//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Another Day on the Job // Story: Forbidden Flowers // by Dragonqueen5900 //------------------------------// It’s been a whole year since the unimaginable happened. Since the changelings pushed Equestria to the brink, and forced their surrender. Since her life changed irreparably and forever. Orchid writes down another customer’s order. She works at a café as a barista, and has done so ever since the changelings came along. She used to work at a floral shop before the war, something she loved doing, but the necessity of wartime forced her to take up employment at a military factory, making ration kits for the soldiers on the front. The war ended of course, and the florist closed, so she had to find somewhere else to make a living. “Stupid changelings, ruining everything.” She pours some expresso into a paper cup, followed by milk and cream. As much as she wishes she could say things like that to somepony, she knows she can’t. The changelings are always watching, and many of them take any excuse to be cruel to ponies like her. It all just makes her incredibly frustrated, and most of all scared. She’s thought about doing something about it before, such as joining the rebellion, but she knows she’s just a regular earthpony, and no fighter. All she knows how to do is keep her head down, do her job, and try to live her life, even under changeling occupation. She places the lid on the cup, and puts it on a tray, which she picks up with her mouth to bring to her customer. “Here you are ma’am.” She says after placing the tray down in front of a pegasus. She smiles and thanks her, and afterward she walks back behind the counter and plops down in a chair. The morning coffee rush is always exhausting, especially because she has to work with Sun Lily. Her coworker is currently at the register, awaiting any customers. Orchid knows she’s not a bad pony or anything, she’s just annoying and very bad at her job. She also knows her boss keeps her around just because she’s pretty and good with the customers, but he’s not the one that has to redo an order every time she messes one up. She sighs, leaning her head back against the wall. “Only 8 more hours before I can go home.” Mercifully there are no customers coming in right now, allowing a space where she can breathe a little, though her current train of thought doesn’t exactly help her relax. “Perhaps I should think about something else… Let’s see… Sky Scraper’s birthday is coming up soon, I should probably get him something. What does he like again? Rocks? Maybe I should find a fancy rock for him or something.” The bell on the door jingles, ending her moment of respite. She looks over to see who came in and freezes up. “Shit, it’s those two officers again!” Or at least she’s pretty sure they’re the same ones. It is hard to tell changelings apart from looks, but she recognizes the voices. They’ve come in nearly every day the last week, and it freaks her out every time. She was sure at first that they were here because the café was in trouble for some reason, but they really just seem to want their morning coffee. It would be more reassuring if she could actually hear what they talk about, but they always speak in Herzlander with each other. She sighs again, bringing her hooves back to the ground as Sun Lily takes their order. She overhears what they say and starts making it immediately, not willing to take the risk of giving Heer officers sub-par service. Sun Lily turns around to fulfill the order, but seeing that Orchid already has it nearly finished, the unicorn just smiles and returns to the register. Orchid rolls her eyes, and picks up the tray, bringing it over to the table the changelings chose to sit at. She sets it down carefully, and backs away, nodding respectfully. The one with blue eyes thanks her, while the other one scoffs. She quickly trots back over to behind the counter, not wanting to spend any more time near them. “That one always thanks me…” She thinks back to every time a changeling has ever come into the café, and as far as she can remember the blue-eyed officer is the only one that ever actually thanks her like a pony would. “It’s too strange to not be a ploy of some kind. Changelings are known for deception and trickery after all. She must be trying something.” She watches them out of the corner of her eye for the rest of the time they are in the café, and occasionally she thinks she sees the blue-eyed one look back at her. It makes her nervous. She continues doing her job like normal until they leave, and finally she can breathe a sigh of relief. “I know they’ll probably be back tomorrow, but at least I’m safe for today.” “You were looking at those officers an awful lot, something the matter?” Sun Lily says in that annoying voice of hers. If even she picked it up, then the changeling must have. Orchid tries to cover up the situation before Sun Lily gets any ideas. “Just making sure that they are enjoying themselves. Don’t want them to have a bad time here, now do we?” Sun Lily clearly doesn’t pick up on her tone. “I thought you didn’t like changelings.” At that, Orchid quickly shushes her, and looks around to make sure there isn’t anypony too close. All the customers in here right now look like ponies, but you never know with changelings. She looks back to Sun Lily and whispers. “You’re right, I don’t. But please don’t say things like that in public. You’re going to get me in trouble one of these days.” Sun Lily looks genuinely apologetic, and it makes her feel kind of bad for being harsh on her. “I’m sorry Orchid. I know you have problems with them. I just have a hard time understanding it sometimes. I find them kinda pretty, actually.” “Of course she does.” She speaks in an even quieter voice to make sure that only Sun Lily can hear her. “They’d be pretty if they weren’t militarily occupying us and treating us like servants!” She puts her hoof over her face and sighs. “Listen, just… be careful around them, okay? I know we may have our differences, but I don’t want you getting hurt.” She doesn’t seem to fully understand, but she nods. Orchid takes that as the best she can probably get, and returns to work. The pair continue their job for the rest of their shift, speaking every now and then but overall being much quieter than usual. Orchid feels a bit guilty for saying all that to Sun Lily, but she knows that they were things she needed to hear. Eventually, the sun lowers in the sky, and her shift finally ends. She puts her apron up on a hook and grabs her saddlebag, throwing it onto her back. Sun Lily is staying behind for a bit to clean up and wait for the evening shift to arrive, which Orchid is technically supposed to be helping with, but she’s been leaving as soon as her shift ends for months and Sun Lily hasn’t really cared, so she feels it is okay. She pushes the door open and begins her trek back home. She steps out onto the sidewalk, walking alongside the shops and stores of Portside. Many of them are boarded up, having had to close for one reason or another. Orchid watches as a car drives past her. “This place used to be a lot busier…” She keeps moving forward. Eventually a sign catches her eye, and she looks up towards it. It reads ‘Portside Tavern’. She and her friends sometimes meet up here to get drinks and generally hang out. Orchid stops to think about it for a moment, before deciding. “Maybe just one drink.” She pulls the door open and walks into the bar. The inside is fairly spacious for a pony bar in lower Bronclyn, with several booth seats around the walls, a small stage for the occasional performance, and of course the bar table off to the far left. Music is playing on the radio, a rerun of some concert from downtown, filling the otherwise slow environment with some more life. Only a few ponies are sitting around the tavern, eating food and drinking with their friends, leading to a much quieter atmosphere than she’s used to here, but she supposes that the bar rush hasn’t hit yet. She’s somewhat thankful for that, means she can drink in peace. She trots up to the counter and addresses the bartender. “Hey Bluestar, how’s work today?” She’s been here enough times to know them pretty well. Bluestar smiles warmly at her, their horn lighting up with a purple aura as a glass floats down off the shelf. “Good to see you, Orchid. It’s been a pretty slow day today, so not bad. How about yourself? You look a tired, something been happening at work.” “Intuitive as ever.” Orchid reflects on all the times that Bluestar has helped her out before; they’re really a pillar of the pony community here. “Yeah, work hasn’t been great recently.” She sits down on one of the bar stools, pulling her front legs up onto the counter and resting her head on top of them. They continue smiling at her sympathetically. “I’m very sorry to hear that. I know that work can be tough for anypony, especially with the Cutie Mark system long gone, and the occupation.” They pause, then continue. “Just try to keep your head up, okay? Doesn’t do yourself no good to only look at the bad.” Orchid smiles. “Thanks for that. I’ll try my best.” Bluestar nods. “Now can I get you something? I assume you didn’t just come here for reassurance.” “Yeah. Could I just get a beer. Something light?” “Of course. We have some on tap tonight.” They go over to the other side of the counter and start filling her drink. She is resting her head when she hears a familiar pair of voices coming in through the door. She turns around to see none other than two of her best friends, Marble Mark and Sky Scraper. The grey and aqua colored stallions are joking with each other like usual as they walk up towards the counter. After a moment they seem to spot her too, and Marble Mark waves at her. “Hey! Orchid! Long time no see!” Her day suddenly gets a lot better. “Hey! What are you two doing here on a weekday?” Marble Mark wraps his front leg around Sky Scraper and pulls him close. “Well as you know, Sky here’s birthday is coming up in a few days, so I figured I’d buy him a drink or two to celebrate early since I’m going to be ‘out of town’ then.” Sky Scraper pushes Marble’s leg off, nodding. “And what about you Orchid? What’re you doing here on a weekday.” He says, joking intent clear as day despite his serious-looking face. She looks back towards the beer that has been placed in front of her. “Oh me? I’m just getting a drink before I go home. Work’s been really stressful recently.” Marble nods. “Oh I hear ya there.” Sky nods as well, and then gestures towards one of the booths, smiling. “Hey, since you’re here, why don’t you join us Orchid?” She thinks for a second to make sure she has the time. “Sure, don’t got anything better to do.” Orchid and Sky Scraper go over and find seats at a nearby booth while Marble Marks head to the counter to get drinks for the two of them. She brings her own drink with her, and starts up some conversation once she sits down. “Sorry I don’t have anything for your birthday. I was thinking about getting you something for your collection, but haven’t had the time yet.” “Oh don’t worry about that. I’m just happy that you guys are here with me. Work’s been stressful for me too.” He looks almost forlorn thinking about it. Orchid looks at him with concern. “Do you want to talk about it?” The aqua-colored pegasus shakes his head. “Maybe later. I’d like to have a few drinks in me first.” “That’s alright by me.” Marble Returns carrying two brimming glass mugs in his maroon-colored magic, placing them down in front of Sky Scraper and himself. “There we go!” He slides into the seat next to Sky, and raises his glass. “A toast! To our good friend Sky Scraper for managing to live 25 whole years!” Orchid picks up her beer with her hoof, and Sky does the same with his wing. They clink their mugs together, and all take a hearty swig. “Thank you guys for being my friends these past few years.” Sky says, looking the happiest she’s seen him in months. “It means a lot to me.” Orchid smiles at him. “Of course! I’m glad to be friends with you too.” While they’re all friends now, they used to just be coworkers at the ration factory during the war, where they met each other. Marble was a teamster, and even now he continues that work in a way. Sky was just another line worker like she was, and then there was Blueberry, their manager. “Oh speaking of Blueberry…” “Was Blueberry going to come with you?” she asks. Marble shakes his head. “No, it was just going to be me and Sky. I figured that you and her would be there for his actual birthday. I’m just celebrating with him early because I’m not going to be here for it.” Orchid raises her brow in curiosity. She knows what he does of course, but out of necessity she can’t know all the details. Still, she decides to try her luck to see what she can get out of him. “What’re you doing this time?” He puffs his chest up proudly. “I’m going to be helping smuggle some ponies out of the country. It’s hard to get past those damned U-boats, but we’ll be pretending to be just a regular transport vessel.” “That all sounds very exciting.” She looks impressed for him, because she knows he appreciates it, but she can’t help thinking about how it could go wrong. “It sounds really dangerous too. What if they catch you?” She looks to Sky to see if he’ll help with the situation, and when she notices that he doesn’t seem to be paying attention, she feels it is left to her to try to talk some caution into Marble. She quiets her voice in case of eavesdroppers, gesturing her hooves for him to do the same, and says “Just remember to be careful out there Marble. I know that you’re a big rebellion hero and all, but that just means if the changelings catch you, it’ll be bad. Really bad.” He furrows his brows, but thankfully follows her gestures and quiets his voice too, though he still speaks with some contention. “I’m well aware of the danger Orchid. But I wouldn’t have joined if I wasn’t ready to handle it.” She sighs, peering down into the soft bubbling of her drink. “I now. I know you’ll be careful, I just get worried about you sometimes.” “Well don’t be. Nothing will happen; the bugs are stupid as all Tartarus. They won’t catch us.” “If they were so stupid then how did they win?” She finds herself staring at him off and on while the three sip their drinks in silence for a moment. Eventually Sky breaks the ice and starts talking about less worrying subjects like the latest hoofball game or the new project he’s been working on. He works as a carpenter, and has apparently been helping renovate a fancy house in the upper city for some wealthy changeling. He speaks about how nice the neighborhood is, and how it’s a shame only changelings can live there now, as well as the differences between various types of wood, for which Orchid could not care less. Later in the night, after a few drinks, he even opens up about what happened earlier today. A mis-balanced support beam collapsed during construction of an extension to the house, which crushed the hind leg of a coworker of his. Sky seems really freaked out having to recall the injury, and he notes that his boss was not happy about losing a worker, and made everypony else pick up the slack. Orchid notices his distress at the memory, and tries to turn the conversation towards her work instead, which would hopefully be less stressful for him. “…so as you probably could guess, Sun Lily is useless as ever. I almost feel bad for her sometimes.” Marble shakes his head in mock disappointment, slamming his newly emptied mug into the table. “How dare you feel bad for that incompetent bitch! I bet she even likes the changelings that come by!” She looks a bit remorseful at that remark. “Hey I wouldn’t go that fa…” Then she remembers what Sun Lily had told her earlier today. “I guess she did say she thought changelings were pretty earlier…” He shakes his head again, and at this point Orchid is unsure whether he is joking or not. “See? I knew I had a bad feeling about her. Traitor on top of being lazy.” Orchid finds herself getting a little defensive of her coworker, something she did not see herself ever doing. “She’s not all that bad. She’s just…” She pauses for a second to think about her next works. “A little naïve I guess. She doesn’t even notice when somepony is hitting on her let alone noticing how dangerous the changelings really are.” Marble opens his mouth to speak, his face contorting in what appears to be anger, but Sky comes to the rescue and interrupts. “Enough about Sun Lily. Anything else been happening at work Orchid?” It doesn’t take her long to think of something. “Well, there have been these two Heer officers that have been coming in the morning everyday recently. They’ve been really freaking me out.” Sky looks concerned, and Marble’s anger immediately, and surprisingly, turns into something much more pensive. Sky manages to speak first. “Have they been doing anything worrying?” “No, odd as it is. They just order coffee like everypony else, talk for a bit, and then leave.” “Do you know what ranks they are? Were you able to get a look at their badges?” Marble asks. Orchid arches her eyebrow in confusion. “Um, no. Maybe? They had little chevrons on them I think? I don’t really remember.” Marble seems to be thinking something through after her answer, which makes her even more confused and even somewhat worried. After a moment he asks another question. “Did you ever overhear them talking?” She shakes her head. “They always speak in Herzlander from what I can tell. I can’t understand a word. Though I know they speak Equestrian pretty well. They barely even have an accent.” “Hmm…” Marble puts his hoof on his chin in thought, while Sky just watches the two of them in puzzlement and mild concern. Orchid can’t help but find herself worried about what Marble has to say. “I know You’re a bit of a rebellion firebrand, and that whatever you’re thinking probably isn’t good for the changelings, but still… what are you getting at Marble?” At last, he speaks, putting her ponderance to rest. “I have an idea, and I need to know if you are on board with it.” He looks strangely serious, and it frightens her a bit. “Um… what is it?” “I would like you to see if you can get some information out of them. The officers I mean. Anything you could find would be of serious help to the rebellion.” She quickly stands up and pounds her hooves on the table, nearly knocking over her drink. “He said it so casually for how big of an ask it is, what the fuck is he thinking?!” There is some anger in her voice, and she stutters as she starts to speak. “Y-you can’t be serious, right? You want me to talk intel out of them?” He nods calmly, seemingly uncaring of her sharp reaction to the proposal. “I know it is quite a lot to ask of you, but you’ve been provided with a unique opportunity to aid the rebellion against the changelings.” Orchid looks dumbfounded by his nonchalance. “You know how I feel about working for the rebellion Marble.” She waves her hoof into the air for emphasis. “I make coffee for Celestia’s sake! I’m not rebel material.” He just looks at her knowingly. “I know how much you hate the changelings Orchid. I also know the only thing keeping you from the rebellion is self-doubt. I’m not asking you to join us permanently, but at least be brave enough to help with this?” Clearly seeing her emotions spiking, Sky tries to interject. “Stop it, Marble. She clearly doesn’t want to. Don’t pressure her like that.” Marble just shakes his head in response. “Whether she wants to or not, we could really use the help. I’m not asking for an answer right now, but could you at least think about it?” He gives her one of those hopeful faces that he knows she has trouble resisting. She plops herself back onto her seat and sighs heavily before speaking. “I’ll try… I’ll think about it. I know this means a lot to you. Just… give me some time, okay?” He nods, and Sky leans into his seat looking somewhat exasperated. Orchid finds herself doing the same. “Fuck… am I really going to consider this? There’s no way I can do this. If I get caught…” She decides that now would be a good time to make her exit. She slides out of the booth and stands up, grabbing her saddlebag as she does and slinging it over her back. “Sorry, I just realized how late it is and I have work tomorrow. Goodnight.” She turns to leave before remembering. “Oh, and happy early birthday Sky.” “Thanks. Take care of yourself.” She walks away without answering. She pushes open the door and starts down the street towards her house. The walk isn’t long, the tavern is basically just up the street from where she lives, but it feels like a much more arduous journey than it should be. Practically every step seems like a conscious effort, and she suddenly feels like every passerby is watching her. Inevitably her mind dwindles back to the conversation with Marble, but she quickly shakes her head to clear her thoughts. “If I allow myself to think about it I might accidentally say something and somepony… or someling might overhear! No, just hold out Orchid, you’re almost home.” At last, she arrives at her building, a humble five-story brick apartment in the poorer part of Portside. The changelings may have taken a lot of the nicer homes in the area, but she already lived down here, so they never took her home, yet. She sighs, and opens the door, stepping into the entryway. The walls are covered in a slightly ripped, dark-green wallpaper, and there is an old red carpet leading up the creaky stairway. The smell of dust and ageing wood fills the stale air, a scent she is quite used to. She ascends carefully to the third floor, making sure to avoid the faulty step on the second flight. “Pretty sure that one is going to hurt somepony eventually. Maybe I should see if I can get Sky Scraper to fix it. In the meantime at least everypony living here is already aware of it.” She arrives at her door, labeled ‘#302’ in brass numbers. The brown paint is chipping off it, and the doorknob has seen better days, but it hasn’t broken yet, and she hopes it stays that way. She twists the knob with her hoof and pushes the door open, revealing the living room of her apartment. The furniture is old but well taken care of, and the tan wallpaper is holding up pretty well. Orchid normally likes to keep her apartment cleanly, but lately she’s too stressed to put in the effort, so there are some dirty dishes on the coffee table and dust accumulating in the corners. She closes the door behind her and trots right over to the flower-patterned couch, practically falling down on top of it. She absently takes off her saddlebag and drops it onto the floor besides her. “Aughhh… why can things not just be normal like they used to.” She says to nopony in particular. Orchid rolls over so that her face is directed up towards the ceiling. At last, she allows herself to think about Marble’s request. “Trying to get information out of a changeling officer huh?” She has to admit that she sees the logic here. She’s the only pony who has an alibi to regularly interact with them to her knowledge, well, besides Sun Lily, but even still, she has difficulty thinking of herself as a secret rebel against the Hegemony, her not wanting to aside. “That jerk… why would he ask something like this of me? And after I said I was stressed already…” She groans and puts her hooves over her muzzle. She lays there, mulling it over in her head for what seems like hours. Fatigue begins to creep at her vision, and she knows she’ll fall asleep on the couch if she doesn’t move to her bed soon. She pushes herself to get up, and slowly meanders over to her bedroom, stepping through the open door. She quickly changes into her night clothes before laying down in her bed. Pulling her soft patch quilts over herself, she removes her glasses and turns to place them on her nightside table, but instead her gaze is inexplicably drawn to the side. Placed between her lamp and her clock is a framed picture of her and a uniformed stallion standing next to each other, her front leg wrapped over his shoulders, both of them smiling. She winces, and pulls the lamp string, plunging the room into total darkness, save the glow of the streetlight permeating through her window drapes. She tightly closes her eyes, and pulls the covers up close. “Fine Marble. Have it your way.”