• 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 1 (Adrian) - Chapter 5

Adrian tried to get Riley to come back to their outpost several times, but no promise could elicit her to leave. Telling her about the real mattresses or the hot water for a shower didn’t either. It wasn’t entirely her fault; the others had made their way upstairs to see her one after the other, and none had been very friendly.

If he had been upset with Alex’s reaction, the others outright disgusted him. He could only imagine the things they were saying about her in the lobby. He couldn’t even go down to argue her case, because Riley just clung to his leg and wouldn’t let go. By then any trace of fear for her had long gone, and only love remained. This child knew the loneliness he sometimes felt, the pain that drew him to travel from colony to colony. Only she had been too scared to search. The more time he spent with her, the more absurd he considered the fear the others had demonstrated, as well as the revulsion. It wasn’t what he really felt.

He had promised not to leave Riley alone, so he called to Alex and asked her to bring him whatever he’d need to spend the night. He didn’t even leave the radio on to see what she might say in reply. If he had, Riley would hear what his friends were saying about her. No child deserved to hear people talking about her like she was a monster. Perhaps in the alien universe called Equestria these things were monsters, but this was Earth.

“So Riley, are you excited to come with us tomorrow?” Adrian had drawn the shutters as far as they would go, taking advantage of the failing light. The light was helpful: it made it easier to see the boxes of rotting food and other detritus he was dragging away with his mouth. That part was pretty gross, just not as gross as sleeping somewhere filled with rotten food.

Riley tried to make herself helpful, and she was piling up all the backpacks and unused sleeping bags in another corner. Her wings twitched, as they seemed to do whenever she was nervous. “I-I’m not sure if I want to go. I’ve never gone anywhere else. What if I can’t live there?”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem!” Adrian kicked another crate into the broom closet, slamming it shut on the stench. When he returned to the room, it already smelled better. The strange musk of some sort of insect hive remained, but that didn’t exactly surprise him. He would’ve smelled like stallion if he didn’t bathe on a daily basis.

“You won’t be living alone there, for one.” He grinned, trying to look as excited as he could. It wasn’t too hard, not about a topic he cared about. “I’ve got this amazing RV; it has a loft with a real bed you can sleep in! Not to mention we do way better for food. We already have a greenhouse; garden should start giving us fresh fruits and vegetables in just a few weeks with as insane as it grows. Not to mention we’ve got electricity, so you can watch movies and play video games, have lights on at night, or the air conditioner during the day.”

“I want… I want my family.” She dropped onto her rump, whimpering. “Mom would know how to fix this…”

Adrian had already explained the basics of what happened, but he risked reiterating it anyway. He didn’t want to make it seem as though his arrival was anything magical. He wanted to make things better for Riley, but he couldn’t stop the Event from ever happening. He would’ve done that back in May, if he could have. “They might not come back in time to see you,” he said. “But… tell you what. Do you remember where you live?”

She nodded. “How about we visit tomorrow, just to make sure. We can leave a note with directions-”

“It’s too far to walk. I t-tried once, but it… it got too dark.” She whimpered, tears threatening to overflow all over again.

“We can drive!” He smiled, touching her briefly on the shoulder. “I know I look small, but I’ve been driving all over North America.”

“Okay.” She didn’t say anything else on the subject, and he didn’t press her.

Eventually, Alex returned with the supplies. Not just dinner, but a pair of inflatable mattresses, a propane lantern, plus a can of fuel and all the supplies they would need for s'mores. She didn’t stay, though she looked like she wanted to.

“Alright Riley, time for your first real meal! No more rotten cafe food!” He unwrapped one of the large sandwiches, dragging it along the floor by the plastic and setting it at her hooves. “Homemade bread, fresh greens; Alexandria has better food than any settlement I’ve visited so far.”

He took a few steps back, opening his own and beginning to eat. He sat on his haunches, and gripped the sandwich between his hooves. So long as he pushed just right, it wouldn’t fall apart. It was a very delicate balance, between holding it together and dumping the ingredients all over the floor. He lost the battle more often than he won.

He watched the insect pony as she sniffed at the sandwich, trying to recognize familiar human emotions there. She didn’t look like a starving person being offered her first meal, that was for sure. Had she been eating grass? “There’s no meat. You guys don’t have any of that saved away?” She shrugged and took a bite, lowering her head to the floor and chewing. She took a long time before the next bite, as though tasting every bit before swallowing. She didn’t look impressed, which was strange to him. Adrian loved this sandwich, it was one of the Equestrian recipes!

“God no!” He set his sandwich down. “Ponies don’t like meat. Apparently it doesn’t hurt us, but… I’ve never seen a pony get it down.” He leaned close to her, grinning. “Dodged a bullet there, Riley. Trust me. The ones who make that mistake usually puke.”

Riley looked indignant. “No way!” She flicked her tail towards the hall and the broom-closet. “There were cans and cans of those — teeny hot dogs they put in grownup drinks — once I figured out how to open them…” She sighed, licking her lips with the memory. Even her tongue looked strange. “Ran out in three days. I probably should’ve eaten a little slower…”

She looked at Adrian then, her catlike eyes focusing on him for a moment. He couldn’t tell what she was seeing, and for a moment he felt a flicker of that same fear from before. Her fangs gleamed in the white of the propane. There was a brief, uncomfortable silence, before she offered, “No matter how much I ate, I didn’t feel full. Like, it would help for a while, but then I would feel hungry again.” She tilted her head slightly to one side. “Do you ever feel like that?”

“N-no,” he admitted. “I can eat like a horse, but there’s still a limit. These sandwiches are the perfect size.”

“They’re really filling! After… After the last few days, I’d given up on eating. But this- this is great!” She beamed, pushing half the sandwich away. “I guess it doesn’t need meat after all.” She patted her belly. “I’m full!”

Adrian didn’t put down his own until he was finished. “I hope you’re not completely full.” He gestured at the grocery bag with their desert. “Think you’ve got room for S'mores?”

For a moment, Riley looked skeptical. She approached the bag, sniffing at it, and nudging it with a hoof. Her eyes widened, and she nodded vigorously. “Yeah! I’ve got room!” She practically started bouncing up and down. “S'mores were the best! My parents used to take me and-” Riley froze, face falling. She sat back down.

Adrian had long since adapted to using his mouth for things, so he didn’t have any trouble wedging his pocketknife into the fire can and exposing the fuel-jelly inside. It had been a long time since he had cooked with one of these, and the results had been… fairly mediocre. To say nothing of the stale marshmallows they were using. At least the crackers and chocolate still looked good.

Getting the marshmallows onto the sticks was actually the hardest part. In the end, Adrian held them between his hooves while lowering the stick with his mouth. That done, he set out the rest of the ingredients and sparked his lighter, sending the fuel-gel into flickering blue life.

“Mhre, Riley.” He offered her a stick, ready to go. “Ymm mkow how mooo hmmld it?”

She rolled her eyes, but took the offered stick. So the roasting began.

It wasn’t as relaxing as it had been as a human; you couldn’t really talk while you did it, not easily. Maybe there was a way to get hooves to do it, but Adrian didn’t want to fight with it today. Even if he thought he had the dexterity, he didn’t want to make Riley feel bad if she didn’t. Alex had made sure to give them sticks long enough that their faces wouldn’t be burned in the attempt. Practical little pony she was.

Riley burned her first three marshmallows, giggling the whole way. Adrian kept giving her new ones, and she kept burning them. That was okay, though. Seeing her smile made the effort of preparing new marshmallows well worth it.

They stayed up for hours after that. Riley wanted to know about everything. Adrian didn’t talk about the Event, but he told her everything else. The colonies he had seen, the pony magic.

“But… your wing!” She gestured across the fire at his bad wing, protruding strangely from his side. “It looks hurt. Smells bad, too.” She wrinkled her nose.

“Yeah.” He tried to keep cool, but inwardly Adrian cursed himself. He hadn’t replaced the bandages when they tore! Nevermind what Riley had seen; the others had all visited too, at least for a few minutes! How many of them had seen, and he hadn’t even thought to cover it up! He felt like the stupidest pony in the world.

It wasn’t anything Riley had done though, so he forced himself to smile. “It doesn’t fly, no. But other ponies can! You’ve got wings; maybe Cloudy Skies can teach you!”

She shivered, glaring at the floor. “The pink one? She hated me.”

“What?” Adrian shook his head as vigorously as he could. “Cloudy Skies is one of the nicest ponies I know! She was just shocked to meet someone so different!”

“Nope.” There was no argument or malice in the word. Riley spoke it like it was a simple truth, without any doubt. “She was really, really scared. Guess I can’t blame her. I am a f-freak…”

And so began the third and last breakdown of the night. Adrian couldn’t staunch the tears this time, though he tried valiantly. It was all he could do to embrace her anew, holding her until she stopped, and reassure her all the while that he didn’t think so.

Yet somewhere deep inside, a part of him still did. Could she sense that too, as she had somehow sensed with Sky?

If she did, she made no sign. Soon she was asleep. Adrian covered her in the sleeping bags, then curled up on his own mattress on the other end of the room, staring at nothing.

He felt drained, listless, and ashamed.

It would be another sleepless night.

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