Dear Diary.
Today, I became adorable. Also a freak of nature. But an adorable one. I look like some sort of vampire cat. With hooves instead of paws. Also, I'm gonna rename you. Saying 'Dear Diary' sounds like something from a tween flick for girls.Hello my Inanimate Companion. I'll call you Cellie. Like Cellulose, the plant fibre? Clever, right? I think it’s clever!
Hi Cellie! I’m Robin! The sun is in the sky and my eyes are killing me. I need to find some shades or something... On the bright side, I don’t seem to need my glasses any more. They won’t fit my new head anyway, and I don’t know how to work hooves enough to try and rig a work around. Actually, that’s gonna make finding shades hard too. Well, I’ll work on that bridge later.
Besides; these eyes are huge. Like ‘half the size of my new head’ huge. And they are some sort of weird salmon colour. Right, right, it would help if you knew what I looked like. Sorry, Cellie.
Okay! I’m about four feet-ish (optimistically), not including the hair. I’m quite sure how long I am… maybe the same? I mentioned the eyes, but they are cat eyes. Mostly. They have a little hint of a diamond like shape to it. I’ve got four legs, fur, a tail and a pair of wings I have no clue how to work. They are too small to fly with anyway. No hands though, which is a bummer. My fur coat, er, pelt? Hide? I’m not sure about the terminology. Need to look into that. But it’s a faded dark blue, I guess? My hair and tail don’t really make sense. They are mostly reddish orange with darker steaks through it. The wings are weird, bluer than my fur, and webbed like a bats.
So I still have fingers, in a sense. That fact that they are webbed and wings make them hard to use. And where they are. And the size. But whatever. Oh! I have these neat fangs too! So I kinda look like a vampire version of something. The new ears are annoying, though. They twitch and shift around a lot at every little sound.
I wonder if I am a vampire… I don’t really feel like I need to drink blood, and water doesn’t scare me. Nor does garlic, onions or sunlight (aside from being bright.) Perhaps I’m a legendary Daywalking Vampire Cat with hooves!
Yeah…. No.
More likely, I am an odd ungulate species. I don’t think I look like any of the common ungulates I’ve read up on before. I also say odd because Homo sapiens sapiens don’t turn into another species overnight. Well, they are not supposed to. Don’t look at me like that, Cellie, I know I’m a living contradiction of that point, but still. I feel I got the short end of the stick…
Oh, right, sorry Cellie. Let me explain a few things. You may have noticed that I’m sorta sporadic and all over the place? I swear I have a good reason. Well, aside from the turning into a cryptid one. I woke up this morning like this, still wearing my boxers, but I’m alone. Not like ‘everyone already went out’ or the ‘there’s no one else in the house’ alone. Like ‘there’s no one around period’ alone. When I peeked out the windows, the neighbour’s cars were still in the driveways or parked on the street. Everything seemed unnaturally still.
Of course, after I got over the initial transhuman freakout, and the ‘how in the world am I supposed to walk with these?’ (I fell out of my bed. Honestly, I was in the 6 foot percentile. My bed didn’t seem high before and don’t get me started on the stairs), I started up the computer and checked the net.
Speaking of, I’m calling the computer Darcy. Related: it’s really hard to type without fingers. I’m hunting and pecking right now. I got a pair of socks, pulled them over my hooves and stuck a pen in each one. It’s been working but it’s really annoying when I twitch for a key combination like the shift for caps and realize I don’t have the fingers to reach it.
Maybe my wings will be good for something. They twitched sometimes too. Something to practice.
Hmm… tangent: I’m typing this for you on Darcy to print out on paper, so I guess I should address both you and Darcy?
Anyway, I checked the net and tried to get in touch with people but nothing. CTV and CNN didn’t have anything, the local news sites were dead (well, deader than usual). None of my forums had any posts in them for hours. There were no updates on the manga sites either. The weather network page was down. The email servers were having issues. I checked on a few major cities I could think of, their webpages and twitter if they had any. Nothing. Even the gas price app I had hadn’t been updated, and that was user maintained.
Cellie… I don’t think anyone is left. I left posts on a couple forums, tried sending out emails to everyone, texting, calling… I don’t really have much hope someone’s going to respond anytime soon.
But let’s not dwell! My street looks pretty empty; it’s pretty creepy to be honest. Nothing has changed, even though it’s getting pretty late in the day. And since I can’t just stay in the house chasing my tail all the time, I’m going to have to do what might be a really stupid thing. I’m heading out to look around. Walmart’s not too far from here, and it would be the easiest way to figure out if there really isn’t anyone around anymore.
If it turns out it really is the worst case… I can start grabbing stock. I’ve read enough books to come up with ideas and plans. I’ve had a while to think about this, and I won’t bore you with the freak out details. Anyway, I’m heading out Cellie, you and Darcy can watch the house while I’m gone.
Also, I only chased my tail once!
Maybe twice. Um… three times, tops.
It helped me work out how to walk with the new body. I should see if they have any books on animal anatomy. I mean, I still have my bio books in the basement, but those wouldn’t be all that helpful for this in particular. Anyway, that’s not important. See you in a bit, Cellie.
The walk to Walmart took a good twenty minutes. Normally it would have taken about half that time to cover the distant. Fortunately for him his earlier dalliances got him relatively familiar with the way his new legs worked and he was quickly working out the rest. His gait remained stiff and mechanical, but it got him moving. There were still a quite a few rough patches where he stumbled or tripped, hooves catching on places or where he just misjudged distances and the length of his new stride, but he was making progress. He kept to the grass when he could, finding the pavement a bit harsh on his new hooves. Grass was more forgiving when he fell anyway.
Robin squinted from under the shade the ball cap he wore provided. It wasn’t the best fit but it had been the best he could do. In fact, he had fully dressed himself, to the best of his abilities, before leaving. A short sleeved shirt was around his chest, forelegs through the sleeves, the buttons undone because he had no idea how to get hooves to work on them, the shirttails over his barrel and towards his flank. A pair of old shorts covered his rear, worn backwards so his tail could slip out the zipper. A lanyard around his neck held his wristwatch and a small pouch holding his wallet, phone and keys.
As ill-fitting as the arrangement was, it at least said he was no mere animal. All he needed was a sign saying ‘I’m intelligent, or in the very least someone’s pet!’ for others to see.
Robin was becoming increasingly certain his efforts were a waste of time. Despite the number of houses and streets he passed, it was silent. No hum of vehicles, active radios or televisions, no voices of any sort. Stoplights still ran, almost mockingly in the face of the empty streets. Stubbornly, he continued down the road, keeping his eyes focused not on the street, but on the store.
The few cars in the lot gave Robin mixed feelings of both hope and despair. Swallowing nervously, he resolutely continued to his destination, mentally preparing himself. The automatic doors slid open on his approach, the sound of his hoofsteps subtly changing as pavement became vinyl tile. He winced slightly at the light intensity but his vision adjusted with only minor blurriness and he looked around.
No one was there. No costumers roamed the aisles he could see, no workers in their blue shirts and vests could be seen either.
“Hello? Anyone here?” Robin called out a few times, slowly ambling the length of the storefront, going past the registers, the service booth, the McDonalds, the bakery, deli section. Each repetition or his call was louder than the previous, until he was yelling.
“Hello! Somebody! Anybody!” Robin’s yells had gotten frantic in his search. His walking speed built, becoming a slow unsteady trot as he became more and more frantic, hooves beating on the ground. “Please! Someone be here!”
He slipped, hooves and vinyl tile not the greatest combination for traction on top of unfamiliarity with his limbs, tumbling to the ground, jaw and muzzle striking painfully, body sliding a few feet. It was fortunate that he didn’t crash into any of the shelves or counters. Still, he was dazed for a moment.
“Augh,” Robin groaned as he pulled himself together, pushing himself upright and on his haunches with his forelegs. His wings where hanging limp at his side under his shirt, his fall had knocked the hat loose as well. Tears were leaving moist streaks beneath his eyes. He rubbed his face with a hoof, almost poking his eye out. “Gah! Damn it all! Hurt yourself some more, why don’t you?”
He was more careful the second time, rubbing at both the tears and his throbbing eye. Muttering under his breath, Robin slowly calmed down. “Stupid floor… making my eyes water. Stupid bright lights. At least I can cry, that's something.”
With awkward motions, he brought the pouch up to his head. Without hands or manipulator appendages on his limbs, he had to resort to using his mouth and lips to open the Velcro pouch. Fumbling slightly, he pulled out his phone. It was a bit difficult to aim with a muzzle in the way, but big eyes had some advantages.
One swipe got the phone out of standby. He missed a few times, but he got the assistant loaded shortly after and the device chirped.
“Send an email to Self,” Robin instructed.
“What would you like the subject to be?”
“To Cellie.”
The phone chirped again, filling in the line. “What would you like the message to say?”
“Hey Cellie,” Robin started. He closed his eyes. “I’m at Walmart. No one’s here. No one at all. I guess I was right. Everyone really did vanish. I. I don’t have a plan. I didn’t have a plan. Man I feel stupid. And scared…”
He trailed off. After a few moments the phone chirped again. “Would you like to send this message?”
“Message,” Robin said, swallowing the lump that built in his throat. The phone chirped and picked up where he left off. “Sorry about that. Okay. I’m going to pick up a few things. Groceries I guess. Maybe some batteries? Can power keep going without someone to say go? I don’t know. Food, the books I mentioned. Maybe some shampoo for all this fur. I guess the pet aisle? Suddenly I’m glad no one is here. That would be embarrassing.
“Okay, I have a very rough plan now. I’ll come back here tomorrow, Cellie, after I figure some stuff out. Long term plans. Oh, and remind me to download that Wikipedia database. I don’t think the net will last. Long term. Right.”
Robin looked up at the closest register sign. Number 8. The majority of the thoughts running through his head questioned how right it would be to just take things. From what he could infer from all he saw, it had been about a day since the world was active.
His pupils dilated at the realization. The sites he checked had global access. They were still running, but no one seemed to have touched them. Cities hadn’t put anything out in almost a day. News was behind. And this was the kind of news that should, would be major breaking issues. But nothing.
His phone chirped, unnoticed by him aside from an ear twitching in its direction.
It was as if everyone vanished. Vanished without leaving a trace. Just puff. Either vanished or taken. Spirited away. Leaving him behind as some sort of demon spawn creature. Devils sometimes had hooves, didn’t they?
“Damn it, Robin!” he snapped to himself, stomping the ground. “Pull yourself together! You can’t be the only person left. You’re not that special to be the last of seven point ‘nuff billion people! There are others! There has to be!”
“I’m sorry, that command was not recognized,” his phone chirped. Robin blinked, startled from his mini rant. He blushed slightly from embarrassment, ears folding back, wings shifting slightly. The phone continued, oblivious to his reaction. “Would you like to send this message?”
“Send,” he ordered. The phone chirped and the message vanished from the screen. A few moments later, the phone vibrated again, alerting him that an email arrived. Robin carefully started putting the phone back in his pouch. It might be a bit strange at first, but taking from the store without paying wasn’t the issue anymore.
He needed to figure out a few things, but he’d work on surviving, figuring out what was going on in the world. Things like where everyone went, just what exactly he was, was their anyone else.
“I’ll make a list when I get home,” he announced, closing the pouch. He frowned at it. “Actually, I should give you a name too, phone.” Rocking his head from side to side, Robin bounced ideas around. There was Cellie the general record and companion, Darcy his computer, so his phone should be… “Ellen. I’ll call you Ellen. Thanks for your hard work.”
Walking a bit more carefully, mindful of his previous spill, Robin headed towards the trolley bay, thinking about how he would carry things home without hands, and exactly what he needed. Some shades for sure. Particularly since he left his hat behind back where he fell. He sighed. He’d have to pick that up before leaving. Maybe some food would be good. He had been approaching the ‘need to go grocery shopping’ point for a while. Maybe he could find a bag he could use somewhere in School Supplies.
He paused midstep, his eyes locked in the direction of the bay. At one cart in particular: the motorized cart, sitting beside the wall, plugged in and charging. He looked back at the service desk were he knew they kept the keys. Finally, his eyes dropped to his hooves contemplatively. “I think I just had a marvelous idea.”
Hi again, Cellie. I’m back from my shopping trip!
Um… bad news first. It looks like I really am alone. I didn’t see anyone anywhere. Everything seemed to be still running though. Which is neither here nor there.
The better news: I got food, I got a one or two books that looked useful, and I got new shades. I picked up some clothes I think Might fit, but, to be honest, clothes on fur is a bit warm, and chaffs in places. The zipper was riding up under my tail something fierce. I might need to work out a better solution for that issue for next time. Too bad I can’t sew with hooves…
Anyway, you should look in the garage! I got wheels! Well, it’s just one of the motorized shopping carts, but still. It took a while to figure out how to work it, but my hooves/legs (I need an anatomy book to figure out what to call my limbs) have an extra joint just before the actual hoof that lets me wrap around things better.
Plus, I found one of those fancy red wagons in the kid's section when I was looking for clothes that might fit. I always wanted one of those. This one even has decent guards on the side and stuff. I tied it to the back of the trolley and drove it home.
As for plans... I’m not sure. I set the wiki stuff to download. I’m going to hit Walmart again tomorrow, hopefully to get better stuff. I don’t know how much charge the trolley hold. One of my neighbours had an ATV. He uses it in the winter to plow his driveway. I think I remember which house is his, so I’ll see if I can get that tomorrow. If I can drive that, I’ll have reliable transportation.
Need to get gas, figure out how low power might last, hit the library for some better books. I should probably figure out what I can eat. I had beans and bread tonight. Actually, I should add getting a generator and solar panels to my list. I don’t think I can work a can opening with hooves. Even the electric one was a five minute hassle. But I think I should be an omnivore, but I need to take a better look at my teeth. Most hoofed animals are herbivores though.
Then again, most don’t have wings or look like I do. Pretty sure these are predator/omnivore eyes I have. And I read somewhere that intelligent life was more likely found in omnivores. I’m obviously intelligent. As in I retained everything.
Um… what was I saying again? Right. I might go to Canadian Tire too. It’s not that much further from Walmart. Library, Walmart, Canadian Tire, the neighbours place.
Ah! I forgot the shampoo! What if I get fleas! I won’t get fleas right? They are species specific I think. Or ticks… And I don’t have fingers to get rid of them. Maybe I need to practice some more, sweep the house, make sure it doesn’t harbour bugs. Actually, I don’t know what my blood type is anymore.
Hell, I’m rambling. Sorry Cellie, I’m beat. It’s not even that late! Anyway, I’m turning in early. I’ll see you in the morning.
Oh, by the way, Cellie, I was looking over what I wrote earlier, adorable is relative. But I'd like to think I'm good looking. For a furry quadruped.
huh...neat
Absolutely love the prose, as well as having such a different perspective. I look forward to seeing all the awesome places this story takes us. I wonder how the differences in batpony biology will manifest. Will he eat bugs? Will he find it easier to wake up at night as time goes on? How does it feel to have freakin skin and bone wings? So many awesome things to come!
So, Ponies after People now has three different story types and Character Types:
The Last Pony on Earth/A: Emotion Driven character and story
The First Unicorn on Earth/Leon: Logic driven story and character
The Limestone City Bat/Robin: Random driven story and character.
I'm looking forward to this!
Oh dear, so this one starts off in the Land of Always Winter? I approve of this. Show us how a Canadian Bat Pony does it. Without going too insane from isolation, if possible.
Very good, love the description.
6049513
When I get around to finishing mine; you can get random from me :3
6049927 I look forward to it.
if he is a batpony with in fact bat wings, he should in fact an thumb on them to greap things whit it. All in all I think it great so far.
6049939
Need to finish another story update before I work on it
An electric supermarket cart? Not a bad idea, especially if you can manage some form of reliable or semi-reliable power supply. Same for the mentioned wiki download, that has the potential to be very useful depending on what and how much information it contains.
6049398 My sentiments exactly.
6049406 Fine out next time on The Limestone City Bat! *cue credits*
It would take a lot of bugs to sustain him...
First Person, particularly Journal style, gives an easier insight to the characters thoughts and mindset. Third Person gives an easier insight to the world around them. Combining the two lends to an interesting progression of the narrative, showing both the Character and the World without trying to force either one.
6049513 I'd say... okay, yeah, a bit random. Not wild random, but he'll definitely be winging it and following impulses a lot. No pun intended. Impulse and Discovery? 6049927 is more likely to give you true random.
6049520 Winter will be no fun if he can't work the power issue out. He's quite a ways away from being able to chop enough wood to last him through even a mild winter, assuming he gets a place with a fireplace and/or wood burning furnace. But the more immediate woe: no more Timmies.
s3.amazonaws.com/hammerinthenews/0HTN/timmies-shirt.jpg
6049995 Batpony wings will (eventually) be a boon. At the moment? He and his wings have a rough truce: the wings do what they want to do, and they don't do what he wants them to do. When he said he had no clue what do with them, he was being literal. Needs more practice, or maybe just more time, before he can work out directly controlling them. With the fur, new legs and hooves, fangs, eyes, ears, tail, all of which were much more cooperative, he hasn't really gotten a chance to study the wings in any real detail.
6050173 A wiki download has been on my list of things to do for years, mainly in deference to unreliable internet and the lack of digital encyclopedias. I recently found a decent one that has 4.8+ million articles, Starscribe's story actually motivating me to finally download it. Still need a few more days to get it fully set up though. I'll let you know how good it is when this indexing finally finishes. Wikispecies took all day, and that was only a 400 thousand articles. Okay, not only, but still a magnitude less.
One thing Canada is know for, both on the nation and local scales, is sprawl. The cart is nice set of wheels with decent trunk space and large uncomplicated controls and an eco-friendly solution with an electric motor. A perfect entry level vehicle for a new pony looking to explore. While an ATV might offer more speed, power and range, the humble Powercart gives you comfort and ease of operation. See your local superstore to acquire your own!
Okay, salespony pitch aside, Robin might actually be pretty good for power, depending on how long certain systems can run without human input. There's a hydroelectric dam within ten minutes of town and a wind mill farm a ferry ride away. How long do those operate without control? I know Ontario's power system monitors itself and can isolate blocks if it detects breaks and such in the line, but in a situation like this? Would a dam that lacks local storage stop pumping power into the grid? Would the windmills? Must do more research...
(wow... lots of word on this response...)
6049398 6049908 6050427 Why thank you! Your words make my heart swell!
6049939
Grey ain't lying
My mind gets utterly insane at times and I love it
I wing 90% of my stories with only the smallest of frameworks
Have a thing, ended up doing this instead of that other thing.
41.media.tumblr.com/b68b0d91fdaa10fd8df2c00954a6b471/tumblr_npct6lT74c1rsmidfo1_540.png
Also, hooray for more Ponies After People stories!
6050664 I wanted to write a logical character who I could slowly breakdown, but I'm right there with you on the mind going everywhere front. That would've been next on my list.
Overall, I thought it was OK. That said, it does have the potential to develop into an interesting story (I'd like to see more of the adventure tag in place). However, you need to be careful with this - it could end up being a bit same-y compared to the others of the verse.
You seem to like misusing semi-colons; allow me to correct some of the mistakes.
I don't care if the next one is in the author's notes; no one is safe from me. Mwahahaha.
There should be a comma and not a semi-colon in these; if a clause does not make sense on it's own (unless it's in a list) it should not be before or after a semi-colon. As a general rule, only use a semi-colon to replace a full-stop (period for Americans), or the word and in a compound sentence - use them sparingly. Some of these sentences can probably be edited so both clauses make sense on their own - you could do that instead for some.
Is the "I" meant to be capitalised?
If you're so set on using semi-colons, you could replace the ", and" with one. Don't overuse them though.
That's all I could find. It was mostly semi-colon errors. One thing I would like to add is: don't use so many full-stops (or periods, whatever). There were a lot of simple sentences mostly grouped together that served little effect. All it did was make it boring and slow at points. I could understand if there was some purpose. But, please, try to vary your sentence types somewhat.
6050772 Definitely my favourite story artist - at least in terms of interactions.
6051973 But... the glorious Semi-Colon Empire!
Yeesh, I really do love semi-colons. Never realized I used so many... The simple sentences... I'll admit to going back and breaking some. Mostly because I've gotten comments on another story that I used too many long sentences (and I ran some of my work, not this one though, through that readability checker website and it said I could stand to break some.)
I also use too many ellipsis. You should have seen it before I led the Great Purge of May 31st. Maybe ellipsis fell that day. Apparently their dying act was to curse me to use too many simple sentences.
(Fixes applied with duct tape and super glue.)
6050772 You can kill a man with the adorable factor in your art.
6052033 I was going to comment on the army of these: the thing that separates this from the main clause. But I decided to let it keep it's glory
6050664 Also, same thing. I plan the beginning and the end, and wing it everywhere else.
6052398
Yay for improvisation
Cellie? He just upgraded his journal to royalty
Everything that needs saying has already been said by others so... do carry on.
Did anybody else mention that the batpony is named Robin? ;)
This story is looking very good so far. Overall, the grammar is rather good. I did notice a few areas where there were typos, but typos happen to everyone. I also enjoy how you write this. Especially how you do the journals and switch to third person. The story also has gotten me interested in the main character. I enjoy how you write Robin and I'm really looking forward to see where this story goes. Now then, I'm off to read the other chapters, or write my own side-story. Good luck with your own story!
‒Stahl
Very nice work, his rambling was very good, someone in his situation simple has to be feeling some shock symptoms after all.
YAY! Another Canadian story!!
And just like this I am interested. Though not going too lie this story set me on edge it's like starting a minecraft game. Having nothing, not know where anything is, and not know what's going on. It was unnerving but good.
Robin seems to have a rather interesting coping mechanism going on. The use of multiple perspectives is neat too. Its interesting seeing the differences between what someone says has happened and seeing what actually happened.
I wonder how long (if at all) it will take for robin to discover and learn about the skein and the magic he has there.
This... This is just delightful. I knew I would enjoy robin's perspective from just the first paragraph, but I had to stop and just let myself giggle several times reading this chapter, even with empathizing with him about being alone.