//------------------------------//
// Game Changer 
// Story: After the Storm 
// by Jay911 
//------------------------------//

	I was soaring.
The temperature was just right, the cloud cover was decent, and the sky conditions perfect. Humidity was at a great balance. You couldn't ask for anything better in order to fly.
I dodged a couple of small puffs of cloud and rushed up to perch on a ledge made of vapor. It overlooked a small development in the sky - a cloud street, and two or three cloud buildings on each side. Somebody had been hard at work here already! The detail on the columns was impressive, and the craftsmanship was to be envied in every structure.
Then, below me on the street, I saw her, and blinked.
Luna? I wondered to myself. But didn't you say the last time I saw you that we'd never meet again?
I was confused, but pleased. I sat up straight and prepared to greet the pony, when whoa! she was there right in front of me, face-to-face. It was so quick I didn't even see how she did it.
She held a bright but inquisitive look on her face, mere centimeters from my own snout. I was about to ask her if everything was okay when she spoke, in a high-pitched voice that was not her own.
"Miss Storm? Are you up yet?"
...Huh?

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015
07:42AM

I opened my eyes to see a yellow face with huge expressive blue eyes and an orange-and-white mane, uncomfortably close to my own muzzle, studying me intensely.
"Gaah," I blurted out, flinching a little.
"Did you know your wings flutter when you snore?" Randy said innocently.
"Guh... Can't say've ever noticed," I mumbled, shrinking back from the colt and trying to get to my feet.
"Randy!" Jenn called out from somewhere else in the store. "Are you pestering Ms Storm again?"
"I just asked if she was awake!" he hollered back.
"It's okay," I called out, trying to hide the tired sound from my voice. "I'm good! It's all good."
"I'm so sorry, Ms Storm," Jenn said, coming to the doorway of my room. "I guess he got away from me when I got busy making breakfast."
"It's fine," I insisted. "And my friends call me Stormy, okay?"
"Do I count??" Randy said, hopping back up to his hooves from the sitting position he'd adopted when I woke up.
"Of course you do, little guy," I said with a smile, scratching the back of my neck with a hoof. "But whatever you wanted will have to wait until I'm up and ready to take on the day. All right?"
"I just wanna hang out with you," he said.
I shook my head a little and couldn't help but smile. "Fair enough," I told him.
"Are you sure that's all right?" Jenn asked from the doorway.
"Leave him with me, it's fine," I nodded. "Go do whatever you were doing."
"Do you want something to eat, then?" she asked.
"Sure. Whatever you're whipping up is fine," I smiled. "Thanks."
"And thank you," Jenn said, nodding to the bundle of energy bouncing from hoof to hoof before me. She smiled, turned, and walked away.
I looked down to Randy, who was grinning and hopping about. "What are we doing first?" he asked.

After breakfast, my number one fan continued to chase me around.
"Where're we going?" he wanted to know.
"Checking out your house," I said. I walked out of the Wal-Mart part of Ponytown into the mall itself, where we'd taken the first store - a shoe place - and cleaned it out for Greg, Jenn, and Randy. So far, a couple of mattresses and a few shelves as dividers were in place, and Serge, Greg, and Rich and Swift were working at making it more of a livable space.
"How's it going?" I asked.
Swift looked up and smiled. "Hi," she said, coming over to us. "Not bad. Still trying to figure out the layout. Obviously we have the bedrooms started. Once we put the common room in, Serge is suggesting we get power and communication lines working."
"That's something I hadn't thought of," I nodded. "I mean, yes, power, that's a no-brainer, but they're outside the main store, so they could benefit from... a... phone..."
I was trailing off because the fidgeting, pacing colt at my feet was being lifted off the ground in a cloud of magic. He giggled as he soared over my head, and Swift smirked as I felt four small hooves touch down on my back, right between my wing joints.
"Really?" I said to her.
"You were saying?" she grinned innocently.
I shook my head. "It's a good idea," I repeated. "But you know who the right person to talk to about that is."
"Yup. And if you find him, mention it to him. He wasn't out in the field when I checked ten minutes ago."
"'Kay," I said and waved to the others, who greeted us in various ways. I began to slowly turn around, mindful of my cargo. "You holding on back there?"
"Let's go!" he urged, digging in and gripping tightly.
I shook my head again at Swift. "Look what you started," I said and went into the hall.

"Let's go flying!"
"Maybe later," I said. "I like to check out everything that's going on in the morning, so I have something to say on the radio at noon. Be patient."
"Okay, but I want to go flying later."
"We should make sure it's okay first. Remind me to ask your m-"
I winced and fell silent, the only sound being my hooves clopping on the tile floor.
"It's okay," Randy said softly, with much less energy than before. "Sometimes I feel like they're my mom and dad."
"I just said it by reflex," I apologized. "I didn't mean to make you sad."
"I'm okay," he shrugged. "My real mom and dad wouldn't leave me. I know they'll be back. We left notes saying where we went. They know to look for me here."
I almost felt the need to wipe away tears. "How old are you, kiddo?"
"Nine," he said. "Almost ten. In December."
"You're a pretty grown-up nine almost ten," I said. "I know lots of people who wouldn't handle this that well."
"Greg said he heard you say something one night on the radio which made a lot of sense, and he told me I should follow your advice. He said you said that we can't change the past, and we should 'live to the moment' or something like that."
"Live for the moment," I smiled, blinking a few times to keep my eyes from clouding up. "That's right." I remembered the night I'd spoken about that - I'd been particularly missing my sister and her boys that day. I offered the actual statement I'd said: "Don't worry about what's in the past, because you can't do anything about it. And don't worry about what might happen in the future, because you can change that, and there's no point in worrying about what you can change. So just live for the moment, and make your own destiny."
"Yeah," Randy said. "That."
We went into the back room of the store and found Jeff there, rooting through boxes and moving things this way and that.
"You-know-who's got a system of organization for all this stuff," I called out to him. "If she sees this you might sleep on a rafter tonight."
He swung his head around and looked at me. "I'm looking for candles, and cake mix."
"Oh, those kind of candles," I said. I'd almost directed him to the decorative ones we were using for illumination during cloudy, windless nights when we didn't want to drain the power banks.
"Whose birthday is it?!" Randy blurted out, and it finally clicked with me too. My eyes widened as I said "oooh" and looked at Jeff.
"You can't tell anypony," he instructed Randy, who I could feel nod vigorously in return.
"It's Karin's eighteenth tomorrow," he told us.
"Ooooh," I repeated, grinning. "Okay, now this is something I can get behind." I went over to the shelving to help him look. "I'm not sure if cake mix spoils or not, though."
"Sure it does," Jeff said. "You've never seen that chain email? Geez. But it's supposed to be decent for about 5 months past the 'best before' date, so we should be just about good. I'll use several and if one or two don't rise, we know they're bad."
"You could try to make it from scratch," I said. "I'm sure we have flour and stuff left over from the HPI stash..."
"The only one who's any good at making cakes and muffins from scratch is the one this is for," Jeff pointed out, moving another box.
"Oh, right," I said. I looked at several boxes on the shelf nearest me, trying to see if I could find anything useful. The pressure on my back grew and then disappeared, and I panicked briefly, until I turned around and saw that Randy had leapt off onto one of the shelves to help in the search.
"So how are you two doing?" I asked Jeff conversationally, not sure how far he was willing to take the talk with a youngster present.
"Good," he nodded. "Pretty good. We have the farming and animal husbandry down to a science now. We know what each other's done and what needs to be done still."
"Finishing each other's sentences yet?" I smirked.
He chuckled. "You think that's funny, but..."
"Candles!" Randy blurted out, nudging a box forward with his head.
Jeff and I looked up and peered into the box, finding not only birthday candles, but all sorts of birthday and party decorations piled in as well.
"Huh," Jeff said.
"Kinda looks like somepony figured we'd need all this stuff at the same time soon enough," I smiled.
"I'm gonna jump down," Randy cautioned me.
"Okay. Be gentle, I only have one spine," I shot back, and he obediently took it easy on me.
"What's with this, by the way?" Jeff asked, nodding to the colt on my back.
"Swifty put him up there, when he was almost underhoof," I said. "I guess I kinda owe him a quick flight-"
"REALLY?!"
"Hush, kiddo. We'll get to it soon enough!" I said, and Jeff found himself smirking. I said to the earth pony, "Do you want our help finding the cake mixes?"
"Nah, I'm through more than half of what I needed to search," he said. "I might need to break off and put in an appearance out at the chicken coop so she sees me doing work."
"And sneak a few eggs away for the mixes," I winked.
Jeff smirked again. "I've got a plan," he said. "Thanks, little guy, for the help!"
"No problem!" I heard from over my shoulder, and Jeff laughed.
We turned away, and I walked towards another set of boxes at the far end of the warehouse. "Hang on tight," I said, hopping into the pallet-sized crate and rooting around.
"Whatcha lookin' for?" Randy asked.
"Just never you mind," I said, crouching down and kicking at things with my forelegs. "I'll know it when I see it."
"But I could probably help-"
"You probably could, but it's more fun this way," I told him. "You'll see in a minute."
True enough, in about five minutes, I'd found what I was looking for, in a box with a stylized O on it, much like I'd received from Serge some months before.
"Snow goggles?" Randy said quizzically, like I'd not noticed that there wasn't a flake on the ground.
I busied myself removing the box and packaging from the size small goggles. "Nope. Not any more." I held up the device as I finally got it free of its plastic prison. "Flying goggles."
Randy gasped and nearly fell off my back, thanking me profusely and clutching the goggles with his forehooves. I sat down, letting him fall off my back gently, and turned so I was facing him, so I could help him fit the goggles to his head.
"There ya go," I said. "Let's go get mine, then."
"Okay!" he nodded, the eyewear a little too big for him, but still staying on his face even with the vigorous nod he'd given. He climbed back up on me, and I stood, then hopped back out of the crate, and trotted to my room.
"Oho!" Jenn said as we passed through the common room, where she was tidying up our perpetual mess. "Looks like somebody's ready to take to the skies."
"Almost," I said, ducking into my room and grabbing the strap of my goggles in my teeth. I flipped them in the air and let them fall on my head, lifting a hoof to tug the strap down over the back of my mane. "There we go."
"Come watch, Jenn!"
"Maybe next time," Jenn said with a smile. "I've found quite the job of my own here."
"Sorry," I said apologetically. "We'll learn to keep it tidy if we have somepony guilt-tripping us when she has to clean up after us, I promise."
Jenn laughed and waved at me dismissively. "Go have fun," she said.

A few moments later, we were on the roof.
"Okay. Ground rules," I said.
"Ground rules? For flying?" Randy balked.
"You know what I mean," I said. "Hang on as tight as possible at all times. Don't worry about hurting me. I'll be able to handle it. Just stay in between my wings and don't get in their way."
"Gotcha."
"If you start to lose your grip, tell me. Don't be afraid to cut our flight short for your safety. We'll have plenty of time to fly in the future, but not if you fall."
"I'm not gonna fall."
"And if anything gets to be too much for you-"
"Pfft. No chance! Let's go!" he hollered, giving a kick with a hind leg.

I maybe should've brought ear protection, I told myself a few moments later. The happy shrieks from just behind my head were deafening, even over the wind noise.
We were just taking a leisurely flap around the periphery of Ponytown at maybe 50 or 60 meters, but to believe Randy's enthusiasm, we were in a full acrobatic display rivalling that of the Snowbirds, Blue Angels, and Red Arrows all put together. He was hooting and crowing and cheering so hard I started to wonder if he'd have any breath left.
I snuck in a few gentle banks and turns here and there, and one or two sudden climbs or drops, but nothing overly dramatic - not for a first flight, especially when I wasn't convinced he could maintain his grip. Maybe we'd cook up some kind of tandem harness like skydivers used, and that would let us get serious.
I didn't have the heart to tell him I could feel that it was going to rain shortly, which would be good for the field. Karin waved at us - undoubtedly she could hear us - and I waved back. Not sure if Randy did, or if he kept his promise to keep all four hooves in tight contact with my hide.
For a finale, just to give the kid one more thrill, I actually dove in through the open door of the auto bays, crossed them into the main part of the store, and landed semi-clumsily (but getting better, as always!) near the common area.
"That was awesome!" Randy gushed, hopping down and running around me in circles. Jenn came over and giggled and grinned at the show.
"Did you have fun?" Jenn needlessly asked.
"Did you see us?" Randy said incredulously in return. "We were like a thousand feet in the air!"
Maybe two hundred, I mouthed to her, and she winked.
"You'd better remember to thank Stormy," Jenn told him.
He whipped around so fast the goggles shifted sideways a little, blocking his vision. "Thanks, Stormy!" he blurted out.
I laughed and gave the goggles a tug so that they hung around his neck, like I wore mine sometimes. "I need to do some work now, but maybe you can come watch me do the radio broadcast at noon if you like."
"You bet!" he said enthusiastically.
"Put those in your room somewhere safe so they don't get scratched," Jenn told him, indicating the goggles. "You can explore, so long as you don't go anywhere that's closed off, and if somebody asks you to stay away, follow their instructions."
"Okay," he nodded.
"Be over at the radio shack at 11:50," I called after him as he departed. He indicated he'd heard me with a wave.
"Thanks for that," Jenn told me. "He's been on about meeting you for so long - I think you just made his life."
"Oh, I hope he has a lot more fun than that in his life," I smiled. "But I'm happy to be a part of it. Did you need any help around here?"
"No, thanks. I'm almost done. But I had an idea I wanted to run past one of you."
"I'm one of us," I quipped. "Go ahead."
"The little guy - and the rest of us, eventually - are going to want more distractions in our lives. All those TVs and stuff pushed over in the corner-" she indicated the remnants of the electronics section, shoved into a disused space "-do you mind if I see if I can't find something that works and set it up with a DVD player and game machine and such?"
"Oh! By all means," I smiled. "One of the big ones is probably still hooked up that way. Might need to charge the controllers and dust everything off. If you can find a place in the common room to put it, go ahead - even if you wanted to move one of the walls, I wouldn't mind. Just ask for some help-"
She grinned and flexed a massive foreleg. "I think I can manage," she told me.
"Oh. Right. Earth pony." I smirked. "Well, then, go right ahead."
"Thanks," she said, and went back to her work.

I went back to the shoe-store-turned-Somerset-house and saw that much progress had been made. Only now, it was Swift and Greg alone.
"Rich went to help with the chickens, and Serge is on a milk run," Swift explained when I inquired.
"Gotcha," I said. "Need any help here?"
"We've got some power sockets identified we want to activate," Greg said. "Can you help with that?"
"I can tie this store into one of the inverters and then everything in here will be hot," I nodded. "Nothing's plugged in or switched on right now, right? Don't want anyone zapped when I throw the switch."
"We're all good," Greg nodded.
I threw a salute and moved through the back of the store to the service corridor. I'll spare you the details of how I figured out what conduit needed to be opened up and where the cable had to be routed to, but suffice it to say the dust in the false ceiling is aggravating on pony fur and feathers. Up on the roof a half an hour later, I finally had the cable tied in to our jerry-rigged power system, and spun up a couple of windmills to compensate for the extra load I'd be putting online. Then, I flipped the breaker on, and went back downstairs.
"Should be good now," I said as I returned to the store. "Got anything to test it with?"
Swift was levitating a desk lamp with its light shining brightly. "Ta-da," she grinned.
"Excellent," I said, hoof-bumping her. "What's next?"
"Well," Greg said, "the other thing we were talking about is communications, but I'm not sure how to go about that just yet."
I smirked. "Despite what my butt says, communications is my forté," I told him. "What's the plan?"
"That's just it. There really isn't one."
"Okay, then. If you're wanting to talk just from here to the main part-" I tossed a wing to indicate the ex-Wal-Mart "-a phone might work, but it'll take a bit for us to rewire the system to work between the two places. Right now it's dependent on a telephone company switching station that no longer exists."
"Right. And if nobody was in the store, it would be pointless."
"Exactly," I nodded. "We communicate by radio when we're outside or off-site. So I wonder if a base station isn't more appropriate here."
"Can you hook it to the antenna array?" Swift asked.
"Need another cable run," I said, thinking of the dusty ceilings again. "But I can manage it."
"Okay then," Greg said. "If you think that's right, let's do it. Um, is there a 'base station' we can use, or do we have to go scavenge one? Will it cost me anything?"
I made a dismissive 'pfft' sound and waved a hoof. "We have plenty of radios, and nothing inside Ponytown is going to cost you, ever, as far as I'm concerned. Internally we have no reason to trade or accrue wealth, the way I see it. What am I going to do with coins or hunks of paper or plastic, or bottle caps? We're all in this together. Maybe someday you can do something to pay me back, like take a shift of egg-harvesting from me, or something like that."
"Well, thank you, then," Greg said humbly.
I smiled and nodded. "I'll go grab a radio."

Later, after my work in the Somerset house had been addressed, I was back to my own schedule. By eleven-forty-five, I'd been in the radio shack for fifteen minutes already, poking out an outline of what I was going to say into the word processor on my laptop. As I'd expected, Randy came trundling up the steps, earlier than requested.
"Hi, Stormy!" he said enthusiastically. "Are you getting ready?"
"Yuth," I said around the stylus in my mouth. I nudged the laptop sideways so he could see the screen. "Voin'... ham on..." I spat the pen out. "Going through my notes."
"Is that how you type now?" he said, looking at the device I'd been using to poke at keys.
"A lot easier than bashing away with these," I said, holding up my hooves. "Did you have a computer before the Event?"
"Yeah, and a PlayStation," he nodded. "Maybe you can teach me how to type with my teeth and a pen. I want to play Minecraft again."
"I'm not sure if we have that set up," I said, "but we'll see what we can do. And for sure I'll teach you, and everypony else, how to use human equipment when we don't have hands any more."
"Okay," he nodded, then sat down beside me. "That's a lot of radios."
I looked up at the cluster of communications devices he was observing, and smiled. I went through the explanation, as I had before with others, of what each radio did and how I used it. Unlike most others, he remained enraptured through the whole 'tour'.
"And now it's almost time," I said, looking at the clock on the computer. "While I'm transmitting, I need you to keep quiet. These mics are really sensitive and can pick up even a whisper. Okay?"
He nodded silently.
I smiled and started throwing switches. It was a practiced procedure that allowed me to be pushing the last button right at the stroke of 12.
"Afternoon, everypony," I said into the mic. "It's high noon in Ponytown and this is Sudden Storm as usual interrupting your lunch. It's Friday, September 25, and even if TGIF doesn't apply any more, we can at least pretend it does."
I went on for a moment or three about the weather - what it was doing, what I was predicting it would be doing in the future, and what I intended to do with it at some stage as necessary. That was something that differed from the human world - weather broadcasts that described planned activities. I smiled at the changes we'd undergone in such a few short months.
"Excuse any background noise you've heard over the past few days on the channel," I said. "Ponytown has been expanding to accommodate our newest arrivals. As I've said before, we have plenty of space, so feel free to come by and do a meet'n'greet."
"Actually," I said as I got an idea, deviating off-script, "I have one of our new residents right here. Say hello, Randy."
He blinked and his ears flattened. His eyes darted between me and the mic. I winked and nodded, smiling at him. "Uh... h-hi," he said shyly.
"We've had a fun couple of days so far, right Randy? What did we do earlier today?"
"We flew," he said.
"Did you like it?"
"Yes," he grinned, blushing, slowly getting into the groove.
"What do you think of Ponytown?"
"I love it," he said, nodding emphatically.
"Good," I said, nodding and putting a free hoof through his mane. "I'm happy that you're happy. Wait 'til we milk some cows tomorrow. Anyway, folks, that's about all that we've got to report today. We've been busy settling Randy's group in, so there's not much dramatic to speak of. As always, if you think of something, call in. If you have the ability and haven't yet, call in. If you have never heard me before - you guessed it - call in. See you at six."
"That was fun," Randy said when he recognized that the transmission was over.
"Sorry for putting you on the spot like that," I said. "The idea hit me right then, and I couldn't resist."
"It's OK," he said. "It was cool!"
"Good," I repeated, then started to speak again, but stopped.
"When you do it again at six o'clock, can I-"
"Ssh!" I hushed him urgently. My ears swiveled back and forth, until I spotted the red LED lit up on one radio out of the corner of my eye. It was the 'receive' LED.
I shot over to that device and mashed the volume knob with a hoof, turning it up. Through some mild static, I could make out a voice.
"-ytown, Ponytown, it's good to finally catch you when conditions are good," came the voice. "How do you read us?"

An hour later, everypony was in the common area for lunch. This was unusual in itself; normally, people just ate as necessary throughout the day, and a formal midday meal didn't take place. Today, however, I had important things to bring to everypony's attention.
"What's the occa- whoa," Serge said, coming into the room. Besides the cleanup and changes Jenn had been making, there was a large map of North America taped to one of the walls. "What's with the map?"
"And where'd you get it?" Karin wanted to know.
Randy thrust a hoof in the air. "Her lackey brought it over from the book store!"
I facehoofed. Swift leaned over and not-whispered to me, "I told you calling him that in earshot was a bad idea."
"It's important in a minute," I said to the collected group. "And I thank... my helper, Randy... for finding it in the Chapters. Okay. Guys, I had a reply to my noontime broadcast today."
"What?" "Whoa." "Excellent!" and some other gasps or exultations arose from the group.
"So now comes the dramatic reveal of where from?" Rich asked.
"Exactly," I nodded, and fiddled with a thumbtack, trying to take it up in my hooves and put it in the map. "Um."
Swift sighed and the tack levitated away from me. "Show me where," she said.
I pointed with a hoof. "Right here," I said.
"Indianapolis?" Jeff asked, peering in at the map.
I looked at where Swift had stuck the pin, and then shifted my hoof a little. "Slightly further west," I said. "Paris, Illinois."
"What the heck is in Paris?" Serge asked.
"A big community," I said. "Bigger than us. A little bigger. With a lot more information than we have. You're going to want to hear this."
And so I dove into the story, explaining to my friends how the radio call had been the first part - requesting me to find a satellite phone and give its number. When I protested that ours didn't work, the pony on the other end asked (more like snapped at) me to humor her. So I did, and to my amazement, the damned thing rang. With a caller-ID value of zero. It'd never occurred to me to call the operator to get ours working again.
The pony from Paris told me all about their situation, and what they'd been through. And the more interesting thing (forgive me, Paris pony) was that they knew what had happened to us. I explained all the gory details - at least, what I'd been told in the short, 45-minute conversation - to my friends. How 'magic' had suddenly filled our universe in May 2015. How it stood to wipe out humanity, but didn't, because we were saved.
That's exactly what I said, saved. As it turns out, the people that disappeared? They'd be coming back. Not right away, and some not for a very long time, but they'd be back. They would be ponies, or similar creatures - it turns out that the transformation is what allowed us to survive in a universe suddenly infused with magic. I couldn't understand why some of us showed up immediately (or reasonably soon after 'immediately') and others would take time. The cryptic answer 'because you were ready' from Paris didn't help me figure it out. Ready for what? Does that mean when Sue and her boys are 'ready' to be ponies, they'll show up in their beds? When Randy's parents and sibling can handle equinity, they'll appear at the rest stop, wondering where he is?
To say that the answers raised more questions is an understatement, of course. Supposedly, though, Paris had more answers. And eventually we'd be sharing in them. For now, they were happy to hear of our self-sustainability, and urged us to keep that up, and keep doing what we were doing - gathering survivors, people, ponies, and caring for them, and working with them to make Ponytown strong and reliable.
That was the other thing - I was told to expect a phone call from the HPI in the evening. Apparently Dr Baker and his group was only an element of the 'humans in black'; Paris knew of them and worked with them regularly. And as good as the relationship between us and Baker was, apparently Paris' relationship was even better, and that was being explained as the reason I should expect a call. That gave me pause, but no sense fretting over it until it happened.
Everypony was speechless by the time I finished explaining what I'd been told. We thought we'd be pleased enough to learn of other colonies/camps/settlements out there, and we were, but to learn what caused all this? And that it wasn't as bleak as it seemed? There were a lot of interesting expressions around that room that afternoon. Relief. Bewilderment. Determination. Hope.
Despite it all, though, Saturday, September 26 - the next day - would be just another day. (Well, except for one particular pony who would be pampered and treated.) We'd continue our work to make Ponytown 'the' place to be for survivors in the local (and semi-distant) area.
Survivors.
We can't use that word any more. It doesn't fit. We're all survivors now. Even the ones who aren't here.
I'll figure something else out later, I told myself.
The rest of the afternoon was a write-off as far as work was concerned. We'd finish off the Somerset house, and wrap up what had been interrupted by lunch, but the bombshell dropped on us was too big to just shrug off and keep going on like nothing was different. We'd need to talk it over and sort out our priorities.
But sort it out we would, because in the end, the answers we got from Paris were just more pieces to the puzzle, not ultimate miracle-working catch-alls. There was still work to do, and a winter to prepare for.
But at least now we knew what to look forward to down the road.