Silver and Scarlet were already sitting at the table, chatting and watching the sun rise over the horizon when the guests came down to meet them. “The range on that thing’s amazing! I’m so glad you were able to get it all up and running last night.”
“Me too! I didn’t think I’d be able to get it all calibrated in one night, but they’ve really streamlined the whole process on the newer models.”
“I just love seeing you get in the zone with this kind of stuff, it makes me happy that you’re happy.” He noticed the trio entering the room, pausing his discussion. “Oh hey, good morning! Hopefully you all slept well?”
“We’re still a little-” Emily began before Dazzle cut in.
“Oh absolutely! It was so nice to just curl up and relax after the long flight.” Dazzle cheerfully interjected.
“Well that’s great to hear. Please, take a seat and we’ll get some breakfast for you, we’ve got a big day ahead of us and I’d like to get you set up with the weather team as soon as possible.”
The three took their place at the table and sat in silence as they ate their breakfast.
“Pssst, you ever going to introduce me to your new friends?” Scarlet asked in a whisper.
Silver looked back over at Scarlet, nervously chuckling, “Sorry, this is Scarlet, my marefriend and the best astronomer in the Oasis—”
“I’m also the only astronomer here, but thanks for the compliment,” she interjected with a smile. “I hate to just make an introduction and leave, but I’ve got some more work that I need to get done before I get to sleep today.”
“Wait, who’s going to give them the grand tour?”
She flashed Silver a wide grin, “Why you of course.”
“Me? But I need to go meet up with Stanley and talk about the operational changes that we’re—”
“—Oh come on, Stanley knows that this is more important. Besides, you wouldn’t want to leave our new friends to just figure it all out on their own right?”
He glanced back to them, “Well.. er— no, I wouldn’t. I apologize, if you guys are all finished up here we can head over to the weather team.”
“That’d be great, I’d like to see what they’re able to do and then we can go from there. The sooner we see them the better.”
“Right, follow me, I’ll give you a little tour of the town while we’re at it.” He leaned in to drape a wing over Scarlet and give her a hug, “I’ll see you after work, have fun in the observatory!”
“Thanks, I will!”
He stood up and walked towards the door, leading the trio outside. “Alright, they’re on the opposite side of town, we’ll fly over there, but make sure you stick by me.” He gestured around at the framed buildings, “This is still an active construction area so in the interest of safety, it's best to keep away from those.”
“I think we can manage that.”
Silver nodded and took to the sky, leading the trio along, pointing out a few details along the way. “So right now we’re over what I like to call Old Town, It’s what’s left of the original town, and it’s where all our amenities are right now.”
He pointed over to a cozy-looking building that was currently the largest hub of non construction activity, “That’s basically our rec center, we’ve got a little bar and theater set up in there, though if I’m going to be honest with you calling it a theater is being very generous at best, we’ve got a projector and an old screen set up on one side of the room. It’s still fun all the same though.”
He excitedly gestured over at the little mountainous hill at the edge of town, “Oh and we’ve got a great little campsite and hiking trail over there! It’s not my preferred brand of activity, but Scarlet loves to stargaze over there so I find myself over there more often than not.”
“I actually almost wouldn’t mind vacationing here for real, quaint and cozy.”
“Well hey, when you’re all done please feel free to enjoy the sights, tell your friends too, the more word we get out about this place the better!”
“I’m sure Sapphire would love to hear all about this place when she gets back from studying on Equestria. Well… she’ll make us explain it all anyways.”
Silver gazed down at the group of pegasi that were currently running through their usual morning warm up. “Ah perfect, the team’s all out and about, I believe they wanted to show you what they’re capable of doing.”
He came to a graceful stop next to his assistant, Diamond Glider, leaning in and lowering his voice a little. “Hey Diamond, these are the new visitors, they’re going to help you guys out but they want to see what you're all capable of first. Is the team all set up for the demonstration?”
“Yep, we’re all set to go, they wanted to make sure that they’re properly warmed up to really showcase what we can do.”
“Alright, they know this doesn’t need to be perfect right?”
“Absolutely, you know how Tinker is though, he’s more of a scientist than a weather pony but he’s one of our best all the same.”
Silver nodded, “Alright, go ahead and round ‘em up, I need to run off and get some stuff done before I wrap up for the day, you can cover this right?”
“Yeah, no sweat man. I’m assuming you’ll meet up for dinner at the usual time?”
He shook his head, “No, I’ll be up a little earlier just because they’re probably still getting used to the time difference.”
Diamond scrunched his face into a concerned grimace, “That can’t be healthy… but hey, you’re the boss.”
Silver nodded his head, “It probably isn’t, but waking up a little earlier a few days in a row won’t kill me.”
“I see, well you do you.”
Dazzle cleared her throat, getting Silver’s attention. “Sorry to interrupt, you wanted to show us the weather team?”
“Ah yes, sorry about that, just some directorial business popping up, you know, fun stuff,” He waved over at Diamond, “This is my assistant, Diamond Glider, he’ll be here to answer all of your questions while I’m away. I hate to just leave you guys here, but I need to get a little work done before bed, but I’ll meet up with you guys again for dinner.”
“No worries, no worries at all, I’m sure you’re a very busy pony.”
“I’m glad you can understand, besides, Diamond’s more qualified to discuss this stuff, he is a pegasus after all.”
“Yep, so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask them.”
He glanced up at the sky just in time to greet Tinker and the rest of the pegasus team. “Oh, perfect timing!”
A red pegasus landed first and stepped forward to greet the group, “Greetings! Name’s Tinker, one of the main researchers here, as I understand it you’re here to help us out?”
“We sure are, isn’t that right Will?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, if you can show us what you’re able to do we can figure out how to address what you’re unable to do. Does that make sense?”
“It certainly does, we’re a bit rough, but I can assume you’re probably already expecting that.”
Will nodded his head.
Silver cut in, “Well, if you’re all set here I’m going to go ahead and take my leave. I can’t wait to hear about this later, thanks again for doing this, see you all at dinner.”
Tinker stepped aside, gesturing to the rest of the team, “Alright, so here’s the the team, we have Zipper, Ocean Breeze, Blue Spring, Golden Atlas, Emerald River, Spectra, and lastly, Kevin, the Intern.”
“The intern...”
The green pegasus rolled his eyes, “I got press ganged into weather duty. I’m from Florida and apparently all the humidity must mean I’m some kind of cloud expert or something.”
“And where are the others from?”
Tinker spoke up, much to Kevin’s delight, “Oh, all over the place. Zipper and Ocean are from Nevada, Spring’s from Colorado, Atlas is from lower Michigan, Emerald’s from Texas, and Spectra is from Alaska; she’s one of the few who was actually fully transformed up there.”
She looked at Atlas, “Lower Michigan? Ah, so you’re a troll! Where you from? Petoskey? Traverse?” she started to guess waiting for him to answer to one. “Bay City? Detroit? Flint?”
Atlas smiled, “Ann Arbor actually, I wound up catching ETS working at Detroit Metro and decided to head out west after everything blew over and travel was unblocked. Heard a lot of buzz about the pony communities out here but I honestly didn’t really buy into it all, wound up passing through Phoenix trying to get back home and that’s where I heard about this place. Thought it was an interesting idea and well, now I’m here.”
“Well if you ever make your way further north look us up, maybe get you some real time in the clouds.”
He nodded, “Yeah sure, I wanted to go back and visit some family sometime, I’ll definitely have to stop by when I’m up there.”
Dazzle nodded her head with a smile, turning back towards Diamond, “And what about you, are you a part of the team?”
Diamond cleared his throat, “Me? No, I’m Silver’s assistant and the interim director when he’s away. I’d love to work in the team but that’s just not possible.”
“Well this whole charade is meant to train your pegasi in what we’ve been able to learn on our own and with what Equestria has been allowed to tell us. So if you want to join in on any of the lessons please feel free to do so. I understand if you’re a little busy but you’re more than welcome if you have the time.”
“Alright, well… I’ll definitely think about it,” Diamond looked over to Tinker, “Are you guys ready to show them?”
Tinker nodded, “It’s not much, but let’s run through a few things. I guess a good starting point would be showing you what clouds we can make, and go from there.”
The team took to the skies in unison, proceeding to quickly but clumsily form a series of weak cirrus clouds, moving them around a little before bringing them to a stop.
Dazzle looked around at the wispy clouds, turning back towards Diamond, “Well… that wasn’t… bad. But I can see how you’re making some missteps right from the get go and that’s stopping you from actually doing what you want to do. But you all clearly have the ability so it’s just a little different mindset you need to work on.”
The white pegasus flew up and tried to stand on the clouds but they almost immediately fell apart. “First mindset is that you probably should have tried to find a source of moisture, ‘cause really the air around here is just going to be way too dry,” she said and the weather team looked mostly embarrassed for the simple mistake.
“What have you considered for a water collection system? You have a river, did you plan to use it at all?” Will pointedly asked.
“Did we have plans for that?” Tinker looked over to Diamond for the answer.
“Not at the moment,” he answered with a brief pause. “There’s an old well that supplies just enough for drinking water, but it’s really inefficient for anything else.”
“I suggest you come up with something for the river you said runs through the valley,” Will said, idly scratching at some dirt with a hoof in thought. “You could power a pump with a water wheel to collect it in a simple tower to provide enough pressure to get it over here. Pipes, or if you don’t want to do a tower do an aqueduct, but that’s going to require some decent engineering to map out the slope properly.”
Diamond bit down on his lower lip considering the proposal. “I see, well I suppose we have a couple projects we can put on the backburner, this is more important than they are. I know Silver will agree so I’ll go ahead and get that put into motion as soon as I can.” He looked back over to Will, “Did you come here with plans already thought up for this? We have ponies that could get some drafted up if you don’t.”
“Not exactly like that, but I kind of do in my head. But you’ll need to keep in mind that I can only give you a plan, you’ll need to modify the basic outline to work with your setup. You can’t just plop down complex machinery and expect it to work. You’ll need to scout out locations on the riverbank with good consistent water flow, you don’t want a bunch of stagnant river water for this after all.”
“Maybe they could even set up a misting system around town, it’d give you some definite advantages if you needed to create clouds at a moment’s notice,” Dazzle added.
Diamond nodded. “I’ll pencil that into the plans, I’m sure Silver would have no problem at all with it, plus the residents would probably enjoy it, especially when it gets really hot in the summer.”
Dazzle looked at him dubiously. “Are you actually taking notes or do you have some weird memory thing?”
He smiled and gestured down to his foreleg, “Notes, it’s a voice recorder so I’ll just play this back to Silver later, saves the frustration of having to tediously write everything out. I’d love to get actual voice transcription working but that’s a long ways away.”
“Kay, well, the other major issue I caught was that you guys don’t really have good team coordination, you should really have somepony who’s clearly the leader to direct, rather than expecting everyone to be on the same page.”
“Who should the captain be?” Tinker interjected, a look of concern spread across his face.
“That’s something we can’t really say, your team is going to have to chose the pony they feel best fits the job. You’re going to want to find a pony who’s a strong flier but is also a good leader. You can’t just have a bunch of brawn with no brains. Why don’t you all take a break and try to decide amongst yourselves. If you can’t decide, we could always try a bunch of drills with each getting a turn to see who naturally fits.”
The assembled team nodded amongst themselves and began their discussion.
Dazzle watched as the team practiced the same routine as earlier, though this time led by their newly elected captain, a gray pegasus with a white, purple, and black mane and an annoyingly large ego. He wouldn’t have been her top pick, but if that’s who the team had decided on she would respect their choice, however weak it was.
The team came to another landing as the captain glided forward, introducing himself. “Hey there, the name’s Zipper, all my friends just call me Zip though. How’d we do now Daz?”
She rolled her eyes, “It’s Dazzle. That was definitely a lot better, but you guys still have a lot of work to do. You should really practice a little more, just so you can get comfortable working as a team, that’s by far the most important thing you need to be successful.”
Diamond looked towards the team and nodded, “Alright, that’s you guys.” He cleared his throat, “So Dazzle, do you happen to have those plans? I’d like to run them by the construction team as soon as possible, they’ll be able to get everything figured out.”
“I do, but they’re really only good to use as examples. You’re going to need specialized plans that work with the area here, Will can help you out with that. Did you go ahead and scout out some areas like we talked about?”
Diamond nodded, “We did, we had a few options but I think we’ve narrowed it down to one that should suit us best.”
“Alright, well go ahead and show Will, he’ll work on getting some actual plans drawn up for you.”
“You got it,” He looked towards Will, “It’s right over this way, the crew’s already set up there.”
Zipper, touched down with his team. “Alright guys, take five, we’ll jump back into routine 4 after.” He trotted over to Dazzle, greeting her cheerfully, “Hey Dazzle! What do you think so far? Think we might be good to go on some of the more advanced stuff?”
“You guys have definitely gotten the hang of this, if you feel like your team can handle something a little more advanced we can give it a try.”
“Of course we can! You saw how we handled up there right? I mean we’re not perfect but how hard could this be?”
“Just keep practicing and we’ll get to that. Patience is important.”
Zipper rolled his eyes and reluctantly directed his team, “Alright well I guess we’re doing some more beginner stuff.”
Diamond and Will flew above the site, shouting directions down to the crew below, “Alright, go ahead and stage the piping over there, we’ll lay it out once we have the collection system set up.”
He looked towards Will, “What are we going to be using for the collection system?”
“Nothing too complex, just a simple water tower with a little waterwheel to help pump the water in, it should give enough pressure to get the water all the way to town so you guys don’t need to fly out so far just to get water. It also leaves room open for upgrades and expansions if you guys decide you need to do that.”
“I see. Is the system designed to be easily upgradeable like that?”
“Easy is such a vague term. It’ll depend on what you get and what you want to upgrade with.”
“Right…” He flew down to the foreman, “Go ahead and put in an order for a water tower and wheel, that’ll go right there along the riverbank per Will’s instructions.”
The foreman nodded, “Going to take a week or two before we’ll be able to get one, but I’ll put the order in ASAP. What should we do in the meantime?”
“Just the basic stuff, clear and level the land for where the tower is going to sit, if you want you can figure out how you want the pipes to be placed. I’m not a construction pony so if you think it’s better to get that all set up before you have the tower in place, then be my guest, as long as it’s not going to be an issue for you later,” Diamond said as he came to a landing.
The foreman looked to his team, “Alright, well you heard him. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can break for lunch.”
The team sprung into action, following their instructions and laying out all of the prepwork while the foreman ran back to the office to send in his orders.
Dazzle continued her lesson, flying around the team, “So you guys need to learn how to properly form clouds, there’s not a lot of air moisture here, so for now you’re going to have to find sources of water to use,” She gestured towards the nearby river, “Hopefully you all realized that it’s your best friend right there, we’re going to get a collection system set up so you won’t have to fly all the way out here, but for now you’re going to have to. Show me that routine you all did earlier, but use the river as an aid this time.”
“You want us to just do the basic level stuff again? We already know how to do that, how ‘bout you show us something a little more advanced, I think I’m up to the task!” Zipper smugly said as he flew a few circles around her.
“Look, I don’t think you realize what the more advanced stuff is, you keep pushing to do more but I don’t see anything from you warranting it. Did you just get those wings? You fly like a drunk monkey and can’t even do basic weather patterns.”
“What?! I’m an amazing flyer!”
“You wanna actually prove it?”
“You bet I do! How bout a race? An obstacle course through the city? If you’re such hot shit then you’ll have no trouble beating me.”
“I guess there’s time for me to give a little demonstration, Tell you what. You win the race and I’ll show you whatever you want to learn. However, if I win you’re going to zip your lip and let me teach you the way I want,” she started to laugh to herself and looked over to Will, “Hey can you help me set the course up? I’ll make us up some clouds for obstacles but I want you to place them all so it’s random and fair for both of us.”
He smugly smiled, “Cool, can’t wait to learn all those advanced tricks you’re holding out on when I win.”
Dazzle shrugged before taking off to gather moisture from the river to form the clouds.
“Hey Zip, aren’t you going to help setup too?”
“Of course not, she’s obviously all talk. I bet they’re not even showing us better stuff cause they can’t do it themselves. Plus It’ll be waaayy more embarrassing for her if she makes the course and gets left in the dust. I’m the Captain for a reason right?”
He rolled his eyes, “Alrighty, well they’re these big weather hot shots and you’re some carney from Nevada… Just make sure you’re thinking this through okay?”
“I mean I’ve already won, why do you think she’s even doing this? It’s all some bluff, why else would she hold back so much from us?” He flew around the air in a few circles, striking a dramatic pose as he came to a clumsy land.
Diamond shrugged, “Alright, well I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into…”
The pair flew over the river, carefully crafting different cloud obstacles and positioning them off to the side for Will to place before the big race.
“Go easy on him Daz, do you really want to embarrass him in front of his team?” Will asked as he quickly dove through a cluster of clouds, effortlessly creating a series of rings that he then began to refine.
“Oh yea,” she nodded her head, flying over to help move the new rings, “He’s in desperate need of someone to knock him down a few pegs so he can actually lead his team instead of showboating around constantly. I know it’s harsh but sometimes you have to be harsh if you want to really see somepony be successful.”
“Alright, that’s fine, but do you think it’s going to actually help? I mean we hardly even know these ponies, we have less than a week to get them into shape,” He asked, coming to a hover.
“Uh huh, he needs to learn that he’s supposed to be doing a job, and if it takes being a little harsh and trimming his wings a bit than I’m willing to do it.”
“I just hope you’re right, if it winds up driving a wedge between him and the rest of the team it’s only going to make our jobs a lot harder.”
“Well that’s my problem to worry about then. Your job is to figure out a way to get this all to work with your talent. So are you just questioning my methods or are you getting the itch to tell me this won’t help?” she asked seriously.
Will didn’t immediately answer before sighing. “I’m just not a fan of all this posturing.”
“You’re such a softie,” she teased. “So that will just leave their ground crew getting their collection and distribution system up. While we need to whip them into a team that can work together. And if we have time start them on cloud anchoring and how to figure out microclimates. I honestly don’t know how they live out here like this, it’s so relentlessly hot you can’t get comfortable.”
“Agreed on that. But… you’re just trying to show him up, right? He’s trying really hard to impress you, I think he likes you.”
“He’s not exactly been subtle about it.”
“You mean you weren’t impressed by his little show earlier when he puffed his wings up and pranced around bragging about himself?”
Dazzle slowly turned to look at Will with a flat humorous stare. “This is my impressed face.”
Will and Diamond flew back over, nodding to the two pegasi, “Alright Daz, we’ve got the course all set up, you guys are all set to go whenever you’re ready.”
She nodded, turning towards the interim director, “Hey Diamond, would you mind overseeing the race for us?”
Diamond’s face lit up with confusion and then joy, “Huh? Oh, not at all, this is kind of cool. I never get to do any of the fun stuff, that’s usually Silver’s domain.”
“Wonderful!” She dropped the cheerful facade and turned towards the cocky pegasus, “Are you all ready Zipper?”
He did a little trot in place, flaring his wings out as if to make a point, “Ha, I was born ready! Go ahead and count us down Diamond!”
The pegasus nodded his head, “Mhm,” he cleared his throat, “Alright, the first pony to make it through the course and back is the winner, on your marks, get set…. GO!”
In an instant the two were off, quickly flying through the outskirts and around a handful of cloud barriers, gradually increasing their altitude. The remaining weather team watched on in delight as their captain immediately pushed forward, taking an early lead for the first checkpoint.
Zipper looked over towards Dazzle, smugly shouting out to her, “Ha, this is an obstacle course? I could fly through this with my eyes closed!”
“Oh this? This is just the warm up, the real race starts up ahead.”
Zipper looked ahead at the various cloud rings that were scattered all throughout the area.
“This is your challenge?! Ha, alright. See you at the finish line!”
Dazzle smirked and shot forward, effortlessly banking through the first few rings and around the framed buildings, Zipper beginning to struggle as he followed close behind. He quickly banked through one of the buildings and around City Central, briefly glancing into the window of Silver’s office, pulling forward just enough to beat her to the last ring.
He continued through the next stretch of the course, continuing to hold the lead, “You get lost back there or something? First place sure feels great!” He made a few overly dramatic swoops to emphasize his point, not drawing a reaction from Dazzle in the slightest.
“Oh no, how ever will I beat you now?” she replied back in mock concern, continuing to keep her pace.
A few more tight banks through the framed buildings followed by a sharp dive down led them around to the Old Town stretch, where a vast array of cloud barriers were set up, easy enough obstacles for any competent pegasus to navigate around. He began to laugh at the simplicity of it, “Ha, easy money!” He sped forwards skillfully navigating between the barriers, following through to the final checkpoint. A seemingly simple combination of the previous two obstacles now sat before him. A small twinge of confusion ran through his head as he could hardly believe that the home stretch could be such a simple challenge.
He effortlessly glided through the first few obstacles, smugly glancing back towards Dazzle who was still holding her relaxed pace, meeting him with an indifferent look. Not seeing the reaction he had wanted, he broke into another round of dramatic swoops and rolls, hoping to make a spectacle for the onlookers below. Dazzle began to slowly pick up the pace while Zipper was distracted with his theatrics, a smug grin beginning to creep across her face as he took the bait.
The two raced through the sky, dodging and weaving between an increasingly narrow and complex field of clouds, nearing the final stretch of the race. Dazzle continued to push forward slowly but steadily until the two were neck and neck. The two racers entered a narrow stretch of clouds, forcing them closer together. As they continued to press forward the walls began to narrow into tighter turns, forcing the cocky pegasus to slow his velocity just long enough for Dazzle to suddenly blow past him in a blur of color, rolling through the turn and navigating through the remaining obstacles with casual ease to put herself firmly in the lead much to Zipper’s dismay.
She effortlessly flew through the remainder of the course, taking each obstacle in rapid succession, without any hesitation. Zipper was starting to get desperate, and in a blind rush began to increase his pace, crashing through any obstacle he couldn’t immediately clear, desperately trying to regain his stolen lead. He struggled to stop the distance from growing, watching as she passed through the finish line with a decisive lead.
“Dazzle wins!” Diamond cheerfully called out and the team let out an excited cheer.
Zipper came to a land, worn out from the race but still feeling up to fighting for his pride. He began to shout over to her in between pained breaths, “That’s… that’s not fair, you knew that turn was coming up!”
“Yeah? And so did you, I had no hoof in setting up the course past making obstacles. You’ve got the same two eyes as me,” Dazzle said with a smug smirk and sounding barely winded.
“I…”
“Listen, up north we didn’t just choose our names, we wanted to earn them. Maybe you earned yours by needing to zip your lip.”
“I… No...” he said, lowering his ears and turning away.
“Oh? Well do me a favor and try it out some time. You might think yourself a fancy flyer, but you’re part of a team, so work on building them up rather than showing yourself off.”
Silver walked into his office and laid down on the soft cushion that was set up in front of the large floor to ceiling windows, closing his eyes and shutting out the rest of the world around him. His breathing slowed and his face was devoid of any expression. To any normal passerby it would appear that the director had simply fallen asleep sitting up, however that was far from the truth. He often spent his nights meditating like this, keeping an eye on the Oasis’ sleeping residents and enjoying the relative peace that the experience brought.
He gazed out at the vast field of stars, noting the ones that shined brighter than the rest. These particular dreams were the ones of his friends and family, the brighter they shined the closer he personally was to the pony. He ventured towards a few of the brighter ones, trying to get a sense of the dreams within, pleased that there were no nightmares to be seen tonight.
This wasn’t an actual part of his job as Director, but it was something that he felt was important. Maybe it was his night pony instincts kicking in, but he felt that he owed it to his residents to make sure that they were able to dream in peace. More importantly, it helped him get a sense of what needed to be done and whether his ponies were happy or sad. Dreams had a strange way of reflecting one’s inner feelings, and as such this was one of the most valuable tools he had at his disposal.
A sudden rocking pulled him from his trance as the dream realm dissolved away from his vision, quickly returning him to the waking world. He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to get his bearings after the sudden transition.
“Hey Silver, sorry for the wake up call, you have a guest though.”
He looked up at Scarlet and rubbed his eyes, “A guest?”
“Yeah,” she gestured towards the glass door with a wing, “One of the visitors.”
“Oh, well my bad, please let them in,” he paused, “Are you staying or are you heading back to the Observatory?”
“I’ll probably head over there if you don’t mind. Wanna meet up later?”
“Of course, I can’t wait to see what you’ve got all set up there.”
“We’ll talk later, don’t just leave our guest standing around okay?”
“Alright, well have fun.”
“I sure will, see you later,” She walked out of the room, nodding to Emily along the way.
Emily looked on in curiosity, slowly walking into the office, “So were you meditating or dreamwalking?”
“Both,” he answered. “Helps me keep an eye on the city when everypony’s asleep. I find that it brings me a sort of peace unlike anything else. Do you want to join me? We can chat while I check on the residents.”
She shook her head, “No, I’d rather not, I don’t dreamwalk anymore. Other night ponies think something is wrong with me, but I just don’t enjoy the experience.”
“Mhm… I’ve been there before. I used to stick to my own dreams all the time, kind of drove me crazy for a while but it was the only way I felt like I could really be in control of my situation,” he paused for a moment, “I noticed before that you keep using human pronouns… is there a reason why?”
She shrugged, “I just don’t really see a point in using pony pronouns, it’s not like I really wanted to be a pony but that choice was taken from me,” she gestured down to her cutie mark, sparking a realization in Silver.
He paused for a moment, reflecting on his own situation, before nodding his head in agreement, “I’ve been there too… I wasn’t too thrilled when it sank in that there wasn’t a going back. A lot of humans in my hometown kind of avoided me like the plague and I started keeping to myself more than I should have. It’s sort of rare to meet another pony who hasn’t embraced their new selves, and I used to think that maybe I was alone in it.”
“I thought there was something wrong with me until I met Will. He won’t ever admit it but he has accepted it more than me, but it’s been really nice having someone who hasn’t left it all behind.”
“This might be a personal question, but how does it work out between you two? I mean, you’re a night pony and he’s a day pony, doesn’t that make it hard for you to spend time together?”
“It does come with complications. It’ll probably never be easy to be on such different schedules, but we just sort of clicked. Though if I’m being honest like a pony is supposed to be,” she rolled her eyes. “We do sort of grate on each other’s nerves enough that regular breaks works out well.”
“I can’t imagine that it’s ever going to be easy, but good on you two for at least trying to make it work out. Feeling like you’re all alone in the world is such a brutal experience and I would never wish it upon anypony.”
“Would you ever go back if you could?”
“Go back… as in rehumanize?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah. If getting your cutie mark wasn’t the end of the line, would you go back?”
He struggled to give an immediate answer, finding himself lost in thought for a moment, “You know, sometimes I ask myself that. It’s hard to answer that question when I look at how much I’ve gained in the last few months despite what I’ve lost. Sure, I could be bitter about losing my humanity and former way of life, but I’ve met somepony that loves me for who I am and we feel so sure in our relationship that we’ve already got a foal on the way. I never would have met her if ETS hadn’t happened and I could never give any of this up just to go back to where I was before.”
“I guess that’s a good point, I might have never met Will if this hadn’t happened.”
“You can still be unhappy about it, it’s only natural to be. Your entire life was changed against your will, even if a lot of good came out of it. I’m still not perfectly happy with everything, but that’s why I want this place to be a success, if we can find a way to make a better world for others than this might not be such a bad thing in the long run. What about you? Would you go back now if you could?”
“I can’t say, everyone I know or care about was changed by ETS, for a while I was shocked to even see a human. It’s really scary to consider walking away from the life I struggled to build just so I was back in a human body that would need to start all over. It wouldn’t solve my problems anymore than becoming a pony did.”
He nodded, “That’s fair enough, there’s so many that just think that becoming a pony fixes every problem when it’s blatantly clear that it couldn’t be any further from the truth. It’s kind of nice to see others that don’t just buy into all of that, I’m honestly glad we were able to talk about this. It really gives me a different perspective on all of this.”
Silver walked over to the large windows, staring out over the valley, “It’s never going to be easy to fix those problems, but that’s what we’re trying to work towards,” He paused for a moment, “I know you’re hesitant to, but would you be willing to give dreamwalking another chance? You might be more comfortable if you’ve had a better experience.”
Emily, who had been stretching her neck out in order to see out the window immediately recoiled with a quick flick of her tail. “You’re not some Dreamwarden who’s going to make me say the vows as soon as we go in, are you?”
He chuckled, “I can assure you that I’m not, we’ll just go to the persistent dreamscape I’ve created. Nopony but us and occasionally a few friends who drop in. A perfectly peaceful place that’ll let you get the feel of it. And besides, they should have no reason to pay us a visit unless we’re breaking their rules.”
After a long moment of hesitation she nodded her head, “Alright, how do you do it while you’re awake? I’ve only ever dreamwalked while asleep.”
“It’s not as challenging as you’d think. The way some night ponies talk you’d think they were narcoleptic,” he chuckled and walked over to the couch, grabbing a few cushions off of it and set them on the floor near the window, “Here, just make yourself comfortable and close your eyes,” he instructed and Emily took a deep breath before she settled down on the cushion and closed her eyes. “Now take a few calm relaxing breathes. Don’t try to really think about anything in the physical world, seek out your connection to the dream realm and it’s not always easy the first time but sort of shrug yourself into it. Once you know what it feels like it becomes pretty easy..”
She closed her eyes and nodded her head, following his instructions as he took his own seat. For the first time in a long while she reached out to that instinctual flow of magic, focusing on it until it was all she could perceive. And then she passed some invisible threshold in a moment of relaxation, her vision immediately being engulfed by the starry expanse of the dream realm, the strange, almost alien feeling catching her off guard for a moment.
Silver felt her cross over and he quickly joined her, finding her almost easily like she was broadcasting her presence to anypony nearby. “See? You’re practically a natural,” he said reassuringly as he appeared next to her. Closing his eyes he summoned his dreamscape before them taking the form of one of the countless stars of sleeping ponies around them. “This is my dream, like I said, they won’t visit us unless they have a reason to.”
She hesitantly nodded her head before shifting into it ahead of him, “I heard you before,” she good naturedly jeered as her body vanished.
A peaceful island held in perpetual twilight shimmered into Silver’s vision around him as he entered his dreamscape. Exotic plants covered the landscape all around the island, many glowing with bioluminesce giving the place an otherworldly feel. Taking a deep and wholey unneeded breath in the dream realm, he glanced upwards towards the star filled sky, smiling as a wave of contentment and peace washed over him. Walking forward, he felt Emily come into his space at a much slower pace, but eventually the other night pony did materialize next to him, “Welcome to Somewhere!” he announced proudly.
She blinked a few times, trying to gain her bearings, and looking around at the unusual scene, “Somewhere?”
“Well it’s not Nowhere, is it?” He gestured around at the calm bay that was surrounded by large canyon walls on all sides, “It’s my home away from home, a nice peaceful island paradise that I can just build up and change to my heart’s content.”
“This… wow, I take it you spend a lot of time here?”
He shook his head, “Not exactly, I figured out a way to make a… I guess persistent dream would be the best description. I don’t have to create it from memory every time I enter the dream realm.”
“So even when you’re awake someone could come here?”
He paused for a moment, “You know, I’ve never really thought about that before, I kinda wonder if anypony’s ever paid it a visit while I’m awake. I guess we’ll have to try sometime.”
“So is this what you wanted to show me?”
Silver started to walk over to the large mountainside castle that loomed over the bay, waving Emily over, “Not this in particular, I just wanted to show you that you really don’t need to shy away from dream walking. I know you’re not a fan of the wardens, but they’ll never bother you unless you break one of the rules. It’s a risk but that urge to look out over all the stars and find a pony to help be a hard one to resist. We may not have chosen to be night ponies, but deep down we’re protectors of dreams.”
“What does this have to do with them though?” She asked as they approached a large set of doors that opened for them as they entered the large library overlooking the bay.
Silver trotted over to one of the large stained glass windows, gazing out at the dreamscape below, “I specifically started to build it because I wanted an escape from the world around me, and treading out into the dream realm meant more potential for encounters with them. It was a stupid excuse that I used to justify keeping to myself, but can you really blame me? I knew they wouldn’t bother me here unless I was breaking their rules,” He turned to look at her, “Do you ever read often? Watch movies?”
“Sometimes, it’s not really all that easy to read books with hooves. Why?”
“I used to read all the time when I wanted to relax, when I learned I could make anything I wanted in here I started pulling scenes from some of my favorite books and tried to make them here. It’s like a whole different level of relaxing for me, if you ever wanted to start doing something like this that wouldn’t be a bad place to start.”
“Is it really that easy?”
He shook his head, “No, but like anything all it takes is some practice. That’s why I asked, the clearer the visual or scene, the easier it is to craft it in here. I like to take inspiration from memories too sometimes,” He gestured towards a small house in the distance, “See that building over there?” She nodded as he continued, “That’s the home I grew up in. I don’t remember it as well as I wish I could, but it’s as close to the real thing as I can get.”
“So it’s just like remembering something but filling in the blanks on your own?”
“Exactly, if you really want to try, we can go to your own dream.”
“I think I’m alright for now, thanks for the offer though.”
“You’re welcome, I’d give it a try sometime though, it really is such a relaxing experience and you’d be surprised at the kind of things you’re able to do in a dream.”
Emily walked towards the windows, looking down at the rest of the dreamscape, “So what are all those buildings down there?”
“Those? Well they’re for friends and family, each one relates to the thing they value most,” He pointed over to the large observatory, “That one’s Scarlet’s. It’s supposed to look like the Griffith Observatory out in LA. I used to visit it all the time. Scarlet loves astronomy so I made her something in here that related to that.”
“Well that was nice of you. And what about the others?”
He smiled, “Let’s take a little walk, they’re all unique in their own right, words could never really describe them accurately.”
“Alright, well I’ll let you lead the way,” She said as she suddenly found herself outside again, catching her off guard for a moment.
“Right this way, we’ll start at the Lighthouse…” He said as he waved her along.
A couple days had passed since the big race through the Oasis. Much to Dazzle’s enjoyment the spectacle had worked out better than she ever could have hoped for. She had to admit that it may have been a bit harsh at the time, but Zipper’s attitude had improved greatly and the positive impact was definitely showing with how he directed the rest of the team. His statement had caught her off guard and she did a double take as she tried to process it.
“What’s that? I don’t believe I caught that.”
Zipper shuffled his hooves around on the dirt, raising his voice slightly so she could hear better, “I said I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? For what?” She asked, leading for him to be more clear.
He lowered his head, “For trying to be a showoff… you were right.”
She smiled, “Apology accepted. Now are you ready to lead your team?”
He jumped up, coming to a hover, “I am. We’ll go at your pace.”
“I’m glad to hear that, now go grab them and we’ll get back to work.”
Zipper nodded, taking to the skies with a newfound confidence.
Silver walked around the observatory with Scarlet, who was cheerfully talking about her new telescope, “I didn’t think I’d be able to calibrate it so quickly but they’ve really been pulling out all the stops with the newer models! Do you think you could update the one in here to match it?”
“The one in here doesn’t really work, remember?”
“Yeah of course, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work it in. I mean the new one looks so much cooler too!”
He chuckled, “Alright, where do you want it? Same place as the old one?”
She looked around the room, tapping a hoof against her chin, “No, I think you should move it over there, so it frames the mountain better.”
He nodded, shifting the room around to accommodate her request, “Like that?”
She walked around a little, taking in the view from every conceivable angle, “Hmm, maybe a little to the left?”
He shifted it as requested, “Is that better?”
“Yes, perfect!” She shouted as she hovered in the air for a few moments.
“You know, I like it. It gives the whole building a more dramatic feel,” He paused for a moment, sensing that a dreamwalker had entered the landscape, “I think we have a guest, mind if I bring them in?”
She shook her head, “Nah, go ahead.”
He nodded, warping their guest in to the center of the room, “Oh, Hey Emily… this is kind of a surprise, did you decide to give dreamwalking another try?”
“I don’t think we’ve really had a chance to chat, Emily,” Scarlet cut in before she could reply.
Silver spoke up quickly, “Don’t worry about her, Scarlet, I was just showing her what you could do in your own dream. She was a little hesitant at first because of the wardens, I was explaining that they won’t really bother you here unless you give them a reason to.”
“So what brings you here tonight then? Just stopping by or what?” She asked flatly, ignoring Silver’s explanation.
Silver stepped in between the two, “Hey, we still need to adjust the outside, let’s just step out there for a moment so you can tell me what you want changed,” He said, trying to break through the tension he could sense was starting to creep up.
“You go do that, I can keep her company here.”
“Are you sure? It shouldn’t take too long.”
“That’s fine I’ll trust you to get everything done right, you’re the architect here. I haven’t really had a chance to properly introduce myself, I think now’s a good enough time.”
“Alright, well I’ll be back,” he said hesitantly, pausing for a moment before vanishing.
Scarlet walked over slowly, “I don’t want this to get ugly, and I’m really not trying to be hostile, but Silver and I are together. So if you have any, drop any plans towards him, alright?”
Emily backed up slightly, taking a more defensive stance, “This is your idea of a proper introduction? I’m taken too you know, didn’t you notice Will and I cuddling up close during breakfast?”
“But… you’re a night pony and he’s a day pony—”
“—and what is wrong with that?”
“I, well no, but—”
“—simply put, I’m not going to try and steal Silver away from you. I don’t care about all of the night pony drama anyways.”
“Alright, well I just had to make sure, you never know who’s going to just swoop in and try to steal somepony away from you.”
She nodded her head, “I get it. Way too many night pony mares get too aggressive with that.”
“Well I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to take any chances. I kind of lucked out with the situation here, the others aren’t in any serious relationships but they’re still going to respect boundaries.”
“That’s fine. Apology accepted,” She awkwardly looked around, finally changing the subject, “So did he really make all of this?”
“Silver? Yeah, he did. It’s kind of been his little past time. I dabble in it from time to time, but I really just enjoy seeing what others can come up with a lot more. Do you ever craft dreams?”
She shook her head, “No not really… at least not since the vision. After seeing how Silver was able to craft such a tactile place I wanted to give it a try. I was coming to invite him into it to see what he thought.”
“Well since he’s busy, you care to show me? I mean if you’re comfortable doing that, that is.”
Emily paused in consideration for a few moments before nodding her head, “Thank you.”
“Let’s go let Silver know what’s up so he doesn’t panic.”
A beautiful landscape filled with green took form around her, tall leafy trees and a small field of perfectly green grass surrounded a two story white home. Taking in a full three sixty, she saw that the grass actually ran all the way down to a vast body of water. Hesitantly, she began to walk around, exploring the tranquil setting.
For a moment she forgot this was a dream until she noticed the parts of it that could only exist in the dream realm. Where she stood was clearly summer, but a short distance away sat a hill covered in a dense inviting fluffy layer of snow with wooden sleds at the top. She found herself walking towards the snow, marveling at the strangely nostalgic sight. Her thoughts going back to the years spent sledding in the mountains as a child, bringing a smile to her face. An aged wooden swing sat away from the snow on another part of the hill, the ground around it covered in fallen leaves stained in bright oranges, reds, and yellows.
Scarlet flapped her wings to fly up to the swing and landed on it carefully. In an instant her vision was filled with the sight of an endless forest whose leaves were caught in the middle of changing colors. Turning her head shifted the scene to look out over a lake without end, the sun beginning to set, reflecting off the waves like glittering diamonds. If she looked up, the sky shifted in hues, turning from sunset to night with an aurora dancing across the sky. Letting out a small sigh, she clutched her hooves to her chest, overcome with a sense of child-like wonder and amazement.
“Do you like it?” came the tentative voice of Emily behind her, “I know it’s a lot of stuff mixed together.”
Scarlet smiled, “It’s wonderful, you really have a special talent for this.”
Emily shifted around a little, “It’s really nothing special, just my childhood home on Lake Superior. It’s mostly from memory, we had to sell the house and move when I was twelve, so I don’t really remember it all that well.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, It’s amazing!”
“I saw what Silver had made and wanted to see if I could bring something to life like he did. I don’t think it’s as stable as his dreamscape, but I wanted to give it a try anyways.”
“How’d you do it? Silver’s the only pony I know who was able to do that.”
“Well I sort of used a similar method to when I spread the vision. It’s not perfect but it’s a good framework to build off of.”
Scarlet raised an eyebrow and backed up, “Wait, you’re not messing with my mind are you?! Is this why you steer clear of the wardens?—”
“No! I—Scarlet relax, I wouldn’t do that,” She sighed, “But— my special talent was spreading the vision. I got my cutie mark the first night I helped spread it.. It felt so right at the time, like I was doing something great, helping to instill ponies with good values. I never realized how wrong it was to meddle with so many minds”
“But you’re doing something good with it now right?”
“I think so… I wanted to make something that could show Will why I love the area so much, so that he’d stay instead of going back to New York. I needed an outside opinion though, to me it feels so flat without family and friends to really give meaning to these memories.”
She walked up to Emily, resting a hoof on her shoulder, “This place— and you are amazing, If he doesn’t realize that, you should dump him and get yourself a good stallion who will.”
Silver calmly walked through the hallway, leading the group with him, “Seriously, I can’t thank you all enough for this, it really means so much to us, we wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.” He said, stifling a yawn as he squinted his eyes at the sunlight that was beaming in through the windows.
Dazzle beamed, “Don’t worry about it, I’m so glad we were able to help you out. Sapphire’s always been one to say that If you can help a pony do something good, you do it.”
“I really do owe you, if there’s anything that we’re able to do for you please let us know, no matter what it is we’ll work to get it done to the best of our abilities, it’s the least we can do to repay all of your kindness.”
“I appreciate the offer, but you really don’t need to do anything, funding our trip out here was help enough.”
Silver led them out into the sunlight and to the waiting van, cheerfully replying, “Well in that case please do give Jasper and Sapphire our regards, you guys are always welcome back here.”
“I’ll definitely pass that onto them, I’m sure they’d love to hear that.”
He paused, turning towards Will and Emily, “It was really great to meet you both too, I know we’ve barely met but it’s been such a breath of fresh air to meet other ponies that felt the same way, it really makes this whole situation feel a lot more normal in a weird way.”
“I’m glad we were able to help, it was a nice change of pace for us too.”
“If you ever want to chat again I’m sure you’ll be able to find your way to Somewhere.”
“Where?” Will asked in confusion.
Emily smiled, “Don’t worry about it Will, it’s a night pony thing.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll just take your word for it,” He said as he nodded his head.
“I hope you all have a nice flight out there, I wish I could ride along with you to the airport but there’s some important work I need to get done before noon, I hope you’ll understand.”
Dazzle smiled, “Don’t worry about it, you’ve been a wonderful host, you don’t need to fret about something small like this.”
“Alright, well thanks again, if you guys ever want to make another trip down here we’re just a call away.”
“You take care Silver,” Dazzle said as she took her seat, leaving the back seat for Will and Emily.
Silver smiled and waved a final goodbye as the van pulled away, leaving the group alone again. He looked over to Diamond Glider, “Well that went unbelievably well.”
“Yeah man, it sure did. Let’s just hope Zip keeps the team in ship shape so it’s not all a waste.”
“Oh I’m sure he will, you saw how serious he took it after the race right?”
“Yeah and I saw all those glances he kept giving Dazzle, hopefully he wasn’t just putting his ego aside to try and impress her.”
“Well I guess time will tell,” He said in between yawns.
“I guess so man.”
The sun beat down on the pegasi as they continued to anchor clouds over the Oasis. It had been a week since Dazzle and Will had helped train the team and already they were putting their training to good use. Zipper hovered a short distance away, directing the team and making sure that they weren’t missing anything, “Spectra, Atlas, I need you to move that just a little to the left, there’s still a few gaps we need to fill.”
They nodded their heads and went to work, making a few small but important adjustments, “How’s this Zip? Looking better?”
“That looks perfect! I think you’ve all done your parts for now, let’s go ahead and break for lunch.”
The assembled team nodded in unison and filed down to the clear patch of dirt below as Zipper began to speak up again, “Alright, I just want to say how great of a job you’ve all done! Seriously, we’ve worked so hard and come such a long way, I couldn’t be any prouder of you all than I am right now!”
Spectra stepped forward, “Thanks Zip, what’s the plan now?”
“Relax and enjoy the nice cool shade you’ve all worked hard to make.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, there’s not really much more to do right now, so just relax, you’ve all earned it.”
“Well thanks Zip!”
The team dispersed, enjoying their own lunches while Zipper sat off to the side on his own, idly doodling in the dirt. Diamond walked up, smirking as he noticed that one of those doodles was of Dazzle’s cutie mark, “You still thinking about them Zip?”
“Huh? Oh no, just doodling random stuff, you know?”
“You know, I could always call them back up if you wanted to chat with Dazzle some more,” He commented, failing to stop the snickering from entering his voice.
He flashed him a frantic look, his face lighting up red as he quickly brushed away his doodles, “Nope that’s fine— h..hey we should probably get back to work anyways, we’ve had plenty of break time!”
Diamond snickered to himself, “Oh come on, I’m sure she’d just love to chat with you again.”
“Do you think so?!” Zipper asked hopefully.
Diamond just laughed and walked away.