Tales from The Oasis

“Hello, I am Silver Eclipse, one of the directors at PRISM and the Oasis. I had hoped to deliver this announcement under better circumstances, perhaps when the time was right, but given everything that’s happened recently, that won’t be possible. The world is hurting right now… so much has happened in such a short amount of time, so many horrible things that I wish could have been avoided. When ETS changed our world six years ago I had no idea what kind of world we’d exist in after, only that we’d be facing things we never could have even imagined facing before. But in all my thoughts, our calculations, and our simulations, none of us had ever anticipated that we’d be facing something like this.

The goal and mission of the Oasis has always been to build a better future for all of us and inspire a change in the world, and even though there’s so much hurt in the world right now, we can’t lose sight of this goal. For years now, we’ve been operating as a somewhat private research center, primarily open mostly to members and partners of PRISM with few outsiders taking up residence here, however that is all changing today. We’ve all lost something today, be it homes, loved ones, hope… but we can’t let that be the end all for us. The world needs optimism and hope right now, and it would be against our very core beliefs to simply shut out the world around us and continue business as usual. Through our research and partnerships over these last six years, we’ve developed and acquired resources that I fully intend to put towards aiding those that need help the most right now.

Starting today, to anyone who’s lost a home, needs that spark of hope, or simply needs somewhere to begin anew… the Oasis is open to you. I know we might not have a lot to offer, but this place is the culmination of a dream that we’ve been working on for six years now, and will continue to work towards well into the future. This is our dream, our gift to the world, a place where we can all build a better future for ourselves, and we’re more than happy to share it with you all. It’s important to remember that in times like this we all need each other for support and aid. I know that things seem bad right now, and it would be foolish to say that they weren’t, but we’ll go on, together. It’ll take time to move past this, months, perhaps even years, and the wounds will never fully heal, but we owe it to ourselves and those that we’ve lost to continue onwards. Together we will make something beautiful.”

You could say that my life has been… unconventional to say the least. You see, neither of my parents were born as ponies. It’s weird, and I never really understood it all that much as a kid, but I guess I never really needed to either. I mean what was a kid who had never been human going to do with that information? Mom and dad must have thought it was important to tell me, because when I was young they told me the story about how an alien from another world had tried to turn everyone into ponies.

They told me lots of things, like how some princess named Twilight had stopped the alien, about how miss Luna had encouraged dad to really learn all he could about his dream magic, stuff like how they met auntie Sapphire, and even how miss Arbiter had sacrificed herself during the Cataclysm of Riverview to save everyone… lots of stuff a kid probably didn’t need to know about, but stories that they still told me anyways.

I think my parents worried a lot when I was growing up. Usually about stuff that a kid wouldn’t understand— like the end of the world, cataclysms, et cetera. I know why they worried about it though, and it’s a burden that I have to bear too, but I’m not alone in it. I’ll get to that part of the story in due time, but I guess a good place to start is at the beginning.

I’ll never forget the day that dad opened up the Oasis, even if I didn’t really understand why at the time. Six year olds just don’t understand the concept of losing something, let alone a large scale cataclysm happening in a town that you’ve maybe only visited a handful of times and had no real attachment to. Even though I was still too young to understand what had happened, I distinctly remember picking up on the fear and anxiety that my parents felt, and I remember hoping that I’d never have to find out what scared them so badly. Unfortunately there came a time where I did, and in learning that I also understood why they were so sad during it, but I’ll get to that part of the story in due time.

The Cataclysm was a very long time ago, longer now than it really seems when I think about it, but I guess that’s just a consequence of that being one of my oldest memories. The world’s changed a lot since then, and now I have a family of my own, but the memory still sticks with me almost more than anything else I experienced at that time. I’ve always found it inspiring to see people come together to help each other during hard times, even if it inconvenienced them. Something about making sacrifices to help the greater good just seems like such a noble thing to do.

My Dad knew that the world was hurting, and so he jumped at the chance to at least try and help out any way he could, seeing it as his duty to put his team’s research and projects to use for the greater good, not because it would put them on the map, or give them notoriety, or even just to test something on a large scale… No, he did it because it was the right thing to do, and believe me, I’ve learned that his team was woefully unprepared to supply the help he had offered up.

Dad was always an optimist like that, looking for the best and brightest moments in a dark time, and it’d be a lie to say that that didn’t rub off on me, especially now that my kids are starting to grow up and start lives of their own. I’ve always been amazed at how fast time flies, and it’s moments like these— the times spent apart from everyone, where I really start to think about my life. And there’s just so much to think about— stuff like his and mom’s dreams, my own dreams, all of the wonderful things I’ve been able to experience with Trinket and the kids— all stuff that I’ll remember forever, stuff that’s made me who I am today.

So why is this important? Well everyone reaches a point in their life where they have to plan out their future and figure out how they’re going to get there. Getting lost out in the middle of nowhere and earning my cutie mark gave me the nudge I needed to figure out where I was going.

Up until that point, mom and dad raised me in a place called the Oasis. It was this optimistic place where they thought that anything was possible, and for a time it really was. That place started to grow fast though, and by the time I was eight, their age of being able to work on whatever they wanted was over.

You see, the Oasis was a lot smaller when I was growing up. I know right now it’s not the giant bustling city that Sky Tree has become, but it’s actually on the map— there’s more people there than I think anyone ever dreamed about back in the day. For most of my life you’d be hard pressed to find someone that immediately knew what and where it was that wasn’t part of some scientific group or a crackpot theorist, and well, that meant that ponies like them could get away with focusing their efforts on crazy projects like deep space telescopes and advanced robotics projects. Times change though, and with that so did their dreams for the future.

Not to say that that was a bad thing though. It was actually the opposite. Mom and dad were sad that they couldn’t continue their passion projects, but losing their funding after the cataclysm gave them the realization that they could pursue what they loved in their free time, and they decided to fill that void with teaching. Mom of course taught what she knew best, which was astronomy, but dad decided to focus on something different. He decided to follow his dreams— literally. Started out as a history teacher, but decided to try teaching others how to use their dream magic to do all sorts of things. It’s something he always did when I was growing up, and it’s something he continued even as we left our home for better opportunities.

It turns out that mom had a really good opportunity to go visit some old space center in Equestria, and that meant that I got to split my life between two worlds. But it was interesting for a wide eyed colt that had his head stuck in the stars. The culture shock was real though, but it helped to have a friend that had literally gone through the opposite. Trinket was that friend, and to this day she’s still my best and closest friend. And the pony I chose to spend the rest of my life with.

My wife is an alien, literally — as in she’s from an entirely different world that is so incredibly different from the one I grew up in that it’s sometimes hard to put into words. She’s also the pony that helped me adjust to a world that was so very different from the one I was used to. She knew how to make me feel comfortable, and looking back at the friends I had as a colt, maybe that’s why I bonded with Aurora, Trinket, and her sister Bristle so much growing up. They were literally some of the only ponies that were able to be up when I was, and that really messed with me for a while.

I don’t think I could ever say that my childhood was normal, at least not in the traditional sense. For my three best friends it was as normal as ever, but to everyone else around me I was the odd one out. To say I was a lonely little kid would be an understatement. That’s probably realistically why my childhood dog Cosmo was my one of my best friends. Aurora was always so far away, and Trinket and Bristle would only ever stay on earth for a few months at a time, but after I lost Cosmo they started sticking around for a lot longer.

Perhaps the happiest day I can think of during that part of my life was the day that Mom and Dad suddenly announced that Trinket was going to spend even more time with us on earth, as a permanent member of our household. I’m not going to lie, but the idea definitely seemed weird to me at first, though I guess that was something that wasn’t all that strange in Equestria. I must have been around ten or eleven at that point and regardless of how strange it might have seemed to me, it honestly made me happier than it should have. To this day I still don’t know if it’s because mom asked Starry to let Trinket stay with us, or if Starry and Nimbus were the ones that decided to give her that opportunity, or if it was just pure luck, but whatever the case may be, the fact that she was able to spend more time with me just made that whole part of my life a whole lot better.

It was definitely a whole new experience for both of us, I felt that for the first time in my life I had an actual friend that I could talk and play with every single day, and let me tell you, I was in heaven. Trinket’s experience was a lot more extreme however. You see, I grew up learning both English and Equestrian side by side, so I never really had to think about how hard it would be to pick up such a radically different language. To me, switching between both was just second nature, the same couldn’t be said for Trinket. Sure, she knew a little English, but it wasn’t really anything more than just the basics for her to get by. Her moving to Earth full time meant that she suddenly was thrust into an alien world with little understanding of the language, and that meant that I suddenly had a new job of helping her understand everything, not that I had anything to complain about. That’s when I learned that trying to help someone learn a new language was way easier said than done, though it helped that Mom and Dad both did the bulk of the work, really all I had to worry about was that she was feeling happy and safe, and if she needed help understanding anything then I could be there to help her. I didn’t put this together until much later, but I suspect that that’s another reason why Starry was more than happy to let her stay with us, it gave her the opportunity to do something that he had only ever dreamed of doing— to grow up in another world and fully immerse himself in it’s culture and customs.

I think that was when I first started to see her as more than just a friend, but to tell you the truth I honestly don’t remember when I started having feelings towards Trinket, but I’ll always remember how nervous I was while dating her. Long distance relationships are already hard enough as is, maybe not as hard for night ponies, but when your marefriend isn’t even in the same universe as you sometimes, things can start to feel strange, especially when you reach that age where the other night pony mares suddenly start fighting over you, literally. We didn’t have to worry about that as much at first, she stayed with us on Earth full time until I was around 15, but it was definitely hard once she had to go back home. Still though, we made it work as best as we could, and I think both of our parents started to realize that there was more at play than just a simple childhood crush before either of us did.

The moment where you realize you’ve finally met your soulmate is probably one of the most exciting days of your life, surpassed by the day you ask them to spend the rest of their life with you, and perhaps even surpassed by the day you decide to start a family with them, if you ever decide to go that far (which I did, but that’s a story for later). I’ll never forget the day I asked Trinket to marry me, nor will I ever forget the embarrassing conversation with my mom that led to me asking that question in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong, I was more excited to get their approval and encouragement than I think I had any right to be at the time, but I was also worried about what this meant for our lives going forward. When you’re barely even seventeen it feels like you’re at a crazy crossroad in your life, like you could either make or break it with the right decision, especially when that decision has consequences that could span between two separate universes. That definitely put quite a bit of pressure on both of us, but in the end we chose to take things slowly, going one day at a time until we felt that it was the right time to finally get married.

Orion excitedly ran towards the door of their cottage, blowing past Scarlet in a hurry.

A smile spread across Scarlet’s face as she looked up from her tablet, “Hold on a minute, just where do you think you’re going in such a hurry?”

Orion looked towards Scarlet and nervously shuffled his hooves, “Just to Trinket’s.”

The mare slowly nodded her head, “Right, and what do you think you’ll do over there?”

“Just going to hang out, maybe play some games or go off on an adventure, the usual,” the colt nervously replied.

“Mhmm,” Scarlet replied skeptically, ”Okay well promise me you’ll make good decisions if you decide to do more than just hang out okay?”

Orion’s face reddened “Mom it’s not like that! We’re not going to do anything.”

Scarlet let out a snicker, “Your father and I said we weren’t going to do anything either and then we had you. Just promise me you’ll use protection if you do anything dumb okay? As much as we want grandchildren we don’t need any right this minute.”

“Mom stop! This is so embarrassing! She’s not like the night ponies back on Earth!”

The mare let out another laugh, “I’m your mother, remember that. It’s my job to embarrass you every now and again. Trinket might not be from Earth, but if she’s dating you then she’s going to get exposed to that kind of stuff sooner rather than later, I’m not saying you need to plan your whole life out just yet, but until you two get engaged she’s going to deal with a lot more hassle back on Earth than she’s used to.”

Orion flashed Scarlet a confused look, “Are you really saying I should get engaged to her? Mom we’re barely even seventeen.”

“I’m not saying you have to get married right away, but if she’s going to come back to Earth and stay with us for a while then all I’m saying is that it might not be a bad idea.”

The colt’s face shifted from a purple and into a deep crimson, earning a laugh from Scarlet, “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it, I don’t think you realize how head over hooves she is for you, you really lucked out with her.”

“You think so?”

“Orion, I’m your mom. I can tell from the way she looks at you when you’re not paying attention,” The mare paused for a moment, “So I guess it’s time for the big important question that every night pony mother gets to ask, how good is she in a fight?”

The colt raised an eyebrow, “Why does that matter?”

“Well, if you’re not going to get engaged then you better be ready to break up a night pony fight, because I sure won’t”

“Mom! Don’t say that, they’re not going to fight her!”

Scarlet shrugged, “You don’t know that, to them you not being engaged means that you’re not in a committed relationship, and you’re free game. If you’re worried about what your father and I will think then don’t, it’d actually probably bring us a lot more peace of mind than you’d think.”

The colt sighed, “Do you really think they’ll be that mean?”

The mare let out a laugh, “Of course I do. Do you remember that fight that broke out at the lake a few months ago? Imagine that but with you in the middle of it and Trinket at the receiving end of those hooves.”

“B— but you won’t let that happen right?!” He asked in a panicked voice.

“I told you I’m not gonna break up that fight, I’ve gotten enough bloody noses to teach me that lesson. Sure I’ll help clean her up and make sure it doesn’t get too far, but the rest is on you little buddy.”

Orion gulped and slowly nodded, “Oh… Okay. I understand.”

Scarlet smiled, “Good. Now I trust you and I know you’ll make smart decisions. I’ve done enough parenting for the day, go have fun and treat her to something special. And just promise me you’ll think about everything, I know we aren’t going home for a few more weeks, but when we do you’ll either be fighting for her, or you won’t, and I think both of us know which option is the better one.”

The two ponies trotted through the rough terrain of the forest, expertly stepping through it as if they knew every inch of the path by memory. For Trinket that couldn’t have been any more true, and she happily led Orion through the path towards one of her favorite places in either of the two worlds.

“So where are we going this time?”

Trinket smiled, “It’s a surprise!”

“What kind of surprise? The good kind I hope?”

The mare shook her head, “Oh come on Orion, would I really lead you to a bad surprise?”

The colt shrugged, “Well gee Trinket, I don’t know. Do you remember when we went treasure hunting in that forest and got chased by timberwolves? I think that counts as a bad surprise.”

She snickered, “Oh you mean the time I chased them off while you screamed like a little filly?” She teased.

“Har har, laugh it up. In my defense that was the first time I had ever seen them, we just have boring regular predators back on Earth, remember?”

“I don’t know, sounds like excuses to me.”

Orion chuckled, “Well it’s not as funny as when you got chased by that big goose back in the Oasis.”

Trinket rolled her eyes, muttering a few curses under her breath.

“Sorry, what was that? I didn’t quite catch it,” the colt laughed out as he pivoted his ears.

“I said that big dumb bird was scary, alright?”

“It’s okay, geese hate everyone equally I think, I don’t think it was personal.”

“Well I would rather not find out again if it’s all the same with you.”

Orion nodded, “Oh believe me, it is. I think I’ll let Mr. Zipper deal with the big dumb birds.”

The mare let out a small laugh and paused at a fork in the path, contemplating the route for a moment before continuing down the lesser worn path. The ground suddenly dipped down and led under an old petrified tree, catching Orion by surprise and almost tripping him.

“I probably should have warned you to watch your step, eh?”

The colt nervously smiled and nodded, “That would have been nice.”

“Well in any case, we’re here.”

Orion looked around at the secluded grotto she led him into, marveling at the crystal clear waterfalls that flowed down from the ceiling and emptied into steaming pools of water that filled the cavern, “I— wow! So uhh, where is here?”

“I call it Moondust’s Grotto, I found it when I was a little filly and it’s my best kept secret,” With a large grin Trinket turned towards him, “So, what do you think?!”

Orion hesitated for a moment before returning a grin of his own, “It’s a beautiful place for a date, I’ll take it this isn’t the average everyday equestrian picnic spot?”

She slowly stepped into one of the steaming pools, “It is for us, I don’t think any of the normal ponies know about it, and I’d like to keep it that way. I found it by accident but it’s one of my favorite places to relax, it’s just so peaceful here.”

“Well I think it’s wonderful, who needs the normal ponies anyways?”

“Not us, that’s for sure.”

“Are you implying that we’re a couple of weirdos?”

Trinket smirked, “Well I’m a treasure hunter and you’re a space dork, I think that makes us a couple of weirdos.”

“Well you did always have a knack for finding the best kind of treasure, I think this place definitely falls into that category.”

“That’s not the only treasure I found,” she said with a smile.

“Oh? What other treasure would that be?”

“You, you big dummy.”

Orion flashed a nervous smile, “That’s sweet, but I don’t think I’m as good of a treasure as you are.”

“Oh really, you think so?”

The colt nodded, “I know so. You’re different in the best kinds of ways. I can’t think of too many other ponies that would happily go on some dumb adventures in the dark forest with me at the dead of night just to see some boring old stars.”

“What can I say, you’re the only pony that made those kinds of adventures fun, plus you tag along on all my dumb adventures and don’t even complain about it like Bristle does. I could have stayed that shy little filly that was afraid of the strange alien ponies from Earth, but you put up with my adventures, so I think I’ll take it as a win.”

“You put up with my dumb astronomy talk so I’ll take that as a win too.”

The mare cuddled up next to him and let out a relaxed sigh, “Well I think we’ve both struck it rich then.”

Orion smiled, “I guess we have then,” he paused for a moment, nuzzling up next to her, “I love you so much Trinket.”

“I love you too Orion, “she replied with a smile, “I’m so glad I get to spend time with you like this.”

The two sat there relaxing for a few minutes before Orion nervously looked towards her unsure of what to say, “Trinket, can I ask you something really important?”

She opened her eyes and looked towards him, “Sure Orion, you know you can always talk to me.”

“It’s really important, probably the most important thing I think I’ll ever ask you.”

“Orion what is it? You seem so nervous?”

“Trinket, I want to spend all our time like this, together for the rest of my life,” he took a deep breath, “Will you marry me?” He asked with a nervous gulp.

The mare froze for a moment, before a gleeful smile spread across her face as she nuzzled up to the colt, “Oh my gosh Orion, yes!.. I mean this is so sudden, but— Oh, I just love you so much!”

A meek smile spread across his face, “I love you too.”

Trinket broke her hug and looked back up at the colt, “If you don’t mind me asking though, why the sudden urge to propose?”

“Well… look, you’re coming back to Earth with us, and that means you’re going to get exposed to a side of night pony culture that you’re definitely not prepared for.”

“I don’t understand, I’ve been to Earth before, Orion. It didn’t seem that bad before.”

“Well… you’ve never been there as my marefriend.”

Trinket raised an eyebrow, “What makes that any different than before though?”

“Well the mares on earth are a lot different than the night ponies here, let’s just say that if we’re not engaged then things might get… rough.”

The mare shook her head, letting out a small laugh, “Orion what does that even mean?”

“It means that they might try and fight you because you’re competition for a rare commodity. That rare commodity being a night pony stallion that isn’t in a committed relationship.”

“But we are?”

Orion nodded, “In the traditional sense, but night pony culture on earth is frustratingly weird and it’s gonna be rough if you’re not prepared for it.”

The mare slowly nodded her head, “Okay… you still want to get married for real though right?”

Orion smiled, “Of course I do, you’re the most beautiful mare in either of the two worlds and I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life with anyone else. I know it’s sudden but we don’t need to plan everything right away. We can take things as slow as we like.”

A smirk spread across her face, “Well what if I want things to go fast?”

“I can do fast, I think either of our parents could probably pull a personal favor with Luna at this point if you really wanted to get married on the spot.”

Trinket laughed and shook her head, “As sweet as that is, I think we’re better off planning this out, taking things slow is perfectly fine by me,” She paused for a moment, “So what do you think your parents will say?”

Orion thought back to the earlier conversation he had with Scarlet, smiling as he nuzzled up next to Trinket, “Something tells me they’ll be just fine with it.”

Mom and dad were of course so incredibly excited, and so were Trinket and I. We both felt closer than we had ever been, and the only thing that was on our mind was the future ahead. To say that we were as happy as we had ever been would be the understatement of a hundred million lifetimes.

Things were of course moving fast, we were both young after all, but sometimes they had to for a night pony. As if we cared though, what was really important was what happened after. That’s when our lives together really began, and it’s also when we had to start making some really tough decisions. I wasn’t as worried though, because we were going to make those decisions together, and that’s what mattered.

It’s still hard though, because when you’re off to start the college life, a lot of things are different. For a lot of ponies it’s their first time out on their own, for Trinket, it was her first time out on her own on Earth, away from mom or dad.

I did my early college stuff up in Michigan, near where we used to spend our winters with Auntie Sapphire, so it wasn’t like I was going to be alone away from family. Still though, it was a big step, and it was only the beginning of a whole new chapter in my life. That chapter, as short lived as it was, set me up for the real big changes in my life— my journey into attending a real college…