Chapter 5: Howl
"So why Charlie?" Erica asked as we made our way through another set of buildings in what was left of Atlanta.
"Hmm?" I asked as I looked over at the blue pegasus curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Your name is Charlotte, why go by Charlie?" Erica asked with a shrug. "I mean it's a nice name, but isn't it kind of, you know, masculine?"
"Honestly? I never really liked my name," I admitted as we pushed a door open and I chuckled a little. "My mom and dad said she named me after my great grandmother. It's not a bad name, but I guess I just preferred being called Charlie you know?"
"Fair enough," Erica said with a shrug. "You must really miss your... husband? Boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend," I said with a sigh and shook my head a little. "And yeah I do, I didn't actually think I'd get left all alone in the world like this. I don't even know if he's back yet, or if he will be anytime soon, you know?"
"Yeah, well I'm sure he's out there somewhere," Erica said with a shake of her head. "It's hard to believe that everyone has been turned into, well things like this, you know? Even with what we've been told, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
"Well, at least we have something of an answer now," I said as we moved through the house. I frowned a little, this house looked like it had belonged to a family, not a human family either, but it looked like it had belonged to ponies. Had this been another settlement or was it a single family that had come back or been formed. "Okay, that's new."
"Yeah, this is creepy..." Erica said as we looked around together. "What do you think happened to them? What if it was that dragon you mentioned?"
"In this world? I honestly have no idea," I admitted as I shook my head a little. "Any number of things could've happened, or they may have just left."
I headed into the back rooms and pushed open one of the doors and my heart fell for a moment. The room didn't have any ponies in it but I could tell looking at it that it had been a child's room (foal's room?). It had toys that looked like they had been made out of wood or something and other things that were most definitely made for a young pony.
I lowered my head a little as I looked around for a moment longer. On one hoof this was a good sign, it meant that there were more signs of life in Atlanta other than Jewel. But still, there was sadness here because they were gone, I couldn't help but wonder where they might've been.
"Charlie, in the backyard!" Erica called from somewhere outside as I looked out the window and flinched a little when I saw a pair of graves visible. "Well, that answers that..."
"Maybe," I said as I looked at the grave markers from the window. "I'm going to keep looking around in here, maybe I can find something."
"Alright," Erica said as I went back to looking around the foal's room.
Looking around I found some old looking clothes that looked like they would fit a small pony. Finally, when I opened a drawer I found what looked like an old book with the word diary roughly written on it. I levitated it up and opened it and started to read it.
Dear Diary,
Today mom and dad...
Before I could read more than that though there was the sound of a howl from somewhere in the city, it sounded too close for comfort. I quickly slid the book into the rough bags I had found in Jewel and looked out the window at Erica.
"We should get back to Jewel," Erica suggested. "I don't like how close that was, did you find anything?"
"Yeah, I found a diary, it might be useful at least," I said. "You?"
"Just some old food, not much else," Erica said with a shake of her head. "Come on, let's get going."
I nodded as we headed out of the house together and headed back towards Jewel.
00000
I flipped through the diary a few times after we finished putting away the things we had gathered from the buildings today. There wasn't much to go on here, it was written by a filly some years before who had lived with her parents. I sighed a little, even though it was a pony it still felt, weird, it just made me wish I had Jake here with me more and more.
"Is everything okay?" Erica asked as she walked over to me. "We've got about everything set up here, I think we've got enough to last a while at least."
"That's good," I said with a sigh as I closed the diary up and we headed up a set of stairs towards the lookout area for Jewel. "Any idea what we heard back there?"
"Honestly? I don't know, and we can't really get a good view of anything out there," Erica said as she shook her head a little. "It sounded like a dog or wolf or something else canine, have you seen anything like that?"
"No, but I think I've smelled it, and there's what Jirani said about the Wolf Beast," I said with a sigh. "Something is out there, and I don't think that Dragon is the only thing we have to worry about. I don't like being here, it feels kind of exposed, you know?"
“Yeah, but what choice do we have right now?” Erica pointed out. “This is the only place we know of that has the proper defenses against, well, anything that’s on the ground at least. Right now, we need to focus on finding supplies, and maybe see if we can find anyone else who’s returned.”
“Right,” I said with a sigh as I looked back out at the city for a few minutes. I swear I almost saw something moving near one of the buildings, but I shook my head and blinked a little only to see that it was gone. “I still don’t like it, maybe we should start taking turns sleeping at night.”
“Maybe,” Erica said with a sigh. “You’re probably right, it’s not the best option but it would at least help us. It would probably be better if we actually had more people… or ponies or whatever, but that’s not an easy task.”
I sighed a little, even with the information we had there was so much about this area that we didn’t know. A lot had changed in 150 years and we had no idea what exactly we were supposed to be dealing with.
There was something in this city and the more I thought about it the more it worried me. There could be literally anything out there given that we didn’t know anything about this strange new world.
I was starting to get the feeling that the dragon was far from our only problem.
“So, what do you think we should do now?” I said out loud. “I don’t think we can find much more food around here. We’re going to have to start moving outwards, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to start farming once spring starts.”
“Yeah,” Erica said as she shook her head a little. “Maybe if I could figure out how these wings worked I could use them to scout the area a bit more. You know, get an idea of what we’re dealing with out there.”
“Yeah…” I said and shrugged a little. Honestly, I didn’t know the first thing about flying so I wasn’t sure what I could do to help her. For now, we just had to figure out what we were going to do next. “We’ll figure it out, maybe if we head towards the city proper we can find more things and it’ll be less exposed.”
“Maybe,” Erica said and nodded a little. “But exactly where would we go? How much have you explored the city?”
“Not enough to know where we should go,” I said with a shake of my head. “It’s pretty empty in there so we’d at least probably have a lot of places we could go. We just need to decide what we should do.”
“Right,” Erica said as she ruffled her wings a little. “I just wish we knew more about the city right now. It feels like we’re walking through some sort of post-apocalyptic Wasteland. Should I expect zombies, radiation created ones or otherwise?”
“Not that I know of,” I said with a light chuckle. “But yeah, this place is creepy, though at least there’s something of an explanation. Other than that, we don’t really have any sort of answers about what might be going on out there…”
“Yeah,” Erica agreed. “We don’t have a lot of food either so we’re going to have to figure that out. Are we going to have to hunt? Do ponies even eat meat?”
“I think I read somewhere that horses can eat meat if they have to, but I don’t know for sure if that applies to us,” I said with a shrug. “We also have to consider the possibility that Jirani will come back to find us at some point.”
“Right…” Erica said. “But we’re not exactly in the safest spot, we could leave a note for her or something maybe. I don’t think we have a lot of other options unless you want to stay here.”
“No, that’s definitely not one of the safer choices we have,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little bit. “I’m worried honestly. We don’t know who or what might’ve moved into the city while we were gone. There’s also Zoo Atlanta and the animals there, there could be literally anything in there.”
“So, we’ll be careful then,” Erica said with a nod. “We’ll only move during the day and look for any shelter we can find until we can get to somewhere secure enough. I’m honestly not sure what to make of all of this, but shouldn’t we also be looking for more ponies?”
“Yeah, probably,” I said with a soft sigh. “You’re the only other one I’ve found so far other than Jestiri. And exactly how are we supposed to explain this to them? Hey, we used to be humans, but we’re now magical talking horses because of some sort of spell cast from a world inhabited by magical talking ponies.”
“Sounds like a weird kids TV show, or a fanfiction based on one at least,” Erica said with a laugh and I joined in after a moment. “Yeah, that’s not going to make us look crazy at all. And we’re technically living proof of it so that doesn’t help matters.”
“Yeah…” I said and looked down at my hooves in thought. “I’m scared really… more scared than I’ve ever been in my life. We’re stuck in this strange new world together and there could be any number of threats at any time. And that’s not just the big stuff, what about diseases? Can we get equine diseases or just human ones? Did diseases mutate over the past 150 years so we’re not able to protect ourselves from them?”
“Okay, I think you’re starting to worry too much because now I’m getting worried,” Erica said with a shake of her head. “Jestiri said there were more ponies around and this place was inhabited by ponies years ago. Survival in this world is possible, we just have to band together and be able to work together.”
“Right, sorry, I’m just nervous,” I said with a shake of my head. “There are just so many unanswered questions right now. It feels like we’re going to be attacked at any moment by that Dragon or the wolf thing or who knows what else.”
“Well, all the more reason to find a more secure location,” Erica said and I nodded in agreement. “So, here’s what I suggest we do. Starting tomorrow we start spreading out and looking for more secure areas, I’ll go one direction and you go the other.”
“And, exactly how are we supposed to inform the other that we found something?” I pointed out.
“Right, good point, any way of signaling each other would attract attention,” Erica said as she frowned a little bit. “We don’t really have a lot of options though. We’ll turn back at the end of the day and share what we’ve found, I’d also use those bags we found to carry back any food, and I’ll work on flying.”
“Right, flying,” I said in realization. If she could fly that meant she would be able to search the city from the air. “I mean, do you think that will be safe?”
“Hey, I’m a Pegasus, right? I’m smaller and faster than a dragon is,” Erica pointed out with a chuckle as she spread her wings to make her point. “I think if I had to I’d manage to escape one, at least I hope so.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said softly, I just hoped she was right, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. I thought on it for a moment and looked back at my stomach. “But that’s not going to be an option forever.”
“Yeah, which means that we need to find a better place to settle before you’d put your… baby? Foal? At risk,” Erica said with a nod. “Hopefully we’ll find more help at least.”
“Yeah,” I replied and smiled a little. “This is going to take a lot of getting used to though, it’s weird enough to be either a pony or pregnant but to be both? No thanks.”
“Don’t worry Charlie, we’ll get through this somehow,” Erica said with a nod as we started putting together dinner. “Who knows, maybe Jake is still out there somewhere and is heading this way to hopefully try to find you?”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said with a shrug. “I miss him a lot, and I wish he was here to be with me, but there’s nothing I can really do about it. I guess all I can do is hope that I’ll be okay, that we’ll be okay.”
“Come on, let’s just enjoy our dinner of, whatever this stuff is and get to bed,” Erica said with a chuckle as we started eating once the dinner was finished.
I smiled a little as I looked back up at the sky towards the setting sun. It was a weird sensation to be in a place so empty and quiet, but at least I knew that I wasn’t here alone. I had Erica here with me, and there were more people, or ponies, out there somewhere.
So now I just had to figure out what I was going to do next. I had a long road ahead of me to actually being completely okay, and a little filly or colt that I was going to have to take care of. He or she was going to be born into a whole different world than the one that I had grown up in.
I just hoped that I was going to be the mom that they were going to need. Especially since I barely understood how this world worked myself.
“Do you think I’m going to be a good mom?” I asked softly as I looked over at Erica who was in the middle of taking a bite of her food.
“Charlie, I barely know you, I can’t be the judge of whether or not you’d make a good mom,” Erica said after she swallowed her food. “You’re the only one who can really answer that, you know?”
“I guess you’re right,” I said with a sigh as I looked down at my hooves. “It feels like there’s nothing left of my old life anymore. I have no one to go back to and the only person who’s waiting for me is miles away in New York.”
“Don’t give up hope just yet,” Erica said with a soft smile as she placed her hoof on mine and gave me a smile. “You’re going to make it, all three of us are.”
I smiled and nodded a little at that as I placed my hoof gently on my stomach were the small foal was still growing. I didn’t know what I was going to expect from this, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be facing it alone.
I just hoped that I was doing the right thing.
Finally, we finished eating and made sure the gate and the defenses we had were secure. Erica offered to watch for a few hours while we waited to see if anything else happened, but I said I’d do it, I wasn’t going to get much sleep that night anyway at this rate.
So that’s how I found myself seated next to the fire holding the diary that I had found in the house in my hooves. I stared at it for a moment in the flickering firelight that made every shape look like something monstrous, should I open it? What right did I have with everything that had happened?
This diary wasn’t mine, it didn’t belong to anyone or anypony that I knew. Reading it felt like it would be betraying them, so I sighed a little and put it in my saddlebags.
150 years after the Event and I couldn’t bring myself to read a probably dead foal’s diary. I wasn’t sure if that made me morally right or just crazy.
“Charlie, you’re going to be just fine…” I said softly as I placed my hoof gently on my stomach again. “You too, kiddo… I don’t even know what I’m going to call you now that I think about it. It’s not going to be you and me against the world, but I’m going to make sure that we’re both going to make it through this.”
I smiled a little as I felt the aura in my womb for a moment. I don’t think the foal could hear or understand me, but it kind of made me feel better to talk to them. I was just glad that Erica was asleep or I probably looked crazy talking to my stomach.
“I wonder if this is how my mother felt carrying me…” I said softly. It was a dumb thing to wonder, my mother was human and was in a normal world not this strange world of ponies like I was, but it was what had come to mind. “Like it was just the two of us against the world, but your Grandma Jo wasn’t in anything like I am kiddo. I guess that’s karma for you after I gave her so much trouble growing up.”
I laughed a little at the memories of me running around causing trouble for my parents. I guess I had always had a bit of a rebellious streak, that was why I left home and wound up in Atlanta. Right now though, I’d give anything to be able to see my parents again.
Were they even still around? Had they come back and something happened to them? No, I couldn’t think like that, I had to focus on the here and now, I could worry about that later.
"I wish you were here mom," I said softly as I closed my eyes. "I don't know what I'm going to do with this foal or this world. It feels like I'm stuck in some hell that I can't get out of. Next thing you know, I'm going to do something really crazy like start talking to myself."
I chuckled a little at that as I brushed my mane back. Actually, maybe I already was a bit crazy, maybe this was all a hallucination and I was currently sitting in a padded room mumbling about talking ponies. The thought had certainly crossed my mind a few times, but this felt way too real for that.
I sighed a little and looked back out at the city. It was still a little while until I had to wake up Erica so I was stuck there with my thoughts. I just had to hope that everything really was going to be okay for us, we had a lot we had to figure out if we were going to survive in this city alone.
I poked the fire as I sat there for a while longer and looked up at the moon. It was eerily silent as I did, I wondered if maybe anyone else in the city was looking up at that same moon. I shook my head and looked back at the fire for a moment, I just had to stay up a little longer and then I could...
That was when I heard it, a loud howling sound and this one sounded closer than ever before. I scrambled to my hooves and went over to the gate which I secured tightly again just to be safe. Whatever that creature was, it sounded almost like it was right outside the derelict settlement.
I silently wished I had a gun or something that I could use to defend myself if this thing came after me. I finally managed to peek over the wall and looked out into the ruined buildings beyond it to see what was there.
I saw a shape, something that I didn't recognize as human or pony. It was bipedal, that was about all I could make out but it looked almost, canine in the moonlight. That had to be the wolf creature that Jirani had warned us about. It grinned, which showed its sharp teeth in the moonlight as it looked at me.
"GO AWAY!" I practically screamed at the top of my lungs as I levitated up one of the sharpened sticks on instinct alone and hurled it at the wolf beast. The creature just let out a growl as it missed it and lumbered off, my heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute as I slumped down against the wall.
Whatever that thing was, it wasn't human or even a pony. And it knew we lived here, we had to get out of here and fast or that thing might get us.
"Is everything okay?" The tired sound of Erica's voice said from down below and I looked down to see her standing there looking at me concerned in the firelight. "Did you see something out there?"
"I think so," I said with a sigh as I slumped over. "I think I saw that wolf beast creature, it left after I threw a spear at it though. Still, I'm scared that it might come back for us."
"Right..." Erica said with a sigh. "That just makes things even more complicated, what do you suggest we do?"
"Stick to the plan, we need to find a better defendable place tomorrow," I said with a soft sigh. I thought about it for a long moment, what would be the best option for that? "The only question is where."
"Well, we could go to one of the sports stadiums," Erica said thoughtfully for a moment. "It's a longshot, but if we could be sure that it was secure enough we could use that as a base of operations. I mean, that's working under a lot of assumptions, not the least of which being that two ponies can secure it."
"Right, that's one option," I said with a nod. "We could also try one of the more intact buildings in the city itself. My apartment was relatively intact when I woke up here so that could be an option."
"Right, maybe," Erica said with a sigh. "Still, I don't like this, it feels like we're being hunted more than anything. Maybe its because humans aren't used to being hunted, we're the hunters, but we're no longer humans, are we? I don't even know how this works!"
"Me neither," I said with a sigh as I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I don't even know if I can sleep tonight, everything is just so crazy. I'm sorry for waking you up Erica."
"Don't worry about it," Erica said as I walked down the rough wooden stairs towards where she was. "So, what do you think we should do tonight?"
"For now, we wait and see what happens next," I said with a slight nod. "That's about all we can do at the moment. Tomorrow we set out and try to find something, anything that will help us survive in the city, I can't really think of any other options at the moment."
“Right,” Erica said with a nod. “How about you lay down for a little while? I can wake you up if something else happens.”
“But it's not your turn yet,” I said in confusion.
“No, but I’m not going to be able to get back to sleep right now,” Erica said with a shake of her head. “Right now, we both need as much rest as we can get. We’re going to be just fine and figure this out together. There’s not a whole lot else we can do right now.”
“Right,” I said with a nod as I headed back towards my bed. I laid on the bedding and stared up at the wooden ceiling for a long moment as I tried to close my eyes and sleep, but sleep wasn’t going to come easy for me.
“Charlie… you’ve got a lot waiting for you tomorrow,” I said with a soft sigh as I placed my hoof gently on my stomach. “But you’re going to make sure that you do everything you can to have this foal be born into a safe place.”
I closed my eyes after a few minutes and drifted off to sleep.
00000
When I opened my eyes again I blinked in confusion when I realized that I was sitting in a home. It looked so much like my apartment that for a moment I thought that somehow I had woken up in my old life, at least until I realized that I was still on all fours.
I sighed a little, I was still a pony, there was no way this was real. So, what was I doing here in this weird dreamscape?
“Mommy! Mommy!” Two voices said and two smaller ponies ran in, I chuckled a little, they looked a little like me with the same colors but in different combinations. One of them was a colt and the other was a filly. “Auntie Erica said we should come and find you!”
“Oh, and why’s that?” I asked with a smile as I ruffled the manes of the two Unicorns.
“There are traders who came here from the Zebras again, they wanted to speak with you,” the colt said as we headed out together. I blinked a little in surprise, we were in a town that looked like it had been built out of an old neighborhood. There were a lot of ponies around that I didn’t recognize, it was as if they had appeared out of nowhere.
What was this I was seeing? And what was with the two foals? I didn’t feel two lives within me, so… was this my brain’s way of saying I didn’t know what gender to expect or was I trying to overanalyze this?
Finally, I was approached by a group of Zebras lead by Jestiri who gave me a smile and a soft nod as we shook hooves. “It is good to see you again my friend, how have things been going here?”
“Good, I guess,” I said as I shrugged a little, what else was I going to say? “How about with yourself?”
“About as well as can be expected, the Dragon is still causing us trouble,” Jestiri said with a shake of her head. “This is what we could bring with us to trade, I’m afraid that it isn’t much.”
“It’ll be fine,” I said as I looked up at the flagpole over the settlement and blinked a little in confusion. It had three stars on it, not something that I recognized but I shook my head and looked back at Jestiri. “I’m sure we’ll manage with what you can bring us, we appreciate it at least.”
“Yes, of course,” Jestiri said as Erica waved us over. “You’re doing a fine job here Charlie, this settlement has grown a lot and it’s all thanks to you. Perhaps this will lead to good things for Georgia down the line.”
“Yeah, maybe, if we don’t all get burnt to a crisp by Dragonfire,” I said with a sigh. Maybe I was being pessimistic, but it was certainly something to consider for the future. “I don’t know what I’m going to do honestly.”
“No one knows what to do at the beginning of the story,” Jestiri said with a smile. “Your story has yet to be truly written, Charlie. Perhaps there are more things waiting for you that you do not understand yet.”
“What do you…” I started to say and then heard the sound of a loud roar. I looked up in fright to see a massive shadowy dragon swooping down and breathing fire across the settlement as ponies let out a scream.
“Remember child… your story never truly ends…” Jestiri’s voice echoed in my ears as I covered my face with a hoof and was engulfed in flame.
I woke up in a sweat and breathing heavily as I looked down at myself. It had been a dream, a terrifyingly real dream, and that was what had bothered me the most. The flames had felt so real, but why had I had that dream now?
I was more scared than anything now, and I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to get back to sleep anymore. I sighed a little as I fell back on my bedding, there was no way I could possibly sleep if it risked going back to that nightmare.
What had she meant, my story wasn’t over yet? I had a hard time believing that there was nothing more to this dream than just a nightmare. Somehow, this felt almost directed, but how was that possible?
I looked towards the window for a moment and blinked when I swore that I saw two green eyes staring back at me. I rubbed my eyes and when I looked back they were gone.
“Must be my imagination… this place really is getting to me…” I said with a sigh as I rolled back over and closed my eyes.
Dream manipulation, that was crazy, right? Then again, I was now a magical talking pony in an abandoned city, maybe it wasn’t that crazy after all. For now, I just needed to rest so I could help Erica find a new place to live tomorrow.
I just hoped that I could.
00000
“How’d you sleep last night?” I asked Erica as we started packing our things up for the trip out of Jewel the next day.
“Okay I guess,” Erica said with a shrug.
“You didn’t have any weird dreams did you?”
“No weirder than usual, I mean I’m a Pegasus you know? I keep having weird dreams, but nothing I hadn’t had before really,” the light blue pegasus said with a shrug. “What’s wrong, Charlie?”
“I don’t know, I had a weird dream last night and when I woke up I…” I said and trailed off for a moment before I took a deep breath. “I thought I saw something outside my window, did you see anything unusual?”
“I thought I might have,” Erica said thoughtfully for a moment. “I thought I saw a pony shape moving at one point but it didn’t last long.”
“Weird,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little. “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”
“Nah, okay maybe a little,” Erica said with a grin that told me she was teasing me. “But seriously, I think you’re fine. This is a creepy place, there might be more things out there that we don’t know about.”
“Yeah…” I said with a sigh as I looked back towards the place I had been sleeping. “You know it’s weird, but I actually feel like I’m going to miss this place. It’s the first place here that really felt like home, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but we need to move on,” Erica said with a sigh. “We don’t know exactly what’s out there so this may even the only safe place in the city. I’m honestly kind of scared, neither of us really know anything about surviving out there.”
“Yeah…” I said with a sigh as I looked back towards the place I had been sleeping. “You know it’s weird, but I actually feel like I’m going to miss this place. It’s the first place here that really felt like home, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but we need to move on,” Erica said with a sigh. “We don’t know exactly what’s out there so this may even the only safe place in the city. I’m honestly kind of scared, neither of us really know anything about surviving out there.”
"Right, which is why we're going to have to learn," I said with a nod as I straightened out my bags for a moment. I had gotten everything together as I looked back at the wagon. "Let's just get going, for now, that wolf creature freaked me out last night."
"Yeah, me too," Erica said as she shuddered a little. I felt a little better about that actually, it meant that I wasn't the only one who felt like this between the two of us. I gave her a reassuring smile and placed my hoof on her shoulder.
"We're going to be okay Erica," I said reassuringly as I gave her a nod. "Everything is going to be okay, we'll figure this out somehow. At least we don't have to face it alone, right?"
"Right," Erica said with a smile as she made sure that everything was secure.
"I can pull that you know," I suggested. "You don't have to pull it until we get to wherever we're going."
"Don't worry about it, besides you're pregnant, you shouldn't have to pull it," Erica said with a shake of her head. "You'll be fine, just stay close to me and let me know if you ever need to stop and rest. We have the weapons and things right?"
"Right," I said as I checked the sharpened sticks. We'd grab the one I threw at the wolf creature if it was still out there on our way out. "I hope that we're going to be okay."
"Me too," Erica said with a soft smile as I went over the settlement one last time to make sure I didn't miss anything. I left a note behind on some blank paper I had found that gave Jestiri any information that might be useful, though it wasn't much, basically just telling her that we were heading into the city to look for someplace to live.
"Well, that's done," I said with a shrug and looked back at Erica. "Let's just hope that she won't come back tomorrow or something."
"I'm sure she won't," Erica said with a shrug as we started out of the settlement together and looked back towards where the wolf creature had been there that night. I frowned a little when I knelt down and saw that there were claw marks barely visible where I had seen it the night before next to the stick I had thrown. "What do you make of this?"
"It's not a pony or human," I said thoughtfully for a moment as I examined my own hoof for a moment. "It's definitely canine, which lines up with what I saw last night."
"So, it's somewhere in the city, maybe we're in its territory," Erica suggested. "That might mean that if we get far enough away we won't have to worry anymore."
"Yeah, maybe," I said as I looked towards the crumbling skyline of Atlanta. "I'm worried Erica if we do find out something more about what happened in this city..."
"We might not like what we learn?" Erica asked and I nodded a little. "Yeah, maybe, but we can't stay here forever. We have to take a leap of faith, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," I said as I levitated the sharpened stick into the wagon with the rest of them and took a deep breath as I smiled at Erica. "I'm glad I found someone who can help me with this. I don't know what I would do if I was out here alone."
"Don't worry about it, anything for a fellow pony I guess," Erica said with a chuckle as we started to walk together towards the city. "Let's do this then, we still have a long way to go but we're not about to give up."
I nodded a little as we headed towards what was left of the city of Atlanta. We still had a long way to go, but the important thing was that we were going to do it together.
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Oh, Charlie... Thanks for reminding me to give you your daily hugs. (Not even gonna comment on the meta joke here in this chapter.)
9478512 Aww, you're no fun, oh well.
9478521
Have you met me? Fun-Killer. Here's my card. Hands out Card
Oh, it was the first chapter in over a year!
Dose love this story so far!
If I was in this situation, I would write down a list of things needed for a more secure home. If your two protagonists have not defined what they are looking for, how will they know when they find it?
Moreover, why don’t they attempt to find a library to find book on Stone and Iron Age tools and weapons? They could even attempt to make horse barding or body armor for war horses. When I dream, I dream big!
I can imagine that a colony the size of Jewel would have a library. This library would have books for returnees and those born as ponies describing how to use their natural abilities as well as the history of Jewel and surrounding colonies.
It would also have a Chamber of Commerce business directory describing family businesses and individual artisans. For example, if an Earth pony wanted to buy a plow, the directory would have the name and address of a blacksmith that makes farm tools.
I suppose that any library Jewel had was either destroyed by the dragon, or someone has moved it to another location. Finding books with useful information would make a good quest for our brave protagonists.
9517320 Well its not really that big, but a library does make sense.
Very interesting read so far, I can't wait for more updates.