Sam jumped when he saw Job show up on Friday. “Didn’t expect to see you again after yesterday.”
“I've got two days left,”.
“Honestly, we’ve been on top of things this week. There won’t be much to do on Saturday. This might be your last day.”
Job’s body relaxed after Sam’s statement.
Despite this hope, the work for the day never stopped. Painting a whole wall of the common room filled the morning. Sam needed help assembling new bed frames during the afternoon, which turned into a frustrating mess of wrong tools and terrible directions. Moreover, the work carried over into the evening. Job brought his frustration to Sam.
“Hey, our previous bed frames dated back 50 years ago and weren’t good,” Sam argued.
They finished at nine o’clock, just the sunset turned to twilight. Throwing the last of the boxes away, Job noticed Blue walking down the hallway toward the west wing.
“Sam, where’s Blue’s room?” Job asked.
“Room E201. Why do you ask?”
“No reason in particular.”
Once Sam stepped out of the room, Job followed after Blue. Entering the wing, he saw her step into a room, the same room she did a few days ago. He walked down the hallway and stood outside the door, peeking inside.
“I got you the coffee you wanted,” Blue said, placing a mug on the desk.
The pink pony sat at the desk, her horn glowing with a turquoise aura. “Thanks, I almost ran out of steam.” The aura enveloped the mug as it floated to her mouth and took a sip. Placing the mug on the table, another aura covered a pencil which then levitated and wrote in a notebook.
Blue sat on a chair next to the window and stared outside. “How much longer?”
“A week, if I’m fast. The original enchantment they attached to the serum took a whole team of unicorns to create it. I’m very far along, but I still need time.”
“You don’t have time.”
“What do you mean, Rainbow? It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
“You don’t know this. Your last good day was a week ago.”
The pink pony froze.
“It’s getting worse, Starlight. I don’t know if you’ll have seven more good days,” Blue (Rainbow?) sniffled. “You know when Fluttershy’s last good day was?”
Starlight’s pencil shivered.
Tears ran down Blue’s face. “Three weeks ago. I don’t even know if she’s coming back again.”
“Stop it,” Starlight muttered.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do when you’re gone…”
“Stop it!” Starlight shouted, causing Blue to jump. She panted for a second. “Either be quiet and let me work or leave. If I don’t get this done… I’m not even gonna think about that.”
Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Job flinched and turned around. Sam held a finger to his mouth and shushed. “I think it’s best we leave them be. Come.”
Job nodded following Sam out of the wing and into the lounge. Once there, Sam sat down at a table and motioned for Job to do likewise. Job complied, sitting across from him. Silence followed.
“She’s not a new foal, is she?” Job asked.
“Which one?”
“Blue… all three of them, now that I think about it.”
Sam rested his head on his hands. “Six years ago, after we started this institution, she showed up at my front door and begged me to let her stay. After a day or two, I gave in not knowing whether it was illegal. Local authorities eventually found out, but they didn’t take much interest after some explaining.
“Over the next couple of years, she found and brought in the other two. That was when I learned about the flaw in serum.” He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
“What flaw?” Job prodded.
“Equestrian ponies may be resistant, but are not immune to it. Instead of running its course in a matter of hours, it slowly takes over their mind, taking anywhere from months to years to work. To make matters worse, the two times I used the bed on ponies I knew that weren’t new foals, they died the next day. Starlight says she knows why but trusting her means hoping she doesn’t fade away in time.”
He leaned forward over the table. “It’s like Agent Orange; it’s safe in the short term but brutal in the long term.”
Job sat silently and stared at the table.
“You look disturbed,” Sam noted.
“I’ve been on other mission trips; I’ve seen terrible poverty. But this bothers me on a whole new level.”
“Is it because you feel that no matter how much money or time you have, you can’t fix their problems?”
Job stared at the table. “I guess.”
“Do you know why we have mission trips?”
“To do God’s work?”
“Maybe. Are you a missionary?”
Job paused. “No, I guess.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “To make a difference?”
“I’ve run this place for six years and I feel like I’ve barely accomplished anything. Do you think you can really make a difference in a week?”
Job stared at the table in defeat. “I don’t know.”
“We do them to see a Haitian who’s somehow happier than you are with a tenth of your belongings. To see how joyful a homeless man can be as he explains how he felt God’s love keep his hand warm through the sock you gave him the day before. To watch a pony hold on to her deteriorating friends and to realize how important your own friends are.”
He paused. “Most of all, it’s to be humbled.”
He stood up and passed Job. “You still have that room key if you don’t want to drive home tonight. I’m gonna lock the place up.”
As Sam left, Job sat alone, unsure of what to do. His mind, dull from the day, refused to think anything beyond his next task. Heaviness pulled on his eyelids causing him to yawn. He didn’t have much left in him either.
A shuffle echoed from the hallway as Blue peeked around the corner. “What’re you still doing here?”
“It’s been a long day.” Job answered back. “Don’t know if I’ll go home tonight.”
“Whatever,” she scoffed, walking up to the table and placing a clear bottle on the table.
“What’s that?”
“Coping juice.” She unscrewed the cap with her mouth, set it on the table, and poured a clear liquid into it. “I really need it today.”
With both of her hooves, she grabbed the cap and drank its contents, scrunching her face from the taste. After a couple of deep breaths, she repeated the process.
“Uh, you okay?”
She took another swig before letting out another breath. “Does it look like I’m okay?”
Job didn’t answer as she poured her fourth cap and downed it. On the fifth cap, the bottle ran out, only filling the cap halfway.
“Dammit, just when I need it most.” She nudged the bottle toward Job. “There’s more in my room—can you get some?”
Job grabbed the empty bottle and walked away. Remembering her room number, he turned the corner of the hallway and entered the first room on his right. Flipping the light on revealed an unmade bed along with dozens of blue hair dye boxes on the floor. Job searched through the cabinets and found one with two unopened bottles of vanilla vodka. Seeing 120 proof on the label, he decided to fill the bottle with water instead.
Returning to the lounge, he found Blue face down on the table, muttering to herself “‘It’s okay, Dash. They just need a bit of help.’”
Job sat down next to her, poured water into the cap, and nudged it towards her. She raised her head, grabbed the cap with her hooves, and downed the water like a shot. Her head flopped back down on the table as she continued to mutter. “‘It’s okay, Dash. They just need some friendship.’”
Tears fell from her eyes. “‘It’s okay, Dash. We did the best we could.’”
Job put his hand on her head, giving it a gentle rub. She didn’t react and kept muttering. “‘It’s okay, Dash. The serum won’t hurt them.’”
She sniffled, a few tears running down her cheek. “‘It’s okay, Dash. The serum can’t hurt us.”
She slammed the table with her hoof causing Job to jump. “It’s okay, Dash. They deserve it.”
Tears puddled on the table.
“We deserve it. We fucking deserve it.”
She collapsed onto Job’s lap, tears streaming onto his pants. He squeezed her as she nuzzled into his chest. “Am I new foal enough? Is this what it’s like?”
“Sh-sh-shhh,” Job interrupted, rubbing her back.
Her bawling reduced to sniffles. “I’m so alone…”
“It’s okay,” he reassured. “Let’s get you to bed.”
Job picked her up and cradled her in his arms. Balancing out the weight, he carried her to her room and laid her on her bed. Standing up to leave and pulling out the key to his own room, he heard her squirm in bed.
Her speech slurred. “Don’t leave me. I’m so alone.”
Job sat back down. “It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered, contemplating whether he should actually stay.
“Please don’t leave me,” she begged, tearing up again.
Realizing she might break down again, Job laid down next to her on the bed. She crawled on top of him and pressed her muzzle against his chin, easing her breathing. Warmth enveloped him as she fell asleep within minutes.
Job laid awake for thirty minutes wanting to squirm. At some point, his exhaustion caught up to him and he stopped caring. Yawning, he embraced her and drifted off to sleep.
— — —
He woke up the next morning at eleven, but with no pony on top of him. Sitting up, he saw a picture of six ponies, one of whom resembled Blue, but with rainbow hair. Another one looked like the yellow pony he saw in the other room.
Sam caught him ten minutes later as he packed up to go. “You did end up staying the night.”
“Kinda,” Job teased.
After stopping by Madelene and giving her a quick rub, he met Blue at the front desk. She rested her head on the desk with a steaming cup of coffee next to her.
“I’m heading off,” he waved.
“Um, can I pull you aside real quick?” She kept her eyes down, studying the desk.
“Sure.”
She pulled him into the nearest conference room and pointed her hoof at him. “I will kill you if you even think about what happened last night! It dies here and now!”
“Talk about goodbye. We didn’t even do anything last night.”
She glared at him with murder in her eyes.
“My lips are sealed.”
“They better be!” she scoffed before nuzzling his leg. “Thank you, though.”
He patted her head before leaving the room and waving as he walked through the door.
His home life felt dull compared to the rest of the week. That night, he laid in bed contemplating a crazy idea. Maybe there was something he could do.
— — —
“What the hell are you doing back here?” Sam asked from behind the desk.
“I-uh…” Job collected his thoughts.
“I give you a day off, and you still come back the next day. Saturday was yesterday.”
“I want an application.”
Sam froze. “What?”
“I wanna work part-time, two days a week, three max.”
He handed Job a piece of paper without breaking eye contact. “Boy, you had one hell of a week compared to most people. I don’t know what I did to make you wanna come back.”
Job grabbed the paper and darted to the east wing. He found Blue sitting on her bed, staring out of the window. She turned toward him, pupils narrowed and surprised. “Job? What are you…”
“I had a crazy idea last night. I can’t bring back Equestria, I can’t undo the serum, I can’t give new foals their humanity back, I can’t bring back your friends, and I can’t fix the world.”
Job panted from running up the stairs and forgetting to breathe. Taking in a deep breath, he continued. “However, I can be your friend. And maybe over time, we can inspire others to be better too.”
After a brief pause, Blue slid off of her bed and trotted in Job, grabbing him and squeezing him tight. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou…”
“I can’t undo what has happened to you, but I hope I can be here for you,” he assured, embracing her in his arms.”
She cried. “Thank you. That’s all I wanted.”