//------------------------------//
// 25-05 
// Story: The Limestone City Bat 
// by Seeking Dusk 
//------------------------------//



Hey Cellie. I’m getting confused with the new sleep cycle. It’s the wee hours of the morning and I’m getting up. This is going to take some getting used to. Still, I’d like to think I’ve been handling things fairly well, considering the lack of any interaction and the whole species swap thing. 

Oh! I found a friend. My next door neighbour’s cat, Trouble. He wandered into the house yesterday afternoon when I was about to go to bed. He seems pretty content to lounge on the chair in the living room or follow me around. He’s actually sleeping in my room right now. I’ve never had a pet before, so it will take a bit of getting used to, but it was kinda nice when I woke up to find him curled up under my wing.

Sleep last night was way better than the night before, now that I’ve started to get control of my wings mastered. They really got in the way before. To give you a summary of last evening: I’ve started working out some of my biology. My wings only have four digits in them, rather than five like most mammals with digits do. Of course, most mammals don’t have six limbs either. I’ve even come up with a name! I got bored so I poked around my old biology books and the database I downloaded. 

Going by the obvious hooves and the neck and tail, I’m more of a horse like critter with feline (and other) traits than the other way around. I even started working on a rough phylogenetic structure. Of course, until I can find a genetic lab I won’t be able to tell exactly how related to anything my new species is, but macroscopic observation was the original basis for these classifications. 

Anyway, I’m going with the name genus name ‘nupti’, in reference to Neptune and Poseidon, the gods said to have created horses. Nupti sapiens alategus. I’m tentatively placing myself in the equidae family, only because I’m an odd-toed ungulate. The alategus part I got from my Latin to English Dictionary (I got it from my Dad.) Ala-tegus. Skin/membranous/leather wing, if I got the grammar right. So I'm an alatagus. That or neptin, from the nupti part.

Alategus sounds better than alacurium or alacurius and definitely better than ‘alascortum’. Infinitely better, to be honest. Also; it sounds a bit like pegasus. Pegasus was the son of Poseidon, a winged horse. He had feathered wings though. I could have gone with thestral, but why rip off Rowlings when I could come up with my own thing? 

I’ve said before that there are definitely other survivors out there, right? I just wonder how many of them are university educated. Mind you, even with my degree I hadn’t exactly worked in my field for a while, not since my internship, but I knew stuff. A better question would be how many people had practical skills? In a way, a lot of my skills weren’t all that practical in this situation. I knew stuff, but that’s it. On the other hand, I knew enough to have a good idea of where to look for more. 

Okay, I got side tracked for a moment. It seems the internet is pretty much down. Most pages give me error messages. Maybe the server sites for them have lost power and can’t connect anymore? I really regret not learning more about how the internet works. It looks like I’ll need to head downtown and visit the university after all. 

On the bright side, I about finished my downloads. After getting the Wikipedia set and as many maps as I could, I was at something of a loss as to what else to do. I did spend a lot of time on the City’s websites though. It was good practice for using my wing-digits. I’m pretty confident I have saved copies of pretty much every page and document on Darcy. 

Including the locations of the water treatment plants, boosting stations, power generators and so on. I’ve added them to my ever growing list of places to visit. So far, I still have power and running water. From what I see, I don’t think they will be going out anytime soon, not with the Kingston Mills Hydro Plant and the Wolfe Island Wind Farm around to keep power flowing into the grid locally.

Ah. It just hit me that I should check the hospitals. They would have medicines and such that might need to be kept on ice or something. And it might be good to have some good aid supplies here at home, rather than all the way across town. I bolstered my medicine cabinet with what I could get from the pharmacy, but those are just over the counter. I might have need for the strong stuff. And they have X-Ray machines and other such equipment.

I think the lack of people is starting to have its effects. On the city I mean, not on me. I heard some dogs howling yesterday. At least, I hope it was dogs and not something like wolves or coyotes. Right… the house up the street has the dogs locked inside. I should leave them … But I’m not heartless. I’ll have to break them out today as well. Hopefully they don’t chase me down for whatever reason. If they get bad I might have to try and make some form of protection.

That aside, I promised I would look for survivors today. I’m taking Sophia out for a complete drive through of my community and the two bordering it. I’ve got a bus schedule that doubles as a city map. I’ll need to plot out my route a bit, but I should be able to cover all the streets. I plan to head out around eight in the morning, giving them enough time that they still wouldn’t be sleeping, or to get up if they aren’t nocturnal like I am. If I strap one of the smaller solar units to the rear luggage rack I can plug it into the speakers I got and pump out some music. 

I got a set of ear plugs in case it gets too loud. 

After that, I’ll stop by the mall. 

Huh.

I just remembered I have an electric stove. If I do lose power, that would be very bad. Okay, change of plans. I’ll swing by Canadian Tire again and get a second trailer, then head to the mall and pick up a gas stove. Hopefully I can manage it. A stove isn’t that hard to move, and a few dings and dents won’t bother me, but that was before I traded in my hands for the hooved model of intelligent life.

I say second trailer because Sophia is harder to control with a trailer attached. Since I plan to ride around a lot today, and controlling her with hooves isn’t the easiest thing, I’d rather not make it harder than it needs to be. Since I’m heading to the mall, I might as well hit the library too. I’ve been talking about it for two days now.

So what will I be doing until then? Gardening. Well, gardening and working a bit more on my biology project. I need to turn the ground for where I plan on planting the seeds for a few fruit bearing plants. Eventually I’ll need to head north or west of the town to see if I can find some farmlands with cows and chickens. And flour. I’ll need flour. It’s a very important foodstuff. Which means wheat… how do you even grow wheat? This whole survival thing is harder than I first suspected. I’ll need to raid the super markets again, put all the flour I can in airtight containers.

This ‘To Do’ list of mine is getting pretty unwieldy. I’ll need to actually put everything on paper and hang it up somewhere so I can keep track of it. See you later, Cellie.








Dressed in an altered pair of cargo shorts and a similarly altered graphic tee, his shades held in place with a sport cord, Robin prepared to head out. His experience with Sophia had secured his like of the machine, but it also made him reluctant to ride her without at least a pair of pants on. He loaded up Sophia with what he figured he would need for his trip, the small solar charger secured to the luggage rack beside the portable speaker he acquired and his MP3 player. A few bottles of water and an assortment of veggies were stored in his similarly secured saddlebags along with a small first aid kit and a few tools.

Ellen was in a cellphone holder around his forearm with a marker to keep her company, and he taped a map of the town just under Sophia’s handlebars so he could quickly refer to it as he rode. His first stop, however, was only a few houses up the avenue. Parking Sophia in the driveway, he walked up to the door cautiously, trying to keep as silent as possible, even with his hooves clipping and clopping. 

“Okay, you silly mutts,” Robin muttered as he turned tail to the door. “Don’t make me regret this.” He’d been practicing and experimenting with the range and limitations of movements his form had, and found that he could pull off a decent buck, a double back kick that was stronger than the ‘punch’ he tried the last time. 

What was one ruined home on an empty street?

Shifting his center of gravity to his forelegs, Robin lifted his rear legs and hit the door with a bang, the wood rattling in its frame. Immediately the hounds started their racket again. Robin scowled, but kicked once, twice more before it finally gave in, the jam splintering to let the door swing open and slam into the wall. 

Robin stumbled slightly when the door flew open, but recovered with help from his flapping wings and quickly whirled. The dogs were rushing towards him, barking their little heads off. His wings flared opening as he stomped the ground, a screeching at the pair in frustration. They aborted their charge, skidding to a halt, tripping over the door jam and tumbling at his hooves.

Robin was momentarily discombobulated. He had no clue that particular vocalization was in his repertoire, but he rolled with it, quickly pushing up his shades and levelling his best glare at the dogs, the kind he normally reserved for dealing with ignorant fools, extending a hoof at them. “No. None of that. Shame on you.”

They actually looked contrite and abashed. He kept rolling with it. “I know you want to be good guard dogs and all, but I broke down that door to let you out, not to get in. I’m just going to go in and check to see if you have food and water, then I’m leaving.”

Without showing his inner nervousness, Robin trotted into the house. The dogs let him pass and only watched as he checked the cupboards for their dog food, dragging a large pack of Purina out when he found it. After that, he pushed a chair to the sink and managed to half fill a few bowls, held carefully in his mouth, and set them on the ground for them. 

“There you go,” Robin said, waving a hoof as he left the dogs, their tails wagging.

----------

After his successful, though confusing, encounter with the dogs, Robin started on his major project for the day. A mixed playlist pumping over the speakers, he rode Sophia through the deserted streets of his community, first heading to the outskirts and systematically covering all the streets. Not only was he keeping an eye and ear out for someone’s response, he was also looking for any sighs of another survivor establishing themselves. Once he rode through his little corner of town, he moved on the neighbouring community, and then to the larger one that was south of them. 

The somewhat weary good cheer had had built from his early morning projects took a major blow. Aside from the now stray dogs he spotted and the birds that occasionally trailed him, he found no one. He doggedly ignored the sinking feeling in his gut and keep going, even as the sun passed its peak and started sinking again and after stopping by a gas station to add fuel to Sophia’s tank.

“There has to be someone,” Robin muttered to himself. It was a mantra somewhere between a little white lie and a faint truth. He pressed on. 

Eventually, he decided to call it a day. He could check again the next day. The last place he checked was an apartment building. He lingered at that one though. Why? It had a pool.

Leaving Sophia parked near the entrance, Robin grinned uncertainly at the water. It hadn’t suffered much from the lack of a caretaker. The water still looked clean and clear and inviting. It had been a while since he had swum. About half a year, in fact. While he hadn’t been the best of swimmers, he was decent enough for a beginner, able to tread water and dive. 

“What the hey?” Robin murmured encouragingly to himself before stripping off his clothes. Skinny dipping in a moderately sized pool belonging to a (formerly) well-populated housing area. There was a certain visceral thrill to it, even if it was more furry-dipping. He was careful though. He didn’t just throw himself off the deep end, which would be quite literal in that case, but he clamoured in from the shallow end.

After a bit of experimentation, he found he could pull off a good doggy paddle. Not only that, his body’s unusual flexibility even allowed him to manage a rough approximation of the more common human swim styles. His wings made it even better. Once he dove he could put them to use as large flippers, moving them in an approximation of a breast stroke. Water logged fur or not, it was pretty fun and soon he was laughing and just enjoying the simple pleasure of it all, paddling and swimming back and forth in the pool, avoiding the deep end for obvious reasons. 

There was a certain freedom to being in the water. True, it was heavy, comparatively cold against his furless wings and filled with resistance than dragged at his body and wings but he was learning. His water-logged tail did a lot to help direct his momentum, and he worked out how to angle his wings to cut through the water than push it back. Legs kicked mainly for stability and a little extra control, but his let his wings do most of the work.

Laughing, lungs burning pleasantly, he stuck his head above the surface for some air, shaking his hair, well, mane might be a better word, from his eyes. “Okay, I got to come and do this again someday.” He ducked his head so only the top of his muzzle was above the water and slowly started swimming, using only faint flutters of his wings and gentle kicks, mentally humming the tune to jaws in his head and messing around.

Until something hit the water nearby. 

Confused, Robin spread his wings wide, the surface area helping keep him buoyant, looking around. A pot was resting on the bottom of the pool. His ear twitched. “O… kay? Where did you come from?”

A bang startled him and his head whipped around so fast it might have caused neck damage. Another pot; well dented from the impact with the ground. “It’s raining… pots? The actual..?” He looked up at the clear sky. “Seriously? What’s going on?”

“Hey!” 

Robin’s ear twitched again as a third pot landed in the pool, this one somewhat closer to him. He looked up sharply, and almost sank. Four floors up, standing propped against the railing, was another person. Orange and quadrupedal from what he could tell from the posture, a few more pots on the balcony beside them.

 “Hey! Hi! This is awesome!” The voice sounded somewhat young. Young and excited.

“Hey…” Robin said weakly as his own excitement build. Another person! Apparently transformed as he was, but still another person. He waved a hoof eagerly. “HEY!”

The other person cheered and hoof pumped before running back inside the apartment. Robin’s expression fell “Wait! Don’t… what?”

A moment later they reappeared to yell something at him. “Don’t go anywhere! I’m coming right down!”

Robin chuckled and swam to the edge, climbing out of the pool after a bit of fumbling. The day was turning out to be a good one after all. Lacking a towel, Robin resorted to standard quadruped method of drying off: a series of vigorous full body shakes, augmented with some energetic wing flapping. It wasn’t the best of solutions, and left his mane and tail frizzy, but it got the worse of the water out, leaving him damp, rather than dripping. 

“I really need to get a good brush,” Robin muttered to himself. He put his shades back on, leaving the rest of his clothes for the moment, until he dried off a bit more, and sat on a dark patch of the deck, letting the sun work a bit at drying his fur out as he waited for the other person to reappear. 

I wonder where he had been all this time. What have they been doing to survive? Did they get more accomplished than I did? Did they find anyone else? Augh! I have so many questions!

Robin chewed on his lip impatiently as he waited. His eyes roamed as he did, trying to pass the time faster. It was the only reason he caught the sliding door opening on one of the second level balconies, the orange coated guy scrambling out.

“Oh, hey!” Robin called out. He got up and started trotted over. “How do you plan to ge- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” Robin’s question abruptly derailed into a panicked yell, and with good reason. The other survivor used on the chairs on the balcony as a stepping stool and bounced unto the railing before leaping off. 

‘No way I’m letting you fall before I got a chance to meet you!’ Robin picked up the pace, running awkwardly hoping to catch the falling person. Wings Robin hadn’t noticed before spread and flapped rapidly and the fall he expected to come instead turned into an extremely unsteady descent. 

“Careful!” the person yelled as their partially powered trajectory had them barreling towards Robin, who for his part was hastily trying to stop. They collided in a tangle of hooves, legs, wings and tails. “Aw, man… got to work on the landings…”

Robin, sprawled on his back with the only other person he had seen in days groaning on his chest, laughed. They awkwardly climbed off him. “Hey, are you okay?”

Robin rolled over, still chuckling, getting back to his hooves. He towered over her. Well, not towered, but she wasn’t past the three foot mark. She was also a girl. Considering she was the only other member of his kind he’d seen, it was understandable that he hadn’t been able to tell before. That and he wasn’t entirely sure she was exactly a member of species. Sure, she had orange fur, wings, hooves and the large eyes, but the differences between them were major.

Her coat was orange, but her tail and mane, two large bangs framing her face, were black. Both seemed to gleam ever so slightly. Her golden brown eyes had an odd glisten to it as well. Her wings were even smaller than his, compared to body size, and feathered. He stared at them for a while.

Feathered wings, compared to his webbed ones.

“Hey!” she poked him with a hoof, jolting him from his introspection. 

“You have feathers,” Robin said, a slight tone of disbelief in his voice. 

She grinned, shuffling them, rocking the green backpack she had. “I know. Pretty cool huh? Yours are awesome too. Like demon wings! Or a thestral pony!”

Robin flinched. “I’m sorry?”

“What? Thestrals. Like in Harry Potter?” she frowned at him. “You never watched the movies?”

“I read the books. Four times. Way better than the movies if you must know.” Robin snorted. Did no one have respect for good books anymore? He snickered when he realized he was being the arrogant novel reader. “I prefer alategus to thestral. And I was talking about the other part. Pony?”

“What else could we be? Hooves, small, like tiny horses,” she rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Pony. Duh.”

“I was going with neptin,” Robin nodded. 

“Luh-aim-muh!” his new companion declared. 

“Like calling yourself a pony is any better!” Robin said defensively. He just came up with the name and the first person he met was making fun of it.

“Way better!”

Robin grinned at her. Her eyes widened a little. “Says who?”

“You… have fangs…” she whispered almost reverently. 

‘Crap, forgot about those,’ Robin cursed mentally, closing his mouth. He only just realized she didn’t. Her eyes weren’t cat-like as his where either, nor did her ears have the tuffs of fur on their ends. “Well, you see…”

“Wicked…” she grinned.

“Okay, they are kinda cool,” he sighed with relief mentally and decided to poke at the previous issue. “Just like neptin is cool.”

“No way!”

“Says the little orange coated neptin,” Robin teased.

“Orange is my favourite colour. And neptin is still lame. It sounds like something a twelve year old would come up with,” she jabbing a hoof at him. “And I’m the thirteen year old here!”

Robin blinked. Thirteen? What about her parents? She was obviously a fairly competent thirteen year old. She would have to be to be on her own for the last three days. She was on her own right? She did look a little unkempt. “Um… you’re thirteen?”

“Yeah. What of it?” she asked defensively, puffing up slightly. 

“What… what happened to your…” Robin trailed off. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything.

“I dunno,” she said, not looking him in the eyes. “I woke up and they weren’t there. My uncles.”

“I’m… sorry,” Robin said, knowing it sounded hollow. He hadn’t dwelled much on who he lost since the first day. Not after realizing everyone was gone. In a way, he was sorta glad. His mother would have lost it if this poni- neptin transformation happened to her.

“Nothing you can do about it,” she said brusquely. Robin heard her sniff a little, thanks to his sharper hearing, but pretended not to. He gave her the few moments.

“How did you do that anyway?” he asked, changing the subject again.

“Do what?” she pretended nothing happened.

“The jumping off the balcony. I swore you were gonna fall and hurt yourself,” Robin admitted. She looked at him like he was a complete doofus. “What?”

She spread her wings, which had the same faint glitter effect the rest of her coat did. “Duh!”

“No way you can fly with those!” Robin protested. He thrust a hoof at her wings. “Those things are way too small!”

She didn’t say anything, just started flapping them, faster and faster until her hooves left the ground for just a moment, held it for a second, then let herself drop back, panting slightly. She grinned at Robin’s dumbfounded expression. “Ha! See? Told ya!”

“But…but… that’s not possible!” Robin stuttered. “There’s no way those could have lifted you off the ground!”

“You weren’t a pony three days ago either,” she pointed out, sticking her tongue out at him. “What do you know about what’s possible?”

“I… I need a moment,” Robin said, pushing his shades up to rub between his eyes. 

“Take all the time you need,” she grinned. “I’m Jade by the way.”

“Robin,” he sighed. 







Hey Cellie.
I found a survivor! Well, she technically found me. Her name is Jade Mae Yu. She’s from Odessa. O. de. Sa. She walked all the way to town. That’s a couple hours walk normally. Granted, she had her scooter, but still. Odessa! She realized pretty quickly that no one was around, so she decided to come to town. She looked like a pegasus filly. And she thinks my name (neptin) is dumb. She doesn’t know a good thing when she sees it! Wants to call us ponies. Fie, I say!

It’s dumb and you know it!

Hey! You’re messing up my log!

Really? Sorry, thought you were just talking to yourself, Night Wing.

Just go watch a movie or something!

I’m going, I’m going. You can finish your dairy in peace.

It’s not a- forget it…





Okay, I’m back. I switched to typing this entry by wing. That way Jade can’t overhear. Two and a half finger typing using my wing thumbs and the knuckles on the leading finger. Surprisingly easy to pull off, but I’m going to need practice to get back up to a decent WPM count. 

Anyway, after I met I offered to let her stay with me or in one of the houses next door. She said she’d rather bunk in my place. I gave her her first proper meal in three days too. She’d been mostly getting by on granola bars and dry cereal. Stir-fry veggies and eggs, with ice cream after. I’m trying to get through the perishables before they go bad. I’m considering moving them to the chilled goods section of the store and putting the chilled meats in the freezer. I might need meat in my diet if the teeth are anything to go by.

Fun fact: Jade’s teeth are closer to human standard, with a rather reduced canine (I think the term is incisiform?), especially compared to my outright fangs. I’ll see if the eggs upset her tonight before deciding how much animal protein to test her on, though. 

She also made friends; the two dogs from up the street. We found them sitting on my porch when we got home. They love her. She loves them. They like me, but dog slobber was bad before I had fur. That was just nasty. I’ll stick with Trouble. 

According to the collars, their names are Rocket (small one) and Dax. In one day my place went from one lone guy to having a kid and three pets. I’m going to have to start cleaning up. No, I don’t consider her my kid. That’s just weird. Just someone I’m looking out for. A mentor? She doesn’t hate me and I’m really hoping to keep it that way. I know how kids can be when they hate someone.

Typing by wing is tiring and I think I’m getting a cramp. Really weird feeling.

Right! I might actually be able to fly one day, Cellie. Jade jumped off a building and managed to glide with her wings, and they are tinier than mine! It’s… something to look forward to. I’m not sure how to practice flying though… I don’t want to jump off a roof. It might be how Jade figured out how to glide, but still.

I’m going to bed. I’ve got to try and readjust my sleep cycle to day time now that Jade’s around. Later Cellie.

Oh, after looking back over this to fix the numerous typos, I realized that moment with Jade got transcribed. She decided her nickname for me would either by Thestral Pony or Night Wing (the hero name Robin took when he grew up). You can guess which one I preferred. 

Later Cellie.

GAH! I didn't get the stove! Stupid, stupid, stupid... Another day...