• 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 6 (Alex) - Chapter 5

Form and meaning unraveled in the void, where symbols were as true as the things they represented. Time ceased to matter, just as space did. A battle raged; a battle she could not possibly win on her own.

The other wished to frame it in terms of Equestria, of ponies and spirits and magic. Alex refused, and so gave the duel form in another way. A human way.

Archive saw a roadside diner, right out of any number of 1950s era movies. It was late at night, and she pulled up to escape the wrath of a torrential downpour outside. The diner had a covered parking area, so she wouldn’t get any more hail-dents so long as she took the time to rest. She was fiercely hungry, and so elected to brave the wind and the rain enough to make it to the door. Even under the covered parking-area, she was soaked before she reached the entrance.

She was dressed for the period, just like everyone else. Under her thick raincoat was a green skirt and white blouse brought in above the waist. Archive had never been a human female before, but she didn’t even think about it then. That was just the way it was, just as she was back in time and in a diner because that was the form she had accidentally wrought upon the dream. There could be no arguing with it. Her skin was pale again, just as it had been. Her proportions modest, just at the beginning of womanhood. Only her hair showed sign of the truth beneath; it was the exact same shade as her mane had been. Instead of poodles, her dress had her cutie mark. She didn’t notice that either. After hanging up her raincoat in the room full of other storm clothing, she passed through into the restaurant itself.

She felt strange to be visiting alone in the middle of the night. It seemed like she should have company, perhaps a father or a brother. Yet she had none, so she would have to act strong. There were a few other patrons in the diner, all looking like they had come in for the exact same reason she had. She saw a huge blind man, a dog sitting beside him on the ground with a leash, speaking to what looked to be relatives in hushed voices. There was a couple at the bar, drinking wine from tall glasses. She hadn’t known public drinking was legal here!

There were others. A young man sitting alone had put down his book to stare at her, though his expression seemed more flattering than unnerving. A little black-haired girl sat beside her father, yawning between sips of a huge strawberry milkshake that he occasionally took from her to refill.

Too late to turn around now, the waitress had already noticed her. The woman was taller than Archive had ever seen before, with skin as dark as bark and hair even greener than Archive’s. It did not seem strange here. “Out a little late, aren’t we?”

Alex wanted to collapse and let the woman hold her. Somehow, she knew she would. She didn’t, though. She was an adult. She had to act like it. “Yeah. I didn’t mean to come; I’d rather be home. I think I got lost on the road somewhere.”

“Didn’t we all, sweetie.” She touched Archive on the shoulder, then picked up a menu. “Follow me. I’d rather take you somewhere else, but there’s only one seat available.” She started walking towards the back of the restaurant, where there was apparently a banquet hall. Even though the room outside had been filled with strangers, Archive found herself missing their company. It felt better not to be alone.

The banquet hall was unlit. A pale figure sat in a chair at the corner, staring at the wall. A huge meal was set before him, a feast to fill every spot on the table. It was almost as though the table had been set for fifty, all prepared and ready to go. Then, without warning, they had all gone.

Archive supposed the figure was male, though it was hard to tell for sure with the shadow. “Can’t you do something about the lights?” she asked, even as the waitress pulled out the seat across from him. “It’s so dark in here.” She thought it strange the figure didn’t rise when she sat down, but didn’t have the energy to make a scene about proper manners this late at night.

“Not much.” The woman took an unlit candle from the next table over, one with the oil wicks, and set it down next to Alex. “I’m afraid I don’t have a lighter. You look like a clever girl, though. I’m sure you can handle it.” She took Archive’s drink order, then departed, leaving her alone with the stranger.

“You cannot stop me from claiming you.” As her eyes adjusted to the shadow, Archive saw the figure across from her, all dark suit and attractive features. She had never seen a face more handsome or dangerous in all her life. Mostly dangerous. She had liked the look of the young man in the lobby much better. “This obfuscation merely delays, and not even any meaningful fraction. Within the demesne of the mind, time is lightning. If you think to delay me long enough for your ‘friends’ to escape my reach, you think in vain.”

“I know.” Archive looked at the table. Much of the food here had been good. It was expensive looking stuff, much nicer than she would ever expect to find in a roadside diner. Alex saw a heaping plate of law, arranged beautifully by the chef. Someone, doubtless the man across from her, had taken a single bite from one corner. The entire thing had deflated into a squashed mess. Functional, but disgusting. She pushed it aside. All her favorites were already here, waiting for her. Civilization was the main course, arrayed on several large platters. One looked like something foul had been dumped onto it, while the other looked as though rot had spread from the single missing bite, making the whole thing reek of mold and decay.

“Your race is strong-willed, but not so strong as the love-sucking insects that live in rock and slime. We could not abide them, for they did not bow. We tried to change them first, but they would not bow, so we fought to exterminate them instead. Your weakness promises a kinder fate. Your dead civilization will have new rulers.”

Archive found a little plate of technology, still glowing in parts despite the man’s best efforts to spoil it. She reached down with her spoon, selecting only the good parts, and taking them in one gigantic bite. After the horror of the storm outside, after the cold and the weakness, that one bite felt wonderful.

Her dining companion shifted in his seat as he watched her, shoving over a nearby plate in agitation. Archive felt a brief surge of annoyance as the food went all over the floor. She hadn’t even had a chance to see if anything on that tray of friendship could be salvaged or not. “Be grateful for your death. When I take you for myself, when I change you, they will change also. There will be no need to exterminate them anymore. They will serve us, as is their place.” He paused, a flicker of anger in his dark eyes. “Well, perhaps some of them. Your servants spoke to me of living humans that abide in secret places despite the advent of magic. I will extract their location from your mind before I erase it. I will cleanse them with flame and crystal.”

“Maybe.” Archive’s drink order arrived, a very strong pot of coffee. She took one long swig, then reached out and swapped out her plate for another, most precious of all. It had no name she had ever known, not until very recently. Yet she had always known it was her favorite, somewhere deep down. The waitress looked approving as she left them to their meal. “Maybe not.” She opened the little pot. The grains inside had been scattered and arranged absurdly, like the pot had been held upside-down. Yet none had been soiled and none had escaped. She sprinkled them on her coffee. “I don’t think so. I think you won’t find another host strong enough. Someone mortal wouldn’t work, and I haven’t invented any enchanted objects strong enough to hold you yet. My library won’t accept you. If you can’t take me, the sun will take you.”

Archive looked at her enemy then, really looked. She could barely see him now. He was just a shadow of a dream, not nearly as solid as any of the other patrons outside in the lobby. They were real. Her soul filled with pity then, for the being that had none. “And when it does, you’ll be gone forever. Joseph said you would go back to where you’re from, but… you’re not from anywhere, are you? There’s only oblivion waiting outside these walls.”

The man across from her raged in his seat, throwing his glass and several plates onto the floor. They shattered, sending food everywhere. Some of her favorite foods, too. “If I do, I’ll take you with me. There can be no victory for you, human. At least in servitude I will let your existence continue, whatever shred I permit to remain.”

“I thought you could.” Archive set her cup down. The coffee had been fiercely hot, warm enough to heat away much of the chill she had brought in with her from the storm outside. On a whim, she stuck her candle into the dark liquid. It was so hot the wick caught in a rush of blue and sizzling green. She set it down beside her on the table, and the man recoiled several feet, outside the range of its weak little flame. “Before you took me here, before I saw what you really are. You were so strong. You forced people to do horrible things. I think-” She whimpered, wiping away a tear with the back of her hand. “I think you killed a good man right in front of me.”

“Maybe you are all those things, maybe you’re strong. But it doesn’t matter.” She bared her teeth, flashing white in the candlelight. “If you really knew me, you wouldn’t have come to Alexandria. If you really knew me, you wouldn’t have even come to my planet.”

You?!” That sick laughter came again, awful enough that Archive felt more of her food going bad. This was her feast, she realized more and more. It hadn’t been set for anyone but her. This man hadn’t even been invited. “Helpless, primitive child race! Defenseless, magicless, soulless! You are nothing to me. I’ll sweep you and your kin away like dew!”

Archive didn’t feel angry, even though she knew the words the stranger spoke were not true. They were so far from the truth, there was no reason to get upset. He was like an infant, wailing that he had been denied a sweet. “Child? That’s hardly your place to judge, stranger. It’s true, I don’t know anything about magic yet. But I’m learning. If you think I won’t, just look and see what I did with just three years to prepare. I survived the blow meant to kill me.” She leaned closer to him, narrowing her eyes. “You do not know me. I have survived far worse than you. I’ve watched my planet freeze, watched my villages crushed by glaciers, been hunted by predators a dozen times my size. I’ve seen sicknesses that turned whole cities to carrion. I’ve lived in every climate, from the scorching desert to endless perpetual snow.”

Her hand tightened on her knife as she began to clean away the filth from a dish of mercy. It was still warm; she would have to make sure she kept as much as she possibly could. As if summoned by her work, she felt a little hand on her wrist. It was the child she had seen in the lobby, black hair and bright green eyes. “We have the mirror ready, Archive. The basement is lit up.” Then she turned and skipped away.

“You come here, you find me harder to control, and you don’t even stop to wonder why. I will tell you, stranger. Not only have I conquered all those and much more, I faced an enemy greater than all of them. I faced myself. You think you’re cruel? I cracked the elemental code of my world, only to purify those elements and pour them down from the sky, killing hundreds of thousands. I stole the fire that burns in stars and used it to burn my own kind into shadows on a sidewalk.”

“Yet for all that and worse, for cruelty the likes of which you could not even imagine, there was also light. I took poison and turned it into fertilizer, and transformed the inhospitable to fruitful. I mapped the sky, and left the bounds of my world. I ended wars and sent my children home safe again. Though I was sometimes cruel, I more often chose kindness. Though I was sometimes spiteful, I often chose friendship instead. Though my world fought to kill me, I abandoned despair for hope.”

“You cannot own me. You cannot change me. I have no destiny but my own, and I choose to keep it.” She rose to her feet, gown billowing about her legs. “You are not welcome here, Odium. Not here in my mind, not in the minds of my children, and not on my fucking planet. Get out.”

Her imagined battlefield began to crumble as the demon that was far older than Alex surged upon her to take away her mind and write her anew according to its own desires. If she had been her old self, there would have been no fight at all. No mortal could stand against darkness that old and that filled with hatred. But behind the being named Archive was a fifty thousand years of struggle, of a daily war for survival. Fifty thousand years of cruelty, fifty thousand years of kindness. Alex knew little. Archive was sixty billion lives of invention and discovery and knowledge. By those terms, it wasn’t much of a fight.

Author's Note:

Sorry guys, I guess I picked a bad day to switch to my new school schedule! (Not that I'm actually late, but I know I'm posting later than some people would like)

So as you can tell from this point on, the story clearly isn't over. Under pressure for my editors, I extended the story by a full chapter, which will be told from the perspectives of all 6 previous characters. We'll have an interlude after this chapter as normal, then that chapter, and finally a short epilogue.

After that, I expect to take a break of a few weeks to get a backlog of content ready for the third and final main story in the Last Pony on Earth series.

A huge thanks to everybody who's made it this far. Most particularly to my wonderful artist Zutcha, who's never missed a day despite all the pressures of life. As an artist of a different kind whose also never missed a day, I know how hard it can be, so I'm way thankful for all his hard work. Maybe one day he'll finish his patreon page so I can finally donate...

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