Ponies on Earth and their New Horizons

by TikiBat

Chapter 18: Uneasy Dealings

The three night ponies sat in the back of their van, cuddled up close together. Silver was fiddling with his gauntlet, occasionally glancing down to Orion who was snuggled up with a large plush toy. Scarlet sat on the other side of the sleepy colt, swiping away at the large tablet balance on the tray in front of her.

“So where are we going Silver?”

“Just making a small detour to look at some potential new hires.”

“Oh gosh, you mean we’re not going on another vacation?”

He smirked, “I wish. I think one was enough excitement for our little pirate, isn’t that right?!” He excitedly shouted as he laid a wing over Orion, earning a series of laughs from the colt.

Scarlet smiled, “Did you have fun Orion?”

“Yeah!” The colt cheerfully beamed.

“Really? What was your favorite part?” Silver asked.

The colt sat in consideration for a moment, as if Silver had asked him some profound question. A few seconds later and his face lit up in excitement, “The pirates!”

“You don’t know how proud I am to hear him say that,” Silver proudly beamed, “That was my favorite as a kid.”

“You’re such a dork,” Scarlet replied with a laugh.

“I’m your dork.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“So what’re you working on now?”

Scarlet perked up, “Oh not much, Lightbug forwarded me a message from Starry Skies and it’s interesting.”

“Starry Skies? That’s your little pen pal from Equestria right?”

“That’s the one.”

“So what’s he up to nowadays? Still keeping you updated on that program you helped out with?”

“Surprisingly a lot. Going off of his latest letter, Princess Luna is allowing him to take an extended research trip to Earth, and he was actually wondering if he could spend some of that time in the Oasis.”

“You’re going to have an Equestrian helping out with your whole space center? Fancy you!”

She smiled, “It’s not a space center… yet.”

“Yet. Don’t sell yourself short though, you guys are doing some really cool stuff there.”

“It’s just a prototype telescope that we’re working on with Tyler and Sarah’s team out in Texas.”

“That’s still impressive, maybe it’s not the most groundbreaking thing out there, but you’ve still got some people hooked on learning more about it, including our little space pirate,” he finished, tousling Orion’s mane and earning another laugh from the colt.

“He really does love hanging around everything, I have to practically drag him away from the older telescopes when it’s time to go home.”

“Well that’s good for him. I’m glad he’s getting so interested in what you love doing, and it’s adorable to watch.”

“I hate to interrupt another adorable family moment, but we’re coming up on your stop,” Their driver called back.

Silver nodded, “Thanks Hannah, sorry we made you detour so far.”

The human shrugged, “No need to apologize, I’m still on the clock so it’s all fine by me.”

“Well we still appreciate it,” Silver turned back toward Scarlet, “I don’t know how long this’ll take, but you two should probably hang out here, I’m not sure how their lab’s set up and I doubt they’ll want a tired night pony space pirate running around there.”

She let out a small laugh, “Fair enough. Just keep me posted if you think it’ll be any longer than an hour.”

Silver nodded, “I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else. I think Gyro’s done a bit of talking with them already, hopefully it won’t drag on too long.”

“Alright, I trust you. Now go have fun with your nerd friends, and let me know if they have any cool astronomers on the team.”

Silver leaned in for a kiss, “If there’s any cool astronomers on their team you’ll be the first to know,” He turned toward Orion, “Now you behave too, try not to cause too much trouble for mommy, okay?”

“Okay!” The colt cheerfully replied back.

Silver pressed a hoof to the door and slid it open, hopping out of the van and giving Scarlet one final nod. He glanced back over toward a small cave entrance, immediately noticing the unicorn that Gyro was standing with. The two had seemingly paused their conversation, and were both glancing over at him.

The night pony slowly started to trot over toward the pair, smiling as he approached them, “Sorry if I’m a little late, we hit some traffic on the way over.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve already made an introduction,” Gyro replied back, “This is Doctor Lair, one of the main researchers here, and she’s going to give us a tour of their lab.”

The mare nodded, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Eclipse… you’re the robotics director at the Oasis correct?”

Silver slowly nodded, “You know that?” He let out a laugh, “You really must have done your homework, we’re not really all that well known for anything other than our farming outside of a few small circles.”

The unicorn mare smiled, “Of course we have. Desert farming, advanced transportation, robotics, and even the magic research your top mage has published. It might just be the small seedlings of the future that aren’t well known globally, but you’ve made enough of a name for yourself with what you do have that it attracts ponies like us.”

“Ponies like you?” He asked with a raised brow.

She nodded, “The niche researchers that are trying to make a better world. Researchers like you and I. You’re partnered with SPEC correct? Am I wrong to assume that you’re also trying to make more of an independent name for yourselves?”

Silver nodded, “We never intended to have to rely on SPEC forever. Not that I’m not appreciative of what their partnership has done for us, but being tied to such a prominent Shimmerist group has its downsides, even if a lot of the ponies we do business with don’t mind all that much. Still though, there’s so much more that we want to do and it’s hard to build up other partnerships and friendships at times because of it.”

“And that’s why you were looking for other researchers, correct?”

“That’s a part of it. I can’t get into everything, but there’s projects we’re working on that we hope to market someday, and those projects would definitely help build up some of the capital we need to really start working on the big stuff we have planned, that’s where ponies like you come in. Sure, the produce exports are helping a lot with the operational costs, and we’ve been able to start test marketing some of our tech like the gauntlets, but we still needed more help to really make our dreams a reality,” He looked over to Gyro and gave a quick nod, “This is my top mage Gyro, and he thinks your group might be the right fit for what he’s been trying to do.”

The mare nodded, “So what do you think about it?”

“Your research? Well I’m not a mage, but Gyro rarely ever gets this excited about an independent team, so I’m definitely interested in learning more about you.”

“So, enough of the boring chit-chat, I’m sure you’re curious to see what we’ve been cooking up,” She gestured toward a small cave entrance behind her, “It’s right over this way.”

“Your lab?” Silver asked

“Mhmm,” The mare replied back, “I’m sorry it’s so far out and hidden away. Turns out that old gold mines are pretty affordable and make decent laboratory spaces if you can excavate them. It made our old employers happy too, they didn’t like having a bunch of mages performing magical research under their main campus— too much of a liability or something, but we didn’t mind.”

Silver nodded, “Believe me, I’m sure I can understand their concerns,” He paused for a moment as they stepped into an elevator, “Now if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly was your research?”

“Unfortunately I’m not at liberty to delve into the specifics, but we were studying magical resonance and the long term effects that magic can have on it, part of a pilot program that our former employer was running.”

He exchanged a brief glance with Gyro before turning back toward the crystal mare, “That’s some pretty high level stuff. Who was your employer, if you don't mind me asking?”

“Just a small branch of the Nevada Magical Research Center— really a group that was doing too much too soon, and unfortunately they were hit with some pretty drastic budget cuts. Our department was one of the unlucky ones that was given a two week notice. It sucks but what can you do?”

“Right, well I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, it seems like you guys were really ahead of everyone else with this.” The elevator door opened and Silver was led out into a long hallway made up of semi opaque glass walls. A faint chemical smell permeated the air, making him scrunch his nose back in disgust and giving him the sense that the entire laboratory had been scrubbed literally and figuratively.

The entire place was lit with a dim fluorescent glow, giving it the feeling of some medical facility. As they continued down the hallway, Silver tried to steal a quick look into some of the adjacent rooms, finding that the glass walls afforded him an almost perfect panoramic view of the lab. His curiosity piqued, he tried to get a deeper look into the space, finding that he could barely make out the rooms that were further away from him, even with his enhanced night vision. It was as if they were simply fading into some dark abyss, making it impossible to tell how big this place truly was.

An involuntary shiver ran down Silver’s spine, as if his instincts were subconsciously telling him that something was amiss. Shaking his body for a moment, he shrugged it off. Being a pony that was normally used to seeing all the angles of his surroundings and understanding how a situation might go, he was definitely out of his element, and he chalked his unease up to that.

“I apologize for the smell, we were cleaning this place out before we had to leave, the NMRC still owns it and unfortunately we couldn’t negotiate an extended lease.”

Silver raised an eyebrow, “You guys are really in a hurry?”

The mare smiled, “To tell you the truth, we are. We’re on a tight deadline and unfortunately that means we only have so much time to leave. We’re not taking much with us, just some hard drives, research notes, and a few experimental components. The NMRC gave us two weeks and that’s honestly not enough time, but thank God we can at least keep a lot of what we were working on.”

“And they’re fine with you taking those?”

Doctor Lair nodded, “Yes. It was an absolute pain to negotiate, and probably a reason why we were cut from the program. But at the end of the day at least we can keep our research.”

“Good, I don’t need some institute coming after us over property theft.”

“Believe me Professor Eclipse, you won’t have to worry about that.”

“Good. Now I’m sorry for all the questions, this is just to get a general understanding of who you all are and why we should look at bringing you in.”

“Oh it’s no bother at all, is there anything else I can answer for you?”

Silver turned toward Gyro and nodded, “So let’s just assume that we bring you onboard, what kind of research can you bring to the table?”

“Well as I previously said, we specialize in advanced magical research, especially resonant research. I don’t know how much value that could have to you, but I’m sure you could see the merit in that sort of thing.”

“Resonant as in studying what magic was at play with the ETS virus? Or just how magic affects us in general? I mean that’s some pretty high level stuff you’re talking about.”

The mare nodded, “Well it’s a little bit of both. You kind of have to touch multiple disciplines at once when it comes to this field of research.”

“Uh huh…,” Silver slowly nodded, “And do you have anything you can show us? That is, the stuff you’re allowed to share.”

“Of course, we’re almost to Doctor Rossman’s office, he was the stallion in charge of this laboratory, he’ll be able to answer that question better than I could.”

“Well I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have to bring to the table, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t already interested.”

---

“Silver Eclipse, the stallion I’ve heard so much about!”

Silver nodded and adjusted the cushion he was sitting on, “Mhmm, and I’ll take it you’re Doctor Rossman?”

“In the fur. So what do you think of our team so far?”

Silver glanced around at the framed certificates and pictures on the otherwise barren office wall, “Well, obviously it’s hard to make up an opinion so soon, but you guys really do make a good first impression.”

“We certainly try our best. Though I wish we had more to show you here. You should have seen this place back in its heyday, probably one of the most advanced facilities on the west coast.”

“But now it isn’t, right?”

The stallion smiled, “Well technically it still is, we’ve just crated up the bulk of our equipment, otherwise I’d show you the kind of stuff we’ve been working on. Lots of robotics projects and magic research, stuff both of you would probably gush over.”

“I guess it’s a shame then, that definitely sounds right up our alley,” Silver looked down at the files laid out in front of him, “that said, your research looks incredible. I’m not a magic guy myself, but Gyro is, and I’ve never seen him light up at another team’s research before.”

The unicorn nodded, “Mhmm. Not a lot of other ponies manage to do something so different with their magic. That’s why we’re even down here.”

“So you will consider picking up our contract… won’t you Mr. Eclipse?” The mare chimed in, pulling Silver’s attention back toward her.

Silver paused for a moment as he looked back toward Doctor Lair, “Give me a minute, I just need to talk with my associate.”

The unicorn nodded, taking a step back but keeping a curious eye on the pair, “Of course.”

Silver stood up and waved Gyro toward the corner of the room, “So, thoughts?”

Gyro sat in consideration for a moment, “They’re geniuses, but they’re not sharing everything, I can tell.”

The night pony nodded, “Okay, so I’m not alone on that either. Do you think it has to do with their NDAs or something else?”

The unicorn glanced over toward the two scientists, and then back to Silver, “To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I want to say it’s just standard NDAs, but given all the stuff they’ve worked on, it wouldn’t surprise me if they discovered something they’d rather not share.”

“And is that a good or a bad thing?”

“Maybe a bit of both. You know about some of the spells I was working on, right?”

“Mhmm, your magical signature thing you were playing around with. What about it?”

“It’s probably like that, something they spent a lot of time on that they don’t want someone else to swoop in and steal away from them. Mages take a lot of pride in their work, just as much as you take pride in your dreams I’m sure. Did you want to just share somewhere with everyone right out of the gate?”

Silver shook his head, “No, I didn’t,” he paused for a moment, “I see your point. Well, their background checks came back clean, their lab is meticulous to the point of almost being too clean, and they’ve got enough charisma and charm to befriend anyone. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t pick up their contract. They’re going out of business, it’d be a shame to let their talent go to waste.”

“My thoughts exactly. Worst case if they turn out weird then we cut them loose after the trial period.”

“Right, well I guess we have our answer then,” Silver trotted back toward the desk and took a seat, “Doctor Rossman, we’d like to bring you and your team in for a trial period. See how things turn out and go from there.”

“So, we’re hired?”

“Provisionally. If that’s alright with you.”

“I think we can find those terms agreeable, isn’t that right, Doctor Lair?”

The two exchanged a few silent glances before the mare turned back toward Silver and nodded, “It certainly is Doctor Rossman.”

Silver smiled, “That’s great to hear. Now, why don’t we discuss a few things about what kind of projects we’re working on back in The Oasis. You said you had a robotics expert on your team?”

Doctor Rossman nodded, “We do. I’m guessing that you’ve got some robotics projects of your own back home?”

“Mhmm, nothing earth shatteringly big yet. They’re still important though,” he raised up his leg to show the pair his gauntlet, “This is our main project right now, it’s like the pony strap but so much better.”

Rossman leaned forward to get a closer look, “Interesting, and what exactly does it do?”

“It depends on which model you have,” Silver answered, “We’ve got a bunch of different ones. Like mine’s more of a utility version, but we have models that have built in tools and utensils, some that are just basically a phone, and I’m even working on one that’ll let you grab something like if you had hands. The big thing that they all have in common is that they’re basically phones that can link up on their own network. Like walker talkies if you’re away from an actual network.”

“Interesting, and have you taken this to market yet? I can’t say I’ve seen any out in the wild before.”

“Not yet, at least not in the wider sense. We’ve been working on these for awhile now, but lately I’ve been trying to rework them and get to the point where they won’t be so cost prohibitive. If all goes well we could start pushing a consumer version out in a few years.”

The stallion looked over toward his companion and nodded, “Some very promising work indeed.”

“Mhmm, there’s some other projects too, stuff like medical tech that’ll hopefully help both ponies and humans someday, but those were kind of special cases. I met a friend of a friend that had lost an arm in an industrial accident years ago and I wanted to try and help him out.”

“There’s not exactly a market for that with ponies right now, is there?”

Silver shook his head, “Not really. I did run across a couple of ponies with similar needs when I was working on that human case for a while, and it made me realize that ponies still have to deal with this too, even if it’s only a handful out in the world.”

“Helping the needy, regardless of species, a goal that embodies the elements of generosity and kindness, both pillars we value here and a noble endeavor to strive for indeed,” he paused, “You know, that’s where some of our research came into play too.”

“Your magic research?”

Rossman nodded, “Some of it. To put it simply, what if we could use magic to crack the metaphorical code and reshape everything we think we know about science and medicine?”

“What about it?”

“Well take those poor souls you were just talking about for instance. What if we could somehow regrow what they lost? Or apply that towards improving their quality of life?”

“Like replacing their arm?”

“An arm, a leg, a hoof, even damaged cells that could never be regenerated in their lifetime. We could even do so much more, the possibilities are limitless.”

Silver slowly nodded, “Right, maybe in the realm of science fiction, but were a long ways out from that right now.”

“Maybe right now, with our limited understanding of how this kind of magic works, but the work we’re doing now could benefit so many in the future. Can you imagine it Mr. Eclipse? Someday this might not just be science fiction, it could be science fact.”

Silver glanced over to the unicorn and nodded, “I’ll take your word for it Doctor. I’m looking forward to working with you and your team…”

Silver didn’t know it yet, but this would only be the start of a greater chapter in his life… a chapter that would perhaps be more pivotal than even ETS had been…

Comments

[Halira]

If only Silver knew Rossman and Lair would be right up near the top of the FBI's most wanted list later in the Pandemic universe. They really need to invest in some better background checks.

[ProgAltRocker]

Very interesting stuff here. And a good potential for some serious fallout if this team's research is progressing the way it seems