A young woman wakes up to find herself unlike any other of the ponies left on Earth.
Kathryn wakes two days after the Event that turned everyone on Earth into ponies... but even though she looks like an Earth Pony, there's more to her than meets the eye! She now must somehow travel from Brantford, Ontario, Canada to Miami, Florida, USA in a very short period of time... read the story to find out why.
Although... the title is kind of a dead giveaway
Kathryn's story is going to be a combination 3rd person and journal entries; the former is normal format while journal will be with italics. Teen is for some strong language.
I had gone to bed last night like normal but when I woke, I was no longer human and it was two days later. I am now what look like a very colorful pony. I have pale blue fur, two toned hair and tail, blue eyes and my glasses are gone as I no longer need them. I figured out how to walk pretty quickly and thank God I had a stylus in one of my desk drawers so I could type on my tablet. With a little bit of the internet still working, I've figured out that whatever occurred, it happened about 3:30 am on the 23rd. If the clocks are correct, it is 2:15 pm on the 25th.
My dog, Boarder Collie-mix, Raea (1), had managed to survive without me by drinking water from a sprinkler left turned on and by upending her dog food bag.
I remember watching that TV show “Life after People”. I know exactly what to expect but first I need to check out the city to see if there is anyone else left and gather water...
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Her human name was Kathryn Marie Mason. She had been an urban planner for the city when she was still human but didn’t know how that would help her much now.
She ventured outside her home, 35 Fairmount Ave. She was shocked at how quiet the whole city was! Usually she could hear children from the park across the way and should hear the traffic from Colburne St but today, there was nothing except birds and the soft clip clop of her new hooves on the sidewalk.
Then, the hunger kicked in so she tried to make pancakes using only her front hooves and mouth. Mixing the ingredients was pretty easy as was pouring the batter into the pan but flipping took a bit of problem solving to work. After making an eight pancake tower, slathered in syrup, she fell ravenously into the pile. And then she went back, made and ate eight more! After polishing off the last of her strawberry ice cream from the freezer (figuring it would not last very long, so why not?), she gave Raea a can of wet dog food she had been saving for emergency. Kathryn felt like Raea deserved a reward for not abandoning her.
Kathryn found that she still had water pressure so she filled every empty jug & bottle she could find in the house and washed the dishes.
Then she turned her attention to the need to scavenge.
Luckily for Kathryn, her nearby neighbor drove a medium sized school bus so after some jury-rigging, she got the thing running. Raea jumped into the bus with her and they drove all the way to the north end Wal-mart. Kathryn decided that she’d go the farthest in town so long as she could first. She kept her eyes peeled for others like her but found none; only a large pack of dogs breaking into the Food Basics out on King George Road.
When she arrived at Wal-mart, she parked the bus at the front entrance and bucked her way inside. Once in, she rigged up a series of grocery carts and started stripping the place. Every jug of water she could find, dog food, stretched out child’s rubber boots for her hooves, few pieces of children’s clothes to cover her up including rain & winter coats, a bunch of the inflatable camping solar lights, a bunch of solar garden lights, a few DVD movies she had not seen yet (and wanted to before she lost power for good) and some ham radios & hands-free headset from Electronics. She also grabbed every package of veggie seeds she could get at after bucking down the seed stand in the garden center.
Feeling a craving, she broke into the McDonald's and tried to make some chicken nuggets and fries. The nuggets actually turned out perfectly.... for a human, but when Kathryn tried to eat them, she spit them back out like they were covered in thorns! They tasted like shit smells. This made her really sad because she had loved them before. Instead, she settled on a basket of French fries slathered in ketchup while Raea gobbled up the nuggets!
She grabbed every food cooler she could get her hooves on and filled them with whatever ice was left and loaded up on every produce that was still good: carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, grapes, pears, bell peppers, radishes, raspberries, strawberries, blue berries, black berries, watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, kiwi, cucumbers, dates, apricots, and corn. She tasted a little bit of everything before loading up; her experience with the chicken nuggets had taught her to be cautious. Despite not liking half of these things before, now they all tasted fantastic! Upon reflection, she realized that horses were herbivores and that made sense. She still would not touch certain things like mushrooms, onions, garlic, prunes, leeks, and artichokes.
Kathryn went down every one of the other food aisles to check for other stuff like oatmeal, cereals, granola bars and anything else that she did not bawk at. She avoided the uber sugary cereals like Quik and Lucky Charms; instead, she got Cheerios, Rice Krispies and discovered how sweet & amazing Shredded Wheat had become so she grabbed every box!
She also grabbed the only diesel-powered generator in the place; remembering the used strained cooking oil trick for diesel engines from Mythbusters episode. She also grabbed every box of coffee filters and empty rain barrels for finished product. She added “Locate diesel pickup truck” to her list of needs and then she used a gardening hose to siphon out the McDonald’s used oil before loading it into the bus.
Upon loading, she went back inside and carried three huge bags of dog food on her back, emptying them out on the sidewalk outside the front entrance. Then she grabbed some big paper & markers from the office section, making a sign in case anyone came here; letting them know where she was and what she took.... and to warn them to not eat meat!
She then drove the bus over to Zehrs in the plaza and emptied the same stuff from the grocery store: produce, cereals, crackers and water. This time, she even ventured to try out peanut butter and found herself not gagging so she stocked up on that too.
After getting all of the supplies home and into her concrete finished basement, she went back out to the farm co-op and found 6 empty barrels she could use for the refining of the used cooking oils. She had kept the siphoning hose from Wal-mart and so she stopped off at a few more places along the way to Canadian Tire, filling three of the barrels.
She went into Zehrs at Fairview, emptying it of produce, water, cereals, breads and more dog food for Raea; leaving another one of her signs out front.
Again, she took time to make more French fries for herself, and a few beef patties for Raea, at the McDonald's (taking all of the oil there too!) across from Canadian Tire before going over and securing anything she’d need: every solar panel, solar garden lights & camping lamps, cans of cooking fuel, more dog food for Raea, more gardening supplies, and she bucked her way into the archery cabinets to get at a few crossbows & bins of bolts. She was able to attach a crossbow crank to each one and then a rigged archery release so that her hoof could release the trigger. She tested her designs on a couple of the deer targets; that made her feel uncomfortable for some reason.
She also grabbed every roll of duct tape, a couple of satellite phones, every package of glow sticks, lengths of rope, matches, flashlights, first aid kits and as many batteries as she could find. Digging in the back areas, she found some stuff out of season like ski goggles. She grabbed a few pairs of these: one for night driving (yellow tinted), clear ones for in-climate weather, and sunglasses version.
Lynden Park Mall didn’t have much besides the deep fryers in the food court and more water at Food Basics. She did get a select few books for herself including “Surviving the Apocalypse for Dummies” and “Survival Skills 101” while in Coles (bookstore). She didn’t think any of them applied to her situation but it could not hurt... and it gave her something new to read.
Getting home to unload the second time, Kathryn saw it was nearing sunset but not remotely time for bed yet so she decided to take Raea for a walk. She carried a crossbow and quiver of arrows but it was Raea’s constant presence that made Kathryn feel safe. As they cut through Mohawk Park, she remembered the deep fryer in the kiosk of the park but it was not open yet so there’d be nothing to salvage.
They made their way down Forest Ave and over the canal bridge at Loch Rd to the SPCA facility down there. Raea whimpered as they heard the barking and pitiful crying from inside. Kathryn knew it was dangerous but they approached the building anyway; she bucked down the fence and doors, opening every cage, setting all of the animals free and knocking over the shelves of food so the animals could get at it.
Kathryn experienced the next amazing thing that day: she watched as Raea had a doggy conversation with the larger dogs from the yard. To her, it was like they were inviting Raea to join their pack. Raea was too loyal to leave Kathryn and so turned them down. The pack leader, a male German Sheppard – almost as tall as she was! - regarded her for a moment and then a thought of understanding passed between them. Kathryn somehow knew that she had nothing to fear from this pack.
The dogs and cats ran off after eating and drinking their fill; they even shared some with Raea as thanks. Kathryn & Raea returned to the house; Kathryn set up some defensive crossbows at the front and back windows before taking up a chopping knife & some of the produce, making a crisp evening salad for herself. Since she had made the pancakes for a late lunch, the little bit of milk in her fridge still good so she drank that, vowing to at least finish it before it went bad. She did ponder the fact that she was constantly finding herself hungry, especially after doing a lot of carrying & walking around.
Kathryn didn’t feel safe sleeping in her bedroom anymore. Instead, she dragged her bed sheets, blankets and pillows to the L-shaped couch of her great room, setting up a nest with the couch on her sides. After Raea returned from the yard from doing her business, she curled up with Kathryn on the pile.
May 25th, 2015 @ 10:25 pm
Dear Journal,
I honestly have no idea what is going on here but I feel like I'm the only one left in town. Thank God I still have Raea with me and we WILL SURVIVE!
May 26th, 2015 @ 3:45 am
Dear Journal,
This whole damn thing is NOT a dream!! THIS IS FREAKING REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've spent the last couple of days doing a lot of things... and learning a few too!
Second full day, I used my sewing machine to sew a bunch of coffee filters together; big enough to fit over the barrel openings. Then I positioned the empty ones below my neighbor's second story deck. I used the rope and some anchor points to raise the full barrels up the stairs and rolled them to the edge of the deck, kicking (bucking?) out the railing. I then breached the plugs and let the dirty oil spill down into the strainers. I had found some large plastic pipes that fit exactly over the barrels to use as funnels on top and collect the dirty before it strains out.
The original experiment was small beakers so I had to upscale the process. I did this first thing on the 26th because I knew how slow it was going to be.
Later that same day, I took inventory of what I salvaged and organized the food coolers into each of the produces. I emptied out my freezer of any and all meats that might have been left there and I chucked them out into a yard across Lynwood Drive, to keep the dogs away ( I kept and cooked up a whole T-bone steak for Raea; even just the smell made me ill).
I did see the pack of dogs I rescued yesterday go down my street. The pack leader (German Sheppard I'm naming Butch), smelled the front porch, looked me in the eyes and barked at the pack to keep clear. Raea “waved” from the front window towards the house where we had left the meat; Butch seemed to nod before leading them away.
The following day, the 27th, I discovered the most amazing thing... I'm not just a pony. I'm a MERpony!
I discovered it when I woke to find the weather really nice and warm; I decided to make use of a neighbor's swimming pool. The moment I canon-balled into the pool, a white light over took me and my back end turned into a fish tail! It was incredible!! I secretly loved mermaids as a human but never expected that to happen!
More surprise came when I got out of the pool and used my towel to dry off. When I watched myself return to four legs, a little flash of light appeared on my butt and there I saw this tattoo of two mane-matching swirls and a black pearl. When I jumped back into the pool to turn merpony again, the tattoo changed a little: the colors swapped sides and the black pearl turned white! Raea loved to chase me in the water after that. We actually took turns jumping off the diving board. LOL
That dog appears to be getting smarter and I'm not sure what to make of it. All wild animals are showing similar smarts, like in the park where I took Raea for walks. Birds, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, raccoons and even some other dogs & cats would approach us to see if we had any food. Sometimes I’d carry a large bag of shell peanuts to break open but I made it clear that I would not always do that and that they’d have to fend for themselves as well. At one point I had begun to wonder if this had reached the farm animals too.
In the meantime, I had acquired a diesel-powered pickup truck from a nearby house and continued to travel the city, looking for others like me. As well, I drove out to Burford’s archery store to stock up on more crossbow pieces, accessories, replacement parts and arrows. Archery had been another pastime of mine but when human, I had used a recurve bow. Now I had the options to go elsewhere. I also got a few rifles and shot guns with all the ammo I could grab, using the same archery release rig to fire them with my hoof. I debated going any further but decided against it. Instead, I went to St George and Paris to check there but found not a soul besides the escaped pets and animals from the local zoo. The only useful stops I made were the grocery stores for more water and food.
The truck is a heavy-duty with a good trailer hitch on it in case I find some tanker trucks of diesel. With all the siphoning I've been doing, I can tell the difference between the two fuels just by the smell, color, and sadly taste. :P
I also did some DIY mechanic work on the school bus, as it was big enough and ran on diesel. I used a wrench and removed all of the passenger seats except the one directly behind the driver (Raea’s favorite spot).
I was able to jury-rig the solar panels up on my roof to run a few things while I built a shelter outside for the generator. I had to cut down a couple of trees in the surrounding area to get enough sun to my roof but it was worth the effort of the gas chainsaw I found in neighbor's garage. Figured the fuel would go bad eventually anyways so might as well make use it. Raea was smart enough to stay inside the house while I cut down the offending trees. I have a wood burning stove in my living room so I cut up those trees and stored them against the wall in the dining room. I'm always thinking ahead... wood burning stove was pure luck, and natural gas scares me.
On the 28th, I went to my parent’s house. Their two cats had already eaten all of the food they could and then scratched their way out of a window. I could not help wishing them good luck in this new world.
I found nothing else in the house besides a half case of water, which I left behind. I also left a note, sealed in plastic for in case either of my parents returned. I included a sketch of land pony me just lest they came back soon and went looking for me.
The 29th, I had fallen into a depression about people I had lost and what I lost.... my parents, friends, co-workers; I lost internet, all TV, merely being human; power had finally gone out the previous day but my generator & solar panels kept the few things going. I did not go outside; I did not take Raea for her walk in the park; I did not drive to salvage or search for anyone; and then still not hearing anything but static on my set up of radios was also not inspiring.
Today, I woke up feeling much better. I also woke with a plan. I was not going to stay here in Brantford. I am going to pack up the pickup truck (after finding a decent RV trailer) and I'm going to drive to the Atlantic Ocean. A merpony belongs in the ocean. I'm not sure what I’ll do with Raea when I reach the ocean but I’ll figure it out when I get there. I have a lot of organizing to do.
Using my new pickup, I had found a decent sized trailer RV while driving around the rich part of town. It’s got a full kitchen, full shower stall bathroom, big bedroom at the back and LOTS of storage for the supplies... and maybe some more survivors? Only took me one buck to shatter the old padlock on the hitch and the RV came with a large sized Canadian flag hanging on the back.
I also broke in to search the house. It had a pool in the backyard but the water had already turned foul. Found a couple of tablets and thin laptop in what appeared to be an office. Also nabbed a sweet solar panel from the house roof; the rope I got from Canadian Tire came in handy (hoofy?) to slowly lower the panel to the driveway. The only pets I found were a sealed fish tank with floaters. Nothing I could do there so I left them behind. Found only a couple of water cooler bottles in the garage so I threw them in the RV too.
I still felt bad for taking the RV.... so I left a note. I had to use my mouth to hold the pen and print, like I use my stylus on this tablet. The penmanship was horrendous but still readable.
My name is Kathryn. Strange things are going on in the world... If you’re reading this, it means you’ve come home to find your RV & solar panels gone. I'm sorry. I needed to borrow them. If you ever find yourselves down in Miami, Florida, come find me and I'm sure you can have them back.
I've been spending the last few days, making more bio-fuel for the diesel generator while I planned to siphon fuel for the truck from the gas stations along the way. The bio-fuel barrels –four completely filled and sealed- went into the second trailer, strapped down as best as I could with only hooves. God, I miss my fingers!!
.... What? Oh yeah! A second trailer! I was shocked when I realized that the RV trailer came with a back hitch of its own! That meant I could tow another trailer for the other hazardous stuff like the propane canisters for the camping stove and the barrels. Mental note: acquire second genny if possible. The genny went into the back of the pickup truck, along with much of my big equipment (tote of solar lights & lamps; pile of dog food bags; aired crates for the seeds; archery cases full of crossbows and bins of arrows [one bow and one bin went into the truck’s cab with us!]).
(I had left the pickup parked on the street with the RV & back trailer all hooked up while packing; if I had to go out anywhere for anything, I used the school bus.)
The food was all packed up today. I had to pick through all of it again to sort out the good from the bad; the weak from the chaff. Anything on the fence but leaning to good, I left out to eat tonight and tomorrow morning before we leave. Anything leaning to bad, I loaded up in my neighbor’s red wagon and dumped it in the park, along with the very last of bags of each peanuts and bird seed. I said my good-byes to the animals there already. I left a new note at my parent’s house, along side of the original one, telling them of where I had gone and why: Miami, Florida because I'm a merpony! I even added sketches of my new form and the butt tattoo so they could better identify me if they came looking.
Raea is whining for dinner so I ought to get on that. I plan on an early start tomorrow.
June 6th, 2015 @ 9:20 pm; One Niagara Welcome Center, Niagara Falls, NY
Dear Journal,
I had started out early this morning to Hamilton. I wanted to see if any of my family there had remained. When we prepared to leave Brantford, Butch and his pack came to the house, I guess to see us off. Butch huffed to one of the smaller dogs, who stepped forward and presented Raea with a very large bone; probably taken from a pet store. Butch came forward next and bowed his head to me. Instinct told me that he was wishing us a safe journey and promising to not attack any others like me. I gave him a scratch behind his ear as thanks.
I had left copies of my earlier journal entries at the house in sealed plastic in case anyone should come across it. I also updated any signs I had previously made, adding a few new ones to other local hot spots that people might go to for help: city hall, police station, fire station, public library and every major grocery store & the Lynden Park Mall.
With the trucker radio I had scavenged rigged up to the inside of the pickup truck, I was able to coast the stations, looking for others who might be transmitting.
The drive up to Hamilton was, not surprisingly, empty & uneventful. The only stop I made was to Costco/Pets-mart in Ancaster (former for bigger supplies of non-perishables & more propane canisters; the latter, a very sad display for more of Raea’s dog food; I won’t dwell on what I found there). :'(
As soon as I reached Hamilton, I searched much of the city, blaring the truck’s loud horn and broadcasting on the radio but found not a single other pony. I saw plenty of stray dog packs and evidence of scavenging but no sign of any sapient beings. (And to be fair, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for at the time.)
About three hours of driving around Hamilton yielding no results, I went to the homes of my family members; I found not a soul at any of them but left plastic-sealed notes telling of my plans, sketches of what I looked like both as land pony and merpony, my butt tattoo and the fact that I have Raea with me.
With daylight burning, we drove down to Niagara Falls, watching as a bank of dark storm clouds rolled in off the USA side and blanketed the whole region in torrential rain. What should have been an hour, 10 minute drive turned into nearly 2 ½ because I could barely see the road in front of me and no street lights working. The storm was so dark; it turned mid-afternoon into the blackest of night as we drove through St. Catharine’s, Ontario.
Raea & I managed to cross the Canadian/USA border at the Peace (Rainbow) Bridge just as the first strikes of thunder and lightning hit the area. I was surprised to see a few lights still turned on at the bridge before I realized that they were solar powered. We arrived here at the Welcome Center not long after crossing the bridge. During a break in the rain, I took the tablet outside and found a good spot to photograph the Peace Bridge... I just got lucky to capture the lightning in there too.
I used my genny to power up the lights in the welcome center, in the hopes that someone (somepony?) will see it before we leave tomorrow.
June 7th, 2015 @ 11 am, still at Niagara Center parking lot
Dear Journal,
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!
I just spotted a pony running towards my truck!!!
Kathryn watched as a large pony galloped towards her vehicle. She could see that he had rigged some kind of harness to the gardening wagon that he towed behind himself and he looked exhausted.
Stumbling down the height of the truck’s seat, she clumsily got to her hooves and hurried over to see the pony was in fact, a unicorn! She slightly skipped a beat in her gallop to reach the male, light grey body-two tone short grey/black haired, unicorn.
“Oh mighty thanks I caught up with you before you left! You’re the first pony I've seen since mid-May,” he said, breathlessly as he knelt down to rest, breathing heavily.
But Kathryn quickly shook her head and became all business. “I'm heading east. If you want to come with me, we go now. You can rest in the truck,” she said as she hurried to take the harness off the unicorn and wear it herself. The harness was clearly meant for someone far bigger than her but she managed it easily... but she could not figure out why that was. As Kathryn had removed the harness, she noticed that he also had a butt tattoo but his had the picture of a water dam on it; like Niagara Falls or Hover dam.
She took no longer to ponder it as she took the wagon to the RV, unloading the supplies and strapping the wagon down on the flatbed. The unicorn watched her do all of this with her hooves, fascinated at her dexterity.
When she came back to the truck, he stuck a hoof out to shake. “My name is Eddie Jones. I am... or rather... I was the leading manager of the Niagara Falls hydro-electric generator. I've already released the river from the dam and have no reason to stay here. I'm hoping to find more ponies further east... maybe more like me who can help me with my horn,” he said as his horn lit up in a soft yellow glow before letting out a few small sparks!
The shock of the sparks caused Kathryn to jerk backwards in fright & let out a cry. Raea, hearing & thinking her owner was in distress, leaped out of the truck and positioned herself between Kathryn and Eddie.
Eddie’s horn stopped the sparks the moment Raea started growling. Eddie felt extreme fear of this dog, despite recognizing Raea’s Border collie breeding and being a dog-lover. His previous experience with dog packs had not been as positive as Kathryn’s and she must have realized that because a few heartbeats later, she called Raea off.
“Raea is my dog.... she’s very protective of me. She won’t be a problem, right?” Kathryn asked. Eddie quickly shook his head. “Oh no; not at all! Normally I love dogs... just haven’t had great experiences lately.”
Kathryn raised her hoof to shake again. “My name’s Kathryn. Eventually, I want to reach the Atlantic Ocean but I can bring you along for as far as you want to go.” They hoof-bumped before climbing back into the truck’s cab, with Raea, and set off down the completely deserted Interstate 90.
The next few hours flew, by Kathryn taking the pickup truck easily up to 130(km/hr) on the flat stretches and slowing down to 90 on the curves. They rode together in relative silence as Raea sat between them; Eddie absent-minded patting Raea’s head.
Each time they came to a city, Kathryn spoke on her radio and honked the horn really loudly to be heard by any possible survivors but every time, they came up empty. However, the closer they got to Henrietta, NY the more they saw the ransacking and salvaging that Kathryn had been a part of back in Brantford.
When they finally reached Henrietta, they were shocked to find a newly formed colony of ponies! Ponies like Kathryn, some like Eddie and even a few with wings! What’s more, there was a very small group of strange bug-like ponies mingling around one house that had a green slime all over it; they had horns AND wings but the former were crooked and the latter were more bug-like than the feathered ones she saw on some. And then, few of those with wings had bat wings instead of feathers.
Kathryn & Eddie saw a large variety of butt tattoos from many of the ponies they saw; but a very few did not have any at all. That only raised more questions for Kathryn but she threw those thoughts to the back of her mind as she carefully drove through the town and found a large, mostly empty parking lot to park the truck, RV & trailer.
As she parked, a pair of ponies walked from what appeared to be the former church of the town (but it was missing the cross at the top steeple). Kathryn saw that they were both like her; no wings or horn.
Raea took up a protective stance between her owner and the new ponies. The larger male took out a bone from out of nowhere and tossed it to Raea. The dog happily pounced on the bone & started gnawing on it.
Kathryn rolled her eyes at Raea’s antics while the new ponies simply chuckled. The male was orange body with rugged long brown mane & tail, the former pulled back in a pony tail (Kathryn smirked at the irony) and he bore a corn stalk for a butt tattoo. The female was about the same size as Kathryn; she was green body with two-toned neon green-white mane & tail and a butt tattoo of an apple seed sprouting.
The male introduced himself as ‘Joe Farmer’ and the female as his partner, ‘Amy Orchard’. “I welcome you both to our little colony of Farmville. Please, let us show you around,” said Joe as he began to lead them down the main street.
Kathryn saw ponies carting in farm produce from the out-lying farms, herding cows from a former warehouse to a park, replacing broken windows, lowering door handles... mostly mundane stuff until Eddie nudged her and pointed to a pair of unicorns; one was encouraging the second, who’s horn was a glow and pointed to a small rock. They watched in shock as the rock was enveloped in the same glow and suddenly levitated up all on its own! Without realizing it, both Kathryn & Eddie stopped in their tracks to gape at the sight.
Joe & Amy quickly realized what was going on and double backed to explain that this was all possible due to something called thaumic radiation; but everyone kept referring it to magic. “It’s the reason pegasi can fly, earth ponies like us are super strong & have super endurance and unicorns can levitate among other things,” said Amy. “We think it’s also the reason behind the other animals’ increase of intelligence,” added Joe.
Kathryn could understand the animals’ change, as she had experienced it with Raea & Butch back in Brantford but the magic thing had been really far-fetched... until she remembered her own mer-pony transformation and the appearance of the butt mark.
As they watched the second unicorn lift a heavier rock than the first, they saw the look of sheer joy overcome the pony’s face and a white light flashed on his flank before a lifting weight surrounded by an aura (that matched the color of his magic) appeared.
“We think the flank marks have something to do with a ponies’ job or ability,” Amy said as she gestured to the unicorn high-fiving (one-hoofing?) his buddy and a few others stopping along the way to congratulate him.
Eddie could only sadly shake his head, his mane swaying with him before settling on shoulders again. “I have a horn and a mark and no idea how either of them work.” “It’s not that a mark ‘works’; it just represents who you are,” Amy calmly explained.
“Yeah! We have a unicorn that can’t perform magic either, just like you Eddie. But her problem is not that she can’t grasp it... it just won’t work as well on land.” Kathryn & Eddie exchanged curious looks as they were lead to the nearby community swimming pool.
There, sitting under a shade umbrella, in the water, on the edge of pool was another merpony! She was clearly a unicorn but her horn was a different style to Eddie’s; she was purple body, two-toned darker purple & white braided mane, a butt tattoo of a white snail shell and a long fish tail, ending in the same stripped style as Kathryn’s. She had fuchsia eyes, freckles and fashionably wore white armbands above her knees.
As they approached, the merpony used her tail to jump out of the water and she sat up on an old reclining pool lounge. Amy introduced her as Sarah Jackson.
While Kathryn wasn’t surprised, Eddie’s eyes were nearly bugging out of his head. Kathryn wondered at the pony’s mark of a snail shell; Raea went up to the pony, snuffed her tail, face lit up and ran back to Kathryn, surprising her out of her thoughts. The patio was still slippery from Sarah dragging herself from the water; Kathryn lost her footing and fell backwards into the pool!
As Eddie, Amy, Joe & Sarah watched Kathryn’s transformation, Joe turned to Eddie. “Did you know any of this??” Eddie shook his head harshly. “No, I swear! I had no idea! We only just met this morning when she offered me a lift going east!”
The moment Kathryn surfaced Raea swam up to her and started licking her face. Kathryn could not stay angry at Raea for very long and laughed up a storm as she attempted to climb back up onto the patio. As soon as Kathryn’s tail popped up, Eddie approached her, knelt down to her level and practically shouted in her face. “What the fuck Kathryn? Why didn’t you tell me about this??”
Kathryn flinched a little away from Eddie. “I didn’t think it was relevant, Eddie! I would have told you had we reached the ocean together,” she said defensively.
Just as her tail became sufficiently dry, the ‘magic’ took over; her mark glowed and a quick white ribbon of light surrounded her, and she reverted back to land pony.
Sarah simply shook her head sadly. “You’re lucky Kathryn. I can’t turn into a land pony like you. I've been living here since I woke three weeks ago in my bed. I actually lived here before the event, and then I woke up here too. Thankfully, Amy & Joe were passing through when they heard my cries for help. Eventually, it was decided to move me here and keep the pool going while they built the new colony here with help from others who choose to stay.”
Sarah looked meaningfully from Eddie, who nodded his head yes, and Kathryn who shook her head no.
“I want to stay and learn this ‘magic’, for as long as you’ll have me,” Eddie said.
“I'm not staying on land much. I'm driving to the Atlantic Ocean. Now that I know that there are more merponies, I want to find them and bring them together,” Kathryn said, returning the meaningful look to Sarah.
Sarah nodded and said simply, “I need some time to think about it.”
Joe & Amy felt the mood change and desired to fix it. “Eddie, if you’d follow Joe I'm sure he could find you somepony to help you with your magic,” said Amy sweetly. Eddie nodded and followed Joe out of the enclosed pool area.
Kathryn stood and looked to the sun. It was still mid-afternoon but she was not leaving until Sarah made her decision. “I think I’ll go set up my RV for a stay overnight, if that’s ok with you?” she asked Amy.
Amy was quick to agree. “Oh, my of course you’re invited to stay the night! And Eddie will be more than welcome to remain here if he so chooses. In fact, we always have a welcoming feast/pool party here at the community center when someone joins our ranks. Would you be in attendance?”
“Perhaps for the food but not the swimming; as you saw with Eddie, I prefer to keep my abilities to myself. From what I've seen, none of the other ‘earth’ ponies can do any magic like mine. I don’t want to make a spectacle of myself,” said Kathryn as she walked away from Amy & Sarah. They looked to each other. “That girl’s got magic fright,” Sarah said quietly. “I agree,” said Amy.
As Kathryn walked back through town and to her truck, she had a lot on her mind. She did have a few more answers but that only lead to a bunch more questions. Raea trotted beside her, occasionally stopping to sniff an old light pole, front lawn, or sidewalk tree.
Why was she like that as a merpony? Why could she, as an Earth pony, turn back and forth but a unicorn like Sarah could not? How was that fair?
Turning on the generator and flipping a few switches on the outside of the RV, a few of the walls on hydraulics opened up and dropped supporting legs underneath to nearly double the space inside, Kathryn continued to mull over the situation. She could not blame Eddie for his reaction. SHE was the one who kept the secret from him; avoided answering any questions about her flank mark.
Going inside the RV, she moved all of the totes and stuff to the sides to create an aisle down the center to reach each of the areas. Flipping another switch dropped a rolled canvas wall on one side, creating a private bedroom in case Eddie came back... “Unlikely like he would after what happened at the pool,” she grumbled out loud.
Raea had taken a seat on the dining table's bench as soon as Kathryn had opened the door. Now, at the sound of her owner’s voice, she perked up her head in Kathryn’s direction. “This is all your fault, you know,” Kathryn said to Raea, who just kept staring and panting.
After throwing some blankets and a pillow on the pop-out bed (more hydraulics) in the spare room, and making sure the genny had enough bio-fuel to last until the welcoming party at 6, Kathryn took up her tablet to the master and pulled out the stylus.
Raea trotted into the room and curled up on the floor rug, directly in the sunlight spilling from a window.
June 7th, 2015 @ 2:45 pm, colony in Henrietta, NY (renamed Farmville)
Dear Journal,
I have a crazy amount to share! And I'm not even sure where to begin....
And here I thought my day could not get any stranger... it just got insane!
Shortly before six in the evening, Kathryn and Raea made their way back to the community pool for Eddie’s Welcoming party. Kathryn still found that she was apprehensive about being around so many ponies, especially those with magic but quickly realized how hypocritical those thoughts were.
And so she shoved them into the back of her mind again and prepared to enter the pool enclosure. She could not help giving an old “No Dogs Allowed” sign a good enough kick to knock it over. Raea then proceeded to pee on it. “Good job, Raea. Mamma's so proud,” Kathryn crooned as she petted the dog’s head before going in the gate.
As soon as they entered the pool area, they were assaulted by the bright party lights and loud upbeat pop music from a large set up of speakers that had not been there earlier in the day. A pair of strobe lights lit up the night’s sky and the cloud cover bounced said light back down on the area. Kathryn was sure that if any new ponies appeared in the area, Farmville would be easy enough to find by following those lights.
All along the side of the pool, every cabana and shade umbrella hosted groups of ponies mingling while others took turns on the diving boards and swimming lengths or bouncing beach balls across the way. Tables were piled with all kinds of foods from granola bars, fruits & veggies, and even salads made from garden flowers! At one end of the tables, ponies could take their produce choices to a BBQ and have them grilled while a second had been set up in the farthest back corner; Kathryn could smell the offensive odor of meat cooking, which struck her as odd until she saw a group of the bat-ponies bear their fangs.
Raea took off like a shot for them, in hopes of begging. Kathryn could only chuckle at her dog’s continuing antics.
Kathryn walked over to the food table, taking a few carrots, a couple of apples and a choice piece of corn on the cob for the pony on the BBQ to grill, she walked over to take a place in line. Her eyes wandered the area; she saw Amy sitting with Sarah under one of the umbrellas, former laying on the patio, latter in the water leaning on the edge almost like a human; she saw Eddie standing with a bunch of other unicorns, showing off his newly acquired levitation skills with an apple from his plate on the ground. Kathryn watched as he lifted the apple to his mouth and took a bite, a blissful look on his face.
For some inexplicable reason, her eyes continued to watch the crowd; almost like she was suspecting something to happen. Her instincts were on heightened alert and she could not explain why.
At first, journal, I thought it was because of my extreme dislike for the obvious ‘magical’ abilities of the unicorns but I had this overall feeling that something was just.... I don’t know; something felt “off” to me and I could not shake it. It was not like ponies were staring at me or anything... most ponies’ attention was on Eddie, as since this was HIS party and all. Word had spread quickly that I was not sticking around but was to keep going east. I did, however, have a few approach me and thank me for bringing Eddie along with me and asking me to pass along the word of Farmville to any others I might find along my way.
But no matter what I tried, I could not break that feeling... until it was finally my turn at the grill....
Kathryn stood at the front of the BBQ line and had just asked that all the carrots and the corn be grilled, about to take a bite out of her first apple when she was hit with a wave of nausea. She managed to suppress it with a tiny grunt and turned her entire focus to the pool.
Her eyes locked onto a very small unicorn colt wearing an over-sized life vest, just about to jump off the diving board. The pool in that spot was easily 9 meters deep; acceptable for a human child but not for a fully grown pony and certainly not for a small colt!
Kathryn’s senses ignored everything else around her as she watched the colt bounce twice before jumping into the pool. She watched in slight horror as the vest slipped off the colt just as he hit the water. She could even see the look on his face when he realized the same thing.
Without a second thought, Kathryn left her plate, dropped her apple, and ran for the pool. She had already reached the edge before others had realized what had happened; the life vest now floated, empty, aimlessly on the surface where the colt had disappeared.
Kathryn leaped into the air; her magic taking over long before she ever touched the water. Her instincts took over and zoned in on the colt that was now sinking deeper, struggling to swim with tiny legs. Her tail fully formed even before touching the surface, Kathryn did not take any last breath.... she did not need to as she began to breathe underwater.
Two powerful kicks with her tail, she reached the struggling colt. She quickly locked her lips on his and breathed out into his mouth. He nearly freaked out but she grabbed him and looked into his eyes. *Calm down, little one. I got you but you need to calm down. I'm gonna help,* she said underwater without knowing she could do it.
Instantly, the colt calmed right down and nodded. She grabbed him under his front legs from behind and she swept her tail in smooth, even strokes to bring him to the surface.
When they broke, both took a huge gulp of fresh air before swimming to the side. As soon as Kathryn boosted the colt up onto the deck, her magic took over and turned her back into land pony even before she climbed out of the water. She quickly spat the last of the water from her lungs well past the colt and sat down with him, to make sure he was ok. When his senses returned to him, he sprang up and hugged her. “You’re my hero!” he cried in a voice only a child saved from certain death could use.
The sound of silence greeted Kathryn in the moments after the colt’s proclamation. Then a small sound began somewhere and like a wave, it got bigger and bigger until she realized that every pony around her who were standing, stomping their hooves on the patio or clapping with hooves if they were sitting. A young unicorn couple ran from Eddie’s group and grabbed the colt in a family hug. “You saved our son, miss,” said the mare in between the tears that ran down her face. “That. Was. Aaaaaamazing!!” screamed another voice, followed by a splash.
Kathryn found herself knocked over and embraced by Sarah. “Oh my gosh! That was incredible Kathryn!! How did you know? How did you do all of that?” Sarah asked breathlessly.
Kathryn’s instincts finally shut off and her brain quickly got itself caught up on events. She was shocked that she had reacted like she had and on instincts alone. “I.... I don’t actually know how I did that... I just knew that something bad was happening. I zoned in on it and I guess... my magic took over,” she said stammering slightly.
She suddenly turned back to Sarah. “I transformed out of water! How the heck did I do that??” she exclaimed, jumping to her hooves. Her thoughts rolled around in her head for a moment, trying to remember every little detail as she paced. Then she turned to look back at her flank mark; a few seconds later, she made her tail appear & disappear at will.
Then the thought hit her like two ton of bricks. “Land-to-Underwater-to-Land pony rescue!” When she said it, her flank mark glowed gently in the shape of the mark, flashed to the merpony coloration and back, but nothing more.
Kathryn suddenly turned to Sarah. “That’s what my mark means! This is who and what I am. I am a rescue pony! Like... like that prince from England... what’s his name? Harry? He is... or was... a helicopter pilot who would fly and rescue people right? Well, I'm one of those who would be dropped from the ‘copter into the water and prepare the people for being hoisted up! Except that we don’t have ‘copters anymore, I guess a pegasus could carry me and fly me out to the ship’s wreckage or the life boat; I could transform myself, and then swim the life boat to safety!” Kathryn’s mark continued to lightly glow as she eagerly talked through her explanation.
When Sarah’s mind finally caught on to what Kathryn was saying, she simply hugged the pony again. As they split, Sarah looked Kathryn in the eyes. “I’d be honored to joining you to the ocean, Kathryn. I feel that your talents would best be served there.”
Kathryn squeed with delight and hugged Sarah again.
Then Eddie’s voice broke the silence as he ran to Kathryn. “Is this a party or is this a PAR-TAY???” The music started blaring again as every pony cheered, clustering around the two merponies and the saved colt, who was still being hugged by what appeared to be his adoptive parents.
Another pony had come forward, offering to modify all of the life vests so they would better fit the fillies and colts so that future accidents would not happen again, asking the colt to be a model for her. The colt gladly agreed, with permission from his parents.
Kathryn turned to Eddie. “I'm so sorry for not telling you the truth from the start, Eddie. Can you forgive me?” she asked. Eddie’s horn lit up – and this time Kathryn did not flinch – and a white lily floated from the nearby table and gently placed itself in the crook of Kathryn’s exposed ear. “You have nothing to apologize for, Kathy. I over-reacted,” he said gently before giving her another hug.
When they both reached the grill, Kathryn’s original plate had been left to the side; both carrots & corn burnt to a crisp in the excitement but a fresh plate had been prepared for her. The pony on the grill blushed as he passed her the plate; Kathryn and Eddie simply laughed.
The rest of the party went on well into the evening. The young colt she had rescued, who's name turned out to be David, returned with a small group of other fillies & colts, carrying a woven flower wreath to place on Kathryn’s head. The flowers were clearly silk-fakes, probably acquired from a dollar store & some specialty stores, like Michael’s or some such USA equivalent. Surprisingly, they were all water plants: lotus, kelp, seaweed, coral, papyrus, water clover & hyacinth, and even a tiny toonie-sized sand dollar & star fish!
Kathryn found it really sweet and so she accepted it as graciously as possible. Eddie & Sarah, who were sitting with her in a cabana at the time, gave a few “D’awww’s” that set Kathryn blushing.
A few hours later, as exhaustion began to settle on Kathryn, she excused herself to head to bed. “Tomorrow, we’ll figure out a wheeled set up for you, Sarah, and then we’ll hit the road,” Kathryn said as she downed the last of her apple juice. “I’ll come around the RV after I help with the clean up,” Eddie said as he dumped the paper plates & cups into a trash bag, to be taken to the town’s incinerator later on. Kathryn let out a long yawn as she walked for the RV in another parking lot, making a mental note to move it all to the community center first thing in the morning.
She wasn’t long in going when she realized that Raea was walking with her, carrying a t-bone in her mouth. Kathryn, too tired, could only chuckle again.
Getting back to the RV, she barely had the energy to write again in her journal but she felt the extreme need to get this all down.
Journal... I am a rescue pony. Sure, I dabbled as a lifeguard as a teenager for summer holidays and I loved watching the water rescues on TV but I never expected this all to happen. Now, in this new world we ponies are to carve out of it, my place really IS the ocean, where my abilities can do the most of good... especially if ponies start to appear while out at sea on abandoned & lifeless ships!
June 8th, 2015 @ 5:30 pm, still at Farmville but now parked at community center
Dear Journal,
Today was fairly productive, if I do say so myself. *smug*
I moved the truck rig to the community center parking lot first thing. Eddie had picked out an apartment for himself in the downtown core so he pulled out his wagon, harness and all of his personal belongings from the RV.
Of course, I let him keep the bed sheets he had been using as an impromptu house-warming gift. Also gave him a case of water and a food cooler of mixed produce, plus a bag of cereals, crackers and a jar of peanut butter. “Just to get you on your hooves in a new place,” I had said to him with a hug. He thanked me for the stuff and for bringing him here.
Later on, Joe brought the small bike wheels, smaller training wheels and PVC pipes, corners & cement I had asked for earlier in the day. I had explained to them how I knew some people who built wheel chairs for dogs and cats that have lost the use of their front or back legs. I was going to use the same styles for Sarah’s set of wheels, just on a slightly bigger scale as the largest set of wheels I had seen was for a German Sheppard.
Using a chair to hold her tail up, I had Sarah stand so I could take measurements and figure out where to put the wheels and the back piece that would hold up her tail. Once I got the sizes, I figured out where I wanted to hang the canvas pieces that would support the weight of the tail in two places; cutting out all of the PVC and the canvas, I had to get someone else to sew the hems & install the grommets for the super strong rope weaving, taking a leaf out of the pioneer books I used to read (Little House on the Prairie; beds used to be made by weaving rope under the mattresses for support). Both canvas support platforms were made the same way while I figured out how to attach the wheels so they were easy to replace if necessary. Eddie figured out how to rig the training wheels so they would swivel with Sarah as she walked. And then Amy provided us with some colorfully bright reflective belts for the waist and tail straps with easy to pull safety releases.
Took us a few hours but it was pretty amazing when it was done. A rather large group had gathered in the community center parking lot when word spread that Sarah was ready to try out her new wheels. Except for a bit of chafing on the cross pieces (easily solved by padded canvas taped in place) the wheels worked perfectly! Sarah’s face lit up with joy as she trotted around the parking lot, followed by Amy for safety....
The crowd had cheered and Joe had high-hoofed Kathryn. “Are you sure we can’t convince you to say?” he asked a little wistfully. She merely shook her head. “The whole reason for Sarah’s wheels is so that she can come with me to the ocean,” Kathryn replied.
Suddenly, Sarah made a bee-line for Kathryn and hugged her so tightly, she almost could not breathe. “Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Kathy!! I can’t thank you enough!” she squeed and the audience “D’awww’ed”.
They all ate a simple lunch of PB & J sandwiches and fresh milk at the former church that was now being used as city hall for Farmville. Now that she had wheels, Sarah wanted to USE them! A tour for Sarah around the town, including her former home so she could collect anything else she wanted to take with her, followed.
As they passed by a rural ambulance building, Kathryn walked in curiously. There, in the bay stood a beautiful diesel-powered rescue ambulance, fully stocked for any medical emergency (albeit, human). She already knew that the local hospital was being modified for ponies and this vehicle might be useful.... especially if the ponies of Farmville drove it through nearby towns with the lights & sirens turned on.
Her ears twitched as she heard the garage door opening and saw that Joe had opened it to let the others inside. Kathryn turned to Joe. “What do you think? Put her back in action... could be quite useful,” she said, gesturing towards it.
Joe thought about it for a moment and came to the same ideas as Kathryn. His face lit up and he nodded. “Yes indeed... I think we can make this useful again.”
And that, Journal, is how the rescue team was created! Joe had the ambulance up and running in no time. We all pitched in and got her cleaned up; oil change, washer fluid, new hydraulic fluids, new battery.... the works and then Joe & Raea climbed in as the rest of us marched along side as we escorted it to the hospital’s empty ambulance bay. Many ponies had stopped and cheered us on, almost like a parade! LOL Amy and the medic team at the hospital were enthusiastic at the prospect.
Turns out, Eddie was not just a dam manager but he was a paramedic student at the time of the event so he was immediately taken on by the doctor, nurse & EMT they already had. Eddie can’t drive worth a damn so Joe has offered to teach him. “Well, that’s my next 50 years accounted for... so long as I don’t crash the ambulance,” Eddie joked and everypony laughed with him.
By the time that all of this had happened, it was getting late so Sarah & I decided to stay one more night before heading east. I had let Amy go through all of my produce, deciding what was still good to take, to eat that night and what was only good for a composter. The five watermelons & three cantaloupes I had in one cooler weren’t going to last much longer so we all dug in with spoons and just shared.
And before I forgot, I made sure to set up one of my spare ham radios, a walkie talkie & a satellite phone for Farmville in the old church so we could stay in touch for as long as possible.... let them know if we found any ponies on our way, heading east.
June 9th, 2015 @ 10:30 am, leaving Farmville ~written by Sarah
Dear Journal,
Kathryn said it was ok for me to write in this file so here I go!
My name is Sarah, and I'm a unicorn merpony.... but I'm sure Kathy has already written all about that by now.
It feels really weird to be leaving my home town. Oh, sure I've traveled from time to time but this time, I'm not coming back. Kathy helped me to feel better by leaving notes for my dad if he ever returned. Mom’s been dead a couple of years now and I don’t expect this thing to have brought her back too. I did make sure to leave some flowers at her grave before we left though. The wheels that Kathy made for me are really great!
Before we left, the group of town fillies and colts, including little David from the party the other night, gave us a pair of big signs to hang on the sides of the RV. The signs are huge enough to stretch the whole length and it reads “Ocean Express” on each piece. Clearly the big words were done by adults but the hoof-drawings of the sun, clouds, houses, ponies, merponies and waves were done by the children.
When Kathy got up and asked what this was all about, Amy stepped forward. “It’s your call sign on the radio, silly! We will simply be ‘Farmville’ but you guys needed a cool moniker so the children came up with ‘Ocean Express’ to help you attract more merponies,” she explained.
Kathy could not hold back any longer at that point. She burst out laughing; so much so, tears rolled down her face.
When she finally got her composure, she knelt down to the fillies & colts and hugged them all. “I absolutely love it, you guys. Thank you so very much!”
The kids all laughed and cheered as Eddie used his newly found & practiced levitation skills to set the banners up on the RV’s sides.
Suddenly Kathy stopped and looked up to Amy. “So if the town is ‘Farmville’ and my truck is ‘Ocean Express’, what is the ambulance going to be?” Silence reigned in the moment the ponies recognized the question.
Of course, it was little David who spoke up first. “It’s a rescue ambulance, right? So why not ‘Rescue 1’?” I had watched Kathy blink twice before her face lit up in a smile. She scooped up the colt like only a super strong earth pony could and spun him around. He laughed in delight as others smiled & nodded agreement. “You are such a brilliant child, David! I knew there was a reason why I rescued you,” Kathy joked before setting him down.
I watched astonished as she pulled the silk-flower wreath out of her mane and placed it on her head. When she saw my look, she simply shrugged. “Something I picked up from Amy,” she said as the fillies & colts all giggled in delight.
The children gave us one last big hug before we walked to our sides of the truck. Eddie had gently lifted me into the passenger seat & carefully tucked my wheels into a spot; perfectly tetris-ed so that it would not get damaged, while Kathy got into driver and flipped on the radio. “Testing, testing. Please come in Farmville. This is Ocean Express. Over.” We could all hear the hoof-held radio that Amy had worn on a work belt and made her spook. Everypony laughed at her embarrassment as she answered. “Ocean Express, this is Farmville. You are clear to launch. Over and out.”
Eddie exploded in laughter as Kathy rolled her eyes and shut her door; his laughter becoming a little infectious. Revving the engine, ponies all moved out of the way, waving good-bye to us as she slowly pulled out of the parking lot and sped up as we rejoined the Interstate 90.
I feel excited to see how the world has changed with humans as ponies... even if some of us ponies are meant for the ocean. :P ~Sarah
The monotony of the empty highway was starting to rub Kathryn the wrong way. Sarah had already curled up with Raea on the seat & fell asleep some time ago. Despite the sleeping in, Kathryn felt like she was going to nod off on the road.
The irony was... they had just passed a sign that read “Fatigue kills; pull over if tired.”
Neither of that was required because just as they were crossing over a river’s bridge, a large shape jumped the guard rail on the far side and started waving down the truck.
Kathryn snapped awake as she saw it was a zebra pony, frantically waving for help and clearly sodden wet. “Wake up!” she screamed to her passengers as she hit the brakes slowly and brought the thing to a stop on the shoulder, the back trailer just in line with the new pony.
Kathryn practically bucked the door open as she bolted for the guard rail, Raea on her heels. Sarah could not help much as she propped herself up on the open window frame. “What’s going on?” she demanded groggily but Kathryn ignored her.
The zebra ran to meet Kathryn at the back of the trailer and lead her over the railing. “OH thank God you stopped! Please help me! We were driving the back roads, trying to find others like us but the rigging we used on the car came apart and we crashed. My friend is still trapped inside!” cried the zebra; clearly a male & newly returned judging by the over-sized clothes he still wore. “I don’t think she can swim either,” he added uncertainly.
They dashed through the broken underbrush and found the tire tracks going down the embankment and into the river. Kathryn could barely see the back window anymore but she recognized the car as a Prius. “Who the buck drives a Prius off roading??” she exclaimed in his face.
Without a second thought, Kathryn took control of her magic and leaped into the river next to the car, transforming herself in an instant. Raea had the common sense to stay on the shore with the pony, as she’d only get in her friend’s way. Instead, she placed her paw on the pony’s arm in a calming pony-like gesture. Strangely enough, it did calm him a little.
Kathryn swam in the cold, murky water, trying to find the car. Thankfully, it was white and so it stood out like a sore thumb. She managed to get to the front door and popped the handle easily. Frustratingly, the female was not the passenger; she was the driver. *He could have told me that and saved me time,* she muttered out loud as she kicked for the other side and popped the driver side. The female was an Earth pony and she was unconscious. Kathryn yanked the seat belt loose and dragged her clear of the car. Kathryn knew from her life-guarding that breathing in now would only make things worse so she simply grabbed her from behind, like the colt in the pool, and swam her to the shore. The zebra helped to drag her onto the bank; Kathryn didn’t even bother to change back as she dragged herself up to the female and began CPR.
A moment or two later, the earth pony spat out a good mouthful of water and started hacking. “OH thanks be to God, Sherry! You’re ok!” the male began to litany over and over.
“Spencer, calm the fuck down!” the earth pony managed to cough out. The zebra called Spencer immediately stopped and sat on his haunches. It was only then that Kathryn noticed that Spencer wore a wooden beaded cross around his neck while Sherry had some kind of wine glass on her flank but Spencer’s stripes were too confusing to tell if he had a mark. By then, she also realized that she had not changed back to land pony & worked at remedying that. When Kathryn saw their looks of surprise, she simply shrugged. “It’s my gift,” she said and that seemed to satisfy them.
Together, Kathryn & Spencer got Sherry up on her hooves and back to the pickup truck where Sarah had managed to get her wheels out of the back and herself strapped in. Kathryn forestalled their questions before they could ask. “That’s Sarah; she can’t turn like me,” she said in a monotone that stopped the other two from speaking & they both nodded instead.
Sarah had set up the spare cot bed from the RV and had Sherry lay on it and wrap her in a blanket while Kathryn checked her vitals. When Kathryn seemed satisfied, she went to the truck’s cab and grabbed the radio mouth piece.
“Farmville, come in Farmville. This is Ocean Express. Please come in Farmville. Over.” She spoke calmly and clearly enough to hide the adrenaline rush that she felt.
The radio static reigned for a moment before she heard Amy’s voice on the other end.
“Ocean Express, this is Farmville. We hear you loud and clear. How’s the road trip so far? Over.”
Kathryn shook her head, not realizing that it was pointless to anyone on the other end.
“Farmville, this is a 911! We found a car of two ponies crashed into a river. Both are rescued and safe but the car is a lost cause. They need transport back to you. We are at Flint Creek (1) on the 90. We will wait for you. Over.”
Kathryn caught the tail end of a string of curses before Amy’s voice came back on. “Yes, Ocean Express. We have rescue ambulance standing by. Joe and Eddie are on their way. Radio back when they arrive. Over.”
She let out a big sigh of relief. She KNEW helping them get that vehicle up and running was a good idea.
“Thank you Farmville. We await Rescue 1’s arrival. Over and out.” She let the radio piece drop on its cord before hurrying back to the cot, where Sherry still recovered.
Kathryn made eye contact with Sarah. “Rescue 1 is on the way. We wait here for their arrival,” she said. Sarah nodded seriously as she gave Sherry some arrowroot biscuits. “We might as well break out a lunch for all of us then,” Kathryn added as she went to the RV.
They ate a simple salad of lettuce, carrots, celery, diced tomatoes, and radishes with a light oil dressing along side of some cucumber sandwiches, washed down with more of Amy’s fresh squeezed apple juice.
Spencer offered to help Sarah with the dishes while Kathryn had Sherry lay back down so she could do a secondary check. Spencer & Sarah exchanged their experiences about the odd-pony-out while Sherry rested and Kathryn wrote in her journal.
My flank mark ability came into play again... I saved an earth pony from drowning in a river when her Prius went into it. Her traveling companion was a zebra! Honest to goodness ZEBRA!! If that just don’t beat all...
He’s talking with Sarah about her experiences of being the odd-pony-out while Sherry's resting. We’re waiting for Rescue 1 to arrive from Farmville so the new ponies can find help there... I still can't help thinking of little David every time I say or hear 'Rescue 1'. LOL
A couple hours later, Rescue 1 drove up blaring the sirens and lights flashing despite their lack of need. Kathryn simply smirked at Eddie’s excited expression as he jumped down from the passenger seat. Sarah came forward and gave Joe a hoof bump before turning their attention to Spencer & Sherry, whom Kathryn introduced.
“I'm sure Kathryn & Sarah want to get back on the road so why don’t we load up you folks in Rescue 1 and we'll get you back to Farmville,” Joe suggested after Kathryn eyed him and then the position of the sun.
“Everything we had is now at the bottom of the river so yeah, I guess we’re ready to go,” said Sherry. “Let’s just thank the Lord that we’re both still here,” said Spencer as he helped Sherry to her hooves and slowly walked her to the vehicle. Joe raised an eyebrow to Kathryn, who shrugged. “He’s one of those religious nuts... keep an eye on him and don’t show him the church unless you’re prepared to watch him faint.”
Joe simply nodded and followed the pair.
Eddie approached Kathryn. “Fancy seeing you again so soon,” he joked. Kathryn, being slightly taller, grabbed the unicorn and gave him a noogie. “Get going you... or you’ll be walking back,” she said, pointing to the ambulance as Joe turned the vehicle around. Eddie gave one final solute before racing off to jump into the back open door. He gave one final wave as Joe revved the engine and took off.
Kathryn & Sarah returned the wave and Raea chased the ambulance for a short distance, barking happily.
Back on the road after that bout of excitement, Kathryn felt really good at the rescue. Sarah poked her in the flank and pointed to the mark that had glowed a little at her thoughts. They simply shared a smile as the truck gathered up speed, leaving the poor Prius roof-deep in the water ( and good riddance! wrote Kathryn later in her journal).
Later that night, they arrived at the Holiday Inn, Syracuse-Liverpool-Exit 37. They went inside, the doors already broken, and Kathryn bucked open the first doors she came to on the main level, looking for rooms (as the elevators no longer worked for Sarah’s wheels to go up to the penthouse). Kathryn made sure that one of the rooms was wheelchair accessible for Sarah while her’s was just a normal single (KING sized bed) suite. Using the genny, they got the indoor pool filters & water running again and so they took the opportunity to have a relaxing swim after washing off the sweat & grime from the traveling in a shower. They thoroughly enjoyed having the pool to themselves!
They found the kitchen area spotless despite being such a while since the event. Kathryn was shocked to find that the deep fryer oil had not spoiled inside the fryer. It was too far gone for her to use in as bio-fuel but it was still ok enough to empty out the fryer and refill with fresh oil. That night, they were treated to huge plates-full of deep fried French fries, slathered in ketchup, for the first time in a long while!
Kathryn re-rigged the genny to run a few lights in each of their rooms and the neon sign out front, in case any ponies were in the area, before taking time to write in her journal and going to bed. (2)
June 10th, 2015 @ 9:45 AM – still at Holiday Inn, Syracuse-Liverpool-Exit 37
Dear Journal,
Sarah is still sleeping in her huge, Queen sized bed of the wheelchair room down the hall. I could not sleep this morning. I kept having strange dreams.
I am on a pristine beach, somewhere on Earth, in my merpony form. I can feel the ocean breeze coming in off the water and it blows my mane back, out of my face. My eyes glitter as the sun AND moon reflect off the water’s surface.
I look over and realize I am not alone. I see another pony approach me. I know it’s a she but she is not like I've ever seen! She’s really tall, for one. She is a dark navy blue, almost black; her mane and tail seem to flow on their own; she sports both horn AND wings but not at all like those bug ponies back in Farmville and she has a crescent moon for a flank mark.
She approaches me; I try to transform but cannot for some reason. She merely waves her hoof and she kneels down to my level. “My name is Princess Luna,” she says after a moment. “T’was my world who saved thee.”
I wanted to speak; demand answers but my mouth would not work properly. Instead, I cocked my head in a questioning gaze that I had seen Raea do on occasion. That seemed to work as she chuckled and lit up her horn. The magic touched my mouth and I could speak again, but I still said nothing.
“I hath come by because I wanted to tell thee how proud we are of thee, little pony.” She tapped her hoof to the flank mark, which glowed slightly under her touch. “Thou art doing exactly what thy cutie mark says thee should be doing. But just don’t forget thy other skills. Urban planning might become useful again someday,” she chuckled.
I looked up to her confused after looking at the mark. “Cutie mark?” I asked. She nodded very seriously. “That is what they are called. They represent a pony’s special talent. Thou hast clearly already learned what thy mark means; only a matter of time before thy companion learns her’s.”
Princess Luna stood up, dusted the sand off of her legs and started to fly away. “But wait!” I cried. “I have more questions!”
“Thou shalt have all of thy answers in due time,” came the reply before a bank of fog rolled in off the water and the dream ended.
Sarah will probably read this at some point... not sure what she’ll say about it. But at least now we have a proper name for the flank marks, instead of ‘butt tattoo’. “Cutie mark”.... hmm... it’ll take some time to get used to. -Kathryn
P.S. I don't mind Sarah calling me 'Kathy' in these journals but when she refers to me like that out loud, she makes it sound like a pet name... or maybe that's just me.
Suddenly, a scream burst forth from the next room, jarring Kathryn out of her musings. Raea bolted from the bed and ran for Sarah’s room, Kathryn hot on her heels.
They opened the door to find Sarah sweating bullets, eyes shrunk to pinpricks and panting heavily.
Took Kathryn nearly an hour to calm the pony down long enough to get her into the shower & cool her off. After a quick breakfast of apples and strawberries, Kathryn suggested that they get back on the road and that Sarah write down her experience in the journal. “We might as well share the journal, after all. If we want to document what is happening, the more writing in it, the more detailed it will become. And besides.... I've always found that writing down a bad dream made it less scary,” she had said as she led Sarah to the truck outside.
Sarah had only nodded, numbly as she was lifted into the truck. Raea sensed Sarah’s distress and immediately curled up with her while Kathryn disconnected the genny and packed up all of the cords.
June 10th, 2015 @ 11:15 AM – Interstate 90, passing through Syracuse ~written by Sarah
Dear Journal,
Yeah, I'm back... and yeah, I read the previous entry. (I think 'Kathy' is just a sweet nickname so I'm going to keep using it.) It sure was the better dream of the two of us last night. Sure, I saw this Princess Luna too but not in a good dream like Kathy’s; Luna had to save me from a nightmare! It was awful. :(
I am in the ocean, fairly deep underwater, surrounded by darkness. I lit up my horn, which while underwater, gave off a stronger glow that it would have been on land. Despite being brighter, it was still not bright enough to light everything.
Strange shapes began to merge out of the murk.... large dark shapes with big, hungry eyes and huge serrated teeth!
They were sharks.
I had never seen a real shark but enough pictures to know.
These were sharks from all over the world... tiger sharks, lemon sharks, hammer-head sharks, great white sharks and even some very hungry looking orca whales!
They kept trying to bite me... some grazed by me but a few bit down on my flukes and dragged me along for a distance, causing blood to flow from the bite marks. At some point, my mane braid had been bitten completely off!
That’s when I realized how hungry these sharks had become.
I had to get away.
I had to get on land.
I had to beach myself.
That thought alone made a shiver go down my spine.
I tried to swim away but the blood trail allowed them to follow me no matter where I went. I tried to swim straight up for the surface but no matter how hard or how fast I went up, I could not make any progress in any direction.
I was getting exhausted, from the exertion and from the blood-loss.
Just as I was just about to give up, a bright white light emerged in front of me and Princess Luna, just as Kathy described, appeared in a menacing stance. Thankfully, she was facing the sharks & monsters, chasing them away with the bright light of her magic. It also enveloped me, healing all of the cuts & restoring my mane. She then created a sphere of shielding magic; I could still see the sharks circling but they could not reach us anymore.
“What fears thee, little pony?” she asked me. I answered immediately.
“The ocean itself,” I said in a small voice. She looked at me shrewdly.
“Have thee not learned what thy cutie mark means yet?” she asked, pointing a hoof at the snail shell.
I shook my head slowly in the water. “I only woke up with it like that,” I said.
She looked at me shrewdly again, before nodding and lighting her horn to wake me.
Hang on, I’ll be right back. Kathy found a highway truck stop and wants to get diesel while we can and she wants me & Raea to check the restaurant and gift shop.
------------- --------------- --------------
Ok, I'm back. I didn’t find much useful in the gift shop, besides a few water bottles, unopened packages of travel mix and a USA flag to fly along side of the Canadian one Kathy had on the back of the RV.
So yeah, that dream was awful! Mainly because it did hit home a little for me as I have feared the ocean since I woke up that fateful day as a merpony.
But I've had no delusions about living out my days in a chlorinated swimming pool. I've known for a while that I belonged in the ocean. Kathy’s arrival merely sped up the process, not that I regret coming with her... not at all! I'm just not sure when I would have gone had I had to go on my own.
I'm just so glad that this Princess Luna was there to chase the nightmare away. But something tells me she won’t always be there and so I have to face my fears at some point.
The kilometers (miles) flew by as Kathryn took the truck easily up to 140 on the straight stretches, letting the scenic views pass. She did slow down, checking the radio and blasting the horn when they reached the sections where cities where located... Canastota, Oneida, Verona, Westmoreland, Whitesbro, and even the larger Utica came up empty as they continued down the Interstate 90.
The highway changes at Utica were insane, even by most USA standards but thanks to the truck’s GPS still working, Kathryn managed it easily. She kept the truck slower leaving Utica, still blasting the horn and checking the radio in case the ponies in the area chose a more rural location to set up shop but still only static on the radio & no ponies jumped the guardrails to flag down the truck.
As the I-90 started to dip southwards, Kathryn took the truck back up to easy 120 and silence reigned once more, only broken by Raea’s occasional yawn or the slight constant crackle of the radio’s static.
At a place called Herkimer, NY, Kathryn took the truck off the I-90 and to a nearby Wal-mart super center, not that far from the interstate.
She had intended to scavenge from the Wal-mart only to discover a single pony had already set up shop! He was a dark brown Earth pony, blonde colored mane & tail, “cutie mark” of a pitchfork over a shield. He introduced himself as “Rob Cooke”. He had already moved stuff around inside the Wal-mart to create a kind of “house within a building” which included walls, furniture and a bed piled with every stuffed toy he could find.
He claimed that he was not lonely, despite being the only one there. “’S’only a matter of time before other’s start showin’ up. Figured Ah’d get a head start at rebuilding this here town from here,” he said, before taking them to the baseball diamonds out back and showed them the farmers’ fields he had plowed AND the corn that was already fully grown. He reached up on hind legs, grabbed three cobs from the stalk and placed them on the sides of Sarah’s tail in the wheel’s rack before turning back to the building.
Kathryn & Sarah exchanged glances but followed him back inside. Once in the kitchen, Rob took the cobs from Sarah’s wheels, stripped the husks and dropped them in boiling pot on a camping stove run on propane.
Sarah seemed interested but Kathryn became antsy. “Mind if I look around, see if I can find something useful?” she asked, gesturing around her. Rob looked at her with an uninterested expression.
“Sure, why not? Go ahead,” he said dully, as he turned back to the pot.
Kathryn wandered off around the store. She found a couple of spare tablet batteries, more replacement wheels for Sarah’s rig and some new shoes that stretched over her hooves (grabbing every pair she could get). She also found a crossbow, setting up a similar rig to her own for Rob to have, just in case. He was delighted with the idea of having a proper weapon as he had gestured to a crudely made spear.
Kathryn & Sarah shivered when they realized it was covered in blood and Raea growled. But Rob was quick to set their minds at ease. “Ah only killed in self-defense,” he said "And so far Ah've been lucky... it was only a coyote, that one time."
“I remember seeing a dollar store on our way in. I think I’ll go check that out too,” Kathryn said as she slung her own crossbow over a shoulder. “OK. I’ll stay here with Rob and help with the food. Channel 2 on the walkie; take Raea with you, just in case,” Sarah said. Kathryn smiled cheekily. “Yes, mother,” she said, giggling. Sarah gave a snort of a laugh as Kathryn turned on her walkie attached to a belt and clicked her tongue; that brought Raea up to her.
Over the previous day, Kathryn had started to train Raea in a few simple commands. The tongue click was a signal for Raea to follow; a little gentle blow to the face was to lie down; Kathryn’s clenched teeth were the cue to bark menacingly. Being a pony with no fingers for sign-language signs, she had to find other alternatives.
She had also begun to train Raea as a kind of therapy dog... a kind, gentle presence for a freaking out pony. Kathryn had seen how Raea had helped Spencer back at the river and knew the dog had instincts to be friendly. She thought that perhaps it could be useful.
The two of them crossed the parking lot and found the dollar store easily; it looked just like the ones back in Brantford.
The door had already been kicked in, most likely by Rob, and the water had been removed. The rubber soles of her new shoes hardly made a sound on the tiles of the store as she walked down the aisles, checking to see if there was anything they needed. She really didn’t find much except for a mermaid doll for Sarah as a surprise and a new tennis ball throwing stick for Raea.
They continued down the street to a second-hand store that was not already broken into. Inside Kathryn found more blankets, bed sheets, towels and pillows but not much else that would be useful. She did find a really pretty pearl necklace in a jewelry display case that would look perfect on Sarah; bucking the glass was too easy and thanks to the power gone out, no alarms went off. She also found an alternating cream/blue-smaller-pearls’ necklace that matched her colors nicely. Kathryn managed to hold the necklace in her mouth, flip it up and catch it on her head, using a hoof to bring it down to her neck. The string turned out to be elastic and so very easy to put on & take off if needed.
Suddenly, the air pressure increased and a buzzing started in Kathryn’s ears. She felt like she was being pressed down into the earth and her ears flatten back as she knelt down; Raea whimpered and crawled on her belly to her friend.
A bright flash of white light blasted from the McDonald's across the street and the pressure disappeared just as quickly as it came. A look of understanding passed between Kathryn & Raea before they bolted out the door and for the restaurant across the way, forgetting all about the spoils they had found.
The front door was surprisingly unlocked... until Kathryn remembered that most McD’s were 24 hour businesses. Somehow she just KNEW that a pony had just returned; either a customer or employee.
Kathryn slowly crept into the main dining area of the restaurant, blessing her forethought of the rubber soled shoes to keep her hooves quiet. Raea did not need her signal to stay quiet or low as they half-crawled forwards and crouched behind a dividing wall.
They could just barely make out a groaning noise from behind the front counter. “An employee,” Kathryn whispered.
As the pony came to, they heard a scream followed by muttering and whimpering. “OK, so they just opened their eyes... seen what they’ve become,” she whispered again.
When the whimpering turned to crying, Kathryn nudged Raea on her back, giving the cue to go find the sound. Raea stopped when she came to the back side of the counter but could still see Kathryn for instructions. Kathryn heard a gasp as the pony realized she was not alone.
“Oh, hello there puppy,” said the clearly feminine voice. “Where did you come from? Do you know what’s going on?” she asked. Kathryn could imagine the pony rolling her eyes. “No, of course you don’t. Why did I even bother asking?” muttered the voice.
Kathryn heard the recognizable sound of all four hooves touching tiles as the pony tried to get up on her feet, so to speak. She heard a slight grunt and a “whoa!” as the pony gained her hooves before a screeching of hooves on tile and a thump told her that the pony could not stay upright. She must have looked at Raea at the right time because the dog had looked to Kathryn & barked, essentially asking for instructions.
“Is somebody else out there?” asked the shaking voice. Kathryn took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
“Yes, I am here and I can help you but you can’t freak out ok? I'm pretty sure that there are no mirrors back there and so you can’t see yourself completely yet so you can’t freak when I come back there, ok?” Kathryn said as she kicked off her shoes and slowly clip-clopped to where Raea was sitting on her haunches.
Kathryn slouched over, to keep her body size as small as possible as she rounded the corner of the counter. The first thing she noticed was the bright blue body, white/yellow long dreads gathered together for mane & tail, the huge terrified orange eyes and the over-sized McD’s uniform t-shirt that still hung from her body; the visor and pants were in a pile on the floor, likely from her unsuccessful attempt at getting up.
The pony’s eyes went to pinpricks in surprise when Kathryn stood to her full height and her lip quivered but Kathryn tapped Raea’s side, giving her the signal to approach & calm. Raea crawled on her belly up to the new pony, whimpered gently and licked a hoof, which startled the pony but certainly calmed her down.
When the pony stopped quivering, Raea stood up and licked the pony’s face of her tears. That elicited the first giggles from her that Kathryn had heard. Once the pony was calm enough, Kathryn approached.
“What’s your name?” Kathryn asked. The pony snuffled and rubbed her face with her knee. “Marjorie,” she replied. Kathryn smiled and nodded.
“Marjorie, I know that this is going to be scary and a little unbelievable but you have to believe me. Something happened to the Earth last month that made most of humans disappear and the rest of us look like we do now. We still don’t know what for sure but it happened May 23rd; today is June 10th. Somehow, you were brought forward in time and returned to where you where just when the Event happened. This is how we are now and there’s very little chance of going back,” Kathryn said as she knelt down in front of Marjorie. The pony simply nodded dumbly and dropped her gaze. Raea continued to feel Marjorie’s stress and whimpered some more, rubbing her head on Marjorie’s shoulder.
Kathryn got to her hooves and gestured for Marjorie to do the same. Marjorie tried to stand, hesitantly but got caught up in her shirt. Kathryn moved over and pulled it off the pony to reveal a pair of feather wings instinctively trying to open for balance.
Kathryn looked in Marjorie’s eyes and chuckled. “You, my lucky girl, got something I don’t have,” she said and pointed. Marjorie looked back, saw the wings and eepp’ed. “Those make you a pegasus,” Kathryn added.
Finally being able to stand, Marjorie watched as she closed, opened fully and then closed again her wings. “Can... can I fly?” she asked in a tiny voice. Kathryn nodded. “Yeah; eventually. It’ll take some work on your part but you could be soaring like the birds,” Kathryn said, gesturing her hoof towards the open area of the dining section for Marjorie to try walking.
A few stumbles and only one trip, Marjorie got the hang of walking on four legs. Each time she stumbled, her wings would pop open, of their own accord, to regain her balance. Kathryn noticed but said nothing about Marjorie’s lack of a cutie mark; nor did she say anything about her’s. Eventually, Marjorie gained enough confidence to go outside.
Kathryn led her back to the second-hand shop to grab her bundle of spoils before walking together back to Wal-mart. “There’s another pony that’s set up shop there and I'm sure you can stay with him. I, Raea & my other companion are traveling east,” Kathryn said conversationally. Marjorie only nodded.
Trying to break the silence, Kathryn told Marjorie all about the different kinds of 'ponies' the whole world now had... mainly based on what she had seen so far in herself, Sarah and back in Farmville. Marjorie said nothing the whole walk back; she just sucked up the information like a sponge.
As they came up to Rob’s “home”, Marjorie hid behind Kathryn, suddenly self-conscious about how she looked... and the fact that she was kinda naked. “Rob~! Sar~ah! We’re ba~ck and we found another po~ny that’s just re~turn~ed!” Kathryn called in a sing-song voice. Raea gave off one of her best howls before both ponies appeared from the kitchen area.
Kathryn turned to Marjorie. “Come on out, don’t be shy,” she said gently. As she came out, Sarah came over and gave her a hug. “You’re so lucky to have come back now with all of us here to help you settle in. Chalk up another save for the rescue pony,” Sarah said, smirking in Kathryn’s direction. Kathryn responded with a stuck out tongue. “This doesn’t count because I didn’t have to save her from the water,” she replied smartly. Rob came forward next but looked to Kathryn.
“Where did you find her?” he asked. “She appeared behind the counter at the McDonald’s down the way.”
Rob looked at the pegasus. “Marjorie Daniels?” he asked. “Yes...?” she said. “I'm Rob Cooke... I used to come in every Thursday night for double BLT,” he said. Her face lit up in recognition when he spoke in the same voice. “Oh yes! Of course! I do remember you... double BLT, medium fries, medium coffee-black and two sugar cookies,” she said blushing slightly.
Kathryn gave a sigh of relief. Marjorie would be in good hooves with Rob when she, Raea & Sarah left.
Thinking of those thoughts, she glanced at a clock which told her she still had plenty of driving daylight left. She loudly cleared her throat, getting all of their attention. “I think we ought to be hitting the road if we want to reach Boston by sunset, Sarah.” Sarah glanced at the clock and nodded her agreement.
But it was only then that Kathryn realized that Sarah’s tail was covered in a wet towel. As they walked together back to the truck, Kathryn gestured to it. “Turns out my tail can get painfully dry when it’s out of the water too long... and apparently it’s been too long since the shower I had this morning,” she added. “Duly noted,” Kathryn said.
Rob & Marjorie followed the three back to the truck, the former carrying Kathryn’s spoils (both from Wal-mart & second-hand shop) on his back. He popped open the RV and tossed the whole thing inside, after Kathryn dug into it and found the necklace for Sarah. “I was willing to share with you some of that,” she said, placing the necklace around a shocked Sarah’s neck, but Rob shook his head. “Ah took a gander at what you got... stuff Ah really don’t need. Yer welcome to it and have a safe journey,” he said, giving Sarah a boost and carefully placing her wheels in the back.
Marjorie & Kathryn exchanged an awkward hug as Raea jumped in and then Kathryn climbed into the truck behind. Kathryn tossed down a small ham radio to them; Marjorie surprisingly caught it with her wing. “Hook it to a solar panel; it’ll let you talk to us for quite a while and maybe some others too. We’re call sign, ‘Ocean Express’,” Kathryn said. “Byeeees!!” called Sarah from her seat as Kathryn revved the engine and pulled a u-turn in the parking lot before driving out and back onto the I-90.
We’re just now leaving Herkimer and Kathy says we got about an hour and half before we reach Boston. The day has already been crazy enough for me... I can’t imagine how nuts Boston is going to be. (Hey! That rhymed! LOL)
Kathy thinks that a colony may have already been set up there by now. We just need to find it.
Fourth Wall Take-a-Break Spot.
The truck weaved down the I-90 as they rumbled east ward. Not far out of “Wal-Town” they spotted a dairy farm on the westbound side. Kathryn grabbed the radio. “Wal-Town, this is Ocean Express. We’re still on the I-90, about 20 minutes out and we found what looks like a dairy farm on the westbound side... GPS says it’s on North Gardner Road. Might be worth your time going to check it out... see if any of the farm animals are still there. Over.”
The radio crackled a moment before Rob’s voice came back on. “Copy that Ocean Express. We’ll check it out first thing tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up and safe travels. Over.”
“Copy that Wal-Town. Over and out.”
The two ponies nodded to each other; both feeling proud of themselves for helping out another colony with means to produce fresh milk.
A little further down, they came to another highway rest station but Kathryn chose not to stop this time. They were getting too close to Boston and they really did not need the fuel. “Leave it for somepony who desperately needs it,” Kathryn commented. Sarah agreed with a nod.
They slowed the truck as they came up on another river bridge but when neither of them saw any cars in the ditch, both let out sighs of relief that neither knew they were holding. For the next few minutes, the truck cab was filled with giggling as the pony occupants remembered the shocked looks on Spencer & Sherry’s faces when they realized they had been saved by a pair of merponies.
The truck slowed again a little further down the I-90 when the map showed they had reached a bridge for a street, ironically named Bridge St (Highway 61 into St Johnsville). The reason for slowing down was the sighting of another pony on the I-90, pulling a wagon attached to a harness. The two merponies wondered if they were to be getting a passenger but after pulling over, it became clear that they were not.
“Where is the closest place I can find a big group of people?” asked the clearly male Earth pony. He was a dark grey, shaggy black mane and tail; he had a hard look about him and even a few scars on his face & piercing red eyes. Kathryn noticed a cutie mark but his was not a good looking one: a hand gun. She was NOT going to send him to Wal-Town... Rob & Marjorie would not be able to handle this guy or protect themselves.
“Oh yeah, sure.... but I'm sorry to say that it’s a very long walk... Henrietta. They’re now calling it Farmville. Just keep walking down I-90 and you might reach it within a week or so,” Kathryn said, gesturing back the way they came.
The male looked and grumbled. “I've already been walking a week! You can ditch your shit and drive me there,” he threatened as he forced open the passenger side door, scaring Sarah in the process. The instant Kathryn clenched her teeth, Raea climbed over Sarah (as Sarah crawled towards Kathryn) and Raea started barking and snarling and bearing her own teeth at the intruder.
The male’s eyes when wide and he stumbled down off the truck, swinging the door enough in the process that it slammed shut in Raea’s face. That did not deter her from standing on hind legs and continue her barking at the male. Kathryn stomped her hoof on the lock mechanism, shoved the truck into gear and took off as fast as the friction of wheels and asphalt would allow. Raea kept up the barking until they were about 4 truck lengths away from the male before Kathryn finally hushed her and risked a look back. The male still stood in the middle of the I-90, staring them down.
A few moments later, the road took a sharp curve south and they lost sight of him. That still did not stop Sarah from checking the auto locks on the truck’s doors and letting tears of fright roll freely down her face.
Kathryn grabbed the radio and set it to two stations (1). “Farmville & Wal-Town. This is Ocean Express with a 411. Be advised of a bad pony traveling the I-90 westbound. He’s an Earth pony; dark grey, shaggy black mane and tail; face scars, red eyes and HAND GUN for a flank mark. He tried to hijack Ocean Express; Raea scared him off and we got away. Be advised! Do not offer him lodging or supplies! Do not approach this pony at all!! Confirm you’ve received this message. Over.”
“411?” Sarah mouthed. “Well, 911 is medical emergency. 311 was general information and 411 was critical information back home... tornado warnings, Amber Alerts, police advisories. I made sure to make a list for each town of my call numbers.” Kathryn kept looking in the rear view mirrors expecting the pony to appear again.
“Wal-Town, responding to 411. We read you and thank you. We’ll be on the lookout. Over and out.” Marjorie’s voice was far clearer and more confident than when they last heard.
“Farmville, responding to 411. We also read you and thanks! We’ll make sure that he’s not welcome here.” Amy’s voice sounded serious and slightly stressed. The next part made Kathryn cringe. “I'm sorry Farmville, I told him of your presence to deflect him away from a much less protected colony. He may be at you within a week.”
“Ocean Express, don’t worry. You did the right thing. We can protect ourselves; that other place might not and you made a judgement call. We’ll be ready. Thanks again. Farmville, over and out.”
Kathryn got the truck up to 140 before slowing slightly down at Fort Plain and Canajoharie but since they saw no ponies, they did not stop. The population numbers on the signs indicated that too little of a chance of anyone being there. They slowed again at Fultonville but after their experiences with the bad pony, neither of them had any desire to pick up any new ponies or stop anywhere until they reached Boston. “Unless we find a pony with a police badge as a cutie mark,” Sarah pointed out, to which Kathryn agreed but then joked, "We'd have to stick to the speed limits after that, if we did."
Amsterdam was a far bigger city and so Kathryn took the risk, taking the truck off the I-90 and straight up the 30, which turned into Market St but only as far as Lowe’s to turn the truck around. They did stop and park the truck on the 30 when Kathryn spotted a sewing craft store. When Kathryn saw Sarah’s raised eyebrow, she shrugged. “I dabbled in sewing in my youth. I’d like to be able to wear clothes that suit my age and style.” Sarah’s only answer was a rolling of her eyes. “If you get to stop at a craft place, then I want to stop at that liquor store on the way out,” Sarah added. Kathryn nodded, feeling the desire for a drink herself. “That’s only fair.”
Having found no ponies, they raided the Target for water and left messages at Target, Wal-mart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Price Choppers. They topped off the truck’s tank on the way out of town.
They found another highway McDonald’s rest stop but this time, not for the diesel... Kathryn wanted to check the deep fryers for the oil. Thankfully, this had not gone bad yet and so she siphoned out the old oil into an empty dirty barrel, refilled the fryer, cooked up a couple trays worth of French fries for them both and then siphoned the new oil into same barrel as the dirty. “I figure the mix of the two will make it good enough to work in the genny,” Kathryn explained when Sarah asked about the mixing. “Granted, I won’t be able to do the process until we find and get to the Boston colony.”
They passed by a pair of quarries, all deserted and quiet with no humans to run the machines to dig, lift and crush the stone.
The road weaved ever eastward until it dropped south for a while, slightly surprising Kathryn into paying more attention to her GPS. Said GPS, nearly tricked her into changing onto the I-890 but that was not what Kathryn wanted and so they stayed on the I-90.
Passing the underside of Rotterdam, they followed the I-90 around and straight through the middle of Albany. The GPS claimed 2 hours, 41 minutes to Boston but Kathryn figured it’d be closer to 4 hours the way they kept stopping for fuel or salvaging.
She cranked the truck up to 130 and put the pedal to the metal, only slowing down for the round ramp at something called the 912M... whatever that meant.
Before they knew it, they had passed a sign that read ‘Massachusetts Welcomes You’; they had passed the first state line on their trek. Kathryn let go of the steering wheel long enough to start a mini ‘wave’ and hoof-bump Sarah as Raea turned a circle in her seat, letting her tongue roll out the side. Both ponies laughed and cheered a little, face's beaming.
They did not stop at Stockbridge or at Blandford but they did slow down for Springfield area, sadly not finding another pony.
The I-90 weaved east some more before they spotted the turn offs for Auburn and Worcester. This close to Boston, neither of them wanted to stop and search. Framingham was a speck on the GPS for barely 10 minutes before they blasted right through.
They came up to the first of the pony-made signs with stunned expressions.
“Well, clearly a pegasus hung the sign but whomever drew that picture is NOT an artist by any sense of the term,” Kathryn commented, while both were stifling some giggles. It was only a matter of time before they both burst out laughing.
The signs continued to show up at the important turns, passing right by Fenway Park along the way.
The roads were multiple lanes and the one turn around the signs had pointed them onto had made the biggest loop either of them had ever seen!
Eventually, they finally came to an entrance sign.
“I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and guess that we are here,” Kathryn said. They were in the parking lot of the former South Bay Center, clearly renamed Harbor City and already set up for lots of ponies.
There was a bunch of RV’s in the parking lot, set up like a trailer park while the Target/Home Depot had been converted into a kind of office, welcoming’s center and impromptu city hall.
Kathryn slowly drove the truck into the area near the RV’s, honking the horn to get any pony’s attention.
A pair came out from the Target and galloped toward the RV. Sadly, they kept the doors locked until Kathryn could determine if she could trust them or not. One of the ponies carried a military-style rifle on their back.
Thankfully a female approached the driver side, her pegasus wings open wide to show that she carried no weapons. She looked far more approachable to Kathryn and so she let her guard down. This pegasus was yellow body, long purple mane & tail, child’s bright blue t-shirt cut to fit her wings and a checklist for a cutie mark.
Kathryn rolled down her window to speak with this pony. “We’re sorry if we act suspicious... we had an unpleasant experience with a pony out on the I-90 on our way in,” she explained to the pegasus.
The male with rifle came up and spoke. “Dark grey Earth pony, shaggy black hair & tail, hand gun for butt tattoo?” he asked. Both Kathryn & Sarah jerked back in surprise and the stallion cursed under his breath. “Bad News Bob... that’s what everyone here called him. Convict escaped from the prison; tried to steal an RV from our lot.”
Kathryn nodded. “He tried to hijack our vehicle but my dog, Raea, scared him off long enough for us to get away,” she said as she unlocked the truck and gestured for them to disembark. "I knew I should have just shot him when I had the chance," muttered the rifle-carrier, pacing in a circle. "Nothing but trouble and never deserved to escape. Should have rotted in his cell," he added, stomping a hoof to the asphalt hard enough to cause a crack.
Kathryn heard Sarah ask Raea to get out of her way so she could get her wheels out of the truck as she, herself, approached the pegasus and the rifle carrying unicorn. “My name is Rose May, one of the founders here at Harbor City; this is Earl, another founder. Are you here to join or...?” the pegasus asked, leaving the question opened ended. Kathryn glanced at the unicorn still pacing and grumbling under his breath. Earl was a black unicorn, red spotted markings with red mane & tail, streaked in old-age grey with a red military style cross hair's for a cutie mark.
“We’re passing through, on our way to Miami, Florida. We’re hoping to create a colony for more like us,” Kathryn said as Sarah walked dramatically around the truck and joined her, showing off her merpony tail, her wet towel underneath this time but still ready to flip over if needed.
Rose May gestured a hoof at Sarah’s tail excitedly. “Oh, another one of those with fish tails! Earl, get on the radio and call Patrick back home immediately,” she said. Earl took one look at Sarah, nodded and bolted for the Home Depot behind him.
Rose May began to lead them towards the Target before Kathryn remembered, turned back and clicked the truck’s remote control to lock up. Rose May raised an eyebrow at her actions. “Sorry... our experience with ‘Bad News Bob’ has taught us to be careful... sorry,”(2) said Kathryn with a shrug. Rose May simply nodded as they continued to walk to the Target.
As they entered the Target, it was easily obvious that they had knocked out the wall that separated the two stores and had shored up the opening, creating a safe if not ugly archway between the two.
Kathryn could hear Earl on a radio set, calling out a call sign that he clearly despised. “Jolly Roger. Come in Jolly Roger. This is Harbor. Over.”
The crackle of static reigned for a moment before a male voice responded. “Harbor, this is Jolly Roger. How’re things going at port?”
Earl groaned at the enthusiasm in the voice but Kathryn found it surprisingly refreshing. “Got a pair of travelers you’re gonna want to meet. Rosie says for you to come home right away,” he added, glaring at Rose May, who had stopped with Kathryn & Sarah when they stopped to listen.
“Copy that Harbor. Jolly Roger coming to port. Fifteen minutes. Over and out.”
Earl dropped the radio microphone and growled in Rose May’s direction before stomping off.
“Oh don’t mind Earl... he’s just a grumpy old mule. He was two weeks from retirement when the Event happened. Now he’s stuck the way he is and he feels like he needs to do his part,” Rose May said as they walked.
“Umm.... ‘Rosie’?” Sarah asked. “It’s my call sign on the radio. I drive a little rose colored Prius and they all tease me about it. ‘Rose May’ is not my actual name but when the Event happened, I gave up my old name along with my old life. I chose Rose because it’s my favorite flower; May was for the month that the Event occurred. And then I got the Prius.... someone *cough Patrick cough* covered it in rose stickers, the call sign of ‘Rosie’ just stuck,” she explained as she pointed a hoof to a very rosy red Prius covered in rose stickers, big and small.
Both merponies began snickering that turned into laughter when they saw Rose May raise a single eyebrow.
Rose May feigned a hurt expression as she walked off in a huff, but the two caught up pretty quickly and they all shared a giggle. She continued the tour of the renovated Target, explaining what they had done; setting up apartments inside for the single ponies. “As soon as they pair up, they’re moved outside to their own RV. Eventually, we want them to repopulate the houses in the immediate vicinity but we’re too small a number for that right now. I have a spot here, as does Patrick... Earl only has one because he insists that he’s waiting for his wife to return.”
Kathryn & Sarah “D’awww’ed” on that romantic thought but it was shattered when Rose May shook her head. “I knew Earl before all of this happened... his wife is the only one who could tolerate him in his moods,” she chuckled. The girls, stunned for only a moment, joined in.
“So, how long are you planning on staying for?” Rose May finally ventured to ask.
Suddenly a loud crash of the doors being burst open and a buzzing sound could be heard.
"Oh me gosh! I be so glad that thar be another pony like me. I thought I was t' only one!! Oh, where be me manners? Me name be Patrick but everyone just calls me Patty. I'm glad you’ve come t' our little colony." The big beefy pirate voice rang out through the big, mostly empty space, accompanied by the squeaking of wheels carrying too much weight.
The pony dragging said wheels was clearly a merpony on land. And it was quite clear that he was a personality! He was actually a little taller than Kathryn; dark green body with lighter green scratches, really dark green pegasus wings with armor sections on the leading edge, a dark grey Fu Manchu moustache combined with a slightly longer soul patch, messy two-toned gray hair (but it was NOT from age), mascara around the eyes, really big long merpony tail curled up in a slightly leaky wheeled water tank strapped to his body just above a skull & crossbones cutie mark and below the wings. Kathryn also noticed he had a nick in his right ear, three piercings on each side and he wore a pair of goggles around his neck.
"Avast ye land lubbers! Now this be a beauty if I've ever seen one... and I'm t' only one I've seen so far! But what about you, blue? Ye just t' driver because ye can reach t' pedals?" he gave off an aura of confidence as he leaned a forearm on Kathryn’s middle back.
The pirate talk was cute on the radio but it was getting a tad annoying.
She shuffled a little sideways; just enough for Patrick’s hoof to drop.
Kathryn then sat on her haunches and called up her magic to transform right there... and it worked. Both Rose May & Patrick looked on in amazement as she flipped her tail a couple of times and then turned back to land pony. “Well, blow me down,” Patrick whispered.
Kathryn let that one pass as it was so short.
“We’re not sure how long we’ll be staying here. Probably a couple of days... put some distance between us and that ‘Bad News Bob’-guy-character,” Kathryn said. “He tried to hijack us on the way here but Raea helped us give him the slip,” Sarah added, patting the dog on her head.
“Oh that Bad News Bob! He’s lower than a bilge rat and I be glad we kicked his arse outta here!” Patrick’s extreme dislike for that pony was obviously clear.
“Patrick! Enough of that blasted pirate voice! I'm sick of it!” shouted a male voice from another part of the store. Patrick simply ducked his head and blushed as all the girls laughed.
Another walk through the Target and into the Home Depot, Kathryn & Rose May walking together, Patrick & Sarah falling in behind, Rose May explained how they had converted the nearby Clifford Playground for farm land while Joe Moakley Park is for the farm animals they had brought in from outlying areas.
Kathryn & Sarah found themselves impressed with the ingenuity and hard work already put into Harbor City.
Over a communal feast of a dinner, Kathryn & Sarah were guests of honor and shared their story with every pony, and every creature of Harbor City; from Kathryn’s leaving Brantford, Ontario, Canada – Eddie’s find – Farmville – rescue at Flint Creek – Wal-Town – Bad News Bob – and all the way to now. They also shared their plans for wanting to build a merpony colony down near Miami, Florida; the girls eyed Patrick at his meaningfully but only got a nod... for now.
Kathryn & Sarah got to meet some creatures they had never seen before. One was something called a Dog (capital D); bipedal creature, cross between a dog and a chimp. Another was a Minotaur; actual bipedal half man, half bull. A third was something they called a Kirin; a half pony (four legs, cutie mark, pony belly-neck), half dragon (scales down the spine & continued down tail, facial structure, bat-pony style wings but twice the size) hybrid; she seemed very shy when she was first introduced to the pair of merponies.
And of course, Kathryn had to use her magic again to prove her claims to the others when they showed up.
On top of Rose May, Earl, and Patrick, they also met ‘Sapphire’ Susie (dark blue unicorn, black/navy blue two-toned mane and tail, silver sewing needle cutie mark), ‘Geode’ Gary (soft tan Earth pony, brown mane and tail, cut open white geode rock cutie mark), ‘Dog’ Denis (clearly following the German Sheppard breed and wore a spiked dog collar around his neck), ‘Minotaur’ Mark (he was more brown than red but did still wore modified pants for the lower half) and ‘Kirin’ Karen (she was all a very dark purple, spines were black, claws were a glossy black and she had a cutie mark of a ball of green flame; she was eating a plate of raw fish).
“Rose May is ‘Rosie’, Patrick is ‘Pirate’ (unless he’s driving that boat-of-a-truck, and then it’s ‘Jolly Roger’) and Earl is just plain Earl,” finished Susie as everyone at the table except Earl laughed.
Dinner broke up not much longer after that; the girls were invited to use the guest rooms inside but they preferred to use their RV so Patrick helped them move it closer to the building, “For safety reasons,” he had said.
But that had not stopped Kathryn from locking all of the doors & windows for the night.
July 11th, 2015 @ 1:20 AM @ Harbor City (formerly Boston, MA)
Dear Journal,
OH MY FREAKING GOSH!! Sarah was right... this HAS been a crazy adventure just getting here! I can’t imagine how much more nuts it’ll get before we reach Miami. (Oops! Did i just jinx that? LOL)
We’ve been invited to stay a couple of days which we will take them up on. But before I can write about them, I have to write about what happened after Sarah last wrote...
Yeah, and this might take a while so we’re gonna tag-team! -Sarah
I wanted to include a map of the immediate area of Harbor City but Google Maps does not work anymore and I can’t draw.
It’s been a couple of days since we last wrote. Sarah has been spending much of her time with Patrick, either on his rig or swimming at the nearby beach. She told me that Patrick introduced her to a bunch of sharks that had taken up residence in the area. She also told me that they now possessed intelligence similar to Raea. What I gather from that means that we don’t need to fear sharks in the oceans anymore; they’re like puppy-dogs when treated with kindness.
Chalk another one up to the world’s newly found craziness!
I've been biding my time either helping Gary with the farmer fields or lending them a hoof with my pickup truck to haul in the big stuff; feed for the animals, diesel tankers from the distribution center...
On the plus side, they did help me replace the bio-diesel barrels with a secondary big rig’s tank on the back trailer. It’s become obvious that the deep fryer used cooking oil was not going to be viable for much longer. “Also,” Earl pointed out. “Cooking oil burns a lot hotter and so each time you use the generator on it, you run the risk of motor burn-out.” (1)
So one day, Earl & Denis helped me flush out my genny completely of cooking oil and got it primed to go back on diesel. We ran a pressure washer off the genny to test it out (and to water the farm garden in the process). I did notice that the genny ran much quieter on the straight diesel than the bio-fuel; hence the need for a second fuel tank.
They offered to keep the last of my old bio-fuel and put it to good use. “A loaner truck or something,” Earl had said. I figured that so long as it didn’t go to waste, I was happy.
Earl also taught me now to use the genny to rig up the diesel pump at the gas stations to make refills a whole lot faster than my old siphoning system. For that, I will always grateful.
Denis doesn’t talk much. Neither does Mark. Their voices are deeper and although Mark still has his full vocabulary, Denis talks in a broken English like he’s still learning but not. I can see the frustration on his face every time he tries anything too complex. Instead, he takes to writing the complex stuff down on a notepad he always carries with him. “Pony make sure fuel stay clean,” he said at one point; and then he wrote down the instructions for adding the fuel stabilizers to each gas station we use and leave a “pony note” sign letting others know it was done.
Denis also became a gem-hoarder. No one knows for sure why but his RV is filled with the spoils of multiple jewelry stores, both finished and unfinished; his bed is covered in diamonds... didn’t matter if they were real or fake.
Being a guy, Denis had never gone into a Michael’s craft store so I did that for him... found those giant fake decorative “diamonds”, grabbed every single one on the shelf and the box of them from the back storage; plus i got every little box of those fake filler gems; got rid of all the packing material and left the box on his RV’s porch. I had let Sarah in on the surprise and she agreed to help me. She had also seen how Denis had struggled and so wanted to cheer the Dog up.
We both tried so hard not to laugh as we had watched Denis’s reaction to the box of “gems”. It was almost like that scene in Lord of the Rings, where that goblin-creature says “Precious”; Denis dug his huge paws into the box, lifting up as many of them as he could, snuggling them like one might a kitten.
Eventually, Sarah & I came out of hiding and surprised Denis. He may not have the words but he understands everyone else perfectly. “Thank you, ponies. You make Dog so happy,” he said simply as tears of joy fell down his face.
We hugged and that’s how Denis became an admirer of the merponies.
Gary spends the vast majority of his time at the farm fields with a shotgun in the former equipment shed. Rose May explained that he had done ALL of the work by himself on that field. “It’s like his baby,” she had said. He even went so far as banning Patrick from ever stepping hoof or wheel on the property because of some prank the pony had done to the shed early on.
But what surprised the group was that he more than welcomed ME to the field any time I came by to bring a delivery of seeds, water or something as simple as a bagged lunch! According to Rose May, I'm the only other pony besides her that has seen the inside of the shed. Gary had ditched all of the equipment at a house nearby and had somehow dragged a couch into it, making it into a home-away-from-home. He covered the shelves with his collection of geode rocks, from his life before and a few new pieces. He was so proud of that collection; especially now that he was able to get his hooves on a real diamond geode.
He did also let Raea accompany me to the fields; didn’t mind if she squatted to pee or poop, so long as she buried it when done. “It is great compost,” he explained, but it had only made my nose wrinkle. “We wash everything in antibacterial before it leaves the field, and then again before it is prepared,” he added.
Not much to Mark. He’s tall & strong but the silent type. I thought Earl spoke very little; Mark speaks even less! He drives the big rig truck, mainly because he can reach the foot pedals without modification. I asked him once about being a Minotaur. “It’s ok,” he said. “Need more pillows to sleep because horns are heavy.”
That pretty much sums him up.
Karen, the Kirin, is far younger than she looks. I’d take a guess at 12, maybe 13 at the time of the Event. And then the poor thing got turned into a half pony/half dragon. She may be young but she’s still really big so they created a suite of permanent rooms for her inside the Target, in a back corner next to a double door fire exit, so she could come & go as she pleased. She’s already the height of the Prius and twice as long; she’d probably out-size Princess Luna by the time she stopped growing.
Karen could already fly and although she could breathe fire, it was a magical green color rather than red or yellow. I was, indeed, surprised to learn that Karen ate fish AND also gems! Like, yeah, the gems that Denis would hoard, or Gary’s geode collection if she got out of hoof. (On behalf of Karen, I was able to convince Gary to part with some of his bigger, uncut diamonds to help Karen curb her cravings. They were making plans to go back and check the shops for more; Karen was even willing to try the fake zirconium at this point. I felt so bad for her. I think that there’s a mineral in the gems that the dragon half needs to grow or something.)
Susie describes herself as “just a regular, old unicorn” despite her youth and her amazing magical skill at sewing. Humble at first, she came out of her shell and shared with us the projects she had done; Mark & Denis’s pants, t-shirts for Rose May, dresses for herself.
I presented to her all of the supplies I had acquired from the craft store in Amsterdam and asked her if I could help in making some clothes for us too. Her face lit up and she got right down to business. Sadly, that meant a lot of standing in merpony form for long periods of time.
For Sarah, we made a kind of bag that she could slip her tail into and fill with water before strapping down to her wheels. It really did not need too much water as the warm air would evaporate it, the bag would catch it and let it rain back down. Plus the bag was transparent so the tail could be seen inside; and then we made a flowy pink flowered skirt to wear over the bag, if wanted. For me, I got some silk translucent blue blouses with the short capped sleeves that I love so much. With all the silk & organza scraps, I sewed up a patchwork canopy for my RV room (and hopefully for my underwater room some day).
Susie and I would also go “shopping” at some of the other malls in town, sometimes taking Sarah with us. Raea would come but get bored fairly quickly, lounging on the non-functioning massage chairs in the walkways. To make it up to Raea, I’d bring along a tennis ball or grab a new one from the dollar store; throwing it down the walkways, letting her chase after them and having the whole place to do it in.
We mostly raided places like Garage, Sears, Winners, and Rikki’s for shirts that I used to call “over tops”... pretty shirts but often too baggy, detailed or see-thru to wear without something underneath, like a tank or tube top. Now that those under shirts are redundant, we can wear said over tops any time on their own! I found one at Sears that I really love: it’s a navy blue over top, color-matching lace shoulders and a cloth tie at the back of the neck. Despite grabbing the XS, Susie took the shirt in and cut off the too-tight sleeve cuffs to make them the same flaring style that I love on the others. Sarah got the same shirt in a pale pink and Susie did the same modifications for her.
And then, Susie asked us for our help in making something that the others refused or simply could not do: model for a body cast so she could make a mannequin but for a pony.... a ponyquin, I guess! And we figured it was only a fair trade for the work she had done for us. Sarah modeled for the front half, I did the back. It was really weird! Rose May came back to give Susie a hoof; Sarah went first and despite our misgivings, Susie really knew what she was doing. I could tell that she had done these kinds of body casts before and so it was a job well done, although I did have to suffer through an itch on my back left leg the entire time! She had left Sarah’s horn exposed as she had planned to make the ponyquin an Earth pony for simplicity but would add notes to the finished product when done.
The casts had come off so easily, I pretty much just stepped out of mine! Sarah’s took a bit of cutting to get her horn out of the hole but Susie managed it without a nick to either of us. It was so funny seeing Sarah’s front on my back end put together because she's leaner than me.
We had rinsed off with the power washer before going down to the beach with Patrick and go for a swim in the ocean. That was on the second day and so that was my first swim in ANY ocean, EVER.
And it was incredible!! If the bathtub was breakfast & the old Farmville pool was a lunch, the ocean was a ten-course feast with a five-tiered wedding cake for desert.
OK, so I might be getting with a florid with my descriptions... I really don’t know how else to describe my experience.
It was just simply... unbelievable.
OK, so let’s just be honest a minute...
Kathy was like a kid at Christmas! I had never seen her so happy.
Patty & I had gone in first, kicking off our wheels as soon as our tails became buoyant. I did manage to wash all of the plaster & Vaseline out of my fur & mane; using a kitchen brush I had found in the home section and nearly a whole bottle of shampoo.
I let Kathy use the brush after me while she used another half bottle herself; she had been better covered in the plastic wrap so there was less to remove. Which I figured she was grateful for, based on her facial expressions. :P
I watched her try to swim as an Earth pony... it was a basic doggy-paddle but even Raea out-paced her. She said that she could not see underwater at all, nor could she hear much without it being muffled. “Merpony senses are far superior underwater than average Earth pony,” she said in a voice that made me think of a college professor giving a lecture. The three of us giggled when Kathy cracked a smile. She then used her ability to turn and she dove into the water.
I followed her under so she would not be too scared but really, she was so at ease; just like back at the Farmville pool. She bore no fears of the ocean; just that she never got to swim in it before that day.
OK! OK! This is still technically my tablet so I should be allowed to finish my entry before some pony else butts in on my current one.
And hey! As ponies, we got a lot more butts to butt in with!
Ugh!! Those guys are terrible... can’t a girl finish a journal entry in peace & quiet anymore? Sheesh!
Yeah, so anyway.... we had some distance races, depth challenges, breaching contests, and of course relaxing as we talked about our plans to create a merpony colony in the ocean.
“So where do you think you’ll locate this colony of yours, Kathy?” Patrick asked her casually as he took up three pieces of kelp and started braiding them together, Sarah tightly binding the ends in pieces of twine she found floating by.
Kathryn had finally resigned herself to the cutesy moniker that the other two had gotten stuck on her. “I want to be not too far from the land,” she began as she gathered her thoughts. “Perhaps with access to a pristine beach for sunbathing?” Sarah suggested looking up from the knots her magic was tying; Kathryn nodded.
“I was also thinking of it being within a short swim of whatever colony has already been started down there. I can only hope that they’ve labeled the highway just as obviously as they have done here,” she turned her raised eyebrow on Patrick, who blushed suspiciously. “Uhh... yeah... I painted that pony on that first highway sign. Karen hung the other ones,” he said. The girls laughed at his antics.
“For the colony itself, I was thinking of locating a bunch of boats and sinking them.” Sarah & Patrick looked at Kathryn like she had lost her mind but she was quick to set them at ease. “If you think of it this way, any ship that had people ON it when the Event happened disappeared along with all those people. Any ship or vehicle we have right now had been empty at the time, and thus we can use them. It would be the same for any boat, yacht or cruise ship we find at a port! So, I figure we find some TNT or ANFO and blow some holes into the boats, sink them in the spot we want to use and then go crazy on the interiors.”
Silence filled the empty space, filled only by the call of sea gulls on the rocks. “I like everything except the part where we use explosives to sink the boats.” Patrick’s pronouncement was met with a nodding Sarah. “OK, that’s fair enough. How else do you propose to sink the boats?” Kathryn asked. “Welding torch,” he answered promptly, as he grabbed an empty plastic bottle floating by - biting off both ends - and fitting both ends of the kelp braid inside, holding it above water as Sarah used magic to heat-seal the plastic down to the ends making it a solid connection.
“Can you use one of those safely with hooves?” Kathryn countered. “Well, no; not really... BUT I have had Susie use her magic to lift it and not look while I wore the mask and used my hooves to guide it in place. I just need to find another unicorn when we get down there and do the same thing.”
THAT was met with more silence, but this time it made Patrick confused. Finally, it was Sarah who spoke up. “Does this mean you’re coming with us, Patty?” she asked in a small voice. He looked to each mare, and with a straight face. “On one condition,” he said as he slung the now rounded piece of braided kelp over his head & brought left leg and wing through it. Suddenly he turned and pointed a hoof back to the beach. “You, Kathy, help me fix my water-wheels so they don’t squeak to raise the dead!” he exclaimed, bursting out laughing at their expressions; Kathryn’s annoyed while Sarah relieved.
Later that evening after dinner, I took Patrick and Sarah to the sporting goods section; specifically to the bikes. I took some measurements of Patrick standing, just like I had done one Sarah, with a tail on a chair at perfect legs’ height. Then, I tossed them a wrench and told them what size of wheels we needed. Then I walked away, leaving them dumbfounded.
Of course I returned with a bunch of PVC pipe, cutter, corners and cement piled in a buggy; there was also a bag of sand & a few bottles of crafting glue. “We don’t have the room to bring that boat of a ‘water wheels’ cart, Patrick. We have to build you something like Sarah’s,” I explained. “So what’s the sand and glue for?” Sarah asked.
“Patty here is far heavier than you so I have to fill the pipes with something to add a little bit of weight. He’s gotten too used to lugging around that cart full of water. I have to compensate for that,” I said eyeing Patrick as he blushed a little.
A few hours later, he had a cart very nearly identical to Sarah’s. The only difference I had made was that I put the side pipes more in-line with his body, slightly lowering the position of the tail but still gave him full height and range of movement that Sarah had. The straight poles used for the wheels were filled with a mix of craft glue & sand until they were balanced perfectly level. I had let Patrick use the cart without the sand and just the look on his face was enough to tell me that it was too light. The sand did the trick for him but I didn’t let him try it right away.
I confess... I lied. I wanted to get him back for the teasing and so when the new wheels were totally done, I told him it had to sit for 24 hours so the cement could ‘cure’. “Otherwise, you might get cracks in the glue where water could get in and make it too heavy. Or the cracks could break & the whole rig comes apart,” I had told him, doing my best to keep a straight face.
At some point, when Patrick gets ‘a bug up his butt’, I’ll go wander over to the bike section, transform and try the new wheels out myself. Go down a couple of aisles, scream my head off, etc, etc.... wait until he shows up, demand what’s going on, and then I confess with a “got ya!” and then get him all hooked up to try it out for himself. :P
I hear Sarah whisper that I have no sense of humor.... sure I do. I just don’t let it out like her or Patrick. ;)
I did, however, tell them that we’re heading out tomorrow. It’s time we got back onto the road. I want to be in Florida before the end of the month. Something keeps telling me we need to keep moving; to get down there as fast as we can.
I can hear Patrick groan and grumbling outside my bed room door. Sounds like it’s time for payback! -K
Kathryn exited her RV, heading into the Home Depot to drop off a piece of paper filled out with a list of all her call signs and what stations to use. Earlier the previous day, she had helped Mark, Denis & Earl set up a new radio antenna so that they could receive from both Farmville & Wal-Town.
Kathryn reflected on the message they had received from Wal-Town that same day: Bad News Bob had been seen by Marjorie while she was on scouting duty. She had already learned to fly and had hidden in a tree while he trotted the Bridge St overpass. He had spotted something off to the opposite side, ditched the wagon, climbed down the embankment and disappeared from sight. “I could not imagine what he had found,” Marjorie had said over the radio. “I heard the revving of an engine and a 4x4 Jeep burst up the embankment back onto the road. He loaded up the stuff from within the wagon, bucked the wagon so hard it flew to my side of the road and crashed into the tree I was hiding! I managed to keep quiet as he snorted in the direction of the ruined wagon, jumped into the Jeep and took off down the road.”
That’s when Marjorie said she got her cutie mark! It was a pair of binoculars; Kathryn suggested that it meant that Marjorie was an excellent scout. Kathryn had been sure to pass on the news about Bob to Farmville, so they would not be surprised if he arrived sooner.
Kathryn made her way to the back of the Target where Patrick’s new wheels were still resting on the chair they used previously. Despite the slight height difference, Kathryn managed to get her own merpony tail into the rig, minus any water bag or cloths as she did not plan on being in it for very long. The weight was a little dragging but hardly noticeable once she got up to speed and certainly better than dragging her tail across the floor.
Kicking off her front running shoes and catching her groove, she raced down the aisles, laughing and cheering as loudly as she could. Her unshod hooves clattering on the hard tile, echoing around the formerly quiet space as she took another tight corner and then another. She rounded the whole back three departments of the Target before any pony came back to investigate.
Patrick watched Kathryn as she zoomed right by with a shocked expression. Sarah stood behind him, snickering in her hoof. Raea’s face lit up and she bolted, to run alongside of Kathryn. The pony saw the dog, laughed loudly and picked up her speed to match. They raced the entire length of the back of the store before criss-crossing their paths and racing back to a stunned Patrick & a snickering Sarah.
When pony & dog finally came to a stop in front of them, Kathryn smiled, keeping a mostly straight face while slightly out of breath. “A little heavier than what I like but seems like it’ll hold your sorry ass up just fine. You guys ready to head out bright and early?”
Kathryn let the quiet hang for a few minutes, watching Patrick sputter. “What...? Wait... what?” he finally managed to get out.
“Tomorrow; we’re leaving in the morning. Are you guys ready to go?” Kathryn asked, still with her straight face.
“But.... but.... but you said the cart was not going to be ready until 24 hours!!” he finally erupted, pointing his hoof at the cart.
Kathryn & Sarah made eye contact; it was Sarah who burst out laughing. “Got ya,” said Kathryn with a cheeky smile.
Fifteen minutes and a bucket of water later, Patrick finally caught on that Kathryn had tricked him and got him real good. By then, she had removed the cart from her own tail, transformed back and let him put it on instead. He took the cart down the aisles like Kathryn had done, putting it through the paces; Kathryn & Raea ran alongside him, the former to watch for weak points, the latter just plain for the run.
As it turned out, the old water cart was big enough, when emptied - wheels removed and a simple plywood lid made, they could actually use it for storage in the back trailer; moving some stuff from the back of pickup to make room for Patrick's new wheels.
Also helped that four of the six barrels were gone. Kathryn had power washed two of them and refilled with (table) salt water so that when they stopped at night in hotels, the water could be dumped into bathtubs for Patrick & Sarah to sleep in and then siphoned back into barrels for reuse. Each barrel was labeled with their cutie marks instead of names. "Because it's more fun that way," was Kathryn's only explanation.
Patrick simply rolled his eyes and dropped his new kelp sash into his barrel before closing it, to keep the sash fresh.
This is kitten_girl86 and I'd like to take a quick chapter to explain some things that have cropped up; get some things off my chest, so to speak.
First of all, thank you to all of those who HAVE been following the story so far. Kathryn's story has become my biggest since Gummy Meets Pinkie Pie and that has kept me going. I loved the original story and I really wanted to write my own to include my love of merponies.
"AND you haven't given up, so kudos on that too. You're already further than many writers on the site get." "And one last positive thing for this comment: I'm super glad you aren't afraid to make things actually _happen_ in your story. There are lots of slow-moving side stories out there. This one isn't, and it's a good change of pace. Keep up the good work!"
It's stuff like this that make me really happy and encouraged to continue writing the story.
That being said, I really did/do want this story to be cannon with the original.
Farmville was only a stop over for Kathryn; picking up Sarah on the way and I didn't expect the visit to be so long. I never meant for there to be so many ponies but it just happened that way. If my creative flow tells me to put something in, I do that. Maybe Farmville WAS an exception... Kathryn has no idea and as such, neither does the reader. OK, so the depth of the swimming pool was a bit much and that was an oopsie on my part. I will/did go back and fix that. The reason for the life jackets was because despite being turned into ponies, they WERE still humans at one point and certain habits still crossed over. Next, I never said that Joe Farmer and Amy Orchard were married. Sure, I said "partner" but unless they changed the numerous meanings, partner can still apply to say a business partner. They were the co-founders of Farmville, hence using the term of "partner"; they had given up their human last names and gave themselves their new ones based on their cutie marks, not knowing what those actually meant.
Yes, Sarah is a unicorn merpony and Patrick is a pegasus merpony. I am not going to change that. I don't care how some might think that Patrick's wings are useless. They're not, and it'll become clear why later. Kathryn's ability to change from Earth to merpony, I'm sorry but it really is only to do with her talent (and the fact that some pony had to do the driving).
Gary's "diamond geode" was a creation of mine so he could have a complete set. I have OCD and the thought of him not having a diamond grated on me fiercely until I gave him one. And i never said he dug it up.... for all Kathryn knew, he had "liberated" it from a museum. Geology has not changed. There will not be any rock farms in my story.
It's comments like
Clearly not 'canon' with the rest - far too many ponies.
that really bum me out and make me not want to continue writing this story. I've never had a story with so much commenting and writing advice before... sometimes I'm not entirely sure how to take it all. I've never been good at accepting negative criticism and that's a flaw on my part, not on any pony else's. While I appreciate the positive on the comments, I feel like all people see when going to the page for the first time is all the negative. Again, another flaw on my part.
Thanks for sticking with me on this chapter... It's helpful for me to clear the air.
...... And now back to the irregularly scheduled updates of Kathryn's story!
11:30 A.M. - Every pony and every creature was still asleep. No one thought to set an alarm. Kathryn & Gary had been consistently the first ponies to rise each morning and they woke the others but even this time, they both slept away the morning.
If her Earth pony connection failed her, normally Raea would have woken her to be let out. But over the previous days, Kathryn had finally broken down and installed a lockable doggy door into the door of the RV. (The lock was so that she could secure it closed for driving.) But she had remembered to unlock it the night before and so when Raea needed to go out, she’d just go and not bother Kathryn at all.
12:10 P.M. – Sarah was the first to finally wake and realize how late it was. She raced around the RV, waking Kathryn, before going out to the Target and waking up Patrick; he, in turn, woke everyone else up.
12:34 P.M. – The pony & creatures served a buffet breakfast to the merponies, which actually included seaweed and other aquatic plants “to test out your merpony-palettes” as Rose May put it. To Kathryn, that meant she had to transform if she wanted to enjoy it and so she did. Denis was right there with a spare wet towel for her tail.
(Kathryn learned very early on that her transformation had no effect whatsoever on any shirts, skirts or jewelry she wore... pants had been the exception; they were shredded off her.)
While they were being served, Mark, Earl & Gary were out at the RV, packing it all up, closing the extensions, double/triple checking all of the straps on the back trailer, checking brake fluid, motor oil, washer fluid, hydraulic fluid, checking for leaks – and in the case of Gary, restocking their fresh produce and removing the bad for compost.
Denis had earlier also added a few cans of wet dog food for Raea and a pile of dry food bags– same exact brand as all the others – with a scribbled note “For Raea, my sister-in-paws” accompanied with a Polaroid photo of the two of them together.
2 P.M. – Brunch over, the three merponies (Kathryn back on her hooves) exited the Target to find the truck rig all sparkling clean and parked out front on the northbound side of drive but facing southbound.
The ‘Ocean Express’ signs had been touched up with new drawings added in; Kathryn saw Mark & Denis on one side, Karen & Susie on the other, the others scattered wherever there was room. The ropes had been checked for fraying and one had clearly been replaced entirely.
Even the tiny tear in the Canadian flag had been meticulously repaired and Kathryn saw the tiny perfect magic-whipped stitches in red that color matched the original.
After a few tears & heart-felt hugs, Kathryn climbed into the driver’s side while Patrick was levitated into back seat and Sarah into passenger. Strangely, Raea climbed into the back and lay with Patrick. Kathryn figured that Raea could sense his sadness at leaving Harbor City.
Kathryn turned on the GPS to see that it had already been programmed to take the I-93 south and then a little west to connect to the I-95 down to New York City. “Four hours and a bit until we reach the Big Apple,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear her.
“If you see any ponies on your way, send them to us,” Rose May said, sniffling a little. Kathryn did not trust her voice with the lump building in her throat. So instead she waved, revved the engine and drove out of the parking lot.
It was not until they reached the Neponset River Reservation turn off where Patrick had drawn one of his first ponies, did the realization that he was leaving his home behind; his home, his friends... his family, both human & new. Sure, he had left notes for his siblings in case they ever returned but that was not the same. (His parents had both dead for at least 9 years.) But as they drove through East Milton and took the turn off for going west, he knew that he was doing the right thing.
“Pass me the tablet please, Sarah? I have something to write about,” he said seriously & a little quietly. Kathryn seemed surprised at his mood but quickly realized that Sarah had been the same way when she had left Farmville. She gave a nod to Sarah, who had hesitated to pass the tablet and a new stylus on a land-yard to each of them. “So we don’t have to keep sharing our spit,” she had joked as she placed the green one around Patrick’s neck, red around her own, and the blue around Kathryn’s neck.
Patrick only nodded, brought up a fresh page and started typing.
June 14th, 2015 @ 2:30 PM – leaving Harbor City, I-93 to I-95 ~Patrick
Dear Journal,
When I woke up as a merpony on May 30th, I never expected myself to be traveling the highways to get down to Florida to help two others (somewhat) like me to start a colony of merponies. But here I am, riding in the back of Kathryn’s really nice pickup truck, towing a fancy RV and that towing a flat bed trailer that’s carrying all of our more hazardous stuff.
Strangely, Kathryn’s dog, Raea, is in the back here with me instead of up front. I know that if there’s any trouble, she can jump the middle and protect the girls. I'm actually feeling a little vulnerable back here, to be honest.
Oh, we’re just making the change from 93 to 95 now. Kathryn is a natural with this driving thing... she must have had previous experience. LOL
She slows down any time we approach a major off ramp but this time, for a very good reason.
She spotted a pair of ponies walking up the northbound side. They were pulling what looked like an overfilled wagon and both were mares; one an earth pony, but I had never seen the other kind before... kinda bug-like. The earth pony had a flower for a butt tattoo but the other did not. As soon as Kathryn saw them, she stopped the truck, jumped out, and ran over to them. Raea did jump the middle and ran out after her owner.
I watched as Kathryn spoke with them briefly, seeing them nod a few times and then Kathryn point back down the way we came, clearly giving them directions. The two new ponies had a look of relief on their faces as Kathryn hurried to the back of the truck, yanked out something and then took it back to them. It was the partial case of water bottles. Sarah & I watched as the earth pony emptied a first bottle all over her head and then drank the contents of a second; but she did not offer any to her companion. Some more talking was done and a few more bottles were added to their cart before Kathryn & Raea returned with the rest of the bottles.
They both jumped back into the truck, Raea climbed back with Patrick while Kathryn placed the water case between her & Sarah on the front seat. She grabbed the radio.
“Harbor City, this is Ocean Express. Come in please Harbor.”
“This is Harbor. Report Ocean.” Hearing Earl’s voice on the radio made Patrick feel a little homesick but not much.
“We found ourselves a pair of good ponies; earth pony and a bug-pony. Like the ones I told Rosie about from back in Farmville. They are 11B turn off on the 95 heading northward. If you could get Geode in a pickup and come get them, you’d save them another day of walking. Over.”
Silence reigned as Earl conversed with Rose May. “Agreed Ocean. Geode is on his way. Tell them to find shade in the mean time. Harbor out.”
Kathryn nodded, and then jumped back out of the truck, telling Raea to stay.
She approached the two ponies; the earth pony, exhausted but the bug staying stock still. “We got friends in the nearby colony. They’re sending a truck to come pick you up. Just say in the shade until he comes, ok?”
The earth pony nodded gratefully. “Thank you so much. We greatly appreciate this,” she said breathlessly. Kathryn turned to the bug-pony with no fear or hesitation. “You’ll help your friend get some rest?” she said.
“Of course,” said the mare in a monotone computer-like voice, before removing the harness and leading her companion to the nearby shade.
When Kathryn was satisfied, she trotted back to the truck, jumped in, closed the door, waved to the ponies and drove off.
About a half hour later, they got a radio back.
“Ocean, this is Jolly Roger. I got me a pair of stowaways and I'm taking them back to port. Thanks again for your help! Safe seas! Jolly Roger out.”
A snorting-like-laugh came from the back seat as Patrick realized that they had kept his pirate call sign for his old red boat of a truck. He also chuckled at Gary’s attempt and failure at the pirate voice.
Sometime later... still on the 95 ~Patrick
Manchester Pond should have been named ‘Manchester Lake’ for the size the thing actually is! ‘Pond’ just doesn’t do it justice! Seriously people!!
.... OK, so I'm bored again.... maybe I’ll nap....
June 14th, 2015 @ 11:30 PM –THE PLAZA HOTEL
Dear Journal,
We made it to Manhattan in less than 4 hours. We had passed the state line at Providence, Rhode Island but I was the only one to know it as Sarah, Patrick & Raea were all sleeping at the time.
Found in interesting spot for those of Harbor City to make a day trip down for... Providence has a section labeled Jewelry District. Might be worth it for Karen’s health; especially if they find the big gems she needs.
Raea had yawned when we crossed from Rhode Island and into Connecticut but not much else exciting there. Crossed a lot of bridges and even a town called Branford... one letter off from where I started. New Haven had Yale University but I doubted that any pony cared about Ivy League schooling right now.
Not paying any attention, the GPS actually took us into the heart of Manhattan. The ponies were all still asleep so I made an executive decision to bunk down in the most expensive, impressive hotel I could think of... THE Plaza Hotel at Central Park! Of course, I parked the truck out front of the main entrance like a boss. :P
The place is too beautiful for words and so I'm not even gonna try.
Patrick & Sarah took the most elegant wheelchair accessible rooms on ground level while I went exploring the higher levels with Raea. The scenic views from some of the higher levels were sheer beauty. But I was stupid and didn’t take the tablet with me to take photos for the others. :/ Oops!
Before it got too dark, we disconnected the RV hitch and drove just the truck down to One World Trade Center. Perhaps it was to honor those who were lost; perhaps it was help us see that even though humanity had experienced a disaster, we rose up from it and made it beautiful again. I think that we were meant to do that again here, now.
After that, we went down to the fashion district; Sarah & I got some more really cute (and expensive!) over tops to wear while on land. And then, for the heck of it, the four of us went for a swim in the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir of Central Park! It was cleaner than I expected but a very nice respite before heading back to the hotel.
Surprisingly, as we drove back to the Plaza, we did not see another pony! You’d think a place like Manhattan would have at least five of them, right? Patrick thinks that they would not have stayed in the city. “Probably set up shop in a more rural town where resources like farm land is far easier to come by,” he said logically as the four of us ate a late dinner in the posh dining hall. (Yeah, that was another TWO ‘No Dogs Allowed’ signs that we Frisbee’d to Raea on the street out front before letting her bury them in the park. LOL)
Oh yeah, and the RV had not been broken into while we were gone. So if any ponies HAD been there, they didn’t see us as hostile or useful. “Perhaps our tails scared them off,” Sarah had suggested in a small voice.
We could only speculate as we went back to the huge three-bed rooms’ suite on the ground level that we laid claim to for ourselves.
And strangely, despite all of the sleeping that the other two have done while getting here, they were the first to ‘hit the hay’, so the new saying goes. I’ll be joining them shortly... and I have a REASON to be tired! LOL -Kathryn
June 15th, 2015 @ 10:45 PM – White House Guest wing, Washington DC
Dear Journal,
(I'm trying out a new color of text because I'm starting to think that the light pink would be too hard to read.)
Kathy was so tired when we got back; she crashed on my couch instead of going to find her own room this time. I don’t really mind... she HAS been doing all of the driving for us!
So yeah, we started out at decent time in the morning, despite not wanting to leave THE Plaza Hotel. Breakfast in that dining hall again, I certainly felt like a princess... of course, that might have been the bridal tiara I had acquired while out ‘shopping’ yesterday. ;)
As we crossed the state line while going through the Lincoln Tunnel, we were all awake to do the ‘wave’.
And yes; this time, Patrick & I stayed awake while driving. We were on the I-295 when we spotted an earth pony trying to hang a sign for a colony just outside Philadelphia. He and two others had set up a colony at the Ramblewood Country Club, trucking in supplies from outlying areas and the city when needed. They even kept the name but now it was just simply ‘Ramble Wood’.
We were invited to join them for lunch and accepted. The club came with three individual pools: deep for diving, medium lane for racing and a smaller wave. Of course the three of us bolted for the wave pool! LOL
Lunch was provided underneath the tent pavilion and we all enjoyed. Kathy insisted on sharing some of our supplies and so she had brought out some of the cob corn to grill on the outside BBQ.
The whole visit only lasted about 3 hours. I remember the earth pony stallion from the road, a stallion pegasus and a unicorn mare. They were really friendly but I can’t recall their names.... but two of them had come from Manhattan so that explained the empty city.
Patrick says the pegasus’s name was Mike but that’s all he can remember too, mainly because they exchanged preening tips for their wings.
We crossed another state line at a massive bridge, spanning the Delaware River... so yup! Chalk up another merpony ‘wave’ for our journey!
The 295 turned back into the 95 and Patrick had wondered why we had not just stayed on the 95 the whole time. “Then we never would have stopped at New York City, stayed at THE Plaza Hotel and never have learned about Rumble Wood. It was totally worth the detour,” Kathy said firmly.
Was not long before we crossed the Delaware/Maryland state line and yet another ‘wave’. I've begun to wonder if we’ll ever get tired of doing those at state lines.
We crossed another massive bridge at the Susquehanna River... God, I love the names of these rivers! I really hope we keep them in the future! LOL
We found another highway rest stop after that so Kathy pulled in, filled the truck & tank before putting in the fuel stabilizer, leaving a pre-made sticker on the pumps letting any future pony know when the stuff had been added and how much (each sticker had space to write that in; my magic writing is better than her mouth writing). The restaurant had nothing useful but the mini store did have water, iced tea, juices and trail mix.
Going through Baltimore (strange urge to call it ‘Baltimare’ for some reason), we saw pony-made signs directing survivors to travel to town of “West Friendship”. Yeah! No lie! The GPS even shows it on the map! It’s an actual place! And now I guess that ponies have set up a shop there. But we did not detour; we were so close to Washington DC.
And of course... we HAD to stay in the guest wing of the White House!
Yeah, we wanted to do the tourist thing but first, Kathy had found a huge solar panel installation on the roof of one of the White House employee (?) buildings, in the back near the basketball court. She insisted that we disconnect it and load it into the RV’s under-carriage storage for bringing it with us.
It was A LOT of solar panels! We ran out of space before we even got half of them. Kathy hated to leave them behind but she knew they would not survive the journey in the flatbed.
So THEN she allowed us to do the tourist thing with the ‘shopping’ and seeing at least two of the Smithsonian museums before seeing the Capitol building and Library of Congress. She didn't seem all that excited but I had to keep reminding myself that she's originally Canadian.
As it was getting late, we headed back to the White House, took a dip in the swimming pool; then we made dinner and ate it in the Oval Office, sitting on the couches!
We could not bring ourselves to sleep in President Obama’s bedroom, so we took the guest rooms instead; thankfully all on one level!
And like I said before, Kathy crashed out on my room’s plushy couch before she could go find her own room. I simply draped a blanket over her form and just let her sleep. –Sarah
June 16th, 2015 @ 7 pm – Charleston Naval Complex, North Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Dear Journal,
Today is our last full day on the road. Sadly, I don’t have much to report on this leg of the journey. We left the White House around 11 AM after breakfast – and Sarah insisting we leave a note in the president’s bed room, telling him of what’s happened – and then heading out on the I-95 S.
Everyone stayed awake again going though Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia; another ‘wave’ passing the Virginia/North Carolina line; uneventful passing Rocky Mount and Fayetteville, NC; ‘wave’ again at North/South Carolina line and then we found refuge at the Charleston Naval Complex where a single pair of ponies had set up shop.
Nathan (unicorn stallion; former soldier at the base) and Matthew (earth pony stallion; farmer from outlying area) had laid claim to most of the one building with its roof already covered in solar panels. We were invited to share said building and although Sarah & Patrick accepted, Raea & I have decided to stay in the RV. I didn’t even bother to open anything, in case we had to leave for whatever reason.
A plot of grass land nearby had already been tilled and turned into a field of crops. Nothing we had not already seen before.
The stallions had not even given any thought to a name for their colony.....
Kathryn, completely exhausted from the long drive, fell fast asleep before she could even finish her entry.
They set out around 10 AM, saying good bye & wishing luck to Nathan and Matthew.
The road was uneventful until they crossed the SC/Georgia state line and passed west of Savannah. Kathryn, very focused on the road, didn’t see the grey mare walking in the opposite direction. It was Sarah who noticed and pointed her out.
Kathryn stopped the truck, slung a crossbow and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder and jumped out of her seat; Raea was a few paces behind her but not for long. Kathryn still had not forgotten Bad-News-Bob and so she approached any lone pony with caution.
This mare, an earth pony, was clearly still clinging onto her humanity by wearing slightly baggy children’s clothes: t-shirt and shorts, a hole ripped in the latter for a tail hole, and stretched out sandals on her hooves. She was towing a gardening wagon behind her on some straps arranged like a harness. Kathryn saw a food cooler and a full & an empty 4L bottle of water.
When the mare recognized the sound of hoof-steps, she looked up but her eyes went to pinpricks when she saw the dog. She tore off the harness and back-pedaled until she backed right up to the guardrail of the highway.
“Please, please don’t hurt me! Take whatever you want; take the whole wagon... just please don’t hurt me!” she pleaded, hyperventilating in the process.
Kathryn shook her head and turned to Raea. “Raea, show friend,” Kathryn said, pointing a hoof at the pony. Raea dropped down to her belly and crawled forwards until she reached the grey mare; the mare was too afraid to move. Raea gently sniffed a hoof and then started licking the mare’s face in a friendly way, tail wagging enthusiastically. A few moments later, the mare started to laugh and relax.
“We’re not here to hurt you. Just to help you,” Kathryn said as she approached the mare.
They talked briefly; Kathryn offered a brand new 4L bottle so the mare, named Carrie, could ditch the empty one.
Carrie told how she was the only one from Savannah and that she was searching for more people-ponies.
Kathryn told her about the group at the Charleston Naval base but that she was too far away to call for a ride. Instead, Kathryn used the back clip to set a hoof-held radio on the harness and set it to the frequency that the boys at the base were using.
“When you reach the South Carolina/Georgia state line, call them up and tell them that the Ocean Express sends their love. We stayed with them last night; two males but they’re good people.”
Carrie thanked Kathryn & Raea with hugs and a few tears of joy.
Going her way, Carrie took up the harness and started a ground-eating jog northwards.
June 17th, 2015 @ 3:30 PM, I-95 Passing from Georgia into Florida ~Sarah
Dear Journal,
After Kathy helped a mare named Carrie find her way north to the Charleston Naval base, we were back on the road. It was getting too quiet so I started a dialog with the other two. I had voice recorded it on the tablet so I could transcribe it into an entry afterwards. :P Which I am doing right now!
What did you do for a living before the Event [that turned us into ponies]?
Ironically enough, I was the manager of the community center’s pool where Kathy found me! I also worked as a swimming instructor and volunteered at the local library.
I was an urban planner for the city of Brantford, Ontario, Canada. I helped plan out the new suburbs and served on the zoning council. I had dabbled as a life guard in my teen years during the summer.
I was a mechanic for the Coast Guard for nearly ten years; cars, trucks, helicopter, boats; if it had an engine, I probably had a hand in it at some point. I even fixed the heating boiler one night during a blizzard a couple years back.
Do you actually know what your ‘cutie mark’ means?
Meh, you’ve both seen what mine means... the merpony transformation when I want it or need it. It is pretty cool though.... being a rescue pony, and all.
I believe mine has to do with my knowledge of every ship out there. It was a hobby of mine to collect and learn about every type of ship past & present. I doubt that there’ll be any ships in the future. I can pilot pretty much any ship we could possibly find out there; hence the pirate’s scull & crossbones mark.
*sigh* I still have no idea what mine means. I woke up with it already there. I have a feeling that it has to do with magic in general but nothing beyond that.
Don’t worry, lass! We be ones to help ye figure it out.
*stifled giggles from Kathy*
What is something you wish you could have done as a human before this all happened?
Oh! That’s a toughie!
I wanted to ride the Trans-Canada Train through the Rocky Mountains. Taking Raea with me, of course.
I had hoped to take my helicopter pilot’s course; then I could have been a backup pilot for the rescue team.
Funny thing is, we’ve already done what I would have wanted to do.
*Silence*
I got to see Manhattan; shopping on the fashion district, saw the inside of the Plaza Hotel [slept in it!!] and saw Ground Zero... and then I got to see Washington DC and we even freaking stayed at the White House! That pretty much crossed off everything on my human bucket list.... and now we’re going down to Miami! Check another one off. Hahaha! The only other thing I could think of is walking the Great Wall of China. :P
Our families... who are you going to miss the most?
Both of my parents are dead but I will miss my younger sister Isabella the most. She was the one I left a note with before leaving Boston.
Both of my parents are still living... but I guess not right now. I’ll miss them for sure. I also left them notes too back at their house.
My mom’s been gone a while but I will certainly miss my dad. He has been a huge presence in my life, especially since mom passed. I'm glad I got to leave those flowers for her and the notes for my dad. If anything, I know he’ll be ok when he returns because he’ll be returning to a thriving pony city. And the notes will tell him that I was ok, that I got on with my life and went on an adventure.
OK, my turn. Now that we are ponies, what’s one thing you want to accomplish? And I don’t mean just contributing to what’s left of humanity. I mean something for you.
For example, I want to re-learn how to knit again with hooves. It was a calming pastime for me as a human and I still want to keep it up.
I want to take up languages; get some of those Rosetta stone lessons and learn all of the languages I can. I had learned French & Spanish in school and it was very useful in the Coast Guard but I’d like to keep going with some others like German & maybe Chinese.
*Whispers*... children. I want to be a mother.
*Silence*
That’s when the talking ended. I guess my answer was a little shocking to them and maybe they had not thought that far ahead yet. I have been thinking about that since I first met little David back in Farmville. He had been found by the two ponies who had adopted him. It came up again when I saw how young Karen was at Harbor City. She was essentially adopted by the whole group because of her young age.
I'm not expecting to have children of my own just yet... I might end up being one of those ponies who adopts a child survivor. –Sarah
The only sound in the truck, besides Raea’s panting, was the light tapping of Sarah’s stylus on the tablet’s screen and the ever so slightly increasing fan of the truck.
Kathryn cleared her throat as they came up to the Georgia/Florida state line sign and they all did the ‘wave’... the very last one of this journey.
When they reached Jacksonville, FL, they spotted the first pony-made sign in a while. According to the GPS, they were on the Fuller Warren Bridge when Kathryn spotted the sign. It had been posted over top of another irrelevant sign and they were simply glad that there was something there.
“No name mentioned but that’s ok... probably just an old sign when they didn’t have a name picked,” Sarah said casually.
However, the ETA (estimated time of arrival) on the poster made every pony in the truck more excited because they knew they were nearing their final destination. Even Raea picked up on the excitement, jumping into the front seat, climbing over Sarah and sticking her head out the window.
Kathryn may not have ever been to Florida herself but she watched enough TV in her youth to know many landmarks and certain places. CSI: Miami really helped on this but only to a point.
Coming up to Palm Coast, they all knew that they were only 4 km from the ocean on their left side.
Passing by Daytona International Speedway got the adrenaline racing and passing through the St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park got them really energized.
Before they knew it, they found a second sign telling them to stay on the I-95 for more directions. A third sign at Fort Lauderdale told them to keep going! Exit 16 took them to Biscayne Blvd and they followed more, smaller, signs until they came to the Biscayne Bay Campus. The main front sign had been covered with a new sign that merely read, “Campus City”.
“Oh, how original,” Kathryn muttered as she followed the pony signs to the University Center.
~”We’re here because we’re here!”~ sang Patrick as Kathryn pulled the RV into the parking lot next to the North Campus Academic Center 1 building, taking up eight normal parking spots (& one handicapped). It was the closest parking lot to the University Center... literately, walking distance and Kathryn could see that the campus was a LOT of walking!
The campus sprawled outwards from where they stood and looked around. Big open grass areas intersected by concrete paths and mostly white buildings sprawled outwards. Kathryn could hear & feel the ocean breeze even from there as it blew through her coat and she could smell the salty air. Kathryn serenely watched as the breeze drifted through the palm trees that were scattered in the immediate vicinity.
The silence was suddenly shattered. “Avast ye landlubbers! Who be in charge here??” Patrick’s booming voice ricocheted off the nearby walls, the RV and few scuttling clouds overhead.
A screech much like a hawk answered from a cloud far above them before a large shadow dove down to meet the merponies. The creature landing on paws & claws, Kathryn saw that it was a griffon!
It was clearly a she but not much else could be determined just by observation. She had the front claws that acted very much like human hands and she was very apt at sitting on her haunches. She was speaking into a light blue set of headphones with a feminine but scratchy voice and kept tapping the outside with a claw.
“Hey Jazz.... got me three ponies at the Head house,” she said into the microphone followed by a pause.
“Well, one looks like you but no wings; the other two are totally weird... riding some kind of PVC pipe set up like wheelchairs; he’s got wings and other’s got a pointy thing on her head.” This was followed by another pause by the griffon as she turned away from Kathryn, Sarah and Patrick and stared up at the clouds.
“Yeah, yeah, ok.... drop it would ya?”
She turned back to the three as she pressed a button on the side of the headphones.
“Welcome to Campus City. My name is Griz. I am the co-founder and my other half shall return when she is finished with her chores. May I ask what brought you three here?” she asked in a monotone.
Sarah & Patrick exchanged raised eyebrows as Kathryn stepped forward. “We are three merponies who wish to start a colony out in the ocean off your shores.”
“Merponies, huh?” Griz asked skeptically. Patrick, starting to feel like this griffon might try to give them the brush off, came forward and threw off the wet towel covering his tail and turned side-on to her.
She looked at it like it was nothing exciting, shrugged and then turned to the nearest building. “Meh, alright then... come on inside and we can wait for Jazz to return.”
Griz led them down a path and into a nearby building; she then led them to what appeared to be a lounge area covered in so many pillows and cushions from what was probably every couch & bed in the campus!
Kathryn watched as Griz opened a fully functioning broken-into vending machine. “What drinks do ya want?” she asked abruptly.
“Pepsi,” said Patrick. “Iced tea, please,” said Sarah. “I’ll have a root beer, thanks,” said Kathryn.
It had been weeks since any of them had a cold pop and it was very refreshing as Kathryn helped Sarah & Patrick to undo their wheelchair straps and make them comfortable on the couches. Sarah noticed the straw dispenser on a nearby counter and used her levitation to place them in each of the pop cans, including Griz’s Dr Pepper.
“So... where are you folks from?” Griz asked looking from Sarah & Patrick on the couch to Kathryn who had curled up on a spot of the floor.
“I'm from the Boston, MA colony; renamed Harbor City. Sarah is from Henrietta, NY colony; renamed Farmville. Kathryn, down there, is from Brantford, Ontario, Canada; completely abandoned.” Patrick used his hoof to point to each pony in question and what was left behind.
“I'm glad to hear of more people still sticking it out... but why did you three come all the way down here?” she asked.
“We’re merponies and we felt like we belonged in the ocean... but the water off the shore of Boston would not remain summer for very long, so we wanted to come down here,” Sarah explained.
Those thoughts rolled around in Griz’s mind as Sarah used her magic to pull out the shared tablet to write a quick entry. Griz could not miss the action. “There’s no point to those anymore. Internet doesn’t work,” she said pointing a claw (like a finger) at the device.
“How many times do I have to keep telling you, Griz? Tablets are not just for internet! Maybe she’s bored of you already and wants to play Solitaire,” said a new voice from the front entrance. Griz rolled her eyes and the merponies’ shrunk in surprise. The pony was a mare... a pegasus mare with dark purple body, freckles, yellow hoof tips & muzzle; a streaked mane & tail of a slightly lighter dark purple and lighter yellow. She wore a modified red collared sleeveless shirt, matching red rimmed glasses (with no lenses) and a black band watch on her left front hoof.
“Kathryn, Sarah, Patrick; meet my co-founder and thorn-in-my-side, Jazz.” The griffon pointed a claw at each merpony as she said their name before gesturing to the new pony.
“It’s a pleasure to meet ya folks,” she said nodding to Sarah & Patrick. “I'm sorry... I can see how they are merponies, but you missy, look different.” Jazz looked right at Kathryn, who was forced to glance up.
Sarah smiled and Patrick smirked knowingly as Kathryn activated her magic. Kathryn watched haughtily as Jazz’s frames slid down her face and both were frozen with surprise. She allowed herself a good long, full body stretch before turning back. “When I have all four legs, I'm called an Earth pony. Patrick and yourself, Jazz, are pegasi and Sarah is a unicorn. Griz, here, is a griffon and although our first one, not the most outlandish we’ve seen on our journey.”
Kathryn proceeded to fill in both griffon and pegasus on their whole entire journey, Patrick helping with the Boston part of the story while Sarah worked on her journal entry; after she explained to Griz and Jazz the purpose of having it.
June 17th, 2015 @ 8 PM – Biscayne Bay Campus, Miami, Florida; renamed “Campus City” ~ Written by Sarah
Dear Journal,
We’ve arrived at what appears to be a former university campus being slowly converted into a colony. There are only two people here so far; a pegasus with interesting fashion sense to compliment her interesting colors (lacking a cutie mark) and a griffon with a sour attitude.
If these two, Jazz and Griz, are the ones will be working with to create this merpony colony, this shall be interesting. –Sarah
Later that night, Kathryn pulled out all of their food coolers and started sorting everything inside. She pulled out everything she’d need to make a five-pony-salad and brought it inside to the lounge. Griz had disappeared about half hour prior; just as Kathryn began to wash the produce, Griz returned carrying four pre-cleaned & fire roasted fish. The smell almost made Kathryn gag but she managed to hold it down.
Jazz trotted over and quickly placed the fish under a meal cover they had scavenged from a hotel. “Yeah, sorry about that; we learned early on that Griz can eat meat but that I can’t and the smell makes me gag. Hence, the meal cover; most times she’ll just eat outside on the roof or something but we kinda wanted to have a meal in here tonight...”
Kathryn noticed that the meal cover really did work to hide the smell... at least until Griz would go to remove it and consume.
Kathryn prepared a veggie salad with lettuce, carrots, celery, radishes, cauliflower, cabbage, and cucumbers before making a large bowl of mashed potatoes (used water instead of milk for mixing) while Jazz kept herself busy with a sliced fruit salad of apples, pears, strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwi, apricots & dates as well as a large platter of large watermelon wedges and freshly squeezed orange juice (from a juicer that was clearly liberated from a hotel).
Jazz directed Kathryn to set the large square table that had been set in the middle of the room while she prepared a few more platters of granola bars, crackers with peanut butter (checking with Kathryn on the possibility of any allergies), and a large dinner plate of plain chocolate Chips Ahoy (most likely for Patrick to make a joke at).
Griz raised an eyebrow at the state of the table when Jazz finally called them all to dinner. “Oh sure... we pig out on a feast and then who gets to go salvaging?” she asked rhetorically.
“I've told you Griz... I am getting the hang of driving the bus; I can go,” Jazz said as she carefully placed the large jug of OJ on the table. But Griz was already shaking her head.
“Nuh uh! I ain’t pulling your sorry arse out of another crashed car! You just got lucky that car you wrecked didn’t have an air bag,” she said as she took off the food cover from her fish and started eating them by claw.
The three merponies looked up surprised at Jazz. “You crashed a car trying to drive?” Kathryn asked. Jazz appeared embarrassed. “I had only gotten my beginner’s two weeks before the day I woke up like this.”
Patrick & Sarah seemed to pale and while not very adverse on the driving age of the USA, she knew that this meant that Jazz was pretty young.
After a pause, Patrick shrugged. “Karen was younger,” he said simply. Jazz & Griz, having already been told about Patrick’s friends, simply nodded with Kathryn & Sarah.
“I am obviously able to drive so I can take Jazz out tomorrow for supplies,” Kathryn said casually. Jazz nodded eagerly as Griz nodded agreement.
The discussion then turned to other matters more at hoof/claw like sleeping arrangements. Kathryn expressed her desire to keep using her RV until the ocean colony could be built. The other two weren’t as enthusiastic for the idea of staying on land, but at the same time not ready for the ocean.
“There is a fitness center inside in the building next door and it's got a pool. The chlorine water has, strangely, long since evaporated through the vents but we have a fire truck that can pump ocean water from our beach and pipe it back into the pool,” Jazz said.
“Yes please!” shouted Patrick & Sarah at the same time, making everyone jump and then laugh.
At the end of dinner, Patrick & Sarah offered to wash the dishes while Jazz put the leftovers away, Griz went out to refill the indoor pool with the liberated fire truck & open a few of the side windows to let the breeze in; Kathryn disconnected & expanded the RV for her long term comfort, grabbing the tablet on her way out.
“I guess we’re here to stay, Raea.” Kathryn spoke out loud but the dog barely looked up from her newly acquired chew bone (from a very nearby pet store while Kathryn had taken her for a walk off campus).
June 17th, 2015 @ 9:45 PM – Campus City
Dear Journal,
We’ve arrived at Miami to find a colony of two. I'm not sure when we’ll be starting the ocean colony but I do know that Patrick & Sarah’s homes will be priorities. I can keep living in my RV for as long as is needed (and maybe even longer). But I don’t think that they’re inclined to remain living in a swimming pool that has to be emptied and refilled each night. :P –Kathryn
Early the next morning, Kathryn was woken by an excited Jazz who was eager to get going on the salvaging operation. “The earlier we leave, the sooner we get back,” she had said as she poured a mug of coffee.
Kathryn found herself in need of the drink if she knew she was going to be driving a lot.
After a quick breakfast of granola bars and an apple, Kathryn, Jazz & Raea loaded up in the Campus City modified medium sized diesel school bus and headed out.
Jazz pulled out a map of Miami that showed every grocery store and gas station circled in green and any already scavenged crossed in red. “Looks like we’re going farther out today,” Jazz said as she plucked a gel pen from an inside pocket. “Point me in the right direction of your farthest location. We have lots of time so we might as well go as far as we can,” Kathryn said as she put the school bus into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.
Neither pony said much during the drive other than the odd driving instruction. Raea contented herself with chewing her bone in the back seat while the crossbow & quiver sat in the middle between the ponies.
At one point the silence was beginning to bug Kathryn so she, habitually, stopped at a red light, grabbed the smaller tablet she only used for grocery lists & music, setting up the latter to play out loud.
A random play list of human music came from the tablet as Kathryn put her hoof down on the gas, running the red light. Songs like “Waiting on the World to Change”, “Pocketful of Sunshine”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Macarena”, “Pop 101”, “Radioactive”, and “Sea of No Cares” played out as Kathryn drove and hummed along.
Took them about an hour to reach the mall she intended to liberate. The mall contained two groceries and a dollar store. A nearby placed named Neat Meat made Kathryn shiver as she pulled the truck right up to the front doors. Between the two groceries, they managed to salvage 30 cases of water bottles, 21 of the 4L bottles and eight of the water cooler jugs; all of the produce had long gone bad but cereals, crackers, and granola bars were still good.
Then, while Jazz collected up the bars & Raea stayed with her, Kathryn wandered the other aisles. She found herself humming along the chorus of “Viva La Vida” while checking cans of food. A thought crossed her mind.
“Hey Jazz,” Kathryn said. “Yeah?” came from the other side.
“I can’t remember... does that kitchen of yours come with an electric stove top and pots?” Kathryn asked, not taking her eyes off the shelves. “Yeah, we do, why?” came the reply.
Kathryn grabbed a few cans of pasta sauce, bags of pasta, and cans of soup including chicken for Griz. “I've got an idea that might provide us with more food options.”
Just then, Jazz came around the corner with her own grocery cart already full with the bars, crackers and such. She saw what Kathryn was pulling down. “In the earlier days, Griz would simply go to the ocean and I’d content myself with simple salads and fruits. I didn’t know how to cook anything except chicken strips and fries... and now that chicken was out for me, I didn’t think to make more French fries.” She left her cart and suddenly galloped to the frozen section. Kathryn thought her brave for venturing down there.
Jazz came back with four large bags of French fries on her back. “I found these in the freezer room of the back storage. I figure that they might still be good and it could not hurt to try,” she said as she placed them in the child seat of her cart.
“Might hurt if they’ve gone bad,” Kathryn said as she approached the cart and tapped a hoof at the bag to find it surprisingly still not just frozen, but frozen-solid! “Well, if the kitchen has some trays, we can give them a shot.”
Kathryn had also grabbed every bag of chips & such from the snacks aisle. Feeling impulsive, she grabbed a pack of Skittles, tore them open with her teeth and popped a few in her mouth. She chewed for a moment as Jazz walked up to her. “They ok?” Jazz asked. “Meh,” Kathryn said with a shrug. “Not the best of foods but a sweet treat.”
Kathryn found the same for chocolate and gummies. It was not long before Kathryn found herself hoofing a bag of peanuts as the pegasus was appearing to slow down. “Eat. You pegasi ponies burn a lot more calories than the rest of us so you need to eat more often. Patrick pigged out on cookies on the whole way down here.”
After loading up the bus from both places, they drove up the street to a third grocery store to grab more of the same.
Nearby, Kathryn found a tree nursery and went to check it out. She found three apple trees and carefully loaded them into the bus. “Only a matter of time before our produce runs out and we’ll need to grow more. As an Earth pony, I have some kind of magic to help plants grow faster; Amy from Farmville told me so. Go see if you can find some other fruit trees,” she said pointing a hoof further down the lines of trees.
By the end of their search, they had 30 different apples, 17 orange, 18 pear and 15 banana trees loaded into the back of the bus, pots carefully covered in pieces of tarps and the trees lying on their sides. Kathryn’s limited contact had made a few of them to bloom flowers in an instant, surprising Jazz.
They backtracked and found a co-op where they could find seeds, soil, and (ironically) a horse drawn plow among other things.
Later, they found a store that sold storage sheds. “It’s a good thing you hooked up your flatbed to the bus,” Jazz said as Kathryn used a forklift to load the biggest of the pre-fabricated sheds onto the flatbed. “Hey, even if I had not, all we’d have to do is go next door,” Kathryn said pointing a hoof over her shoulder. Jazz looked to see a lot full of trailers. Jazz had an unnerving urge to give herself a face hoof.
They passed over another two malls on their way back mainly because they did not contain a grocery store. The Kmart brought back some memories for Kathryn as soon as they walked in the door.
There had been a Kmart in Brantford back when she was a child and she still had memories of getting separated from her mother at six years old. Thankfully, her mother had made sure she was at least a little street smart and knew exactly what to do. She had gone up to the lady at the jewelry display and told her that her mom had lost her. The lady had asked for Kathryn’s mother’s name and got on the PA system to call her mom to come to the jewelry section. Her mom had been so proud of her for remembering what to do; she had been taken out for ice cream as reward and she never had to wear that awful wrist bungee band anymore after that. (3)
The store even smelled the same! That Brantford store had closed when Kathryn was in her 12th year and replaced with something else that had not lasted as long before turned into something else. That store no longer smelled or looked like this.
“Are you ok, Kathy?” Jazz asked, worry in her voice. Kathryn cleared her throat and rubbed the tears from her eyes. “Oh, it’s nothing... just reliving some memories. Just great that Sarah is passing off her habits,” Kathryn said, a little irritated. “Let’s just get this over with...”
They grabbed another 12 cases of water bottles, 7 of the 4L bottles, and 3 water cooler jugs – Jazz explained that this area of town would not likely have many people using those and that they were lucky to find what they did.
A Home Depot provided another two gennies for them to use; another 12 gas stations got the fuel stabilizer & stickers (with Sarah’s magic writing pre-dated on each one) on their way back to campus and both gennies were filled to the brim.
Kathryn thought about a lot of things but one had been tossed around for a while. She hit pause on her music and turned to Jazz. “All day yesterday, we talked about us merponies... but what about you and Griz? How did you two meet? Who was it that decided to set up the colony at the campus?”
“Oh! That was all Griz. I'm actually not from Miami... I came north from Key West two days after I woke on May 30th. Griz has been here since day one. He... err, she... was an employee of the campus before the Event.” Jazz worried that her slip up had been noticed. But it had been.
Kathryn stomped her hoof on the brake pedal, letting the tires squeal and the bus slide a little on the pavement. She turned to Jazz very slowly and methodically.
“He? HE? Griz is a HE??” she asked incredulously.
Jazz sighed. “No, she WAS a he... I'm sorry. He asked me to not say anything to you ponies. He doesn’t want the confusion. He thought that if it stayed between him and me, no one else would need to know. He would not try to mate and the knowledge would die with us.”
Silence reigned for a time inside the bus before Kathryn let up the pedals and let the bus continue down the road.
“What is his full name?” Kathryn finally asked. “Arthur Grizwald,” said Jazz. “Oh, and before you ask, I really am a girl... before and after.”
“So are the three of us, so far as I know,” Kathryn replied.
Being gone all day, Jazz & Kathryn were too tired to plan anything special for dinner from their salvaging. Griz, Patrick and Sarah met them at the front entrance to help them unload everything.
They were surprised to see a shed on the flatbed and all of the trees in the back of the bus. “I have plans to convert a section of flat land into an orchard,” Kathryn said simply. For the time being, they simply unhitched the trailer, moving it to the side and stand up all of the trees nearby in groups.
Patrick & Sarah loaded all of the stuff onto trolleys they had from the campus’ cafeteria and moved it all inside to the kitchen area. They were surprised to see the pasta stuff but said nothing for now.
Griz wasted no time at getting one of the new gennies hooked up to a small freezer and setting the second in storage until it was needed.
“Jazz, if you and Griz don’t object to it, I’d like to get the orchard planted tomorrow. Sarah, I could really use your help on that. Patrick, if you, Jazz and Griz could fly out and start scouting a spot for the ocean colony, we could start working on that by the day after.”
Kathryn had kinda taken charge but Griz did not seem to mind... at least until Kathryn hooked a hoof around her front leg and dragged her into a nearby men’s bathroom.
She slammed the door shut, locking it in the process and practically dragged her to the back of the stalls. “Jazz let slip the truth while we were out in the bus. You’re a guy before this all happened,” Kathryn said bluntly.
Griz’s wings popped open in surprise and she stammered to explain herself but was cut short by a swipe of Kathryn’s hoof. “I don’t care Griz... this thing did a lot to us and I frankly don’t care. What I do care about is secrets. I made the mistake of keeping one from a pony and I nearly lost him as a friend. I don’t want that to happen between us, land and sea. If you want history to remember you as a girl, that’s fine. We’ll keep using the female pronouns in the journal entries. But if you want, I can refer to you as male. But you must tell the other two the truth and let them decide for themselves.”
Griz dropped her wings slowly and nodded her head. “I don’t care which you use in person but I want the history books to show female. It would be less confusion and I had left Arthur behind. And I’ll tell the others,” she said.
“Good. I’ll send them in one at a time to see you.” Kathryn walked out of the washroom.
Moments later, Patrick walked in, a little lost.
And so it began.
Patrick was very understanding and loved the idea of having a bro back.
Sarah said she needed some time.
Jazz had found a tray and made a bag of French fries just fine in the oven, maybe over cooking them slightly just to be sure. Kathryn drowned her's in ketchup while others used vinegar or melted cheese.
No one experienced any problems that night after dinner so that meant that they were still good.
Griz volunteered to do the dishes by herself so the rest of us could get some sleep early. No one raised a fuss.
June 18th, 2015 @ 8:30 PM – RV parked at Campus City
Dear Journal,
Jazz & I had gone out to salvage; got a bunch of trees to start an orchard tomorrow that Sarah & I are going to plant. We also got a storage shed for the gardening stuff; the fliers are going ocean scouting tomorrow.
We learned something surprising about Griz today. We’ve come to an understanding and she’s good with it.
Raea seems to like the campus. Lots of trees for her to pee on and squirrels to chase! :P –Kathryn
PS. Jazz has already started calling me Kathy. I'm not sure if I'm happy with that or not.
It was another early morning but for Patrick this time. Griz wanted to be back with plenty of time to empty and refill the pool before dark. And since they had no idea about where to put the colony, they wanted lots of daylight.
Patrick was able to take the pickup’s GPS and use that for latitude & longitude coordinates for any spot they might want to flag for underwater exploration. Today’s trip was aerial surveillance only.
Patrick, Jazz and Griz each filled a backpack of food & water supplies before strapping the backpacks to their bellies (i.e. wore them backwards) so that their wings would not be encumbered. Patrick also left his wheelchair behind and used a rig of simple straps to keep his tail curled up under his body. “If I start to feel dry, I’ll just drop down to the water for a bit,” he said when Sarah raised the issue of him drying out.
Kathryn never heard the three fliers leave that morning. She had been more tired than she originally thought and so she had overslept by a couple of hours. But she had a running agreement that Sarah was to wake her if it was getting to 10 AM, which she did.
Breakfast consisted of dry cereal, eaten like popcorn, fresh apple juice and cantaloupe wedges.
Immediately following the dishes being washed, Kathryn, Sarah & Raea went outside to do some scouting of their own; to pick a spot for their new orchard.
They found a rectangle plot of grass just southwest of the University building –along Bay Vista Blvd- that would be perfect, according to Sarah. The bonus of that land was that it already had a sprinkler system installed! They’d have to figure out how to get it running again.
They decided to leave the existing palm trees intact and just plant around them.
Kathryn went back for the pickup already hooked up to the shed’s trailer and moved that first, placing it in the awkward strip of grass between Bay Blvd and the rectangle road of the parking lot.
They placed scavenged rope to lay out a pattern for a path down the direct center of the orchard, so that all types could be accessed more easily. Kathryn used the horse-drawn plow to take up the grass and Sarah followed with some bags of gravel they found in another landscaping storage facility.
After that, they laid the rope out again at right angles from the new path to mark out the spacing for each type of fruit tree so that each would have its own section; again, bypassing the little pond located in that spot.
Sarah had found paper and little bits of wire and had made little tiny flags the previous night when she first learned about the trees and so she walked each section, measuring as she went so that each tree would be placed carefully between its neighbors, counting out the flags as she went. In the end, Sarah figured they came out perfectly with the pears, oranges and bananas but ran out of space for the last two apple trees.
“We’ll plant them out by the RV in the parking lot. You know, in case I need a midnight snack,” Kathryn joked. Sarah took her seriously and found a spot for the last two trees on one of the parking lot grass islands. “We’ll wait for the others to come back and we can plant these two together,” Sarah said proudly. Kathryn simply rolled her eyes and they went back to the orchard with all of the trees loaded onto the now empty flatbed.
Using shovels and hooves, Kathryn dug the holes for each tree; Sarah stood ready to remove the pot from each tree, plant it in the hole and wait while Kathryn filled in the soil before sprinkling it with a watering can filled from the pond. Kathryn placed a tiny bit of Earth pony magic into each tree; just enough to stimulate root growth and help with any dehydration the tree might be suffering from.
They managed to plant every one of the 28 apple trees before needing a break for lunch. Sarah wanted Kathryn to simply grow one of the apple trees to maturity and then they could just eat the apples but Kathryn was too tired for that. “Besides, going back to make lunch will give me time to regain my magic again for the other trees and proper food will give me strength.”
Lunch was a simple but nourishing affair; Kathryn caved and made them a pot of tomato soup with salt crackers to break over. “If only we could bake some bread, I’d kill for some grilled cheese right now,” Sarah said. “You’d be dumb arse lucky to find any cheese that’s not gone bad,” Kathryn replied. “Griz had some on her French fries last night,” Sarah pointed out. “Touché,” Kathryn said with a laugh.
“I still can’t see Griz as a guy... I still keep referring to her as, well, ‘her’,” Sarah said. Kathryn nodded. “I feel the same way. Griz is a girl now and it makes no difference to anything. ‘Him’, ‘her’, ‘it’... none of it matters now. We are all beasts... sex will only matter when mating begins.”
Silence reigned for a moment. “Geez Kathy, that’s deep,” Sarah said in a hushed voice.
Both ponies burst out in laughter, startling Raea from her spot on the floor. “Sorry about that Raea,” Kathryn said as she stroked the dog’s head to calm her down.
Lunch finished with the washing dishes and put them away.
Back out in the orchard, Kathryn & Sarah got all of the pear, banana & orange trees planted by the end of the day. Sarah brought along a basket of fruit so that Kathryn would stay energized and she made sure Kathryn got some rest in between the tree sections.
By the time the fliers returned at sunset, around 8 pm, they had the entire orchard planted and a few of them were already in bloom; the trees were all showing signs of health despite being in pots and abandoned for God-knows how long.
As the two ponies & griffon landed in the parking lot next to the orchard, all three dropped their wings in exhaustion. Kathryn was the first to hurry over to them; Sarah was right behind, levitating the basket of fruit with her.
Griz grabbed a pineapple with her claws and broke the tough outer shell with her beak & hungrily devoured the inner fruit. The other two ignored the oranges & bananas for the easier to eat apples, pears and strawberries.
“Don’t eat too much; you’ll spoil your appetite for dinner.” Sarah watched as the three fliers finished off the last of the soft fruits and Griz took up an orange, peeling the skin with her talons. “We’ll be fine... Jazz just decided to go further than the original plan,” Griz said with a shrug.
“I hope you guys got a tiny bit of energy left. We want to show you our newly planted orchard,” Sarah said excitedly, leading the way to the path.
Griz & Jazz walked the path while Patrick hovered along side; his wheels having been left at the main building. They were all impressed at the work having been done and even more at the fact that Kathryn was able to tap into Earth pony magic to help all of the trees.
“And don’t you fret; we had two trees left over. Sarah suggested we save them for planting when you guys got back. And we've already picked the spot,” Kathryn said, placing a shovel in Griz’s claws.
Leading the three fliers, Kathryn & Sarah took them to the parking lot island where Sarah had placed the flags earlier in the day. The two flags had been set on either side of existing trees as Kathryn still did not wish to displace healthy trees just for fruit.
Griz dug the holes while Patrick hovered above them, holding the tree as Sarah removed the pot and then placing it in the finished hole; Jazz filled in the hole and Kathryn added her magic into the roots as Sarah came back with the pond-refilled watering can.
“Tomorrow, Griz, I’d like to see if we can get the orchard’s sprinkler system back up and running but not on a genny. I brought a ton of solar panels with us so maybe we can lay those out on the dirt just north of the orchard and feed that into the pump system.” Griz looked up to Kathryn and simply nodded.
“What are we going to name the twin trees?” Sarah asked out loud. “How about we all sleep on it and decide tomorrow?” Kathryn said with a sigh. The others’ nodded agreement and started towards the main lounge.
Kathryn, not being as tired as she looked, pulled out all of the stuff to make pasta for dinner. She poured the tomato sauce into a pan instead of plugging in a microwave, even temporarily.
Kathryn had whispered to Griz that if she broke up her evening fish and mixed it in her pasta, none of the ponies could smell it anymore. Griz really liked that idea but was too tired to go out hunting tonight. “I don’t need it all the time. The pasta will be fine, Kathy.” Griz said as she curled up on a section of couch for a pre-dinner nap.
Dinner was a quiet affair despite Kathryn & Sarah asking for details. Patrick kept waving them off. “Can we talk about it in the morning? I'm just way too tired,” he said as he watched Sarah tie forks to the hooves of Kathryn, Patrick & Jazz. Sarah could use her magic & Griz her talons but cutlery was not designed for hooves in mind. The ribbon ties worked for now but they would have to think of another solution later for self-use.
Kathryn sensed that Griz had something on her mind. “Griz? Is everything ok? You’re awfully quiet,” she said. “I had been thinking ideas of how to make this colony more productive.... food wise, I mean. Your orchard proved it’s possible... maybe we can do the same for farm crops. There’s a spot of land south of the obstacle course that might work,” Griz gestured with her talons, pointing in general directions.
“Obstacle course?” Patrick asked. “Old dog course,” Griz explained as they all looked from Kathryn to Raea. Kathryn only nodded thoughtfully.
“Is it possible for us to get the farm field planted tomorrow?” Jazz asked, looking to Kathryn who shrugged.
“I had hoped to go scout those water spots with Sarah & Patrick but I guess food is more important. Pat, if you take Sarah tomorrow, you guys can do the underwater locations, ax off any of those with problems or are too cold. Pare your list down to your top five favorites and we’ll go see them later together. Griz, Jazz and I will be planting a new farm field... oh! And getting the orchard sprinklers running. I can’t wait until Campus City gets a land Earth pony,” Kathryn said.
“Maybe this is why you got your transforming magic, Kathy... so you can help both halves to grow,” Sarah said.
Again, Kathryn nodded thoughtfully.
Jazz & Griz took care of the dishes so that Kathryn, Sarah & Patrick could go over the locations they had marked down (despite Patrick's begging to wait until morning), doing an initial paring down; taking out anything too far north or south or too deep. That alone removed 5 locations and kept them closer to home base.
Kathryn drove the truck out to a nearby camera store, grabbing a few GoPro cameras, underwater housings, extra cables and large capacity memory cards.
Upon her return, she labeled each memory card for each location and then marked those locations on a new city map, placing it on the side wall’s cork board. “You’ll find an empty boat, Patrick, and drive that out to your spots using the boat to keep all of the memory cards safe. When you get back, you’ll download all of the photos to the main tablet, use the printers in the office to make some screenshot photos of each and add them to the board. Don’t forget to take depth and temperature readings of each place. We’ll cut the list down from that data to the top five and then we’ll go see those top ones together. But just so you know... it might be at least a week before we can start building the ocean colony,” Kathryn said, finally pausing for a breath.
The others were silent and surprised by Kathryn’s authority but since growing crops & planning cities were her specialties, they would refer to her.
“Now, if you all don’t mind, I'm exhausted and I’ll need more magic tomorrow to get those crops growing. If someone else could take Raea for her walk, I’d be really grateful,” Kathryn said with a sigh, walking out of the building and back to her RV.
June 19th, 2015
Dear Journal,
I'm doing this entry by voice because I'm too tired. *yawn*
Sarah & I spent the whole day planting our new orchard. My Earth pony magic let me jump-start the trees’ growth. We could have fruit by next week.
Griz, Jazz & Patty Patrick went flying on an initial ocean scouting mission. They got some promising spots already. I'm sending Sarah & Patrick back out tomorrow to take photos and water data for me to pour over.
Griz & I are going to be planting a farm field, in a grass section just south of an old dog training obstacle course, and getting the orchard sprinklers hooked up to solar panels. *YAWWWWWN*
If I'm gonna make my home in the ocean, Campus City really needs a land Earth pony and soon. I already feel bad for Sarah and Patrick, having to still live in that fitness center's swimming pool. –Kathryn
I'm doing another voice-to-text entry but this time not in my RV; I'm currently reclining on a tiny stretch of beach, just off the old outdoor aquatics center; the beach Griz uses to pump the ocean water from to refill the indoor pool. It’s been such a long two to three days, Griz told me to go relax; she’s finishing the solar panel’s install to the orchard’s sprinklers.
But I'm getting ahead of myself again.
I had gone to bed early last night and so in contrast, I got up early today. I wasn’t the only one; and I'm not talking about Raea.
Griz was already up and disconnecting the sprinkler system from the electric power when I arrived at the maintenance building. I found her casually popping animal crackers into her beak as she worked on the breakers and wires. “You know... eating animal crackers might be seen as cannibalism if we’re not careful,” I had joked to her. She proceeded to dunk her crackers into a jar of red jam. She’s got a sense of humor, that griffon.
I polished off three granola bars as I lent her a hoof at getting the new cables rigged up. “We’ll lay out the panels later. Planting that field is my priority right now,” Griz had said, and I concurred.
Griz had already moved the horse-drawn plow and all of the seed supplies down to the new field. She had also used the salvaged rope to lay out the sections for each crop. The field she had laid out was huge but not impossible.
Plowing was awful... the plow was heavy and cumbersome. We had to take turns doing the plowing; I did it faster than Griz but we figured it was because of the Earth pony magic.
Oh don’t get me wrong! Griz is strong in her own ways... just not plowing!
We were able to save some room by planting the corn and peas together, putting up little bamboo trellises for the peas to grow on. That way, the peas would keep the weeds to a minimum and the corn would protect the peas from the harsh wind off the ocean. Sure, there is a bank of trees that break most of it but not all, and not if it’s blowing the other way.
Turns out, the field Griz picked ALSO has sprinkler system too! Dumb luck, I swear! That’ll save us a lot of time when we have to water anything... just go to the maintenance building (which Griz wants to rename ‘Engineering’{1} for some strange reason) and flip a couple of switches. That reminds me to hook up some timers....
Then again... I'm not entirely sure where the water for the sprinklers comes from. I’ll have to ask Griz that question tomorrow.
Planting had taken much of the day but not nearly as long as the orchard. It DID take more magic out of me and I was really exhausted by the time we finished. Each crop already had tiny buds showing on the soil... a scattering of speckled green.
That was when Griz brought me here and practically ordered me to turn merpony and relax. She said how whenever Patrick got really weak like I was looking, he’d let himself drop into the ocean and rinse off; he had said it was like an infusion of magic energy or some such. I gotta say, when I let myself into the water, I knew exactly how he felt.
It really IS like an infusion of something. Maybe it’s magic; maybe it’s something else. Either way, it’s fantastic and just what I needed! Had I known this last night, I might have slept here instead! LOL
Griz has left me here with Raea and my tablet but only after I had to beg for the latter. She wasn’t sure I’d relax but Raea had lain on top of the tablet until I took a nap. Having woken up, Raea bounded for the water and let me record my entry.
Oh great... she found a stick! :P Guess that means I'm done my entry for today. Kathryn signing off.
June 20th, 2015 –Sarah
Dear Journal,
Kathy is off exploring underwater or something... I'm not entirely sure. I just went to check on her and found the beach empty besides her towel and the tablet. So I figured I’d take this time to make my own entry for today.
Patty & I went out on a Coast Guard boat to do the underwater scouting of the locations they picked yesterday. I had packed a bunch of simple foods with us and figured we could always try the local water flora if we got really hungry.
A couple of the locations we had to ax right off the bat. Tidal flows were too strong underwater or moving in the wrong directions.
A couple were too deep and thus, too dark to see even at mid-day. There would have been no way to even see the colony let alone, farm our own water crops.
Another spot turned out to be a hangout for local dolphins and Kathy had insisted that we not inconvenience any animals already laying claim to territory.
In the end of the trip, we were able to pare the list down to only four; one of them is almost directly east of Campus City from the outer shoreline. [CC is located on the tip of land surrounded by a bay but there are two isthmus’s between CC and the ocean. The one that backs onto the ocean is the outer; inside one is nothing but forest and pathways. Kathy says it’s a naturalized forest.]
My money, if I had any, would be put on that one. It’s deep but not too deep; plenty of light and good temperatures for both pony & crops. The bottom is mostly all sand; few scattered rock formations, maybe even some caves but we didn’t spare the time to look. Didn’t seem to be the home of any of the animals in the area and plenty of space for later expansion, depending on what ships we end up using.
My idea is to simply sink the empty boats and use those as our homes. Not much different than Kathy using her RV... I'm not talking cruise ships or anything! I was thinking just the small skippers, tugs and yachts.
We’d probably need to build a dock/marina out on the outer isthmus for working on the ships we intend to sink.
After we pick a spot, I'm hoping the three of us can go check out the local marinas for picking out our personal boats. Patrick will likely be responsible for sailing the ships back to the beach for now.
In the meantime, I've been trying to come up with names for our underwater colony. • Wildly Wet • Miami Marina • Waterworks • Pony Cove • Sunken Ship City • Atlantis 2
Hey, what can I say? I'm not that great at coming up with names. :P –Sarah
June 20th, 2015
Dear Journal,
Sarah and Kathryn are splashing each other in the water and Raea keeps chasing the waves. I figured I’d take a turn at an entry for today.
My vote is for the spot just directly east of Campus City. It’s a good depth, open concept and plenty of room to work with. The ocean bottom in this location was not all sand like the others; this had a HUGE section of what looked like stone slab... about the same, roughly in circular, size of the University building. Depending on the size of the ships we sink, I figure we could get easily 12 mid-sized ships on the slab...
But that will all be up to Kathy. I don’t mind her taking lead on this. After all, she was an urban planner before the Event. –Patrick
June 21st, 2015 @ 10:30 AM ~by Sarah
Dear Journal,
Things got bad last night; around midnight.
Kathy is sick.
Raea left the RV and found Jazz, licking her face and barking urgently until she got up and followed her back. When Jazz found Kathy the way she was, Jazz came back and woke everyone. (Patrick & I are still sleeping underwater in the pool at night. I guess Raea wasn’t sure how to wake us. Griz has an idea to rig an old school bell and how to train Raea for future emergencies; she thinks it can be adapted for the water colony later.)
Kathy was all feverish and sweaty... and she could not control her merpony magic; constantly changing back and forth. For that reason, we could not put her in the ocean or the pools; if she changes to land pony while underwater, she could drown before reverting back.
But I feel awful because she keeps crying out to go back into the water... begging for it.
When we tried to feed her fruits, she heaved them back up. She could not even keep bottled water down; she could only drink ocean water. Then we learned that salty stuff stayed down too; salt crackers, potato chips (regular only), French fries and heavily salted tomato soup.
Things got better around 3 AM, when the moon set on the horizon. I don’t think there’s a correlation beyond a merpony’s connection to the ocean tides. Patrick and I have felt it since day one, and I'm sure Kathy has learned to ignore it too by now. Kathy’s fever broke at the same time and so she was able to sleep more soundly.
So much so that both Patrick & Raea fell asleep on watch and nothing further happened to Kathy; even her sporadic merpony transformations were a thing of the past.
When I had just gone to check in on her and grab the tablet, Patrick was serving her some salted tomato soup; she seemed to be almost back to normal besides being really weak and having no memory of any of it.
Being weak, I can understand but no memory? That’s a little disconcerting.
Griz has said that the merpony visits to the water sites will have to wait until Kathy has fully recovered. She’s going to keep us busy with caring with the orchard & farm field instead. Jazz, Patrick & I will take turns checking in on Kathy as she sleeps. –Sarah
June 21st, 2015 ~Kathryn
<Voice recording; labored breathing can be heard and voice has a tired, groggy tone>
Journal,
Last night was awful....
I really don’t remember much of anything...
Sarah and the others tell me how I was but I don’t remember any of it....
I don’t recall waking to eat, or throwing up....
Or begging to go back into the ocean....
....
Instead, I'm wracked with guilt over postponing the scouting of the water colony locations.
Sarah says it’s ok.... that my health is more important. Patrick says we can try again tomorrow if I'm feeling up to it.
I just know one thing for sure....
I don’t EVER want to have my friends go through that again. I have to figure out what made me sick and avoid it.
This is Kathryn signing off.
...
Oh, PS... I don’t think this has anything to do with the moon.
I keep a lunar calendar on my personal tablet... the one that’s got all my music on it... and it was a waxing crescent last night.
Nothing unusual... if anything, I’d have expected the new or full moons to affect us more.
And yes, I do feel the ocean’s tides like the other two but I've learned to ignore it really well.
Ahoy! Sorry we ‘ave nah been updatin' as much as we should 'ave. I got a lot t' report so hang onto yer hats!
Kathy was nigh-on completely back t' normal by th' next mornin'... Raea had nah come t' find any o' us durin' th' night so no more fevers.
But th' strange thin' was: she’s now stuck in merpony form 'n could nah change back!
Despite our protests, Kathy insists that she's fine 'n we can still go on th' site location scoutin' today.
So we packed th' same backpacks from th' flyin' 'n Kathy used me wheels while I flew along side; we were only walkin' as far as th' beach; we'd swim from thar 'n unlikely that we'd be goin' a-shore fer anythin'.
Th’ swim out to th’ ocean from Campus City was a bit o’ swimmin’ but Kathy seemed happy t’ jus’ be back in th’ ocean.
(OK, stopping with the Pirate.... not as fun as text as it is in voice; it’s hard and I'm out of practice!)
While we were swimming for the farthest location, Kathryn confessed that she has been starting to remember what happened during her sick night. I think she called it “delayed memory” or some such.
She then proceeded to apologize for everything she did recall doing... up-chucking, waking us from sleep, being a nuisance. A look passed between me and Sarah; we just decided to accept her words and move on.
We weren’t even half way to the top location when Kathy called a stop and said, “To hell!” with the first location; she said it was WAY too far from CC to be any current use to us. “Mark it for future generations’ expansion but for now, it’s too far to travel from Campus City,” she had said.
The second was not that far from where we stopped and turned back and Kathy scrutinized it from every direction before saying it was a possibility. “A bit farther than I’d have liked but far closer to where we want to be,” she had said. –Yes, I do recall everything she said because I recorded it all on a series of GoPro’s I carried with me! –
We skipped right along to the #3... The one that both Sarah & I love and think it’s the best one. I got ahead of Kathy and recorded her reaction as we exited the 20ft tall kelp forest just north of the site. Her face lit up like nothing I had ever seen; I knew she loved it as much as we had.
“We don’t even need to see location four. This is it. THIS will be our colony!”
Kathy called the rock formation a plateau and said it would make a perfect foundation for our sunken ships. The kelp forest to the north had already proved that it was an ideal location for growing water crops and the sun was gleaming brightly down into the water so we could sea (ha! ha! ha!) the whole thing.
I had done a panoramic shot of the whole place with the GoPro and then turned it off to save space on the card. I hovered in the water with Sarah & Kathy, both lost in their own thoughts.
No idea what they were thinking; but I was imagining the colony all built up with a variety of ships purposefully sunk, neatly plowed sand off to the northwest ready for planting, multiple merponies swimming around and waving to each other.
Kathy then suddenly dropped to the plateau; I fumbled and started recording again. I filmed as she started picking up stones from around the plateau and started building a round circle, building it up in multiple rows until it almost resembled a stone wishing well.
She then proceeded to fill the middle with sand; Sarah had found a HUGE piece of slate slab that she could shovel the sand from the bottom and into the middle. Kathy came back with a few pieces of seaweed & sea grass, roots and all, transplanting them into the top, like a stone planter.
I found a piece of driftwood nearby and stuck that in the very center of the planter, tying on the white bandanna I had worn around my neck that morning (instead of my goggles). Kathy simply smiled and nodded as she added sea shells to the outer rim of the planter.
The three of us standing back from our master piece, Sarah whispered, “What are we going to call it?”
“None o’ yer suggestions, that’s fer sure!” I joked behind the camera. I had been rewarded with a hoof punch to my shoulder.
“Bermareda Circle,” Kathy said.
Pause of silence as the idea sunk in (no pun intended there!)
“Ahh!” said Sarah, who seemed to like it.
I didn’t care either way so I simply nodded when Kathy looked at me.
“How did you come up with that?” Sarah asked.
Kathy was quiet for a bit but then said, “I read what Sarah wrote about calling Baltimore “Baltimare” and I thought it was funny because I had had the same thought myself at the time. When I was sick, I kept hearing a voice telling me ‘Bermuda Triangle but pony it’. Then I remembered a song from my childhood in Girl Guides... Girl Scouts to you...
Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other’s gold.
A circle is round, it has no end. That's how long, I want to be your friend.
A fire burns bright, it warms the heart. We've been friends, from the very start.
Across the land and across the sea, Friends forever, we will always be.
Certain verses resounded with me. So, instead of triangle I thought of a Circle for our colony’s name and the overall shape... this planter is the center of the circle and we lay out the ships in alternating eccentric circles, like the petals of a rose. ‘Bermuda’ was fairly easy to turn pony: ‘Bermareda’. It’ll be called BC for short...”
“I love it,” said Sarah.
“I concur,” I can be heard to say on the video.
I found another stick of wood, planted that in the sand upright, strapped the GoPro to it and set the timer, taking a picture of the three of us beside the planter.
And thus, Bermareda Circle was born on June 22nd, 2015!
We showed Griz & Jazz the GoPro video of BC that night after dinner. By then, Kathy got her merpony magic back to working like normal so I got my wheels back too.
Sarah transferred the photos to the shared tablet and made the group picture the desktop image before hooking it up to the only working printer and making a copy for the cork board.
Kathy went over to the map and circled the #3 spot with a red marker and then labeled it ‘Bermareda Circle’.
“Tomorrow, I want us to go find our ships,” she pronounced.
“I already got mine,” I said with a shrug.
Everyone in the room looked right at me... some with confusion, some with envy.
“What? When? Where??” asked Jazz.
“I spotted her from the air when we went flying that day. I went back after our brainstorming, as soon as Kathy had gone to bed early, and I sailed her to the south coast of Sandspur Island, beaching her up on the sand.” Sandspur is that little island to the south of CC; we pass by on its east coast as we swim out to the ocean.
“Oh, and her name is Jolly Roger 2, btw.... JR2 for short,” I added.
(1)
She’s a beauty! White carbon fiber hull, wooden plank exterior... equally wooden plank interior with a good sized Captain’s quarters.
I might see about taking out a wall or two to make it more open concept but we shall see.
Earlier today, I captained the Coast Guard boat out to Sandspur to take all of us out to see JR2. She weathered the last couple of days ok on her own.
Griz admired her mast from the sky; Sarah & Jazz explored the inside; Kathy bumped the hull with her hoof to test the strength. “Yup, she’s perfect for you Patrick... modern but piratey; just like you,” Sarah had said when she came back out.
Kathy poked her head inside for a moment before hopping back down to the beach, where Sarah & I had been soaking our tails. “We’ll have to pull out the carpet and drill some holes in the hull to let the water in, but she should sink just fine for ya, Patrick. That’s one less ship for us to find, eh?”
JR2 had plenty of fuel left so I had suggested we use her to go find the others; she runs on gasoline and I figured, why let it go to waste?
Kathy & Griz pushed her back into the water while Sarah & Jazz beached the Coast Guard boat; then everyone climbed (or in Griz & Jazz’s case, flew) on board.
I captained her out into the bay, the bridge being tall enough to let JR2’s mast to pass easily underneath.
Kathy had brought her GPS and the map from the wall with us so we could mark down certain things. JR2 had come with some anchors and buoys so Kathy wanted to mark BC on the surface with them.
We found a bunch of life guard huts along the ‘Haulover Beach’ (according to GPS) and Kathy had the idea of tearing some of them apart for wood to build a marina so we could work on the ships closer to where we plan to sink them. “Not this first one,” she had said. “The ones further down. This #1 we leave intact in case of emergency.” The idea had merit and so we all agreed.
Griz pointed out the emergency dune buggy parked next to it. “We can gather the wheels from the fuel-empty buggies and put them on the flatbed trailer and then haul it with one buggy that does work.”
After a look between them, Griz & Jazz had suddenly taken to the air. “You ponies don’t need us to find your ships. We’ll get started here on the marina,” Griz said, pointing with her talon from us on the boat to the dune buggy to the sand directly in front of it.
I gave a simple wave before turning JR2 back towards the way we came, back into the bay of Campus City but steering south to locate nearby mini marinas for all of the boats.
We ended up finding Sarah’s boat down at the Pelican Harbor Marina. A dandy of a little ship with only one bed and no carpet anywhere so it only needed the engine removed and a good cleaning.
(2)
Sarah renamed the boat, “Sea Splasher” the moment she saw it. We knew she was in love with it.
I spent an hour teaching her how to pilot the boat so she could get it back to Haulover beach and lend Griz & Jazz a hoof on the new marina.
We ended up farther down than location #4 on the map but Kathy had found a shopping mall pretty much right on the water and so she insisted that we go and check it out! [GPS: Miamarina] I will never understand girls and their need to shop.
Kathy went nuts when she found a Disney store and Claire’s; my mind was totally on the store called GameStop... I haven’t played any video games in ages! And now I'm in a metaphorical library with no late fees. :D
The visit to that mall ended after Victoria’s Secret and Kathy found her boat in the marina; she had spotted it from a window in Victoria.
(3)
Kathryn renamed it “The Escape”; she explained that her plan was to keep both the RV & have her own ship in the water, so if needed she could be in either place and stay the night if required. “Plus, the RV gives Raea a home when I'm in the water as she can’t come with me.”
Kathy’s boat is far older than other two but still well cared for (and the manuals were old paper). Similar interior to Sarah’s but only one upper level and cleaner lines.
‘Escape’ was moored on an outside dock so it was a simple thing to get JR2 into position and then, since Escape was smaller, simply tow her away.
We backtracked up north and found Mt Sinai Medical Center on our way! There was no marina so we simply pulled the two boats up alongside of the back driveway, a road simply labeled “Edward”. I used a beach anchor to hold both boats in place while we went ashore to see if we could find anything useful.
And oh boy did we ever!
His name is Dr Jamie Jones. He’s an Earth pony.... a LAND Earth pony! He’s got a dark blue body, blue streaked white mane & tail; wears a rainbow colored headband and a crisp clean white shirt that has clearly been modified to fit him. His cutie mark (?) is strange for a doctor: a brown pocket filled with pens and pencil.
We were searching for first aid kits, making a lot of racket by the way, and he had snuck up on us. I'm sure Kathy could describe this part better...
The first things out of the Doctor’s mouth was, “Who the blazes are ya and what are ya boy?”
After been nearly scared out of our skins, Kathy calmly explained that I was a merpony and she, like him, was an Earth pony. “My name is Kathryn; his is Patrick. We only came here for medical supplies for our colony.”
He had dropped the IV pole he had been wielding like a weapon and hurried over. “There are more of you? Where? I've been alone for the last three days,” he said, grey eyes wide and pleading.
Kathy & I realized pretty quickly that he was a recent returnee.
“We’re not that far from here, if you want to come back with us on our boat. Is it still ok for us to take supplies?” I had asked.
“Oh, of course! Go right ahead... I’ll just be a few minutes,” he said before running off.
He had come back carrying a hastily stuffed doctor’s bag in his mouth, a couple white lab coats draped over his back and another small duffle bag on top of the coats.
Kathy & I had loaded up a wagon (I had found outside) with as many kits as we could find and/or reach. We also grabbed some IV drip bags and a batch of syringes despite not knowing how to use them.
“Does your group have a medic?” he asked. Kathy shook her head.
“We’ve been lucky so far that we haven’t needed one but it was only a matter of time,” she said.
“Nuh uh!” I said. “You got sick the other night, Kathy. We didn’t know what the heck we were doing! You got better on your own and that was sheer luck.”
“Sick, you say?” he said. “OH, goodness me! Where are my manners? The name is Dr Jamie; Dr Jamie Jones, but please do not make the joke... it’s too old, kinda like me.”
I bit my tongue in order to stop the joke before it got out.
He then proceeded to check Kathy’s vitals right there in the storage bay! But she was having none of it. “No, no; please Doctor, we don’t have time for that right now. We need to be heading back so the others don’t worry about us. You can check me AND the others when we get back to Campus City.”
Dr Jamie conceded and then helped Kathy to pull the wagon out of the building. There had been a local map inside of Kathy’s boat and so I had drawn a boat route from the hospital to the location of Campus City and I left it taped to the inside of the windows at the main entrance, facing out.
He did raise an eyebrow when he saw the two boats but said nothing at the time.
It was not until we were back underway before we spoke.
“So, Dr Jamie, any reason you’re wearing a PRIDE headband?” I had asked out of the blue.
“That’s not polite, Patrick! For shame!” Kathy berated me.
“Oh no, it’s fine. To be honest, it belonged to a colleague who is... er, rather, was gay. He used to wear it all of the time to keep his wild hair out of his face. When my.... mane? would not cooperate with me, I stole this from his locker and found that it worked. I am a Straight Ally; in case you’re wondering.” Dr Jamie touched the headband with a hoof gently to adjust it slightly.
“What’s a Straight Ally?” I asked.
“It’s when you, yourself, are straight but you are supportive of those who are LBGT+. I consider myself one as well,” Kathy said as she took inventory of what we got.
I then proceeded to tell Dr Jamie about the cutie marks on our flanks. But like Sarah, he could not explain the cutie mark on his flank. “It was there when I woke up,” he said, slightly confused.
Silence reigned for a while before I let out a huge sigh.
“Are you gonna show him, Kathy, or am I gonna have to tell him?” I said finally.
“Huh? Oh.... yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said, slightly blushing. “I'm not just a normal Earth pony like you, Dr. I am a transformer and that’s what my cutie mark means,” she said as she moved to the open space and allowed her magic to take over.
Dr Jamie leaped from his seat in surprise at seeing Kathy now on the floor in her fur-color-matching scaled tail. “She’s the only one of us merponies who can change like that,” I added as she reverted back.
“That’s the reason for the boats. We’re gonna modify them and sink them to create our own underwater colony,” she said as she reached for the GPS.
“Who’s waiting for you back at Campus City?” Dr Jamie asked.
“There’s Jazz, land pony pegasus.... she’s got wings,” I added the end when I saw his look of confusion. “There’s Griz, our resident griffon. Yeah, a real griffon.... and a real pain sometimes... ow!” I said when Kathy jabbed her elbow in my ribs. “Be nice,” she hissed.
“And then there’s Sarah, our unicorn merpony... she’s got a horn and can do magic like levitation,” I said in explanation.
He seemed surprised and not quite believing.
But he certainly believed when we arrived at the Campus City beach and dropped the two anchors to find Sarah’s ship already there, and Sarah standing with her wheels on the beach.
“We found a hospital on our way back and got supplies! Can you levitate them to the beach so I can haul them in the wagon and not have to beach the ship?” Kathy called. Sarah nodded as she stepped down into the water at the beach; her horn glowed brighter the deeper she went; the boxes became encased in her magic aura and we all watched as they slowly floated down to the side of the road.
Dr Jamie simply nodded in my direction.
Kathy transformed and jumped into the water as soon as the last box was taken. That left me to carry Dr Jamie onto shore. He wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect but we managed it ok; I then hooked myself back into my wheels and introduced Dr Jamie to Sarah.
She was ecstatic to have a doctor on site now.
But Kathy came forwards. “Hang on there. We still need to get the Doctor up to speed on what’s happening in the world and then get him settled in an office for now. Let’s get this stuff back up to the building and we’ll make dinner,” she said.
We all deferred to her leadership and started walking back up to the University Center.
Griz & Jazz welcomed Dr Jamie with open hooves and claws. He seemed wary of the talons but still excited to meet a griffon.
Dinner consisted of more pasta in tomato sauce; Kathy still poured a bunch of salt on her’s but not nearly as much as the soups. Dr Jamie pointed it out that neither Sarah nor I had done that. “Side effect of the sickness I got the other night,” she said. He asked if he could examine her after dinner and she agreed. Sarah spoke up and offered to do the dishes.
So now, Kathy is with Dr Jamie in her RV getting her ‘check up’; Griz is changing the water in the pools; Jazz decided to help Sarah with the dishes, and I'm here trying to get some jam-packed days into one entry!
Griz and Jazz say the BC marina will be ready with another day of work but Griz has something else she wants to bring up first thing tomorrow.
Arr matey! I be exhausted from all that! I be hittin’ th’ hay, ‘n I don’t care if Griz’s finished er nah. -Patrick
Kathryn woke the next morning feeling completely back to herself, having remembered everything clearly from when she was sick. Nothing was of concern to her so she let it go.
Griz had something to bring up to all of them so she figured the sooner, the better.
Entering the main University building, Kathryn found Jazz & Dr Jamie already awake and preparing breakfast. Dr Jamie was at the electric stove top making oatmeal while Jazz was at the cutting table making a fruit salad.
Kathryn greeted the two ponies with a nod as she peered over the lip of the pot Dr Jamie was using. “I made plenty if you’d like some, Kathryn,” he said. “That’d be nice, thanks Doc,” she said with a nod.
Kathryn then walked over to the cork board map, absentmindedly looking it over. A smile came to her lips as her eyes wandered over the spot she had circled and labeled Bermareda Circle. Suddenly, she felt eager to get back out and finish the marina so they could get started on the boats.
Kathryn had some vague ideas about how she’d decorate her own boat but then realized they’d have to replace the mattresses somehow.
Griz came walking in from the hall that led to the indoor pool, sopping wet and looking bedraggled, followed by a pair of giggling merponies.
“Oh you guys,” Kathryn said as she rolled her eyes when Sarah & Patrick let out gut-busting laughter.
Griz grabbed a towel from a pile set on a table nearby (for what Sarah called “water emergencies”) and started wiping her down and then preening to get her feathers back into place.
Dr Jamie saw her in the process of pulling out a broken secondary and he winced. “I am so glad that I was not made into a griffon or pegasus or anything with feather wings... no offence,” he said. Those with wings merely shrugged. “To each their own, Doc,” said Jazz.
They all took their usual seats around the table: Kathryn took the head, Sarah & Patrick (with chairs turned sideways so they could rest their forelegs on pillows) on her left, Jazz & Dr Jamie on her right and Griz at the foot of table with her back to the kitchenette.
Dr Jamie offered his pot of oatmeal to the others and most agreed. Jazz dove into her fruit salad while Patrick got up and started working at the stove top.
Sarah produced a bunch of elastics made with tiny loops from a drawer; she used her magic to place these on the dominate hooves of each Kathryn, Dr Jamie and Jazz, leaving one on Patrick’s spot. She demonstrated their use using Kathryn’s without magic, showing how they were to use them; holding the utensil in between her teeth, sliding it in and the elastic fitting itself to the former handle. The others were impressed and their faces lit up. Griz nodded with a quiet smile as she took up her own spoon in her talons. Sarah blushed as she used her magic to lift her own spoon.
“So Griz.... you wanted to talk to us about something?” Kathryn finally broached as they dug in.
Griz took a few bites of the oatmeal, gathering her thoughts and swallowing.
“We need some farm animals.”
The only sound that permeated the silence was the sizzle of the pan on the stove and Raea’s panting as she lay on the floor next to Kathryn, chewing on a bone.
“Why?” asked Sarah, being the first to come to their senses.
“We’re gonna need more milk if you guys want to keep having cereal other than dry... and of course...” Griz jerked her thumb-talon behind her to the stove top where Patrick was just finishing his diced tomato omelette.
Kathryn watched as the last of their good eggs went into Patrick’s breakfast. “Oh, I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to take the last,” Patrick said, worriedly.
Jazz waved a hoof. “They’d have gone to waste otherwise, no worries,” she said, returning to her salad.
“I’d have to agree with Griz on this... now that we have the orchard & farm field, we should be looking into the next step.” Kathryn muddled over the idea as she scooped more of her cinnamon-dusted oatmeal.
“This means we’d have to put the marina on hold... at least for a day or two,” Griz pointed out. Kathryn nodded thoughtfully. “I figured you’d get to that eventually. But this is more important,” Kathryn said; the others were surprised but in agreement.
“Sarah, Patrick and Jazz will stay here and convert the large convention room connected to the delivery doors in the Kovens Conference Center for the indoor “barn”. Kathryn, Doc & I will take the pickup out and find us a farm; Kathy will drive the cows’ transport back, I’ll drive the pickup with the milking equipment. Doc will help with the dismantling & loading.” They all calmly nodded to Griz's plan and Dr Jamie started collecting the dirty dishes.
Kathryn walked with Sarah & Jazz to plan out the fencing from the delivery bay to the huge nearby grass field, south of the orchard and west of the farm field.
There was a huge flatbed trailer of construction fencing that they could use to create a fenced path from the bay, turn right, straight on the road and then left as soon as the guardrail ended. The construction fence would continue next to the road, follow the turns to include the irrigation pond and along Main Rd; they’d run out of fence by then so they’d continue with the huge rolls of heavy duty orange diamond mesh fencing and the big piles of t-bars that they’d hammer into the ground.
Heading back and into the building, they quickly realized they’d have to tear out a wall to gain access to the convention hall but thankfully it was not cement or concrete; just the normal steel studs & drywall of non-load-bearing walls. Kathryn left Patrick to deal with the wall; she knew he’d come up with a clever fix for the wall.
She trotted back to the University building to meet up with Griz & Dr Jamie; Griz was perched in the back, Dr Jamie in the passenger side and her flatbed was already hooked up. Not that she didn’t trust them bit she always checked everything herself. Neither Griz nor Dr Jamie took any offence as Kathryn jumped into the driver’s seat and they drove off, waving to Jazz who was hovering in the air. Jazz waved back as they pulled out of the campus and drove out of town.
Kathryn picked a random highway on the GPS and headed west.
After about two hours, they found themselves in a town called Immokalee. It was completely deserted like everywhere else but this was certainly farming country.
A bit of back road driving, Griz pointed out a dairy farm with animals still on the property. As they pulled in, Kathryn spotted a transport trailer still attached to a bigger pickup than the one she drove and the cows showed very little interest in their appearance.
Griz took off from the back even before the truck stopped completely and made a bee-line for a chicken coop not far from the farm house. There, she found 3 hens and one rooster still alive cowering inside the hen house; 2 dead chickens were laid at the far fence within the pen and evidence showed of marauders of the nature kind. Griz noticed that one of the dead chickens was still relatively warm which meant it had only just happened. She swept her gaze to the two ponies who where slowly approaching the cow herd. Griz picked up the dead chicken by its feet and quickly took it to a red shack nearby, recognizing it as use for butchering. The other chicken, she tossed out into the side yard for the marauders to do with as they wished if they came back.
Meanwhile, Kathryn & Dr Jamie calmly and carefully approached the cow herd. Sarah had insisted that Raea went with Kathryn and now she stayed back at her owner’s command. Kathryn did not want to spook the cows with the presence of a dog; pets gone feral had probably already been through here.
But like with Raea, the cows showed a sense of intelligence they had not before the Event and they too started approaching the white and dark blue pony-like-creatures.
Dr Jamie wasn’t sure what they were going to do but Kathryn did. “We are former humans; we were transformed to be like this. We want to take you elsewhere to be cared for, if you’re willing to come with us. If you want to stay, we will not force you.”
The cows looked at each other, curiously. Two older female cows, too old to bear calves, swayed their heads and lumbered back out into the field. The remaining herd consisted of 5 females, one bull and 2 calves. Kathryn simply nodded. “It’s a good start,” she said simply.
Kathryn trotted to the nearby barn and found the hayloft one third still full of hay. Carefully climbing a ladder clearly meant for bipedal creatures, she managed to get up there, pop open the hay loft outer doors and bucked a bunch of hay bales out the door & into the field.
Dr Jamie managed to disconnect the electric water pump and plug on a fire hose (found on the side of the building for emergencies) to an old fashioned hand pump. He had used a home-use water testing kit from his medical bag and found the water in that well to be sanitary. He then pumped the water trough’s full of fresh water.
The cows mooed in appreciation of their actions and proceeded to chow down.
Griz came over, wiping the last of the chicken blood from her feathers and throwing the paper towels into a fire pit. “I think you guys ought to collect the chickens. They’ve been hit by marauders and are terrified of me,” she said in her usual squawky, gruff voice.
“Maybe that’s because they see you as a hawk? Or they saw you take up their dead friend to the butcher shack?” Dr Jamie said, overly sweetly.
“Give a girl a break! I haven’t had chicken in at least a month and I'm about to pull my feathers out here. Fish can only go me so far and sea gulls are too thin to be worth the effort!” she exclaimed.
Dr Jamie & Kathryn were too obviously trying not to laugh but one look at Griz was too much and both fell on the ground, bawling with laughter. When they came to their senses, Kathryn licked a hoof and rubbed a spot of blood from Griz’s forehead that made her look like she had a third cartoony eye.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up you too...” she said begrudgingly as she smoothed the feathers back into place.
“Just wait until I get the chickens into a traveling crate before you start grilling the hen, ok?” Kathryn asked. Griz simply nodded.
The three of them checked out the barn and found that the farm had the most high-tech milking systems. Dr Jamie hurried forward and started looking over the whole system. He kept muttering to himself and gestures with his hooves.
Eventually, he came back to give his report. “It looks like it’s already been running on solar power... they’re probably in a field not far from here and so should not be too hard to hook up back at Campus City. Sadly the milk in the vats will have to be dumped; they’re too heavy to transport as they are. We might be able to salvage a little bit but the gauges read as 89% full. And so long as I label everything properly, should only take me a couple of hours to get this hooked up,” Dr Jamie said, confidently.
“How the heck do you know all of this, Doc?” Griz asked.
“I.... I grew up on a dairy farm as a kid; one not unlike this, as a matter of fact. We had an almost identical milking system,” he said, letting a bit of blush show through the dark color of his fur.
“From farm boy to doctor... I'm glad the universe sent you to us!” Kathryn laughed as she swung a foreleg over his neck in a friendly hug. Dr Jamie simply blushed a darker maroon.
Kathryn left Dr Jamie and Griz to dismantle the set while she went to see about the poor chickens. She had found a box of chicken feed inside a storage shed attached to the outside of the coop and started spreading the food inside, after pulling open the wall’s handle with her teeth, speaking gently to the chickens to calm their nerves.
“No need to fear us... we were humans but are now this. We want to take you somewhere else, where the bad animals can’t get you anymore,” she said gently. The rooster started bawking angrily and Kathryn seemed to understand. “My friend, the big hawk-thing, Griz, is not a hawk... she’s a griffon; a half eagle, half lion. She normally eats fish and wild birds. She was only taking advantage of the situation... umm... she didn’t want your friend’s death to be in vain. Your friend will give her strength she needs to save you,” Kathryn tried to explain. She wasn’t sure how much they’d understand but his squawking seemed to stop and they twittered quietly between them.
The three hens then jumped and took their spots in the nests, showing Kathryn their eggs. She smiled brightly. “Of course we can take your eggs! I’d never leave them behind,” she said. “We’re not leaving any of them behind.”
The rooster went over to a fourth nest and sat on them, cocking his head. “Is that the nest of your poor friend? We’ll take those too, for sure.” The chickens seemed happy with that response and clucked quietly as Kathryn prepared separate crates for each bird and nest. Logically, the rooster was put in the same crate as the dead chicken’s nest, so he could keep caring for it.
Kathryn then carefully carried each crate to the back seat of her pickup, after laying a tarp down first, and slid each one into place, securing the whole section when all four were in place. She then gently placed a thin tarp over-top; one of the hens clucked curiously. “Just a little cover so you all don’t get afraid of my dog. Don’t worry, she won’t hurt any of you... she’s there to protect you.” The four chickens settled down, quietly giving off clicking noises as they settled on the nests.
Kathryn walked back over to the barn to see how the progress was going. She was shocked to see that Dr Jamie had already disconnected all of the pipes and pieces, laying them all out neatly on the floor and was taking photos with a small tablet he had brought with him.
“Geez Griz, that was quick!” Kathryn said, nearly startling the griffon as her plumage perked up slightly. “Nah, it was all Doc! He sure knows his stuff,” Griz replied, gesturing a talon towards the Earth pony.
“Chickens are all calmed down and put in the back seat of my pickup. I’ll have Raea with me in the cow transporter truck... they’ve been traumatized enough for one day. That chicken you butchered was their friend; she gave up her life so the others could survive. The others saved her nest; rooster has nested on it for now. They know you won’t hurt them, by the way.” Griz could only blink in astonishment at Kathryn’s report on the birds. Griz looked for the usual leg-pulling from her but found none and so let it go.
Between the three of them, they got most of the components loaded into either the flat back or the flatbed trailer of Kathryn’s pickup. Hooking up a pipe, they were able to drain the most of the milk from the vats out into a drainage ditch; Dr Jamie was able to keep about 10% in each of the three tanks.
Surprisingly, it was the bull that came over when he saw the ponies & griffon struggle to get the vat over to the trailer. {1} They had managed to slide an old skateboard under the vat and lasso a rope around the whole thing but it was too heavy to pull for any of them, even the Earth ponies! But he sauntered in, grabbed the rope in his teeth and dragged it outside; he had to reverse his grip as there was a slight slope down but he managed to hold the vat slowly enough that they got it to the trailer and he helped to bring each vat onto its side on the low-rise trailer.
The pair of calves was watching the whole thing happening, mooing to the bull in encouragement. When he finished with one vat, he’d moo back to them and they’d leap in place or pound their hooves on the ground.
When all three vats were on the trailer and lashed down with Griz’s precision tying skills, Kathryn went over to the bull and bowed her head. “Thanks for the help, friend,” she said humbly. He bowed his own head before turning back to the herd, gave a moo and then looked back at Kathryn. “I get it,” she said quietly. “You know we’re here to help you and you want to help us help your family.” The bull bowed his head once more, serenely.
“Doc may know about the machines, but you got a-way with the animals, Kathy,” Griz said beside her.
“What about the two cows in the back field?” Dr Jamie asked. “They do not wish to come with us. And I will not force them to. In this new world, all animals have the same rights as we do,” Kathryn said.
{2}It was only a couple of hours before they were ready to start loading the cows. Griz made a change in the plans at the very last minute. “Dr. Jamie, you drive Kathryn’s pick up and Kathryn will drive a big rig instead while I take care of my prize. I will catch up with you later when I'm done," Griz said, gesturing a claw at the outdoor fire pit complete with a grill still placed over it.
Kathryn and Griz made eye contact a look of understanding passed between them and Kathryn nodded her understanding. Luckily for them Dr Jamie already figured out how to drive a pickup truck as a pony and so the switch was an easy one.
Kathryn hurried out to the fields of cows were waiting in gave a whistle; all of the cows and the two calves started trotting towards her. “It’s time to get loaded up and head to your new home!” Kathryn said excitedly. The cows mooed in what sounded like an eager tone and Kathryn lead them to the bigger pickup with the transporting trailer already hooked up to it.
One of the cows went in first, followed immediately by the two calves, and then the other females followed, leaving the bull to be the last one loaded and thus, the first one to exit when they arrived.
“Well played, my friend,” Dr Jamie said with a chuckle. The bull looked the doctor in the eye, offered a sway of the head and then turned to enter the trailer.
Kathryn was able to stack a bunch of the hay bales into the trailer along with the cows so they’d have something to munch on for the trip; she also put in a few to the flat back of the bigger truck. She’d likely send Dr Jamie back out here with the flatbed to get the rest later... maybe send Jazz or Patrick with him...
Kathryn made one last check to make sure the chickens were all settled and to tell them that Raea was in a different truck so nothing to worry about. She also saw the four bags of chicken feed they had taken from a storage room of the barn; each bag was approximately 40 lbs but she and Dr Jamie had carried two each on their backs with no trouble at all.
“Be careful with my baby... she’s all I got left of my home town,” Kathryn said as Dr Jamie jumped into the driver’s seat. “Don’t worry, Kathryn. I’ll treat her like she was my own,” he replied. That only earned him a friendly, gentle slug on the shoulder.
She walked back to the cow’s trailer to inform them that they’d be leaving very shortly. The adult female at the front gave a thankful ‘moo’ as Kathryn turned back to Griz, who was pouring coals onto the fire pit.
“How long do you think you’ll be?” she asked. “Bird alone will likely be 40 to 60 minutes; you’ll be halfway back to CC by then so don’t wait up for me. I’ll just meet you back there; I can follow the highway back; no worries,” she said.
Kathryn felt unsure but she trusted Griz to know what she was about so she turned and leaped into the bigger pickup’s driver’s seat and revved the engine.
They were down the road in minutes, Kathryn with her GPS leading the way. The last two cows that stayed behind were mooing at the edge of the fence, saying their final good-byes.
And true to Griz’s estimation, she feasted on a perfectly cooked campfire chicken in an hour and the caravan beat her back to Campus City.
By the time Griz got back, Kathryn had already introduced the herd & chickens to Sarah, Patrick & Jazz AND unloaded the animals into the new pen. Patrick showed Dr Jamie & Kathryn the modified indoor locations for both cows and chickens. He had cut a hole in the door of the staff room (across the hall from the new cow door) and removed all of the furniture to make room for sets of brand new, two tiered nest boxes on either side of a single aisle. At the back, was a single flat-sided tray covered in a garbage bag; Patrick explained that it was a potty box and that there were multiple of these set around the grass field as well.
Inside the cow’s indoor hall, Patrick had cut into the floor and inserted what appeared to be small perimeter but deep depth swimming pool liners. He explained how there were two more but bigger of these out in the grass field; they were ‘poop pools’; the cows would go in them and then Sarah could levitate them out and empty into outdoor compost piles downwind from the campus. The compost would later be used in the farm fields and orchard.
“Fruit & veggie scraps will also go into the compost, reducing our trash,” Sarah added.
Kathryn and Sarah were just getting the chickens settled in, checking all of the eggs to make sure that there were actual chicks inside using a very strong lamp. Kathryn explained to the chickens that if there were no chicks inside an egg, that the ponies would eat them and that the light did not harm the chicks at all. The chickens decided that this was a very fair exchange.
Kathryn had checked each of the nests, actually finding one or two eggs that did not contain chicks. She explained that by removing those ‘empties’ would let them take care of the ones with ‘babies’.
She also checked the large straw-filled basket that she had filled with all of the other eggs from the coop. A few were solid dark, which meant they had gone bad – but unknown if they had been ‘empties’ or ones with ‘babies’ -and she had Sarah carefully levitate those into a second bucket for compost. They did find a couple with babies’ still alive inside! The rooster recognized them as hen-less and so he offered the nest he cared for, as a surrogate of sorts. The rest of them, that Kathryn proved were empty, she marked with a pen and placed back into the basket to be taken to the kitchen.
“Once Campus City gets their own land unicorn, they’ll be in charge of checking the eggs and emptying the litter bins so you won’t have to all the time, Sarah,” Kathryn said as Sarah levitated the basket carefully in front of her. “Hey, no worries!” Sarah gave a smile that seemed unnaturally big for her face. “I don’t mind, really! It is gonna be a while before we sink the boats and so anything that keeps be busy is ok with me!”
On their way back, Sarah showed them how the whole fencing worked because it was a little different. “This actually crosses over the main walking way through to the farm fields without having to go all the way around. So this is what you do: when you come here, make sure that there are no cows in the path or at least ask if it’s ok for you to pass; you un-loop the rope on the first fence and open it; then you slip in and retie it; then you repeat with the other one. It is a little time consuming... hoping you might have some ideas?” Sarah said that like a suggestion and a question at the same time. “I’ll think about it,” Kathryn said.
That night for dinner, they planned to make a bunch of egg meals and then just set it up like a buffet. They prepared hard-boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, poached, and even a few omelettes were made (plain, diced tomato, diced tomato & mushroom).
About half way through the prep, Griz finally arrived back, carrying a backpack and blood-shot eyes like she had been crying. She said nothing as she walked into her room, dropped the backpack and walked back outside and taking off for the forest to the southwest.
She came back about an hour later, carrying a large bundle of thin branches; again, she said nothing and merely walked to her room and closed the door. Even from the distance, Kathryn heard the click of the lock.
It was not long before Kathryn finally went to Griz’s room, formerly a larger conference room. She hesitated a moment before knocking her hoof on the door.
A few seconds later, Griz opened the door, fresh streaks of tears running down her face. “What?” she asked roughly. “Are you ok, Griz? We’re all worried about you,” Kathryn said. “May I come in?”
Griz backed up, shrugging her shoulders, allowing Kathryn to enter. The room had been emptied of previous furniture and in the middle, a bunch of old mattresses made the base for what looked like a gigantic bird’s nest: made from a mix of blankets, pillows, random clothes and tree branches. The cork board walls all held pieces of gold disk jewelry and the floor was piled with any coins Griz could get her claws on... and not normal circulation USA money either! There were the thicker 1 pound coins from Europe, the loonies of Canada, specialty USA coins (like the commemorative kind) and even a few were ancient ones still in non-circulation protective packaging. Oddly enough, she also had a whole bunch of the chocolate coins that Kathryn enjoyed as a kid; those were in a separate pile behind the door.
There were piles of other stuff that could be classified as ‘gold’: skeleton keys, rings that did not fit her talons, lengths of chain criss-crossed the ceiling (the really long ones that can be bought by the yard/meter at places like Home Depot), bracelets, bits of wire, a rock of pyrite (“fool’s gold”) the size of her head, earrings, saxophone, and a few other odd items that clearly had been taken from a museum. Griz had also somehow gotten her claws on about five gold bars; Kathryn could not even speculate how those got there but quickly realized that admiring Griz’s quarters was not her mission there.
“Griz? Are you ok? You haven’t seemed like you since you got back from that farm,” Kathryn said, hesitantly. Griz stared out her window that faced the beach they used, wiping the back of her claw across her eyes.
“That farm we raided.... it was my family’s farm.” Griz did not move from her spot, even when Kathryn gasped and put a hoof to her mouth, in that old human gesture of surprise. But after a moment, Griz shook her head.
“It hasn’t been my family’s farm in a couple of years. My dad decided to retire and I could not run the farm alone. So he put it on the market,” Griz finally moved from the window, taking the old, dirty backpack in a claw and reclining on her nest.
“I was glad to see the new owner was taking great care of the animals and I left a note for them, saying as such, and telling them where we brought their animals to.
But I had to stick around to recover something that I had forgotten about when I moved my dad out... it’s a time capsule....” Griz got really quiet and Kathryn wasn’t sure she should pry.
But Griz went on. She pulled out a dirt-covered cylindrical object from the backpack, tossing the latter into the golden clutter and reverently, carefully, opening the cylinder like a peanut butter jar. Dirt crumbled to the floor and the lid soon followed.
Slowly... excruciatingly slowly... Griz pulled out a bunch of papers sealed in plastic. Kathryn carefully approached and saw that they were newspaper articles, photos, letters and a beautiful gold compass necklace inside a necklace box that Griz opened very slowly. Her already red eyes filled with tears again at the sight of the necklace she clearly recognized: a gold compass-designed disk on a thick black cord.
“My mother and little sister died in a car accident when I was in my early teens. You know the kind: drunk driver at pitch black. They were coming back from my sister’s ballet lessons; she was going onto the New York Ballet Company when she grew up, I just knew it at the time. Neither of them survived but... But the bucking drunk driver walked away without a scratch!”
Griz broke down, crying again as she took the necklace from the box, placing the latter into a nook of the nest. She clutched the pendant like it was a life line.
Kathryn could see and now read all of the articles about the crash; letters of condolences from her sister’s ballet school & others; a photo of the whole family together, maybe a year before the accident. She, of course, had to keep reminding herself that Griz had been male before the event.
When Griz gathered herself, she continued. “This was my mum’s favorite necklace. She got it from her grandmother when she graduated from college. She always said it was lucky; she wasn’t wearing it the day of the crash. But as a boy back then, it felt weird to wear a necklace... not like it was before the Event. But I figured that since I'm now a girl, it’d be ok.
My dad passed away about a year after selling the farm. He left me a huge bank account (that is now meaningless) and he left me alone.
But since we’ve been living and working together, I've come to realize that we are a new family. We may have been strangers, separated by time and space, but we are now friends and family.
I've learned that it’s ok to let go of the past without forgetting.”
With that, Griz carefully placed her mother’s necklace around her neck, having it fall perfectly where the feathers of her neck ended and the start of her lion fur started.
“It’s beautiful, Griz. I think they’d all be proud of you and they’re looking down on us,” Kathryn said, voice slightly choked up and a single tear in her own eyes.
They shared another hug before breaking off and helping Griz hang a few of the pictures from the capsule to the cork board wall next to the door. “So you’ll always see them when you leave the room. That’s how I hung mine in my RV,” Kathryn said.
She then helped Griz put the rest of it back into the canister and walked with her to the forest and re-bury it. “Maybe we should make a time capsule too,” Kathryn said out loud as they finished. Griz nodded. “Not a bad idea,” she said.
They both walked back to the university building. They exchanged another hug before Griz went back inside and Kathryn went to her RV.
She pulled out her tablet and started to write her entry for the day.
Author's Notes 2 {1} I don't actually know how much those vats weight and I had the funny idea of the bull helping out the 'poor feeble' ponies. But then the fact that the bull knew that these ponies were helping him and his family, it kinda got a little mushy there too! {2} This bold section is where I tried my voice at Voice-To-Text for writing the story. As you can see, it was too slow and laborious to continue.
Thanks again to my fans who have stuck with me for so long! You're what make me keep going! Well, that and my autism tells me to keep going, no matter what time it is! (Posting 3:02 AM)
You are not going to bucking believe what we found today.
But yet again, I'm getting ahead of myself.
This morning, Griz was in much of a better mood to all of us; chipper and open. Every pony commented on her necklace and she told them the same stuff she had told me but without crying. Instead, she was stating facts which led to Sarah & Jazz to hurry over and hug Griz.
Breakfast consisted of more egg meals for some but others went back to the fruit salads, crackers & granola bars.
Afterwards, Griz took all of us out to the convention center, going through the building to reach the animals. “I don’t recognize the chickens so they must have been new generation; the cows I do,” she said as they went in the hall and started greeting them.
Griz opened the outside doors to let the cows out to pasture; the ponies and griffon following them after the fact.
Griz walked around the animals, slowly checking the markings and ear tags of each animal; said tags were not only labeled with numbers but with names. Besides the bull & the calves, three cows were the brown & white variety; the other two were solid brown.
“The three brown & white’s are Dolly, Polly and Molly; the browns are Daisy & Lily. The bull is named Bones; because when he was a calf, there was an accident and he lead to me breaking my arm. The two were left behind were Rose & Holly. The calves were clearly born after the fact,” she said, walking up to each of the calves, who were staying close to their mothers’, Polly & Lily.
“What are we going to name the calves?” Jazz asked. The two mother cows mooed to gain their attention.
Lily dug her cloven hoof at a bigger patch of ground, scrapping up a gather of green leaves that Kathryn recognized right away. “Clover?” she asked. Lily bobbed her head. The others smiled. “That’s a really nice name,” Griz said, taking up her backpack and pulling out a strange object that reminded Kathryn of an industrial stapler.
They watched as Griz wrote on a piece of paper before sliding it into the ear tag she also took from the backpack, and then before any of them could speak, Griz pierced the ear tag to the calf’s left ear.
The calf bawled and Lily soothed the baby as the others started to object, myself included. “What the heck??” “What’s the point of those?” “Why bother?” I had asked.
“Guys, relax. First of all, those tags will identify the cows to the milking machines. Secondly, so we can remember which cow is which and then refer them to their names. Thirdly, it only hurts for a moment... like getting an ear piercing,” Griz said, petting Clover’s head gently. The calf was already recovered from the piercing and it was like it never happened; Clover was unconsciously flicking the pierced ear but took no notice.
Griz turned to Polly’s calf, who was clearly a dark solid male like his sire. Polly shook her head sadly, indicating she had not picked a name. The other ponies were in deep thought. “What about Wally?” Sarah asked. Polly mooed and bowed her head. Griz repeated the ear tag for the baby bull, giving it a good petting when finished.
Griz then gave a signal that all of the adults seemed to recognize as ‘go graze’.
“One thing has been bugging me though, Griz... why so few cows? I’d have expected hundreds of beasts,” Patrick said.
“These were the cows we called the ‘Pets’. We did have hundreds of cows but these were our favorites. The breaking of my arm made Bones one of mine. Sure, the others were milk and meat but these were loyal to us. Even before the Event, they were the intelligent ones; finding them still on the property proves it. Clearly, the rest of the herd must have left a long while ago. But these were the favorites and they somehow knew that that we’d be back,” Griz explained.
{What can I say of the detail? It was very memorable!}
The cows were left to their own devices while Griz & I went out the bottom fence and walked over to see the garden’s progress.
As we walked the path, I had let some of my Earth pony magic leak into the plants, speeding up their growth a little more.
We all met up back out on Haulover beach to keep working on our marina dock. Griz had strapped on a couple of backpacks and went scouting out in the city... see if she could find supplies, food and maybe (if she got lucky) new pony, taking one of the Go Pro's with her.
The building of the dock was boring so I'm just gonna skip to the good part!
We had finished the work a couple of hours before sunset and so started preparing dinner early. The milk vats were already showing fresh milk and so we had collected a bunch of it for use in making lots of buttermilk pancakes. We made Very Berry (strawberry, blue berry, raspberry), banana, chocolate chip, and plain. I had taken one chocolate chip and three plain; didn’t feel adventurous today.
Just as we were finished, Griz came back, both backpacks full of crackers, granola bars, Gatorade, water bottles and a few other pieces of equipment like carpet blades, glass breaking hammers, and mini solar panels no bigger than my hoof.
But the biggest thing she brought back was news; the crazed, excited look on her face made me nervous. She dumped the backpacks along a side wall and her wings flared out with her excitement.
“You guys are not gonna BELIEVE what I found!!” she screeched and proceeded to grab Patrick’s hoof and drag him towards the door. After a quick glance, the rest of quickly followed them outside. Griz & Patrick were already in the air, impatiently waiting for the rest of us.
“Bus?” I asked and Griz nodded.
Over the last week, Jazz had finally mastered driving and been going out, on her own or taking Raea with her. She had found a medium sized- diesel powered school bus, not much different from the one I had used back in Brantford. This one had been reconfigured so it ran only by front hooves, the spinner knob for steering with one hoof and hand control for accelerate & braking. It had been rigged this way so that Sarah & Patrick could drive if needed but everyone had been trained in the use of the system.
“Sarah, take the driver. Jazz, you fly with Griz. Patrick and the rest of us, get in! That includes you, Raea!” I said, giving the dog a head butt towards the bus parked out the side of U1 (the new name of the Wolfe University Center).
The two fliers stayed within visual range of the bus and Sarah drive us south. About an hour later, we had come to another convention center, right on the water front.
And there, chained to the pier was the most unusual boat-thing I had ever seen!
Multiple levels, about the size of our U1 living/lounge and every roof covered in solar panels. The back had a tiny floating dock big enough for four jet skis and a vertical ladder; deck could be extended for additional docking via hydraulics within the back of ship.
Inside had full 4-piece washroom, two bedrooms with single beds, two bedrooms with bunk beds and one master with Queen sized bed. Kitchen is fully stocked with every appliance: double fridge, double baker’s ovens, electric stove top, microwave, dishwasher, wine fridge and coffee maker.
Also had a games room: plasma TV, Wii game console, dart board, pool table, pinball machines, couple of slot machines, poker table and skeet ball alley.
The living room has a freaking electric fireplace and the deepest room had a hatch going into the water! Who seriously does that??
“Can we keep it?” Griz asked, claws clamped together and eyes wide like a kid asking for a new puppy.
The answer was very easy. “Yes.” It had barely left my lips when everyone started laughing and cheering.
“Sarah, you drive; Jazz, you lead the bus back to Campus City with Raea; Patrick, Griz & I are going to figure out how to pilot this thing back. We’ll meet you at the beach.” Sarah finished using her magic to explode the chains holding the thing to the dock. Nods were exchanged and groups were broken off.
Piloting was easier than we expected once we found the manual under the bridge controls.
On the way back, we made plans for the float. We named it the Bermareda Circle Surface Ship (BCSS; 'Surface Ship'). It will be floated directly over BC with eight super cables to anchor the boat in place; they can be disconnected and the ship sailed to and beached at Campus City in event of hurricane.
For now, it’s so big; we had to anchor it out on the bay off the beach.
Tomorrow, we're moving our personal ships to the marina and start preparing them for sinking.
Oh my gosh.... I just realized that it's been only a month since I first woke up! It seriously feels a lot longer LOL :P
We were all kept really busy, starting work on the three ships we planned to sink and preparing Surface Ship for anchoring.
We started first thing yesterday morning. Breakfast & morning chores were done hastily and even Raea sensed the excitement in the attitudes of everyone there.
Patrick had found a bunch of buoys in a ship yard not far from Campus City after a short flight with Griz. They were the older fashioned red hollow steel ones but he claimed that they were sound & would serve our purpose. We removed all of the little antennas from the tops of each buoy (only to discover that these had been modified with solar powered LED strobe lights!) and painted over the old numbers to “BC 1”, “BC 2” etc so they could be identified if any needed repairs or replacements. They had also found all of the anchor cables at the ship yard too; most had been liberated from existing larger ships that they beached for the sole purpose of removing the cables.
Since Sarah’s ship did not take much modification beyond taking out the glass windows & the old mattress and the removing of the engine (which was surprisingly easy for her's!), she offered to remove the same from the Escape while I helped Griz, Jazz & Dr Jamie with the loading of the cement trucks for sinking. {The Escape's engine took a bit more work to remove as it was older and heavier but it still came out ok. We piled the engines on the top edge of the beach and doused them in sand to prevent the oils and gas from leaking into the ocean or the water table until we could take them to the dump.}
Yeah, a bunch of big old ruined cement trucks with their full back loads totally gone off (dried and cured inside the barrels). We were originally going to anchor the cables to the bedrock but there was too much sand to reach them and boulders were unlikely to move for us. So this was our alternate solution!
Prior to, we removed both engine and gas tanks; power washing them to spotless. To sink them, I’d transform and jump into the water, checking for the location. Once a spot was chosen and Dr Jamie moved the barge into place a little back, Griz would put the truck into gear facing the direction of the spot; she’d drop the quick release hook of a heavy duty winch (behind the truck) down into the water; I'd swim the cable under and up the front of the truck where Griz would connect said hook to the front of the truck so that when we backed off, Dr Jamie could activate the winch and it would pull the truck towards the water; at the same time, he'd put the barge in motion in the truck's opposite direction. I would stay far back underwater and watch the truck sink to the bottom, ready to pull the quick release. Once the truck landed on the bottom, I'd attach the anchoring cable to the truck’s barrel and bring it up to connect to the buoy.
The cycle would repeat with each location!
Once all SIX trucks were sunk and buoys set up, we figured that there’s about 10 meters of cable between the ship and the buoy’s so that left lots of space underneath for Bermareda Circle but we could not move Surface Ship until the home ships were sunk.
Jazz had found us a nice big, empty old tug boat to use as our “city hall” of sorts and she had taken upon herself to clean it out and prep it for sinking; which included the removal of the old engine, which had been the worst to remove of all the boats. Old Tug would be sunk first, to give Patrick’s sinking method a try.
Griz & Jazz would hold the front and back tie lines from the air. Patrick was laying on Old Tug’s main deck, staring down into the lower, welding mask over his face, ever so gently guiding a welding torch that was hovering in Sarah’s magical field; Sarah was in the water, hanging onto the side of the boat, not looking but listening to Patrick’s instructions. She would hold the field just enough to keep it levitating while he moved it with his hooves. When everything was ready, he’d give a signal; Sarah put in a burst of magic to speed up the process and it would have cut a huge hole in the bottom of the boat. The second Patrick yelled “Done!” Sarah turned off the torch and yanked it back into the air, out of harm’s way. She would backstroke a safe distance away as Patrick would stay with Old Tug as it went down; Griz & Jazz would surrender their ropes to me and Patrick as soon as they ran out of line. The two of us would grab the lines and gently guide the boat down to where we wanted it.
Old Tug was dropped on the ocean-facing side of the center planter so that the side of the tug (which would have the main door) would be facing the planter.
While we were up on the dock, working to remove all of the ship’s engines, I had a battery powered mini radio playing music from my playlist. Most of my songs came from my tween to teen and college years.
At some point, a song started blasting out that made me smile and all of the others’ faces light up with recognition: S Club 7 - Bring it All Back. I wasn’t sure why at the time, but it kinda resonated with me... to not to give up on anything and to just be you.
Let’s just say... I wasn’t the only one to lip sync perfectly to that song! ;)
It took us nearly all day to sink the trucks and prepare the home-ships. By the time we were ready, my music tablet’s battery was totally gone, everyone was exhausted and it was getting too dark to see. The fliers took to the air while Dr Jamie ferried us back to CC in Patrick’s Coast Guard boat.
Us merponies managed to grab some strength from the ocean; just enough so we could cook a big dinner that night: thick vegetable stew (more veggies than stock), fruit salad and three hard boiled eggs each pony (Griz had caught three small fish on her way back and grilled them on a BBQ she had pilfered from a rich house long before we had arrived). When Griz had broken up her fish and added it to her stew, the rest of us could no longer smell it.
I think we all slept like logs last night because we all went to bed right after evening chores were done and I heard nothing all night.
This morning was another early rise and rapid breakfast/chores so we could get back to the dock. Sarah & Patrick were very impatient so they swam all the way, ahead of the rest of us.
Those two merponies are so sneaky because as I climbed on-board the Coast Guard boat, I found two boxes of decorations, clearly labeled for each of them.
Sarah’s ship went down first, setting it northeast of Old Tug slightly staggering the spot so the front end overlapped Old Tug’s front.
My ship went next, practically identical to Sarah’s, except that I went southeast.
Patrick’s ship was placed directly west of the planter and did not overlap either of our ships but still left a sizable space between them.
The kelp forest was kept mostly intact... we took some sheers and knives to thin it out a little bit and to gather the kelp for making of entryway curtains.
I already knew how to weave as did most of them so we spent a good chunk of the afternoon in the shallow water, weaving large sheets of kelp and then rig them into hammocks to hang over top the built-in bed frames.
We also explored the flora for aquatic edible vegetation. Anything that did not make us gag or spit out was identified, uprooted and transplanted into our new water farm field. Patrick made a bad joke at one point of our field never going to die from drought; Sarah had tried to smack him over the back of his head but the water made it too easy for him to dodge it.
Throughout the day, we had some curious fauna come around to see what all the excitement was. Again, I apparently showed that creepy animal knowledge stuff I had been doing since Griz’s old farm because I was “conversing” with the dolphins that lived not far from Bermareda Circle. They saw us as a new breed of dolphin that would not harm them and so they welcomed us to the ocean; gave us the warnings of the migration of an orca pod every 36 to 48 moons (3-4 years) this being the in-between moons and told us of a “hot spot” gesturing southeast of our current location to avoid. We realized that they were referring to a small ridge of underwater steam vents.
The most amazing part happened a little later, after the Pod Squad (Pat’s idea!) had left, a large Great White had come investigating after I had accidentally cut my left foreleg on a bent nail we had missed when stripping the carpet. I had managed to rig a quick bandage with a balled up piece of kelp and string of seaweed; both from the lunch salad Sarah had brought to me while I was trying to nail waterproofed pictures’ frames to the walls.
The blood flow stopped, the shark still came within the boundary of the buoys. “Blood... meat.... food....” were the communications I got from it, besides knowing it was a male.
Patrick & I stayed back, not knowing what to do; but Sarah was like she was on auto-pilot. We watched, shocked, as her cutie mark, eyes and horn glowed. “You and your kind may not pass here; only those with pure heart!” Sarah let off a burst of yellow magic that radiated out from her like a shock wave. The wave passed over me and Pat just fine but the shark was hit and thrown backwards out of the buoy boundary. The barrels of the cement trucks and the bottoms of the buoys glowed briefly in yellow shimmery runes before dissipating into a barely visible cylinder of a shield.
Pat & I hovered near the shield; Pat passed his hoof through it like it was not even there but I gasped as the shark tried to come back, only to get slammed against the shield! He tried one more time before giving up and swimming away. The dolphin pod came back and easily slipped through the shield like nothing, the leader turning to me. *Are you all ok? We felt the waves were not right, came back as soon as we could,* he ‘said’. Pat hurried over to catch Sarah before she could hit the sand, muttering incoherently.
“We’re all ok. I think Sarah did something to protect us from all the bad. Thanks for checking up on us,” I had said to the effect.
Turning to Patrick, I said, “Get her to the dock; I’ll go find the doc.” I don’t think the pun was intended but he did raise an eyebrow before I could turn and swim for the waterway into CC’s bay. Two of the larger dolphins came with me. *You’re hurt and that meanie might come back. There’s safety in numbers,* they said, to which I nodded gratefully. “I’ll be coming back on the boat so you can return once I get on land.”
The moment I was on the side beach of CC and transformed - the two dolphins breached the surface going back the way they came - while I bolted to the U1 building. Raea met up with me as I passed my RV, barking happily but only until she picked up on my stress... then she whined. “Where’s Jamie, Raea? Where’s Doc?” I asked. She understood and took off for the orchard. We found him casually checking the leaves for signs of mold or insects. “Doc! Doc, come quickly! Something has happened to Sarah!” I screamed as I skidded to a stop, completely ignoring the gravel below my hooves and the pain in my forearm, which by now was seeping blood again.
“Kathryn, you’re injured,” Dr Jamie said. I waved my good hoof aside. “Never mind me! I think Sarah just used her special talent and then passed out. Patrick is bringing her to the BC dock,” I practically screamed in his face. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me.
Dr Jamie simply walked around me and broke into a gallop as he exited the orchard. “You coming or what?” he shouted over his shoulder.
We had commandeered a second Coast Guard boat shortly after Dr Jamie’s arrival for just such an occasion as Patrick’s boat was currently being used by Griz & Jazz on their coastal raiding up north.
Each boat had been reconfigured to be controlled by hooves and so Patrick had given all of us lessons on how to drive adequately if not expertly. Dr Jamie saw how riled up I was so he had set me down on the floor of the boat and replace my seaweed/kelp bandage (for some real ones in a med kit kept on each boat) while he piloted the boat around the bay and under the bridge.
The bandage kept me distracted until we got to the dock but found nopony on the dock. Instead, dragging path from the dock to the lifeguard tower and a rescue flat back board showed that Patrick had taken Sarah up and inside.
The board had been abandoned on the platform’s deck while the door was left ajar. Inside, Patrick had somehow gotten Sarah up on a cloth cot and giving her a bottle of meal replacement drink (1). She downed it faster than it took for Patrick to open it and she begged for more. Her face was pale, her mane was ragged and her eyes were sunken; I’ll be honest: I was scared for her.
Dr Jamie went over and checked her from nose to tail and everything in between, taking special look at her horn, which seemed to still have dark scorch marks on it; a lot less since I had last seen her and I had pointed this out. Dr Jamie seemed to nod before turning to me. “Go back underwater and get her some food. Doesn’t matter what it is; just grab something, anything.” I was out the door before he could finish.
I came back carrying the same aquatic salad Sarah had brought to me. She ate it with relish, finishing it in minutes; a little color had returned to her face but she still looked weak. Dr Jamie then came over with a bowl; multiple mini packs of non-shelled peanuts littered the floor. “Eat,” he said, shoving the bowl into Sarah’s front hooves. She hesitated only a moment before dropping her head in and eating like the peanuts were grains from a feed bag.
Dr Jamie then turned to me! “While she’s eating, I want to check that cut on your leg Kathryn. I want to make sure it does not get infected... depending how badly, I may have to stitch it.”
He had me lay down and removed the haphazard bandage....
The cut was already stitched closed!
It was already scabbed over and disgusting as it was; we watched as little white sparkles of my transformation magic spiraled up and peeled off the scabs with no pain at all, leaving behind faintly pink scar tissue! Somehow I knew that by morning, the pink would be gone and just a white scar that would blend into my fur.
Sarah had finished the bowl of peanuts, her hoof nudging the bowl off the cot and letting it land on the floor. We all looked to her. “We are aquatic creatures. If we bleed too much, we’d attract the wrong kind of attention. And we are creatures of magic... so of course those two things combined mean we heal...” her voice got slurred as she fell asleep there on the cot.
I'm still in the lifeguard tower, reclining on a pile of the ships’ old mattresses, watching over Sarah while she recovers. Dr Jamie thinks she got ‘magic burn-out’ performing her shield spell. We’ve already learned that everyone, including Raea can pass the shield with no problems; we watched as a single barracuda pass through peacefully but three on the hunt got bounced back.
“Only those with peaceful intentions can pass. That’s how the spell was written,” Sarah had explained sleepily when I had asked while I gave her a bottle of salt water, as the doctor ordered.
I got a feeling we’ll be here all night. It is time for me to re-wet Sarah’s blankets. –Kathryn
{ENCRYPTED FILE; RESTRICTED ACCESS TO USER, Patrick_MerPeg}
June 28th, 2015 (Extremely early morning) ~Patrick
Dear Journal,
It’s still dark out; so dark, I can enjoy the stars hanging over the ocean. I can see the BC’s buoys lights spinning and the buoys bobbing on the waves. According to Kathy’s tablet, the moon is a “waxing gibbous at 89% visibility”; we’re expected to get the full in three more days. To me, it’s just really pretty.
I had come to relieve Kathy from Sarah-watch only to find both ponies (and one Border collie) asleep. So instead of waking them, I've curled up on an old, grandma-style smelly couch and taken the tablet so I could write down my own thoughts.
I had tried to sleep down in the ocean but even with Sarah’s new shield, I didn’t feel safe all by myself. I'm sure that if I was so inclined, I could have gone back to CC and used either the common area or Kathy’s RV and no one would have minded.
But these two ponies are like family to me. Maybe it’s the whole thing about being horses and their herd-mentality I once read about. At first, I thought those of Harbor City had been my “herd”, so to speak. But now that I've spent time with Sarah & Kathy, I've come to realize that THEY are my herd. They know me; they know what it’s like to be merpony (Kathy most of the time); we have so much in common and we’ve traveled together.
I love them both. I love them like the sister I once had and may never have again. But that’s ok because I have Sarah and Kathy to fill the void.
Kathy is like the bossy, busy-body older sister who’s always trying to tell you what to do. Now that the CC has their own land pony, you’d expect Kathy to come to the ocean for good. But she won’t commit; and I don’t think it’s just Raea she’s worried about. Sure, Jamie is an Earth pony but he’s a doctor first and foremost; today ? yesterday ? was proof of that.
Sarah... well... she’s beautiful, kind, smart and funny. She’s more than a sister to me and I've known that I loved her for a while now but been too scared to tell her. After yesterday’s near miss, I might finally have the courage to ask her out on a date.
I'm encrypting this entry until such a time as I am ok with sharing it. -Patrick
\\hgfutlease//
{ENCRYPTION, RESTRICTED ACCESS RESCINDED BY USER, Patrick_MerPeg 01132125.1930}
It’s been a couple of days since my last entry. And for that, I'm sorry........ And I'm sorry for that encrypted entry that Patrick refuses to unlock. I tried to get him to fix it but he shuts me down every time I ask. So I gave up on trying.
The day after Sarah performed her shield spell, she suffered the same sickness that had befallen me after I had helped plant the entire orchard (and used too much magic). Of course, she did not have the transformation side-effect but, she did have trouble controlling her levitation... small things would go flying randomly from the life guard building: bottles, pulleys, pieces of rope slipped along the floor like snakes, pieces of clothing, the door would open & slam shut of its own volition, and anything else smaller than my journal tablet.
She too was all feverish and sweaty... kept crying out for the ocean. But due to the volatility of her magic, we could not risk taking her to the ocean just yet. The experience we got with my illness Patrick, Griz & Jazz knew exactly what to do; I helped as best as I could but mostly got in the way. Dr Jamie merely watched, taking notes on a small tablet of his own and using a stylus on a purple land yard. {Something told me that Sarah had given that stylus to him at some point prior to her getting sick. I've seen Jazz wearing a yellow one and Griz wore a brown one.}
We had finally obliged and took Sarah down to her boat in BC after a salt-heavy dinner of tomato soup and crackers.
Patrick & I were the only ones who could watch over her down there so we took turns. Dr Jamie promised to stay in the life guard tower that night, just in case he was needed.
Sarah got better a few hours after we got her into the ocean; she was weak but normal by morning. She was brought to the marina for land breakfast & dinner but an ocean salad for lunch so she could get more sleep. It’s weird though... Sarah remembered performing the spell and being brought to the marina but no memories of anything until she was brought back to the ocean. Yesterday, she came to us and told us she now remembers what happened on land.” It’s like any land memories during the ‘sickness’ are repressed until the patient has recovered,” Dr Jamie observed, hurrying to fetch his personal medical tablet to mark it down. She also said that her magic was working completely normally, as if the sickness never happened.
Something tells me that this sickness has more to do with us expending too much of our magic all at once. Today, Sarah was back to her normal chores of helping Dr Jamie and Griz with the farm animals, totally back to her peppy old self.
Patrick & I went out scavenging today. We took one of the Coast Guard boats out to the hotels to the south along the beaches. Patrick brought his wheels and insisted that he come along with me, carrying one of my old crossbows on his back, quiver of bolts tucked into a wing.
Scavenging is not just looking for supplies; it’s also to search for returnees and any threats to CC and BC. Any time we found hotel rooms or areas that clearly had humans in it pre-Event; we’d leave a specially made waterproof note typed up by Sarah.
If you’re reading this then you have just returned to Earth from something that happened to the entire planet; a contamination of some kind. Do not be freaked out by your new form. Learn it and then come to us! Find a city map and locate “Biscayne Bay Campus”. We are in the University Center.
(That’s a scan of one of Sarah’s notes. She said it was ok for me to add it here before I left it on the bed of a hotel room.)
I honestly don’t expect to find more ponies on these scavenging trips. I just think finding Dr Jamie was a lucky break. We would have gone to that hospital at some point anyway... timing at the time was sheer luck.
We did find a few unopened bags of flour, bottles of vanilla and boxes of baking soda inside a few of the hotel pantries.
We had also found some electric coffee grinders. “When we start growing wheat, we can use these to grind our own flour,” I had said at the time. We took two for now and put the others in a safe place.
Any room that did not have evidence of human-habitation got the strip-treatment: every towel, blanket, pillow, and curtain got ripped from the suite and loaded.
Getting in? Oh, it’s easy for an Earth pony (or any pony, for that matter) to buck the doors. The door lock things had lost power ages ago and the emergency batteries were long since dead.
The towels, blankets, and curtains were all neatly folded before going into one bin; pillows went into those vacuum packed giant Ziploc bags for easier transport (about six per bag & we had eighteen bags).
July 16th, 2015 ~Kathryn
Dear Journal,
It has been 21 days since any of our last entries. Nothing has really happened in that time; status quo, and all that. Sarah keeps helping Griz with the animals; I help Dr Jamie with the farm fields & orchards, Raea often at my heels (do hooves even HAVE heels??); Jazz & Patrick would often go scavenging together, taking crossbows for protection.
So far, we’ve all been lucky; a few marauders within our fields but Raea has been taking to hiding each night next to the old obstacle course fence, chasing away any squirrels, raccoon and any other animals that might try to raid our field.
One day, a family of deer from a local zoo had somehow found their way onto the campus. Sadly, they were not content to just grazing on grass or nearby trees. The moment one crossed the road to the farm field, Raea had taken off like a shot, snarling and barking to chase it away. But it was not afraid; it was a buck and had huge antlers; he tried fending Raea off with said antlers, scratching her in the side. That’s when I was forced to finally use the crossbow I carried. I killed him. The others, four females, one smaller buck & three fauns, got scared and ran off.
After I had killed him, I dropped the crossbow, vomited at the smell of blood and hurried over to Raea. The cut was not nearly as deep as it looked but it had to be stitched closed. Sarah & Griz had come running when they heard Raea’s snarling; Griz offered to take care of the buck, dragging it into the forest on the other side of the orchard.
Dr Jamie instructed me to stay at Raea’s head and keep her calm while he instructed Sarah how to use the special stitching kit from the hospital bag. I kept staring into Raea’s eyes to keep from looking at what they were doing; afraid I might vomit again. But thankfully it was brief and soon enough, they wrapped a bandage around Raea’s belly and Sarah levitated Raea back to my RV.
It was nearly a week before the cut had healed. I had refused to leave Raea’s side and the others decided that it was prudent to find a few more dogs to help protect the campus.
By that time, Griz had butchered the buck, salting out the skin and turning the meat into jerky. She said she had plans for a few of the bones but the rest of the animal had been given a proper burial. She did give Raea a big meat-filled, fully cooked t-bone steak the second night of her recovery. “Dogs need real protein to help them heal. Dog food with fillers would only go so far,” Griz had explained.
The day after the steak, Griz, Patrick and Dr Jamie, being the biggest of us, went out to see if they could convince a few dogs to join us. I did offer my experience with the dogs back in Brantford... God, it feels like years ago, not months! They took a bunch of the cooked venison in a red food cooler and the school bus.
They came back at sunset with a pair of beautiful German Sheppard’s; brother and sister who clearly had been pets before the Event but now served themselves. They both also still had their collars on; the boy was Max and the girl was Millie. We saw no reason to change the names and so Max & Millie were introduced to Raea. (1)
I swear, Millie saw Raea’s injury and whimpered and started licking her face. Max gave a single gruff as in, “what happened?” Raea gave a series of barks back, “Buck got me. Pony killed it. Bird-lion cooked it.” She nudged a plate of venison at her head to show them the fresh meat. Millie & Max shared a single piece before turning to me, waiting instructions.
Max & Millie has been with us a couple of weeks and although they are bigger, they defer to Raea’s authority. She took them around the perimeter of the campus, laying down their scent markers on the first day we allowed her out of bed but I walked with them, going slowly for Raea’s sake.
When a squirrel appeared from the forest, Raea barked at it and it bolted. “Most animals know to stay clear of here. You guys are here to help us with the bigger stuff... deer, other dogs, bad ponies.” I spoke to them like they were ponies but somehow, I knew that they understood. “We only kill as a last resort,” I added. “Raea getting hurt was the final straw for that buck.” Both Max & Millie barked in understanding and fell in line with us as we kept walking.
The two German Sheppard’s had been introduced to the farm animals and had been welcomed. The cows had seen what had happened to Raea with the buck and they had been angry at the intrusion. They now saw Max & Millie as protectors; as did the chickens. Millie had made quick friends with the chickens, playing gently with the chicks that had hatched from the nests we had scavenged.
It had not even been two days after their arrival that Max & Millie showed their worth. A large pack of dogs had ignored their scent markers and were stalking the calves; Wally & Clover had been galloping the length of the paddock, racing each other, but Wally would let Clover win more often than not. The leader of the dogs, a very tall Greyhound, had dropped a branch over the mesh construction fence, bending it down enough so the others could jump it.
Max had been watching from the fence pathway to the building and bolted into action, barking and snarling, tearing up the grass to get to the calves faster than the pack. Millie had been with the chickens inside but she came careening out at top speed. I was in the paddock, checking a sore on Lily's back leg when it all went down.
Max & Millie stood together, with a dog-sized space between them and neither said a whimper. The leader started barking, probably ordering the two to back off. Max was the first (and I might be a little florid in my interpretation of their conversation but it’s what I felt at the time) “Not gonna happen! These belong here! They belong to the ponies! Ponies carry weapons that kill! Leave now!” Millie stayed quiet, letting Max do the ‘talking’.
“No! We are hungry! You have food. There are more of us than you! Pony means nothing to us!” The Greyhound bolted from his spot and went at Max. None of the pack moved an inch, and neither did Millie. They, and I, recognized that they had to fight for dominance before they would get anywhere.
The Greyhound was taller but he was also leaner and weak from hunger. Max had been with us for a few days and his new diet of dog food and venison was doing both of them well. Max overpowered the leader easily, but did not leave a scratch on him. “Take your pack and leave now. This is your last warning.” Max gave a low growl as I had approached them. “Down Max. I think they get the message,” I said gently. Max backed off the Greyhound.
I knelt down to the Greyhound’s level. “I am a pony. My friends are ponies. We were humans, masters. We are now pony but still masters,” I said. I pulled out an arrow from my quiver but my crossbow still lay on the ground back next to Lily, who was now soothing Clover. “An arrow like this killed a buck twice your size. You mess with us, you get arrow too. Do we understand?” The Greyhound looked to me, to the arrow, to Max and back to me. He whimpered, lowering his gaze.
I stood up and ordered Max to back off. “Go out the road, go right [I tapped his right paw gently] and go four blocks. Big red building, dog food inside.” I had just directed them to an old mom-and-pop pet shop but I knew that the place was there because that was the shop that Raea had gotten her favorite chew toy our first night here and the door had been bucked open. With any luck, a few bags would still be there.
When I backed off a few body-lengths, the Greyhound got up, barked once and leaped the fence, running off in the direction of the main road. The rest of the pack went with him and I slumped to my haunches in relief. Millie had come over and licked my face; Max went over and checked out the calves, making sure they were ok.
Dr Jamie & Griz had come running just then; Griz flew the fence while Dr Jamie went around removing the branch, which the dogs had forgotten. “Are you ok, Kathryn?” Griz asked, worry on her face. “Yeah, Max & Millie protected the herd. Held off a dog pack and I sent them to the pet store. They were hungry,” I added. Griz started stroking Millie’s head, giving her praise; Max came over and accepted the same treatment. “Both puppies are getting canned food tonight; yes you are!” Griz said in a babying voice, still hugging both dogs; both dogs still clearly enjoying the attention.
Later that night, true to her promise, Griz gave Max & Millie the canned dog food for dinner.
Millie had taken to sleeping in the chicken’s office at the door while Max would curl up in the straw in a front corner; that night, Clover and Lily invited Max to curl with them and even the rooster welcomed Millie to the room that night.
When Raea got all better, she would leave Millie to watch the animals while she and Max would patrol the orchard and farm fields accordingly.
Three days from the dog pack, a cat came up to Sarah while she was checking the orchard. The cat, more like kitten, was barely a few months old; two at most. He was hungry and lonely; rubbing his face on Sarah’s foreleg. Sarah told me later that she somehow knew he didn’t have a name or a family and so she adopted him right there. She named him Little Macintosh because she was checking the Macintosh apples when she had found him, Lil’ Mac for short. Funny because he’s all white with a small patch of bright tabby orange on his side that kinda does look like an apple! (2)
The freaky animal understanding seems to be stronger in us merponies and Griz than the others. Dr Jamie had started seeing a pattern and wanted to run experiments but found that he and Jazz failed spectacularly, Griz barely passed and me, Sarah & Patrick were all on par. I never understood the experiments but all of the animals agreed to it so I let it happen.
Dr Jamie had also taken me, Griz, Sarah and Jazz back to the hospital so he could get full x-rays of each of us. It was interesting to see those. (Patrick had gone down to BC for a while to check on the water crops; we left the three dogs on guard at CC.) It was weird to see how Sarah’s horn was sprouting directly from her skull and they all watched live and recorded it as I transformed from land to mer and back; my magic ribbon swirls could not hide the x-ray. Sarah looked like she wanted to vomit while the others were merely grossed out. Dr Jamie had been hesitant to let me see it; I was fascinated by it. I asked him to copy it to my tablet so I could watch it again.
He had also made copies for his own medical tablet and instructed me on how to run the x-ray so he could have a turn. He wanted to return with Patrick and the dogs to get all of their x-rays as well. “But not Lil’ Mac yet... he’s too little,” Dr Jamie joked, and everyone laughed.
That’s all I can think of for this entry. Hopefully we don’t go this long again for the next entry. ~Kathryn
Having gone back over all of our previous entries, it makes me proud at how far we’ve come.
That being said... I have noticed a few things. We still have not named those two parking lot island apple trees; one is a Red Delicious and the other is a Gala. They’ve just been referred to ‘Kathy’s Trees’.
I haven’t come up with a reliable solution for the gate crossing. I did consider a ramp overpass but none of us can build anything like that. And then some random idea about electronics, pressure pads and motors? I'm not sure...
Lil' Mac was welcomed by everyone and everything in our community. He’s such a sweet little thing; even Raea tolerates his hysterical antics; especially when he tries to climb up on her and snuggle in her thick fur! It is so freaking adorable!!
He goes outside for a litter box and mostly stays within U1 as there is so much room to explore. Jazz found herself going around and closing off the bigger areas so that Lil' Mac did not get lost.
At one point, he had somehow gotten into my RV via Raea’s doggy door and had made a mess of a roll of paper towel I had left on a counter far above the ground; no idea how he got up there in the first place!
Uhh... yeah...
We three merponies are still splitting our time between BC and CC; Sarah and Patrick would come and help with the land chores in the mornings but then go back to BC either before or after lunch. I’d more often than not, stay on land in my RV.
More of the same status quo and all that... –Kathryn
July 23rd, 2015 ~Patrick
Dear Journal,
Son of a gun! They did it! Kathryn and Dr Jamie figured out a solution to the annoying cattle fence!
Kathryn had written that last entry and had kept quiet, thinking hard at the problem. At one point, Sarah had found her, sitting on her haunches, just staring at that section of the fence, I guess hoping for inspiration to come to her.
And it did, eventually.
She realized, ultimately, that all we needed were two sets of sliding gates like the ones found in some gated communities or rich homes! But instead of using keypads, keys or remote clickers, it was Dr Jamie’s idea to use pressure pads on the outside to activate them.
Turns out, he knows a few things about these systems so he said that if he got his hooves on some, he could rig them to open and close in a sequence with plenty of time for a pony or two to pass easily between them. OR he said he could have two sets of pads: one for open, one for close. Pony entering the pass presses the open and crosses; they wait until everyone who wants to pass, to pass and then press the close. The cows and chickens were smart enough to not escape.
“And the best part is... if I can get electric motors, all of this can run on solar power!” Dr Jamie said excitedly.
Dr Jamie and Kathryn had taken her pick up out to look for a company that sold that kind of kit. Thanks to a phone book at the U1, they found one a measly half hour drive from the campus!
I'm gonna hoof this over to Kathryn so she can finish telling it herself. –Patty
* * *
Hey there. It’s Kathryn!
So yeah, I, Raea and Dr Jamie took the pickup truck out yesterday to find the sliding gate warehouse and scavenge everything we needed to put it all together.
I was in a mood that trip so instead of my normal play list, I played my Christmas play list. Dr Jamie merely raised a curious eyebrow to my choice but he didn’t say anything about it.
Getting into the store was not all that hard; Earth ponies can buck something fierce! I let Dr Jamie do this door as he needed the practice. The door broke off the hinges and flew across the show room.
We found the gate kits in the show room; most of the gates were too fancy for what we wanted. After some consideration, I realized that I could still use the construction fences if I did the same sand & craft glue trick I used in making Patrick’s wheels. So we also grabbed the kits that fit the closest to those fences as well as extra tracks, connectors and other accessories.
Dr Jamie had decided to rig up a couple of emergency, fail-safe buttons for in case the fences got left open for whatever reason. He explained that those buttons would be powered by separate solar panels from the rest of the system.
Reading the instructions, I quickly realized that we’d need trenches dug for the tracks. I grabbed my portable radio and called the U1; spoke with Jazz and I explained to her how big to dig the trenches so that they’d be done for when we got back. I also told them that we'd need a few more things so we could make the fences weight the amount needed and that they might have to scavenge to find the stuff.
Loading up the kit and accessories was really easy. I was actually glad that we decided to not use any of the fences there. I took a few pictures with my music tablet to show the others when we got back.
On the way back, we had found another gas station that I was able to top off the truck with and add the stabilizers. {All of our vehicles come with a siphoning kit, either the hose or genny version; the school bus is the only with the genny and it’s mainly for refilling gas cans as well as my spare big rig tank that is bolted to the inside back of the bus. Most of that fuel gets used for the Coast Guard diesel boats, the U1 and my RV gennies.}
We also found a dollar store and Staples, liberating every bottle of craft glue we could find in both. We also grabbed all of the water bottles we could find.
Next, we had to find a specialty store that had the pressure pads to use on the outside of the fence. Dr Jamie assured me that he could program them to activate with a certain pressure range and he’d take measurements from each of us to get the average.
Returning to the Campus, we drove the truck all the way to the Convention Center. Patrick was using a pick ax to dig up the pavement while Griz used a shovel to remove the broken pieces. Sarah was speaking with the cows out in the field while Jazz loitered on the outside of the fence and she approached the truck as I turned it around.
Two pieces of fencing had been left off to the side as well as a few of the champagne trophy buckets (likely taken from hotels) full of sand, an electric drill and a large funnel.
Leaving Patrick and Griz to the trenches, I got Sarah to use her levitation to hold the drill running while I made the two holes in the top of each fence piece. Then I had her hold the funnels while Dr Jamie and Jazz poured the sand into them. Every once in a while, I’d have them stop so I could shake the fence and add some glue. That repeated multiple times until the fence pipes were very nearly filled. We left the top of the fence’s pipe empty as the proper weight had already been achieved. We left the first leaning against the wall while we filled the second.
Sadly, it was getting really late and dark by the time we finished both so the cows were led back into the building and a temporary fence was placed over the space in the walkway. Leaving the holes in the fence pieces open had let them dry overnight.
Last night, Sarah, Dr Jamie and I got all of the electronics for the fences hooked up and figured out. Dr Jamie and Sarah did most of the work with his knowledge and her magic. I was just there to help pass pieces. LOL :P
But something else really cool happened. While they were working on the electronics, Sarah commented to Dr Jamie how it was surprising that he knew all about this kind of thing despite being a doctor. "You were raised on a dairy farm; grew up to be a doctor... what else is there to the great Doctor Jamie?" Sarah asked. As he started listing off all of his hobbies and interests, his cutie mark started to glow. "I enjoyed a round of golf or two on a Sunday afternoon... or working on my motorcycle... or sailing on my yacht.... what?" he stammered to a stop when he realized that we were staring. He was surprised to see the mark glow a moment before going out.
"So now we know what Dr Jamie's cutie mark means," I said. "He's a NERDY Know-it-all!" I burst out laughing, Sarah following suit. His mark glowed again for a few heartbeats as he came to the same realization and then he laughed too.
Today, we got all of the gate stuff installed. Dr Jamie and Sarah did most of the work while I took over Sarah’s chores in the chicken’s office. The cows were eager to get back out into the grass but I let them have at a bale of hay instead. Griz and Jazz had previously gone back to the farm with both mine and the farm trucks attached to the biggest trailers we could find so they could bring back every bale of hay. We filled, to the ceiling, a second conference room with them all!
The hay had a strangely sweet smell to it and out of curiosity; I chewed on a piece of it. It was like eating a straw piece of Shredded Wheat. Not horrible... probably just get boring after a while.
Long story short, the fences got installed and all electronics hooked up. The main system was on a new set of solar panels that Dr Jamie and I put on the roof of the Convention Center. We had also set up the emergency system that would kick in not only the backup lights in the hallways but also automatically make sure the gates were closed.
Dr Jamie had used one of the laptops and a scale from a nurses’ station to figure out the pressure average for the activation pads.
When everything was ready, we brought the cows outside of the fencing to watch and listen. The calves were spooked by the whirling of the motors and the clash of the fence but none of the others seemed scared. Next, they walked through the pathway inside while we took turns activating the fences. When none of them, including the calves, were spooked, we deemed the fences done!
Moments later, I used the pressure pads to cross the pathway and head over to the farm fields. Griz came with me but she simply flew over the fence. Sarah went back to her chores with the chickens; Dr Jamie offered to get dinner started while Jazz said she’d check on the orchards and Patrick wanted to check on BC’s crops. “Bring back some seaweed, Patrick! I'm hankering for some ocean salad tonight,” I had called back over my shoulder.
I had put in some more Earth pony into the fields; the corn is coming slowly while the potatoes are much faster. I figure that if Dr Jamie and I can keep putting in magic into these fields, we can expect a half-harvest very soon; half-harvest means everything that grows fast. The stuff that is slower is the other half.
When I came back to U1 after that, I tried offering to help Dr Jamie but he insisted I rest so that’s why I found time to do my entry. –Kathryn
A wrung-out Kathryn stormed into the common room, not unlike the hurricane-like storm that raged outside, every inch of her furred body, mane and tail were soaked to the skin and made her look like she just came out of an unwanted shower.... because really, that is kinda what just happened!
As she used one of Sarah's emergency towels and put a pot of water on the stove for tea/coffee, Kathryn reflected that it had not been all about her misery. She watched as Griz helped an exhausted Jazz to reach the couch, covering first in towels and laying more on top of the shivering pegasus. In fact, she should be thrilled at what occurred that day... happy for her dear friend, Jazz.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The day had started out the same as most other days. Kathryn awoke in her RV bed, curled up with Raea; but today, she also woke with Jazz snoring away on the spare bed.
During the night, Jazz had been acting not-like-herself and no one could explain why; not even her. She had finally fallen asleep around 1 am but still woke confused and fidgety. She could barely sit still long enough to preen her wings back into place before dashing out the door and taking flight. Kathryn tried to run after her but by the time she untangled herself from the blankets and Raea, Jazz was already a speck in the distance to Kathryn.
Jazz arrived back late for breakfast with horrible news: a hurricane was coming their way! Having grown up in Key West, Jazz had seen her fair share of them growing up; Griz & Dr Jamie as well; Patrick had been down in Florida once prior for training and witnessed the devastation but this was Kathryn's & Sarah's first ever and the idea terrified them. They had seen one previously but it had stayed WAY out to sea and it was very weak. This one, Jazz knew it was going to be bad.
Jazz, seeing their fear, understood completely. "Patrick, you and Sarah need to go secure Bermareda Circle and relocate the ship to further inland; just find a river going northwest and go as far as you can, grab a new car for the drive back. Griz, you need to secure the animals, plus Max & Millie inside their building; explain the situation to them and leave lots of food & water. Dr Jamie & I will go harvest whatever I can from the orchard & fields; there's a risk we might loose them all. Kathryn, you and Raea say here and start rolling down all of the storm windows and doors you can reach; when I get done, I'll join you." Kathryn was too stunned to argue the usurp of her leadership; the others broke off, all but Kathryn forgetting about dishes. In light of the situation, she looked at the pile, and trotted away.
Griz screeched to a stop on her way to her room. "Hey, Kathryn, you also need to hitch up your RV and move it into the delivery bay if you still want to keep it!" The words were barely out of her beak as Kathryn grabbed her truck keys from the counter top and bolted outside, Raea on her heels [still hadn't figured out if hooves have heels but she kept the saying anyway].
A couple hours of harvesting and storing later, Jazz managed to get back to U1 to help Kathryn with the storm windows and doors while Dr Jamie went inside to relocate the computers' stuff (and his own personal belongings) to an upstairs office. Geez, this school was really built with storm preparation in mind! Jazz thought to herself as she flew up to close the windows of the second story via the balcony. The storm doors & window covers were steel garage-style doors that rolled up on the outside so to protect the windows inside; even the delivery door had two sets: inner normal white panel ones to match the rest of the building and the outer steel doors. An earlier inspection of the campus proved that all of the buildings had similar set ups and so she knew Griz would do the same for the animal buildings; she only really worried about flooding. Finishing with the last of the windows, she made a mental note to ask Sarah to empty the poo pools when she got back.
Kathryn's RV was parked in the huge delivery bay, the door facing the hallway door, surrounded by a wall of sandbags she made up herself from the stock pile of sacks in the bay and a pile of sand from the construction site. She was so focused on making those sandbags that she had made far too many so Jazz & Griz started using the extras to protect the main front door of U1 and the animal's door. Griz had also dismantled the special gate system, solar panels and all, from the pasture fence and stored them in an upstairs conference room.
Patrick and Sarah's job took longer than either pony thought possible. The waves were already making swimming to make sure the home ships were secure, harvesting the water plants and piloting the BC surface ship farther north before finding a river big enough for the ship & going inland difficult. They ended up going nearly as far as Disney land, hoping that it would still be there when they came back for it. A very short trot later, they found another pick up truck and drove it back, using the hoof controls from the surface ship.
August 2nd, 2015; mid-afternoon-ish ~Sarah
Dear Journal, We are as prepared as humanely? ponily? possible. Prepared for what? BETH. The first hurricane to come towards us since moving down here. No one else seemed to care about naming it so I did. That one we saw out at sea last month was Artemis; this one is named Beth.
We are all worried, of course. Patty & I were too afraid to stay in the ocean so he went and got us an inflatable kiddie pool for the common room.... not sure why we didn't think of that sooner for Movie Nights but whatever; Griz used the fire truck to pump it full of sea water. Kathy is in here with us, in her merpony form and cuddling with Patty while I lean out the side & use my lanyard stylus to type this entry. The water seems to help to keep us calmer; Raea is on the couch, curled up with Dr Jamie. Griz keeps pacing from the couch to the front door and back. Jazz is outside, following some kind of pegasus instinct to "push the worst of the hurricane away from the campus". I've no idea if she'll succeed but Griz keeps worrying and poking her beak outside to see if she can see Jazz. All she keeps doing is letting the wind and rain come in! =Sarah
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
August 2nd, 2015; evening ~Griz
Hey, Jazz asked me to do the entry as to what just happened... she got her butt tattoo!
I could not sit still like Dr Jamie during the storm. The static electricity kept messing with some kind of bird compass inside my head. I had read about that before but never really understood it until I became a griffon. So I had left the merponies in their little pool with Dr Jamie, Raea and Lil' Mac; I had gone outside to watch over Jazz. But what I saw was inexpiable.... I'll try to do my best.
Dipping, diving, hooves outstretched to the storm cell itself and making contact; she flew in the same direction of the storm, seeming to be putting pressure on the side that faced the campus so to push it back out to sea. The storm winds whipped around me, pulling feathers loose, and the sheets of rain falling nearly sideways. I could not hear anything beyond the wind... except for a tiny pegasus voice yelling and screaming at the storm; or so I thought.
Jazz says she was in her element; she was actually cheering and screaming with delight. She says the speed was nothing like she'd ever experienced before and she never felt the cold the entire time.
But here's the shocking bit.... she was actually doing it! She was actually moving the hurricane away from Campus City! Not by miles; inch by inch she was teasing it back out to the ocean.... at the very least, trying to keep it on the beach. She knew that we could rebuild Bermareda Circle much more easily than we could Campus City and so it was like she was taking it directly over BC and trying to keep it on the sand.
I have no idea when the others joined me; I was too entranced watching Jazz do her thing. My first indication was Patrick staring up at the sky, in a trance-like state, removing his wheels and launching into the air. I think I barely heard him say, "I can help her!" They spoke for a moment in the sky before breaking off and flying in opposite directions, still adding that bit of nudging on the campus side of the storm.
Sarah, Kathryn and Dr Jamie all slowly walked up to stand by me as we watched, totally not caring of the storm raging around us. Yes, even scared Kathryn & Sarah, who had never seen a hurricane in person (or pony) in her entire life, was now standing out in that raging storm, staring up at their two friends as they tried to save what we had built here.
I wasn't aware of it until Sarah pointed it out to me later, but the whole time we were watching them fly, I was clutching my mother's pendant in my claw, whispering every prayer I could make up on the spot and not taking my eyes off of the two specks in the clouds. I knew my wings twitched from time to time; especially when a bolt of lightning came dangerously close but we all felt rooted to the spot.
After what felt like forever but was actually only an hour, the storm tracked past the point of BC, stayed along the beach and just kept going north. Sarah & Patrick had stopped their teasing once they were sure that the storm had cleared a good stretch beyond BC. They came flying back in, against the wind & rain that kept falling; but it was far less on the tail-end of the storm. When they landed, Patrick stood to the back and let Sarah help him back into his wheels. Jazz was practically pounced by Dr Jamie and Kathryn. But when it came for my turn to hug her, I noticed something that the others missed: Jazz got a flank mark! It was the grey circular clouds of a hurricane underneath a simple red cross. The moment I pointed it out, Sarah, Kathryn & Jazz all squealed with glee and started hugging. When they broke off, the wondering began. "So what does it actually mean?" Sarah asked. "I'm not sure... I just remember a feeling of pride when Patrick & I saw that storm off... Pride in knowing how to be prepared and pride in being able to send it on its way, letting it take its course instead of dispersing it." "Emergency Weather Preparedness and Prevention," Kathryn said. The mark glowed as Jazz heard that and we all knew it to be true. We also quickly realized that Jazz's Hebie-jebies mood the day before was her early warning alarm for the incoming storm; something, we all knew, we'd be watching out for in the future!
Finally, the remains of the storm broke through our celebration and we had decided to return to U1 until the light of morning before assessing the damage. Sarah & Patrick could not wait to check on BC so they went down to the beach right away; Dr Jamie offered to check on the farm animals while I helped Jazz get back to the common room so she could rest. Kathryn offered to get a late supper ready and I took the chance to write this entry. Yeah, we made sure to dry off before too long and I got Jazz bundled in blankets while Kathryn put on the kettle.
I just really hope we don't have too many of those storms to deal with in the future. I'm worried that Jazz might have expended too much of herself in that storm and she might suffer the same illness that happened to Kathryn and Sarah. I vow to keep an eye on the stubborn pegasus tonight. =Griz
August 3rd, 2015 - Late evening ~Kathryn
Dear Diary, We didn't loose a single building in either Campus City OR Bermareda Circle! Beth left us one heck of a clean up but thankfully everything relatively intact, building-wise. We lost a few trees in the orchard and the farm field is completely flooded but for the most part, we got lucky thanks to Jazz.
But it was thanks to Griz staying up most of the night, we knew when Jazz got sick, just like it was with me and Sarah. Except this time, her wings would not stay folded. They'd flap out of sync and she'd loose her footing, falling on her face. Other than that, she was completely aware of everything. It was like she had lost control of her wings despite still being able to fly. It finally got to a point that Dr Jamie pulled out some old leather belts and while Patrick held the wings folded manually, he belted the wings to her body just to give her some peace. The wings flapping erratically had prevented Jazz from being able to sleep so by belting her wings, it had a calming effect on her. I gave her some chamomile tea I had been saving for this kind of occasion, she had fallen asleep easily; Griz not too far behind. I had left Raea & Lil' Mac with them while we had taken Millie & Max for an investigation of the damage.
Sarah reported that there was little to no damage to Bermareda Circle beyond the loss of the underwater farm plots, half of the kelp forest (which we knew would grow back in a month) and one buoy cable on the cement truck. She reported that even her shield spell was still holding despite the loss of the chain, which Patrick had already replaced during their inspection last night. She could not say the same for the emergency life guard tower we kept intact when we built the marina.... completely destroyed.
The worst of the damage on campus came in the form of lost paddock fencing (whole dang thing blown away) and downed trees & other debris (roofing tiles from homes and lawn furniture, for the most part). Priorities are being focused on restoring the paddock fencing, cleaning the orchard and restoring the farm field as best we can. We'll start tomorrow, hopeful that Jazz will have recovered. =Kathryn
Supplemental, around midnight
Patrick drove up to check on the BC surface ship and he radioed back that she was in perfect condition. Jazz had done so well at diverting the storm, it had never reached that far north. He said he'd spend the night up there and pilot the ship home tomorrow morning. More great news!
A few days after the hurricane they named "Beth", things were slowly getting back to normal; Dr Jamie was even able to salvage the missing entries on the laptop from the strange, unexplained power surge.... Yup; things returning to normal... until Aug 12th came.
The day started normal enough with an average breakfast of fresh fruit from the orchard, eggs from the chickens, milk from the cows and fresh loaf of bread made from the first harvest of wheat (and a bread maker they liberated from a Wal-mart).
Griz and Jazz spent the morning replanting some more of the farm field while Patrick and Sarah had gone down to Bermareda Circle to do some long delayed clean up work; Kathryn and Raea took a walk through the orchard so she could put down some more Earth Pony magic and check on the few trees that had been knocked over in the storm.
Lunch consisted of sandwiches made with peanut butter and jam. Griz made hers with strips of smoked fish instead. They had all finally gotten used to the smell of cooked fish and so it no longer made them ill.
Later in the afternoon, Patrick and Kathryn were refilling the Coast Guard boats with diesel when the radio of the ship crackled to life. They had been using the emergency broadcast signal since they acquired the boats but so far, nothing had come. Then all of a sudden, that signal came to life and then a very young voice speaks. “Hello? Is anyone there? Please help me!” When we say young, we mean really young; far younger than Margaret.... maybe closer to young David’s age.
Kathryn had managed to shut off the diesel pump while Patrick bolted for the radio. He managed to get the microphone off the hook, onto the floor and wedge it against a floorboard so he could depress the speak button. “Hello there! My name is Patrick. Are you ok?” he asked without the pirate voice.
“I don’t know! Everything is wrong! Please help me!” she said, fear clear in her voice. Having turned off the pump with a flip of a switch, Kathryn trotted over to the radio and nodded to Patrick. He let go of the radio and she took over.
“Sweetie, my name is Kathy. I need you to calm down, ok? Take some deep breaths; tell me your name, how old you are, and about yourself, ok?” she asked calmly.
They heard some snuffling and hiccup before her deep breathing. It was a few moments before she was calm enough to answer. “My name is Annie and I’m 7. I’m on a boat tied to a dock. I was here with my parents but when I woke, they were gone and I’m different.”
“Okay Annie, you’re doing great. When did you wake up? Can you look outside and see a sign or some landmark at the docks?” Kathryn asked, watching as Patrick nodded and grabbed a local map.
The pause on the radio was agonizing but she eventually came back. “I woke up last night when the stars were still out. ‘Marathon Marina & Boatyard’; it was on a piece of paper taped to the window. Does that help?” she asked. Patrick kicked the map aside and grabbed the GPS instead, using his lanyard stylus to type it in. After a few moments, he made eye contact with Kathryn and nodded. They were both relieved to hear that she had only recently arrived, having missed Beth entirely.
“Yes sweetie, that was fantastic! We have your location and we will come to you, ok?” They listened to some more snuffling before she spoke again. “Okay, Kathy. Are you really coming?” she asked hopefully. Kathryn watched in awe as Patrick showed her the GPS’s directions. It was gonna be a full day, round trip.
“If that’s what you want, Annie, I’ll be one of us who comes to you,” Kathryn answered. “Are you a horse too?” Annie asked. “Yes, sweetie, I’m a pony too. I am almost white with two-blued hair and tail. What do you look like?” Kathryn replied. “I am light pink with really thick white & pink hair.... and I’m a mermaid pony. Are you a mermaid too?” Annie asked.
Silence reigned in the cabin as Patrick and Kathryn shared looks. Another merpony? And a child, no less! We have to go get her and bring her back.
“Hello? Kathy? Are... are you still there?” asked the scared little voice. Kathryn grabbed the microphone and replied, “Yes Annie, I’m still here sweetie. I am coming to get you and I’ll be bringing a pony friend and a dog friend. Is that ok? It’s going to take us about two and a half hours for us to get to you and we’ll leave here in half hour.... so we will see you in three hours, ok?”
“Okay Kathy. You’ll tell me everything when you get here right?” Annie asked. “I’m going to bring the radio with us so we can talk along the way.” Kathryn nodded towards the other boat and Patrick picked up on her intention; she was borrowing the other boat’s radio.
“Okay Annie. I have to leave the radio and go get ready to drive down to you. I will call you back when we leave, ok?” Kathryn asked. “Uh huh.... I’m going to go swimming and eat more of the seaweed. It was really good and I’m hungry,” the little girl replied. “That’s a great idea, Annie. Just stay nearby the boat so you can hear us,” Kathryn said, relieved that she had already learned to swim and knew enough to eat the aquatic plants.
***
Hurrying back to U1, Kathryn managed to grab Raea from the RV and hollered for Jazz to go get Sarah while she ran to her truck. Griz came out of U1 while Sarah & Jazz came running from the convention center. Kathryn quickly filled them in on what Patrick and she had learned of poor Annie. Sarah wanted to go with them but Kathryn negated her. “Annie already knows me and Patrick; she knows to expect us. It will be about five hours, round trip but give us another two or three for scavenging along the way.”
In the end, Sarah agreed to stay behind and prepare a new bed in both Kathryn’s RV and in Sarah’s own ship for Annie to choose from when they got back.
Jazz filled a medium-sized food cooler with some more peanut butter and jam sandwiches, juice boxes, granola bars, bottles of water and freshly picked apples from the orchard; placing the whole thing into the back seat of Kathryn’s truck.
The said truck had already been re-rigged with the handicap handles so Kathryn hollered at Patrick to ditch his wheels into the back and drive. Everyone was shocked to hear that... until Kathryn explained that she wanted to talk to Annie as they went and doing that while driving was not a safe idea, despite there being no traffic. “What can I say? Old habits die hard,” she said, sticking her tongue out playfully.
***
And sure enough, about three (and a bit) hours after Annie’s first radio call and some beautiful scenery driving over ocean bridges, Patrick and Kathryn were pulling into the marina’s parking lot. Patrick depressed the truck’s horn a bit to let Annie know that they had arrived.
And sure enough, a little pink merpony filly started waving frantically from one of the nearby yachts. As Kathryn, Patrick (strapping on his wheels) and Raea disembarked the truck, Annie (wearing only a huge white ribbon in her mane) tossed a duffle bag over onto the dock and Kathryn watched as that was quickly followed by a skate board. The two adults watched in awe as Annie leaped from the yacht onto a mattress left on the dock; she lifted the duffle bag onto one end of the skate board and she placed her tail on the other, pulling a string tight with her teeth; she started walking towards the two bigger ponies; it was plainly clear that she was an earth-merpony... no wings or horn.
Raea saw her and bounded up to her, sniffling her mane and licking the child’s face. Annie kept squealing and giggling in delight, until Kathryn called the dog back.
“Hello there Annie; I’m Kathy and this is Patrick.” The two adults watched as the child’s eyes turned to pinpricks at her surprise at seeing Patrick being just like her. Kathryn sat down on her haunches and activated her magic, allowing herself to transform. “My guess is that you’re not able to turn back and forth like me?” Kathryn asked. Annie looked back at her tail for a moment but shook her head.
“Arrrr lass! Don’ ye worry about that thar! I be not able to either ‘n another like us back home ‘n she can’t neither,” Patrick said, finally using his pirate persona to cheer the girl up. She looked him over some more, seeing the pirate-y cutie mark and giggled some more. “Patrick is right... Sarah is a mermaid pony like you who can’t change. I’m special ,” Kathryn said in a silly voice, smugly in Patrick’s direction as she transformed back. These made Annie laugh some more before settling down.
“What about my parents? Won’t they be looking for me?” she asked nervously glancing back at the yacht. But Kathryn had come prepared. Surprising Annie again, Kathryn pulled out a piece of paper out of her mane and showed it to Annie.
To Whom This May Concern,
My name is Kathryn Mason and I am an adult. If you’re reading this, it means that you’ve come back to a very different world and into a very different body. Before you panic, Annie is with me. She returned to the world earlier than you and she contacted me. I was able to come and bring her back to my current home. She is safe.
Once you figure how to walk, please follow the directions on the map below and you’ll find us; or at the very least others who can get in touch with us and they can help you too. ~Kathryn
Kathryn carefully placed the paper on the ground and showed Annie how to use a pen in her mouth; Annie quickly added a note into the space Kathryn left.
My name is Annie. My birthday is March 16th. I am seven years old in 2015. Kathy is kinda like me... a mermaid pony and she says that there are more at her home. She can take care of me. But please come find us, Mommy and Daddy. I miss you.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Having already gathered all that she wanted to keep, Annie was ready to climb into the big red truck and drive back to Kathy & Patrick's home. Patrick had used his wings to fly and lifted Annie into the back seat, Raea clambering in after her barely waiting for Patrick to move.
Kathryn climbed into the driver's seat and started up the engine. "Nah hold up thar missy! Who said ye'd be drivin' th' ship? I be th' cap'n o' this rescue mission!" Patrick said as he settled his wheels in the back and climbed into the front seat. "Sorry to burst your bubble Captain but this is MY truck and pony rescue is MY special talent," Kathryn responded with a sticking out of her tongue. Annie giggled from the back seat at Patrick's voice and the silly-sullen look he gave Kathryn for usurping him.
The long drive back turned even longer when Kathryn decided to stop in at nearly every Walmart, Toys R' Us and police station to either scavenge or leave notes & maps. They also stopped in at a Fabricland so Kathryn could grab the huge rolls of towel material in a variety of colors. Despite her excitement, Annie had fallen asleep on Raea, covered in a damp towel, around the time they were an hour out from Campus City.
By the time they did arrive at Campus City, it was very nearly midnight so it was decided that Annie would sleep in the ankle-deep splash pool of the aquatic center with Kathryn (in her merpony form) and they'd give her the tour in the morning. They used one roll of the towel material to make pillows & blankets for them to use and Annie remained asleep as Griz carried her from the truck to the pool.
One of the stops Kathryn had made on the way home, early on, had indeed, been a full shopping mall including an attached Walmart with a public library just a few blocks away. While Patrick had taken Annie & Raea inside the Walmart for some smaller child's bike's wheels & all the supplies Kathryn would need to make the child her own set of wheels like Patrick's & Sarah's, she herself drove the few blocks to the library in search of other things.
The library was a large brick building, supporting many hurricane-proof plexiglass windows and none of them were broken by Beth as Kathryn pulled into the parking lot, ignoring the no-parking signs.
Thinking back to that tv show she had once watched, "Life After People", and wondered if it might still be useful to them in some way. She knew that the show premiered on tv in 2008 and hoped that they had been released on DVD or some such after that. She also knew that things would not be AS bad in this new world than the one theorized, there might be some notes to take for the future.
Finding the inside clean and even a little humid despite how long it's been since people disappeared, the air actually remained clean because of the plants that had been kept for decoration. Going around quickly with a couple of water bottles she found in a break room, Kathryn broke the plants out of their pots onto the carpets, bit open the bottles with her teeth & poured the water onto the very dry soil, the plants only having survived because of the humidity in the room.
Turning her attention back to the massive shelves, Kathryn quietly walked down the aisles in search of the DVD sections. After about 2 hours of searching the shelves, she finally found what she was looking for. There, silently waiting and staring at her, at exactly her new eye level, was the 2-hour original special and two box sets of a tv series she never knew was made! She also found in the same section some other DVD's, including one that theorized what would happen to "Life After Oil" and she knew that would also qualify here too! Galloping to a nearby service counter, she grabbed a basket and a pen so when she got to the aisle, she placed the basket on the floor below the section, held the pen in her teeth and used the pen as a finger to drop the DVD's from the shelf and let fall into the basket.
After collecting all of the Life After collections she wanted, Kathryn took the basket's handle in her teeth and walked down to the kid's sections, taking down a random collection for Annie. Strangely, quite a lot of them were non-fiction ocean themes and mermaid fantasy. She had also grabbed books dealing with wind & solar power, farming, husbandry, and hurricanes while also grabbing a few children's picture books about the oceans for Annie.
Carrying the metal basket of DVD's & books out the same front door she had bucked down to enter the library, she felt a small twinge of sadness at the future loss of all those books and movies. She knew she could not take them all with her; she only taken what she believed they would need.
Taking one last sigh, she carried the basket back to the truck and placed it on the floor below the driver seat before jumping up behind the wheel and going back to the Walmart mall for Patrick, Annie and Raea.
Kathryn found the two merponies & her dog sitting outside the main entrance of the Walmart next two three bikes worth of tires in various sizes as well as a pile of PVC pipe, three plastic (store) bags and two new gardening wagons full of what appeared to be towels, blankets, sheets and water bottles.
While Patrick started to lift the stuff into the back of the truck & Raea went chasing after sea gulls in the parking lot, Kathryn took Annie into the main building of the mall for some proper fitting clothes.
This mall was mostly all made of a glass roof, which was already cracked & broken, likely from Beth's onslaught; the floors were flooded about hoof-deep in most places and it already stank of stagnant water & mold. As they walked, they formed two sets of hoof prints: Kathryn's was an even four-hoof pace while Annie's was two-hooves & a trail of wheel tracks from a brand new (flatter) skateboard she had liberated from the Walmart.
Inside, Kathryn found a store for 0 to toddler and used a trash can to break the glass front door, after asking Annie to stand well back. After having seen Kathy & Patrick already breaking into the Walmart and other places, the sight of another door disappearing to vandalism no longer upset little Annie; especially when, once Kathryn deemed it safe to enter, she was given free rein to pick out ANYTHING (and pretty much everything) she wanted! Kathryn made sure Annie picked out tee shirts, long sleeves, sweaters, skirts, rubber boots, and at least one winter coat from a back room storage before letting her pick out some extras like a sparkly glitter white dress, fun socks, and some jewelry accessories. Using more of the plastic store bags, they filled six of them with all of Annie's finds before returning to the truck.
"Ar thar be me lovely lasses! Ye be plunderin' another victim, me see!" Patrick said as he started lifting the bags into the back of the truck. Annie had come out of the mall wearing her new sparkly glitter white dress (both having cleaned & wiped their hooves on the rugs) and the skirt was only big enough to hide most of the skateboard, while still letting her tail be seen at the end. "Thar be thee most lovely gown on a most lovely of lasses," he said to Annie as he bowed to her before lifting her, skateboard and all into the back seat; Raea jumping in behind him, and curled up again with Annie.
The remainder of the ride back to U1 was relatively uneventful. Kathryn was antsy to get watching those new Life After DVD's and take down any notes that would pertain to their situation there in Miami and make sure she fact checked with Griz & Dr Jamie afterwards. You can't always believe the internet.... or DVD documentaries in this case, she thought as the day light faded and she flicked on the head lights. She also made a mental note to find more truck batteries before long.
Kathryn spoke with Annie about herself and she told of how she & her parents lived in Maryland but were down in Florida for a convention trip her dad was making. She had been home schooled so it was really easy for her to go with her dad, who was an online game programer and her mom, a part time nurse (and of course, her teacher). Annie was sad because they had to leave behind her pet hamster and the salt-water fish tank when they left for the vacation. Kathryn knew she wondered what had happened to them but she didn't want to tell this child anything like that.
Instead, Kathryn told Annie about the farm animals, Max & Millie and Lil' Mac; she also told of Griz, Jazz, Dr Jamie and Sarah. She told of Bermareda Circle, Surface Ship and of Campus City; she told of the farm fields and the magic shield Sarah made to BC. "Where am I going to live?" Annie asked at one point. "You can choose: the spare room in Sarah's ship or the spare bed in my land RV," Kathryn replied. "Um.... I think the RV.... but just for now! I might choose to move to the ocean after I see it," Annie said hesitantly. Kathryn simply smiled and nodded as Patrick leaned over his passenger seat to pour a reused bottle of salt water over Annie's tail towel.
*** Annie had fallen asleep about two hours away from Campus City but Kathryn & Patrick did not want to disturb her. As she drove, Kathryn made mental plans for Annie's new set of wheels. Patrick had been smart to grab more sizes as she will out grow the smaller sets, she thought. Maybe I'll go ahead and make all three sizes worth in one go.... saves me time later when we get more ponies and furthermore, when I get another merpony call, I can bring a set of wheels with me!
Satisfied with these thoughts and ideas, Kathryn pulled out a pair of headphones and started one of her favorite Weird Al Yankovic music playlists.
In the last hour leg of their drive home, it randomly occurred to Kathryn that although a USA flag flew on the pole in front of U1, her Canadian one still hung on her RV tucked safely in the delivery bay of U1! She gently shook her head; That just won't do anymore! First thing in the morning, I'm adding my Canadian to the pole," she thought to herself. She also made a plan to search for pairs of smaller ones for Bermareda Circle and for the Surface Ship.
*** As Kathryn drove her truck into the parking lot of U1, Patrick leaned back and gently woke Annie so she could see the place. The honking of the truck horn brought Griz, Jazz, Dr Jamie and Sarah spilling out of U1's main entrance as Kathryn pulled up front; Sarah hurried to assist Annie out of the back seat while Patrick busied himself with his own wheels and getting the back unloaded.
Kathryn looked up to the entrance to see the strangest looks on the faces of Griz, Jazz and Dr Jamie; Griz was wearing a strange new belt that held a holster of some kind for the satellite radio phone. Kathryn ignored the truck and barely registered Raea running right by them to go visit the farm animals as she cantered up to the entrance; the griffin and two ponies illuminated by the one LED entrance light. "Kathryn," Griz began. "We need to talk."
The three ponies & one griffin stood at the front entrance of U1 not saying a word. The light ocean breeze blew the tuft feathers on Griz's head; Jazz's wings ruffled in a slight irritation; Dr Jamie's tail twitched ever so much as his back left hoof shuffled position. Finally, Kathryn blinked and the spell broke as Sarah & Annie's voices broke the silence.
"I asked to stay in Kathryn's RV at least for tonight. I'd like to go see the Circle tomorrow!" Annie said excitedly as she kept pace with Sarah, who carried two of Annie's new bags of clothes in her mouth. Very quickly, those standing at the entrance rearranged their faces to graciously welcome the new pony. Annie was clearly in awe of Griz but the filly warmed up to the strange creature quite quickly and they chatted as Griz led her inside. Patrick paused briefly at the entrance, sparing Jazz a look as he carried more bags of stuff inside; Jazz simply said, "Once Annie is put to bed, we'll talk."
*** Sarah & Kathryn put together a late pasta supper for everyone while Annie watched in wonder at Sarah's magic. "I wish I had been given a horn," Annie said. Kathryn didn't know what to say but Sarah sure did. "But Annie, if you had been a horn, you'd have to go into the farm's barn and empty out the poo pools every day!" The look on Annie's face made both mares laugh. Griz & Jazz had disappeared into Griz's room some time ago; Patrick and Dr Jamie were looking through all of the supplies they had scavenged on the way back.
Dinner was relatively uneventful besides the making room for Annie on the merponies' side of the table; they had to use a small wooden crate so she could be at level with the table. Kathryn & Dr Jamie were talking to Annie about the kind of inert magic she possessed as an earth-mer. She, in turn, asked about the flank marks and they told her what they knew about "cutie marks". Sarah speculated that maybe Annie's would have to do with sea plants; Kathryn determined that Annie was too young to be worrying about it for now.
After the meal, Griz & Jazz took over at clearing the table and washing dishes so Kathryn could put Annie to bed, Raea following quietly behind. As soon as they got into the RV, Kathryn instructed Annie to remove her dress and stand perfectly still so she could take some measurements for Annie's new set of wheels. After having made two sets already, Kathryn had this down to a science and it didn't take long to get all she needed, telling Annie to get ready for bed. The filly pulled out a toothbrush from her duffle bag and proceeded to use a chair to climb up onto the sink's counter and brush her teeth. Kathryn stood stunned for a moment, guiltily failing to remember the last time she brushed her own teeth! Annie didn't seem to notice Kathryn's hesitation as she finished and placed her toothbrush into a nearby cup. Finally snapping herself, Kathryn retrieved a fresh water bottle from the mini fridge and left it on the floor.
As Annie made herself comfortable in another small inflatable dingy, half full of sea water set up in the old room Eddie had once occupied, Raea jumped up onto the side bench at Annie's head. "Raea will stay with you and keep you safe. I won't be long until I come to bed too. Get some sleep; lots to do tomorrow," Kathryn said as she carefully removed Annie's mane bow and patted her head. The little filly, completely exhausted of the day's excitement, quickly fell asleep with her head partially underwater and breathing bubbles.
Kathryn returned to U1 alone carrying the measurements in her mouth, fully intending to have Annie's wheels ready for her in the morning. She had set up one of the smaller offices for this kind of work; an office with the biggest set of windows and a pair of fans facing out for ventilation. Sarah followed her into the office to lend her a horn of magic but none of the others tried to stop her or speak with her. They knew what Kathryn had in mind and knew how stubborn she could be.
*** A couple hours of work later, Sarah & Kathryn had finished Annie's new set of wheels and had left them in the room with the fans blowing to remove the stink of the PVC cement from both the room & the rig.
Quietly walking out into the common room, Jazz invited them over to the couch with a gesture of her fore leg. "You all seem like someone died," Kathryn said, trying to remove the tension with a bad joke. "That's just it, Kathy.... we almost did," came the reply from Dr Jamie.
Griz shook her head gently, the gold compass around her neck swinging with the movement. "Let's start at the beginning. Shortly after you & Patrick left to get Annie, Dr Jamie was playing around with one of your satellite radio phones." They all looked to Dr Jamie who nodded. "I was bored so I started randomly dialing old phone numbers of family members around the country. Then, on a hunch, I dialed for the operator... and I got an answer! A pony named Joseph spoke with me. And he told me an abridged version of the explanation that he got from another pony in his group who got the answers: An alien race saw magic was coming, and that it would've killed all the humans on earth, so they made a spell that saved everyone by changing them into aliens like them. And there's absolutely no going back. But they also sent everyone forward in time, so far that most people will probably never live to meet up with their relatives. They gave us lots of books and artifacts on how to use your magic you can read if you send someone to Paris, Illinois. "
The room went silent so Kathryn & Patrick could process what was being told.
Crickets could be heard from outside the open windows.
The battery powered clock from Kathryn's parent's home continued to click in the kitchen.
Finally, Kathryn spoke. "Who's going to Paris, Illinois?"
"I am," said Griz. "I'm already packed and I will be leaving tomorrow."
"So be it," whispered Kathryn as she slumped down to the floor from her sitting position and silently cried into her fore arms, for the loss of humanity and her family.
Early the next morning, Patrick, Jazz & Griz were already awake due to some innate ability to wake with the dawn.... probably another thing for Griz to research.
The night before retiring, they had come up with a list of things for Griz to research while in Paris Illinois. Mostly consisted of general magic for Sarah, earth pony farming (land AND water) for Kathryn, everything pony medical for Dr Jamie, hurricane & weather control for Jazz and as much merpony stuff as she could find. Kathryn added one last thing to that list in the middle of the night when she could not sleep and wandered the entirety of U1: the magic illnesses she, Sarah & Jazz had experienced; causes, effects and treatments. Then she put a huge gold sticker star (she found in an office desk) next to that.
Griz had packed only a small pair of saddle bags; she planned to scavenge & hunt her way north, bringing with her the laptop computer Kathryn gave her to store all of the research onto and Dr Jamie insisted she take one of the satellite phones so she could stay in contact with them. Patrick had used the stored data of a few maps to create one big map of the quickest route to Illinois. They figured that if she flew for 10 hrs per day, she could arrive in 10 days, give or take. She also didn't know how long she'd be staying in Illinois until she could see the scope of what she had to research from. Then, she'd make a guess and tell them. At best, 2 weeks; at worst, a life time!
Breakfast was very subdued that morning as Dr Jamie made some old fashioned buckwheat pancakes instead of the regular ones; buckwheat turned out to be Griz's favorite. Annie didn't feel all that adventurous that morning due to some bad dreams in the night so she settled with a bowl of cereal, poured by Sarah.
Even Raea & Lil Mac could feel something was wrong as Griz left more than half of her three pancakes on the platter, laying the plate on the floor for the pets to finish off; a common practice since she didn't use syrup. Griz quietly took her saddle bags and slung them over her back, pulling the strap tight.
Then she surprised everyone by removing her mother's necklace and put it around Kathryn's neck. "I don't want to risk loosing it or maybe even someone trying to steal it," she said in her usual rough voice. "I promise to take really good care of it. It will be back around your neck the minute you return; cross my heart, hope to fly, stick an apple in my eye." Kathryn paused a moment, wondering where in the world that came from. It is similar to the rhyme my sister & I used to do when we were kids... I never did like the "hope to die" part back then either.
Griz gave each of them one last hug before walking out the front door of U1 and taking flight. All of the ponies and pets galloped outside in time to watch Griz bank to the north-north-west and disappear into a formation of soft white clouds. The whole group just stood there for a few moments in silence. Kathryn let off a few silent prayers for a safe journey, not knowing that every pony, including little Annie, did the same thing.
Moments later, Kathryn broke the silence. "Well, we still got a colony to care for so let's keep going. Patrick, you show Annie how to do the dishes; Sarah & Jazz go care for the animals; DJ, you're with me.... we're going to watch all of these "Life After..." episodes while I take notes. When you're done those, Sarah & Patrick can take Annie for a tour of Bermareda Circle; Jazz, you can join us at the tv." Marching back into U1, Kathryn felt renewed and hopeful that Griz would arrive at Paris Illinois and learn all she could to help them.
***** Annie was a quick learner and it was no time at all that she and Patrick got the dishes done. Kathryn was delayed in the start of the shows due to needing to give Annie her new set of wheels but despite that, she & Jamie got lots of great information to help them along, especially in the early years.
"Is that really true?!" Kathryn asked sharply, slamming her hoof on the pause button when one show mentioned the beaches of Miami were mostly man made and had to be renewed every four years. Jamie nodded grimly. "I'm afraid so," he said. "Well, that changes some plans when it comes to rebuilding that life guard station that Beth took out. We'll have to put it up on the grass land instead," Kathryn said much more quietly as she made that note.
By about the 3rd episode of the tv series (after the 2-hour special), Jazz & Sarah had finished with the animals and Sarah let them all know she, Patrick and Annie were heading for BC. "Don't expect us for lunch either. We'll make something down there," she added. Kathryn barely waved a hoof in that general direction as her eyes remained 'glued' to the screen and her mouth kept writing more notes. She didn't even register the door closing behind the merponies as they left U1. All Jazz could think about was how Griz would have gently cuffed Kathryn over the head for her lack of attention... but then Jazz guiltily remembered what Kathryn had told them about her having Attention Deficit Disorder & Asperger's Autism as a human and that she still felt the same as a pony so they never went away. Instead, Jazz sighed and joined the two earth ponies on the couch, reading a few of Kathryn's previous pages' worth of notes.
By around the 6th, Kathryn began to worry about the nuclear power plants. "We can't afford to have mass fall outs around the world from those!" "Calm down, Kathy. I'll just call Joseph and ask him if he knows anything about them," said Jamie as he took the satellite phone and started dialing.
Jamie didn't speak with Joseph... she spoke with another pony named Cloudy Skies. After getting past the confusion of what Cloudy described as changing her human name for an "Equestrian" one, Jamie got down to the questions that Kathryn pointed out could not wait for Griz; and were also not included in the lists she was given.
After some long talking, and Jamie's face turning angrier by the minute, he barely contained his rage as his -outwardly calm demeanor- hung up the phone.
"None of the nuclear power plants or hydro dams will explode because apparently three years ago, a small contingent of humans were warned in advance that the Event was going to happen and they built a bunker somewhere in the USA. They currently have about 500 safely underground, still human. It was the engineers & soldiers who, flew in special vehicles outfitted to protect them from the magic, shut them all down safely."
Silence reigned in the U1 common room again. Kathryn's family clock continued to tick as all ponies processed this information. Jazz & Jamie were furious; Kathryn was very quiet for a few moments.
"Those 500 are humanity's only hope of survival. They're most likely the smartest, best educated and selected by priority of need. If the public had been told, there would have been mass panic & the slots filled only by the highest bidder; maybe even people murdering other people to take their places via identity theft instead of those who would actually be needed like those engineers who shut down the plants. I know none of us could have done that!" Kathryn waved her front right hoof in the air in a negative gesture.
"Cloudy also said there's no going back. The Earth has been contaminated with 'magic' and it is this, as a form of radiation, that makes the surface inhabitable for humans. If any of them were exposed to it, they die a horrible & painful death. As ponies, and other Equestrian species, we use this as our magicks and it as natural to us as is breathing. There's too much magic on Earth and no way to remove it." Jamie still seemed upset by the whole thing and he felt like they got the wrong end of the deal, going into gory details about previous failed attempts by the humans to visit Equestria; both mare's faces paled at his words, a feat in itself for an already pale Kathryn.
"What's done is done; we obviously can't go back. We make the best of the situation and move forward." Kathryn's words seemed like the ultimatum the two land ponies needed to get over their anger. They both knew that she was right; none of them would have been picked for the bunker regardless. "Let's be grateful that a few were saved and they could, in turn, save us from humanity's stupidity of relying so heavily on nuclear power!" Kathryn laughed and that broke the tension of the room, making the two other ponies laugh as well.
***
After a brief lunch. Jazz decided to go on a flight to scout the skies for cloud cover while Jamie & Kathryn took a walk down at Hanover beach, using spray cans to mark off the lines were the beaches would eventually erode back to.
Jamie used blue to mark the sand, only going from the south tip to ten paces past the last of BC's buoys and then strapped on the harness for a wagon and went along the beach to collect the wooden debris of the towers & marina deck, while Kathryn used red to mark the revised location of the new lifeguard tower. Jamie continued to admire the earth pony strength as he just kept filling the wagon beyond what anyone else could manage. In no time at all, he had gathered all of the lumber and made a pile next to Kathryn's red markings.
Kathryn was reclining in the shade on an abandoned beach Lounge chair, reading a blueprint she had found in the university library. The blueprint was archived from when the life guard towers had been originally built in the 1980's and she knew it was lucky that they copied everything. But as she read, she began to wonder if it was worth it to rebuild the tower or if it would just be easier to go to other beaches and find one intact.
In the end, she felt bad to Jamie for lugging all that lumber because they were just going to go find a new one. Building would be too difficult and time consuming with just hooves, even if they did have Sarah's magic. Again, Kathryn wished they could get a land unicorn... she hated monopolizing Sarah's time for land stuff.
When Jamie brought back the last load of the salvaged lumber, Kathryn informed him of her decision and the two of them sorted the pieces into 'firewood' and 'marina' piles. Jamie was relieved that they were just going to steal a new tower and rebuild the marina deck. Jamie moved the 'firewood' pile to a spot further down the beach for a bonfire later while Kathryn carefully covered the 'marina' pile with a pair of tarps for protection and drying out.
Casually walking back to U1, Jamie finally brought up a thought he'd been having since speaking with Cloudy. "What do you think about the adopting of Equestria names?"
"I won't likely make one but if other ponies want to, I'd have no problem with it.... just take me a while to get used to it," she said. "I'd have no idea what to name myself anyway." "Pearl Magic.... Rescue Pearl.... Pearl Rescue... yeah, I see what you mean," said Jamie. "I haven't figured out one for myself either."
Kathryn looked sidelong at Dr Jamie for a moment. "Doctor Nerd?" Both ponies burst out laughing so loud, a cloud of birds were spooked from a nearby tree.
Returning to U1, Jamie called for Raea as Kathryn grabbed one of her modified rifles and a belt of ammo; the two ponies & dog jumped into one of the "one-way" cars (vehicles they had gathered in the back of the parking lot to use briefly - until the gas ran out and just leave it behind when done) to go find a special kind of boat: one with a very large flat deck to ferry the new tower back to the beach. Kathryn didn't care that the dock had not been rebuilt yet; she just wanted the tower first and they could simply beach the ship and get Sarah to levitate the tower later. If she can simply lift it, the rest of us can control it with ropes. But that's getting it OFF the ship.... getting it ON will be another challenge!
Roughly around 3 in the afternoon, picking out an older vehicle, Kathryn quickly rigged the hand controls and the three were off to find what they needed.
*** Six o'clock rolled around around and although they had found a few adequate life guard towers, finding a boat to ferry them back was proving more difficult.
In the end, Kathryn made the decision to return to Campus City empty hooved and try again the next day.
Driving back, however, fate had other plans in store for the pair of ponies & dog.
They were passing by the entrance to Disney World's Hollywood Studios when Raea started barking out the window. She didn't normally do that unless she really wanted Kathryn's attention. Kathryn looked and was shocked to see a car stopped out front of the entrance! And the way it was parked, she somehow knew it was done by someone or something recently.
Acting on impulse, she cranked the steering wheel hard, jumped the curb, rode across grass and made a bee-line for the entrance. In a squeal of tires and cloud of exhaust, she parked by drifting to a stop facing the strange car and slammed her hoof on the car's horn. When nothing came out, Kathryn slung the rifle over her back and bolted from her car.
Hurrying over, she touched a hoof to the stranger's car and found the engine to still be warm so she knew they weren't too far behind them. Raea had sniffed around the vehicle, intent on getting a scent of the car's current owner. They jumped the multiple barriers and entered the park proper. It felt really weird to be walking the same cobblestone paths as so many generations of humans and Disney characters alike but now doing it as a magic pony herself. But Kathryn also knew that the park was huge and she had no idea where to look first.
However, Raea did. She started sniffing the air, going this way and that. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks; looking in a specific direction, she took off like a shot. Kathryn & Jamie barely had time to gather their things before running off to catch up with the black and white fur on four legs. They ran for what felt like hours only to be brought up short at the entrance to the old replica of the Hollywood Chinese Theater.
There, sitting serenely in the perfect center of the courtyard, was a brown & tan unicorn mare with teal & pale yellow messy mane and tail; she wore a pair of gold bangles on her front left hoof. The only thing that moved were her ears as she heard their approach & Raea's panting.
When the pony opened her eyes, Kathryn saw they were a teal that matched her mane and they were Asian-slanted (1). Raea finally walked up to the pony and started licking her face. "Yes, that is a good dog," she said, speaking perfectly normal English. "You followed my scent from my car, didn't you?"
"My name is Kathryn, and this is Doctor Jamie. Are you in need of help?" Kathryn carefully set the rifle down on the stones slowly.
"My name is Li Lang; I've been a pony since I woke about three weeks ago in my college dorm. Where I studied and what I was studying has clearly been made redundant. I came here out of curiosity, if anything. I wanted to start over on my own at first.... but being alone is quite lonely. Do you have a place I can stay?"
"If you come back with us to Campus City, I'm sure we can accommodate you for as long as you'd like," Kathryn said.
"With a name like Li Lang, you speak English quite well," Jamie said as they turned and slowly began to walk back to the entrance.
"That is because I was born here in America, long after my parents came from China. I know very little of my parent's home; they would not talk about it.... only about how great America was for me. They both passed away last year." Li Lang seemed very sad thinking of her parents.
"My most sincere apologies," Jamie said humbly as Kathryn made a quick detour into one of the stores, carrying a bag in her mouth.
Jamie looked at her strangely. "What? Probably going to be my only chance at a visit to this place; of course I want some souvenirs!" Kathryn turned her nose up at Jamie and trotted to catch up with Li Lang.
Arriving back at the parking lot, Li Lang retrieved a duffle bag from her vehicle and left the keys behind as she tossed the bag into the trunk of Kathryn's car; she attempted to gracefully climb into the back seat but really didn't work as she was forced to grab the seat belt with her teeth to drag herself inside. Kathryn & Jamie tactfully ignored her efforts.
Instead, as they got underway, Jamie offered Li Lang some food from a cooler in the foot weld of the back seats and he told her the abridged version of what happened in the Event, including what they had learned that morning about the humans. Li Lang took the whole thing philosophically and agreed with Kathryn's assessment of "past is past".
Li Lang did bring up one point during the drive back. "I am a firm believer in Feng Shui. Would it be possible to have a room that accommodates it?"
Kathryn & Jamie exchanged a glance. "You'll have to teach us, Li Lang. I don't think any of us know anything about Feng Shui," Kathryn said. "Just Li is fine," came the quiet reply from the back seat.
*** Arriving back at Campus City, Li was introduced to Jazz almost immediately but Jazz informed them that the merponies had not returned yet despite the late hour & darkness falling.
Kathryn waved the concerns off and headed inside to get dinner started. Li was surprised at how much food they had, both salvaged and started growing. "We'll give you a tour tomorrow during daylight," Kathryn assured her.
It wasn't long before Jamie took over the making of dinner while Kathryn & Jazz helped Li pick out a room that felt Feng Shui to her. "Office #8.... must be lucky," Kathryn said as Li walked the room, who felt the compelling nature of the room. She somehow knew that this was her's.
The merponies still had not arrived by the time dinner was ready so they simply left those meals on plates in the fridge for later and the three ate while discussing Feng Shui with Li.
Much later in the evening, Kathryn was carefully putting away all of the DVD's they had watched earlier in the day when she heard the sound of tiny hooves & squeaking wheels. "Kathryn! Kathryn!" Annie came barreling inside U1's common room wearing her new set of wheels, still wet and very excited. Kathryn raised her eyes to the heavens (actually the ceiling) in silent prayer. "Thank God she hasn't fallen into the same habit of calling me 'Kathy' as Sarah & the others have." Kathryn spun around and knelt down at Annie's level.
The excited filly took this as a hint and she jumped into Kathryn's hooves. "Oh Kathryn! Bermareda Circle is so totally awesome! The fish and the plants and the ships and Sarah's magic shield and even watching the sunset! And Sarah says I can live in her ship until my mom and dad come to get me," she said excitedly.
Kathryn did not want to alienate herself in Annie's eyes but despite her young age, the filly deserved to know the truth. "Annie, we've spoken to ponies who know what happened to us. And they told us that there's very little chance of your mum and dad coming back any time soon. What turned us into ponies also sent them ahead to the future; they could be back in a few years or not for hundreds," Kathryn said gently as she watched Annie's eyes fill with tears and the filly began to cry into Kathryn's chest. Kathryn didn't have the heart to add or thousands .
When the sobbing stopped, Kathryn used a hoof to raise Annie's face to her own. "But we are here now. We were the lucky ones to be chosen to start rebuilding a better world for those who come back later! We will build a world to make your mum and dad proud of you. I'll let you add entries to the 'Kathy Dairy' and you can write your own journal; they'll keep it safe here at U1 and some day, when your parents come back, they'll be given top priority to read it all."
Sarah quietly approached the two ponies and knelt down to Annie as well. "In light of that.... Annie, may I adopt you?"
Annie wiped away the last of her tears with a fore hoof, looked at Sarah, smiled, nodded and jumped from Kathryn's lap into Sarah's; this time, tears of joy. Despite being the "new pony in town", Li felt so happy; she knew that this is where she was meant to be.
Li Lang had settled into U1 quite adequately in the first month. It had not taken her long to learn and take over all of Sarah's on-land chores. She took pride in her abilities of magic and using them for even the most mundane of things. Kathryn, of course, noticed a curiosity and difference between Sarah's magic and Li's. Sarah's aura was yellow while Li's was a perfect mix of black and white. But since they didn't know any more unicorns, they could not be sure of other pony's colors. Patrick vaguely remembered Earl sporting a red aura and Suzie had a sapphire blue that matched her call sign. So in the end, they decided that every unicorn's aura was different depending on their special talent and put that debate to rest.
With Li taking over her chores on land, Sarah was freed up to care more for Annie as well as the underwater colony. Sarah had been experimenting on how to modify her shield spell; making it stronger, the up-right sides more invisible to the naked eye and such. Annie had started to take an interest in farming the Bermareda Circle's water crops and discovered that she & Kathryn could add the same kind of magic (as what was being used on land) in the water to make them grow faster. Surprisingly -or perhaps not considering Kathryn's cutie mark- Annie was far better at the water plant's magic than Kathryn was but as Annie put it, "Better than nothing!"
Jazz, having recently discovered her own cutie mark's meaning, had raided the university's library on everything she could find on hurricanes; how they form, how they dissipate, the damage they cause and more. When she exhausted the university's library or the books she found were woefully out of date, she would take a car out and raid all of the other public libraries and bookstores within the area. Li would often accompany her but conversation was very one sided. Jazz would talk on end about the stuff she had learned about hurricanes from the resources she had already acquired. Then, when Jazz found out that no one had told Li about how Jazz got her mark, Jazz regaled the storm story from the very beginning: the out-at-sea storm, her Hebe-jebies early warning system, to her actual redirecting of the storm (with help from Patrick, of course) to they discovering her mark and Kathryn figuring out what it meant. Thanks to Jazz's research, she had determined that Beth was a category 2 hurricane. Li was very impressed that only two pegasi could manage to divert a storm that big. "I hope we get another pegasus soon," Jazz commented at one point. "I don't think Pat and I could handle anything bigger than a 2." While they were out getting books, Jazz also raided the local weather stations for equipment like computers that had the hurricane prediction software, a radar dish (to later be installed on the roof of U1), wind gauges, air & water thermometers, and anything else she expected to need to convert one of the smaller offices into a hurricane monitoring center; including six more solar panels Li levitated from the roof and all the equipment manuals Jazz could get her hooves on!
It took Jazz about three days with Li's help to get the whole office set up. Kathryn contributed by taking a photo of Jazz's cutie mark and blowing it up to make a poster for the office door:
Hurricane Monitoring (Cutie Mark) Authorized Personnel Only
Kathryn also contributed by acquiring a new set of six child-sized yellow belts and hung them on a key organizer on the wall inside the office with the label: (i) In case of wing malfunction, use two (2) belts. (/i) Jazz knew that Kathryn had only meant well with that piece; it surprised her at first but quickly understood Kathryn's concerns and it grew on her. The belts also doubled as holsters for her portable weather equipment so they came in handy (?) for more ways than one.
Word would come back from Griz while she traveled to Alexandra. Since they were not in dire need of any the information requests they sent with her, she was taking her time getting there. Griz struck Kathryn as very laid-back person and didn't hurry with anything. They all didn't mind; so long as she got there safe, that's all that mattered. Griz did happen across a single pony flying south. She described them as a dark grey bat-pony and no cutie mark. Sarah knew that type from Farmville; those referred themselves to "night ponies" because of their nocturnal habits. Griz had instructed her head towards Campus City and we could at the very least provide supplies and a safe place to crash for a night or two.
A significant American anniversary was coming up quickly and Kathryn was sure that the others would want to honor that day. She decided that if they could add a positive spin to that day, it could ease much. "A new flag," she muttered out loud. "A new flag that combines Campus City and Bermareda Circle." She pulled Li into her plan and the unicorn was very enthusiastic at the idea, so long as she could apply a little Feng Shui to the design.
*~*~*~*~*
The morning of the 9/11 anniversary day had arrived. The American/Canadian flags had been flying at half mast since the midnight before.
They now created a color guard of ponies; the land ponies on the left, merponies in their wheels on the right; Kathryn & Li stood at the flag pole waiting to attach and hoist. The brand new flag of U1 had been a labor of love for the pair and it had come out beautifully.
Raea carefully carried the new flag, folded, on a plastic food tray down the aisle created by the ponies. Over the months, the dogs had gained more intelligence; these days, Kathryn treated them just like a pony that could not reply. Max, Millie and Lil Mac followed Raea; Lil Mac rode on Millie's back.
Gently taking the new flag from the dogs, Kathryn held the flag up while Li used her magic to detach the old flags from the rope, folded them military style and placed them on the tray. Li then turned her attention to the new. Kathryn moved closer to the pole and Li tied it on. None of the other ponies had seen the new flag yet and a hush had fallen over the yard. Dr Jamie stepped forward and carefully raised a military trumpet to his lips, beautifully playing the "Taps" song.
They had learned that among his other hobbies, Jamie had played the trumpet in high school and was often called on to perform Taps during local Memorial Day ceremonies in his farming community so this was an easy request and Jamie humbly accepted. (1)
As the last notes of the trumpet drifted off on the west-blowing wind, Li carefully took magical hold on the flag pole's rope and raised the new flag to half mast. She and Kathryn had decided to leave it there until midnight when they'd raise it back up permanently. As the wind suddenly shifted to blow off land and back into the sea, a round of "wow", gasps and sighs filled the air as the ponies took in their new flag.
The flag was split vertically in half: soft yellow on top, royal blue on the bottom. In the direct middle was a tiny island with a generic plant growing up into the yellow while the roots grew down into the blue. Above the plant in the yellow, a winged unicorn "leaped" facing the right side; wings, horn & hooves dusted with green glitter. Below the roots in the blue, a winged unicorn mer "dove" facing the left side; wings, horn, hooves & tip of flukes dusted with white glitter. (The glitter had been Annie's idea!)
Kathryn was glad it had been well received but the feelings were different for Li. While she took pride in something she had helped to create, she also had a feeling of completeness that had been missing in her life since her parents had passed away.
Her flank glowed briefly, bringing about more gasps as her cutie mark appeared: an artistic rendition of the yin yang symbol surrounded by a magical aura that matched her mane colors.
Fairly quickly, however, the ponies all turned back to the ceremony at hoof. Kathryn and Li each turned to face their counterparts: Li faced Dr Jamie, Jazz and the dogs & kitten; Kathryn sat down on her rump and used her magic to transform back into merpony to face Sarah, Patrick and Annie.
"On this day of sad remembrance, we ponies of a new world, gather together to remember about the sacrifices made both 14 years ago this day but also six months." Kathryn began the speech but she and Li took turns speaking, having practiced it in private while working on the flag. "A moment of silence for the sacrifices," Li said, and everyone in the vicinity instinctively bowed their heads.
The only sounds that were heard was the east-blowing wind and the snap of the new flag on the pole. When the moment was over, each pony had tears in their eyes. Kathryn had been thinking of her parents and a co-worker who had been killed at 9/11 (on vacation at the time; just happened to be passing through the square when the first plane struck and killed by falling debris). Li continued the speech with words of sympathy, remembrance and perseverance for the future.
Next, the ponies all took turns taking a labeled rose from another tray set on the ground at the start of the aisle. Annie placed the yellow one labeled "Friendship"; Jazz took the light pink one labeled "Sympathy"; Patrick placed the red one labeled "Courage"; Dr Jamie placed the lavender one labeled "Enchantment"; Sarah placed the peach one labeled "Appreciation"; Kathryn -transformed back to land pony- and Li stepped back down the aisle and they each took a pair of roses: Kathryn took the red and white labeled "Unity" and Li took the red and yellow labeled "Excitement & New Beginnings".
With the ceremony concluded, the ponies all gave final respects and then dispersed.
They celebrated Li's cutie mark with Li insisting she make them traditional Chinese food as best as she could, limited as she was to vegetarian. Even Kathryn, who didn't like Chinese much, enjoyed trying new foods. Jazz came out with a box of Chinese cookies for desert; Sarah & Li opened the wrappers and Annie discovered it was fun to crush the cookies beneath her hoof to get at the fortunes.
Later, around midnight, when Kathryn & Li went outside to raise the flag to full mast, they found a single blue iris left at the pole with the scrawly written label of "Hope & Faith".
Over the following weeks, things stayed relatively status quo. The flowers left at the flag pole were eventually removed, the tags saved in a desk drawer for next year. The mystery of who left the iris remained for no-pony came forward at breakfast the morning after.
The morning of the first day of autumn found Kathryn taking a crossbow, quiver of arrows and Raea into one of the loaner cars and drove a distance until she found a dollar store. After bucking a garbage can through the glass doors, Kathryn carefully picked her way through the glass -harder to do with four hooves vs two feet! Before anything else, Kathryn used her teeth to grab and drag some floor mats down the aisles and place them on either side of the broken doors to cover the broken glass. "Don't want any other pony to get glass stuck into their hooves," Kathryn said out loud.
Her hooves barely made a sound with the stretched out rubber boots she still wore. Griz had offered to farrier the ponies and all but Kathryn & Annie accepted; Annie was too young and Kathryn was afraid what would happen when she transformed so she stayed with the boots for now. She found a couple more pairs on the shelf and she used her teeth to grip at the cardboard tags to throw them in a wheelie basket she had been gently kicking down the aisles, careful of her earth pony strength.
Down the home supplies aisle, she used a broom in the mouth to knock down an entire hook of packages of clothing pins. Throwing those into the basket, she found the U1's vacuum cleaner's dust bags and snatched every one she could find that fit. "Might as well since I'm already here!" she chuckled to herself.
Raea stayed at the front door's end of the aisle and followed Kathryn when she changed lanes but stayed within sight of the door. She sat at attention, looking back and forth from Kathryn and the front door. Raea had learned a lot more training & signals ever since the dogs became more intelligent. Raea understood when Kathryn gave the command for "Stay but Follow" meant for her to do exactly what she was doing; Stay when Kathryn chose an aisle but Follow when she moved on. It worked for any store; from thrift to clothing to groceries to big places like Lowes or Walmart and even warehouses.
As Kathryn kept looking down the aisles for anything else useful. She nabbed every kid's t-shirt she could find for Annie. All canned fruits and veggies were knocked into the basket with her handy mouth-broom. First aid gauze and medical patches followed quickly, along with hair ties (plain and otherwise), brushes & combs, stand-alone adjustable mirrors, hair-cutting scissors, rain ponchos, crafting scissors, dog & cat toys, a little generic plastic unicorn toy (that had a similar colors to Annie), a little generic plastic fish toy (also same colors to Annie and same size as the unicorn), Birthday Girl/Boy ribbons (3 of each), four trays of the solar stake garden lights and every bottle of water from the long dead refrigerator.
Leaving the overly full basket in the store, Kathryn called for Raea to Fetch a new basket and Come. Within moments, Raea came wheeling a fresh basket down the aisle with her teeth. Kathryn thanked her and gave the same Stay but Follow for the back warehouse area of the store.
Kathryn browsed the stocks, looking for the out-of-season stuff, hoping to find what she really wanted but sadly, came up empty. "Sigh.... I guess we need to find another kind of store, Raea. But I'm not giving up," she announced.
Using the store's own reusable bags, she & Raea transferred everything from the two baskets and, after tying the handles together, Kathryn carefully slipped between them, letting the weight fall on her back; thanks to her earth pony strength, she barely felt it. She had parked the car directly out front of the store's door and had smartly left a plank of wood as a ramp up to the open trunk. Turning around and dropping her rump, the bags easily slid off her fur and landed into the trunk; she used a back hoof to shove them further in and after descending the ramp, the plank followed suit; "Lid" command had Raea jump onto the hood of the car, to the roof and use her front legs to shove the trunk lid closed. The older vehicle had the hinges well oiled by Griz and it closed easily.
Before they left, Kathryn took a sharp steak knife and cut open a bag of dog food & another of cat food and dumped them both outside the store on separate sides of the door. Raea took a couple of mouthfuls when Kathryn gave her a nod. Kathryn then took two really big salad bowls and bit open some of the water bottles so they'd each have water, at least for a little while. (1)
Back before the internet finally crashed and died, Dr Jamie had gone online and somehow managed to save all of the Google Maps of Canada, USA and Mexico, including all of the islands like Bermuda, Cuba & Hawaii. The whole map still worked just like the online version but can be used on any device thanks to an app created by Dr Jamie.
Kathryn now took her stylus in mouth and opened the app on her tablet. Using the search option, she found the warehouse she was looking for but it was at least a three hour drive one-way. Taking down the radio with both front hooves, Kathryn called U1. "Hey guys.... my salvaging is gonna take me farther than I expected. I won't be back until late," she notified. (Dr Jamie had somehow rigged up an answering machine to the radio so if no one answered, it could be recorded. That is what happened in this case.)
The long drive was relatively uneventful as she put on a 3 hour DVD movie into the car's entertainment system and listened to it, after turning off the passenger seat air bag. Raea slept on said seat and Kathryn stopped along the way to add the gas station additives.
Arriving at her destination, Kathryn pulled around to the back and found a big rig parked at the delivery door, which was also still open. She backed the car up along side of the rig and popped the trunk again. Taking bow & quiver in hoof, Kathryn carefully picked her way up a flight of stone steps to the open delivery door. There, she found a few boxes strewn about, some crushed and others torn open, contents spilled out everywhere. In this case, contents were the old Valentine's day themed returns from all the local stores.
This warehouse was the local distribution center for all the Florida-area Dollar Tree stores. She knew that, like back home, when certain seasons ended, the stores would send their leftovers back to the warehouse where they'd be stored or disposed of. Here, she knew she'd be able to find what she wanted. (2)
Sure enough, once she got inside and found a generic layout map, she knew it was all here. Giving Raea the Stay but Follow command, Kathryn made her way to the seasonal sections. They may have all been turned into ponies (and other creatures) but she was going to be down right determined to keep the human holidays alive. Taking an empty box down the first aisle which contained all of the Halloween. She cherry-picked the most obvious and stereotypical pieces like a large, pony-head-sized plastic jack o'lantern (knowing full well that they'd all also carve their own & she made a mental note to get planting them soon) and some hanging black bats, ghosts, a glow-in-the-dark skeleton and some window decal spider webs. She also grabbed a few large bags for trick or treating; she had idea on that score too but she didn't take any of the boxes of candy she found there as they were already expired and stamped for disposal. Just as she was about to leave the aisle, she found a few lengths of autumn leaf garland lengths and she tossed them all into the box.
Taking a fresh box each time, Kathryn tackled the Christmas, Valentines, Easter and July 4th aisles/sections. With a permanent marker in her mouth, she tried to label each box, intending for Sarah or Li to do better later. The next boxes she started were filled with pool toys, more rubber boots, various kid-sized clothes, towels, shower curtains, tarps, ropes, and any other useful items. This warehouse did not contain any of the foods as they came directly from other suppliers to the stores but she did manage to break into some vending machines for chips, pretzels, and other candy bars in one; she only took the water bottles from the other. After using the facilities, Kathryn procured a large wheeling cart to take all of the boxes back to the delivery door.
She was able to slide the boxes from the cart to the edge and then simply drop them into the trunk. Kathryn had been careful and she didn't pick out anything breakable so there was no worries. There was one last thing she wanted but had not found it here.
Along the way back, she came across a Homesense store and found the pony-height fake potted palm tree she had been searching all day for. The only room left in the car was down the middle with the pot in the center of the two front seats.
Knowing she'd get back to U1 really late, she gave them another call to have dinner without her and to leave a plate in the fridge. Jazz informed her that dinner that night was going to be the Fries Mountains; that was when they'd make two or three whole trays of fries and place them on plates with different toppings and share it all. One plate would have plain (and could add your own or keep plain), another had ketchup, another had vegan gravy, and another was poutine with same gravy. "You go ahead and I'll give you a heads up when I'm 30 minutes out, 'kay?" Kathryn asked. "Sure thing. We'll only be making small plates tonight anyway; we'll go the two trays and make you a half when you call," Jazz replied.
Kathryn understood why they were eating the fries again. Many of the bags they had were reaching expiry dates and she refused to eat anything beyond the dates.
On her way back, she found a gardening greenhouse/nursery and acquired the pumpkin seeds they would plant out the next day and get started on.
~*~*~*~
Indeed, not getting home until late, Kathryn still found a plate of fresh fries slathered in ketchup and a big mug of tea waiting for her but land ponies were all in bed & merponies had gone back to BC for the night.
After devouring her plate and mug, the only things she pulled out of the car were the potted plant, one package of wooden clothes pins and a single garland of the autumn leaves. Using her teeth, she pulled the autumn leaves from the vine; ripping the pin's packaging apart was easy but then clothes pinning the autumn leaves to the palm plant proved a little more difficult. It got easier when Li came out to get a bottle of water. Li was too tired to ask too many questions and Kathryn was too tired to answer. As soon as the plant was done (3) to Kathryn's satisfaction, Li headed back to her room and Kathryn practically dragged herself back to her RV.
But there, on the step waiting for her, was another blue iris.
Over time, things had mellowed out somewhat. Griz had arrived at Alexandria and was given permission to begin her research.
One discussion, however, over an average pancake breakfast, had lit a bit of a fire under the pony's rumps. Sarah had noticed that as the season was slightly changing, there were more clouds in the sky and that meant less solar power was being produced. They knew the coal & nuclear power plants were out so they started checking directories until they found a pair of wind farms not far from them. Was there a way they could go to the former Quantom & East Wind Farms LLC*, get them running again and somehow send the power directly to Campus City?
After traveling to the City of Miami's maintenance facility and perusing the manuals, Dr Jamie and Li Lang were able to figure out how to turn off the grids to only the sections they needed to go directly from East Wind Farm to Biscayne Bay University but left them alone for now. They also found industrial battery charger and batteries that could be hooked up to store excess power for emergencies and vehicles; those returned immediately to the animal building and another smaller conference room was converted. Dr Jamie & Li also went around to other unused buildings in the campus to shut them off the grid, saving time later.
As it turned out, East Winds was also a show rider training facility so when the ponies finally made the trek, Dr Jamie was ecstatic to get his hooves on everything he might need to keep the ponies all healthy.
Sadly, they find in a back field a large line of what appear to be large hoof-scraped graves. Kathryn could feel a sadness from that area of the farm and she knew that those were the horses that had not survived being without humans to care for them. Some late blooming flowers had already sprung up from the graves. A few of the more wild and young horses were still running around the paddocks and meadows, just enjoying the early autumn sunshine.
Stall doors had been bucked off their hinges and lay haphazardly inside the stable. Li immediately began removing them to stack neatly against an outside wall.
One tack room had clearly been emptied by a pony and had been temporarily converted into a bedroom, with a large trough of hay covered with a horse blanket and another trough of water placed near the door. The water trough had a thick layer of dust on it so it had been a long time since any pony had come this way. Jazz made quick work to making the room more comfortable, including leaving behind a 4L water bottle and emptying the water trough, thoroughly cleaning it and covering with a dust cloth.
The farm house had a swimming pool but the water had long gone bad and evaporated. A thick layer of scum and algae coated the pool from the bottom up, giving off a stink that made the ponies back away from. The doors of the house were solid oak and even Kathryn & Dr Jamie had a hard time breaking one down; it was no wonder the random pony had slept in the stable; especially if they had not been earth ponies. Once inside however, they found no deceased pets and lots of canned preserves in a large pantry of the basement. As Sarah & Li carefully collected the cans into crates, Kathryn left a note on the kitchen table for any returning ponies, telling of what happened, why their food was missing and where to find Campus City.
(Patrick, Jazz and Annie had been left behind at U1 to keep an eye on the place as well as go around the neighborhoods, following a grid map Li had printed out of where to disconnect the houses & buildings from the grid they were going to need. One of the fliers would lift Annie to the switch and she'd use her earth pony-side strength to pull it down, shutting it off. Despite her small size, she's very strong! wrote Jazz in the pony journal later that night. Not all houses could be shut off from the grid and they were left with a long string of houses, businesses & other buildings just down the street and opposite from the entrance to Campus City, from the south end of that street ALL the way to the junction west of East Winds, and then east to the farm.(1) Kathryn had said that was ok but didn't say why at the time. She'd write in the land pony journal later: At some point in the future, I would hope that Campus City would expand out of the campus and back into the real houses again. But I also have a little something else in mind, a little closer to now.)
When everything was ready, Dr Jamie & Kathryn flipped the switch at the Farm sending the power (from only three turbines) down the single line to the main power grid station where Jazz & Li flipped their switch to send it to Campus City. Patrick, Sarah, and Annie waited outside of U1 with baited breath, having turned off the supply from the solar panels. Everything was dark one minute, and when the signal went out, everything lit up bright as day again! Sarah practically screamed excitedly into their radio that it worked. More pony shouting and cheering could be heard in return. The dogs barked and howled at the excitement from the ponies.
All the lights in U1, animal building; the street lights from there to the Farm were glowing bright and the whirring sound of the industrial battery charger could already be heard sending extra power to the new Coast Guard boat batteries. (Replacement bulbs for the street lights would be found at a warehouse not that far from the main power grid station and could also be taken from unused side streets. Jazz would add that to her occasional patrol checks, making sure they were all in good working order.)
Man-made light had been returned to Campus City, six months after "man" vanished from Earth.
By October 19th, the night pony Griz had met on her journey had not yet shown up at Campus City but the mysterious blue irises still continued to appear. Kathryn began to wonder if it was the night pony leaving them behind but she could not see why. In the end, it was decided that the night pony was shy and nervous being around other ponies after being alone for so long. Griz had informed them that night ponies could eat fish so every couple of nights, Dr Jamie* would use Griz's BBQ and make some cooked fish and they'd leave it on a dinner tray outside at night for her. *(the only one with the stomach to do it) By the next morning, the fish would be picked clean and Max would be found burying the bones out in the forest.
The morning of October 20th found the land ponies & Kathryn at the front door of U1 staring wide-eyed at a dark grey haired, bright royal blue eyes, black night mare with no cutie mark. She wore a pair of children's backpacks poorly tied together over her back and a blue iris flower was carefully placed in the crook of her left ear. "I was once called Maria Theresa but now I only answer to Midnight Iris, or simply Iris for short. I was told to come here by a bird-lion named Griz, and I do thank you for making me the fish; I will be taking care of that from now on. Does your building, by chance, have a dark windowless basement?" Her voice was indeed feminine but also very tired. That was when Kathryn remembered that night ponies were nocturnal and it was likely Iris's bed time. Poking Jazz & Dr Jamie to wake them from their staring, Kathryn came forward and took the backpacks in her mouth and started to lead Iris inside.
Swinging the heavy backpacks onto her own back, and barely feeling any weight to them, Kathryn started speaking to Iris about the few basement offices they could easily convert for her. Dr Jamie ran off to one of the storage offices and piled a pair of dorm mattresses onto his back. Li made a quick tray of a salad, granola bars, an apple and a cup of orange juice and carried this in her magic.
The room Iris picked had the smallest window of the bunch and it was fairly close to the main stair case. The room had once been a janitorial staff room complete with a futon couch that Kathryn easily dropped down. Dr Jamie replaced the futon mattress with the two he carried and Li left the tray on a nearby table. Kathryn gently set the backpacks on the futon bed and turned to Iris. "We hope you have a good day sleep. We will talk more tonight," Kathryn bowed respectfully and ushered the other two out.
In the hall, Jazz had been watching the whole thing. "Will the stranger be staying?" she asked. "At least for the day," Kathryn said as Li used her magic to close the door. "No one is to disturb her unless there's a fire in the building or Jazz senses a hurricane coming."
The other land ponies got on with their chores while Kathryn went down to Bermareda Circle to tell Sarah, Patrick and Annie about the new pony. Ever since the flag ceremony, the merponies had been spending all of their time under the ocean; only venturing to U1 when they needed any supplies. A special underwater speaker had been set up at BC ship so the land ponies could warn BC if a hurricane was coming but only to be used in emergency. In this case, Kathryn decided to check in herself to see how things were going.
Being back in the water was a strange sensation to Kathryn. "Perhaps I'm spending too much time on land?" she wondered to herself as she sped through the canal. Upon arriving at the circle, Annie raced out to meet her.
"KATHRYN!! Where have you been?? I haven't seen you in forever!" the small merpony squealed in delight. Annie's forward speed caused them both to drift back a few meters before a powerful flick of Kathryn's tail reversed the action. "Has there been any word on my mom and dad?" she whispered, carefully making sure Sarah could not see her face. Kathryn sadly shook her head no; Annie gave a single nod and then plastered on a happy face before turning back to Sarah and Patrick.
"Actually, I come bearing other news. The night pony Griz met has finally arrived. She goes by Midnight Iris and she's nocturnal," Kathryn said. "What does noct-urn-al mean?" Annie asked. "Nocturnal means they sleep by day and awake at night.... just like bats and hermit crabs and the barracudas, remember?" Patrick said as he swam close enough to take hold of Annie and tickle her playfully. "Oh yes! I remember now. 'We merponies are diurnal, we are awake in the day; the eels are nocturnal, they are awake in the night.'" Annie recited as if from a school lesson. Patrick rewarded her with more tickles along her belly.
Kathryn and Sarah exchanged a look; Annie was a very smart girl and Sarah was clearly continuing her schooling despite the situation. Kathryn gave Sarah an encouraging nod; Sarah blushed in response. Kathryn found out later that it was Jazz who provided the reading material to Sarah via the BC Ship, which Sarah was using as a school. Kathryn promised to keep an eye out for more things while she's out and about, agreeing to send it with Jazz.
Kathryn told the group to come to dinner at U1 that night to meet Iris and bring some fish. "Iris is like Griz.... needs her meat," she said with a laugh. "Ah yes, we got some annoying invasive (species) of Red Lionfish schools swimming around here.... maybe if we thin out the herd, they'd get lost?" Patrick said with a gleam in his eye. He wore an impressive fishing spear strapped to his back between his wings. Annie clearly knew what an invasive species was and she joined in the laughter.
Satisfied that the merponies knew of Iris and would be more than happy to help provide fish for her diet, Kathryn took her leave and headed back to U1. She paused by a pod of dolphins and waved a hoof in their direction. Like all animals on land, aquatic animals had gained much more intelligence and this pod was common to the area. They recognized the merponies as a new species to the world's oceans and gladly accepted them as their own. Sharks and orca sadly only saw mer/ponies as a new food source.
Late in the evening, Midnight Iris emerged from her basement room, walked past all ponies in the common room and made her way outside. Standing in the grass, bathed in the light of a first quarter moon, Iris fully stretched and breathed in deeply of the cool night air, finishing with a full body shake - the same kind the dogs use after getting wet.
Suddenly, light filtered outside from the front open door and all the ponies came outside, carrying various objects on their backs, in magic fields or in mouths. Li Lang carefully laid out a HUGE black and white checkered picnic blanket on the grass; Jazz carried a big basket of mixed fruits including apples, oranges, pears, grapes and slices of watermelon; Kathryn & Dr Jamie each bore a large tray of plain French Fries; Annie came along with a basket in her mouth, the contents including condiments such as ketchup, vinegar, salt, pepper, and hot sauce just to name a few; Sarah's wheel cart carried two baskets of dishes and glassware, her magic carried each a pot of coffee & pot of tea; Patrick's cart had napkins, a jug of orange juice, one of the 4L water bottles, three pre-wet towels draped over his back and a small Styrofoam container sat on top of the towels.
Iris stood in surprise as all the ponies laid everything out on the cloth, making sure her spot was down wind from them before Patrick presented the Styrofoam container, Li opening it with her magic to reveal two identically sized Lionfish, cooked to perfection. Then Sarah, Patrick & Annie all took off their wheel sets with help from Li and draped the wet towels over the tails. Jazz began handing(?) out the cheap plastic plates and the plastic cups for everypony to start digging in. Sarah brought out a small pickle jar of sea water actually containing sea weed she had been growing. She, Patrick & Annie added them to their plates as a side dish.
With the merponies already chowing down, Dr Jamie, Jazz, Li and Kathryn all joined them and Li used her magic on a spatula to dish out the fries to each plate. Sarah used her own magic to levitate the coffee and tea pots around, then doing the same for the OJ and water. Kathryn finally noticed that Iris still stood standing in surprise. She got up and hurried to Iris's side. "I know this feels a little overwhelming but it was little Annie's idea to make it a moonlight picnic party to welcome you. She doesn't understand that you might not stay but please, join us. We will make introductions after we fill our bellies," Kathryn said, gently steering Iris to the last pony-sized place on the blanket, directly in front of the container of fish.
The smell of the cooked fish made Kathryn nauseous but it finally snapped Iris from her confusion and reminded her of her hunger. She looked down at the fish, then to Patrick who smiled, nodded her thanks and then dug in. Li floated over a plate of fries to go along side. "Condiment?" Jazz asked, pointing her hoof at the basket Annie carried. "Vinegar, please," Iris said. Sarah floated the bottle of pure white vinegar over to the plate and started pouring until Iris motioned to stop. "Drink?" Kathryn asked. "Coffee, please," Iris said. A cup floated over in one magic sheen and the coffee pot in a second, both working perfectly in tandem to pour the black coffee without a single drop spilled. "Sugar? Cream?" asked Annie, again pointing to the condiments basket. "No thanks," Iris said.
The meal continued quietly in the cool night air. At some point, Kathryn brought out some glow sticks. Annie had fun showing Dr Jamie how to activate them and Li entertained them with a kind of light show by levitating the glow sticks in many different patterns and shapes. Patrick relented and took out one of the flares from the Coast Guard ship that was about to expire and he had set it off. The bright red light launched into the air and exploded in a shower of sparks. Annie ran around in her wheels, laughing with glee. "Other ponies will think we are in trouble," Jazz said. "No way; they'll come here to get out of trouble," Li replied with a laugh.
It was at that point Kathryn began introductions, simply pointing out Patrick and Annie running around with the dogs. She introduced herself, showing her transformation ability & talent, the others by name and asked Iris about herself.
"I was Search and Rescue helicopter paramedic before the event happened. I only woke about two months ago looking like this: being able to see perfectly at night and can fly for miles without tiring; awake at night, sleep in day. I've been traveling a while to find a place I can be useful." At that point, Annie grew tired of running and she came back over to Sarah and re-applied the towel that Li re-wet with the partially used 4L water bottle, Patrick doing the same.
They had come back in time to hear Iris's comment. "If you're a paramedic, you can help Dr Jamie keep us all healthy," Annie pointed out. "Not if she's sound a sleep in the day time, silly," Jazz said. "True, but she can watch over us if we have another of our surges," Kathryn pointed out, then proceeded to tell Iris about the surge sickness herself and Jazz experienced so far. "Yes, that would be a sensible option since I can stay awake all night..." Iris said hesitantly.
Kathryn knew, that kind of job would be few and far between.... Midnight Iris would need something else. Jazz's early warning hebie-jebies would be a far better early warning system to hurricanes than having Iris sit in front of a monitor all night. "Well, we know one thing for sure... if we got a hurricane at nighttime, you'd be able to help me clear it far better with your night vision.... and identifying any street lights needing replacement," Jazz pointed out. Iris had already been told of Jazz's talent and agreed to helping there as well.
"Kathryn, you're a rescue pony too... if a rescue like mine comes at night, Iris can do the driving so you don't fall asleep at the wheel," Annie pointed out with a giggle, knowing how much Kathryn hated driving at night. Kathryn rolled her eyes at Annie but concurred the idea had merit.
"Night time call out assistant?" Li Lang asked haltingly. "Helps Kathryn with night rescues; Jazz with night hurricanes & street lights; Dr Jamie with night medical emergencies?" Sarah asked, easily summoning up what they had discussed so far. "And you can night paw patrol!" Annie said excitedly. "Night paw patrol?" Iris asked. "It used to be the dogs taking turns walking the fences, making sure no bad animals get into the paddock or sneak into the buildings. If you do it, the dogs can sleep at night instead!" she said, beaming her big smile. "Um, that would be up to the dogs if they're willing to turn over night to Iris," Kathryn said uncertainly as Dr Jamie sent out a loud whistle.
The dogs all hurried back, Lil Mac following as quickly as he could behind. "Paw Patrol! We have a new pony joining us. This is Midnight Iris. She looks scary but she's nice; she's a night pony. We want her to do night patrol so you can sleep more," Sarah said to Raea, Millie and Max. Lil Mac had already started curling himself around her foreleg, purring. "She sleeps in the day and awake at night; like the owl and bats," Annie added. Kathryn felt some confusion leave the dogs but not all. "None of you are in trouble," she said gently. "Iris just wants a job that only she can do. If she's on night patrol, you guys can sleep with the animals in the shed! And Raea, you can come back sleeping with me." "And of course, if I need your help, I can howl!" Iris let loose a very impressive wolf-like howl that made the furs on the back of Kathryn's neck stand up.
With that last promise, the dogs all bobbed their heads and bowed in Iris's direction. "So Iris will take over night patrol; if one of us needs her help with something like a hurricane, medical emergency or rescue, she will howl and the dogs will take back patrol until it's passed," Li Lang said with satisfaction. All the ponies concurred, the dogs surprise-piled Iris slobbering her in kisses and Iris simply laughed, just glad to be finally needed and welcomed.
"And one last bonus, Iris is already scary enough for Halloween!" Annie said laughing.
"Oh yeah...um... I forgot to mention... I have a partner who can help me on my night shifts. His name is Merlyn," Iris said sheepishly before letting out an especially loud, undulating whistle. A small shadow moved over the group of ponies as it passed under the moon and it landed on Iris's back as she stood up on four legs. Kathryn immediately saw that Merlyn was a Merlin.(2)
Pumpkins the size of a pony's head had all been grown in time for one of Kathryn's favorite holidays; she personally preferred Canada Day because it was the warmest but now that she lived in Florida, she was looking forward to a hot Halloween.
And hot it certainly was! Even at 9 am, the thermometer reading on Jazz's instruments read +19oC and she predicted it was only going to get warmer throughout the day.
A section of houses southwest of the campus (2501-2529 NE 135th St) had been ghoulishly decorated for trick or treating; broken back doors had allowed the ponies gain access to the inside and allowed for trick or treating at the front later that night. Each front door had a different carved pumpkin, just waiting to have their battery powered candles lit by one of the unicorns. Some pumpkins and revived chrysanthemums decorated the front entrance of U1 while black streamers had been thrown all over BC Ship, complete with black construction paper bats, cut-up white garbage bag ghosts, newly drawn merpony skeletons (with an anatomy lesson from Dr Jamie) and one bottomless pumpkin floating in the water by a thin rope ["So all the fish can have a Halloween too!" Annie had explained when she dropped the thing down and let the juices drift into the water].
But despite this being Halloween, all the ponies still had chores to do and Annie still had lessons to learn up on BC Ship. Li and Jazz checked on the most recent batch of chicken eggs finding about 2 dozen empties; Kathryn and Dr Jamie took her pickup and a flat bed to yet another farm for hay & straw bales as they were running low again.
Kathryn began to wonder what they would do when the hay bales ran out and/or went bad. Dr Jamie explained that so long as the hay was stored correctly, they would stay ok indefinitely. "Having a barn cat would be really helpful to keep the rodents away," he added as they each carried two bales on their backs at a time.
As if on cue, a slim build black cat sauntered out to see what these strange creatures were doing. They sounded like the bipedal humans but didn't look or smell like them anymore. "Merow?" the cat asked. Kathryn, having already removed her burden, turned to the cat. "Hello there little one.... aren't you so pretty?" she said rhetorically. Then four more cats of the same size came out followed by one big fat grey tabby. Kathryn realized that the black she met was a kitten of the tabby from a previous litter and the tabby was clearly pregnant again. She turned back to the older kittens; probably about 6 months old. "Who would like to come back to our place and live in our barn? We have cows and chickens to protect from mice and rats," she added. The first black, a female, came over and started rubbing her head on Kathryn's leg. Then a slightly larger silver-grey tabby tom cat jumped down from a rafter and he gave a little growl, that said to Kathryn < If she's going, I'm going too, >. The mother cat sat on her haunches and slowly blinked. Kathryn pointed a hoof at each of the two: "Ebony," she said to the black; "Slate," she said to the tom. Both cats meowed agreement and Kathryn led them into the back of the pickup truck. "I guess we now have our barn cats," she said.
On the drive back, the two ponies spoke of the possibility of digging up two of the further parking lots; turn it to grass for now and grow hay later when the bales do run out. They agreed to contact Griz and ask her if she's seen anything like that on her journey and/or ask the ponies of Alexandria about the possibility.
The moment they returned to Campus City and parked the pickup next to the animals' side entrance, Ebony and Slate made a mad dash for the "stable room". Within off-loading the first load of four bales, the two cats had already killed three big rats. Kathryn kindly asked them to take their meals to the forest just across the way and they happily complied as she quickly turned to some nearby bushes and emptied the leftover contents of her stomach. Dr Jamie saw her distress but did not make any jokes; he just stood there and gently rubbed her back with a hoof. A moment or two later, Li came out of the building, levitating a bottle of orange juice, with straw, in front of Kathryn's muzzle. She sipped it gratefully.
For lunch, everypony ate their usual fare of granola bars, cookies, PB & J sandwiches and such but Kathryn decided to play it safe and she made a pouch of plain instant mashed potatoes in the microwave, complete with a small can of ginger ale popped open by Li. Kathryn suspected that Dr Jamie & Li had already told Jazz what had happened earlier and so didn't question Kathryn's choices.
Li & Jazz took over the lunch clean up and Dr Jamie asked Kathryn to go lay down for a while. She tried to argue she was fine but Li suggested Kathryn update the journal for a bit, then she could help Li check on the chicks. Eventually Kathryn agreed and made herself comfortable on the couch. Over the course of the afternoon, each of the ponies came by to drop bits and pieces of clothing for their costumes. Jazz had decided on a hippy; Li had somehow found a kimono and altered it to fit her new body; Dr Jamie did the lazy thing and threw one of his doctor jackets & a stethoscope on the growing pile. Iris had already left a long black dress on the couch to start the pile but Kathryn could not figure the costume out; she herself had left the mermaid tail skirt and accessories on the kitchenette table of her RV earlier in the day. She needed Li's help to fix the headband so it didn't hurt her head while wearing it. Li now sat opposite Kathryn, carefully transferring the headband pieces from the original hard plastic to a new fabric one Kathryn had obtained earlier in the week.
Early dinner consisted of soups and crackers for all ponies; Iris, having been woken a little earlier than usual raised an eyebrow at the meal Li Lang had set up but Dr Jamie quickly took Iris aside and informed her what had happened. Iris, still able to eat meat but knowing what it did to other ponies, completely understood and she dug into her Campbell's beef stew without a word; the other ponies partook in vegetable varieties instead, Kathryn sticking with a cracker-thick tomato. The soup seemed to soothe her hesitating stomach and she felt back to normal by the time the bowl was empty.
Not an hour after finishing dinner, the front door of U1 was burst open by a very excited merpony filly, obviously dressed in a fancy white gown, cheap dollar store angel wings and halo adorned her head. Patrick wore the typical pirate accessories while Sarah had gone for the more dark but fun sea hag look, adorned with sea shells and an old fishing net carefully draped over her back (but not interfering with the wheels of her rig).
Suddenly, the satellite phone began to ring! Annie bolted over and was the first to answer. "Hello? Campus City; Annie speaking," Annie said sweetly. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her face as she heard the response. "Grizzy?!" she cried excitedly. "Yeah, Happy Halloween! The ponies are taking me trick or treating soon!".... "Yeah, really exciting!".... "No, you guess what I am!" Annie giggled playfully. "Nope! Guess again!"..... "Nuh huh!"..... "Silly, no! Patrick is the pirate!" ...... "OK, fine. I'm an angel!" Annie laughed loudly, knowing Griz was only playing with her but still having fun. A long pause followed as Griz spoke on her end and then Annie recited something back. "'Nightmare Night, what a fright; give me something sweet to bite.' E-quest-ria has Halloween too? That's so cool!"
They talked a little bit more before Annie hoofed over the phone to Kathryn. "Hey Kathy.... I'm almost done with the list you guys sent me. Was there anything new you wanted to add?" came Griz's gruff yet girly voice. Kathryn told Griz about Midnight Iris and asked for all the medical on night ponies that could be found for Dr Jamie. "Also, ask around if anypony knows about digging up parking lots for farm fields; I'll explain that one later. Beyond that, I can't think of anything else. Can't wait to have you back at Campus City. Hasn't been the same without you," Kathryn added. "Also, I'm still wearing your necklace," she said in a very quiet whisper that only Griz heard her say. "Thanks Kathy. Can't wait to take it back soon," Griz's quiet response came back. "Come on Kathryn! I wanna get some candy!!" whined Annie as the filly pulled at Kathryn's tail. "Griz, remind me to never have kids of my own," she groaned playfully. Griz chuckled and said her goodbyes, hanging up the phone a moment later.
Halloween
The houses had been set up going from 01 to 29, being assigned to ponies to answer the door and let Annie trick or treat like she used to. The house assignments (Dr Jamie, Li, Iris, Kathryn, Jazz and Patrick) had nothing to do with specific decorations as all had been done in similar manner. They had put Patrick last so that when Annie was done, they'd walk back the way they came, picking up the adults as they went, pile back into the pickup truck and go back to U1 for a costume party for ALL ponies. Patrick and Sarah left most of their accessories behind so they could keep playing at being the adults for the trick or treating.
The pickup truck was left in the driveway of Kathryn's house, both for easy access and for making the neighborhood more authentic but Sarah and Annie had been left just a few yards from the first house (Dr Jamie's) to visit.
The first three houses (Dr Jamie, Li Lang and Iris) were the usual fare of whatever candy the adults had been able to salvage. None if it was real Halloween candy; that stuff had expired a year ago. But they did manage with small bags of potato chips, opened packs of mini chocolate bars, rolls of Rockets, and individually wrapped bubble gum just to name a few. When she got to Iris's house, Annie tried the "Nightmare Night" rhyme instead. Iris was slightly taken aback by it but after a second or two, she treated it as if Annie had said "trick or treat" and the filly went merrily on her way. Sarah held back a moment to whisper, "Something Griz had taught her from her learning of Equestria; the aliens who turned us. I'll explain more later."
Neither Iris, Sarah or Annie noticed the two pegasi, one land and one sea, fly overhead of them as they walked slowly down the sidewalk.
The fourth house was Jazz's place but as Annie knocked on the door, she got no answer. Instead, the door swung open all on it's own, a cereal bowl of five pieces of candy laid on the floor upside down as if the pony holding it suddenly dropped it in mid-air. Annie turned to Sarah, a confused look on her face but Sarah had no answer.
The missing pony in question without warning appeared careening down the street, flying faster than anypony had ever seen her go. And the biggest indicator of what was happening, Jazz's cutie mark was blinking! "Hurricane's a comin'! Stand fast; secure the riggin'!" (1) Patrick screamed in his pirate voice as he raced (on hooves & wheels, his pirate eye patch missing) from the same direction as Jazz came from to Sarah and Annie, followed immediately by Dr Jamie, Kathryn, Li, Raea and Lil' Mac. Jazz and Iris stood side by side outside on the front lawn, staring at the mountainous dark storm front coming right at them. It being already after dark, literately no one SAW it coming, but thanks to Jazz's talent, she got an early warning of it's approach. "It's gonna side-swipe these houses and head west, staying easily south of Campus City," Jazz informed. "Best we simply hunker down then and let it run through," Iris replied, neither pony taking their eyes off of the clouds, oblivious of the wind & debris. "Agreed."
Both ponies turned around and barreled inside the borrowed house and directed everypony downstairs to the basement. Patrick had found a kid's slide in the neighbor's yard; he broke it apart and carried the slide section inside, placing it at the top of the stairs to the basement. Kathryn & Dr Jamie had piled blankets & pillows on the floor at the bottom, and were ready to collect the merponies. Sarah & Annie sent down their wheels first, following close behind face first. The Earth ponies were ready to help them to front hooves as Li replaced the wheels. Patrick, Iris and Jazz all came down after making sure the upstairs was secure.
This basement reminded Kathryn of the one her aunt used to have at one point; there was actually two levels: upper was a playroom/tv room while the lower was storage and place for freezers. The upper was poured concrete but lower was roughly dug out of the ground and only partially finished. Despite that, Kathryn felt safer deeper and she encouraged the others to go, where there was no windows and another, stronger, concrete door between them and the storm. Patrick went down first, carrying the blankets & pillows on his back, easily maneuvering the two steps despite his wheels; the floor slopping slowly downward. Kathryn went next with Li; then Sarah guided a very scared Annie; Dr Jamie & Iris followed with Jazz last to enter, using rope to pull the door shut behind her. Li & Sarah used their horns to light the room and they all gathered in a pony pile on the blankets. Despite being so far down underground, the sensitive hearing of the ponies allowed them to hear the storm raging outside.
Poor little Annie still wore most of her costume but the wings hung haphazardly from her body and the halo was bent over at a strange angle; she had ditched her wheels in favor of laying on the floor, burying her face into Sarah's front chest, crying in fear. "Don't worry, my little angel," Sarah said. "Jazz's talent is for storms and she gave us warning."
Looks of gratitude passed between the merpony and the pegasus laying nearby. Jazz's cutie mark continued to blink but not nearly as bright as before.
No pony knew how much time had passed but just as quickly as it started, the storm moved off away and Jazz's mark stopped blinking; she knew it was safe to go outside again.
The houses were all still in one piece but Halloween was clearly ruined as the decorations were splayed all over the street and much probably being taken away with the storm but no pony seemed to care, least of all Annie. She had cried herself to sleep at one point and just looked exhausted. Sarah knew it was late and so they decided to just head home for the night; deal with the mess in the morning. Sarah lifted Annie up onto Patrick's back and the two trotted back down the road to find the easiest entry to the bay. Li went with them to collect the wheels and bring them back to U1.
Kathryn & Dr Jamie, Raea & Lil' Mac climbed into Kathryn's pickup truck and they rode back to Campus City, picking up Li & the merpony wheels along the way; Jazz & Iris flew up and out to make sure of the hurricane's path. The two fliers came back after about an hour, confirming the storm was gone. "Casper," Jazz said. The ponies all stood staring for a moment before realizing what she was saying. Five seconds later, the common room erupted into laughter and all ponies agreed.
Despite the storm having passed, Kathryn felt much safer crashing out on the common room's couches, simply collapsing on the pile of forgotten costumes & bits of clothing.
Christmas morning dawned bright and clear, and strangely warm considering Kathryn had never experienced a Christmas that was +20oC before! Her RV had been generously draped in colorful lights by Jazz at the start of the month and by the 12th, Li had managed to gather enough evergreen boroughs from local trees (without killing them) to make custom wreaths for everyone's door. (Griz's was wrapped in gold ribbon; Kathryn's was decorated in sea shells; Jazz had pinwheels; her own was elegantly braided with Chinese lanterns she had asked Kathryn to grow for her; Dr Jamie's was simply plain with a white bow; Iris's wreath had some red silk iris flowers woven in.)
The main lobby was equally decorated with more strands of lights and a large potted Norfolk Island pine tree (1) was standing in the corner, draped in really long strands of string popcorn (Sarah/Li project one night while watching old movies) and the few decorations Kathryn had salvaged from the warehouses back in September.
Kathryn smiled to herself as she got ready for the day. A quick shower later (for herself AND Raea!) and stuffing her face with one of her chocolate chip banana muffins from a plate on the counter, Kathryn carefully transferred the pile of best-to-her-ability-wrapped boxes to her back and the two made their way inside U1. The lobby room was only slightly changed from Halloween.
Recently, Dr Jamie had overheard Annie worry that Santa Claus would not be able to find her underwater. She had already decided Santa had been turned into a pony (likely a land unicorn) as well and one of the first to come back so ponies could still celebrate that first year but he yet needed the chimneys to get inside pony homes. She also knew he would not be able to go underwater and the Ship's electric fire place was not real. The little merpony had already begun to call the large earth pony "Uncle Jamie" and he really wanted to be that awesome uncle he had as a kid himself, so he knew how to make her Christmas.
So the day after Jamie overheard little Annie's worries, he took one of the spare pickups, Max and a crossbow set and they drove off to find an easy-to-relocate wood burning stove for the lobby room. Jamie had gone to one of the nearby gated communities, knowing exactly where he had to go: his former home. He had purchased the stove three years ago when Florida experienced a colder-then-usual winter. (2) Still took some work to disconnect the pipes (more than enough to go from the west wall to the north of U1); he used a pair of 2x4's for leverage and a flatbed wagon to transport and some rope to rig a simple harness to take the stove to the pickup's bed and a pair of ATV tracks (that had been left behind by the homeowner's before him) made the job so much easier, Jamie added those also to the truck's bed when he finished securing the wagon.
Going back into the house with a sided garden wagon, he loaded up all the precut lumber (that had been left behind when he had gone for that eventful night shift) and then covered it with the tarp he used to protect the flooring underneath the pile; then he went to the bedrooms (his & guest) and stripped the beds of blankets, sheets and bathrooms of all towels. He grabbed his old Victorian doctor's bag (3) and started filling it with the contents of a medicine cabinet, bedside table drawer and a few framed pictures from his wall; he'd go back to the hospital later to get his diplomas. A suitcase from his closet got filled with a select few medical books from his office/study and a few novels from his private bedroom bookshelf. The partial case of water bottles was thrown into the back of the pickup as Jamie & Max hopped back in. He didn't care so much about the house itself.... he mostly bought it because of the pool in the backyard (long gone by now) and smaller size compared to others in the gated community. He had no real sentimental value attached to it and would not care if someone took it over. He had left the front door unlocked and a sign that read: "Open House" for that exact reason.
Getting back to Campus City, Jamie hid the loaded pickup truck in a currently unused building until Christmas eve night, when he was sure Sarah had put Annie to bed. With help from Li's magic and more of Kathryn's Earth pony strength, Jamie was able to carefully unload the stove from the truck, bring it inside, use an industrial drill (4) to make the hole in the wall for the pipe installation and get it all hooked up in a few hours. They had already cut out the section of carpet and replaced it with brand new ceramic tiles from a local hardware store a couple days before to let the grout to cure. Thankfully, Annie was too excited with her visit Christmas eve to take any notice of the change. Sarah had added a little protection spell on the tiles and the carpet to prevent from any fire spreading before leaving. (Yes, her cutie mark had glowed when she did it; thankfully, Annie was too busy writing her letter to leave for "Santa Hooves", as she now called him. Annie had asked Kathryn to leave him a note about the Event like they did for others; Kathryn said she was sure he had already overheard the big ponies talk about it by now. Instead of cookies, Annie asked they leave carrots, milk and a bowl of seaweed salad to choose from; a little bit of everything had been consumed.)
Kathryn walked carefully into the lobby/common room and knelt down to slide the boxes onto the floor next to the tree. Li Lang came in next, her delicately ornate boxes hanging in her magic field. "Oh Li! You didn't have to! You already made us the beautiful wreaths," Kathryn said as Li elegantly placed the small card-sized boxes within the tree. "Oh, I know but I could not resist!" Li giggled in reply.
It was not long before Jazz and Dr Jamie came out of their rooms and added their boxes and/or bags to the growing pile under the tree. Li carefully placed two new logs and a tiny spark from her horn relight the fire.
Kathryn got started on Christmas breakfast; she had gone down to the basement room they used as a multi-freezer and pulled out all ten boxes of Leggo's she had been saving down there without any other pony knowing. She met up with Midnight Iris as the night pony came out of the basement washroom. "Good morning, Iris! Merry Christmas!" Kathryn said cheerfully. Iris nodded to the earth pony and stepped a side as she felt the freezing cold emanating from the food cooler on Kathryn's back.
Kathryn paused at Iris's door so the night pony could duck inside and grab a bunch of paper bags on the tips of her wings; Iris gave Kathryn the right-a-way going up the stairs. Kathryn diverted to the kitchenette while Iris placed the bags off to one side of the tree's pile. Li & Jazz had been setting the table; Dr Jamie had been looking out the back windows into the back field, contemplating Annie's reaction. As Midnight Iris approached, she and Dr Jamie quietly talked about her patrol the previous night and how she'd handle being awake during the morning. "I'll be ok until noon," she replied.
Meanwhile....
Christmas morning in the ocean dawned a little later than on the surface, but the sound of a squealing young filly was heard for leagues all around Bermareda Circle. Hanging from a hook on the wall was an Angel-hair-thin seaweed knitted stocking stuffed with candy canes, pink scarf, hat and custom knitted hoof socks. Clearly, Sarah's unicorn magic had gotten more intricate than the ponies originally thought as these pony socks were very well made. "The rest of your stuff is up top at Campus City," Sarah said with a knowing smile.
"Hello?"
A weak voice breaks into the moment of silence immediately after Sarah spoke. Hurrying outside their individual ship homes, the merponies find a visitor just outside the safety perimeter: an orca-themed merpony! Clearly an earth pony style merpony and a stallion, he was in distress; his eyes were sagging and he was panting, leaning against one of the cement trucks.
Patrick was the first to snap out of being surprised and bolted over to help the merpony, Sarah hot on his fins. The moment Sarah & Patrick grabbed hold of the orca pony, they knew he was really hot. Tiny beads of sweat could still be seen on his face despite being underwater and even with his grey pony half, they could see he was flushed. They knew he'd need Dr Jamie's help and pronto.
"My name is Alejandro," he said weakly but Sarah cut him off. "Save your introductions, friend. We need to get you to our friends on land. They have a doctor who can help you." "Annie, grab a dolphin and swim ahead to Campus City to warn Kathryn. Have them prepare a bath tub of cold water," Patrick said quickly. Sarah looked worried at Annie going ahead but a big strong dolphin came at Patrick's whistle and Annie was gone before she could object.
"Please, I'm just passing through to colder waters as this warm is making me weak," said the orca pony. Patrick whistled again; another three dolphins came forward and Sarah began to wrap Alejandro to the strongest looking one. "Don't worry friend. We have ponies on land who can help you get stronger first," Patrick said as he climbed up on the dolphin opposite Alejandro to pin the sick pony to the dolphin's dorsal fin. With a slap of his tail, Patrick, Alejandro and their dolphin blasted towards the bay, Sarah hanging onto her own dolphin in hot pursuit.
Arriving at the bay's beach near U1, Annie stood on her wheels with Li controlling a stretcher with her magic and Dr Jamie ready to help lift the orca pony. Li switched her magic to help lift while Annie passed over Sarah & Patrick's wheels. Sarah added her own magic to finish the lift of Alejandro to the stretcher and they all galloped towards the aquatic center of U1.
Inside, Jazz and Kathryn had filled the old small hot tub half with ocean water, then dumped in all the ice chunks they could extract from the freezers and added two of the water cooler bottles they kept in the industrial refrigerator. Using a beach towel, Kathryn, Dr Jamie, Sarah and Li carefully lowered Alejandro into the tub. The sick pony practically steamed at the touch of the icy water and he breathed a huge sigh of relief as his body sunk into the bottom. They left the towel draped over his body and Li took a second one, wet it and wrapped it around his back and head.
Dr Jamie fetched his doctor bag, takes out a thermometer and discovered Alejandro was running a fever! Sarah carried over the fresh case of water from the kitchenette fridge and Jazz showed Alejandro how to bite open the bottle lids to get at the water. He guzzled two waters straight down in succession before relaxing a little.
After a few minutes of being in the icy cold, Alejandro's grey pony half began to lighten and the flushed of his face disappeared. He had gained enough strength and was able to tell of his story. "I am an American-born Mexican working as translator at the American embassy of Mexico when I went to bed around 2 am on 23rd of May. I woke up a week ago looking like this," he said with a slight Mexican accent.
Midnight Iris mentally delayed her going to bed until she was satisfied Alejandro is out of danger and she stays with him as Dr Jamie and the others go back to the kitchenette to get some breakfast. It's not long before Li returns carrying two plates: one piled with three Leggo's but the other is a seaweed salad, cooled in the fridge, Patrick had gone back to BC to fetch for Alejandro. "The ponies who brought you said that seaweed will help you regain your strength," Li explained as she placed the plate next to his head. She also carried a single cup of apple juice for Iris as Alejandro was still going through the cold case of water.
They ended up spending the first three hours of Christmas morning working together to help save this poor merpony but nopony seemed to care..... that is until a filly's squeal of delight turned the pony's attention to the common room where Annie had finally discovered the fireplace and her Santa Hooves "treats" had been eaten. She practically bounced on her wheels in delight that "Santa was smart enough to bring his own fireplace and left it as a present!" Li quickly asked Annie to accompany her to do the morning animal checks & feedings when Li saw the worried look on Sarah's face. Guessing what Sarah had forgotten to do, Li contrived quickly to take Annie out of the common room at the least. Annie, too excited by the discovery to notice Sarah's discomfort, agreed to help by carrying the egg basket within her wheels and pranced out the door. Sarah watched the filly and unicorn as they walked down the sidewalks and disappear around a corner to the animal's barn house. The moment they were gone from her line of sight, Sarah bolted for Griz's room and used her magic to pull out four pink-wrapped and six brown-wrapped boxes from deep inside Griz's closet. (Sarah had gotten Griz's permission to hide all of Annie's Christmas presents there long before the griffon left for Alexandria.) When Patrick realized what Sarah was doing, he hurried over to take the brown boxes as Sarah hurried to hide the pink ones underneath the boxes and bags already under the tree. Patrick was slowly adding the brown ones as Annie came back inside with another dozen eggs. Li and Sarah exchanged a private nod of the heads to confirm everything was ready.
Around 11 am, Alejandro's temperature was retaken and Dr Jamie declared the orca-merpony was out of danger. Kathryn then convinced Iris to go to bed now and promised to wake Iris in time for dinner; it was already decided that with so much excitement already, presents were going to be delayed until afterwards so all ponies can enjoy. Iris, fully exhausted from her Christmas eve patrol and the morning "rescue", finally relented.
Around noon, (as Kathryn & Li put the tofu turkey in the oven on slow-roast) the sound of large feathered wings gusted the air just outside the open door of U1 and Griz walked in the door, back from her research! The rest of the day was spent exchanging stories, introducing Griz to Li Lang, speaking about Midnight Iris and the rescued pony currently sleeping in the "ice tub" they had dubbed it. "You'll likely see them both at dinner tonight," Kathryn confirmed as she turned to Li and nod.
The unicorn lit her horn and very carefully unhooked the necklace from Kathryn's neck, floating it in the air to gently fall back into place around Griz's neck, slightly surprising the griffon. When Griz saw her mother's pendant back around her neck, it felt like a coming home. "Just like I promised," Kathryn said, feeling a faint & yet oddly familiar pull of laughter at her heart.
<< Somewhere far away, Pinkie Pie felt the familiar Pinkie Sense tell her that someone had kept their Pinkie Promise despite not knowing what it was. This made the earth pony grin broadly for no apparent reason. >>
The rest of the afternoon was taken up by Griz sharing all of her research the group had asked her to find. They were all really excited to learn their lessons but it was decided that Christmas day was still technically a holiday and so no lessons. "But we all learned how to save an orca-merpony today," Annie pointed out. The adults all rang out with laughter and Dr Jamie grabbed Annie in a lift onto his back. "Why yes we did, little one..... but sometimes life gives us lessons even on holidays." Griz pulled out a small binder from her backpack and flicked through the pages. "Speaking of lessons, how about this? Equestria also has a holiday around this time of year, called Hearth's Warming Eve. How about I read you the story about this holiday and then we learn the song to go with it?"
Every pony got all excited and settled down to listen to Griz read:
"Once upon a time, long before the peaceful rule of Celestia (that's their leader), and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony."
[Half hour later.]
"... the three leaders agreed to share the land and live in harmony forever afterwards. And together they named their new land: EQUESTRIA!"
Griz took a moment to catch her breath and see the reactions on her friend's faces at learning more about the land that turned them all into ponies. Some were surprised; others grateful at a new story. The griffon cleared her throat and began to sing the song she had been taught before leaving Alexandria:
"As dawn shines on us every morn The fire of friendship is reborn And all the friendships we have made We cherish in every way Loyalty binds us and makes us strong Honesty shows that we belong And kindness shared will unite us through each day The fire of friendship lives in our hearts As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few Laughter and singing will see us... ...through Will see us through We are a circle of pony friends A circle of friends we'll be to the very end Though the winter brings all its cold and storm The glow in our hearts keeps us warm The friends we know called our family Will always see us through Loyalty binds us and makes us strong Honesty shows that we belong And kindness shared will unite us through each day The fire of friendship lives in our hearts As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few Laughter and singing will see us... ...through Will see us through We are a circle of pony friends A circle of friends we'll be to the very end" (5)
It wasn't until Griz finished signing that the griffon noticed the night pony Iris standing in the doorway to the aquatic center, an orca-themed merpony leaning against the mare and using a wheeled office chair to hold up his tail. Iris began stomping her front hooves in appreciation and the others soon followed her lead. Then she carefully walked Alejandro over to the floor farthest from the fireplace; Sarah quickly used her magic to pull out one of the folding pet baths they had been using for merponies indoors. (6) Kathryn quickly got up and used a generator-powered portable pump to transfer some of the water from the ice tub to the bath while Li pulled out another of the refrigerated water coolers. Annie made quick work of the cap while both Li & Sarah lifted and Dr Jamie kept it steady. Working in harmony, not a single drop spilled outside of the bath and Alejandro was soon back soaking in cold water.
Not wanting to wait much longer, Annie turned to Sarah. "Can we open presents now?" she pleaded. All the adults looked at the filly in surprise; almost as if they had forgotten what day it still was. Then Alejandro laughed. "The little lady still has her priorities right on this day of all days," he said pointing a hoof at the pink filly. The adults all laughed in agreement as Dr Jamie pulled out a Santa hat from behind the tree and he began to hoof out the presents. Li and Kathryn excused themselves momentarily to check on the dinner and prepare the next few items like baked potatoes, cooked & raw cauliflower, Kathryn's grandmother's recipe for sweet carrots, the vegetarian-turkey gravy, kernel corn, cranberry sauce and two pies of pumpkin and apple to choose from.
Presents' exchange took nearly two hours and everyone was surprised. They did, however, feel bad for not giving Alejandro anything but he simply waved his hoof. "You all helped save me when I was sick. For that, I consider to be my Christmas miracle," he said humbly. "Nevertheless, we will make sure to build you your own set of merpony wheels and help you locate a car with great air conditioning for your drive up north," Patrick affirmed. It had already long since decided it would be safer for Alejandro to drive up to Boston's Harbor City in a car with the AC full blast and from there, go back into the ocean. That time of year it was practically guaranteed to be frigid! The adults promised to fill his car with the necessities for the drive and it was Annie who suggested a barrel of seaweed in case he got any cravings.
Christmas dinner (pony style) was soon served and they even made room for Alejandro on the merponies side. He offered up a prayer in Spanish, then repeating it in English and everyone dug in. Even Griz and Iris did not complain at the all vegetarian offering; they were secretly planning to share some BBQ fish later that night during Iris's patrol. Kathryn was also well pleased that her grandmother's sweet carrots were highly praised by all who tried them; especially little Annie. "Gosh, if all vegetables had tasted this great when I was human, I'd have eaten a whole lot more!" she laughed taking second helpings. "That was kinda the point of these! Grandma knew these were the only carrots I could never get enough of so they became a Christmas tradition.... every year I took home half the bowl all to myself!" (7) Kathryn laughed with gusto as she motioned for Annie to pass the carrot bowl back around to her. (What Annie didn't know was that Kathryn had only just learned the recipe from her grandmother mere weeks before the Event occurred. Any later and Kathryn wasn't sure she would have gotten it in time. The thought made her sad for a moment, recalling her missing family.)
Kathryn stood from her seat and took the cup she was using. "I'd like to propose a toast.... To our family who can't be here to celebrate with us but will someday come back and we'll make up for lost time." "Cheers!" came the chorus of sad voices in return. A moment of silence reigned as each being thought about their missing family.
"Hey now! Let's not be a sallow lot.... thar still be pie!" Patrick's pirate voice broke into the sadness and everyone laughed. Dinner, desert and talk went well into the night. Griz and Dr Jamie helped Alejandro back to the ice pool and refreshed some of the ocean water now that it was after dark. Sarah carefully lifted Annie onto Patrick's back as they said their good nights to all them on land; especially Griz, happy the griffon was finally back home. The merponies presents would be delivered to Bermareda Circle Ship in the morning by someone to be determined. Li helped Kathryn pack up the leftovers and Jazz finally caved in & used the dishwasher that night.
Some point, around 11 pm, Iris had flown off into the night sky and returned with two respectfully sized salmon already prepared & ready for grilling. The ponies inside made sure to close all windows and block any cracks in the doors before going to bed; something they were used to by now and would not hinder Griz from coming back inside when she was done. Kathryn had left the BBQ sauce and some cranberry jelly out on the grill's shelf when she saw Iris leave, knowing full well what the night pony was up to.
Li closed the draft on the stove and all ponies went to bed, completely content that the first Post-Event Christmas was a complete success.
Of course, it wasn't long before Griz was biting at the nails to share all the knowledge she had gathered while at Alexandria. Immediately after Christmas, she had begun transforming one of the smaller offices (the first one from the kitchenette) into a new library; dumping the old books from shelves and moving the shelves into the new space. She left one small desk, chair and lamp for private study but every other inch of the walls was now covered in a mix of different bookshelf-styles.
Then, when the library was ready, she called everypony to emergency meeting in the lounge; even Alejandro attended out of pure curiosity. Griz began almost immediately, pulling out her old saddlebags. Kathryn kept thinking that they were too small to contain all the knowledge they had requested and began to wonder if Griz had put it all on USB memory sticks and that's what she was about to hand/hoof out. But when Griz opened the saddlebags, Kathryn, sitting at Griz's right-claw side, saw the swirling mass of magic within the bag, she knew that some seriously advanced unicorn had done some gumbo jumbo to the bag so it could carry so much more.
Griz then gripped the bag at the open and spoke very clearly into it. "Dr Jamie's medical," books and scrolls of various sizes flew out of the bag's top, grew to their proper sizes and all floated down into very neat stacks and piles next to the pony in question. Kathryn counted at least 12 books and probably double that in scrolls. Dr Jamie flipped only a few pages of the nearest book and his face broke into a huge grin.
Griz repeated the process with "Jazz's weather management", "Kathryn's farming", "Sarah's underwater research", and finishing with "Everything else"; the last pile, of generic pony information like Equestrian history and geography and such, a pile of about 8 more books, formed up on the kitchenette's table.
When all of the books and scrolls were removed from the bag, the swirl of magic was gone and somehow Kathryn knew it was gone forever. "They helped me make exact copies of everything you guys asked for so these are ours to keep. When you're done reading them privately, you can either keep them for yourselves or add them to the new public library. That pile on the table will start the library," Griz said as she pulled out a few USB memory sticks; far more than what Kathryn had scavenged for her. "These are the digital copies of all the books and scrolls, so just in case anything happens to the books. They also contain other records of the human world they asked us to keep in reserve. They will all go in a vault in the basement for safe keeping."
The ponies all agreed to keep the extra data safe for those at Alexandra; it was the least they could do for all their help at getting the research they needed. It wasn't long before ponies gathered up their piles and headed for more private reading locations. Li, having only picked up a single book from the library pile about unicorn spells & placed said book on her back, used her magic to carry a large portion of Dr Jamie's pile so they'd only have to make one trip. Being earlier in the day, Midnight Iris simply took her two books about bat ponies and headed for bed, intending to read hers later. It took all three merponies to help Sarah carry her pile back to Bermareda Circle's Surface Ship so they could start reading.
Kathryn looked at the first book of her pile. 'Earth Pony Farming 101'. Griz followed her gaze and gave a chuckle. "When we were about to start making copies, that was the first one; got about half way through before I realized I could not read it.... all strange swirly characters and stuff. Thankfully they recognized the books were all in Equish, the Equestrian's written language! They added a quick translation spell to the copying and started again." Griz took up her own three books on griffons (history, anatomy -which she fully intended to give to Dr Jamie when finished- and general knowledge) and headed to her own room.
Kathryn proceeded to dump her pile into one of the garden wagons they kept nearby for refilling the wood pile and towed it to her RV. But she only transferred the pile from the wagon to her kitchenette table before taking the wagon over to the small forest and she began gathering more fallen branches, using her powerful hooves to break/split up anything too big for the wagon. She was gnawing at the bit (no pun intended) to get reading her books but she had noticed the wood pile in the common room was really low so she'd get that done first.
An hour later, Kathryn had collected enough fallen branches for the pile and brought it back inside. Li was in the common room, reading her single book of unicorn magic; she gracefully got up and started helping Kathryn to split the branches more and stack them neatly in the wood box. When the two mares finished, Kathryn left the wagon where she found it and trotted back to her RV to finally begin her reading.
Dinner would have been forgotten had it not been for Iris's awareness of time of day. The bat pony woke in the evening to find everyone still reading their new books & scrolls. She simply rolled her eyes and started making a large veggie casserole from a cookbook that once belonged to Kathryn's mom. When she called everyone to the table, she ordered them all to leave their books in their rooms. "No books at the table. You can share what you've learned so far but no reading while eating. Don't want to risk any damage to the books or scrolls," she had said, pointing a hoof at the couch where Li had already left her own book. A small pile had grown as each creature arrived for the meal.
Kathryn, having been between books at the time, carried nothing with her and she expressed appreciation to the bat pony for her thoughtfulness at using one of Kathryn's mom's recipes. Besides the sweet carrots Kathryn made at Christmas, they didn't really use the cookbooks Kathryn had collected from her food-loving family. It was a really nice change of pace to all that salvaged food. She did miss having meat like turkey and chicken.... smelling it when Griz or Iris would barbecue would only bring back memories & a wave of nausea instead of hunger & delight. They did make veggie meats at times but the expiry dates were creeping up, soon none of them would be safe to eat anymore and they didn't know how to make more. Maybe one of my farming books or one of the library books can give us an insight to that, Kathryn thought as she doled out another helping. Maybe there's something we can add to meat that will let us ponies eat it. Kathryn put that on the top of her priority list and then turned her attention to what Dr Jamie was saying.
"I'd like to take a fuel tanker over to the hospital, get the MRI running via generator and get some more scans of each of the tribes & Griz. The diagrams in the books are poor quality, which i suspect is because they were originally hoof-drawn and not because of bad copying." Kathryn saw Griz slump in relief as she knew Dr Jamie wasn't blaming her for the bad information. "I'd also like to bring the merponies. From what I've gone through, I've only found one scroll about them and there's no diagrams at all."
Meanwhile, Jazz was speaking with Li. "I'd like to get my hooves on some fabric and maybe a sewing machine. Apparently pegasi will tend to collect their own feathers from preening and fill their pillows & mattresses with them. A lot cleaner than animal feathers and this way, they're not being thrown out.... we are trying to reduce our waste after all! I plan to share this idea with Patrick too. I figure his feathers would be better suited for them underwater and then they'll have feather filled mattresses down there too!" "What if we installed zippers to one hem? That way, you can add new feathers at any time and not have to open & resew it every time," Li suggested. Jazz's face lit up with excitement at the idea. Both mares agreed to go salvaging at the fabric stores in the morning. Jazz poked Kathryn in the ribs to get her attention. Jazz knew that Kathryn had sewing experience and she could help them pick out the good stuff for what she had in mind. "Wanna go fabric shopping tomorrow?" Kathryn stared at her for a few minutes. "Sure, sounds fun."
Alejandro had stayed on at Campus City to celebrate the new year of 2016 with the other ponies, merponies and griffon.
At that morning's breakfast, Kathryn had been wondering if they should still be celebrating the old new years or create a new one on May 23rd. Everyone, including the merponies who had come for the day, was in attendance to hear her concern. Jazz was all for doing both but Iris pointed out that would make things like their journal and acclimatizing returnees more complicated. "Let's keep the human one and simply have a day of reflection on May 23rd instead," Iris proposed. A vote was called and it was unanimous.
Being a warm day, Kathryn & Dr Jamie took Raea for a nice long walk around the north park path while the merponies & Alejandro took over the aquatic center, former in the big warm pool and the latter in another Jacuzzi ice bath. Griz had taken a crossbow & quiver and said she was going hunting. Li and Jazz kept themselves busy with the animal barn and checking on the crops again, sensing Dr Jamie's desire for some time alone with Kathryn.
Despite her limited ability to read social cues, Kathryn did feel something for Dr Jamie and she didn't feel like it was forced. She cared for him like she did all the other creatures in the colony; even Alejandro was a dear friend to her. She noticed that ever since turning pony, friendships had come a lot easier to her than when she was human. Early on, she had suspected it was the herd mentality of horses that made the change.... but now she felt like it was more. Like she was changing herself. Dr Jamie was a delightful conversationalist and they discovered similar pre-Event hobbies like writing stories, Yu Gi Oh trading card game, and artistic pursuits like sewing (Kathyrn) and carpentry (Jamie).
Raea's side had completely healed from her buck attack some time ago and all the fur had grown back beautifully. She barely walked with any limp and you'd never be able to tell she had gone through something so traumatic as that, seeing her lope ahead of the two Earth ponies, sniffing trees and barking at squirrels; her big goofy grin as she looked back to the two ponies, tongue sticking out the side. She scooped up a good sized stick in her mouth and ferried it back to Jamie. He chuckled, took the other end of the branch in his own mouth, swung back his head and tossed the stick really far, letting his mouth open at just the right time. Raea bolted after the stick like it was her most prized possession, sliding in the leaf litter of the path; having no park rangers to care for the area, the path had already become a little covered over with dirt, dust and few leaves that blew over.
But Kathryn knew that if she hurried over to Raea now, had the dog roll onto her side, and she used a hoof to brush back the fur, she'd be able to see the scar of the trauma. Physical scars will heal. It's the mental ones you have to worry about. Something she remembered from her high school years came flooding back; something a counselor had told her once after she had been bullied. Surround yourself with your friends; put your thoughts and feelings into words. Don't keep it bottled in, no matter how scared you are of them. That counselor had helped her more than she knew at the time. (After leaving that session, Kathryn had gone to the school's cafeteria, sought out her friends, told them what happened and they helped distract her with another YuGiOh game.)
Kathryn waited until Jamie had tossed the stick for Raea again and then encouraged him to take a seat on a park bench near by. They sat, face to face, legs curled up beneath their bellies; Kathryn's heart rate increased to the point she was surprised he could not hear it. "Jamie," she said, dropping the doctor part for now. "I really like you." He jerked his head back in surprise, a little blush creeping on his pure white face fur. Her own pale fur showed a blush far brighter and he knew how hard this was for her. He had studied mental health conditions in school, like every other medical student, but didn't put much emphasis on studying them as he intended to be a trauma doctor rather than a psychiatrist. He knew Autism when he saw it and he did see it in her as she avoided eye contact as usual, preferring to look at his snout.
But he also felt the genuineness of the statement; he felt the honesty and knew. He leaned his head forward until his lips nearly touched her ears. "I like you too, Kathryn." To hear him say those words (and to not use the teasing nickname) made her blush all the more and her eyes went to pinpricks in surprise. Then her rapid heart rate settled and they nuzzled each other. It was all purely instinct but it felt natural and it felt right. Then suddenly, Jamie's snout found Kathryn's in a full on kiss. It was as if sparks and fireworks flew all around them. Love is a magic, said the wind as it blew through the trees.
March 23rd, 2016 at 2:35 am Midnight Iris Entry Dear Journal,
It's been a long time since any of us have last written but I thought it was time for a big fat update; especially for what happened earlier today (22nd).
But before all that happens, I have to point out that Annie had her 8th birthday party last week. I managed to get to bed early and be awake earlier for her party. It was held on the Bermareda ship and was all decorated in old Valentine's day decorations as those best matched Annie's colors. It had occurred to Annie that maybe us land ponies and Griz, no longer knew how to swim in our new bodies so her party would be swimming lessons in the shallows before dinner. It was pointed out that me, Griz and Jazz could fly and thus didn't need to know how to swim; however, Patrick made a point. "What if one of the fliers got struck by lightning in the wing and fell into the ocean?" So needless to say, everypony got pony lessons; even Kathryn learned to doggy paddle just in case! When Annie blew out her birthday candles, I somehow knew she wished for her mom and dad back.
So my 22nd started around midnight and I was on night watch with Max. Nothing really exciting happened beyond watching a flock of bats do a fly dive in the near by marshes. Max had tried to chase after them but of course, bats (and all animals) were getting smarter and none of them fell victim. It occurred to me we might need to find some breeding dogs if we wanted to keep up with protecting the fields.
I hate to admit it but night watch has been really boring lately, especially when I had Max or Millie with me. So at some point, I flew Max up to one of the second story balconies of U1 and I fell asleep in the cool breeze. It turned out to be a fantastic thing because otherwise, I would have missed out. I woke around sunrise, realizing my mistake.
Of course, I ratted myself out to Kathryn when she arrived for breakfast. I was making a big pot of oatmeal with smaller dishes of a variety of toppings. When I told her, she simply waved her hoof. "No harm, no foul. Between you with Max, me with Raea, Millie with the animals and all the buildings locked at night away, we were fine. If you're that tired, maybe sleep a little longer?" I nodded at the suggestion, and then brought up the idea I had about breeding dogs. We all knew that Raea, Max and Millie were all fixed prior to event so we'd have to go out searching for any stray pregnant animals. "If we start at the animal control office, we could borrow their rescue vehicle and any cages & supplies. We could get Li and Jazz to set up another ground level office for a nursery," Kathryn said as she carefully set the table.
They all loved the idea of a doggy nursery for raising guard dogs. Ebony & Slate (the two barn cats found back at Halloween) were already doing a fabulous job at keeping the vermin out of the barn but they should not hesitate if they found a pregnant cat. Kathryn obviously nominated herself and Raea to go searching but she also invited me to go as back up. "You sleep so much during the day. It's time you finally got to hang out with us," she said.
Griz, Jazz & Li promised to have a pair of offices cleared out before we got back. Dr Jamie said he knew of a couple of small animal vet offices near by he could raid for more medical related supplies. "I'll take Max and a crossbow; don't worry about me," he said when Kathryn hesitated. Something is blossoming between those two.... I just don't want to bring it up and embarrass them.
Finding the packs of dogs was the easy part; Kathryn had gotten her hooves on a dog whistle and she filled the back of one of our junk trucks (use until fuel runs out) with bags of dog food, cutting it wide open. As the truck bounced along on some really bad suspension springs, much of the kibble tumbled out the back open hatch and onto the street. The truck's wind drag spread the smell of the food on the breeze behind them and dogs began coming out of the side alleys, tackling each other over the falling pieces. At one point, Kathryn gestured toward a hockey stick that was propped in the cab's open back window. I took it in my hooves and heaved down; this acted as a lever and dumped out the bag's complete contents. This riled up the dogs and even more of them came out of side alleys and abandoned buildings.
We drove for a little longer and eventually came to an animal rescue center. It had become obviously clear; this was no ordinary rescue facility. Griz had directed us to what appeared to be more of an aquatic animal rescue center, not unlike the one I saw in Kathryn's copy of "Winter's Tale" one night while bored. This place had two main buildings: one for the aquatics and one for the domestic animals.
Curiosity ate at us so we explored the aquatic side first. I won't say much of the dead animals we found in the evaporated-empty tanks beyond at how bad the whole place smelled. Going into the storage rooms with non-functioning refrigerators, we avoided opening any of them with meat warning labels. Instead, we passed into a locker room and found a caged section containing harpoons, rifles, expensive diving equipment and oxygen tanks. A quick buck with Kathryn's Earth pony strength took care of the padlock. She smashed the harpoons to smithereens and grabbed a rifle case to begin loading up. I used the claw tips of my wings to open drawers and scrounge around. The top one was just desk stuff like pencils, pens, rulers, etc and the second was paperwork files & manuals for the rifles (Kathryn took those). The bottom drawer was locked but i found the keys in the top drawer so I used my mouth to safely unlock it. Inside, I found a pair of hand guns (not sure why they were there....) and small bundle of diving knives inside of special arm band sheaths. I grabbed the knives bundle and placed them inside the rifle case. Kathryn raised an eyebrow as I unhooked one and pulled it up onto my back left leg. "Never know when it might come in handy....." My ears drooped, my head went down and my eyes all rolled by instinct for using an old human adage; Kathryn nickered behind a fore hoof but said no more.
I have to say, the black knife sheath looks incredibly rad on my leg with my 'hard core' bat pony look. I saw my full body reflection in a huge mirror inside the locker room and it was a bit of a shock. I'm no vampire so I knew I had a reflection but seeing it full body like that was still a surprise.... and a delight.
I've only told Dr Jamie so far, for medical reasons, but before the event, I was a transgender female. I had been out of the closet and taking hormone therapies for about ten years so I was well on my way to becoming a woman. But then the event happened and it gave me a mare's body. The pony was a surprise but the female part made me so happy. Maria Theresa really was my female name that I went by.... but then Midnight Iris seemed more fitting for a bat pony; I wasn't sure why when I picked it but I loved it and still do. I write it down in here so that the others might read it and understand me and accept me as they did for Griz.... I read the whole book from the beginning one night so yeah, I know that too. Now it was my turn to let go.
Getting back to the story.... Kathryn joked and said I looked "bad ass" with the leg sheath but made me promise I'd be careful with it. "You don't need to add any scars to your already awesome look," she said with a chuckle. "I dunno," I replied as I ran a fore leg over my bangs. "I really could use a mane cut." We shared a laugh again as we made our way to the second building.
Kathryn did manage to find one of their animal control trucks with all the air conditioned side cages and the keys had been left in the key slot but the engine turned off. "Someone must have been on duty at time of Event but came back to maybe drop off a patient?" I suggested. Kathryn shrugged; "We may never know."
Working quickly, we transferred a couple bags of dog & cat foods into one of the cages and Kathryn quickly swapped the foot pedal extenders from the old junker into this one. "Care to drive?" she asked, raising a hoof to the driver's seat. I shrugged. "Why the heck not?" I said with a chuckle. I knew she did that so she and Raea could walk along side, letting Raea sniff out any dogs. But insisted she carry the crossbow already rigged for pony use. "A fair compromise," she relented.
At first, we drove together to a downtown section of inland; Kathryn suggested we'd have better luck further inland, away from the ocean. When we came to a densely built area, Kathryn signaled to stop; she and Raea hopped out quickly and started trotting forward. I saw Kathryn give Raea some kind of hoof signal and a verbal command I could not make out at that distance. Raea's ears perked up and her nose went to the ground; either Kathryn had this dog extremely well trained or Raea really was getting smarter like the others were saying.
Bear in mind, I have been noticing peculiar changes in Merlyn too lately. (Merlyn is my falcon friend, just in case no one else has mentioned him before now.) He seems to understand our need for the farm fields to keep growing and has taken a habit of perching on a tree near the field, attacking any bird that tries to even get close. He's like those trained birds the humans used to use to keep other birds away from air strips so the birds don't get sucked into the air plane engines. Merlyn seems to take pride in catching a raven or crow that tries to make a break for the corn stalks or oat husks. He'll sometimes bring the bird to me or Griz to share with; other times, he'll drop the offending avian into the ocean where a shark will come by to claim a free lunch. I would have brought him with me on this trip but I was afraid he'd scare the mother dogs so I left him on guard duty in the farm field. He seems to have built a dark nest in one of the trees there so I don't mind that he didn't sleep with me like he did when we were traveling.
Slowly making our way through the empty city streets was very eerie and I was glad that this was not the middle of the night. It felt like that "Silent Hill" movie I watched back at Halloween with the other adults (Kathryn pointing out that part of it was filmed in the downtown section of her home city*); all foreboding, spooky and abandoned.
On occasion, Kathryn would blow the dog whistle; Raea would stop and look back at her mistress but Kathryn would wave the dog on with a flick of her hoof. Eventually Raea began to ignore the dog call and just kept sniffing. The truck was going slow enough, every now and then, Kathryn would go to the back of the truck and take a scoop of the dog food with a steel bowl and dump it on a street corner. As we'd go by & a bit further down, some dogs would come out and investigate. Kathryn would eye them, use a pair of binoculars she liberated from the animal rescue and continue on if she didn't see what she was looking for.
At one point, she was walking on the driver's side of the truck. I clicked the electric window button to roll it down and asked her how she knew what to look for. She shook her head. "I don't but I can tell a male dog from a female. All the dogs I keep seeing are males," she replied. "Oh," I said back. There really wasn't much to say.
It wasn't until we got to poor parts of town.... aka, the Boonies, as Kathryn called them. Junkyard dogs, with huge thick collars and chains dragging down, charged down at Kathryn but Raea jumped in front every single time and defended her. Kathryn would then give the dogs some of the kibble; as they ate, she'd remove the awful heavy collars as a show of friendship. I swear, every single time she did that (collar removing), the dogs would do a full body shake and bob their heads in thanks before devouring the kibble pile. Raea would give a couple gruff and yips but the dogs would shake their heads and bound away. Kathryn explained to me later that she had instructed Raea to ask about any bitches with puppies in need of help. "The best way to find the moms is to ask the possible dads," Kathryn said, as if it was the most logical thing in the whole messed up world! LOL
Finally, after finding our fifth junkyard dog, Raea got a lead. When she gruff and yipped again, the dog didn't respond right away. He practically inhaled the pile first, then bobbed his head again and started walking away slowly. Kathryn gave me the hoof to stop the truck and join her. The dog, a large calm Rottweiler, paused at the entrance to a dark side alley as he waited for me, Kathryn and Raea to catch up. When we did, he lead us down the alley to a nearby backyard strewn with debris, lumber, overgrown weeds and an old wooden shed with a corner broken out of it. I could hear whimpering from inside; like a dog in distress.
While the Rottweiler stayed outside, Raea went in to investigate. She didn't come out for a while but when we heard a single bark, Kathryn went over and fully opened the shed's front doors. Inside, we found a female dog laid out on a pile of old blankets and newspapers, panting heavily, and very clearly pregnant. Next to her was a bowl of dirty rain water that had been dripping in from a hole in the roof and were the bones of her last meal. "It's a Pitweiler," I whispered. Kathryn looked at me confused. "A Rottweiler/Pit-bull cross," I replied. Kathryn carefully took the bowl of kibble that i kept balanced between my wings and placed it in front of the female. The girl practically dove her nose into the bowl and gobbled it down. As she ate, I took the water dish, dumped it, cleaned it as best as I could and replaced the water with some from a bottle. The girl gave an appreciated whine as her huge tongue lapped up the first fresh she's probably had in weeks.
Kathryn carefully stepped back out of the shed and pulled out a radio walkie. "Jamie, I think we got one. Midnight says she's a Pitweiler and the pair seem friendly enough. The girl is laying on her side and panting heavily despite being in the shade; and she's got a big belly." "That sounds about right. Bring them in if you can," came the reply.
Kathryn nodded to me and whistled to Raea to exit. The Earth Pony then knelt down next to the female dog and started talking about bringing them both back with us so we could take care of each other. "You help protect our colony, we keep feeding you and take really good care of your puppies," she said, looking each of them in the eyes. They seemed to hesitate for a moment, then Raea came over and rolled onto her side with some more barks and yips. Kathryn seemed to understand and she carefully folded back Raea's fur to expose her buck's antler's injury. The male saw that scar, came over and gently licked it. The female reached over and nuzzled Raea in a similar gesture I had seen other ponies do as a sign of comfort. "You won't be alone; we have Max & Millie already but none of them can have puppies. We will keep all of them together," I added. "We do have cats but they stick to the barn; and Midnight here has a falcon named Merlyn and he sleeps in a tree. We need you to help us guard the buildings, and the animals during the day." Kathryn gently petted Raea's head. "And any invaders you help us kill, you get to feast," she added. That seemed to tip the scales for them.
Kathryn found an old wagon nearby and us two ponies used the top most blanket as a stretcher to get her up into it. Kathryn then wrapped her tail into the handle of the wagon and began pulling. "Something obscure I read about in an Earth pony book," she said to my raised eyebrow. As we walked back to the truck, we began thinking of names for them.
We were able to use a large piece of lumber as a ramp for the dogs to get up into the cages with. We told them this was the best way we could transport them safely back to the colony. We even lined the female's cage with her blanket so she'd be more comfortable; gave them each some more kibble and water before securing the doors and shoving the wagon into the truck's back storage slot (inside had been some ladders we could no longer use so dumped them on the side of the road).
I took the driver's seat again as we walked out of the Boonies and into more residential areas. A few more piles of kibble later, an actual pregnant female came up to a pile all on her own. Kathryn suspected this one was not as far along as the Pitweiler; this girl, a very pretty Labrador, was also very friendly as soon as she figured out where the food was coming from. And she was much more spry; she would jump around playfully as Raea approached her. After a quick exchange, the Lab bounded over and started licking Kathryn's face. Under the constant affection of this new dog and her laughter, Kathryn finally toppled over and dumped the second bowl of kibble. It wasn't long before the Lab finished that pile and calmed down enough for Kathryn to check her out and spotted a pink collar under all the fur. The name on the tag said "Candy". We had just found our second female.
Having found two girls and a dad already, we loaded up and started back towards Campus City. We had come up empty on the pregnant cat front but we also knew that cats were even more aloof when with kittens so they'd be even more well hidden. We had our dogs and while the Lab already had a name -and probably a family at some point- the other two were clearly junkyard dogs, neglected and maybe even abused. The scars on the male's muzzle, something I didn't see until I was really close up, gave that kind of indication.
"If the Rott gets the Lab girl pregnant later, what will those puppies be called?" Kathryn asked me on the way back. "Labrottie," I replied. She eyed me... "You're making shit up!" she accused. "Nope... when we get back, I have a binder I brought with me from home. It's got all the cross breed names in it; researched it all myself back in the day from internet sources," I said with a smug look. "I've loved dogs my whole life and so I've researched everything I could. I wanted to be a dog veterinarian when I grew up; but then found out I'd have to deal with cats and birds and other critters.... so then I decided on dog rescuer/breeder instead. I ended up working with the Animal Welfare department of my local SPCA. I'd go rescue junkyard dogs like our pair; fighting dogs; neglect and abuse.... I specialized in large dogs; my strong human size worked to my advantage at the time."
When we got back to Campus City, Dr Jamie was waiting for us in the animal's building. While Candy & the male Rottie jumped down from their cages, we used a life guard stretcher (fabric with light weight poles) to lift the female Pitweiler down onto a lowered wheeled stretcher (probably liberated from the hospital). DJ explained that he had Li use her magic to attach a soft but strong rope to the one end of the stretcher. He then ducked under said rope, settled it around the front of his chest and began walking. As he did, his Earth pony strength took the strain and began walking the stretcher inside. The Rottie began following along side, just like a human dad might do with worry over a pregnant wife.
DJ led us through the main front doors of the building and to the left; to the right are the cow & chicken rooms. He led us to a near by conference room, clearly split in half; dogs on one side, cats on the other. I could tell this by the different set ups. The dog's side had huge cages, some covered in cloth, some not; the giant sized dog beds and even a few dog houses that looked like they had been taken from back yards. There were tug-of-war rope toys, stuffed animals, chew bones and even a large plastic fake fire hydrant. The cat side was littered with kitty litter boxes, scratch towers of every shape and size; small cages, some covered in cloth, some not; bell balls, feather mice, plastic springs and hanging pompoms inside cages and around a few of the towers. Slicing down the middle of the room was a huge clear plastic wall divider, about twice the height of a pony, with what appeared to be a door for both sides access. "Bloody brilliant," Kathryn whispered with a chuckle.
The female Pitweiler took an interest in the room she was now in. As soon as DJ stopped and lowered the stretcher to as far as it would go, the female stepped down on shaky legs, grabbed her blanket in her mouth and promptly hurried over to the closest dog house and laid down on her blanket. "What ever makes you comfortable, my dear," DJ chuckled as he shoved the stretcher over to the clear wall and left it there. I saw now that the mattress had been scrawled with "DOGZ" on the top and I saw another one on the other side -a child sized- labeled "CATZ". It was a smart move to keep these on hoof in case were needed.
DJ now came over with a pair of shiny new dog collars; both were camo designs, one blue and one pink. I had seen back in the hallway was one of those tag engravers from like, Petsmart or some such. "What are we going to name them. I saw the Lab already got a name." He nodded over to the female Lab, who was chewing on a bone. "Yeah, that's Candy. We think she was a house pet cuz of the collar. No idea on these two though.... I've been wracking my brain for any ideas." Kathryn placed a hoof on her head. "Arthur for the male; Guinevere for the female." I pointed to the dogs in reference; both Earth ponies looked at me in surprise. Kathryn looked at the two dogs and nodded. "It suits them," she said. DJ nodded agreement and went out to the machine to make the new dog tags. He came back a few minutes later and presented the dogs with their new collars. Guinevere took her's with a friendly lick to DJ's face & wag of tail; Arthur seemed to hesitate, until she gave an encouraging whimper, and he accepted.
"We'll let you all settle in for a while and introduce you to the others later," Kathryn said with some final pats to Arthur & Candy, who had come over to see the excitement. Arthur gave a huge yawn, walked over to Guinevere's cage and laid down next to her head. Candy trotted over to another cage, covered with a cloth and laid down herself; clearly claiming that one as hers. DJ told us that Guinevere could give birth at any time so we should leave the dogs in peace and check in on them later. We left plenty of food, water and a very large doggie door installed into the back wall out to the back of the building. "Please take your business to the trees, please," DJ had said, showing Arthur & Candy; leaving some newspapers down near Guinevere's cage in case she needed it.
By the time I had parked the animal rescue truck and made my way back to U1, it was already 4 pm! [By the way, I should mention, we abolished the Daylight Savings time thing back in November. Voted magnanimously to stop using it.] Entering the kitchenette in search of a snack, Jazz pointed to the fridge. "Griz made an extra fish sandwich at lunch and left it for you. Please eat it quickly so it doesn't stink the fridge," she said nonchalantly, slurping a juice box. "Don't be rude, Jazz. You're just jealous we ponies can't eat meat anymore," Kathryn said as she dropped the animal rescue's rifle case into the closet.
Li Lang came in at the sound of our voices and noticed my knife. "Nice bling," she said, nodding her head towards it. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it and laughed. "Yeah, Kathryn says I look bad-ass in it," I replied as I took the sealed bowl from the fridge in my wing claws and took it outside. The fish had been BBQ'd and in the fridge a while but it was still delicious.
Some time later, Kathryn & Jazz came outside with Raea. "Raea needs a walk and you haven't been flying much so you two go for a low altitude flight along the beach or something. That's an order," Kathryn said as she took my tray despite the smell and huffed back inside, closing the door. It looked like Raea had taken one of the tug-of-war rope toys from the dogs room and was happily chewing it as she trotted in the direction of the beach, not waiting for us ponies.
An awkward silence fell over us as we took flight, about a pony & half height above the ground. Reaching the beach, every thing seemed to be in place. The waves gently crashed over a smaller section of rocks we had installed as a sea wall to protect the life guard tower from storms. And yes, DJ knew exactly where the human-made beach would end and so that as the beach is worn away, we'd simply move the rocks up as needed. From my inspection that day, we were still good for a while; Griz's maintenance notes told me she last moved them in early January.
As we walked on the stiffer, wet sand near the water's edge, a series of loud splashes and some yelling brought us to the section of rocks just north of the life guard tower. Raea sniffed the air, got all excited and made a be-line for the rocks. Jazz & I took flight and followed the dog, keeping a few body heights above her.
When we reached the rocks, we heard more high pitched excited squeals over top of the waves crashing. Raea came upon the scene first, me & Jazz performing a circle before landing. There, we found little Annie up on the rocks, using her teeth to try to pull an old fishing net off of a giant sea turtle. Sarah & Patrick were treading water a fair bit out at sea, yelling at Annie to come back but the filly could not hear them over the crashing waves. She used her own body to shield the turtle's head from the wave as she tried to work on removing the net.
Finding that ocean tack gear at the animal rescue place was a God-send because as Jazz acknowledged the two adults, I used my webbed wing's claw to draw my new knife from its leg holster and was just about to cut the line when Annie grabbed the knife from my wing grasp into her mouth. I was so shocked by her action; "she's a child and should not be holding that!" But when I looked in her eyes, something was off. Her eyes stared straight ahead with a blank look in them. Then, they started to glow a gentle white as she slowly approached the turtle. She placed one hoof on the turtle's head and the creature stopped squirming. The white glow from her eyes traveled down to the tip of the knife but her eyes retained the blank look. She then, with knife still in her mouth, slipped it under a single strand of the net and jerked her head up fast. The knife cut through that single strand like it was butter but every other strand ALSO BROKE at the exact same time! it was like she had thousands of invisible knives all poised to cut at the same time. She even got the tiny embedded lines that were hopelessly entangled in the turtle's neck!
As she placed the knife on the rocks beside her, she grabbed a hold of the single strand she cut and pulled. The magic from her eyes traveled to the net and it was like the whole thing dissolved into thin air. The turtle made a happy gurgling sound at Annie before turning around and dropping back into the ocean. Annie made a similar gurgle sound at the retreating turtle and then her eyes rolled into the back of her head & she fainted. Luckily, Jazz had made her way to Annie's other side and caught her; I grabbed up my knife and put it back into the holster.
I looked down to where Annie's flank would be and watched as a flash of white magic made a mark appear: a large crashing wave (facing toward her front), curling over top a dark purple medical cross.
The crashing wave that had been battering us suddenly stopped and the two adult merponies were able to approach the rocks. Sarah squealed with delight at the sight of Annie's cutie mark as Jazz flew Annie over to Patrick's back. Annie began to stir as a more gentle wave rinsed the sand and pebbles from her skin. "Take her home and let her rest for a while. We'll tell Kathryn what happened here and bring yourselves up to U1 for a celebration dinner. You all know how Kathryn gets," Jazz said with a wink. Sarah & Patrick laughed and waved before diving down.
Jazz & I returned immediately returned to U1 with Raea and told what happened. Li, Kathryn & Griz squealed with delight; my sensitive bat ears went back in an instinct reaction. And then I took a three hour nap before the special dinner but didn't sleep all that heavy, with Li working carefully on my knife & sheath on my desk.
Dinner that night was prepared with a seafood theme. We learned very quickly that ponies CAN eat certain things like clams, lobster and shrimp! "They're called crustaceans," Annie said. "Yes dear, they are. But we can also eat shellfish; things like oysters, scallops and mussels," Sarah said gently, using her magic to pass over a dish of clams to DJ. "So kiddo.... did you figure out what your cutie mark means?" DJ asked as he took the clams dish in his hooves and began taking a scoop out. Annie, with her mouth full of shrimp, nodded her head, finished chewing, swallowed and then spoke. "Yup! I'm an animal rescuer! When I need to I can use anything on hoof that will cut to solve a problem and rescue a trapped sea animal; I can even speak the animal's language so it will know I'm there to help and keep calm while I work," Annie said proudly, her cutie mark glowing slightly as she recited.
I got up from the table and removed my leg's knife sheath. It was the same knife Annie had used earlier but a few changes had been made. The black Velcro band had been replaced with a wide pink Velcro belt and her new cutie mark's cross (only) had been embedded into the sheath, handle and engraved into the blade. "It seems only fitting that you keep the knife you used on your very first rescue," I said as I gently wrapped the belt around her waist and secured it. Patrick seemed proud; Sarah showed uncertainty. "Promise me, you'll only use this for rescues and self defense. And you'll come to me if there's anything wrong with it?" I asked. Annie, at a loss for words, nodded vigorously and gave me a hug.
I stayed up much of that night, seeing the merponies back to the beach around midnight; Annie fast asleep on Patrick's back again. "She's getting to be a big girl... I won't be able to carry her for much longer," he said jokingly.
Flying around Campus City, I saw Arthur patrolling around the exterior of the animal building and Merlyn had just gone into a dive at another black bird trying to get into the corn field. Things are looking really good for Campus City.
PS. Don't worry! I've already replaced my leg knife with another one from the collection I tossed into the rifle case. This one is nicer because it has a black blade on it; about 20% cooler.
Somewhere in another plane of existence, Rainbow Dash had a weird feeling that something was just declared "20% cooler" but they didn't understand why; it had just felt right to them. "This must be what Pinkie Sense feels like," she muttered to herself, rolled over on her cloud and fell back into her nap.
May 23rd, 2016 Event's First Anniversary Entry by Jazz
I think by now every creature has read the entire Alexandria books and scrolls collection. Li even made magically waterproof copies of all the merpony books and the water farming books for the Surface ship so they'd have their own. The ponies have all figured out to hold things in our hooves; the books said it was like imagining an invisible griffin claw at the end of the hoof and just grab things. Since we were humans, all we had to do was imagine our old hands and it worked just the same. We no longer need Sarah's rubber bands for eating with utensils and no more nosing pages in books. LOL It's now like having magnets on our hooves but everything sticks to them, not just metal.
Everypony who was living in offices on the main level have moved them to upstairs to leave the bottom rooms for actual offices like my weather room, Dr Jamie's medical office, ER room (adjacent room set up with inflatable pool for merponies and a cot bed for land-based and all the IV & monitors salvaged from the hospital's ER), the new pantry Kathryn set up in the room immediately next to the kitchen, the new library with all the salvaged human books & a whole bookshelf section for the Alexandria collection, and anything else we come up with in the future.
Annie suggested over dinner one night, we should make a mini human museum with Barbie dolls, posters, and magazines. My thoughts went to the fact that those would just be propaganda and she probably doesn't know that word yet; we'd be better off putting in all our human family photos instead. I didn't voice my thoughts of course. I'd let the others muddle over it for now; have a chat with Kathryn about it later to make sure she processes the idea completely. I had autistic people in my family before the Event, so I know how to help her.
Today is a strange day
I don't know how I feel about today
We all know what today is but are not sure how or if we should celebrate it. Griz is the only one among us who was here from the first day and thus, been here the longest. She seemed especially quiet over breakfast this morning; I think everyone was like that, including myself, so I didn't say anything.
Maybe the Event is still too new and raw for creatures to celebrate together. Maybe we should treat it like Memorial day (USA) and keep it individual, private. I saw the date circled in red on Kathryn's calendar on the cork board but it's already afternoon and I don't think anything will happen as a group.
------------- Jazz, supplemental at 2 am
Kathryn was carrying a large box from one of the storage rooms, quietly being followed by Li.
About half an hour later, I saw a huge flash of light from outside the front of U1. Griz, Dr Jamie, Midnight Iris and I all ran out to see what was happening. Kathryn and Li were sitting out in the grass out front; every now and then, Kathryn would nod to Li, she would light up her horn and a large fireworks rocket would light and shoot up into the night sky. Myself and the others all just quietly sat or laid down on the grass, watching as each rocket shot into the sky. A quick glace told me that the dogs were watching with the cows who seemed not at all afraid. Lil Mac was a little spooked but when he curled up in Iris's outstretched hooves, he felt safer & calmed down. Somehow I knew that even those down at Bermareda Circle would be able to see these because of how far down Kathryn had taken them. I liked to imagine Sarah & Patrick had woken Annie so they could go up to Surface Ship and watch them from there.
When Kathryn & Li had exhausted the rockets supply, Kathryn stomped her hooves in a circle in what looked like green flames. As she stopped, Li lit her horn again, lifting up the circle of grass that seemed burned and tossed it like a disc to the far side. Then, turning her focus to another section, she levitated a large pre-made pyramid or teepee of logs from the forest and placed it into the middle of the newly made circle of dirt. Kathryn stuffed a bunch of paper inside the cracks and Li lit up what looked like a huge bonfire to flare into life. Kathryn then turned to us and waved us forward.
We quietly came forward, Lil Mac now riding on Iris's shoulders. Kathryn handed out beach towels to each of us so we could be more comfortable on the grass. No one said anything. It was like we knew what the intention was. We each take a spot around the bonfire, together but alone with our thoughts to remember who from our lives were left behind. Li floated over a small notepad and pencil so we could write letters to our families, in case they came back long after we were gone. Sad to think about, I know, but extremely smart. At least, that's what I thought until Kathryn pulled out a large canister with the words "Time capsule to be opened 101 Event Anniversary: 2116". I heard the sound of pages flipping so I knew others were thinking more of their family letters. I knew I'd still write one, just maybe another day. Instead, I write down all my information; pony name, human name, birthday, identifying features, names of family members and then I wrote the story about how I earned my cutie mark and set up with weather room in U1. I wrote about the storms name book I had created; the biggest bound notebook I could find in any book store and confiscated it for keeping track of all storms that hit Campus City and their names, dates and estimated categories. I wrote about wishing for another pegasus to join us to help me with the storms when they come. I can only handle up to a category 2 on my own. I've been lucky with Patrick to help me with the cat 3's we've gotten. But if a 4 or 5 show up, we're kinda screwed!
When I finished that, I tore it out, walked over to Kathryn and folded it before placing in the container. She gave me a sad smile which I replicated before going back to my seat and writing the letter to my family. I wasn't lying when I told everyone I was only 16 when I woke up. My birthday has since come and gone but I said nothing. I didn't want to make it a big deal like they did for Annie. I wrote my letter, asking my mom for forgiveness for the fight we had just a couple days before hand. I didn't even remember what the fight was about. Probably something stupid like wanting to go to some dumb party. I feel like with the Event, I had to grow up really fast and none of that stuff I cared about as a teen no longer mattered. But I swear to the heavens, I'll be so pissed if that bully Sally comes back before my siblings or parents! I miss my brother and sister. 💗
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May 24th, 2016 ~ Sarah
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!! PATRICK PROPOSED LAST NIGHT AND I SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!
He gave me a gold bracelet that was made on an elastic so it both fit over my hoof but also still fits on my ankle so it doesn't fall off when I walk. It is gorgeous. We were up on Surface Ship, watching the fireworks that Kathryn was setting off (she had sent a message earlier in the day so we could be up on SS to watch). Annie had fallen asleep waiting; Patrick proposed and after I said yes, he woke her to watch but said nothing for now. He told her the next morning instead. She has already been calling me Aunt Sarah so I guess he'll be Uncle Pat now.
We have already set the date for June 22nd, the first anniversary of Bermareda Circle and we'll have it on Surface Ship so everyone can be in attendance.
I will/did go back and fix that. The reason for the life jackets was because despite being turned into ponies, they WERE still humans at one point and certain habits still crossed over. Next, I never said that Joe Farmer and Amy Orchard were married. 
Sure, I said "partner" but unless they changed the numerous meanings, partner can still apply to say a business partner. They were the co-founders of Farmville, hence using the term of "partner"; they had given up their human last names and gave themselves their new ones based on their cutie marks, not knowing what those actually meant.
Again, another flaw on my part. 
