"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy." ‒Marie Curie
I sang the whole time we hiked through the forest. I only stopped once in a while to give three short bursts on my whistle. I didn't get a reply from anyone, but I kept trying until my ears started to ring. I admit it was getting distressing having to keep calling out and getting no answer, so singing kept my spirits up. Singing also had another use: warning bears of our approach. The last thing you want to do is surprise a bear. Surprising a bear is a bad thing and I like having all my limbs attached to my body. Even with chitin for skin, I didn't want to test myself up against Stephen Colbert's arch nemesis. So I sang. It kept me from thinking about ax murders in the woods and once in a while, Yuri would join in with a howl on the high notes. Funnily enough, he’s a better singer than I am!
It was as nice as it could be. You gotta count your blessings while you can.
Already I could see the woods rejoicing in the sudden absence of man. Bobcats are usually people shy, but I saw one on the path. It seemed rather confused at the sight of me, but when looking at Yuri it took off into the underbrush. I could even hear deer out in the brush looking for food. There were no voices and no cars. It was still. I don't think that the Earth has ever been this… quiet. Not since man started up their shenanigans around the globe. I wondered how long it would be before the last traces of people vanished from the planet. If aliens visited, would they know we were here and what happened to us?
No use dwelling on things that haven't happened yet.
Once out of the trees, my sight reflexively became yellow tinted. It was bright outside, with it being a cloudless, sunny day. Outside of the dark and shaded forest, the vast empty hills and highways were just way too bright. Luckily, I have built in transitional lenses!
It took a few hours to reach 'civilization' again. Once I crossed the tree line and gazed out into the highways, I was once again struck by how eerie and quiet it was. There wasn't a single car on the roads! What the fuck? Does that mean people were abducted while in their cars? Why would anyone do that? All the sight did was raise more questions for an already confusing event. I guess it was better than allowing cars to pile up until they erupted into city destroying fireballs, or perhaps that was the plan for… whoever masterminded it.
Say what you want, but I’m pretty damned sure that this was planned. There’s no way this could have naturally happened. The fact I am alive along with the wildlife says that much. Why remove just the people? Why change me?
Perhaps I’m just a mistake in all this. There’s no way to really know for sure.
With no cars, it made traversing the roads a little easier for me. Soon, we reached some houses that were collected into a small suburb. They seemed for the most part, untouched, but trash cans were tipped over and rooted through. Seems like the raccoons and opossums decided to take advantage of not being shot at anymore to have a feast. One of the fattest raccoons I have ever seen just lounged on a porch like he owned the place. Strange seeing one out in broad daylight, but he didn't seem rabid. I gave him a friendly nod and kept my distance, no sense in not being polite. Yuri gazed at the rolly polly procyonid with longing in his eyes. No doubt looking at him like a gray and white snack cake. But duty won out and he followed me past it. The raccoon himself didn't give a single fuck. He won't be fat for long, I figured, since now there's no more people to make garbage. In time, he'll have to catch his own food again.
I knocked on some of the doors and tried the non knob handles. I targeted houses that still had cars in their driveways. It seemed like it was a better chance to find people. I didn't get a single answer. Many of the doors were locked and shut tight. At this point, my wings and back were hurting and Yuri was panting, I just would like a place to rest. Preferably in a nice house instead of a hole in the ground. One door was unlocked and had a handle that wasn't a knob. Not being able to turn a door handle was awful and I didn't want to use my mouth on a germ magnet like that. No thanks.
I called out as I entered the house, my eyesight returning to normal in the darkened dwelling. I felt like some sort of burglar just bursting into someone's house unannounced. It was a nice two story house, typical middle class place with plush carpets and nice furniture. The power was still on, which I was grateful for. That meant there was air conditioning and the possibility of a bath. The first thing I did was check every room in the house while Yuri sniffed around under beds and in closets. Not a single soul was there. Not even a pet or anything; it was all quiet and still. There was a kid's bedroom with a bunk bed, which was messy and littered with toys. The master bedroom was also empty.
The photo's on the walls revealed it to be a typical family: a wife and husband with two kids. They seemed pretty happy…
I would try my best to leave things how I found it. Maybe even write a note for the owners if I can.
I carefully took off my backpack. Seems like the blanket helped some, but my wings still got sore and somewhat crinkled. Oh well, it's not like I'm going to fly with them anyway. They were just too small. Unless I was a bee or something… which I'm not. Only in name. It felt good to stretch out my wings though and buzz them a bit. I would need to get some other way of carrying my gear. Maybe a wagon? But it wouldn't work on all terrain.
There was food there, thankfully. I didn't trust anything in the fridge at this point. It's been a few days and most things tend to go bad in that time. They did have a good pantry stocked with a lot of canned and dry food, though. I selected some cans of chicken noodle soup, mostly because they have the easy to open pop tops on them. I doubt I'd be able to work a regular can opener with hooves. My teeth and jaw were at least strong enough to get them open. Maneuvering them into pot to heat, was the major problem. I found that if I sandwich things between my hooves, I could 'pick up' bulky objects. I had to use gentle, but constant pressure. I still had to use my mouth for the ladle and a chair to even reach the stove, but after some more trial and error, I was rewarded with a nice big pot of soup bubbling on the stove.
I poured out some water into bowls. I was surprised that power was staying on as long as it was, I'd give it another day, or so before that and water will go out. Might as well make use of it while I could. Say what you want about tap water being gross, but it’s a genuine miracle that something like that can exist. It would be… a real shame if that technology was lost.
When the soup was ready, I waited for it to cool a bit before dishing them out in even more bowls. One for Yuri and one for me. It tasted amazing after eating freeze dried food for days. It weirded me out that I had to eat it on the floor with Yuri. It made me feel like an animal, but what else was I going to do? Tape a spoon to my hoof? I can deal with embarrassment as long as I stayed alive, which meant eating out of a bowl on the floor. It could be worse—I could have changed into a bacteria, or turned inside out instead.
After we ate, I attempted to wash the dishes. I broke everything except for the steel pot. Good job, me. The pieces were too fine to pick up and I didn't want to use my mouth for it. So this family has to come back to a sink full of glass and ceramic. At least I didn't break anything while I took a bath. It felt amazing and I noticed just how nasty I was getting. My shell… I'll just use that instead of 'skin', had turned gray from trail dust, but washing myself revealed it to be rather pretty, with a shiny deep black/orange color. Even the hard carapace on my back was kinda lovely. Depending on the light, it would shine everywhere from orange to yellow. It made me feel better, ‘cause if I had to be a bug, at least I can be a pretty one. It looked like car paint in a way, with the different colored flecks and the light effect. A little vanity never hurt anyone.
What remained in the tub after I finished wasn't pretty at all. I didn't know something without skin, or hair could hold that much dirt on them. Yick.
Yuri didn't take a bath with me—he hates baths—so he guarded the bathroom door instead. I locked the door with us inside. Even though the house was empty I was still afraid of someone barging on me while in the bath. Ever see Psycho? Baths are some dangerous territory. When I was dry and rested, I strapped the backpack on. It was yet again an awkward affair. I couldn't wait to get new bags. At least this time I was extra careful to not crinkle my wings.
After the food and bath, we left the house the same as how we found it: with the door unlocked. Someday the family might come back and wondered who broke their bowls and took a bubble bath. It gave me a bit of a chuckle.
With that, we began our march with still no signs of life. I always pictured the apocalypse to go down in fire and nuclear bombs. But this? It was worse in a way. Especially if there's others like me: just all alone out there.
Three hours later, we set foot in Beacon. We made good time… a little over six hours to hike. I definitely noticed that my walking speed is much faster than when I was bipedal. Yuri didn't have to even slow down for me! It was better than crawling the whole way, that's for sure.
Beacon was a typical small city from what I could see. Walking into it was like walking into an old ghost town. Again, there were no cars on the road, but plenty were still parked all crammed together on the sides of the street. Parking meters flashed their expired signs, but nobody was there to give parking tickets. There were some scattered trash on the streets, which was blown away by the wind. I could see that woodland creatures descended to have a smorgasbord of human trash. It was the same story in the suburbs. The only sound was the wind blowing through the buildings and my hooves clacking on the pavement.
So much for stealth, but here I am trying to FIND other people.
Yet again, my whistle gave me no results. Shouting didn't do anything either. Yuri's barking only alerted the local strays. They looked at us from a distance, but didn't approach. Perhaps they didn’t want to come after me? I mean, these long fangs can’t just be for decoration after all.
I shook my head. It was time to get to business. I needed to find a safe place to spend the night and get better supplies. A random house would have water, food and be relatively safe… at least from bears. From other people? Or whatever took everyone else? I don't think so.
I stamped a hoof to drive away some of the more disturbing thoughts. I had to stay rational. If I took the right precautions, I will be safe. I just have to focus. Stay frosty.
I took a moment to take out my map and study it. My best bet would be to stay on Main Street. Most of the major stores and utilities would be on Main Street and most importantly, there would be a pharmacy. I was eager to get more medicine that wasn't smashed to dust… along with maybe a more updated first aid kit. Before that, though, we'd need a better bag. There's bound to be a pet store, or a camping store, or something! This city was close to a National Park; there had to be camping and survival gear store!
I put the map away and whistled for Yuri to follow me. Funny, even with fangs and a muzzle, I can still whistle pretty good. He barked and ran back over from a bin he was… marking. Guess he figured he was the big dog in town, since I scared off the other dogs. Funny.
As I got further in the city… I smelled something.
Gas.
Burned rubber.
Blood.
Something was wrong.
I didn't think; I ran down the empty paved roads, my hooves making a racket. At one point, I thought I was galloping, but I wasn't sure. Yuri was faster and he took the lead as we raced through alleys and streets. He probably smelled it too. In the distance, I could see a smashed truck that was wrapped around a traffic light pole. It was completely totaled and barely even resembled a truck anymore. The driver side door was torn clean from the truck and thrown several feet away. A car on the street was flipped from being clipped so hard. Glass littered the street along with various debris.
I approached the smashed out driver's side. Something in me nagged that this was a terrible idea, but if someone was still alive they needed help. But the sound of hundreds of flies gave it away.
No.
Nobody was alive.
I could see on the driver's side was… a small horse. A unicorn too blood stained and mangled to tell color, or gender. It was roughly the same size as me, maybe slightly bigger. It was propped up on the driver seat, forelegs shoved through the steering wheel. Bones stuck out of torn skin and the head… oh God, the head.
It was completely twisted upward, the bones in the neck broken and jutting out the ragged flesh. There were no eyes, just empty sockets that long since had the eyes picked away by birds, or insects, or God knows what. The face had a facsimile of a smile as most of the facial skin was on the steering wheel, or gnawed away. Already there were maggots everywhere. Writhing. Wiggling.
The eye sockets stared right at me.
Bile rose to the back of my throat as I stood rooted in place. Staring. Shaking. I hyperventilated as I saw the flies rise up in great clouds as Yuri approached. Buzzing flies. It was getting harder to breathe.
Already a deep pressure in my brain began to press in. Don't think about it. Don't think about it.
I tried to step away or move, but I couldn't. I couldn't stop looking at this poor being. Did they suffer? Were they conscious when the flies began to come?
I vomited and fell to my 'knees' on my forelegs. I threw up everything in my belly and even pure bile as the smell of rot and blood drifted over in the wind. I tears streaked down my face. It reminded me too much of my mother. Her lying on the floor. Her beautiful dress stained red. Her neck twisted with hand shaped bruises…
I teetered over, holding my head in my fore hooves. I couldn’t flashback here in the broken glass and flies. I needed to get out of here! I curled up on my side and screamed, trying to drown out the noise in my head as it tried to show me things I didn't want to see. My mother in the driver's seat. My mother on the glass. Mother with empty eye sockets looking right at me while flies rose up in biblical swarms. I fought them by screaming louder and louder, but it wasn't loud enough.
I was dimly aware that something grabbed on to the handle on my backpack and was dragging me away. I could feel the glass grind under my shell as I moved backwards on the pavement. There was a sound of grunting and growling. I hit a moment of clarity to look behind to see Yuri, backpack in his jaws, tugging me backwards. Pulling me away from the scene. I wanted to help. I wanted to move with him and away from here, but my brain wasn't connecting with my legs. I flailed and cried as I was pulled further and further from the accident. Yuri occasionally yelped as his paws stepped on the glass. This was all my fault. My fault.
The pressure in my brain increased. My only defense was to go somewhere where I could protect myself from what I was seeing. Both in front of me and in my own head. I could feel myself drifting as my overloaded brain began to shut down.
I hear one last pained yelp from Yuri and then everything went black.
.
.
.
Oh my god... this just went to a whole new level of intense.
Holy shit!
I never thought about what happened to people who were driving, flying, etc, when the change happened.
And here is one such unfortunate person.
Jesus.
6273177
To be honest, that whole thought is what inspired me to write this. What happens to the ponies that got left behind? People driving vehicles? Babies? The sick? It's absolutely terrifying to me.
I know exactly what you mean about showers. Finding spiders in them yesterday just proves the theory.
6273185
There was a whole debate on this, but long story short we have to assume Deady McMagic was driving alone. Or was one of the incredibly rare vehicular glitches.
Nice, I like what way its took, but for sure remember about things whats are on and have no safety to turn it automatically off.
Like few flooded houses, burned, or even just with still working light (or not if that happened in day). Funny that water, electricy and gas stop working after more than few days (2 months or something like that) because this is that type of kind automatic process, even if main system gonna go down there is emergency one with no regular usage of power and other media (productions and a lot of things will just stop in worst case few hours) its have minimal usage and thats means longer time to use it as survivor.
Oh and of course whats happened with all planes what were in air ;D?
6274091
Or worse yet, in a submarine D: AAAAAA
6274085
He was indeed driving alone when suddenly he was too short to reach the break pedal anymore! Poor dude.
6274112
Not sure actually submarine is kind of thing what they can survive because they have enough time to learn to navigate it with hoves, and for sure there is quick way to float to surface. Biggest problem for planes would be landing, for submarine even if they hit port in hard way its not guaranted death.
Counting that they all changed not diseappeared
Well, that —meme aside, escalated rather quickly.
And ghaa was I not expecting that second picture with how rare even one illustration per chapter is. Really, really clever bit of a bluff there, for lack of a better word. Really good way to mess with your expectations.
6278391
Thanks! My goal is to have at least two illustrations per chapter.
Why? It's fun. And also having an illustrated story would be nice to show off. it's helping me learn a lot too!
6273185 The people who were undergoing surgery?
6282308
Oh god that's absolutely horrible. I may just need to use that >:3
Shit got real. and I loved it!
So far I have a very positive opinion of your story, which is odd as my general opinion of the world it is set in tends toward lukewarm and changeling characters/physiology tends to be a sore spot for me. If I had to guess a reason for my positive reaction it is that your characters are very well done and appear well rounded, as well as being a very good representation of both someone suffering PTSD and their dog trained to help people with this disorder. You've also so far been breaking some of this world's tropes by both having the character having started in the wilderness and the first pony they come across not being an instant friend. Your art is also very good at making a scene burst to life, although I find it of such quality that it can actually disrupt my reading do to my eyes wanting to soak up the finer qualities of your style.
While your story is very good so far, I think it is too early in for me to give it either a thumbs up or a favorite as there are still some corners and traps I can see you potentially writing yourself into. However, if you keep breaking my expectations and maintain such strong characterizations going forwards I can honestly place your story among my top ten. Good luck and write on.
Well.... That was different not bad different it was good different. The only real signs of death we've seen in the fics so far is literally one sentence in the most recent chapter of Founder of Alexandria and you went and gave us a disgusting account of a partly decomposed corpse
This pleases the dark and twisted side
Also, I'm sorry about your cat
6288004
Thank you! She's happy now and that's what matters :>
6286746
Oh man thanks :D I got all of it planned out how it's going to go, so as long as I follow the plan I won't get stuck. I hope. Things happen sometimes! As for the PTSD I have experience with it myself. I don't have a service dog but I do take medicine and go to therapy for it . PTSD is different for everyone, but I at least know how it feels to experience a flash back and be hyper aware/paranoid so I can write from that. If you have any criticism feel free to send it to me cause I will cherish it forever. 8)
6288146
I hope she gets better
Nice new chapter. Moar.
*poke*
6314986 No worries, another chapter is coming soon, it's being edited right now!
Well, as we've seen in the main story, people who disappeared in vehicles tend to reappear still in those vehicles--- with the vehicles, as I recall, halted. (with the exception of airplanes for obvious reason.) So this wasn't a "reentry accident." It would seem to be one of the remainder who tried-- and failed-- to drive a vehicle after their transformation.
6411651 What if they were in their vehicle, when they turned?
Ok, so now that I'm reasonably certain this story will keep updating, I've started reading. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I'm not a professional criticizer (or whatever is the proper noun in english), but there were several things that stood out for me. Those are not good or bad, just something that stood out to me and that I wanted to give you my opinion on.
1. Little details. This is what makes a master writer, in my opinion. Add too little and your story will be bland. Add too much and your story will become a slog. So far you've given enough to create an image without going overboard, but I do believe that adding a little bit more will be only beneficial to this story. Things like little hairs on the sole of the hoof, 'built-in sunglasses' and certain other tiny touches have definitely improved my personal perception of this story, but I felt that the world around was... Kind of neglected. We get a generic "Park" and then a generic "Town suburb" scene with little personality to them, if that makes sense.
2. Story direction. Yes, I've only read 3 chapters so far, but as with a LOT of stories on this site, I already fear this problem. Most stories aren't going anywhere. A good tale is a journey from point A to point B. Having a character roam aimlessly isn't much of a tale unless there's deeper meaning. So far I think this story is one of adventure... And yet we have seen no clue as to what that point B is. For example, in original story it was the founding of Alexandria-even if the characters didn't know it. Don't spoil anything, but please give a simple yes or no-do YOU have such a destination in mind?
3. Main character. You're treading a fiiiine line here. As of right now, Melissa is in a PERFECT spot for her to grow and develop as a character regardless of the direction of said growth. Then again, add too much angst and she will become a boring teenager, not because of her age but her personality.
Overall-yep, that's a good story! You're biting off a whole lot to chew, though. Everything I've listed is good in moderation, but it's all too easy to go overboard.
Thanks for a great tale! Keep up the good work and eagerly awaiting next chappy!
edit: hurr how do i spolerz durr
Removed unnecessary spoilers, I though they would collapse the text instead of simply blacking it out. So much for not clogging the replies with a wall of text >_<
6411651 No actually, Starscribe said in the canon rules regarding vehicles that the vehicle would keep going, with a very confused and transformed driver trying to stop it from crashing.
Holy shit... This is the first time I've heard of "Ponies after People Universe" so this'll be my introduction to it...
DONT.
HURT.
THE.
DOG!
please....
The mind is a brittle thing, but to survive it must be maintained the best you can. I hope she learns that she will not be alone.
*These vile words spoken,
saturated in ill, black.
the cold fear unknown*
Be still, now,
rest within the light you have found.
Seek, now,
the warmth and safety of another word.
Bleed, now,
but do not despair,
as the world learns to admit itself into a love
that will sustain your weary body;
let it instead flow through these wounds,
through your hapless and fearful being.
Do not fall, blink and fade
into such a haphazard nightmare,
feeling lost even in the embrace of the familiar,
near, nurturing,
trapped yet in this fate amongst strangers and dearest bittersweet.
We shall read on.
Good this is
Oh. Fuck. Yeah I... fuck. I mean I knew this had to have happened to some people but... fuck.
;_;
I would probably puke too, since my home country is Thailand Car accident are more common since people don’t really wear seat belts.