After a few seconds you settled on going along with Vinyl’s plan - you figured although it wasn’t exactly Twilight Sparkle, you would be getting paid for doing it, and there was a possibility you could still go and be Twilight’s assistant if it didn’t work out. Perhaps you could send her a scroll asking if your starting date could be delayed?
“Sure!”
The mare grinned. “I knew you’d go with the smart choice! This is gonna be great!”
She looked around, realizing there wasn’t really anybody gathered around her stall anyway, and packed her stuff up.
“Just follow me. I’ll tell her I found you in town... just do... cleaner-y things, okay?”
You weren’t exactly sure what that meant, but it was probably easy enough. You’d always had a knack at cleaning and washing up, so it wouldn’t be anything too difficult.
“How will we split the money?” You ask, hoping it’s not too forward.
“50/50! I’m a fair pony! Octavia has a bunch of money saved up so she won’t mind parting with some of it.”
The two of you arrived at the mare’s shared home, and Vinyl gave you a quick glance before knocking on the door, as if reminding you to stick to the plan she had outlined not ten minutes ago.
The door opened, a brown, neatly-dressed mare peering round sluggishly.
“Forgot your key again, Vinyl?”
“That doesn’t matter. I found someone! A cleaner!”
The neater mare, Octavia, looked round, as if she hadn’t even noticed you were there.
“Oh! Hello! Sorry, I’m rather tired. Do come in.”
You put on a warm face and entered the home. Vinyl immediately headed towards the sofa and crashed out, dropping her box of junk down onto the floor.
“I’ve been asking Vinyl to find a cleaner for some time now - as you can see, this place needs desperate attention. I don’t have the time to clean up, and Vinyl doesn’t have the... stamina, shall we say?”
The house didn’t look particularly messy so far, apart from a few empty bottles and food wrappers left out on the coffee table.
“Well - it’s mostly her room.” Octavia gestured her eyes towards Vinyl and then back at you.
“Oh, it’s not that bad!”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “So, what’s your experience?”
You stammered for a second. “Uh... I did some cleaning jobs in Canterlot.”
“Ooh! I’m there often - it’s such a nice town, isn’t it?”
“Y-Yeah!”
“You must be rather skilled at cleaning in that case! Are you able to start immediately?”
“Sure!”
“And does 200 bits seem to be a reasonable fee?”
“A week?”
“No, a day.”
200 bits a day!? You noticed Vinyl look up in alarm, the smile on her face growing even bigger.
“That sounds... adequate.”
This mare really did have a lot of money. You wondered why she was still sharing a house and didn’t just buy one of her own.
“Oh, perfect! Well, if you’d like to get started on Vinyl’s room. I just need to pop into town to grab something for dinner.”
Before leaving she leans in and whispers to you; “Keep an eye on her.”
With that, she leaves you and Vinyl alone.
“Yes! It worked! I knew Tavi was loaded but 200 a day!?”
It would be nice having some money. As long as you let Twilight delay your starting date, there’s no reason why this can’t work out rather nicely.
However, you remember that you need to actually clean up Vinyl’s room.
As you pry open her door and step inside, it’s immediately apparent that Octavia wasn’t at all exaggerating; the place is a pig sty.
Dirty laundry and empty food wrappers are strewn carelessly across the floor, so much so that you can barely see the surface of the floor itself. The bed sheets are stained and randomly scrunched up over the mattress.
It’s hard to imagine a single pony could let their room get to such a state, but considering you’re getting paid, you grin and bear it and get to work.
It’s laborious work, and even after twenty minutes you’ve hardly made a dent in the clutter. You’re roused by a knock at the door, peering into the lounge and noticing Vinyl has her headphones on, lounging lazily on the sofa with one arm draped over the side.
You start to wonder why she’s even getting 50% of the take, but it doesn’t look like she’s going to even hear the door, and you go to answer it yourself.
“Uhh... food delivery?”
Noticing the door’s open, Vinyl finally looks round and pulls her headphones off.
“Hey! My burritos are here!” She pushes past you and grabs the paper bag.
“You can cover the cost, right?”
You grumble under your breath and gather every bit you have on you, handing them over and closing the door.
This mare is really starting to get on your nerves; you agreed to go along with her little plan and so far she’s being a total slob while you clean up her room for her. You wonder if the money is even worth it.
With the day not getting any younger, you decide it’s best to return to cleaning. You’ve already filled three black bags with trash and you’re not even halfway there.
After a while you start to get into the hang of cleaning up and it seems to go by marginally faster. Twilight wouldn’t have you doing anything as demeaning as this.
You’re almost finished, deciding to finish with cleaning the dirty wood-panelled floor, down on your knees and scrubbing the surface as well as you can.
Vinyl trots over and you look up at her.
“Hey, I’ve been baking something up for you!”
Huh. Maybe you misjudged her.
Before you can thank her, she swivels around - about as swiftly as you’ve seen her move this entire time - and reaches a hoof back to push your head into her ass.
FRAAAARRPPP
She lays a hot, awful-smelling fart on your muzzle and lets you free, laughing to herself like it’s the funniest thing she’s ever done.
You rub your nose, feeling the putrid gas right in the back of your throat. You’ve gone from being annoyed by this mare to hating her.
“Whew! Burrito toots are always the smelliest!”
She trots back into the main room, leaving you with the cloud of stink to clean the rest of her room.
You just finish up your job, silently cursing her in your head as you do so. It’s strangely motivating.
Not long after you’re finished, the door opens and Octavia arrives home, pausing as she passes by Vinyl’s room.
“Oh, wow! You’ve really done a number on this room! Oh, I hardly recognize it.”
“Thanks. It wasn’t easy.”
“Mind you, I’m sure it’ll be back to how it was in a matter of days, but thanks all the same. I’m glad we hired you!”
You’re a little impressed you made such good work of such a messy room, but it’s left you exhausted, and you sense Octavia can see this.
“Oh, I completely forgot to mention your sleeping arrangements. We have a spare room. It’s rather small, but cosy!”
She leads you to it; it’s not much bigger than a closet, but the bed inside is very comfortable, and you’re certainly not planning to stay here long at all.
You hover around for the rest of the evening, occasionally picking up little pieces of trash or cleaning surfaces.
Octavia is even kind enough to feed you, but Vinyl Scratch doesn’t get any better.
Throughout the entire evening she continuously passes gas casually and nonchalantly. It’s as if she doesn’t even understand the concept of manners. Octavia steps in to voice her resentment of it every time it happens, though this doesn’t seem to get through to Vinyl.
To make matters worse, at the end of the evening she announces she needs to “go take a monster dump” and marches upstairs to the bathroom, as if it’s some important event everypony must be aware of.
Octavia gives you your money as promised. It’s a bit weird being paid by the day, but you’re not complaining.
After a long and irritating day, you find yourself in your temporary bed and restless. You’re tired, but you just can’t settle.
Not able to put up with things any longer, you decide to...
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