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While Applebloom made her energetic sales pitch for letting Stone Mane come and stay with the Apple family;

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I was wondering why a particular member of Scratch's crew seemed to be unhappy with me in my Equestria dreamscape.

One of the perks of being a special guests or part of Scratch's crew was that drinks were on the house. So after a very hot afternoon of working in Steel Strut's workshop

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with the ponies in charge of cloud special effects I found myself particularly parched. As the afternoon turned to early evening I pulled up to the outside bar on the back veranda of the mansion. Finding an available rattan stool I plopped my haunches down and got the attention of the two bartenders who were starting to take the first orders of the evening. They were a part of the full-time staff at the Silver Mirror estate. Starting at 10am and until 2am and day of the week you could saunter up to the bar and get yourself an expertly mixed drink. Either from the veranda bar when the weather permitted, or from the bar located inside.

So after a minute or so I had a tall glass of chilled lemonade and an Old Fashioned to keep me company. Under a nearby gazebo several musicians were starting to play. The sound of steel drums began to drift across the grounds of the estate.

As the evening progressed more and more ponies, zebras, and griffins began to congregate around the bar. Nearby an outdoor fire pit had been lit. Soon the aroma roasting ears of corn could be smelled. A minute or so later skewers with shrimp, pineapple pieces, chunks sweet onion, and pieces of peppers went on the grill as well. After couple of minutes the cook staff started basting the skewers and corn with melted garlic butter. From the house kitchen baskets of fresh, warm Poola-pi bread were brought out as well. In a few minutes dinner would ready. For dessert freshly made vanilla ice cream and selection of chilled, sliced fruit were being laid out. It smelled great.

I was thinking about going and getting some food when a small, female griffin with brilliant scarlet-tipped wings came trotting up and grabbed a stool on my left. Raising one of her yellow-orange scaled taloned hand/paws and flagged down a bartender.

"Gin Gimlet please!" The newcomer put in her order. The unicorn stallion nodded his head and went to work.

The newcomer looked over at me. "Hey there! You must be one of the newcomers who came in last night from Ponyville." She extended her right front paw. Let me guess you're Sky Brush?"

I extended a front hoof and accepted her shake. "Yes. That would be me, and you are..'"

"Scarlet Tips." Said the griffin as bartender delivered her drink. She paused and took a moment to take a long sip of her drink. With that accomplished she resumed speaking. "You're the cloud sculpting expert that Scratch brought in aren't you?"

I finished my glass of lemonade and passed the empty glass to bartender. "Wwwweeellll. I don't know if I'm an expert, but I know a thing or two about it."

Scarlet Tips grabbed a paw full of chile-lime cashews and started munching on them. "Whatever you are. Munch, munch. You're obviously good enough that Scratch. Crunch, crunch. Was willing to pay your way down here to Ft. Trotterdale. So how did your first day with the crew go?"

I found the griffins line of inquiry to be oddly specific. "Well. It went about as good as could be expected for a first day on the job. I, uh met most of the crew in charge of special effects, and I met Steel Strut today. She seems like she's got some really big plans for the future."

The griffin nodded her head and glanced over. Sitting at a table about 20ft away the earth pony I'd been talking about was in a very animated conversation with a couple of unicorn mares. Steel Strut had a bottle of chilled beer in one hoof; with her other hoof she was vigorously working an abacus as she was apparently calculating something. In her mouth was a pencil that she rolling back and forth with her lips. A small, tattered notebook laid open on the table. After a couple of seconds she finished whatever she'd been calculating was done. She picked up the notebook with her free hoof the jotted down some notes on it. She set the notebook down, pulled the pencil from her mouth, and took a long chug of beer. Then she spoke to the two mares at the table. This resulted in another series of further questions from the unicorns.

"How about the members of the team?" The griffin took a sip of her drink but her eyes never left me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "About as good as could be expected. Some of them seem to like me. Others, less so."

The griffin sighed. "Let me guess. A particular pegasus mare with zebra stripes was less than friendly?"

I took a very long sip and stared intently at Scarlet Tip. "Yes. She never said anything to me, but I definitely got the feeling that she didn't want me there."

The griffin sighed. Rolled her eyes to the heavens in frustration. "That's Keyboard. She's also my marefriend, and she's in charge of cloud and steam effects."

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I stared down at my drink. "So did she tell you that she was unimpressed with my performance today?"

Scarlet Tips ruffled her feathers. "No. She told me she was rather surprised by your impromptu demonstration. That's why she was unhappy with you."

I finished my drink and ordered another one. "What? I don't get it?"

The griffin held up a paw. "You did nothing wrong Sky Brush. You're doing exactly what Scratch has asked you to do." She paused and downed her drink. "Keyboard is excellent at what she does, but she's very insecure with her position in Scratch's troupe. This is her first, breakthrough job for her in the entertainment industry. So she desperately wants this to succeed for her."

"It's irrational, but she's afraid that you're going to take her job away. I told her that wasn't going to happen if she continued to do her job, but she can't shake her doubts."

My new drink arrived and I played with it for a moment. Slowly shifting it back an forth between my front hooves. " I hope that you and her understand that I'm going to do my job. Scratch hired me for this, and I plan to uphold my part of the bargain. But it would be nice if we could work together as a team. Do you think you could persuade her to talk to me. Maybe if I can tell her face to face it might help put her at ease."

Scarlet Tips shrugged and slowly shook her head. "I'll tell her. Maybe she'll go for it. May I suggest that I be there as well. I seem to put her more at ease when she's like this."

I nodded my head. "Sure. Anything that can help work this out I'll take it."

The griffin patted me on the wing. "Remember. So far you've done nothing wrong. I'll see what I can do. Enjoy your drink." Then she got up and wandered off. I sat there and continued to stare at my drink.

To be continued.

Upvotes at import: 104 | Stars at import: 58
Posted previously at: 2020-09-02T19:47:50 | Posted previously by: dontebell