Dear Journal,
I found her.
Some of the mystery is solved at last, assuming what I’m being told is true. I found the one who made the runes, I found the one who’s been sending the coded messages. I found the one who’s been looking for us! She’s been looking for us as much as we’ve been looking for her! Too bad she doesn’t know how to use a car, or else she probably would’ve been here months ago and lots of the stress and mystery would’ve been circumvented.
She didn’t try to kill me, or do anything even a little threatening. Maybe the whole world isn’t as empty and bleak as it looked. I’ve learned so much, but everything I’ve learned is just the beginning to what I’m going to. Maybe there’s some hope for humanity after all. Maybe even for the survivors too.
I suppose I should write the whole thing down. She seems to have Joe’s sleep schedule (unicorn thing I guess), so staying up doesn’t seem to bother her. We’re in a locked warehouse, with a campfire burning right on the concrete. Never thought you could do that. Guess so long as we’ve got good ventilation. I already told the others what I’ve learned so far using the phone, I guess I should get it written down too before I try this sleeping bag again as a pony.
The fire is still burning. It doesn't seem to be spreading as far, not devouring the whole state like I’d been afraid of, but the plumes of smoke are still rising. There are refineries in that city that might keep burning for months.
But I didn’t have to get anywhere near the actual fire, because I found one walking towards me. Okay, maybe it’s wrong of me to make fun of the coloring of another pony. It’s not like I look like anything natural.
In all seriousness, she was straight up walking down the freeway, pulling a cart behind her like it was the most natural thing in the world. She wasn’t wearing anything, though with the sun beating down on her she seemed to be pretty exhausted.
As I got close enough for her to notice, she started watching the police cruiser approach, and it looked like her horn started to glow. Unicorn again, because that’s my luck. I guess it makes sense for her though, so I’ll give her a pass.
I started slowing down once she saw me, even though I was on the other side of the concrete median and in no danger of hitting her. I could see the signs of a frightened pony even at that distance, so I stopped about five hundred feet away and got out. I didn't even bring the gun; didn’t seem like there was any point for just one pony walking in the middle of the road. At the time I didn't dream this could possibly be the one I was looking for, just a happy accident I met on the road.
Every new pony for the colony, right? Granted, we’re already running short on stallions even without her. Let’s see if I can remember the exact words of our first conversation. It’ll be hard, since I didn’t have anything to record it all.
“Hi!” I shouted, hopping out of the car. Huan came after me, though he didn’t look very interested. Not like when we encounter other dogs, and he gets all tense and nervous. He was pretty bored honestly. “You know, gas isn’t so hard to find that we have to go back to wooden carts yet! Or did you have trouble getting hooves to reach the pedals?”
She stopped with the horn-glowing after that, and I hurried over to talk. She introduced herself as Sunset Shimmer, which I took at the time to mean she was in the Cloudy Skies school of stupid names. She also apparently came from the nudist camp of proper clothing, which I started to envy almost at once with the sweat wearing leather produced. California had not gotten any cooler just by burning one of the cities down.
She asked some pretty weird questions. Her first one was, “You couldn't be a princess, could you?” I just laughed, because that seemed like the right thing to do. Princess, yeah. That’s exactly what I am. A pretty pony princess. Diggin’ the alliteration though. “And you haven’t gone completely nuts?” That second question I could understand, and I stopped laughing.
I didn’t think the maniacal laughter would’ve been helping my case. “No, I’m not. I’m not sure any of us are completely sane after what happened to the world, but I don’t think I’m certifiable yet.”
We were much closer then, and I could see she had a buttmark. No, not a buttmark. They have a proper name. A completely stupid name, but a proper name nonetheless. A cutie mark (shudder). Can’t believe I just wrote that down. Some swirly, bright sun mark, I’ll draw it at the end.
Her last question was the really weird one, the one that made me think that maybe I’d found the pony I was looking for. “You’re not from Equestria, are you?”
I didn’t quite know how to process the question, and I didn’t want to give anything away, so I asked. “What makes you think I would be?”
“I have to ask,” she said. “I haven’t met very many ponies from here, but not very many are friendly and take good care of their mane.”
“Well, I am from here.” I pointed at the smoke coming up from behind her. “That was my home. Born there, grew up there… even stayed behind when my family left.” I probably sounded a little angry, or like I was gonna cry again. Maybe both. Shut up it’s not my fault! Blame Moriah! I had much more self control before! At least I’m being honest! “Did you burn my city down?”
She told me she didn’t, that she’d been just as surprised as I was and had to nearly exhaust her magic just to get out alive.
At that point, we figured we should get out of the sun to talk. I suggested as much, suggested that she should come with me in the car and we could find a better place to have our conversation than under the blazing heat and standing on asphalt. We could load everything from her cart into the trunk, then tie the cart itself to the roof. What, stranger things have happened!
She wasn’t excited about getting into the car, but I told her I’d been driving almost every day since the Event and it was totally safe. So she levitated, yes, levitated, her entire freakin’ cart right over the median, and I went to get the car unlocked.
That part doesn’t matter really. We drove back out and into a warehouse, like I said. Shared my food and water with her while she told me what she had come to say.
Yes, she had been the one looking for us, the one sending the radio transmissions. In her cart, aside from a tiny bit of food, was a machine that looked like it’d been made in some steampunk factory. Brass and wheels, with all sorts of electrodes and weird crystals coming off of it. She said it was a “Thaumic Arc Transmitter”, and she’d been using it to send messages home. I asked her if it used lots of magic, and she answered that it had to be powerful enough to send a message that would reach other worlds, so that meant using more magic than any individual pony could possibly generate.
Home, to a place called Equestria. The place she’d come from. She explained her mission to me in no uncertain terms, for which I was grateful. I think I’ve had enough of mystery these last few months. Sunset Shimmer said that she’d been sent here after the Event (my word, not hers), to see if any ponies had survived. If they did, she was to find “a princess, or the closest thing you had.”
Only there were far fewer ponies left than she had thought, and they were so spread out that she hadn’t seen any for a long time. Only when she had thought to try listening using her transceiver had she heard our message from Los Angeles and thought that she might have finally found “somepony” she could actually talk to.
She found something bitterly ironic about it, because she had started in Los Angeles, and met a pony on her very first day. She’d even spent the night with her, and suggested a new pony name. You wanna guess who it was?
Who is Cloudy Skies? You’re right! You’re the next… Jeopardy? However that game worked. I never actually watched it.
She hadn’t been looking for lone survivors though, she’d been looking for a community. A group, so that once she gave her knowledge, she could be reasonably sure that it would persist. At first she had wanted a whole city, though it was clear enough that there were less ponies than she had expected, and she'd been forced to scale down her goals progressively over time.
She had to say that I “looked a little young” to be a leader, because of course she would say that. I told her I wasn’t really much of a leader, we didn’t have anything formal like that, but we did have a community and we’d made it out of the city when the fire hit without losing any animals or ponies.
“Good; then you’re just the pony I’m looking for.” Of course I am. Just the pony. Not just the person. Just the pony. Because you have to put “pony” on everything even though “person” doesn’t specify a species.
Actually, she wasn’t quite that confident. It was more like “I wish I had the time to keep looking for a princess, but our window is closing. If I waited much longer, I’d have to stay behind, probably for the rest of my life.”
She couldn’t tell me what happened. She couldn’t tell me why. What she could tell me was that “the one who sent her knew.” Because that’s great.
It gets better though. She wasn't entirely mysterious. See, the one who sent her, someone she called a “Princess,” had known the trouble we would be in. She wanted to make sure that our rebooting society had all the tools it needed to be successful. She had a repository of knowledge prepared, a seed of the tree that might grow into our future society. It contained things like “spellbooks” for unicorns and “weathercraft manuals” for pegasi. What the hell is weathercraft?
I didn’t actually ask. Under the circumstances I had bigger questions. Why couldn't she just give it to me now? Because the princess wanted to tell "somepony" (yuck) in person what had happened, since she had “bad experiences with letters.” If I was willing, Sunset Shimmer would take me with her, I would meet this princess, and she would tell me everything.
Would I come back? Yes, she insisted. I would be sent directly back when it was done, so I could bring all that knowledge and my species wouldn't be left in the dark for the rest of forever.
But time is short. She’s actually not sleeping herself; going to be spending all night preparing this magic to get us to her world. She explained how the travel works, but it went over my head. Just that our worlds are drifting apart, and it might be a very, very long time before they come together again. Thousands of years, if not more. In order to make sure I wouldn't get stuck in her world, we would have to leave soon. Just before dawn, in fact.
The others aren’t happy, but I didn’t exactly give them a chance to object. I just explained everything and hung up before they could argue with me.
I know, it wasn’t a very friendly thing to do. I know they’re all worried about me. This is a pretty stupid thing to be doing, even ignoring how insane and impossible it all sounds. Completely impossible. Travel to another world, sure. That’s a thing that can happen. Because other worlds are a thing.
Sunset Shimmer told me a little about Equestria; a country very much like mine, only filled with ponies instead of people. A whole society all made of horses. I told her I might’ve seen it, and described the circle and my experience with it.
She confirmed that yes, in fact, that's exactly what I’d seen. That had been her doorway in, and she had expected a little of the magic to linger. I didn’t tell her it had exploded me.
Tomorrow then; tomorrow I’ll be going to Equestria. I’m going to be meeting the one who knows what happened to my species. Maybe she has the ability to reverse it! Maybe this is my chance to fix everything. It’s got to be as close as I’ll ever come. If these creatures, ponies, can do “magic” like travel between worlds, maybe bringing every vanished human back is also something they can do.
I didn’t ask the unicorn, she wouldn’t be the one to do it anyway. I’ll ask this “Princess” when I see her.
I’m sorry, Sky. I hope you’ll forgive me. But you lied to me! You've known me for three months, and never said a word about meeting this pony! I'm going to have a word with you about that when I get home!
-Lonely Day
PS: Set out all the water bottles I brought in one big bowl, along with all the rest of my food. Huan’s smart, and we talked about it. He’ll keep watch for me here until I get back. He’s not happy about it, but the unicorn says it might not be safe to bring him.
Here's what she looks like. She says I could probably get a drawing cutie mark if I wanted to work really hard for one. Call it that, and I don't think I'll ever want one, but thanks anyway.
Nothing like having a bit of ponies at 2 in the morning.
Words, have at thee!
Edit: Andddd we have Sunset Shimmer now.
I should've seen this coming a mile away.
Ho. Lee. Crap. This is a massive revelation. And tomorrow, some princess is going to explain everything. Though I'm not sure which one. Twilight and Celestia both seem to have some good experiences with letters.
Seriously, WHY did I not see Shimmer coming...It should've been obvious. Great chapter, can't wait to see how he takes to the royal Sunbutt.
Will there be a sequel?
Hahaha sunset. oh Alex Day why are you still so defeatist you silly human? Don't you know humans always find a way?
A powerful unicorn colored like fire? Sunset?
Hah, yep. Awesome, Equestria is finally in play.
I suppose Sunset is a good choice if you need a cross-dimensional explorer. Experience in the subject, powerful and Celestia-trained but not actually as irreplaceable as one of Equestria's four total princesses.
Okay, Alex needs to have a serious conversation with Cloudy about full disclosure.
Hahahahaha! So the rune circle was a stargate!
Best part of the chapter. Introducing Sunset Shimmer AND you make a joke of her name.
You, sir, are the best person to ever exist.
Wanted to start this comment with "And with that bombshell" but I feel that the really one will be in the next chapter when Alex finally meets the Princess.
Also why didn't Sky told them about it?
I have just finished binge reading your story. And by god man. You got it, you got it good...
Oh, and when I read that Sunset was here, all I really did was exclaim: "Well! WELL! WELL!" lookie' who we got here follks! we got ourselves a cannon pony!
Oh this is going to be absolutely, unpredictably, and infinitely much more interesting.
*EDIT
Just ended the chapter seeing that this is where you stopped writing. I was very, very sad by then...
The Plot... doesn't thicken! Resolution in sight!
Also, I might be ever so slightly freaking the fuck out.
Now, to see if sun/moon/starbutt has answers.
I FUCKING knew it!
She was suspicious as HELL the moment she wanted to be known as Cloudy Skies, all of these words she has been using from somepony and mare to stallion, we FINALLY get what has been happening, FINALLY.
Cloudy was just a lost lamb that followed in the hoofsteps of an actual pony, who wished to give alter dimensional aid to the survivors of the city! Now the only question is, why the heck she latched onto this identity do quickly and did this, why didn't she EXPLAIN she had met another pony before.
THIS freaking mystery all about her and now we FINALLY get it, only one thing to go, why the hell she didn't say any of this...
This will be the tilting point that may inforce my hate, or flip it around.
To Sunset Shimmer!
6156652
But we don't see Pinkie..?
Got to say, I expected it to be Twilight for a bit, especially when you mentioned her sleep schedule.
It says a lot about Equestrians' magic concentration, or at least a lot about Sunset (being a proto-Element of Magic and all), that she showed up so clearly on the HPI sensors despite being relatively "normal".
I wonder when they're going to stage an intervention for Alex telling her to stop running in blindly and stuff.
6156586 I don't think it'll need one. If you want more content we're building up a plethora of side stories.
Im rather not sure how this chapter is going to be digested after reading. On one way, its a chance for something new, on the other, its sorta speciesist in another.
Eh, come what may I guess. I just see many non-ponies getting a very raw end of this in the end.
Hopefully we can find out what happened to all the humans, I wonder if they got lost or killed from the bumping of universes which caused the mixing of energy which cause the transformations and the transference of magic into Earth
i.imgur.com/pNUBdcx.gif
Holy—
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6156599 Or a tricked out ring platform.
Now I really want to know what happened. Considering HPI's knowledge on what magic does to a human, the survivors and now Equestria's side of the story... The mystery just keeps getting deeper.
6156429 Definitely.
For me it's been exactly this style though that's drawn me into this story to a degree I haven't experienced in a long time. Keeping an unreliable narrator truly unreliable is actually not that easy. Alex also just recently reflected on being incredibly self centred in regard to pretty much everything... and has also distanced themselves repeatedly and vehemently from anything related to 'pony romance'. Because no way. Or... *general confusion on the topic*.
I get that it can be annoying, it just isn't for me :)
Sunset? You're here? So, this is the Equestria Girls Earth? If so, I'm assuming then that she's already evacuated the students at CHS to Equestria (although I bet that caused a stir in Ponyville). What the heck is going on here...? Just how much to the Equestrians know and just who is responsible for all of this?
Tomorrow, somepony (possibly Twilight Sparkle) is going to explain everything. Or as 'explain' as Twilight can get as she's likely going to be talking geek-ese that Joseph might be able to translate.
Was this an accident or was it by design? If the latter, then whose and for what purpose?
Yeah, it won't be safe to bring Huan because he might change into a dragon. Because, that does seem to be the rule for cross-dimensional travellers.
Possible Ironic Prediction
Poor Alex is the soon-to-be Princess of Earth.
A great chapter--rarely do I not see something coming.
Having Sunset Shimmer be the individual responsible for both the runes and radio? That caught me completely off guard.
Well done, well done indeed.
6156750 make a group
6156729
Actually, the whole "visible from space" part is due to that arc generator gizmo she's been carting around everywhere.
6156679 Hmpf. I who have continuously defended and rooted for Sky and thought her above everything... I concede. You were right in your distrust. *grml* Well, partially at least. Let's see. *hope*
6156888
If it's for side stories there's this place already.
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/207757/folder/42493/1/side-stories
((Edit: A lot of these went ahead and got made before things got explained, so things might get weird.))
Personally I'd stay away from Texas with all that stuff happening, though.
Point one: Well shit
Point two: Do I smell alicorn ascension for Alex?
6156912
Oh, hello TCB Celly. I thought I killed you and collected your Uterus.
I did?
Ah, you're a clone. You'll get the same fate.
But seriously, don't make this a surprise TCB story.
6156932 Of course. I meant PoisonJoker09's distrust of Sky that I have so far steadfastly dismissed :)
Alex loves(ed) her. I still have hope!
6156912 From what I've seen in the story no Princess can help them turning back into humans. Consider that even magic from Lonely Day is enough to kill a human, Sunset Shimmer is a very powerful unicorn which leaks magic orders of magnitude higher, then think any alicorns who must be orders of magnitude higher than that.
Even if the Princesses had a spell to turn them back into humans they wouldn't survive the change back to a now poison filled environment.
AUDIBLE. GASP.
SHIT JUST GOT REAL
…
*sigh*
6156934
*beep boop boop beep boop*
*ring* *ring*
"Uh, hello, is this M.A. Larson? Yes, I'd like a word..."
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Akashi_Gidayu_writing_his_death_poem_before_committing_Seppuku.jpg/403px-Akashi_Gidayu_writing_his_death_poem_before_committing_Seppuku.jpg
-Grabs blade,ready to commit Seppuku
This is just,magnificent.
-This is,truly...SHOCKING!
Spoilers... Spoilers everywhere! Well, spoilerwarnings...
Awesome!
I've never seen a comment section THIS plastered with carefully arranged spoilerwarnings to avoid any... well, spoilers for others!
Onward! Into Explanation!
Also: Ha! Gotcha! Nothing to see here, move along an' prepare your expectations!
I leave for three days and this happens.
On the bright side, yay Phoenix! But sorry L.A. I'm in the process of writing a side story set there. I'm assuming they stopped in Phoenix proper, because that big park sounds like Indian School Park. I'll have to see how this plays out!
well, I was honestly expecting sparklebutt after seeing a drawi...wait...
img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131111212808/mlp/images/8/81/FANMADE_Twilight_facedesk.gif
im not a clever changeling
Alex is going to have to tread very carefully. With all the other toys the HPI has, I would not be at all surprised to hear that they have some heavy weaponry, up to and including nukes.
Depending on what Alex tells them, they may very well decide to use it.
Wow that was quite the revelation, but then it did coincide with the vision she had and the worried look the "princess" gave her during that vision.
6156916 Unrelated but YAY glorious Zutcha art :)
Always bringing the characters to life. Your illustrations just fit this story perfectly.
Have your drawing butt mark!
6157254
Heh.
6157296
what, it would make sense with the giant rad cloud that was heading their way, if joe would have made a killzone the size of a stadium.. imagine the one an alicorn would make
This fanfic was the perfect way to spend the first half of my summer vacation. and WHADDAYA KNOW, the next chapter will be set on my birthday! Not submitted, set. As in, it takes place on my birthday.
Sunset Shimmer arrives with a cartload of books to help the survivors rebuild their society? That's not giving me warm fuzzies with regards to the odds of this disaster being undone.
In short, Humanity is screwed. And given the number/distribution of ponies, ponies are likely screwed too. So unless the dogs and cows and horses and whatnot become fully sentient and sapient, intelligent life on Earth is gonna be getting a reboot. And everything everyone has done for the entirety of this story is going to have been utterly futile.
I'm gonna hope for a happier ending than that though.
That was... highly unexpected. I'm gonna draw some conclusions here:
- Alex's gender truly confirmed. You don't ask a stallion if he might be a princess.
- Our Earth is not the EqG "Earth"- it was "thirty moons" for that link to re-open. But Sunset might've been selected for her previous familiarity with humans....
- The event was expected on both sides; you don't just have "weathercrafting manuals" and the like ready to go at a moment's notice. (Side question: Did Equestria expect any human survivors? Were they the ones who gave humanity the heads-up and helped to develop anti-thaumic shielding?)
Ah, Alex. You are far, far more brave than you credit yourself. And now I sit here waiting to hear just what Equestria has to say about the ultimate fate of humanity- and maybe why Sunset Shimmer was broadcasting in code.
...
This comment looks like an SCP entry from all these black bars.
6157295
and why should texas be avoided?
I feel your pain Alex. I feel your pain. I've always thought the name "cutie mark" sounded really stupid. Why couldn't they have been called talent marks or identity marks instead??? Not only would that be a lot more descriptive but i'd actually be able to say the name of the damn things without feeling the need to gag.
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Well......didn't see that coming. I would have expected Celestia, Luna or even Twilight but Sunset Shimmer??? Really??? Why her??? I don't have anything against the character. I'm just saying, it doesn't really make much sense in this story. Last time I checked, she's spent the past three years living, as a human, in a world that's very similar to our own. That begs the question of what she was doing back in Equestria and why she acted like she'd never seen human inventions before (like cars for example). Even if we assume this story takes place during the time that Sunset was still Celestia's student, that still doesn't quite make sense. Sunny seems to act more like she did in Rainbow Rocks, after being reformed, then acting like the self centered b!%(# she was during and prior to the first Equestria Girls movie.
6156913
Sore loser~
But yeah, your right, next update we're going to see some damn explanation that doesn't make a lick of sense... also, Princess title instantly given to Alex by Sunset, someone who is naturally pony so therefore is implied that Alex is in fact a GIRL!
I'm surprised nobody brought this up immediately, other than Rouge Wolf... also.
6157478
I pity the guy that has to be called Princess in a completely profession and straight faced manner...
6157568
As if this picture wasn't proof enough of Alex being female
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That is not who I expected.