Starlight

by ThePrinceOfTheNorth

Chapter 2: You Gotta Have Some Faith

The sun had disappeared into the western horizon by the time Teacup and I reached Sifton, and the light was rapidly fading, being replaced by the bright moon. Before, I had often said good night to one of my characters before I'd gone to sleep. Now, though, it didn't seem as appropriate, now that I was the same gender as said character.

After cantering a little way into town, I decided to stay in the church. I had never been inside it before, so was curious. To my disappointment, it was strangely empty, save for the pews and organ. I took off my harness, parking the wagon just inside the church so the wild animals wouldn't be able to get into it, and set about preparing someplace to sleep.

To be honest, this was the first time I had slept somewhere other than my bedroom, excluding field trips. I wasn't normally the traveling type, but when the other option was sitting in an empty, cold house with nothing to do forever, the choice became painfully obvious.

Sighing as I finished my bed, I rather promptly plopped down into it and, for the first time in memory, I fell asleep almost instantly.

---

We reached the old farmstead just west of Dauphin the next day. I let out an enormous sigh for, sitting there, was the old wagon. Oddly, it looked newer that I remembered it, but shrugged it off as my imagination. I quickly emptied whatever refuse was in it onto the ground, and moved all my supplies from the makeshift wagon into the proper one. Thankfully, this was one of those old wagons with a cloth cover like I'd seen in old westerns my parents would sometimes have watched. In lieu of the appropriate cloth, I used a white tarp, which only just fit. I was thankful for that, as a good few thing I had collected, and planned to collect, I couldn't afford to have wet, as replacing them would be a real pain.

"So," I said as I hitched myself to the new wagon, "Next stop, Dauphin."

Teacup let out an affirmative bark, and we were off.

---

We raided pretty much every store in Dauphin, salvaging canned food, dry pastas, and even a bunch of cans of condensed milk! I thanked the powers that be that the lights were still working, as without them, well, I'd probably not found half the stuff I had found. And, praise be to whatever powers that be again, there just so happened to be a semi trailer parked out behind Home Depot that was full of Solar Panels, like what you'd put on your house, as well as the generator stations. I took a station and about eight panels, as I still had one last stop to make.

I slowed the wagon to a halt one we reached the last building in Dauphin, the CKDM building, from which the local radio station used to be broadcast from. Although it was dark inside, in it was, hopefully, a way to find someone to talk to.

I was about to go in when a pony came out. He had a grey coat, a blonde mane and tail, and a musical note butt mark.

That can't be what it's called....can it? Meh....I'll add it to the list of things I'm not going to question, at least for now.

"And you are," I said.

"Well," the stallion said as he straightened up, "I'm Double Wub."

I had to stifle a laugh. "I think I'll just call you Double. I'm-"

I stopped. I'm a girl now....John Winter doesn't exactly 'fit' me anymore. What did they call me in that dream....oh, right!

"I'm Starlight Waltz," I said, finishing my earlier statement, "But you can call me Starlight, I guess."

"Well, it's nice to meet ya, Starlight," Double said with a overly professional bow, "So, what brings you to the old CKDM HQ?"

Double doesn't ask prying questions....I wonder how long he's been here. Certainly hasn't been less than a week....

I tore myself from my thoughts and looked down at Double. "Supplies. I'm looking to try to find out if there's anyone else out there, well, present company excluded, of course."

"Of course," Double said, "I'm afraid I've been trying that for the last two weeks or so....I think I figured out how to work the dials two weeks ago....nevermind. The point is, the signal from the tower here isn't strong enough to reach too far, even on the shortwave. Tower's too small."

I sighed, feeling defeat creep over me.

That's when it hit me like a bolt of lightening.

So many times on the way to school had I looked out the bus window and seen it standing high atop Duck Mountain. Situated on the highest point in the province was a communications tower.

"What about Baldy Mountain Tower," I asked, "It's at the highest point in the province, right? Surely it's tall enough to broadcast a signal over long distance."

"Oh, I don't doubt that, Starlight," Double said, "I'd have gone already if I weren't so afraid."

"Afraid," I echoed, perplexed, "Afraid of what?"

"Dogs," Double said, "Well, not yours, of course, but other dogs. At night, they come out and duke it out for territory. Then there's the fact there aren't many places to camp out between here and Baldy Mountain. Sure with a car it'd take a few hours to get there, but by hoof, with your wagon, I do believe it'd take far, far longer to get from here to there, and it'd be a lot more dangerous."

"Well, it's a risk I'll have to take," I said confidently, doing my best to hide any sign of uncertainty, "I need to know if there's anyone else out there. You gotta have some faith, right?"

"I do suppose so," Double said, "I'll fit you up with some stuff to convert that tower into a proper broadcasting tower. Just....don't forget to drop me a line every now and again. It get's kinda lonely out here."

"Don't worry," I said, "Give me some of the stuff for broadcasting, and I think I might dedicate a song or two to you, Double. Might do some correspondence, too."

"Thank you," Double said, "And if you do manage to contact someone, tell them to give me a lift up there."

"I will," I said, "That's a promise."

Comments

[Two Bit]

Came back to this one after reading chapter 7 after a quick search... How does she know about cutie marks?

[Seeking Dusk]

People certainly switched over to pony names fast

I guess Double didn't horde any of the supplies from the stores?