May 22: 12:20 PM

“Teach the Earth Ponies to farm” 65%

Getting people together for something as abstract as farming magic was quite a bit easier in practice than it was in simple description. Doubly so since Wayfinder couldn’t actually use the magic she had in mind. She couldn’t exactly go marching through the police station demanding everyone without a horn or wings follow her to a garden plot and hand them seeds.

But that was more or less all she could do to get things moving to start. She’d earned a little goodwill in the facility through her lessons and the rapidly improving telekinetic abilities of the officers, now she had to spend a little of that credit on something.

It started with a meeting with the facilities supervisor before it got too late, so she could explain what she was thinking. The man was an older Earth Pony himself, though age was much harder to read on a pony. She’d yet to see one with gray hair, wrinkles, or other signs of senescence among the victims of NEM10.

“I don’t know if you can help me,” she began, as soon as he let her into the office. Just another small room with a slightly lower desk and a cushion for someone to sit on. Like the few around here who still needed to use their computers, he relied on a mobility-assisted keyboard to get anything done, twisting it with his hooves when he typed.

That meant he had both extended in front of him when Wayfinder entered, his face filled with annoyance. “You have no idea the fires I have to put out, Houdini. I’ve got no time for parlor tricks today.”

Clearly he wanted to get rid of her. But it wasn’t an order yet, so she remained. “It might be able to help you with some of that, sir. If you’ll give me five minutes.”

Captain Roberts pulled back his hooves with obvious reluctance, settling them on the desk in front of him. “You have two. What do you want?”

Demonstrating her spells would not win him over—she saw the resentment in his eyes. Maybe Captain Roberts was among those who believed she intentionally withheld teaching to those with other powers.

“I’ve noticed the Denver Isolation Zone is facing increased food scarcity—” she began.

“No shit,” he interrupted. “What do you think I’m doing here? Why the hell did I pay taxes my whole life if these goddamn incompetents down at FEMA can’t keep their own disaster camp fed during a crisis? It’s not like the rest of the world is infected, just…”

He shook his head once, glaring. “Don’t tell me what I already know, provisional lieutenant Wayfinder.”

“I think there’s another direction we can take. Before you say no—I’m not proposing it the way you’ve probably heard. Conventional farming won’t feed the numbers we have in here.”

He nodded sharply. “Damn right it won’t. We could take a jackhammer to every sidewalk inside the cordon, and we’d get nowhere. Soil’s shit, not enough water or fertilizer. And if you come in here with some space-age nonsense about greenhouses or hydroponics, you can turn that ass right back the way you came. It’s not happening either. Considered and dismissed.”

Far from the first time he’d had this conversation, then. Captain Roberts sounded so annoyed with every word, though she’d offered none of them. “Something else,” she said. “You’ve seen the lessons I teach, I’m pretty sure. You know that our mutations let us do things we couldn’t otherwise?”

He scoffed. “I know that some of us got blessed from on high with miraculous abilities. Gaze down in judgement all you like, provisional lieutenant. The rest of us on the ground still have to make sure no one starves.”

“That’s…” She took a few steps closer to him, tail swishing with growing agitation. He stood up as she approached, about a head taller than she was. She was equal or even taller than many stallions in Denver—but the tribal dimorphism of earth ponies meant that was not the case. Even older, this officer had more muscle than her whole body-weight. He could probably pull one of those scenic carriage rides downtown on his own without breaking a sweat.

“That Miracle can’t get us out of this. There’s nothing unicorns can do to help with this problem. But earth ponies—casualties without horns or wings—can do what we can’t. I would like your help to get some space, irrigation equipment, and heirloom seeds. And before you refuse, I know there’s no conventional way some little farm could make a dent in the city through conventional means. But I’m not proposing convention: I’d like to use magic. Your magic—magic of the people who changed the same way as you, sir. A small pilot group for an experiment. If it works…”

“Me?” Captain Roberts laughed. “Bullshit, girl. I might be old and dried up, but my eyes are working a lot better lately. I can see how you do your tricks.” He reached up, moving his hoof through the air over his head. “See what ain’t there? No horn, no being supernatural. We get to be as strong as rocks and that’s it.”

“What if that’s wrong?” she asked. “We’re alien monsters now, sir. And I’m positive that there’s a way we can get ourselves out of this mess, without needing the feds or anyone else to send food.”

“That makes one of us,” he said. “I can probably get you somewhere. If it’s not conventional agriculture anyway, you won’t mind if the soil’s shit. But the rest of it—use your wages. Buy what you need.”

She retreated from him, pain visible on her face. Anything he would give was already more than she had. But she had very little money to work with after buying Ruby’s freedom. Some seeds wouldn’t be hard, but where would she find pumps and industrial equipment to irrigate it? How much magic could earth ponies bring?

“If I have to, sir,” she said, taking a cautious step towards the desk. “But sir, there’s another way this could go. If you help me, and I succeed, you’re the one who pulled out a miracle to save Denver. I don’t care about taking credit, you have it all. When this works, you’re the savior.”

He settled roughly down into his desk, then opened a drawer with his mouth to take out a slip of paper and a pen. He had to set them down to speak, which meant he could write at the same time. “You highlight why I can’t give you anything. You don’t want credit—but I’m sure you’ll be chomping at the bit to volunteer it was your idea when it inevitably goes tits-up.” He shook his head once. “Aside from the land and material, what would you want?”

“A dozen or so earth ponies. Three mornings a week to work at first. Would take less time once we get going, but I’d be hands-on at first.”

He scribbled onto the sheet, then pushed it across the desk towards her. “You can have the time. You can ask around the compound if anyone wants to do this with you. Might get a few idiots just for the chance to do a different kind of PT in the morning. I’m not going to give you the manpower. You get a plot of land, and a few hours on the mornings you aren’t teaching that… class. I’ll swing that for you. The rest is your problem.”

Wayfinder took the note, dreading what it would say. Yet aside from material, Captain Roberts gave her permission to do everything she wanted. She almost thought she’d been too hard on him, until she went out that evening to see the land in question.

Hazel came with her, eager to get any chance to leave the compound, and probably a little afraid that she would run off on her again. The bug was right there with Wayfinder when she got her first good look at the land, and saw just how screwed she was.

About half an acre of dry, dusty ground on the edge of the interstate, broken only by the occasional rock and thorn-covered weed. “I wondered how he found me somewhere no one had set up in,” she muttered, smacking onto her haunches in the dirt. Perhaps its only advantage was how far it continued—if the isolation zone fence was gone, they could stretch their farmland for miles.

“Guess this is how he screws us,” she said, head slumping forward. “Not sure what life I’m supposed to use to teach them, even if I can find tools we can use. This is… doomed.”

“I, uh…” Hazel bounded past her, insect wings buzzing open and closed again. “What were you trying to do here?”

In answer, she levitated her satchel open, holding up the book. Her second new acquisition, the one that didn’t deal with unicorn magic. “Everyone in Denver is going to starve if we don’t change something. We’re not running out today, but—it’s coming. This disaster isn’t ending. The government is losing stability, losing legitimacy. I can’t even tell how many pockets of normal people are left. The rest of the world couldn’t help us if they wanted, because they’d just get infected and be in the same position. That leaves us with helping ourselves.”

She looked up, flipping through the book until the section on Earth ponies. Though it began with a basic introduction to their powers, it soon progressed to exercises—or rituals, maybe. They looked more that way to her. They promised to invigorate the land, to accelerate growth, make the pony stronger and hardier. Unfortunately for Wayfinder, she had no way of testing them. Only her faith in Sunburst, who’d put the book into her hooves.

“It’s how they do things in there. Places where they bring in a new harvest every month until winter, and the soil never weakens. Places they have to turn their produce into compost for next year, because they make so much of it. I don’t know how real ‘Equestria’ is, but I’ve seen the results. A thousand people fed with half a football field. We could do that here—I think we might have to, or a lot of people are going to get hurt.”

Hazel approached her, stared at the book, looked back again. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up. “What does the book say we need?”

“Something to grow,” she answered. “And… the more fertile the ground, the easier the magic.”

“But it could… still work, right?” Hazel prompted. “It’s magic. When we got here, you teleported into town. You can put spells onto pieces of paper and make them work later. If this ground sucks, we just need more magic to make up for it! Maybe I can help?”

Wayfinder smiled weakly, patting the kid’s back. No one could fault her optimism. “Not with the magic part. I can’t either, unfortunately, it has to be them. But maybe you could help me with something else. We need to get our hands on some tools, seeds…” and probably lots of other things she didn’t even know they were missing.

“You pay my allowance,” Hazel said, voice wistful. “You need any of that money back? I never spend it on food.”

“No, sweetheart. Something more… direct. Helping me could be dangerous, so if you want to refuse…”

Hazel’s wings opened, and she puffed herself up larger, briefly standing on her hindlegs. “I’m a lot stronger than I was when you met me, Way. Just tell me what you think I should do. If I can, I’ll help!”

None of Wayfinder’s ideas felt safe. But considering the city’s odds if she failed, she was a little more willing to take risks.

1. Ask Hazel to Impersonate her and teach a class or two, so Wayfinder can sneak off to “obtain” the needed materials.

2. Ask Hazel to help her steal material from one of the warehouses storing things for the VIPs. They’re just gathering dust anyway.

3. Ask Hazel to make trips to Starhall to borrow seeds and equipment from the ponies there and bring them back.