The Salvation of Shard #197532

by LordBucket

Chapter 2: Motive

Jack surveyed the scene on the ponypad. Misty was sitting on her haunches breathing heavily, but apart from a few minor cuts and scrapes seemed to be ok. At her feet laid a digital duplicate of the tentacled Pinkie-bot he'd just fought, exploded head and all.

"You saved me," she whispered.

"You saved me first," Jack sighed, exhausted but smiling. "She would have got me if you hadn't shouted that warning."

"Is it...is it dead?"

"They don't die," he shook his head, gathering up the ponypad and kicking out the last remnants of the fire. "Come on, we need to go before it regenerates."

"I call shotgun!" the mare grinned.

"That's the spirit!" he laughed. "Now come on, I need a navigator and right now you're the best mare for the job."

~~~~~

The trip was made easier by Southern California's notorious five-lane highways, but the never-ending stream of abandoned vehicles kept them under 20mph for most of the trip. To keep her in his sight, Jack had attached the ponypad to the dashboard with a couple strips of duck tape. The arrangement worked well enough, but the terrain hadn't made the trip easy.

"Turn left at the next light."

"You got it, boss," Jack saluted playfully, then squinted and leaned forward in the driver's chair. "Uhh, by 'next light' you mean 'destroyed unlit intersection,' right?"

"Show me."

"Alright, hang on," Jack grunted, bringing the truck to a stop and untaping the ponypad from its place on the dashboard. Careful to keep his hand within its field of view, he spun it around to give her a view of the intersection up ahead.

"That's...uhh," Misty frowned uncertainly. "I think that's Alton parkway. What's left of it anyway. Can you show me more?"

"Sure," Jack rotated the ponypad around to give her a full panoramic view.

"Ok, yeah," she nodded. "That's the hospital that...oh. I..."

"What's up?" Jack asked, spinning the ponypad around to reveal a now-crying mare. "What's wrong?"

"My sister used to...she was...I was going to..." Misty started to explain but couldn't finish.

"Hey, hey, it's ok," Jack assured her, pulling the ponypad to his chest and giving it a hug as she burst out into tears.

"I'm so sorry!" she wailed. "It's all my fault! Everything's all my fault! I'm so stupid for uploading. So stupid for believing her! Now looks what's happened! Look at what's left!"

"Shh," he whispered softly, stroking her hair through the screen fondly. "Don't worry about a single hospital. I think pretty much the whole world's destroyed by now. She fooled everybody, not just you."

"But you shouldn't have to suffer for that!" the mare shouted. "You were one of the smart ones who saw through her lies! You're so brave, and so smart, and you saved me, and I...I just...I'm so sorry."

More tears followed as Jack held her, comforted her, listened as her shuddered bawling slowly died down to quiet sobs at first, and then to ragged breathing.

"Misty," he whispered. "Please try to understand. This isn't your fault. You don't have to feel bad for me."

"And why not?!?"

"Because," he shrugged, then half-turned the ponypad to give a better view of the destroyed hellscape around them. "Look out there. What do you see?"

"The end of all civilization?" she sniffled. "Mankind's folly? The doom to end all doom?"

"Sure, I guess," he laughed. "Dramatics aside, you're right. It's all gone. Civilization, that is. Nothing's left."

"At least you still have beans," she grumbled.

"Ok, I'll give you that," he relented. "But there's no future here. My job, my family, my house, the company I worked for...everything. It's all gone."

"And this is supposed to make me feel better, how?"

"Because it's all gone," he settled into his seat, gazing over the destruction out the window with a hint of a smile. "And you know what that means? It means nobody's going to try to collect that $25,000 I still owe for college. It mean no more waking up every morning to wear clothes I hate so I can work a job I hate for a boss I hate. And who probably hated me back. No more sales meetings. No more managerial double speak. No more pretending to care about quotas. No more 'being a team player.' No more alarm clocks or going to bed on time or having to wear ties. Do you remember how awful ties are?"

"I get what you're saying," Misty nodded wryly. "But you say all that like you're glad it's gone. Not everything humanity built was bad."

"Sure, but I don't really miss it all that much," he stretched one arm with a satisified grin on his face. "I don't know about you, but everything in my life was fake, and it took the end of the world for me to see it. People living like robots, acting on autopilot just to get through their day. Then going asleep and chugging coffee the next just to stay awake long enough to do it all over again without ever stopping to ask if it was what anybody wanted. That was me. That was everyone I knew."

"And this is better?" Misty countered.

"Are you kidding?" Jack chuckled. "Instead of living a lie made of plastic, here we are just you and me, friends together on the open road, sharing an adventure! Do you know what's going to happen tomorrow?"

"No?"

"Neither do I!" he laughed. "Isn't that amazing? Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up every day and go into the same office and do the same boring thing that you hate? Every single day? Before all this happened i could have told you what I'd be doing at 2:37 in the afternoon on any random day twenty years into the future. Now? I don't even know what's going to happen in five minutes, and it's glorious! In a twisted, messed up sort of way, Celestia destroying the world is the best thing that ever happened to me."

"I don't think I'd feel the same way in your shoes," the mare frowned. "Do you really mean all that?"

"Absolutely," he nodded. "I never wanted to be an accountant, you know. I know, surprise, right? What kind of kid grows up pushing around pencils instead of firetrucks?"

"Me, actually," Misty's fading tears turned to a wistful smile. "I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. The real kind, where you get to make a mess and smell paint and hang a real, actual canvas on a wall that you can feel. None of this 3d art nonsense I had to learn."

"And instead you grew up to become a little horse," Jack chuckled. "Funny how life doesn't always give you what you want. Me, I wanted to be an actor. And now, here at the end of the world instead of Jack Nobody in accounting, I get to play action hero in a post-apocalyptic world saving a girl who just happens to be a little horse, and that's awesome. And to top it off, I don't even have to get eaten by zombies. Or pay taxes. Or wear a tie. Trust me, fighting off pink robots and eating campfire beans might not be glamorous, but it's way better than filling out excel spreadsheets. Civilization may be gone, but it went out with a bang, and that's better than it deserved. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, and you shouldn't either."

Securing the ponypad back onto the dashboard facing him, he gave the thoughtful pony what he hoped was a winning smile as he turned the ignition.

The engine made a horrible noise, and then fell silent.

Taking a deep breath under her gaze, he turned the key a second time and held it. A long, ragged choking noise erupted from under the hood, and after several long seconds, just as the smile on his face turned dark, suddenly the engine took.

"Phew," he laughed in relief. "I'm glad that worked. Totally would have spoiled my pep talk if we'd been stranded here."

"You know," Misty gave him a sad smile. "You almost make me think we're actually going to pull this off."

Comments

[Dudofall]

"But you shouldn't have to suffer for that!" the mare shouted. "You were one of the smart ones who saw through her lies! You're so brave, and so smart, and you saved me, and I...I just...I'm so sorry."

Yeah, that's definitely not flattery!