Several months later…
Lonely Day extended a hoof, and Dr. Clark leaned down to shake it. The shackles made it difficult to lift the hoof to any meaningful angle, but she did her best. Human fingers felt warm and strange, like little squishy spiders. They had no analogue in her life anymore, even if she had possessed some of her own over a year ago. Before everything had fallen apart, and the dream of human society ended. He towered over her, a sturdy man with slowly graying hair. He wore a uniform, like every other human she had seen in Raven. His was less a technician’s jumpsuit and closer to something a naval officer might wear, big sleeves and medals. She sometimes wondered what those medals were. So far as she knew, Dr. Clark hadn’t ever served in any military.
“I was told you had something to show me, Doctor.” She gestured vaguely over her shoulder, at the automated carts filled with pre-event electronics, still in their boxes. “The change in shipment requests. Don’t get me wrong, the scouting teams love it. Flying around the country in the Hummingbird, raiding electronics stores. They told me it was like a shopping spree. Not sure why it would be more important than food, though.”
“Of course.” He gestured to the massive elevator, the one that formed the center of Raven City’s core. “Come with me.”
She followed him inside with clanking footsteps, and barely made it before the doors closed on her tail. It was amazing how much she relied on the magic of her race, without even knowing it. When it was stolen from her, even willingly, she felt as helpless as a filly. She supposed that was probably because she almost was. This elevator wasn’t for cargo; it was only big enough for passengers, and as such had been built out of a large curved piece of glass, which gave her a panoramic view of Raven City as it began to descend. The upper levels were built to the height of Pre-Event engineering, mostly surfaces of polished stainless steel or concrete.
Whatever Raven Rock had looked like before humanity had been warned of the approach of thaumic radiation and the Collapse that would follow, she doubted any of that original structure had survived. It had been entirely stripped and expanded, filling in every gap that the perfectly spherical shield at the center could protect. Day knew they had been able to expand as a result of their alliance with the ponies outside; with ponies doing most of the scavenging instead of humans. Less energy spent on shields outside meant a larger and larger area could be protected inside.
As the elevator descended, she watched emitters flick on automatically, expanding protection to these areas while simultaneously scouring the area of any latent magic that had radiated inside. Instead of smooth metal, the floors here were bare rock, and only robots moved. As they passed, automatic lights came to life, then faded again, creating a strange flashing strobe all around the elevator. “I have discussed our situation before.”
She nodded.
“As we’ve discussed, it is completely untenable. Even with half your town and a dozen others running salvage operations for us. Even with thousands of tons of pre-Collapse hardware piling up in warehouses upstairs. Even with the food you provide us.”
“I know. Your MHS is a miracle, but it still takes raw materials. You can’t recycle the same components forever. Things break down.”
“Things break down,” Clark agreed, as the elevator came to an abrupt stop. Like everything in Raven City, the elevator was built using the MHS, or Modular Hardware System. Its few thousand separate components were like structural legos, combining into guns as easily as they made water purifies or computers. She understood a number of pre-Collapse corporations had been very close to releasing the first models, only a year or so after the date of the collapse. A pity they never would. “When you live in conditions like ours, hardware failure and death are the same thing.”
He stepped out through the doorway. Rows of lights came on with regular clicks, illuminating a vast space all around the elevator. It was largely bare rock, though a walkway had been placed atop it leading out, and he walked along it. Alex set off after him, even though the rough grip of the metal stung the more sensitive parts of her hoof with every step. Pity she hadn’t worn horseshoes. “When I was given this assignment, I was given a single directive above all others. You can guess what it was. I was chosen for my vision, Lonely Day. I was instructed that the period just following the Collapse would be the most critical for human survival. We have opportunities, all fading with each day.”
“More than that spell we might figure out one day? The one that makes it so humans can live outside the shields?”
He stopped walking, frowning suddenly. “How much progress have your ‘unicorns’ made in a year?”
She didn’t blush, but her ears flattened on her head. “Not much.” Not any, but she wasn’t about to say that. It wasn’t as though she had expected to make any headway, though! Equestria itself, a country practically operated by magic, had tried that first and failed! It wasn’t as though they were going to do better with just a few ponies, in less time.
“Precisely.” The lights behind them clicked off, though the path ahead remained clear. She could hear the quiet whirring of electronics, metal grinding and sparking, pneumatics, in the near distance. The cavern had changed too, from regular tool-marks to a ceiling getting higher and higher. Natural formations glinted in the distance, distant stalactites and pools of crystal water. “Humanity cannot depend on your ponies for its long-term survival. We are still grateful for your help, and we will continue to work with you as long as possible.”
“But our time is limited. The key, more than resources, is knowledge. An industrial nation depends on the work of many specialists, each devoting their entire life to a single, specific discipline. Globalism meant that few nations actually had the resources to be truly self-sufficient. We must not just function with a population smaller than a medieval village, we must maintain sophisticated technology in the face of death if even some small part of it collapses.”
He slowed a little, as they neared the source of the noise. A large object, perhaps the size of a greyhound bus, sat on rolling support struts on the stone. She wasn’t close enough to get a good look through the dark. “So Raven lives on borrowed time, unless we do something dramatic.” He stopped, gesturing at the large object. “Tell me, Lonely Day: have you heard of a Von Neumann probe?”
The little earth pony shook her head, taking a few clanking steps past him for a better look. White, sterile surfaces, like those she had seen on television, the surfaces of martian landers and the interiors of space shuttles. Most of what she saw was raw material, tiny pieces made from individual MHS components.
“This is human salvation. When it’s finished, this probe will be launched into the asteroid belt. It will travel for a year, perhaps, before it selects a mineral-rich asteroid. It will harvest minerals, and over the course of another year or two, it will assemble an identical copy of itself. Both probes begin replicating, and after another year there are four. Eventually there are eight, sixteen, thirty two… you get the idea.” He walked forward, to the edge of a round walkway. As he crossed some invisible barrier, the spinning robotic arms at work on the probe hummed down to silence.
“Something like this would have been impossible, even during the year of the Collapse. Not anymore.” He reached out, to where the blue and white logo of Earth itself had been painted. “This design uses only sixteen elements, in less than a hundred simple compounds. All can be found in abundance in the solar system.”
He removed his hand, turning back to face her. “Understand, it will be many years before the probes have reached numbers useful to us. I will not be alive. My children and grandchildren will be long gone. Eventually though, they’ll reach critical mass. They need not remain restricted to the pattern we first wrote for them; our transmitters can send new innovations, and their swarm intelligence will grow. Eventually, they will assemble our second home. Raven City will become a station of vast size, and our population won’t be restricted by our feeble shields. Freed from the gravity-well of a planet, their range will be greater by an order of magnitude at least.”
She could see his vision. Hell, Alex could almost see the station already. A thriving population of her own true species, living again in safety. They would leave the ponies of Earth behind. “How long?” She was almost speechless at the prospect. “How long would it take?”
He frowned. “It’s hard to be certain. If we’re right, the probes could do their work without our interference. They might be ready to begin construction of a sizable station in as little as five hundred years, sooner if this first one gets really lucky. But we’re missing certain… critical technologies. Nuclear fusion will be essential, and we aren’t quite there. Many more technologies, which mankind had nearly grasped before the Collapse. That will be the task of my people, in the hundreds of years my probes need to work.”
He turned to face her, and she could practically smell the intensity radiating from him. “Alex, we need your ponies to make this happen. Raven does not have the resources to get this probe into orbit. We have the talent; the Initiative knew space was our only hope, even if they didn’t have an answer to where we would get the manpower.”
“We could never assemble everything it would take to get my probe into orbit, but we don’t have to.” He smiled. “Do you remember NASA, the way they stopped building spacecraft because the Americans wouldn’t pay for them?” At her nod, he continued. “They never did. Our delivery system is waiting, sealed in warehouses and waiting for us to assemble it.”
“It’s all rotting away. Even with all our preparations, there is much work to be done. Repairs to our facilities, running fuel refineries, transporting and assembling everything. If we don’t act now, then in a few years in will be too late.” He took a deep breath. “The change in our import requests was only the beginning. We need every available pony in your colony. We need every available pony in every colony. We’ll fill the sky with Hummingbirds, expend every resource to get that probe into orbit before next winter. I believe your ponies are capable of doing much of the work. A partnership with the other colonies could bring even more manpower. Together, the organized population of this continent could see it done.”
“So I ask, Lonely Day, do you love humanity enough to sacrifice for us one more time?”
Her mother’s face flashed before her eyes. Her sister. Orphans and finger-painting and traffic. Even her brother. “We do. However…” She took a deep breath. “This won’t be easy, Doctor Clark. Taking so many ponies from the field would mean living off cans and grass again. Many ponies wouldn’t be happy about that. If we do this, we’re going to need compensation. Most ponies won’t put their lives on hold for humanity.” She lowered her voice. “Lots of ponies think you abandoned them. They resent the HPI, and everything you stand for. They think you should’ve saved everypony or none of us.”
“You?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore.” She looked up, taking in the probe for the first time. Little spindly legs, with sharp grippers, like a bacteriophage blown up to gigantic size. Many surfaces were covered in solar film, and ports for smaller probes opened up at numerous points along its body. “But I know my ponies. They’ll want you to pay for their help.”
He nodded. “We expected as much. Once the probe is complete, I could focus manufacturing on whatever you required from us during the duration of the project.”
“I know. More than that, though.” She turned away from the probe, looking way up at his face. “I would want a policy created, hardcoded into the drones. All of them get it, every copy.” She gestured vaguely at the probe. “We hope you succeed. They build your station or whatever, and get you up to it somehow. When that happens, and every human is off Earth, those drones become ours, along with everything they built. Whatever drydock they used, all their little waystations and mines out in orbit. All belong to the ponies of Earth. Control transfers to me, or my chosen successor. You can inject a nuclear tracker in me or something.”
“Just you?” He raised his eyebrows. “You think one man ought to control all that?”
She shook her head. “I think a tool like that could facilitate genocide and war, and that even a really good group of ponies might forget what they were supposed to be doing after a few years. Maybe they think they’re better than everypony else, and they use your probes to make sure we don’t forget it.”
He looked concerned, and she thought his eyebrows might lift right off his face. “But you’re not like that. You’re different.”
“No.” She sighed. “I’m not a person, Dr. Clark. I am Archive. My desires only exist to reflect humanity’s desires. If I use this tool to enslave and conquer, it is only because all of humanity has become slavers and conquerors.”
“And when you die?”
She looked away from him when she answered. “I won’t.” She said it with such certainty, such absolute confidence, that Dr. Clark nearly staggered. Still, he knew enough to know she wasn’t just claiming that because she wanted to. He had to have read the reports.
Clark’s expression became unreadable. “We might remain in the solar system for… many years. Thousands, more. We can’t even speculate about the enabling technologies for interstellar travel. We might never be able to leave. Frankly, there might not be a point unless we somehow managed to find somewhere without thaumic radiation. Somewhere we can walk under the sky, somewhere our children can feel the wind. Maybe humanity will be adrift in a flotilla for eternity.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “But humanity is down here too, doctor. Me, the others… our children. We’re humanity too. Even if we don’t look it anymore. Our governments, our society, they all failed us. They were willing to let us all die; only the Equestrians prevented that. Yes, I realize you had no choice, and I don’t blame you.”
“The point is, you owe us more than just a few turbines and replacement transponders for helping you. You owe us our society back. Maybe when you’re gone, there will be enough of us to use those drones to put ourselves back together again, even if we still have hooves. The tiny slice of humanity you saved can build new probes. You can go wherever and mine whatever. Just leave us the ones you used to get there. That way, in time, we both win.”
The older man ran a hand through his graying hair, stepping back so the robotic assembly machines could go back to work. “I see you are as far-seeing as I.” Pause. “Do you think this will satisfy your ponies? As preoccupied with survival as they are, do you think they will see the significance of an gift they won’t live to receive, nor will their children and grandchildren? It may take so long to see the fruit of this exchange that nobody outside this bunker remember it when that moment comes.”
She smiled. “Do you think your successors will honor your promise if you make it with me now?”
He nodded dismissively. “Absolutely. Humanity is good for its word. Can you be sure your species will know what to do with the probes when they get them? A network that size, hundreds of thousands or even millions of probes, could easily be used to destroy a society.”
Lonely Day looked down at the rough floor, at her hooves and the magical shackles that took away her strength. Then she opened her mouth, and told Dr. Clark something she hadn’t even told her best friend, though her mate had discovered on his own. Clark listened, nodded. They shook hands. Well, she shook his.
Seven months later, Alex sat beside her friends to watch the last launch of the human space program, in a field so full of ponies that she could not see the grass through the colorful bodies. Not a single human was in attendance, though she knew they watched through the cameras of drones.
The earth shook, and the fire of chemical rockets burned one last time. One final rocket vanished into the morning sky, disappearing beyond the limits of sight. Once in orbit, the slow acceleration of its ion thruster sent a single probe off on its journey to the asteroid belt. With it went the hopes of all humanity, and perhaps the future of ponies as well.
The next day, the Posthuman General Cooperation Treaty was signed by eighteen separate city-states and one human bunker.
Life was good.
At first.
Space: the final frontier. I wonder if Doctor Clark realizes that a few unicorns could have launched the rocket from a much higher altitude, saving much of the fuel and resources that it takes to get it up there? If Lurk-in-the-shadowset Shimmer weren't skulking around, she could have done the whole launch herself. It is much lighter than a sun, right?
So long for now, and thanks for the look into the founders' lives.
Damn that was really good for a epilogue! Great story and wonderful work <33
6408149
That was one of the questions he asked, and the response was that the Unicorns couldn't do anything big yet.
And no one but Alex is allowed to know Shimmer is on Earth, if she even could pull that kind of mojo.
So Humans abandon Earth, Ponies inherit everything, and time marches on.
Well if that ain't as ominous as all hell in a long term sense. Suggests she will be less 'benevolent guiding hand' and more 'watcher from the wings' over the long term. Quick everybody, let's go prove Hobbes wrong for the next few millennia!!!
Also, typo in the second line. You forgot to capitalize 'day'.
To an extent, is Alex declaring here that "Humanity won't die"?
Really nice note to end on, if so.
I have to wonder what sort of salvation Dr. Clark hopes to find in space. According to Luna and Celestia, the entire galaxy is now suffused with thaumic radiation, radiating out from galactic center. Unless I misunderstood the princesses, HPI's only shot lies in intergalactic travel …
I wonder if earth become like equstria in the past after a long time with the whole three tribes acting separate tribalism? it a new world but old lessons are set to repeat themselves only mortal can do.
I look forward to the future stories, either as one big piece or smaller pieces dedicated to specific characters. It's been a fun adventure, I might even work on my own extension to this world.
6408271 Heh, I believe the next time Equestria crosses paths with Earth, Earth will be the ones to teach instead. The knowledge they were given, the technology they have... it should add up to quite a lot of progress in the end. So after a thousand years? I can see Earth being one really advanced Pony Planet.
Wow. Not like it wasn't sci-fi before, but that really expanded the scope and brought a full-on Arthur C. Clarke vibe- or one reminiscent of the end of your previous saga. I almost wouldn't mind leaving off here and just imagining what comes next, though I'm sure you'll fill the gap well.
Great ending.
I usually hate when someone tries to use a "cliffhanger via omnious last sentence" trope, but here it works pretty well. I'm already curious to see how big the time skip is going to be.
6408319
A magitech utopia, or a lifeless wasteland, or anything in between. It will be 6000 years before Equestria drifts in range again... and that is a very, very long time. Enough time for many civilizations to rise and fall.
Sunset and Archive will witness many 'interesting times', that much is sure.
WELP! That last line hints at a sequel. Threequel? Whatever.
I wonder how they keep ponies away from Raven? Any "Authorized Personel Only" signs are usually ignored after an apocalyptic event.
One perk to being immortal is that Alex can wait as long as it takes for her family to return to earth.
6408260 Exactly. Archive still considers the transformed humans as humanity after all.
Hope burns with the fires of rocket fuel and shines with the gleam of self-replicating metal. Humanity will do what it has always done: thrive in ways nature could never have imagined.
Well, hopefully. That last line is more than a little ominous. I look forward to the third installment of the trilogy.
6408319 I see problems the good the bad depends maybe disasters wrong choices made maybe magic gone wrong. life up and down moments never know~
So is the next one is going to be about getting humanity off Earth and find a new home?
I was wondering how your projected timeline for this universe (regarding the future role of the HPI) could work out with them just sitting in an ever larger bunker complex. Turns out they won't.
With the HPI's new outreach policy you also opened a wide field for side stories, happy or otherwise. Very nice.
Focusing solely on Archive and Clark was a good decision.
A very good epilogue. I was a little concerned after the last two chapters that seemed to have lost quite a bit of coherence, but this was a great way to tie up the story's many loose ends. Skip ahead half a year and show how the ponies throw together their resources to help those in need, even in the face of their own fight for survival.
Because friendship is magic.
Well done.
Now that your story has ended, i want to tell you that i realy enjoyed both of your storys.
I am looking forward to the last one and keep up your good work.
Labpony
6408378 Considering what an effect anti-thaumic fields have on ponies? They're staying away on their own.
Sounds like Lonely Day finally got over her aversions to relationships. She also looks a little... pudgy in that last image. A foal on the way, perhaps?
Space... the final- OH GODDAMN IT!
Firebird DAMN YOU!
Yeah, so here is the end... the beginning, the life that is to be expected and the life that has yet to happen, there is a LOT going on, and even more is going to happen. We're seeing the future beyond our futures, and maybe, just maybe, life will continue again.
We will know in the next story how this eventually goes.
This is a story of the founders of Alexandria, maybe next time we can see the story of what they shape the fate of humanity and ponykind into.
Great story. I liked it a lot.
I eagerly await the next.
You seem to be one for trilogies, don't you?
Ladies, gentlemen, assorted internet scoundrels. As this brilliant story comes to a close, with a sequel on the horizon, I believe I can safely say:
This is going to be good.
6408378
I imagine they have patrolling drones with loudspeakers shouting "Oogabooga!" at trespassers.
Another bittersweet endpoint on our journey! Though I think I might've liked to see a peek of the work the ponies did.
(Also, it totally should've been called the Posthuman Allies Cooperation Treaty so that everyone could call it PACT.)
6408267 They're going to have to protect themselves from thaumic radiation probably for the rest of time (or until someone/somepony comes up with that way to shield humans from the ill effects of magic), but in space the materials they need are much more plentiful, and it's also much easier to maintain their shields without the effects of gravity.
6408467 It makes sense that they would leave eventually. They wouldn't be able to support any reasonable amount of population growth on a world that actively wanted to kill them, especially since they would be competing with races that kill them if they even got close. Even the Vaults from Fallout were (ostensibly) designed to protect the contents for eventual reintroduction within a few centuries. It would also explain Why they disappear around the 1000 year mark on the timeline. Though now I kind of picture them pulling a Firefly. "Earth that was" indeed.
Okay, that last line pretty much screams 'bad omen for the sequel'.
That was a great story. I love your characterisations and how you chose to communicate events. The story was difficult to follow sometimes but it always kept me interested. Of course, there are still many loose ends to tie off so I'll be looking forward to the next tale from this universe.
((spacenerd)) Hmm... That looks like a Falcon Heavy on top of which someone has put a Centaur upper stage and a Atlas-V's 4m PLF. That's the sort of thing that you get if you are putting together something from salvage. Interestingly, it would also be probably offer very, very high mass-through-Earth Escape velocity. The Falcon Heavy has the highest payload-to-Earth Orbit (about 60 tonnes, more if it's the in-development LCH4 version) and the Singe-Engine Centaur has the best in-vacuum performance of any extant upper stage (around 50% of orbited mass through escape velocity). ((/spacenerd))
Pleeeeease tell me there will be more! Please?
Why is everything happening on te 19th?! The new season of Pit bulls and Parolees, I'm leaving to go to Disney, the third book starts... Dear Celestia, er, Luna. Twilight? Cadence? Sunset? ALEX? God?! Ugh, I'm so confused...
Anyways, yeah, love the story! Can my character make an appearance in the next book? Her name is Kylee. She turned in to a Griffon and is the "Alpha" of a small pack of three wolves. She gained their trust after killing their alpha, so they submit to her. It's gonna be my side story which I'm going to start writing this weekend.
Two things:
1) There goes my hope that the ponies and humans work together to create a hybrid human-like creature that can survive in a magical world: i.ytimg.com/vi/JSMF7jea4AQ/maxresdefault.jpg
2) Running some excessively simplified maths would suggest that natural born ponies will outnumber returnees in under a century. Just something to think about.
These same simplified numbers suggest that the last year of humans arriving as ponies would be 12015 with over 6 million arrivals that year.
6400397
Well, I'm glad the good people of fimfiction who aren't in the skype group get to appreciate those masterpieces.
6400440
My schedule was/is pretty whack now that I'm working and studenting full time.
6400445
I do think this will come up eventually. I could've formally named her that in the story, and maybe I will, but... I might try to come up with something more original.
6400457
Alex is proud to put herself on the line for her colony, even in death.
6400541
She pays her debts.
Oh wow. When they said Dr. Clark had vision, they were not kidding. A Von Neumann machine swarm to build a space colony? Or colonies? Nice.
I kind of also wonder if they couldn't just deploy an additional swarm on Earth to create an ever increasing industrial base.
They still have to survive and keep the Earth-side bunker running for hundreds of years, though, and that won't be an easy feat. There's also the question of how to launch it, does the HPI have the equipment for that?
Ahh, so no, but it does exist.
So, pony space program? Pony space program.
Dang, Alex negotiates hard. But hey, might as well claim a replicating robot swarm for yourself if you ever have the opportunity.
Hmmnn... Can't be her immortality, she already told Clark about both that and about being Archive a bit further up.
41.media.tumblr.com/187ea0e32bb3ad098c5ad74a52e9d958/tumblr_nue94rinDO1rsmidfo1_500.png
Awesome.
Also awesome.
Dun, dun, dun!
6408267
Thaumic radiation is worse around living things (ponies worse than animals, which are worse than plants). While there would probably be some thaumic radiation in space, there would be considerably less.
6400704
I think she would've if Oliver had been there to pay attention to her.
6401255
It's quite possible. Now we'll never know.
6401690
I'm not sure what name I'm going to choose for her, in the end. Still thinking about it.
6402976
I don't know if we'll ever know if communication like that took place, unfortunately. It would be amazing to find out, but... it's out of scope for the small, insignificant viewing distance available to a regular pony. (or human). We'll just have to wonder.
6403312
I feel like earth ponies often get the short end of the stick. I don't think they really should, though.
6404056
That might be the song! Might >.>
6404391
There are sound reasons in statistics and stuff. It's a huge bummer, but it does have a cause. X.x Hopefully they get to it eventually.
6404399
Happy late birthday!
6404409
It could be Sunset didn't know that she didn't have to do anything. It could be that Oliver fixed her body, and Sunset fixed her mind. But I'm not sure. We know very little about the actual physical failings her body had.
6404543
Thanks! I don't really know how I kept it up as long as I did, but... it's been a blast! I'm going to enjoy a little break before the next story though, I think.
6404648
People do love those alicorn ships >.>
6404768
Well obviously she did. It's part of the spell to make an Alicorn!
6404785
The way views are tracked on fimfiction: Each user can get one hit on each chapter, per day. So if you refresh the same chapter several times from the same ip, it's still only one hit. IF you go to another chapter, or go back to a previous chapter on another day, that counts as a hit of its own. So there's that.
6404799
I think a little creepiness comes with the territory, unfortunately.
I also think that what Sunset did and what Oliver did is more complimentary than redundant. They were both working at the same purpose, just in different ways.
6405035
Yeah, I'm sad to see this story end too. But at the same time, I'm always excited to move on to something new and exciting. Hopefully I can keep up the quality into story 3.
6405134
I think of it far more as complimentary healings working together rather than redundant healings rendering one-another unnecessary. For all we know all sunset did was help her with her headache as she woke up. Or maybe she healed distinct aspects of her, while Oliver healed others. Immortals are complex creatures!
6405453
CHOO CHOO
6405611
That was the intention, yeah.
6406010
I have no problem with either of these statements. Though I'm not sure being able to eat meat will be much of an advantage in, say, a hundred years. When all the animals are "smart", and lots of things are sapient and can talk to you, what do you eat? Unless you're a gryphon who happens to be driving a truck filled with canned meat...
6406798
He clearly has his priorities in the right place.
6407534
A few things of note:
1. I only write with the context of the shows as canon. Everything else is great, but I don't accept any of it, except to the degree that it makes it into the show. The main reason for this is I want everyone reading to be able to approach the story from the same footing. Most of us don't read the comics or extra books or the flavortext on TCG cards. As such, I don't really care what those things say, for better or worse.
HOWEVER, in this particular case, there isn't a contradiction (even though I wouldn't care if there was, because this stuff you're talking about isn't canon from the show). Sunset Shimmer was in Equestria when she became an alicorn, standing literally feet away from Celestia and Luna.
6408174
You're welcome! Stay tuned for the trip into the future of the universe!
6408210
I'm amazed I missed such a simple typo. Fixed, thanks!
6408267
I THINK WE'LL FIND OUT IN THE NEXT STORY
6408271
THIS ALSO SEEMS LIKE SOMETHING WE WILL LEARN IN THE SEQUEL
6408314
Well if you'd like to write a side-story, you're welcome to! I'm really hoping more people will look further in time, which is something I hope to do with the sequel. Encourage broadening our view a little.
6408334
Yeah, I did want it to be satisfying. While providing enough hints for us to imagine for ourselves. Still, for those who want to imagine with me, we have the SEQUEL.
6408337
Five years for the first chapter. There will be MUCH longer ones in future parts, though.
6408347
Yep! There is indeed one more installment coming before I hang up my Ponies After People hat.
6408378
YOU WILL KNOW EXACTLY HOW THEY KEEP PONIES FROM RAVEN. In... the next one.
6408425
All questions answered! New questions asked! Where am I? Can I go home now? ._____.
6408458
The fate of the HPI will be in it, yes. I can't promise it'll be a happy fate. But their fate will be in it. Or at least enough for you to guess at what it was.
6408467
And now, we rest. For awhile.
6408560
It... could be <,<
6408567
Can confirm. We will see those things. A brave new world awaits!
6408590
Thanks! You will have to wait longer than most of my readers have had to wait, but... not that much more than a week at this point, I suppose.
6408641
Through no fault of my own! I actually never intended to write founders. It was kinda like... would've been a part of the second one. But it was a natural place to break things, when LPoE ended, so I ended up writing it. I don't think I'll break up the third one, even though it might be twice as long as this one, if not more.
6408806
I would have liked to write about that stuff, but... the fact of the matter is, I just don't know enough about space technology. Anything I wrote would be bound to be wrong and unsatisfying to the people who really know. My solution was just to skip over it and say "they worked hard, and it happened cuz' friendship! As much as I would've enjoyed writing about it... I don't know jack. X.x
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I'm glad somebody recognized a little of the spacey stuff I had goin' on! As my previous sentence states, I don't know anything about how space exploration works, but I do know a little of the hardware that exists right now. I tried to imagine what the HPI and some pones could scavenge together with lots of hard work, and what you see is what I imagined there.
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If only that'd been an option!
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There will be a sequel one week from Saturday!
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If your story is published at that time, feel free to drop me a line if you have specific crossover ideas. I always listen, but I only use them if they actually work for my plans in the story.
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Whether or not the first one happens is something I intend to address soon, hopefully. As to the second one, somebody actually worked out all the numbers on arrivals by year, as well as natural population growth. The numbers are pretty staggering.
6409867 No problem. If you've made it this far without a typo like that you are doing something right. Hell, I nearly had a typo in the line before that one. Thank god for the ability to edit comments!
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Three cheers to Starscribe! Hip! Hip! Hooray! Hip! Hip! HOORAY! HIP! HIP! HOORAY!!!
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On it, actually. Not even dystopic.
You could always eat fish, they don't seem intelligent in the show. Since we're not talking Equestrian gryphons but human ones though (or heavily influenced by humans) I wouldn't be too sure about that... jeez, the story potential here for cultural developments. And clashes of cultures of course. Deadly clashes.
I think this would be the first time in the history of literature that this expression meant something positive.
They are. Without major culls, like really major culls, like hard resets... they'll have to have figured out interstellar travel by the year 8000-8500 and hurry up to find a colonizeable planet. Unless you figure out a way to simply create food from nothing by magic there is no way the earth can sustain numbers like 30 billion people, not even with amazing hydroponics. You'd still need the space to put all the housing and the technical stuff.
If you want to keep some natural environment (and the other billions of intelligent animals and their societies) around it becomes entirely impossible. Which means a pretty nasty future, especially for the indigenous tribes. Been there before, actually. History repeats and all that.
Anyway... knowing you a little by now and looking at the last 5000 years of history I expect the first option will happen and most of my points to be moot ones.
Can I add a dark tag already?
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You're a terrible tease, you know that? If there IS a foal on the way, I do so hope Zutcha will grace us with some adorable foal and family pictures.
... Celestia Dangit Starscribe don't give us a cliffhanger like that! Life was good at first... grumble grumble.
Now I'm really looking forward to the last of the triology.
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It's not published yet, still getting the ideas together, but I will begin writing it this weekend.
And now, we begin our descent into the trilogy.
Here we go, Starscribe. Now our real fun begins.
By the way, thanks for that awesome art, Zutcha. Fantastic.
Nine whole days...
Aww man.
This story bring so much to the table of this section of the fandom.
It just breathes new life into it, in the most breathtakingly beautiful way possible.
Ugh, it's Friday evening and no update. I'm going to miss this story. It was pretty amazing how reliably it updated every workday.
I haven't read through all the comments, so I don't know if someone's already asked this, but: Does Sunset and her group know about the HPI, and do they know the spell to turn humans into ponies? Both of those seem a liiiitle important.
What a great chapter! So full of many promises.
DAT CLIFFHANGER THO!! I mean DAMN. Talk about leaving us hanging! I am now DYING to know what went wrong!!
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Once again, the description and the drawing don't match. Where are all the other ponies in that picture???
would you be able to do new updates weekly??? Just wondering.
6416919 Ah! Didn't realize they were the same characters!