Do Ponies on Earth have Magic Dreams?

by TikiBat

Chapter 37: Occupational Hazards

Clock in, patrol the yard, clock out. That’s the way Silver’s nights usually went. It was a mundane and boring job, but also one that was oddly relaxing. Working away his nights as a junkyard dog was the kind of curveball job that he never expected to take, but the solitude and serenity made the job a breeze, even if it was a little boring at times. All of this had changed with the hiring of Tweyelight, and Silver couldn’t have been any happier to have him onboard.

Clip clop clip clop

Metallic clattering rang out in a loud cacophony as the two night ponies trotted through their patrols. Tweyelight had proven he was more than up to the job and that led to the two simply dividing up their nightly patrols for the remainder of his training days. Tonight was no different, save for the fact that they had decided to split up rather than stay together. Each would take a side of the yard and give it the usual look over before meeting back up on the catwalk.

Silver couldn't help but feel a nagging sense of boredom, but it wasn’t the other night pony’s fault. At least not directly. As it turned out, Duncan really did only need one pony to watch over the yard at night, and dividing up the work together meant that there were even longer stretches of nothingness than there already were on a normal night. If there was a bright side to all of this though, tonight was the last night they’d be working together like this, and another pony offering help meant that Silver could have even more time to relax with Scarlet.

Originally Tweyelight was only going to cover weekend nights, but Duncan had decided to split the shifts up a little more evenly, giving Silver an extra day off every week though now he’d have to stay until five thirty. He had to admit, it was a small price to pay for having an extra day to spend doing whatever he wished. Sure, an extra day off wouldn’t make much of a difference in his life, but Silver liked to make the most out of any time he had however, and already his mind was filling with different thoughts about what he’d use that time for.

Practicing his dream meditation was one idea, doing some extra work around the cabin was another. Having a chance to work with the inventors more was a big possibility, and that was the one idea that he was really looking forward to for a myriad of reasons. On one hoof he could hopefully help make any last minute tweaks to Scarlet’s telescope, and on another he could also help more with their big projects. Not to say he couldn’t help already after work, but having extra time to do that just made him even more excited about it.

As their paths crossed, Silver cleared his throat, “I really have to say, I’m still so thankful that you actually showed up here.”

The former detective raised an eyebrow, “Surely you didn’t think I’d stand you up?”

“A little,” Silver admitted, “but I’m just glad you made it. I honestly didn’t really have any kind of plan for what I’d do if you didn’t make it.” Drawing himself up and doing his best to look serious, “And don’t call me Shirley, only one pony gets to do that.”

His new partner smirked, “Of course Doctor Rumack, I’ll keep that in mind.” Still smiling, “But, be honest with me, was I your only pick for the job, or were there others? It’s not an issue or anything, just curious.”

The memory of the worry and anxiety that had filled Silver at the time boiled back up to the surface of his mind, repainting the events again. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but Tweyelight had been his first and really only pick. In retrospect it probably wasn’t a great idea to just hedge all of his bets on a pony that lived halfway across the country actually following through with his very out of the ordinary offer.

Chuckling to himself, he nodded, “I’ll admit it, you were the first. I had a lot running through my head that night and you were the only night pony I knew that was actually asleep at the time. Plus you were the only one that really seemed serious.”

“What about the night ponies out here?”

“What night ponies?” he asked with a laugh. “Last I checked there were two left out here before you got here, and three up our way counting me, Scarlet, and one of our friends that moved from out here. Not exactly a huge pool to pick from given the fact that the others all seemed to have their own jobs, if they’re even bothering with one.”

The other night pony looked away for a moment, “Guess I’ve been keeping to myself a bit. Hadn’t really run into all that many here except for the other ponies in the house.”

“That doesn’t really surprise me at all. Like I said, there weren’t really very many here to begin with. If what our eccentric friend said was true, there’s basically one place they all hang out at regularly, and that’s about a good fifty or so minute drive across the valley.”

“Huh, no kidding. Guess you’ll have to take me there sometime.”

“That can definitely be arranged. Why don’t we finish up our patrol and I’ll see if I can remember what it was called.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” He smiled, “Thanks for trusting me Eclipse. It’s a hard thing to come by nowadays, and it means more to me than you can imagine.”

“You’re welcome. If anything I’m the one that should thank you a whole lot more. I mean you seriously took such a huge weight off of my shoulders.”

“Guess we’ll call it even then, eh?”

“Guess we will,” Silver chuckled.

As the two split up again, Silver couldn’t help but laugh to himself. As dumb as it felt to admit, little moments like this really only emphasized how much he had changed since becoming a pony. Could he really blame people for thinking that every pony in the world was some brainwashed freak? Not entirely. Depending on how you saw it or who you asked, that’s exactly what had happened with the vision. But what about ponies that rejected it or never got to experience it? He flat out dispelled it at the time so it hadn’t affected him as much as it did the others around him, but yet he wasn’t at all the same person he was before.

Sure, the core of his personality was still there, but if you were to put him next to his old human self, the two would be almost completely different people, species aside.

Was this a bad thing? he wondered to himself.

No, no it wasn’t. He was still his same old self, just… evolved? This line of thinking was sometimes a scary one to follow, but at the same time it was exactly the kind of existential debate he found so interesting. What made him… him? Was it simply his core personality that was still the same? The dreams, hopes, fears, needs? Or was it the experiences that made him? Before ETS his life was going down an entirely different path, but that one critical moment in time sent him careening down a different one, and because of that he had had the chance to experience so many new and different things.

A smile started to spread across his face as he thought about where he was now, and what he had gained from all of his experiences after. Sure he had painful memories, like falling out with his family and friends, but without those events he never would have met the love of his life or the new circle of friends he had started to think of as a second family.

Fate was strange. He always knew this, but never really thought about it in detail until this moment. There were still so many wrongs he wanted to right, but maybe everything happened for a reason, and accepting that and moving on would be the best course to take. Nothing said he couldn’t try and reconnect down the line after all. And if the pieces of his old life were incompatible with his new one? Then so be it. For the first time in a while, Silver could say that he was genuinely happy with his situation. The feeling of losing the ties to his family had sat in the back of his mind for a while now, and always would to a degree, but knowing what their rejection had led to made the sting of it a little less painful to think about.

A quiet rustling in the distance which would normally never elicit even a passing thought from a human broke through Silver’s train of thought like a bull in a china shop. It wasn’t particularly loud, but it had the telltale signs of suspicious activity, and a glance across the catwalk confirmed that Tweyelight had caught this as well.

Silently waving him towards the office, the two ponies began to make their way towards a rendezvous. With a practiced precision, the clip clop of hooves didn’t dull or increase in speed. If the potential intruders could already hear them walking then there was no need to alert them to the fact that they had been caught so soon. No, right now it was better to give them the perception that they were still undetected and in the clear.

“Alright Tweye, I’m going on break. Keep an eye out here for now, okay?” Silver spoke aloud. Leaning close to the night pony, he lowered his voice to a whisper, “I’m going to go check out what’s going on over there. Wait until I give you the signal then cut the lights and hit the speakers.”

The cream colored night pony gave a short nod before returning to his patrol. Silver on the other hoof, walked into the office and propped the door open. Making a beeline to the desk and surveillance monitors, he paused for a short moment as he passed his ladybug friend’s enclosure.

“Tonight’s the night Carl, I think our little human friends are back to play.”

He hopped up onto the rolling chair and flipped over to the cameras set up on the far end of the yard. Sure enough, a trio of tall figures were fiddling around with the fence, though this time in a different spot than usual.

“Guess they finally grew enough brains to try a different spot. How inconsiderate,” Silver mused.

Being careful to keep as quiet as possible, Silver hopped off of the chair and trotted out of the office, flashing a knowing look at his coworker before hopping off of the catwalk. Gliding down to the ground, he quickly navigated towards their location, and in a perfectly timed moment the lights around the yard suddenly cut off. A low rumble started to carry through the air as the yard’s loudspeakers lit up with the sounds that Silver had thrown together during his down time a few nights before. A devious grin spread across his face as the sounds of rustling grew loud and more frenzied, and even a few curses could be heard as he hopped up into the air.

Flapping his wings with determination, he folded into a dive and glided down towards the trio, landing behind them with a loud stomp.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he spoke in a low growl, letting out a loud hiss as one of the humans jumped up in surprise.

Clearly this startled his other two cohorts a lot more than Silver had intended. Without a chance to even react a loud crack rang out as the taller of the three humans met Silver’s side with a hard kick. Letting out a raspy wheeze, Silver collapsed to the floor as wind was knocked out of him. Realizing what they had done, the three humans started to run off, but there was no way for Silver to stop them. Instead, he fought through the pain long enough to take in as many details as he could. Their worn out hoodies, their running shoes, two heads of dark brown hair and a third, (the tallest of the three,) had a head of blond hair. As far as he could see, there were no recognizable tattoos or identifying marks.

In a flash, Tweyelight dropped out of the sky and stomped his own hooves in the ground before the fleeing humans. Baring his fangs, he charged towards them, knocking the tallest of the three back towards Silver and into the fence. Seeing a quick moment to escape, the other two abandoned their friend and ran off into the night. Turning back towards Tweyelight, Silver couldn’t help but feel a rush of adrenaline as he saw the night pony standing over the human, pinning him to the ground and against the fence.

“You’ve just made things so much worse for yourself, I hope you know that!” he shouted out with a touch of venom in his voice.

The human tensed under his hooves but didn’t fight back, and from the look on his face he most likely wouldn’t any time soon.

Letting out a pained groan, Silver tried standing up but a sharp pain in his side sent him collapsing back down onto the ground.

“Don’t move, Eclipse. I called for help, they shouldn’t be long!”

“Yeah no, definitely not trying that now,” he groaned.

“How bad does it hurt?”

“Pretty bad,” Silver replied, “he definitely broke a rib.”

The sounds of sirens in the distance grew louder, distracting Silver from the intense pain he was feeling.

“Help’s on the way so just hang tight.”

A worried thought crossed his mind as he took a few deep breaths, “I need you to call Scarlet if you’re able to when they get here. If I have to go to the hospital then she needs to know.”

“Got a phone on you?”

“I do in my saddlebag. She’s probably going to flip, so just let her know that they’ll probably take me to JFK. She’ll know what that means and how to get there.”

“Gotcha, just hang tight Eclipse.”

The only response that Silver could muster was a weak nod followed by a pained groan as he tried to position himself better. For a moment he considered slipping into the dream realm to try and help clear his head, but the sharp pain he was feeling made his normal meditation all but impossible. If there was one thing he could be thankful for right now, it’s that he had another pony here to help him, otherwise who knows what would have happened. He looked up at his coworker as the sirens grew louder and the lights started shining from the front of the compound.

“Tweyelight?” he slowly asked aloud.

“Huh?”

“Thanks for taking up the job.”

He rested his head on the ground and did his best to let the pain fade into the background as the shouts and voices around him grew louder.

Comments

[The Marvel Horse]

Oh no. Is it bad that I'm worried what this will affect Silver? I'm glad you included what silver would not do if Tweye didn't show, Not sure if thats for my sake but I appreciate it. Def a twist I didn't expect, and that backstory to this lad helps me understand their relationship better.