Based on Starscribe's Ponies After People series.
When the Earth's humans were changed into ponies and other magic-tolerant species, most people were tossed into the maelstrom of time to be returned to their home planet changed at a future date. Three thousand years after the Event, a van of archaeology students en route to the University of Hawaii reappears in the middle of a now-overgrown Honolulu. Now they must come to terms of their new bodies and their new world.
Step 1: Figure out how to survive as ponies, a griffon, and a diamond dog on an otherwise uninhabited island.
Step 2: Unravel the mystery of how we got here, and why we're the only ones in a place normally crawling with tourists.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Make contact with the outside world and (if we're really lucky) go home to our families back on the mainland.
Simple, right? Oh and there is the matter of a dangerous artifact we have to keep out of the wrong hands. No pressure.
NaPoWriMo 2017 Winner!
Dedicated to my alpha reader and roommate, Gwelwyth.
This should be interesting.
An excellent start! Griffins are very underused :)
What's a parrothead?
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Griffins can apparently have different birds as their front half, along with lion on the back. The protagonist has a parrot head.
Reading that was a great way to start my morning. I think you have the talent to become a professional writer, if you choose to do so.
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Thank you. I'm still learning, so there's still lots of room for improvement.
I'm not going to lie; I based the conversation between Trish and Zoe on one my best friend and I had about a week before I started writing this story. Sometimes the best way to write emotional scenes is by basing them on real ones. It has certainly helped my dialogue writing.
Mark Fenske wrote in his commentary article, published in CMYK Magazine issue 8, “Drink from your own well. Start with yourself every time. What do think of the product? How would you use it?” Fenske’s ideas got me thinking that if I was in this group of returnees, what would I suggest that the group do?
I would love to get an idea of the lands south of the H1 highway before I walk there. Thus, I would suggest to my group an overnight camping trip to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. That well-known cemetery is build upon the Punchbowl Crater, an extinct volcanic tuff cone located in Honolulu, Hawaii. That location is north of the H1 highway, yet overlooks downtown Honolulu. That volcanic cone is tall enough to see over most rooftops, as that location is built on solid rock there is no need to fear of a partial collapse as a tall building could, and has structures for shelter without leaving the top of the cone. At night, some of my group would sleep, while others would watch the ground south of the H1 for lights of other returnees and the air for any aircraft coming to or going from the airport.
According to Hawaii-Vacation-Fun.com, “Punchbowl crater overlooks most of Oahu’s south side. From the vantage of the south rim scenic lookout, you’ll discover breathtaking views of Diamond Head crater, Honolulu International Airport, the Hawaii Capitol district, and the Honolulu commercial/business center!” Those overlooks appear to be great places to see potential objectives or places to avoid before walking south of the H1.
Discover the Punchbowl Crater National Cemetery of the Pacific.
But... This was made in 2018.
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This is last year's work. I finally got around to editing it to be (somewhat) more presentable. This year's is still in progress (20,000 words as of now).
Patience. Yeah, yeah, yeah how long will that take?
Boot to the Head!
If you get that Congratulations!
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I’m surprised that nobody in that group started humming the Indiana Jones theme music.
What gets me is the lack of any sign of prolonged inhabitation in any of the places that our protagonists have visited so far. We have the names of fifty individuals written on the walls. So, where did those earlier returnees live, grow crops, and have a school for the younger returnees? While that small group of friends can’t check every building, they can look for a returnee settlement’s garbage dump and compost heap that would be a short walk from, but not next to their settlement. Yet, a garbage dump and a compost heap being in a settlement’s back yard most likely would not be visible from the streets or highways. That’s why their group needs to get their winged members into the air to search for those artifacts and ecofacts associated with post-Event occupation.
I have just realized that this group of friends has all of Honolulu’s beaches all to themselves, yet no one has gone surfing yet! Many of us have seen dog surfing videos, so why not allow us to read about another dog surfing the waves of Honolulu’s beaches?
I think that is what is keeping Adam from flying. Sure wish a Star Wars fan could tell him the same advice that Yoda said to Luke in “THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK”, “You must unlearn what you have learned.”
Zoe could say “Come to think of it, we are not acting any differently than those people who came before us who left no notes on where they setup their camp and where they are now. We have not been writing any notes for those returnees who will come back in the future, or even tomorrow morning, telling them where we are. Shouldn’t we put up a few notes telling them where we are now? Maybe, we can find a local sign shop that has those temporary, roadside message boards with reusable letters? You know those signs we have all seen outside retail stores advertising their holiday sales. We can then search the highway department to find electronic safety signs brought back to life with come to life spells cast on them?”
Your entertaining story is as good as many of the better episodes of the cannon series. I hope that your protagonists someday find out why Mary the Unicorn was airborne while wearing goggles and a leather flight suit.
I was entertained by your wonderful story and hope you can find the time to continue your adventure.
Got it.
Does that self-help, guide book that Archive wrote have any information on Daring Do who gives practical advice on going on adventures?
Have any of our protagonists thought about checking out the Honolulu hardware stores for mundane hand tools, nails and screws, as well as metal brackets, shovels, and pickaxes?
As Rainbow Dash would say, “That was awesome!”
Wait a minute; I’ve played the Shadowrun game, as well as writing magazine articles and two convention adventures for that game. The great wave that rose from the sea reminds me of three Shadowrun spells combined into one and carried onto the shore by a destructive tidal wave. Those spells are Toxic Wave, Radiation Burst, and Pollutant Wave and that is why the vegetation between the beach and the interstate highway is small and in poor physical health. It also has been shown in the cannon series that it is possible to combine spells, so it is possible that the big bad could have combined spells to kill the ponies while making the sand the wave deposited on the ground between the beach and the interstate highway toxic for hundreds of years.
SR5:Spells:Combat
With all those trees around campus, our protagonists could cut down a few trees and then use that wood to reinforce and patch the holes in their current shelter. If wooden beams are used to hold up mined tunnels, then wooden beams could hold up a concrete floor or a roof. Yes, I am aware that this means finding the woodworking shops, hardware stores, or basement home workshops for hand tools as well as screws and nails. They should carefully read their “Pony Survival Guidebook” to find out if it has a chapter on rebuilding abandoned human structures.
Carpenters Apprenticeship
Sometimes I want to tell our protagonists that they have all kinds of resources right in front of them and that they should use these resources. For example, hundreds of bomb craters that were created during the Vietnam War are now used as fish farms. Why can’t these college students be as creative in using what is available to them?
I am wondering when your ponies would start using their special talents? As these returnees are archaeology students, I suppose that their special talents would be connected to their college majors in archaeology. Rarity’s special talents that make her a great income are designing and making clothing. However, her special talents that are connected to her cutie mark are finding gemstones and exploring caves. Rarity also has demonstrated talents in shaping plants as demonstrated in the episodes “Look Before You Sleep” and “Shadow Play - Part 1”. This could be that her special talents are connected to the ground. I believe that similar talents that your characters have would be useful to solving their quest and staying alive. I look forward to reading about your ponies finding and then using their individual, special talents.
By the way, I was thinking that our protagonists could use the artifact, combined with a spell described in the “Returnee Survival handbook” to repurpose it to create a new artifact that creates teleportation portals, similar to the EEA medallion Chancellor Neighsay uses.
Emmy, with a big smile on her face: “Guy, I found out that I can use the artifact and my unicorn magic to make our version of the EEA medallion. If you have a good memory of a certain location, then we can use the gate to open a portal to there, anywhere on this world. Our minds are our own dial home devices. You may not believe this, but I’ve found the seventh symbol. We're going home!”
Zoe: “What are you talking about a seventh … no, you are a … I don’t suppose you can also magic up some P90 submachine guns, Ori staffs, and Zat'nik'tels?”
Emmy: “One I master the Transfiguration spell; I don’t see why I could not. Now that I think of it, I think that the staff weapons could be used by both hands and hooves.”
Trish: “And you two are dedicated Gate Heads, because one of the movie’s two main heroes is Dr. Jackson who is an archaeologist? Ever been to Gatecon, while wearing a costume?”
Zoe: “I was saving my cash to go there in 2016.”
Emmy: “Yes, and I attended Gatecon as Samantha Carter while wearing a series authentic, military field uniform down to the last detail. By now my beautiful costume has become dust, and I spent several hundred dollars getting all the bits and hiring a professional seamstress to make it for me.”
Doc: “You are getting upset over a costume?”
Emmy: “Not a costume, a labor of love.”
Doc: “People, let’s find a way to solve our real problems, not fangasm over your obsessions.”
Emmy: “Maybe, when we get back home, we can find enough Gate Heads to restart Gatecon.”
Trish: “Let’s return home first and plan your convention after that.”
I thought Pele made her home in Halema'uma'u in Kilauea, not in Mokuaweoweo in Mauna Loa. I could be wrong, though. Closest I ever came to Hawai'i was serving on the USS Kamehameha back in 1980.
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While Kamehameha is the name of a famous Hawaiian king ("the very lonely one" or "the one set apart" in the Hawaiian language); I know it more from Dragon Ball, as Kamehameha means "Turtle Destruction Wave" in the Japanese language. Did your shipmates ever get jokes about serving on the Dragon Ball ship?
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No, I was aboard the ship BEFORE Dragon Ball Z came out.
Reading your entertaining story is a great way to start my morning. What intriguing stories about the modern Hawaiian Islands could Captain Bluegill tell to our brave protagonists?
Almost thought this fic was gonna end up in the graveyard for a while, glad to see I was wrong.
I wonder which direction the plot will take now that the McGuffin jig is done... Will they ever go back to the mainland?
That was a well-written chapter. I was moved by Doc’s death that I didn’t see coming, and hope Doc’s spirit is reunited with the spirit of his daughter.
I would love to see a sequel. This was beautifully written. I enjoyed all of it.
With all the sand and younger vegetation, it almost sounds like a tsunami hit the area at some point.
I know I am delayed on this but I feel the need to say that walls of texts are not fun to read otherwise not bad