The Last Pony on Earth

by Starscribe

Chapter 3: May 25

Dear Journal,

I didn’t find anyone today. Power died sometime during the night, though the batteries in the truck haven’t yet. There were no streetlights on when I woke in the morning, and while my cell phone still sometimes claims to have service, I haven’t been able to so much as reach anybody’s voicemail today. So ends the connectedness of the information age. At least until everybody comes back. I mean; if the vanishing happened all at once for no reason, I see no reason the return of humanity couldn’t be for a similar cause and with a similar amount of preparation, right?

Maybe it’s just waiting to happen. Maybe this is some kind of test. Obviously not by us, since we never had anything that could make one person vanish, much less all of them. Or maybe… I was kidnapped in my sleep, given some sort of body or mind-altering drug, then placed in a scale recreation of my hometown, with access to some static backup of the internet instead of the real thing.

I wonder which is simpler. Were it not for the being a tiny horse thing, I’d probably suspect the simulation idea (while incredibly unlikely) actually made the most sense. With that addition, pretty much everything is up in the air.

If anybody responded last night, then the speakers didn’t wake me. I’m fairly certain with the volume level that couldn’t have happened. It was strange to wake up in my manager’s office instead of at my apartment. Can’t say I ever thought I’d sleep here.

I wonder, when I look for somewhere else to go, where it would make sense to live. LA is an awful place to build a survivor’s colony, all things considered. Even if millions of (hopefully human) people start flowing in from all over the country, the climate just isn’t conducive to a primitive society. The aqueduct won’t keep running forever, and there just isn’t enough rain down here to keep very much alive besides scraggly brown weeds and some cacti. Oregon or Washington might make better locations.

Of course it’s also possible nobody will ever show up. In that case, there’s no chance of me ever doing anything but survive. I’m sure there’s enough canned and dried food in the city alone to feed one small horse for the rest of its natural life.

I wonder how long tiny horses live. Regular sized ones don’t usually do better than twenty to thirty years. Does that mean I only have another ten?

Granted the more I experience in this strange blue body, the more evidence I see that it isn’t any breed of horse that’s ever lived on Earth. My legs can bend in ways I think gymnasts everywhere would’ve envied. Not only that, but in all my walking, I haven’t once grown tired. When a whole crate of cans fell on my leg today, it didn’t break and I was able to crawl out with minimal effort.

Thank god I didn’t break a leg. I would’ve been well and truly dead if that’d happened. No doctors after everyone vanishes, let alone veterinarians with the skills to treat injuries suffered by microhorses.

Okay, that name can use a little work. I’ll have to call whatever new species I’ve become something! In the absence of any natural individuals to argue with me, I suppose I can call myself whatever I want.

I’m wandering. Maybe I should go back to just talking about my day in linear order like I did before everything fell apart.

The loss of power changes things for me, and I realized today that one of the first things to go is going to be the produce keeping in hundreds of supermarkets all around the city. I know very little about this body, except that eating granola bars apparently isn’t fatal. The produce and meat and fish in the supermarkets will last a few hours more on their own backup generators, and then it will all begin to rot.

Given my involuntary reactions last night to even a subtle aroma, and the flat look of most of my teeth, it feels like I’m probably some kind of herbivore. It seemed the smartest idea to me to try as many of the different vegetables and fruits I could while they still existed. That would give me a good idea about the new preferences of this body, and teach me what to look for or eventually grow.

Like hell I’ll ever be able to grow anything. I’ve killed three window gardens since moving into my current apartment. Whatever.

Power generation for the radio would be important too, but that seemed like a bigger and slightly less urgent project. So I went to the closest grocery store, a Whole Foods I never could’ve afforded to do any actual shopping at before everyone disappeared. The walk was a pleasant punctuation to the quiet of the previous days. It's nice to leave the densest parts of the inner-city (if I'm going to steal groceries, might as well steal the best, right?). I think I've lived in crappy apartments for so long that I've forgotten real plants exist. Passed a park, with honest to god birds flying and chirping and doing their thing. More than just the occasional seagull flying west you occasionally spot or crow watching silently on a telephone pole.

It's funny how this awful experience and even losing what I thought made me human (the being human part) has reminded me of the things I used to experience. With the city ordinances gone and nobody blasting nests out of their houses with hoses, I suppose I'll start to see more and more of these little animals colonizing the parts of the city that have been almost desolate.

I'm seeing and hearing more evidence of LA's resident stray population. You never really hear much about them living there. In two years, I'd never even seen one. Saw more than a few today, though thank god it's been so hot. The few packs I saw left well enough alone from a distance. Guess after just a few days there's probably still plenty to eat that they don't have to get up during the hottest part of afternoon to hunt an alien horse. Maybe they expect me to be able to outpace them, since I'm a horse and all.

Can I gallop? Is that a thing that tiny horses can do? Do I even want to learn if I can? I suppose if the alternative is that or getting gored by teeth as big as my face, I'll choose learning to fight with whatever "nature" gave me.

Something else worth mentioning: I think my senses have changed. My hearing is much better. These stupid ears move for a reason, and they seem to know what they're doing without me getting involved. As much as they knock stray strands of this ridiculous mane into my eyes. I can tell where sound is coming from much better. I avoided a few streets that sounded like they had some active packs, and hurried inside a convenience store when it seemed like another group was actively hunting.

What are the dogs hunting if not for me? Rats? Each other? People's pets? Or are they breaking into buildings and eating all the rotting food and fresh-ish meat all over the city? That stuff's all bound to run out eventually. As I understand it, LA is quite unkind to rats compared to other cities, too spread out with an infrastructure too new to support them in the numbers like New York or Chicago. I fear that my local canines will soon run out of easy meals and start looking for the difficult ones. The four-legged, blueish greenish variety. How do quadrupedal herbivores usually handle predators who hunt in packs and run as fast (or close) as they do? Oh, right. Herds. Guess I don't have one of those.

Long hair sucks. There's a reason I wore it so short in high school. Maybe I'll cut it, spray it, gel it, something. What do people do with hair this long, anyway? What do people do with tails?

Can't say if seeing other living things was an improvement or not, though. Do I prefer the chirps and calls of real-life birds more than the horns and buses and human voices. God, not more than the last one. My own voice sounds awful, nothing like the one I'm used to. My earbuds won't stay in my ears, not with the way they twitch and move constantly and how strangely shaped they are. Maybe I'll have to get clips or something to hold them in. I didn't want to use a portable speaker too loudly for fear I might attract animal attention. Getting the attention of other sapient life is going to be a challenge if I have to simultaneously shelter from the non-sapient variety. Think I'm rambling, in any case. Let's focus!

The doors were locked, like I might’ve expected them to be if the place was being sealed for the night. I didn’t have to do anything to force my way in, because something already had. Several potted trees sat beside the store. None were large enough for trees, though each must’ve had a few hundred pounds of dirt.

One had fallen in, shattering the glass of one of the gigantic doors. Have I mentioned yet how big all the doors look now?

It wasn’t a terribly large tree. I probably could’ve pushed it over, if I still had the height to leverage it from the top. Or, it’s possible, a stiff enough wind could’ve toppled it, though I haven’t felt anything like that in the last week or so. I expect animals will eventually start taking over human spaces, but… none of them are smart enough to know how to use a tree to break into the one building that happens to be full of food, right?

This was one of two things: either a freak accident or evidence of another human survivor. I wandered the store, though I had to hold a flashlight in my mouth to be able to see anything. Either this particular store lacked any sort of automatic backup power systems, or else those generators would only be used to preserve the store, and not to light it.

I saw no sign animals had been into the store yet, no boxes torn or displays ripped open.

I tried much of the produce, smelling everything first and rinsing it as best I could. What I learned was either encouraging or unhelpful: it seems I can eat just about all of it. Leafy green vegetables in particular tasted far better than I remember. I couldn’t try everything, particularly the stuff that takes a long time to prepare or requires dexterity (how the hell am I supposed to slice a pineapple with hooves?).

When I was done with all that, I took a cart and filled it with all the tasty things I could. I left behind apples and carrots and other things I don’t expect to spoil without refrigeration (though I’ll have to get back and salvage them before scavengers do).

When in Rome? I can’t say I imagined an animal as small as I am could eat such a large volume. Then again, I also never really cared much for the sorts of foods I ought to eat. Now they’re all delicious. Please, tell me how that’s fair: why couldn’t I have had the same sense of taste before the end of the world? I would’ve been beach body ready all year round. Whatever the hell that even means.

Fortunately the door was one of those that can be opened mechanically from the inside, or else getting my haul out would’ve been hard. I tied some rope to the handles of the cart (a near-hour ordeal, by the way), then wrapped it around my neck to pull it. Worked okay I guess. Figure if I’m going to make a habit out of moving cargo, and I am going to have to make a habit out of it if I want to survive, I’ll probably need to get a cart figured out that doesn’t half-strangle me while I walk or rattle around like it’s going to fall apart whenever I cross a street. Bruised everything on the bottom layer just getting it a block down the sidewalk.

I kept by the same paths I had taken on the way in, and didn't encounter any large packs, though I could still hear them in the distance. I wonder if the rattling and noise scared them off. That'd be useful to know. Are they all strays? Escaped pets? I have to imagine if I've lived my whole life without seeing very many stray dogs, it has to be because they've trained themselves to avoid signs of human activity. Of course, the further I got from the more residential areas the fewer and fewer signs I saw of them, until I returned to the near desolation of the garage where I work. Guess any dogs that may've lived there have moved on to search for greener pastures. Wouldn't be harder; aside from the cart I brought, there isn't a green thing in sight.

One fear ends today: it does not appear that I’m going to starve. This body seems to handle most of the same things I (should’ve) had when I was human. I will experiment with grains next, though probably not dairy. Even if I could somehow find chickens, I’m not sure it would be worth the work of keeping them just for eggs. What am I going to do, bake cakes?

Horses can eat grass. I didn’t try that. It would be helpful to know if this body is capable, but… not today. Not ever. Not while I have any other option. Whatever did this might’ve taken away my friends, my family, and even my body, but I won’t let them take what scrap of dignity I have left. They won’t make an animal out of me. I might just let myself starve if it really comes to that. Besides, it’s not as if that stuff can be that good for you. Grazing animals have to spend all day eating because everything they eat is so poor nutritionally. Cows have like four stomachs. I don’t think horses have that, but… No.

I got a face full of grass plenty of times in the kid’s soccer league. I’m not gonna intentionally cause it now. Not to mention it's got to be nasty and dirty and covered in bugs. Can you cook grass? What about hay?

You know what? No. Moving on.

Power is my next priority. I started this building’s generator to keep the truck’s transmitter and radio working, as well as to refrigerate my produce haul. Running it on the lowest possible setting, I should only have to switch it on every six hours or so for a short period, to recharge the battery and rechill the fridge. I remember hearing somewhere that they’re insulated enough to keep food from spoiling inside even during a power failure so long as you don’t open them.

Tomorrow I’ll probably start looking for a new headquarters. The garage is central to the resources of downtown and it has the radio, but it’s also not very sustainable. With any luck, I’ll find somewhere within walking distance with a bunch of solar panels or something. Thank god for the green movement.

—A

I thought I'd draw the landscape outside the garage. How'd I do?

Author's Note:

So my original plan for this story was to let the posting schedule be dictated by the in-story actions of the narrator. Whenever they missed a day, or wrote more or less, that was what I would do. But there's also something to be said for having a consistent release schedule, which would mean that when the narrator doesn't write an entry I would just post the next one. The result of this is that the entries will get slightly more out of sync with the current day as time goes on.

What do people think? Which should I do? I'm currently leaning on the "post daily and who cares about keeping things in sync" camp, so that events in story don't slow the posting of the story. Unless the majority come out against this plan, I'll probably go forward with daily posting and allow the chapter titles to get slightly confusing as they reference days that haven't happened yet in the real world.

Let me know, though. I had absolutely no idea this story would get so much attention. Funny how the projects you don't expect to go anywhere are the ones that people seem to care about the most.

Comments

[drone_r0m-3]

As with most journals, I think people start off doing daily entries. Then as time goes on (usually a week later) that start making less frequent entries as they have less to report. Or because they have nothing to report at all (nothing new happened).

[Commander_Pensword]

I do not mind the out of sync chapter titles. I like this story, and it seems amazing.

[Alpharius IV]

I actually think that its pretty nice to have the chapter dates match up with the dates in real life. However, the con of this is the fact it won't really matter at all to people reading this a few months from now or whenever the story finishes.
I'm waiting for LA to catch fire- From what we've seen so far, the city appears to be quiet- I'd expect cars crashed into the sides of buildings if people disappeared all at once, or people to have left the oven on. However, since our protagonist hasn't seen any of this yet, it makes me even more curious as to what happened to the other people- Are there any left? The title states "The Last Pony on Earth", not the last human. Still, I'm really enjoying this story, and while I prefer to read it daily, I don't mind too much either way- If the story is in sync with the date releases or not.

[DoContra]

I’ll probably need to get a cart figured out that doesn’t half-strangle me while I walk or rattle around like it’s going to fall apart whenever I cross a street. Bruised everything on the bottom layer just getting it a block down the sidewalk.

That's what you get for trying to stick to one of the last shreds of normalcy you have instead of waltzing right through the middle of the street like anybody with even slight psychopathic tendencies would do in that situation . Not that I blame him for doing that and, where I live, it's not that much of an improvement (given the state of many streets and most of the ditches in street-crossings)

[Dr Bomb Doge]

Hmm I am thinking the daily deal is the best idea. Even if it gets out of sync, that makes it a little better. Dunno why, just feels right...

[Two Bit]

I wonder if A will realize at some point that ponies can eat a bit more than regular horses. There's mention of eggs and baking cakes, but will she actually try it at any point. I'm sure it's not easy to learn how to do that with hooves, though. Also not sure it's any the healthier than it is for humans. There's always pancakes, I suppose.

[Sonorus]

As a reader I like daily a bit more. I've noticed I skip over the date unless prompted (I didn't look at it until checking the author comment). You may need to allude to how long it's been since the previous entry if it has been a long while between entries. Plus anyone starting to read this part way through isn't going to have those delays between postings to use as a reference since they'll be reading it all in one go.

I'm really enjoying this and I'm hoping it's not too long until we see some plot, or hints as to what's going on.

[Starscribe]

6015434
Thank you! I'd never seen a story like this here before, so I figured at least somebody hadn't either. It's been fun to write so far. Never done the journal format thing, so that's exciting.

6015482
If we only knew. But how many people regularly reaffirm their own name and identity in their journals? I kept one for about two years, and I don't think my own name is in it once aside from inside the front cover. Guess everybody's got their own style.

6015554
By no means am I going to disagree with you on colors. However, it's possible that A isn't the sort of individual to know fine distinctions like that. A works in a garage and spends their time in the inner city. Probably not the sort of person to know the proper names for the finer shade differences.

6015581
While not sure how A would get up a tree, I'm certain there will be many, many rocks forthcoming. I've never heard that phrase before, but I've always had a similar philosophy: If nothing ever goes wrong, what's there to read about? Stories about overcoming adversity always seem the most interesting to me. That means we need some adversity here to overcome.

6015873
Yes, though I'm not sure if people would prefer me to skip days whenever A does or just keep posting regardless (see the author's notes from chapter three). Hopefully people let me know.

6016258
Thanks! I've always dreamed of a story that posted daily. Figure I should use the summer while I don't have as much going on to make it a reality.

6016422
Hah. So true. I just imagine A running into a pack of like... Gilda, Spitfire, Trixie... actually come to think of it, those (mostly) ponies would probably be pretty entertaining.

6016534
Most people wouldn't handle isolation very well. I know the times I've felt it were some of the most difficult, harder even than when I was physically worse off but had company to endure it with me. Social animals I guess. That's one thing we seem to have in common with ponies.

6016830
And now you can!

6016845
Some pretty intense analysis right there. Can't say I'd ever intended to subject this story to anything like that. I write pony words for fun, can't say I think any of them deserve the kind of scrutiny that I'd see in some masters level English class. That said, I do know where the story's going. Won't give any spoilers. Can't say yet if people will love it or hate it. Sometimes it seems like the ideas you love the most are the ones others don't care about, and some random one-off idea you have one night is the one that gets the attention you wanted for the things you really cared about.

I don't say this by way of saying that I haven't considered the direction and eventual endgame of the story. There are so many things I wish I could say in response to that interesting analysis, but

6016848
You know I'm one of 'em. Can't wait to see what people will think of what I wrote next. Can't please everyone, but I do try to at least please myself and do the idea justice. Like Stephen King wrote in on writing about stories being a fossil you discover. I don't know if this particular fossil is worth much, but I'm gonna clean if off and make it as presentable as I can. If it's just a bit of tooth and not the whole skull, well so be it. We might still be able to learn something from it.

6016871
I feel thy comments betray thy background. Somehow I get the sense you've never lived in dense inner-city in general (or maybe you have and it was just one more alive than the one I'm from), and certainly not Southern California specifically. Let's hit your two concerns one at a time. Can't really say anything to third that you felt the narrator wasn't genuinely discovering a new world. Only that I'm doing my best and it's your right to think so.

However, the first two are just wrong for factual reasons. I've spent my entire life living in the locations described in this story (that's why I set it in Los Angeles, because I know the city so well). During this particular season, bugs are a very minor concern. We have very few compared to many other places in the US, and the ones we have are small. Either you meant A should've been talking about the bugs around, to which I don't know why A would, since they haven't changed at all. Either that, or you meant that A should've had the silence broken by the insects, to which the obvious response is that there are plenty of parts of the city where there are none to be heard. Pretty much the only bugs that make any noise all are crickets in the evenings, and if you get far enough from water (such as the densest parts of the city) you don't ever hear these even when there are no cars or traffic sounds.

This is true to a similar degree of birds. Though the suburbs have plenty of them in a wide variety of species, the poorest neighborhoods and densest apartment buildings (where A lives) don't really. Other parts of the city (such as our fantastic parks) are far less dead.

Again, I can't really argue with any of the opinions you have. It's quite possible you'll find much more to dislike about the story. I can only say that A's experience with the "wildlife", such as it is, are based on my own lifetime of living here and my own direct personal experience.

6016912
I've always wanted to read Metamorphosis. Maybe I should hit that up for some inspiration. Can't say I really know what inspired this story, if it even was something directly. It's been fun to write though, so that's enough. ^^

6017506
Starving is probably unlikely all things considered. But it's a legitimate thing to be afraid of. If there had been millions instead of one pony, it might be a much more serious concern.

[1qazwsx]

well i think its a great idea so far

[djthomp]

Congrats on how well this is doing. After the somewhat reserved reaction Apogee got, I'm really glad to see this story pick up so many readers.

Didn't realize this was going to be a chapter-a-day story, I'll be sure to keep up with it a bit more promptly.

[Sparktail]

Hola!

First of all, I think daily entries are the best. While entries following the dates in the story do seem cooler in theory, in practice, it can be confusing, since it's hard to predict when the next entry is going to come when you miss one day. Of course, since you write them in advance, you could put the next release day in the author note, but I don't think everyone read those. So. Yeah. Better stick with daily.

As for A, well... I bet they're starting to wish they were an unicorn. Could zap those strays with magic. Then again, learning to do magic is hard, while kicking something with OP Earth Pony hooves might be a lot easier and instinctive, all things considered. I guess we will see when A actually meets a dog. It that happens.

Also, stealing from a store? What is this, Car Stealer V? She didn't even leave any bit. Then again, I don't think that's a currency yet.

[AtTheCrimsonFckr]

Again his name is......?
6017740

[bluemoon1996]

I'm fine either way

[smolbep]

Post daily. Love your work, by the way.

[One deadly spider]

6017740
impotant PM sent as of 7:14ish please check your mailbox

[Myuu]

What's wrong with grass man?
Just eating grass and walking around in wild sounds like dream to me
Well, until boars get to wherever you are but horses have mean kicks so whatever

[silvadel]

Daily Posting and just let the dates diverge.

[Snow]

Let the dates diverge I think. Otherwise think of what would happen if you wanted to write an epilogue set a few years in the future.

Also, silly filly! Colt. Not entirely sure which.

Silly pony! Don't you ever plan for eventualities like this? Before the power grid dies, you need to download the sum total of Earth's knowledge.... A backup of Wikipedia. Not only would it remain searchable (I think), but it contains important information such as edible plants, and all kinds of information. Plus if the alien pony overlords other ponies show up, it'd be nice to have something to show them. Chemical components of important medications and how they're synthesized, the machinery in question, etc.

Couple that with some solar cells and you can have access to your computer and the ultimate reference guide for years and years and years.

[Theyellowninja13]

I think the chapters should be similar to how they're currently done. I like seeing the chapters have the same dates as the day they came out. Sure, I wouldn't mind a chapter not coming out on one day, and have the guy be in some sort of trouble that prevented him from writing.

Also, is he going to meet any friends or something? Like for some reason he finds a wild horse, and he can talk with it, and they travel together or something. Or maybe he finds something that represents our friendly neighborhood Discord that keeps him company. Maybe he finds other people turned into animals, but as the different animals in the show, like a man turned into a dragon, or a woman into a zebra.

[Yami Vizzini]

A somehow sounds more feminine here. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, just interesting considering previous comments that have been made.

Better dead than grass-fed, eh?

[Wacky]

6015179 It was suppose to be the return of the SitCom (a real situation in a comedy) but the humor is a little too slow for most Americans to follow. Its even slow compared to British humor which is long paced at times.

I don't think it'll be on for too much longer. But yes, yours does have the advantage of ponies, which has already made it much more interesting. (I'm picturing that anyone who didn't disintegrate being turned into a pony...or maybe a few griffons and minotaurs thrown in for good measure.)

[Blitz the Dragon]

Just one little bit of confusion. It sounds like A started writing the first post three days after the Event, whatever it was. Is this true, or was the first entry created on the Day 1 After Humans?

[Jonathon Smythe]

Well it was already the 26th in Australia, so out of sync is not an issue for me.

[PiMan]

I like the idea of the story matching the irl date, but it has two major pitfalls.
1) People don't know when the next chapter is coming, although this could be fixed by announcing it in the author's note of the chapter prior. And it isn't that different from almost every other fic in that respect anyway.
2) Large time skips, which are more likely as the story goes on and you've covered the basic survival points, and is likely for an eventual epilogue. The only partial solution I can see for this is making skips by entire years, while the month and date remain in sync.

That said, it hasthe advantage of giving you a little extra time to write chapters where just a few days are skipped.

[DoctorTHUNDER]

This story is great. It's beautifully composed and flows really well, plus the character isn't an idiot like in countless stories where the main character makes too many stupid decisions and is a complete idiot when dealing with the situation of being turned into a pony.

[Yasahiro]

Will repeat content of my comment here so the dumb notification system of fimfiction actually let's me know about a response if you respond here. Since you have to have a response on same chapter to be notified. As far as I noticed, at least.

So in the next or the one after that chapter it is when all goes to crap? Because...

Big question. Is fourth or fifth chapter the one when everything gets worse? Because...
"If everyone on Earth disappeared, 441 nuclear plants, several with multiple reactors, would briefly run on autopilot until, one by one, they overheated."

[Starscribe]

6017625
Very true, which is why I think I'm going to be sticking with daily updates without insisting on the dates lining up. It'll be fun while it lasts, but it can't last forever. When A starts skipping days, I can just let the journal get out of sync. I put the year in the title for a reason, yo.

6017649
Thanks! I dunno about amazing, but I do think it's pretty fun to write. I guess that qualifies as amazing, when people enjoy a series that's fun for you to write.

6017662
I won't comment on the car thing except that, in a city like LA, there were bound to be at least a few people on the road even if it'd happened in the dead of morning. The fact the narrator hasn't encountered any wreckage from cars that suddenly didn't have drivers indicates that either everyone in a car at the time (and a bus, train, plane, ect) became ponies and safely stopped their vehicles and then walked away (lots of assumptions there), or something else happened to them. What happened? Guess we'll have to wait and see if A can find out.

6017679
Yeah, depends on the streets. Those parts of the inner-city, it was probably a wash either way. There's a reason we don't make modern tires solid (usually).

6017686
Many have voted this way, and so it will be. Updates will continue on a daily basis even as A gets our of sync with us. I can only guess, but I imagine it feels right is because daily updates will mean not waiting through unpredictable hiatuses. That would be really annoying.

6017730
Well A does seem to be eating mostly human things, like granola bars and such. I'm sure A doesn't think they're stuck with carrots and apples and oats...

6017734
The trouble with an event like this is the sheer, overwhelming scale of power involved in whatever caused it. 6016845 was dead on about how vastly overwhelming that is compared to a human life. Can a regular person ever have any hope of unraveling a mystery of that scale? I guess we'll find out.

6017993
Pretty amazing how the ideas you expect to do really well get crapped but something you expect people to not care about at all, beats Apogee in comments and up-votes in two days. X,x Least this one's fun to write.

6018019
I'm sure A would wish they were a unicorn just for the ability to move things like they had hands. Assuming they even knew unicorns existed. They've never encountered another pony before, much less a unicorn.

6018030
As I said, nobody says their own name in a journal. What fun would it be if I just said so? Let's see if the story tells us.

6018138
Thanks, and I will. The opinion is universal. A post a day ever day for two months or so. Ought to be pretty interesting, though it might get confusing with sixty chapters. Crap, I don't even want to think about how hard it will be to find anything at that point. Something to consider for me I suppose.

6018348
Yeah, saw it. I'll get right back to you once I'm done responding to the comments.

6018468
I'm sure if ponies were meant to eat grass then it probably tastes pretty good to them. Not to mention they seem perfectly fine naked in all seasons (particularly hardy earth ponies like A has become). However, I don't think someone trying to cling to the last vestiges of their humanity is going to run to embrace giving it up. Personally, I think there's a great deal offered by the simplicity of pony life in a Henry David Thoreau kind of way. A doesn't seem like that sort of person though.

6018475
So shall it be done!

6018499
I believe A would have considered this option, but dismissed it because they lack the computer skills to backup a site. Sure, only basic scripting or even knowledge of a few simple programs (HTTrack comes to mind) would be required... but A is an auto mechanic, and not all that tech savy from what we've seen. Hopefully there's another pony somewhere who did that. It would be shame for all that knowledge to die.

6018591
I have no doubt A will go insane if left alone indefinitely. Like me. I would too. Now give me the internet and I'd be fine, but A has already said nothing new was being posted there either. What sort of life will A encounter? Will the title tell the truth? Only time will tell!

6018756
I imagine someone who knew what ponies were and the advantages to being one would probably be less outwardly aggressive towards their transformation. Sadly, A doesn't seem to know anything about what the transformation really was or what its implications were.

6018999
It was day one. That's why A tries to call in sick after the transformation. Probably wouldn't have needed to call in if people had been gone for days before that.

6019180
[youtube=22QYriWAF-U]

6019686
Yeah, I think I'll stick with daily updates. I don't really need the time for writing (though goodness knows my editors need it for prereading before it comes out). At present I write seven entries in advance and we edit them all simultaneously. Getting out of sync will give me the freedom to take long breaks (months or years) in-story without suspending the story arbitrarily for three months.

6019832
I dunno if I quite deserve praise like that, but I do like to think A has responded to conditions logically given their life and knowledge. I also based the story in a place I know intimately. Hopefully that means the story's events will feel authentic. Guess we'll find out.

[Starscribe]

6019980
Not something I haven't considered. One of my good friends is a nuclear engineer, and I actually consulted him for this project. The short answer is that almost certainly zero reactors are going to meltdown, at least in the United States (can't speak for the safety regulations in other countries). After the various scares and minor disasters narrowly averted here, every reactor is designed to shut itself down automatically if conditions deviate even slightly from the norm. There are two levels of redundancy (using the reactor's own power) to ensure this takes place. The next generation of reactors cannot overheat at all, as they are designed to fuse themselves inactive in the very process of overheating. Unfortunately, few of these modern reactors are installed in the US.

There is a serious concern to think about when it comes to nuclear power plants, but it isn't generally the reactors themselves (only a pretty insane coincidence of hardware failures would ever allow a critical meltdown), but that many nuclear plants (including the only one close enough to have direct impact on A), store waste in liquid waste tanks. Spent nuclear fuel generates heat, which is evaporated off automatically by the system. Problem is, the reactor will have shut itself off because of the reasons above, and there will be no more power to the water pumps. With no power coming from the grid, the coolant to these tanks will stop flowing. They will dry out, and temperatures will rise. Though they're constructed to prevent fires, it's still possible the waste might ignite the building, sending dirty material into the wind for tens or hundreds of miles.

So yeah. I haven't thought about everything, but I did think about this. Sorry about not responding in the super-reply, you made your comment while I was responding to all those other ones.

6020004
Pretty awful experience. All those animals that couldn't get out, all over the world. Course, even if they did get out they probably would've been hunted, but it's still pretty awful to think about. The genocide of humanity's best friends.

[Snow]

6020008
Hehehe <3 Well there's only one thing I can say to that...

http://bfy.tw/lb

(This is me being playful, not insulting. I'm enjoying the story and regular people don't... generally plan out what they'd do in situations like this.)

[PoisonJoker09]

Hmm, I like the idea, I really do, but this series is likely going to be boring without some form of action taking place, I see the best type of stories having some form of conflict present, that's just my opinion of course.

The idea of strays becoming packs of wild wolves is a source of challenge of course, going to right direction there, but soon they will be boring without some form of companionship for... sorry, what's the name of this guy?

I don't know, maybe that's the point and this story is about a pony-turned-man living the rest of his life in an empty world plagued by wildlife escaping from zoos or strays becoming feral, I remember a game like that actually.

I'll follow and read a daily entry in my spare time, who knows? I've been proven wrong before in a story idea.

[Celefin]

6020037 Heh, exactly what I just wanted to answer. Reactors shut themselves down if the fail-safes do their job and aren't purposefully overridden like back then in Chernobyl.
The problem is tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel rods in cooling ponds. When the water is gone the stuff self-ignites, spewing very nasty isotopes into the atmosphere in large amounts over many days. That was/is one of the main problems at Fukushima, much more pressing than the melted down core: the cooling ponds were leaking, threatening to expose the spent fuel to the atmosphere, creating a highly toxic and also radioactive environment... with the toxicity being a much greater danger than the radiation, both in terms of short- and long-term damage.

[TheDawsonator1]

I like this story, enough said.

[FanOfMostEverything]

I say go with a steady release schedule.

As for the story itself, it's a good thing that that Whole Foods didn't have automatic doors. That might have been problematic. And that tipped-over tree is quite intriguing...

[Scohinyha Sanka]

Really liking this story and feel that the regular daily uploads are preferable.

Also not a criticism by a long shot but my parents having had a few horses a while ago I know that horse actually can eat meat without a problem. (Well, with as much problem as it give a human.) A story of a horse eating meat because a salt deficiency comes to mind aswell. (They gave him a salt lick and the issue was solved.) What I'm trying to say is that If A really wanted to eat meat then they could learn his body to eat it again. Probably wouldn't taste as good but would still have plenty of protein which would make it worth considering for them.

I wanted to make a comment about how the zoo inhabitants might become a problem soon but someone has beaten me to punch. (still nothing like waking up with a tiger breathing down to start the day.)

Can't wait for the next chapter.

[romantis]

This story's pretty good. No idea where it's going, but it's good at getting there.

On that note, I think it should get there in its own time. Having pauses between chapters seems good to me for several reasons.

1. You keep the date in sync with the real world.
2. You can not update for a few days, then in the next chapter reveal that something awful has happened which has stopped the narrator from writing. That'd be cool, and a unique and interesting plot device.
3. It gives you more time to polish and plan each chapter.
4. We don't need to know what happens every single day.

Still, do whatever you think is best.

[Wing Dancer]

6020740 Havent read it yet, but this is very sound advice.

[Blitz the Dragon]

6020008 Ah okay. I thought I saw mention of "the past few days" in that first post. Must have misread. Yeah otherwise I was going to wonder how in the heck the power stayed on for almost a week. Aftermath: Population Zero claimed the power in most of the world would be out 6 hours in, while Life After People claimed 3 days at most (up to a year if connected to the Hoover Dam and/or renewable energy).

[Docter Otaku]

I'm in the "post daily and who cares about keeping things in sync" camp too. I like having a story I can read a chapter of each day personally.

[DerpedRainbow]

June 16
I am holed up in an apartment about three blocks from the Garage, some dogs chased me out of there. Knew they would get hungry for Microhorse eventually... The laptop will be dying soon, so this may be my last entry until I can either get back orpractice my writing.

December 23

I figured out how to write! It isn't very easy, the last tries got slobbered on... Well, we certainly have a lot to catch up on....

This is why I prefer daily to synced updates.

[Jack Kellar]

This is hella creepy in its own way. Well done.

[shy sad jaded shard]

6063206 It reminds me of The End of Ponies by shortskirtsandexplosions But not depressing (yet)

[HarmoniaTheConfuzzled]

Thank god I didn’t break a leg. I would’ve been well and truly dead if that’d happened. No doctors after everyone vanishes, let alone veterinarians with the skills to treat injuries suffered by microhorses.

OMG!!!!!
HA HA!
Microhorses!
LOL!

[Cherry Noble]

6077582
don't vets shoot horses with broken legs?

[Draskos]

6167653 Yes. Horses have such tiny bones that it's really hard to set them, and even if you COULD set and bind the leg, horses instinctively roam around, and they don't ever try keeping the injured leg up, thus knocking the bone out of place. Laying down makes it really hard for them to breath, and too long in the wrong position and they'll suffocate. It's simply too much trouble trying to help a horse heal a broken leg due to all of that.

[Princess LightningChaser]

6277953 uh, you said that twice.

[Pseudonym1]

6281766 Wow, you're even more deductive than sherlock!

[Divine Path]

And so the search continues. I'm curious~

[Ahs]

I like this a lot