A Last Pony On Earth side story for Ponies After People.
Life After People, a show I used to watch on Discovery History, always talked about what would happen if humanity were to suddenly up and vanish. What would happen to what we left behind. For the most part, I always thought the world would be better off without people, as it would recover within a few centuries.
I just never actually thought humanity itself could just up and disappear.
So, I when I woke up from the most vivid dream to find it really did come true, I had mixed feelings. I knew, at least in a general sense because of the dream, what I was, and was rather glad for the opportunity it presented me.
Then I realized I didn't know how to use my new wings. On top of that, everyone I knew was gone. My parents, siblings, friends. All of them....gone.
Guess I just have to go on being me.
Did I mention I used to be a guy?
That doesn't matter now, anyway.
My name is Starlight Waltz. This is my story.
Rated Teen for possible language.
Introducing my newest, and perhaps most beautiful OC to date, Starlight Waltz! Cover Art soon, maybe.
Now with cover art, done entirely by yours truly.
Hey, been reading your story and its pretty interesting, but I'm a little confused by the beginning of this chapter. How can someone go for a week without sleeping?
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Math
Pegasus + Altitude = At most a week without sleep.
Not that, once she leaves the mountain, she sleeps regularly again.
It's something I'm still on the fence about myself.
Okay, so you did try to explain this, but... it still seems weird to me.
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...What?
Came back to this one after reading chapter 7 after a quick search... How does she know about cutie marks?
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It's worth noting that Starlight feels different at night. I can't say more. Spoilers.
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Sorry I'm not Mr. Perfect.
Gone back, did some editing.
Holy crap you posted it all at once? OMG that's so much stuffs.
-3rd generation after ten years? Don't even human generations take 20 at the least (and often more)?
-Alicorn after ten years? Maybe after a few hundred years, but just a decade? That seems hard to believe in a world with such little contact with Equestria (even dream contact is going to be almost impossible as time goes on and it grows more distant.
-There's really a class system after this short a time?
It's not so much that I think anything in the chapter couldn't happen as depicted in the dream, so much as it seems hundreds of years in the future and not just a few. The fact we're looking at an Alicorn means it might be hundreds and hundreds even, though I seem to recall that isn't what it said.
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Yeah. Beginning to rethink some of the timeline I have. I'll update it in the morning, when I'm not so tired.
Or I could just do it now.
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Before I forget, I posted it all at once to make up for lost time.
I've just finished removing specifics. I put a couple decades so as to give a longer timeframe, say between 50-90 years. The important thing is that Moonless Night is still alive in this glimpse of the future.
And, getting to your last point, for the sake of discretion I won't say nothing to anybody about 'it'.
Come to Kingston! We got solar panels out the Wazoo.
She must be a massive pegasus if she pull a wagon made for a regular horse.
People certainly switched over to pony names fast
I guess Double didn't horde any of the supplies from the stores?
Wait.... use her magic? 1) How does she know she has magic and 2) Ain't she a pegasus?
Steam power. Nice. Never thought about that one to be honest. Figuring out how to make a small watermill generator, wind mills and such, but never thought of steam.
Do you know what the range on an air traffic control tower's radio would be?
6314045 And... look; an answer!
I really need to pick up the writing pace. I've been left behind by my Canadian brethren! Would the train lines be clear though? Well, they should... moving vehicles were taken, and they wouldn't leave trains parked on the tracks... I think...
Interesting story so far. Aside from a few eyebrow raising comments (like Starlight being the only one to dream of the night or having the closest connection despite the handful of batponies around), I enjoyed the story. The first person snippets gave the story a decent pacing too. There were a few places I would have appreciated more details and story telling, but then we might have gotten bogged down in it. Still, we a few colony minded people kicking across the map now. Couple places well where civilization somewhat as we know it will have anchors.
Wait... are trains that easy to stop?
Just noticed this. Isn't her name "Starless Night"? Not "Moonless".
When you say a huge pony, are we talking Big Macintosh sized, Bulk Biceps sized, Princess Celestia sized, or maybe the size of Stormfront from the Stories from the Front Tumblr (NSFW, so not linking it here)?
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I thought I removed that....
6314037 I was just about to ask that same question. It makes me think this was originally written with Starlight already an alicorn, and this reference was missed when editing her down to pegasus.
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I tried to make this as unique as possible, without side-stepping canon.
I'll be making a thread if anyone wants to catch a lift on the Express.
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Hey, I just made her! Sorry if I'm getting my own character's names wrong. It can happen to anyone.
Wait a minute …
Shoes? Collar? Helmet? None of which she'd had on before becoming a pony? Feels stronger in moonlight?!
Nightmare Moon, is that you?
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We had steam long before gasoline. Begs to reason we'll have steam LONG after it. And you know who else has steam trains? The Equestrians!
6314816 Robin's gonna hijac- I mean appropriate a (few) VIA rail trains and make for Vancouver eventually. He has his reasons. The train line is suddenly important again, though! A way to keep Canada connected! We just need to figure out the infrastructure.
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You would be correct. Gold star for you! The story was originally written for Nightmare Moon, but Starscribe said that wouldn't be canon. To compensate, I came up with Starlight Waltz, and I am very, VERY happy I came up with Starlight Waltz.
It seems when I went to edit some things out, I forgot a few. All fixed now, though.
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If you want to check on the Starlight Express's route, check the forum. I made the a thread.
Also pay mind that VIA trains aren't steam train, and therefore won't last as long.
6314924 Just looked back and saw the new lines about making shoes.
I'm liking Starlight very much myself, so I'm glad you changed her to an original character, even one similar enough to Nightmare as to make Luna uncomfortable.
So, is Starlight already Celestia/NMM-sized even as a pegasus?
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To answer your question is a few words.....she is. It makes a lot of things she has done possible, like driving a train without standing on a soap box, pulling a wagon meant for horses, not being able to drive a car.... She'd be about, 6' tall, somewhere around there, I would think, as it's been estimated Celestia isn't much taller than the average adult.
A bit of an inconsitancy... In the first chapter, Starlight said she met Starless a decade before the events on the train, which were taking place decades after The Event. But now she's met her less than six months into their lives as ponies. Maybe the first chapter could be fixed to include this?
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When you edit one thing, there are often more things like it that need editing, but more often than not, editing those other little things slips your mind.
This is an example of that.
Where is this town from?
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Which?
Ethelbert, Manitoba, Canada.
Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada.
Baldy Mountain is actually the name of the tallest geographic point in Manitoba, located in Duck Mountain Provincial Park. There's a telcommunications tower, which is why I refer to it as Baldy Mountain Tower.
I hope that answers your question.
Why are they saying 'huge pony' and not 'horse' ?
Yes finally the cross over chapter came!
Can't wait to see more soon!
Fury Road actually released to US theaters on May 15, 8 days prior to The Event, and had its world premiere at TCL Chinese Theater a week before. In fact, Qesun and Wolf made a point of commandeering an IMAX to watch it before they left Huntsville in "Hoofing It" chapter 2.
So, of all the things for Starlight's dad to be pissed about with the Event when he finally returns, that need not be one.
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Actually, the likelihood of IMAX theatres still operating in as few as 20 years is slim to none.
6402503 My point is that the film was completed, which Starlight thought was not the case. As long as somepony is able to preserve a copy, her dad might still have a chance to view it.
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Hmm....perhaps, though that not one of Starlight's priorities.
6403353 Well, no.
Edit: It occurs to me that HPI probably has archives of films, particularly ones that are considered culturally significant, and the Mad Max series are considered by many to be the most significant films to come out of Australia.
Then again, expecting an apocalypse, they may have intentionally given the entire genre a pass.
It occurs to me there's been a great tragedy comitted here. Somehow, I didn't leave a comment on this chapter when it came out. Considering how eager I am for more, it felt like the least I could do was stop by and check to see how things were coming on. and write down what I thought.
Crossover with The Coming Storm, one my favorites (and the only complete novel-length) side story. I'm glad the canadian stories are interacting!
Pretty interesting that so many of these characters have pony names. How did she get it again? Did she have an Equestrian vision or something where she leraned about how names worked there?
I always wondered about this question. Stormy acted a little confused in the very beginning of her story (understandably), but I don't really get how she would guess that based on Stormy's behavior in this section.
Oh, I got to one of the parts that I had a suggestion for. Namely, Starless. Her character in this section in paticular seems... well, the best way I can describe her actions is "sock-puppet." What I mean by that is that her dialogue doesn't feel natural. It feels like she's saying exactly what Starlight nees her to say in order to say what she wants to say next. Like she's a conversation "tool", and not a person. Take a look at this:
Or even:
Her as a pony is interesting, but her dialogue throws her into uncanny valley. Starlight could say all her lines and I would't even notice, because they sound like things the same character is saying.
Don't get me wrong, it's not bad to have characters with chemistry. But their chemistry doesn't feel natural. It feels like Starlight is holding up a puppet and getting her to say things so she can have dialogue that fits in perfectly. It just feels very "uncanny valley" to me.
I really hope we get to see this side of her developed. I wonder what she'd do if she actually ran into members of the HPI. It would probably be pretty interesting.
Ever hang out with two people who happened to be dating? It's a super awkward feeling. I can't help but feel you captured that awkwardness perfectly with this situation. Having this conversation in front of Stormy's group who know nothing about it... I'd be way too nervous. If I'd had a dream like that, I'd want to keep it private. Maybe Starless would know baout it, but not a bunch of strangers. It's too special.
Oh, they get to learn what cutie marks are here. That's good. Stormy's group didn't know that yet.
More of the uncanny dialogue with starless and starry. Their dialogue blurs together.
Just look at this. Starry says: "At least Starless isn't afraid to get her hooves dirty." Then later in the story Starless says: Hey, at least I'm not afraid to get my hooves dirty like Fenix is,"
Another of those really interesting aspects I hope we get to see explored later. Why does luna have such an interest in Starry compared to the whole world? If she can see people that specficially... I hope it comes out in their meeting. Because I just don't know. "Liking the night" might've been rare in Equestria, but it's super common on earth. I wonder what else it could be.
I read this and couldn't help but think "Starless must not know anything about stoneworking." To put it simply, stone is hard to quarry, harder to transport, and even harder to set into place correctly. Blacklight's population is like... five or six right now? There's no chance of a population that size being able to build stone structures, even if all five of them were skilled human engineers. The skill and time required...
Well, what I thought when I saw it was "if these ponies really try this, they're going to starve when winter comes". I'm sure they could eat grass in summer, but when the snow sets in... They'll be in really bad shape. Unfortunately for them, they won't be finding much moonstone either, since there aren't deposits of it in Canada. Though even if there were, I can't help but think ponies struggling for survival would have better things to do than quarry stone and gemstones.
I look forward to seeing what they do about these problems, and how the meeting with Luna goes. Overall, this is one of my favorite chapters so far. I just loved the crossover section. Keep up the good work!
An excellent chapter! I think the revisions really helped bring everything together.
WOOHOO fellow Manitoban! this means when you get to handling winter we'll get to see actual winter!
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Eeyup. That is, unless I skip those parts for the most part until the future times.
For now, I jest need to get to Dauphin and get that wagon.
For now, I just need to get to Dauphin and get that wagon.
At least now I could get a to a full gallop without falling flat on my face.
At least now I could get to a full gallop without falling flat on my face.
I'd be even less afraid in I actually knew how to use these damn wings.
I'd be even less afraid if I actually knew how to use these damn wings.
Now that will last a long longer than gas will keep.
Now that will last a lot longer than gas will keep.
I don't know how long I sad there crying,
I don't know how long I sat there crying,
Perhaps a good rain might but them out.
Perhaps a good rain might put them out.
Hello? This is Starlight Waltz at Baldy Mountain Tower? Is anyone there,
Hello! This is Starlight Waltz at Baldy Mountain Tower. Is anyone there?
I took my hoof of the button.
I took my hoof off of the button.
I will son be travelling the CN
I will soon be travelling the CN
I went in and gathered my thing.
I went in and gathered my things.