June 8, 2015
Dear Journal,
Went to Home Depot. Used to be one of my favorite stores, back in the day. Wasn’t a problem I couldn’t fix at home by shopping there. Brought a generator home, really nice standby unit with variable production levels and everything I need to patch it into our house and the solar network we already have. Already measured the entrance to the side of the house, and found a good location very close to the garage entrance where we wouldn’t have to run much cable. Had to guide Joe through how to use a forklift to get the thing into a truck, though we used those huge metal wheelcarts once we got it home in order to get it into position.
Also brought tons of little hardware things back with us, like the floodlights, as well as several dozen of those solar landscape lights. The entire backyard sparkles at night now, without having to waste any of the power we’ve stored for the house.
Filled the truck with hardware and tools. Joseph complained the whole time, though Sky gave it her best. As usual, the two of us working together couldn’t do half of what Glowjoe could do by himself without even trying. Didn’t actually install it, that’s tomorrow’s project. I was all for it, but Joe was too tired to learn how to use power tools, and I need his dexterity to get this done. I wonder if you can get electrocuted when you’re using telekinesis. If Joe pulls a hot dish from the oven, will it burn?
You know what else the store had? Composting toilets. As gross as that sounds, it would save us having to do as much to deal with our waste water. I don’t know exactly how the mains work behind the scenes, but I’m pretty sure they need pressure to deal with waste and they’re going to get backed up. Composting the nasty stuff would mean we could use the gray water from the sink and shower and stuff for something else. Quick filter and it could go into watering the garden, probably. Sounds smarter than just dumping it into a big storm-drain.
I know I’ve said this before, but toilets were not designed for ponies. Sitting in general just feels weird. Using a raised platform now around the toilet, just standing and… and yeah. Can’t believe I’m talking about this.
Turns out there is something Sky enjoys: board games. We picked up a few today. Got a Coke to keep me awake, think I’ll take her up on her offer and end the day with some Monopoly.
—A
June 9, 2015
Dear Journal,
I wanted to put in the generator today, but Joseph was “too worn out” from yesterday to help. Read pages and pages of generator documentation from this huge binder we found in the store, figured out how to install it. It needed his skills, as it turned out. His “having something equivalent to hands” skills. I didn’t want to pressure him after he’d been so helpful yesterday, so I got him to commit to help tomorrow and moved on to something else.
Sky came with me into the city. We drove, mostly to keep the animals away. Huan caught up and came along for the ride. I don’t mind having to cooperate to drive, I think Cloudy Skies and I have a rhythm down, but I think it would be even better if we didn’t need anyone else. So we had two stops to make. The first was to a store specializing in accessories for the disabled. See, they make these hand-pedal things you can connect to the wheel and control the pedals with your hands. Of course we don’t have those, but some foam to get closer to the wheel and make the seats hurt a little less, and you’ve got yourself a pony-drivable car.
Went car shopping with our new accessories. Did you know LA had more cars than people even before the Event? Now it has… tons and tons more cars than people. Sky had no taste and just wanted a pickup truck like her mom used to drive, so we picked a brand new diesel one with those double tires in back for hauling big loads. Leather interior, fridge in the console, all the new gadgets.
I’ve worked on cars my whole life, and I’ve thought many hours about what I wanted for my dream car. There aren’t any in town, though there is an Audi dealership, and that’s almost as good. Black Audi A8 with turbocharged diesel… car talk. Nobody’s going to understand this. Just trust me, it’s a really, really nice car. Had to muck it up by putting wedges of foam into the driver’s seat along with drilling a few holes in the dash and the pedals. It hurt to see such a beautiful machine soiled, but it was that or not be able to drive it.
We drove home separately. We’ve done pretty good so far choosing all diesel engines for everything we use. Should make fuel much easier to come by when it all starts rotting. I wonder how hard it would be for Joe to turn that computer brain into a chemistry brain, maybe he could churn out some biodiesel.
Huan, being my loyal friend, wanted to come with me instead of Sky. I laid out a blanket for him on the backseat since that car’s been in enough pain today, and claws aren’t going onto the list of things that’ve scratched it up. Being trapped with him reminds me I’ve started to stink from lack of showering, but it’s nothing compared to him. I wonder if dogs can appreciate the need for a bath.
Joseph didn’t even notice there were two new cars in the driveway, or if he did he didn’t say anything about it.
Figured he wouldn’t. Bet if he had driven anything before everything got ruined, it would’ve been hideously ugly. Maybe a Prius. What a complete loser. Seriously, how can Sky stand him? How could anyone stand him?
—A
June 10, 2015
[There is “handwritten” text taking up most of the page, sloppy with extremely large letters.]
Oh God kill me.
June 11, 2015
Still no water for showers. Want a jacuzzi tub. Stupid j should stupid stupid it in. Can’t plumbing.
—A
June 12, 2015
Dear Journal,
Productive again today, because that’s the kinda’ pony I am. Imagine cool sunglasses for that part. I’d have them if sunglasses didn’t fall off my face when I tried to wear them now. You’d think having this muzzle thing would make it easier to keep them on, but apparently not. Ears do more to hold glasses than I previously realized. I keep thinking I’m going to trim my mane, but I don’t. It’s way too long. Just another one of those tiny insults. I’ve started brushing it and tying it off to keep it from getting in the way during the day. I feel like some kinda hippy.
Guess most hippies would probably be pretty happy with me. Embrace Mother Earth, man. Don’t eat your brothers and sisters, spread the love. Just got to replace my work ethic with some recreational drugs and I think I’ll have this whole situation in the bag.
Brought Joe, used him as my hands. He’s still awkward and uncomfortable around me, but I think the fact I wear clothes makes it easier on him than with Sky. I also talk to him like a normal person, which makes one of us in this house.
I don’t think he likes being dragged away from his computer “work”. He’s really taken to the mesh-network idea he brought up during our meeting the other day. He imagines large transmitters all over the neighborhood, connecting our smart-phones and computers and acting like short-range radios. Nevermind we’re such a small group we could probably just tell each other in person and save the trouble. Whatever, it’s fine. At least he’s doing something. I explained that this sounded awesome, but that I’d probably keep needing him until he came up with something I could use for hands.
This led naturally into asking about how he’d learned this “magic” so fast. He tried to avoid the subject, but he was working with the cables and our grid then. I think he was afraid trying to leave would put him at risk of electrocution. I may’ve fostered that misunderstanding, even though he was working with cables that hadn’t been connected to anything and I had already shut down the house’s grid.
After putting the pressure on, he eventually caved and admitted it was the weird circle of strange marks on the ground that had done it. He said he didn’t expect me to believe him, but he’d done it so it was true. He’d been wandering the city when he found it, and he went into the middle to trace some of the symbols.
He’d seen something in that circle, some sort of… vision. That was when he’d got the mark on his butt, like the one Cloudy Skies had. He only got more embarrassed when I asked him to show me, so he just described it as a laptop computer with a heart on the screen, and he wasn’t comfortable with anybody looking at his butt.
Can’t say I don’t understand, though I wish he’d made an exception in the interest of research. He eventually promised to take a picture and crop out everything else so I could see. It looks something like this:
What a cutesy piece of crap. Tons of questions open up now, like “why would marks on the ground give you this? How does your magic relate to this mark? Sky has one, why can’t she do magic?” I didn’t ask any of those, because they were the sort of questions that I could try and figure out on my own. I just wanted to know what the “vision” had been. Did I believe him? After everything that’s happened to me so far, yes. Yes I did.
He was even more reluctant to answer. Eventually I got him to tell me; I’m not sure I believed him. He said he’d seen another world, a place where ponies were so numerous they had covered the countryside with villages and farms and cities. He saw unicorns like himself, saw what they could do, and... this is where I get fuzzy. Because he wouldn't tell me anything else, no matter how much I prompted him.
I would’ve thought he was screwing with me if I thought Joseph had a chance of lying with any skill. No, he got this wistful, distant look on his face when he was talking about it, like talking about a painting or a movie he couldn’t put into words. I’m not surprised, since so far as I know he doesn’t read or appreciate any of the arts. Maybe he would’ve done a better job if he’d been a poet before the Event (not a good name, but that’s what stuck).
Why hadn’t he wanted to tell us about it? Because he was afraid that would make me want to visit (it did). He said that his new sense for "magic" helped him see it was breaking down somehow, that it wasn’t safe for somebody else to use it, though he couldn’t explain why. He had been searching the city for the mark’s creator until the strays drove him back into his retreat neighborhood. He made me promise not to go back.
I’m going back tomorrow. Unijoe sleeps in, so it won’t be hard to leave before he wakes up (and do some other salvage on the return trip). When we were done with the cables and stuff, I told Sky about it and she was totally down to come. She already had a butt-mark, but I think she’s as eager as I am to trade a glimpse at pretend-land for the magic to pretend she has hands again.
I’m not sure I want to see any visions about what life could be like in a world of tiny horses. But at the same time… I feel almost guilty saying so, but… it’d be nice to know that kind of life was possible. Maybe it would be enough to make me feel less like we didn’t have a prayer of getting it right. A butt-mark’s worth a thousand words or something.
—A
No wonder that mark looked like a Stargate.
A's really turning into a jerk.
Enjoyable chapter as always.
Sad thing that most of the pet stores are closed cause they could’ve made a series of pounds with fish and flora which would function as a natural filter.
Diesel, Perhaps it’s worthwhile to scavenge for as much frying oil as possible since it I remember correct diesels can run on it fine. Won’t be giving them the best horse power but will work.
Funny, Since a hybrid or fully electric car could be more convenient if given a powerful enough recharge point.
Fillies and gentle colt get your cutie marks today with magic circle magic and if you buy now you’ll get alicorn wings and a horn for free. My apologies.
Something tells me our author is going to sound with his pictures when experiences it.
6065713 Diesel goes bad - yes - but vegetable oil goes bad faster.
Given that there are tens of thousands of tons of diesel in nearby tanks, ...
Ok, this is really interesting. I think A might be starting to lose it a bit, being the down-to-earth rational cornerstone to their little group might be wearing him/her down more than previous entries indicated.
6065756 But the oil would be easier to produce for ponies, wouldn`t it?
Ponies of different worlds come together and be amazed of each others different cultures... and then some cliche guy said that they were once human
Uh, it says "chaper" again.
First to say it: you've exceeded the 500 likes!
And hello stargate. Going to be interesting to see what happens when A steps into the circle.
6065636 6065852 It's a Repository of Knowledge. The Place of our Legacy, written in the language of Ancients, the day movers.
For some reason A and Sky going car shopping and coming back in separate vehicles feels like a couple action. Sky wanting the same type of vehicle as her mom is sweet though.
Dammit, I forgot what Sky's buttmark is.
Anyway, so we have some kind of mystic magic at play here, someone is behind the scenes as well as having a connection to Equestria.
I wonder...
6065935 Her cutie mark is cloudy skies like her name.
Yeee man.....y' gotta' embrace mudder' Earth maaan....*Smoke puff.*
Also,this work of progressing art reached 500+ likes!
Huzzah!
6065890
Oh, now that's beautiful.
And group dynamics. Almost feels as if A and Sky seek out each other's company a little since Glowjoe.
Now I want a picture of those two driving their respective pony-rigged vehicles.
Cracked up at each of these.
Let me venture a guess: A isn't very fond of Joe.
6065681 Maybe but don't forget this is all in a journal we don't know how he acts around others, can be he is just venting his frustration in the journal.
Okay, I haven't commented on here much and I'm really liking the story so far, but there's something you have in here that really annoys me. It's that whenever A mentions Joe, it sometimes changes to Joesph. I understand the nicknames like GlowJoe or UniJoe, A uses those to be somewhat mad at Joe, but switching from Joe to Joesph after calling him Joe first annoys me. You need consistency in your work and that is a great example of not showing consistency in your story. If you're going to call him Joe, call him Joe, nothing else. Also, A's grammar needs a little work done to it
Done. Mystery solved. Let's stop talking about it.
I love how short a couple of the entries are here. I am someone who keeps a diary, and I can confirm that sometimes you have really long entries and other times you have like two sentences.
Fascinating. Magic is in a state of decay, and the code circles appear to provide visions of Equestria. At least, they do for unicorns. A hasn't considered the link between horns and
cheatingmagic, so it's possible that the circles are unicorn-only. That remains to be seen.In any case, A seems to be having a slow, quiet breakdown, given the increasingly terse and cynical language. The reality of his continued equinity is setting in, and he really has no way of dealing with this beyond distracting himself. Even that is proving an imperfect coping mechanism. If this attempt to glimpse another world doesn't pan out, it could break him. And if he doesn't like what he sees? That could be even worse.
A may sorely need a cutie mark. Right now, he's totally directionless.
6065713
I think we can safely rule out A as a friendly, unbiased source. Writing from the perspective of a (somewhat) unreliable narrator was very much part of what I wanted to experiment with for the story. A very much doesn't see Joseph in a neutral way, though some argue as to the actual reasons for this.
6065768
It does seem that way. Being the only normal, rational person in a group can probably do that to you after awhile.
6065842
One day, eons ago, Starscribe vowed to change the way chapters were structured, listing more than date. There was a single typo that day, which was copy-pasted into the title of every single chapter. It has been haunting me ever since. X.x
6065890
Well, some have been shipping A with Cloudy Skies. I'm not sure if the story will, though. That would depend on the guesses people are making about sex/orientation.
6065966
I just don't know what went wrong!
6066067
I think that trope might just come from how dinky pegasus wings look in the show:
pre10.deviantart.net/a198/th/pre/i/2012/015/8/2/mlp_standard_pegasus_by_chagial-d4mflla.png
One glance at that and flying is not what I think of happening with that body. But who knows, maybe I've just been shaped by all the brony things I've been exposed to in the fandom.
6066096
Yay! This is almost certainly going to be my most successful story ever. Still got a ways to go to pass up My Little Apprentice, but it's very rapidly headed in that direction. Being a year younger, and all...
6066126
Well, by the end maybe.
6066267
I think A would kill for a tool like that.
6066284
It does look that way. But would you be, considering all the crap A has to put up with, that would all magically disappear if A had magical magic?
6066623
Actually, A didn't call him Joe first. From chapter 13, when he was first introduced:
By the end of the chapter...
In short, his real name is Joseph, but A frequently calls him Joe anyway.
6066632
A has been keeping a journal for so long there sis no longer something to talk about every single day.
6066672
Also true. Though A might not recognize the purpose imparted by a cutie mark even if they got one.
6066014
Ah, alright then.
6066886 Okay, I see what you mean there, but in the most recent chapter, A calls him both Joe and Joesph, which is inconsistent. Yeah, sure, A probably calls him Joesph while not doing journals, but if A is going to call him Joe in the journal, he shouldn't jump back and forth between Joe and Joesph.
6066886
I understand and that perspective is part of what makes this a good story. And while indeed the underlying reason (if there is one except that A is slowly falling apart.) is unknown, I can relate as to why A feels negatively towards Joe (Joseph, Joey-Joe. Joejababaloosa. ) as he seems to be not much of a team player at for what A writes.
6066175 Oh, I disagree, this is depressing. It's just subtler about it.
40.media.tumblr.com/b2da7131efa21e127bba0366ad108c20/tumblr_npk8deBbbF1rsmidfo1_540.png
And Joe officially has a cutie mark.
I suspected it would be based on computers somehow if he had one.
6065636 I thought I was the only one who thought that!
That is one embarrassingly cutesy cutie mark. That said, it also gives me a bit of faith that Joe isn't going to turn into a long term problem, I just don't see someone with a heart on their butt to be a bad egg at least in terms of their base personality.
Fascinating developments regarding the circle, makes me wonder how badly visiting it is going to blow up in A's face.
6066886 But Dinky doesn't have wings, she's a unicorn! But seriously, I'm trying to remember what I thought about pegasi and their wings back like four years ago, and I think it never occured to me to question their wings until I got into the fandom. Then again, four years ago, so I dunno for certain.
Didn't A say these journals are done via Speech to Text? Considering that Sky had interrupted a writing session before A might be feeling a lack of privacy. That would explain why A would handwritten the June 10th entry, though the possibility remains that it wasn't written by A.
I also feel that Joe did SOMETHING to piss off A on the tenth, but by the 11th they had made up enough to talk again.
Additionally I have noticed that the three survivor's priorities seem to be skewed towards their past lives. Sky likes to farm and cook, Joe's trying to rebuild a network, and A is concerned with fuel and mobility.
6067007
If it were a document A produced for other people to read, A might worry about consistency as you define it. Instead, A's use of Joseph's name reflects how serious A is feeling about Joseph at he time of writing. Whenever talking about serious things, A usually uses Joseph's full name. When talking about normal things, A seems to favor just "Joe", and when A gets annoyed or upset with him, a silly nickname like "Glowjoe" or something shows up.
6067010
The only downside is we don't seem to have any way of easily figuring out how much of what we learn about Joseph is true, and how much just reflects A's biases.
6067490
Start with bedrock. Get lots of the basic aspects that way. Also other players.
6067844
Yeah, I don't know if I thought about it either. But then again, think about putting short wings on a real-world horse, and I lose the ability to imagine that thing flying. Horses are heavy! Ponies, though...
6068078
I'm glad you picked up on the priorities thing! I don't think anybody's mentioned that before, but.. definitely true!
6069272
The thing with wings on real horses isn't so much a problem of wingspan for necessary lift but one of material strength at the wing joints. Those joints would have to be absolutely massive to be able to take the strain of actually lifting the half ton of horse off the ground. That would make for an interesting pegasus anatomy.
Ponies aren't much different, the wing joints are tiny.
But that's real world horses and ponies, not Cloudy Skies with her extreme lightweight and also aerodynamic build. That's still not quite enough to get her off the ground, but that's what pegasus magic is for. Her body is as well designed for flight as equinely possible... you just need those magic-amplifiers in the form of wings to tap into the ambient magic to get those missing few percent of lift and joint strength.
Egghead stuff Dash. Egghead speak for 'pegasi are awesome'.
6069312 There also muscle mass/strength, Birds have very large chest muscles (relative to their size) to power the down stroke of the wings.
6069468 Absolutely. So... an anatomically correct pegasus would have about the same proportions as a 747? :)
Now the vision in Ponies After People: Places and situations to avoid when humanity vanishes doesn't seem so bad after all …
Interesting. Somepony sending them help? One of the alicorns maybe, if this is somehow to do with Equestria?
This is an interesting story. It has compelling characters and a narrative that keeps you coming back for more. You find yourself caring about Joe, Star and Cloudy's survival because of how well this has been written from the lead character's POV. Now, I wonder what Starscribe's Cutie Mark will be? I've got a feeling that it is going to be something mechanical-themed.
6066357 Except for the bit where he pressured Glow Joe into telling him about the circles... Not exceptionally bad, but still a dick move.
6065681
Frankly I don't blame her. I'd be pissed too if I were suddenly a tiny horse- no matter how much I love ponies, the trade-off of losing hands just bites -and the only two I could find like me were a shy shut-in of an abuse victim and an idiot genius.
And seriously, what gives? You go on and on about stories where the human-turned-ponies just accept the fact or are suddenly happy about it, yet the first case of a true honest reaction and you call her a jerk?
First of all, we aren't getting any feedback from the other characters as these are all journal entries. People often don't censor their thoughts when they write in journals. So she is going to come off as a jerk.
Then there's the fact that she's thinking long term- maybe not completely practically -and her new companions are moping or going about things that have no practical use. I get that Joe needed to try and save some of what he was used to for sanity's sake, but video games should take a back seat to survival. And I'm something of a nut with those myself.
A doesn't know how to relate very well to Sky; typical case of a standard person when they encounter an introvert. As to her way towards Joe, I completely understand. The guy is showing to be useless. I mean, come on, he's a unicorn! He can do a whole lot more than what he is, and all he wants to do is muck around with computer crap.
A's reaction is original. Sure, it sounds like her life before the Event wasn't the greatest, but nobody told her she was gonna get species-swapped. She's been turned into the one tribe that doesn't have obvious magic, so naturally she has some jealousy.
She's frustrated, and feeling like she got a raw deal. The only way she's found to cope is in putting together what they need to survive in a relative level of comfort.
And since her companions don't seem to know how to motivate themselves, she has to be a jerk to get them to motivate. Again, we're going by what she's writing in a private journal. So we don't know how she's actually talking to the other two ponies.
A little in-between the worlds-greatest friend and a real meanie-pants, as Pinkie would say.
And seriously, in that sort of situation, I would be far more rude to somebody like Joe; even if some of the things he's into are similar to what I'm into. Seriously though; what he's trying to do is a good idea, but he needs to get the priorities straight. Guy lacks any kind of practical common sense.
A. Still trying to guess A's gender. He? She? Schlee? B. Are these unlucky survivors going to have to deal with heat? (Checks rating) Guess not.
6769966
Male human turned female pony.
"A butt-mark's worth a thousand words, or something." -- Pony Joe, 2016.
How profound! I'm going to have that printed on a t-shirt!
Pegasi in the cartoons do have magic, they can make themselves and things touching them weightless! at least i think that's how they make wagons and chariots fly!
Dude, harsh. Let's hope A is just in a bad mood and isn't actually this huge a bitch.
8116801 I get the strong impression that Joe has one of those personalities and just brings out the worst in a.
With the concerns about driving and fuel going bad it's too bad the Event didn't hold off a couple more years. Then LA would be CRAWLING with electric vehicles that have enough self driving to take some of the load off of them! Sure it'd put more strain on their power generation, but there'd probably be more solar panels to scavenge too!
oh, this reminds me of a silly fan-comic where Twilight burns her horn picking up a hot dish, and Pinkie sticks an oven-mitt on her horn!