Ponies on Earth and their New Horizons

by TikiBat

Chapter 13: Back to the Old Grind

The couple’s reunion had been marked by lots of kissing and cuddling while Scarlet recalled the month’s worth of events she had encountered in Equestria, and the whole time Silver could only feel a lingering sense of wonder and awe at it all. Scarlet was more than well used to the concept by now, but to Silver, traveling between two worlds was something straight out of science fiction, and he was sure to bombard her with as many questions as he could think to ask. Fortunately, Scarlet had been more than happy to share her answers while they splashed around in the lake outside their home, and in a rather emotional moment, the night had been capped off with Orion speaking his first word— star. Scarlet of course couldn’t have been any more proud, and Silver had been quick to try and coax him into repeating more words, and in the next couple of days the foal had picked up on at least a few more simple words. It had certainly been an emotional reunion, but Silver felt content and happy knowing that their month apart had ended in such a heartwarming way.

Silver let out a long yawn as he slowly pulled himself out of bed. His eyelids felt as if they weighed a few tons each as he struggled to open them, and every instinct in his brain was saying go back to sleep. Taking a quick peek out the window, he sighed as he gazed at the rapidly setting sun. If this has been the weekend he’d stay snuggled up with Scarlet, but today was a work day, and he knew that breaking the new routine he had fallen into wouldn’t exactly be productive. He could have easily justified it under the completely fair excuse that he had been apart from her for so long, but that would only serve to tip the scales towards ruining his productive streak. Instead he’d treat her to something else, a nice hoof made breakfast to start her day, that he knew she’d enjoy.

As he trotted towards the bathroom, his companion started to stir slightly.

“Silvie? You’re up early.”

“Shhh,” he shushed her, “don’t worry about it. You sleep in, I’ve got breakfast and Orion covered.”

She groggily smirked and let out a soft chuckle. “You’re gonna be productive in the morning? Guess I’m still dreaming.”

“Yes, now just relax and let me handle everything, okay?”

Scarlet let out a small “Mhmm” and rolled back over, quickly falling asleep again.

Trotting over towards Orion’s bedroom, Silver pushed open the door and scanned the dark room. He couldn’t help but let out a happy little squeak as he took sight of Orion snuggled up with his dog in the middle of the bed. Glancing to the clock on the shelf, Silver decided to leave the two in peace. It wouldn’t hurt for them to just relax this morning too. Instead he gently closed the door and trotted out to the kitchen, slipping on the modified set of cooking utensils that he had thrown together. The house being this quiet was almost unnerving, especially given Orion’s more… active mood lately, but it was also a welcomingly peaceful change of pace.

Fishing out the ingredients for Scarlet and Orion’s favorite breakfasts (Fried eggs for Scarlet and pancakes for Orion), Silver got to work on his first activity of the day. To say that he cherished these sparse moments to himself would be an understatement. He of course loved spending time with his friends and family, but the rare moments of complete peace and isolation were also welcome breaks too. They gave him a chance to relax and reflect on whatever was on his mind, and gave him the perfect opportunity to plan out his day.

Today wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary, he’d pop into work, probably work on some administrative stuff before hopping into some of the actual projects, and then probably run some more inspections on whatever other projects happened to cross into his domain. At face value his day was probably going to be a relatively boring one, if not a little stressful when it came to city administration stuff he was filling in for, but the thought of coming home and spending time with Scarlet and Orion again made it all worth it.

As he flipped one of the eggs, his thoughts traveled to the nostalgic memories of his childhood, and the different fun trips that his parents had taken him and his brother on. In retrospect, almost none of those trips were ever anything fancy or exceptionally special, but they were still times spent with family that he treasured. His parents were never rich after all, and didn’t have a lot of time for the flashy vacations that some of his friends’ families would go on. A deep sense of longing started to creep into his mind as he thought about Scarlet’s trip. Not out of jealousy or a desire to go to Equestria of course, but rather the idea of the three of them going on some long trip together again. Alas, they had already taken their yearly vacation, and even though Silver was technically in administration, it wouldn’t be fair to take even more days off of work.

He let out a small sigh as he finished up the breakfast and got the table set up. He’d get more family vacations someday, even if he had to wait for them. The sounds of the shower running told him that Scarlet had decided to hop out of bed, which meant that his time alone would soon be coming to an end. He was fine with this though, the morning company always brought a smile to his face and never ceases to brighten even the gloomiest mornings. Time spent with family was special after all, even in short bursts.

Checking to make sure everything was off, he trotted towards Orion’s room and opened the door again, this time finding that both the foal and the dog were awake and clearly ready to play. Cosmo was the first to run into him, and if Silver hadn’t been well trained to expect this by now he would have been launched back into the wall, but he knew better. That lesson was a lesson he only needed to learn once.

A few quick tummy rubs were enough to satisfy the dog who ran out into the house, no doubt on his way to the fenced in yard for a little morning exercise. As if on cue, Orion leapt towards Silver, who caught the excitedly adorable foal in his front forelegs.

“Good morning Orion! Did you have a good night?”

The foal giggled and called out an adorably sleepy sounding greeting. “Daddy!” He cheered, which Silver had come to accept as his morning affirmative.

“Well I hope you’re hungry little buddy, because I made you your favorite!”

The foal squeeed in excitement and galloped towards the dining room, melting Silver’s heart in the process.

“Now if that isn’t the cutest thing I’ve ever seen then I don’t know what is,” came Scarlet’s voice from the end of the hallway.

Silver smiled and looked up, “You know, I’m not a morning person but I think this is still my favorite time of the day.”

“Even more than when we get to sleep and dream walk?” She started to trot towards him.

“For now,” he nodded. “It’s when we’re all together the most after all.”

“What about dinner?” She countered. “Or after work, before bed… we’re together for those.”

“Sure,” Silver agreed. “But the difference with those is that those don’t set the entire mood for my day.”

Scarlet smirked. “You’re a goofball, you know that?”

“Of course I do. I’m your goofball though, so you’re the one that’s gotta live with it.”

“And I’m perfectly fine with that,” she gave a small peck on the cheek. “So what’s this about breakfast?”

A smile crept across Silver’s face. “I’ve got your favorite all made up if you’re hungry.”

Scarlet’s stomach grumbled in response, making both of them laugh.

“Guess that answers that.” Scarlet commented.

The two trotted towards the kitchen, where they were greeted by Orion who had managed to climb up onto the table and was now greedily eating his breakfast.

“Couldn’t even wait for us, can you believe this guy?” Scarlet pointed towards him.

Orion simply looked up with a mouth full of bite-sized pancakes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wash him up before we go to work.” Silver reassured her.

“I know you will.” She shook her head at the foal. “You’re lucky you’re so darn cute otherwise I’d be very annoyed right now.”

Orion giggled and nuzzled up next to Scarlet as she sat down and started to pick away at her breakfast.

“So got anything fun planned today Silvie?”

Silver sat down with his own plate of breakfast and shrugged. “Lots of the same. Gotta stop into the lab and work on a few things for the new prototype and then probably go out into the field and do some more of the boring planning stuff.”

“Sounds like a pretty busy day then, eh?”

“Yeah… first half should be fun, second half though…”

“Is probably gonna suck?”

Silver laughed. “Yeah, that’s one way to put it. Bright side at least is that Phoenix and Midnight are working on getting an old friend in to cover the night stuff I’m stuck doing right now. With Patrick dealing with the day stuff that should give me some more breathing room.”

“Good, because you deserve it.”

Silver nodded in between a few bites of his food. “Yeah, definitely. Then it won’t be so stressful and busy.” He let out a small sigh as his thoughts started to drift back towards the nostalgic memories he had been reflecting on only a few minutes prior.

Noticing the stallion’s wandering, zoned out gaze, Scarlet perked up a little. “Something else on your mind, Silvie?”

Silver snapped back to reality and shrugged. “Guess you could say that. It’s nothing though, just feeling a little wistful right now I guess.”

“Wistful about what?” She rested a hoof on his back.

“Just some corny dad stuff, you know?”

“I’m the mom, so no, I don’t know,” she teased. “I might have an idea though, so why don’t you spell it out for me?”

Silver smiled. “I’m just thinking about that vacation we took last month. It made me think about the stuff my parents used to do when I was a kid…”

“And it makes you want to do some of that, right?”

The stallion slowly nodded his head. “Yeah, that's it. I’d be lying if I said that a part of me didn’t want to just drop everything and find a job that’ll let us do that more… but that’d be irresponsible.”

“Irresponsible and probably not great for Orion if we have to just drop everything and move.”

“And it wouldn’t be fair to you either,” he laughed. “I’m not going to actually do that of course, but I’d love to just go out and explore the world with you two some more.”

Scarlet nodded. “Me too. We kinda maxed out our vacation time though, so that might have to sit on the backburner for a while.”

“I know, I know. I’m still thinking about it though. Makes me wish that we had more… fun stuff here, you know?”

“Well, we have the lake, the theater, and the park.”

“But not a whole lot more, which makes it feel like we’re not really getting away to anything.”

“Fair enough,” Scarlet pondered on this for a moment. “So maybe we just need to take a few trips out of town on the weekends then, eh?”

“We could,” Silver smiled. Glancing back over to the clock, he tensed up for a moment and let out another small sigh. “It’s almost time for work.”

A sly smirk spread across Scarlet’s face. “You said you’re getting help soon, right?”

“Mhmm?” He responded.

“So what you’re saying is that after that I can conscript you into helping with the observatory stuff?”

Silver raised an eyebrow. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Let’s just pretend it’ll be a fun way to spend more time together, okay? Maybe that’ll tie you over some more.”

Silver couldn’t help but laugh at the adorable gesture. “Is it conscription if your husband willingly wants to help out with his awesome wife’s super cool astronomy stuff?”

“Probably not,” she agreed. “But it sounds a little more exciting that way.”

“Hey, it’s always pretty exciting when I can hang around with you and watch you geek out over what you’re passionate about.”

Scarlet let out a small giggle. “You’re a dork, you know that?”

“Of course.” Silver glanced over at the clock and let out another sigh. “Time flies by too fast.”

Scarlet finished up her food and carried both hers and Orion’s plates to the sink. “Look at it this way, that just means it won’t be long until we see each other again.” Giving him another kiss, Scarlet smiled. “So have a good night at work, we’ll have to do something fun later.”

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Awww, foal's first words! Back to the grindstone though, hopefully with some weekend trips