My Little Fortress: Shadytrails

by PersonalGamer

[33] 12th Malachite, 222

12th Malachite, 222

It was midway through the morning and ponies were getting up to eat breakfast and then head off to work. Fargo was no different and right now was sitting in at a table eating his breakfast, only he seemed far more tired than the rest of the people around him, and every now and then his head would nod down only for him to catch himself and jolt for a moment.

As had become customary by now, Silver Rush took his spot at the same table that Fargo ate at. It didn’t take anyone with sharp observational skills to tell that something was wrong. Before even touching his plate, the bat-pony asked the obvious, “Hey Fargo, didn’t get much sleep last night? You’ve come close to wearing your food as make-up a couple of times now.”

Fargo made a small chuckle at the remark, and tried to perk up a little and make it less obvious he wasn’t holding up well. “Yeah, I didn’t get much sleep, but someone needs to watch this place at night.” He was happy that Silver showed up, maybe a conversation would help him stay awake.

“So what’s your schedule look like? Surely you don’t work nights all the time?” The miner inquired before imbibing from his glass of milk.

“Eh... actually...” he frowned for a moment. “This place didn’t have anyone keeping an eye on it at night when I came here, so I’ve been taking it upon myself to watch at night, and I still have do my normal work during the day.”

Just before he took a bite of the speckled pear he lifted from his plate, the pony stopped cold and gave a frown to the griffon, “Are you serious? You can’t do that to yourself! Even a soldier has to have sleep. Surely you can’t expect to be an efficient defender of this place if you can barely keep your head up, right? Besides, it’s bad for your health.”

“I understand, but someone needs to do this, and I usually have shooting star help out so I can sleep a little. It’s just last night I did it all on my own.” Fargo wasn’t touching his food much, “It doesn't matter though, once I’m walking around It’ll be hard for me to fall asleep. I’m pretty good at going without sleep.”

Silver shook his head, “No, no, I don’t think I can just sit here and let things keep going on like that. There’s no reason that Mr. Kiume and Ms. Star can’t take the night shift in equal yoke with you. Or, at the very least, you should never be required to work all night and then all the next day. Nothing that would prevent you from getting a healthy amount of sleep. You understand where I’m coming from, right? I’m sure we could get a more regular schedule arranged if we spoke to the other guards and Ms. Hookbill about this.”

“I find that talking with someone above you about changing the way things are done can either end well or with someone disliking you immensely, especially when you’re the new guy. I’ve been trying to avoid talking with the captain, but I suppose Isolde might work...”

“Well then,” Silver held a hoof over his heart, “I could be the one to ask about it. I’ll take any flak that might come out of this, though I don’t expect there to be any. I’ll just make it clear that you weren’t the one who suggested the idea and that it was me who insisted on improving the shift arrangements. You know, being a concerned friend and all.”

“No, this is my problem. I can talk to Isolde I suppose. From what I can tell about her she seems pretty fair.” He sighed for a moment, “Maybe I can talk to her around lunch or something.” He rested his head on his hand. “Anyways, how have you been?”

“Yep, I’ve got no complaints about her. She’s really understanding.” The stallion chewed a bit of pear before getting to the question, “Been pretty good. The mine’s holding steady and I haven’t gotten hurt in there yet, knock on wood!” He tapped a hoof against the table during his last phrase, “Finally getting a house of my own has been great too. I’m sure everypony here is going to get their own personal residence. Rosewood told me so. Might take some time, though. If you ever wanna come hang out or something, you’re more than welcome.”

By the time Silver had finished talking, the bird cat across the table from him had his eyes closed and his chest feathers were all fluffed up. He’d failed to catch himself nodding off this time, but at least he didn’t manage to plant his face in his food.

“...alright. I think that settles it.” The rib-winged pony nudged the sleeping soldier on the shoulder, “Fargo, go to bed. You’re not in any shape to perform your duties today. I’m going to go talk to Ms. Hookbill about this as soon as I’m done eating.”

Fargo’s eyes opened up instantly when he was nudged back awake. He looked around for a moment, trying to judge how long he’d been out, before standing up from his seat. “Please, let me talk to her myself. I can make a few hours.”

Silver wrinkled his nose and sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to accept that you’re going to be stubborn about this. Oh well, at least I tried. Do stay safe, Fargo.” He continued to work on the juicy, green fruit with those sharp teeth of his.

“I’m sorry, but I try to take care of my problems myself is all.” He said, before making a small sigh. “I don’t like when other’s worry about me.”

“Alright then. Just try not to pass out in an inconvenient location.” Maybe I’ll ask Dr. Gunther to keep an eye on him. Fargo would probably be more willing to listen to him than me when it comes to health issues.

“Eh I’ll try not to... anyways I probably should be heading out about now.” He said, before picking his halberd up off the ground. “I have a job to do.” He’d figured he’d be fine so long as he kept walking and didn’t rest for too long.

Once the griffon had left the building, Silver gave a shrug and finished his fruit. As he took a dried date from his platter, he fell into a light grin as he imagined the dozing soldier face-planting into the ground. I wonder if falling out of the sky in front of his two co-workers would be enough to convince him that he needs to sleep more.