Chapter 17: Down Time
Perspective: Mike Britowski
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 27, 2025
“So the cells were injected into a healthy portion of tissue near the damage, and it was meant to copy the ‘DNA’, these instructions. Then, detecting a difference from these instructions in the body, the cells would replace any bad or missing cells. Am I understanding correctly thus far?” asked Luna, whom now sat on the couch opposite Tidwell. After that little uplifting speech, Phoenix decided to call his crew outside, where they could collect the bodies and burn them. As they left, they assured Tidwell that they didn’t blame him, and that we would all overcome this together, somehow. Now, only Tidwell, the ponies, and the boys and I remained.
“And since most people were fine when they were ‘infected’, the cells are only located in the growths, and in parts of their brain?” added Celestia, whom sat across from here sister. The doctor nodded to both ponies.
“Sister, I believe that if we are allowed to study a sample of this ‘cell’, we may perhaps find a unique identifying trait that will allow us to target these errant cells!” Luna beamed proudly. “Then, we can destroy them by isolating and superheating them.”
“Interesting,” mused Tidwell. “But you’d need to find a way to targets all the infected cells simultaneously. If you miss even one, the person will ‘die’ again, as the newly regenerated cells take over the central nervous system again. And I should warn you; the cells undergo mitosis very quickly.” Blanks stares is all he got. “The multiply rapidly.”
“Ahh,” everyone replied simultaneously.
“In addition, you would need to repair some of the tissue that was damaged during the Infection, such as their grey, torn skin. It’s not as easy as it sounds.” Celestia furrowed her brow.
“Luna, this would take a substantial amount of power to pull off, assuming a human can even survive that much magic and that many changes to their body forced through them,” she discussed with her sister. “An average unicorn could only fire a spell this complex and powerful twice, if well-rested. Even the number of times we could pull it off pales in comparison to the number of unfortunate humans afflicted by this.”
“Sorry for interrupting, but you said you did have a spell that could work?” I asked.
Well in theory, we could weave a variety of spells into a concentration of magic at our horn, then fire said magic at an Infected,” Luna explained. “However, we are not sure that the human in question would even survive, let alone if the ‘spell’ would work.”
“And even if we got really lucky and everything worked, you guys would quickly exhaust your magic reserves,” Edgar added in.
“Not to mention, I think Celestia’s is incredibly low right now, correct?” said Jonathon.
“That is correct,” Celestia confirmed.
“It would seem,” Eddy started, “that we either need a more efficient spell, or more reserve magic on-hand.”
“Even if we could open the portal now, there wouldn’t be enough unicorn guards for every Infected,” Celestia pointed out. “You mentioned there were once billions of humans.”
“While that may be true, that wasn’t what I was talking about. This may seem far-fetched, but if we could somehow find an ‘external source’ of magic, maybe it could be used as a ‘charger’ of sorts.”
“But that is where the problem lies,” interjected Luna. “This ‘external source’, as you call it, was all around us in Equestria. There was ambient energy everywhere, and our magic could simply be replenished by not using it, allowing our bodies to absorb this ambient energy. Because of this, any kind of ‘magic storage devices’ were researched out of curiosity, not need.”
“So research was slow and extremely limited at best,” noted Eddy. “And the technology is primitive.” Luna nodded.
“So there’s nothing you can do on this end?” Edgar asked.
“There seems to be an incredibly small amount of energy permeating through the air, but it is sporadic at best, and at this level, it would take weeks just to build enough magical power to cast the spell we are talking about, let alone open the portal.”
It seemed that a feasible solution was out of the question for now unfortunately. Unless we could find a way to restore their magic quickly, the spell the princesses mentioned was useless. They did mention something about sporadic ambient energy on Earth though, which is strange since Earth didn’t have magic. Might be something worth looking into soon.
In the meantime, I guess we’ll have to make do with what we have.
“Since we have no other better option, how long until one of you is able to cast this spell?” I asked.
“I’m afraid it could takes three or four weeks just to build enough energy to cast such a spell,” Celestia informed us. “And this is assuming we don’t use our magic at all in that timeframe, and that I just target the cells and Luna destroys them and heals the tissue.”
“All that time and power for one shot?” Jonathon asked, bewildered. Celestia nodded. “At this rate, the sun will burn out before we finish!”
“Your sun has a limited life?” Celestia leaned in and asked quietly.
“Yep, only about four to six billion years left,” I replied with a bit of good-humored sarcasm. She smiled.
“But at this stage in the game, it’s the only alternative we’ve got Jon,” Eddy countered, continuing the discussion with Jonathon. For his part, Jon gave Eddy a dubious look.
“So what do we do in the meantime?” he asked.
“We wait, and prepare to capture an Infected and test the spell.” Eddy muttered.
“So, do what we’ve been doing since the Infection began? Waiting?”
“Hey, I don’t like sitting around either, but it’s what has to happen. Unless you have a better plan?”
“Excuse me,” Tidwell’s voice drifted into the conversation, making them both turn to look at him. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but did I hear you say you were going to apprehend an Infected for testing?”
“Well, we can’t exactly test a spell that supposed to heal an Infected without, you know, an Infected.” I added.
“And where would you acquire this ‘test subject’?”
“The city Tidwell. Unless there’s a safer place you know of.”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” he muttered under his breath. He turned to address all of us. “I apologize, but have you all gone mad? You barely escaped from there last time with your lives. And a massive horde followed you back, which took half the Cavalry with it when it died. And now you’re all telling me that you’re going to go back!?”
“We don’t have a choice Tidwell!” I cried out. “We’ve been living in a sort of denial this whole time. Working, waiting, pretending everything’s normal when it’s not. When a horde shows up, we blast it away, ignore the deaths, and act like nothing happened. You wanted to fix this mess? This is the only alternative we have right now. It’s either that, or continue to do what we’ve been doing and kill them off. Pick your poison.”
Tidwell and I continue to glare at each other. Eventually, Tidwell broke eye contact, and sighed. He remained quiet for a little bit, before saying something that caught us all off-guard. “Then…if that’s the case, I’m coming with you all.”
“…what?”
“You are, unfortunately, correct; this is the only alternative available. As such, I’m coming with you to assist: I can treat wounds you may sustain during this crazy plan of yours, and I can stabilize, or attempt to as the case may be, the patient after the spell should it be required. I’ll need some trunk space for my equipment though, if you don’t mind.”
“But, I mean…are you sure?” Edgar asked. “It’s not exactly, you know, safe out there.”
Tidwell chuckled. “It’s not exactly safe anywhere my dear boy. The town just happens to be relatively safer.”
“Well Tidwell, if you’re sure about this, you’re more than welcome to join us,” I said. From somewhere off to the side, I heard a chuckle.
“If you’re going to take the good doctor with you, you should probably teach him to shoot first,” a voice called from the entryway. Looking back, Phoenix could be seen standing in the doorway, looking slightly disheveled. Then again, dragging numerous bodies into a pile is tough work; we’ve personally been part of the cleanup many times. Phoenix smirked before continuing. “I’ve seen him shoot. Let me put it this way: if you’re looking to avoid getting shot by Tidwell, the best place to be is directly in front of him.”
The doctor seemed less than pleased with this remark, as a frown crossed his face as he stared at Phoenix. “I’ll have you know I got him, thank you very much,” he retorted. “I even got him before he could leave the hospital room.”
Rather than deter Phoenix, this comment caused his shit-eating grin to grow. “Sure you did,” he replied sarcastically, seemingly struggling not to laugh. “It took you all seven rounds, but you sure showed him who was boss. Blew his whole damn finger right off!”
I roared with laughter. I think everyone laughed; even the ponies chuckled a bit. I think I saw Tidwell mutter something, but my sides hurt too bad for me to care at the moment. “It won’t be easy,” I gasped as I tried to catch my breath. “But I’m sure I can get Tidwell here shooting like a pro in no time.”
“If you say so,” Phoenix said, calming down as well. He looked behind him for a moment, then turned back to us. “Well, I best be going now; the boys are done cleaning up.”
“How’d they handle it?” Eddy asked, suddenly somber for some reason. “They alright?” Phoenix seemed to have understood as well, for the cheer in his expression noticeably diminished.
“Some better than others,” he replied. “It’s not an easy thing to do, and it never gets easier. But they’ll be ok; they just need a little time.” Suddenly it hit me.
Some of the bodies that were burned were the Cavalry’s own men; they had to burn their friends.
“We offer our condolences,” Luna said solemnly. “We will find a way to end this plight so that this may never happen again.” Phoenix smiled.
“Thanks Luna, I’ll pass it along.” His expression turned contemplative for a bit, studying Luna and Celestia. He then directed his attention to me. “Also, I just remembered; you need extra supplies since you’ve been gone for two weeks, correct?” ‘That’s right! I hadn’t even thought about it, but we’re low on food, and now ammo too. And some defenses need repairs as well.’
“Now that you mention it, we do need some supplies,” I mused. “And we have six more living here for the time being, so we need quite a bit more supplies. Should we grab from the spares?” Phoenix nodded.
“I could drive down and pick ’em up for us,” Edgar offered.
“Actually, I was hoping Mike would come along,” Phoenix said. “There’s something I need to talk to him about, if that’s ok with you guys.”
“Sure, I’ll come with,” I replied, the others nodding as well.
“Excellent. We’ll be heading back into town with the boys, be back soon everyone.”
“Try not to break anything while I’m gone,” I called out jokingly. The guys chuckled…for about a second. All of a sudden, all the lights went out, the A/C stopped, and a buzzer could faintly be heard sounding in the attic. “…or not.”
“Oh God damnit!” Eddy exclaimed.
“A power fault?” Jonathon asked.
“Yes unfortunately. I swear the same shit happened when we teleported to Equestria.” He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger, sighing as he did so. “Well, at least we all have something to keep us busy now. Jon, please assist Edgar with a structural damage report. Let Mike know what we need when you’re done. If you guys need me, you know where to find me.”
Everyone split, including the ponies; some just tagged along with Jon and Edgar, while others went upstairs to their rooms. Eddy turned around to head up as well, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. “Can…can I come with you?” Twilight asked shyly. Whether she knew it or not, she was asking with the kind of cute expression that was hard to say no to. Jonathon, Edgar and I watched with great amusement as Eddy led Twilight upstairs. I think we were all even thinking the same thing.
‘We are totally going to tease you for this later Eddy.’
Perspective: Eddy Culivin
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 27, 2025
“You think the pack is unbalanced again?” Twilight asked behind me as I trudged towards the entrance to the attic. “That was the reason the power was off last time, right?”
“Not exactly,” I replied as I yanked down the folded staircase from the ceiling. “It was unbalanced, but it was also really low on juice. Though the generator was running throughout the firefight yesterday, and all through the night, so I doubt we’re out of power.” I finished unfolding the ladder, and climbed up. Grabbing two thick pairs of gloves, I slipped mine on and handed the other pair to Twilight after she had pulled herself up into the attic. “You know the drill. Put these on, and don’t touch anything.”
Doing as she was told, Twilight followed me as I made my way to the control panel. I immediately smacked a button on the panel, silencing the infernal racket. “Finally,” I breathed out. Without turning around, I addressed Twilight. “Hey Twi?”
“Yes?”
“Remind me to rip out that stupid buzzer and install a more pleasant-sounding one.”
She giggled a little. “You got it,” she said. Smiling to myself, I checked the Fault LEDs to see what was going on. The ‘Multiple Bank Failure’ fault was on, and the panel display was dark. The ‘Zero Voltage’ and ‘Pack Imbalance’ fault was also on. But I saw the Ultracap voltage monitor circuits show six out of ten LEDs illuminated for multiple banks, so there wasn’t zero voltage. What was going on?
“Hey Eddy, some of these ‘cells’ are dead,” I heard Twilight call out. Walking over to her, the extent of the ‘damage’ was seen. Two of the banks, all 80 caps total, were completely dead. Another one had all the cells at 1 LED out of ten.
“Well that explains a lot actually,” I stated. “Two banks reached a voltage of zero and the failsafe circuits shut them off. Probably the trip over that messed with the system again.”
Twilight looked around, examining the other banks. “If only two ‘banks’ are dead, why shut everything down though?” she asked.
“Since more than one bank had a fault, the safeties killed the whole system as a precaution.” Walking back to the control panel, I yanked a lever, which triggered a small *click* from the Main Contactor. Pulling a similar lever next to the one I pulled before produced a similar sound from the Charge Contactor. With the system successfully isolated from the charge circuits and the house, I checked to make sure the breaker was tripped to isolate the pack from the rest of the system. Seeing this was so, I reached for a few switches which connected all the cells in parallel to balance, only to find Twilight already on it.
“I remembered from last time,” she explained with a smile before I could even ask.
A grin crossed my face. “I’m really starting to like you Twilight Sparkle.”
…the implications of what I had said had just sunk in. Twi blushed a little, while I stammered like the stupid ass I was to try and fix this. “A-as a friend! I-I meant like you as a friend.”
“Y-Yea,” she said. “I knew that silly.” We both did that little chuckle people do in awkward situations. ‘This is why I’m an introvert…’
“I’m uhh, going to go check the pack,” I said. She followed as I went around checking the state of each bank. As we watched, the LEDs on some of the dead packs came on, while the reading on the other banks dropped. Eventually, all the cells read four LEDs.
Flipping the parallel switches off, I re-engaged the Charge Contactor. Reaching behind the panel, I reset the breaker that connected the pack to the monitoring systems and DC to AC converter. A beep sounded from the panel and its readouts lit up, registering balance and charge state. The panel read 39% charge remaining. “Ready?” I asked Twilight. She nodded. “Here goes.” Throwing a lever, the final click was heard as the Main Contactor engaged. The A/C came to life next to us, signaling the power was back. “And that’s how it’s done!” I said, feeling proud for a job well done. Since we were back on Earth though, and our luck was always dismal at best here, of course the feeling didn’t last long.
“Eddy, the lights that says ‘zero voltage’ is on,” Twilight said, crushing my hopes that it was really that simple. ‘Great…’
Walking back to the panel again, I noticed the ‘Zero Voltage’ fault light was indeed still on, taunting me with its luminescence. “Let’s check the banks that were dead again.” I said. There was no answer from Twilight, so I turned around to find out she wasn’t even there. ‘Even better…’ “Twi?”
“Found it!” She called out. “Bank 14 is dead still.” I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. If I had her as an assistant, things around here would get fixed three times as fast. Going through the pack-isolating procedure again, I made sure all power was off and that Bank 14 was isolated from the rest of the pack as well, before heading to the faulty bank. ‘It’s so nice to work with someone who actually cares about this stuff. She even picks up on concepts quickly, allowing her to help instead of sitting there and watching.’ I was enjoying Twilight’s company more than I thought I would. ‘She’s competent, patient, and really cute to boot…
‘WOAH, back the fuck up brain! Where the Hell did that last one come from?’ I grabbed the multimeter and sat in front of the bank, making sure Twilight couldn’t see my face. Said face was currently bright red, and it wasn’t because it was hot upstairs either. Subconscious and I were going to need to have a little chat about ‘appropriateness’ when this was done. After probing all the Ultracapacitors, I discovered one that gave no capacitive reading. Guess the trip back actually damaged this one, rather than just draining it.
Pointing the damaged cell out to Twilight, we proceeded down the ladder to retrieve a spare from the workshop, along with the tools we needed to change it out. The trip over was quiet, as I was still thinking about that thought earlier.
‘What is wrong with me?’
Perspective: Phoenix Henson
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 27, 2025
“So obviously blasting just its finger wasn’t going to do much, so I strolled in there and put one between its eyes.” I recounted, much to Mike’s amusement. On the trip over, Mike had regaled me with everything that had happened to them in greater detail, and had afterwards asked about the incident with Tidwell, which I described for him. I felt a weird disconnection during Mike’s story though; to me, Mike never left. To him, I’ve been gone two weeks. Quite literally. We had finished gathering all the materials to rebuild their windows, and were gathering supplies for the next two weeks.
“It’s going to be a lot harder for me to get Tidwell shooting right if that’s the case,” Mike said.
“He’s not that bad a shot normally, but when he panics, look out.”
“Yikes, that’s an ominous warning right there Phoenix.” We shared a brief chuckle at that. Mike grabbed a box and hoisted it up onto the pickup’s bed. Taking a good look at it, he frowned. “Hey Phoenix, we got any more veggies?”
I gave him a questioning look. “Not really Mike; you know it’s all rationed out. You can’t really choose what you get. Why?”
“Well, our guests are ‘technically’ ponies, or at least that’s what they identify as. Eating meat probably isn’t something they do.” ‘I hadn’t even considered that, though it’s a big problem. Crap, let me see what I can do…’
“Well for now, I’m afraid there’s not much I can do; they might have to eat a little meat.” Mike muttered something under his breath that sounded like ‘they got themselves into this mess’. “But when we harvest, I’ll see about securing some of it for your guests.”
“Thanks Phoenix,” he said with a grateful smile. He turned to look at the cargo in the back of the truck. “Well, I think that about wraps it up here. We forgetting anything?”
“Not that I can think of. Let’s get moving, since I bet you’re itching to know why I brought you out here specifically.”
I hopped in the driver’s seat, starting the truck and driving it just past the gate. Mike closed up the doors to the building, then the gate. He climbed into the passenger seat shortly after.
“So, what’s this about Phoenix?” he asked as the vehicle rumbled towards its destination.
“Well, I didn’t want to say this in front of the ponies, in case they took offense. I remember them saying something about using magic to fight, and later telling us that their magic is running out. That got me thinking: what if another Infected mob came storming through? How would they defend themselves? I realized that they might not be able to. So I thought about what we could do, and realized that while we may not be able to help them with their magic, we could give them something they could use that doesn’t need magic.”
“…You’re asking me to teach the ponies to shoot?”
“Specifically the princesses, since I’m sure the guards were trained and are proficient with whatever they were using yesterday. These ponies valiantly chose to come here to see if they could help us, so in turn the least we could do is make sure they are safe during their stay.”
“I see. Well, I’ll be happy to teach them to shoot, though I’ll need to find suitable guns for them.”
“Actually, I’ve already thought of that.” And with perfect timing, the truck came to a stop, right in front of our destination. “Come on in and I’ll show you.”
I hopped out and opened the door to the two-story house I called home. Immediately, the scent of cooking meat hit my nostrils, and damn was it good! “Phoenix, is that you?” a woman called from the kitchen.
“Yes baby, it’s me,” I replied. "I’m here with Mike. I need to give him something and drive him home.” A soft clank was heard as something was set down, followed by footsteps. And out of the kitchen emerged my woman, beautiful even with those faded jeans and stained cooking apron. Hell, she could make a trash bag look pretty.
“Mike, it’s been too long!” she happily said, coming to give Mike her infamous bone-crushing hug. Despite her petite appearance, that woman had some serious strength.
After being able to breathe again, Mike replied with a smile. “I’ll say! We just don’t stop by very often unfortunately.”
“So, you were going to spill the beans about what happened yesterday, right? That light and the house moving, what happened?”
I stepped in. “Sorry Julia, but it’s a very long and hard to believe tale, and I’ve gotta get Mike back to his place soon. I’ll tell you over dinner, promise.” She seemed a little disappointed, but relented.
“Alight, but you’re not getting out of it come dinner Phoenix.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, dear.” After giving my wife a quick kiss, I led Mike upstairs, where my safe was located. Punching in the code and inserting the key, I opened the door and fished out two cases. “I tried to match their coat colors, though the closest I had to white was chrome unfortunately,” I explained, simultaneously opening the cases.
Inside the first one was a polished chrome M1911. It was a .45 caliber, beautiful in its simplicity. All chrome, white grips, with a standard eight round magazine. The other was similar, though this one was a deep royal blue. Wood grips accented its finish, and it came with eight-round magazines matching the gun's color. I’ll definitely miss the royal blue one more than the other; it’s a personal favorite of mine. But it’s going to a worthy cause, so I’ll gladly give it up. ‘Please take care of them.’
“Wow, looks like you put a lot of thought into this,” Mike commented.
“It’s just a gesture I thought they’d appreciate,” I replied, handing Mike the cases. “Each one has four magazines, including the one in the gun. Ideally, they won’t have to fire a single round, though that’s unlikely to happen. If they need more than four magazines though, then you’re not doing a very good job protecting them.”
“Har Har, funny,” Mike deadpanned with a roll of his eyes. After checking each case, Mike shut them, and lugged one in each hand, ready to leave. As I watched him finish up his inspection though, I got a little nervous. The situation we were in was rather delicate; we had to keep the rulers of an entire planet safe. Should we fail…well, I prefer not to think about that. And while I trusted Mike greatly, I still needed him to know how serious his task was.
“Mike,” I called. He turned to me, and the look on my face must have let him know what I was going to ask. Rather unexpectedly, he smirked, and replied.
“Don’t you worry about our guests Boss, I’ll keep ‘em safe.”
