Adrian hadn’t had this much fun since the Event. This said a great deal, since Adrian was a pony whose whole life was a never-ending search for adventure. He couldn’t sit still for more than a few minutes before his hooves started to tap and his wings started twitching, and he knew he had to get out and do something.
Behind the wheel of a huge truck, hauling a freakin’ house behind him, Adrian could feel like he was doing something. Metal groaned every time he turned or hit a bump; inside, possessions fell over and wood splintered, and the engine of his truck growled in almost animal protest.
Of course, the fact he had a cute mare along for the ride didn’t hurt, neither did the fact that Cloudy Skies was always naked. Adrian couldn’t exactly say at what point over the last three months he had started noticing ponies the way he had noticed women. Pretty early, probably. When in Rome…
But Adrian wasn’t in Rome, he was in Paris. Paris, Illinois. Or, as they had voted to rename it, Alexandria. He was also the only pony in town besides Alex who really knew how to drive a semi, even converted for pony use.
“I’ve never driven like this before!” Cloudy Skies perched in the passenger’s seat with her head out the open window. There was no padding there like had been put in place on the driver’s seat, so she had to practically stand to reach the window, resting her hooves outside and watching the empty town pass by.
Adrian had to keep his eyes on the road, so he couldn’t actually watch her. It would’ve been distracting if he tried. Towing such an enormous weight was not an easy task, even if he didn’t really take danger seriously. “That’s ‘cuz you haven’t rode with me before!” he shouted over the wind and the thumping music and the roar of the engine. “It’s always like this!”
She didn’t respond for some time, tail swishing behind her like an excited dog. There were plenty of dogs in the world bigger than a fully-grown pony, and lots of other animals besides. Not being human anymore did not make life easy. Still, she spoke eventually. “My dad drove a truck when I was a kid. He'd never let me ride with him, though. I wonder if he had this much fun.” She turned, sliding back into the cab and curling up in her seat. Neither of them were wearing seatbelts.
“Probably not.” Of all Adrian’s virtues, humility was nowhere to be found. “Hauling half a house, littering crap all over the road behind us, helping to build a new town… nobody could’ve said that before the Event.” He reached over, twisting a knob and lowering the volume with his hoof. He had to stretch to reach, even with the feet of padding that held him close enough to actually reach the wheel. The pedals were far too low, but levers mounted just below the wheel operated those. The shifter had been extended nearly two feet, and together the hideous contraption could be driven even in a handless world.
“Before, Sky, everybody was just another wheel. Not now. Now everybody matters. All of us can do something important if we want to.”
“Yeah.” Cloudy Skies seemed to deflate a little, avoiding his eyes. The fact his words had been meant to encourage didn't mean they actually would.
Which was the problem with this mare in the first place. Right age? Yeah. Attractive? Absolutely. Was even a pegasus, the only other pegasus in Alexandria. There was just one problem: she was completely insane.
He’d heard that said of many women before, though he’d never bought into the stereotype himself. Sky, though, she made them all true.
Adrian could do many things, but actually comfort the mare wasn’t one of them. Whenever he said something that set her off, his only recourse was to misdirect and divert the conversation to something he did understand. “How many more of these trailers do we have to move?” he asked, conversationally.
“Oh! Uh…” The pink-and-blue mare perked up at once, reaching for the clipboard in front of her with its map. “This is the last one for today! Day has us moving four trailers tomorrow, and… then we’re done!”
“Great.” Adrian… wasn’t much of a conversationalist. His bad wing continued to ache, despite the pills he’d taken that morning. No way those weren’t working less and less well every day. He’d probably have to upgrade to something stronger soon. He resisted the urge to scratch it, though. Sky would see, and ask questions, and make the drive even more awkward than it was.
Adrian tried to make the bandages out like another part of fashion he wore, like the pants and jacket in their black. Really, he thought they went well with the gray of his coat. Of all the ponies here, most left him alone about it. Cloudy Skies was one of the ones who didn’t. The other, Oliver, was even more annoying. No, he didn’t want to let anypony look at it. Yes, he was fine.
There hadn’t been a junkyard in Paris before the Event. That had changed now. Without anybody to tell them different, they’d chosen a field just north of town. Anything made of metal (including old trailers) they didn’t need would end up in the junkyard. Why did everypony want to repurpose a trailer park to live in when they had a whole town full of houses to live in? Adrian neither knew nor cared.
He stopped the trailer with some careful pressure, using one hoof on two of the levers and grinning slyly at the pegasus beside him. “Ready?”
Cloudy Skies answered by flying right out the open window. Okay, flying might not have been the right word. Despite all her flapping, she could only manage a glide after her initial jump. She could fly only after a good running start.
Adrian had to bite back the tiniest flash of envy as he had to use his hooves and the steps to make it outside. He couldn’t fly. He probably never would. It’s your own dumb fault. Live with your mistakes!
Nevermind that every time he looked up at the sky, he felt a terrible longing he couldn’t explain. Whenever the other pegasus told him about what she’d accomplished that day, he had to smile and pretend it didn’t hurt to hear.
It was either that or take to the road again, and break one of his rules.
#4. Leave every settlement with a phone.
Couldn’t leave Alexandria until it was situated, even if sticking around was sometimes boring and sometimes sucked. Fortunately, now was neither of those.
Cloudy Skies made her way to the edge of the junkyard. It was a fairly disorderly mess, with the nearer trailers fallen on their sides, broken glass and straining metal everywhere. “Don’t even think about it, Adrian. You can’t do it.”
“Oh yeah? I totally will! If Oliver and Alex can push over a trailer, I can!”
Cloudy Skies walked up to him, looking up at the hitch. It hadn’t come undone and dragged the trailer by the chains this time! “Olive Garden and Lonely Day are earth ponies. They’ve got magical strength. You’re a pegasus.” She nudged him with her side, right in the wing. Thank God it was the good wing, or else he’d have to bite his tongue not to scream. “You should go flying with me, not try to push over the junk.”
Junk it was; half a mobile home, divided in the middle. Junk was everywhere inside, from where it had been the moment everypony vanished. As everywhere else in the world, the people had vanished right in the middle of their lives. Food had been left half-eaten, beds had been left without occupants. The owners of this particular trailer hadn’t treated it kindly, and opening it had released a fairly unpleasant smell. Or maybe that was the intensity of his new pony nose combined with three months of time for things to rot?
Adrian didn’t respond to what Sky had said. Instead he said, “Wanna help me with the hitch?”
“Sure.” Life was harder for ponies; giving up hands had been far more difficult than giving up meat or losing half his height. Driving had taken days to figure out, but life continued to throw little roadblocks in his way. Even something as simple as lifting a trailer out of the hitch required dexterity difficult for hooves. The hitch rattled, and it would shake its way free of his grip unless he had a way of holding it still while he cranked it. Two human hands would’ve been perfect for the task, but those were in very short supply these days.
Without hands, Adrian could use his mouth on the crank. Fortunately, he had a friend. Everything was easier for ponies when friends were involved. Cloudy Skies held the trailer with two of her hooves, which freed Adrian to use his mouth to lower it down onto the ground. It hurt a little to put so much pressure on his teeth, but not as much as it would’ve if he had been human. Pony teeth were tough.
Adrian pulled the truck forward, so it would be out of harm’s way if any of his tipping techniques worked. Cloudy Skies fluttered up to another trailer they’d brought a few hours earlier, perching there as she watched. “This one looks heavier than last time!” she called. “Not a chance!”
He ignored her, moving to the center and trying to get the best leverage he could. It shouldn’t be that hard to push a trailer! It wasn’t as though he had to move all its weight.
Unfortunately, the laws of physics just weren’t on his side, and neither was Equestrian magic. Damn pegasi probably weighed half as much as unicorns, despite being the same size. He just didn’t have the mass, or the height. Maybe if he could’ve flown, and pushed from the top… no. Not even Cloudy Skies could hover like that, and she was much better than he was. Not the best flier he’d seen, but definitely on the list.
When he’d pushed hard enough to get himself panting and sweaty and reduced Sky to several fits of giggles, he eventually admitted he wasn’t going to do anything but embarrass himself and shrugged. “Alright, pony, you were right! I can’t do it. You can stop laughing.”
She did, gathering herself up and leaping off the edge of the trailer. She spread her wings, gliding elegantly down to land beside him as though her body were made of clouds and not flesh. He could’ve been that graceful, if he hadn’t been so stupid. “Okay, okay. You tried really hard. Even if you couldn’t knock it over.” She blushed and turned away, hopping back up into the truck. He followed with a sigh.
Mares.
“You want me to drop you by the pasture?” he asked, after hopping up into the seat and tugging the door shut behind him. He didn’t bother with the seatbelt.
“Probably.” Cloudy shrugged, leaning on the armrest of her seat and looking at nothing.
He didn’t respond until after the engine was running and he was pulling out and away from the makeshift junkyard. “It’s on the way back, anyway. I know you like to spend time with the cows.”
“Yeah.” She hopped up onto her haunches, her head on the soft fabric of the seat. “I probably should. They get angsty if I’m not around more than once a day.”
He glanced sideways, raising his eyebrows. “Cows feel angst?”
That got her animated. “Oh, absolutely. I’m pretty sure they could already get grumpy before the Event, but now…” She rolled her eyes, leaning closer to Adrian as she spoke. “You wouldn’t believe how difficult they can be sometimes. The grass is too damp today, there’s not enough shade, the water isn’t fresh enough… I get that magic kills humans, but it made all the cows difficult.” She shrugged. “Helpful though. Much cleverer. They help me with the heavy lifting sometimes, as much as they can.” She smiled. “They aren’t oxen, but they don’t mind helping.”
He tried to think of something to say on such an incredibly dull subject. It was hard to concentrate with her smiling face only a few inches away, ears pointed right at him. “Do you… think they’ll help us full time when the fuel goes? Make them into oxen plowing the fields and stuff?”
Sky wrinkled her nose in disgust, but at least she didn’t seem mad at him. “Make oxen? No way! Do you know how they usually turn bulls into oxen?” She leaned closer to him, whispering. “They cut the balls off.” She shivered, and for once Adrian echoed the gesture.
“O-Oh. I didn’t know that.” He’d only recently learned that oxen and cows were generally the same species, also from her. It wasn’t the sort of thing he usually thought about. “Guess they wouldn’t like that.”
“No, they wouldn’t.” She shrugged, relaxing back into her chair. “It doesn’t really make sense to have the same roles for animals we had before. Often oxen were stronger just because they hadn’t been eaten long enough to get strong, not to mention all the hard work they did. Plus, you had to train them. We wouldn’t have to train the cows anymore, just… get their cooperation.”
Cooperation, from an animal. It sounded ludicrous. But he didn’t say that, because Sky really liked her cows. If she wanted to pretend that they’d become people, he wouldn’t tell her not to. “You think they’ll want to keep living here?”
She turned, looking at him like he’d asked the most obvious question in the world. “Well, duh. Course they will. Cows were bred to live with people. They’ve been doing it for thousands and thousands of years. You think they’re gonna try and go on their own now that we’re ponies?” She shook her head vigorously. “Course not! Actually, they like us much better now; now that we don’t eat them.”
He pulled the truck alongside the pasture, which was really just a large field gone to grass with a very secure fence around it to keep out predators. Sky had built a pavilion and there was a little pond, but otherwise it was empty. As the truck got close, half a dozen or so cows that happened to be near the water all stopped what they were doing and watched. Their eyes did not look as dull as they should. Even though she’d since rolled up the window, he felt the need to whisper. “They knew about that?”
She shrugged. It was something she did a lot. “Dunno if they knew before. I told them, so they know now. It didn’t seem right to try and work together with them without being honest.” She hopped out, then looked up. “Would, uh… you wanna come? I could introduce you to the herd. I know they’re big, but they’re actually really nice!
Adrian thought about it a second, but not long. He had all of zero interest in the cows; if he was done with his work for the day, he really ought to get back to the satellite phone and see what messages he’d missed.
On the other hand, Cloudy Skies was pretty, and she wanted him to be there. Not really a fair contest. “Sure! I’d love to meet them.”
Glad to see the first chapter be about the pony we know the least. And more info about Cloudy Skies as well!
cool, i was looking forward to the sequel!
And so, the group's efforts continue. Adrian's grappling hook mark certainly makes sense; he's a born adventurer. Now if only he'd be willing to accept a little medical attention...
In any case, definitely looking forward to more.
Woooohooo new story!
It's great to see this continue. I wish you luck keeping to the update schedule though without doing journals this time.
Speaking of not doing journals -- I'm glad you are finally finished with that. It was an interesting experiment and point of view, but prose is much better in getting the little details across. As this first chapter shows.
We don't know much of Cloudy Skies, everything is second hand from Alex's entries save for that one entry she wrote, and she used it more like a diary than a journal. Almost completely differently than Alex did. We keep hearing how she is crazy and so on, yet barely have any evidence for it. I hope we can get more of a closer look.
I also hope Adrian stops being stubborn. He has to get medical help somewhere, no? Why keep it hidden, the shame of it all, afraid that the looks of pity will be directed at him in the same way they are directed at Moriah with her stump of a horn?
Yes! It great to see you continuing this story. I like the new format; I think focusing on a different character each chapter will let us get to know each of them a bit better. I liked the journal format, but it was limiting as we only got to see LD's perspective on everything. I am glad you decided to continue the story right where it left off last time instead of skipping to five years later like you were originally going to do. This will give us a chance to learn more about each character and the setting and I think will set the story on a firmer foundation for the third story if you are going to have that set in the future. Good luck with the rest of the story, I look forward to seeing what happens to everyone and I'm sure even if things don't go where I am expecting or would have liked (like in MLA) it will still be a great ride. :O)
Wow, I just randomly checked to see if this was up and the oldest comment is from half an hour ago. Pretty timely. Can't wait to see more of this world.
Slacking off now, are we?
I can't complain, that averages at ~10,000 words a week, which is more many authors give us a month.
Also, I hope Adrian does actually leave and search for other colonies. Because, at the moment, it doesn't seem like he has much reason to stay. Sure, there's Cloudy Skies, but I think that's more "omigosh, she's hot" than "I like her, she's cool" at the moment. While I see some makeshift awkward friendship between them, I don't see him staying because of her, reluctantly leaving, maybe.
If only Adrian would trust them enough to tell them about his wing, im sure there would be something akin to a medical encyclopedia amungst all those books they got from the Princesses. It COULD be easily treatable. Im looking forward to more like the sugar fiend that i am.
And I'm already hoping they have a sort of group intervention and eventually get him into the air.
Also, Starscribe, you tease, starting the story out with a chapter lacking most Adorablest pone. (Lonely Day)
Yes! Here we go again,
Prose looks good, real good... don't think I'm going to miss the journal format much.
First chapter and first mystery. That is, Cloudy is an ongoing mystery and Adrian a new one.
Onward!
Hello again!
Cute slice of life so far. Interesting to learn more about Adrian, whom I had gotten the impression was an immigrant from a side story.
6201422
He more than likely did some real damage to it when he tried to take off his wings. This would not be unheard of, because if you found yourself as a pony or something you, in a mad state of mind, try to fix yourself. In any way you though was right at the time.
You know, I was just think about how smart all the animals are right now and what all the gorillas, chimpanzees, and baboons are doing right now. It make you what to think.
Alexandria? The city in Egypt that was pretty much the center of Hellenistic civilization?
You know, Cloud's strategy of constant nudity might just work out fairly well for her desire to find a stallion. Well, assuming it doesn't work out tragically, but this doesn't seem like that sort of story.
On the other hand...
The cows are watching, always watching.
Well, maybe so many women wouldn't be completely insane, if people would stop imprisoning them in basements and beating them until they call you daddy.
Or uh, whatever happened to Cloudy.
Hormones legit cause insanity in women because of the cognitive dissonance between "I don't like agonizing pain" and "I want to get knocked up." Men at least don't have to deal with their gonads whispering to them how great it would be to push a bowling ball through a garden hose. But a society obsessed with torture and imprisonment of women, as some kind of empowering conquest or badge of honor, makes things a lot worse than natural. Natural crazy is like, "I like yaoi because it lets me be horny without having to face the fact that it'll get me flat on my back in a maternity ward," not crazy like "I hate myself and start hyperventilating any time anyone asks me what my life was like before I turned into a pony and escaped."
6203006
And had the center for knowledge in the world at the time
and day and the gang has the only knowledge of equestrian magic on earth
6203513
I, I-- Is that what happened to Cloudy Skies?
6202841
Where do you people get these ideas from? Am I just too optimistic that I just don't register the evidence for them??
6203527 Or they simply wanted to create the tease to end all teases by naming the likely center of the new world to be after miss 'I'm nothing special and completely expendable, superfluous and useless'. Now she keeps telling herself she hates it.
On an unrelated note, I noticed that Olive Garden made it into Cloudy's repertoire for pony names after being proposed in the comments back when Oliver was introduced :)
Yaaay, it's back, and we're finding out about ADRIAN! That guy who just sort of showed up towards the end! That was definitely the right way to start this sequel - flesh out his character, make us care about him.
6203548
No what actually happened is her mom wouldn't let her go to a furry convention so she blogged about how unfair it is, and now she just wants to forget such terrible times of tribulation.
6201220
Yep! The whole week's worth of chapters will be about Adrian, then we'll move to another character. Just explore each one in turn, or at least some aspects of them. Obviously it would be hard to see everything about a character after only a week of entries...
6201221
And here it is!
6201231
Well, nobody's perfect. Indiana Jones doesn't like snakes, Indiana Adrian doesn't like doctors.
6201296
It's clearly not a very rational choice, on his part. Not entirely a unique failing, but probably one of the uniquely foolish human weaknesses, being afraid of and unwilling to trust a simple doctor.
6201347
Well MLA didn't go where I would've liked either, and I had to rewrite the second half to get it right. X.x
But that's another issue. I've since moved to planning out much more in advance. Granted, I don't have any practice writing this fast, so it's going to be difficult... but not impossible! The journal format was a crutch, in some ways. Getting rid of it will be a more perfect test of my writing ability.
6201411
Yeah, I guess you could say I'm slacking off. More like... transiting back to a regular update schedule. I have way more free time in the summer than I will once the Semester starts. Once that happens, I'll have to move back to weekly or perhaps bi-weekly updates. Probably weekly, honestly...
But since I did a daily story last, I figured I should adjust slowly. Instead of just cutting come September, the next story will be 5/7 days. Hopefully I can keep up. X.x
6201619
Don't worry, we'll be seeing her before too long! The colony was named after her, after all! But... the other ponies have lives too! They've got things going on apart from what Alex may want them doing.
6202654
Adrian is an immigrant, but not from a side story exactly. More like, of all the characters, he's the one most likely to make the rounds between sides stories. He explicitly visits every colony he can leaving radios, so... I expect we'll know quite a bit more about him, by the time the week's out and his part of the story is over.
6201848
I think it's nice to be back to prose. I do miss how succinct I could be with the journal format, though. Have the character literally tell the story instead of me. In the end I generally prefer reading prose, even if writing it can be more difficult.
6202841
I really, really hope that isn't what happened in Adrian's life to screw it up. It would be pretty sad if that were the case... I think trying to remove your own limbs is a pretty high level of crazy.
6203006
The story is a sequel to another story. The name isn't well explained in this one, but it is in the prequel.
6203020
stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/3850811/always-watching-o.gif
6203513
I'm not sure what happened to cloudy, but... I think it's pretty clear we're seeing Adrian's viewpoint, here. He doesn't seem like one of those very well able to empathize with her pain. I don't think it's any mistake on his part; I think Adrian is genuinely unable to understand what's Cloudy Skies is experiencing.
I'm really, really looking forward to writing for her. >.> She's got a really unique voice, and now I get to use it instead of just Lonely Day all the time.
6203548
We don't actually know what happened, all we know is it wasn't good. Lonely day speculated it was a history of abuse, but we don't know much beyond that.
6203613
Hey, somebody remembered! I wasn't sure if anybody would, but... I do read those comments!
6203642
If you or I were turned into a pony, we be ok with it, to a point. If your next door neighbor, or my, was; he may shave himself naked, put on some clothes, and go to work. It's how some people's mind take the change that can make the most sane man do crazy things. Not saying that Adrian tried to cut off his own wings, but he could had tried too.
6203559
I got it from another, people turn into ponies, story.
It's just some things that would happen on a world that this has happened to.
Man, now i'm really starting to feel a Last Man on Earth vibe from your stories.
For reference, here is the theme song for The Last Man on Earth.
6203613 Well it was a pretty perfect name for him.
6203613
I'll say my first thought at that was... Breadsticks?
Well done! I like this! I was really sad the Last Pony on Earth was rapping up. I'm glad to see you made a sequel! ^~^
Alright quick question. Cloudy Skies is described in the story as a pink and blue mare. But the picture shows no trace of pink on her. Is it a typo, or did Alex simply not have any pink pencils/crayons/paint/whatever?
HaHA, sequel and it's already a promising title, nice~
It seems that Adrian is a little naive to the ideas of special talents or the more subtle effects of magic, he doesn't really take to heart that animals are more intelligent and thinks Sky is just making stuff up when she talks about cooperation and all.
Also he's a horndog, and likely the ship that is going to happen with Cloudy Skies, commence the screams of protest.
For now we are at the start of the world, the start of the new order, the start of Alexandria, let's see how this turns out~
Also, out of the journal format, this should help it in some ways.
what year is it in Founders of Alexandria?
6208916 2015. In that universe, MLP does not exist.
Oxen are often steers, but not always. Oxen can also be bulls, cows, or even heifers.
6237257 Actually, it does, and the story takes sometime after Twilight's ascension.
If a gryphon comes in, there will definitely be jealousy.
1. Because, (at least in my headcanon) they can eat meat.
And 2. They have hand-like claws.
6406010
There are no gryphons. while i haven't read further, the spell stated in the story before this stated it turned all the humans (save hose with shielding) into ponies. nothing else.
6726961
I have, in fact, read further, and, there is not only a gryphon, but a changeling, batponies, and I'm 25% sure there is a draconequus.