LOPE Explanation (Don't Panic) · 10:48pm Jul 11th, 2016
You're not going to believe me. Nop- Nobody in their right mind could possibly believe me, but it's true. Twenty years ago today at 8:15 AM everybody on earth disappeared in an instant and were not seen again, you and me included. Minutes later, a small pocketful of people returned exactly where they disappeared in alien bodies. They had no idea what had happened other than they were the only people around where they were. Which few they encountered were total strangers. As hours and minutes went on, more and more people started appearing in ever so slightly increasing numbers, in the exact earthly location they left. No real reason or rhyme is there for anybody to come back at specific times, just pure chance. It is expected that eventually everybody will come back, but not in our lifetimes. The rate will increase though. Not dramatically and not overnight, but they will, if all goes well.
This was no accident. Beings who call themselves Equestrians crossed paths with us when an incidental portal opened up between dimensions. Waves leaked between them, and they saw what the earth and its inhabitants were like. It turns out Earthly life is an abnormality. It thrived without a specific energy source that all beings elsewhere need to survive. Had they come here and stayed at any point prior to the last twenty years, they would have gotten fatally ill from being in a dead zone. By contrast, the opposite would be true for us. Exponential human population growth and industrial/technological growth created this energy and made it ever more abundant, without our knowledge of it. In small doses, the stuff is harmless, even beneficial, but in large ones, it's not so benign. Earthlings with sufficiently large brains would get said brains cooked thoroughly in a matter of minutes if left in an environment over saturated with those lethal waves. Plants and other animal or bacterial life would instantly adapt to it once exposed. Then they would become like the Equestrians: If isolated from this energy for extended periods of time, they'd become weak and die, as if from lack of nourishment. The supreme ruler of that world, Celestia, with no other option on such short notice did something to save us all from being fried inside out: Cast a powerful spell to send all animals with sufficiently large brains (Humans) away into limbo. While there, every person is given an alien body not unlike the savior's to be returned in. As you may have guessed, your new bodies aren't based on any aspect of your character, or influenced by anything but plain circumstance, much like there is no reason anyone specific was selected to come back at any certain time. Celestia did, however make two safeguards for returnees in any period: When sending people away, cars, planes, ships, and trains are beamed away into limbo with all passengers and crew and cargo in tow. So they do come back together. This does not prevent all eventual collisions, though, but these are the sole (mostly) returnees to not be forced into a world of complete and total strangers. The other safeguard is to minimize instances of man to mare. It doesn't always work, though. For the most part, this is avoided, but some fall through the safety net. If we went back to the moment this happened and cast it again, it would not result in the same people coming back at the same times they originally did, nor would anybody get the same body twice. You aren't guaranteed to have the same type of hair you did, the same eyes, the same voice, or even the same genitals.
I am acquainted with three such people who weren't as lucky as I am. One of the early arrivals I met first is a Canadian mare named Sudden Storm who lived in a small village in the Canadian Rockies. S/he happened to be lucky this village was near an adjoining town with a large abandoned shopping mall s/he and three others made their permanent residence in, s/he being the radio mare who maintains contact and occupies the wireless communications. S/he doesn't give out her original name, only the first two ponies s/he met know it, and they are sworn never to tell. If any pony finds out, only Sudden Storm will leak the secret. Up till recently, none but those two even knew s/he was a man before.
The other two are a couple of Canadian ponies from Vancouver BC who also missed the safeguard, but were lucky in a very special way: They knew each other before this grand, global event sent us all into limbo, yet still both came back in minutes. This usually only happens to those in moving vehicles. The two who were formerly just good neighbors became something much more. They are a carpenter named Scott Andrews and a forward thinking pragmatist named Jim Miller, originally Jessie Miller. They didn't have to suffer this misfortune alone like most folks this happens to. They conceived together, and are now proud parents of three beautiful children. They never made any effort to take on names formed from common words, nor do they try to hide the fact that this happened. If you are such an individual, don't be ashamed to admit it, we will support you. If you don't want to use your old name, that's fine, too. We want to make your transition easier than it was for us.
You have a right to be angry. They had the best intentions, yet they took practically everything from you all. But they did it to spare you all a horrible demise that would have been certain. They had no other alternative to intervene on such short notice, and thought we as individual people are more important than our species. They saved us in a manner that killed our bloodlines, eradicating our genetics, leaving only memories and personality traits. But we are alive.
The human race is not extinct, though: A sole group of hundreds has taken refuge underground in closed tunnels and caves sealed shut with thick lead and tin doors and with walls laced with tin, aluminum and lead. They still have their shapes. They cannot come topside, though. They would get their brains cooked by the power we now need to live in minutes if they came up without foil suits. And you would be dead in a matter of days if you stayed in those caves long enough. Their resources have now become abundant enough to not worry about it anymore, but they can no longer walk freely like they once could and you currently can. They have prevented many fires and meltdowns that would have erased remnants of civilizations faster had it not been for them, and they have discovered five young men and women who have a strange ability to live and thrive in both settings. They require no magic, but are unaffected by it by some inherent trait of theirs. No one has been able to figure it out. They naturally form an aura that creates an energy shield around their bodies that allows solids, gasses, fluids, and anything else to enter the field they emit, but keeps that power source out. Naturally animals of all sorts, humans and lower forms, predator and prey alike have an instinct to avoid them, but they can overcome it, and even be friends with them. They can still eat like they did before, walk and sleep like before, communicate and think, or proliferate (Allegedly like always). There are only five of them known in all the world.
There is a wide range of bodies you may receive, a high portion of which are equinn in nature. One is noted for its physical strength and endurance, its power to bounce back from illness and injury, turning out stronger than before versus the other types. Others don't have their stamina, and would need to work on what comes to them naturally. A second type is of partially avian trait, though otherwise equinn. Their bone structure is hollow, which enables them to walk on bodies of water much like an insect can. They have feathered wings which allow aviation. They can form cyclones and hurricanes by flying in circles as a large group. A few can form powerful gusts of wind by flapping their wings alone. Theirs are the most frail bodies of the bunch. A third type is capable of telekinesis and teleporting as base skills, fire power and shocking as special skills that need practice. There is a fourth type that is quite rare that has the abilities and physical traits of all three parties, and there are only two of them on earth right now to the best of our knowledge. There is a fifth that feeds on emotion of other sentient beings, and can live interchangeably on sustenance from leeching feeling from other beings or from solids. The feelings of other creatures beyond their kind can be read and tangibly drained leaving an empty, unfeeling shell behind. They can develop restraint, however, and prefer a willing host who they can dependably feed from. Vegetables and meats agree with them, but it's like feeding an ordinary human a purely vegetarian diet. It has unintended consequences. Solids are like carbs to them, strong emotion is like meat and protein. There is a humanoid body type that has a dog face, and another humanoid body type that has the likeness of humans, only smaller, flat nosed, has razor sharp teeth and has a high pitched voice. Finally, we have dragons, who have handlike claws similar to the last two types, but they can also breathe fire, grow wings into maturity, and fly, plus they live millennial lifespans, and have a near impenetrable skin. The latter three can live on a plant diet, animal diet, or even skip over both and live on raw minerals alone. Give them a scrap metal yard, and keep supplying junk to it, and they are set for life. Oh, yeah, one last thing: You know about the mythological gryphons? They are here, too.
I hope I have been helpful, and I wish you all the best of luck.
Oh also, you get too focused on your subject, trying so hard to be comprehensive that you seem to lose track of what you were trying to talk about in the first place. You need to avoid explaining, and spend more time describing what's around, letting the reader explain for themselves what's going on. Not that explaining is inherently bad, but you do it way too much. You also repeat yourself a lot, with heavy redundancies. In trying to make sure people are on the same wavelength as you, everything you write seems to turn into another synopsis of this particular story scenario. Instead, just assume we know what we're talking about, and explain yourself when we ask for it, rather than trying to forcibly explain it to us. Case in point:
4085928 Thank you for the input. I think I'll reread this again and see what needs tweaking the most.
Maybe LPoE, not LOPE? Or did I miss something? I'dd We are talking about LPoE, then the universe itself is called Ponies after People)
And where are gryphons?
4090724 Gryphon... I knew I forgot something. merci. I'll edit this as you said, and I will include that.
And it is far easier to make an acronym this way than the way s/he would suggest.