//------------------------------// // June 17th, 2015 // Story: Perils of a Merpony: A Ponies after People Tale // by kitten_girl86 //------------------------------// They set out around 10 AM, saying good bye & wishing luck to Nathan and Matthew. The road was uneventful until they crossed the SC/Georgia state line and passed west of Savannah. Kathryn, very focused on the road, didn’t see the grey mare walking in the opposite direction. It was Sarah who noticed and pointed her out. Kathryn stopped the truck, slung a crossbow and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder and jumped out of her seat; Raea was a few paces behind her but not for long. Kathryn still had not forgotten Bad-News-Bob and so she approached any lone pony with caution. This mare, an earth pony, was clearly still clinging onto her humanity by wearing slightly baggy children’s clothes: t-shirt and shorts, a hole ripped in the latter for a tail hole, and stretched out sandals on her hooves. She was towing a gardening wagon behind her on some straps arranged like a harness. Kathryn saw a food cooler and a full & an empty 4L bottle of water. When the mare recognized the sound of hoof-steps, she looked up but her eyes went to pinpricks when she saw the dog. She tore off the harness and back-pedaled until she backed right up to the guardrail of the highway. “Please, please don’t hurt me! Take whatever you want; take the whole wagon... just please don’t hurt me!” she pleaded, hyperventilating in the process. Kathryn shook her head and turned to Raea. “Raea, show friend,” Kathryn said, pointing a hoof at the pony. Raea dropped down to her belly and crawled forwards until she reached the grey mare; the mare was too afraid to move. Raea gently sniffed a hoof and then started licking the mare’s face in a friendly way, tail wagging enthusiastically. A few moments later, the mare started to laugh and relax. “We’re not here to hurt you. Just to help you,” Kathryn said as she approached the mare. They talked briefly; Kathryn offered a brand new 4L bottle so the mare, named Carrie, could ditch the empty one. Carrie told how she was the only one from Savannah and that she was searching for more people-ponies. Kathryn told her about the group at the Charleston Naval base but that she was too far away to call for a ride. Instead, Kathryn used the back clip to set a hoof-held radio on the harness and set it to the frequency that the boys at the base were using. “When you reach the South Carolina/Georgia state line, call them up and tell them that the Ocean Express sends their love. We stayed with them last night; two males but they’re good people.” Carrie thanked Kathryn & Raea with hugs and a few tears of joy. Going her way, Carrie took up the harness and started a ground-eating jog northwards. June 17th, 2015 @ 3:30 PM, I-95 Passing from Georgia into Florida ~Sarah Dear Journal, After Kathy helped a mare named Carrie find her way north to the Charleston Naval base, we were back on the road. It was getting too quiet so I started a dialog with the other two. I had voice recorded it on the tablet so I could transcribe it into an entry afterwards. :P Which I am doing right now! What did you do for a living before the Event [that turned us into ponies]? Ironically enough, I was the manager of the community center’s pool where Kathy found me! I also worked as a swimming instructor and volunteered at the local library. I was an urban planner for the city of Brantford, Ontario, Canada. I helped plan out the new suburbs and served on the zoning council. I had dabbled as a life guard in my teen years during the summer. I was a mechanic for the Coast Guard for nearly ten years; cars, trucks, helicopter, boats; if it had an engine, I probably had a hand in it at some point. I even fixed the heating boiler one night during a blizzard a couple years back. Do you actually know what your ‘cutie mark’ means? Meh, you’ve both seen what mine means... the merpony transformation when I want it or need it. It is pretty cool though.... being a rescue pony, and all. I believe mine has to do with my knowledge of every ship out there. It was a hobby of mine to collect and learn about every type of ship past & present. I doubt that there’ll be any ships in the future. I can pilot pretty much any ship we could possibly find out there; hence the pirate’s scull & crossbones mark. *sigh* I still have no idea what mine means. I woke up with it already there. I have a feeling that it has to do with magic in general but nothing beyond that. Don’t worry, lass! We be ones to help ye figure it out. *stifled giggles from Kathy* What is something you wish you could have done as a human before this all happened? Oh! That’s a toughie! I wanted to ride the Trans-Canada Train through the Rocky Mountains. Taking Raea with me, of course. I had hoped to take my helicopter pilot’s course; then I could have been a backup pilot for the rescue team. Funny thing is, we’ve already done what I would have wanted to do. *Silence* I got to see Manhattan; shopping on the fashion district, saw the inside of the Plaza Hotel [slept in it!!] and saw Ground Zero... and then I got to see Washington DC and we even freaking stayed at the White House! That pretty much crossed off everything on my human bucket list.... and now we’re going down to Miami! Check another one off. Hahaha! The only other thing I could think of is walking the Great Wall of China. :P Our families... who are you going to miss the most? Both of my parents are dead but I will miss my younger sister Isabella the most. She was the one I left a note with before leaving Boston. Both of my parents are still living... but I guess not right now. I’ll miss them for sure. I also left them notes too back at their house. My mom’s been gone a while but I will certainly miss my dad. He has been a huge presence in my life, especially since mom passed. I'm glad I got to leave those flowers for her and the notes for my dad. If anything, I know he’ll be ok when he returns because he’ll be returning to a thriving pony city. And the notes will tell him that I was ok, that I got on with my life and went on an adventure. OK, my turn. Now that we are ponies, what’s one thing you want to accomplish? And I don’t mean just contributing to what’s left of humanity. I mean something for you. For example, I want to re-learn how to knit again with hooves. It was a calming pastime for me as a human and I still want to keep it up. I want to take up languages; get some of those Rosetta stone lessons and learn all of the languages I can. I had learned French & Spanish in school and it was very useful in the Coast Guard but I’d like to keep going with some others like German & maybe Chinese. *Whispers*... children. I want to be a mother. *Silence* That’s when the talking ended. I guess my answer was a little shocking to them and maybe they had not thought that far ahead yet. I have been thinking about that since I first met little David back in Farmville. He had been found by the two ponies who had adopted him. It came up again when I saw how young Karen was at Harbor City. She was essentially adopted by the whole group because of her young age. I'm not expecting to have children of my own just yet... I might end up being one of those ponies who adopts a child survivor. –Sarah The only sound in the truck, besides Raea’s panting, was the light tapping of Sarah’s stylus on the tablet’s screen and the ever so slightly increasing fan of the truck. Kathryn cleared her throat as they came up to the Georgia/Florida state line sign and they all did the ‘wave’... the very last one of this journey. When they reached Jacksonville, FL, they spotted the first pony-made sign in a while. According to the GPS, they were on the Fuller Warren Bridge when Kathryn spotted the sign. It had been posted over top of another irrelevant sign and they were simply glad that there was something there. “No name mentioned but that’s ok... probably just an old sign when they didn’t have a name picked,” Sarah said casually. However, the ETA (estimated time of arrival) on the poster made every pony in the truck more excited because they knew they were nearing their final destination. Even Raea picked up on the excitement, jumping into the front seat, climbing over Sarah and sticking her head out the window. Kathryn may not have ever been to Florida herself but she watched enough TV in her youth to know many landmarks and certain places. CSI: Miami really helped on this but only to a point. Coming up to Palm Coast, they all knew that they were only 4 km from the ocean on their left side. Passing by Daytona International Speedway got the adrenaline racing and passing through the St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park got them really energized. Before they knew it, they found a second sign telling them to stay on the I-95 for more directions. A third sign at Fort Lauderdale told them to keep going! Exit 16 took them to Biscayne Blvd and they followed more, smaller, signs until they came to the Biscayne Bay Campus. The main front sign had been covered with a new sign that merely read, “Campus City”. “Oh, how original,” Kathryn muttered as she followed the pony signs to the University Center. ~”We’re here because we’re here!”~ sang Patrick as Kathryn pulled the RV into the parking lot next to the North Campus Academic Center 1 building, taking up eight normal parking spots (& one handicapped). It was the closest parking lot to the University Center... literately, walking distance and Kathryn could see that the campus was a LOT of walking!