Part 7 (Founders) - Chapter 5
Oliver had never invested more of himself in a patient than he did in little Alex. In school, he’d been taught over and over about the necessity of detachment. Any personal investment in a patient would destroy his impartiality and create a conflict of interest. Fundamentally, he was to be a scientific technician, compassionate only to the degree it was required for his bedside manner.
That detachment had not survived the end of the world. His friends were so rare now; too precious to let death claim. Even the friend he’d thought would never need his care. Especially her. Little Alex had been a dozen things to Oliver since they’d first met. She’d been the first pony he met after months of isolation. She’d been the first (and only) who enjoyed singing with him. Her Alto sounded wonderful with his tenor, even if she wasn’t nearly as good or interested in gardening. She’d been a friend, a leader, a pony he’d started to sometimes think about in ways that made him uncomfortable, and finally a martyr.
Or rather, she’d tried to be. Her body was always finding new ways to try and die. He refused to let that happen. He’d lost track of the surgeries he’d performed, the hundreds of different drugs he’d had to use at one point or another. He’d worked until his magic was exhausted and he couldn’t lift his legs. He’d worked so long on some nights that he forgot to eat, with only the unconscious pony and the medical monitors for company.
He was vaguely conscious things were changing in Alexandria, but he didn’t really notice unless the changes made it to the hospital. He never left anymore, not even to tend his garden. The winter would have claimed most of it anyway by now. Death could have his flowers so long as he could keep his friends.
Oliver only left Alex’s room to shower and to eat, and even then he didn’t go far. He’d turned the room next-door into his living quarters, though he barely visited. For “pleasure” he read only the Equestrian medical books, at least the digital ones he had. If the answer to how to help his friend was in the other books, it was inaccessible. An unconscious Alex could not open the library.
Occasionally ponies came to visit him. He usually took them in Alex’s room, so long as his single patient wasn’t trying out a new way to die. Yet he couldn’t listen for long without his mind drifting, and they all left before they’s stayed an hour. The only member of the Alexandria colony who spent more time with fallen Alex was her dog, Huan. The loyal canine never left her side, except on his brief forays downstairs for food or to use the bathroom outside.
Only the medical needs of ponies could break through his haze. Under that auspice he could hear and understand again. Then he could learn the news of the city while they spoke.
At those times, little Riley acted as his receptionist and nurse both, though she no longer looked like herself. She was still black, her mane still electric blue, but she’d given up the holes and the chitin and the wings too. It was an impressive trick, though Oliver wasn’t sure why she needed it and hadn’t cared enough to ask.
It was she who interrupted him that day, her jacket tight about her and a clipboard hovering in her green magic. Oliver thought she looked quite convincing, though he also knew she doodled pictures of ponies kissing on it and used it for no other reason than to look like she knew what she was doing. “Hey Oliver.” She poked him with her clipboard, bringing him crashing back to the real world. “Ponies here to see you.”
“Joseph dislocated his pelvis again?” he asked, exasperated. “Maybe one of the Odium ponies cut a fetlock open on a can?”
She giggled. Riley might not have made herself look any older with that strange magic of hers, but at least she appreciated his jokes. “Not either. They’re part of the last group to come in. Last night, actually. She tried to bring her sick foal in then, but I knew you were busy, so…”
He had been restarting Alex’s heart last night. It took him so much magic that he thought he would shrivel up like a prune. He hadn’t. “Yeah. I was.” He sighed, beginning to remove his gloves. Wearing rubber gloves over hooves didn’t really do much good, but he kept at it because he didn’t know any better. He tossed his in the trash, along with the mask he had been wearing. “You’ll get me if anything happens?”
“Quicker than lightning,” Riley agreed, levitating a fresh pair of gloves onto her hooves. She wouldn’t do anything but doodle, but he didn’t mind. For an eleven-year-old, the changeling had become remarkably disciplined in the few short weeks she had been helping him.
Oliver shrugged then hurried out of the room before he changed his mind. He had to compose himself; there had apparently been more immigrants (or at least visitors), making this the third group to arrive. Or were they the fourth? He had lost track.
He had to go down a hallway and through a set of swinging doors to reach the clinic, the only other area with any lights on. It was also the only area with heat, which meant he had to cross what Riley called the “great air-ice river.” He didn’t really understand what other ponies found so uncomfortable about it. But then, the strength of earth was in his bones.
He found them waiting in the clinic, a pair of unicorn mares with a pile of coats and jackets on one of the too-high hospital benches. There was a step-stool leading right up to the edge, but neither had climbed atop it and neither had the foal between them. He spared little concentration for their appearances beyond what he needed to do his job. He couldn’t get a good look at the foal as he came in, but he could see the both of them. One was snow white, the other icy blue. Both had cutie marks, but he didn’t really pay attention to either.
“Hello.” He inclined his head slightly, much more slightly than he ordinarily would. “I’m Dr. Pittman, I’ll be assisting you today.” He glanced between them, letting his mind lose focus and drift. He nodded abruptly. “Neither of you is my patient.” He stepped forward, looking down towards the foal.
His breath caught in his throat. Oliver had never even seen a pony this young before, unless he counted the ultrasound. He wasn’t entirely sure of what his sense of pony health was telling him as he looked, though the poor thing was clearly sick. “Who’s… Who’s this little pony?” He hadn’t been training to be a pediatrician or anything, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try his best to smile for the foal. “And what’s been bothering her?”
“She came down with a fever two days ago on the way up here. We aren't sure how she’ll react to medicine for humans so I’ve just been keeping her as warm and happy as possible.”
“Hmm.” Oliver leaned down, sniffing the child once at a safe distance to see if that might reveal something. It didn’t, which meant he would have to do things the old-fashioned way. No magical pony tricks today, it seemed. “That’s an understandable worry. For your information, most of the medication I’ve tested behaves exactly as designed on ponies, once you adjust for a reduced body mass. I wouldn’t suggest taking anything prescription without a doctor’s consultation first, though.”
Oliver gestured to the table. “If you could get her up there, I’d like to take a look. First though, has she shown any other symptoms? Maybe… rashes? Vomiting? Coughing? Anything like that?”
The mare nodded before her horn lit up with a creamy white glow, unwrapping the foal with her magic and carrying her carefully over to the table before setting her down. “No, other than coughing and sneezing, just the fever. I- Starlight, stay still ok? You need to stay still for the nice doctor…” He wasn’t really listening after that. His mind was back in the other room, with the patient he had been caring for for months. The patient whose insides he had gotten to know far more intimately than he had ever wanted to.
His head jerked up as he heard the foal squeak out a high-pitched “Mama stay?” So she was a little older than he had guessed. Or were ponies just fast learners?
He watched the mare mother her child, cooing to her and brushing a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes. It took her a moment to get the foal settled, long enough that he started to drift again.
All Oliver knew of pony foals he had learned from books, but that didn’t really matter. As it turned out, the principle was much the same. He thanked God the foal hadn’t suffered some sort of injury he might not have been able to treat. Would his innate magic and connection to the earth be enough to heal a delicate child?
He was happy not to find out. He had to climb up onto the step stool, taking the tools he needed from his pockets where he almost never needed them. After less than five minutes of gentle poking and prodding, he stepped down with an exasperated sigh. “She’s almost certainly caught a cold,” he said, with far more annoyance than he ought to. “It’s nothing serious. God only knows where she managed to find one, or if it’s even really the same disease that people were catching before the Event.”
He turned away, his tail flicking impatiently. “Keep her out of the cold, get her plenty of fluids and don’t let her be too active. I’ll send my receptionist back with some medicine you can give her every few hours to keep the fever down.” He started to walk away. “Come back if the fever gets worse, or she has trouble breathing, or develops sores. Otherwise, there isn’t anything else I can do.” He tossed his mask off into the bin along with the gloves, then hurried for the door, his steps getting faster by the moment.
He had left his real patient, and for what? A cold? He stopped in the door, then took the walkie-talkie out of his pocket so the unicorns could see. “Riley, meet me in the pharmacy. I’m going to need you to fill a prescription for our patient.”
“Wait!”
He stopped, rolling his eyes as he faced the mares, one silent and one mother. “Yes?”
She stepped over to him and pulled him into a hug. “I feel like I interrupted something important, but thank you so much! I don’t know if you had children before humanity was changed-” She said more then, though he didn’t hear it. Didn’t, because at that moment she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. It had been something about her friend being a dentist?
Oliver was stunned, and it seemed for a moment he was about to fall over. Aside from Riley, he hadn’t had any meaningful “human” contact in what felt like months. It was difficult to take in all of it at once. “Y-Yeah-” he stammered. “She would probably have been fine. But it was good you came in. Never know until you check.” He hurried out the door, without another word.
Taking care of Alex had been his whole life, so much so that he hadn’t been alive himself. Why did it take a sick foal’s mother to remind him of that? How the hell was he supposed to resuscitate Alex if he didn’t have any life to share with her?
He sang on his way back to the pharmacy, one of the sillier bits of Gilbert and Sullivan he knew. He sang on his way back to Alex’s room, one of the lovestruck Phantom of the Opera ballads they had always done as a duet. He had to fill in her parts, since she couldn’t sing anymore. But that was okay. At least he remembered why he had loved to sing.
The world did not change right away. Being more cheerful did not make the work any less difficult, or transform it into something besides work. What it did do, was let Oliver see things differently. He wasn’t working because Death was his enemy, though that was true enough. He fought because life was precious.
As his perspective changed, so did his vision. As Oliver sang, his eyes opened, and he saw he was not alone. He suspected he never had been.
The being in the room with him matched the description of no creature he knew. So long as he didn’t look directly at her, she seemed a towering woman, taking up an entire corner of the room. A huge curtain of leaves hung behind her instead of hair, and her skin was brown and wrinkled like a tree. Grass grew where she stepped, and little insects buzzed.
Yet if he tried to look at her, he found the vision hurt his eyes, and the human illusion broke down. Was that an arm, or the trunk of an elephant? Was her face beautiful, or was a hideous insectoid proboscis poking between her lips? Did those strong legs actually end in reptilian talons? The details didn’t stay the same, either. She was not one species; she was all of them.
He didn’t know how long she had been there; she noticed his attention at once, and chuckled. “About time you open your eyes, son.”
Oliver sat down, lowering his head. He felt like maybe he should bow, but he didn’t. After Odium, he had a bad taste in his mouth about the practice. Probably would forever. “I feel like I should know you. I know my mother though, and you’re not her.”
The figure rolled her eyes, which wouldn’t have been so disturbing if she had only had two. She ignored the remark. “Perhaps now that you see me, we can accomplish something. You think it’s easy to keep her alive when I’m blind? Treading water since November.”
“What are you?” He didn't bother with who. Somehow Oliver knew she seemed human to him only because that was what he expected to see. Trying to look her in the face broke down that illusion, and so he made sure not to. She was much easier to look at this way.
Her laughter was like birdsong in the hospital room. No, it was an actual bird, a bright red cardinal perched on the windowsill. How had he not noticed it there? “A friend.” She gestured down at the bed. “I may be cruel, but I am also fair. I pay my debts, and I will not allow her to die in my service.”
“Alex served you?” Oliver backed away a pace, feeling suddenly sick. The longer he remained, the more he was reminded of Odium. Had they been rescued from one monster to fall into the hands of another?
She shrugged. “Perhaps it’s better to say her creation served my purpose. Yours as well. Not every voice need be raised in anger, child. Nor is every creature you do not understand an enemy.”
“What purpose is that?” Oliver tried to move protectively between his patient and the stranger, but found her form too vast to approach. He stood beside the bed instead, though he knew if it came to a fight he wouldn’t stand a chance.
She laughed again, more energetically this time. “You have no words for it, not yet.”
“Try.” He pulled the rolling bed towards him, drawing in strength through the ground as he always did. It was harder to get at when he was on the second story, or at least he had expected it to be.
Not today. The bed rolled with such force it nearly ripped out of its electrical cables, nearly tore away from the IV and crushed him against the back wall. Oliver’s strength had not come from straight down, the way he was used to feeling it. It came from right in front of him, in the corner of the room.
If the strange figure had even noticed the gesture, she made no sign. “Perhaps it would be closest to the truth to say that she is creation’s way of being conscious of itself. The universe is vast, yet what good does beauty do if not experienced?” She reached down towards the bed. Oliver wanted to resist, but he was paralyzed with fear. His fear was in vain, in the end; she only stroked the little mare’s mane out of her eyes, as tenderly as the mother had for her child. Where she touched, the mare seemed less gray, more alive. Still unconscious, but more peacefully asleep instead of comatose.
“She has been my most successful attempt so far. Not the last; if you think being successful now grants you immortality, talk to the dinosaurs. I would’ve replaced her in time, as all things must die.” Her hands went white, scrunching up the misty fabric of her gown. “But my work was not finished.”
“You’re not talking about Alex, are you?”
She just smiled in reply, rising to her full height again. “Give me your hoof, child. I still have need of her. I have need of you too.”
He lifted his right leg, though he didn’t offer it to her. She stepped closer, bending down as if to reach. She had a long way to stoop. “Don’t be afraid, child. You have always served me. In the working of strangers, you now see me with new eyes, but I have always been there. It is not so strange to serve me now.”
He withdrew, back against the wall. He could go no further, and he nearly collapsed from fear. “The spirit, Odium… he sounded like that. He wanted our service too.”
Lightning flashed across that alien face, and for a moment her eyes went darker than any shark’s. “Do not compare me to that monstrosity. We are nothing alike. He took from you my most precious gift. He gave nothing to the world, only took and took and took from all he touched. Not I.” She reached out even further. “I take nothing from you, Oliver. I will not take your will; I ask you to use it. Demand, in fact. If all I ever wanted to be was obedient, I never would’ve needed animals.”
Still he hesitated, though he lifted up his hoof again.
She continued closer. “My unwitting allies gave you tools I never imagined. You will make them your own in time, just as you always have. But there is no time. I need her, and to have her I must have you. I cannot speak to the strangers, even if they are more talented with what they call magic. I have tried, yet only you and the sleeping child ever heard me. So hear me now; save my daughter.”
Oliver looked down at the hoof one last time, then reached up and offered it to the stranger. She took it with her hand, squeezing hard with fingers like pine roots. It hurt, it hurt so much he screamed. But it didn’t matter; it was a good pain.
This nameless being needed him to save Alex? That was exactly what he would do.
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I feel like I should make a "Green Thumb" or "Mother Nature" joke here but nah. This was a neat chapter. Now to see what the heck they are going to do.
Haha, second. What the heck r u doing posting things so early Starscribe?
The ancient Greeks had a name for her, Gaia. That's the most common term used when referencing the Earth's spiritual aspects. It's funny, our world is named Terra and her spirit is named Gaia. Which sounds better to you?
It's all going to work out? Go Oliver!
It seems kind of appropriate that even while unconscious Alex helped out by being the test subject for all those drugs...
That's a bit sad, seeing Oliver losing himself after the Odium incident unlike the other founders.
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Yeah, that's the reason why I haven't commented on Alex's current status.
I... have no idea what this earth spirit lady is or is doing. It's tempting to say that she's Gaia (or whatever name you choose to use for her), but since magic didn't exist in our universe until maybe a year ago, I don't even know how that would be possible. Though in this chapter the spirit seemed to imply that magic as the ponies know it is some entirely different force than whatever it is that makes beings like her or Odium capable of existence, so who knows.
And I have no idea how Odium could have left Alex like this unless we're all completely wrong about what the Equestrians turned her into. If she really is a concept, then short of directly destroying her, which he can't do since he's dead, she can't die as long as the concept exists. And yet, here she is, clearly on the brink of true death (not like all those fake deaths she's been through up until now). The spirit is involved somehow, but I don't even know how much of what's happened up until this point with regards to Alex has been her doing and how much of it has been because of what the Equestrians did.
Oliver, meet Gaia. I wouldn't say that she's a good Goddess; nature, because of what it is, is neutral to the human and pony conception of ethics. That said, Alex has been a good daughter and a good servant of Her intentions and I believe that she is about to teach Oliver things that no doctor or healer has ever learnt in Earth's long history - secrets that only an Earth Pony could know.
BTW - Riley's default pony disguise is ultra-cute. Of course, everything about Riley is cute so that doesn't really mean much difference, does it?
Magic has given the blind watchmaker eyes. Quite a few of them. Only by focusing on life rather than death could Oliver see her. Now they can work together, the Earthling earth pony and the Earth itself, not to preserve Alex, but to save her.
Also, it will be interesting to see what happened during Oliver's fugue state.
Dang, I'm not sure Oliver is going to be able to keep going himself if Alex dies.
Doh! Now that is really, really inconvenient.
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Hahaha, I love it.
Joe keeps dislocating his pelvis? I'm not sure if I do or do not want to know.
Geeze, so she's not just comatose, she's actively trying to die all the time and Oliver is stopping it?
Hmn, I have to wonder about the source of this foal. Converted human baby that was luckily found very quickly? Conceived and born after the event? Was she possibly in utero mid-event? That last thought does raise the question of what the event did with the pregnant women.
Hmn, maybe Oliver needed his head on straight before he could heal Alex? I'm probably grasping at straws here, heh.
Okay, this seems promising. Apparently the Spirit of Earth has decided to be proactive.
Things are looking up. Pity "Gaia" couldn't have shown up before Oliver reached that level of distraction, but then we wouldn't have had an epilogue's worth of extra drama.
... Damn nature, you scary.
A good guy, but still, scary.
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Another possibility: she and her parents were in a moving vehicle together and sent forward, appearing when all three were ready and managing to keep control of the vehicle instead of spinning out and crashing on a panic over their new forms.
Riley, Queen of
the Changelingsweaponized cuteness.6400445
Well, "Terra" is the latin word and "Gaia" is the greek one. I guess it's fitting that the Corporeal aspect of the world is named in the language of the empire builders, and the Spiritual aspect in the language of the ones famed for their philosophers.
6400541 Gaia is, I think, the very embodiment of the concept of evolution- sometimes seemingly cruel to the individual, but always pushing for improvement of the whole. She loves humanity because we are the first of her creations to have true sapience- the ability to change the world, and ourselves, by choice; to grow through creating and doing, rather than simply surviving. She hates Odium because it took away that ability to choose and to grow.
Also, I don't think Riley knows how to not be adorable.
Considering every time Alex has died before, I cannot help but wonder if simply letting her die would have solved everything. She'd die, and then revive as she has in the past.
So Whoopi Goldburg guest stars again.
I'mma call her Mother Nature, bc that's the alternate name for Gaia in another thing and nobody else seems to want to.
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Interesting ideas. If it was a moving car was the couple a pair of females or did the husband turn into a mare?
Or if the foal was found was it luck? Or was the mare guided to the foal?
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Once again you say something poetically beautiful. Quit touching my heart Star, the barbed wire and duct tape can only handle so much pressure.
You're portrayal of Gaia is spot on. A being of immense power, strong, wild, ever changing. With the potential to both nurture, and destroy. Nature is not always nice. Beautiful in it's untamed splendors, but it can be cruel as well. I'm glad however that it chose to honor Alex's service, even though it may only be motivated out of it's need for her. Of course, above all else, Nature loves 'Life', and will strive to bring about it's abundance no matter what.
Interesting how the non-native ponies are unable to interact with Gaia directly. I wonder if the life force of our planet could communicate with that of Equestria's? Perhaps a mutual exchange of knowledge? I think that would be fair since Equestrian life has directly interfered with Gaian life. I see either two lonely gods with an opportunity at unity, or two gods that would each be unable to accept the other's reality.
YESSSSSSS! FINALLY we get a new chapter and FINALLY we shall soon see Alex healed again!! <3 <3
Though I find it pretty crazy that Oliver can now basically see the Spirit/Goddess of Life/Earth. Rather awesome though, and you did a GREAT job with the description of her as well ^_^
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The picture is completely adorable but...... what jacket? She's not wearing a jacket there.
Is this the song you're talking about?
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the story of the foal and mare is up now.
Mandatory Motherhood
Interesting. It's a little unclear what she is supposed to be. Whatever put Luna and Celestia in charge of the moon and sun seems like it would be her equivalent. Of course, they are separate universes.
I see (rather, read) parallels between this spirit, Demeter, and the wheat spirit from Alex's dream...
A lot of the comments are saying this is Gaia, mother earth. But that's the "she" that this person/entity keeps talking about.
The one doing the talking isn't earth itself by the next level up.
The one doing the talking is the galaxy itself.
Earth, and the life apon it, is how (or at least one way how) the galaxy can be aware of itself. And feel a sense of accomplishment at what it has managed to create.
As the Doc said himself.
Helping Alex wake up and/or not die, at least not yet, is more just a "returning of a favor owed".