There's something weird about realizing that you're pregnant, its even weirder when you're in a completely different body than you were in before. I was still getting used to my pony body at this point, at least I had figured out how to use magic a little.
A scary thought occurred to me at that point, what if I was the only living being in the city? Was I going to have to figure out how to give birth to this foal on my own? Was foal even the right term? I mean I'm a horse creature right so that probably means its a foal.
I didn't want to think about that, I wasn't a doctor let alone a veterinarian, I was going to have to think of some way to work with this. I was really just a waitress from a small town who was stuck in this, bizarre situation that I had no idea what to do about.
Besides honestly I doubted that I was really the only living thing in the area, if I had returned as a pony there had to at least be a chance that I wasn't the only one. I wasn't sure if there was anything out there, but I had to at least try and figure that out, I'd be able to figure it out somehow
I hoped so at least.
I thought back a couple of months ago when me and Jake had, well you know for the first time. He was the only serious relationship I had been in so he had to be the father. So the question then became, where was he and what happened to him?
I still had a lot of time to dwell on this given that I had no idea where anyone even was, but now I had to figure out where to go next.
I had to figure out where to go next at this point, I needed somewhere that would give me a secure place to stay for the time being. Publix wasn't exactly in the best of shape at this point, I had found enough food to at least survive for awhile, and now I had to figure out how to survive from here.
I took a deep breath and gathered up my stuff in the wagon that I had put together and started out into the city once more. I had managed to get as much as I could together, but right now I had to figure out what was going on.
"Okay Charlie, its time to see what the rest of Atlanta has waiting for you..." I said to myself as I slipped into the harness that
I had made and started out onto North Avenue Northeast again, it was time to hopefully find somewhere to live.
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The city was still quiet, almost too quiet at this point. Most of the buildings were in too much of a state of decay for me to use. I was starting to get the feeling that it had been more than just a few months, but I had no idea how long it might be.
I finally turned down one set of streets and was a bit surprised at what I found, it wasn't a town like what I had seen before, but instead it looked like a small grouping of buildings that looked smaller, almost like it was built for ponies, was it possible that it had been built recently? Was there maybe even people living there?
I headed to the rough looking front gate of the town and froze, the whole place looked abandoned. Not just abandoned, there was something else about it, it looked like it had been scorched, like something had lit parts of it on fire.
When I pushed the gate open I looked around and recoiled, there were skeletons laying around. They all looked like they had probably belonged to ponies, but whoever had been living here was long dead.
I poked around the settlement a little, the good news was that there were buildings still intact here and there and I could at least make a home here for the time being.
What worried me though was the fire, it felt strangely directed at certain buildings that were laying in ruins. My first thought was some sort of arson, but something about this was weird,I still had a lot to think about.
I finally found some papers that at least seemed to give me some answers, they looked old and faded but it seemed like whoever wrote them were making some sort of record or log, not that it really did them much good.
Year 1, Day 1:
I still don't quite know what's been going on here, the world is strange and everything is changed. As best as I can tell this doesn't seem to be limited to just Atlanta either, I haven't been able to pick up any broadcasts or anything coming from nearby.What's even weirder though is the, other change that came with this. I'm not only some sort of pony creature, apparently it turned me into a woman too, or mare I guess. There's something odd about that, why did whatever happened do this to me?
I blinked a little at that, was it possible that whatever force was doing this also could change genders? I was suddenly grateful that didn't happen to me, being male would be really weird on top of everything else.
Then again it probably would also mean I wasn't pregnant, I'm pretty sure even male ponies can't get pregnant. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
I kept going through the logs in hopes that I'd find some sort of an answer about what was going on here, maybe the ponies who lived here knew something I didn't
Year 1, Day 34:
I've found more ponies in the city, we've started putting together a new town in Central Park. There's not been a lot of options for building materials but I think we've about gotten it. Its not easy building a new town from the ground up, but we've managed pretty well all things considered. We've called it Jewel, as far as we can tell its the only settlement in this part of Georgia, so it seems like we're the ones who are going to have to help rebuild this part of America.Somehow I'm at least starting to feel better about our situation, there's even this rather cute stallion who I found in the city. Its weird not only thinking about being attracted to a pony but a guy too? I didn't really know what was going on, but things are at least starting to look up for us.
Well, things weren't exactly looking that much better, but at least something was becoming more apparent. If the mare who had written this was attracted to another pony it at least meant the species would continue, sort of, I had no idea what to make of this.
I kept thinking about Jake, was he a pony too? Were we going to be able to maybe someday get back together and maybe raise our foal together? Or would I never see him again? It was kind of a depressing thought no matter how I looked at it, and I really wasn't sure I wanted to dwell on it much longer.
Year 2, Day 105:
I'm pregnant! That cute stallion Richard and I are having a foal together, it was weird to go into heat I guess, but it at least got me to get off my flank and admit to him how I really felt. I never really thought about being a parent before, let alone a mother, but I'm getting used to the idea, I'm actually really excited.We got a visitor today as well, she's a Zebra, apparently whatever causes this turns people into different species including Zebras. She said her name is Naris and that she had been traveling for over a year. She wanted to stop for some supplies and a place to rest for the night before she moved on, she also promised to tell us what she had learned on our journey if we would listen to her.
Okay, I wasn't expecting that, that actually meant that there were more species out there than just ponies, including Zebras apparently. What other species might there be out there? That was something I'd have to explore later I guess.
Year 2, Day 106:
Naris told us a story that I honestly am having a hard time believing. Apparently she visited a place up north called Alexandria who told her a strange story that they said was what had happened to humanity.The story as she told it involves some sort of, other world called Equestria which is inhabited by ponies and other species. According to the ponies living in Alexandria, Earth was facing a massive extinction event caused by something called thaumic radiation that was spreading out across the Milky Way Galaxy. Equestria cast some sort of spell that did this, its how we turned into ponies.
I still have no idea if I believe this story or not to be honest, but its the closest thing we have to an explanation yet. Richard is about as reluctant to believe it as I am, Naris said that she needs to leave tomorrow in order to get this to her tribe.
I hope that we're all going to be okay if its true.
Okay, that was insane, there was actually an entire world inhabited by ponies and they had did this to us? I had a hard time believing it to be honest, but maybe the writer was right, there wasn't a whole lot of other explanations for what happened to us, people don't just randomly turn into ponies or other species.
I still had to wonder, was there any other species out there other than Ponies and Zebras? I shook my head, I'd worry about that later, right now I wanted to see if it said any more about what happened to this settlement.
Year 3, Day 95:
I gave birth today to a healthy filly, we were all still trying to figure out how our new bodies work but thankfully Naris knew some Zebras who could help. They said they were from something called the Mendi tribe from the south, they seem to be healers and doctors so at least that was going to help.
The filly is a Unicorn like her father, we named her Hope, she's going to be the future of Earth, her and all the other children. We're all doing better, there's even a few more pregnancies, the future is starting to look bright finally.
I looked back around, well that apparently hadn't lasted very long based on what happened to the settlement here. I didn't like this, what had happened to Jewel? I had a lot of questions that needed answers. I took a deep breath and started reading again, there was some things that I still wanted to know answers to, and it was time to see if anything else came to light.
Year 11, Day 299:
The last caravan from the Zebras was late, we were getting a lot more worried. When they arrived they said that they had run into, something while they were passing near Stone Mountain. They didn't get a good look at it, but they seemed to be pretty sure that it was a large flying creature of some sort, and it had burnt the forest in the area around it, so it honestly wasn't clear exactly what was going on.Whatever it was that was in the area seemed to have moved in recently, which raised more questions. Is it possible it was another human that returned just not in a species that we had encountered before?
Well, as long as whatever was there doesn't come here we should be safe, at least I hope that it won't. In the meantime Jewel is doing a lot better as a settlement and things are looking up, we're even getting more ponies every so often, we may have to start heading out again to get more resources.
Okay, that raised even more questions, exactly what was hiding out near Stone Mountain? I didn't like thinking about it, and I was starting to get the impression that it may even be what caused what happened here.
That worried me to be honest, what was going on here? Was it possible there was some sort of... I didn't want to say it, the idea was just too scary, I had to finish reading these entries, but there was only one left, I picked it up and started reading again.
Year 11, Day 321:
Its over... they're all dead and Jewel is in ruins.The attack came early yesterday morning, I couldn't believe what it was I saw, it was a dragon, a freakin' fire breathing dragon! It swooped in and burned as much of Jewel as it could. It killed everypony in the vicinity, young, old, anypony it didn't matter to it.
Me and Hope just barely managed to make it out alive, Richard died in the flames trying to get us to safety along with the rest of the foals that weren't killed in the initial attack by the Dragon, I don't know why it attacked us, we never did anything to it, it just came out of nowhere.
The Zebras came today after everything was over, the Dragon was long gone and was hopefully not going to attack us again. They offered to take us to their tribal village to the south, we didn't have much other options and it was our best chance of being able to survive at this point.
I don't know if anypony is ever going to find this, I've left them behind in hopes that whoever found it was warned of what is going on nearby. I don't know if this is the same creature that was in Stone Mountain, but just in case I'd stay far away from that place.
This is Rebecca Carter, founder of the settlement of Jewel and one of its last survivors, I hope whoever finds this will survive whatever is going on in this city.
I lowered the papers and looked up at the sky. There was no sign of anything above me, just a clear, rather quiet day, there wasn't any large flying fire breathing lizards flying to kill me, so that was something at least.
I took a deep breath and headed to one of the remaining buildings and looked around, these ponies deserved to be buried, I was going to have to figure that out soon enough.
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It took me the better part of the next day to get the skeletons buried, I didn't really know who any of these ponies were but I was going to at least give them a proper burial. I felt like I should say something about them, but I had no idea what to say, and there wasn't even anypony there to hear it.
"I wish I could've known who you all were," I said with a sigh as I looked at the graves once I had filled them. "You were all just trying to make your home here like I am, I promise that I'll do my best to make sure that you won't be forgotten."
I sighed a little and placed the shovel back in its place, I didn't feel much like eating but I did have a quick dinner at least. I didn't really know what I was going to do from here.
If ponies had returned in the past, was it possible that more could be coming back to the city soon? I hoped so, it felt like I was so alone right now and it was weird, I just had to figure out exactly what I was going to do from here.
I placed my hoof on my stomach, I was still a bit shocked over the fact that I was actually pregnant, I was going to be a mother in this strange world that I didn't know the first thing about. Being a mom was going to be hard enough when I was a human, but now I was going to have to do it as a pony?
I was just going to have to try and relax at this point, it at least would be better if I had someone with me at least, I felt so alone, just me and the life growing in my womb.
What was I going to do now? What if that Dragon showed up after all? Something about this new world felt weird, I just had to hope that everything would be okay.
I made sure that everything was secure before I headed into the house that I had basically claimed for myself. It was decent sized at least for ponies, and I would be able to at least have enough room, and enough room for a little filly or colt when the time came.
I laid on the bed and closed my eyes, my relief didn't last long though as I heard the sound of howling coming from out in the city.
Something else was out there.