It only ever took three or four shifts to train a new host, considering the majority of their job included collecting and distributing menus and seating guests in appropriate sections. It was not exactly rocket science, and Rainbow Dash picked it up rather quickly. She didn't need much supervision, not that the pub had the manpower to do that anyway, and had been left alone to deal with the door as her position required.

Rainbow skimmed the reservations book absently for that particular date, making sure there would be no surprises that evening. Who made reservations for a Thursday, anyway? Her eyes flickered up to the lounge as they always did, and through the decals and glass, between the old wooden pillars, she saw the barmaid. She was always keeping busy, always had something in her hands, teasingly passed between them and balanced on strong fingers. Licking her lips and adjusting the way her tongue fit in her mouth, the wetness of which bothered her for once to feel, Rainbow leaned against the host stand to get a better view and squeezed at the book in her grip.

“Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!” a loud and chipper voice rattled her to the core and almost knocked her right off her feet with the scare.

“Holyfuckin'—!” Rainbow Dash cursed in a gasp, grabbing the host stand to keep her steady. She glared over at the source of the shock, only to see this beaming expression of a girl with great big, frizzy pink hair. “Uh, s'up?”

Rainbow winced as she got a good look at the girl, her jubilant aura almost intoxicating in the worst kind of way. Her grossly pink hair was tied back in a poofy ponytail, as the dress code required, but still bounced around and expanded at all ends. Her apron was folded up at the top to make it shorter, and was tied around her slightly bulging stomach. The girl was clearly a waitress, if the two pens sticking out of her hair and the notepad in her apron didn't give it away. Frowning and scrunching up her nose, Rainbow waited on a response.

“You're Applejack's friend, right?” Pinkie inquired curiously, tilting her head to the right with big, wondering eyes.

Rainbow blinked in confusion, trying to place the name somewhere in her head, but realized she had never actually heard it. When all else failed, she asked, “Who's Applejack?”

Pinkie Pie mirrored Rainbow's expression, though it contorted further into incredulous disbelief, seeing as how she had just watched Rainbow gawk at the girl in question. She stuck her lower lip out and chewed on the words until they came out simply, “Um, the bartender?”

“Oh! You mean Dolly!” Rainbow Dash was excited to hear who they were talking about, and her expression lit up. Her eyes trailed back to the barmaid as a smile spread over her. “Yeah, she's awesome.”

“Dolly?” Pinkie repeated the unfamiliar nickname and glanced over her shoulder at Applejack, who could not hear them talking. “I don't think she'd like being called that.”

“Only by me,” Rainbow corrected with a firm nod, her smirk hanging confidently crooked. “I've been calling her that since we met.”

“Really?” The pink-haired waitress found that hard to believe, but had no reason to doubt the stranger. Noticing Applejack placing the drinks she had rung in on the bar counter for her to serve, Pinkie started up the stairs. “Well, nice meeting you, what was your name again?”

“Dash,” Rainbow Dash told her, preferring to be called by her last name as it sounded more respectable and less girly.

“I'm Pinkie Pie!” the server repeated loudly again, and Rainbow Dash cringed once more and tried to avoid seeming too obvious as she took a step farther away.

“You mentioned that,” Rainbow muttered cautiously, not dragging the conversation out.

“Okie dokie lokie! See you later, Dashie!” Pinkie squealed as she leapt up two stairs at once to the lounge. Rainbow frowned at the horrid nickname, but said nothing. Adding the feminine 'ie' suffix sure defeated the purpose of using a surname.

“Mhmm,” Rainbow Dash hummed flatly as the girl skipped away.

Her eyes landed on the barmaid again, who greeted the big-haired server with a welcoming smile and a friendly word or two that she was too far away from to make out. Applejack finished placing the odd lime slice here or there to complete the drinks, Mojitos as they were, while Pinkie walked up.

The server glanced back over her shoulder once more to see the new host still looking up at the bar, and grinned to notice the look in her eyes.

“You have an admirer!” Pinkie Pie chimed along in a sing-song manner, and Applejack made a funny face to hear it.

“Who, Rainbow? Naw, she just comes on kinda strong.” Applejack waved her hand passively and got back to filling the bucket under the drinks with ice. “Ah think it's endearin', but Ah don't think she makes many friends like that.”

“You're her friend, aren't you?” Pinkie leaned over the counter a bit, her stomach and cleavage popping out at every angle.

“Yea', somethin' like that.” Applejack smiled to herself as she remembered the kiss they had shared already, though they never spoke of it again.

“Oh my gosh, you so totally have a crush on her!” Pinkie slammed her hands on the counter, causing her freshly made Mojitos to swish and ripple with the force.

“What?! Ah do not!” Applejack denied, though the blush in her cheeks betrayed her. “What is this, junior high?”

“You do, you do, you so do!” Pinkie jumped up and down and pointed at Applejack, though the barmaid hurriedly tried to calm her down before the whole pub was looking at them.

“Pinkie, please,” Applejack begged in a whisper, grabbing the server's hands and making a face to reveal her embarrassment. “Even if Ah did, Ah wouldn't want you screamin' about it.”

“But you are gay, right?” The frizzy-headed server blinked her big round eyes, and Applejack shrunk under the stare nervously. “I'm sure of it. After all, though you still won't tell me who she is, you told us about that mysterious Blue Blazer Girl a few months ago, remember? You said she kissed you, and you liked it, right?”

“Ah never said one way 'r th' other,” Applejack murmured in a hushed tone, pouting her lips at the suggestion. “But Ah thought Ah done told you not to go 'round blabbin' 'bout that? An' besides, even if Ah was gay, that don't mean Ah have a crush on every girl Ah see.”

“Whatever you say...” Pinkie finished placing the drinks on her tray with ease and lifted it up on one hand, smirking knowingly as she looked back and teased the barmaid with newly acquired ammunition, “Dolly.”

Applejack swallowed hard and tensed up to hear the name cross someone else's lips. It didn't sound nearly as compelling, but did the trick of catching her off guard. Her eyes went wider and her cheeks flushed, not that it was particularly noticeable under the dim lighting and with her back mostly turned. Pinkie Pie giggled at the reaction and took off back down to the lower level of the pub, leaving Applejack in dumbfounded silence.

Though her expression told no tales, Applejack's gaze followed Pinkie back down the steps until she passed Rainbow Dash, who magnetically yanked the barmaid's attention to her. She was leaning over the host stand with a couple of menus held together in one hand, talking to some guests with that same old confident smirk of hers. A similar smile graced Applejack's expression, and she watched as the outgoing young girl gestured with a nod for the guests to follow her to their seat. Applejack bit at her lips as she watched Rainbow Dash speak, her focus right on the girl's curved, red lips. They still haunted her, and tempted her, seeming so strange yet familiar.

“Trust me, you'll never have a cocktail anywhere else again,” Rainbow Dash told them surely, dancing between tables as she knew their positions well by now. Being inherently agile, it was no trouble for her to sidestep any obstacle. “Tonight we've got Mojitos on special. And trust me, my girl up at the bar makes a mean one. If I wasn't working, I'd be sipping on one right now.”

“Thank you,” one of the gentlemen took his seat and gave her a smile.

“Any time, my man.” She nodded casually and placed their menus down before them. “Enjoy.”

Rainbow Dash left the table at once, heading back to her post. She would hardly make it five steps, though, until she almost had to wear a bucket full of dirtied dishes. Shocked by the sudden impact against her stomach, she hardly had time to fumble her hands under the almost falling bucket and stop it mid-air. She and her clumsy co-worker both sighed with relief as they held either end of the bucket, and Rainbow looked up to meet the anxious and unsettled gaze of a young boy.

His green hair fell over his eyes in strands, which had been knocked loose from the rest of his spikey faux-hawk with the collision. His terrified expression amused her, and she snickered out loud as the weight of the bucket was shifted back into the boy's arms. She took particular notice of the way his eyes kept shifting over her shoulder, landing on the back of a waitress who was otherwise occupied taking an order or two.

“You okay, kid?” Rainbow said with a grin across her face, raising her eyebrow.

“S-sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to—,” he silenced himself with a hard swallow, looking back over her shoulder at the object of his attention, who had not seen the blunder. His another exhale to calm him down, he spoke again and more coherently, “Um, sorry. I was distracted.”

“I bet you were.” Rainbow's smirk spread as she glanced back to where his attention lied, which was with a particularly curvaceous waitress with wavy, purple hair and pale skin. She dressed to impress, surely, and her uniform was crisp and perfectly sized. “Skirts are pretty short in here, aren't they?”

“That's not—!” the boy hurriedly tried to argue, but his bright red face did little for his case.

Rainbow raised her hand between them, pausing him in his futile explanation. Puffing out her lips distantly and shifting her eyes elsewhere, she waited as the waitress under the boy's attention strode past, her heeled shoes clacking even over carpeted ground. As she passed, the boy's gaze followed her over his shoulder until she disappeared beyond a corner. With another stifled snicker, Rainbow reached out and took the boy by his tie, using her other hand to tighten it around his neck until his face burned darker.

“Don't worry. I know exactly how you feel, buddy,” Rainbow told him simply, straightening the knot and flattening the tie back down over his chest, patting it and flicking his silver name-tag, which read a fitting name: Spike. She stepped back and gave him a knowing wink, turning around and getting back towards her post. “I almost trip on the stairs every time I go up to the bar!”

“The... bar?” Spike repeated in a dull murmur, his eyes narrowing as the words sounded odd to him.

He watched curiously as the girl strode off, her step light and carefree. He shuffled the bucket in his arms, the glasses and plates shifting around in the empty space. Taking her words as a reminder, he headed up to the lounge to gather any stray dishes up there. He went around the back entrance from the service aisle, avoiding the odd girl by the front door. Pausing on the top step, his eyebrows dropped over his intent eyes, recognizing Applejack as the bartender that evening. Had the new host been talking about her?

“Oh, Spike,” the barmaid addressed him, and he went still under the attention, wondering if she could read his thoughts. “Y'mind emptyin' ma bus tub when y'get a minute? Ah'd 'preciate it.”

“Yeah, I can do that.” Spike nodded several times before his feet started to move again, carrying him through the lounge to collect the scattered glasses.

“Thanks.” She tipped her hat to him, but didn't try to drag the conversation out. She had too much work to do anyway.

The owner and operator of the Joint, Miss Jubilee, always came by every second Thursday. Though she spent most of her time in Dodge Junction, she made time to drop by. She would sometimes hang around for upwards of a week, or leave that very day. Whatever the case, she was always there on every second Thursday, mostly to deal with pay-cheques and invoices. And Applejack was always ready for her, making certain everything was cleaned and organized.

As she finished moving some odds and ends out of the way, Applejack lifted one knee onto the counter, careful with her short shirt to avoid showing too much. Not that there was really anyone around to see, but she was always careful like that. Testing putting some weight onto it once or twice, Applejack hoisted herself up onto the counter and steadied herself, reaching up with the damp rag to reach the barely distant, horizontal bars that ran above her. There were usually glasses hung up there by their bases, but she had taken them down to clean the bars off.

She felt the weight of her own breasts as a hindrance as she reached up, as they were squeezed so tightly by the outfit. This so-called uniform really wasn't suitable for work, Applejack found herself thinking for perhaps the thousandth time since she had first put it on and started working there. Shuffling her shoulders to rearrange what little comfort she found, she reached up once more and ran the cloth along the bars, holding it with the very tips of her fingers. The night crew was supposed to do this every now and then, but Applejack never trusted anyone to do something she could do herself, and it had become clear they neglected it.

Taking her focused and intense gaze off her task, Applejack's eyes wandered down the stairs to the host, as usual. She was stopped still as she noticed the girl was just standing there, leaning on the stand, staring at her. Her infuriatingly perverse eyes were groping her even from afar, and the lascivious grin across her face was unmistakable. The barmaid swallowed hard, feeling herself teeter a bit nervously in her stance. The worst part was that she couldn't break the connection, she actually liked being looked at by that girl.

“Y'better not fall an' break your pretty little neck, darlin',” a familiar voice woke Applejack up, and simultaneously almost knocked her right off the counter.

Blushing with embarrassment, Applejack felt a hand touch her high under her thigh, keeping her steady. She wouldn't look over to acknowledge who had startled her, not until she was certain Rainbow Dash wasn't snickering at her or noticing anything. As she hoped, the girl merely smiled a bit wider and went back to her own menial duties. Applejack pushed off the counter and landed behind the bar on the tips of her toes, placing the slightly heeled back of her boots against the ground only after safely landing. Moving away from the invasive touching, Applejack cleared her throat.

“You're, uh, early.” Applejack brushed herself off and cautiously met the gaze of the older woman behind her, who had gotten uncomfortably close as usual. “Miss Jubilee.”

The lady was always well dressed, her hair all done up on her head in complex styles that seemed flirtatious and wavy. Even though she was not required to wear any uniform, she often walked around in just as skimpy of an outfit as she pleased, the western-saloon style one of her favourites. Though she was a good deal older than Applejack, she never looked it, her face smooth and pale and her body curved in the right spots. One of the most striking things about her was her bust size, which seemed to grow every few years. Applejack chewed at the inside of her cheek anxiously as the woman's bare, toned thighs brushed past her own, uninvited.

“Cherry, darlin',” the owner corrected and winked her heavily darkened eyelashes, blowing a gentle kiss from her crimson lips, which always seemed moist with gloss and pouted round. “An' how're you doin'? My, y'get more gorgeous every time Ah see you.”

Cherry Jubilee reached up and brushed some few strands of hair behind Applejack's ear and up under her Stetson. With a nervous frown, Applejack pulled away as usual and avoided the woman's gaze. Her boss only smiled though, finding her responses charming.

“Ah'm fine, same old,” the barmaid murmured automatically at her boots, which she noticed were pointed in towards each other like some shy little girl's. She rectified the situation with a shuffle of her foot.

“So, tha's our new hostess, is it?” Cherry leaned against the counter, her shoulder rising and offsetting the usual evenness of her breasts.

Applejack worriedly looked over at the girl in question, her heart racing as she wished Cherry would set her attention elsewhere. Feeling the tightness in her chest resolved her to merely shrug, feigning indifference, as she knew anything more might have caught Cherry's intrigue. Rainbow Dash merely went on obliviously at first, jotting down some numbers or scribbled on the floor-plan as several guests left. Once she finished that though, she looked back over at Applejack, extending a friendly wave and another smile that caught her breath in her throat.

“Looks t'me like she's got her eye on you,” Cherry Jubilee spoke with a smirk, raising an eyebrow at Applejack.

“Y'think so?” Applejack passively muttered, acting less than interested. Cherry just laughed though, easily seeing through her façade.

“Don't y'forget, sug',” Cherry playfully reminded the girl, before she reached out again and took Applejack by the chin, leaning in so close Applejack could see the tinting particles on her heavily lip-stuck mouth. “You're ma barmaid.”

“Yes ma'am, Ah know.” Applejack swallowed hard, feeling herself sweat under the attention.

Applejack was still in the woman's vicious grip, her face contorting into anxiety and mild distress. She knew better than to deny anything the woman said, it could cost her a customer and a job. Still, Cherry Jubilee made her feel more than simply uncomfortable, perhaps a bit disgusted and objectified. Her eyes were glued to the devilish stare of her boss, whose intense expression softened to hear her understanding.

“Good, Ah'd hate t'see that farm'a yours go under if y'can't keep focused on y'chores here.” Miss Jubilee released her at once, and she nearly fell forward with the relief. Still, the threat hung heavy above her and tangled up in her throat.

“R-right.” The barmaid nodded obediently, choking her fears back as they were a sign of weakness that Jubilee fed off of.

“Any who,” the older woman sighed merrily and waved her hand as she turned around, making to walk out from behind the bar. “Ah got some work t'do m'self, try t'have fun, y'do tend t'work yourself too hard.”

“Ain't workin' if y'ain't workin' hard,” Applejack dully replied, a smile cracking onto one side of her face as she knew the sentiment to be true.

“That's ma girl.” Cherry winked at her again as she passed in front of the bar, heading down the stairs by the front before continuing down the second set that led to the office, lavatories, custodial closet, and supply and laundry room.

With a serious and bothered expression, Applejack shook her rag out and readjusted it over her fingers, scrubbing hard over the already clean counter. Miss Jubilee never ceased to make her uncomfortable, and always managed to irritate or infuriate her with her lack of concern for boundaries. Eyes settling on the rainbow-haired host, Applejack's expression softened with some profound sadness, acknowledging the distance between them that was so intangible and unspoken.

Working at Jubilee's Joint had become something of a mundane chore for the barmaid, just another place to act her best and sell her goods. Just another place to work. Only once in a blue moon could she be creative, like that evening when she made Rainbow Dash the Blue Blazer, and only on such evenings was she glad and did she feel fortunate to have become a barmaid at all. Her sighs came out through her dull and monotonous tones and fingertips, which played along with boring tasks she seemed to repeat constantly throughout the day so often it seemed like they were hardly her choice at all.

Author's Notes:

So, we got a few more characters in here introduced. And a little more about our lady Jubilee in this chapter, and hey, if she's a favourite of yours, worry not: she returns next chapter, with a larger role.