Zipp's Arcade - Part 2

-=Part 2=-

“Do you have any kind of plan for what you’re going to do someday, Travis?”

He looked up towards the sound of the voice, shaking his head, “I mean I want to do something cool, but I guess that’s all the thought I put into it.”

The counselor nodded, pausing for a moment as she took a few notes, “Something cool… well do you have any specifics on what kind of jobs are cool? That could be a very broad range of careers.”

Travis shrugged, “Well, I like animals.”

“Animals, okay. So what kind of job could you see yourself doing with animals? Training them for movies? Working in a shelter?..”

“Well there’s an animal exhibit at the carnival I work at,” He answered back, “I always thought that was kind of cool.”

She nodded, “Well, that’s a good start. Have you considered talking with the supervisor there to try and see if you could transfer to their department?”

“I guess I really haven’t. I’ve always been a thrill seeker, and the stuff they do in that exhibit is just so cool. They’ve got a lion that’s trained to do tricks, a couple of tigers— all of the cool animals.”

“Right… so why don’t you go talk with that supervisor next time you go in for work.”

“I… I mean I guess I could, I just feel like I wouldn’t fit in there.”

The woman paused for a moment, before looking up towards him, “You’re a bright student Travis, but I think your problem is that you don’t apply yourself. You’re saying that you don’t think you’d fit in there, but I think you could if you really tried.”

He raised an eyebrow, “You think so?”

The counselor laughed, “Travis I’ve been a counselor at this college for about 15 years now. If I didn’t believe in my students then I wouldn’t be a very good one right?”

“I… guess so?”

“So why don’t you give it a go tomorrow, I’ll look over what kind of programs you could get into here that could help you with that, and we can talk again the same time on monday if that works for you.”

Travis nodded, “Okay, I’ll give it a shot.”

The woman smiled, “That’s all that I ask. I believe in you.”

“Thanks… I really appreciate it.”

He blinked his eyes shut and when he reopened them he was carefully stepping into an empty tent, watching the handlers with their animals from afar. The carnival had been closed for more than an hour at this point, and normally he would have gone home, but something called him to this place and he couldn’t help but stand there now. The conversation with his counselor came back to his thoughts, bringing a small smile to his face as he contemplated asking the question that was burning in his mind.

“Martinez!” Came the shout from the area’s supervisor, causing the young human to quickly turn towards him, “The rest of the carneys all left an hour ago, what are you still doing here?”

“Well, um… I just wanted to see what you guys did here.”

The supervisor raised an eyebrow, “We train and take care of the animals. You know this.”

He nervously nodded his head, “Well yes, but…” He paused for a moment, turning away and looking back towards the handlers, “Okay so I guess this has been a long time coming, but I’ve just been too afraid to ever talk about it. I know it’s a long shot but do you think there’s a chance I could transfer over here?”

“You mean work with the animals?”

Travis nodded, “Yeah. I guess I’ve just always thought it was cool, but I never really thought it was something I could ever get into.”

The supervisor paused, clearing his throat for a moment, “Look… you’re a good kid, but I’d be lying if I said I thought there was a chance you could fit in here… I mean it’s no offense to you, but you need a lot of training and education to do what they do,” He waved towards them with a hand, pausing for a moment as he turned back towards Travis, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’re in the kind of position to join our team yet.”

A hollow feeling welled up within Travis, but before he could form a reply an idea came to his head. He looked up towards the supervisor and nodded, “I understand. But… would there be any chance that I could at least shadow a few of your guys? Even if it’s just on my days off? I know it’s a long shot but this is really something I’d love to learn more about.”

The supervisor hesitated for a moment, leaving the two of them in silence for a few seconds. Just as Travis was about to prod further the man nodded his head, “Okay. When’s your next day off?”

Travis’ face lit up in excitement, “Tomorrow actually!”

“Okay. I don’t think this is technically in line with policy, but why don’t you stop by tomorrow before opening and you can shadow Lopez.”

“Danny’s going to be okay with that?”

The older man shrugged, “No clue, but I trust him to show you the ropes more than anyone else. He’s been doing this since he was your age so I figure it’s better than throwing you in with one of the other handlers.”

He nodded, “Okay, thanks again!”

“Of course. Just do me a favor and try to keep out of his way, Lopez has all of the training for this job, you don’t and the last thing I need is for you to wind up hurt or injured because you got kicked by a horse or something.”

“Keep my distance, listen to Danny— got it!”

“You better go get some sleep then, we start our days early here and that’ll be the first test to see if you’re really ready to start learning about what we do here.”

Travis excitedly nodded his head and made towards the exit, squinting his eyes shut as the bright flood lights outside momentarily blinded him.

“Martinez right? Travis Martinez? I’m Daniel but you can just call me Danny if you want.”

“Yeah that’s me. We met a while ago at one of the big all hands meetings but I don’t think we really ever interacted that much.”

“Good. So I’m guessing Alex told you everything then?”

“Yeah, said to let you take the lead and to keep my distance so I don’t cause a liability issue.”

Danny nodded, “Okay good,” He waved a hand towards the stables, “My job’s real simple, check up on all the horses and make sure they’ve got water, check up on them, that sort of stuff.”

Travis looked toward the stable, “Well lead the way. I’ll keep quiet but if you need help or anything just ask.”

“Noted,” He pushed open the door and stepped in, flipping on some additional lights, “Have you been keeping up on the news at all Martinez?”

Travis nodded, “Kinda, not as much as I probably should but it seems like it’s starting to get a little crazier out there.”

“Well… that’s certainly a way to put it. Stuff seems to be okay for now but I just can’t help but have a bad feeling about this flu season, I mean they say it’s business as usual, but it’s not going away or getting any better,” He leaned down and picked up a brush, waving Travis towards one of the horses that had peeked it’s head out of the stall to greet them. With a smile he walked over and started brushing it’s mane, “I’ve got friends out in Colorado who say it’s getting kind of bad, infections seem to be rising, lots of people are sick— not really any deaths though which is strange… I can’t even begin to imagine what might happen if it evolves or something.”

Travis stepped closer to the horse, “Mind if I give it a try?”

Danny nodded, passing him the brush, “Be gentle, Stetson here is usually really calm but if you snag it on his mane he might not like that too much.”

Travis began to slowly brush the horse’s mane, pausing for a moment, “You don’t think it’ll really get that bad do you?”

The other man shrugged, “No clue, I’ve got a bad feeling about this all though… It’s just so unusual. What I’m more worried about right now is what’s going to happen to these guys if it gets bad enough to force a closure.”

“Don’t you guys have a plan in place for this kind of thing?”

“I mean we have a loose plan, Alex’ll cut back hours, but make sure there’s enough staff in rotation to keep their welfare in check. We’ve got about 4 full time veterinarians here that can make sure the animals are taken care of, but that doesn’t bode well for handlers like us.”

“Hopefully it never gets to that point…” Travis closed his eyes for a moment, and in an instant everything seemed to get much worse, the weeks passing in a flash as the world around him changed both literally and figuratively. Before long he was sitting in a familiar shelter with the same human as before, though by now there was hardly any humanity left in them.

Zipper let out a snicker as he nudged the pegasus next to him, “Oh wowwww did you hear that Ocean? A unicorn’s gonna show us a real magic trick, I wonder how he’s gonna do it?!”

The unicorn up on stage smiled and gestured a hoof towards him, “Aha, it seems we have a volunteer! Please come up, don’t be shy!”

A few hoofstomps rang out, earning some annoyed looks from the human volunteers around the shelter. Zipper hesitated at first, but the encouragement of the crowd gave him that much needed push, both figuratively and literally.

As Zipper stumbled up next to the unicorn, he greeted him with a warm smile, “Well hello there! What is your name?”

He nervously shuffled around as he looked around at the slowly growing crowd. “It’s uhhh… Zipper.”

“Zipper! Now there’s a unique name if I’ve ever heard one,” the unicorn dramatically announced to the assorted ponies in the shelter, “Now I’ll take it that that wasn’t your human name?”

He quickly shook his head, “Nope, that name wasn’t cool enough for me anymore. I’m Zipper now and that’s all that matters.”

The unicorn let out a few laughs, “Well that’s certainly a ‘cool’ name. Now Zipper, I’m going to need your help for this next trick, do you think you can do that?”

His eyes widened as if the unicorn had insulted him, “Well yeah, of course I can!”

The unicorn chuckled, “Aha, there’s that’s the spirit I was looking for! Now I’m going to perform a feat of magic that has yet to be seen, I will transport you from one side of this meager stage and appear on the other… with magic!”

“Pfff you can’t teleport, nopony can!” Zipper retorted.

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong dear Zipper. Anything’s possible with a little magic, you just need to believe!”

Zipper rolled his eyes, “Uh huh… well I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Now ladies and gentlemen, who’s ready to see some real magic?!”

The crowd began to cheer as the unicorn led Zipper towards a large cabinet, “Go ahead and step on in, you’ll be perfectly safe, I promise…”

“Have you even done this before?” Zipper sarcastically asked as he rolled his eyes.

“Once or twice… the rat seemed fine enough anyways so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Uh huh… righty well maybe you could stop talking and actually start showing us this ‘amazing magic’ huh?” Zipper suddenly squinted his eyes shut as a bright flash of light enveloped him. Without any warning he found himself suddenly tumbling backwards into a smoky abyss, and in an instant he found himself in a location that was all too familiar to him.

“The two racers are neck and neck!” Diamond excitedly called out as he carefully trailed the two pegasi.

The memory of the big race between him and Dazzle played out in his dream again as he speedily soared high above the clouds, dodging and weaving between an increasingly narrow and complex field of cloud barriers, nearing the final stretch of the race. It was clear that Dazzle was the more experienced flier, but Zipper was simply too prideful to give up now, and that was his biggest mistake.

As the two racers entered a narrow stretch of clouds, they were forced closer together. As Zipper slowed, Dazzle took the opportunity to speed ahead, cutting past him in a blur of color and disorienting him for a few brief moments. His eyes widened in shock as she took on each obstacle in rapid succession, causing the prideful pegasus to desperately increase his pace. Seeing no other option, he decided to use his head— literally, crashing through the cloud obstacles in a flurry of barrel rolls.

Much to his dismay Dazzle passed through the finish line, winning the race with an impressively decisive lead.

“Dazzle wins!” Diamond cheerfully called out as the team let out an excited cheer.

Zipper came to a clumsy land, feeling a complicated mess of emotions that ranged from embarrassment to frustration. Still feeling up to fighting for his pride, he began to shout over to her in between his pained breaths, “That’s… that’s not fair, you knew that turn was coming up!”

The pegasus turned towards him and slowly walked forward, “Yeah? And so did you, I had no hoof in setting up the course past making obstacles. You’ve got the same two eyes as me,” Dazzle said with a smug smirk and sounding barely winded.

“I…” Zipper wheezed out, deciding to wisely stay quiet before he could make the loss even worse for himself.

“Listen, up north we didn’t just choose our names, we wanted to earn them. Maybe you earned yours by needing to zip your lip.”

“I… No...” he said, lowering his ears and turning away.

“Oh? Well do me a favor and try it out some time. You might think yourself a fancy flyer, but you’re part of a team, so work on building them up rather than showing yourself off.”

Zipper could only slowly nod his head and back away, feeling a wave of embarrassment wash over him. With a dejected sigh, the pegasus flopped over onto the ground as Dazzle flew off, taking in deep breaths and trying to give his tired wings a brief respite from the heavy workout he had just put them through.

The sound of hooves in the sand caused his ears to perk up, and as he looked up he saw Blue Spring standing over him with a bottle of water held under a wing.

“That sure was some race eh? You should drink some water, that looked like it was probably more than an intense workout.”

Zipper sat up and took the offered bottle, nodding as he started to greedily take in large gulps of water, letting out a content sigh as he finished, “Thanks… Spring right? Blue Spring?”

The mare smirked and nodded, “Yep, that’s me. Seems like it’s a little late for an introduction doesn’t it? We’ve been on a team for what? A few months now?”

Zipper shrugged, “Better late than never I guess…” he paused for a moment, “So uhh… what did you think of the race?”

Blue Spring laughed, “Well, it was interesting, that’s for sure, and that goofy spin maneuver at the end sure was something else, you might actually be able to do something practical with that if you practice a little more.”

“Y—you think so?” He stammered out, “I mean it was just a spur of the moment idea, I barely even thought about it.”

“Sure,” she shrugged, “maybe it’s not the most useful thing to us now, but I could see that becoming a really cool stunt move. It just needs some polishing.”

“T—thanks, I’ll have to try that sometime,” he stood up and passed the bottle back to her, “thanks again Blue.”

She nodded, “My pleasure. Now why don’t we go back with the rest of the team and see what’s next on the agenda.”

“Can’t I just rest a little longer?” Zipper asked, almost pleadingly.

She let out a small laugh, “Oh come on, you can rest when you’re back home. I don't think the middle of the desert is a very good place to rest.”

Zipper nervously shuffled his hooves and looked around, “yeah… maybe you’re right. Lead the way I guess.”

Zipper looked up towards the sky as Blue Spring began to trot forward, squinting his eyes as the bright sun entered his field of view. In an instant he was back in the lake, surrounded by a warm glow of light, one of the happiest days of his life— the day he finally earned his cutie mark.

As he glanced down at his new mark, he smiled as a sense of belonging welled up inside him. The last few years seemed to come flooding back to him as he thought back to everything he had tried to do before ETS had changed everything. His ambitions and dreams all seemed so much more possible now, and for the first time in a long time it finally seemed as if his life had an actual direction to go.

“A pair of wings… Kind of fitting eh? So does this mean you’re gonna be a stunt flier or something?”

Zipper looked up towards Blue Spring and pulled her into a tight hug, “I don’t know yet, but I’m just so glad that you’re my friend, you’ve believed in me when others didn’t and I could never thank you enough for that.”

The mare smiled and nodded her head, “Of course Zip, you’re a bit wild at times but you’ve got a good heart on the inside.”

“This really means more to me than I think you’ll ever know, I just want you to know that.”

“Anytime Zipper, anytime.”

The dream suddenly froze as another voice started to fade in, “So uhhh… this wasn’t exactly the kind of dream I had in mind when I hopped over here.”

Zipper snapped towards the sound of the voice, pausing in surprise as he noticed the dark blue night pony with a purple mane walking towards him, “You— how…” he asked as he cocked his head to the side.

Stardust looked around at the dream version of the Oasis, “It’s a dream. Remember what I told you earlier?”

The Pegasus paused for a moment, “That you’d show up in my dream… that’s what this is then.” His eyes widened, “Wait! How much did you see?!”

“More or less everything, Travis,” he added with a smirk, “Don’t worry though, none of this will ever leave this dream, unless you allow it of course.” Stardust calmly replied as he walked towards the edge of the lake. He glanced down at the calm reflectionless water as the memories of his own close friendships came to mind, “Maybe it’s sappy but I think it’s sweet that you value your friendship with her so much. That’s not something everyone can say.”

Zipper trotted up next to him and sat down at the water’s edge, “You don’t think I’m uncool for it?”

Stardust looked at the Pegasus and shook his head, “Hardly. Having a close friend, or a good handful of them in my case, is a nice thing to have in the otherwise boring and miserable world we live in. Me and my close friends, we’re well, closer. Like a small tight knit family. We’ve been through the thick and thin together, always there to support each other when we need it most, and it’s something that really makes you appreciate how much you have. It always brings a smile to my face when I see others getting to experience something similar.”

“I never really thought about it like that.” Zipper gazed out towards the horizon longingly, ”I’ve spent so much of my life trying to fit in and be cool, that I guess I just never really thought about what others really thought about me.”

“Aside from hoping they’d think you were cool.” The night pony added with a chuckle.

Zipper smiled, “ha, I guess so.” He stood up and looked around at the unfamiliar buildings that made up the dream Oasis in the distance.

“It’s weird eh?”

Zipper looked towards him, “What is?”

“The dream. I bet you’ve never seen your own dream like this, there’s lots of weird details that you’d never even remember when you woke up, and stuff that feels like it shouldn’t make any sense— because well, it doesn’t in a dream. You get used to it though.”

The pegasus looked around slowly and shook his head, turning back towards the night pony, “I guess so… so what’d you wind up coming up with?”

“For your signs. Right, sorry for the personal detour, I guess I’m just a sucker for that sort of stuff. Mind if I grab the wheel here? Change your dream and all that?”

Zipper shrugged, “it’s not like I can really do anything here. So go for it.”

Stardust smiled and nodded, gesturing for Zipper to turn around, “You’ll have to excuse the crudity of the facades, I don’t know what your arcade actually looks like and it’s hard for me to change other ponies dreams like Silver can, so bear with me.”

As Zipper turned around his face lit up with glee as he took sight of the mock ups that the night pony had prepared. Five separate logos and signs adorned some flat, undetailed buildings, all ranging in design and shape.

“I hope you don’t mind, I took some creative liberty with the suggestion. Zipper’s Arcade just felt too… bland, you know?” He replied with a smile.

The pegasus paused for a moment, taking in everything with an unreadable expression, “Zipp’s Arcade… it’s— perfect!” Zipper gleefully replied, his eyes darting from each different design, “I mean there’s just so much to choose from, they’re all perfect in their own special way.”

The night pony smiled, “I’m glad you’re happy. I don’t want to be a downer though so I’d suggest you pick one, neon isn’t cheap, especially when we have to ship it all the way to Arizona.”

Zipper nodded, “You're right, I need to pick the coolest,” for a few long minutes he carefully scrutinized each and every sign, jumping between them while Stardust looked on.

“Might I offer some advice? If you’re having a hard time choosing you might want to close your eyes and just clear your mind for a second, try and get a feel for which one is calling out to you, it sounds dumb but hey, it’s worked well enough for me so far.”

Zipper nodded, closing his eyes for a few moments. When he reopened them he turned towards one of the smaller designs, a sign that simply read the arcade’s name in red neon. With a hoof he pointed towards it, “That’s the one! Simple and easy, gets right to the point, nothing too complex or complicated.”

The night pony smiled, dispelling the remaining signs, “Option three it is, now um, this is the annoying part, getting payment info. So the way we handle this in my business is taking 50% of the final price as a down payment, obviously I can’t do that in a dream so I’ll send you a message when I wake up and we can discuss that then.”

Zipper nodded, “Sounds like a plan. So… I guess this is it then? We’re all done?”

Stardust shrugged, “If you have no other questions then we’re pretty much done here, like I said I’ll leave you a message and we can figure the rest out later.”

“I think we’re good then,” He ran up towards the night pony, pulling him into a tight hug before breaking it with an embarrassed smile, “Thanks again for all this!”

The night pony slowly nodded, “My pleasure. See you when I see you Zipper.”

Without any further word he vanished, leaving Zipper alone in his dream once more.

Zipper opened his eyes and let out a groan, groggily rolling over in his bed. He peeked over to the clock on his end table and let out another sigh. It was still dark out and he was tempted to close his eyes for a few more minutes, but as much as he wanted to be lazy today, there were more important things to do. Like check his gauntlet for instance. The pegasi’s eyes opened wide as he hopped out of bed and ran towards the charger, fumbling with the arm band until he was able to secure it. The screen lit up and a warm robotic voice greeted him, Good morning, please provide vocal confirmation.

“Zipper one nine nine five,” Zipper replied back, pausing as the gauntlet chimed in recognition, the embedded screen lighting up.

Welcome ZIPPER, You have one new message from user: Stardust. Would you like me to read it?

Zipper nodded, “Yes please.”

Standby... A cheerful chime rang out as the message began, “Zipper, I went ahead and forwarded an invoice to your gauntlet, go ahead and fill it out and we can start work on your order. If you have any questions drop me a line and I’ll visit your dreams again. — Star.” Message has an attached file, would you like me to forward it to your terminal?”

Zipper looked toward the electronic table, “Sure.”

A small chime rang out and the gauntlet screen went dark, leaving Zipper alone in the darkness again. His ears started to pivot around as they picked up the bird call from the downstairs room, bringing a smile to his face, Guess Gordon’s awake too, he thought to himself.

With a spring in his step he trotted toward his bathroom and turned the shower on, extending some of the fingers on his gauntlet and picking up his toothbrush, spreading a small amount of toothpaste on it. He paused for a moment, tapping a hoof to his gauntlet twice, and smiling as his music playlist began to play throughout the house.

He began to brush his teeth as the room filled with steam, bringing a feeling of relaxation to him as he cheerfully hummed along to the music. As he finished, he turned the faucet off and hopped into the shower, scrubbing himself down with shampoo and falling into the routine he had grown accustomed to for the last couple of years. While this might have been tricky as a pony at first, like anything, he had learned to adapt to it. The time flew by in an instant, and before long Zipper was done.

With a happy sigh, he flipped the shower off and hopped out, taking a few minutes to dry off and brush his mane into it’s trademark messy style. Pleased at his appearance he grabbed his saddlebag and trotted down the stairs, dancing and singing along to his music, smiling as he caught sight of his pet bird, Gordon, who was currently bobbing along to the upbeat music.

Zipper smiled as the bird excitedly squawked at him, “Good morning to you too Gordon, feeling hungry?”

The parrot replied with a loud squawk, causing Zipper’s ears to fold back momentarily.

“Okay, no need to yell,” He trotted toward the cupboard and extended his gauntlet’s fingers, using them to reach for some of the seed that the bird normally ate. With a cheerful spring in his step he trotted back toward the cage, opening it and laying out some of the seed for his feathered friend, who excitedly squawked back in response.

“Glad you like it, I’d love to share some breakfast chatter with you but I gotta go to work, Springy’s going to help me get everything in the arcade set up with Sine today, and then I’ve gotta go get some payment stuff figured out for some bat.”

The bird squawked back a simple reply, earning a laugh from Zipper, “Glad you understand, enjoy your breakfast buddy.”

The parrot squawked again as Zipper trotted out the door, pausing so he could clip his earbuds in. With a short running start he leaped into the air and took flight, rising sharply before evening out and gliding around the home he had grown to love over the last few years.

The Pegasus continued to fly through and around the city, weaving between the tall buildings and pulling into a few loops, much to the dismay of the ponies and humans who were walking around below. While Zipper might have been one of the best fliers in the Oasis a few years ago, it was clear that he was slowly being outpaced by some of the others the more they trained.

It’s not that he was a bad flier, he just had a tendency to try and pull off stunts that he clearly wasn’t ready to attempt, the end results usually ending with a crash landing and a few angry curses from whoever was unfortunate to be in his landing zone.

Zipper felt a mix of emotions as he thought back to the turn his reputation had taken in the oasis. While he wasn’t as brash and obnoxious as he had been when he first moved there, people still only seemed to think of him as the annoying bird brain who kept trying to do something until he was finally able to. The pegasi’s determination was both his greatest asset and his biggest weakness.

He was determined to make that change, earning his cutie mark had given him a new direction to follow in life, and much like the stunts he tried to pull off before earning it, he wouldn’t stop trying to make the best of his talent no matter what the others thought of him.

As the buildings around him started to grow shorter he dipped down in altitude, slowing his speed as he began to approach the lake and the nearby warehouse that would become his arcade. Right away he noticed something off about the scene, a large truck was parked out in front of it and the dark purple form of Sine Wave could barely be made out in the dark environment. If it wasn’t for her neon colored mane he probably wouldn’t have even been able to spot her from this high. He glanced toward the horizon and frowned. The sun was just barely rising and Zipper figured that it would be better to figure out what all the commotion was before the poor truck driver had to deal with a grumpy night pony who wasn’t a big fan of the sun.

As he dove down toward the pair, her annoyed complaints starting to become audible to his well trained ears, “What happened to being careful? I thought I paid you extra for that!”

The human shrugged, “I told you, I only hit a few bumps on the way here.”

The night pony let out a hiss, “Then can you explain why three of the cabinets have chipped sides? Do you know how hard that’s going to be to repair?!”

“Are you sure that they weren’t already like this? I mean these things are practically dinosaurs as it is.”

She flared out her wings, taking a more aggressive stance, “Are you calling me a liar?!”

“Sine take it down a few notches!” Zipper shouted down as he came to a careful landing between the two.

She flashed him an annoyed glare, “Not now bird brain, I’m dealing with something.”

Zipper nodded, “I can see that, and I’m going to ask you to tone it down before it gets ugly.”

“He damaged my property, it’s already gotten ugly.”

“Sine I’m sure we have people that can repair them, now why don’t we just get these unloaded and work on getting everything set up… okay?”

She let out a growl, “He’s still paying for the damages.”

Zipper stepped closer to her, “Go take a breather, I’ll handle this.”

“You better,” She replied back, not breaking her angered gaze.

Zipper trotted toward the bewildered human, waving him to the other side of the truck and out of her gaze, “Okay look, I know whatever happened was an accident, just pay her back for whatever damage she thinks you did and I’ll pay you back.”

The human slowly shook his head, “You think that’s going to stop her? She seems pretty miffed.”

“I know, but trust me. I’ve had to deal with this once before, she’s not going to cool off until she feels like the damages have been repaid.”

The human just rolled his eyes, “I swear this is the last time I work with a pony. You guys are either way too social or way too grumpy— sometimes both.”

“I understand, just go say you’ll pay whatever she’s asking and you’ll never have to deal with us again… Please?” Zipper flashed him a pleading look, earning another sigh from the human.

“Okay fine.”

Zipper breathed a sigh of relief as the human started to head back toward the irate night pony.

Zipper watched as the human helped unload the last of the machines, letting out a happy sounding sigh as the work was finally done. Sine Wave had mellowed out a little bit after the mover had apologized, and the mare was now happily napping in the corner with a wing draped over her head. The human, who Zipper had learned was named Marshall, had of course complained that Sine had gone off to nap after raising such a commotion over a few small chips on the side of a cabinet, but Zipper knew better than to get between a tired night pony and their sleep during the day.

Blue Spring had stopped by shortly after the work had started, and with her help the work had gone by in a breeze, regardless of Sine’s napping and Marshall’s complaining. The human had left without so much as a goodbye, leaving the pair and the sleeping night pony alone in the now filled warehouse.

The blue pegasus looked around, “So we’re all set then?”

Zipper nodded, “Yeah, I think so,” He glanced over to Sine, who was quietly snoring, “Think we should wake her?”

Blue Spring shook her head, “I do, but I don’t think it’s a good idea… but the ball’s in her court now and I’d rather not mess with this stuff without her input.”

“Want me to go wake her up?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea… but hey if you want to give it a shot then be my guest.”

Zipper nodded, slowly trotting toward Sine. With a nervous gulp he gently shook the night pony awake, taking a few cautious steps back as she stirred.

“What’s the deal bird brain?”

“We’re all unloaded and set up, don’t worry, Marshall’s gone and Blue Spring’s here now.”

She slowly opened one eye and glanced toward the other mare, “Hello Spring.”

“Hello Sine, sorry to wake you right now. We’ve got everything set up though, all you need to do is hook it all up.”

Sine let out a long yawn and nodded her head, “Got it. Do you mind if I do that later? I don’t think I’ll have the energy to get through it right now, not unless you’ve got some seriously strong coffee on you.”

Spring shook her head, “Nope, so later it is.”

Zipper stepped forward, “That works fine, don’t worry about it. You’ve been a huge help so far and there’s no rush.”

“Want us to grab you anything from Ahab’s before you head home? Zip and I were going to head there for lunch.”

The mare paused for a moment, before returning an appreciative smile, “Well… I wouldn’t mind a bowl of his famous mac and cheese… as long as you’re offering.”

Blue Spring returned a smile of her own, “Of course. Have a nice day, we’ll see you back here tonight”

She stood up, reaching into her saddlebags and putting on a pair of sunglasses, “I’ll see you two later,” She began to trot toward the door, pausing for a moment and turning back toward Zipper, “And for the love of all things that are good in this world… do NOT touch my cabinets until I get back, I don’t need anything else happening to them while I’m gone.”

“Noted. Good… day I guess?”

She nodded, “Right. See you later.”

Sine started out the door, leaving the two pegasi alone again. Zipper glanced down to his gauntlet, taking note of the time, “Ahab’s shouldn’t be too busy right now, mind if we take the scenic route?”

“I don’t see any issue with that. I’m guessing you’ve got a lot on your mind?”

Zipper trotted toward the door, opening it up and letting the bright sunlight in, “Yeah, I do. That night pony stopped by my dreams last night and we agreed on what the sign is going to look like. He sent me an invoice, I haven’t filled it out yet, figured I’d wait until you were around to see it too.”

“You want me to take a look at it?”

Zipper nodded as he led the mare outside, “Well yeah, you’re like my business partner, I think it’s at least fair to get your approval on anything big that we do.”

“Well if you insist on that then I guess it’s not a bad thing… what about Sine?”

“She’s handling the interior stuff, we're both in charge of this at the end of the day so it falls into our camp.”

“Alright well that sounds fair enough to me, why don’t we talk more about this over lunch?”

As if in response to her question Zipper’s stomach let out a loud growl, earning a laugh from the pair, “does that answer your question?”

Blue Spring let out another series of laughs and nodded, “I’d say it does Zip.”

The two pegasi started to trot down the path, in no real hurry to get to the restaurant.

The pair trotted through the carved wooden door and into Ahab’s restaurant, the moody atmosphere of the place giving it a peaceful and relaxing feel. Tropical music played around the cozy dining room, earning a smile from the two ponies. The earth pony behind the bar turned around to greet them as the bell rang, smiling as he took sight of the two.

“Aha, Zipper and Blue Spring, my two favorite customers! Here for your usual?”

Blue Spring nodded as she trotted toward her usual booth, “Yeah Cast, we’ll take a bowl of mac and cheese to go too, for Sine Wave.”

The pony nodded, “Gotcha, anything to drink today?”

“I’m good with water, how about you Zip?”

The gray pegasus looked over toward Perfect Cast and smiled, “The usual.”

“Rockin’ Punch?”

He nodded, “Yep!”

The earth pony nodded, “Coming right up,” He quickly pulled a few empty glasses toward the fountain, pouring their drinks. In a well practiced move that would have surprised any other pair of ponies, Perfect Cast slid the drinks onto a tray and carefully balanced it on his back, trotting toward the pair and dropping the glasses off.

Blue Spring smiled at the earth pony, “Thanks Cast,” She took a few sips and looked into the nearby aquarium, smiling at the fish that were swimming by. She turned back to her companion, “Well Zip, I’ve gotta give you credit, it’s really all starting to come together nicely.”

The gray pegasus nodded, “Yeah… it really is, isn't it?”

“Do you really think Sine will have everything all set up by tonight?”

Zipper shrugged as he looked around the cozy dining room, “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. It’d be nice if she can get that up and running though, we could start doing a soft opening soon and really drive up the hype!” He answered back in an excited voice.

Blue Spring laughed, “You’re really itching to open this I’m guessing?”

He replied with a laugh of his own, “Is it that obvious?”

“A little,” She paused for a moment, “So what’d Silver think of it?”

“I uhh…” He shifted his gaze around, earning a sigh from Spring.

“Zipper…. You have talked to him right?”

“I was going to… I’m just worried about what he was going to say.”

“Zip, you somehow coordinated a makeshift arcade that you’re planning on opening the second you can, and you haven’t thought about asking your boss if that kind of thing is okay to do?”

He looked away from her, “I… Look, I’m not a smart pony, I just want this to work.”

“Hey I never said you were dumb, you just have your own way of doing things. You should tell him as soon as possible though, preferably before we open and light the place up like a beacon… You’ve already got money set aside for a sign, but maybe we should hold off on that part for a few more days until we can make sure that we’ve got the right permission for this.”

“But Patrick seemed okay with it.”

She nodded, “Patrick might be okay with it, but Silver’s one of the main ponies in charge here, I think it’s only fair if you ask him too. He kind of has a right to know after all.”

“I…” He began to protest, letting out a sigh, “Okay, you’re right. I don’t think Sine’s going to stop the setup though, but at the same time I don’t think she really cares about the arcade’s operations as much.”

“You don’t think so?”

He shook his head, “She wants a place to house her collection, I think running it as an actual arcade is just a neat bonus.”

Blue Spring shrugged, “Well then I think we can wait until we get Silver’s blessing to run it.”

“Right… Well I’ll give him a call tonight when he’s awake.”

“Sounds like a plan. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to get this up and running, but we also need to make sure we’re not going to just get shut down the second he’s back home.”

Before Zipper could reply, Perfect Cast returned with a tray of food balanced on his back. With carefully practiced precision, he slid the plates in front of the pair, smiling as they looked down at the pasta dishes, “Everything look good?”

Blue Spring nodded, hungrily looking at her meal, “Yep, looks great as always Cast.”

The earth pony smiled, “Glad to hear, drop me a line if you need anything else, I’ll go get Sine’s started.”

“Thanks Cast!” Zipper cheerfully replied back, grabbing the nearby fork with his gauntlet’s fingers.

Without much further conversation, the two happily dug into their meals, and before long, and much to their dismay, they had finished. Perfect Cast had dropped off Sine’s takeout, and Zipper had paid for the meal. Feeling relaxed and in a good mood, the pair stood up and trotted toward the door, thanking the earth pony on their way out, promising that they’d be back at the usual time next week.

The pair had taken the scenic route back to the warehouse, chatting about their future plans and just genuinely enjoying their company. Zipper had earned a few more laughs when he stopped to talk to the geese, and before long, the sun had begun to set.

As he pushed open the door, he was immediately greeted with a few muffled curses from the dark night pony who was working away on some of the cabinets, “Is everything alright Sine?”

A muffled thud was heard, followed by more curses. The pony backed out from behind one of the cabinets, brushing back her disheveled mane with a sigh, “Yeah no, everything’s all good here now. About time you two decided to show up.”

Blue Spring tossed her a bag, earning a happy squeak from the night pony, “Sorry we’re a little late, had to grab your dinner— er, breakfast?”

The night pony nodded, “Sorry I got a little snappy, I’ve just been getting this stuff set up for a while now.”

“Pulling an early day?” Zipper asked as he surveyed her handiwork.

Sine nodded, digging around the bag and pulling the still warm food out, “Mhmm,” She hungrily looked down at the mac and cheese, “Yeah, it should all be good to go soon, just need to get a couple more things hooked up.”

Zipper trotted toward the half covered jukebox, pulling the cover fully off, “No way, you got us one of these too?”

The night pony suddenly snapped up from her plate as Zipper began to reach toward the choice selection, “STOP!”

He jumped back in a panic, “What?!”

Sine lowered her voice, “Sorry, didn’t mean to yell… Look, let me just get the last couple things hooked up and we’ll be good to go.”

“Why does he need to wait, Sine?”

The mare looked over toward Blue Spring, “It’ll be so much cooler when everything’s all lit up at once, trust me on this,” She quickly finished her meal and trotted toward the cabinet she had been working away on, poking her head behind it and fiddling around in the back of it for a few minutes. Seemingly satisfied with her work, she closed it up and stood up, taking a moment to collect herself.

Blue Spring looked toward her again and nodded, “Everything good to go now?”

Sine Wave slowly nodded her head, turning toward Zipper, “Hit it.”

The gray pegasi’s eyes lit up in excitement as he trotted toward the breaker box on the wall, reaching for a lever and excitedly pulling it. In an instant the whole room flickered to life with the sights and sounds of the cabinets turning on. Without a word spoken, Sine Wave quietly trotted toward the jukebox, flipping through the selections before settling on her desired song. Classic rock music rang out through the speakers she had meticulously wired up.

Zipper hovered up into the air, looking around at the seemingly magical place, a huge smile plastered across his face, “It’s… Perfect!”