Do Ponies on Earth have Magic Dreams?

by TikiBat

Chapter 28: Discontent is the First Necessity of Progress

Stanley sat in the small, but cozy den of his shared living space with both Midnight and Gizmo, who were looking out the window and over towards the village’s center. There were still a few days before the next town meeting, but the night pony knew that they needed to start fostering discussion sooner than that. These kinds of delicate topics couldn’t just be approached the day of if they wanted any chance at fostering a peaceful resolution. So being the optimist that he was, he had scheduled a meeting with Dawn, and the three of them were just waiting for the sun to set so they could get on their way.

That small meeting that they had planned for tonight was a deviation from his plan however, if he could even call what they had all discussed a plan. So far, really the only thing they had talked about was the plan for the town meeting itself, but Stanley knew that waiting that long to try and broker some kind of peace wouldn’t pan out. No, they needed to think smarter and come up with actual steps to work towards. Still though, she was as stubborn as any night pony was, and that meant that they had to play by her rules or risk ending this whole plan before it even had a chance to get off the ground.

Dawn wasn’t going to see their perspective, he knew that for a fact, but he didn’t expect to win her over right away. Instead they needed to make baby steps— start small with things that wouldn’t drastically change her whole vision fueled dream of what a pony village should be like. It was a long shot, but that’s what they needed to do right now.

“Okay, so let’s go through this again,” he started. “Giz what are you going to ask from Dawn?”

The earth pony looked down to the paper in front of him, squinting at the roughly drawn out notes from their earlier discussion, “I’m going to ask if I can make some small tweaks to the crop schedules so we can get better yields and use our space and resources more efficiently.”

“And…” he looked over to Midnight.

“And I’m going to reassure Dawn that we’re still sticking to her plan, but making quality of life changes that’ll hopefully help relieve some of the pressure from the earth ponies.”

“Good,” Stanley clopped his hooves together, “And then all three of us emphasize that we’re working on a revised proposal with the other earth ponies that we’ll bring up at the next meeting.”

“I still don’t think this is gonna work,” Gizmo replied, “Dawn’s a control freak, she ain’t gonna like someone messin’ with her plans.”

“He’s got a point you know,” Midnight added, “I appreciate your optimism, but you’re new here. You don’t know how things work out in the long run.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged, “but you two have been struggling with this forever so maybe having another pony to mediate the situation will help. If not then we have our other plan.”

“The strike,” Gizmo nodded, “she’s not gonna handle that well.”

“Which is your whole intention then right? Force her hoof if she won’t reason with the rest of the village farmers.”

“That could go good or bad though. What if she just tells Gizmo and his farmers to leave?”

“Then she’s out of a workforce and the village collapses from a lack of food then?” Stanley shrugged, “I don’t want things to get that bad, which is why bringing this up with her so soon is so important. You need to speak her language and come in with a different angle.”

“That sounds great on paper, but reality is going to be a lot different.”

Stanley looked at the earth pony and nodded, “You’re right, one hundred percent right. In all likelihood this isn’t going to work out well at all and we’ll be back to square one, but we have to try, right?”

“Right,” Midnight agreed. “Just have to have a good mindset I guess.”

“No guessing, just have a good mindset and hope for the best. If it doesn’t work out when we figure something else out, and if push comes to shove then Gizmo has his plan.”

“Sun’s getting nice and low,” the earth pony commented, “Should we go knock this out?”

“Yeah,” Stanley agreed, “the sooner the better. We all want to see this place thrive, and I know Dawn does deep down on the inside. She just needs to see another perspective to get the idea.”

“I think she does too,” Midnight paused, “It’s just going to be really hard to get her to actually see that. So let’s hope it all works out.”

Stanley stood up from the soft seat he was sitting on and made for the door, squinting his eyes at the last rays of orange sunlight that were stretching through the open window. He turned back toward the two and waved them over, “Hooves crossed this works.”

“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Midnight paused in thought, “best case it all works out, worst case it doesn’t.”

“And if it doesn’t, it probably wasn’t meant to be,” Gizmo added. “Can’t say we didn’t try our hardest.”

“Exactly, but let’s be optimistic. I genuinely think that Dawn wants what’s best, she just has a weird way of doing it and it’s up to us to show her that we need to work together.”

With the three in agreement, they began to make their way over to the town’s center, determined to make peace and uncertain of what the future had in store if they couldn’t.

---

“I believe we all agreed to talk about this during the next town assembly,” Dawn commented from behind her small wooden desk.

“We did,” Stanley agreed, “However, I figured it’d be best if we took some baby steps before then.”

“Baby steps?” She seemed to consider the idea of just sending them out entirely, but hadn’t yet, which made Stanley optimistic. With a smile, Dawn nodded, “Okay then, humor me. What do you have in mind?”

“Well,” Stanley took a step back and gestured for Gizmo to come forward, “First off, Gizmo has some small tweaks that he wanted to ask about to help make things more efficient.”

“Now when you say small tweaks do you really mean he has some big radically different plan that he wants to put in place?”

“Not today,” Gizmo answered for Stanley, “You know where I stand on this, but I’m willing to try and at least compromise right now.”

“Let’s hear it then, what kind of compromise are you asking for?”

The earth pony cleared his throat, muttering a few curses under his breath but not going any further, “You won’t let us make sweeping changes, but what about small things? Things like small tweaks to the crop schedules and rotations so we can get better use and yield? And even smaller things like letting a couple of the farmers try out some experimental methods.”

Dawn stared back with an unreadable expression, “Okay. So, how are you implementing this then? And what kind of impact is it going to have on food production?”

Gizmo’s eyes opened in surprise at the lack of an outright refusal, “Well for starters, right now you’re directly controlling production. Deciding what gets grown where and when, but you’re not an earth pony or a farmer so you don’t really know what you’re doing.”

“No offense intended,” Stanley interjected, “but you’re thinking like a human.”.

“Right,” Gizmo agreed, “We’re coming from a place of wanting to see this place thrive. And Stanley there had a good point that we need to work together as one if we want to do that.”

“And that means taking small steps to build toward a better solution,” Midnight added.

Dawn slowly nodded, “What kind of experimental methods do your earth ponies want to try?”

“Huh?” Gizmo asked in surprise, “Well it’s just using different methods to try and get a better yield. Stuff like aquaponics, vertical growing, et cetera. Stuff we can definitely do but also stuff that goes against your direct orders.”

Dawn raised her hoof and shook her head, “That’s going to be an issue. Because we need everypony doing their jobs to keep this moving along.”

“Yes, we realize that Dawn,” Midnight paused for a moment and looked back at Stanley, “but what Gizmo’s asking for is just a tiny reduction in that workforce, so he can redirect a few ponies elsewhere. So he can hopefully make the production a lot more efficient.”

“It’s not a flat out redirection of your order,” Stanley added, “But it’s a test of what Gizmo wants to do. Just at a smaller scale so there’s little to no risk of having any kind of big failure there. If his way doesn’t work out then it only cost a couple of workers and some surplus crops, rather than an entire field’s worth of food.”

“We still need every pony doing their jobs.”

Midnight facehooved, and Gizmo let out an annoyed whinny. In contrast to his friends, Stanley trotted toward Dawn’s desk and rested a hoof on it, “Dawn, I know you want what’s best for the village, and I can’t fault you on that at all. But we need to take a step back and look at everything as it’s individual parts, because you’re only looking at it as a whole.”

She let out a small sigh and shook her head, “I’m not trying to be a tyrant. I just want this place to survive, and in this climate on our own that’s easier said than done. Everything in the world has a precise balance, a reason for happening and that’s no different here.”

“And that’s important, but remember, we’re ponies,” Midnight stepped in. “You’re trying to do what’s right for the town, but in the process you’re ignoring the reality. The vision is great and all, but you’re looking at it like a human would. This kinda stuff works well on paper, but it’s a lot more complex when you actually put it into action. And you’re forgetting that Equestria has shown that ponies can do amazing things if we try.”

She looked up at Gizmo and nodded, “I know you mean well too. The truth is, I don’t budge on stuff like this because I need to put the needs of the village over the needs of single ponies. I realize that some ponies get the short end of the stick, but in the grand scheme of things we can’t afford to gamble on something working, if there’s a risk that it could fail and doom us all.”

Gizmo slammed his hooves down on the desk in frustration, earning a surprised hiss from all three of the night ponies. Letting out another frustrated growl, he gestured out the small window that overlooked the village, “I’m not asking you to gamble on a large scale right now. I’m asking you to let us test out this kind of stuff on a small scale— where it won’t make or break anything.”

“But…” she started, “But you need to realize that if we break the order then what else is going to start to slip by? What if your farmers aren’t happy with their experiments? What if more want to jump into their place because they’re not happy with what we have now?”

“Then you’ll have to deal with this one way or another.” Gizmo flatly replied, “Because we’re trying to do this diplomatically, but the truth of the matter is that we outnumber you, and we want what’s best for the village too.”

“Are you implying that you’re going to try and stage a mutiny or something?” Dawn growled back as she stood up.

“Maybe I am,” Gizmo replied.

“ENOUGH!” Stanley shouted, stomping his hooves on the ground in a rare show of aggression. Lowering his voice, he continued, “Look, I know you two aren’t going to get along, but I’m going to be blunt, this place is going to fall apart if you don’t try to at least budge a little and agree on something. We’re not asking for everything right now, we’re just trying to broker some kind of peace so we can continue to make this place into something amazing.”

“Dawn, if you’ll let me speak for a moment I’d like to reassure you that what Gizmo wants isn’t a complete overturn of your plan, but rather a tiny little nudge. If you give him an inch I’ll personally make sure that he doesn’t take a mile,” Midnight spoke up.

Dawn started to speak, but paused, shifting her gaze between the three. Letting out a long sigh, she turned to Stanley, “Okay. You have a point.”

“Wait what?” Midnight asked in surprise.

“Yes,” she continued, “I have my own objections, but I’m going to try and compromise a little here.”

“We’re listening,” Gizmo started, but stopped himself from saying anything further.

“What’s your plan Dawn?”

She turned to Midnight and smiled, “I’m going to give Gizmo his request. Starting tomorrow, take three of your earth ponies to the smallest vacant plot, and that’ll be their working area.”

“Is this for real? You promise it isn’t a joke?”

Dawn nodded, “Yes Gizmo, but on one condition.”

“Oh?” He asked, “Well, what is it?”

“My condition is that whatever new methods they develop need to be brought up to me before being implemented. Administration reserves the right to deny the use of those methods if it constitutes a risk to the village’s ongoing stability.”

The earth pony’s eyes briefly lit up before a frustrated expression returned to his face. Stanley could only assume that Dawn’s caveat was to blame, and he couldn’t blame Gizmo for being annoyed. Still though, this was a positive step in the right direction, even if Dawn’s logic wasn’t fully sound— at least to the group’s consensus.

“Is that fair Giz?” The stallion asked.

He considered this for a moment before nodding, “It’ll have to work for now. I have a lot of objections though, but I’ll hold my tongue.”

Stanley cheerfully clopped his hooves against the desk, “Alright, well in that case, I think we covered what we needed. So Giz and the farmers can work on their ideas in a small scale setting, and Midnight and I will keep an eye on them and make sure they keep their end of the bargain. In return they’ll ask you before moving forward with anything big. Sound good?”

“Aye,” Gizmo agreed.

“That works for now,” Dawn nodded.

“Good. Now hopefully we can keep things peaceful, and we can chat more about all of this at the next meeting.”

Bolstered by their success, Stanley was a little more optimistic for the meeting, but he also knew that the next few days would test whether this whole idea would work or not…

And he desperately hoped that it would.

Comments

[The Marvel Horse]

In all honesty this chapter felt a little bit slow. Not much happening that hadn't been addressed in another chapter, save for the offer of small steps. In my opinion, the small steps/tweaks felt repetitive? I mean, that might have been what you were trying to portray - I'm not sure if that's actually how it goes irl. Still glad to see some progress being made overall, the threat of mutiny really seemed to make Dawn reconsider giving Gizmo a chance.

[Javarod]

10616479
Prolly my Stamp of Approval image, I attach them to the end of chapters when I'm done proofreading them.