//------------------------------// // Lonely Day // Story: PaP: Bedtime Stories // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Lonely Day took her first breath. For a long time that was all she did, feeling the heat in her veins again, the steady beat of her heart. Sensations she had had for so much of her existence she’d never even considered them, but now… after only a short time as something else, she understood a little of her friends’ anger at being revived undead. On the ground in front of her was all that was left of her struggle against Charybdis. The Key made from Mordite hadn’t remained—on a planet filled with life, it was nearly as reactive as antimatter would’ve been. In some ways that was what it was—anti-life. Judging by what she saw, the metal that made up the artifact had escaped into Charybdis’s army, as the closest thing to “living” present. It wasn’t alloyed for anti-magic, so it couldn’t have gotten into Mundi. There was no missing the chalky statue of Charybdis himself, face still frozen in shock and agony from the moment the metal had touched him. Day lifted the necklace of rusting links from around his neck—missing the key, perhaps, but it seemed like a foolish thing to leave behind. Joe would probably want the original back. She would have to dig it out of the toybox in the apartment where she had confronted Death. As she lifted, the chalky body crumbled away at the slightest perturbation, blowing away in the wind as a dusting of carbon and trace elements. She rose to catch the necklace around her own neck, turning around slowly. Half the undead army had returned to being a pile of corpses. The other, slightly larger number, were just gone. Those Alex had called out of distant history had no corpses to leave behind. Whatever effect wearing the Key had imposed on her senses, Alex no longer felt it now. That was a smell. Another smell mixed in with the rot, one she hadn’t expected. Fire, like wood smoke and combusting gunpowder. She turned to where Sunset’s body had been, just in time to watch it burst into flames, a single gigantic fireball that caused her to reflexively raise a shield around herself. It was a good thing she hadn’t lost all her memories. The fire only lasted an instant, as though the flesh itself had been transformed into fire. Yet it left a pony standing in its place, a pony that was taller than she was with a soft pink coat and a blue mane. Despite the flames and momentary flash of heat, she wasn’t burned. She blinked in surprise, looking down at the faint layer of ash she was standing in, then looked like she was about to gag. “That… is… awful.” “Hold on, I’ve got an idea.” Alex reached over to her own armor, pulling out her dagger, and using it to draw into the pile of ash Charybdis had left behind. She could no longer perfectly combine the runes in her mind, she had to work them out. But her basic understanding of magic was still in there, and this wasn’t a complex spell. After a few seconds, she had it, and she aimed her horn at Sky. There was a brief flash, and apparently nothing happened. Until she took a breath, and a faint shimmer appeared around her face and nose. “Better?” “Yeah.” The pegasus nodded gratefully. “Much.” Alex concentrated again, and cast the spell on herself. As before, the shimmer only appeared whenever she inhaled. Instead of decay, she smelled only the faint touch of ozone, enough that she didn’t feel constantly on the edge of vomiting. Well, seeing an army of corpses, many of which had been friends and colleagues, hardly settled her stomach. “I thought it would take longer to get back here. A few weeks, maybe. Hoped they’d have cleaned this up,” Sky said. Alex shook her head. She paused, selecting one of the bodies that looked mostly intact, and removing a cloak she hoped was about her size. “Sorry, friend. But I know you don’t need this anymore.” She flung it over her shoulders, holding her wings as close as she could, and pulling on the hood. “What’s the point of that?” Alex hesitated, though not for very long. “I’m, uh… I think it’s better if ponies don’t see what happened to me. Losing most of my power… doesn’t make for a good story. Wouldn’t help build confidence in my rule.” Sky scowled down at her. “I come back from the dead twice, and the first thing you do both times is play politics. Besides, I thought the point of staying was to make sure the city makes it. How are you going to make sure of anything if you’re hiding?” Alex made her way over to her own armor, all of which was too large for her now. She selected one object from all the others—a crystal communicator. She held it up in her magic, bringing it close to her head. It started to glow as she did so, producing a faint voice from within. Athena’s voice spoke from it, as clearly as though she’d been standing a few feet away. “Hello, Archive.” “Not anymore,” Day answered. “That title doesn’t fit. Just Alex.” “Just Alex speaks like we are in another time. Did Oracle bring your past self to the future again?” Cloudy leaned in, muttering quietly, “You have to tell me that story.” But Alex ignored her. “Most of my power came from being Archive—the purpose of that magic is fulfilled, so the spell is broken. And I… gave every drop of magic I could to making an undead army. I guess there wasn’t a whole lot of me left on the other end.” “Delightful. You’ll be happy to hear my report—no more attempts have been made to penetrate the shield. Whatever Charybdis was doing to disrupt my satellite network is gone, I can see clearly. I don’t see any sign of activity from his outposts. It appears to have been universally destroyed.” “That’s the risk of having enhanced troops. He didn’t just get ponies to work for him, he changed them. With his magic gone, they can’t survive.” Athena sounded amused. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Cloudy Skies sat down beside her on the bank of Charybdis’s rotten river, glaring at nothing in particular. “I don’t think I like her. Who is that?” Alex moved the crystal away from her ear. “That’s, uh… remember the probe we helped the HPI send up? It… got bigger.” “The population is asking after you,” Athena said. “They are desperate to know the results of the battle. Whether or not Charybdis escaped again into the sea. What are your orders?” “It’s time for the contingency. Don’t let anypony find out we lost Alicorns.” “We lost Alicorns?” “One,” she said quietly. “Sunset isn’t… well, two, really. I’m gone too.” “For how long?” “Forever, in Sunset’s case. Me… I’m not sure. Awhile.” “I understand, Alex. Stay in touch.” The crystal stopped glowing. “There.” Alex stuck it into a pocket of her robe. She was tempted to bring her handgun as well, the ancient weapon that had been owned by so many over the years, before eventually finding its way back to her. But no, she wouldn’t need it. After all that she had seen, Alex was ready for some time on the farm. Others could fight the next war. “We should get into the city. Athena will have cleaning crews out here before too long. We should slip in before anyone notices us.” “Plan on using that fancy new horn of yours to teleport us in?” She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I want to see it.” It was a fair distance back to Mundi from the river itself, several miles. They didn’t fly—or rather, Alex didn’t. Sky’s hooves barely touched the ground as she followed, though she didn’t seem very interested in looking at anything. Mostly she seemed to be enjoying the flight for its own sake, now that she was protected from the smell. Alex set a very slow pace, taking in the ruins of her city. So many of the outer layers had been breached, carved apart by weapons or the creeping fungus. It had gone a disgusting black now, and seemed to be the source of much of the rot smell. It would take bodies touched by necromancy a little longer before they started stinking. Another figure landed beside them as they walked, one light enough on its wings that it barely made a sound. She couldn’t see the owner’s face, but she recognized a familiar voice from within the robe. It was Jackie—not just that, but she was lacking any of the usual hostility. There was no more resentment in the way she spoke, only grief. “It looks like the battle went better than ponies expected,” she said. “You come out to see, like me?” Does she really not recognize me? Alex nodded, looking away. Her coat probably looked different in the gloom, and it had been many thousands of years since she’d been this size. Most immortals lacked a perfect memory. “Yeah.” Cloudy landed a few steps behind her, watching with suspicion. But she didn’t say anything to interrupt. “Story is the Alicorns sacrificed themselves to kill Charybdis,” Jackie went on. “That they’re dead for good. We’ll have to wait until we get some new ones.” “Oh,” Alex said, keeping her voice as impassive as she could. Just how much had losing her wife screwed her up? Even more than Alex had suspected, apparently. “That sounds hard.” Jackie chuckled. “Not as hard as you’d think, kid.” She looked up, past her to the pegasus on her other side. “You took your kid out here?” The pegasus shook her head. “She took me. I didn’t plan on seeing this place ever again.” “Just had to know,” Jackie continued. “Guess I can respect that. Honestly, I… I didn’t think we’d make it. Guess Oracle can be wrong.” She took a few steps into the gloom to one side, vanishing into the shadow of some rubble. She did not emerge on the other side. Sky kept watching the place she’d been, as though expecting her to pop out with a knife and attack. She didn’t, though. Alex could no longer sense her magic nearby. “What the hell was that?” “A pony I’ve depended on to help keep the world going. I don’t think she can take the pain of it anymore. Immortality makes us all a little crazy after all these years.” “You aren’t filling me with confidence,” Sky said. “You didn’t come back for more angst, right? You’re here to live like you didn’t before.” “Yeah. Once I make sure Mundi’s gonna make it… the seaponies out in L2 were planning on sending a colony out a little further. Brave new world, lots of music… swimming’s a lot like flying, you know. I bet you’d like it.” Sky wrapped a wing around her, pulling her close. “If that’s where you want to go, then sure. I’ll love it. But you know we gotta bring Joe, right?” As it turned out, they didn’t bring Joe. It took a few hours to make it to his lab—slipping back inside was easy for Alex, since she’d designed much of the security herself. But Mundi was still in chaos, while martial law controlled other sections of the city. They had to stay out of sight, or else get assigned to one of the work crews that would be gathering the dead. Eventually they slipped past the guards to the heart of Mundi, at the lowest point of its highest tower, and through Joe’s wards. There, they found the crystal unicorn halfway through packing up his lab. A gigantic crystal followed him through the air, looking quite familiar to Alex, right down to the makeshift soldering between its sections. It still had little bits of brown slime stuck to it in places from where it had poked out from an undead Cloudy Skies. “What are you doing?” Alex asked, staying safely back from him as he worked. He didn’t even glance back at her, or apparently notice how much higher her voice had become. “That’s it, Alex. I did it, I won. First I beat aging, then I beat death. It’s all in your brain, so you have my notes. I’m done.” “Well, uh… maybe could I get another copy of your notes? I don’t think it’s actually in my brain anymore.” That attracted his attention. He looked up, eyes widening. “Really?” He looked back at the two of them, but there was no comprehension on his face. “Well, that’s strange. Here.” He dropped the suitcase he was packing, pushing it across the floor towards her. “You can keep them I guess. I don’t really need it anyway. I’m done here. It’s time to put everything I’ve learned to use. Can’t do it here, there’s all kinds of things living on this planet. Somewhere fresh.” “Uh…” Cloudy Skies made her way across the room to him, standing a few feet away. She looked up at him, eyes searching for something in his countenance. “Don’t you want to stay with your friends, Joe? Your magic saved the day. Don’t you deserve a break?” He retreated from her half a step—for the first time, it seemed like he had noticed something. Seen her. “No, no. Ruin doesn’t rest for anyone, so why should anyone let it get ahead? Not today, not tomorrow. I’ve got to go.” “Well.” Cloudy Skies reached out and hugged him. “Be safe, doofus. And come back sometime to say hello.” “Hello,” he repeated, voice distant. “Yeah, hello.” Alex crossed the floor to him. It was strange to be looking up at him again, after so long a towering Alicorn. But she hugged one of his legs. “Thanks for saving the day, Joe. If you ever feel like coming back, we’ll be happy to have you.” He twitched, looking down at her with mild confusion on his face, like a discomfort he couldn’t quite name. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Timeheart by now? It’s paradox of love with Alicorns all the way down, that’s why I never drank your Kool-Aid. You can’t see the world how it is through all those feelings.” “I don’t think I’d want to,” Alex squeaked. “Are you sure you have to go? You’re immortal, aren’t you? Couldn’t you stick around to help Mundi pick up the pieces?” “Nope.” He shook his head. “You don’t pay me enough for that, Alex. And I don’t think you could.” He vanished, leaving the two of them alone in the empty workshop. He hadn’t brought anything, in the end, except the crystal. “Bye, Joe,” Sky whispered. Then she straightened. “Guess he isn’t coming.” “He didn’t even ask about his Key,” Alex muttered. “Well… I think I should put this place somewhere nobody will find it. Don’t want some idiot trying to recreate his magic down the road who doesn’t know what they’re doing.” Sky shrugged. “Sure thing, Day.” She glared down at the ground, ears flattening. “It’s only my first day, and this immortality stuff is already worse than I imagined. Is this how it’s been for the last…” “Eight thousand years,” Alex added. “Yeah, that.” Day waved a wing absently through the air. “I hope these seaponies are more fun. Lots of singing, you said?” “Yeah.” She nodded, and she didn’t even have to force a smile. “They really know how to have fun.”