Finding Your Place With the Outcasts

by TikiBat

Chapter 13: Growing Pains

While Sine Wave’s evening with Ink Rose had been a genuinely enjoyable visit that no doubt strengthened her friendship, her work in the arcade had seemingly called her name. For normal ponies, jumping back into work without a nice solid stretch of sleep in between was Ill advised, but Sine Wave was very clearly not like most other ponies. This is why Zipper wasn’t surprised in the slightest that the first sight he saw when entering the Arcade was the dark purple mare who was once again toiling away at her prized machines.

“You’re back here again?” Zipper nonetheless asked in astonishment. “You did go home right?”

“Mhmm, nope,” The mare nodded, “There’s still a lot left to do so I’m sorry if I’m not really in a chatty mood today, I’m trying to get my share of the work done before noon and I wanted to bring a friend along so she could see what we’re doing.”

“Morning bird brain!” Came the cheerfully upbeat voice of Ink Rose, who Zipper hadn’t even noticed in the dark. “My name’s Ink Rose! We bumped into each other at the market a while back and Sine’s been telling me all about you.”

“Oh uhh, hi! Nice to meet you!” He replied. Truthfully he was still getting used to giving friendly greetings that didn’t sound snarky or abrasive, and considering the mare hadn’t given him any weird looks… he was seemingly succeeding, even if he probably came off as a little awkward.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Sine began talking again as she closed up the cabinet she was working on and dusted herself off. “I know this is late, but I wanted to say sorry if I was a little grouchy yesterday. I know I got a little riled up and lost my temper at that bozo running the deliveries and—“

“It’s okay,” Zipper cut in. “We got it all sorted out now, and hopefully it’s easy going from here,” He looked over at the clock above the door and shook his head. “Just yell at me if you need help with anything, okay? It’s late for you and I don’t want you getting sore from falling asleep in a game.”

The mare smiled, something Zipper would have never thought he’d see from her had he not started to get to know her better. “Sure thing Zip, I don’t know what you’ll be able to help with, but I appreciate the offer.”

“I know I’m not all techy like you are,” Zipper admitted. “But even if it’s just moving these things around I’ve got you.”

“Well if you want I can give you some pointers on the techy stuff later,” Sine offered. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, but I wanted to set up a computer club or something— you know, as a way to build up some interest in this whole niche market we’re trying to corner. Would you want to help out with that eventually?”

Zipper’s eyes widened as a big grin spread across his face. “I uhh, yeah! That sounds like a great idea!”

“I’d be down to join up too,” Ink Rose added. “I'm not the best with all that, but I would love to learn.”

“Well then, we’ve got a good group in the making,” Sine smirked. “By the way, a couple of your friends trotted in not too long ago, you might want to go see what they’re up to. Their yammering was getting too annoying so I turned the tunes up, but it sounded pretty important… whatever it was.”

“Huh,” Zipper mused. “Guess the sound system’s a lot better than I thought it was.”

“Of course it is, I’m not gonna cheap out on such an important part,” Sine replied in mock offense, earning a laugh from Ink Rose.

“I’d never doubt you,” Zipper laughed. “But you have a good point so I’ll let you get everything settled for now.”

“Take care bird brain,” Sine yawned out.

“Nice meeting you, Zipper,” Ink said as she bid him her own farewell.

With a nod, Zipper flew up along the stairs and into the office that overlooked the warehouse, smiling as he noticed both Blue Spring and River Breeze standing there, mid conversation.

“Operationally this is going to be a nightmare, you know that right?”

“I do, River. But that’s why you’re a part of this, because you’re the pony we need to temper our expectations and plans with…”

“Good morning you two,” Zipper cut into their conversation. “I didn’t realize we were having a meeting today.”

Blue Spring looked toward him and nodded, “It was a last minute thing. I did some thinking and wanted to get a more seasoned pony to share some of their expertise,” she turned toward the other pegasus, “Would you like to get him caught up River?”

River Breeze nodded. “I’d love to. Spring sent me some of your plans and rough ideas last night, and I wanted to discuss a few things so we’re all on the same page. Specifically, my concern is how your operations are planned out because they’re… ambitious to say the least.”

Zipper nodded, “What’s up?”

“Well for one I’m a little concerned with how it’s going to be organized. It feels like a zoo meets Jurassic park for geese… and honestly, I want to make sure this is done with the highest amount of care possible. These animals aren’t just for show, they need proper care, adequate habitats, and a properly trained care staff to make sure that they have the best quality of life possible.”

“I see,” Zipper replied. “Well, I can understand where you’re coming from. I want them to have the best life possible too— I mean that’s why I got so hung ho about doing this kind of thing. I know it’s not going to be perfect on day one, but we have a clinic listed in the plans, and this isn’t meant to be like a zoo. I know it sounds flash, but the idea is just to set aside an area for the animals that are already here. Not to bring in any others, especially ones we couldn’t care for.”

“Perhaps I worded that wrong,” River apologized. “I can appreciate the clinic plans, but it also feels a little too small for this kind of project, especially when I’ve already been wanting to upgrade my facilities. I know you only want to care for the geese right now, but if you want to get this off the ground you’re going to need to give it more utility and function, otherwise planning and development is just going to laugh at this and deny it.”

“Gotcha. So what do you propose then, River?” Blue Spring asked.

“That I take a more active role in the development process. I’m not going to shoot down every idea you have, but I sincerely think we need to future proof and sell it as something that’s an important care, conservation, and research facility that just so happens to also offer some passive entertainment in the form of giving people something to look at around here.”

“So the higher ups look at it as something valuable instead of just another entertainment complex. That’s actually really smart,” Zipper laughed. “Okay then, so what kind of ideas do you have in mind?”

“I’ve given you my general suggestions, so I want to stick to that. You pitched it as a sanctuary, right?”

“Right…” Zipper replied. “With a focus on education.”

“Good. I don’t know what you said to them, but that’s going to plant some the seeds for our next stage which is going to be drafting up a proper plan and submitting that. That’s going to be our chance to really wow them and say look, this isn’t some half assed low quality zoo, this is going to be the headquarters for a whole new branch of PRISM.” River gleefully exclaimed.

“You want to head a new branch of the research institute?” Blue Spring raised an eyebrow.

“I’d be lying if I said no, but it’s a good outcome for all of us. This allows me to expand my facilities and get a proper care and research team trained, allows us to branch out into a new field and show the world that pony researchers can do something valuable too, and it gives the animals you want to protect a better quality of life.”

Zipper’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of any of this. I just wanted to keep them happy, but it sounds like you want to go a whole other step up.”

“I’ve been in this industry a long time,” River replied. “I’ve worked at great zoos and I’ve worked at really awful ones, and I want the same thing you do— just from a different standpoint. Right now pony doctors and scientists are starting to finally get taken seriously, and this sanctuary could really be a way to step it up a notch.”

“And you think the planning department is going to see that too?” Blue Spring asked.

River Breeze nodded, “I do. Right now PRISM is trying to branch out into new fields so they don’t have to be so reliant on SPEC funding, and this is going to look like a perfectly wrapped present to them. There’s also an added benefit of being able to bring multiple budgets together instead of having to self-fund or rely solely on donations, which doesn’t sound like a hassle but this is going to speed things up significantly.”

Zipper blinked a few times before nodding. “Okay, I like the idea but I feel like this whole thing is getting way bigger than what I was imagining.”

“Welcome to the world of business Zip,” River laughed. “It’s going to be complicated, but if we pool together and tackle this as a team then it’s going to turn out better in the long run— for all of us. The more we work together, the better chance we’ll have at fulfilling all of our goals, whereas right now that might not be doable on our own.”

Blue Spring gave a short nod, “What’s a good starting point then? I know you want to draft up more formal plans, but how do we do that and who do we need to get in touch with?”

“Let me handle the next part. I know some very qualified experts who would definitely be interested in this sort of thing, and they’ll be able to help rework the plans and get it all out together in a way that works for us, keeps the animals safe, and most importantly, makes sure that whatever we do is up to standard so we don’t run into any trouble on that front.”

“Okay,” Blue Spring smiled. “I’ll let you sort all that out, then we can all meet up later and hash the rest of this out. Does that work for you?”

The veterinarian nodded, “Sounds fair to me.”

“Right, then it’s set,” she looked at Zipper. “We're officially a team now.”

Zipper smiled, “Oh this is just so exciting!”

River stifled a small laugh, “I’m glad you’re excited for this, I am too. Now…” she looked down at the unfinished arcade space. “If this is our makeshift office for now… you’re going to let me play a few rounds in the house, right?”

Zipper raised an eyebrow, “You’re into this kind of stuff?”

The mare shrugged. “I was. Just because I’m a veterinarian doesn’t mean I have to be this boring no nonsense pony, I like to enjoy my time off just as much as you do.”

Zipper held up his hooves and shrugged. “Hey, no worries. I guess I just didn’t expect you to be into this kind of hobby.”

“Oh you should have seen me before ETS, I ruled the tiny arcade in the mall next to my clinic. Even bartered a few checkups for the owner’s dog in return for some free play.”

“Color me surprised then,” Zipper laughed. I’m glad to see someone else is excited for this thing. I wish I could tell you when we’re opening, but you’re gonna have to ask Sine. She’s kind of like the arcade’s version of you… the very experienced expert.”

River grimaced. “I’ll take it that she's the night pony that got a little irritated with me when I started asking questions?”

Blue Spring nodded, “You’ll have to excuse her, River, she gets a little grouchy when it’s this close to noon. She’s not like Silver, has no need to put on a cheerful face when dealing with the day ponies.”

River nodded, “I see… Would you two mind leading the way then? I feel like I didn’t exactly give off a good first impression with her and you’ll probably have better luck than I would asking that question.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Blue Spring laughed. “I think I’m the only one that hasn’t annoyed her yet.”

“You should have seen her yelling at the poor truck driver yesterday, I thought it was going to get ugly,” Zipper added.

“I thought it was going to get ugly when you crashed into her garden too Zip, but it all worked out in the end.”

River Breeze nodded, “I'll have to just take your word for it. I’m sure she’s pleasant to be around once you get to know her.”

Spring nodded and opened the door. “She is, trust me.”

As the trio began to trot down the stairs, they were greeted by an odd but not entirely out of place sight; Ink Rose playing on an arcade machine next to a sleeping Sine Wave, who had clearly stayed up too late past her bed time.

Zipper looked toward Ink Rose. “Bed time?”

Ink nodded. “I tried to get her to fly home but she said she’d just take a quick nap.”

Blue Spring trotted towards Sine and gently tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey Sine, you dozed off again.”

The sleeping pony stirred slightly before covering her head with a wing, “Just five more minutes.”

“How about you head home and sleep there?” Ink hopped down off of her stool and joined the pegasus. “It’s got to be a lot more comfortable than the floor.”

Sine Wave let out a groan. “You’re probably right,” she peeked open an eye and smiled. “We’re getting close bird brain. I promise I’ll have this done soon.”

“That’s great,” Zipper cheered. “But you really need to get some good sleep otherwise you’ll burn yourself out. If you want, I can walk you home?”

The night pony gave a quick nod followed by a long yawn, slowly standing up onto her hooves, “You just want to spend more time with me, eh?”

Zipper looked away and nervously chuckled. “I guess that’s one way to put it.”

“Mind if Inky comes along too? I’ve been meaning to introduce you to her.”

Zipper slowly trotted toward the drowsy mare, unsure of whether he should try and steady her or just let her start on her own. “Fine by me. A friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

“Need a hoof, Sine?” Ink Rose asked.

Sine shook her head. “No, just sleep.”

Zipper nodded. “Gotcha.”

As Sine stretched out, she paused and began to rummage around in her saddle bag, clearly trying to find something and only getting more frustrated the longer she went on. With an annoyed sigh she turned to Zipper. “Can you dig my sunglasses out? I don’t feel like dealing with that today.”

Without further hesitation he reached into her bag and before long had dug her sunglasses out, offering them to her with a smile. “There you go, one pair of sunglasses for the tired bat.”

She grinned slightly, slipping the glasses onto her face, “You know, you’re not so bad bird brain. Inky was right to get me to give you a second chance.”

“I try my best,” he laughed. “So do you need anything else?”

She shook her head, “Just conversation to keep me awake.”

Zipper smiled and looked at Ink. “If you’re introducing me to your friend then I can definitely do that.”

“Of course!” Ink cheered. “I’ve heard so many stories about you already, guess it’s time to see how true they all are.”

Blue Spring cleared her throat. “Before you go I was meaning to ask you something. When do you think we’ll be all set to open?”

Sine looked at Blue Spring and shrugged. “Couple days maybe? All the cabinets are set up, I just want to make them look a little prettier. You know, clean up some of the scuff marks and manage the cables better.”

Blue Spring nodded. “Perfect, I’ll start getting some of the business stuff set up then. We’ll have to start advertising but that won’t be a huge issue at all.”

“Mhmm, anytime… see you tomorrow Springy, and sorry if I snapped at you earlier Doctor.”

River Breeze nodded. “It’s alright, no hard feelings. I’m looking forward to the opening, I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of each other in the future.”

“You’re a retro enthusiast?”

River smiled, “You could say that.”

“We’ll have to chat more when I’m not a walking zombie.”

“I can’t wait, now you have a nice day now.”

The dark purple mare returned a drowsy smile as she began toward the door, “Thanks, you too.”

With a small nod of his head, Zipper started to follow her lead, “I’ll see you guys later.”

---

Sine Wave let out a series of drowsy yawns as her friends helped support her while she slowly trotted along. She was alert enough to follow along in conversation, but for all intents and purposes she was in autopilot right now. Whether she had consciously planned this or not, the walk back home would serve as a good way for her two friends to break the ice with one another, and perhaps it’d help give her some clarity on where feelings were between the three of them. Sine was of course, still not the most romantic pony in the world, but even she longed for companionship. Whether it was romantic or platonic, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted yet, but what she did know was that her friends’ feelings were a serious concern and this trip would hopefully help give her some extra peace of mind.

Was it smart to just take a problem and hope that life would sort it out for her? No, but she was admittedly clueless when it came to the finer dynamics of this sort of emotional intimacy, and the last thing she wanted was for either of her friends to get hurt feelings, even if they were all adults who shouldn’t let such things tarnish their friendship. If the walk so far was anything to go by, she wouldn’t be getting an answer anytime soon, but at least both Ink Rose and Zipper seemed to be warming up to each other.

“So Zipper,” Ink Rose started to ask as the trio walked along the sidewalk. “You were pretty resourceful at Sine’s place the other day, eh?”

Zipper meekly smiled and nodded his head. “You could say that. I just cleaned some stuff up and helped re-plant the flowers I ruined.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, bird brain,” Sine cut him off with a long yawn. “You also showed me that you were actually a responsible pony that could own up to his mistakes. That’s a lot more than just planting some flowers.”

“I was about to say, it really sounds like you two turned things around a lot,” Ink nodded.

“What can I say?” Zipper shrugged. “I didn’t like who I was pretending to be, and I guess that was the day that that whole fake mask started crashing apart.”

“Literally too,” Sine chuckled.

“I still feel bad about that,” Zipper nervously joined in the laughter.

“Don’t. We’re all squared away and now we have something fun to work on together.”

“Has Sine showed you her passion project yet?” Ink Rose asked, changing subjects.

Zipper looked up from the lake’s wavy reflection and paused. “I honestly don’t remember. Sine showed me some of the cool stuff in her house, so why don’t you refresh my memory.”

“It’s a homebrew game,” Sine clarified. “I don’t remember if I showed you any of it either, but it’s something fun I was working on and thought about beta testing in the arcade.”

“That could be fun,” Zipper smiled. “What’s it about?”

“A bat fighting her way through a broken apocalyptic world and coming out on top… or something to that effect. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m dealing Ink in on that part of the project too. She won’t do much in the arcade, but she was going to help me with the story part of it.”

“That’s right,” Ink smirked. “Hopefully I won’t get in your way at all.”

“Are you kidding me?” Zipper raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s awesome. The more the merrier, right?”

“Right,” Sine yawned again. “I know you wanted to get to know me better, and I felt like this would be a good way to do that, and introduce you to my other friend. I know we’re all pretty different, but I think in a weird way that might actually bring us closer together? You know?”

“Mhmm,” Ink Rose nodded. “I guess we’re the outcasts?”

“That’s a funny way to put it,” Zipper replied. “I’m sorry if this is out of nowhere, but where did you come from? Because you don’t seem like an outcast to me— neither of you do.”

“It’s okay to ask, I’m new here after all. This is how friends get to know each other, right?”

“Right,” Zipper nodded.

“I lived in Riverview from the time it was first set up until about a month ago. You’re not a night pony so you wouldn’t really understand the deeper dynamics of how our tribe does things, but needless to say… it got stressful living there.”

“Oh?” Zipper questioned. “How bad was it?”

“It wasn’t… bad… just different. I guess here you don’t really see the mares getting in fights all the time, and the stallions don’t seem to hide away.”

“There’s like four here,” Zipper started to reply. “One’s married and has a kid, another one’s engaged, and the other one is dating but I guess they’re not a big lovey dovey couple? I don’t know the ins and outs of night pony relationships, but I don’t think they need to hide.”

“That’s unique here. Back in Riverview— and other big pockets where our tribe is, you’ll still see married stallions having to fight off other mares who try to advance on them. It’s like everyone is so paranoid about keeping the tribe strong that they’ll just cross social lines that aren’t supposed to be crossed. And if you don’t want to deal with that then you… take a blessing that makes it so you don’t really have to worry about it, but even that has its own drama.”

“So you hit the reset button and moved here?” Zipper asked.

“Mhmm,” Ink replied. “I know it makes no sense to you, but when you’re constantly around that environment and don’t really want to deal with the drama then it gets emotionally and physically exhausting real fast. That’s why I’m an outcast, because I don’t fit into the norm back home. Night ponies are supposed to fight, it’s what we were made for and if you don’t conform then you’ll either get disowned, beaten up, or worse.”

“I know that feeling,” Zipper admitted. “I always pretended to be this big macho pony because I got teased a lot growing up. I liked art and stories and wasn’t ever really into sports or anything. I like mares, but never really stayed in relationships long, and that made me look weird to my friends. No matter how hard I tried to fit in, I was always the weird kid that got picked on, and right now I don’t always know who the real Zipper is. ETS changed some of that, but I still didn’t want to give up my persona. That’s why I’m trying to take all of these projects so seriously because maybe that’s going to help me figure myself out. You know?”

Sine Wave, as tired as she was, could still pick up on the fact that both Zipper and Ink’s demeanors had shifted, and this was the point where the conversation could either fall apart or they could strengthen their bonds together. Not wanting the conversation to dip into a more depressing territory, Sine instead put all of her remaining energy into pulling her two friends into a hug that stopped them dead in their tracks.

“Hey now, let’s look at the bright side to everything. Maybe life sucks for us, maybe doesn’t anymore— but you know what? We’ve got each other and I think that makes us better than anything else. Who cares what others think of us? Is it the nineteen fifties still? No. So let’s show the world that we don’t need to fit in to be cool.”

The speech was cheesy and tacky, but nonetheless genuine. Even if it made her look like a geek, she still meant every word, and no matter what happened in the future, she would always be there for her friends.

“I… You’re right,” Ink Rose smiled. “Thank you, Sine.”

Zipper leaned into the hug and held his friend close. “Thanks… I uhh… I know we don’t really know each other all that well, but I just needed to hear someone say something like that.”

“That’s how we get close, isn’t it? So let’s keep doing this. Spend time together, make an amazing game, and make an even more amazing arcade to show it off in. Does that sound good?”

The two others enthusiastically nodded and pulled Sine into a tighter hug. While their lives had collectively taken different paths than they perhaps wanted to take at one point or another, what Sine had said was true. They might not have fit in the best, but if they worked together then they would be able to follow their dreams no matter what… and that’s exactly what they were setting out to do. Whether the three of them knew it or not, their lives would begin to change even more, sooner rather than later.

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Couple quick editing notes. The term is "gung-ho" and usually things are "on the house" and run "on autopilot".

Aside from that, nice chapter. I have a feeling Breeze had the idea of a research department in the wings for awhile and now that Zipper's latent talent is starting to show, she's taking the opportunity to get the ball rolling on it