Chapter 3 - A New Dawn
"But can we start it all over again? Won't you show me the way it could have been?"
Once outside, I glanced around the city. It was still too early to see much, but the green glow illuminated enough to see most of the other buildings decimated, a huge crater at the center. "Wow, these zebras sure know how to decorate," I quipped. "So, where to first?"
"Suppose we look for survivors," Spanner replied, "though probably not much chance of that with the size of that bomb. Question is, how did they even get something that big in here anyway? Somepony should have seen something."
"The train, obviously," I smirked. She glared at me. "But really, though, all you need is a dark night and one of these..." I scrolled though my PipBuck modules. "Oops, don't have that one right now. Doesn't really work anyway. We never could figure out how theirs work. Probably cloaking device though."
Peony chimed in, "At this point, it really doesn't matter. It's gone off already. We have more important things to worry about now."
"Right. What then?" I inquired, "Find ponies that haven't become zombie food yet?" I turned on my E.F.S. My vision filled with green marks, a few still flickered red. "Not seeing any friendlies or hostiles here. Just the same confused bunch from before. Shall we continue onward, Glorious Leader?"
Spanner and Peony paused a moment, glancing at each other, apparently trying to determine which I was talking to. "Okay. While you two decide who gives the orders, I'll check some other things."
I pulled up my map and turned on radio signals and terminal locations. My PipBuck showed dozens of markers, a few being 'x's. "Huh, Stable-Tec really knows how to build a thing to withstand a nuke. Expected a lot more 'x's than that." I turned on the radio to scan. "Now to see if anypony is actually there."
I looked to the pair, who were now in a heated argument about who wasn't the leader.
"...you've been my boss for years. You should be the leader."
"Well, you've been dealing with her for years. You should be the leader."
I pulled a bottle from my saddlebag and set it on the ground sideways. "Hey, here's a way to settle this." They stopped and looked at me.
"Oh, yes. Drinking solves all the problems." Spanner stated sarcastically.
Peony facehoofed. "Spin the bottle is totally appropriate for this situation."
"Hey, the bottle never lies." I gave it a spin with a wing. It made several rotations before slowing and stopping, the cap pointing at me. "See? The bottle never lies," I said with a grin.
"Good thing we're already dead," Spanner quipped.
"Best two out of three," Peony suggested.
"If you insist." I spun the bottle again. It stopped between the pair and pointed off several meters to a pony staring blankly into the distance. "I vote that guy," I tittered.
Two more spins landed on Spanner. "Right then, your're the boss, Boss," I announced. "What say you?"
"I say you need to stop playing silly games," she huffed.
"Okay, Boss." I put the bottle away.
"And don't call me 'Boss'. You never worked for me."
"Okay, Boss." I grinned. She harumphed and turned to survey the city.
I smiled at Peony. "Well, as long as you're not the boss, I won't get written up for fraternization." I gave her a wink.
She rolled her eyes and trotted over to join Spanner.
"The city looks better from back here." I stated, not bothering to look past the hindquarters of the two mares just ahead. They both groaned, almost in unison, knowing exactly what I was implying, trying to ignore me.
I went back to the map. Okay, radio has been silent, so no leads there. Probably better to get to the outside. I extended the range of the radio to Fillydelphia, then set to parsing the terminal locations on the map. Oh, look. My terminal is still active. Guess that's a place to start.
I trotted up to the others. "So, comms is dark, but there are plenty of terminals still active. How about we hit one and see if the network is still up?"
"We could probably do that now. Wait until the sun comes up to see the full extent of the damage," Spanner surmised, "Sounds like you have a specific one in mind?"
"Only the best one in Equestria. Connected to more networks than Canterlot Castle." I grinned.
"I suppose that's as good a place to start as any." Spanner shrugged. "Which direction, then?"
I pointed off behind Tenpony. "Our apartment. Most secure location for Equestria-wide tactical espionage."
She sighed. "If you say so. Sounds like a plan. Any objections?" she looked to Peony.
"Hey, I'm just an electrical engineer, not a tactician. Sounds good, as long as we don't get ambushed or anything." They both looked at me.
"Got ya covered. I'll let you know if anything turns red."
"Off we go then," Spanner directed.
We made our way to the river and began following the road beside it. I hovered above, looking around, watching for anything other than green to show on my E.F.S. After a short distance, the green smiles started to disappear, being replaced by white frowns. "Um, guys. Seeing lots of white. Try not to look around too much, unless you like dead ponies. Also watch your step."
"Might as well get used to it. We probably will be seeing a lot of dead things from now on," Peony replied with disgust.
"Yeah, like every time you look in the mirror." I giggled.
She trudged ahead, grumbling. Moments later, she went into a tumble, giving off a squeal. I dashed over, seeing she had tripped over one corpse and was on her back in a pile of several in various states of dismemberment.
"Uhh, watch your step?" I reminded her. I helped her to her hooves. Immediately she retched and shuddered, falling back to the ground. "Used to it yet?"
"No," she stated, "Also, this was a bad idea this early in the morning. We should have waited at least until dawn." She shakily got back to her hooves.
Spanner had been surveying the area. "This may have been an ambush. We should move. Quickly."
I looked around. No red marks, just white and a few green. "Yeah, either they show up as neutral or have moved on. Either way, we shouldn't stop." I turned to Peony. "By the way, that is an interesting scent. Where'd you pick that up?"
Her horn lit up, followed by my wing, which slapped me in the face. She dropped it and turned to continue down the road.
"Onward then?" I looked toward Spanner, who was already trotting to catch up with Peony. I followed after and took my position above.
I guided them through the corpse ridden street. "You know, we might still have a shower at our place. Probably no water, but we've been there, right?" No reply. We continued toward the apartment in silence.
Approaching the building, it was light enough to make out that there wasn't much left of the walls, but it was still standing. "Quite the shockwave, huh?" Still no reply. "How's the 'ignore the pegasus' game going anyway? Who's winning?"
Spanner's ears twitched. "Did you hear something?"
"Nope. Nothing," Peony replied.
"Right. Going to scout ahead. Don't die or anything." I flew off to see what was left of our apartment. Okay, maybe riverside wasn't the best after all. I flew in where a wall used to be. The floor and ceiling seemed to be in better shape. The room was littered with fallen ceiling tiles. I trotted to the terminal and brushed off the debris.
I stared at it a moment. Huh. It's only been one day, but it seems like forever. I shook my head and turned on the terminal. Okay, what first? The screen flickered on, proclaiming "Session disconnected." I brought up the list of networks, reading through them. Reaching "Cloudsdale: No signal", I collapsed in a heap and went into an uncontrollable sob. Gone. What was home once, family, friends, all gone in an instant.
Some amount of time later, I felt a hoof around my shoulder. I looked up into Peony's eyes. I reached up and hugged her tightly. "They're really all gone," I sobbed into her mane. I didn't care that it was covered in somepony else. Everypony was dead, including me, but somehow I was still alive. "What even was all this for?"
"I don't know," she replied, "but it happened, and we have to keep going." She stroked my mane with a hoof. "But we can't keep going without the extra super nerdy pony."
"More like the extra super wrecked pony," I replied, sniffling, "Can't change what happened. So, onward?" I croaked.
"We can get through this together," she stated, "So, onward."
I nuzzled her cheek. "Just don't die then," I chuckled weakly.
"You either," she urged.
"Well, then. Got some extra super nerdy stuff to do." I slowly let go of her and turned back to the terminal. Rubbing the tears from my eyes, I looked at the screen. "Huh, don't remember everything being this pink before. Note to self: Stop crying pink." Peony and Spanner both chuckled.
"Let's see if anypony's home." I selected the Canterlot network and connected. "All the nodes are still up. Let's try talking to the M.A.S. hub." I connected to it, the terminal relaying a message, "Node online but not responding. Please try again later."
"Lights are on, but nopony's home." I connected to the Fillydelphia network. "All nodes are still up here, too." I connected to the Stable-Tec node. A different message came up, "Audio file received."
"Okay, that's a bit unexpected." I opened the file.
A mare's strained voice came from the recording, "If you are hearing this message, you either survived the apocalypse or caused it. Either way, neither apply to me, so congratulations and enjoy the rest of your life."
"Wait, was that Scootaloo?" Spanner inquired, "You made contact?"
"It was a recording. Didn't sound like she planned on making it, either. Scratch one boss, I suppose. Maybe we should start contacting Stables to see who actually made it through." I started with Stable 0. "If anypony is left from Stable-Tec, they would probably be there, and possibly know what's going on."
"Node offline," the terminal reported.
"Right. Must not have gotten that one finished. Probably wouldn't have actually worked, anyway." I opened a connection to Stable 1.
"Access denied," the terminal reported.
"Figures Canterlot would be locked up tighter than i have clearance for. Not really looking to talk to stuck up aristoponies anyway. Next." I moved on to stable 2.
"Connection terminated," the terminal reported.
"Okay. Seems to be a theme here. Post-apocalyptic communication is something else." I scanned the list on the screen. "Somepony has to be there somewhere. Equestria can't just be gone." I buried my face in my hooves.
"If somepony is out there, we'll find them," Peony consoled.
I sighed and closed the connection to Fillydelphia. "Yeah, you may be right."
"So, what now?" Peony asked, "Wait for somepony to call, or start rebuilding?"
"Well, with everypony supposedly dead or in a Stable, there's only one thing to do."
"And that is?" she quizzed.
"Pack your bags. It's time for an adventure."
"Seriously?" She rolled her eyes. "Also, they are still packed from the last 'adventure'."
"Hey, they say it in the movies. And you can unpack and repack them if it makes you feel better," I smirked.
"Looks like somepony's feeling better," Spanner stated.
"Eeyup, just have to get rid of the walls." I motioned toward what was left of the apartment. I shut the terminal off and got to my hooves. I looked to Spanner. "Shall we adventure, Fearless Leader?"
"We don't even know what's out there," she replied, "Though somepony has to find out eventually. Might as well be us doing the finding."
"Sounds like a 'yes'." I pulled off my bags, upending them into a relatively rubble-free area of the floor. A faint pink mist mixed with the green glow and cloud of stirred up dust. "Huh, that's kind of cool." I watched until the cloud resettled. Back on task, I sifted through the contents for adventure-type things.
"Okay, so headphones, cap, toolkit, canteens, schnapps, almost identifiable organic and inorganic mass, hoofful of bits, signal jammer, hairbrush." I shoved the mess that used to be food aside. "Seems organic matter doesn't fare well against the pink." I opened up the toolkit, making sure everything was there and still in shape. "All good there." I put on my cap and headphones, shoving everything else back into the bag.
Peony had gone a slightly different route in repacking. She had cleared off a space on the counter and laid everything out neatly. Putting my bags on, I trotted over to where the two were glancing over the items. "You unicorns are way too obsessive," I stated.
"Do I have to keep reminding you that some ponies have standards?" she chided. She was looking through the med kit.
"Only one more time," I replied. "So any of your stuff usable still, or did everything get all hardcore pinked?"
"All of the food and medical supplies are a no-go. Seems anything in a sealed container is fine, but we have to check to make sure this is still all right." She held up her canteen. "Might be the last fresh water in Equestria. Though it's not much use to us, it might help somepony we run into."
"Yeah, because that's the only container in Equestria." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, got more things to pack. Have fun doing whatever it is you're doing with all that stuff." I passed them into the kitchen and started going through the cupboards. "Suppose we don't need any of this, but could be usable for trading as long as radiation didn't get into it." I loaded the few things not packaged in cardboard into my bags.
Moving to the fridge, I opened it and looked inside. The power had already been out for hours. "Ehh, maybe nothing here." I packed the remaining bottles of schapps and closed the fridge.
I went back to my workstation, setting down my bags. "Okay, almost ready for adventure. Just a few PipBuck mods and all set." I pulled out my toolkit and laid it out next to the terminal, removing the key to open the PipBuck sleeve. I inserted the key and turned it. There was the usual click of the lock opening, but nothing else happened. "Huh, that's different." I shook my hoof to try to dislodge the sleeve. Nothing. I shook my hoof harder. Nothing. I grabbed my PipBuck with a wing and pulled. My hoof followed.
I turned back to the others. "Hey look. I'm a cyborg. You're next." I waved my hoof. they both stopped and stared in my direction.
"Great. One more box checked," Peony said before returning to inventorying useless medical supplies.
"What? no 'How horrifying!' or 'Whatever shall we do?' or anything?" I questioned.
Spanner replied, "To be honest, that's not really the craziest thing anypony's seen in the last day. Besides, you always talked about getting an integrated PipBuck. We're so happy for you." She grinned.
"Right. Just another day in Equestria." I pointlessly relocked the sleeve and stored the key. I looked through the tools. "Good thing I have this." I pulled out a bar magnet and slid it along the side of my PipBuck. A catch released and the cover popped open. I slid it off and set it aside.
I dug through the debris on the bench for several modules. I installed a couple of them and put the rest in my bag. I replaced the cover, sliding it into place with a click. I stored the magnet and replaced the toolkit into my bag.
"Okay, one last thing." I slid under the bench and removed a panel behind the terminal. I removed the memory bank from the terminal and my plasma pistol, putting the panel back in place. "Safety first. Also second," I chuckled to myself. Getting to my hooves, I placed both into my bag.
I trotted back to the counter. "So, anything good?" I inquired.
"We have water, maybe," Peony replied, "Seems you have the essentials covered, as usual." She eyed my full saddlebags.
"Only the most essential essentials," I quipped, "Though it looks like you could use some. Your bags are looking a bit light."
"Well, if you only carry easily tainted supplies and not a whole bunch of junk, that tends to happen. Suppose I could carry a bit of the more useful items. No sense in the littlest pony in the group carrying everything, right?"
I flushed. "Hey, size doesn't matter. And I'm still older than both of you. And you don't have to be a big pony to carry things. And..."
Peony and Spanner broke into laughter. "I always thought you were cute when you get angry," Spanner giggled, turning to Peony. "You're lucky to have such a cutie."
"Totally. Especially when you do this," she giggled and rustled my feathers with her magic. I was sure I was completely magenta by now.
I huffed and turned to retreive my bags. "Okay, so you two ready then? 'Torment the pegasus' is not ususally on the top of the list, so you must be."
"Just about. Need to grab a few more things." Peony moved past me into what was left of the bedroom. I followed behind.
"You know, I always liked the open floor plan. We should keep it this way. Though something needs to be done about the front door." I looked back out through the kitchen. I could see into several surrounding apartments in roughly the same shape. "On the bright side, no noisy neighbors."
Spanner was looking out across the city. I turned back to Peony sifting through the rubble, filling her bags with recovered medical supplies and other 'useful' things she could find. I went past her to the shower. "Well, looks like I'll owe you a shower." The only thing left of it was the tile on the floor, the rest of it lay in a heap like the rest of the walls in the place. "Unless of course you don't mind if somepony happens to come along and watch. And if you don't want Spanner to watch, she can join us," I chortled, speaking the last part loud enough that Spanner couldn't miss it.
She stopped and looked at me. "As much fun as that sounds, it would be nice to have walls at least."
"You know, clouds make good walls. We could just make some more."
"I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of both reasons and opportunities to take a shower, so there's not really a rush there. Besides, I'm not really into hanging out here right now. We should leave as soon as possible."
"Wait, what is that sound?" I swiveled my ears around. "Oh. It's adventure calling. We must answer."
She facehoofed. "Yeah, the adventure. Right."
"Only one more vital thing." I dug around until I found a bottle of shampoo. "Never leave home or go home without it. Hopefully we can find more along the way. My mane just won't be the same without it." I grabbed it and returned to the kitchen to put it in the bag.
I trotted up to Spanner. "Loving the post-apocalyptic architectural style. Should have done it years ago. So you have to go and pack for this adventure?"
"Yeah, though I'm afraid I won't have much to pack. My place was on the side of Tenpony that got hit, so there isn't anything left."
"Sorry about that. Let's go get those zebras, then."
"Yeah, the three of us can take on Roam. Sounds like a plan." She sighed.
"We could have an army by the time we get there. We already have a dozen or so to start with."
"I just don't know what to do now. Equestria is gone. We're all dead. Nothing even makes sense anymore."
I put a hoof around her shoulder. "We are Equestria now. Our sense is the only thing that makes sense now, even if one of them is mine."
She chuckled. "Yeah. Doomed."
"You have the tactician and the medic. I'm sure three nerdy ponies can figure something out."
Peony joined us. The three of us looked out at the horizon. "Well, the new Equestria is waiting out there. Should we greet it?" I queried.
"Yeah, let's go get it before it gets us," Peony asserted.
"Onward to adventure," Spanner proclaimed, giving me a smile.
"Tally ho." I raised my hoof. "Look out equestria. The Revenant Inquisition is upon you." I looked back and forth between them. "So just us, or should we go grab some volunteers?"
"We could see who wants to join us back at the Tower," Spanner proposed. "Could use a few of them."
"Yeah. It's party time. Let's fly to the castle."
"Or you know, we could get there a faster way," Peony suggested. They made eye contact, and suddenly one side of me was covered in pink sparkles and the other orange.
"Um, yeah. Not going to work. Maybe if I get there in one piece?" The pink sparkles took over all but a hoof. "Ugh. Seriously? Unicorns are such-" The apartment disappeared and was replaced by the barricade the rest of the revenant were taking refuge behind.
"-jerks," I finished, as the pink sparkles dissipated. I looked down to make sure all four hooves were there.
"There, now we're even," Peony stated.
Our sudden arrival caused a panicked shift in attention toward us. "Uh, hi. We're back," I looked around to the stares of a dozen startled revenant holding makeshift weapons. "Miss us?"
Amethyst made her way to the front. "Oh, good. It's you. We had been discussing whether zombie unicorns can still use magic, and can teleport in on us. We thought we'd be ready just in case, then you show up. Got a nervous bunch here."
"Yeah, seems that way. But we haven't seen any of them do anything but wander around aimlessly, so it's probably safe here," Spanner surmised, "Though there have apparently some attacks, so watch the entrance still."
I piped up, "On that note, who wants to go out in the middle of them and do some exploring? I would say something about almost certain death, but with this group, that's pretty much a moot point."
"What? Go out there?" One of the group asked, "You'd have to be crazy."
I raised a hoof. "Eeyup, right here. All the crazy. You coming with?" The group mumbled amongst itself. "It's really not safer here than out there. And outside the city you probably only have the radiation to deal with," I stated persuasively.
Spanner interjected, "Unfortunately, she's right. It's only a matter of time before they find you holed up here."
"And I have a gun," I added, pulling out my pistol. "Follow us and you can see 'Flower Power' in action. Also, how many of you have one of these?" I raised my pipleg into the air.
"Then you should stay here with us," came a shout from the crowd.
"Yeah, not happening," I stated, "No more walls for this pegasus. She's flying the coop." More mumbling from the audience. "How many of you want to be remembered as a founder of New Equestria? Anypony that stays here might be known as the 'Founder of New Manehattan' or something lame like that."
"'Founder of New Manehattan' doesn't sound bad," came another voice from the group.
"Yeah, but that's still not happening from being holed up in a train station. Unless that's as far as you want your territory to go, you still have to go outside at some point."
Peony joined in, "So who wants to go make history?" Several hooves raised.
"Alright. Let's go make history." I asserted.
"I think I'll stick with 'Founder of New Manehattan'," Amethyst stated, "It would be good for 'Ponyville's best organizer' after all."
"Right. Two important jobs. Which will you chose? Rebuild a city, or rebuild the links between cities? Call in now. One operator is standing by." I pulled up a list of elevator music on my PipBuck and activated it.
"So, yeah. After that motivational speech, who's joining us?" Spanner asked the group. The ponies in the group looked from one to the next. One by one, a few came over to stand with us. "All right. That's all? We all have important things to do, even if you stay here. So let's all rebuild Equestria."
I shut off the music and looked between the groups. "Aw, yeah. Let's do this. For Equestria!" I trotted over to look out over the barricade. "Equestria isn't gone, just renewed."
The rest of the party followed behind. The barricade slowly moved to the side.
The eight of us stepped out of the station.
"So, which way?" Spanner asked, looking around.
With a grin, I pulled a bottle from my saddlebag, setting it on the ground. I gave it a spin.
Level Up! Level 4 Reached
New Perk: Time to be Awesome
Due to your extreme awesomeness, every party member gains +1 luck and +1 perception.