Chapter 1
Nightly was pulling the load out from the backroom alone again. He was always the only one other than Gem to get there on time. Gem was Liquor though and was too busy to help out. So, he just grabbed the pallet jack in his teeth and pulled it out to the back section of the store. It was a familiar ritual that he took comfort in. It was alone time, just him and his thoughts.
Which… were interrupted by the overhead speaker system crackling to life. “All Night Crew members, to the front.” Well, the day had come, Sharp Mind had quit after all. His soft unicorn body was just not up to the work. Now this was his replacement, being formally introduced to the crew. He remembered how embarrassing it was when he had gone through it and so resolved to go easy on the newbie.
He got to the front and sure enough, there was all the Crew there. Could not be bothered to help bring the load out, but seeing the new pony, that could get them moving. There was “Spacey” the village idiot. Buzz Cut, tough and steadfast to the point of being hard headed. Rough Gem, A piece of work that one, Nightly suspected she wouldn’t be so bad if she got laid. Frigid Winds, the Griffon, enough said. Then right in front was Clip board their manager holding his namesake Clip Board. He looked impatient.
“Good to see you could finally make it, Nightly.” Clip Board was just being snarky.
“Had to drop the pallet I was lifting over my head, of course.” Tit for tat, sarcasm was Clip’s reward from Nightly.
“Alright everypony listen up! We have a new member joining our little group tonight. She’s going to be taking over for Sharp Mind. Which means Spacey is now promoted to grocery. Sorry Nightly I would have given it to you, but I need you as switch, you just simply are the best for being an all around.” Nightly sighed and nodded. Clip Board continued. “So, without further ado, please welcome Starry Night to our team!” A Dark purple pegasus mare stepped out from the office behind Clip Board her head was facing down, but there was a half hearted applause from the gathered ponies.
Clip Board spoke up again. “Same drill as last time. Since you’re all here, you all do your usual stuff except Nightly, you’re going to be chaperon for Starry Night. Teach her the GM Clerk job. Make sure everyone finishes on time.” He said to Nightly. He turned to the rest however. “Tonight’s load isn’t big, but don’t milk it. I want some of the back stock done.” He gave a curt nod to the general groan of everyone gathered. Everyone save the newbie, she just looked lost.
Everyone dispersed leaving just Starry Night and Nightly. “Well, Welcome aboard noob. I’m Midnight Dream, but everyone calls me Nightly. Let’s get you helping out around here hrm?” He led her to where he left the pallets. They were neatly arranged at the ends of each aisle four in total.
“This,” Nightly waved a hoof at the stacks of stock. “Is the stuff of broken dreams.” Starry night gave a whimper. She was quite the quiet one. “Whoa, sorry I exaggerated. It’s not so bad…”
There was a loud. “Ha!” From Buzz Cut who was already taking boxes off the pallets and arranging them by aisle.
“Well, in any case look. This is step one. See these monstrous stacks of crap?” Starry looked up at the pallets it was just a pile of boxes wrapped in cellophane. “We need to break this down into smaller, more manageable stacks of crap. Good news is that I am here to tell you where things go. Bad news is that all this is mixed up.” He smiled. It looked a little wary.
The next forty-five minutes were tedious unstacking and restacking of boxes. Nightly was constantly telling Starry what to put where and the poor mare was just completely confused. When it was finally all done, Nightly smiled to an obviously exhausted Starry Night.
“Okay, now… We take them to the Aisles!” He said with exaggerated enthusiasm at the expense of Starry Night. She hadn’t said one word the whole time he has seen her. It was starting to irritate him. This little show of meanness was just a small way of getting back at her.
“Oh don’t worry, we get our first break in an hour dear. Then you can rest.” He laughed and grabbed a two-wheeled dolly in his mouth and expertly scooped up a stack of boxes and brought them to the correct area. When he came back, he found Starry Night struggling to get her first stack of boxes on the Dolly. She was just trying to push it under it and was about to knock the whole thing over.
“No, no. Let me show you a trick.” Nightly went to the stack next to Starry’s “Tilt the Dolly back and scoop it.” He brought the wheels of the dolly off the ground and quickly pushed the blade of the dolly under the stack while tilting changing the tilt from front to back. It was a literal scoop, but it worked.
Starry Night tried the same thing but pushed too hard at first and the whole thing fell over.
“Hahahaha. Well, you’ll get it in time.” He picked up the stack and the three it knocked over.
After that little incident, Starry managed to get a few of the stacks to where she thought they belonged. She later found them moved a bit, by Nightly of course. The whole process was faster than breaking it down but it still left them with a half hour until the first break.
“So this begins the meat of the job. Step three, we open the boxes and put them on the shelves like good little robots.” He ripped open a box with his teeth. It was a swift motion that alluded to a much-practiced skill. He had a box cutter hanging around his neck on a string. It was worn with bite marks. If this was a box that didn’t need it, then how tough were the ones that did?
Starry was struggling to get open a similar box. It was a soap product and was therefore was one of their smaller boxes. Nightly had already gotten the product up in four swift hoof motions, it looked so easy. Starry finally got the box open with a grunt. She tried to grab many at a time like he did, but they all slipped out of her hooves. “Just focus on doing it for now. The tricks and fancy stuff will come later.” Nightly said he had already gotten three boxes of soaps on the shelf. It was just the beginning of the night and already the trend had been obvious.
Nightly was done quickly with his side of the aisle and was already working through Starry’s side. They met half way through it and without speaking, went to the next aisle. The part Nightly forgot to mention was he was setting things up so he did the harder stuff. This way he figured it would go faster. All she had to do was learn what aisles to do and what the steps were. “Okay if you haven’t figured it out yet.” He started suddenly. “We pick up the discarded cardboard after we’re done with throwing the stock.” The aisles they hit and the one they were in were littered with empty boxes. Nightly’s looking professional and neat all broken down and in neat stacks, while Starry’s looked like a wild animal had attack them.
Starry’s face fell, but the silence from the mare persisted. “It’ll get easier with time. They won’t expect you to be any good until at least after your first week.” Said Nightly trying to reassure her, it didn’t work.
“Well I guess since that’s the last of your Aisle’s we should get a bin for the cardboard and get it off the floor.” He said with a stupid grin.
They walked back to the back room. Buzz Cut was there he was placing a bin on top of an empty pallet and using a jack to pull it along, Nightly, however just grabbed an empty bin in his teeth. They were cardboard and folded up. They appeared to be repurposed from pumpkin displays, they even still had the decorative print on them. They seemed more than fit for the new purpose. Starry just followed Nightly and assisted him in throwing the scrap cardboard in the bin. By the end of it, it took the both of them to push it. Nightly breaking down all his boxes made it so they could fit a lot in a bin, efficient, if a little strenuous at the end.
They took a small break in the middle of that but now was the time for the long thirty-minute break. Starry sat awkwardly in from of Nightly who was staring at her intently. They had seated themselves at a table outside. The cool air cooling down their bodies a little too well, Starry shivered a bit. Nightly took this as a sign. “So, you either don’t talk much, or don’t think too highly of me. Look, I might be the next step up the ladder from you, but if anything you’d be promoted first.” Nightly said frankly in a flat irritated voice.
“Um… no.” She finally said quietly, almost a whisper.
“Well, is it that you have something like a phobia of other ponies then?” His tone was still irate, and he was still staring at her face.
“…No…” There was a long pause before she seemed to work up the courage to say anything.
“You must realize, even in this job where you’re going to be alone most of the time, that you will have to talk to the rest of us sometime right?” He sighed and shook his head.
“Yes…” Starry still seemed hesitant to talk at all.
He got up and just as Starry was about to follow him like a lost puppy again he waved a hoof and said. “Stay here I’ll be right back.”
He left her alone outside and was back in about 10 minutes. “Um… Our break is over in a few…”
“No, we’re off. I talked to the guys and we got what we needed to do much quicker than they thought we could do it.
So, they can handle the rest.” Nightly interrupted.
Starry was about to say something else. “Don’t worry about your hours.” He dropped a hundred bits on the table. “That’s more than you would have made tonight, so you won’t need to worry about missing the time and look, you don’t even have to wait until pay day.”
She gave him an odd look. “Why are you doing this?” She asked quietly.
“We need to talk before you ruin your chances of staying here.” He signaled her to follow him.
“Look,” Nightly started. “I was told about you. You asked for a night job specifically. You asked for this!” He waved a hoof at the darkened front of the store. “All of those people in that building are here because they screwed up. This job is punishment, and you wanted to do this? So, I am going to take you out and talk.” He lifted off but waited patiently for Starry to do the same.
Starry followed him to a small diner It was the only thing with its lights on. The sign said, “Feed bag” it looked… old.
Nightly lead her inside. At least it was warm, even if all the seats were obviously worn. He took a corner booth. “Sit down, there are some things you need to be aware of.”