The Last Phoenician

by Razzle Dazzle

July 16-17

Thursday, July 16

Dear Journal,

Today was uneventful. After breakfast, we shared our thoughts on the next few items on the list. We’ll have to wait and see how the garden goes before we start an actual farm. Apparently Al tried to grow some stuff too, but nothing survived the heat, so it’s still Jessica’s job.

His garden will be ready very, very soon (I’ve been saying that for the past month). We need storage for the crops he’ll harvest, so Ben and Nina drove out to grab a few containers from a store nearby. Dana was busy searching for things to set up the radio station, so I walked off to go build things again. But since I was out of materials, Jessica and I drove down to the Home Depot to grab more.

When we finished bringing a few trips’ worth of stuff back, I started testing what I could do. My telekinesis has a range of about thirty feet, and even if I’m on the other side of a room it’s pretty accurate. But it’s much easier and less tiring to stay close by what I’m moving. For some reason, it’s really relaxing to build stuff. Jessica’s going to put his foot (hoof?) down eventually, though. Hopefully I can finish at least this one house before that happens. I’m making good progress, too. I’m almost done with framing the roof, and with all the stores in the Valley, I won’t run out of materials anytime soon.

I stopped after about two hours of working. I think I’m getting better at using magic, or at least building up stamina. At the same time, I can’t help but feel bad. It’s a nice hobby, and it calls to me, but will I ever help the colony with it? The others do what they want, but it’s all really helpful. Levi brought us power, Dana helps with the radio broadcast, Jessica farms, and Al works on the cars. There are almost fifty houses in the neighborhood we’re in, and there’s only eight of us. I highly doubt the colony will ever be big enough to warrant any crazy construction.

-Scott

Friday, July 17

Dear Journal,

I didn’t practice any magic today. I guess it’s for the better, because it screwed up my sleep schedule. I woke up late today, and when I came out of the room, Miranda was talking with Jessica about what cleaning stuff we had. It wasn’t much, and he told her that she could go grab some if she wanted. She drove off to the Walmart, and I ate breakfast (more like lunch) and went on a quick walk.

It was a nice day, and I was looking forward to exploring a nearby neighborhood a bit. Halfway down the street I was stopped by Nina.

“Hey, Scott! Can you help me with something?” she asked.

I was going to say I was busy, but then it occurred to me just how little I saw of her. She was usually in her room drawing something, be it the view outside or a dog that curiously wandered into her room. “Yeah, sure. What do you need?”

She fidgeted a bit. “Um, well, I kinda want to draw everybody in the colony. I’ve been trying to learn how to draw ponies, and I need somebody besides myself. Could you please help me?”

“Oh, sure!” I told her, and we walked back to her room. After setting up a folding table near her desk and placing her sketchbook on it, Nina walked over to her desk and sat down on the chair, spinning it around to face me.

“You can stand or sit if you want, Scott.” I sat down on the floor and she flipped open the sketchbook, placed a pencil in her mouth, and started drawing me. How does she draw with her mouth? Maybe it just takes practice. I wonder if I could write with my mouth.

I sat there for about fifteen minutes making the same pose. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I couldn’t move much. Finally, she looked up and put down her pencil.

“I’m finished! Want to see it?” I went over to the open sketchbook. Now, there are mirrors in this house, and I know what I look like, which makes it even more uncanny. It was just a simple sketch, nothing special, but it looked real. And she only had a month to practice pony anatomy, too. Art must be her special talent or something.

After a few seconds of silence as I examined the drawing, Nina spoke up. “Do you like it?”

I smiled. “It’s great! If you want to do more I’d love to keep helping you.”

“Oh, thank you, but I’m sure you have other things to do. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Sure. Tomorrow sounds great.”

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly. I went over to the house I was working on only to be hit by another wave of nausea so I stayed inside with Jessica, who was writing frantically in a notebook. Has everybody but me learned how to write?

“Well, somebody looks professional,” I said.

“You’re hilarious. I’m not doing my taxes, just putting all our plans on paper. You have the transcript from our meeting on the computer?”

“Yeah. Do you want me to get it?”

“I can grab it.” He walked into our room, and came back after a few minutes. After I directed him to the file, he copied it over to a page in his notebook. He leafed through the pages for a few minutes, reviewing all the scribbles. “Well,” he said, “I have good news and I have bad news.”

“What’s the good news?”

“We have all the materials to do everything on the list we made.”

“And the bad news?”

“All we need is people who know how to do them.”

“That is a problem, yeah. Well, people have woken up later than the 23rd before, right? Who’s to say it’ll stop?”

“You really think that all of Phoenix is going to come back?”

“Eventually, yeah.”

I hope.

-Scott

P.S. Apparently this printer can scan, too! So here’s the picture Nina drew of me. Not bad, right?

It’s a crappy scanner, but it works. Not like I can go out and get a new one.

Wait, that’s exactly what I can do. I’ll go out tomorrow. It’s late. Goodnight.

Comments

[Baileyjrob]

Huh, nice to see that the colony grows great and strong!

Let's hope some of that rubs off on Leon, eh?

But no, in all seriousness, I'm happy to see things work out so well for them.

[Razzle Dazzle]

6288175 Yeah, I'm planning a few stories set in the future once this one is done. Things go pretty well, thanks to weather magic and earth ponies being able to grow things in the middle of the desert.

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Although the flash forward is actually a neat idea, having it in the middle of a chapter like this implies that it's a permanent time-skip.

Might be less confusing long-term (pardon the pun) if you keep them contained to their own chapters.