The longer Tracy remained at the stall, the greater hunger and exhaustion began to weigh on him. It might seem like day, but as the sun reached noon that meant midnight in the “real” world. Six hours of sleep if he could get home right then.
He’d probably have settled for a Rockstar, if there were any for sale in an alien world. But there were no disgusting energy drinks for sale, at least not at any of the neighboring stalls.
There were more customers than he might’ve thought for a little flower stand on no particular day. But Tracy couldn’t tell what percentage of them only stopped because he was someone new, or because they saw something interesting on the table to ask about.
He was near to giving up before Rose emerged with a tray of chilled drinks and a plate of flowers to snack on. He probably would’ve ignored them, but he was so hungry.
With nothing but old curly fries on his tongue, the flowers were a welcome change. Light and crunchy, and better than any salad he could remember. That wasn’t a high bar, since Tracy had never much cared for salads in the first place.
Someone tapped the table with a claw, loud enough that he looked up from his plate. “Sorry, was just…”
The market seemed suddenly deserted. Curtains at neighboring stands had closed, or ponies were mysteriously looking the other way. A young mare with her child emerged from the edge of a street, then turned to dart the other way.
A creature towered over Tracy, taller than anything he’d yet seen in Equestria. Even his brief glimpse of their princess was small by comparison. But it was more than his sheer height—the creature defied any conception of evolution or even intelligent design. A mismatch of body parts, none quite looking like they belonged.
He smiled, but the expression never reached his red eyes. “Don’t mind me, you can finish that up. You must be exhausted.”
I know that voice. He’d only heard it a few times, but the memory had been so traumatizing that it was permanently fixed in place now. This could be only one creature. “Discord?”
The alien straightened, puffing out his chest in satisfaction. “Ah, you recognized me. Touching, Tracy. Truly I’m flattered that our first meeting was so memorable.” He ran one claw around the table. As he did, a little replica of Tracy’s car just appeared there, as though put there by the most talented magician. It drove along the edge, until it smacked into his tablet and crashed into a little fireball.
Tracy shuddered, staring at the realistic glass windows. I didn’t just see myself die, I didn’t just see myself die…
As quickly as it had come, the illusion vanished. “W-what can I do for you?” he asked, looking up into the demon’s eyes. If he didn’t look anywhere else, maybe he would be okay. “I haven’t broken my contract.”
“Not recently, no,” Discord agreed. “And fortunate you haven’t. I just dread collections. Best that we all just stay civil. I’m not here for you, I’m here to place an order for some flowers. It is a bit last-minute, but I’m sure the proprietor can arrange for me. I’d like the Spring arrangement, double sized. Marigold and Daffodil. Please.”
Tracy looked reluctantly back to his screen, but there were no horrors on it. Discord’s order was one of the options, and he punched it in without asking for a name. “When do you need it?”
“Before close,” Discord answered. “It’s for a friend’s birthday. She’s going to the party, but she’s never really been a fan of crowds. When she gets home, she’ll want something simple. This will be perfect.”
Tracy processed the order, then accepted a large pile of bits. Discord didn’t even bother counting them, just smacking down a handful without concern for their value.
“Bit of friendly advice, free of charge.” Discord leaned in close, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Many bat ponies have issues staying awake at night. See a doctor if that’s bothering you—they make great spells for it. Just remember, magic always has a price.”
Then he turned, striding confidently from the market. “You forgot your ch—” Tracy trailed off, staring down at the pile of discarded bits. He shrugged, and tossed the rest into the register beside so many others. It would have to be good enough.
A few seconds later, and the curtains behind him ruffled. He glanced back, and Rose poked out from inside, clutching the thermal paper with Discord’s order on it. “Was that…”
He nodded. “It was. My landlord. I guess yours too, since we live in the same place. Guess he needs some flowers.”
“He didn’t do anything to you?” Rose pulled him away from the table, looking him over like a doctor performing a quick checkup. “No, you look the same. Good.”
“He wouldn’t hurt anypony,” Lily called from inside. “Not anymore. He’s reformed or whatever, right?”
“Right,” Rose repeated, voice doubtful. “We’ve been keeping you long enough, Tracy. You should probably head home.”
He should, right then. The exhaustion might not be so bad yet, but it would be in the morning. “Before I do, I need to show you how to enter a few orders.”
He wrapped one wing around her shoulder, walking her over to the tablet. “It’s not as complicated as it seems, watch. We’ll go through it.”
It might not be complicated, but it still took about a half hour to explain it all. Certainly he’d been perfectly efficient the entire time and never been distracted by how close she was.
How does she smell like that? It would’ve been so much easier to go back inside and get some sleep if Rose had smelled like a barn.
It was well past lunchtime when he finally finished and waved goodbye. Rose returned to her panicked preparation, and he made his slow way back across Ponyville.
Each time he crossed it, he felt a little safer about the trip. It might be another world, but Equestria had rules, and he was learning quickly.
Maybe I’ll start making trips out here on weekends.
Another few big orders, and he’d be learning how to fly for sure. I should order a GoPro.
Finally settling his bedroom door resulted in a painful reminder of just how out of sync he was pushing himself. He peeked out the window, ignoring the distant sirens and any other signs there might be people close enough to see.
The moon was well along its path through the sky, and the number on his watch was much higher than it ought to be. Guess if I start now I can at least get a few hours.
Getting to sleep was easy. Getting himself up for work a few hours later, not so much. But he managed, opening the little minifridge under his desk and snatching another energy drink to sip on his way to work.
It helped, though that didn’t make the next eight hours particularly enjoyable. He probably spent half of it staring at AutoCAD, imagining how to shape the block of metal in front of him without actually doing any subtraction.
“Hey Tracy, don’t forget!” Janet called, as he passed her desk on the way out of work. “You’re coming with us to O’Conner’s tomorrow, right? You’re not missing again.”
“Sure, yeah,” he agreed, without much enthusiasm. He didn’t have the energy to argue, really. Friday would be one of the best days to spend time on that side. But a week from Saturday was his first flying lesson, assuming the flower shop made enough to pay for it. It could still work. “I’ll be there.”
And he was. It really should’ve been everything he’d ever wanted. He was surrounded by other engineers, ready to welcome him into a lifetime of productive service. There was so much money in that bar that he didn’t have to buy a single drink.
Even so, he was eager when closing time arrived and he was finally able to Uber home, without getting any of the numbers from the colleagues that had interested him during his first few months.
He helped again with the shop on Monday, mostly to check in on how the POS device was working. The other sisters still hadn’t learned, and there were plenty of duplicate and obviously incorrect orders. But that was easy enough to fix, and it meant more time working beside Rose.
“I’ve got good news!” she proclaimed, fiddling in the register and withdrawing a modest stack of bits. “This is your first paycheck. You can keep it, or I could reserve your spot in the flying class. We will have to keep paying every few weeks. But at this rate, you’ll have more and more bits left over each week.”
Tracy nudged one of the gold coins with one of his hooves. I wonder what these turn into if I cross the border. Paper money was completely unchanged, he’d already learned that just from the spare cash in his jeans. But if these coins were made of gold, maybe there was a way to get cash out of Equestria after all.
It would be something worth investigating, assuming things went well. “I won’t be able to stay for very many hours when I visit,” he said. “Mostly just to keep an eye on your records and service your equipment. If I stay out here too long, then I don’t get to sleep before work. But sure, go ahead and pay for the flying lesson. I’m still nervous, but it can’t be that bad. If it’s for ponies who don’t know how to fly when they should… I should be in the right place.”
Rose nodded, knocking the pile into a plain envelope and slipping it away. “I forget how weird time is for you. Your life is… entirely on that side, isn’t it? All your friends, everything you do. Two lives would be overwhelming.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. Though I left most of my friends behind in Ely. They still talked online sometimes. But he’d become so bad at most of the games they played that both of their last few sessions together had ended badly. He could only keep blaming network latency for so long before they gave up. “But I’m only here for a year. Even if it’s stressful now, I’m just trying to think of the person I’ll be when time is up. I think he’ll be happy I took the time to get to know Equestria. I just need to start taking more pictures, so I have more to remember it.”
“I can’t lend you my camera,” Rose muttered, ears flattening. “We had to sell it a few years ago, back when we still thought we could keep the stand afloat without any debt.”
I can probably do something about that. He shrugged her off with a wing. “Don’t worry about it, Rose. You’ve got enough on your plate. Just focus on what you can control. Are you still going to come with me to Canterlot?”
“Couldn’t stop me,” Rose answered, weak smile returning. “After what happened during the Equinox, somepony has got to keep an eye on you.”
She didn’t sound like she meant it. I wish I had some money of my own. I could take her out to dinner after.
His face reddened, and he turned back to the tablet, trying to think of anything else. Pull out of the dive, Tracy. She’s a horse from another universe. You’re a promising young engineer with an actual future with actual humans. Don’t even.
Granted, it did annoy him that half the ponies he met already thought he was Rose’s boyfriend. Maybe he should try and embrace the position.