“Beep! Beep! Beep!”
The unpleasant sound of the magical alarm clock rang through the whole apartment room. A pony underneath the sheets of the bed started to toss and turn in irritation to the sound. Slowly, a hoof reached out from under the covers towards the alarm in an effort to silence it. After a few failed attempts that caused some clutter on the nightstand to fall off, the hoof finally made contact with the alarm button. Click!
Silence. Sweet sweet silence, the pony thought as he drifted back to sleep. The memory of being woken up slowly faded as though it had never happened. After some time, he opened his groggy dark yellow eyes to make out the time on the alarm clock.
10 am...10 AM!?!, he thought. The pony realized with dread that he had snoozed for too long and was supposed to get up forty minutes ago. I’m so gonna be late for work.
Taking his time, the light gray stallion emerged from the covers. His jet black droopy mane which covered most of his right face was more unkempt than usual. His exposed cutie mark was a black heart that appeared to have been cracked in half.
After getting out of bed, he did a slow cat-like stretch while yawning before heading to the kitchen. His horn magically levitated some Hay Flakes cereal from the top pantry along with some milk from the fridge and proceeded to make some breakfast. While he ate, he silently contemplated about how today would turn out.
I haven’t been late to work since who knows how long. How am I gonna explain it to everyone at the office? Should I just tell them I came down with a fever? Ya, right. A fever that only lasted a night. Like they’ll believe that. I’ve been down with the horse flu before and I still came to work on time. I don’t think I’ve used ANY of my sick days.
He left his empty bowl at the counter as he went to the front door to check his mail. A small stack was on the floor underneath the mail deposit slot on the door. He picked up the first few. They were just bills. He flipped through them until he came across a letter from his landlord. “Oh great, what is it this time?”, he said as he reluctantly opened the envelope and unfolded the letter.
“Dear Gloomy Dusk, this letter is to inform you that your rent has come late for a third consecutive month. I understand you are a hard working individual, Mr. Dusk, but that does not excuse the inability to make payments on schedule. Here at Saddle Horn Apartments, we try to handle our business professionally and in a responsible timely manner. We have been flexible enough to give you the time you need to address any issues that would conflict with making these payments, and you have been an accommodating tenant for the past few years. However, a long standing reputation does not absolve you of continual negligence. This is a final warning if you so choose to continue doing business with us. Failure to meet this month’s next deadline will result in eviction within a thirty day notice as per terms of agreement.”
Sincerely, Mr. Grant.”
Guy sure is trying hard not to sound like a complete prick, thought Gloomy. He ripped the letter into pieces and then disposed of it in the trash can. He made his way to the small patio of his third floor apartment room to clear his mind.
Outside, he reclined in a plastic lounge chair. Laying on a small stand next to him was a pack of Manticore cigarettes, an ashtray, and a matchbox. He removed one of the cigarettes from the pack, placed it in his mouth, and lit it with one of the matches. Gloomy inhaled deeply before exhaling a steady stream of smoke. His mind started to wander.
My boss is gonna kill me. But what does it matter...he doesn’t respect me, doesn’t give me a raise, has me neck-deep in paperwork… Gloomy took in another puff of the cigarette. But I can’t get fired now. Not when she’s almost done with college. I could care less about this apartment or my job. I’m really just doing it all for her. To make her happy.
The smell of the smoke mixed with the rancid morning air that blew in from the city dump made him think about all the ugliness in it, like how all the bad things underneath were trying to be covered up by the sweet smell of vices. He gave one more inhale before snuffing the cigarette in the ashtray. Besides...since when has anypony else ever really cared about me, he thought.
He made his way back inside to check the time. It was 10:22 am. Okay, now I’m really late. He quickly put on his work shirt and tie, tidied up his hair with a comb, lifted his briefcase with his magic, and left out the front door.
~~~
Detrot was quite a busy city most days, but Mondays were especially busy. Streets were crowded with taxi carriages, and the constant racket from the hustle and bustle of city ponies made even small conversation quite challenging. On some occasion, it proved to be even more busy than its Eastward neighbor, Manehattan.
While most of the city belonged to the wealthy and refined, Detrot had gained a massive reputation as having one of the worst poverty rates. Failing infrastructure and makeshift tents where littered throughout the areas neglected by the city council, and Downtown was the biggest eyesore of them all. Gloomy Dusk had managed to find a place to live just on the edge of Downtown, but he still resented the fact of even being near it. The last thing he needed was more reason to despise his life.
Making his usual way to the street corner just outside his apartment, Gloomy called for a taxi. Just moments pass before he could see a taxi carriage make its way past the chaos of intersection traffic before arriving at the street corner. Thank Celestia, some luck, he thought.
“Excuse me, I need this ride!” shouted some pony running from behind Gloomy, bumping into him as he went past.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Gloomy responded as the other pony quickly jumped onto the carriage and told the driver his destination. “But that’s...my cab…” Gloomy tried to speak up but swallowed his words. He felt getting into a confrontation on a busy day would just make things worse for him.
“Sorry buddy. Ya snooze, ya lose”, the pony on the taxi replied as it quickly took off.
Gloomy looked on in anger at the departing carriage and stomped a hoof in frustration. Stupid, stupid, stupid! His temper quickly began to subside into a more sad, defeated state. Ya...some luck. A several minutes pass before he could get another taxi.
Gloomy Dusk landed a job as an intern at Buck Hill’s Accounting & Finances a few years back and worked his way up to personal accounting affairs clerk. Still, to Gloomy, the pay wasn’t worth the amount of stress it put on him: dealing with angry or sad customers being turned down financial support for their struggling families. He either desired to quit or get promoted to accounting staff manager, but his boss had turned him down several times.
The taxi finally arrived at Gloomy’s place of work. He promptly paid the driver four bits for the fare and entered the front door of the building.
Inside, he quickly made his way to the front desk.
“You’re late”, said the receptionist in her usual half-hearted tone.
“I know”. Gloomy didn’t even stop to make eye contact as he went past her into the staff lounge.
In the room, he noticed no pony was inside. It was quiet except for the sound of the refrigerator buzzing on magic power. He went to the half-empty coffee pot on the counter where he always got his coffee and poured himself a hot cup. He was one of the few who took it black and without sugar. For some reason, he liked the bitter taste it provided; unspoiled by the creams and sugars that try to mask its natural flavor, much like how lime masks the natural taste of cooked fish.
After taking a sip, he sat at one of the circular desks, leaning back in his chair. His eyes closed shut in a moment of peace. When he opened them again, he could spot a poster on the wall across the room. It was a motivational poster one of his co-workers had put up a few weeks ago. Gloomy had never stopped to really look at the poster because the office was filled with other poster designs that had cliche phrases like “We can do it!” or “Hang in there!”. But now looking at it, there was something about the poster that drew his interest. The image on the poster was of a gray silhouette of a pony looking down two paths: one that was bright and pleasant, the other being dark and stormy. The text displayed below the image read “Your destiny is in your hooves”.
Gloomy spent several minutes just staring at the poster while sipping his coffee. He pondered about what made this poster any different from the others. His eyes seemed to be drawn to the silhouetted pony more than any other part of the image. As his eyes looked down the two paths, he had to make a choice on which path to focus on first. He decided to look down the bad path, and then the good path. The fact that he was even given an option of how to look at the poster was a message so profound to him. Gloomy just kept on staring at it until he could hear the door to the lounge open.
“Dusk...will you mind explaining to me why you showed up fifty minutes late for work?” His boss had just entered the room. Gloomy could already tell his employer was beyond peeved just by the sound of his voice.
“Sorry, Mr. Stocks. I...I was up late last night doing paperwork and…” the gray unicorn softly replied. He swallowed, trying to finish his sentence. “...I overslept.”
“Wait, hold on...did you just say...overslept?” Mr. Stocks’ big judging eyebrows furrowed. He made his way to the opposite side of the table that Gloomy was sitting at and planted his front hooves on top of it. He leaned towards him in an intimidating manner. “Can you see me in my office?” He then pulled back off the table and walked back to the lounge door.
“Should I leave my coffee here?” said Gloomy timidly.
“Oh, by all means. Don’t want it to go to waste,” Mr. Stocks said sarcastically.
There he goes again with his guilt-tripping attitude, but dammit does it work every time, Gloomy thought. He reluctantly got up and followed his boss to his office. The front door to it had a semi-transparent window with the words “Mr. Birken Stocks, Chief Financial Officer” painted on it.
“Close the door”, commanded Mr. Stocks as he sat down in his chair. Gloomy proceeded to close the door behind him. “Have a seat”. Gloomy proceeded to sit down. “Now about last night…”
“I told you I was-”
“No, no...I wasn’t finished,” said Mr. Stocks cutting off Gloomy’s words. “Last night you said you were doing paperwork and that you overslept because of it, correct?”
“Yes”, Gloomy replied.
“Now you see that would make sense...if you actually did any paperwork from yesterday.”
Oh, horse crap! He knows!
“You see, normally I don’t check yesterday's records until the afternoon, but then I got a discrepancy notice about a different employee earlier this morning. And with noticing you being late to work, I decided to check your records as well.”
I’m so screwed!
Mr. Stocks pulled out a folder from behind his desk, opened it, and started to scan over it. “Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, it says here you submitted you’re last paperwork for that day at 6pm. You still had over thirty five cases left to review, but you never submitted any of them from 6pm till now. So by seeing you’re pattern of submission dates not match up with your statements, you must’ve been making false dates. And what’s even more interesting: I’ve noticed that you’ve been submitting an oddly consistent number of cases these past few weeks, and yet I see your number of clients go up and up. So I did some digging and found out that you’ve actually been falsifying those numbers as well. You’ve been re-submitting older files under the term ‘re-evaluated’ but with barely any changes made.”
Gloomy wanted to say something but felt too in the wrong to say a word.
Mr.Stocks’ tone began to become more enraged. “So what? You thought you could just put off my clients and laze about in my workplace? You thought you could just lie to my face and cover this up!?” Mr. Stocks rose from his chair and planted his front hooves on his desk the same way as before. “I don’t know why after four years of working here, showing up on time, getting the work done, you decide to pull a stunt like this?" Mr. Stocks appeared to be steaming like a train engine at this point. "So let’s hear it! What was the reason for all this? I want to know.”
Gloomy felt a great weight over his whole body. His mind was racing, thinking, I don’t know what to tell him. I’m...not lazy. I’ve just been feeling really overwhelmed these past few weeks. I can’t afford to take time off work. I got my apartment bills, my student loans. I know I took on the responsibility of helping to pay for her tuition, but I can’t let her down when she’s so close to getting her master’s. Not now. But the pressure is killing me.
“Well!?” His boss was growing impatient.
“I...I came down with horse flu” said Gloomy, desperately trying to keep his cool. “I lied because I know how short we are on staff currently and how it would be a real burden for you if I called in sick.”
Mr. Stocks raised one of his bushy brows. “Horse flu? Really?”
“I thought I could fake through it till it went away, but it got to the point where I literally felt exhausted all the time.” Gloomy’s lie started to sound more confident as though he himself believed in it. “And after realizing I wasn’t finishing my papers, I thought I could make up for it later before you found out.”
Mr. Stocks slowly sat back down and contemplated for a moment. “Well... you still could’ve requested sick time off. Even so, you still messed up big time. I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut your hours back for the rest of the week.”
“But sir!” quickly replied Gloomy. Normally, he would love to have less hours, but he needed the extra time for bills. “I really need those hours. I’m kinda living on a budget and-”
“Well maybe you should’ve thought of that before you tried to go under my muzzle,” said Mr. Stocks. “Besides, I’ve already hired a new intern just yesterday to fill in for you. You’ll be giving him the orientation. Now get out of my office.”
Gloomy wanted to reply, but he knew it was a bad idea to talk back to an already ill-tempered boss. He instead sulked his head and got up to leave.
As he was going out the door, Mr. Stocks called to him one last time. “And Dusk...if you do anything like this again...you’re fired.”
Gloomy merely nodded as the office door closed shut.
What a mule!, Gloomy thought, enraged. As he walked looking at the floor in utter frustration, he didn’t notice the pony in his path until it was too late and bumped into him.
“Oops, I’m so sorry sir!” said the nervous pony. “I-I uh was looking at my papers a-and I uh didn’t see you coming.”
“No, It’s fine. I wasn’t looking where I was going either.” Gloomy’s anger slowly subsided as he realized he did not recognized the office pony in front of him. “Wait a second...are you the new intern they hired?”
“I uh...yes. Yes I am.” The new intern was looking a bit on edge. Gloomy found it understandable as he too was very nervous on his first day of work. “I-I’m looking for the one t-they told me would be s-showing me around.”
“Funny coincidence cuz the boss just said I’m your pony.” He took a moment to collect himself. "So. What's your name?"
"I-I-It's a Q-Quiver Quill." The nervous pony put out a shaky hoof to Gloomy. "N-nice to meet you."
Gloomy gave a half-hearted smile and shook the hoof in return. "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Gloomy Dusk, one of the clerks here." He then motioned to the main office complex. “Well, let’s get started.”
As Gloomy went around the office with the new intern, showing him where important appliances and drop off boxes were, he occasionally asked for input or thoughts from him. He took notice at how Quiver Quill was different than most that they got, barely giving feedback and instead just nodding in agreement. As the orientation concluded, Gloomy wanted to give him one more opportunity to say something.
“So, any thoughts or questions about everything that I showed you?” Gloomy asked.
Quiver just shook his head in silence, waiting for him to move on.
“ANY thoughts at all?”
“N-no. I think I understand everything. T-thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. It’s just part of my job. Glad to have you as part of the team, Mr. Quill.” They shook hooves again before they both headed off to their respective cubicles.
Sitting down at his desk, he worried if this whole train wreck of a day would ruin the rest of his week. He looked at a framed portrait on his desk of a couple hugging under a large pine tree.
I can’t forget, he thought. I still got some time off this weekend to see her. I haven’t seen her in months. Don’t let this day ruin that moment. We’ve been together for five years. I can’t let her worry about what’s been going on with me. She’s got too much on her plate already. I need to be strong...for her.
He looked at the sticky note he left attached to the corner of the photo. It read: “You are everything I could ever want. I always dream of you, for you are my Evening Star.
~~~
“So how have things been at Vanhoover State?” said Gloomy Dusk, taking a sip of his latte.
“Great. The classes are pretty easy. Well...at least for me,” replied Evening Star.
Both of them were sitting at an outdoor table in front of a local cafe in central Vanhoover, enjoying the calm weather and the smell of coffee.
“Braggy much?” he joked.
“Oh, stop it, you!” Evening let out a giggle. She parted some of her bright blue and magenta mane to the side to reveal more of her cornflower blue face. “So how’s work?”
“Things are...okay right now. I met a new intern. He doesn’t talk much, so we both got along fast.” Both ponies chuckled. “So what about you? How’s the daycare job so far?”
“Oh, I love it so much! The little foals really seem to like me. I’ve even seen their moms take notice and wish I was working there more often,” said Evening. She looked down in disappointment. “I just wish I wasn’t so busy in college. Those foals are just so cute and adorable; the way they coo when left in their playpen, and the way their eyes shine when you bottle feed them.”
Gloomy gave an appreciative look to Evening. Evening's cutie mark of a purple cloud with a bright blue shooting star going into it was a reflection of the comfort and joy she brought to little ones. He envied how much she liked her job. “Sounds like it’s the perfect fit for you, huh Eve?”
“Definitely. And thank you so much for pitching in to help me become a foal nurse.” She put a hoof on Gloomy’s foreleg and gave him a gentle kiss. “I really appreciate it.”
The act warmed his heart and made him feel deeply entranced by her smile. “Don’t mention it, Eve." As Evening removed her hoof, he looked down at it to admire the purple bracelets she wore to represent her contributions to the foal care & adoption programs she supported. "So back to Vanhoover. Did you meet anypony new?”
Evening Star thought a bit, then suddenly remembered. “Oh, I never told you about him.”
“Him? Him who?”
“My roommate. His name is Teddy Bear.”
“Teddy Bear? What’s he all about?”
“He’s like this big tall earth pony who’s kinda southern but not too southern, used to work on a farm...”
“Is he studying agriculture or something like that?” Gloomy teased.
“Actually, he’s studying Ecology. He wants to become a wildlife preserver. He’s pretty smart too. In fact, he scored one of the highest in class on his entry test.”
“Well, maybe I should meet him sometime.”
“Ya sure, sometime…” Evening’s smile faded for a moment as her eyes stared off to the side. Then perking up again, she gave him another quick kiss on the lips. “Well I wish we could spend more time together, but I really have to head back.”
“Oh...ok” Gloomy quickly pulled himself out of the moment. They both got up from their seats and gave each other a deep hug. As Evening started to walk away, Gloomy called to her,“Hey! I love you!”
Evening stopped and looked back. She hesitated shortly before saying, “I love you too.”
~~~
About a month had passed and Gloomy had started becoming anxious over his long-distance relationship with Evening Star. After their last visit, he had sent letters to her several times but had gotten no reply. He began to wonder if they were growing apart. Gloomy decided to take a leap of faith.
It’s been five years, but is it the right time?
Gloomy had thought about this decision many months beforehand, but he was convinced that it was now or never at this point. He made his way to the nearest jewelry store. After about an hour, he walked out with a white shopping bag.
Traveling back to Vanhoover, Gloomy predicted Evening would be at the cafe around 1:00 pm because he knew that was the time when her lunch break began, and the cafe was her favorite place to go that was nearby. As he walked there, Gloomy began to sweat.
Evening...will you… Uh… Evening, may I… no. Evening Star, will you please take…
The closer he got, the more it started to sink in. He was finally going to do it. He was going to propose to her.
When he made it to the cafe, he decided to hide in some far off bushes to spy out the place. He wanted to surprise her first and possibly hide the ring somewhere special.
I could hide it in her purse. Ya! I’ll switch it with her makeup when she’s not looking, and then I’ll tell her she has something on her muzzle. I’ll suggest she look in a mirror, and she’ll naturally reach for her powder. Oh, she’ll love it!
Gloomy scanned the exterior of the cafe for a few minutes until, suddenly, he spotted her. “There she is,” Gloomy whispered. Evening Star was sitting at one of the outside tables sipping her usual coffee and reading the morning newspaper.
Okay, so now I just have to think of a way to distract her so-
He was unable to finish his thought when he noticed Evening raise her head to look at somepony approaching.
Wait, who’s this?
A large orange earth pony with a yellow scruffy mane walked up to greet her. Her smile was beaming when she got up to greet him as well. They both gave each other a deep hug and then sat down. Gloomy looked puzzled by this stallion he had never met before, and then he saw the earth pony’s cutie mark. It resembled a stuffed toy bear.
Is…? Is that Teddy Bear? I mean I guess it’s him, but what is he doing here?
He watched on as they both talked, becoming ever so interested in her girlfriend’s facial expressions.
She looks so happy, just like I remember when she first met me.”
The next thing that happened shocked Gloomy. As the earth pony got up to use the restroom, he gave Evening Star a passionate kiss on the lips. The gaze they shared that followed destroyed any doubt in Gloomy’s mind as to what was going on.
Gloomy felt more sorrow than anger as tears started to form under his eyes.
She’s...she’s...cheating on me?
Gloomy tried desperately to deny what he had just witnessed, but the mental image of that kiss had burrowed itself deep into his mind. He wanted so bad to run away and hide from this situation, but he knew he had to face her.
As soon as the earth pony went deeper inside the restaurant, Gloomy jumped out of the bushes and quickly made his way across the street and right up to Evening’s desk. She barely had any time to react as he sat down opposite to her and glared deep into her eyes.
“Umm...hey Gloomy, what are you doing here?” Evening started to become uncomfortable as her boyfriend continued to just stare at her. “Is something alright?”
After a moment of silence Gloomy spoke up “Why? After all these years, why did you decide to do this to me?”
“What...do you mean?”
“You know Celestia damn well what I mean! Why are you cheating on me!?” Ponies at nearby tables turned to look at him. Gloomy had rarely ever shouted at anyone before, so even he was surprised by his sudden outburst.
Evening was increasingly nervous until she saw tears forming in his eyes, and then she relented. “So...you know then? But how did you- Wait...were you spying on me?”
“Ya, I was! And I saw you kissing your roommate.”
Evening was trying to get Gloomy to lower his voice as he was drawing too much attention. “Why were you spying on me?”
“Because…because…” Gloomy took a moment to think. “It doesn’t matter why! What matters is why would you go out with somepony behind my back!?”
Evening sighed. “I’m sorry, Gloomy, but you’re...not enough.”
“What do you mean not enough?” His volume was more controlled yet became more vicious. “We went to dinners together, I sent you love letters, spent nights talking and cuddling…” He started to feel a frog in his throat. “I even supported you when you wanted to become a nurse. Is that not enough?”
Evening took a deep breath and exhaled before she spoke. “You’re a coward, Gloomy. Ever since I met you in highschool, you never stood up for yourself. You kept trying to find the easy way out, but you always ended up feeling sorry for yourself because you wish you could’ve done more. I thought it was cute at first. I thought maybe I could teach you how to be better...but you never changed. You were always the weak, sad, love-needing sob story in my life. I don’t want to pity a stallion more than I love him.”
Gloomy’s heart dropped as he heard those words come out of what was normally a cheerful mouth. “So why didn’t you just leave me then?”
“...Because then you’d stop paying for my classes.” It pained her to say that.
Gloomy’s tear ridden eyes became wide in disbelief. He said faintly to her, “You...bitch.”
Evening didn’t reply but merely accepted the insult. Their painful staring was only broken by the sound of a deep masculine voice.
“Hey honey, I’m back-” The tall earth pony took notice of the other pony who occupied his chair. “Uh...hey there.” He could see Gloomy’s eyes were glowing red from all the tears, so he turned to her. “Uh...what’s goin’ on, Eve? Is this a bad time?”
Without looking at him, she said, “Everything’s fine, Tedd. We just need some time alone.”
“No, stay,” said Gloomy in an angry sarcastic tone. He looked at Evening. “Why don’t you tell him what’s going on? He does know, right?”
Evening gave a shameful nod. It took only a few seconds for Teddy to understand what was happening. “Oh...I see. So he’s…?” His question was met with another slow nod from her.
“Gloomy...I think that you should go.” Evening Star looked at Gloomy’s sorrowful expression. It made her pity him even more.
“Go? Go where?” He started to tear up again. “I hate my job. I hate my apartment. I hate my life. The only real thing I cared about was you. And now I have nothing.”
Evening started getting emotional. “I-I’m sorry, I just can’t talk to you.” She began crying. As she tried to get up from her chair, Gloomy grabbed her by her left hoof. “Let go, Gloomy,” she demanded. Teddy became alert as she struggled to free herself from his grip. “I said LET GO!” Suddenly freeing herself from his grip, she stumbled backwards. Some of the spectating ponies nearby gasped in response.
Teddy immediately went up to Gloomy and pressed his hoof on his neck. The chair started to lean back a little. “Listen here, buddy. I know it’s hard what you’re goin’ through, but you and her? It’s OVER. And if you ever put your hooves on her again or even come close to her, I will break you in two. Do you understand me?” The pressure from Teddy’s hoof made Gloomy start to choke. He answered the big behemoth with a nod and the earth pony relinquished his grip. Teddy went to comfort his girlfriend, and then they both departed from the cafe.
Gloomy was left sitting by himself in silence. Then, he got up and walked back to his old hiding spot. He reached into the bushes to pull out the ring he had spent hundreds of bits on. He stared at it for a moment before walking to the nearest trash can and dropping it inside.