Alex was more than a little relieved when she saw flashing lights in the distance. She leaned forward towards the exit, and was the first to hop down onto the grass when they finally stopped. She received several salutes as she passed the barricade, and was only dimly conscious of the others following her. She slowed enough for Joseph to catch up with them, and didn't meet his eyes even as he pointedly glared in her direction.
"I'm still not sure why you felt it necessary to bring me. It seems like you have the situation well in hand. Carol is already here, and you're bringing Blacklight along. I don't understand why you couldn't have just waited and called me if I was actually necessary."
Alex rolled her eyes, and forced herself not to reply as she made her way towards the batpony that was presently in command of the quarantine.
Like the others, Carol saluted as Alex approached. "Lonely Day, I didn't expect you would make it out here. How did you find out so fast?" The batpony had once been part of an evil cult, which had attempted a hostile takeover of Alexandria. That attempt had been thwarted, and after many years she was now the head of its military. She now wore the tactical vest that was the symbol of her office, along with the P90 submachine gun that was the main weapon of any militiaman of Alexandria.
"I received the call less than an hour ago. It came from inside: Hiram Young. He told me what was happening, and I brought the best experts we have. First though, I'd like to have your report."
Carol nodded, and gestured to a spot a little ways away from the other militiamen waiting in the street. Alex followed, and soon they stood under the shade of a large tree with a clear view of the field and farmhouse beyond. "We got the call from emergency services just a few hours ago. I wasn't on the team that initially investigated, but Merchant was, and made the call almost immediately that the area should be quarantined. As you're probably aware, the effects of whatever strange magic they managed to create are rather horrific. Missing limbs, total transformations... nasty stuff. No blood though, no pain."
She lowered her voice, leaning closer to Alex. She dutifully returned the gesture. "I may recognize the symptoms from something I remember hearing about in Equestria. I don't see how it would be possible for this Equestrian plant to have ended up here on Earth. As a matter of fact I think you'd all be better off if it didn't. I couldn't go in to investigate though, not without an order from you or from the City Council. I guess you're here now, so if it's all the same to you I think I'd like to go in."
Alex nodded, biting her lower lip. "Exactly what do you think this is?"
Carol shook her head. "A little knowledge would be worse than none, Alex. I'd prefer only to tell you if it looks like I was right."
Alex was far from happy with this decision, but she nodded anyway. Her words to Queen Blacklight would be empty if she didn't actually live them. "Alright." She turned back to the road, gesturing. "Let's go, everyone. Joseph, I want your thaumic senses watching every inch of the space in front of us. If we're about to walk into a spell, stop us."
He nodded, taking his place at the front of the group. His horn began to glow, though he shook his head. "Field's on fire. Nothing in the farmhouse. It should be safe to go in."
"Safe enough that you would go first?"
He spent another few seconds, before nodding defiantly. "I would!"
"You don't actually have to." They stopped outside the single-story farmhouse, glancing back. "Can you send one of your drones with me, Riley? The rest of you can wait out here, and you'll know if anything happens."
The changeling queen nodded. Joseph and Carol didn't look happy, but neither of them argued. They had seen Alex's remarkable regenerative abilities before, even if they didn't understand the full implications. "Alright Alex. Be quick in there. I'm pretty sure it's safe."
"I'll make that call." Alex stepped up onto the porch, the shape of a drone at her side. She knocked loudly with one hoof. It took only a second for it to open.
Hiram Young stood inside, hat in one hoof and eyes downcast. He was a full-grown earth pony stallion, with a white coat and yellowish mane he kept short as many stallions did. Just as he had taken no pony name, he had also refused the custom of regular nudity, insisting on wearing both pants and shirt despite the heat.
"Thank God you made it, Mayor." He glanced over her shoulder, then stepped out of her way. "Such a large party."
"Not a first. This mare and I are the only ones going in at first." He shook her hoof, then extended to shake with the changeling.
"We haven't had the pleasure, Miss-"
Alex wasn't entirely surprised to see the changeling return the gesture, not with her queen literally feet behind her. Of course Riley could be controlling her. Yet the gesture had such a halting uncertainty to it, she couldn't imagine why the queen would act that way. Was she trying to get Hiram to believe it was a real pony?
Her shock grew as the drone spoke, her voice robotic yet bearing traces of sadness. "17." She looked sidelong at Alex. Her eyes still lacked expression, but Alex didn't need it to guess what the drone might mean.
"She's a changeling drone, Hiram. They don't really have names."
"Ahh, one of Chip's people." He shrugged. "Seems a shame to me. I'll call you friend if you can help mine." He turned, waiting for them to follow. They did, leaving the door open behind them. Soon Alex was in the living room, looking upon the pathetic scene that magical experimentation had created.
Abundance Supernatural employed just over a dozen ponies, and they were all crowded into the living room, in various stages of distress. In the center was the couch, and there she found the victims of the mysterious supernatural plague she had come to restore.
She would've laughed if she hadn't known the occasion was so serious. Magic was obviously at work, but... not in any way she had ever seen it employed before. It was all transformation magic, though not with any discernible practical purpose.
There was a stallion whose mane and tail had been changed from gray hair to an actual raincloud, occasionally sparking and constantly dripping water down his face and widening the damp spot he was sitting on. Beside him was a mare, whose rear hooves seemed to have melted into roots into a comically large pot. Leaves and little shoots grew from her at random, and a garland of flowers circled her mane in a way that suggested they were very much attached.
Beside her was another mare, whose coat seemed replaced with thick, sandpapery skin and whose tail had gone thick and forked like a shark's. As she opened her mouth to whimper, Alex saw sharp teeth within, and her eyes were far darker than any pony's had a right to be. Lastly was one of the largest, most muscular stallions she had ever seen, except... that his limbs seemed to have deflated somehow, like they belonged to a weak little colt that hadn't hit puberty yet. Somehow, she doubted very much they could lift that disproportionately-large chest.
"How long have you ponies been like this?"
"Since this morning," answered the stallion on the left, his voice coming with a slight gurgle for all the water dripping down his face. He didn't seem to be having trouble breathing. Alex concentrated on his face for a moment before she could identify his transformed features. Glenn was his name, and he had worked for Monsanto as some kind of plant engineer before the Event.
The shark mare nodded, her voice coming out as a shy squeak. "Me too. We all live here..." she gestured vaguely towards the second story. "I thought it was everybody. It wasn't." Determining her identity took a little longer, though Archive recognized the voice. It belonged to Violet, who hadn't even graduated high school before the Event. Alex hadn't spoken with her since she immigrated, however.
The tree said nothing, though the near-helpless stallion glared down at his hooves. "Only since an hour ago. I got 'em out of the field just fine. But when I went into the shower..." He raised one feeble leg. "This shit happened."
She surveyed the room, searching for signs of unpredictable magic in the other ponies here. None seemed affected; none were getting smaller or getting sharp teeth or getting rooted to the floor. "And none of the rest of you were exposed?"
Several ponies shook their heads. She met the eyes of each in turn, making sure to get confirmation before she turned to Hiram. "If there's a lab here somewhere, you must have some secure container, right? I'd like to get a sample of whatever plant this is to my magical expert." She faced the drone, and spoke as though she was speaking to Riley. "Do you think you could obtain it for us?"
"Of course."
"The lab isn't in this building, but we have a few supplies in the basement." He looked the drone up and down. "Will you be wanting safety equipment as well?"
Alex opened her mouth to answer, but Blacklight beat her to it, speaking through the drone. "No. I wish to see if changelings can be affected. If proximity to exposed ponies does not carry with it a risk of infecting others, this should not interfere."
"Alright." He shrugged, vanishing down a doorway. He emerged a few minutes later with a tupperware in his mouth. A pair of gardening shears rested inside, but nothing else. "Here you are."
The changeling took the container in her magic, though she didn't get out the door before Alex stopped her. "Blacklight, take the sample and meet us out front. We'll talk out there." As the changeling nodded, she turned her eyes again on the unfortunates in the center of the room. "Ponies, we'll get this fixed. I promise to use all the resources available to me to see to your immediate restoration."
The pony with clouds instead of a mane rolled his eyes. "Political crap, Mayor? You can't give us anything concrete?"
Her eyes narrowed, and she advanced a pace towards him. "Glenn, I will make this my first priority. But I won't make you empty promises. I know of no spell the Equestrians gave us that has effects like this, nor any counterspell. This does not mean that none could be devised. Remain patient for a few minutes, and I'll give you more."
The stallion nodded, cowed for the moment. The others all looked grateful, though none spoke. "My friends will come in to speak with you. Joseph in particular may examine you with his magic. Please cooperate with them in any way they ask; it will make restoring you to yourselves easier." With their assent she retreated, to the waiting crowd of ponies outside.
"It seems safe." She gestured over her shoulder. "Honestly, I expected something a little more gruesome. It's clearly magic, but... not something I would expect from a disease. Go take a look for yourselves, but only a few at a time. Joseph and True Sight, why don't you go first?"
Blacklight showed no sign of wanting to go inside. She had, after all, already seen the ponies within.
"You don't have to expose your drone intentionally, you know." She spoke quietly, so nopony else would overhear. "I appreciate your volunteering in case the conditions here were more dangerous, but they're clearly not. If you really wanted, you could probably fly home..."
Blacklight shook her head vigorously. "I guess you never wondered if Cody had a soul."
"Of course not!"
Blacklight wiped a tear away from one of her eyes. "I do wonder about my children. Perhaps whatever this is can help me discover the truth. I would gladly sacrifice one of my drones for the answer. Even if the answer is despair."
* * *
It didn't even take twenty full minutes for all of Alex's ponies to return from their various investigations. She heard each of their reports one at a time, starting with Joseph. He had no idea what spell had been used and no idea how it might be countered, not without a living sample of whatever plant had caused it. He could clearly testify that each of the victims was under the effect of a spell and that their transformations were not permanent. True Sight seemed to grow more disturbed after her investigation of the victims, though of course she had already heard the report of their symptoms from Hiram over the radio.
It was the arrival of the sample from the field that changed the course of their discussion. Blacklight's drone returned, levitating the sealed collection container in her magic. She set the sample down at their hooves, and all of them crowded around its sealed shape to look. Alex got a very clear look at the flowers through the plastic, and she felt her chest grow cold.
True Sight shivered, and that only made it worse. "That doesn't look like much," Joe said, nudging the box casually with one hoof. Blacklight glared at him, though she did not reprove.
The batpony was the first to say anything useful, and it was hardly what Alex would've wanted to hear. "I have seen this before. It's called-"
"Poison Joke," Alex supplied, pacing a slow circle around the sealed box.
"Yes!" Sight's eyes widened. "How did you know, Mayor? This is an Equestrian plant, and a fairly obscure one. It only grows in one place, a dangerous forest filled with chaotic magic and hostile animals. I've been asked to harvest it before. When I still-"
"No need, Sight. We understand you had no choice in anything you did when you worked for Odium." She sat down, rubbing her temples with one forehoof. "I know because it's mentioned in one of the Equestrian books, along with the recipe for an herbal bath meant to treat it."
"That sounds like great news!" Joseph retreated a pace, halfway turning away. "It means you don't need me, and I can get back to my lab! The ponies get to be cured, everybody wins."
"Yes, but..." Alex frowned, turning to Blacklight. "How good are you at identifying herbs, Riley?"
The queen shook her head. "I know what my drones can eat. I don't know any of the names. My swarm won't be any use to you in collecting them from the wild. Telling the subtle differences apart in plant species is too complex for them to do without me, and I can still only reach out a few miles."
She nodded. "It didn't hurt to hope." She gestured vaguely at the truck. "I suppose I don't need anypony but Sight at this point. You may all leave. Tell the driver to take you back. Poison Joke takes physical contact, so you'll all be fine." She turned her eyes on the drone. "Except this one, maybe. She should probably stay here, since it takes some time for symptoms to manifest."
The drone showed no sign she realized that she was being talked about. Riley nodded, however. "I would've left her anyway, to see what you do with this new development."
Joseph rolled his eyes. "I don't care about any of this. Who cares anymore? We have the cure! Go get your boyfriend, get some herbs, and let the rest of us go home."
"You are a fool." Blacklight met Joseph's eyes without a hint of hesitation. She was one of the few ponies who would say such things to him. Joseph was, so far as Alex knew, the most talented and knowledgeable unicorn in the world. He had even surpassed their few cultist unicorns, which hadn't really been hard since only Ryan had ever known much magic. "Apply your intellect for a moment and see past your own muzzle. Either these ponies spontaneously invented an Equestrian plant with dangerous properties... or somepony has or had imported them from Equestria and got them into the hooves of these ponies. Given this plant is dangerous, and everypony we have ever met from Equestria here in Alexandria has had hostile intentions, it is thus likely a new enemy is currently in Alexandria or was whenever the seeds were planted."
She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "They might even be inside that cabin. Thus, while I appreciate your suggestions that we return to our lives, I think Alexandria is better served by you not taking this risk on your own, Alex." She reached out, patting Alex firmly on the shoulder. "I admire that you take risks for your city, but the present optimal choice involves all of us acting together. Including you, unicorn scholar. Your talents are more needed here than in your laboratory."
Joseph wasn't Moriah. Anger passed quickly from his face, replaced with the recognition that Blacklight's logic was sound.
"I wish you weren't so smart, Riley. Carol and I could've taken care of this. I don't think it's going to be as serious as you think."
Riley shrugged. "Because they let us take a sample of the plant freely?" At Alex's nod, she continued. "That suggests they either do not know its origins and so did not think we would recognize anything familiar about it, or that they simply don't care, and whatever plan they've made will not be affected by our knowledge. There might have been poison inside, or maybe they have the entire area booby-trapped. Maybe they have an army and they're taking over Alexandria as we speak."
"They aren't." True Sight held up her radio. "There hasn't been a word on this the whole time we've been talking. No sound of human weapons in the distance, either, or magic. They couldn't take over the city without me hearing it, even from out here. Somepony would've said something."
"Even with some of your militia blockading the farm?"
She nodded. "Even so. Ever since last year, we've got wings in the air day and night. We won't let raiders surprise us again! If they don't check in every ten minutes, the alarm goes off automatically."
"Sight, call headquarters. Tell them if we don't give them an all-clear in ten minutes, that they should consider Alexandria in a state of emergency and mobilize every minute-mare in the city. Expect heavy reinforcement from the Vermilion hive." She looked inquisitively to Riley as she said so, and the queen nodded.
"If I'm still alive, yes. If not... I'm afraid it will be all my males can do to keep order. Frankly I wouldn't have high hopes of even that."
"I won't let you die then." She lowered her voice again. "Sight, get your quarantine ponies organized, let them know there might be trouble. I'm going to go back in with the drone and talk to Hiram... hopefully we're all overreacting. The rest of you, surround the house. If it sounds like trouble, get in and help me. Blacklight will be able to tell you how we're all feeling. If anybody gets emotional, go ahead and let yourselves in."
Alex waited for True Sight to make her calls, watching with a growing sense of apprehension. She would carry no weapons into the farmhouse. With any luck, they were about to discover that Abundance Supernatural had somehow spontaneously bred an Equestrian plant. That might have some insane implications for how magic worked, but Alex would've taken them over thinking that her community might be in danger. God help those ponies inside if any of them had betrayed their community to the likes of Odium, or some similar, equally-sinister monster of a different name.
Only when everything was ready did she make her way to the farmhouse door. She wasn't afraid of being contaminated this time. She did, however, wonder if she was going to die again. Death was already getting stale. She didn't knock, just pushed the door open and hurried inside. "Hiram?" She gestured, and he hurried over to her by the door. She watched his every movement, searching for signs of some kind of coming betrayal, or the emptiness in his eyes that would mean he was being directly controlled. She saw neither one.
"Yes, Mayor?" He glanced once out the door, then returned his eyes to her. "It must not be good news, if you called me out of the room."
She frowned. "I'll tell you the news in a minute. First..." She got within a foot of him, watching his expression carefully. "I need to know exactly where you got the seeds for those flowers."
"We designed them!" he exclaimed. "We designed everything ourselves! Well..." He shrugged. "I'm not personally involved. I only worked with the grain myself. Experimenting with earth pony magic."
"Who was? I need to speak with them right now."
"They were Violet's baby. Hold on, I'll get her. She can still move just fine, even if it looks like she'd be happier in a pond." He departed.
Alex had enough time alone to look inquisitively towards the changeling. She nodded on Blacklight's behalf. So Hiram believed what he was telling her. That didn't make it true, but it did suggest he probably wasn't part of the plot.
He returned with the shark following behind with halting steps, her thick tail swishing nervously behind her. Alex supposed it probably had enough muscle to knock over anything it struck, and in that moment Alex found herself grateful she hadn't been reborn as a griffon. She didn't seem to have hooves anymore, though it was hard to name exactly what she did have. There was at least one fin on her back, and she didn't seem to have any trouble walking. "Y-Yes, Mayor?"
If this pony was part of some nefarious plot to take over Alexandria, she was doing a very good job acting terrified and helpless, sharp teeth notwithstanding. "Violet, I need to know exactly where you got the seeds that caused your condition." She gestured at the changeling beside her. Riley seemed to know what she was asking for, because the drone's camouflage melted away in a little flash of blue fire. "This changeling drone is being controlled by their queen, Violet. If you lie to me, she'll know. So don't tell me anything that isn't true."
Violent whimpered, her eyes darting behind her and then to the changeling. She never looked up at Alex, didn't reach out or lunge at her with sharp teeth. She seemed to be fighting back tears. "I had to come up with something! I didn't... I didn't want to be a lab assistant forever! I didn't have any other choice!"
Hiram watched her with growing shock, opening his mouth but not able to coherently form a response.
Alex did, advancing closer to her and closer to those glinting rows of white teeth. She had a feeling she had figured out what the joke was in Violet's case, and she felt no fear for her safety now. "Where did you get the seeds?"
"I knew it was against the rules... we had to use our own stuff! We had all our seeds checked by the university before planting them, just to make sure... but he said these would be the most wonderful-"
"Who?" Alex advanced ever closer, baring her own flat and impotent teeth up at her. "Who was it?"
"Just a stallion!" she half-shouted, half cried. "I don't know his name, I'd never seen him before! But he was a unicorn! Did some amazing magic right in front of me, and he promised-"
"What did he look like?"
"I don't know!" She covered her eyes, shivering all over. "He, uh... brown and gray... red eyes... cutie mark like a capital 'S' I think. Why?"
Alex cast her memory back for a pony matching that description, simultaneously remembering every face that had ever visited her city. She couldn't find it. Not that she had seen everypony who ever visited... but there weren't many who could pass through the town without her seeing them. She looked at every face who entered the library, even if she didn't have the time to greet all of them personally anymore.
"When was the last time you saw him?"
She shook her head, whimpering again. "N-Not since that first time. He didn't... He said he was only in town the one day. I'm not sure where he went, I didn't ask! I d-didn't really think anything would happen! At best, I hoped maybe the flowers would taste good! I didn't know they were gonna be toxic!"
Alex looked to Blacklight again, who nodded. The queen's influence had grown tremendously, and Alex knew she didn't have to make contact to tell a pony that had been mentally manipulated, not anymore. Alex herself saw life still in the mare's eyes. Her distress, her fear and guilt, appeared genuine. Had this been some kind of joke? Some supernatural prank? But who on Earth would even bother?
"That's enough, Violet. I don't think anything criminal happened. I was worried, but... apparently I worried in vain. It was wrong of you not to take those seeds to the university, but... I don't think any permanent harm's been done." She turned to Hiram. "Those blue flowers are called poison joke, they're a plant from Equestria. The cure for their effects was included in the library. It will require some plants that don't grow anywhere nearby, but... I'm sure we could have them all here within a week or two."
She touched Violet on the shoulder as gently as she could. As she had expected, her skin was sandpaper rough. "Give any seeds you have left to the university's 'dangerous magic' ponies. I don't want to hear you saved a single one." She gestured over her shoulder at the changeling. "We're going to burn the flowers. Keep all your ponies safe inside until we're done."
"What about the rest of the garden? Years of research went into some of these plants!"
"We'll only need to destroy the flowers. If you see any more blooming somewhere else, notify me at once. That is, assuming I can trust you to do that."
Hiram crossed his chest. "On my honor, Mayor. I'll make it my personal responsibility."
Such a statement would mean nothing coming from most ponies. But Alex knew Hiram, at least a little. Something like 'honesty' or 'honor' still meant something to him. "Alright. I'd like a mask, if you've got one handy. I don't want to breathe in any ash."
"One for the changeling?"
Blacklight shook the drone's head. "No. And another sample container, before we depart."
Violet seemed eager to be dismissed, and Hiram also. Blacklight's drone met her eyes then, and there was no trace of yielding in her insectoid expression. "I must preserve a sample in case it works on this drone. If the effects are not favorable, you have my word I will destroy it as well."
"We can't risk it escaping and going wild," Alex said, though she didn't argue. "I trust you, Riley. Just imagine the chaos this would cause if it started cropping up all over the country. It could unravel a society if they didn't know what it was."
"I know." The drone's eyes were fixed pointedly on the next room over, as though she were still afraid they were in danger. "I won't allow that to happen. You have my word as well as Hiram's."
* * *
Alex hadn't been able to promise a return to ordinary life the day they discovered and diagnosed the transformed ponies. She wished her control of earth was such that she could sprout plants without seeds and grow what they needed, but that wasn't the way earth pony magic worked. Plants could be grown, but they couldn't be created from aether. So she added one more burden to her plate, one that continuously created bad PR for magical research every day it continued.
Getting many people to accept magic into their lives had been an uphill battle. She was still battling with the city council to get large-scale weather engineering considered as a viable alternative to simply taking whatever nature gave them. Humans had been upset enough over the imagined dangers of genetically engineered foods prior to the Event, how much more upset would they get about magical foods?
Hopefully not much more. She had asked the changed ponies not leave Abundance Supernatural grounds until they got things taken care of, and kept a few members of the militia on roadblock duty to keep off the paparazzi. Even so, their pictures were in the newspaper. Now what Alexandria needed was to see those pictures again, this time fully restored. To that end, she called in every favor she could think of to get the herbs delivered as fast as possible.
Now they had almost everything prepared. Joe and his unicorns had done as much preparation on the herbal bath as they could, in accordance with the instructions printed in Supernaturals. All that remained now was receiving the herbs they had traded for, and she could put the affair to rest. At least until she saw a brown and grey pony with an "S" cutie mark walking around...
To that end, Alex was waiting in the airfield in the early afternoon. Given she was here on a semi-official basis, she had taken the time to dress this morning, even if it was just a dark skirt and a sleeveless blouse. Light enough that she wouldn't sweat herself silly while she looked civilized.
She heard the Hummingbird before she saw it, along with Moriah's voice coming in over the gauntlet on her right foreleg. "In the pipe, five by five. Coming in with VIPs and precious cargo. I expect my overtime pay to be waiting for me when I land."
"Roger that Eagle. Limos for the VIPs, but your extra pay's already waiting for you at home. Should I call your husband and have him waiting for you?" Alex could hardly resent her desire to be paid. She had flown through the night and back on cargo recovery missions. It just happened that only the last stop had ponies that would be coming back with her. She didn't envy the level of customer service her guests had probably experienced flying Moriah Airlines.
"Negative air traffic control. If you call him out of work, he'll be sour all evening. I'd rather walk home. Over and out." Her image vanished, and Alex lowered her hoof.
Alex wasn't really air traffic control, in any case. This entire corridor was forbidden to pegasi, which was also why it was three whole miles outside of town. Well that, and there was already an airport. It wasn't just HPI VTOLs that had to land; occasionally they had a little prop-plane coming in, using some biofuel or something stabilized out of a government stockpile somewhere.
She saw the gleaming Hummingbird take a position in the air above them, scanning the sky before beginning its rapid descent. Moriah liked to push the limit of the Hummingbird's handling, particularly when she had ponies inside who had never flown in one before. Alex had "flown" inside more than once, thanks to the pilot's insane parabolic arcs.
She couldn't fall too fast without bumping ponies around, and eventually she began to decelerate, touching down on the empty parking lot as delicately as a flower.
There wasn't really a limo waiting, just Alex's silver Mirai, as spotless as the day she had rescued it. Most guests only warranted pick-up in a golf-cart, like the one waiting to take Moriah back home. For these, Alex had brought something special. Her son wasn't with her, much as he had wished to come. However much he liked to spend time with her, Alex had to put her hoof down somewhere and at least pretend she was official.
The ramp extended, and only then did she advance, brushing a few stray strands of her mane from her eyes and smiling up towards the ponies inside. "Welcome to Alexandria!" They probably wouldn't be impressed, seeing as the airport was a few miles outside of town and nopony lived here aside from a single groundskeeper, but...
A single gray pegasus stepped carefully down the ramp – it was hard to tell if she was supposed to look that pale, or if Moriah's maneuvers had affected her. She had a satchel strapped around her neck and barrel, but otherwise was without a stitch of clothes, and upon seeing Alex, flinched a little and tried to hide behind her purple mane. She cursed under her breath and then said, apologetically, "Sorry, it didn't occur to me that clothing was still a thing..."
Alex grinned, advancing to within the edge of the ramp. She beamed at the newcomer, though her ears flattened a little in shared embarrassment. She did her best not to feel small, even though she was a full head shorter. Maybe she should've worn boots? Or- no, that would've looked stupid.
"You don't wear clothes in winter up there?" She had never actually seen the newcomer, though she didn't need to in order to identify her. She recognized the voice, and anyway she was only expecting one pegasus. "Not that it's winter here..." She shrugged. "Most ponies don't wear much in summer here either. But when I'm meeting somepony in an official capacity, I've found it's best not to take chances. I've yet to meet a pony who got offended that I was dressed."
She extended a hoof in greeting, trying not to look like she was craning her neck too much. "You must be Sudden Storm. Or would you prefer just Stormy?"
The pegasus smiled and bumped hooves with Alex. "Stormy's fine, it's what everypony back home calls me anyway. And I sometimes throw on a scarf, and boots if I'm down on the ground in the snow and mud, but I seem to put up with the cold better. Maybe us pegasi are built to handle the temps up there?" She gestured to the sky. "But still, I feel bad, like I showed up to an interview in ripped jeans and a cutoff tee. Ahem. Anyway! Yes. Hi. You must be Alex."
She nodded. "Yep. Or Lonely Day, if you prefer. Some of us use the Equestrian names... Granted, most of us got them from Cloudy Skies." She rolled her eyes, though she seemed to be good-humored about it. "Is it just you, Stormy? Or did you bring anypony else? I wouldn't want to leave anypony behind. Riding all the way into the city on a golf-cart with Moriah..." She shook her head. "Nopony deserves to suffer through that."
Stormy winced. "Hang on a sec, I thought she was right behind me." She turned and ventured into the Hummingbird a bit, calling out, "Swift? We're on the ground now. C'mon." Over her shoulder, she apologized to Alex. "My friend Swift Quill is coming... The thing is, she had a bad experience with this tech the first time we encountered it, way back, and gets a little squirrelly around it still. Even though you've apparently made some headway with it, as far as affecting us goes." Stormy turned back and smiled as a pink-colored unicorn with a peach-and-orange mane sheepishly joined her, coming back down the ramp. "Swift Quill, or just Swift," Stormy introduced, "Lonely Day."
Moriah emerged from the interior of the aircraft at that moment, rolling her eyes as she did so. She wore an acceleration-suit molded specifically to her Equine frame, though of course none was necessary. That, and a leather pilot's cap straight out of WW1, goggles and all. It hadn't been easy to convince the HPI to make them for her, but they also hadn't had a choice.
There was only one other pilot with the skill to fly a Hummingbird. "Psh, like it's a big deal. We only shield the reactor." She didn't stop walking, trotting down the ramp and past them towards the golf-cart in the solar charging station. "I'm not helping you unload, Alex!"
The lone earth pony ignored her friend's shouted remarks, focusing her attention entirely on Swift Quill and Stormy. "Pleasure to meet you." She extended a hoof for the usual greeting, though she didn't dwell on it for long. "I apologize if your travel was uncomfortable. If ponies weren't in such distress, it wouldn't have been so urgent." She couldn't glance over them, but she could look around, back towards the ramp.
"Sorry there's no welcoming party waiting for you." She rolled her eyes. "That's politics for you. Ponytown is really pulling my flank out of the fire." As unfair as it was that the fire would fall on her, after all the nothing she had done to be responsible for the disaster. "I'll make it up to you, though." She took a step back, raising the hoof with the gauntlet on it towards her face. A little pressure and Joseph's voice came over the line. "University Thaumitech, Joseph speaking."
"Joe, get one of your ponies to the airport. The rest of your ingredients are waiting for you aboard Hummingbird One."
"On our way. We'll call you when it's finished."
"Call Abundance, not me. I'm gonna be out for the afternoon."
"Fine." The line went quiet.
As it did, Alex's whole demeanor seemed to change. She relaxed, her shoulders spreading and her ears no longer alert. She even put on a more friendly expression. "Now that's over with... welcome to Alexandria, both of you! Or..." She shrugged. "Edgar County Airport, anyway. Do either of you have bags I can help you with? If not... I suppose we can get started. I might not be much of a welcoming party, but I can still give you the tour."
Swift shook her head and Stormy smiled. "We didn't really want to waste any time packing, and I can handle this just fine." A messenger bag style satchel was hung around the pegasus's neck and barrel.
Swift seemed to get her voice back in time to put in a dig at her friend. "I told her she had to leave her favorite blankie and pillow at home," she said, cracking a smirk, to which Stormy rolled her eyes.
"Not that I expect you to need anything." Alex turned away, gesturing towards the waiting automobile. "I guess I'm just used to the way things used to be. Go on a trip, bring luggage. Fly somewhere, and be ready to wait in long lines and go through X-ray machines."
As they approached the car, the driver’s side door opened and a pony hopped out. “This is my assistant, Quick Learner.”
The unicorn dressed much as they did, which was to say not at all. "P-Pleasure," he stammered, waving limply towards them. He stayed outside long enough to make sure everyone was securely inside before climbing into the driver's seat. The car was already running, though of course its hydrogen "engine" made no more sound than a gentle hiss of gas pressure.
Alex didn't bother with a seatbelt, sitting backwards so that she could look back at her two guests in the passenger seats. "Most visitors want to see the university and the library first, so we'll probably go there first. I'm sure everything else is more or less the same as how you have to handle things in Ponytown. Sans being buried up to our flanks in snow every winter, anyway."
"Well, we wouldn't be too bad most of the winter except for the lake." Stormy smiled. "Being on Lake Ontario gives us some pretty decent storms each winter. We've moved some trucks and cars to the south side of our colony to act as a snow fence. It works a little... and then, if I get enough warning, I can try to disperse the worst storms, or move them somewhere else." She cracked a grin at that.
"I'm really eager to see the library," Swift said. "Ever since I heard of the books you have from Equestria, I've been eager to see what I can learn from them."
Stormy nodded and added, "We're both interested in seeing everything. We're not quite developed enough to have a center of higher learning. We teach our young ones, of course, all that they need to prosper in our setting, but you seem to have a far more advanced program here."
"We had an unfair advantage," Alex replied, shrugging one shoulder. Their little automobile moved almost silently from the airport to the service road, which had been cleared, lacking the thick obstructions common to roads unused even after just a few years. "And it's a crime not to share it. We can copy any books that catch your interest, so make sure to keep a list. Unfortunately it's not as easy to copy Equestrian artifacts, or we would give you those too."
The road was only a mile long, and seemed to have no other drivers. Once they passed Moriah in her slow-moving golf cart, Quick Learner accelerated, and the silhouettes of town buildings drew closer and closer.
"I hope you'll spend a little time speaking with some of the pegasi teachers while you're visiting, Stormy. What you've figured out on your own might be quite valuable. At least, if any of what I've heard about your weather-manipulating abilities are true." And what she had just said herself about being able to contain a storm, but Alex wouldn't say that much. She had made a habit of accepting ponies' magical claims at face value.
"How is Ponytown these days? You never seem to be panicking whenever you call, anyway."
"We're doing pretty good, thanks for asking," Stormy said. "The people with the right skills showing up in the early days was a stroke of luck. I mean, establishing power and communications through the entire place was key to making it livable. Kind of ironic that we're not a mile from an abandoned nuclear plant but we're generating all we need from wind and solar. The water purification was a challenge, especially in the first year after the bottled supply ran out, but again, people's pre-Event skillsets made for useful resources to draw on. Keeping calm heads and getting everypony involved in solutions from the outset is what makes it work."
Swift added, "Our satellite operation at our 'out-of-town' farm is what made us realize we'd be okay. When ponies started asking to build their homes ten kilometers away from Ponytown itself so they could tend our livestock and secondary crop fields easier, despite the fact they'd need to make regular runs back to town for supplies? That was a happy problem to have to deal with. Ponies volunteering to take the tough life to help the whole of us prosper – when that happened, it was plain to see we would overcome anything, just by sticking together and pooling our resources and skills."
Stormy nodded in agreement. "At first we thought that we'd have a housing problem when we filled up the mall. But before we even got close to that, people were asking to live up by the farm. I remember the first couple who made the suggestion... They said they 'didn't want the cows to be lonely'." She made her forehooves do air quotes for the last half of the sentence.
Alex nodded "That sounds like Sky. Personifying the livestock. I guess it's pretty natural for us to do, with the way we look now..." She paused, staring down at her hooves a moment, as though seeing them for the first time. "I'm glad Ponytown is doing well. Not everywhere is."
Quick Learner reduced their speed as they came into town to barely greater than a walk. There were very few parked cars and even fewer on the road with them. Though a paltry number compared to the world of before, it was more than Alex knew of in any other single location.
"Welcome to Alexandria," she said, gesturing out the windows. "Not so impressive as the old world, but we love her all the same. The university is just up ahead."
Indeed, they were already pulling into a stop in front of one of the largest buildings. It had been a high-school, though it bore the signs of several recent additions, connecting it with the surrounding buildings and adding wings. More ponies were here than anywhere else. Quick Learner hopped out, levitating the doors open as he did so. Several ponies stared, though most seemed more interested in the car than the ponies inside it.
Stormy and Swift extracted themselves from the back seat of the car and looked about. The pegasus flapped her wings a couple of times and then hovered in place a few feet off the ground. “It’s a very nice place,” Stormy said. “Captures a lot of the ‘old way’ - you know, an actual town… I’m not sure how to describe it other than that. It’s something we don’t have back home. This probably feels more ‘normal’ to the transformed, I mean.”
“That’s the idea; lots of ponies visit Alexandria when they first come back; makes them feel a little less like their whole world fell apart. Not that all of them stick around. Heck, the more copies of the important books there are, and the more skilled ponies there are, the fewer ponies will probably make those visits.” Such a possibility would be a shame to the influx of new talent into the city, but that was inevitable. It was more important that other cities get their share of the talent, or else they would probably come to resent Alexandria. “It’s the only way we know. I guess we didn’t want to experiment like you ponies up in Ponytown. Just keep doing things the way we knew.”
Likewise went her day. Once extricated from the library, they continued their tour of Alexandria. They visited everywhere that mattered, including the combined heat and power plant that had been built post-event, along with the foundry and the microfactory.
Dinner was served with several of Alexandria’s most prominent ponies, in the top story of the courthouse. Alex could make little sense of what was said, either between Cloudy Skies and Stormy or between her resident magical expert and Ponytown’s Swift Quill. She felt only the barest twinge of envy there was no “shop” to talk with other earth ponies. That wasn’t what really mattered.
What mattered was that the Abundance Supernatural ponies would get their cure. And they did though unfortunately no changeling drone had needed one. Life would go on. Alex let herself pretend that life would stay perfect forever.