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Spike1,500 words

Soarin

[DAY 154]

"Whew, these boxes are heavy."

"Oh, be careful with that, Soarin. Those are my dishes."

I'm Schuberry, pegasus mare and lover of music.

Soarin and I had only been dating for about five months before we moved in together. Yeah, I knew it was quick, but we were in love and, at the time it just felt right to me.

"You do know I have dishes, right?" Soarin said.

"Oh, you mean these chipped artifacts we got going on?" I scoffed. "No way. These are going to Goodwill."

Something to keep in mind, though: up until that point, we hadn't slept together yet. To be clear, we did have.......quality time plenty of times. But we never actually slept overnight. In the same bed.

TOGETHER.

"Welp." Soarin sighs. "I gotta get ready for work."

I work from home during the day, and Soarin was the night manager at the rainbow factory. So our schedules were completely out of sync. In the back of my mind, I was kind of hoping that Soarin would get a different job so that we could live like a normal couple.

[DAY 155]

"Hey, how was your day, Soarin?"

"Um........not good." he huffed. "The factory closed."

The place where Soarin worked was turning into luxury condos. And that meant he was out of a job, effective immediately.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do, this sucks."

"Babe, I am so sorry." I said, pulling him into a hug. "But, you know, this might actually be a GOOD thing."

Don't get me wrong, I felt bad for him. Nopony wants to lose their job. But for us, that was what was needed.

"You know you can look for daytime work and get off the night shift."

"Mm, I don't know, dear. I'm kind of a night owl at this point."

Whenever I pressed him to make a change before, he was always nervous. He liked everything just the way it was.

"If we had more time together at night, then we have time for other things." I stated.

"Alright." Soarin said. "Maybe we do need this. I'll do it, it'll be great."

"Eeeeeeee!"

I was thinking 'mission accomplished'. Sometimes you just gotta push to get what you want. It was gonna be our first night sleeping together, like, all night. Soarin broke out the romantic music I like and lit the room up with candles.

"Honey, this is beautiful." I said.

"Well, I wanted our first real night together to be perfect." Soarin nodded.

It was exactly what I had been hoping for. It was beautiful. We enjoyed ourselves...

But then, it was time to sleep.

"Hey, would it be nice to fall asleep to candlelight?" he said as I blew out a few flames in the room.

"Oh, that makes me so uncomfortable." I winced. "When I was young, a candle fell over while me and my cousin were sleeping and it nearly burned the house down."

I hadn't considered what effect this drastic change in Soarin's schedule might have on him.

"I-I'm just gonna d-do some reading. Helps me fall asleep."

But when I dozed off, he was still reading. And when I woke up the next morning, he wasn't in bed.

He was on the couch. ASLEEP.

"Soarin, wake up."

"Huh, what time is it?" he slurred.

"7:30. Why did you come in here?"

"I couldn't sleep. Guess I'm still having trouble adjusting."

"What time did you pass out?"

"I don't know. The sun was coming up and I got sucked into a movie."

He'd only got a few hours of sleep.

"What are your plans for today?" I asked.

"Meeting with a headhunter. Probably a waste of time."

And he was GROU-CHY.

"No, don't say that. I have a friend who used one and she got a great job."

"Well, not getting my hopes up."

I've never seen him like that before. It looked like he was gonna be in a bad mood all day. But, surprisingly, when he came home-

"How did it go?" I said.

"Great." Soarin chuckled. "They loved me."

He was, like........a new stallion.

"Hopefully, something will open up soon, and I'll be a working man again.

He was bright eyed and bushy tailed. I was thinking........how did that happen?

[DAY 159]

Over the next week, this pattern of staying up late-

"Babe, what are you doing?"

Kept going.

"Oh, honey, have you ever read these Yakyakistanian romance novels?" he uttered. "They're ADDICTING!"

Soarin wasn't really trying to snap out of it. He was even downing energy drinks while reading bad, cheesy love stories.

"Soarin, it's 4 in the morning." I stated. "Just come to bed."

"Sure, sure. I just want to see if Ruknard and Yadeeta disobey their parents and run away together."

And he was paying the price for all those late-night sessions.

"Good morning, dear."

"If you say so."

He'd walk around like a.....

"It's Tuesday, right?" he slurred.

"It is Friday."

"Oh............yeah."

Like a ZOMBIE, or something.

Then he'd practically stumble out the door to look for a job all day. And when it wasn't Yak love stories, it was cleaning the basement or doing laundry or......

Ugh, ZOOMBA.

"Soarin!" I yelled. "What the hell?!"

"I was feeling a bit sluggish!" he huffed, dancing to the loud music. "Wanted to get a workout in!"

I flew over to that radio and cut it off.

He was behaving like a crazy pony.

"Are you okay, Soarin? You don't sleep, you're moody as hell, you're here doing ZOOMBA! Should I be concerned?"

"I'm fine. The transition's a little tougher than I thought, but I should be back to normal in no time."

"Are you SURE?"

"Yeah, positive."

By that point, I knew that this wasn't just trouble transitioning. Nopony can go DAYS without sleep.

[DAY 166]

I meet my friend, Cloud Chaser, for lunch every week. Normally we'd just chitchat, but I had to tell her about Soarin's ridiculous behavior.

"Where does he go all day?" she asked.

"He's out looking for work." I grunt.

"Aww, come on. Nopony does that."

"Why do you say that? What are you saying?"

"That sounds like one of my cousins. With the crazy hours, the mood swings. He'd always disappear for days on end and come back a different pony. Turned out he had a drug problem."

"No, he's not that type."

"Well, I didn't think my cousin was either. Besides, can you honestly say you know what 'type' he is?"

I HATED to even consider it, but I couldn't imagine what else it could be.

"So, what do I do?"

"If you ask him, he'll deny it. You gotta follow him and catch him in the act, and then confront him."

It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But I did what Cloud Chaser said. I was expecting him to lead me to a back alley or a dealer's house. But, instead, he led me to a motel. I was afraid of what I was going to see in there...

But he was just sleeping.

"Soarin, wake up."

"Schuberry!" he gasped. "What are you doing here?!"

"Are you okay? What did you take?"

"Nothing."

"I know you're on drugs."

"W-What? I'm not on drugs. I don't come here to get high.........I come here to sleep."

"Why?"

"Because I can't do it at night. Because.....I'm afraid of the dark."

Of ALL the things I expected my ADULT coltfriend to admit, that was not one of them.

"Seriously?"

"I-It all started when I was a kid. My jerky older brother locked me in a closet for 11 hours. As I've gotten older, it's only gotten worse. That's why I worked at night. Then, once I lost my job, with you working out of the house, I started coming here to get a few hours of sleep."

I was prepared for him to lie about doing drugs. But there is NO WAY that this was a lie. I mean, who would lie about that?

"Well what exactly is it about the dark that scares you so much?" I asked.

"...........monsters."

Monsters.

I know. A part of me DID want to break it off with him right then and there, but I didn't want to be the type of girl who abandons their coltfriend when he needed me most.

"I'm not going anywhere. We're gonna work through this together, okay?"

So I decided to help him with his problem. But where do you BEGIN helping an ADULT overcome their fear of the dark?

[DAY 180]

I went searching DEEP in the libraries all around town for answers. And, believe it or not, I found a support group.

For adults.

"A-And even though I was three, I remember it like it was yesterday." one of the members stuttered. "W-We were playing peekaboo. My hooves were over my eyes. But then, one day I peeked and nopony was there and I never saw my dad again."

It was.......a strange collection of ponies, let me tell you. But Soarin really seemed to appreciate me being there for that first meeting. Suddenly, the lights in the room flickered about and everypony, including Soarin, nearly had a panic attack.

"Hey, it's okay." the group's leader says calmly. "It's an old building, alright? That's what the glow sticks are for."

After that first session, Soarin started going to that group three times a WEEK.

[DAY 185]

"You're lying in a beautiful field at dusk. As the sun goes down, you feel warm and protected."

Back at home, we even tried some relaxing visualization techniques the group leader recommended.

"The darker it gets, the more peaceful you feel." I continued. "Because there is nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light, except sleep. And all is well. You're safe....."

Then, as I slowly began to dim the lights-

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The police arrived 10 minutes later. They had gotten reports of a 'terrified little girl screaming'.

I had to lie and say we were watching a movie.

A few days later, I met up with Cloud Chaser again. I told her how nothing was working, and how Soarin was still sleeping at the hotel during the day.

"I may have a solution." she stated. "A friend of mine is getting her doctorate in psychology at the university, and I was telling her what you were going through and she said her department was just got funding for a new sleep study. I told her about Soarin and she got excited and said a stallion in his condition would be a perfect candidate."

"That would be amazing!" I cheered. "This could save our relationship."

It was the best news I'd heard in a while. I was so excited to tell him, I just went straight to the hotel.

"Soarin? Time to wake up."

As I pulled the covers from the edge of the bed, I saw his hooves resting next to something.......off.

"You gotta be bucking kidding me. WAKE UP!"

Up from under the sheets jumped Soarin and some random white mare. It took me a second to recognize her, but it was that 'Peekaboo' chick from his crazy support group.

"I-It just happened!" Soarin stutters. "W-We got friendly in group and I ran into her here and.......we decided to share a room to save bits, then one thing led to another...it's the best sleep I've ever had."

I had stuck by that scared-of-the-dark little bitch through it all, and that's the thanks I got.

I'm not proud of what I did next. But...

"You two can have each other." I huffed, closing the curtains and heading for the light switch.

"Y-You wouldn't." Soarin whined.

It had to be done.

"Peekaboo, bitches."

*CLICK*

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Soarin and "Peekaboo" tried to get married...

But they got trapped in a courthouse elevator during a power failure.

Neither have recovered.

Schuberry is now dating a day trader.