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The Eternal Lonely Day

by Starscribe

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Daytrip (50 AE)

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Alex had never felt happier than the day she opened the Museum of Human Achievements. It was by no means an accomplishment that was purely her own. She had elicited donations from hundreds of Alexandria's most prominent citizens. Granted, many of those had thought she was a filly-scout doing a charity project...

She couldn't describe her satisfaction on the day of the grand opening, when she stepped out onto the stage and saw their shocked faces. No, she wasn't representing Lonely Day. She was Lonely Day, founder and former mayor of their city.

She had commissioned Raven City engineers to design the structure. The construction, honest labor of an Alexandrian construction company.

She had invited everypony who had worked on the building, everypony who had supported the museum in a political way, and everypony who had donated. Perhaps the opening of a new museum in the world Alex had come from wouldn't have attracted the crowd that this event had. But this was a different world. There were no more smartphones, few computers, and no more internet. Leaving one's home and spending time out in the community was one of the best ways to stave off boredom.

Her speech was over now, along with the mayor's and every other important sponsor of the project. Great throngs of ponies now pressed down into the concrete entryway, even as a slow trickle made its way out the exit. Alex found herself swallowed by it, taken up by her friends and acquaintances in the slow press down beneath the earth.

She found herself standing beside Taylor, whom she could not fail to identify even in a crowd of thousands. Taylor was the HPI's official representative in the equine world now, and dressed the part. A pony-shaped uniform had been made for her, resembling the one her comrades wore beneath the surface. It had but one addition theirs lacked: her cutie mark was embroidered in the expected place.

On this particular occasion, she wore a vest with a laminated panoramic camera raised on a pole to be over her head, along with what Alex took to be a recorder. "Ho, Taylor!"

"Ho, Alex!" Taylor responded, embracing her as best she could in the crowd. It had been several decades now, but Taylor's appearance still seemed young and healthy. Other than getting larger and more mature-looking, time appeared to have been as kind to her as it was to Alex's other friends.

While it had been kind to them, it had ignored her, and she seemed just as much the young mare in comparison that she had ever been. "I'm surprised our mutual friends would be curious enough to have you record any of this."

Taylor looked sidelong at Alex, as though calling upon some secret only the two of them shared. "We're still a novelty down there, believe it or not." She jostled the camera on her back. "Anything we can do to demystify ourselves goes a long way."

Together they finally reached the edge of the building. The surface section was not large, a two story structure made from unreinforced concrete. That meant the walls had to be quite thick at the base, which she didn't mind. There only really had to be room for two sets of stairs, one for each direction, along with a lobby. Everything else was below.

Skylights served in the lobby, though as they moved with the crowd they were replaced with the steady glow of pony-made electric bulbs, flickering to the fickle whims of the electrical grid. "Plus, they did engineer this place. Complete with every silly thing you asked for." She gestured at the stairs, which after taking them down fifty feet, started moving up again. They passed into a second lobby like a sink trap, before passing into a spiral instead of a ramp. "People want to see how badly humans are going to be misrepresented by exhibits made by ponies."

"They think we don't remember? We made this place for our children's benefit, not our own."

Taylor shrugged. "Honestly, lots of them know less about what it was like to live on Earth than your ponies do. Didn't you say you got the help of the newest returns you could?" At Alex's nod, she continued. "We're on to the second and third generation in Raven these days. They didn't just come back from Old Earth, they've never seen it. Outside of the movies and TV shows, it's not real to them. They wouldn't know how to recognize if your museum got things right even if they saw it."

Alex sighed. "They're still the last biological humans we have. Do you think they'll visit?"

"Not today!" Taylor gestured around, at the space thick with ponies. "The magic in this building would barbeque them alive before they got down the stairs. Maybe if you closed the place down for an evening or something."

"I'd be happy to. It won't be open at nights anyway, so it wouldn't be hard. Not that I expect anyone in Raven to be impressed."

"They're impressed the whole thing hasn't collapsed and killed someone. They don't think much of non-automated construction crews."

Alex laughed. "As if that was the way people always built things."

"For them it is. Don't forget, just because ponies live longer doesn't mean humans do. The people who remember Old Earth are in their seventies and eighties. They don't keep anyone past when they can contribute somehow. The rest are either ponies in Bountiful or cremated."

"Do you feel eighty?"

"Do you?" Taylor returned her laugh. "Ask the old commander if he feels a hundred ten next time you see him."

They reached the bottom of the spiral staircase about then, stepping out into the museum proper. The complex was built quite deep underground, beneath a layer of impermeable clays and shales that would keep the water table at bay into perpetuity. Each room and chamber was a cylinder of one length or another, cast in concrete but with a flat deck of wood within. The largest room had a diameter of fifty feet, though most were far smaller. Even so, the museum had taken a fair fortune to build and the skills of many diamond-dog excavators.

The structure might be called the "Museum of Human Achievements", but only one of its wings was actually devoted to representing these. To be fair, it was the largest, populated with the greatest accomplishments of art and science. In every case she could, Alex had commissioned replicas in bronze rather than originals. Where bronze wouldn't serve she had settled for laminating in thick plastic.

The replicas of beautiful historical works filled that space. For many ponies who entered, it was their first time ever seeing the human form in full scale. They passed through the other two wings in turn, where the history of human civilization was summarized and a sketch of modern life before the Event was depicted. For this last they made use of a single HPI-built projector and computer, which could screen a few old movies.

She found Amy at the little theater, reading a book at the controls as she waited for another show to end. She looked up as they approached, grinning. "Alex, Taylor!" She put her book down. "Do you want me to let you in? I could clear out a few seats..."

"Nah." Alex spared one glance at the huge line waiting for the theater and she knew what result that would have. "We just wanted to say hi."

"Actually, do you think I could sit in the aisle?" Taylor gestured to her camera. "I think they'd want me to get a look at the theater. I won't stay in there for long."

"Be my guest." Amy gestured at the doors. "Just don't be in the way when the show ends. It's got another... eight minutes. If you stay in there and get trampled, it's not my fault."

"Noted." Taylor slipped inside, leaving the two of them relatively alone. So long as they kept their voices down low enough that they couldn't be overheard with the line so close.

"Is your mom upset you chose to work here?"

The mare shrugged. It was a little hard seeing a pony she remembered as a newborn end up so much larger than she was. "Sky hated her old life, she didn't hate the whole world. I do think she would rather I spent more time 'finding a good stallion.'"

"Don't let her pressure you into doing something you don't want. Sky's got enough foals that you can be perfect by averages even if you do your own thing." Unlike Alex herself, who still had just one.

"Don't I know it." She lowered her voice, leaning towards her. "Looks like number eighteen is on the way. I just got the news this morning."

"Eighteen," Alex repeated, unable to keep the wonder from her voice. "Why doesn't Adrian stop her?"

"Dad say no to Mom? Not a chance. Besides, it's not like it slows him down much. She never has two foals in the house at once, so he doesn't mind."

"Strange species we are where that works. Humans can't even have children for most of their lifetime." She reached back into her mind, finding the Equestrian childbirth text. She found the information she was looking for, then continued. "Somepony ought to warn her she's running out of time. The books all agree it's a bad idea to have foals after ninety."

"Somepony has, don't worry. Your mate doesn't let a patient leave his office uninformed."

Alex nodded, though the smile was a little bitter. They were more friends than mates these days. It wasn't like she blamed the stallion for drifting away from her. Didn't make it hurt less, even though few ponies knew.

"I've been meaning to ask you, Amy. I'm going out of town for the next few weeks. Taylor's been saving a month's leave, she's coming too. There's an open invitation for you to join us."

"I'm guessing that means you're offering me vacation time too." She glanced at the controls. "First day at my perfect job and you're asking me to leave." She frowned. "What would we be doing, anyway?"

"Unpaid manual labor. Well... I could make it paid vacation time. But it would still be manual labor."

The mare considered for a moment, then her eyes widened. "Wait a minute! You've done this before! I asked where you were going... must've been twenty years ago now... you wouldn't say!"

She nodded. "I still won't say. But you can come if you want to. I took your mother a few times, but we both know she's too busy and important to come on a vanity project."

"But I'm not, I see what you're saying."

She shrugged. "I know your boss. She'll make exceptions when she knows it's a project that will help you in your work."

"Really?" That got Amy's attention. "It's about humans, isn't it?"

She nodded. "It's gonna be buckin' hard work in the spring sun, and I'll swear you to secrecy when you're done."

"When would we leave?"

Taylor returned at that moment, eyes still wide from the darkness of the theater. "Recruiting more slave labor, eh?"

Alex only shoved her. "Tell me you didn't have fun last time!"

The mare's smile didn't falter. "Sure, whatever. Doesn't mean we aren't doing slave labor." She reached out, gripping Amy's shoulder. "It's hard work, bird-pony. You might not be sturdy enough."

"Is that so?"

* * *

Alex sat crammed into the hallway of the Swallow Supersonic Nuclear Transport, reading over Amy's shoulder and pretending she wasn't bored. Of course she was bored, all thanks to her perfect memory. Alex loved reading, but when you could finish even a meaty novel in a few minutes and never forget anything about it, your supply of good books was limited. So she saved some of the best, giving herself exactly one "pleasure" book a day.

Unfortunately, she had already read Amy's current selection "The Lost World" exactly eight years, four months and three days ago. "I don't get it," Amy declared, closing the book with one hoof and looking up.

"You don't get what?" Alex didn't have much free space to move away, but she did her best. A few feet further and she'd reach the cargo bay, packed with construction supplies. Cans of paint, lengths of wood in sheets and planks, plaster and drywall and bags of cement.

Amy gestured at the cover. "Have you... course you have, why wouldn't you. So, there's two different tribes on the plane, right? Humans and ape-men." At her nod, Amy continued. "Why are they fighting? Malone says there's been a terrible war since they got there together, and we even see some of the apes push..." she shivered as she spoke. "Push some humans off a cliff. But it doesn't make sense! They've both got their own languages, their own societies. They both have families, and they use tools and everything. Why do they fight? They're way closer together than ponies are to griffons, or diamond dogs or whatever. But you don't see any of us going to war over something that stupid!"

Yet, Lonely Day thought to herself. So far there had been no wars, or at least no armed conflicts large enough to be called wars. It seemed rather pointless to fight when there was so much open world to claim, and so many resources to do it with. But would it always remain so? She doubted it. Even the Equestrian history books had war, if you went back far enough. "It's fairer to call it a primitive reason to go to war. Many animals are this way, and it makes sense when you consider the perspective of survival."

"Think about it. If you're a wolf and there's lots of food, it might not matter that there are foxes living in your territory. You can eat the deer, they can eat the rabbits, and everything's great for both of you. But when winter comes and all the dear migrate north or whatever... then suddenly you're both eating the same rabbits. Every one a fox catches is one you can't use to feed your pups or give to your mate. Your family might die because of that other animal, even though it never tried to hurt you directly."

"The apes and the humans competed for the same resources. Every one of those stegosaurus the humans had in their herds was one the ape-men couldn't eat. So they fought."

The mare went quiet for a moment, thinking. Alex listened to the sound of the engines as they began to decelerate. They couldn't be far from the house now. "Does that mean when there are more ponies we'll start to fight again? Once we fill up all the farmland? Or once there are too many of us, and the humans can't make enough medicine to keep us from getting sick? We'll start pushing each other off cliffs and throwing spears at each other?"

"No." Alex shook her head. "It we started fighting each other, it would be far more terrible. Imagine if the pegasi who make sure our crops always have enough rain sent a storm on some other city? Or... what a unicorn's magic could do. And if anypony attacked the humans-" It was her turn to shiver at that. Somehow, she suspected that the HPI had indeed prepared for that eventuality. Like almost every problem the HPI attempted to solve, their answer was probably nuclear.

"But it doesn't have to come to that!" She nudged Amy on the shoulder, attracting her attention as best she could despite her small size. It worked. "We don't have to be primitive. People have lived together with groups that weren't like them before, and they aren't the only animals who ever did it either. If ponies want to be better than that, all we need are enough ponies who want to. Ponies who do everything they can to find a peaceful solution to their problems, even when violence seems easier. But... I'd relax."

She smiled bitterly, leaning back against the metal plating of the aircraft. "It will take hundreds of years before there's enough ponies for anything big. You won't ever have to see it."

"You will." She sniffed, looking away. "Mom was your best friend, but she got older and now you two don't see each other as much. Even though she knows better, she sometimes talks about you like a little filly. That's... probably why you don't spend as much time at our house as you used to."

Alex sat frozen, staring at the wall. She hardly even noticed Taylor's voice over the radio, or the fact they were now traveling vertically.

"So you made me your best friend. We spent so much time together when I was growing up! But... I'm getting older too." She kicked her book away, towards Alex. "In a few years I'll just be another one of these books to you. Just another memory."

It was all she could do to shake her head, which Amy ignored. At least by not arguing it couldn't get any worse.

It got worse. "You know why I haven't found a stallion yet?" She had a pretty good guess. "Cuz' if I do, then I'll change just like mom did! And all you have to do is hang around and act all nice, and you'll get yourself a perfect little replacement! Is that what you're gonna do, Archive? Just keep moving from one filly to another? Replacing us when we get old? I'm just Cloudy Skies number two!" She turned her flank towards Alex, shouting through her tears. "I'm so sorry, Princess Archive! Just a few more months, and I promise I'll pop you out my replacement! I'm sorry I've wanted to stay friends too much-"

Lonely Day could make no sense of the rest of it through her own tears, which had begun to flow freely by then. She backed away as far as she could, until her flank collided with a stacked pile of lumber. The world melted into a hundred blue rainbows, and she found herself unable to stop. After all, at least some of what Amy said was true.

"I... I..." She couldn't form words, couldn't force her mouth through the shapes that would lead to a reply. What was she supposed to say? "You're one of my best friends, Amy! Just 'cuz your mom... just ‘cuz Sky and I used to be this close doesn't... doesn't mean..." She couldn't even form a reply. Instead she melted into a weak little pile, whimpering and useless.

Time passed. Alex was conscious of little then, fleeing into the many-roomed mansion of her mind. Lonely Day had stood against the forces of hell and faced death without fear. That was nothing to hearing such awful things from her friends. There was no defense, nothing she could do but accept the truth and not argue the rest. She deserved every word of it, especially the parts that weren't true.

"Alex, I... I didn't mean all that." Amy nudged her with one of her wings. Alex couldn't even see her face through her own tears, though she tried. "It's not your fault mom's been so hard. It's not- It isn't right for me to take it out on you."

She shook her head. "You have every right to hate me, Amy. I'm a freak. If you don't wanna be my friend-"

She felt Amy lifting her into an embrace like a filly, and she didn't resist. "It's not your fault I'm scared."

Alex blinked. Over the next few minutes, she found herself recovering enough to speak. This was good, since their aircraft had nearly arrived. This would be bad enough without involving Taylor too. "It's... You were never your mom's replacement," she eventually said. "Sky always wanted to forget humans. But you... you're more interested than anypony I know. You like to read as much as I do... spent time with me at the library... Sky never would've done those things. You can both be my friend without you replacing her, or her replacing you, or... anything like that."

"Oh." The mare relaxed, releasing her.

Alex staggered for a few seconds, trying to force herself back into calmness. She had cried enough that she actually had a little success now. "If I wasn't your friend, I wouldn't have invited you." She walked past the mare, resting her side against her lumber in a way that was almost loving. "I don't show this place to just anypony. Oliver, Sky, Blacklight, Taylor... and now you. That's it. Nopony else in Alexandria."

"Not even Cody?"

She shook her head. "You kidding me? That stallion's like Joseph; his head is always too buried in some technical problem to see the point of a little honest work."

As she spoke, the pneumatic door to the cockpit hissed and Taylor emerged. She was still in her uniform, though she had traded the heavier version for a white tee-shirt and some shorts.

"Just what are we doing?" Amy looked between Taylor and the lumber and Alex's sincere expression and seemed to register only confusion from their synthesis.

Alex found herself smiling. "Let's go find out."

* * *

Somewhere in the bluffs of northern Oregon was a house.

The house was ordinary; two stories, modern picture windows, with a concrete drive and conservatively painted walls. What made the home strange was its surroundings. Its driveway held no automobile and connected only to forest, which spread around it in all directions. It seemed as though a single member of an identical housing track had been lifted through time and planted in the wilderness.

Yet it hadn't been moved. A careful investigation of the surrounding area would prove the house's neighbors were still there, so much as time had spared. Here and there a chimney rose from the soil, or a few half-rotten beams stuck out from the ground at the odd angles they had fallen. Glass and stainless steel survived more or less intact where they had fallen, though most of this more durable debris had been covered with a thick layer of plant detritus.

Thus was the fate of most of the country's residential structures, particularly in areas frequented by rain and snow. Careful maintenance by humans could keep a house intact for hundreds of years. A few decades of neglect was enough to decimate residential areas in wet climates.

Yet where all its neighbors were scarcely recognizable, this one home remained unchanged by the slow devastation of time around it. The cultivated little wood of pine trees, along with a layer of camouflage tarps surrounding the property, were enough to make it completely invisible at all but the closest distances.

The house had a large backyard, large enough that a Swallow could land without more than the standard automated coordination. Once on the ground, the ramp opened, and three ponies emerged from within.

"This is..." Amy stopped, frozen as she took in the structure. "A house? We came out here for a house?"

"My house," Alex agreed, dragging a cargo lifter in her teeth. With a few gestures the first pallet lifted on hydraulic pressure, and she wheeled it down the ramp. She only stopped when she had it on the ground, panting all the while. "More accurately, it's my mom's house, though my younger brother and older sister lived here too. I was the only one who actually made it on their own. Sister went to university and ended up getting dragged back, and my brother... I think he might've taken a little too much after my dad." She shivered once, then shook her head.

"Doesn't matter." She pushed the hydraulic lifter towards Amy. "You try. Just don't knock over the paint. I don't want to fly all the way back to Alexandria to buy more."

"What?" The pegasus mare spread her wings in confusion, pacing about on her hooves. "I don't... why..." She gestured up at the Swallow. "Alex, if the HPI still respects you enough to let us fly around in their fancy airplanes, why couldn't they spare any of their fancy drones to do manual labor?"

She shrugged. "They tried, but I said no." She turned away from her friends, walking closer along the manicured lawn. "When my family comes back and the house is still standing, I want it to be because I kept it here. Besides, I know I might not be able to count on the HPI forever. If I ever cease to be useful, I'll have to do everything myself. That's why we're using as much pony-made materials as we can. It might take ten millennia for them to come back. I can't count on the HPI to stick around to help me all that time."

"She's just sayin' that cuz she's a masochist." Taylor made her way down the ramp, dragging another pallet and setting it down beside the first. This one was full of nails and bags of concrete. "Look at this crap, not even letting us use robots to unload. Like she's out of ancient history or something."

"When men were men!" Alex agreed. "And mares were mares! Er- Maybe there are better expressions." She glanced towards the house, where smoke was already rising from the fireplace. "You think the old man is waiting for us?"

"With as often as he's been complaining about the floor this last week, you can bet your flank on it." She gestured. "Go on ahead if you like; I see him often enough. I can finish unloading while you introduce your latest victim."

Alex gestured, and Amy followed her towards the porch. "Old man? There are humans here?" Her whole body tensed with excitement at the idea, and she started bouncing as much as walking.

"After a fashion." She stopped at the door, knocking with a hoof. Not that the old man could've missed the sound of the Swallow landing, even with its much quieter drive-system. "Like Taylor."

"Oh." She deflated a little. "I guess that's cool too."

The door swung open with a faint glow of orangish magic. Within stood a unicorn, dressed from head-to-hoof in an HPI civilian uniform. He hardly looked old, except for a shock of gray in his otherwise lime-green mane. "Edward Clark." She saluted with one hoof, though the gesture was far more a casual greeting than anything that would've passed in the militia.

"No need for that, Alex. Who's this? Didn't feel like tearing out the floor on your own?" He looked at Amy. "You're kinder than I."

"Amy, this is Edward Clark, emeritus director of the Human Preservation Initiative. Mr. Clark, this is Amy."

Amy's hoof began to shake as she lifted it, though Clark was supposed to be the old one.

"Just Amy? No 'Running Stream' or 'Flogging Molly' or something like that?"

She found her voice. "Just Amy. That's enough name for me, Mr. Clark."

"Very good." He stepped out of the way, exposing the interior of the house. They followed him inside, into a space as authentically human as anything in the museum. It seemed like the house's owner was in the process of rebuilding every piece of furniture and accoutrement for ponies, one piece at a time. Some of the counters were absurdly tall, while others seemed to fit them perfectly. The kitchen table had chairs at their perfect level, while the one in the dining room seemed built for giants.

Little of the house seemed lived-in. The open door to the downstairs office revealed the entirety of Clark's living quarters, a tiny cot surrounded by various computer consoles and flexible displays that certainly couldn't have existed in the period the house had been built. "Only rations for me to offer you, I'm afraid." He opened the fridge, which was empty except for identical plastic bottles with different-colored caps. "No time for cooking, you know." He levitated a pair of green-capped bottles towards the two of them, twisting their tops off as he did so.

"What is this?" Amy took the bottle in one of her hooves, sniffing at it. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You can't really eat this!"

Alex downed her own in a single long gulp. "It's what humans live on these days, Amy. Preparing food is a luxury for surface-dwellers." She tossed her empty bottle into the waste bin. "Which you are, Mr. Clark. I said I'm fine with you using the kitchen. Last time I was in Bountiful I saw plenty of real food."

Alex watched Amy take her first few sips, grinning at her reaction. Evidently the pressure to be polite and the hunger from the flight was greater than her disgust, because she got it all down.

"Most of them do. It never made sense to me, though. I spend twenty years getting used to this stuff, and now I'm food-independent. Why go back to wasting time? I can get more for my chits drinking this than I could buying produce in Bountiful."

"And now you see why we brought so much food with us."

Amy nodded, tossing her own empty bottle into the bin. "I've read about all the big cities... I've never heard of a place called Bountiful."

"Big cities." Clark looked Amy over then, as though he was seeing her for the first time. "Ponies all look young to me... you're second generation, aren't you?" Amy spluttered, but he just patted her on the shoulder and smiled like a grandfather. "Nobody who ever saw what cities are supposed to be would ever call anything that's on Earth now a city."

"Bountiful isn't on any maps, Amy. We won't even be allowed to go there unless you're sworn to secrecy."

"And you wouldn't want to live there." Taylor came in dragging a wheeled plastic crate that had all their perishables chilling inside. She nodded to Clark as she passed, plopping it down in front of the fridge and clicking it open.

"She could if she wanted to." Alex stepped forward to help, shoving Clark's sorted rows of Soylent one and all into the crisper drawers. "She doesn't have any children. I don't think you'd be happy there, Amy. You can judge for yourself I guess, but..."

"Nobody's told me what this place even is. Not that you told me where we are now. Stupid planes never having windows." Amy sat on her haunches, glaring around the room. "Why am I here, Alex? Is it to help you fix your house, or feel confused about secret places I've never heard of?"

Alex stopped unloading, hurrying over to embrace Amy from the side. "Hey, relax. You're so smart I forget you're actually a new recruit into this whole business." She glanced down at her communicator, then up at Edward. "Is my car still in the garage? I think I'll take Amy into town. The floor will still be here for us to tear out tomorrow." She nodded shyly towards Taylor. "If you're okay unloading without us."

She shrugged. "Your show. I can't bring it inside without you two helping, though. But if it doesn't rain we should be okay."

"None scheduled until tomorrow night," Edward cut in, moving over to Alex. He lowered his voice. "If you take her, you're responsible for her."

"She's honest." Alex didn't hesitate a second before she spoke. "I can't be everywhere at once, Clark. We need friends."

"I trust your judgement." He relaxed. "Don't scratch it. It's my car. Should be a blindfold in the glove compartment. Come and get me if there isn't, I'll find something."

"Got it. Come on Amy, I'll explain on the way."

She had to lift herself up onto her hind-legs to open the garage door, but Alex didn't have trouble with dexterity anymore.

A rugged little vehicle waited in the garage where some pre-Event hulk had doubtless been rusting before. Its closest analogue to human vehicles was a dune-buggy, its suspension high and thick wheels large enough to grip and roll over most obstructions. It was enclosed however, and the entire roof was covered with semitransparent solar cells.

Alex waved her wrist at the rear of the car, and both doors sprung open. There were only two seats inside, along with a large flat cargo area. She hopped into the driver's seat while Amy clambered in beside her, and both doors shut on their own.

"Welcome back, Alex," came a soothing female voice from the controls. Her seat adjusted automatically, moving as far forward as it would go. The controls consisted of a large projection screen on the huge windshield, which made the whole front of the vehicle appear to melt into the wall of the garage.

"It's alive?" Amy stared around her in wide-eyed wonder. The exact same expression she'd had the first time she rode a hummingbird. "I didn't know the HPI could make living machines!"

"They can't." Alex gestured to the glove-compartment, one of the few sections of plastic that wasn't part of the projection. "There's a blindfold in there, Amy. I have to make you put it on. Nopony's allowed to know where Bountiful is unless they're a citizen."

Amy nodded and began to comply, though she didn't look happy. "So you're a citizen?"

The garage door began to retract at her gesture. "No! They just couldn't hide it from me. It's a whole city of former humans. I can see where it is in my sleep."

She leaned forward. "Hey Athena, take us to Bountiful."

"Of course Alex," said the computer. "Designation set for 'Bountiful.' Your route will take forty-eight minutes to complete, is that okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm wearing your stupid blindfold." The vehicle began to move, though there was little engine noise. Only the occasional hiss of compressed hydrogen, and the whir of electric motors. "I think you can tell me where we're going now. I've had enough with secrets."

"It'll be easier to show you when we get there, but I can tell you some things." Alex rolled sideways, so she could look towards Amy. It wasn't as though she had to do anything to drive. "You know more than most ponies about humans. You already know they don't live as long as ponies do."

At her nod, she continued. "Well there's no room for humans to get old in the HPI's bunker. It would be positively stupid to let yourself get old and die over a century too early when there's another option. A few still do... but most don't. Problem is, ponies are dangerous. They concentrate magic, which makes an area more and more dangerous for humans."

"Bountiful is the solution. Think of it like the second half of the Raven City bunker, where all the elderly go instead of dying."

"That makes sense. What's the point of keeping it secret, then? Wouldn't they be better off if they worked together with the other colonies?"

"Yes, they could be. If their priority was having a prosperous settlement. That isn't their goal, though. It's hard for us to understand life in Raven – just realize they're completely dedicated to keeping humanity alive. Everything they do is about that – including making great personal sacrifices."

"They stay hidden for the same reason Raven stays hidden. They're afraid ponies will want to take what they have." She gestured at the car they were riding in. "Bountiful is an extension of Raven City; it's a technological, human city. Even if no humans live there."

"That sounds wonderful, Alex! Like a dream!" She reached out, running her hoof along the door, though she had not removed the blindfold.

"Maybe." She frowned. "It serves its purpose. I don't agree with all their policy decisions, but it's worked so far. Not everypony from Raven wants to live there. Some of them, like Taylor, want to live real lives of their own when they're done with their time in Raven. Lots of those are living in Alexandria now, and you wouldn't even know to look at them."

"I wouldn't mind working to save humanity." Amy sat back, leaning into the chair. "That sounds better than the museum."

"Wait until you've seen it."

Next Chapter: Chapter 8: Bountiful Day (50 AE) Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 22 Minutes
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