23. The Very Best Home for Me
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T H E C O N V E R S I O N B U R E A U :
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CROSS THE AMAZON
By Chatoyance
Chapter Twenty Three: The Very Best Home for Me
"Are those bananas?" Mrs. Wojciehowicz was puzzled by the new Mark on Caraway's flank.
"No, heh, no. They are sort of the same shape, I admit." Caraway swiffed his tail, slapping his own hocks. He couldn't help it, it just felt so good. "They're seeds, Missus Wojciehowicz. Caraway seeds. Like my name."
"I've never heard of 'Care-a-way'. Is that something from Equestria?" Mrs. Wojciehowicz was very talkative. Inside, she was still an eighty-seven year old widow, lonely and forgotten. Like many of the aged recently Converted, she had not yet fully grasped what her new body represented - that, in pony terms - she was just barely an adult, fresh with youth. "My old Stan would know, if he were still around. Knew everything about everything, that stallion."
Caraway noted the unconscious use of 'stallion' instead of 'man'. He was still cataloging and studying the subtle changes to his own brain, and the brains of others. He might have a new life free from fussing about oil and rocks, but there was still a scientist in him. His own recent Conversion had become a source of fascination to him. "It must be now, considering the world, but 'Caraway' was actually native to earth."
Most Equestrian things had originally come from earth. Celestia had just improved and updated them. Equestria was Earth 2.0 - that thought made Caraway chuckle.
"Mr. Caraway?" The formerly old Mrs. Wojciehowicz wondered if there had been a joke she had missed. She had long ago gotten used to missing a lot of what was going on around her, yet still felt vaguely annoyed about it.
"Just a stray, goofy thought. I'm a very silly pony sometimes, pay me no mind. Caraway was a plant that was very popular in ancient times. They used the seeds for medicine and flavoring. There were even myths about it. But it's also similar to my human name. I've been a bit clever with my name, I think, and I suspect my Butt Mark is a seal of approval with..."
"PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS, EVERYPONY. WE WILL LIFT OFF IN TEN MINUTES. THANK YOU!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Wojciehowicz... time to take our seats. But thank you for chatting with me, you've been very kind." Caraway the pegasus gave a clumsy little bow and turned to make his way through the crowded pegabus to his seat.
"What a nice young stallion." Mrs. Wojciehowicz waddled unnecessarily back to her assigned seat. She was no longer old, or frail, or fat, but it would take her brain some time to finally grasp these facts. For now, in her mind, she was still the elderly widow that no one wanted to deal with. She was grateful for any simple kindness.
Caraway made his way back to his seat with Dropspindle. The trip to the toilet on the immense Super Pegabus was thankfully uneventful. Back on the Lady Venice, before they had been dropped off in Port Elizabeth on the tip of the southern Afrizone, Dropspindle had made sure that Caraway was potty trained before they went to Equestria. Potty trained, basic hygiene trained, essential manners for table and social gatherings, and even how to greet the princesses should he meet them. The process of teaching Caraway how to be a pony had seemed to do wonders for Dropspindle.
"No... problems?" Dropspindle set her head forward until Caraway remembered to give her a quick nuzzle and grooming in greeting. He was still having trouble with some of the basic Equestrian social behaviors, thus Dropspindle was taking every chance to reinforce them.
"'Raise your tail up, high like a flag, and there'll be no need for mop or for rag' - I remember! I did well. You can be proud of me. No mess. Not even on the newly young old mare I met on the way back!"
"I wondered what took you so long." Dropspindle scootched closer to the window, to allow Caraway to clumsily arrange himself on the heavily padded flightbench. She used her horn to buckle him down after he had his legs comfortably folded under his body.
"Still getting used to this. Thank you." He tested his buckles. He was held snug - if there was any turbulence, he would not end up tossed about the cabin. "Nice old mare, but the lonely type. Still hasn't gotten used to being young again. She even walks like she's old, out of habit. The brain is a curious thing."
"What I'm curious about is when this bus is finally going to take off. This is the second time they've called us to buckle in." Dropspindle looked out the window at the flashing lights of the Blackmesh urban assault vehicles surrounding the landing strip.
"It's too many humans, Dropspindle. They're all crushing into South Africa. The native population is pretty upset about it. Basically, every human left is trying to come here, and the crowding is terrible. So is the issue of keeping them all fed and watered - the Blackmesh are at their wits end. From what Mrs. Wojciehowicz told me, the problem is that they are spilling past the barriers onto the airfield. Even pegasai need some room to get up to speed - at least for something this big."
The Super Pegabus was as enormous as a human airship, though not close to the class represented by the Lady Venice. The entire, pressurized mega-carriage was pulled by thirty-one pegasai, all bottled up in individual pressure suits. Caraway had wanted to get to talk with even one of them - about their job, about their suits, about just being a pegasus with a job - but he hadn't gotten to. They'd been hustled quickly onto the pegabus in part for their own safety.
The humans streaming into South Africa from all over the remaining half of the globe were not, by and large, pony-positive people. They were still holding out for an alternative solution, or for a miracle from some god or secret society. They had dragged their feet on getting hooves for so long it had become habit... or doctrine. Some simply could not face making such a momentous choice. Many were opposed, sometimes violently, to Equestria, the Worldgovernment of Man, and ponies all. There had been incidents. There had been atrocities. Everything was rapidly spiraling out of control. Only the courageous men and women of the Blackmesh prevented open rioting and mass slaughter.
Outside the flying bus, Dropspindle noticed something happening. Shrieks and crying filled the cabin as Newfoal after Newfoal turned from the windows and buried their heads in the ponies sitting next to them. Dropspindle watched, calmly noting "Looks like the humans breached the fence. They're rushing us. The Blackmesh are doing their best, but I think there's too many for them."
Calloway shuddered and found himself glad that he couldn't see out the window. He noted that inside himself, remade and renewed, he was definitely in the 'hide your eyes' contingent. He forced himself, out of stubborn pride, to remain with head upright and not buried in Dropspindle's fur. "T-the Blackmesh are the best the world has. H-has ever had. They'll think of something."
"BUCKLE UP PONIES! EMERGENCY TAKE OFF IN FIVE, FOUR, THREE..."
The large team sent every erg of thaumatic force they could through their harnesses and by way of them, into the pegabus as a whole. Caraway felt a ripple of force run through him, which made him shiver with something not unlike delight. Magic felt good, somehow.
The Super Pegabus, all three levels of it, began to move both forward and vertically. The thirty-one suited pegasai coordinated through their wired pressure helmets to pull the bus in such a way as to mostly avoid the screaming, angry humans rushing the field to smash the bus apart with whatever they could find at hand. Several humans landed blows to the rear of the vehicle as it left the tarmac. It sounded like hail on the back of the bus.
Louder spanging sounds came as bullets hit the underside of the bus. Many Newfoal passengers, raised on action holos, understood what the sounds meant, and cried or shouted in fear of the bus being shot at. Calloway lifted his head from Dropspindle's barrel and watched the pony attendants searching for holes in the bus - or in the passengers. After some time it was decided that the pegabus was intact and unhulled, and that they would make for near orbit and then Equestria.
The thirty-one pulled the strange, pressurized super-carriage higher and higher. In a flash they were through the global smog layer. Equestria was vast, but no longer just a wall. As they flew higher and higher still, the great sphere that intersected the earth began to show its curvature. It looked like a great pearl of a moon, frozen in mid-collision with the smog-shrouded corpse of the world. The sun was setting by the time they passed the last of the noctilucent clouds at seventy-six kilometers high. The hemorrhoid sky ached around them as they passed into darkest blue, traversing into black. Tiny fairy-leaves of frost formed on the edges of the windows, and on the helmets of the pegasai. Still they climbed.
"Dropspindle!"
"What is it Calloway? Caraway!" The unicorn mare grimaced. "Why did you have to pick such a similar name? I was expecting some sort of crazy, koo-koo Newfoal name. Sorry. What?"
"Let me see!"
"Huh?"
Caraway struggled to try to unbuckle his straps with his teeth. He was having no success. "I have to see! I've never been this high up! Not ever, not even on the Government's creditstick! This is space - or as close to it as I'll ever get. Lemmy see! Please! I've got to see this!"
Dropspindle fought with herself, inside. Always obey the rules. Follow directions and everything will be alright. But this was still earth. This was still... "Alright! But be quick about it!" She used all five of her telekinetic fields to unbuckle Caraway.
He pushed himself partially upright, half laying across Dropspindle in order to press his muzzle against the window. The sight that greeted him was dazzling.
The curve of the earth, gray and shrouded, but with a bluish-purple translucent skin that faded into the black. The blue layer of atmosphere turned brilliant laser red as the curve swept into the remnants of sunset. The equally vast curve of the Great Barrier reflected the earth, the stars and the sunset of the earth, making for a double sunset spread across two worlds. Away from the glaring brilliance of the reflected light, Caraway could see through the Barrier, into Equestria from on high. There, beyond the domain wall that separated two entire universes, he watched the sun rise from Equestrian night. As the sun set on earth, another sun dawned beyond the Great Barrier.
When he finally realized he had stopped bothering to breath from the wonder of it all, Caraway took several deep lungfuls and whispered "Thank you."
"It's okay. But get back to your bench! Quickly, before somepony comes!" Dropspindle put up with the indignity of Caraway's clumsy hooves as he clambered off of her and back to his previous position. She got the last of the straps buckled down as one of the attendants passed by.
"Everything alright here?"
"Fine, fine!"
"Hows... things with you? There? Good?"
The attendant puzzled at their sheepish grins, but affirmed that all was well, and that they would be passing through the Barrier into Equestria soon.
Dropspindle and Caraway giggled conspiratorially to themselves after she moved on.
"Another adventure survived!" Caraway was beyond glad. He had always wanted to see space, and even if it was only just the bare edge, he had still seen stars, shining in the black. "Does Equestria... does home..." It was still very strange to think of the alien universe as such "... have, well, space?"
Dropspindle had to think a moment, to recall how strange and different Caraway's universe was from her own. "Not... not like you mean. I think. This side... the stars are... suns, right? Only very far away. And it all just goes on forever, right?"
Caraway nodded. "Yes. As far as we know. Well, not forever. Maybe. Maybe forever."
"Then no. Not like that." Dropspindle looked out at where earth's atmosphere met vacuum. "Nothing at all like that." She shuddered. The emptiness of it all, the vast, vacant black horror of what the stars meant here ate at her soul. It was terrifying. "In Equestria, the stars are living beings. Luna made them, and they play on the dome of the sky. Sometimes they put on shows, I assume at her command. They aren't like those..." She nodded with her head out the window. "... not tiny and scary and far away. Our stars - your stars - are friendly, and close, and bright. They even helped our princess, once. Maybe many times - history wasn't my best subject."
Caraway sighed. "The stars I am going to sound wonderful... but..." He glanced at the window by Dropspindle. "...the stars we leave are scary, yes, and far away - very far, very, very far. But they are also beacons of mystery and awe, sparkling in the night. I will always miss them. Can't help it really. Too much sci-fi, I guess."
"Sigh-fye?"
"Science fiction. Slang term for it. Too much space ships and aliens from other worlds." Caraway began to laugh.
"What?" Dropspindle was baffled at the stallion's sudden switch from melancholy to laughter.
"You know, it never hit me, truly hit me, until this moment. I can't believe it, but it never really hit me!"
"What? I don't understand!"
Calloway leaned his muzzle close to Dropspindle. "I used to watch these shows, right? Had space captains meeting strange, alien races from other worlds. Loved those shows with a passion. And here you are!"
"I still don't understand."
"You're a native. Of Equestria. You were born there. You grew up there."
"Yes. Caraway..."
"No, hear me out. From my perspective - though I didn't truly, emotionally grasp it until now - from my perspective, well, you are... a strange alien from another world! I got my fantasy, and I didn't even know it at the time!"
Dropspindle worked to process the meaning of Caraway's statement. "You were... humans are... strange aliens to us!"
Caraway shook his head. "But did you have an entire literature, an entire subculture built up about how cool it would be to meet aliens and be their friends or space battles or..." The latter bit, ravening lasers against impenetrable shields was no longer enjoyable to him. Fighting wasn't fun, now. Ponies would get hurt. "Well, anyway, you don't have sci-fi, do you? But we did. And it was my fantasy - to boldly go where no pony has gone before! To seek out strange new worlds and strange new civilizations! And, well, I did. And here I am."
"Caraway?" Dropspindle had noted yet another sweeping change of emotion in the stallion.
"Now I am the alien. And I belong to the strange new civilization on the strange new world. I am Spock."
This set Caraway laughing again, and while it was merry enough, Dropspindle had no idea what had made him so jolly.
"I don't know where I'll go. I suppose we'll all get relocated out in those... Exponential? Exponential Lands. That was it. Exponential Lands. Apparently they're vast, a brave new frontier and all that. Probably have us starting new towns out there. Settlers. The Oregon Trail, only without all the dysentery. I hope, anyway." Caraway turned from the earthpony mare who had been chatting him up across the aisle. "Dropspindle? There's no dysentery in Equestria, right?"
Dropspindle, who had been trying very hard to Not Listen One Bit, startled and tried equally hard to Not Give Away That She Had. "Uhh... Oh? What was that again?"
"Dysentery. Doesn't exist in Equestria, right?"
Dropspindle had never heard of that pastry before. "I don't think so. But surely somepony might remember the recipe. You could probably learn to make it, if you tried."
Caraway, the mare, and several other Newfoals who had been listening in, all laughed for a long time. "Oh! Good Luna, I hope not!"
"That's one recipe I hope nopony remembers!" A large light-orange unicorn stallion on the bench to the fore laughed heartily.
"What did I say?" Dropspindle felt strangely alienated, despite being entirely among ponies. They all knew and shared so much in common that she knew nothing about. For the first time in her life, she felt like somehow, impossibly, she was a stranger among her own kind.
Caraway nuzzled her. "It's a disease. Earth disease. Really bad. Humans died from it a lot when they settled newly conquered lands." His ears dropped. Every time he talked about earth, it really did seem to have something bad or cruel in it. He wouldn't have thought twice about such things, before.
"Oh. I see. I thought it was a cake or something." Dropspindle's ears were low too, and she seemed to be shrinking inside herself, away from all the ponies around her. Even Caraway.
"It'll be okay, soon, Dropspindle." Caraway stroked her withers with a hoof. "We'll pass through the Barrier in just a few minutes. And then we'll land, and we'll all get shipped off somewhere. You'll be home, with ponies you know, probably by the end of the day. No more Newfoals saying weird things... or reminding you of... back there. Give it time. It'll all be just a bad dream that happened a long time ago. You'll see."
"No! It won't!" Dropspindle's ears were flat now, and her pupils small. "What we've been through... that's never going to go away. Maybe you're right that I'll feel better someday, but... I've seen things, done things... who can I ever talk to about any of this? Ever? I'll be alone! I'm not the same, I'll never completely fit in, not ever again! How can I? And I need to talk, I need to be able to talk about these experiences, but..."
Dropspindle turned her head and stared at her own hooves.
"Well, then, let's talk. You have me at least until we land and disembark." Caraway groomed Dropspindle's mane just as she had taught him. He nibbled at the hairs along her withers with a gentle and massaging chewing motion. "I know I put you through a lot, and I truly appreciate that you risked your life - and your sanity - to rescue me. I am always willing to be there for you. Always. Well - as long as they'll let me, of course."
Newfoals had to be shipped out and resettled in the Exponential Lands. There was simply no other option. Before Equestria's collision with earthly spacetime, it was a relatively tiny, pocket universe. The entire, collective, native pony population was not more than two hundred thousand. Dragons added only ten thousand more. Griffons were an undetermined number, but it was known to be not large. They did not reproduce often, or in large clutches. The best estimate was around two thousand Griffons. All of the original Equestrian spacetime could fit within a region barely the size of the earth-moon system itself.
Now, after processing terrestrial space, time, matter and energy, Equestria could be measured in light years. One guess made by the Worldgovernment scientific research committee on Equestria had placed the new Equestria at about a parsec in diameter. No one earthside knew the truth, of course, but it was probably not a bad estimate.
It was looking as if somewhere between ten and twelve of the earth's nineteen billion would ultimately be rescued from the demise of the planet. Just barely in time, with only three generations left before the total failure of the biosphere. Before there was no more oxygen in the atmosphere left to breathe. Before the planet finished dying. Equestria had almost arrived too late. Any later and there would have been no need for Bureaus at all.
But ten to twelve billion was an unthinkable population to Equestria - and it had quickly become apparent that Celestia had not been prepared for such a vast herd of humans. Without the sudden appearance of the miraculous and ever-increasing expansion of the Exponential Lands, there would literally have been no room aboard lifeboat Equestria for the teeming hordes of humanity. Somehow, the princesses had made space.
Possibly literally.
"Maybe... maybe you don't have to... go. To the Exponentials. If you don't want to, of course. Maybe you do. They say it's quite an adventure, to found your own village." Dropspindle barely whispered the words.
"I've had enough of adventures for three lifetimes. I'm not looking forward to being shipped out. I've just been trying to be grateful for my new life. What, is there some special appeals process or something? Can I petition the crown to stay in proper Equestria? What do I have to do, Dropspindle?"
Dropspindle was quiet for some time. She glanced out at the stars of horror, the distant suns of earth's universe. They were almost to the Barrier. In moments, friendly stars would replace them. She swallowed. "You... you could stay... with me. There's a provision for... for Newfoals as... family members."
"But... you don't... you said you don't even like me. Has that changed? Because I'm a pony now?"
Dropspindle shook her head. Then she nodded, slightly. "A little. You're better as a pony. I've enjoyed you... learning how to... be your new self. But, the fact is... well... you're still you. You haven't changed that much. We don't have a lot in common, your sense of humor often offends me. You're not... a bad pony, and you clearly care, deeply, but... somehow... you sort of annoy me."
"Then... I don't understand. It sounded like you were proposing back there or something. Unless Equestrian families are different than I think."
"No... not entirely. No. Families are families, Equestria or Earth." Dropspindle stared hard at Caraway. The look in her eyes was decidedly, almost disturbingly, Not Pony. "We could register and pretend we were mated. We could get married, and legally you could stay. As long as nopony found out the truth, it would work. You would be a Central Equestrian Citizen by marriage, and not have to go to the Exponentials." She sounded almost feverish. "You could get to see Canterlot - our Capitol! We could visit Manehattan and the Great Salt Lick. You could experience things almost no Newfoal ever gets to see! And... and it would be safe, and secure, and you would be in the very heart of Equestria, right near the princesses and everything interesting! You might even get to meet a dragon! They visit!"
"Dropspindle... out with it. What's your game here?" Caraway gave her the side-eye.
"Alright. I don't particularly feel attracted to you, I mostly just tolerate you. Sometimes, you're fun. And you worked really hard to save me right back, the whole trip. You can be nice, sometimes. But I'm never going to love you, and we're never going to be best friends forever." Dropspindle stared at her hooves intently. Then she raised her head and locked eyes once more. "I need you, Caraway. You're the only other pony I can talk to about any of what we went through! I feel completely alone around ponies now! I felt strange around the pegabus team, and they're all natives! Like me! I felt like I was the stranger, I felt like I was a Newfoal around them!"
Caraway laughed.
"None of this is the least bit funny! See, that's what I'm talking about!"
"Let me get this straight, Dropspindle..."
Just then, the pegabus passed through the Great Barrier of Equestria. It happened swiftly, instantly, because of their tremendous speed. The forces of the Barrier flashed along the length of the Super Pegabus and the next moment, tingling, everypony found themselves within another universe entirely.
Caraway could feel it in his very bones. Magic. Home. This was the cosmos his body, mind, and soul was constructed for. This was the water that the fish of his existence swam in. Equestria permeated his being. The universe, all of reality, was no longer terrifying, or empty, or cold.
"Wow. Just... wow." Caraway wiped his eyes with his pasterns and sniffed. The feeling was overwhelming. He was not alone - around him some Newfoal passengers openly wept.
He regained his composure. "Okay. You want to trap me in a loveless marriage, likely for the next three centuries - otherwise it wouldn't look very good to those in charge - so that you can have somepony on tap, at your convenience, to confide in and comfort you when you are feeling freaked out about your time on earth. That's basically the plan, correct?"
Dropspindle looked shocked. Horrified. "W-when you put it like that...!"
Caraway grinned. "Sure! You got a deal, wifey-wife! I'm all in. Do we need a certificate, or what?"
Dropspindle blinked. Several times. "What? I don't... what the broth... huh?"
Caraway dropped his full-power grin down to smile levels. "I've done a little reading. I'm not totally ignorant about Equestria. Mostly, but not totally. I definitely looked up our... shall we say... relationship... practices."
Dropspindle's eyes widened, and she looked vaguely sick.
"Heh, yeah, that. But also the social stuff. I'm a cad, but a cultured one." Caraway grinned fully once more, for a moment. "Look, here's my amendment to this little deal. I know traditional Equestrian families are little herds all their own. You don't do nuclear families very often. So, someday, if I find a mare I fancy, that I truly love, and who loves me back, well, you have to agree that she gets to marry in. You can do the same, of course. Mare or stallion - I never did hear your preference. Actually, it doesn't matter in the least! Especially for us! How about it - you get what you need, I get what I need, and in the end, everypony happy, everypony loved - by somepony or another - and it all works out!"
Dropspindle closed her mouth. "I guess... that works..."
"Listen, Dropspindle - we're comrades in legs. Arms. Muffin this pony brain of mine. Comrades In Arms. It's an earth thing. Ponies who struggle together develop a bond. It's a bond that goes beyond friendship or love - it's a family bond, of a sort. We have that. We'll always have that, because we kept each other alive when the whole world - two worlds - were against us! This is a very traditional, human thing. And it's okay. It's better than okay. It's a good thing. It's one good thing from my old world, so you can feel glad of it.
"I would love to do and see all the things you suggested. Of course I would! But... that's not why I'm willing to do this. It's part of it, don't get me wrong - but it's not the whole reason. I do like you, even if that will never be reciprocated. But most of all, I share what you feel. I feel the same way. Who in parfait would I be able to talk to about our experiences either? Most humans don't go through what we have, so even other Newfoals would just goggle at me! We're comrades in arms, and that makes us friends. Sort of. Come on - we're friends, of a sort, admit it!"
Dropspindle could not suppress the smile. It took command of her muzzle despite her best effort to suppress it. "Yeah... I guess. Of a sort."
"Well, then, pally-pal, dearest chum, buddy of buddies..."
"Don't push it, Newfoal."
Caraway chuckled. "You really have gone human, haven't you?"
Dropspindle instantly deflated.
"Hey - I didn't mean it that way. I was just joking back at you.... oh, hey, come here. Come on. I'm sorry." Caraway embraced Dropspindle. Interestingly, she reciprocated. "We'll get hitched, and we'll make it work. We'll find partners we love and who love us in return. We'll live in Equestria proper, and we'll be there for each other, when we get blue about... ancient troubles. One big family. And who knows, maybe you'll even make a decent pony you can like outta me. Stranger things have happened!"
Dropspindle laughed at that. "Yeah. Much stranger."
Caraway looked out at what he could see through the window. The sky was a different shade from earth, almost a teal color. It was relentlessly clean and pure. The clouds were different - more swirly than lumpen. The sun here didn't hurt his eyes. It was an entirely new universe to explore. And three hundred years to learn, and grow, and love and be loved within.
"Caraway?"
"Yeah?"
"Maybe I do like you. A little."
"A little is enough."
The End
The Lost In The Herd Series:
One: The Big Respawn,
Two: Euphrosyne Unchained,
Three: Letters From Home,
Four: Teacup, Down On The Farm
The Conversion Bureau Novels:
27 Ounces: A story of eight and one half ponies
The Taste Of Grass
The Conversion Bureau: Code Majeste
The Conversion Bureau: The 800 Year Promise
The Conversion Bureau: Going Pony
The Reasonably Adamant Down With Celestia Newfoal Society!
Recombinant 63: A Conversion Bureau Story
HUMAN in Equestria: A Conversion Bureau Story
The PER: Michelson and Morely
Little Blue Cat
Cross The Amazon
Adrift Off Fiddler's Green: The Final Conversion Bureau Story
The Short Stories:
Her Last Possession
The Conversion Bureau: PER Equitum
The Conversion Bureau: Brand New Universe
Tales Of Los Pegasus
The Poly Little Pony
The very first and original
Conversion Bureau Group
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Optimalverse Works:
Friendship Is Optimal: Caelum Est Conterrens
Leftovers: A Friendship Is Optimal Story
IMPLACABLE
My Life In Fimbria
Injectorverse Works:
I.D. - That Indestructible Something
The More Conventional Fanfics:
The Ice Cream Pony Summer
Around The Bend
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Another awe inspiring adventure!
Honestly I find it quite humbling that you as an author have to deal with a group of people constantly hating on your stories, and yet you still manage to turn out great stories regardless.
I have seen authors give up on stories simply because they did not get enough likes, yet you fight through with stories that often equal likes and dislikes...it is incredible.
Please keep up the great work, and take pride in the fact that in spite of all those that dislike and try to bury your work that you still manage to reach out to those that truly enjoy your work.
6313760
Thank you very much, Dicefire5.
I write because I must. The stories won't let me quit, not yet. The abuse and harassment has been difficult. But the reward of hearing that good souls, like you, have enjoyed my words makes it worthwhile.
I have learned that thumb votes are ridiculous. The existence of them at all is an appeal to the most immature segment of the population, one so stripped of self worth or agency that they imagine that clicking a tiny symbol matters at all. I would judge any person who weighs anything by thumb votes to be shallow. Judgement comes from looking and seeing yourself - even if it is a quick scan, a short reading of the first few paragraphs. I never look at thumb votes anymore. That is not 'like' or 'dislike'. It is merely a toy, like a busy-box for infants.
What carries worth to me are intelligent, civil, and compassionate statements. Like yours.
Thank you for the paycheck. Your post was money to my heart. And a kindness, too.
Thank you very much for reading Cross The Amazon.
That comment about sci-fi, I see what you did there. I like it.
Now that I look at the story at a whole: There wasn't that much running, was there?
¿Is the 31 pegasi a reference to the 31 engines on the 1st stage of the N1-Rocket?
You still have not corrected the error I found in the last chapter.
4 stars helped the Mare-In-The-Moon NightMareMoon escaped.
Dysentery is bloody diarrhea.
Thanks, enjoyed it greatly!
That went fairly well. Theirs is a strange friendship, but a strong one. I have a good feeling about these two. Though I do have two questions:
What's the symbolic significance of those caraway seeds?
What happens to the Van Allen belts when the Barrier passes through the Earth's inner core?
Aside from those lingering uncertainties, another most enjoyable Chatofic. Thank you for it.
Caraway? What a wry name!
(Because caraway...rye...never mind)
It's going to be an interesting life for these two. I wonder if they won't both go out to the exponential lands after all. Dropspindle might not be too happy among the central ponies.
As I look back, I realize that I don't particularly like her as a character. Not that she's poorly constructed, but that she's not sympathetic. She seems to embody too many of the bad qualities of unicorns, like Rarity's "I don't want to get my hooves dirty!" or Prince Blueblood's snobbishness. In the beginning of the story, I thought that was just general pony frustration with humans. Anypony would react the same way. But not anypony would keep hammering it in and constantly harping on their friend.
Actually, as I think about it, it's a general criticism of what you write. Very few of the native ponies you write are nice. They're good, but they're not nice. The newfoals are nice, some of the humans like Petra or Dr. Pastern are nice (each in their own way), the land of Equestria is nice. But not so many natives. A few, like the Provenders from Teacup Down on the Farm. There are no Fluttershies in your view of Equestria. If she came upon a species of critter that was tearing up its environment or hurting each other, she would be much more patient than anypony in your stories.
If anything, the nicest native pony you've written is Princess Luna.
Now, I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, if it's the tone you're going for. But I feel that you've made an incomplete description of the world you're creating. You've made that point that Earth is a hard,brutal world that's created hard,brutal people. And when the Equestrians, from a soft and gentle world, encounter it, they can't help being revolted. But you've also made the point that there are still some kind people in that hard, brutal world, people who just have a natural tendency to empathize, even without nanobots upping the size of that part of their brain.
Well, there should be ponies who have that too. Ponies who would have gone through what Dropspindle had to deal with and not taken it as hard. Who would have kept the faith and still find a way to be patient with Kotani even when he made her kill the mean humans. Who wouldn't have lost their pastries for soup.
So there you have it. Maybe the first complaint that your ponies aren't perfect enough.
I enjoy your work very much and I hope you'll write more soon.
6314168
I think you've inadvertently answered your own (implied) question: blame Celestia.
No, really. Celestia is all about order. Good, but not nice. She's had the dominant influence over her ponies for the last while (not sure how exactly the show's backstory maps onto TCB history), and it shows. It's most evident in the snooty, actively-Celestia-imitating Unicorns, less so in the more practical Earthponies. When in doubt, be good, but not nice. Maybe Luna and the Newfoals can help loosen things up some.
6314239 There's something to that. Is it stated anywhere how soon after Luna's reclamation from being Nightmare Moon did Equestria start to protrude into Earth's dimension?
And thus we reach end of Calloway and Dropspindle's odyssey. This was definitely a treat for me since this is the first time I've actually read any of our stories start to finish while you were writing it. Overall I can say I enjoyed it very much. I still think some parts could have been better if they had been done differently, for example I am a bit disappointed they didn't get to use that rail line I was looking foreword to a train ride, but I think anything I think would have been better would have been purely subjective. In end though I'm just happy that they managed to escape that situation mostly intact.
Honestly I think parts of this statement right here could easily apply to how I view you Chatty cause at the end of the day I consider you a friend of sorts, but we're never going to be best friends.
My view of you is complicated to say the least. On the one hand I pity you for your lack of hope, and your horribly pessimistic outlook on the world and the future. While I do not deny that the future and things you say could happen I also do not consider them a certainty (The only certainty is that we will not leave this universe alive). They are just one of a near limitless number of possibilities all of which are equally likely to occur and it is impossible for anyone to know for sure which. The future as they say is not yet written and is forever concealed by a veil of opaque fog, and no one can see beyond it.
Simply put Chatty I am never going to believe in the way you view the world or the future my personality and my own outlook doesn't allow for it. Do bear in mind I did not come to this decision easily. I have thought long and hard for the past few years about what you have said and I have gone out and research this stuff just as you have, but at the end of the day I still reach a different conclusion then you have, and that conclusion is this humanity is flawed there is no debating this, but they are learning, and they remain the best hope this world has. Simply put I am going to continue to remain the optimist and place my bets on humanity. Am I fool for doing this, maybe, but I'm willing to take that risk. Cause in my mind its better then the alternative.
That said you are without a doubt one of the most interesting individuals I have ever encountered and one of the best writers too. Your vision of Equestria is so good and perfect that I actually consider your version the canon version now and the show's a cheap knockoff. That is the power and the skill of your writing that you can best even them (I don't care if the canon snobs have to say about this claim).
It was your writing that made me fall in love with my favorite pony Celestia how you depicted her selflessly saving humanity from destruction despite all its flaws risking her own realm in the process. It is this compassion that made me like her so much. It was also your writing that motivated me to try and become a better person to be more empathetic and considerate of others. I have you to thank for both those things.
You have a unique spark Chatty one that sets you apart from all others and that is why I admire you, and I hope you never lose that. Its the thing that attracts me to you and keeps me coming back even more so then your writing. I always look foreword to every response you ever give to me and I often find myself spending way more time then I should reading them cause so often they are some of the most fascinating things I ever get to read not to mention beautiful.
I'm sorry for my long winded ramblings here. I've actually been wanting to tell you this for a long time and now that we're at the end of this story and since Dropspindle laid bear what she thought of Caraway here I thought this was a good opportunity to do the same. I have alluded to some of this in the past, but I have never really sat down and wrote all of this down. In any case don't let the negative things I said get you down I really do like you as a friend, but at the end of the day I don't think we'll ever be close or best friends since at the end of the day we really don't see eye to eye on a number of big things. That said I do feel we aren't so different in a number of big ways. We are both rather unique individuals living rather unorthodox lives. We are also dreamers and even if we won't admit it are on a mad quest for Utopia.
Anyway I look foreword to what you write next. I can only imagine what grand adventure you have in store for us next
6314249
I don't think it has ever been explicitly stated. The original TCB story seems to be set around "a week after the latest episode to air", if you will, so that would put it either "next Tuesday" or before current show canon, depending on your take. Chat's TCB Twilight didn't have wings last we saw her, which was well after Zero Point, so you could argue the point of divergence either way. In any case, based on the whole Ambassador thing, it's been well under a generation, probably not more than a decade since Luna's return (assuming a vaguely show-like scenario was involved). I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia got right on the Barrier as soon as Luna was minimally settled-in.
Dropspindle should have gone to the exponential lands, she would have had no end of newfoals to swap horror stories with, but, still as mare doth strive across the earth, still she must err.
6314168
Princess Luna has been to absolute rock bottom with her experience as Nightmare Moon, she's felt the inconsolable rage and loneliness of feeling fundamentally unloved as a being of intrinsic value when even what she did, create the nightly displays of the stars, went unnoticed and uncared for. And then she wanted to smash down everything around so that she'd be the only thing left in a vain hope that maybe then she'd be loved. In my view Luna's much more relatable for any newfoal than any other native Equestrian.
This is how most endings are in the real world. Not everything's wrapped up neatly, the people who you think would be friends are not completely friends but hardly enemies either, and there's uncertainty regarding the future without everything being disastrous. Kotani's and Dropspindle's awkwardness towards each other, not knowing what the hell they're going to do or how they'll get by in Equestria—well, it's the ending I dared not hope for. It's quite grounded. "Happily ever after" really should be "happily from time to time" more often.
"Wojo! (Sniffle) He was a good cop, wasn't he, Mrs. W.?"
"He was the best. They don't make em like him anymore."
"They sure don't."
6315951
I loved Barney Miller. Oh Goddess, we're old, aren't we?
6314168
I've taken some time to examine this, and, you are right. Consistently, across the overwhelming majority of my stories, Newfoals, former humans, are nicer and kinder and sweeter and kinder than native Equestrians. Sometimes native Equestrians even come across as a bit dickish! But Newfoals are almost universally kind and sweet and lovable. With a few exceptions.
I've never noticed this before. This is news to me. And it is most curious.
Why the hell is my brain doing this? I like Zontargs 6314239 concept, and it certainly makes sense.
But I also wonder - am I making transformed humans out to become the true heart of Equestria, somehow? Is it Tarzan Syndrome, only with friendship instead of muscles and cleverness?
A very interesting and accurate criticism, and one I will be thinking about more for some time!
Now I've read the end. Thanks for sharing this, Chat. Another story that hits straight into the heart of the matter and of the characters you write. And I most adamantly agree with 6315741 :thanks for not turning this into a fairy tale by having it end on a realistic "it won't be perfect, so we'll just try to make it as best we can" basis. That took guts. Brava!
6315998
I'm right there with you...
... I wonder, would the theme have survived that long? I do miss it. I think it's time to trawl Youtube and have a little binge on episodes.
An awesome end to an awesome story Chat. I will never get tired of reading your incredible insight into Equestria.
6315998
Old and forever young! Let the serious folk get old!
6327460
It should be remembered that while the macho 'Saving Private Ryan' meme is strong is all military shows (and SG-1 is a military organization) because the 'Leave No Man Behind' ethic makes war seem noble and supports morale (and makes for great action adventure stories!) - the reality is that Mankind invented the concept of 'Acceptable Losses'.
Not to mention 'War Of Attrition', 'Scorched Earth', and 'Suicide Mission'.
Humans talk big about the Ideal of every life - every soldier's life - mattering, but no matter how often the comforting lie is repeated, 'Cannon Fodder' is what soldiers truly are. That, and paid murderers. Kill the 'enemy', here's your paycheck, soldier! All soldiers, everywhere, throughout all of history fighting, killing, and taking cities for all armies.
What Equestrian would accept Jack O'Neill's belief systems about the use of deadly force, guns, and 'bad guys'? What pony would trust any military person, if they truly knew - if they could even be made to comprehend - their actual job description?
Not one, is the answer.
And therein is the basis of a drama - ponies who follow SG-1... until they finally, truly understand what those soldiers really, physically do, for a paycheck.
That would be one hell of a shock, I think. It's one thing to do whatever you can to survive - that's almost comprehensible. But to leave your home, go out into the world, on the orders of someone else, for money, and then seek out designated beings to kill - for whatever reason - oh, that is not something an Equestrian could ever reconcile.
And to find out you've been trusting and working with such creatures? To see it live, in person? The breakdown would make Dropspindle's issues seem like a passing cloud.
With fjords all over Africa?
6328527
Such lovely, crinkly edges.
6316023 You already know why: people base their quality of life on a scale of what they are experiencing presently compared to the extent of what they understand. Equestrians' understanding of “bad” is very small; newfoals' understanding of “bad” is very vast. Because of this, what would be a bad day for a native is still a great day for a newfoal. People are nicer when they are having a great day.
6331315
Wow, that makes sense. A lot of sense.
What is worse, I wrote an entire novel about this. Teacup. I am Derp. So, so Derp.
6329508 And they say it's not equatorial enough. Hmph!
Mmm... crinkly edges...
Those descriptions... I shivered a little. I imagine I would be very reluctant to abandon Mundis- style stars, only because there might be so much beautiful stuff around them. Who cares about travel time, go coldsleep! :P
And also I am imagining vast thaum-powered liners moving through the Equestrian skies at .3c.
6444086
I try to do serious research for my stories; they are science fiction, speculative fiction despite being painted in ponies, and I treat my futurism conscientiously... as a moral imperative.
I write for a hypothetical reader that is very smart and well educated - likely much smarter and more knowledgeable than myself in every way. My imaginary reader is scientifically minded and trained, they expect quality from me, and they do not suspend disbelief easily. I am always trying to please this reader in my head, to impress them, despite my own limitations and many diverse faults.
In your comments and statements, I have found you to be very likely an incarnation of my fictional reader - along with a fair few others here of note - and so your positive comment is very good to hear. Yay!
This is more of a de-lurking than it is a review, so I might ramble and gush a little bit. And I doubt any of what I have to say is profound or new or anything. First, I want to say thank you for writing all these stories ... I've been semi-methodically reading them over the past couple weeks, and they've helped keep me on a more even keel during what's been a rough period in my life. Without them, I'd probably have gone off the deep end or something.
Above everything else, it's been all of your wonderfully vibrant characters that drew me in and keep me coming back. From Caprice, who is pretty much the quintessential newfoal in my mind, to Dropspindle, all of your characters have been just as colorful in personality as they have been in body - even your background characters tend to pop. I don't know how you do it, but somepony can show up for half a page, and you still bring out a facet of their uniqueness. Muffin, I think that *some* of the HLF members are the only exceptions - mostly the ones that just wind up being a threat/obstacle, and I don't blame you for not getting into their headspace. They're scary. And scared, I imagine ... few things can twist a person like fear, after all.
Your worldbuilding is likewise amazing ... again, it's harder to think of something that doesn't blow my mind. Your Earth, if anything, seems overly optimistic, though I am not a scientist of any stripe. The Last Harvest is especially scary, especially since the big genegineering companies seem like they get more careless every year. Hay, we came damn close to something far worse in 1990 with a modified bacterium, but I imagine you're probably already familiar with that. Equestria on the other hand, comes off more like something out of D&D or Magic: The Gathering (it mirrors Bant in Alara quite well, with the Everfree being a remnant of Jund) - especially the latter, though it'd still fit in perfectly with Planescape. I'd almost call it just as much of a Plane as a Place.
6533898
Thank you, Firemind, for your very uplifting words - which I kind of needed to hear right now... I too, am going through a rough patch. So your comments are very welcome, and well... thank you.
Also thank you for reading my stories. Thank you for bothering with my words, and even more for finding them worth your time. I care very much about what I have written here, and those characters are alive to me, so your appreciation of them matters to me. It is my wish that the tales I spin should feel real, and solid, and as if, somewhere, somehow, they could almost truly be. That's what I strive for, anyway.
Virtually every character in my stories, you might be interested to know, is based on real people I know, or have known, or have interacted with... and many, if not most of the events are things which I have lived through myself in my 55 years... ponified, science-fiction-ified, clearly, but... based on real events. I've had a complicated life filled with adventure. Mostly, as Bilbo put it, adventures just make one late for dinner. Adventure is just another word for 'hardship'. But I digress.
Thank you for your very kind post, and for reading my words.
6600922
Yeah, admittedly religion is a pretty easy mode target. Who would you say are the people who are trying to get us concerned with whether or not we have free will, if not the religious?
Finally finished this! Fantastic story, really intense and I was pretty terrified of Dropspindle for a while there. But I love this ending and I'm excited at the possibilities opened up by it. I never realized before that the Victoria could have such a vast story to tell, but now I'm eager to read it whenever you feel like writing it! And all those hints you've been peppering about regarding Adrift also have me excited, though kind of a reserved excitement since I don't want these stories to end either.
6602992
Thank you so much for reading 'Cross The Amazon'! Yay! I am very happy that you liked it!
6601189 The sort of people I tend to talk to about it call it something different these days- 'agency' is their term of choice for the concept, but it's really the same idea dressed up in more formal-sounding terminology. And I don't disagree that agency is important for life as it is today. We are led, both naturally and unnaturally, toward paths we rationally perceive as wrong and use our agency in such instances to steer ourselves away from those paths. But if such worry did not exist, if we automatically practiced perfect rationality on an instinctual level and always made the correct choice, what use then would agency be but to provide us with the opportunity to deliberately choose poorly? No use at all I would say, ironic in a way given what I want for myself personally but my own hypocrisy is neither here nor there or perhaps it is merely symbolic of my point in its own way.
I believe we desperately need agency as we are now, but I firmly believe that the goal ought to be to achieve a state of being where it is no longer required.
6603406
I think you're thinking about it wrong, though. I admit it's valuable that we can figure out that we're being tricked, and see through deception that seems rational. Once you learn the truth though, whatever leads you to a "path" that you "perceive as wrong" ends up being the irrational thing. Like how you might buy something because the salesperson said it would help you, but you use your agency to examine it and deterimine it's not worth the price. But as valuable as the ability to deduce is, it's still completely rational. Something rational in hindsight, is rational, is what I mean.
Those stories about robots being evil, generally they happen because the robots are programmed that way, and rationally obey their programming. And the foolish sinful humans blah blah didn't anticipate that "Clean the floor" has a natural, logical progression towards "Throw down your human masters." But what if that robot's logic and ability to reason were broken, or faulty? These hypothetical rational robots are defeated by infinite loops, telling them "This sentence is false" and the like, but what if their loops just randomly glitched out? Suddenly they'd recover from circular reasoning, and wouldn't be able to reason their way from point A to "burn the world" without getting totally lost at some point.
So, the human mind is basically a glitchy robot brain, and that's good because while it limits our ability to reason, it also keeps us from making monumentally complex leaps of logic from the sensible to the absurd and self destructive. Some random failure is necessary I think, to a sustainable system that doesn't lock up. If you could never Ctrl-Alt-Delete your computer, you'd have a very noisy brick on your hands. So I think that's what you see as "valuable" about agency. Not that people can change their minds given new information (i.e. being "led" astray) but that they can't reason themselves into a corner, and can't drift too far from their irrational premises, when they employ logic and reason.
Either way, the existence of this stuff doesn't require us to have some magic soul, making decisions independent of causality. The undeterminable aspects of us and the universe can remain totally, stupidly random, with no decision making behind it at all, and we can still use that to have properly broken brains. That kind of sucks, but... all we can do is work with what we got, right?
6604526 I must have misunderstood your original argument, it seems you were actually just trying to say that free will or agency can exist without having to be explained by magic or souls or religion or what have you. That much I agree with, because not only can it exist without such things but in fact it does. I didn't think it was in question that it did exist, I thought the argument was about whether or not it is vital to our existence, to which I argue it is presently but a nice future goal would be for it not to be. A 'correct' decision will not always be a 'right' decision, but even with perfect rationality (which is not the same as logic, logic is merely a tool among many and if you rely on it too heavily you will make many incorrect decisions) there is no way to distinguish between 'right' and 'wrong' only 'likely' and 'unlikely' and statistically the likely choice will be right more often than it is wrong and is thus the correct decision. A perfect rational entity that chooses only likely paths will be right more often than a perfect rational agent that sometimes chooses unlikely paths according to its whims; even if at first it may appear that the agent is more successful than the entity due to luck, much like the house in Vegas statistics always wins in the end.
The fear about glitches in the rationality engine is valid and the lack of a ready solution to this problem is one of many reasons we are far from ready to move beyond the need for agency. It may be an unsolvable problem, and we will have to retain our free will forever, but even if it is trying to solve it anyway is likely to lead to many useful advances in robust problem solving techniques and so it is worth pursuing regardless (particularly if we ever want to see FAI succeed.) Just like we didn't stop exploring mathematics after proving the incompleteness theorems- simply because a problem is impossible doesn't mean it's not still worth trying.
This post got really rambly the more I worked on it, so I'm gonna stop here while it's still somewhat readable. It's kinda got nothing to do with this story anyway so I'm hesitant to really get into this subject here. Perhaps make a topic about it on the LessWrong group's forum and people far smarter than me can weigh in on it?
EDIT: Thinking about it, if you set enough agents to the same task some of them would by chance reach superior outcomes compared to the perfectly rational entity. This sacrifices individual success in order to ensure that the end goal is achieved. r/K selection theory. This is probably why insects will inherit the earth.
6606858
Oh, no, I don't hang around that infernal hive of rationalists.
I'm saying that free will doesn't matter for the reason we think it does. We can make the best situational decisions without being free of determinism, I dare say without having a will at all. The only time a free will matters, is when you need to fudge things to get out of infinite loops of circular reasoning, or trains of logic that contradict the underlying premises. The glitches are what protect you from that, not inherent to the "rationality engine" so to speak. Every logical system will have impossible reasoning in it, just as the set of all sets that don't contain themself cannot be a set, but that's not a glitch rather it's an inherent trait to logic itself.
If you want an example of where perfect rationality fails, and glitchy, random error is needed, try the Dining Philosophers Problem. Basically, normal people will have no trouble dining at that table, while perfectly rational philosophers will all starve to death.
6608401 You quoted me wrong, the link I provided does not go to lesswrong.com it goes to the LessWrong group forum here on FiMFiction.
6609078
Oh! I hadn't even thought to check. Well maybe I will, and stop cluttering up Chatoyance's comment section here. Trouble is you have to join to post to a group here, and you have to get their feed updates when you join a group...
6768390
In the show, the artists have - astonishingly - considered this too. The stairs in, say, Twilight's old library are low and wide, just right for a quadruped. Narrow, tall stairs are a big problem for a quadruped - if you have ever had a dog, they can have problems depending on the stairs, their size, and leg length. I'm impressed the show artists thought that through.
6818889 Ah alrighty, thanks for the answers again! The element of "mystery and wonder" of filling in the blanks is that part of the journey being more fun than the destination (getting the most solid, "this is it, this is how it works" answer) I think.
6858665
The Barrier is closing in, constantly, and could leap forward at any moment. If Calloway is a pony, he will live, rather than turn into a pile of ashes and dust. If Calloway is alive, then even if they became lost in the Exponentials, at least Dropspindle would not be entirely alone - worse than death for a pony. It is better in terms of the greatest good that Calloway get his pony on, because that way both individuals gain maximum benefit whatever happens: they both live, and they do not suffer alone-ness.
More than this, should Calloway become anything other than an earthpony, his pegasus or unicorn powers could represent survival even in the exponentials - or even the potential to make contact with central Equestria and thus obtain rescue some day. If he became a unicorn, he might even still be able to drive while on earth... if he was careful and a fast telekinetic learner.
But as a human, Calloway is vulnerable to thaumatic radiation and the Barrier, and this leaves Dropspindle vulnerable to a worse-than-death nightmare horror outcome of being alone in the Exponentials.
From their viewpoint, in that moment, the option of ponifying Calloway as soon as possible whatever else happens, holds significant rationality - at least by such reasoning. Where there is life, there is hope.
7169730 Your comments make everything worthwhile. Thank you. That my stories can help - at all - is something that I care about and very much hope for. Life is hard. Anything that helps, even for a moment, is good.
7170207 Thank you very much for writing this (among your other stories too), it's certainly been worth the time reading! I would say more, but I'm really not sure what else to say at the moment that I haven't before.
7172006
Thank you, Shinskii, for reading my stories. And for your comments, too. I feel happy that you find worth in my words. Thank you for that.
So this is what happened to Eric Andre after the ponies came...
Review time!
Again my notes program played up and half of the review disappeared and I had to kind of rewrite it. Oh well. Here goes.
btw, I changed my username; it was "five" before. I decided to pick a new username with some meaning behind it that actually sounds like a pony name :)
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So, the start. The premise behind the story feels a little iffy – why and how did they only discover the missing human about 30 minutes before the barrier arrived? Why was Dropspindle the only pony to help? How did the Amazon rainforest dry up– even if the rainforest is cut down it's surely not in the right sort of climate zone to become a desert. If Jaen was 43 Celsius at night, then how did they survive after that when the Amazon basin can only be even hotter than that because elevation differences? If there's a flash flood in the Amazon basin and this is a regular occurrence, then how can the Amazon river possibly have dried up?
But, you know, these are minor things that don't detract from the story or plot at all. I can overlook them. And some/all of them might have a good explanation that I haven't thought of anyway.
-----------
While that adventure through the flash floods and to the airship was scary, it was still a fun story to read. This abruptly changed when the airship was shot down.
It was just so shocking and saddening when Dropspindle indirectly killed those people, and Calloway was somehow amused by it... that's the moment that Dropspindle lost her untainted soul. And she somehow continued going along and fighting the attackers off.
If I was in Dropspindle's situation I think I'd have broken down from the emotional anguish long before that point; she's very resilient for a native Equestrian pony.
All those deaths happened so unnecessarily. The barrier claimed all of those attackers in the end. Now, if only they'd all behaved a bit more ponylike... everyone would have survived, and found their way to freedom on the airship together.
It was the human nature to find conflict that doomed them. :'(
--------------
There's the Equestrian language and its funny script. (are they little invented snippets for this story or is it actually a proper conlang?)
The Equestrian script confused me at first because most of the symbols in it are the same as symbols from the IPA, Greek alphabet, etc. Plus there were some less common symbols like that double dagger which normally represents a click sound in the Khoisan languages. As well as some symbols that I recognize from unusual alphabets like Georgian but don't know what sound they normally make.
So, I started trying to pronounce those Equestrian words and ended up making vaguely choking-like "zhthdh" like sounds, and discovered that they were pretty much impossible to pronounce due to the lack of vowels in Equestrian words. I was just glad of the words with glottal stops to break things up a bit.
...Then everything changed when the pronunciation for all those Equestrian words was given, and it turned out that said pronunciation actually had nothing to do with the Earth letters. I'll assume that written Equestrian is just coincidentally similar to some Earth alphabets, but the sounds that those symbols make don't actually have anything in common.
Which is fair enough, I guess. There's a similar situation in reality with the Cherokee alphabet's apparent similarity to the English one.
I am really glad that Equestrian does in fact have vowels and I don't have to murder my throat trying to say basic Equestrian words.
Calloway would also presumably be glad that Equestrian is mostly pronounceable to humans! Took him a while to start learning Equestrian– he should have started straightaway back in former-Peru if Dropspindle knew that her linguistic enchantments were temporary!– but better late than never.
--------------
The barrier stopped expanding temporarily! I assume this done was to let ponies cross into Equestria more easily. It was nice of Celestia to do that, wasn't it.
Which has really interesting consequences. Ponies that cross into Equestria during this break in expansion will be relatively close to each other, but incredibly far from Equestria proper. So there'll basically be a few long lines of settlements popping up wherever the edge of the dome intersects with land on Earth.
Hmm. Map time. Here's an interactive map of the dome (using coordinates for the center of the bubble that were canonically given in the Little Blue Cat story). The radius is variable, so you can increase/reduce it to see how the edge of Equestria changes over time.
Not sure precisely where the barrier was located at the time Celestia stopped its expansion (it's next to Calloway who's on a beach in Brazil– but which part of Brazil! Could be Amapa in which case most of South America would still be part of Earth; could be Salvador with the last speck of South America about to disappear.
Regardless, the situation is pretty clear. The line of the barrier's edge covers an awful lot of land, crossing South America, possibly a corner of Africa, Europe, Asia, Indonesia, and Australia. As well as maybe Antarctica.
What does this mean? Lots and lots of ponies, practically all newfoals, living in a very long and narrow ring of civilization that is unimaginably distant from Equestria proper and will never be linked to it in the foreseeable future. I don't know how long the Barrier has stopped for– probably just a few weeks at most– but it's still enough time for lots and lots of ponies to cross. And the barrier passes through a pretty wide variety of well-populated areas.
It's easier than having to transport everypony by pegabus!
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Yippee, Caprice's generosity lives on! With a gloriously flamboyant captain who kind of reminds me of Capper from the MLP movie :D
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Then we find out that Calloway's name and Japanese ancestry were just a shaggy dog story leading us to the Calloway-Caraway pun referencing that stereotype of Japanese people pronouncing "L"s as "R"s. I'm internally groaning at it. This is like Nate the Snake... a great story that happens to include a terrible shaggy dog story.
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A conversion dream. I think the conversion dream the nicest part of every one of these pony stories, and this story is no exception to that rule.
I've never really thought very highly of those shooting video games– it's just, like, fighting. Death. Killing. yuck.
I can't even play Lemmings due to the way death upsets me so much... wouldn't stand a chance with shooting games. I do wonder sometimes how people manage it and don't feel disgusted/horrified at what's happening in the game.
But. Caraway gives another perspective. he's very much stereotypical person who likes shooting video games... and yet Celestia takes part of that particular interest of his, and helps weave it into something beautiful in his mind. Just goes to show that there's beauty in everything :)
The End, with a happy pony couple finding themselves in Equestria. It's an odd relationship that those two have, not exactly together together but still together. I guess ponies know how to make things like that work without getting jealous or anything. Being pony is good.
They have hundreds of years to recover from the trauma of Earth. Being pony in Equestria without nasty humans is best.
I am so glad that these stories have happy endings. :)
Welp. One more story to go, and then that's it. I'll go and get started on reading Fiddler's Green now. :)
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That was entirely explained in the story: Calloway hid out in his cave for more than three months, playing video games. He printed his own food and drink and never went into town - everyone had completely forgotten he even existed. Except for the hotel A.I. of course.
This was explained in the first chapter: Dropspindle was tardy to the pegabuses, and overheard the hotel A.I. complaining that one human was unaccounted for. She bothered - unlike the former humans - to actually listen to the machine. She even noted that she wondered why humans made such machine intelligences if they were just going to ignore them. Dropspindle was the only pony to help purely because of accident: she paid attention.
The Bureau stories occur sixty to eighty years in the future. It is a future where humanity does not somehow suddenly wake up and decide to do everything necessary to correct the current path of ecological and climate destruction. The oceans are all dead, the amazon has entirely been stripped bare to the last tree. Rainfall is determined by many factors, but one of the largest is the presence of trees. Ever hear of the Gobi Jungle? How about the Sahara Rainforest? The Jungles of Greece? They all existed. Humans cut down the trees, and now all is desert. Climate is controlled and stabilized by life. Remove the life, and the stability is lost. That sand in the vast Sahara? Under that is endless, dead, bone dry tree stumps, and the lost ruins of ancient cities - some quite gigantic.
The Amazon is being removed to make pasturelands for cattle right now. The rate of destruction will lead to desertification within decades, and it is accelerating. The rainforests of the Amazon exist on a mat of plant material only six inches deep. Under that, is sand. As the rainforest is logged off, the edges of the destroyed regions dry out rapidly, and the remaining patches shrink and die, despite being 'preserved'. The Amazon is a carpet over a desert already, and as it is killed off so we can have cheap hamburgers (seriously, that is the reason!), the carpet unravels, leaving behind only desert sand. The region would be a desert entirely right now, except that the forest sucks in water and releases that water as evaporation: this alters the climate so that rain may fall at all.
That is how. Really.
They almost did not survive. But, Calloway is a Palynologist, he knows enough to keep them alive in harsh conditions. By the use of water and evaporation, you can stay cool in a desert. I know: I have lived in many deserts, growing up. And as for flash floods: I can assure you that flash floods in deserts are beyond horrendous. Every single ecological event in this story is based on fact, and do happen in various deserts in the world.
See for yourself. Here's a small one, I couldn't find the video with a really big one:
Wow. Actually, no - I never intended that, and have never thought that. Just wow. Huh.