Timeless

"Eira, nomitic, naur vie ios

"Eira, dorovic, nue va ros"

A melodic, heavy voice hung in the dark enclosure with an enchanting tune of dismay. In it was a wealth of sadness, yet the sorrow was constrained in the patient elegance of the mare possessing it.

From up above, a single, magical lamp lit up the center of the room. A large table with a half-covered form was the sole focal point, a smaller metal stand filled with medical instruments to its immediate side. Only one pony stood in the sphere of light, her white-tipped black mane and tail catching the light as her delicate voice continued to fill the air.

"Though I lay my head down tonight,

"I pray my soul to find your light."

Acting in dissonance with the female voice, was the rasping, wild breathing of a stallion in the throughs of suffering, caught painfully between consciousness and feverish dream. He lay splayed out over the table with his forelegs against his chest, his body partially covered by a white sheet that had been thrown halfway off his body in his agonized writhing and twisting. The faint scent of urine and antiseptic held in the air and wafted off of his coat, creating an odd, unpleasant combination.

"I have come so very far, my friend

"Yet we all lay here in the end"

The black and white earth pony mare stood over him with kind eyes, though a certain darkness of thought shining from their depths. She watched over him as a caretaker would its patient, though she knew whose hooves his blood was on... What made it worse, his suffering would likely be in vain. She knew the signs well enough. The breakdown of mental cohesion, muscle control, pained breathing... His body was rejecting the magical drug now fusing with his own latent magic that sustained him. Instead of strengthening it, as was the intention, it was now destroying it.

"White Needle. Counteragent, now. See if you can stabilize him," the black mare called out, another small coated form appearing beside her.

Unceremoniously, the entering white unicorn levitated a syringe out of his lab coat, injecting a purple, clouded fluid into the convulsing stallion's abdomen. Instantaneously, the stallion's body turned rigid as air forced its way out of his pained throat in the form of a breathless scream. His eyes opened wide, moving about the room despite the lack of consciousness and comprehension behind them.

"R-run home, run h-home, my little mare

"One day... you'll see, I will be there"

It all ended in little under a minute as gradually, the white stallion calmed and he slipped back in a coma-like state, only his rising chest signaling his continued life.

"... His heart is stabilizing, but his magical aura is still fluxuating dangerously," a voice from the back of the room called out, belonging to one of the nurses poised over machinery barely illuminated in the darkness. "However... it is decaying at a slower rate now,"

"White Needle... Take him into Observation. Have someone watch over him," the black mare said, a sad brooding softening her voice.

"Yes Black Star," White Needle returned.

It was a beautiful night. The moon shone bright in the light-dappled sky like a silver sun, though clouded as to look incomplete. Wispy clouds softly streaked the sky, their edges tipped a brilliant white by the shining crescent behind them. A cool breeze wafted between the twin buildings rising out of the darkness, carrying the distant smell of flowers, fragrant in their autumn bloom on the outskirts of Vanhoover. The two structures were adorned with elaborate trimming, balconies, and flowering ivy clinging to their dark walls. Vaguely geometric stones spread seemingly without end from their bases. The pathways began at large, decorative twin doors, and wound outwards towards fountains, around trees, and away into the distant hills.

A navy-blue pony moved among the brush marking the edge of the cobblestone pathway, dutifully rooting through the foliage. The pony, a young male unicorn by the name of Blue Shift, busied himself by clearing the left-behind litter and various trash scattered about the ground. It had a way of getting swept in among the bushes where it goes unnoticed by most, yet it must be cleared all the same. At the grounds of the Mareiott, this was his role, as the resident night groundskeeper. When the sun set and the tired guests retired to their soft beds in the upper floors, Blue Shift stirred from his own bed and sought to remedy the clutter left in the wake of the day-goers, so that upon the sun's return, the park would once again be orderly and clean. This often left Blue Shift to work in relative silence, but he didn't mind. He felt the din of waking crowds were spoilsome of the night. ...Though, perhaps that was simply long-time conditioning speaking, since he had been away from the day since he was but a colt.

Grasping a half-filled bag in his mouth, Blue Shift trotted slowly over to the center of the park where his broom and wastebin were leaned up against one of the central three fountains. This particular statue was carved to form a stone unicorn spitting out a constant stream of water from its mouth. In its shadow was a small, yellow-white filly, getting up of her haunches with a small bounce as she had noticed him approach. She gave another little bound and skipped over to him, her small, feathered wings opening and subtly catching air with each hop.

"Hey Blue! Can I help?" She asked excitedly.

"Shouldn't you be at home?" Blue Shift teased her. "Young fillies should be in bed at this time of night."

Honestly, Blue Shift was not at all surprised to see Dove Wing here. For the past year or so, she had the habit of following him during his work, despite his nocturnal schedule. Though, he suspected she was nocturnal to begin with, long before the two had met.

"But Blue, I can't sleep." She pouted with exaggeration. "And it's more fun to visit you than lay in bed!"

"What about your parents? Do they know?"

"They found out I slip out at night a long time ago," she said with a sly grin. "Besides, I told them I come to see you at night. If you let me stay, it won't be a lie, now would it?"

Once again, Dove gave a little bound, a gentle smile on her youthful face.

"So how about it?" She chimed again.

Tonight was far from the first time he'd caught her out alone at night. True, often she did sneak out to meet him, but often he caught her roaming at night anyways. Initially he was worried about her getting into trouble, or lost, or something, but after awhile he had to admit she was more capable than she seemed. Still, he wasn't about to give her any tedious, actually-hard-work-like task of his to do, lest he lose all respect in himself as a pony.

"I know something we can do together." Blue said with a smile, ruffling her mane with his front hoof. "But, I need to go get something. Close your eyes and don't peak, okay?"

From the start, he suspected she may enjoy what he was given to do tonight. He didn't know she'd show up for sure, but he had his suspicions.

"Of course!" She promised with a serious expression, quickly fixing her mane. "Scout's honor!"

You're not a scout, silly. Blue thought as he trotted away towards the service building behind the left-most structure with a smirk on his face.

As he wound further down the pathways, diverting from the main entrance to skirt around the side towards a fairly shaded, concealed structure, Dove Wing had disappeared entirely. While he doubted she'd take the no peaking thing seriously, which was fine, he knew she would nonetheless stay put. He admitted she was a bit of a trouble-seeker, as well as a victim of a serious run of bad luck that even brought them together in the first place, but she was a good filly all the same.

Right where he had last seen it sat a wooden cart with the Mareiott's logo engraved on its side, just in front of the wheels. After briefly checking the contents over, he slipped the riding brace onto his back and pulled the cart out of its standstill. He wasn't quite used to the physical work of pulling a wagon, and honestly, it took a bit out of him, but the short distance he had to travel made it little to no issue. Only a few minutes had passed before he had made his way back to the unicorn fountain. Seeing him with the cart, and completely forgetting about the surprise element of the whole thing, Dove bounded over to meet him at the edge of the opening. After affectionately rubbing noses, she broke off to inspect the back of the cart.

"What's in here?" She asked eagerly.

Blue simply smiled, slipping out from the brace and over to her side as she looked in on the mass of color. Within, was a wealth of fall-blooming flowers, from blue to red to purple to yellow. Though all were muted in the darkness, Blue admitted they were still quite pretty in the partial moonlight. Many varieties, all fragrant and welcoming, were to be planted to greet tomorrow's newcomers, but that wasn't the best part.

With a nod, Blue motioned for Dove to climb aboard. Though there was little room, she flitted up and clung happily to the frontal barrier preventing the cart's contents from falling forward. Blue once again donned the brace at the front of the cart and wheeled it onward. They left the fountains behind them, traveling away from the two buildings and around the numerous hedges that now rose to their sides, each solid form delicately shaped to be completely uniform. Before long, they came to a circular opening where four hedge-lined pathways converged into an open area. At the center was a large stone circle, making something of a short stage, while between the four converging pathways were four open spaces of grass just outside of the circle where the hedges had stopped short. Two of these spaces were already marked with symmetrical earth pony statues. The stone ponies were posed in a majestic, bucking display with long, flowing gray manes and tails that swept around their rear legs. The other two grassy areas, running parallel to the two buildings to their sides, were recently dug up and left fairly disordered, giving evidence of only hours before being worked over by the maintenance crew in their preparation for Blue’s job.

Up above, he could tell that Dove was putting two and two together.

"So what are we making?" Dove asked, looking back into the cart. "Are we spelling out something with the daises and---"

"That's the best part." Blue interjected. "Velvet said I--we, could do whatever we wanted with it."

"So that means--"

"Yup." Blue smiled. "Make whatever you want."

As she passed another quick glance over to the cart, she bounded down off the cart with a light laugh. Together, they had done a few other creative projects during his job in the past, much to Dove's enjoyment. They were rare, but the two of them enjoyed them as they came.

"...And don't worry, we have more where those came from." He said to the smiling filly.

Many hours had passed by the time Blue trotted up to the front door of the service building. It had taken the two of them longer to arrange than he had anticipated, but after a quick once-over of the park prior to the first rays of dawn, he could call it a day--or night--and retire to his room there at the Mareiott. Having already said good bye to Dove Wing, Blue pushed open the double doors, faint light from the awakening sun gleaming slightly on the metal engraving of the handles. Inside, it looked much like the lobby of the true Mareiott, though notably more compact and sparsely furnished. There was no front desk, but instead there were a few couches, tables, and a coffee bar. A jukebox off in the corner lay silent; even during the day, it was never touched. Blue doubted it even worked anymore. Two mares lay on the couch immediately to its left, one pulling at the lacing of her maid outfit, and the other sipping from a magically-suspended tea cup.

"Good morning Blue," the one pulling at her dress called out curtly, a tan earth pony with emerald-colored hair and similarly green eyes. "Oh dear, it looks like you got some dirt on your coat."

"Good morning Gemstone," Blue Shift said the Earth pony, who was now getting up from the couch and pulling a small handkerchief from the table nearby.

As she approached him, he shyly backed away before pointedly rubbing the dirt off himself with his front hoof, giving her an apologetic smile. She stopped and pouted for a second before recovering her normal upbeat attitude.

"How was your shift?" Gemstone asked cheerily.

"Looks like it was rough, if your filthy coat is any indicator..." The other pony said from the couch, an orange-brown pony with shimmering, straight red hair; her lips were still kissed to the rim of her cup, a field of orange energy holding it airborne.

"Cadie..." Gemstone chided.

"It was actually rather fun." Blue said with a slight smile, glancing over to the orange and red unicorn.

"Did your little friend visit you again?" Gemstone asked.

A slight, good-natured humph sounded from the nearby 'Cadie', known as Decadence to most.

"If she really visits as often as you say, she may very well be on a troubled road. It's not good to encourage her vagrant behavior, you know."

Blue gave her a puzzled look as she paused to sip her tea, purposely taking a dramatic pause.

"You really should do something about her. Talk to her parents, or something."

"I know, but--"

"I'm sure she's fine." Gemstone cut in, defending Blue. "After all, she's got this big stallion to look after her."

Blue started a little at that, a slight blush creeping over his face at the undeserved praise. From afar, he could see a slight smirk on Cadie's face as she caught his reaction.

"Alright, Gemstone. Don't tease the poor little colt."

"I'm not a c--"

"Anyways, we have places to be, dear." Cadie cut him off before he could retort.

Together, the two mares Gemstone and Cadie, the latter jumping up from the couch, headed off to the door in a hurry. Gemstone gave Blue a kind, joyous smile as she bounded lightly past him, flanking him on the right side. Following closely behind her was Cadie, crossing Blue on the left. As she passed by him, he felt a light touch on his cheek where her lips lightly touched his skin.

"And try to relax, dear. Too much stress will kill you dead."

After hearing a small laugh, they were gone, and Blue was alone in the service lobby.  Rubbing his cheek with his foreleg, he shook his head slightly and sighed. He really didn’t need to think about that now. All he wanted to do was climb into bed. The night was over, and his place was in his room under a his blanket.

Though, I could use a bath first, he noted, looking down at the dirt that still clung to his body.