August 28, 2015 (50th Chapter Special)
Leon yawns as he wakes up. He gets up and prepares to tell Martha to take off guard duty before remembering that he’s in Phoenix. With a smile he goes back to bed. No more waking up at 3:00. Not for now anyway. One night off. He goes back to sleep.
Jessica heads out of his room and starts preparing breakfast for the five other people in the colony who share this house. He puts some dried fruit into two bowls and takes them into the dining room of the house the two guests are staying in, setting them down on the table.
Jamie wakes up with a yawn and slowly walks out of his room. Checking the watch he always kept (Martha modified it to fit his hoof) he finds it to be pretty early. Most people aren't quite up yet, but Jamie is so used to waking up early in Dallas he couldn't help it. He hears some clattering from the dining room and walks out to see Jessica. He smiles at the stallion and takes one of the fruit bowls, giving his thanks.
“I’ll watch the second one. Leon deserves to sleep late.”
Jessica smiles back. “Sure thing. Come back to the main house when you’re ready.” He trots off, back to making breakfast for Scott and the others. They wake up eventually, trudging out of their rooms and slowly waking up. Helping them was some coffee Levi had grabbed and taught everyone how to prepare in a post-apocalyptic colony. It did its job, and the ponies slowly begin to work on their various projects.
Leon eventually gets up and Jamie hands him the fruit bowl. Not for the first time, and most certainly not for the last time, Leon finds himself wishing he could still eat meat. Nonetheless, it tastes fantastic. Leon doesn't even bother to question how they had gotten the fruit, it's delicious.
After eating, he makes his way to what he vaguely remembers to be the main house, as per Jamie’s proxy instructions, and begins to look around for someone. I need to establish radio contact before I leave.
Jessica sits in the same position he did the day before: on the couch with Scott lying beside him. Even on the days she felt fine, he still insisted that she rest.
He looks up from her. “Hey, Leon! You’re up! Anything in particular that you want to do today?”
“Actually, yes!” He responds enthusiastically. “Unfortunately, I’ll likely be leaving today. Before I go I want to set up radio communications between our groups, so we can talk and request things or whatever comes to mind.
“Okay,” Jessica says. “I have no idea how to do that. But Dana does." He presses a button on the CB radio in front of him. “Hey, Dana! Can you come to the main house? We’re gonna set up a line with Dallas.”
A voice comes over the line. “Sure thing. I’m on my way.”
The pink unicorn is in the house in five minutes, and it’s clear why he sent for her. On her flank is the image of a radio antenna with a heart over it.
“So, she says, “A communications system between us and you. It would have to bridge almost one thousand miles. I’m sure a good ham radio with an 8 foot antenna would bridge the gap. A CB radio with a 100 inch antenna and a 750 amp system would work, but at least you can see where someone keeps a ham. I say we do that.”
“Yeah, we have all sorts of crap running. Martha knows a lot about radios, I’m sure she has one of those going. Do you have one of those radios?”
Scott speaks up. “I think there’s one by my dad’s place. I remember a pretty tall antenna a few houses over, and I think my dad said that was a ham thing. I can go check.”
Jessica starts to protest, but Dana stops him. “She’s the only one who knows where it is. Have her take Ben if you’re that worried.”
“Scott, take Ben with you if you need to bring it back.”
Jessica resumed the conversation. “Is there anything else you need in Dallas? I’m sure somebody could go out and find something for you.”
Jamie and Leon consult each other for a moment before shaking their head. “I can’t think of anything. Unless you can give us personell, which I won’t even CONSIDER asking for, there’s nothing you could help us w- god damn I forgot!” Jamie looks at him confused. “The BB!” Jamie facehoofs and nods.
“Show them now.” Leon turns to the side to reveal metal braces connected around what would be his hip, running down his foreleg, connecting to a pivot, and running down his lower leg where it ends in two separate prongs with wheels. Suddenly, Leon jumps up onto his hind legs. A click resounds from the braces as it locks into place, and the wheels fall down, attached to an inner brace. The wheels hit the ground and soundly support Leon’s weight and balance him.
And just like that, Leon's bipedal.
Jessica and Dana stare in shock. Jessica didn’t think he’d ever walk on two legs again. Dana, though, is more skeptical. “That looks like it hurts.” she says.
“Not at all," Leon says, "It soundly distributes weight so you feel no pain, keeps your balance, AND-” Leon then begins to walk around on two hooves, the wheels rolling him soundly along. “It isn’t bulky so it doesn’t get in the way. It’s not even very noticeable. Personally I think it looks cool. Martha’s famous for inventing it and using it so she can hold and fire a gun. We’d all be dead if it wasn’t for this thing.”
Jessica stares in awe as Leon moves around. “Wow. We can pick things up like people again with one of these.”
Dana plops down on the couch. “Can you even hold anything with hooves? I mean, they’re hooves. Pretty flat.”
“Oh, I can hold things just fine,” Jessica says before pausing. “Wait, what about your junk? You can see- well, it’s pretty revealing.”
Jamie bursts out laughing as Leon’s face slowly grows redder. He deactivates the braces and lands down, coughing.
“Yes, well… you see…” Jamie laughs even harder as Leon tries to explain himself. God, I can’t believe I forgot the covers! Leon quickly runs to his car and pulls them out, returning to the group. “Back when they were first made, we didn’t quite care if we were showing ourselves off. Well… mostly because it was a twelve year old girl who invented them, so she felt secure if she was showing herself off. When she made one for me, she gave me a cover. I kinda… forgot. I knew I should have asked her to attach it.” He shows something that looks like pants. He pulls them on and stands up, now not showing off his private area. “Just… forget that last one happened.
Jessica laughs. “Sure thing.” Dana leaves the room, and comes back in.
“Guys, we have a problem,” she says.
Jessica frowns. “Dana, what is it?"
“There’s a haboob coming up from the south.”
“Crap.” Jessica pushes a button on the radio. “Everybody come inside to the main house. There’s a dust storm coming. Scott, Ben, you there?”
A voice comes on the radio. “Yeah, we’re fine. We see the radio. The tower’s a lot bigger than eight feet tall.”
Dana talks over the radio. “That only means more distance. You’re good.”
“Okay, get back over here. You might have a chance at making it back before it hits us.” Jessica says. “And Scott, no repeats of what happened last time.”
She laughs. “You got it.”
Jessica turns to Leon. “Sorry, but you’re gonna have to stay in here for a bit. These things are harsh.”
“Finally, ONE thing I have over you.” Leon smiles at his joke before looking down at his braces. “I’m sure the others would like to see this. Do you have any good engineers?”
Jessica thinks. “We have one, yeah. Glen. I’m sure he’d have a field day with this thing.”
“It gets better.” Leon digs into his saddlebag and pulls out a blueprint. “Martha didn’t want me to have this, said it would give anyone we meet a ‘potential militaristic advantage over us.’ That’s just ridiculous. Managed to sneak this out. It’s all your’s.”
“Wow. Thank you so much for this.” Jessica turned to the wall of glass doors. “If you want, you can see the storm before it hits. Have you ever seen a haboob?”
“Never even heard of one 'til just today. What’s it look like?” Leon asks, turning towards the glass doors.
“It’s a wall of dust, a mile high and about ten across. They come in when it’s dry and windy enough, and without anyone here to water anything, they’re getting more common. Once you get in one, you have to stay inside. The dust gets everywhere, in your eyes, in your mouth. They’re not fun.”
“Sounds like it." Leon pauses to think. "You know the animals are getting smarter?” He brings up randomly as small talk to wait before they can do something productive. “It’s downright creepy. I’m sure you’ve gathered it, but they’ve formed tribes, they seek shelter, it’s pretty creepy.”
“The only animals we have here are two fully grown dogs, a puppy, and a kitten. I noticed they were getting smarter, but they don’t do much except follow us around and fight off coyotes.”
A voice came on the radio. Scott. “Jessica? We’re on our way back, but there are these three coyotes following our car. One of them looks hurt. Should I get out and help them?”
Jessica pauses for a moment, thinking. Sure, they were smarter, but doesn’t that also mean they’d be more empathic? Then again, Scott did have a bad experience with a group of them a few months back. And none of them knew anything about what the wild animals were capable of now. “Well, Leon, what do you think she should do?”
Leon glares at the radio before Jamie pokes him in the side.
“Her question?”
“Right.” He thinks about it for a little while before sighing and nodding. “There’s no reason to assume they’ll do anything bad. I’ll keep an eye on them while they get fixed up, then when the storm is over we’ll send them on their way.”
Jessica talks to Scott. “Go for it.”
He sits by the radio. A few minutes later, Scott comes back on. “I patched up the guy’s leg and kicked down the door of a mobile home to let them in there until the storm ends.” We’re not gonna make it back before the storm hits.”
“Try anyways.” The rest of the group is slowly trickling in. Most ponies go to their rooms, but some opt to stay in the living room. The storm moves closer and closer to them. Right as the layer of dust obscures a house a ways behind them, Scott and Ben come in the door, closing it quickly.
“That was close,” she says in between breaths. A haze of red dust blows over the house, and wind whistles around it. “So what do we do now?”
“First off,” Leon says, walking over to the door still using his BB, “You can give that blueprint to your engineer. I need to try to remember the radio frequencies we cover in Dallas for when we set up the comms.”
Jessica nods. “Tell Dana the frequencies when you remember them. She’s in charge of the radios.”
Leon thinks throughout the storm, and eventually it slows down and comes down to an end. Leon approaches Dana. “Can I come with you back to the radio? I have a few ideas on the frequencies but I can’t remember exactly.”
“Sure. Scott, can you come with me up to the radio?” she asks. They get in a SUV and drive up to where she saw it. “This is more than enough to reach Dallas.”
“Thanks.” Leon begins shifting through frequencies. A minute or so later, sound begins to come out, and soon a voice comes through.
“Hello? Hello is someone out there?” A young female voice comes through. Leon grins.
“Martha, it’s me!”
“Leon?! Is Jamie safe?”
“Jamie’s just fine. Hey, we’re in Pheonix.”
“That’s one hell of a good radio, especially given the type.”
“I know. Turns out there’s a ton of people here! Either of you want to say hi to Martha?”
“Sure,” they both say. “Hi! I’m Scott. It’s nice to meet you, Martha.”
“And I’m Dana, the radio nut.”
“Pleasure,” She says dryly. “Now, Leon, I happened to notice earlier today that a certain blueprint was missing. You wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”
“Probably a dog, bye!” He quickly shuts it off and turns to them. “Well, maybe we could see later about getting Sheila on. Unlike Martha, she’d be happy to talk to you all.”
“That sounds good,” Scott says. “Until then, you want to cart this radio back home?
It takes a few tries and a stolen pickup truck, but they get the radio and the antenna back to the base and set it up in the backyard.
Leon talks on the radio a little further and then meets Jessica. “Gather anyone who’s interested, you’re about to have first friendly contact with Dallas.”
“Didn’t you talk with Martha earlier?” Jamie asks.
“I said FRIENDLY contact.”
Jessica knocks on doors for a bit, and, soon enough, all eleven members of the colony are standing near the radio sitting on the countertop. They wait as he plugs in some wires and pushes a button.
Soon a voice comes through, though for those present during the initial conversation the voice was clearly different. It was softer and more friendly in its tone.
“Oh, Leon, is that you?!”
“Indeed it is Sheila, and I’ve gathered the entire colony in Pheonix!” A light gasp is audible from the other side.
“Really?!” Leon grunts in affirmation.
“Would you like to talk to them?”
“Sure!” She says happily. Leon turns and gives the signal for anyone who wants to talk to do so.
Jessica steps up. “Hi. I’m Jessica, the unofficial leader. It’s so great to talk to someone outside of Phoenix.”
“And it’s so great to talk to someone from outside Dallas. Oh, Martha told me that Leon mentioned it was good there, but really tell me how is it?!” Her voice grows slightly sad. “It’s kind of hard to believe in good things after what’s going on here…” The perkiness returns to her voice. “I do it nonetheless. Please tell me it’s as amazing as I’ve heard!”
“It’s alright. We have a lot of food. Canned vegetables, dried fruit, and nuts, but food. We’re setting up various projects to improve things, and it’s going well. Might even see if those with a horn or wings can actually use them.” He looked at Scott, and she nodded. “Plus, there’s a baby on the way.”
A loud gasp sounded from the other side. “R-really?” A happy squee came through loud. “Oh that’s so great! It’s… truly amazing. Congratulations to the mother and father! Oh, and about the horns, Leon can teach them about that, can’t you Leon!”
“Uh, sure! Yeah, I can do that.”
“Oh, this is so great! And no one dies over there?”
“No, there hasn’t been any death here.”
“Oh that’s great! I haven’t been here for any pony deaths. I’ve been told that I traveled through time or something. Oh, but my friends have died. That’s sad, it really hurts to see them hurt like that. But I’m glad everything’s good on your side!”
“Hope things get better there for you.” He stepped back, and Scott was the next to go.
“Uh, hey. I’m Scott. I’m the pregnant one Jessica was talking about. And he’s the father.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet! I hope you two are happy. Though, it is funny. Just Jessica’s a girl’s name, and Scott’s a boy’s name… OH! I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to be rude!”
“It’s okay, we’re managing well. But having to go through the same conversation with nine other people about that got a bit tiring.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Gender swap.” Leon says to her. She moans in understanding.
“I suppose if I can time travel, who’s to say one can’t change genders? Nonetheless, I’m happy for you two!”
Scott steps down, and Dana goes next. “Hey, I’m Dana. I time traveled, too.”
“Oh. Hello fellow time traveler!” She says in a fake nerdy voice before giggling. “I’m glad you had so many people to help you! I woke up and dogs tried to kill me! My friends came to rescue me! Then my friends helped me find fellow ponies!”
“That sounds scary. I mostly just wandered around. Then they picked me up and gave me a room, and I work on their radios now.”
“Oh, so are you the one who set up this radio! Thank you! It’s so great to have outside contact!”
“You’re very welcome!” She moves away, and Levi steps up.
“Hey! Sheila, was it? I’m Levi.”
“Hello Levi! What’s your role? Or, do you just live there? Not that there’s a problem with that!”
“I mostly help other people with things they have to do and try to fly in my spare time. It’s not much, but it helps the colony.”
“Well that’s still great. I work as the medic. When I first found Leon he was in a bad shape. Blood and cuts everywhere. I got him back to health. So I suppose I do my part.”
“That’s all we really can do.” He steps away from the radio, and nobody else volunteers to speak.
Jessica steps up again. “Well, it was great talking to you. I hope you do well in Dallas.”
“Thank y-” A bang sounds from the other end along with multiple thuds. “What is it Martha?”
“Dogs. A few got in.” The cock of a gun is audible through the radio.
“Well, I suppose this is bye for no-” Multiple barks sound followed by loud gunshots before the radio shuts off.
Jessica blinks. “Well, it was nice talking to her. Are you planning on staying another night?”
“No. I’d absolutely love to, believe me you can’t even understand how much I want to stay this place is like paradise, but as you heard my friends need me. I need to get back to them. I got the word out, set out communication. Oh, and apparently a surprise awaits me back home. I shouldn’t keep them waiting.”
“Well, good luck, wherever you go.” The whole colony says their goodbyes to the two ponies, and Jessica helps them load up their car.
“It’s been great having you. I’m so happy to find out about other cities, but so sad to hear about what’s going on.”
“It’s… it’s okay. I’m glad to see that things are better in some places. if Dallas is the worst city out there, then I’m happy.” Leon gets in the car and Jamie follows. “Tell me how building those BBs go, I hope to hear results over the radio.” The car revs up and begins pulling away. With a tear in his eye Jamie waves out the window. Leon follows suit, facing everyone and waving. “Farewell, and feel free to visit just kidding please don’t.” He says as he drives away.
With Pheonix behind him Leon sighs and leans back.
“They were nice,” Jamie says. Leon nods. “Are you and Sheila gonna have a baby like Scott and Jessica?” The car suddenly swerves rapidly and Leon looks with wide eyes at Jamie.
“What? We’re not even in a relationship!” Jamie shrugs,
“I ship you.”
Dear Journal,
We're a few hours away from Dallas, and we broke into a motel to sleep. I hope when the people that own these joints return from the time vortex or whatever that they aren't pissed off about their broken establishments. But we do what we have to I guess.
Jamie's already asleep and I'll be sleeping too soon. I... really miss Phoenix. Everything was so happy there. I have a new goal for Dallas: I want it to become Phoenix. The dogs will kill themselves off sooner or late, and then the rebuilding shall begin. When that happens, oh when that happens. I'll get some of the ponies from Phoenix and bring them down and say, "you can't even tell the difference, can you!"
Hey, a man can dream. With these new ponies and their bright future, I've decided that that's what I am.
Not a pony, not a stallion, not a unicorn. Above all, I'm a man. If humanity has to live on through us, so be it.
And God damn it, humanity will live on.
- Leon
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... Heh, Jamie the shipper, HILARIOUS!
For now it seems things have swerved away from the utter tragedy and all, wonder how long that will last...
For now, connections have been made and plans have been exchanged.
To the future.
6290305 Yes, I wonder.
See, the funny thing about this story is I have NO plans for it. I come up with pretty much every chapter as I'm writing it. I may plan two chapters in advance, but that's about it.
So every time you guys speculate about something, I'm right there saying "Hmm... maybe..."
i ship you. three words that are very annoying. oddly enough i am very shippable to most people who mee me. they say "i got a friend who would like you" hopefully they are joking because anyone who would like me is probably mentally sick. i'm coarse,honest to the point of insult and i have a very off kilter sense of humour. but really all of you please stay away i have nothing worth to take. and thank god for typing if it was not for typing i would have to stick to speaking and despite the fact i was born in the u.s. i have a apparently very Rusky way of speaking.
6324405
Uh... dude, no offense but I already debated that topic a while ago, at great length, and felt relief when we reached an agreement, please don't make me go through another one.