Roadtrip

by enamis

that's all she wrote (future chapter summaries + ending + author notes)

and that's all she wrote

no, really

i will bore you with details

just so were clear, i'm stepping out of character for this (not that there's much difference ha ha ha)

in december of 2017 when i was on a small trip to london our apartment was broken into and my laptop was stolen along with stuff and yadda yadda it probably contributed to the speed at which i had already begun spiraling into a soup of apathy and abandoned dreams as i’d grown deeply disillusioned with the world and my future and the future in general.

i am seeking help now.

its been a long time coming and only been under a month now but i'm seeing a psychiatrist and i hope i can somehow fix whatever is broken inside my brain

with that said the spark for this story died a long time before that.

i'm sure some of yall had figured out Dia was very much a self insert. well. in a sense. an amplified, more negative version of a self-image, fictionalized just enough to work.

i’d begun writing this story when i was in mid-high school, coming into my own as a person after years of extensive bullying that left me a shell of a human. though this i examined my new philosophies and to some extent myself, or at least what i saw as myself at the time. it helped greatly in grounding me and my views on the nature of the universe and examine my faults as a person

i grew as a person through writing this, and it will always be an important part of myself

and however long it has been now i always found myself coming back to this. something inside me wanting a definitive end. for your sakes or mine i can't say

so that's it today. everything i had meant this story to be, laid out for closure because sometimes something so little is all you’ll ever get in this life

a book must be closed for the last time. join me.

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Where our Light is Spent

in this chapter we reached tallinn. within the city the crew came upon two new survivors an earth pony and thestrial. Kaja was the only one able to speak with them. the survivors got kaja a working car after hearing her story but she was unable to drive it due to her body. dia confessed she’d been taking driving lessons before the end so she and kaja cautiously set off to tartu to look for kaja’s family

they first reached kaja’s parents apartment, looking for them or kaja’s sister but nobody had been there so they headed for her home. it was also deserted. dia gave her friend some space and decided to gather some personal things. she found a framed picture of a blonde woman and a black haired boy.

some time later dia approached kaja, saying she couldn't find a picture of her son and husband, only her. in turn kaja gave dia her most haunting look, confessing, it was not herself in the picture.

the truth was that kaja had actually been a man as a human, Koit. when they’d met Carl after the end of the world they’d blurted out their mother’s name instead of their own and it had stuck. they confessed as uncomfortable they were in their new skin they’d simply accepted it. all they wanted was to see their family.

not knowing how to respond dia simply said she would keep the secret, while admitting that kaja/koit could probably tell the rest of the crew about it. kaja thanked her but decided against it. she was who she was and all she could do was keep moving forward.

later dia helped write out letters to leave for kaja’s family if they were to return and the two soon departed in silence.

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Where the Lonely Roads End

when dia and kaja returned to tallinn they were greeted with more than they were expecting.

a silvery white dragon with pink eyes, about the size of a car was waiting by the boat. her name was Lilith Free. she was a british woman in her early 20s who’d been studying in scandinavia for a law degree. she’d been on her way home during the event and had heard from the two tallinn ponies that there were travelers. she bluntly said that she was joining the crew.

stuff happens and they agree. Lilith is a foil to dia in a sense. she is a harsh, unpleasant woman, with a deep hatred for her ‘bumpkin’ family and a disdain for others wrapped up in a superiority complex. she exists in a sense to contrast dia’s flavor of caring harshness. the two very much dislike one another.

the crew pick up a radio signal from St. Petersburg and decide to head there. they find the city fortified and dia, carl and kaja enter deeper, seeking its residents, finding a hardy band of russians armed to the teeth who very much do not like the arrivals. they meet Dennis, a pleasant young man who acts as their translator/gude/vouch and Sasha a cold police officer

the russians are all griffons and one earth pony, and their leader an old man is not fond of any negotiation. during their time there dia and dennis befriend one another quickly. they have made decent living in the city with farm animals and stockpiled food. the crew help hook up a satellite phone network for easy communication before the leader makes them leave

stuff happens and the old man dies of misc illness and dennis and sasha take over the community. they agree to join the network of survivors as long as dia travels the rest of europe to find any. they happily part ways

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Where There are Strangers

the crew are on their way to tallinn but they stop in some ports along the way for exploration. during the stops they encounter weird magic shenanigans that leave them confused and unnerved.

in the final stop dia gets into another fight and storms off. carl eventually finds her and they have a soft conversation where dia tries to convince carl that she will destroy him if he keeps trying to befriend her. he half-jokingly says she can't break what's already broken

he believes dia to be good deep down but she harshly dismissed the idea, giving up on keeping him away and agreeing to re-establish their friendship. they joke around about him being her squire and return to the boat.

they spend some time in tallinn helping the two people there settle. the following morning they are awoken by bella snarling above deck. they find an intruder, wearing perfectly fitting pony armor, confidently standing on their boat. a red-pink unicorn with green dreadlocks, her cutie mark is a scimitar crossing a rose.

she singles out dia from the group, pointing at her

she says that dia is the one

the one to come with, the perfect candidate.

to see the world of the ponies and learn the truth of the Event.

.

where we find out every̕t̛h̨in̵g̷

the unicorn is named rosie.

she explains she was sent from her world to seek specific survivors. she was part of a royal guard unit of pegasi and another two unicorns but they abandoned her. she says she’d been trailing the crew for a while now (explanations to some strange events earlier in the story), since riga even and she is confident that dia is the perfect candidate for whatever is needed.

everyone is very sceptical and hostile. they ask her what is happening and about everything

rosie confesses she was never told what was going on, only instructions to bring back with her an exemplary person. there is a vague implication to what has happened but no one involved is given solid facts (they eventually find out enough to understand the time-disappearances)

dia says she will be the one to go to the pony world. there are murmurs from the crew and dia snaps saying she's not changing her mind and she needs answers and no one is going to stop her from going.

the team says that of course they want her to go. they have come to see her as their driving force and she is the one who can get to the bottom of all of this. they were going to vote for her to go even

dia is confused. why would they see and treat her that way?

they make some arrangements, say words, goodbyes. carl timidly squeezes her hand and asks her to come back

dia nods with determination

the chapter ends with an explosion of light as dia and rosie cross over to the pony world.

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̥̠̯̬̠̹ͨ̇͠d̮ͩ̇e̖̟ͯ͊ͪ͝l͈͍̖̄ͥͤ̅̚ṷ̷̯͔̰ͯͯ̀͊s̷̻̩̟̟̣͊ͤͅị̗̰͓̑ͫ͗ͬo̩̤̻͒̎n̨̰͎̿͐ͨā̪̞̱͙ͤlͧ̋

the journal picks up in the tail end of the equestra trip. dia has been showered in gifts but not a single answer.

the only gift she likes is a magic necklace that she can shape by concentrating on it. she turned it into her symbol and has kept it that way. (that symbol would eventually become her signifier/flag)

it is the final day and she is brought to canterlot, only to be swiftly rejected from whatever is going on for not being a pony.

rosie is scolded for her mistake but dia is not taking a no for an answer. she becomes enraged, charging forward through the castle until she comes upon princess Luna. dia wastes no time screaming at her, in few words blaming her for the death of the entire human race

as dia is pulled away from the castle by the guards she says how humans need one another to survive and this strategy of spreading them though time will murder more than the chaos of a sudden transformation. Luna gives her a sympathetic look before glancing at her sister. as the doors close dia catches a glimpse of a strange mishmash-creature appearing from nowhere and intently staring at her.

she is told to seek out Lonely Day.

she swears like never before, promising to make the pony princesses pay for their genocide, some way, somehow.

.

home

dia and rosie return to the human world to see her crew waiting around for them

dia decks rosie

everyone scrambles to make sense of what's happening. dia explains what she learned and saw etc, saying they need to make it to america to find this ‘Alex’. she then turns to rosie and says to get out of their sight, murderous scum.

rosie doesn't move

stuff happens and rosie explains she was a criminal. she had been a pirate near equestria’s waters. when her ship was captured she sacrificed herself for her crew and was imprisoned in the deepest dungeons. she was only released because this mission to earth needed powerful unicorn volunteers and if she agreed she would be pardoned, but exiled from equestria forever.

rosie says she can't go back because there's nothing waiting for her. she says she wants to help the crew, they were wronged by the equestrians much like she was in a way and she is in love with this brave new world

dia doesn't believe her

the crew take a vote. it comes down to adam, who votes to keep rosie. dia is furious but she concedes.

some time passes. they gather supplies, plan a route, plan in general, radio their allies and ready for a very, very long trip.

dia sits at the back of her ship chillout spot contemplating everything that has happened.

she hears heavy footsteps and finds carl. he holds out a tiny, shabby cake with a candle in it.

it’s august 15. it’s her birthday. she is now eighteen.

an adult.

the rest of the crew emerge and say they wanted to do something nice after everything that's happened.

something inside dia breaks and she starts crying, unable to understand what is happening and why everyone is acting like this. she is an awful awful angry and vengeful person who is nasty to everyone and the only reason anyone is around her is because she is slightly competent

the crew say that's not true. she is a thoughtful, kind, generous, righteous girl. she is funny and she cares deeply about the people around her despite her hard words and general antics and demeanor she is truly a good person, just a bit messy around the edges

they are beside her because they care about her.

dia still doesn't truly understand. not entirely. but for the first time she believes them.

for the first time she feels like she is around people that care. at least in some way.

the darkness within her does not recede.

but there is a tiny spark inside.

and it's a start.

it ends with a promise to see the world

no matter what it takes

.

the one where i end up writing a book

this chapter was more supposed to be an epilogue/sequel hook
dia alludes to some major events that have happened over the years etc

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Roadtrip: Around the World in 80 Years // Roadtrip: Lost Volumes

this story was supposed to have a sequel or two. mostly consisting of random snippets of a variety of events and things the crew would've gotten themselves into, living their lives in this strange new world. examining a different philosophy. what that would have been i have no clue but it would have been something incredible.

that said here are the major things / life events that would have been covered in mosty chronological order
.

They call their ship the Humanity

the crew take and incredible round-trip to the Mediterranean. they pass through the Baltic sea, london where they find people living in the metro tunnels and connect them up with the satellite phone network

they end their trip in a coastal city near rome which they too visit. there they find a man named Priest, a priest that had been shown equestria who now believes celestia had been the biblical god and acted accordingly. along with several people who had seeked rome and their god and answers. a notable pair is a father/daughter backpacking pair, now a changeling queen and her drone who join the trip back north as autumn begins.

the Humanity hunkers down in london for a time, arranging a telephone meeting of the newly found communities. dia explains what she and rosie know about the Event and how they will head to america to seek answers as it begins to turn to winter

during this time Dia and Carl have become a couple as both realize they will not do any better and they are more or less on the same brainwave anyway. Kaja has grown deeply attached to Adam and no one is surprised when she eventually confessed she sees him as a son. kaja and rosie have grown very close as well. lilith is still a jerk but she works together well with the crew. bella is a good dog.

the crew brave the atlantic.
they stop at iceland where they find threstrials, a pregnant woman and two old fishermen. they take them with on the trip. the baby is born at sea and with it signals the beginning of a new age.

dia learns to fly.

they pass the east coast, only to see humanity’s metropolises burning and in ruins. dia is deeply distraught seeing human’s legacy destroyed and regresses into a deep depression. they crew get into many shenanigans trying to get to the landlocked Alexandria. the final leg of the journey is taken by dia lilith and kaja as they are the flyers of the their group.

Dia meets Alex once and for all.

they have many heated conversations over a long timespan. dia is a very stubborn person and she finds alex to be a ‘horsecocksucker’, solidifying herself as a very anti-equestria figure. she gets all the info books a way to contact the other side of the globe etc and returns to europe.

many many years pass

Dia becomes known as the Great Uniter

she ammasses a self-sustaining fleet that travels the breath of europe’s coasts and the atlantic. she keeps peace between the budding nations of the continent and slowly becomes more and more well known. a lot of it coming from publishing her books and memoirs of Equestria and the Event and return and everything she’s done during her life. as well as her participation in many skirmishes, protections, advancements, saving and general fairness when it comes to politicking

during this time:

The crew grow to consider one another family.

Bella passes away at 23, very old for a dog.

Dia and Carl have four daughters and a son. (Marceline, Elizabeth, Juniper, Annabelle, Christopher) all four girls are red/pink griffons, each with a different father, one of them being dennis, the second one of Priest’s followers the latter two irrelevant, though all of them consider the minotaur their father. their son is carl’s and another minotaur’s who kidnapped him and vanished for nearly twenty years. they were eventually reunited by sheer luck and the boy was absorbed into the family

Kaja and Rosie hook up. between the two of them they have five kids, four boys, a daughter and Adam who has grown into an incredible young man.
Kaja gains her cutie mark, two overlapping speech bubbles as she is capable of mastering pretty much every language. they are very happy and Kaja has become a surrogate mother for Dia

Lilith is still and asshole. but a nicer one. she keeps all the paperwork and agreements legal stuff etc for the whole continent. she has tripled in size and flies along the fleet when needed but mostly lives a secluded life somewhere. she and dia somehow became very good friends

Carl is the first to pass.

He gets sick when they're out at sea and dies at 72 surround by all five kids. Dia becomes much colder and harsher after that day. their youngest daughter, only fourteen then, heads to america by herself and vanishes.

Kaja is next to pass. the whole rebuilt city that has become the hub of the fleet the Humany III mourns her and she is given a viking funeral.

Dia meets Alex for the first time in ages. Dia is old, Alex is not. she asks if Alex will remember her. as a person instead of her legacy. Alex says she remembers everyone. they share a drink.

The world has grown and changed a great deal. Dia has spent her life piecing the remnants of humanity back and in some ways she has succeeded.

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On a calm night out at sea Dia feels it. at age 217 she grabs a life boat and silently stows away from the last parts of her life’s work. she lays in the boat, old and gray and failing and she watches the stars, like she did so many years ago.

this was never the life she wanted but she did the best she could. so much struggle and blood and sweat and tears and it's all over just like that.

she hears her laugh.

she raises her cloudy red eyes and there, on the other end of the boat sits a young girl. pale and freckled with mousy brown hair and steel gray eyes.

they speak.

about nothing and everything.

and Dia watches the grey eyes melt to crimson and gold.

a memory from too far back.

it speaks, male and female overlapping, her own voice young yet warped, another, old and clear, the one from her dreams. it asks her for her deepest desire. they both know the answer

it asks again. the price is yourself. you will be you but you will be me but you will be different.

Dia says they both know the answer.

it extends a griffin claw and she takes it.

she ceases.

it storms that night.

and it storms there for decades.

and amidst the storm a lonely girl gets her wish.

.

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Roadtrip: Ascension

“The Human Spirit is a boundless thing.

In an Earth of monsters and magic and ponies it still burns bright in the souls of the Returned. It echoes through the minds of those who've only seen humans as pictures on a screen. It is what drives those alive today to say 'no'. To not lie down against the fate bestowed upon them by a merciless universe and false gods that doomed our kind to fade to nothingness, never truly understanding our nature and our minds and our absolute refusal to ever be limited by the fabric of reality itself.

Chaos runs through our souls.

And only fools see it as a bad thing.

Fools that will soon be reminded of their roots whether they like it or not.

A new being is born. One that will lead humanity to fulfil its true potential.

To their ascension.”

Eris (/ˈɪərɪs, ˈɛrɪs/; Greek: Ἔρις, "Strife") is the Greek goddess of strife and discord.

When the spell fired during the Event, the piece the original Discord had sacrificed in its making was released upon the world. It wove itself into the fabric of magic and remained as an observer for two hundred years. He was just like his original self, only weaker, aware that he was a piece but unbothered. His power began waning eventually, and he seeked out a human he had trailed more than most.

A young woman full of ambition and rage against the gods. He had visited her as she brushed with death many times in her long life, and he once more found her on a boat upon the glassy ocean, as her heart slowed one last time.

She was Discord. Impossibly powerful, mischievous, eternal. He was Dia. Unhinged, driven, wild.

Human.

Dia became what Discord had been. Their souls merged together, creating an entirely new being.

Eris.

They together were the great balancing act of the universe. A force of nature. They were the chaos to order. They were not evil. They simply were.

Eris was everything Dia had dreamed of. And Dia dreamed. And Discord dreamed. They were two parts of a whole.

Eris spent much of her time reminding humanity of their origin in their own special way. She helped, she killed, she played, she lived. She raised family with puppet bodies. Had children, faked her death. Wrote books, music, traveled, told stories, burned cities to the ground.

She reminded Sunset Shimmer she was not god. She reminded Alex she was human. She treasured the HPI and her two-legged children.

She not so much straddled the line of insanity as she swung back and forth hanging off of it. She did everything and anything. She was limitless, immortal, eternal.

When they reached the stars she was among them. When they reached the homeland of her killers she bowed to them. And when she saw the creature that had birthed the immortality within her they smiled at one another. When the princesses greeted the children of the race they had doomed she reminded them of her promise.

One from a girl long gone who’d lost her world and her future and her people.

She crossed the stars by her own power.

She returned to her planet and she played life again and again until the sun burned out.

And she trailed her people through the stars for an eternity till the stars burned out.

And within the emptiness she swam, herself full of stars, of souls, of life.

till she found her father.

Her half, her piece, her creator.

Discord extended his claw as he had a forever ago.

And she took it as she once had.

and they became the light at the start of everything.

and humanity was reborn once more.

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.

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all of you

thank you so much

this community in which i had the privilege of growing up in

this community which shaped me as a person for the better

this community which has and forever will be the best i have ever been apart of

thank you

from the bottom of my heart thank you

to my little pony gen 4

to bronies

to all of you who've read this or anything i've ever written

thank you

godspeed to all of you

and farewell

Comments

[Odd_Sarge]

Extremely happy for you. This story is one of my fondest on the site (I was immediately back into the groove as if I had never stopped reading it for a day!) and it is so very great to see it come full circle. This was an incredibly personal journey that I am so glad you decided to share with us, and I wish you everything and more with your life. Thank you so much for the Roadtrip.

[Varinki]

Nice. This story has been a personal favorite of mine.

[Backlash91]

Loved it all. Keep being awesome, you!

[Celefin]

Thank you for the closure, it's rare to get one so thorough as this. This story will always be special to me. One of a kind.

I hope that everything works out for you and I wish you all the best. Again thank you for writing this.

[theBeachBoysBrony]

I was in a very similar situation when you started posting this story, and it helped me just that little bit. I'm very glad you came back all this way, to finish what you started. I could see you growing as both a writer and a person as the story went along, and it was very nice to be there for the ride.
If your still interested in writing, there is a lot of potential with what you have already set up. An Eris/Discord shenanigans fic is a good short story idea. So don't go thinking that all of this is over

All in all, this is a BIG thumbs up for me.