The Last Phoenician

by Razzle Dazzle

August 2

Sunday, August 2

Dear Journal,

Today shit went down.

I went to bed at about three in the morning yesterday, and when I woke up, Jessica was just rising too. We brought breakfast back into our room to talk about how to present it.

“So I don’t think this will go over well,” I said between bites of canned food. “It just seems complicated.”

“And we’ll need a unanimous vote. Everybody is going to have to work on this, and I don’t want to force anyone to do this if they don’t want to.” Jessica replied.

“I think you need to give a speech.”

Jessica groaned. “No, I can’t give speeches.”

“Yes, you can. Like it or not, everybody here looks up to you. You’re our leader.”

He paused. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

I moved up close to him. “Great.” After we shared a small kiss, I went out to start breakfast for everyone. Levi came out and wordlessly helped me, still exhausted from a long night. Nothing interesting happened during breakfast. Afterwards, though, I gathered everyone in the main room to hear Jessica’s plan. Everyone sat down, some on the sofas, some at the table in the open dining room. Jessica came out of our room, walked over to the center of the room and started speaking.

“I need to talk to you about something very important. This could be a game-changer. So far, we’ve done some great things in the past month. We have power, we have food, and we have a secured area. But the most important thing we need is water. Right now we’re rationing bottled water, but that won’t last forever. What I want to tell you is that I’ve found a way to get running water again.

“I talked with Ben last month about this. He told me that the canals had filters that shut off with nobody to maintain them and, farther upstream, there are four dams that went offline. If we can get the dams running again and the canals’ filters working then we’ll have running water. Then it’s a matter of shutting off water mains to the rest of the city so we don’t waste anything. What I’m trying to say is that it’s possible, but it won’t be easy. We’d all be working hard to get this done, and I don’t know how long it would take. It could be a month, or two, or more. But it’ll be worth it.

“We need to start to prepare. We have everything we need to keep ourselves alive, but it’s time to look ahead. There’s going to be a new generation coming soon, and we need to do this for them. We need to do this to rebuild the city. Without water, we’re not going to last long. Doing this would mean that we can start a permanent colony and that we can handle however many new ponies show up at our gates. Water means that we will be here for a long time.

“But, like I said, this is going to be difficult, and everyone is going to have to work to do this. When we vote on this, it has to be unanimous. If we do this, it will require all of us to work together. And I think we can.”

When he stopped speaking, the room changed. It was like every emotion he had ever felt was ingrained into the air for us to feel. A light shone on Jessica’s flanks, and when it faded away, he had the image of a red quill on both flanks. He looked at them, confused, before turning back to the rest of the group. “Well, that happened,” he said. A few people laughed, but the mood still lingered from his speech. “We still need to vote, though. Who says yes to the project?”

Everybody raised a hoof.

The rest of the day was mostly Jessica planning the project even more while I laid on the bed, thinking about the future. I’m still in a bit of shock about being pregnant after being a guy for twenty-eight years. And people, or ponies now, are showing up out of nowhere, so we’ll keep growing. I just wonder what the city will look like in twenty, even fifty years. I wonder how much we’ll grow. I wonder how much we’ll save.

The future’s going to be crazy, that’s for sure, but I’ll make it through.

-Scott

Author's Note:

And it's done! I'd like to thank Starscribe and Baileyjrob for agreeing to do collabs with me. You guys rock!

And don't think I'm done with Scott and Jessica just yet.

Comments

[Baileyjrob]

Wow, I'm surprised to see the story end so abruptly! I look forward to seeing what comes of these characters. I absolutely want our characters to continue interacting. We may have been up almost all night, but it was so fun!

I look forward to seeing what comes, and I especially look forward to working with you again!

[Razzle Dazzle]

6685958 I just needed it to end before it got even more rambly. The sequel will pick up right about where it left off.

And there's no questioning that we need to do another crossover.

[Pluto Daze]

...it's quiet here.

[Razzle Dazzle]

7101934 Yeah, sorry about that.

I'm sure you don't want to hear a long rant about every single reason why I haven't written anything, but suffice it to say I've been meaning to get back to this. There's still a plan for a sequel, and the first few chapters are sitting unloved on Google Drive. I really don't know when I'll be back, but my best guess is the end of June. Maybe earlier. Hopefully earlier.

[SolangeEggbert]

Thanks!
Looking forward to any sequel. :)

[Jingle_Boii]

This is how the world ends.
This is how the world ends.
Not with a bang, but with too much of "Cards Against Humanity."

[Helium]

I doubt you'll ever see this, since at the time of posting this you haven't been online for 2 years, but i have a personal rule to try and leave a comment on every story i finish.

I have to admit i think the biggest issue i have with the story is the pacing. Characters are introduced very quickly and rarely get a mention again or any development making it hard to care for any of them. In general it feels like things are happening just a little bit too quickly as well. Then again that might just be a pitfall of the journal style of story telling.

Still it wasn't bad and it had its moments. Overall an enjoyable story.

[Amaponynoob]

Well, that ended.... Suddenly . Still.
It did have an end, so that's always good, unlike way to many stories on this sight. More so it seems with ones set in the world of this little corner of it.
It leaves off in a way that you can at least make a good guess as to where it would have gone from here which is always something I've like in stories I read.
And, above all, it was a fun journey to get here.

It's also fun the way these PaP stories always seem to have me bringing up google maps to see if I can figure out where their taking place and traveling between.