A Star Pony Tale

by BlondeSky

In Need of Relief

Chapter 27

In Need of Relief

It was, just as Sail had predicted, around a month before the new manager was announced. It was a name Astro recognized as she was a part of the sorting room, if not officially as she had yet to take the examination, and needed to know all of the ponies in the division. She was a mare named Mint Drift with a sweet disposition and a sharp mind. While she never did end up contributing a comment of her own she was satisfied with the decision. Much to her happiness Sail seemed to be very pleased with the new manager as well. Then however the work began and it was going to go on for a while.

During the first meeting that the mural committee had she was swiftly introduced to the rest of them before they all started on their project. She was less of a part of it than she would've liked to be, but even just sitting there and listening to what they had to say helped her to learn. She also wasn't completely shut out. She was able to contribute her own ideas and suggestions. Her ideas however came much less often than others', and when they did come they didn't seem to hold as much weight either. She understood that she was easily the least experienced pony there. None disrespected her, but she graciously took her place at the bottom of the totem pole. This didn't discourage her however and she continued to come to every single meeting that they held to discuss what would be going up on the ceiling.

Despite her slight lack of involvement she very much enjoyed the work. As ponies put forth various ideas she listened carefully and took mental notes on all that was said. I'm also here to learn more about what I can do with my own project, she reminded herself, this is about testing the waters not being the leader. She had grown quite used to always being on par or excelling. Due to her origin she had a higher mental maturity than that of her peers, and even in the sorting room she had grown to be essentially the equal of the others there. It was humbling for her to be the least knowledgeable pony in the room. Still, she was glad to grow and so she simply listened and learned as they spoke. With every meeting she learned more and was happy to do so.

It wasn't until later on in the project that her commitment became apparent. As a part of it you will be expected to devote your time to this project. While not all of it a good deal of your free time is now devoted to this. These words came back to her as the time began to pass. She had less and less time to herself and it began to become overbearing. Between school work, sorting, finding time to give to her friends, and working with the mural committee she was running from sunrise to sunset. Besides scribbling some notes for her mural before bed she did essentially nothing else from her own private agenda. When told that it would be time consuming she hadn't imagined that it would be quite so taxing.

Still, she was determined to keep her promise to spend time with her friends, especially her new ones. It didn't help that she had twice as many friends to make time for, but it wasn't a bad problem to have. She spent as much time as she could with them when she found it. Unfortunately her allotting every free moment to them, due to her busy schedule, equated to the same amount of time as previous years. The fact that her best efforts equated only to on par frustrated her, but she did her best to keep her mood happy. Spending the time with them did help her mood greatly, but afterwards it always seemed to sour. They kept her spirits high and once their meet was over the joy seemed to fade to the background.

She had few problems in getting everything mandatory done, but it was when she tried to move into what she wanted to do that she encountered conflict. She tried to push herself to make the time, but there didn't seem to be enough to go around. If she did get to the sorting room it was normally late and Sail would rush her off to bed not too long after. Sail did her best to be sympathetic towards her situation and let her stay later than she normally would've, but there was only so much she could do to help. She was worried about the filly was overworking herself and wanted deeply to be able to assist her. A part of her was urging her to pull Astro from the committee, but she could in no way believe that the filly would thank her for that. It was clear that despite the toll that the time taken was having on her this opportunity meant a great deal.

Astro remembered how after missing so many sessions with the division 1 team she had forgotten quite a good deal. She didn't want to have the same thing happen again. There was also the simple fact that she missed them all. While her relationships with them were far less personal than her connection to Sail she still enjoyed all of their company. The activity was also one that she found a great deal of enjoyment in. To her dismay and disappointment however sorting had fallen to the bottom of her priority list. She had already made a promise to her friends, she had committed to the mural, and she couldn't skip out on school work. Sorting wasn't required of her, and she had made no promises to anypony, but that was only because she never thought that she'd have a need to. She had never imagined that something she took for granted like that would fall out of place.

Astro didn't want to admit it but her routine, something she had always to taken for granted, was crashing down around her. While to some a break in routine was simply an inconvenience for her it was a great crack in the foundation of her world. She had always had a steady quiet pulse of time going on in the background. Even when she had moved to the surface she had found a new, if not quite so exact, schedule to follow. It was just a fact of life for her. Things had an order to them that was followed. As everything seemed to start happening whenever it had the chance to the world's foundation continued to crumble underneath of her.

She did her utmost to find joy in every moment that she could and found herself able to find a good deal of happiness in it. Still, it was those moments at the end of the day when she was by herself in her dark room which was lit only by her own coat that it all crashed down. She had nothing to think about besides how rundown and tired she felt. The darkness of the atmosphere didn't help her already gloomy mood. Running around all the time would be pretty stressful and stress isn't good for anypony I don't think. The all too true words came to her mind while she tried to rest. The past few months had been nothing but running around and it was all too taxing for her. Stress isn't good for anypony, she agreed silently in her mind.

While it didn't completely lift her sorrow the oncoming spring did help her mood. The lengthening days and sunshine that she felt not too far in her future did a lot to improve her outlook even if the stress of managing everything was getting to her. She hoped that it might bring her the relaxed moments that she needed desperately, but she knew not to raise her hopes too high. Instead of trying to change what was going on around to bend in ways that it couldn't she tried to just enjoy the sunshine and what she had available to her. That however didn't mean that she wasn't still hoping for a break.

She was unaware of the fact that Sail was already working on organizing this vacation for her. Just as she had promised she was still working on setting up the sleepover in such a way that she could host it and keep the entirety of the base in the dark about it. Due to the importance placed upon secrecy it was difficult to keep an event meant to destroy it, at least for one pony anyway, under wraps. The only way it was going to happen was with a bit of chaos in the base and an opportunity to watch the house for the weekend. All of the ponies in the base took turns watching the house that the building was hidden underneath. They always had a pony up there just in case something should happen. There was always a fair amount of hustle and bustle as the new manager settled in. She had also managed to put in a word to the new manager saying that she would be perfectly fine with being put on the spot to watch the house should a complication arise. She had her excuse for a weekend in that on weekdays of course she had Astro to take to and from school and look after, but a weekend would be no problem at all. While she didn't intend upon making her own complication happen she had a feeling that something would with a new manager who was still figuring out how to run things.

She couldn't imagine that it would be difficult to get Astro up there with her. Again she had a perfect excuse in that the filly was experiencing difficulty with all of her commitments and she had every right to be worried. Her asking if it would be alright for her to come up so that she could watch over her wouldn't be considered conspicuous at all. She could just mention to Acrylic that she wanted to give the filly a short break. Only a day or two for her to collect herself before she came right back. He wasn't an unreasonable pony and would certainly understand. Then all that would be left was for Astro to invite her friends over. She knew how much that she had been looking forward to this and hoped it might do something for the filly's ailing spirit.

Sail was getting ready to go and put Astro to bed for the night and planned on breaking the news then. She had been called in earlier that day by Mint Drift about a complication in the scheduling. Ponies were supposed to be notified at least a week before they were supposed to watch the house. It seemed she had fallen behind. Sail was of course more than happy to offer her assistance and take the weekend. While it was most definitely short notice she believed that it could still be arranged. She had a feeling that Astro's friends would make the time to be there. She knew them to be quite close.

As she stepped into the filly's room to find her scribbling something on a piece of paper she was happy to announce her success. Astro looked up from her paper as she heard Sail come in. This was normally the signal that it was getting close to the time for her to get to sleep, so she quickly and quietly put away her pencil and paper and curled up underneath the covers of her bed. She did all of this without so much as a word from Sail. After the filly was done Sail moved to sit next to her. She noticed Sail's joyful smile instantly and wondered why it was there. She hadn't heard of anything that might cause this and so her curiosity was piqued.

"I know that things have been a bit rough recently with everything that you have to keep up with, but I did manage to put something together for you." she told her.

"Really?" she questioned curiously.

"Yes, really. This weekend I will be watching the house. And that is everypony's least favorite job. Do you know why?" she replied building up to her final announcement.

"No." she answered confused.

"It's because it is always so boring up there in the house. Nopony ever goes up there aside from the pony who's watching it. They have to stay up there all alone with absolutely nopony to keep them company." she explained.

"That sounds pretty boring." she agreed.

"It is. I have done it before and can promise you that nothing ever happens." she informed her.

"So?" she queried wondering why this was important.

"I have the house all to myself this weekend. And I wouldn't mind some company to get rid of the horrid boring atmosphere. I think five foals running around would liven the place up a bit." she said finally as she offered the filly a small nuzzle.

Her eyes widened as she realized what was going on. "You mean I can invite them!?" she exclaimed sitting up and sending the covers flying off of her.

"Yes." she answered laughing slightly.

"That's amazing!" she cried joyfully.

"I know that it is short notice, but I believe that they can make time to come. I'm sure that they will all be excited to hear themselves." she said in response.

"Yeah! This is great! Thanks so much!" she said gratefully as she hugged Sail. She returned the gesture gladly. After Astro broke the hug Sail stood and pulled the covers back over the filly.

"It is nothing much. Now, you should get some rest. The faster that you fall asleep the quicker that the morning will seem to come." she finished as she nuzzled the filly lightly and kissed her on the forehead before walking out.