Ponies on Earth and their New Horizons

by TikiBat

Chapter 14: Workplace Monotony

Silver sat at his desk, toiling over what seemed like an insurmountable mountain of paperwork. When he had talked about how boring his day was going to be, he had deliberately understated it in hopes that the lie would actually change the course of the grueling day he knew awaited him. In the corner by the window sat Orion, who in stark contrast to Silver, looked as if he was having the time of his life as he played with his toys. A smile crossed Silver’s face as he momentarily broke from his monotonous task to watch his son’s fun. Happy little moments like this, while sparse most of the time, were the moments that made all of the boring work worth it. It wasn’t as if Silver hated his work— working on the kind of techy projects that he got to work on was more than a dream job… but like anything you were passionate about, turning it into the work you made a living off of brought on a bitter burnout that would strike with a vengeance. Thankfully enough for Silver, those bursts of burnout were far and few between, but that didn’t exactly help him here.

He glanced over to the completed stack of files and paperwork and sighed. There was a lot of work left to do, but given how late it was, he’d soon be alone for most of the remainder of his shift. Deciding to take a break, he stood up and slowly trotted towards Orion.

“Hey little buddy, how about we go take a little field trip down to the lab?”

The foal, clearly having only the most basic understanding of Silver’s intentions, gleefully cheered and hopped up from his spot, and onto Silver’s back.

“Trip!” He squeed in delight.

“That’s the spirit!” Silver cheered, taking a moment to craft what would undoubtedly be one of the highlights of his day.

Stepping into the hallway, he meandered his way over to the elevator that led down to the larger lab space and pressed a hoof against the button. Registering his gauntlet’s credentials, the elevator sprang to life and began to descend. These little breaks in the day, while short and dull, still served as a welcome respite from the otherwise mundane routine that he was feeling lately, and gave him even more time to freely reflect on whatever he wanted to, not that there wouldn’t be time for that later. Despite being built up with more than a few night ponies in it’s leadership, the Oasis was still largely made up of day ponies, and the research and development team just so happened to share that breakdown, meaning that in only a few short hours Silver would be left with more than enough time to reflect on things. That time was different though, because right now he literally had nothing else to do except to sit in an elevator and wait. Here he was free to just take it easy.

Unfortunately though, this time was fleeting and the chime of the elevator heralded a return to reality that he was already dreading. As he stepped out into the lobby his ears flicked back as he was thrust right in the middle of a loud argument.

“So I really need to be the one to go?” Sprocket, a dark blue night pony whinnied in annoyance.

“You’re the one who’s probably going to be awake more for it, and the one who’s the least tied up with work right now, so it makes the most sense.” Gyro countered.

“What about the vacation that Gadget and I planned out? That’s right smack dab in the middle of this.”

Seeing that this was clearly the middle of an ongoing conversation, Silver didn’t want to interrupt, but given the fact that he was the department head… it was unfortunately one of his responsibilities to handle these kinds of verbal disputes.

“Evening gentlemen,” Silver spoke up. “What’s up with all the raised voices and annoyed looks?”

Gyro rolled his eyes. “It’s nothing bad. Just trying to figure out something.”

“Well what needs to be figured out then? Because this kinda sounds like an argument.”

“Tinker’s apparently done a little bit of research and wants one of us to go to a trade show in L.A.” Sprocket paused. “Says it might be a good way to chat with a microchip supplier and figure out a more cost effective solution to manufacturing some components for the gauntlets.”

“Right,” Silver nodded. “So what’s up then? Why aren’t we using our inside voices for this?”

The night pony shrugged. “Gyro doesn’t want to go and is trying to make me give up my vacation that’s been booked for months now.”

“You can always reschedule, or just tag it onto the trip.” Gyro offered.

Sprocket let out an annoyed whinny. “She’s not going to want to sit around in some trade show when we already had other things planned. Other things in Florida mind you, which is about as far from L.A. as you can get in case you’ve forgotten.”

A budding ache started to form in Silver’s head as he took in the argument. The foal nestled on his back sparked a thought in his mind however. As the two ponies continued to bicker back and forth, the cherished childhood memories that Silver had been reflecting on before came back to mind. This convention was in L.A. right? Well what if he took Gyro’s advice to Sprocket and used it as an excuse to go take a small vacation.

The stallion chuckled out loud, interrupting the argument and earning a confused glare from both ponies.

“Something funny?” Gyro asked.

“If you two didn’t want to go then you could have just asked me.” Silver replied, ignoring the question. “Probably would have saved you some hassle too.”

Sprocket raised an eyebrow. “You want to go to a trade show all the way out in California?”

Silver shrugged. “Sure. Gets me away from the work here and gives me more time to spend with Scarlet and Orion doing some cool things in a place we don’t normally get to go to. Sounds like a pretty slick deal to me.”

Sprocket shrugged and started to trot off. “Works for me.”

Gyro on the other hand, seemed almost elated, which was a rare mood for him to show. “You’re actually willing to go?”

“Sure.” Silver replied. “It’s nice to break up the usual routines every now and again, and it gets me right back near my old stomping grounds. I think it’d be cool to show Scarlet and Orion some of the stuff I used to do for fun down there.” He paused. “So when’s the convention anyways?”

“End of the week.” He flatly replied.

Silver let out a small gasp. “Wow, no wonder you both were riled up about this. Isn’t that cutting it just a little close?”

Gyro rolled his eyes. “You can ask Tinker that. This whole thing was his idea after all.”

“What was my idea?” Came the unmistakably jolly voice of Tinker.

“The convention that Gyro and Sprocket were arguing over,” Silver replied.

Gyro nodded. “Yes, well, Silver has agreed to go in our place.”

Tinker smiled. “Wonderful!” He cheered. “So you’re probably going to need the information then?”

“It’d help,” Silver agreed. “I’ll need a hotel room too. I don’t think my parents are gonna like me bringing the whole family with zero notice.”

“That can be arranged. Just go tell Balanced Books about the trip and I’m sure she’ll figure everything else out for you.”

Silver smirked and nodded his head. Balanced Books, one of the few new night ponies to migrate to the Oasis, was one of the newer recruits who had been brought in to help alleviate some of the stress that ponies like Silver— the ones who wound up filling in for different operational roles, had to deal with. Together with Bottom Line, her pegasus partner, the two would help run the Oasis’ finances, and already with just a few weeks under their belt, they had found so many different ways to better cut unnecessary costs without seriously impacting the city’s operations.

“I can do that,” he replied. “Gives me a chance to stretch my legs a little bit anyhow.”

“Stuck doing more operational stuff?” Tinker asked with a hint of sympathy carrying in his voice.

“Yeah,” Silver confirmed. “But hey, it’s not going to be forever, so I just need to power through what I can right now.”

“That’s a good way to look at it. Just take it easy every now and again, okay?”

“Oh believe me, that’s the plan.”

Silver laughed as he thought about the little pseudo vacation he was going to take advantage of. There was still so much more to do before the day ponies retired for the evening, so a trip to the accountant would have to wait for now. Trotting towards his workstation, he flicked on the pony-optimized computer and started reading through what the rest of his team had already started to work on.

---

For the second time tonight Silver found himself standing around in an elevator, though this time he didn’t take the time to reflect on things like he normally would. Instead he impatiently tapped a hoof on the floor as he waited for it to finish its ascent. Normally he wouldn’t be impatiently anticipating a business trip, but this one would be different he hoped. If everything worked out the way he wanted it to, he’d get exactly what he was hoping for, and if things consistently worked out this way in the future? Well then the advanced research team might have gotten a new volunteer to go to trade shows and part scouting trips.

The bell chimed as they reached the accounting department, and with a spring in his step, Silver trotted over to the night staff section with Orion in tow. The dim lighting of the floor and the relative quiet almost made it seem as if no one was in, but the telltale click-clacks that carried over from the corner office every few moments confirmed that Balanced Books was indeed in.

“You know it’s not Wednesday right? You’re early for our meeting.” She commented from behind the dimly illuminated computer screen on her desk.

“I know,” Silver calmly replied. “I just needed to get something sorted out for a business trip.”

Balanced books blew a strand of her dark aqua colored mane out of her eyes and nodded, glancing down towards Orion who grinned back in glee. In a moment her entire demeanor changed and she hopped off of her cushion to greet the foal.

“Oh and you brought the little one today too.”

Orion squeed and trotted towards the maroon colored mare and hopped up into the air. Letting out a laugh, Silver nodded.

“He’s my assistant, but he’s not doing a great job at it.”

“I think you’re wrong. He’s clearly doing the best job he can, isn’t that right?” Orion laughed and Balanced Books flashed a smug grin at Silver. “So what’s this trip about anyhow?”

“One of Tinker’s trade show finds. They’re calling it the Hooves and Hands Engineering Conference. It’s a three day convention down in Anaheim, not too far from L.A.”

“Mhmm. I know where Anaheim’s at.” She meandered back to her desk and began typing something out with her wing thumbs. “Ah, yes, I see it now. So the conference is this coming Friday then?”

Silver nodded his head. “Yeah, short notice I know, but hey, don’t shoot the messenger.”

“Right.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s not going to make ticket prices very cheap, but I guess it’s a little late to worry about that. That just means we’ll have to reallocate some of the budget we have set aside for this sort of stuff.”

She typed away, making a short humming sound every few moments before finally giving a terse Hmm.

“Everything okay?” Silver asked.

“Not really,” Balanced Books bluntly replied. “Hotels are pricey down there with such a short notice, not to mention airfare and the cost of arranging a driver for your stay there.” She let out a small sigh. “Do you need to go on this trip? Or can your team just make do without the trip?”

Silver would have normally been fine skipping a business trip, but the chance to sneak away and turn this into a little mini vacation seemed too tempting for him to just accept losing a possible business connection.

He shook his head. “We’re having an issue sourcing a part we need and Tinker seems to think that there’s a vendor who’s attending this convention who might be able to get us going again. He’d be devastated if we cancelled.”

Balanced Books rolled her eyes and nodded. “I had a feeling you’d say that. So in that case we’ll have to find what we can for accommodation. Just a fair warning though, this will cut into your team’s budget. Rates in that area are going to be pricey and you could be looking at at least a thousand or two down for this minimum.”

Silver nodded. “I figured. That said, if I remember correctly Phoenix’s dad works at a hotel in that area, so it might be worth giving him a call and seeing if he can swing a friends and family rate.”

“Mhmm,” the mare jotted down a few notes. “I’ll call him in and see what he can do. I’ll set aside a temporary budget for this right now and if Phoenix can’t then we’ll have to pull from that. Sound fair?”

Silver shrugged. “It is what it is, and if Tinker has an issue with it then so be it. He’s got his options to choose from if it comes to that.”

“Alright. Well if that’s everything then I’ll go ahead and start crunching some of the numbers. Give me a call if you need anything else.”

Silver smiled. “Thanks Balanced.”

“Thank you.” She looked down at Orion and smiled. “Now you two have a good night, okay?”

Orion jumped up and let out a happy Eeeek as Silver led him back towards the elevator. There was still a whole week ahead of them, and lots of work to be done, but in a weird way Silver was excited for it all. It might be a boring business trip, but at the end of the day it’d be another chance for him to spend more time with his family.

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Looks like Silver is getting things worked out for more family time, even if it's business travel