This story is a sequel to The Last Pony on Earth
Alexandria; a name its founders hope might again become synonyms with scholarship in a world that only four months earlier hosted human civilization. Now only the last remnants known as the Human Preservation Initiative have retained their species, the remainder of the population has been transformed completely into ponies. Adapted to survive in a world now saturated with magic, the ponies of Alexandria settle in for what they expect to be long and boring lives.
They are mistaken. Between the gradual approach of winter, being completely new to the magic of their bodies, and the HPI constantly breathing down their backs, life in Alexandria proves to be anything but boring.
Note To E-Reader users: This story contains illustrations in each chapter, which will be lost in the standard fimfiction chapter export. The generous Phoen1x took the time to produce an epub version with all the illustrations intact, which you can download here.
A huge thanks to Zutcha , the artist for this story. Also a huge thanks to my editors Two Bit and Sparktail.
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! ^~^
Well that was convenient. Saw this story pop up, only saw that there was the first chapter, began reading, halfway through chapter the second one posted.
Well alright, alright, alright.
Slice of life at its finest. Love how you portray Adrian so far; and that communal dinner shows an astoundingly intricate relationship web between just six ponies. Loved every bit of it.
Oh and Alex? 10 bits say you'll see Sunset again. That meeting with her family back in Equestria had all the hallmarks of a final goodbye.
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?
Foo-hee!
Can't wait for some more!
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.
Alright then, establishing relationships and things that are happening, nice.
I find it strange that the leader, Alex, is also the mechanic and engineer of the place, usually it's the workmen associates that are on the opposite end of the important people list for colonies. So far it seems that they are putting Equestrian and Earth knowledge in the best way they can, building this place in Paris is pretty cool...
Sorry, isn't Paris in Europe? Or is there somewhere else in America that has the same name? I don't know geography.
Moriah... STFU, seriously you have became the most unlikely pony overnight, first you were the nay sayer, next you were the skeptic, after that the bitter prejudice, next the one who disagrees with EVERYONE elses opinion, and now you are jealous... of a teen gender swapped mare going after your oblivious as nails boytoy. Congratulations, you somehow managed to switch places with Cloudy Skies as my least favorite mare here.
Who also is rather more pleasant when she's not hoarding secrets, when will that last I wonder...
Alex I'm most interested in for the fact that she must have a large central role in organizing everything in the settlement, I guess it will be a while before we get into that. The ponies that are reluctant to join would surely be a welcome addition... I'm honestly looking forward to different species joining the fray, especially fingered species such as Minotaurs and Diamond Dogs, hehe, that will be some envy right there.
Also... just realized something, Moriah came in a plane, right? She didn't appear for a while like it was said for some ponies but... did the plane go with her?
It that's the case, then what about passenger planes? Would all of them appear inside it along with it? Would they be put inside a stasis until the others appeared as well? Or in fact, would it appear with one passenger on board and then that one passenger would spiral to his doom?
Kind of dark when you think about it...
I really like the art.
Story was OK too.
:)
Ahh, burgers. All is right with the world. Well, for a given value of right.
You know, it just slightly concerns me that the memory of Equestria recorded in crystal for future generations includes a record of such anger. That could easily poison the well for any future corporation, however far off that might be.
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Tags? As in RFID-esque tags? Assuming you can pair it with the proper security ala a supermarket theft deterrent system, that could work as long as you have the manpower to enforce it when the alarm goes off.
Interesting, competition for gathering ponies into a settlement.
I was reading this whilst playing Pokemon on my 3DS (I won 3-0 then 1-0 then 4-0, it was doubles). Like duuuude, I want to brohoof Joe so much right now.
Sunset's coming back now, isn't she.
what was Joseph playing?
But other than that this great so far. Cant wait for more!
6205704 Super Mare-rio Sisters...
6205561
Stormy needs a moment right now.
Jay911 needs a moment right now too... Sky is getting quite adorable in the last pics in LPoE and the pics in FoA.
6205466
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_Illinois =)
6205306
She is pink in the drawings, it's just the red tint to get the effect is really light. Look a bit closer at her fur.
6205775
A Dino knows about modern geography, now I've seen everything.
Thanks~
6205781 Well, it helps that I live in central Illinois too...
6205789
Heh, well I don't know where Glasgow is exactly on the GB island so I guess I can't say anything.
That moment when you're growing up in Alexandria and see the word 'Alexandria':
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I can't believe I hadn't noticed this already. Also "Olive Garden"
. I love that name for him. 
Hayburger in Paradise!
Jeez, Moriah took a few levels in jerkass.
That picture is adorable.
I've got a feeling that Adrian is going to keep on finding excuses not to move on from Alexandria right until he finally realises that it's because he doesn't want to leave at all. Oh, he'll have to - He has to let the other groups know what he's learnt via Alex's contact with Equestria and the HPI but, something tells me, he'll always find some reason to come back.
A certain pink-maned madmare will have nothing to do with it! Honest!