffed the air as the smell burned her nostrils. Her secretary had to do the paperwork, so Pantene wished she had told her to actually take care of the smell first. She slowly got up out of her chair and exited her office looking down at floor B. Her eyes seemed to be a red and green color in this light reflecting off this rancid mix of shampoo.
“Where is Charlie~!” Pantene shouted as she looked down at the working stallions. The stallions looked at Pantene and shrugged.
“He said he was looking for you~!” They shouted back.
“Then tell him if his butt isn’t in my office in thirty second I will make him eat that rancid shampoo you’re making down there.” Pantene said as she began to make her way down to the B floor. “Boys you do realize the rules clearly state Rancid smells are a no~!” She smacked one of them with the side of her magazine. “Do you think I pay you to goof off?” Pantene would be a lovely mare to date if she hadn’t had the attitude she had. She was incredibly gorgeous; she just had a very bad temper.
“Sorry mam it’s just that Charlie said he think if we keep at this mix we will get your best shampoo yet.” One of the stallions said as she had hit his friend with a booklet.
“No mare is going to buy something that smells like the rear end of a yak. We want something that smells as beautiful as we are. So unless you find a way to make that smell like an autumn day then I want you to dump it. Not in five, not in ten, I mean now~!” Pantene said as she held her breath making her way back to her office. The stallions of floor B shrugged it off and continued to work on the green vat of smelly shampoo. Pantene sighed deeply as she sat back down in her office chair. She opened up her magazine once again to read about competition this year. Of course she found very little to compete with, her company was top notch and loved by many. She let out a chuckle as she read. “When will these shampoo companies learn that they simply can’t keep up?” She put her magazine down as she called for her secretary once again. Pantene was surprisingly enough married. She was married to Charlie who ran the experimental floor for her. That’s why it angered her he was nowhere to be found today. So she called in her little affair. Her secretary, Pantene was not loyal to the money grubbing Charlie of floor B.
“Pantene you rang me? May I ask what it is you needed me for?” She said as she looked towards her boss.
“I have not seen Charlie around all day? Has he even checked in?” Pantene said as she was using a file on her front right hoof. “He knows how mad I get when he says he’s going to take care of floor B so I get a break and then he doesn’t even show.” Pantene said as her eyes looked at her secretary in a cold stare. Pantene was clearly angry as she sat there giving herself an aggravated hoofacure.
“Well, if you wish I could check the computers log and see if he ran his card in the machine today?”
“Sure, sure, why don’t you go do that while I grovel a little?” Pantene said as she looked out her office window to see if Floor B had dumped that rancid Shampoo yet. She was very displeased with the work ethic of her husband. She had only hired him because he was a chemist with no job. He was what she needed; she loved him very much but could hardly stand him a lot of the time. Industry was something Pantene took very seriously. Now a days Industry ran this damn city. She had the mares of this place eating out of her hooves. Maretropolis was a place that politicians considered highly important. This made Pantene feel important because she had some politicians invested in her stocks. They had money, a lot of it. Her secretary left her office to check the machine as Pantene sat in her own fuming rage. “I don’t see what’s so hard about sitting on a hot floor mixing chemicals. Especially when you have a degree in such fields. Why do I keep you around Charlie even when you are here I find myself running everything.” Pantene said to herself as she sipped on her coffee. She waited for her Secretary to return with the news about her tumor of a husband.
“He’s checked in Mam, He just doesn’t seem to be around. He hasn’t checked into the break center so he has to be around somewhere.” The secretary said as she entered the room. Pantene growled as she stood up and chucked her mug at the wall putting a dent in the plaster. She angrily pressed on her loud speaker and spoke.
“Charlie, get your lazy ass up to my office noooooowwwww” Pantene said as she had hit a nerve. She took out a prescription bottle as she popped a couple pills for her anger. Pantene started to breathe heavily. “I put up with so much shit, you have no idea~!” She angrily fell back in her chair.
“You need me sweetheart.” The deep voice sounded of Charlie. “I’m sure it’s about my ethic again.”
“Oh no why would you ever think I would talk to you about ethic~!” Pantene said as she slammed her right hoof on her desk. “You come here every morning and you disappear leaving me to wonder where you are and why you don’t have my back. Those ponies don’t know chemistry they have no idea what they are doing~!” She used her back leg to kick her rolling chair across the floor. “Your my husband but that does not give you the right to slack in my house not in my industry~! I expect your high degree to make use around here~!” Pantene said knocking Charlie’s working helmet to the ground.
“Sweetheart I do my best around here. Your working conditions are hard and you overwork you workers. I leave occasionally to get the guys properly fed and hydrated. We work in the hottest part of the building. I am only looking out for the men I have worked with for 12 years.” Charlie said as calmly as he could.
“I have never had an accident in this building. These men get what they need to work no more, no less. I don’t need you wandering off because you think the working conditions are unfair.” Pantene said as she used her hoof to tell her secretary to leave the room.
“Pantene, you’re angry, I can see that. I will do as I do, simple enough, these men will die if they are not hydrated correctly.”
“They won’t die, not in my factory. Now get your as to the work floor and get that vat dumped. It smells like yak.”
Author's Note
last short chap because soon we get a nice visit from Charlie and his unclean vat.
Shower of hate
Charlie did as he was told; then again no one was man enough to actually argue with her. Pantene was one scary mare. She was very beautiful, her beauty tainted by her own hatred for about everything. She hated other companies on the same street she was on. Back in the beginning of her career she was accused of stealing from other companies several times. The mare was like a firecracker, its best you don’t hold it to close when it explodes. When Pantene was a young mare she had stolen many credit cards from her mother and used that money to swindle her way to where she is now. She was a very devious mare that had quite the sheet of paper for misdemeanors and felonies.
Pantene had met Charlie in a very strange way. Charlie used to work for a company on the same street Pantene had established her factory. He worked for a company that made sprays for the working stallion so they wouldn’t stink to bad. He was the one who had caught her stealing serval smells that she later used in her Stallions shampoo. Charlie could have turned her in but he didn’t he was overly attracted to her instead, eventually finding himself under the steaming roof of her factory. Charlie had remained her husband for about six years now. Nopony knows how anypony could stand her for so long. She was so controlling. He swears it’s mostly because she means so much good and is deeply kind at heart.
Pantene was getting ready to close up for today; she had a very long day today and frankly couldn’t wait to get home for once. She normally would rather live in the factory than live at home but she had no real choice. The factory didn’t have a bed so she had to go home. She knew bad thunderstorms were due tonight as well so she wanted to hurry home. Upon arrival she was in for heartbreak. Charlie was drunk and waiting for her to get home.
“What are you doing in my house?” Charlie said as he was blocking the door.
“Our house Charlie, it’s our house.” She tried to move past him but was blocked.
“We are done Pan, we are done, I can’t take you narcissistic attitude~!” Charlie said as he was closing the door on her and their relationship. His words hit her hard and tears were immediately filling her eyes her makeup mixing with her tears.
“n-no you can’t just throw me out like this w-where will I go?~!” she said as she still frantically tried to get inside. Charlie shoved her back as thunder crashed outside and rain splashed against the windows of the building.
“You have contacts pan, you don’t need me now get out of here~!” He slammed the door right on her; the door didn’t open after that final shut.
The truth was she had nowhere to go, she was a popular pony but had no true friends. So there she sat at the nearest bus stop. The rain drenching her and covering her tears as she cried. Pantene had done nothing but push her family away to get where she was. She had no parents to go to.
“W-what did I do?” Pantene kept questioning herself. “Oh I’m sure he’s found some hussy as it is.” She sniffled as the cold rain made her shiver. The factory might end up being a nice place to sleep for the night. Pan stood up slowly as she was continuously losing her own heat to the rain that relentlessly fell upon her. Pantene was mostly confused, she had never felt heartbreak before, it was making her very cold inside. Charlie was the only one who once thought she was good. That she was a sweet and loveable pony. Her past coming back to haunt her like her filly days in school, back then she was nothing but a loser with too many unlikely ideas. Now she was a heartbroken business mare with no home. She soon reached her factory as the rain and thunder continued. She shakily unlocked the door to enter her lively hood. The one thing she had left to flaunt. Her business that was all she felt she had left. “Oh if only I was the drinker, I would have a nice bottle of whiskey at my desk.” Pantene said to herself as lighting flashed outside casting her shaking shadow against the nearby walls. Pan looked at the articles on the table. Tomorrow her secretary would place the new one on her desk and she would read them. If she was in any mood to read that is. Pantene was to aching to think of doing anything else but cry.
“Mam what are you doing here?” The voice of her secretary sounded from the entrance of her office. Pan had forgotten she had asked her to stay and finish the paperwork after she had left. Pan looked up at her secretary with bloodshot eyes from all the crying she had done.
“I am here for my own reasons dear, please do go back to your office and work on that paperwork.” Pan said as she looked to the floor a tear drop caressing her cheek before it fell to the floor.
“Not to be disrespectful am but May you please call me by name after hours?” Matter said as she walked over to her boss.
“I don’t feel it matters what I preach. I lost my husband tonight. Apparently he couldn’t take me anymore. Society is always right. When they deem you something like unlovable they are right Matter. Remember that.” Pantene said as she remembered the article about her wedding. The author had stated let’s see how long this lasts.
“Pan I can tell you’re upset, now I see why. Would you like me to get you some coffee?” Matter asked as she patted Pantene on the back. Pantene sniffled which allowed a smell to enter her nostrils. The vat she wanted emptied today was still reeking of that smell. Did they ever empty it? Pan stood up and looked out the office window to see the glowing vat still full of the fluid that reeked like noponies business.
“Matter please do me one favor, once the rains tops go get me my papers so I can read the newest articles. I have some employees to write up and fire.” Pan said in a hostile tone of voice. She was very upset and didn’t want her now ex-husband to be part of her business. After all what did he ever do for her here? He helped keep chemicals under control but that was about it. Pan had no idea what some chemicals do when the sit in a vat long enough. For instance the vat she wanted emptied wasn’t legal to sell. It had been sitting there for so long that it could be toxic. Plus she had no idea what was sin it, the ponies hadn’t made the list they were supposed to make for every experimental vat.
“Is there anything else you would like mam.” Matter purred as she took off her glasses. Pan looked at Matter and shook her head.
“Matter, you have done so much yet so little. I couldn’t ask you of much of anything right now.” Pantene said as she smiled at her secretary. She watched then as her secretary went to go get the new articles. What was written on them made Pan very angry.
“Now pan it could be worse.” Matter said as she was now reading over it.
“He went to the press and now I’m being accused of stealing.” Pantene said as she slammed her head on the desk. “He is leaking the things I did into the press, he wants to ruin not just my life but my lively hood.”
