PaP: Bedtime Stories

by Starscribe

Answers From the Dark

Nicole didn't sleep in the entryway that night, much as she was tempted. As she explored the room, she found what she might've expected at an expensive Tokyo hotel, not a primitive bomb shelter. The whole space was perhaps twenty feet long and eight tall, with every inch utilized to the fullest. There was a bed mounted above a little work desk, and a bathroom with a shower that could fill the whole space.

It wasn't just looks, either. The amenities might be made of crystal and strange marks, but they worked. When she twisted on the hard red rock in the shower, warm water really did start pouring down from above her.

Nicole was used to the dirt of exploration; she had been around it her whole life. Considering she hadn't had a warm shower since the propane in their tiny house had run out, though...

The pod she had been given seemed quite similar to the house she had shared with her husband, actually. There were actually two beds, and enough space that a small family could probably use the pod comfortably. It might be spartan—mostly concrete construction with only a little wood or crystal detailing—but what did that matter if the lights came on and there was clean water to drink?

Despite the grave upstairs, despite Karl's passionate warning that the truth about her couldn't be revealed, Nicole slept well. Her tiredness came at her so fast that she didn't even bother taking off the plain (and pony shaped!) bathrobe that had been hanging outside the shower. There were no animal noises outside to listen for, though she did keep her hunting knife beside her on the mattress while she slept. Karl might've saved her from freezing to death in the cold, but that didn't mean she trusted him yet.

When the morning came, Nicole awoke to banging on the metal door outside her pod. "Breakfast! Are you awake yet, Time?"

She moaned in response, crawling down the stepstool and over to the door. She straightened her mane with one hoof, then cracked the door. "What time is it?"

A pony was outside, the third I've ever met. She was tall and willowy, with a bright pink mane with several faint stripes, and an orangish coat. She had one of the marks too, a wooden spoon looking like it was in the middle of a stirring motion. Her strangest feature was the wings folded at her sides, with feathers to match her coat and apparently looking natural as anything.

"Dunno. It's been almost eighteen hours since Karl brought you back, though. Figured you should probably get up." She had only one thing in common with the stallion Nicole had met yesterday: she looked worn. One of her eyes looked glassy and unhealthy, and there were several deep scars down that side of her face. They seemed to continue down her neck, though it was hard to tell for sure.

"I really slept for that long?" She shoved on the door with her hoof, but it didn't swing much further. These things really were as heavy as they looked. "No way."

"It's easier than you think." The pony held the tray closer to her, and Nicole found her mouth watering. She couldn't even guess how this pony could balance a tray with a bowl on a single hoof like that without spilling. She didn't seem to have a horn, or any sign of glowing or magic. "You've been regulated by the sun for your whole life. With no sun to wake you up..." She shrugged. "I'm Breezy Morning, by the way. You can... probably just call me Morning."

"Nice to meet you, Morning." Nicole wanted to shake hands, but... obviously that was out of the question. Instead she moved out of the way. "If you don't mind that I look like I just woke up." Her eyes widened suddenly as she saw the other pony, really saw her. She wasn't wearing anything.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow as she walked inside, unfolding the table from where it rested in storage against a wall and setting the tray down atop it. "Does something smell wrong with the oatmeal?"

"No." She shivered, walking past Breezy and hopping up onto the padded seat. Despite her athleticism, the step was far harder than it would've been a few months earlier. Thank God I found this place when I did. We probably would've starved if I had to keep walking much further. "I'm just not used to how... little people wear."

"Oh!" She laughed, her whole body visibly shaking as she did so. "It's been so long since... Most ponies don't bother anymore. Particularly down here—there's no cold, so there's not really a point."

"Oh." She glanced briefly at her robe, then shrugged and let it slide down her back. "Weird." There was a spoon on the tray beside her bowl. She had to resist the urge to drop her head into the bowl and lap up the steaming oatmeal like a dog might with a toilet. It had been ages since Nicole had eaten so well, so long she couldn't even really remember what it was like.

If Breezy had cooked for her, she very much knew what she was doing. As she swallowed her first bite, Nicole could practically feel her eyes start to water. Not too mushy, with just enough brown sugar and cinnamon.

The other pony seemed to know what she wanted to say before she said it, because she beamed with pride as she watched. "My mom's old recipe. I already ate, you just enjoy it." She shrugged one shoulder. "Karl told me to tell you he's sorry he won't be around until evening, but he's sent me to take you through the museum and answer all your questions in his stead."

Nicole nodded, not even bothering to take her mouth away from the spoon. It was all she could do to keep enough concentration to levitate. Yesterday, she hadn't really believed in miracles. Today, though...

"Do you know enough to answer my questions?" she eventually asked, looking the winged mare up and down. "Like, if I asked you what you were and why you had wings..."

Morning laughed. "I'd tell you I was a pegasus, and we all have wings." She gestured towards Nicole's forehead with one hoof. "There are three basic types of ponies. The ones with horns are called unicorns, the ones with bird wings are pegasi, and earth ponies are the ones with super strength."

"That makes sense." She scraped what little she could salvage from the bottom of the bowl with her spoon, not willing to give up even a few drops. "So where's the old man gone, exactly?"

"Old stallion," Morning corrected. "Your guess is good as mine. Probably scavenging in the city. Our supplies won't replenish themselves." She gestured at the bowl, then hopped off the bench onto her hooves again. "Even just a few of us can eat through this pretty quick."

"How many is that?" Nicole got up too, leaving her robe behind as she made her way to the mirror. She didn't bother with any of the homemade clothes she had been wearing—aside from being horrendously dirty, they were also thick and bulky, made to get her through the winter.

Morning looked away, shifting on her hooves. "Not very many." She didn't elaborate, and the poor pony looked so unhappy that Nicole didn't press her.

"Okay, well..." There was a little wooden brush in front of the vanity. She took it to her mane, combing out some of the tangles. "Maybe you can explain how all this stuff is working. I can tell there's magic involved, but..."

With the change in subject, Morning's whole demeanor changed. She grinned again, walking up beside the vanity. She stayed away, not close enough for Nicole to accidentally strike with the hairbrush. "It's magic all-right. Way new compared to the rest of this place. Fifty years, maybe? The water comes from a well, and the magic is..." She shrugged. "There's a crystal in here somewhere, but I don't know what it runs on."

"There's no such thing as a free spell," Nicole recited, levitating open her saddlebag from the floor and unzipping it. She set the book down on the counter next to the sink where Morning could see it. "I mean, not that it really matters or anything, but... all the laws of magic are in here. I'm assuming they're real, since the spells I've read about so far seem to work..."

"Oh, yeah." Morning glanced at the book only briefly. "They haven't changed since the Event. Ponies at the university have been testing the things we got from Equestria ever since, but so far that much has been true."

Nicole set the brush down. "You're... going a little fast for me. Event, Equestria... I can guess what the university is." She frowned. "Does magic for pegasus ponies work the same as it does for unicorns?"

"No." She blushed, looking suddenly away. "Not really. Except for the first law, but not many other types of ponies ever tried to break it with their magic."

Not many. Always with the exceptions. "The first one, that's..." She thought a moment. It didn't take long—that book had been Nicole's only source of pony-related knowledge in months. She had studied every word, trying to learn everything it had. Even implications, even indirect statements were worth considering. "All ponies must die," she recited. "Not sure what the point of that one is. Why would a book need to print something like that?"

The pegasus turned away, walking towards the door. She stood in the doorway, staring at the ground. "Because some ponies think they can break it. Usually people die when that happens."

Nicole shivered, but it wasn't as though that was at the front of her mind. As much as she wondered about the strange words this pony used (words that her own book had mentioned too, she realized), there were other questions that mattered far more.

Nicole had imagined this moment for months now. She hadn't dreamed it would be in a secret cavern under the ground, though. She had imagined the steps of a university, or maybe a mayor. It had always been someone important to talk to her, even though of course there was nothing important about her.

Now that the moment came, all her fancy expectations melted and she tripped over her words. "What happened to everybody?" she asked, gesturing up at the roof. "The humans, I mean. The cities, the people... Did we lose a war with horse aliens? Did some weird god finally come back, or…?"

Morning shook her head, silencing Nicole with a look. "I've got a book I can give you with some of those things in it. Since we're standing in the Museum of Human Achievements though, I figure... we might as well take a look first. Probably save you the reading."

"Sure, whatever." Her voice cracked. "I just wanna know why my life was ruined. I wanna know why my husband had to get sick and die. I wanna..." She broke down. The tears came easily. It wasn't as though she had really tried to hold them in during her month alone. Karl wasn't here—there was nobody to judge her a basket case.

Morning wrapped a wing around her shoulders, just barely firm enough for her to feel it. Nicole clung to her without even thinking, feeling the strange softness of the fur and feathers. After almost six months alone, it was even better than the food. "Sure, Time." She patted her gently on the head with one hoof. "Let's get you the answers."

She did. Karl and Morning's word proved good—they really did visit the other half of a museum. Most of the exhibits weren't terribly interesting to her—metal models and mosaics and block letters explaining what humans had been and what they had achieved. There were no photographs or other bits of working technology, though there were artifacts encased in thick glass and set out of reach, and all of them looked notably human.

Nicole learned her answers at the very first exhibit, the one "dedicated to refugees for ten thousand years to come." She learned about a death coming for her species, and a spell that had cast them forward in time. She learned about the other world, and the transformation that kept her safe.

She would not have believed such an outrageous story six months ago, right after returning in her tiny house while speeding down the highway. Unfortunate the evidence seemed to match the story the exhibits told her. There was no denying the world she had seen outside, a familiar climate gradually erasing the civilization she had known. Every question the exhibits couldn't answer her guide could, with the speed of someone explaining something long understood.

There was no point in arguing with such overwhelming evidence. Nicole took in every part of the exhibit, and then stumbled barely aware back to her room.

Despite her hunger, she didn't eat dinner, nor did she move from her spot on the floor. It was too much.

* * *

"Sucks, don't it?"

Nicole couldn't have said where the speaker was coming from, except that she sounded nearby. The world was a swimming mess of gray and bad memories. She watched Derek rot away before her eyes, his strange limbs swelling and turning black. She buried him in the frozen ground, as deep as she could dig. Not deep enough to keep the wolves from getting to him.

"Royally." Was she talking to herself? It was so hard to tell.

"You aren't the only one to suffer." The gray around her changed to brown. Instead of snow she saw a western town, miners choking to death on coal dust or getting locked away under the earth. The memories went by so fast she could hardly be sure of what she was seeing. Ponies trapped in tunnels or falling from the sky in doomed airplanes. Loved ones were trapped in the past or future, far too distant to ever reach.

"You went through hell, but at least you got to say goodbye." Something touched her swollen belly, very softly. "You got this. Most of us just get to wander. Count your blessings."

"Other people having things worse doesn't make it easier on me."

"No." She felt wings around her, though they weren't the same ones she had seen earlier. These wings were warm, and seemed to have skin instead of feathers. It was a strange sensation, but so many strange things had happened to her lately that she hardly even noticed. "But you're not alone. The whole human race has gone through shit like you. We gotta stick together."

"They're burning us." She thought back to the grave, filled with charred bones. In the dream they seemed to form in the space in front of her, white emerging from the brown. "Karl said they're killing refugees like me. Why would God let this happen?"

The other figure was clearly not a person, not at a size not that much taller than herself. "We can't count on some magical something to save us, Nicole." She tossed something on the ground in front of her. Nicole recognized it as the book Morning had given her once they were done in the museum, the one that said "READ ME" in bright red letters on the cover.

"Plans like that end with people cut away from their families because the ponies thought we couldn't handle coming back all at the same time. Good ponies end up dead because they tried to change the whole world by themselves."

Nicole blinked and found she was no longer asleep. The pony in front of her, vague and indistinct before, took on sudden clarity. She was faintly blue, with an icy mane and orange eyes. She hadn't imagined the bat wings. Ponies could apparently have those too.

The book really was on the ground in front of her, exactly where the pony had thrown it. "W-what?" She blinked, sitting up. Her whole body was stiff, and she wiped a little crust away from her eyes as though she really had been sleeping. She looked up, but the door was still shut as she had left it.

"Dreamwalking." She flicked her tail casually. "I've been waiting for an easy trip back here since I found out Ezri had taken in a stray. You were so exhausted last night that you didn't dream." She walked past her, towards the door. She went for it with her mouth, as though she intended to leave.

She wasn't fast enough. Nicole caught the wheel in her magic, glowing firmly and preventing her from escaping. "Excuse me." She rose, her whole body shaking with anger. "No more!" She stamped her hoof, and the metal door creaked in protest. "The world has rules, dammit! You people can't just call it magic and do whatever you want!"

The bat-winged pony’s expression softened. "Sorry." She sat on her haunches, puffing her bangs out of her eyes. The pony was taller and bulkier than she was, in a way that Morning hadn't been. She had her fair share of scars—half of one ear was missing and the bottom of one of her wings looked shredded.

Like the other mare she had met today, she was naked, though she had a mark of overlapping "wifi" marks for her cutie mark. "You're right. Nobody changed the rules, but... I probably should've just waited until Ezri found time to sleep. She'd be bound to after another few days. Shouldn't have frightened you." She took a deep breath, sitting straighter. "My name is Jackie." She shrugged one wing, and Nicole caught something attached to her side under it. Even in the faint gloom of a single crystal light there was no mistaking the sheath of a dagger, the blade clearly still inside.

She stared. "I'm—"

"Nicole." Jackie didn't let her finish. "I've been guiding you here for months now, God knows I picked that much up from those nightmares of yours."

"Guiding me?"

"Yeah." She flashed her teeth, a few of them sharp. "Like fucking Inception. Had to help you find your way here across the whole goddamn continent." She stood up again, looking proud. "Find me a thestral who claims to be a better dreamwalker and I'll find you a liar."

"Whatever." She collapsed, releasing her grip on the door. "You know what, fine. I don't care anymore. Just get out." She gestured limply with one leg, dropping to the ground. "I'm done."

* * *

Time went by.

Nicole couldn't have said how long, or what went on around her. Eventually she ended up in bed, though she wasn't aware of making the decision to go to bed.

There were no day-night cycles under the earth she might've used to judge how many days went by. Sometimes she got up to use the bathroom, or paced the room, or slurped from bowls or spoons.

Sometimes they tried to talk to her, sometimes they didn't. She started losing weight, even though she really shouldn't be. But just because she knew she was supposed to care didn't mean she actually did.

Occasionally someone would say her name, or else she would have a particularly vivid dream, and nearly surface from her fugue. None of it lasted, and she found herself drawn inexorably back down again.

Time was itself a dream, a dream in which Nicole was drowning. It didn't matter that she was withering away, or that there would be dire consequences beyond herself if she died. Nothing mattered anymore. The stress, the broken world, it was all too much.

She might've died and not even known it. Had she been by herself, she probably would have died. But there were ponies—two of them, always two—taking care of her. She didn't die, though in some ways she felt like it might've been better if she had.

You've got to get up. She wasn't sure if she would even call the speaker a voice, really. An impression, perhaps. You're stronger than this.

She didn't argue, because of course there was no one there. She disagreed all the same, a general sense of I can't do this anymore.

You can. For a million years we've lived on this hostile planet through adversity worse than yours. Nicole felt herself stir, legs twitching against soft blankets. Light filled the world in front of her, the light from glowing crystals. You must survive.

She really could hear a voice now, though she couldn't place who it belonged to. The whole thing seemed to stretch and undulate a little, like a badly auto-tuned recording.

I don't want to. She struggled against the dark, willing it to take her again. It refused. I can't go back. It's too hard.

Nothing is too hard, came the response. Wake up.

"Wake up!" She wasn't imagining it anymore, the voice was real. It wasn't that far away either, coming from only a few feet away. The voice, while not intimately known to her, was nevertheless one she recognized. Jackie the thestral was at the side of her bed, shaking her gently by the shoulders.

Nicole felt weak all over, every limb and muscle stiff. She twitched, trying to coax a little life back into reluctant limbs.

Jackie stopped shaking her, eyes widening a little. "Can you hear me, Nicole?"

She nodded, pulling the blanket a little higher up her body. "I feel—" Her voice cracked, and she found each word painful. How long had it been since she had said anything?"

Something touched one of her legs through the blanket, not far from where a human hand might've been. "Can you really hear us, or is it just reflex?" The voice had that strange modulation about it, though now that she was more coherent she thought she recognized a little of the undertones. It sounded like Morning had been auto-tuned, not just anyone.

There were two ponies beside her. Jackie of course, though she hadn't seen her in clear light before. Jackie was taller than any other pony she had seen, and she really did have bat wings. Her coat was soft blue, just as she had imagined.

The other pony was different, with a shiny black coat, strange insect eyes, and transparent wings on her back. She wouldn't even have been able to guess at the sex of the creature, if she hadn't already spoken. She might've been more afraid if she wasn't already so tired.

"I can really hear you," she said, her voice flat. "Who are you?"

The strange creature looked away, scratching her two front legs together. "Lots of people."

"Everyone you've met so far," Jackie explained matter-of-factly. "This is my wife, Ezri. She's... a bit of a method actor."

Something flashed from around the shiny black coat of the creature, and her horn sent her the faint impression of magic. It happened so fast she almost didn't get a good look—the little creature's body growing a coat of fur, wings growing feathers, and all the holes in her legs filling in.

A few seconds of magic, and she was Breezy Morning again, complete with the mark on her butt. "See? I get kinda bored if I stay the same pony for too long." Another flash of magic and the elderly Karl was there again, almost as tall as Jackie though far weaker-looking. The voice changed just as much, and the stallion grinned at her. "I was pretty convincing, wasn't I?"

"Yeah." She nodded, rolling sideways on the bed. "How long was I..." She wasn't even sure what to call it. It hardly seemed flattering to refer to her own "psychological breakdown," even if that was exactly true.

"Well..." The stallion's form melted back into the strange insect, her wings buzzing. "Awhile."

"Almost two weeks," Jackie explained, gesturing at the clock against the wall. Its dials were actually far too small to see from this distance. "Time gets weird underground without the sun and moon, but we use these to keep track."

Nicole remembered what she had been so worried about. Panic gripped her and she tore the blanket away, looking at her belly. She half-expected to see the swelling gone, all the signs of a coming birth erased.

They weren't. She looked thinner, but still plump enough that she couldn't have lost the foal. "Thank God."

"You almost didn't make it." Jackie lifted something from the desk in her mouth, setting it down on the bed beside her. It was a thick plate of dried fruit, stacked high. Even from a distance she could smell how fantastic it was, the sweet sugary scent waking her up almost by itself. "Hopefully it didn't last long enough to do serious harm to that foal. I don't actually know enough to tell you. Better eat, though."

She did, though not as much as she had expected. Her insides still seemed raw from their mistreatment, and despite her appetite she found she could stomach only a little. "I guess I... had trouble dealing with the truth..."

"You wouldn't be the first." Jackie didn't sound judgemental, though she did seem a little weak-looking. "Plenty of refugees have trouble coping. Being pregnant can't help. Was that from before you got here, or..."

Nicole nodded. "I'd only been married a few months, but Derek and I really wanted..." she trailed off, sniffed, and wiped a few faint tears away before they could dirty her face.

"I'm sorry." Jackie didn't press for details. Nicole suspected that was because she already knew them from how many dreams she had watched, but she still appreciated being left alone. "I hope you don't mind, but... I think it's best if we don't leave you alone again. Ponies in your condition... you're more at risk to go back right now than ever.

She shrugged. "Why... Why do you two even care?" Nicole looked between them, at the strange concrete and crystal pod, one of many hundreds of identical pods in this place. "Are you the only ones down here?"

Ezri—apparently the bug-pony's real name—nodded. "The only other ponies we've found are the raiders."

"You wouldn't like them much either," Jackie assured. "I named 'em after the Fallout baddies for a reason. Maybe not that crazy, but... it's a fucking nightmare out there. If they had found you before Ezri did... young mare like you..." She shivered.

"I would've killed them." Ezri's voice was low and dangerous, her teeth bared.

Nicole ignored them both. "Who... Who do you think you're calling young?" She raised one eyebrow. "You don't look that much older than me."

They both laughed. For Ezri the sound was genuine, albeit strangely stretched and reverberating. Jackie's voice sounded bitter. "Probably a little older."

"Older than Archive by a few hundred years." Ezri sounded matter-of-fact again, not upset.

Jackie rested one hoof gently on her shoulder. "Let's stick to the simple things for now. Finish your fruit."

* * *

A few years later...

"Yes, I'm sure he'll be fine," Ezri repeated, exasperated. "I promise you Jackie has cared for young colts before. About a million times. Derek will be waiting eagerly for you when you get back."

Ezri didn't wear her "true" shape, just as she never did when they were on the surface. They didn't often see other ponies, but they sometimes did. Even in safer times, when the most hostile of the so-called "raiders" had starved in the harsh winters, even regular ponies seemed eager for violence where changeling drones were concerned.

Instead she wore the older unicorn's body, with the addition of an old wooden rifle slung over one shoulder. Nicole had one too, along with the empty saddlebags that would hold their salvage. Assuming they actually found any.

Nicole sighed, hurrying to catch up with the "stallion" in front of her. Nicole tried not to think much about that, too. She could only imagine how confusing it might be to be a creature that might be any age, sex, or even species at any time.

The sun was low in a sky streaked with the yellows and vibrant blues of coming dawn. "You never told me: have you ever tried looking human?"

Ezri barely looked back, lifting the rifle off his shoulders. “Oh, sure.” He shrugged with the gun. “Did it for a friend of mine a few times, when he asked.” He led the way down the street, gazing down the sights at every open doorway and the entrance to every street. “Damn hard, though. Harder than being a dragon ever was, more glamor than looking like a griffon...”

“You can be a dragon?” Nicole found her own gun drooping a little as she imagined Ezri as a black-scaled dragon—the fierce reptile of her book except that she would have holes in her wings and her legs in the proper changeling way.

“Easier than I can be human.” Ezri nodded sagely. “I had plenty of examples when I was growing up, but... they’re all hazy now. Humans aren’t really meant to live in magic. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been an Event.”

Nicole rolled her eyes, but she didn’t get the chance to make some kind of witty retort. Didn’t, because at that moment she heard someone coming. Her new friends had trained her well in the last few years—well enough that she knew to watch the sky and listen for wings as much as the ground around them.

It was from there she saw the newcomer, soaring straight toward them from some great height. “Ezri, look.” She took a little pride in noticing him first.

The “old unicorn” beside her raised his rifle toward the sound, eyes narrowing. “These eyes aren’t as young as yours—is that pony wearing armor?”

She nodded. “Looks that way. Must be pretty light if he can still fly.”

“Yeah.” Ezri gestured hurriedly towards one of the nearby buildings, and together they made their way under a crumbling awning. He kept her voice down as he explained. “We don’t want to be out in the open, where a really skilled pegasus could hit us with lightning or a nice strong wind.”

“Okay.” Nicole stayed close to the older unicorn, going over their story in her head again. “Book Keeper” was her father, and they were scavenging together. They lived in the nearby forest in a hidden shelter, and they had been living here for the last year or so. “You’ll do most of the talking, right?”

“Yeah.” Ezri drew himself up to his full height as he watched the airborne pegasus approach, no longer aiming at him with the gun. He kept it close though, only a little ways from pointing directly at him.

As he got closer, Nicole could get a better look at the stallion. He was bright red, with glittering silver chain on much of his body (but not the wings). He had a scabbard at one side, and a thin blade inside with a grip that looked more suited for a mouth than a hand. There were symbols worked into the armor on either side of his torso, though she didn’t recognize them. Some kind of black flower, half obscured by a rising moon. Some kind of coat of arms, maybe?

He stopped perhaps fifty feet into the air, slowing himself so abruptly into a hover that Nicole felt the rush of air as he ate the space, rustling dirt and trash all around them. “Ponies!” he called, using the new language Nicole had been studying from Ezri and Jackie over the last few years. There was a little English influence there, about as much as Old English had in common with the modern variety.

Nicole had always been good with languages, so she had no trouble understanding what the stallion shouted. “Be you civilized horses that know how to bow, or rough ponies who accept no authority but your own?”

Of course, just because she knew what the words were didn’t mean she knew how to reply. Fortunately for her, she was in the company of a master actor. “Book Keeper” walked out a few steps from the building, lowering his head respectfully. He didn’t just use the same language of the speaker, but somehow he even matched the accent. “My daughter and I are honest ponies, even if we have fallen on hard time as much as the rest of the world. Who asks?”

The pegasus seemed to relax a little at the sound of his voice, dropping another ten feet or so closer. His eyes went right to their rifles, but he looked immediately away. There was nothing of fear in him. This close, it was quite plain he was wearing some kind of uniform, with intricate layers of cloth around the chain and padding beneath. “Is well, is well.” He lowered his head in response. “My name is Sir Quick Flight, forward for the magnificent army of Ætheling. I was sent along with several others to search the ruins of Alexandria for ponies that may’ve survived in the dead city.”

“Well met, Quick Flight. My name is Book Keeper, and this is Adventure Time. I wouldn’t call us citizens of Alexandria, but... the city has taken care of us as long as we’ve lived here.”

“That’s good news!” The pegasus landed across from them, looking towards them. He didn’t seem to even really see Book Keeper, instead staring openly at her. “My master Ætheling requests and requires the aid of all in Alexandria who will bow to law.”

There was no mistaking interest when she saw it. How long had it been since someone had looked at her like that? It had been years since she had buried her husband. She found herself smiling a little in response.

“Why are you here?” Ezri asked, taking a protective step towards Nicole, a little in front of her. The message was clear. “I’m sorry to tell you that looters have picked the city clean a dozen times by now—Alexandria’s treasures are all gone.”

“Not all gone.” He gestured with one wing at their rifles, then smiled. “We didn’t come for the salvage. We are, rather, the survivors from all over this continent. There are some among our number who have come from the furthest reaches of the continent. We’ve made our offerings to Arinna and the rest, and they have kept us clean of the plague in return. Of all the old places to claim for our own, Ætheling has chosen this one.”

He gestured all around, at the slowly crumbling buildings, at the streets slowly filling with debris and the weeds choking out the gutter. “It’s time to rebuild.”

Comments

[Ryuyu]

Are we ever going to get explanations for the lore bits like these or are we gonna have to Game Theory them together?

[Starscribe]

8535184
Most of the lore questions have been talked about, spread out over the whole story. It is more of an assembly process than a guide, though.

[RandomBlank]

What a missed opportunity...

"Breakfast! Are you awake yet, Time?"

She moaned in response, crawling down the stepstool and over to the door. She straightened her mane with one hoof, then cracked the door. "What time is it?"

"Adventure time!" Karl shouted cheerfully in reply. "Sorry, couldn't resist," he added. "Eight AM."