Where is Everybody? Thirty eight

I shall do it. Raise this car. Raise this straw. Lift this bracelet.

I have been putting it to practice, and I think I have got it. Focus on it, think about it, Lift it. It's how it always works. Watch the object closely. Lift the object in question. Let it hover in midair. Wake up.

Up I get. My specs rest firmly on my chest, not that I ever needed them, they just look cool. No dog lady on my torso groping me, that's good. A scream. I knew it was too good to be true.

Downstairs Torrez comes, and s/he does not like what s/he sees. A tall (relatively) dog faced woman towers over a couple young stallions on fire. Young cop glaring angrily at her, he has a hoof stabbed at her like a dagger knifepoint. The other stands sleeping as he was.

"Idiot! Pervert! Just die, Why don't you!"

"Any pony care to elaborate? Explain why there is a verbal battle going on in my living room?"

Monica glanced at me and continued pointing accusingly at Sam. "Your leather faced, poodle haired bitch there was having a field day with yours truly and his brother upon waking up. Per usual, he sleeps like a stone."

I could only shake my head. "Mr Hadley, you should know by now she's a pervert."

"And we deserve some dignity. Have you no shame for not warning us?"

"I did not sick her on you. You should know she's not predictable."

A groan. Pickering: "Would you guys mind not making a ruckus this early in the morning? The sun has not risen yet."

"Sorry, Pick. So, you want to tell me what happened?"

"Alright. I woke up to feel my penis being squozen. I opened my eyes to see this wench assaulting me. I knocked her to the floor. Then she began to do the same to Sherm. Got it?"

"Is this true, Samantha?"

"Come here and take a sniff of my hands."

I did so. Her hands smelled like genital. Strongly.

"I won't have sexual assault here under this roof. Ask next time, alright?"

"Okay, Alex."

The Sixth wasn't the best day of this elapsed month thus far. It didn't start out that way, but it was yet another day without Willie.

So that's something. Keep telling myself that. I'll believe it. Sure.

Another cauliflower, another dandelion, another acorn. Nut after nut, weed after weed, crop after crop, time after time. Will it never end? beyond death of course. I do not wish to die. That's the objective. None other. Never lose sight of it. Ever.

No, I won't lose. Keep moral. Pickering needs you. Joanna needs you. Anthony and Sweet Stuff especially need you. Who else will find the world's treasure of jerky? Keep moral for those who miss their loved ones? Spouses, parents? Find the preserved meat, or watch over the halfwit? I must keep my head for Tony, Sweet, Jo and Pick's sakes. Only the incompetent Angela will look after them otherwise, and she is only good for humor, which is fine and dandy for two of them, but the other half have physiological needs.

She has helped me, though. She made me laugh. As she said, and quoted an old film she loves, as do I: "If you don't have a good sense of humor, you may as well be in your grave, or in the army." I'm pretty sure she embellished it for that last bit, the army. The point still stands. She keeps me, I keep them. Sam, Monica, and Sherman are all tough and strong. They don't need me, save my roof.

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"remember: SMILE!"

I forced myself to do so. I could not wait to see the big one and potentially get to the bottom of this. I have waited too long already.

Lyle had a series of suits to offer, but I turned them down. My own was in perfect condition, if a little oversized. Who really cared? He said so himself this isn't my real body, so what did it matter?

The palace wasn't quite what I had expected. The interior of the mansion was surprisingly bare. There were few features beyond the structure, save certain rooms. Lyle was joined by a cure looking mare with flaming red hair. Like a flaming brush fire, it was. She also had a cloak on her, and there seemed to be a hidden thing under it. I dared not ask.

She didn't speak, but she and Lyle met eyes, and she nodded.

I was led up the stairs (Thank you, Monica, you were good for something!) and to a room with large oak doors. The mansion never had a door both locked and closed in side the house until now. Lyle clapped, she stamped, then the door opened slowly.

Inside, a short corridor lit up, lined with stained glass windows and skylights, each depicting what I presumed a historical event. Sconces held torches. It was like the inside of a cathedral, or a cinema, an auditorium without seats. At the end of it were several steps, leading up to a spot where a podium would be. There wasn't one, but there was a lady standing there. A cerulean one with a cerulean dress that went to the floor, silver shoes, what I could see of them, and a silver crown with sapphires embedded in it.

"Well, hello." Her voice seemed to echo, yet the presentation seeming room wasn't that big. "Hello, hello, hello." This time there was no echo. "Welcome to our humble abode."

Humble indeed. By my standards and my companions, very humble. Compared to the houses we have seen here, there is nothing humble about it.

Lyle spoke up. "Willie Maket, I'd like you to meet my--" The girl grunts. "--our mentor, friend, and our leader, her majesty--"

"Mrs Mooney."

Really? She has a name like that, too? And as expected, she sounds no different than Rare, Muffin, Ditsy, Cupcake and the Cake twins. Go figure. "My name is synonymous with it, anyway."

Huh. Good to know. "You likely have come to me with questions, and I can take an educated guess what they are, so let us get down to business, shall we?"

I nodded and said to get on with it. She cracked a smile and said she loved my eagerness. Reminds her of herself.

I followed her down the rest of the corridor to a vault at the end of the room, and entered when she unlocked and opened it. Lyle and the other mare followed.

When the place shut, a foliage filled room with a skylight awaited us. A fountain sat in the center.

She went on: "This is the moment you have been waiting for. You will get your answers here, and this fountain is the key to loads of it. It has a unique property you will soon find out..."

Years ago, no, centuries, millennia, a great being named Zacherelle perished here in this very fountain. It had since been housed in a number of places, this being the most recent and longest. You see, Zacherelle was powerful beyond belief, so the conflict that ended in her demise resulted in an enchantment on this fountain, it had to go somewhere. My ancestors discovered an awful secret that came with it: Any who drank from it would see things they would not wish to see. And there was no revoking the effects. One day my own early relatives Larson and Faust decided to bathe in it, and Larson accidentally drank from it when getting a rinse. Faust told him it's alright and proved it by having it herself. Nothing immediately happened. All was well, until fifty years later they realized they were not getting any younger obviously, but they were not showing any apparent signs of aging where their best buddies were. No silver hair, save the silver ones Larson naturally had, and no lethargic traits were known. Time went on, and my old cousins got worried something was wrong with them. They pointed to the fountain water, and had it examined. Nothing unusual was found in it. They gave it to several frogs, and all of them seemed relieved of any ailments they may have had, save the healthy ones. They tried the same with trees, and barren ones that never produced and apple nor orange began blooming like never before. When ponies tried it, most went mad, and needed to seek professional help. They had all records burned, all recording erased, all people who knew about it paid to keep silent. When they passed, none but my cousins knew about it. They locked it up in here, keeping the water away from all they knew. When they left, they left the water and fountain to us, telling us to guard it with our lives. Never open this door unless it's absolutely essential. Only five times has it been open by either of us, and this is the first time I did so. Tia had opened it four times before for yours truly, her own pupil, my daughter, her son, and now I do it for you.

She gave me a tin flask with a screw lid with a keychain loop in it.

"Fill that, Sunny."

The mare named Sunny did just that, then hoofed it over to me.

"That is a truly unique gift we give to you. Do not lose it."

She led me out of the vault with Sunny and Lyle in tow. "We intend to show you something else, be amazed and appalled."

To her large bedroom we went, and Lyle and Sunny began to walk slower as if afraid of what they'd see me find out. She gestured to a large floor mirror with silver horseshoes on the frame.

She told me this mirror is what she used to be in contact with Earth, and she made a terrible discovery. An earthbound organization called NASA had found several astronauts dead. The space station had no malfunctions, but they were not responding at all. When they got the bodies back to earth, they did a full autopsy, and found no apparent scars, no tissue damage, save, wait for it, you guessed it: BURNS WITHIN THEIR SKULLS. Their brains had been thoroughly charred, yet no external shock nor burns were evident. They later sent a number of rats and humans out to space, and just as they left the atmosphere, live footage showed the humans twitching and writhing, thrashing wildly, while the rats seemed calm as ever, no worse off for the ware. When brought back, the same results were seen, plus something much worse: the rats grew weak and lethargic, as if they hadn't seen the sun half past never. Their eyes went blank and glassy, they became comatose, then after a week, they died. Every last one. They determined humans would get shocked to death and rodents would become dependent on the cause, which they later determined was a raw energy source. Thaumic energy, as I already knew it to be called.

It was steadily approaching our blue planet, and by the next two and a half years, we'd be toast. Every country on earth threw economics out the window knowing money would be worthless with no one around to benefit from the goods. They did what would otherwise be reckless activities gathering all the heavy metals they could find, and anything that blocks waves: Aluminum, tin, lead, mercury, arsenic, uranium, you name it. Gold, silver, copper, bronze, steel, any and all building materials were gathered for our own good. When they announced to the Equestrians they had hollowed out several of the world's biggest mountains, and taken refuge in the caverns laced with lead linings and doors, the solar princess was appalled they would throw the rest to the wind and forget about them.

This awful witch monarch in front of me had concocted a plan in mere minutes, and spent the next two years putting it all together. Make us all vanish in an instant then reappear later at different times, centuries and millennia for most, a small minority coming back in minutes, hours, days, and even years and decades at random. And to make it worse, we couldn't keep our old bodies on the way through. While in limbo, our minds are just as randomly selected and shuffled to new bodies to inhabit, not necessarily to our liking, nor traits. So some would naturally be more inclined to adjust than others on these grounds. There's no way to predict when and where anyone would return, only that they'd show up in the sane geographic location they left. And who's coming back, and in what body is unpredictable, too, as no existing trait influences the outcome, either. One big barrel of confetti with our names inscribed being spun around, then blindly drawn, unfortunately.

I already knew the body types, but she explained them to me anyway. I learned several things that were useful in addition to what happened, and would tell these to Val and Vinnie, though they likely know already.

I didn't want to, but I refrained from lashing out. That would some later. Instead, I cried. The two next to me gave me comfort, the likes of which I had never known, and consoled me as best they could. It was all that was needed.

Further explanation and advice would follow the next day with all three of us present. I hate her. I'm going to kill her.