Dear Journal,
Sorry about not writing yesterday. I was otherwise engaged. Just wanted to say that things have changed. Everything is different now, and not in a bad way. If you’ve been reading these entries straight through, you can probably guess what I’m going to talk about. I’ll just assume you have been and offer minimal background details here as I go. Lots to talk about, and not too terribly long to talk about it. Staying awake remains a challenge, and it’s already night.
But if I don’t take the time to finish this, I’ll probably get out of the habit. Even given the changes to my situation, I fully intend to keep writing these as best I can for the foreseeable future. I'm sure they'll probably get shorter once I get into a routine. Flipping back to some of my older entries (before I was abandoned all alone), Some days I just wrote a few lines. It wouldn't be that bad to end up like that, once all the biggest problems of survival have been worked out.
Two days ago I heard the voice of someone broadcasting. While a human voice might very well have come from a recording (as the loop I set to broadcasting over the CB), the person speaking was in clear and severe distress, expressing thoughts of loneliness and abandonment just like my own. It wasn't a HAM radio broadcast, or anything over shortwave, just the sort of transmission you might hear over any handheld radio you could buy at a Best Buy or whatever.
I made finding this person my top priority, putting it before even my urgent unmet survival needs. The night before, I put together a quick device I could use to monitor the strength of the signal, and a map I could use to mark all my observations. Early in the morning I set out with the map in my wagon along with the radio, a big rechargeable speaker, and enough supplies to spend the night somewhere if I needed to. Wore my best pair of athletic shorts for the occasion, along with a necklace I used to wear before everybody vanished. Huan of course wouldn't have missed the trip for the world, though I'm not really sure what he does with his time. I'm starting to think maybe I should do more to get him to at least come inside the fence. It's got to be safer sleeping on the property (maybe in the garage or something) than out in the middle of nowhere.
I wanted to make it extra clear to the stranger, if she was human, that I was human too. Well… not physically obviously. I could only wish.
Describing the process is boring. I knew the city well enough not to need the map to navigate, only to mark my observation. When divided into tiny grids, I filled each square I traveled through with my observations. She was transmitting all day, though most of it came through as patchy static at best. She needs a new radio.
Only when I got close to where I’d been “shopping” for clothes the other day did I begin to hear her again. She wasn’t talking about anything in particular, just reminiscing about family and the people she missed and wishing they were with her. Talking about how she thought she’d probably starve before winter, because “let’s face it, I’m helpless enough to starve in a city full of food.” She said some worrying things, at least for the mental health of someone who has only been alone a week.
I was racing against the clock, though. If she signed out again, she might not ever sign on. Since I didn’t have a car, each step came dreadfully slowly, and it ended up being more a game of hot and cold than triangulation based on discrete points.
As the day wore on, my hooves got sorer and the sky got darker, and even as the signal grew stronger there was no sign of anywhere lived in.
I thought about turning around. The dog-barking and other generally disconcerting noises were getting louder, and I knew that the longer I waited the less likely I would be to make it back to my new home before it got truly dark and I lost the ability to see anything clearly. Huan would do his best to keep me safe, but there was no way we could fight off a large pack by ourselves.
I was walking through tall, regular apartment buildings. They all looked the same, a dozen stories each with no obvious signs of present occupation. I decided to chance my safety on an assumption: even somebody who wasn’t doing everything I was probably cared enough to keep electricity going somehow. Generators, extra batteries, something. The radio might be handheld, but I was willing to bet if they went to the trouble to do that they would also keep some lights burning.
The only problem with using this assumption in my favor is that my night vision is now much worse than it used to be. While I seem to also be able to see colors in a much more vivid way during the day, it’d be tough work not to trip over my own hooves, even if nothing wild and dangerous tried to run me down.
Nothing did, obviously. As sunset came and the cloudy California sky turned scarlet, I saw a glow from within one of the apartments, one of the few to have a window open. I saw no motion from inside, but there was no mistaking the orange radiance as anything natural. With the power dead for several days, I didn’t think there was any chance it was happenstance.
The window was open. I had a speaker and a cell phone with plenty of music. I picked the loudest, most grating pop song from my library, angled the speaker upwards towards the window, and turned the volume up loud enough to blow the speaker.
When she came to the window to investigate, I learned I wasn’t alone, in more ways than one. I wouldn’t wish my suffering on anyone. I wouldn’t wish anyone else experience the awful loneliness of an apparently empty planet. I wouldn’t wish anyone lose their body, and be given an alien one instead. I wouldn’t wish that anyone have to hate the foods they crave and lose access to their skills because they lack the limbs to use them properly. Worse things.
When she came to the window, I saw a face that wasn’t human. Maybe I should be ashamed to say that I felt relief, but it would be a lie not to say so. I am not alone. Whatever strange magic changed me, I was not its only target. I’m not going insane.
Well, maybe I am. But it’s slow.
If I’m a little crazy, this new — mare — is downright insane. She wouldn’t give me her name, at least, not her real one. She said that she hated that person, and it’d be better for everybody if she had “died with the rest of them”. She wanted me to call her “Cloudy Skies” instead, after the pair of depressingly gray clouds on her butt.
Yes, she has a mark on the sides of her… whatever you call it on a horse. Butt isn’t right. I should find a horse anatomy book to read. Whatever.
They’re not tattoos. It’s right there in the fur. She’s closer to a natural color than I am, gray instead of this stupid aquamarine like me. I think there’s a drop or two of red in her fur, but it’s so spread out it’s more like a pastel twinge than anything else.
Of course, the weirdest thing about “Cloudy Skies” is that she’s got wings. Honest to god wings, coming right out of her side like she’s some sort of chimera. Only it doesn’t even look all that unnatural. They match her coat perfectly, feathers and all. They don’t seem particularly useful; they’re way too small to lift something as big as we are. You call that a Pegasus, right? Like the one that dude tried to ride up to Olympus even though he knew no mortal could go there.
I feel like finding another survivor is a little like that. I've kinda just accepted that I wasn't going to have anyone (dog not withstanding). What does it say about me that I was content with that after only a week?
Of course, Cloudy Skies is playing several different flavors of strange. She also didn’t bother to wear anything, saying “animals don’t bother, and that’s all we are now.” I can’t deny how uncomfortable clothes are against a coat, but I still reject her logic. Whatever. It’s not like I’ll ever care if a horse is naked near me or not.
So she’s a little eccentric. Well, more than a little eccentric. There are some signs of serious distress and a history of abuse here. Figures that at the end of the world I couldn’t find anyone stable for a partner. Well, I guess she does belong in — See, find just one other person to spend some time with and I've sunken to making puns.
I’m not sure if Cloudy Skies has always been unhinged, or if it’s a recent development. I can’t say I know the first thing about treating anything. All I can do is be kind, understanding, and patient. Given she is (at present) apparently the only other person in the world, you can bet I will try. My friends would say that I’m pretty lousy about being loving and understanding. My friends are all gone. Still, I can’t help but agree. I’m probably going to screw this up somehow.
She’s not particularly attached to the place — it isn’t her home from before. She wouldn’t tell me where she had come from, only “hopefully it burns down when the summer fires come.” I talked about all the nice things my home base has going for it, and she seemed to get convinced pretty quick. Of course, it might've been that she was convinced to not having to live all by herself. I can't say I cared for the lifestyle much.
She offered me her bed, but I took the couch of course. She didn't have generators or anything, just a bunch of flashlights and a huge box of batteries. No water either, just cases of water bottles she was using for everything. Super annoying, since you need fingers to open the tops on those. Had to punch a hole in each one to get the water out. Whatever, it was fine. I'm sure that was part of why she was so willing to relocate. As I had thought, her radio looked old and broken and she didn't really know how to use it. Doesn't matter though, really. It was good enough to lead me here.
Today, we loaded up her possessions (leaving behind the map and the blown out speaker to save space) into the wagon for the return trip across the city. Sky (if I just call her that it doesn’t seem so silly) wanted to help, and my neck and sides were grateful to have the awful nylon not rubbing on them during some of the walk.
Mostly she wanted to know about all the things I had learned and done. Mostly I had bad news for her, since I haven’t learned anything about what caused this or why. I told her that I wasn’t sure we would ever know that part, and that my first priority was survival. She agreed, and actually didn't mention being human or anything about the world before during our long walk back. My questions were met with obfuscation or simple confusion, though she wanted to know all about my work at the garage and my plans for the house here in town.
I do have plans. I’ve got a little prepper in my blood on my father’s side. Pity it didn’t manifest in me until after everything was already over. Now that I've got a reason to put in the effort besides my own simple survival, I have a feeling I'll work harder. I'm not the only one at risk if we run out of food or water now. Of course, I also don't have to do it all myself. Now I've got someone who will hopefully turn into a friend eventually to help pull the wagon. Plus, it's a she. Feels a little selfish to be thinking something like that now, but given what happened I can't help but be thankful for that. I'm not sure how I would've handled the alternative.
The headquarters has four bedrooms. With the new arrival, I’ve transferred all my crap to the master bedroom, leaving the others free for the others I’m sure we’ll find soon. When there was one, everything was awful and I was alone. If there are two, there are bound to be more. Whether dozens, hundreds, or thousands, that I don’t know. We will find them.
I haven't decided yet whether I want this to succeed. Is it better to let a handful of "humans" live on, or just let ourselves go gently into that good night. I'm not sure yet. I KNOW it shouldn't be my decision to make. I feel like there are billions of people who should get a say, but who have been silenced.
Next priority: simplify transportation. Maybe together we can make a real harness for pulling the wagon, or pad and reinforce the toy. It would be smart of us to start a garden too. I wonder if horses can operate rototillers.
Not forever alone after all,
—A
I did my best to capture Cloudy Skies, though I didn't have her pose or anything. I think I'm getting better. Guess it is possible to adapt to using just your mouth after awhile.
Interesting!~
Earlier every day
An answer! And yet so many more questions!
Wow.
So, we have another human survivor.
Well, pony survivor. No clue what else to say, but keep on trucking and keep on moving forward.
I hope things work out for A. Also, I am excited to see what tomorrow brings as frankly, this is really going to be fun I feel. Maybe they can find a Unicorn? Will we get to see Cloudy Sky fly? If they find a Unicorn, holy Toledo will they have an extra bit of help, once they learn how to use magic... but I am over thinking this. Right now survival and I just happy they didn't find someone medically weak or the like. Because that would bring in even more problems, but I am thinking in human terms, as it seems Ponies are stronger than humans, does she have the same issues of needing to sleep at night?
So Sky has already gone native. Well, hippie native. It's possible she broke since the end came, it's been a week after all. Without something to occupy yourself (like what A's been up to) the loneliness can strike harder. It's possible she was prebroken...
Also; A's still the cuter one.
Oh man. (I say that a lot don't I?) This is good. I am liking it. I am glad my assumption was wrong. It was that there was one survivor per town/city.
Keep it up!
img.pandawhale.com/97663-Thumbs-Up-Horse-Head-gif-Imgur-CvMD.gif
I love it
Hah,a new chapter!
Let's just hope nobody dies until few more chaptersNow,all I have to do is wait for the next chapter,and enjoy myself reading some more.
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Can we use this universe? Can we help you expand on it? And would any other stories using this premise be canon to yours?
Ooh nice... didn't see that one coming. A not-human-before pony? Maybe... can she fly without trouble? Then she's almost certainly not a transformed human. Whatever the case, you sure added an interesting unstable character. The plot thickens.
And, dear A: it's called flank. Very important word.
Apart from that: environment (if it still follows the rules... who knows?). Every last diesel generator has run out of fuel by now so refrigerated medical supplies in hospitals are spoiled, industrial estates where they used liquefied gases that are heavier than air will be deathtraps at least for a few days and the nuclear cooling ponds are boiling and should catch fire within the week.
Also: zoo animals that are large enough to break out are exploring the city :)
Sky seems a nice at the surface.( Eccentric but nice none the less.) Lets hope she doesn't runs off with all of A's supplies during the night.
Also
Might be an indication that A is (at least physically) a mare.
6032916 Alternatively, A could be thinking about a future without a girlfriend.
6032897 Actually it said that she was human before she was a pony. Cloudy says she hated the person she was before and she wished she died with the rest of them.
Yes yes yes!
*gets back to writing on his own fic *
*ships it*
I enjoyed this chapter, as with the others, and look forward to more.
CRAZY WAIFU GET!
(Have a Sky Pone.)
(I'd like to mention that as the one who makes the sketches in the journal entries/chapters, I do these comment pics without prompt from Starscribe, but I like to think it's hopefully a nice little surprise for both the author and the readers.)
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6033003 Yeah... was probably just me thinking around too many round corners. It's Starcribe's fault!
6033020
Sounds like there's been a shift in the rod/cone balance in A's eyes. That dedicated diurnality again.
Also, true companionship! Sorry, Huan, but it's not like you can carry your half of a conversation. Also interesting is that Cloudy Skies has a cutie mark. And her special talent appears to be... pessimism. Let's hope there's some cloud manipulation there, or she'll quickly become insufferable in this scenario. Of course, that would require her trying to fly first, and the odds of either of these two thinking to try that seem pretty darn low. We'll have to wait and see there.
In any case, A just got some real motivation. It should be interesting to see what he does with it.
The art is adorable!
6033090 I love your picture comments and the drawings in the story; great job! :3
6032876 The previous chapter has a comment on this. Let's let the world building continue.
6033090 I love your art, and it adds to the story a gives us something more to forward to.
And I'll reluctantly admit that Sky is Saucy.
6028315
I don't even know his full name...
The only thing that bothers here is that now every chapter will be one day off. *Slowly dies inside*
Can't wait for more
My bet: CS was already the "jaded misanthrope" type before Ponygeddon went down, and now she's taking it as affirmation of her beliefs.
6032876
Thatwould be great, create our own canon like this.
Truth is, I started writing a while ago ( in french tho ) about something like that before becoming a brony. I love survival / post apocalyptic / zombie stories, but havn't found the inspiration to add ponies to them. After reading the first chapter, I enjoyed it instantly and felt bad about writing something too similar and crappier
But I'm not the A- we'll have to wait for his answer ( maybe approval? )
6033347
I feel that, now that she's a pony, it gets harder on her. Because, If she was abused before, then turning into a pony and everyone disappearing would make it seem like the world just simply hates you.
So... Is she going to try flying any time soon? That could be a good asset - even if she can't carry much whilst doing so.
This is it, this is the conformation I've been waiting for. I'ma do it, I'ma write my own side story! (if that's OK with you ) If I am OK to write this, and there is anything you want me to do or avoid doing, and you don't want the audience to know please PM me.
It my sound kind of arrogant, but i sincerely want to say congratulations on writing an amazing story that me, and hopefully others will be able to add to!
Nice~ We have a new character, who seems to have already invented the traditional Pony way of naming things.
Awesome.
Also a pegasus, I wonder is another will appear who is a Unicorn, that would be nice huh? Pretty damn awesome even.
And so onward! To survival, and art is pretty awesome as well.
6033485 6032876
so, like another pony somewhere else in the same situation? that would be cool. it could be like a new stream of stories... like displaced!
6032916 Hard to do if the real supply is the whole house.
6033221 That was probably mine....
6033286
They're not a day off in Australia. The shift has put it roughly in line with the west side of the international date line.
This seems really, super similar the the History Channel's: Life after people E1 S1. (I think you can find it on you tube still.)
6031815 LOOOOOVE IT!!
You got me hooked
No falling airplanes in the first chapter. Just noticed that.
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Since he stayed only the one night, did he sleep on the couch in her flat or did he stay in the flat across the hall?
Holy crap. Be gone for the afternoon, and I come back to all these comments. Thanks everybody! I'll try to get to everything everybody said, but if I don't hit up your comment specifically, know that I'm still grateful you took the time to comment.
6031866
Yeah, daily is easier said than do. I pretty much write an entry a day, though I'm writing for a week that hasn't come yet. I like to have a good seven days in advance, since things are bound to go wrong. It took... years of writing to get to the point when I could do this. Before that, I had to rely on the vagaries of being inspired too. Not so much anymore, but there was a time.
6031876
This has already been said, but I do read all the comments, and respond to almost all of them. When possible, I also incorporate ideas from the comments into the story itself. You'll see it happening, I have no doubt. Both of those things you talked about in particular have or will come up in the story.
6032041
Ooh, yay! I love when somebody enjoys the story enough to go through it all that fast. Means I did my job. Still, least you don't have to wait very long for the next chapter. Every day yo.
6032053
Also true. A used a road GPS on the second day, but it's unlikely that same technology will work a few months or years down the road, at least not with any accuracy. It's a good thing A also seems to know how to use paper maps...
6032086
Be careful with all those complements, my head is gonna explode. ^^
More seriously, I think the discussion and input I've got from the comments on this story is just fantastic. I wish I could've been a little more active earlier today, but I see things have largely continued in my absence, so that's good to see. It's too bad that a daily updated story is really too much work to do during any other time but the summer. It's been so active here, and I'll be sad to see that go when I go back to more regular updates on future stories. Still, a fun experiment.
6032788
Kinda an accident. Woke up a few hours early, though "heck, I'll post it", grabbed my phone, posted the chapter, and went back to bed. >.>
6032802
We'll have to find out tomorrow. I don't think A has had the time to get to know Sky very well yet. The pegasus seems healthy, but beyond that it's hard to say. Of course, things probably would've been much easier at home for A if Sky had been a unicorn with working knowledge of her powers, but we can't have everything just because it would be nice to have. Lucky unicorns with their lucky magic. X.x
6032804
Sky does seem to be in worse shape than A. We'll just have to see in future entries if that's translated to damage that's going to hurt their survival chances. Also, A probably would not appreciate being called cute. Good thing that pony can't hear us.
6033228
Nope, nobody does. Is Le Secret. Well, I'm sure Sky knows. Most people introduce themselves by name.
6032827
Thanks! I'll try!
6032831
That gif man...
6032864
Well, least you don't have to wait too long! Can't promise not to kill ponies, though I can promise none died today. There's a long life ahead of A, though. Lots of danger.
6032876
The short answer is that the longer you wait to start to better because I'm not done building the world yet. The long answer is here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/491432/holy-spinoffs-batman
6032897
I don't think A knew much about horse anatomy to know about things like flanks and such yet. I imagine communication in general must get pretty confusing when two people don't even know how to refer to the different parts of their own bodies. As to whether Sky is from earth or not, I don't want to state anything word of god style, but she did say she if would've been better if she had "died with the rest of them" so take that how you will.
6033020
Well that didn't take long. At least there's no name for the ship yet.
6033090
It's true. I have no idea what's coming in the comments until it does. Love the Borderlands-Style intro, by the way.
6033128
It's true! Be vague enough and people start inventing their own mysteries, even when there's really nothing mysterious happening at all. Not that there isn't anything mysterious happening, because there totally is. It's like a mystery factory up in this.
6033132
It's amazing how much of a difference having one more person can be. When you're doing things for yourself, it's easy to figure that things don't really matter. Add one more survivor, and everything changes.
6033286
Only at first. More days will be skipped, until months or years go by. It might suck right now, but it won't keep sucking. So there's that consolation at least!
6033347
Well, I expect we'll find out about that. I'm sure A has been building up a whole backlog of things to talk about once there was somebody around who could actually talk back. Plenty of time to learn details like that.
6033436
Yeah, I wrote a whole blog post about this for those who care. I'll advertise it again in the next Author's notes, but...
6033453
It does seem obvious that someone who went through such an awful chain-reaction of bad would be pretty jaded by the end. First a bad life, then the universe itself seems to conspire to make it that much worse...
6033454
That depends on how tied to real-world physics their mindset is. A obviously believes that Cloudy Skies could never fly in a million years. Maybe the Pegasus feels different, maybe she doesn't. If she doesn't, she might not ever try to find out.
6033485
Yeah, I was amazed to see so many people interested in writing their own side-stories after such a very short time of having published mine. I've got several PMed requests in addition to those here, so I wrote a blog post about it. All the details are there, but I don't mind people writing in the universe. Just... keep in mind I'm not done defining it yet. I have lots more ground to cover and it will take time to finish writing this story.
6033486
I can't say I don't feel super lucky to have such a talented artist helping me on this project. I don't usually give him much to work with, and yet he consistantly does so much better than I could. Pretty stellar art, even though he'd been on a hiatus from it before the story started. How's that hiatus coming now, Zutcha? ^^
6033525
Yeah, it might be fun. I have high hopes, anyway. So long as the people who want to contribute commit to their projects and don't leave them unfinished, that is.
6033944
Yeah, I'd heard that. I even based the group name off that series.
6034374
I'll call that a win ^^
6034392
Me too! Zutcha does good work.
6034516
Correct! There's good reason for this, though of course to say why would be a spoiler. Just... know that it isn't some mistake. It's intentional. Well, it might be a creative mistake, but it's not something I failed to notice.
6034580
Oooh, good catch. Looks like an old sentence from a previous revision snuck in there somehow. I've fixed it now.
Cloudy already has a pony name...this is interesting. And she can fly! Maybe. Or maybe she hasn't figured that out yet. She shouldn't be so depressed if she just became able to freaking fly! Even if that's not my first choice of superpower you've got to admit it's pretty cool. Poor A doesn't even have a special talent yet. In b4 next character is a unicorn.
Things really sped up here.
Just so we're clear, A doesn't have a cutie mark? Hmm.
6034600 A was able to do some things relating to strength that shocked himself. Maybe some of that is his Earth Pony magic coming though? Maybe Sky will get more tired from walking all day and won't be able to kick as hard? A did say he kept accidentally knocking doors off their hinges when trying to open them sometimes so he doesn't have complete control over it.
Eh, well thanks for not giving them a unicorn this early - that'd be hacks. I guessed she'd be a pegasus earlier because she was all depressed - I.e. look at these useless wings I have. Methinks she'll get some sort of urge to fly and jump from high places like most birds seem to. Or want to stretch her wings when the wing blows lightly towards her. Natural instincts and whatnot. She'll probably learn from there - suddenly being able to fly in a bad situation (unless it's falling off a building and she manages to glide) would be a copout and probably wouldn't work that well.
But you can't tell me because spoilers. Guess I'll have to wait a few days - or a week - to find out.
SO this is a fanon creation story for Equestria, I've heard of this head canon for MLP but it never made sense for MLP to be post Apocalyptic
but this story just keeps getting better and better with each new story.
Can't wait to hear even more about these character and their situation.
Sky seems pretty down. If she tries to suicide by jumping off of a building, her survival instincts might kick in, putting her in a glide. Suddenly realizing she actually can fly could go a long way toward lifting her spirits. (Totally did not notice the pun until I reread my post for proofreading: pun actually not intended)
Also: we need a unicorn with a 'B' name, and then we'll have an 'A', a 'B', and a 'C'!
A pegasus! That'll come in handy if and when their racial powers start to manifest (which I think has already started since we've seen A be all extra-endurance-y in story). Might be difficult to get started though, bootstrapping the knowledge of how to best use them probably won't be trivial.
6033347
LOL "Ponygeddon". I'mma using that word for the rest of this story's run.
6034600
If A does start rounding up more pony survivors... there's no guarantee they're all gonna be the usual trifecta of Earth/Pega/Unis, y'know? There are lots of equine subtypes out there in the canon, especially if you start reaching further back.
6035499 I think you found what's causing that unavoidable night time oblivion!
Shippers. They come in the middle of the night. There are no sounds, no screams... just lots of smut.
-Oakenshield toons.
6035534 Ponygeddon has to be one of the best word creations out there.
About the subtypes... out of genuine curiosity: could I ask you to fill me in on some of them? is intrigued.
Edit: Derp, don't mind that last bit. Zebras etc.