//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3- Living, Learning and Finding a Friend 
// Story: Waking up a Unicorn 
// by Alden MacManx 
//------------------------------//

After breakfast the next morning (the promised blueberry pancakes), Rapid Transit sat with his great-grandchildren in the yard. “Now, where was I?” he asked.
“Talking about your new door lock spell, and about putting on music.” Silver Spiral prompted as Silent Flight hovered some, getting wing practice in.
“Oh, okay. Ready?” At the kids’ nods, the old unicorn started talking again.
For a week or so, I commuted, driving Oberon from home to the warehouse and back every day, using fuel and time. I didn’t want to leave home, hoping my father would show up, but finally I gave in and stayed in front of the FC, after taking some books and memorabilia from the house. I knew I would be back, because I had more precious possessions there. 
I set up camp outside the front doors of the warehouse. I found several small generators inside, and took two outside, setting them up near Oberon. Finding fuel for them was easy, one gas station being quite close by, close enough that I could load up a couple of yard carts with fuel cans, a battery and a pump, and get gas every four days or so, always remembering to add the stabilizer to the fuel cans. That way, I could get the mix right.
The dog pack stayed around, coming around front as well as staying in the back. I kept them in food, and they provided me with security and friendship. Sethra took to the dogs easily, and they to her. The whole pack liked me, I could tell. Their leader, whom I named Rex, kept the pack in line. I swear, he thought it good to keep an eye on me without getting underfoot or in the way. The pack not only appreciated the food, but also the toys I dug out. 
Shortly after moving down, my first real crisis hit. I ran out of coffee. Sure, I could have tried to bust into the Wal-Mart up the road, but I was positive the produce section there would be even worse than at the Fry’s, and I hadn’t come up with an adequate horse-shaped gas mask or respirator. I had come to depend on the coffee to wake me up and keep me going, even without milk. I had broken down and started using non-dairy creamer, breaking an oath I took when I left my last ship years before, to ALWAYS use milk in my coffee. I HATE non-dairy creamer!
While looking around in the library (what the stuff on shelves is called, the other sections called the Racks), I could NOT find any regular coffee! K-cups, espresso roast, cappuccino roast, whole beans, but no regular coffee! Being able to only search the lower shelves and not the upper ones didn’t help. After two hours of searching, I just sat down and screamed, ‘Cappuccino, Frappuccino, raktajino, Al Pacino, where’s the GODDAMN COFFEE?’ while thinking of a container of Folger’s coffee.
The silver glow came out of my horn before emitting a bright flash. Suddenly, I KNEW where to find the coffee in the building. Every location where ground regular coffee could be found, I knew the coordinates. What aisle, what shelf, what bin, I just KNEW. Turns out there was a can of coffee on the next shelf up from where I had stopped searching. I used my horn to get the coffee down. Once it was in my hooves, the knowledge of where the rest of the coffee was faded from my mind. I understood then that the spell would work if I had a clear image of what I was looking for, or better yet, having a sample of the item on hoof. If I had one, I could find where the others were. That would make my searching more direct and less random. The bad thing of living in an FC- I knew there was almost three million items in here, just knowing where everything is is impossible without the computers. Even if I had power for them, I don’t know how to look for the master index. The damn place IS half a mile long and about two hundred yards wide, after all.

The twins giggled at the story about the coffee. They know how Grampa is in the morning without it. Fortunately, Gramma has hot coffee waiting when he gets up.
“That’s a real big building, Grampa. I bet I could fly in there!” Silent Flight said from his hover.
“You got that right, kiddo. But you is jumpin ahead a bit. More on that later."

Once the coffee issue was settled, I worked harder on habitability. Food and water now assured for a while, time for some comforts. I replaced the bed in Oberon with a thick mattress pad, trimmed down to size with some knives I had found and sharpened. (Hey, growing up the son and grandson of a butcher has SOME bennies, yes?) I removed some of the furniture that got in the way of comfort, using the silver glow to loosen the nuts and bolts involved. Much easier than trying to hold a wrench in a hoof not meant for it.
One thing I wanted was a Brodie knob for the steering wheel, but they are hard to find. I took two of the dog pack with me to check out the truck stops one and two miles away, but came up empty. So, if you can’t get it, make it. Raiding the Home Depot up the street, I found the parts I was looking for- a hose clamp, cotter pins, furniture knobs that fit my hoof, tin snips, flex-seal paint and a screwdriver. First, I threaded the cotter pin through the hose clamp. Next, put the hose clamp on the steering wheel. After tightening down the clamp, I threaded the knob over the cotter pin, clipping off the excess length. After painting the knob with flex-seal, I had me a Brodie. Not the best, but it worked.
One may wonder why I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for others. The answer is simple- I didn’t think there were any others about. Listening to the radio was out, I mislike static. I did find some CB transceivers in stock, but I could never hear anything. Yes, I went well clear of the building, but still heard nothing. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but if so, I didn’t have a clue. So, I soldiered on. Okay, sailored on. I was a sailor, not a soldier.
October passed into November, then December. For the first time in years, I didn’t dread the holiday season. I had my essentials organized, food, water, coffee, flour, powdered milk… I even found a bread making machine and tried my hand at baking bread. I definitely needed more practice. The camping meals I found tasty, canned veggies and fruit even more so. I found that a little odd, because before the change, I hated veggies for the most part. Now, I found meat sickened me, so I gave all the jerky I found to the dogs.
I managed to get a car running, a small one I nicked from a dealership. I used the small car to explore the area, and the other two FC’s not far away. One I had been to for a couple days shortly after hiring, the other one I had not been to. Doing the B&E on them was not difficult, just depressing on the inside. They had a lot more of the smaller stuff than my place did. There was another place like mine, but it was another twenty miles southwest. Just didn’t want to go that far. Sputter did live up to her name.
“Sputter? That’s a funny name for a car, Grampa.” Silver Spiral said.
“It’s what she did a lot. Gas going bad, but I didn’t find out about that till much later.”
I found large plastic igloos inside the warehouse, over in the Team and Mech section, which are intended as dog houses. I brought them outside and set them up around the building, so the dogs would have shelter. Once I lined them with blankets, they took to them happily. Them dogs liked me, and I liked them, but Sethra demanded more attention, and got it.

I lived alone, with the cat and dogs. I did have music playing a lot, because silence really bothered me, as I already said. The next major incident happened in late December. I was coming back from the gas station, pulling a cart full of gas cans with Jingle, Dingle and Rex as my escorts. We all heard loud barking and growling coming from behind us. We looked to see a large pack of big dogs coming right at us, looking mean, hungry and determined. 
Rex looked at me and barked once before leading the charge to defend their place. That bark I took to mean “RUN!”, so I ran, slipping the traces on the cart to do so. I dodged around the low wall at the entrance, and found a dog lying in wait. I admit I let out a holler that echoed off the other buildings in the area, turned again, thinking about getting out of there!
My horn lit up and projected a beam in front of me, a beam that spread into a silver disc. I ran through the disk, and found myself up to my tail end in snow. Now, snow in Phoenix is a little rare. I’ve seen it twice in thirty years. So, wherever I was, it wasn’t Phoenix. I shook myself as I looked around. 
It took me a moment to realize where I was- Courthouse Square in Prescott, Arizona. It was where my nephew was married a couple of years back. I felt a tingling feeling on my flanks. Startled, I saw the image of what looked like a map, blue lines connecting red dots, appear there. Reminded me somewhat of an old NYC IRT map I saw years ago.
I realized I could now open a telegate to anywhere I was familiar with, or could see with my own eyes. I could not go someplace new, but I can go to where I have been. Been on my feet, that is. Driving through does not count, nor does flying over. I headed toward the gazebo in the corner to think some.

“Just like Mom does!” Silver Spiral said excitedly.
“And what you will do some day, Spiral. Only those unicorns of my bloodline who have silver in their horns can even cast that spell. You’ll learn how to do it once you get your cutie mark."

I shut my eyes and reviewed ‘acceptable destinations’. The ships I served on were not, because they were no longer there, having long since been turned into razor blades. Range did not seem to limit me, because I could picture Scotland, England, Barbados and Andros Island as well as New York, California, Vegas, Toronto, Orlando and other places I have been. I knew I could go there just by opening the door and stepping through, metaphorically speaking. A little thought revealed to me I could also go inside a building, if there was a window I could see through.
I made myself comfy behind the gazebo wall, to get out of the wind and rest a little. The telegate sucked up some magic, though I knew practice will make that easier. I contemplated my new power, focusing, meditating, relaxing, and chilling… it was COLD up there! 
“You’ll catch cold without a blanket, you know.” came a voice from behind me. A girl’s voice, I knew. English accent. Startled, I think I went a good two feet straight up, not easy when you’re three feet at the ears.
I spun to see the source of the voice, another little horse like me, but mostly white with a dark blue and light blue striped mane and tail. And wings. Yes, wings, slowly flapping to keep her airborne. I let out a squeak, eyes wide. 
“Great Gramma!” Silent Flight called out. “That’s how you met her!”
“Got that right, kid. You’re a lot like her. We been together ever since.”

“You look like you have not seen anyone in a long time.” she said to me, laughing a little.
“I haven’t. I went to bed on the twenty-third of May and woke up on October first. It’s now the twentieth of December, and who are you?” I asked, willing my heart to slow down to triple digits.
The pegasus smiled at me as she came in for a landing. “I was Sara Birkhart. I came out here for a holiday with my cousin, arriving from London on the twentieth of May. On the day everything happened, we were asleep in the hotel over there,” she said, pointing across the street. “When I woke up, I was like this, Carrie was missing, and the trees were missing their leaves. I’ve been scavenging what I can find around town, but there’s not much. Where did you come from, who are you, and how did you get here?”
I explained who I was, where I was living, and how I thought I got here. “Would you like to come back to Phoenix with me?” I asked her. “It will be nice to have a second set of hooves to help look around the warehouse, and with your flight, you can check places I can’t.”
Sara looked thoughtful for about half a second before saying “Sure! Can I get what I want to bring with me before we go?”
I smiled, happy to not be alone for the first time in months. “Go ahead, Sara. I won’t go anywhere until you come back. I promise.” She grinned and took wing, returning a few minutes later with a bag slung around her neck. She landed by the gazebo and I walked down to her. With deliberate focus (and hamming it up a little), I powered up my horn, focused on being outside of Oberon, and gestured for her to step through, because once I went through the door, it shuts.
We came out to hear the sounds of a vicious dogfight going on out on the street. The only dog I saw out front of the warehouse was Vera, a mother with five young pups. We raced out to the street, Sara winning the race by several lengths. Out there, we saw several dogs lying in the street, torn and bloody. The invading pack was locked in fierce combat with ‘my’ pack, with the home team winning by a run in the top of the ninth with two outs. I saw Rex do a nice spin move that took a chunk out of what I guessed was the other pack’s leader, and the invading pack decided to get out of the area, with encouragement from the home team.
“Does this happen often?” Sara asked me.
“First time I know of. I think we’re going to need a first aid kit, a lot of peroxide, and bandaging.”
“Go get them. I’ll wait here with the dogs.” she told me. I ran inside and fetched the supplies, hoping it would be enough. I got the pack on my back and ran back out.
Outside, I found Sara with the dogs, who gathered around her like a long-lost friend. I brought the supplies to her, and we spent an hour or so, out there in the street, patching up wounded dogs. We talked as we cared for the dogs, finding out she was attending university in England and came here for an end of term break. She had interned at a vet’s for the last two summers, even though she was pursuing a degree in programming. I have to admit, she did have a way with the animals.
Once all the dogs were patched up and cared for, I took Sara inside Oberon to meet Sethra. After introduction, the two looked at each other for a few seconds, then Sethra gave Sara an ankle rub before leaping to her perch. “She likes me.” Sara told me. “Brust fan, yes?”
“Been so for years.” I said as I dug out some canned fruits and veggies, opening them and heating them in the nuker while I made coffee. Sara asked if she could plug in her phone for charging, and I pointed her to a socket.
“I hope I can still contact the others.” She told me once the phone started taking in power.
“Others?” I asked, startled enough to nearly drop a bowl.
“Yes, others. Before the battery went flat on my phone, I managed to contact them. They said they were in Eastern Illinois, but I didn’t get much more than that before the battery went out, and I could not work a generator.” she explained.
I set the food down in front of her and she ate with relish. She even liked my oat flour bread, which meant either I was getting better at making it, or she had no taste whatsoever. I offered her the hospitality of my humble abode, and a warm place to sleep, which she accepted. We decided to wait until the next day to call the Illinois group. I know how bad time zone changes can be. 
After dinner, I took her on a tour of the warehouse, picking up some extra blankets and another foam pad. I took her to the accumulated food stash and told her to pick what she wanted. Sara did admit there was not much forage in Prescott that was worth eating, and it had been some time since she had a really good meal. She did have more than one before bedding down, but I did not mind. Gave me a reason to make more oat flour bread. (that was because I had a bag of oat flour open. I experiment with what I could find. So sue me.)
We talked long into the night, happy to have a conversation. Turns out she is as much of a sci-fi fan as I am, with many of the same interests. I dug out one of the books I saved from home, an autographed copy of ‘Dragonflight’ from 1983. She was suitably impressed, but she had to top me by telling about the tour she took of the Doctor Who set, and meeting some of the stars. That trumped my autograph of an earlier producer all to hell, and meeting Tegan on a show tour soon after I moved to the desert. 

The next morning, after checking on the dogs, refilling their food bowls, recovering the gasoline carts and refilling the generators, it was time to call Sara’s others. She had explained the night before that it was a satellite phone. Me, I would not know a satellite phone if it reared up and bit me in the backside, which is why I never gave a thought about searching for one. My phone has a slide-out keyboard for texting. I HATE virtual keyboards!
Summoning up our nerve and crossing our non-existent fingers, I pushed the ‘0’ button with a stylus held in my silver glow. After several rings, someone picked up the other end. “Iridium operator, this is Joseph. What’s busted this time?” we heard over the speaker.
“Joe, I’m Dom Capobianco, and Sara Birkhart is with me. What’s busted? Try it the other way, pallie… what AIN’T busted? I woke up in North Phoenix about three months ago, Sara woke up in Prescott a bit later, we been living on our onesomes until yestiddy, when I figgered out how to open a door between where I am and where I was once and go through. She found me, I broughts her home, and we figured to wait till morning before calling! Try dat on for size!” I said, my voice getting sharper as I went on.
A sigh was clearly audible over the phone. “Hang on, I don’t have the time to explain everything to every new returnee that calls. I’ll get someone who has the time." We heard before the phone started playing bad Muzak.
I glanced over at Sara. “If I ever meet dis Joe, I’m gonna clock him a good one until he learns some manners!” I growled.
“I’ll hold him while you swing.” Sara replied, looking as annoyed as I felt, if I read her wings right.
“Ya got a deal.” I said back, waiting for someone on the other end to pick up, which happened a few minutes later.
“Is anyone still there?” we heard. A young lady this time.
“Yes, we’re still here.” Sara said before I was able to.
“Good. Where are you at?” 
I answered this time. “At an Amazon facility off of Interstate 10 in Phoenix, Arizona. After I woke up a few months ago, I came down here to dig up what I could find. I used to work here, so I knew the right stuff was down here.”
“Phoenix? We passed through there back in August. You must not have Returned yet.”
“I take it that whatever happened to us is not unusual?” Sara asked.
“It’s happened all across the world. I’ll explain in more detail later, but the short version is that magic came to the galaxy, but human beings could not stand it. It’s like radiation poisoning.” The voice said. I shuddered visibly- being a former Navy nuclear engineer, I know all about high dose radiation poisoning. Not good.
“So, friends from another universe changed us all into forms that could handle magic. Almost all the people on Earth were shoved into a time stream, to reappear at times between then and some thousands of years from now, changed into ponies. Ponies of different types. What are you?”
“I have wings, and my friend Dom has a horn on his head. Unicorn and pegasus, yes?”
“Correct. There are also earth ponies, like I am, who have neither horn or wings, but we are very strong indeed. Can you fly yet, Miss?” The voice asked.
“Oh, yes. I learned how relatively quickly. I was a student pilot back home, and the purpose of my trip to Arizona was to see if I could get into a school up in Prescott to learn more about flying. Once I saw I had wings, I wanted to fly. Took me a few days, but I mastered it.”
“Good to hear! Some pegasi here take a while to learn how. And what about you, sir? Have you learned to use magic yet?”
“First off, Miss, I’m Dominic, and my lady friend is Sara. Yes, I have figured out how to use my horn for telekinesis, and when stressed, I have been able to devise spells to do other things.” I told her before explaining the lockpick spell, the find what I’m looking for spell, and the get the hell out of here spell.
“That’s very good to hear, Dominic. I’m Alex, by the way. Do you have a cutie mark yet?” Alex asked.
I looked at Sara and she looked at me, confused. “Whatinhell is a cutie mark?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“A picture on your flanks by the tail. It shows your main calling in life.”
“Well, yes, a picture did appear on my flanks yesterday, once I figured out the telegates. Looks like an old subway map I had back when I was a kid back in New York.” I explained to Alex. “Red dots and blue lines.”
“Then, that’s your main calling, to help ponies get around. Can you make it to Paris, Illinois?” Alex asked.
“Alex, in order for me to go someplace, I either have to see it, or have already been there. I don’t even know where Paris is. The only place I have been in Illinois is North Chicago, for boot camp and A school, way back when.” I explained to her.
“Okay. Look up where we are on an atlas, and see how close you can come to here. I have a meeting to get to, so I’ll text you my number and you send me yours, and we’ll talk again. Agreeable to you?”
“Very much so, Alex.” Sara said. “We’ll keep the phone charged and will be waiting to hear from you again. Ring us up when you get the time!”
“Sounds good to me! Hang in there, ponies, you’re not alone!” Alex said cheerfully before hanging up.
“Ponies?” I asked.
“Sounds suitable, yes? A small horse can be called a pony, right?” Sara said back to me with a smile in her voice.
“Sara, the only pony I ever saw in my life was a Shetland my sister had when I was a teenager. Lady was almost as tall as I was. Nice horse, but I was uncomfortable around her. The one time I tried to ride her, I fell off.” I admitted. “She won the show riding ribbons, not me.”
“Just go with the breezes, Dom. New times, new names. After all, we’re not humans any more.” 
I nodded as the phone beeped, a number appearing on the screen. Sara took a stylus in her mouth, saved the number, and texted back hers. “I better find an atlas, and map out how close we can get to this Paris.”
“You know where you can go to, yes?” Sara asked after she sent the text.
“I have a good idea, but seeing a map will help. I’ve always been good with maps. I should be able to mark off where I can open a door to.” I said as I opened Oberon’s door to head out. Sethra meowed once, and I looked at her. “I won’t go anywhere without you, silly girl.” Reassured, she went back to her napping place.

We found a 2015 road atlas in G section, and I sat down under a lantern with the atlas and a marker, highlighting places I could go to. I focused on specific city and regional maps once I figured some things out, and managed to find many, but not all, of the detail maps I was looking for. I have to say, the null signals for not finding what I was looking for was jarring to the horn. Once plotted, I looked up Paris, Illinois and started looking.
I was right in saying the closest I have been to Paris was North Chicago, and boot camp. It would be quite a hike from there to Paris, but it was the best I could do. Sara suggested going there, finding a diesel truck at a U-haul and using that. “After all, if you can transmat from here to there and back, we can go out and hunt for a proper vehicle, load it from here, then drive when ready, yes?” Sara suggested.
Now, I have to admit I was definitely imaginative, but I need others to jar my thoughts in the proper direction for the imagination to work. “You’re right, Sara. I never thought of that.” I said, then an idea hit me across the head like a gold brick in a purple velvet purse.
“You’ve got an idea, Dom… I’ve seen that look in people’s faces before. Go on, verbalize what you’re thinking. I won’t laugh at you.” Sara said encouragingly.
“Gate… telegate… doorway… tunnel… subway tunnel… DRIVE THROUGH!” I shouted.
“Drive through?” Sara asked, confused by my thought patterns.
“Drive through! I can open a gate and we can drive through! We don’t have to load up THERE, we can load up HERE, I open a gate and we drive through it!” I said, excited.
“Can you handle transiting such a large mass?” Sara asked, clearly worried. “Maybe we should start small.”
“Opening the door is the hard part. Distance is not a concern. Mass and diameter could. How about we start transiting in Sputter and see what happens?” I replied.
“Sounds good. After lunch, maybe? You’re going to need to be properly fueled to pull this off.” Sara said with a smile.
“You’re still trying to catch up after two months of hard foraging.” I replied, smiling back. “Let’s check out the food pile and you pick what you want. I’ll cook.”
“No, I will cook. You just bake some more of that oat bread, okay?” she said sweetly. Only one day and I’m already getting henpecked… 
“And I’m still getting henpecked, but I don’t mind at all. DON’T tell Great-Grandma I said that, y’hear?” Rapid Transit said, glaring mock-furiously at the giggling twins.
After lunch, we headed outside to get Sputter started, not an easy task. Once she did get started, I moved her to the far end of the parking lot while Sara flew overhead. I started moving back to the entrance, willing the door to open and come out there. My horn flared, the disc appeared, and I drove through, coming out where I wanted to. However, the effort in passing through was like the first time I tried anything magical… exhausting. I managed to stop Sputter before passing out.
I woke up to see Sara standing over me, looking very concerned. “About time you woke up, Dom. You’ve been sleeping for almost an hour.” She told me before giving me a kiss on the mouth. If she would have done that sooner, I would have woken earlier!
After she let go, I managed to get up. “Why, Sara, I didn’t know you cared.” I said.
She swatted me with a wingtip. “After all I have been through, you better believe I care!” she said before reporting what she saw. A silver disc appeared in front of the car, which passed into the disc, coming out a hundred yards away, without a disc appearing, just the car. “You had best start working out with that gate, so we can get through it without you passing out!”
“Yes, dear…” I muttered. Sure, we just met, but hey, it has been a long time, and she IS right… dammit…
“Time to stop, little ones. I’m getting a little hoarse from all this talkin.”
“Can we pick up later, Grampa?” Silent Flight asked.
“Sure thing, kid. I just gotta rest my voice a bit. After dinner, okay?”
The twins gang-hugged their grandfather, who hugged them back gently. They could tell he loved them, and vice-versa. After the hug, they went to see what Gramma was doing while Grampa took a nap.