On Feathered Wings and Midnight Daydreams

by Rusty_Kettle

I still hear your voice

The double bells of Sunup’s alarm clock rang loudly into his empty room, rousing the bat stallion from his peaceful sleep. He groggily stretched out a forehoof to try and slap the infernal machine, but all he managed to hit was the very edge of his bedside table.

A whimper left the purple stallion’s lips as he clutched his forehoof to his chest, gritting his teeth from the impact. One of his wings stretched towards the noise, flailing around blindly until it finally managed to strike the clock.

“Shut uuuuuuup,” Sunup cried as the very tip of his wing felt around for the button to shut the noise off.

Click.

Silence, blessed silence. Sunup’s wing retreated back under the covers, pressing up against his side as he clung to the comfort of his bed. If it were up to him, he would stay right there for another hour, maybe two. But alas, he had to go to work.

With a yawn, the bat pony threw the covers off himself and rolled off his bed, flopping onto the floor next to it. He sat on his haunches and brought one of his forehooves up to wipe the sleep from his eyes.

His room was brightly lit by the small sliver of sunlight that snuck around his blackout curtain, but nonetheless, he walked up to the window and drew the curtain fully. The bat pony winced as the afternoon sun flooded his room, forcing him to avert his gaze. He took a moment to pick up a hair tie that sat beside his alarm clock and tied his mane back in a small ponytail.

The purple stallion turned towards his wardrobe, throwing the door open and blinking repeatedly to focus his eyes on the piles of clothing. He took out his hospital uniform and got to work on putting it on, closing the wardrobe door behind him with a tail flick. The uniform wasn’t much more than some light blue fatigues and a slightly stained lab coat.

Once dressed, he marched out of his bedroom and into the apartment’s living room. A small wooden table dominated the center of the room, which was almost completely covered in random books and empty takeaway boxes. The purple stallion walked over to the opposite end of the room, reaching the small kitchen that sat next to the front door.

“Gotta go to the store…” Sunup muttered to himself as he dug through the fridge for anything to eat.

There wasn’t much, but he still managed to dig up a couple of eggs and a frozen pancake. While the food warmed up, however, his ears swiveled to pick up on the telltale sound of the front door unlocking. The hinges whined as the door was shoved open by a pegasus’ wing.

The light blue primaries that stuck out from a gray wing let Sunup know exactly who this new arrival was before the pony even finished opening the door.

His roommate, Blue Skies, walked into the living room, dragging his hooves behind him. He was dressed in his dark orange weather factory jumpsuit, which now sported a brand new rainbow-colored stain on his right shoulder. A bright yellow hardhat was tucked under the pony’s left wing, but judging by how matted his blue mane was, he had only taken it off a few moments ago.

The pegasus’ tired gaze wandered over the apartment until it finally landed on Sunup, where his brow furrowed slightly.

“‘Sup?” The bat stallion asked.

“Hey.” The pegasus stallion answered, closing the door and walking towards the kitchen.

Sunup flipped his scrambled eggs and pancake onto a plate and carefully balanced it onto one of his wings before making his way towards the living room table. Blue Skies took a long look at the plate before shifting his gaze to the kitchen.

“Did you really just make food for yourself?” The pegasus asked, his expression a midpoint between angry and distraught.

“Yuh,” Sunup replied after taking a bite out of his pancake.

Blue let out a deep sigh before speaking up again.

“I’ve asked you like a hundred times if you could make dinner for me when you make breakfast,”

Sunup finished the rest of his pancake before answering.

“I’m not your housewife, make your own food!” He said before taking a bite out of his scrambled eggs.

Blue’s right eye twitched in anger. Sunup tried his damndest to suppress a chuckle at the pegasus’ slightly poofed chest, he was so funny when he got angry.

“I am tired when I get back from the factory!” He complained.

“I’m tired too!” Sunup retorted, throwing his forehooves up in mock offense.

The pegasus took a sudden step back, as if he had been struck in the face.

“Tired from what?!” He shouted, “You literally just woke up!”

“Exactly, I’m still sleepy!” The bat pony said, coming very close to losing his composure and breaking down into laughter.

Blue Skies took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if to scream, but he seemed to change his mind, letting out a defeated sigh instead.

“I fucking hate yo-”

“No you don’t” Sunup said, cutting the gray pegasus off mid-sentence.

The tired pony flipped him off with one of his wings before storming off into his bedroom. As soon as the door closed, Sunup couldn’t help but start chuckling to himself. Nothing was better than starting out the night by pestering Blue.

After he was done with his breakfast, the bat stallion threw the apartment door open and took in the beautiful afternoon air of Chestnut Falls. The town wasn’t much to write home about, but it was still a nice place to live. Sunup lifted a wing to shield his eyes from the waning rays of Celestia’s sun as he looked at the floating city of Cloudsdale high above. He had considered getting a place up there instead of the smaller city below, but when he got a job at the hospital down here, his plans changed. The same couldn’t be said for Blue Skies, however, who had to move out of Cloudsdale after his rent went up and ended up having to rent Sunup’s spare room instead.

It was a good trade for him, or at least that’s what Sunup had said, he would charge him almost nothing, and in exchange all Blue had to do was tolerate Sunup’s shenanigans. Truth be told, the fact that their work hours were almost perfectly synced to avoid spending more than a hoofful of minutes together per day was more likely than not the reason for why they hadn’t decided to go their separate ways.

The bat stallion stretched out his wings and flapped once, sending himself flying into the air. He caught the wind almost immediately, soaring high above the blue and red tiles of the buildings below. Enjoying the cool breeze, he did a couple of corkscrews as he flew higher. Eventually, he leveled out, stretching his wings as far as he could to start gliding.

Chestnut Falls wasn’t a large town, but being so close to Cloudsdale had really bolstered its importance. Nowhere could this be more clearly seen than in the larger buildings. While most of the town was small houses or apartments with few stories, several larger structures dominated its skyline, the two largest ones being the shopping mall and the hospital. Closely followed by a farmers market and the sky carriage terminal that non-pegasi used to go up to Cloudsdale.

As he flew over the terminal, one of said carriages departed from the station. A bright orange train car-esque cart being pulled by a group of four pegasi. Sunup banked to the side, making sure to give the cart enough clearance as it ascended into the clouds.

The purple stallion flew for a while longer before suddenly pressing his wings against his sides. He dived down directly over the Chestnut Falls General Hospital, dropping out of the air like a stone. In the dimming light of the sunset, he was but a purple blur that barreled to the ground with almost alarming speed. In near complete silence, his leathery wings unfurled once more, catching the air and slowing him down significantly.

He had originally planned on landing further away from the hospital, but a different idea popped into his mind when he noticed a particular green unicorn walking towards the entrance. It was Minty Trails, one of his coworkers. A mischievous smirk parted the bat pony’s face as he dived towards the unsuspecting stallion.

“Boo!” He shouted as he landed loudly next to the green pony.

The pony in question had clearly been thinking about something else, as the second the purple stallion landed in front of him they reared up and let out a blood-curdling scream. Minty barely stopped themselves from tripping onto the floor, instead putting their hooves back on the ground and staring daggers at Sunup.

“You bastard!” He shouted, “You scared the daylights out of me!”

Sunup could only respond with thunderous laughter, much to the unicorn’s annoyance.

“Back on the night shift?” He asked once he had managed to stop laughing.

“Yeah, need the extra money,” The unicorn answered, “I’m going to need a lot of coffee,” He added.

“What do you meannnn?” Sunup said, cocking his head to the side, “It’s easy to stay awake!”

Minty Trails looked at him with an unamused expression.

“You are a bat, I am not.” The unicorn deadpanned.

“That sounds like a you problem,” Sunup replied, smiling.

The unicorn rolled their eyes and started walking towards the hospital, ignoring the bat pony. Sunup chuckled and followed suit, heading into the reception area.

A short while later, Sunup was looking through his patient list for the night. He didn’t really have anything too important for tonight, mostly just waiting around in case there was an emergency. He couldn’t be mad at it, however, just meant that the ponies in Chestnut Falls were healthy!

His hooves echoed through the mostly deserted halls of the hospital. Not many doctors stayed overnight, and what few patients had been kept for the night were fast asleep. This posed a problem for Sunup, however, because it meant that he had to spend time with his own thoughts.

But not if he had anything to say about it!

The bat pony took the time to look around at the many things that decorated the hallway. After all, the decorations were switched around frequently to keep the place inviting. Potted plants, small sculptures, and even bronze plaques with the names of important ponies. This time around they had even bothered to hang up some paintings, Sunup noticed, there were-

“What do we have here?” He said to himself as he noticed that one of the paintings had a very… peculiar signature on the bottom.

‘Blue Skies’ it read.

Sunup took a step back to look at the painting. It showed almost the entirety of Chestnut Falls as seen from above. Judging by the railing that had been painted on the foreground, this was probably the way it looked from one of the weather factory’s balconies. It was a pretty nice painting, which only deepened his confusion as to how his roommate was still incapable of making more than a handful of bits off of his work. In fact, Sunup knew that this painting had to have been donated, since the hospital budget didn’t cover decorations.

“I wonder what he’s up to,” The bat pony muttered as he looked at the signature again, “…Probably sleeping,” He added, chuckling.

Hours seemed to fly as the night dragged on. nothing really happened, but just waltzing through the empty hallways had somehow made the night feel short. Nonetheless, his shift eventually reached its end, leaving him standing outside the hospital once more.

“See you tomorrow!” He told Minty Trails, who was standing next to him.

The green unicorn mumbled something incomprehensible and then tried to take a step forward, nearly tripping in the process.

“Ah fuggen hate… night shift,” Minty mumbled in between yawns.

“You good?” Sunup asked, helping the unicorn stand steady.

“Yeah… yeah… just sleepy,” The green stallion answered.

The unicorn walked away from Sunup, making his way to the street.

“See you tomorrow,” He said without turning around.

“See you!” Sunup responded before unfurling his wings and taking to the skies again.

Somepony had once said that it was always darkest before dawn, but as Sunup soared through the skies he would’ve had to disagree. Sure, his batpony night vision helped, but the clear skies above were dotted by so many stars that it was impossible to even think about darkness. The shades of gray that washed over Chestnut Falls definitely gave it a less vibrant appearance than it had in the daytime, but the small dots of bright yellow that poured from windows and streetlights gave it a look that nearly mirrored the onyx backdrop of the night sky. A black ceiling dotted with white contrasted with a gray floor dotted with yellow.

The sight of the town below, however, made Sunup remember Blue Skies’ painting. It really did look like a completely different place in the nighttime.

Sunup’s hooves connected with the street again just outside his apartment, the very first rays of Celestia’s sun were starting to peek out from over the horizon. He made his way to the front door and took out his key, heading into the apartment while he made a mental list of what he needed to do in the morning. It wasn’t a long list, nothing more than eat, study, and maybe a shower, but it never hurt to keep things in mind.

The inside of the apartment was still dark, and judging by the snoring that came from Blue’s room, Sunup could assume that his roommate had simply not woken up yet.

He made his way into the kitchen and started to loudly rummage through the pot and pan drawer, eventually changing his mind and opening the fridge instead. After a few seconds of fiddling with the plastic wrapper of a breakfast roll, the bat stallion threw the package into the microwave and set it to high. As the machine whirred loudly, Sunup heard groans coming from Blue’s room which caused him to snicker.

The purple stallion got to work on setting the table for himself, letting the microwave beep away in the background after it finished warming up his food.

“Oh for fucks sake!” Blue shouted from his room, “Turn that damn thing off!”

“Oh! I didn’t notice!” Sunup answered, smirking.

The door to Blue’s room flew open, revealing a very angry-looking pegasus stallion. Blue Skies looked like he had just woken up… which, granted, was the case. His mane was a mess, with its dark and light blue streaks mixing together weirdly. An overstretched gray shirt covered his chest and wings. Sunup tried his best to keep his smile under control as the gray stallion stomped into the living room.

“And you didn’t even make food for both of us,” The pegasus all but shouted when he looked at the plate that Sunup took out of the microwave, “Again,”

“I didn’t want to wake you up,” The bat pony explained.

Blue Skies gave Sunup an unamused glare, cocking his head slightly to the side.

“I hate yo-”

“No you don’t,” Sunup said, cutting the pegasus off.