Dear Diary,
I wish the Equestrian Princess had given me another one of those memory crystals, so I could show you the feeling of being back on Earth. Equestria was a beautiful place. I’ve never seen grass so green, or water so clear. I’ve never met ponies so friendly and kind. Luna said there were humans from Earth who stayed behind. I can’t really blame them.
Not me, though. Even with the haze of LA’s ruined corpse in the distance, even the scorching desert heat cannot make home seem less sweet. Even with my city burned (still burning, probably), I would take Earth’s cradle over any paradise. Your transformation might’ve made me a pony, Luna, but it didn’t make me less Earth’s child. This is my home.
Thank goodness for those saddlebags, as by the time I’d finished my week-long tour in Equestria I’d received enough gifts to fill a modestly sized train. The saddlebags she’d said I “wouldn’t understand”? It’s magic. Apparently made by the Princess of Magic herself. (Princess Twilight Sparkle, that was her name, tried to explain how the magic worked, even though I told her like three times I didn’t get it. Whatever). Point is, it’s bigger on the inside? No, it’s not a police box, though it does apparently have a chameleon circuit (as it got small enough to fit a not-full-grown pony without a tanner or a tailor to make adjustments).
That’s how Luna intended to send me back with a whole library: there’s really a library in there. Pull the satchel open and you can literally fall right in. Maybe… three thousand books? It’s hard to tell. It’s surreal stuff, what these ponies can do with magic.
The other side, the sun side of the saddlebags is the same thing, but they never built anything in it. I just used it to pile in all the gifts they gave me. It’s also lighter on the inside apparently, because it feels empty no matter what I put inside. You should’ve heard that pony trying to explain how it works (probably not, it was extremely boring).
Said goodbye to Sunset Shimmer before dawn. She came with me on the train back to the little town we’d arrived in. Apparently Celestia and Luna had stayed up at night preparing the way back. The portal was so costly now it took both of them together to hold it open, even for a few seconds. After what happened yesterday, I’m still more than a little awed by the power they wield. A little glad they’re going to be a world away from my home. They’ve already proven themselves capable of changing everything, and we couldn’t do a thing about it.
Or maybe not everything. If what I’ve seen with the HPI proved anything, it was that their spell was not complete. Humans had a way to counter magic after all. Take that, ponies. Take that, me. I’m one of them. I’ve got a cutie mark now. Would you believe I didn’t even notice? I guess the stress of everything that was going on, and I hardly realized my own body had changed. Wish I could say better what it felt like. Just, while I was talking to Luna, I understood what I was supposed to do. Preserve the memory of humanity, no matter what. Whatever the heck kinda “special talent” is that, anyhow?
Sunset acted weird. Said she would “probably see me again,” right before I went through. Thought that was a little weird, but she’s the magic expert, not me. Are the universes drifting or aren’t they?
Little warehouse was exactly the way I left it. Not that I was too worried: I’d left my phone and stuff off to keep the battery alive during my time in Equestria, and the ponies sent me with enough food to be alone for months (and cookbooks, yay!). Came back with a few real outfits, which is neat. Ponies don’t seem to actually design these things for modesty (lots of uncovered butts and everything else back there), but at least I don’t feel like an animal. Better horseshoes too. Imagine that; a whole horse society actually knows how to maintain it. You can bet we’re gonna reverse-engineer the hell out of this stuff.
I was really worried about Huan. That big dog was literally sitting in the warehouse waiting for me. Patience and loyalty like that... Dogs might be smarter, but it doesn't seem like their essential nature has changed much. He's just more of a dog than he was. Does that make sense? The first friend 'Lonely Day' ever made. Even now, he's still looking out for her. Thanks, Huan. I always knew I could count on you. I'm glad you did okay in my absence.
Went outside, booted up the old Iridium, and prayed to the horse-gods that my friends were okay.
They were. Cloudy Skies (CLOUDY SKIES, OF ALL PONIES!) had taken over in my absence. They had ignored my instructions though, and waited for me in Phoenix. I don’t even want to think about how they found water for all those cows. I told them I’d drive straight there, so stay put. Hopped in my fancy-shmancy police car, and set off.
I’m glad these things are made so sturdy, and I didn’t really want to think about the gas in my tank. What would happen if I saw a repeat of my Bakersfield trip in the middle of the desert? The ponies didn’t send me back with any water casks. They did give me some fancy clothes and a title. Equestrian Envoy to Earth. I don’t think I’ll ever tell anyone. If they’d wanted somepony to represent them, they could’ve come themselves.
Or… actually, maybe I’m glad they didn’t. They’ve taken enough of our free will away as it is.
When I got to the next town, I spent a few hours finding something to drive that didn’t need gasoline and filling it from the middle of a gas station reservoir instead of whatever collected on top. Pretty sure I didn’t get any water or smell any fungus, and it didn’t explode. Guess I got lucky?
All that delay meant that it was just about getting dark when I got to our little camp, trucks and RVs and such circled up like an old-timey wagon-train. The cattle grazed nearby, on the rim of grass around a small pond. Public parks, hurray.
There was another RV in the caravan, and it didn’t look to be in good condition. Like one of those old Winnebagos, old and yellowed all over. Had some solar panels on top, but not set up right. More like those big camping ones, duct taped to the roof by someone who had no idea how to work with the RV’s electrical system. There was a little trailer too, towing behind it. It was largely stacked with dried wood, aside from an ugly stack of barrels and scrap metal, with pipes traveling out in several directions.
A gasifier? Must’ve been hell to build with hooves. I say this, because of course I already know it wasn’t a unicorn who built it. Pegasus named Adrian, as it happens. Pretty well-traveled stallion, from some of what he said around the campfire.
But that was later. I stopped not too far away, slung on the saddlebag, and headed over to my friends. The ones who knew what it was like to have your body taken away. Tearful reunion. None of your business!
Caught up with what they’d been doing (not too terribly much, aside from meeting this new pony and learning from him all the exciting things going on in the world at large). They wanted to hear everything. It took a very, very long time to explain what I had seen. Moriah in particular didn’t believe me. I had about zero patience for that, so I shoved her into the saddlebag library.
The saddlebags don’t actually move when there’s anything alive inside. I don’t understand how it works exactly. I had to leave them set down where I’d left them as I finished my story. It was worth having to repeat some of it to see her face when she finally found the door. She wasn’t much kinder, though at least she stopped denying it. I told her what I’d learned about her horn injury while I was there, and that seemed to make her feel better. The little blessings, right?
Any hope of reversing this easily and systematically is long gone. The problem will outlive normal ponies, even if we really live as long as Sunset Shimmer suggested (I have my doubts). One of these days I really ought to write down everything that happened to me over there. Like what Celestia and Luna did after the memory crystal ended, or all the things I saw during my tour. Another day.
I summarized it for my friends (the second thing. I didn’t tell them anything about the first thing). How humanity had become almost like celebrities over there, tons of ponies wanted to meet me and learn what “living in the magicless wasteland” had been like, and how much better my life was now that I had it. Reactions were more or less what I expected. Disgust from Moriah, ambivalence from Oliver, and Cloudy Skies muttering that she wanted to show me something.
I didn’t really hear her then, and I finished with the story. The meeting, learning what happened to Earth from Luna. Oliver wanted to see my memories, Moriah too. Cloudy and Rune? After seeing Oliver and Moriah’s expressions, the pain as they were forced to experience everything exactly as I had, they chose not to. I really wish there had been some sort of Final Cut program I could use to edit those memories first. There were parts I’d rather not have shared.
Oh well. I am what the Equestrian spell made of me, same as anypony else (well, a little of Moriah’s spell too). Guess it was only a matter of time before they learned I’d had a name besides Alex. God have mercy on their souls. Probably have to tell Cloudy about that, come to think. Honesty > Gossip.
It’s pretty disheartening, to think about the sheer magnitude of the task ahead of us. The Equestrian spell did not kill the missing humans, only sent them ahead in time. They’ll arrive in very small numbers at first… but by the time they start coming in earnest, we’re going to need a society built to handle them. A society with modern technology, modern infrastructure, all of which is rotting away before our eyes. At least we’ve got thousands and thousands of years.
If we can’t capture the essence of human inventions and discoveries now, it’s quite likely they’ll be lost, perhaps forever. It might not actually be possible to follow the same path, technologically. The easy coal and oil is mostly gone. Plenty of harder-to-get stuff down there, but nopony will ever know to try. Tough break. I wonder what it will be like.
Whatever, don’t have to worry about all of it at once. New pony Adrian, for his part, was pretty quiet as we talked. Didn’t want to “interfere”. Probably he was just overwhelmed by what I had to tell him. I know I was. He asked to see the memory crystal himself, and I shared it with him. Didn’t say a word when he was done, just seemed to grow a little more respectful as he went into his crappy RV for the night.
The next step, of course, is going to be calling our friends at the HPI. Hey Dr. Clark, I investigated, just like you said. Probably changed the rest of my forever, but I did it. Between the two of us we should be able to make sure that humanity makes it. Oh, and we’ll probably have a more enjoyable meeting next time.
Among the many gifts I piled in the other half of the saddlebags are restraints for each of the Equestrian races, used to contain the magic of dangerous criminals. The ones for earth ponies are shackles covered in runes; only gave me one for each of the races (Guess they don’t expect us to have many bad ponies. Here’s hoping the prison populations don’t return until we’ve got a way to deal with them). The HPI didn’t give us any of the magical-measuring technology, so I don’t actually know if it will make talking to them more practical or just take away my magically enhanced strength and endurance.
Tomorrow our caravan will travel northeast. Adrian the Pegasus is traveling with us (apparently he was looking for us to begin with, guess my radio station wasn’t a waste of time after all!). He’s excited to see “a colony founded firsthand” and to help. And no, he doesn’t actually know how his gasifier works, or any of the other modifications to pipe that gas into the engine. Somepony else built it all for him, he just drives the thing. I took a look, and it’s good work. He swears he can get a full mile per kilogram. Not sure if I buy that. He has news of other settlements, of the other ponies in this country and the others just north and south. I’ll ask him about it tomorrow.
I asked Sky if she’d thought about being honest with Joseph. She wasn’t yet, though she was sure she’d tell him one day. She didn’t want to ruin his relationship with Moriah. Whatever that relationship actually is. I asked if she’d thought about Oliver, or maybe if she liked the look of the new pony. She said, “Adrian seems nice, but I’d never think about Oliver. I won’t step on Moriah’s hooves, and I won’t step on yours either.” Psh. Got a little agitated. Told her some things she didn’t seem to even register, or if she did, she didn’t care.
Another question, then. The one I’d really been wondering about. Why had she lied when we first met? Why hadn’t she told me about Sunset Shimmer?
Should’ve seen the look on her face, then. I think maybe she thought because I hadn’t brought it up earlier that maybe I’d never learned that part. That maybe she’d scraped by. Sorry little Sky, not today. She broke down; started crying, but I was firm with her. Didn’t let her worm her way out until she’d answered me. Not going soft on you today, Sky.
Eventually she told me the truth. She’d been traveling when she saw Sunset Shimmer appear, in the magic circle we’d visited earlier. They spent the day together, and Sky had learned a great deal from her. Sunset hadn’t talked about Equestria, but she had seemed the nicest pony Sky had ever met.
But she hadn’t been looking for lone survivors, she was searching for our governments. Any sign that civilization had survived, really. She’d offered to take Sky with her, but the pegasus had been too frightened of traveling so far from home, and stayed behind. Sunset Shimmer had asked her to promise not to tell anyone about her before she left. Cloudy Skies hadn't even asked a reason, or if she did, she won't tell me what it was. She says that sunset was "just so nice", that she didn't think of asking why.
Now I'm wishing I'd known about this before, so I could've asked her when I'd been near here. I can't even guess. What was she possibly hiding from? For that matter, why was she encrypting her transmissions back to Equestria? Why not just use the radio to talk? I was so caught up in figuring out what happened to my own species, I never had the chance to ask why the Equestrians were acting so strange!
I tried not to be too hard on Sky, I hope things are okay. She doesn’t seem to want to switch with anyone for sleeping in here with me (which is good, because Oliver would be the only option). When we get a real colony, we can have real beds again. So that means she’s not scared of me either, which is good. I dunno if I’d be that graceful in her place.
If only she knew the half of what happened in Equestria, during that last day.
They did something to me. I just wish I understood what it was.
—Lonely Day
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