Stanley slowly stirred from his sleep and rolled over, stretching his wings out. It was late in the night— for a pony, at least, but it still felt too early for him. The pony-sized clay building was cool and comfortable, but waking up in an unfamiliar pony-sized place was still a weird experience at times. Up to now, he hadn’t been anywhere on Earth that was designed this way. Still though, as the days went on, he was definitely growing more comfortable with it.
The dwelling itself wasn’t anything to write home about, just a small clay hut with a couple of rooms that reminded him of Yoda’s house from Star Wars, but it did the job and was surprisingly comfortable. He was a little hesitant at the lack of privacy around the village at first, but after a few days, the worries faded from his mind. Ponies weren’t wired to care about that sort of thing, and spending time here really made that all the more apparent. As much as he wanted to just relax in his comfy bed, there was still a night of work ahead of him, and he was already wasting enough time as it was. He groggily began to climb out of the cozy bed in Midnight’s spare room and started toward the doorway.
“You awake in there?” came a voice from the adjacent room. “I was starting to think I’d have to go shake you awake myself.”
“Yeah,” Stanley replied as he started to trot out into the shared living space, “you all start so early here, guess I’m not used to it.”
Midnight Sun shrugged, “That’s the administrative staff life for you. If it makes you feel better, tomorrow’s our day off so you can sleep in as long as you want.”
“Thank God for that,” he replied as he let out a long drawn-out yawn. “So what’s on the agenda for today? More negotiating with those traders from Flagstaff?”
“Talking with Giz about the farms,” she flatly replied. “He’s still stubborn about how Dawn wants to run it. Says that a night pony shouldn’t be calling the shots on an earth pony’s job.”
“Figures,” he let out a small sigh. “I didn’t expect to be dealing with mediating some argument in my first week living here.”
“Better get used to it,” she laughed, “Giz and Dawn are both bullheaded about this kind of stuff, so we’re the ones that get to deal with it.”
“Sounds like maybe something needs to be done about that then. I mean, we can’t just keep applying a bandaid over this kind of thing.”
Midnight shrugged as she started digging into her breakfast, “If you wanna be the one to sit Dawn and Giz down, then be my guest. I tried this before, and it didn’t really work out the way I wanted it to.”
“Right,” Stanley rummaged through the cupboard before settling on a fresh orange, “Well do we have any kind of regular gathering or meet up or something? I mean, there’s got to be a good way to get the two to see eye to eye with this kind of thing.”
Midnight nodded, “Sweet Song likes to host campfire songs every week or so. That’s kind of our way of getting together outside of dinner.”
The stallion began to bite away at the side of the fruit, tearing some of the peel off and spitting it out, “Well, there we go, get Dawn and Giz over to the next one and see if we can get them to talk to each other without arguing.”
The mare let out a small laugh, “I’ll let you try that out, and you can tell me how it goes. Those two have butted heads on everything, and neither is willing to compromise.”
“Right… I guess it’s not all just some fun perfect little paradise is it?”
Midnight shrugged, “Running a village isn’t a small task. I’m sure you've already gotten a good rundown of that.”
“Kinda,” Stanley agreed, “but I think the problem is that nopony’s willing to try and work together to fix the issues. Dawn and Gizmo are fighting over crops while we’re left to deal with everything else. Once we start doing anything else Dawn takes a break and takes control. Why don’t we all try to sit down and talk it over, break up what needs to get done and whatnot.”
“Are you calling Dawn a micromanager?”
“Maybe? What I’m trying to say is that there’s obviously patterns that I’m noticing that could be improved on. Stuff we could be doing that could make our lives a whole lot easier. You know?”
“I get you. That’s going to be easier said than done though, I hope you know that. Dawn likes running the show, I think it’s her way of making sure everything goes according to the vision.”
“She’s a real stickler for that, eh?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t noticed yet.”
“Guess I’ve been occupied with getting to know everypony here. I’ve never been a ‘Get involved with other ponies’ problems’ kinda guy.”
“Looks like you get to be now,” she laughed, “I wish you the best of luck, this kind of thing happens pretty often here.”
He took a few final bites of his orange and cleaned up the peels, dropping them onto a plate, “Well, shall we?”
She nodded, “I’ll lead the way. You’re still new and I think it’ll be easier to get on Giz’s good side if a stranger doesn’t just waltz into the middle of the argument.”
“Gotcha.”
The two stood up and started to make their way toward the door, dropping the remnants of their breakfast into a compost bin, and heading out into the village. There wasn’t much in the way of evening lighting, but that was perfect for the pair. Hardly anyone else was out at night like they were, so there was no need for the extra expense of having lights. A few small lanterns were enough for the few day ponies and humans that stayed up this late. Not wanting to delay the inevitable, the pair headed toward the small farm, where they’d hopefully manage to get everything settled peacefully without it devolving into a shouting match.
The pair paused for a moment, trying to gauge what the appropriate response would need to be. Dawn and Gizmo were already arguing back and forth, but so far it hadn’t turned into anything more heated yet, which was better than what Midnight was expecting.
“I told ya this was an earth pony job, Dawn, so why don’t you get back to mindin’ your own business?”
The crimson mare shook her head, “Making sure everything runs smoothly is my business Gizmo. We’re missing crop deadlines, and food rations are starting to get more than a little strained, we don’t have time for your pet projects.”
The stallion shook his head, “You’re micromanaging again. You can write up all the farm plans and schedules you want but that’s not going to change the fact that crops don’t listen to rigid plans. Nature doesn’t care if you expect something to be done down to the minute on a certain day, and no amount of earth pony magic is gonna change that.”
“What about that pony out east, Wild Growth? She made all those plants grow in an instant.”
“She’s different. Something about her is special and if you haven’t noticed, nopony else has been able to do anything even remotely close.”
“I’m not asking for the impossible here, I’m just asking that you work harder to increase the yield.”
“No, what you’re asking us to do here is to try and use magic in a way that won’t work. We can guide things along but we can’t magically force something to grow. Nopony can.”
“Clearly some can, so try harder.”
The conversation began to grow more heated, threatening to take a turn that neither of the two bats wanted to break up. Before it could get to that point, Stanley and Midnight stepped in, keeping their distance but still staying close enough to take control of the situation, not wanting to cause any kind of scene.
“Alright, let’s simmer down for a second,” Midnight cut in with a calm voice. “Let’s all just take a deep breath and talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” the earth pony replied with a frustrated roll of his eyes. “Dawn’s getting into earth pony business again, and she still doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Stanley glanced between the two frustrated ponies, glad that he wasn’t the one leading the charge here.
“That’s not the problem at all,” Dawn replied back. “Gizmo is refusing to come to a compromise on the farm planning. Plans that the rest of the village all agreed on mind you.”
“Plans that don’t make any sense at all because none of the writers were earth ponies.”
This stood out to Stanley, but he held his tongue. Bringing up the absurdity of the largest tribe in the village not having a say in the farming plans was just asking for more arguing between the two, even if it was justified on the earth pony’s side. Not wanting to open that can of worms, he resolved to ask Midnight about this later.
“Giz, let’s not get accusatory right now, okay? We’re going to settle this one way or another,” Midnight flatly replied. “What’s wrong with the plan?”
“The plan is written as if no one writing it has any idea what they’re talking about. Lots of deadlines for the crops that can’t be met and a lot of insistence that the earth ponies just use their magic to make it happen. I was trying to explain that that’s just not how it works.”
“Are you rotating crops or just growing everything at once?” Stanley chimed in.
“Well, everything at once right now. It’s kind of hard to do some experimenting with the ridiculous deadlines that we have.”
An idea started to form in Stanley’s mind. An idea rooted in his fond childhood memories. It was a long shot and out of his territory, but it was worth bringing up all the same if it meant that the two wouldn’t be at each other’s throats so much.
“Okay,” he nodded, turning back toward Dawn and Midnight. “Is this harvest going to be enough to get by if we ration it a bit more?”
Dawn raised an eyebrow, “What are you asking?”
“I’m not a farmer but I used to grow vegetables in my backyard with my dad when I was a foal. We used to stagger them out while growing so there was always something being grown.”
“And?”
“Well, what if we did something like that here? Stagger them out a bit so we don’t need to wait for one big harvest and then hope that lasts us until the next. This way the farmers can experiment with what works best without completely shutting down our production.”
“Given all the constant bickering and arguing between you two that I’ve been hearing, maybe it’s not such a bad idea?” Midnight added. “I mean it’s worth a shot, right Dawn?”
Dawn hesitated for a moment, giving Stanley the impression that she was against the idea. He doubted she’d outright say it, but the way she sat there and the expression on her face told him everything he needed to know. Much to his own surprise, she gave a short nod.
“We can give it a limited try, but if it doesn’t help then we’re going back to the plan, no questions asked. If it works we can hold another town meeting and vote on it together.”
A small feeling of victory welled up inside him, he had hoped that the two would be able to calm any would be argument, but he didn’t expect it to work out so nicely. The two frustrated ponies still shot annoyed glances to one another, making it clear enough that there was still a lot left to cover, and that tonight’s small victory was just a bandaid on a larger problem.
“Well let’s hope for the best, okay?” Midnight asked, almost pleadingly. “And, I think Stanley here had something else he wanted to say, isn’t that right?” She turned toward him.
He gave a slow nod as all eyes were suddenly on him, “I uhh… yeah, well, what if you two come on down to the next campfire night? It’d be a great way for all of us to get to know each other better, and maybe even be a nice break from getting at each other’s throats over this kind of stuff.”
“That’s right,” Midnight added, giving the stallion a sense of relief that he wasn’t the sole pony leading this again. “In fact, I think that’d be a great idea. You both should definitely come on down, maybe even do a little singing yourself, eh?”
Both Dawn and Gizmo seemed to consider this for a few long moments before giving a short nod.
“So that’s that then, we’re all settled for now then. Is there anything else that either of you needed?”
Gizmo started to speak up but held his tongue. It was obvious that he wasn’t a fan of the compromise, but could keep quiet enough about it for now.
“Nothing?” Midnight continued. “Alright then, well I think we all had a productive little meeting here, let’s hope it stays that way, okay?”
Once again the two ponies nodded. There was no telling if anything agreed on here tonight would work or not, but ever the optimist, Stanley was eager to see how it’d hold up.