Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, ever faithful student of Celestia, and continuous seeker of knowledge stood in front of her full sized mirror smiling at the unrecognizable mare before her. The mare that smiled back was a tall, peach coated pony, with bright green eyes and a two toned green mane and tail. She had no wings, but a smart looking horn that stuck out of her mop of a mane. Twilight danced in place, causing the mare in the looking glass to do the same, trying to hold back a squeal of delight. Spike, who was sitting near by, looked up from his comic book, not very impressed.
“And the point of all this is?” He left the question hanging as his big sister made faces at her strange reflection, having much more fun than any mare should with this new form of 'dress up'.
“I've gotten a day job at the Turnip Grill,” Twilight explained, taking a moment to turn away from her reflection and address the baby dragon, giving her classic pose of a pony in the middle of a nine hour dissertation of the purpose for natural magic and it's effect of the wildlife. The fact that Twilight had, not once, not twice, but three times done such a thing, was a lesser known fact, and probably for the better of all. Not all her audience had been willing to hear it. Rainbow Dash could attest to that.
There was an almighty pause than lingered upon the air, and Spike knew what that meant. That calm before the storm of exciting experimentation explaining that he really didn't want to hear. He went back to his comic book, trying to ignore the overly happy smile of the strange pony leaning over his comic book. After rolling his eyes, knowing that he'd regret asking, he finally completed this silly ritual of asking the clearly wanted question.
“And why have you gotten a day job at the Turnip Grill?” He inquired, not really caring, and rather bored. When the silence continued, he raised an eyebrow at the Princes of Friendship, who egged him on with a rolling motion of a hoof. “You're the Princess of Friendship,” He continued on, in the same bored, dull, expressionless voice. “Why do you need a day job?”
“I'm so glad you asked!” The not Twilight Twilight beamed. “It's because I want to improve the work environment of Ponyville, and I want to know what it's like to work in the fast food industry! After a day or two of seeing what they have to deal with, I'll be more capable to make improvements to the system, and maybe even correct safety practices to make things better for those ponies!” The peach unicorn did a happy dance, and threw up a hoof to the sky. “Princess of Friendship, undercover researcher! Yay!”
Spike deadpanned. “Spend time with the CMC much?”
Twilight blushed, giving a nervous laugh. She looked at the clock on the wall. “Looks like I'm off to my first day of work! Wish me luck!”
“Bring me back some hay fries,” Spike called out as the peach pony trotted out of the room. “And a burger, extra hot sauce.” When no reply came, Spike went back to his reading.
A moment later Spike heard the front door to the castle slam shut. It was always impossible not to slam that door. The doors were too heavy. He'd have to talk to Twilight about that. It made sneaking out of the castle for midnight sessions of Ooglies and Ogres impossible to do. As Spike continued to read his comic a beamed of light blue light, followed by a high pitched whirring sound, appeared right by Twilight's researching desk. After a moment, Discord, wearing a pea green shirt, with a black ridge that ran over shoulders of the shirt, appeared. He touched a small gold and silver pendent on his lapel.
“Good work Scotty,” He smiled. “Do yourself a favor and take the day off. Tell Sulu and Chekov not to get into my spirits cabinets again. I don't want to track down the Brandy-wine specter or the Bloody Mary Ghost again. It's a pain to get them back into the bottles.”
“Aye, Capin'.” A voice replied. “Let me know if you need me to beam you back up.”
Spike tossed his comic book aside. “Big Mac said he can't make it today.” He replied glumly. “So that rules out OnO.”
Discord gave a shrug. “Claw me over a comic book?” He suggested. “I know of a way we can entertain ourselves while we wait for Her Royal Hinny to get back and tell us how awful it was.”
Spike gave Discord a comic book. “You think she'll up and quit on the first day?”
Discord took the 'Captain Equestia' comic book, the one where it showed Captain Equestria smacking his enchanted shield across Queen Chrysalis's face. Discord snapped his claws and an old VCR appeared out of no where. He set the comic on top, and adjusted a spindle that was not at all attached to the VCR, and a 3-D hologram of the comic came to life, complete with speech bubbles.
“Trust me.” Discord smiled. “There's a reason why I don't go near the food service industry.”
Spike snorted. “Really? You spread Chaos every where you go, but you won't spread it there? That makes it sound like the safest place to be in that case.”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Why do I put up with you?”
“Because we're friends.” Spike smiled. “And friends poke fun at each other in playful ways.”
The Draconequus smiled. It was good to have friends. “Well, the reason why our little, star flanked princess won't last a day is because the food industry is so chaotic, even I don't bother it.” Spike just gave him a disbelieving stare. “It's true. Have you ever been on a cook line during a push? It's insanity of an insane proportion, it takes the definition of insane and puts it in a space ship and the then drops said space ship into a volcano full of raspberry sherbert that's being harvested by aliens to create super powered weapons of chocolate destruction that can open the portal to Cloud Nine Getaway theme park and luxury resort!”
Spike just blinked.
“It's so crazy I don't want to be there.” Discord summed up lamely.
Spike mouthed the world 'OH' and got an evil grin. “Ten bits says she calls it quits today.”
Discord looked shocked. “Betting on the longevity of your own sister like guardian?!”
Spike gave a shrug. “I know how much she hates chaos, and if what you said is true, I don't think she'll last. After all, if she's starting from the bottom, she'll have no say in how things run, and that's a bit of a problem for her, as she's a little bit of a control freak.”
“You don't say.” Discord nodded. “Well, if that's that case, ten bits says she'll get fired before the day's out.”
Now it was Spikes turn to looked stunned. “F-fired? Twilight?”
“Oh please,” Discord picked up another comic, placed it on top of the first comic on the VCR and watched as the heroes of both comics teamed up against an army of Zeppelins. “I love Twilight. Maybe not as much as Fluttershy, and then there's my special love triangle between Celestria and Luna that ponies tend to think exist,”
“Does it?”
“I don’t' know, I haven't read the fanfics on it yet.” Discord called up to the ceiling. “There needs to be! I'm a handsome hunk and all the Princesses want me! I'm Sexy and I know it!” He turned back to his friend. “But as I was saying, I adore Twilight, but she can be a bit...over bearing at times, and some lesser ponies might not appreciate that, and decide that things might be easier without her.”
“There's some logic to that.” Spike agreed. “Well we'll just have to wait and see.”
“Till then,” Discord handed Spike a controller with a joystick and button on top. “Let's have some fun!”
Around 5'o'clock that evening, the front door of the castle opened and slammed shut, drawing the attention of the two friends from their eighty fifth attempt at the fifty second level of 'Combined Comic Hero Beat Down Volume 2'. They paused the game and waited for the slow clopping of hoof on crystal to make their way up to where they sat in Twilight's research room. Twilight opened the door, still in her peach pony disguise.
“Hi boys.” She sighed wearily.
Discord and Spike looked to each other, not sure how to open the conversation. Twilight looked more exhausted than she'd ever been before, and that includes the time she saved Canterlot for the Changelings.
“How was your day?” Spike asked.
Twilight smiled. “Awesome.”
Both friends blinked. “Really?” Discord asked. “It wasn't bad?”
Twilight shrugged. “When I saw how crazy things were, I just went with it. I didn't try and control things. Organize? Sure, but other than that, I just worked hard and it was pretty cool to see how a team of ponies who didn't know much about each other could work together because they all had the same basic knowledge of the job.”
Discord blinked, and then put a lion paw to his chin. “I feel like there's a moral in here somewhere. Almost sounds like inspiration for a My Little Pony TV show or something”
Twilight giggled. “It was actually fun. A bit frustrating at times, but once I got the rhythm, it wasn't bad. Anyways, if you two don't mind, I'm going to take a shower, then take a nap.” She gave a long yawn. “I need it.” Discord and Spike nodded, starting to make their way out. “Oh, and leave your bets on the desk.” Twilight winked. “After all, you both lost, and I can use twenty bits.”
