The Coming Storm

by Jay911

Darkening Skies

JULY 27

"Anypony seen Stormy?"

"Take a guess," I heard Serge answer Swift.

"Thanks," she said, and her hoofsteps grew louder as she entered the auto shop. A glow surrounded the driver's door and pulled it open, and she stuck her head in the car. "You're going to run the battery down again."

"I don't care," I giggled. "I'm loading all my music."

"Naturally."

"And after that, I'm going to the radio place and getting a ham rig to put in here," I added, a grin plastered across my face.

"Of course. Can you squeeze in a minute to talk here and there?"

I turned to face Swift while the music player began its sync. "I'm listening," I said.

Swift lowered her voice. "Do you think maybe we should read the others in on Mister X?"

I mulled it over for a minute, giving it the contemplation it deserved. "Yeah, probably," I said eventually. "To be honest, I was waiting until they weren't flinching every time you used your magic. Once they hear that there's some kind of anti-magic device out there, things may not go so well."

"Good point," Swift conceded. "Any suggestions?"

"Idunno," I shrugged. "To tell you the truth, we haven't heard from them since the first time. Their little robot hasn't showed up either 'in person' or as noise on the radio. I'm beginning to wonder if they bugged out."

"What do we do then, if that happened?"

"The same thing we're doing now," I said. "Surviving."

Swift shook her head. "Whatever. Well, I still think it's a good idea to prepare everypony before the next time the black helicopters start flying overhead."

"I hear you," I nodded. "You're the best gauge of how they're handling magic. You should be the one to decide when the time is right to spring that particular trap on them."

"Trap?"

"Figure of speech." I noticed that the sync was done. "So now I'm heading over to Radioworld. Are you coming or staying here?"

She thought it over for a moment. "Fine, I'll come."

"Pull the cord out please," I grinned, and pulled the door shut.

Several minutes later, we were tearing down the highway with Def Leppard coming out of the sound system.

"This thing is crazy quiet compared to the truck," Swift said over the music.

"I know," I said, the grin not yet having left my face. "And it goes like stink, too!" To prove my point, I shoved my right hind leg down, and the car lurched forward at a faster rate than before.

"Be careful!" Swift scolded me. "The last thing we need to do is wear poor Karin out."

I eased the throttle off to settle in at 160 kilometers an hour. "She's doing fine," I countered.

"She's overwhelmed," Swift disagreed. "She keeps going over all the medical textbooks we picked up yesterday, and checking and re-checking our supplies, going on about how we don't have enough of such-and-such."

"Has anyone thought to tell her she doesn't need to carry the weight of the world on her back?" I asked. "I'll bet she feels like she's responsible for all our well-being. That's a pretty big burden to shoulder."

"You can try," Swift shrugged. "I did. Jeff did too, but she used his injury as 'proof' that her skills were essential."

"It'll all smooth out," I said, not knowing what else to really add. "Did I see Serge and Jeff drawing plans for something this morning?"

Swift nodded. "Serge thinks with six of us here instead of three, we need a proper kitchen instead of just the wash tubs and a couple of coolers. He and Jeff are redesigning the whole place with our rooms and the common area as the core."

"Cool," I said, and decelerated as we got to the electronics store. Pulling in, I noted it was exactly as we left it weeks before - which was good in one sense, but depressing as well.

We got out of the car and headed in the open door of the shop. I bee-lined for the radio I wanted, and directed Swift to find antennas and cabling of the right type.

"I didn't bring any tools, so we'll just take this back to Ponytown and install it there," I declared.

"Fair enough," Swift said.

We were in and out of there in ten minutes - don't ever let anyone say that girls take forever to shop. Yeah, I went there. We even picked up a second set of everything to put in the Prius.

As we climbed back in the car, the radios stowed in the trunk, Swift's ears flattened and she looked ill. "Um, Stormy..."

"Yeah?" When I turned and saw her, I blinked. "You okay? Gonna hurl or-"

"You'll feel it in a second," she said. "I think maybe that 'going like stink' plan from earlier is a good idea."

A sense of dread built up between my heart and my stomach and began to spread out from there. My hide began to crawl, and I felt like I was breaking out in a cold sweat. We both swiveled around in our seats and saw a bulky, black prop-driven aircraft at about fifteen hundred feet, a couple miles behind us.

I backed out of the parking lot quickly and got back on the highway, matting the accelerator pedal again. This time I let the car go as fast as I felt I could control it with hooves, which was somewhat north of 160, but not too far. The 'bad vibes' ebbed slightly, but then plateaued again.

Swift turned around again to look behind us. "Still there," she said with a trembling voice. "But not gaining on us. Keeping distance."

"Do we go home or draw them away?" I asked, focusing on driving.

"I... I don't know."

"We need to decide," I urged her.

"... Draw them away," she finally said.

I all but locked up the brakes, turning north on Brock Road, and hammered the 'gas' again, speeding up once more. The briefest of glances that I allowed myself showed the airship in a wide arc to follow us north.

"Still there," Swift said.

"Maybe they don't know they're doing this to us," I mused aloud. "But no, I told them as much in a radio call. If they were listening."

"I-I can try to brave it out," my friend offered.

"Let's file that in the 'plan B' slot for now," I said. The car bottomed out over the Finch Avenue intersection, taking a little air in the process.

"Did you put one of the sat phones in here yet?"

"No, because the friggin' things don't work," I said. We'd never been able to get them to connect to one another, despite knowing and dialing each others' phone numbers. They were turning out to be duds. "And I'm willing to bet you didn't have a handheld radio on you when you came to talk to me."

"Nope," she said.

"Okay. Hang on." The car whumped through the intersection at Concession 3, and when it settled down again, I spoke once more. "Still there?"

"Still there," she said. "It's keeping a pretty uniform distance."

The burning in my chest confirmed that. "I can tell," I responded. Settling in on the straightaway north of the 3rd, I used the time to try to think of a course of action.

"Stormy, we don't need to be running from them. They've been benevolent so far. Let's just-"

"This-" I said, reaching across to thump her in the chest "-can't be good for either of us. For all we know it's electromagnetic cancer. I'm not willing to put either of us through agony just to tell them to F off."

"We can't run forever!" she shot back.

"For another 217 kilometers, we can," I said, glancing at the dash. Under the underpass at Taunton we went, angling slightly to continue towards the Fifth Concession line. Thinking of that road, I settled on a plan. It wasn't foolproof, and far from ideal, but it would hopefully do the trick.

"Hang on for a hard left," I said as we climbed the hill towards the 5th. The flashing amber light hung over the intersection was there, but neither flashing nor lit, probably never to do so again.

"Don't crash," Swift advised me unnecessarily.

"Oh, ye of little faith," I smirked, and somehow managed to execute a rapid hoof-over-hoof spin of the wheel, tires squealing as the car left Brock and headed west on the paved Concession 5 road.

Swift turned around again, peering between the leafy canopy we'd gone under. "I think they're still there," she said. "My gut says so."

"Mine too," I agreed. "Just a little longer, I hope."

I got up to 150 - the most I dared on the narrow two-lane tarmac which hadn't seen any traffic nor upkeep in two months. Up and down hills we went, feeling like we were on a roller-coaster. If I was on the roof of the truck through this section, I'd finally get to fly, I told myself detachedly.

We thundered into the village of Whitevale, a few houses and side streets with a farm feed lot/mill and a bridge over a creek as the center of town. Just after the bridge was a narrow dirt road, which I slowed nearly to a crawl for and turned in, going under even thicker tree cover, coasting the car to a stop in the parking lot of the Seaton Hiking Trail.

"Can't tell at all now," Swift said, looking through the windows and roof at the tree branches above us.

"Yup," I said. "But maybe they can't either. Unless they're using infrared or something related to their funky anti-magic stuff."

The discomfort in our guts grew steadily for a few moments, then peaked. Lowering the window, I could hear the props of the aircraft orbiting the village. For about five minutes, it stayed there, circling and keeping our blood pressure up, and then at last, it must have turned and headed off; the sense of dread fell off abruptly and ebbed away to nothingness.

I looked over to Swift, who was panting and shaking; I realized that my own heart was pounding very nearly out of my chest too.

"Good idea," Swift sighed with relief. "Thanks."

"Yeah," I responded. "I'm gonna sit here for a bit and let them get plenty far away."

"Not a problem."

I smiled. "I hope these seats don't stain," I joked.

Swift laughed along with me.

"Where'd you guys go?" Jeff asked as he approached the car, as we parked it in the auto bays. He was moving some junk around, taking it outside through an open roll-up door.

"Oh, grabbing some radios," I said. "Getting into a car chase."

"What??"

"We encountered you-know-who," Swift said, speaking quietly. "They had one aircraft tailing us for a while."

"Okay, that forces our hoof then, I think," Jeff said. "It's time to tell the others."

"I guess you're right," I reluctantly agreed. "If for no other reason than to prepare them for when their guts want to turn themselves inside out."

The three of us went inside, and Swift and I blinked and marvelled at the changes that had happened so quickly. Serge and Jeff had pulled out the existing kitchen area, and were framing walls to become the new one. A stack of plumbing pipes were arranged off to one side, and some electrical conduit set down in another spot.

"Neither of us are carpenters, but we'll get it done," Jeff explained, as we watched Serge cutting a 2x4 down to size with a table saw. "We could use you for some of the precision work if you have time, Swift."

"You bet," she nodded.

"Guys? Can we gather together for a bit?" Jeff shouted over the sound of the saw. Serge looked up, nodded, and switched it off; Karin, who was reading a textbook in the common area, set a bookmark in it, stood up, and came over. Momentarily, Rich appeared from somewhere else in the store.

"What's up?" Serge asked.

"We have something we need to discuss," Swift said. "It's going to sound a little weird, and maybe even far-fetched, but believe me, it's real, and something we need to be concerned about. Especially you and me."

She'd cast a hoof towards Rich, who blinked and looked surprised. "What?" he asked.

"There's another group of survivors out there," I said. "We think they're survivors, at least. The truth is, we've never met them, but we've communicated with them and exchanged some goods once or twice."

"There's more of us?" Karin said, with excitement.

"What's the catch?" Serge said, his seemingly-everpresent wary expression on his face.

"They're a little strange," Jeff explained. "They travel around in black aircraft and send robotic vehicles out to interact with us. Like Stormy said, we've never seen an actual living person - or creature, for that matter."

"That's not all," Swift said, keeping up the tag-team conversation. "They seem to have some kind of anti-magic field. We'll be able to sense when they're getting close."

"What, like radar?" Rich asked.

"It's not like that at all," Swift said, shaking her head. She was clearly uneasy while describing the phenomenon to the three. "You'll feel a growing sense of despair build up inside you. Your 'fight or flight' instinct will kick in and swing heavily over to the 'flight' side. If they get too close..." She shivered and trailed off. Mainly, I realized, because her imagination was the only thing able to fill in the answer to that unfinished statement. They'd never gotten particularly close to us, and we'd been pretty badly freaked out each time they'd been barely within visual range. What if we found ourselves face to face with them?

"So we just keep you two away from them, right?" Serge said, nodding to Swift and Rich.

"It's not that simple," Jeff said.

"We do feel it more intensely because of our skills and preponderance to magic," Swift nodded. "But all of us have magic inside."

The three blinked. Serge scoffed. "I am not a magical fairyland creature," he grumbled.

"Wait 'til the next cloudy day and go watch your fellow pegasus," Jeff said, gesturing to me. I blushed a little at being called out, but nodded to Serge just the same.

"Even me?" Karin said, eyebrows high into her mane-bangs.

"Even us," Jeff nodded. "Don't you feel a firm connection to the Earth sometimes? Wonder how I can get these fruits and vegetables to grow so responsively in all the little gardens around here?"

She fell silent and mentally chewed on that for a while.

"You called us together to tell us this all of a sudden for a reason," Rich deduced. "Are they on their way here now?"

His two colleagues looked at him sharply, then us, as he asked that question.

"We're not sure," Swift answered. "They followed Stormy and me for a bit this morning. But that may have been nothing more than idle curiosity at seeing a car moving about." She didn't add that none of us had seen or felt their presence on the trip to and from the SkyDome. "We just wanted to prepare you all, in case that weird sensation falls upon us at some point."

Something occurred to me, and I spoke up. "Their unmanned vehicles - robots or drones or whatever you want to call them - don't seem to emit that field, but there is a way we can tell when those are nearing us too. It's a lot less fear-inducing - it's just a radio signal that they use to control the vehicles, and we can hear the frequency they use. I should go make sure that's tuned in and turned up."

"Good idea," Jeff said. To the rest of the group, he added, "The rest of us can get back to what we were doing. There's no need to be alarmed, really; like Swift said, we just wanted you to be forewarned in case they decide to pay us a visit."

The three were silent for a few moments. "Right," Serge said. He turned to go, and muttered, "Weirder every frickin' moment..."

Swift and Jeff went to follow him, and Karin, after a few more moments' reflection, returned to her book. Rich stood there looking at me for a moment, then said, "Care to chat a bit?"

"Sure," I shrugged. "Can we go over to the radios so I can work while we talk?"

He smiled and nodded, and we sauntered over that way.

"Mind if I ask something personal?"

I flinched - hopefully just internally. Here we go. "Sure, go ahead," I said as I fiddled with the radio gear.

"You're the only one who doesn't have an icon, so it seems. Should that mean something?"

I sighed - mainly with relief, but he probably saw it as something else. "Near as we can tell it means you haven't - I should say I haven't - found my calling yet. I'm willing to bet you're quite an artist, and not necessarily as your paying job."

"I like to dabble," he conceded, nodding. "I program mostly, but have a hand in the graphics too from time to time."

I got the radios set up the way I wanted them - ready to alert us to X's bots' presence, and sending out our usual broadcast. "Swift's a very good writer, both fiction and documentation-wise. Jeff's in building sciences. And, well, your friends are demonstrating that they're good at what their butt pictures - I mean, icons - say."

Rich smirked a little at 'butt pictures'. "And yet you're here without a radio microphone on your 'butt'. Or maybe a... how would you depict being in command as an icon?"

My cheeks flushed. "I'm not in command," I hurried to deny. "I'm just doing what needs to be done. I don't tell my friends what to do. ...well, I guess I do, but not that way."

"And yet they do it," he smiled.

"And I do what they say, too," I protested. "Nopony has control over the others in our group."

"If you insist," he said. "Can I ask something else? Where does 'nopony' and 'anypony' and such come from?"

I winced again. "Dammit, Swift," I muttered under my breath, "now ya got me doing it." Aloud, I said, "It's a thing Swift started. I guess it's contagious."

Rich laughed quietly. "It's actually pretty sound logic," he shrugged. "Maybe it's good if it catches on."

"If you say so," I said. I finished with the radios and turned to face him properly. "Okay, your turn."

"My...? Oh," he said, understanding after a moment. "Okay. Hi, I'm Richard Leroy. I'm 22, work ... worked... for a video game company back home. Like I said the other day, I was in town for a convention."

"Hi," I smiled. "Yeah, you said you had to get down from the 11th floor with no power. How'd that work out?"

"Very tricky," he admitted. "Naturally there were no elevators. Getting into the stairwell wasn't a problem, but getting back out at the bottom was. Because you had to use your card to go on to any level, to unlock the door? But of course, they weren't working either."

"Wow," I said, with a grimace. "Sounds like kind of a fire code violation to not let you out at least at the bottom, but I guess there's no one left to fine for that, right?" Instantly I regretted that. "Shit. I'm sorry... I hope I didn't... I'm gonna stop talking now."

He smiled after a moment's reflection. "It's all right. I'm not offended. I'm sure we've all lost friends and loved ones too. I've made my peace."

"Sorry," I repeated.

"Don't worry about it," he insisted. Gesturing to my side, he said, "Anyway, I'm sure you wouldn't have had a hassle like I did. If I'd had wings, I would have just opened the balcony and flown out."

The image of a plummeting Rich, with my aggravation at not having working wings, filled my head, and I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head to exorcise it. "Don't wish for these," I grumbled. "They don't wor... I can't fly."

"You can't?" he said curiously.

"I don't know what the deal is," I said. "I've tried everything obvious, I've even read up on birds' behavior in flight. There's just something not clicking, up here I guess." I tapped a hoof to the side of my head. Then, for a moment, I remembered Princess Luna's comment about how physics could be overcome now, and wondered what she meant.

"I'm sure you'll get it," he said comfortingly. "After all, Swift has already taught me so much. I'm excited to be learning how to use this thing." He gestured to his horn.

"Can you do anything yet?" I asked.

He shook his head, still smiling though. "Not so far, but Swift assures me it will come. I have faith in her."

"Good," I nodded, and smiled back.

"So, about these other people..."

I nodded again, understanding where he wanted to go. The smile on my face evaporated. "It's hard to tell what their endgame is," I told him. "They seem benevolent so far. They've left us supplies once, but like we said before, we've never met them face-to-face. They're listening to our radio signals, and have answered with written messages. They seem most interested in understanding how we have survived."

Rich looked surprised and looked around the store, then spread his forehooves wide.

"I know," I agreed. "It seems pretty basic to us too. It's confusing. I'd really like to get into a proper conversation with them, but so far they haven't been willing to do so, and I'm not so sure I wouldn't wet myself in their presence. Um... because of the anti-magic field thing."

"I knew what you meant," he nodded. "Is it as bad as Swift said?"

"For her, and ...probably for you too, sorry to say, most likely. They went to the..." I realized he wasn't local and wouldn't know about the nuke plant, so I started over. "There's a nuclear power plant about one and a half kilometers south of us here. The first time we learned of them was when they went in there one night. They flew in from the south, across the lake, and circled around the plant a few times, then went inside. Never got even halfway close to us. And Swift... she got really badly freaked out. Jeff and I nearly shat ourselves, but Swift flipped out completely. Like monsters-under-the-bed scared, hiding under her covers all night, not sleeping a wink." Again I winced. "I'm sorry, I hope I'm not freaking you out by telling you this... making you worry about what'll happen if you encounter them."

"Don't worry," he said with a smile. "It's nothing I haven't heard from Swift already. In fact she said you brought her back from the brink. She's very complimentary of you in many things."

I blushed. "I just help my friends when they need it," I murmured.

"I'm sure," he nodded. "Anyway, I'm trying to steel myself against it, in the hopes that my teacher's experience and her friends' will prepare me. You know, fear for the worst, hope for the best?"

"Right," I said, nodding as well. "Good plan."

"Anyway," he said, standing up, "I'm sure you have work to do. Perhaps, quote, 'fawning over her stupid car some more'." He grinned. "Thanks for the talk."

I laughed and stood as well. "You do a good impression of her!" I said. "Anytime."

Supper that night consisted of various things we didn't need to cook or prepare, since the kitchen was still in pieces. It was taking shape quickly, but wasn't ready for that night's meal.

"When we can cook again, I was thinking, I might try some pizza," Swift said.

"Pizza!" Karin gushed. "Really?"

"Well, meat-free pizza, but yes. I'm still trying to think of what toppings to use."

"Even a cheese and tomato sauce pizza would be a godsend," I commented.

"Sounds like you'd better make more than one," Jeff joked.

"I guess so," Swift laughed. "Hey, Stormy, it's supposed to be overcast tomorrow."

"Yeah?" I said, brightening up. "Cool."

"What's that about?" Karin wanted to know.

Jeff was about to respond, but Swift shushed him. "You'll have to find out tomorrow," she smirked.

"Geez," I facetiously grumbled. "Put me on the spot, why don't you."

"You'll do fine," Swift said dismissively, then turned to Serge. "You might be interested in this too."

He harumph'ed. I'd never heard anybody actually pronounce it like that before. "I'm going to be busy finishing the kitchen. Helping us survive, not sticking my head in the clouds."

"Suit yourself," Swift responded.

"Don't mind him," Karin said with a hint of a smile. "He's always a sourpuss."

Apparently he was used to this teasing, for he didn't respond to it - just continued munching on celery.

As supper wrapped up, Swift got quickly to her hooves. "Don't go anywhere," she urged everyone, then galloped away.

"What's this about?" I asked Jeff.

He shrugged. "Got me," he said. "Since when have I ever been privy to what passes for coherent thought in her-"

"I heard that!" came a faint voice from near the back room of the store. "Don't finish that thought if you don't wanna sleep in the rafters tonight!"

Rich blinked and looked up to the ceiling high above his head. Jeff and Karin laughed.

"Trust me," I quipped. "It's cold up there and windy from the air ducts."

Rich's eyes widened. "She hasn't really..."

"Would this face lie to you?" I said, trying to put on as stoic a mask as possible.

Karin was all but collapsing in laughter when the lights went out.

I almost shot to my hooves, but then noticed that the other lights in the place were still bright. Only the common area had been darkened.

"What is she doing..." I wondered aloud.

I learned fairly quickly as she came back with a number of unlit candles of various shapes and sizes, and levitated them all so that one was in front of each of us. She laid back down in her place.

"I was thinking this was probably a better way to do it than to ask after stories from everypony, and bring up memories some of us might not want to share. But we should, now that we're all in this together, take a moment to light a candle for our loved ones that have... that aren't with us any more."

Everyone seemed to be warm to the idea - at least, no one protested - so Swift started. She ignited her candle's wick with a spark from her horn, and said quietly, "Thanks for everything, Mama." Then she set it on the low table between us.

Jeff was to her left, and nodded as she lit his for him. He paid some silent respects, then cradled the candle between his hooves to move it beside Swift's.

Rich did much the same, not trying to use his horn just yet.

Karin hugged the lit candle as close to her as was safe. "Mom... Dad... Kevin... I know you're in a better place now. I'll never forget you." Then she moved her candle up.

It was my turn, and the wick erupted in a flame before me thanks to Swift. I shut my eyes and thought of my sister and her family, and my father.

I won't forget you guys either, I silently promised. I hope you know I'm doing okay.

I put my candle up with the others, and watched Serge as he stared at his wick intensely, as it burst into flame. On one hoof, he seemed intrigued by the magically created fire; on the other, he was clearly deep in remembrance.

As he shut his eyes, I saw his lips begin to move. He was speaking far too quietly for any of us to hear, but eventually made a barely-audible whisper as he finished.

"...in your protecting embrace. Amen."

Six candles now burned on the top of the table, feeding off one another's warmth and illuminating us all with their light.

The mood remained somber throughout the evening. After we cleaned up from supper and let the candles burn down for a while, we went back to various things we had planned to do.

Swift and Rich went off to play Jedi and master again, while Karin went back to studying her medical text. Serge went to do more work on the kitchen renovations, while I went to the common area, to the computer terminal we'd put the weather station on, ages ago, so I could see if there really was a chance I'd get to do some cloudwalking tomorrow.

Jeff sauntered over after a while. "What's the prognosis?" he asked.

I made one of those strange, optimistic frowns. "Fifty-fifty, I think," I said. "Not helping Serge?"

"He seemed to want to be alone," Jeff said. "He's not a particularly social pony, I'd say."

I shook my head. "That was a really nice gesture by Swift, but I'm wondering if it bugged him."

"A lot of things seem to bug him," Jeff replied. "Just so you know, if you do go up tomorrow, I'm going to try to get him to at least come see you do your thing. I think he needs to embrace his inner pony. Come to grips with what he is."

"Okay," I said. "Hope I don't get performance anxiety."

"Just don't fall," Jeff smirked. "But if you do, we now have a very capable medical pony."

"Yeah, you're looking half-decent, instead of half-dead," I smiled. "She does good work." I resisted the urge to ask if she shared some extra TLC. It was just a suspicion I had, and it wasn't my business anyway.

"Indeed," he nodded, then quirked an ear, falling silent. "What's that noise?"

I listened in between hammer blows coming from the other side of the store. There was definitely something else making sound, and not Swift and Rich chattering back in the back room/warehouse. My eyes went wide as I realized what it was, and for the second time in a week, I lunged into a gallop for the radios.

Getting to them, I turned the volume up on the one configured to listen to X's bots' telemetry. I'd left it turned relatively low because the data sound was rather piercing, and would be easily noticeable at almost any volume level, but all but painful at louder ones. But this wasn't data; it was voice.

"Ponytown. Ponytown. Ponytown. This is Explorer Base. Do you copy?"

Jeff, having followed me to the radio room, was about to turn and run and call for the others, but I lashed out with a hind leg and stepped on his tail. He glared at me, but stayed put as he saw my stare back at him. This wasn't survivors. They were too... professional with their radio procedure. This was someone who made a living out of talking on the radio, and sounding authoritative while doing so.

"Ponytown here," I responded, trying to keep my nerves down in my hooves instead of rising up to my throat. "Go ahead, Explorer Base."

"Ponytown," came the response. "This is the ... survivors' encampment in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. Correct?"

"Af-affirmative," I said, cursing myself internally for stumbling over the word. There was little doubt in my head on who I was talking to.

"Ponytown, Explorer Base. We need to talk."

Author's Note:

Well all right then! Suddenly a car chase happened. Now all I need is a beach episode. Amirite?

Comments

[Posted]

I found this by way of Lionheartcartoon on DA who did your art. If I hadn't I would really have missed out as this is a quite fun last person pony on earth survival piece.

[Celefin]

*ships it*

Beautiful chapter, again. Three new characters all already feeling like real persons.

Now all I need is a beach episode.

Miami Pickering Vice with Stormy Crocket and Swift Tubs...

But seriously: highspeed car chase, flying and diving in a Model S through over- and underpasses, screeching tyres, hoofbrake sliding and a gunship in hot pursuit?! How cool can it get?
Butt-picture incoming:
images.all-free-download.com/images/graphiclarge/wheel_312276.jpg

[Dr Bomb Doge]

6278608 All of the yes. That would be an amazing butt-picture.

[ThePrinceOfTheNorth]

Swift shook her head. "Whatever. Well, I still think it's a good idea to prepare everypony before the next time the black helicopters start flying overhead."

In real life, I take black helicopters to be a VERY, VERY bad thing.

Lovin' all them Star Wars references and whatnot. Makes it all the more enjoyable.

[Starscribe]

A car chase as a pony. I don't even want to think about how hard it would be to drive with dexterity under the circumstances. It's way late into the morning, I should be asleep. But I'm not, because the story is captivating. Every time I feel tired, like I'm going to put it down, I'm reminded why I stuck with this side story in the first place. The genuine emotions, the drama... and some pretty good cliffhangers, too!

[ImChangingmynameforreaso]

So, I think I may have noticed a discrpency:
Ham radios all work in the HF band (3-30 MHz), but .most radio controlled things work in VHF (30-300mhz) or higher... how would they be able to detect the (digital) vhf+ signal on an analog HF radio?

[Dances With Unicorns]

Will Swift ever refer to Rich as her Padawan? Swift could start a school for unicorns, with Rich as her first student.

[Helium]

I love that despite everything most of them seem to maintain an optimistic and carefree attitude. Wonder how long it'll take Tom to explain the last bit of weirdness for the list to the other three. Probably wouldn't want to wait as long with it as it took to tell Jeff to avoid it slipping out awkwardly again.