Chapter 3
The moon was hanging low in the sky and a faint tinge of pink dawn was already gracing the horizon when the black jet-ski and its two weary passengers nosed into the hidden waters of a small sea cave on the southern end of Prince Edward Island.
Andrew killed the engine and let the watercraft drift up to a rickety dock protruding from the rocky shore of the sea cave, his thoughts focused solely on the soft cot and warm stove that awaited him after the cold, wet, and bumpy, ride along the coast. It had been a warm winter by Canadian standards, but winter was still winter.
Something slumped forward in the back seat as he stood up to dismount, causing Andrew to recall his odd companion.
He tried to recall the details of his strange encounter with the unicorn, but the waves of exhaustion that seemed to sweep over him in time with the ones lapping at the dock supports where eating away at what little cognitive ability remained.
“Eh, sleep first, questions later”. Andrew mumbled to himself with a yawn as he put his hands underneath the forelegs of the sleeping unicorn mare and hoisted her from the jet-ski.
Straining under her weight, Andrew carried Moondancer along the dock towards the small cabin at the end like a child, with one hand supporting her back and the other hand under her rump to keep her from sliding out to his grasp.
He pushed the cabin’s door open with his foot, turned right, and then deposited Moondancer on the cot in the back.
In the light of his headlamp, Andrew got his first good look at the unicorn.
She had a soft tan coat that accentuated a three tone mane and tail of red, purple, and violet and said mane was done up with a little pink hair-tie. On her flank was what looked like a tattoo of three stars surrounding a crescent moon and resting crookedly on her muzzle was a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
Her barrel rose and fell beneath a well worn looking black sweater with each quiet snore.
She actually looked kinda cute.
Still convinced that he was on a serious berry trip, Andrew shook his head as he removed Moondancer's glasses and placed them on the bed next to her.
"You've been on your own for far too long". He thought with a sigh.
Next, Andrew turned to a small electric stove in the corner across from the bed and fumbled with the dial to get it going.
Nothing happened.
Cursing under his breath, Andrew turned and went out back to check the generator.
A few kicks later, the generator coughed and fired up, filling the sea cave with it's hum.
Finally, Andrew went back inside and rummaged around a nearby crate till he came up with a tattered green sleeping bag, which he spread out on the floor next to the cot.
He was asleep before his head hit the fabric.
-
For the second time time in so many hours, Moondancer awoke in an unfamiliar place.
This time around though, she was greeted by a gentle warmth and a comforting hum instead of cold night air and ravenous monsters.
As she stretched out her hooves, she bumped her glasses and quickly caught them with her magic before putting them on with a yawn.
Moondancer opened her eyes and found herself staring up at the wooden ceiling of a small and cramped, but nevertheless homely cabin.
At the foot of her cot was a planter with an assortment of veggies growing in the moist soil, behind her was a stack of crates with various odds and ends poking out of them, and to her right was a large bookshelf tucked in-between the stack of crates and the door-frame. To the left of the door was another crate and a refrigerator. A small stove that was giving of the warmth she felt sat at the far end of the cabin between the wall and an open, metal-shuttered window that looked out onto the ocean.
Moondancer slowly eased herself of the cot and tested her injured leg.
It was still sore and sporting a bandage while the tingling sensation had spread to the rest of her leg, though just as she wondered whether that was bad or not, she spotted an orange bottle of pills and a note sitting on top the crate near the door.
"Morning, If you're reading this, then I guess you're real and I really did rescue an honest to goodness unicorn last night". "Whatever the case, these pills are a powerful antibiotic that should get rid of the infection from your bite". "I went out to check the rain barrels and I'll be back soon". Andrew.
P.S, there's juice in the fridge to swallow the pills with.
Grabbing the bottle with her magic, Moondancer tugged open the fridge and was greeted by a cloud of cold, fishy-smelling air.
There where around a dozen fish fillets in the fridge along with several veggies, blocks of cheese, and assorted drinks.
Moondancer gagged. She had read about the griffon fish markets before but had never had the pleasure of visiting and now she could only imagine what their un-refrigerated, open air environment would smell like.
She quickly snagged an apple juice box with her magic and shut the fridge.
Andrew was an omnivore, that much Moondancer knew, but to what extent?
"I guess we'll just wait and see" she thought with a small amount of trepidation.
Moondancer spotted something she hadn't noticed earlier as she downed the pills and sipped the apple juice.
Resting on a wall rack above the cot was a rifle.
It looked different from the makeshift rifle that Lemonhearts had shown to her in the book back before everything had gone so horribly wrong.
It was thinner for one and the barrel was a silvery grey instead of black, plus it had what looked like a little telescope of the same color mounted on top.
At the thought of her friends though, Moondancer could feel the hot tears brimming and her throat choking up, but if they where still alive, wherever they where, then crying wasn't going to help.
She resolved to ask Andrew for any help that he could offer when he returned and went to lift the rifle from the rack with her magic.
Any closer inspection of the weapon was forestalled however as the sound of someone treading water reached her ears.
Moondancer pushed the metal door open with a hoof and set the empty juice box on the crate before heading outside. She received a bit of a shock when she realized that the cabin was inside a cave who's walls she hadn't been able to see from the window.
A short jetty ran from the door of the hut and out into the water with Andrew's jet-ski bobbing gently on the swells at the end.
The only way in or out of the cave was by water, and hence the sound Moondancer heard was indeed someone swimming from the cave entrance up to the dock.
Andrew pulled himself from the water and on to the dock with a look of genuine surprise on his face and a pair of green canteens slung over his shoulder.
"Well would you look at this, Ms. Unicorn Hallucination is up and about already"! "Did you sleep well"?
When Andrew saved her at the lighthouse, he had simply been a dark figure in the night with a glowing headlamp.
Now in the daylight that poured through the cave entrance, Moondancer could get a proper look at her rescuer.
She was so taken aback however, that all she could manage in response was an absent, "Fine, thanks".
Andrew the human was the strangest creature she had ever seen.
His entire body was a rich brown in color and seemed to be composed of flexible rectangular prisms that bent and contorted as he moved his block-y limbs.
He only had a small clump of black hair, or what Moondancer assumed to be hair on his head and as far as she could tell, Andrew was completely naked except for a pair of green cargo shorts around his waist.
His arms ended in stumps like primitive hooves that while they lacked a prehensile appendage of any kind could still grip the canteens he was carrying with ease.
His face was the only thing that was familiar, two deep brown eyes, a nose, and a mouth that now bore a quizzical frown at Moondancer's stare.
"You ok there"? Andrew asked
"How can you...Why is your...What!? Moondancer stuttered as her mind, educated as it was, tried and failed to make sense of Andrew's mind-bending anatomy.
"I can see you might have a few questions" Said Andrew to which Moondancer could only nod.
"Well as you said last night, the feeling is mutual", Andrew said with a grin, "but let me get changed and then we can talk while I cook up some breakfast, that sound good"?
At the mention of breakfast, Moondancer's stomach let out a loud gurgle that widened Andrew's grin and for the first time since her arrival in this strange, new world, Moondancer smiled.
"Breakfast sounds gr..." Moondancer started as she trotted alongside Andrew to the door when she suddenly remembered what she had found in the fridge.
"Do you eat ponies Andrew"? Moondancer said as she dropped back and adopted a defensive stance.
Andrew had been halfway through the door of the cottage when she asked and he turned back to look at her with a reassuring smile.
"No I don't, and humans may be omnivores but we would never eat anything sentient.
"(although with things the way they are nowadays, I'm not so sure)" He though morbidly.
Andrew needed to broach his next point carefully, but he knew that the issue would crop up eventually so better now than later.
"We do hunt". He continued and at this Moondancer visibly stiffened. "I don't personally, but humans in general would never harm another sentient being, especially one as mythical as you.
Moondancer gave Andrew a confused look."Mythical"?
"Unicorns are creatures of legend in our world, featured in fairy tails and fantasy stories". Andrew replied. "That's why I thought you weren't real last night and I'm still having a hard time believing my eyes.
Despite his words, Moondancer still hung back outside the door and voiced one of the major questions that had been literally biting at her since her arrival.
"What about those red-eyed monsters last night? Moondancer asked with a bit of fear at the memory."They looked an awful lot like humans".
As they conversed, Andrew had changed out his cargo shorts and was now fully garbed in a pair of hiking boots, cargo pants, a black parka, and was sporting a red bandanna around his neck.
Realizing that Moondancer wasn't coming in till she was satisfied, Andrew pulled a frying pan from the crate near the door and placed it on the stove top before heading back outside with a sigh.
"They used to be"... Andrew began. "Those...those "things" out there where all once human".
"But not anymore, all that's left are emotionless, empty husks with a singular, primal motive".
"Kill"
Moondancer stared at Andrew's face, his block-y features contorted by memories of fear and loss.
"They're dead". Andrew continued, "gone for the eternal sleep and yet somehow a walking nightmare".
"I've heard a few different names for them since the world went to hell about six months ago".
"Walkers, biters, growlers, zeds"...
"I just call them zombies, the living dead".
Moondancer stood shocked in front of the door, still trying to wrap her head around the gruesome information Andrew had just imparted.
It would explain the horrible odor of rot and decay that Moondancer had smelled when she encountered that first zombie the night before. It's body was decaying and yet something was still keeping it "alive".
Equestrian sci-fi and fantasy writers would occasionally make a novel or comic featuring the living dead, but it was magically, and even more importantly to her, scientifically impossible for something to be both alive and dead at the same time.
"How did"... Moondancer began but Andrew cut her off.
"I don't know"..., "and I doubt there where many who did and are still around to to tell the tale".
"Of course there where the rumors". Andrew said wistfully.
"Aliens from outer space, A bio-weapons project gone wrong". Andrew shook his head. "Like something out of a B rated sci-fi horror flick".
Andrew suddenly perked up and his smile returned as he suddenly switched the topic. "hey how does grilled cheese sound to you"?
"Whaa..."? Moondancer blinked incredulously. After all that doom and gloom Andrew was thinking of food?
Moondancer's stomach however was in full agreement with Andrew and let out another growl to voice its consent.
"Sounds good to me". Moondancer said with a resigned smile before trotting through the door behind Andrew.
As Andrew put the sandwiches together and got them grilling on the stove, Moondancer began browsing the titles on bookshelf by the door.
"The Language of Literature, grades 6-8" Moondancer read aloud.
"Ah yes, not sure why I still have that". Andrew responded over the sizzling of melting cheese and oil. "It's not like the schools will be re-opening any time soon.
At the mention of academics, Moondancer's interest was piqued.
"You where a student"?
"Yup", Andrew replied as he flipped the sandwiches over. I was working towards my teaching degree at UBC in Vancouver after majoring in English and creative writing". "I took an internship here on PEI at Stratford Middle School at the start of last year's fall semester as an assistant teacher for Language Arts".
"I'd only been on the job for about two weeks before all hell broke lose".
"First social media exploded with wild rumors and horror stories about some kind of epidemic in the north western United States".
" Then the government began issuing warnings over the T.V and radio to stay home and limit your contact with others".
"Then there where the refugees, only a trickle at first and then a veritable flood as states and provinces where overrun".
"Even the great military might of the U.S couldn't stop them all. Airports and harbors where like petri-dishes spreading the infection across the globe at an unstoppable rate. Couple that with the fact that when you got infected it took about two days to fully turn and It was no wonder so many infected got into the safe zones.
"Safe-zones like PEI".
At that, Andrew fell silent as he turned off the stove and flipped the two sandwiches onto a plate.
Moondancer had listened to Andrew's tale with a slowly sickening heart. An unknown epidemic had swept throughout his world and had turned life into a living nightmare for survivors, but it wasn't just for humanity that she was distraught.
If she was here, then odds where that her three friends where also somewhere out there and she could only imagine what they must be going through if last night and what Andrew had told her now was any indication.
What where the chances that they would meet a human like Andrew?
What if they had arrived like she had,
Cold
Alone
Afraid
and instead of a friendly human coming to their rescue, they where met by a swarm of red-eyed zombies?
They might not have even made it through the night.
The thought proved to much for her to bear, and a chocked sob escaped her throat.
"It's all my fault" she sobbed into her hooves, oh girls, what have I done"!
For a moment, Andrew stood there awkwardly with a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches in one hand and a unicorn mare sobbing her heart out on the floor.
Mythical creature or not, she was in need of comfort and Andrew's social graces though rusty after months of solitude finally kicked in.
Setting the plate on the bed, he sat down on the floor next to Moondancer and put one of his block-y arms around her shoulders.
"I'm so sorry Moondancer, I've lost people close to me as well".
"My mother returned home to Jamaica when she retired from the medical field and last I heard, the island became a refugee center and was subsequently overrun".
"My father loved his job at Scorpion Seven Bio Solutions to much to retire. Last I heard, he was in Washington State working on a big project of some kind along with my younger brother who was in high-school". "Seattle fell before Christmas".
"I tried calling them but all the the lines where always busy, then the power stations began to shut down and without electricity, all phones and their corresponding cell services where dead within a week".
"All the airports where closed and the roads where jammed, I couldn't do a thing".
"By the time I plucked up the courage to try and leave on foot, it was too late. The Canadian army blew up Confederation Bridge in an attempt to stem the tide, and every boat on the island had either already left, was out of gas, or had gone to the bottom".
"I felt awful, I hadn't been able to save my family or even say goodbye".
"But if there is one thing I can take away from it all is that my family's values live on in me.
"My mother always told me to always stay positive, no matter what the weather. if I didn't, I probably wouldn't have lasted so long on my own".
"My father always told me to never give up, and despite all this god-forsaken world has to offer I haven't stop trying yet.
As Andrew spoke, Moondancer's sobs had lessened until it was just the occasional sniffle.
When she looked up from her hooves, Moondancer found Andrew giving her a hopeful smile.
"Lets try taking my parent's advice shall we"? Andrew said. "Stay positive and never give up hope,"! "Who knows, there is always a chance that your friends and even my family may still be alive".
Faced with his optimism, Moondancer couldn't help but return Andrew's smile as he pulled her into a side hug before standing up.
"How about we eat on the dock"? Andrew suggested as he picked up the plate of sandwiches and offered Moondancer a hand. "and maybe you can tell me a little more about yourself so we can start figuring out how to find your friends".
-
"Equestria sounds fascinating"! Said Andrew as he and Moondancer finished of their grilled cheese. "But let's get what happened just prior to your arrival here straight".
"You and your friends Twinkleshine, Lemonhearts, and Moondancer, all used a spell to transport yourselves into a book called the Unturned Survival Guide and then the book sent you here"?
"More or less". Moondancer replied. "Though I sensed that the book had an odd magic aura about it when I first picked it up, but nothing of the strength that would be required for an inter-dimensional portal spell".
"hmm, well I can't claim to know much about magic". Andrew mused. "You said it takes a lot of power to create a portal spell right"?
Moondancer furrowed her eyebrows as she did the calculations in her head.
"If the Equestrian measurement for energy is roughly the same as the human one you described to me, I'd say the magical energy needed is equivalent to about 1.21 gigawatts, why"?
"Well the whole reason I was at the lighthouse last night was because of a bright flash and a loud bang". Andrew replied. " I was on my way back from a gas run in Stratford when it happened and I thought lightning had struck the lighthouse or a bomb had gone off".
"Wait, did you say 1.21 gigawatts"?
"Yes, around about that". Moondancer replied. "Why are you laughing"?
"Oh no reason". Said Andrew between chuckles. "Looks like Doc was right after all".
"Anyway, getting back on track, I'm almost certain it was a portal spell that brought you here as the amount of energy needed to create a portal would have had to dissipate somehow, hence the explosion".
"But how could somepony hide a spell that powerful"? Moondancer protested.
"I'm not sure". Andrew replied as he stood up and took the empty plate back inside. "But now that that we know that you most likely arrived in this world flash-bang style, I think I might have a lead on where your friends are".
"What, how"!? " Cried Moondancer excitedly as she trotted back into the cabin where Andrew was now rummaging around around one of the crates behind the cot..
Andrew found what he was looking for and pulled one blue and one red vest out of the crate as he replied. "Well you see last night, I wasn't looking at the lighthouse when I was high-tailing it out of Stratford". "I was looking out to sea and thus I saw both the reflection of what must have been your portal at the lighthouse, and a fainter reflection from behind the hills to the east.
It only took Moondancer a few seconds to realize what Andrew's chance observation meant.
"There was another portal"! Moondancer cried happily as her heart leaped with sudden hope.
Andrew smiled at her as he put on the blue vest and zipped it up before pulling various items from the crates and putting them in the vest pockets or loading them into an open red day-pack at his feet. "that's what I hope is the case".
"How do I get there"? Moondancer asked impatiently. "Every second that we waste could be a second to late"!
"I understand how you feel Moondancer, believe me I do". Andrew replied with compassion. " however, you can't just go charging out there with no weapons or armor, you would be of no help to anyone dead".
She knew he was right, but that didn't stop Moondancer from fidgeting as Andrew tried to fit the red vest over her frame and old black sweater.
"What's this vest for again"? Moondancer asked.
"Protection." Andrew replied. "Against zombies, and to a greater extent, bullets".
"I'm not the only one still clinging to life around here, there are others, some of which have more firepower and a meaner disposition than I that would take pot-shots if they got the chance".
"I'd rather be safe than sorry".
Moondancer looked at the rifle that hung above the cot and imagined what it would be like to be hit with a bullet.
Despite the discomfort of wearing armor made for the oddly geometric humans, the gruesome description that Andrew had provided of what a bullet did to your insides was enough to make Moondancer want to never take it off.
Andrew then zipped up the red day-pack and put it on his back before turning to face Moondancer and producing a map of the PEI from thin air.
"How do you do that"? Moondancer asked incredulously. "You said humans didn't have magic".
"Well not magic like yours", Andrew replied. "I wouldn't even go so far as to call this magic, but more of a weird phenomena".
"Somehow, all the survivors I've talked to in the past few months including myself have the ability to pull whatever items we want from our pockets or bags without opening them".
"No one knows why or how it happened though most think it has to do with radiation or something like that, but it sure comes in handy when you are in a bit of a jam and want something without having to reach for it".
With the appearing items "trick" explained, Andrew then spread the map on the floor of the cot and gave Moondancer her second aerial look at PEI.
"I've seen this map before"! Moondancer exclaimed. "it was in The Unturned Survival Guide"!
"Now that's odd". Andrew said while scratching his head. "Why would an Equestrian book have a map of Prince Edward Island"?
"Though I guess it might have something to do with why the portal sent you here".
Moondancer shrugged and wondered the same as Andrew took a stick in his right appendage and pointed out where he estimated the second portal would have been.
"Right here, just outside Summerside military base on the north-western side of the map and just to the north of Confederation Bridge".
"We're here, underneath this hill on the southern end of PEI".
"It's quite a hike so we'll leave now, however we won't want to go near the town of Alberton or the base until nightfall because they're bound to be popular areas for other survivors scavenging for supplies".
"We'll take the jet-ski around the far side of Holman isle and do a bit of scavenging ourselves to see if we can find you a gun". "When the sun sets, then we'll set of for Summerside".
Moondancer nodded in agreement. "You know this place better than I do".
With that, the map disappeared back into wherever Andrew kept it as he reached up and took the rifle down from its wall rack.
Pulling back the bolt, he checked that it was loaded and that the safety was on
Slinging the weapon over his shoulder, he opened the door for Moondancer and the pair headed down the dock to the jet-ski.
Like the time before, Moondancer sat behind Andrew with her hooves clasped around his oddly shaped waist and as he gunned the engine, he turned to look over his shoulder at Moondancer with a determined light in his eyes.
"Let's go find your friends"!
The afternoon sun shone down on the cold waters of PEI as the black jet-ski and its two passengers motored out of the sea cave and turned west towards Holman Isle.