• Published 13th Jul 2015
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Founders of Alexandria - Starscribe



Four months after the end of human civilization, six ponies come together to rebuild. They learn that the apocalypse has not made friendship any easier.

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Part 5 (Oliver) - Chapter 1

In the absence of the mare Cloudy Skies, Oliver was always the first to rise. He took great pride in this, though not so much pride as the fact he could get up before sunrise without a cup of coffee to keep him going. Most mornings were an absolute joy; after his hot shower Oliver would take a walk before the sun came up, singing to himself and imagining all the wonderful things that would happen that day. It was hard to say what he would sing; whatever struck his fancy, really. It wasn’t as though there was anyone to hear him, or anyone to complain. Only Sky even knew he did it, and she hadn’t said. They had an understanding. And when he returned from his walk, either Sky would have breakfast cooking or he would start it cooking himself.

But there was no hot shower today; the Hummingbird didn’t have one. When he took his morning walk, Oliver found himself overwhelmed with the stench of fire and death, and so he returned after only a few minutes. There was no breakfast cooking when he came back, or indeed any way to cook one. He ate oat trail bars instead, which despite the world ending still had another six months before they expired. Nobody else was awake yet, not with the lazy unicorns and Alex still drained from her injuries the day before. His garden was back in Alexandria, so there was nothing to water. He couldn’t sing, not without waking everybody up within the cramped space.

So Oliver had to content himself with an hour of exploring a space that was probably smaller than most homes. It was apparently some really fancy, expensive airplane. It should be easy to occupy an hour of his time exploring such a place, right?

Yes, as it turned out. Oliver tossed on his jacket, mostly because he didn’t feel human without it (not that it had any real power besides the emotional significance he gave it), and started to wander, starting at the launch ramp. He opened each of the lockers, at least the ones that would open, and found most of them were still stocked with supplies. Machines he didn’t recognize, with markings in English and sometimes Chinese too. Weapons he had never seen used by any military, and scientific instruments with purposes he could only speculate. Every inch of space had been filled with a pocket or a pouch, and nowhere at all was there a patch of totally bare wall or floor without a removable section.

The plane looked like it held 20 seats at one time, though the center of the cargo area was now bare, providing them with enough space to fit a single APC or something similar if they wanted one. Until the day before, he had never thought he would ever need one. Until yesterday, Oliver had considered the disgusting business of war gone for good. Now he was less certain.

Oliver stepped towards the hallway, onto the section of floor that constantly vibrated with the hum of the reactor. If they had thought themselves safe, they would’ve shut it off. But given the danger they had encountered on their way in, they kept it on its lowest functional setting, ready to accelerate to full power at a second’s notice. Even knowing the effectiveness of the radiation-neutralizing CPNFG, Oliver didn’t exactly feel great to be standing on top of it. A hatch baring several nuclear symbols was made of some transparent material, and showed him the ladder that went down to the reactor level.

Given Oliver didn’t know if he could climb a ladder without his hands, he didn’t get to explore down there. Would it have even been safe if he could? Beyond the cargo area was the hallway leading to the cockpit, where Moriah slept. There wasn’t enough floor space for a proper human, but ponies took just about half as much. Less, if they tried.

He didn’t go in there, knowing how late a night she had spent investigating and the rage she was likely to feel at being interrupted. He would have to play with the ship’s controls another time.

The Hummingbird also had a head, one so small even their pony bodies had trouble using it, particularly with the dire consequences if something went wrong. He had already explored in there as much as he wanted to, so he moved on to the sleeping quarters. Yes, the Hummingbird had them, though only for a crew of eight humans.

There were two such rooms, divided by sex. Each had a single bunk-bed with two bunks, and just enough space to stand in and access the storage locker under either one. Moriah had told him yesterday that the Hummingbird could stay airborne with its eight-man crew for three years without maintenance, though she personally doubted it could hold enough food or water for more than three months or so. He found the idea of hot-bunking for that long almost as disgusting as the idea of using the Hummingbird’s head again.

It was a dark reminder of humanity's future, where every vehicle had to be able to function as a home-away-from-home. Thus was life when dangerous radiation suffused every corner of the planet. Alex thought that humanity had a fighting chance of surviving, with all the preparations the HPI had made. Oliver’s prognosis was far more realistic; he gave them twenty years.

Maybe, with the help of transformed ponies (and lots of exercise) they could push it to forty. But survive long enough to find a cure? Not in the world he knew. If whole pharmaceutical companies took decades to develop vaccines, how could five hundred people living in a hole in the ground expect to vaccinate themselves against a fundamental force?

The light flicked on from the mare’s sleeping quarters. Without Moriah, Alex would be alone. Maybe a chance to finally speak with her in private about what he had seen.

Oliver stepped forward, raising his head a little so the sensor would notice him. With a satisfying whoosh of pressure, it zoomed to one side, admitting him. “Morning, Alex. If you’re up, I was hoping-” He froze.

Alex was dressed like Sky, just then. Which was to say she wasn’t dressed at all. The room smelled like mare, thicker than any human would’ve noticed. Damn horses for their superior senses of smell! He would have traded his for his night vision back in a second. “Oh. I was… yeah.” He blinked, then forced his medical detachment upon himself.

Regular people might not be able to ignore things like that smell, but Oliver was a doctor. Damnit if his quarter million dollar education didn’t buy him something! In the end, all he had to do was remind himself of what he had seen the day before. That was more effective than any bucket of cold water he had ever experienced. His tone changed, and just like that Alex was no longer a very attractive pony, not to mention the only mare he knew with anything even approaching emotional stability.

Instead, she was a patient. Nothing weird about examining a patient, nothing the least bit awkward. It was just part of the job. “Just wait here. I’ll go get my medkit, okay?”

Alex, for her part, hadn’t remained frozen. Once the moment was over, she sat down on her haunches, covering herself as best she could with the positioning of her forelegs. She yawned. “Whatever, sure. Bring me some orange juice while you’re at it. Or… whatever we’ve got.”

Oliver did, returning five minutes later with a canteen filled with Tang and his equipment. True to his instructions, he found Alex hadn’t gotten dressed, though she had wrapped a blanket about her lower body that made it both easier for him to concentrate and easier for her to remain relaxed.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell of the drink, but accepted it anyway. She drained the entire thing in one long sip, passing back an empty canteen. “Thanks. I guess… I guess you’ll want to change my bandages…”

“Probably not.” Oliver walked around her, something possible in the closed quarters only because they were ponies and not humans. “Could you lie down on your back? The less we move things, the better.” Though he was beginning to suspect it wouldn’t matter. That was the real reason he had come.

She spread out on the bunk, doing her best to keep herself covered. That was just fine with him, though he would have to move the blanket when it came time to inspect the rest of her spine. Oliver proceeded with his examination as quickly as he could, removing the bandages.

There was something about living things that just made sense to Oliver. It didn’t matter if they were plants in his garden, or patients under his care. A touch here or a prod there gave him more than an intuitive sense of how they were feeling. It was as though their bodies spoke to him in a way that was deeper than words.

Yesterday, they had nearly crashed in flight. Alex hadn’t been restrained, and had slammed her head with enough force that bone was visible. Once their flight stabilized, he had rushed to her side, and heard the grim story her body told him. It hurt to lose a friend.

By the time they landed, she had been breathing again. By bedtime, she wasn’t even bleeding. Now the body beneath his hooves spoke of vibrant, perfect health. Her neck wasn’t broken anymore, as though he hadn’t been able to use her ability to move freely to learn that. Her skull wasn’t broken. She wasn’t even missing fur from the back of her neck, where the injuries had been the most gruesome. She was starving, thirsty, and only five days away from the sort of thing he liked very much to avoid. At least, he always had before.

When he removed the bandages, they came away clean. He didn’t bother trying new ones. He hadn’t bothered with a neck-brace the day before. What was the point of putting a brace on someone who could come back from the dead?

“Alright, done.” He gestured, moving away. Alex sat up, making sure her blanket was in place as she did so.

“No bandages?” She looked confused, though not as confused as he thought the situation called for.

“Have you ever seen a miracle, Alex?”

The young mare only stared back at him, silent. He went on. “I have. Watched a man die on the table, me and my classmates all taking notes. Helpless, nothing we could do. We probably would’ve made things worse.”

“Doctors did what they could, tried to get the patient back on life support, but there wasn’t enough time. His heart just wouldn’t start. I’d never seen death before.”

Alex glared up at him. “That’s it? Your miracle story is about some guy dying? That doesn’t sound like a miracle.”

Oliver ignored the interruption. “I never believed in a soul until I watched someone die. Watching a living human being, with a father and a mother and hopes for the future and skills and regrets and everything, transformed into a slab of meat. Something was missing; something unique and wonderful would never exist again.”

“I knew right then I’d chosen the right career. One day, I wanted to be the sort of doctor who could steal the dying right out of Death’s fingers.”

“Yesterday I saw another miracle. I think you know what it is.” She nodded, but didn’t interrupt, so he went on. “The dead don’t return, Alex. Once you’re transformed into meat, that’s it. Except… except you did come back. Now you’re back to normal. I can’t think this is normal for ponies, not with the months it's taking Adrian's wing to heal.”

“No, it isn’t.” Alex looked down at her hooves. “Have you read anything about the Equestrian princesses?”

He nodded. “Not much. Just that the Equestrians believe that they're the same ponies who've been ruling for thousands of years. They think they move the sun and the moon too. I figure they’ve got some sort of dynastic rule in place. Daughters replacing mothers…”

“No. I know you’ve seen one of my memories… it’s nothing like that. Those ponies really are thousands of years old.” She took a deep breath. “They never said I couldn’t tell anypony. I guess it might make more sense if I’m not the only one who knows. Alicorns like them, their lives aren’t their own anymore. They’re bound to concepts instead. I don’t really understand how, so don’t ask. Princess Luna, for instance, she’s the night. She’s everything to do with the night, the stars and the moon and dreams too. So long as those things matter, she’s strong. If ponies stop caring about the night… she’ll grow weaker, less connected to the world. If they forgot altogether, she’d die.”

“Princess Celestia is the day. She’s the sun, she’s the life it gives and truth and purity and lots of other important things. The more ponies care about those things, the stronger she is. If those things ever ceased to matter, she’d fade away too.”

“I don’t know how it works. They said things about magic, but my memory wasn’t as good as it is now. I think… I think they were trying to do the same thing to me. It’s got to be something like that, because what happened yesterday wasn’t the first time.”

Oliver considered that, then he considered all of the implications. They stung, though not just because he was out of a job with her. Would she live thousands of years, like the monarchs of Equestria? Why did that bother him so much?

“I’d appreciate if you didn’t tell the others. I’m still kinda… figuring myself out. I wasn’t even sure about what I told you until a few weeks ago.”

He nodded. “Of course, of course. Doctor-patient confidentiality, all that.” He rose. “I’ll wake the others. We’ve still got a crime to investigate.”

“And friends in danger back in Alexandria. Or… maybe in danger.” She rose too, seeming to forget about the blanket. “It still might be us that are in danger. Can I get back to not being in bed? I think I’m about the safest pony here, no matter what happens.”

“Yeah.” He hurried out. There was much to do, and it was probably high time the unicorns woke up. It wasn’t all bad. Alex was still alive, and they might get to stay friends for many years to come. He hadn’t lost anypony yet.

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