Do Ponies on Earth have Magic Dreams?

by TikiBat

Chapter 33: A Touch of Reality

The twilight sky enveloped the two night ponies in a warm embrace, lighting up the world in a dreamy golden haze. Silver looked up at the brightly lit neon sign above his workplace, and then down to Scarlet, who was in a strange mood that seemed to border between sadness, distaste, and longing.

“Hey,” he broke the silence that had taken hold of the two of them during the majority of their flight down to the desert floor, “You have a good night at work, okay?” Silver spoke to Scarlet as he laid a hoof on her cheek, “Try to just relax tonight, and I promise we’ll practice some more dream stuff tomorrow.”

Scarlet nodded her head, “That’s easier said than done, you know that right?”

The stallion pulled her in for a tight embrace, “I do, but just try, for me?”

The mare smiled and leaned into his embrace, “Trust me when I say that I try my best. It doesn’t help that I have a lazy human as a coworker who kisses up to the night manager, who just so conveniently doesn’t really like ponies a ton.”

“Hey, you don’t know that.”

“Ehh, I’m pretty sure I do,” she corrected, giving her ears a wiggle. “I don’t think he realizes I can hear way better than any human could, and the stuff he mutters under his breath is pretty mean spirited.”

Silver froze for a moment, having realized that his plan just wasn’t going to work. Instead, his mind shifted towards something else that he knew would make a smile crack through the disinterested facade.

“Tell you what,” he started with a nervous smile.

“What?” she replied with the telltale flick of an ear, an act that betrayed her budding curiosity.

Silver let out a hesitant sigh, “If you promise to try and make the most of your night…” he paused, his face reddening slightly.

“Go on?” She raised an eyebrow, the disinterested looking fading more from her face.

“If you promise to try and have a great night at work… I’ll make a dream for us, and you can dress me up in those socks again.”

A sly grin slowly spread across her face as she raised her voice, “You mean the ones you were so bashful about wearing? The ones that really accenuented your flanks perfectly?”

Silver’s blush deepened even more, and he frantically looked around to make sure no one was around, “Shhh!” He whispered.

“What? There’s nothing wrong with liking to wear cute things. I think you personally look adorable in them, and you’re even cuter when you get flustered about it!” She laughed.

“Why are you like this?” Silver asked in a mockingly dismayed voice.

“Because I love you and you know how to make a crappy evening good.” She paused, “and because I do like seeing you wear cute outfits.”

“Yeah? Well if you want to see more then I guess you’ll just have to have a good night then.”

“Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll make this the best night ever? How about that?”

“Is that a threat?” The stallion nervously chuckled.

“No,” Scarlet mused, quickly flashing her fangs in a devilish smile, “It’s a promise. You already said I could dress you up in cute stuff tonight, so no backing out of it. I hope you’re ready to teach me all about how to conjure up outfits in dreams tonight.”

Silver nervously gulped, but didn’t back out of his promise. If being embarrassed in a dream meant that his marefriend would try and make the best of a bad work situation, he would gladly put up with modeling whatever Scarlet wanted to conjure up. He just had to pray to whatever higher power there was that Yinyu wouldn’t make an appearance, because he only knew that that would make an embarrassing situation even worse, and Scarlet would definitely pounce on that opportunity.

“What’s wrong Silvie? Cat got your tongue?” Scarlet playfully teased, pulling his attention away from the thought.

“I…” he stammered, “Yeah, that sounds great!” he blurted out, earning a snicker from the mare.

“Your face is like five shades darker than it usually is, you sure something isn’t bothering you?” She knowingly asked.

“Uh huh,” he quickly nodded, glancing around at literally anything else in hopes that he’d avoid any further embarrassment.

“You’re cute when you’re flustered,” Scarlet replied as she pulled him into a tight embrace. “Hope you’re ready for our dream date after work, I’m gonna spend the next few hours thinking up all of the different things we’ll do!”

Silver leaned into the embrace, “Love you, evil plans and all.”

The mare let out a devious snicker and shook her head, “I love you too Silver. Thanks for cheering me up.”

“Don’t thank me, we’re in this together,” Silver corrected, “through the thick and thin.”

“Yeah? Well I’m gonna thank you anyways,” she laughed. “You always manage to cheer me up even when I know that it’s going to be a stressful and boring day, and that really means a lot.”

The stallion gave her a warm smile, “I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.”

“Even if I make you wear cute outfits?”

Silver let out a small laugh, “Even if you make me wear cute outfits.”

She smiled, “You have fun at work hon. I should probably let you run off to that.”

Silver stole a glance at the salvage yard and then looked back at Scarlet, “You know, you really don’t need to go work at the motel if you don’t want to. I know we had all that cute banter and stuff, but I mean it.”

Scarlet brushed him off with a wing, “I don’t need to, and I don’t really want to, but I’m also not going to just quit when a job gets stressful or boring.”

“But you don’t need to be stressed out like that,” he protested.

The mare simply shrugged, “Let me give it an actual month’s worth of work before I decide whether it’s too much or not. Trust me Silvie, I’ve got this.”

Silver hesitated for a moment, his mind turning back towards the fundraising she had talked about doing before and her justification for everything. As a smile spread across his face, he gave her a short nod and continued, “Okay, you’re right. You’re a grown mare, you know yourself best, and I just need to trust you.”

She laid a hoof across his cheek, “I’m flattered that you want to make sure I’m okay, but you already do a lot of that already. I don’t need you stressing over my stuff too.”

“I love you, Scarlet.”

“I love you too Silver. Now go have some fun, but not too much fun because I’m going to make sure we have even more fun after work.” Her devious smile returned again, “Maybe not the kind of fun that you’re looking for, but believe me, it’ll be fun.”

Breaking up the seriousness for a moment, he let out a big laugh and shook his head, “You know, just spending time with you is fun enough. As embarrassing as it gets sometimes.”

---

Inside the compact compound, Silver was excitedly trotting around with his boss Duncan, who was currently inspecting the various devices that the stallion had managed to rig up.

“So what’s up with this, Eclipse?” The human asked as he pointed towards a small wire that ran from one end of the fence to a strange assemblage of bottles.

“Give it a pluck,” Silver replied, rather than explaining it to the human.

Duncan shrugged and gently tugged on the string, his efforts being rewarded with a loud clattering of glass and metal. Letting out a snort, he shook his head, “So you’ve rigged up a bunch of traps around my yard?”

Silver shook his head, “Not traps… just… low cost security alarms,” he answered. “You know, stuff that’ll tip me off if somepony’s digging around where they shouldn’t be.”

“Okay Kevin. So answer me this then, how do you know if it’s actually someone and not just the wind blowing?”

Silver simply flicked his ears a few times, earning a confused look from the human. Realizing that Duncan hadn’t picked up on his answer, he began to explain.

“Pony hearing Duncan. We can hear so much more than a normal human can. So like I hear the little clanks right now, but a human clank sounds way different from a wind clank.”

“I see… so like, you can just hear better?”

“I can see better, smell better, hear better… you get the idea. Basically, I can tell the difference between whether a human or a coyote is at the fence just going off of these little cues.”

“And if it’s a human you can cut the lights out in the yard and still see them?” Duncan guessed.

“Uh huh,” the stallion beamed, “So while they’re disoriented from the sudden darkness I can have a few seconds to make myself as intimidating as a small bat horse can, and hopefully get the jump on them.”

“Huh,” the human laughed, “you’re really taking this job seriously, aren’t you?”

Silver lazily trotted around the human and shrugged, glancing at his reflection in an old hubcap for a moment, and smirking at the warped visage, “Yep! It beats just sitting around and doing nothing all night. I like to meditate on the down time and making these little contraptions helps give me an idea on what’s going on around the yard when I do.”

“Like a spider in its web,” Duncan mused. Looking down at the stallion, he couldn’t help but laugh again, “Man, I really wish money wasn’t so tight right now, because you’re really proving your worth.”

“It’s all cool, what you’re able to give is more than enough.”

“Which makes this next part a lot harder to ask,” the human flatly replied, earning a confused flick of an ear from Silver.

“What’s up?” Silver pressed.

“I know that when I hired you I said I only needed you on weekdays, because we don’t have normal weekend hours right now and all that.”

“Yeah? So what’s up then?”

He gestured towards a recently patched section of the fence, “I thought I didn’t need to worry about that as much on the weekends because that’s usually when I stay overnight to do some extra work, but clearly I’m not as alert as you are.”

“Aaaaaaand let me guess,” Silver started, “You need me to work weekends now too, eh?”

“I did talk about raising your rate of pay before.”

That sounded like more of an excuse or technicality than anything else, but Silver held his tongue. While he wasn’t thrilled to have to give up his weekends, especially given that those were the only days where the two of them shared a day off, he could only assume that this wasn’t really a question.

“So, I’m going to guess that this isn’t really a question and that you’re just asking me this as more of a formality than anything else.”

“I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to,” the human paused, “but I also really need your help on the weekends. I know it’s a huge sacrifice, which is why I’m going to try and cut that back and keep the shifts a little shorter. But I really do need you here on weekends.”

“This is more than a huge sacrifice Duncan,” Silver replied, trying his best not to get frustrated, “I have a marefriend that’s already stressed enough as it is with her job, and the weekend’s the only time where we can just relax together and forget about all of that.”

“I know, and I don’t want to do you dirty either so I’m willing to pay higher on the weekends. It won’t be much higher but you’ll at least get a full day’s pay for half shifts.”

Silver let out a sigh, taking a moment to clear his head, “Duncan, Scarlet and I are starting a family soon. I really need those weekend days.” He trailed off as an idea flowed into his mind, “I might have an idea if you’re really dead set on getting help those days.”

Duncan raised an eyebrow, “Oh? You gonna tell me you have a clone of yourself lying around or something?”

A small smirk spread across Silver’s face, “Not a clone, but I ran into another night pony that was looking for work. Used to be a detective or something and we got to chatting about what I did for a living.” He paused and looked the human right in the eyes, “Would you be opposed to bringing on weekend help?”

“Not necessarily, but that means you’ll lose two extra days of pay.”

“I’m fine with that. Like I said, weekends are kind of special for me, and I really can’t afford to lose them.”

“Well if you have help in mind, go ahead and bring em’ in. Have him shadow you as soon as possible and if he fits the bill then consider that matter sorted out.”

“I think he’ll definitely fit the bill,” Silver chuckled, “At least I’d hope so.”

“Hopefully so. I don’t want to inconvenience you, but you really do do a great job here, and I really do need some extra help on the weekends. So if this works out then that’s great.”

Duncan started walking back across the catwalk and toward the office, Silver quickly following him. The click clack of hooves on metal made any attempts at conversation pointless, so instead of continuing, Silver began to think about how he’d go about getting that extra help in.

“So just a heads up though,” he began once both he and the human had stepped into the office. “The other guy’s gonna have to relocate closer. Shouldn’t be an issue if he’s working weekends, but it might be a few days until he can shadow me.”

“How many days are we talking?”

“I dunno, he’s from out of state,” Silver stated, though conveniently leaving out how far out of state that his contact was. The night pony he had run across was one of a handful he had run across during his dream adventures, and of all of them so far, this pony had been the only one who had opened up more about their waking world plans. After hearing Silver mention having a job, they’d gotten to talking about how hard it was to find a job. The pony had mentioned having been a detective before the change, and how nobody wanted to hire a pony afterwards. Silver was counting on him being serious since he had made it abundantly clear that he was looking anywhere for work, even if it meant going out of state to get it.

“Do you think before the weekend?” Duncan asked with a hint of hesitation.

“Mhmm, probably,” Silver answered with a determined confidence in his voice, truly ignorant of what the actual answer would be.

“Gotcha,” Duncan flipped through a few pages of his logbook and nodded, “Well, just give me a holler when he’s joining you then. I’ll let you take over for now, if you need anything feel free to drop me a line if you can’t handle it yourself.”

“Will do, boss!” The stallion cheered, eliciting a laugh from the human.

Left alone with his thoughts once again, Silver contemplated the conversations he’d have to have later with both Scarlet and this pony that he barely knew. Scarlet would probably be bummed out about having to potentially delay their weekend plans, but Silver was optimistic about where things were headed. Returning his attention to his starting work, he stole a glance at the cameras and made his way back out onto the catwalk to begin his nightly patrols.

Comments

[The Marvel Horse]

Hmmm
Felt like a small little chapter Scarlet and Silver interactions are nice - especially the embarrassing sock shenanigans, but I'm keen to see how Silver's contraptions play out as well as this potential new conflict/development.
Damn dirty kids, don't they got something better to do on weekends? What happened to good ol fashioned drugs.