“Hey Cryptic, can I ask you a question?” Treble Clef asked.

Cryptic Message popped out his earbuds. “What did you say?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah sure, what’s up.”

Treble nodded discretely towards their water cooler. “What’s she doing in our office?”

Next to the water cooler was a very lithe mare with a gorgeous pink coat and platinum blonde mane. She looked like an absolute supermodel and wore a plain white collar spotted with little silver studs. Yet, with a body that bold the collar almost seemed like a natural addition.

“I believe that’s a public use slut,” Cryptic said, turning back to his monitor full of graphs and charts.

“I know that,” Treble hissed under her breath before glancing back at her. “But what the hay is she doing in our office?”

Cryptic shrugged and clicked away at something. “I don’t know, why don’t you ask her?”

“Because she’s really pretty…” Lilac murmured, her cheeks warming, “and I’m way too much of a disaster.”

“Then I can’t help you there.”

She sighed and looked at Lilac Garden and Bountiful Harvest. “Do either of you know what she’s doing in here?”

Bountiful shrugged. “Maybe she got lost?”

Lilac shook her head. “She’s probably here to help with office morale or boost productivity or whatever?”

Cryptic snorted. “Yeah, that’s exactly what we need. Make it even easier for us to get distracted by sex.”

“Well one of us should really go talk to her,” Treble said.

“Snout game!” Lilac chanted.

A moment later, she pressed a hoof to her snout. Treble was only two seconds behind, but as she looked at her coworkers, she realized that was two seconds too late.

“Oh, come on!” Treble whined. “I can’t do it.”

“I’m sorry,” Lilac said. “It’s the rules. You have to go talk to her, now.”

Cryptic nodded. “It’s true. And everyone knows that the rules are sacred.”

“But I hate the rules.”

“Then get faster reflexes,” Bountiful said, sticking out their tongue.

Treble sighed and stood up. “You three suck.”

She grumbled under her breath as she walked towards the water cooler, flashing what could only be the least steady smile known to equinekind.

“Hey there,” she said, a baritone crack in her voice instantly making her face brighten a few embarrassed shades. “Uh, how are you doing?”

The mare looked to her and giggled. Her laughter was almost intoxicating, like a million tiny church bells of pleasantness all chiming at once.

“I’m doing pretty good,” she said. “And who might you be?”

“T-treble Clef, and you?”

“Boon Value, pleasure to meet you,” she said, holding out a hoof.

Treble reached forward and nervously shook her hoof. As she not-so-subtly glanced past her, at her flank, she noticed that the mare did in fact bear a computer-y cutie mark. It seemed to almost clash with her bubbly demeanour.

“So, what... uh... brings you to our office?” she asked, pouring a cup of water for herself. It would be a much-needed relief to help cool her burning face. “We don’t get many ponies from your department down here.”

The mare cocked a brow. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know. Usually, the uh… public use sluts are in the client-facing parts of the Clocktower Society. Are you… lost?”

The mare’s expressions fell and Treble winced. Had she said something wrong?

A moment later the office door opened and sweet salvation walked in as Windy Cyclone approached.

She looked at Treble and then at Boon. “Are you Boon Value?”

Boon nodded. “Are you the mare having computer problems?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. My hard drive looks like it’s absolutely fried. Like even right-clicking on it brings up an error message.” She shook her head and motioned towards her desk. “Thanks for coming down so fast, by the way. It usually takes us ages to get someone from tech support down here.”

Boon shot Treble a final glare before turning and following Windy to her computer.

“Well, they recently doubled our department, so we should be getting better about that,” she said.

“Oh yeah, you a recent hire?”

Boon nodded. “Just finished my Bachelors in Computer Science at the University of Whinneapolis.”

“Well, welcome to the Control Room,” Windy said, drawing her muzzle across the room. “You’ll probably be seeing a lot of us.”

Treble looked at her co-workers and noticed that three sets of eyes were looking everywhere but in her general direction.

“Thanks, I look forward to working with you,” Boon said.

Windy hummed and nodded towards her. “What’s up with the collar, by the way? You a patron?”

“Oh no...” Boon chuckled. “Just a trans mare working in tech.”

Thankfully it seemed that Boon’s attention had completely abandoned Treble by this point.

That is until her clumsy ass dropped her little paper cup of water, which landed quite noisily on the floor.

And, within an instant, everypony was staring at her again.

Someone kill me now.

And they continued to state as she threw up her head and groaned.

Please!

Author's Notes:

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