• Member Since 17th Aug, 2014
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Halira


I write a variety of stories in different styles.My Patreon Page

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It is 2058, years after millions of humans on Earth were transformed into ponies, and contact with Equestria via an extra-dimensional portal was established. An entire generation has grown up with humans and ponies sharing the world and magic being as ordinary as technology.

Turnip Jones was born on a small farm on Earth but has always dreamed of being more than a farmer. Now, he is getting his opportunity to prove that he can be a great mage by attending Celestia's School of Magic in Canterlot. However, the school may not be what he expected it to be.

Part of the Pandemic Universe

Chapters (13)
Comments ( 50 )

Yay!
I think there should be more slice of life in The Pandemic universe
More Of the average newly transformed ponies just going about and adapting to life

“I have reviewed all your files, and I can’t recall a single one of your names because not a single one of the files stood out to me as anything other than bland and uninspired. There is no pony of great power, no prodigy, no one to inspire confidence. I’m sure I could go down to the local orphanage and find half a dozen foals with more promise than the lot of you. You are everything wrong with the Equestrian education system. If this is the best Equestria has to offer, it is in a sad state indeed,” the man said in a dry, bored tone.

Ehhhh...i dont like this guy already
I see a lot of potential in everyone already

She stomped. “I’m Prim Tape! Of the Canterlot Prims! My family has more money than your whole little dirt towns put together!”

Yeah sure
But honestly that was just rude what that person did to you
But hey! Who knows what is gonna happen
im gonna make sure that headmaster either calms down or else

“Stupid human, doesn't even have magic,” Prim muttered.

Oh they do
It's just subtle
And im not talking just the ones that you can see
Everyone has magic
Its called imagination magic
Its Harmonic magic

“Oh, yes! Not present is Professor Physic Calm!

Um, Shouldnt this be Psychic Calm? Physic is medical alchemist, hedge witch, chirgeon type occupation?

Why do I have this feeling that Headmaster is Discord enjoying himself as a cross between Gandalf/Dumbledore, and Sir Alan Sugar?

Enter, The Dragons Den.:moustache:

Especially given the unique item from The Dragons Hoard.:trixieshiftright:

As for just how high a level human magical imagination can go?

Heeeeers Pinkie. :pinkiecrazy:

Oh i like headmaster he is going to shake things up a hole lot.

it is going to be interesting to see how this story forms up and plays out.

11820494
Fixed, thanks for catch.

a interesting chapter. i would say this is a good story builder.

Very intresting behaviour on the part of the Headmaster.

Ahh, the dichotomy of leadership. Hear Everything, Know Nothing.

It keeps them guessing, and the paranoia makes them make mistakes more easily and often. :trollestia:

As for Turnip wanting to do Magic as an Earth Pony? Looks like hes going to need Advanced lessons from Professor Zecora. Oh boy, is there weird stuff down in self assembling biphasic mixtures even bfore you add in energetics and particulates. I mean, Microwave stripline Runes are bad enough, but when youre using ruby dust to mix and match optical, microwave runes,a nd organic conductors in a three dimentional structure or even time dependant, youre mixing with the big powers. And thats just the stuff Ive heard of on Earth. :pinkiecrazy:

Shouldn't the story teaser say "...years after [cataclysmic event], X, Y, and Z are now normal", instead of saying "before", like it is currently?

11821159
There was a typo, but it was that there should have been a comma after before. Still, I'll just change it to after for better clarity.

11821077
Indeed
He seems...worrying
Lets keep an eye on him
do hope the storytellers can help

11821160
Wait, how would adding a comma change that it says "[date], years before a cataclysm, ..." into meaning 'after the cataclysm, X happened'? Whatever, I'm glad I helped you slightly.

11821168
"Years before, millions of people..." Years before in this case is a phrase used as a time adverb. It is saying that what is happening in the following clause happened "years before". Just like someone might say "previously" only "years before" is slightly more descriptive. The comma is essential, as without it, the entire meaning is reversed.

The creature stood up. “I’m Groundskeeper Spring Fling, but you can just call me Spring. I’m in charge of supervising and maintaining this dorm building. I’m guessing you’ve never seen a kirin. Are you one of our students? I thought they were all unicorns.”

Kirin are awesome!

“Yep! I’m from good old Mississippi,” she said with a smile. “Never thought I would get admitted here. Taking that test for that scholarship felt like a super-longshot, but here I am! Oh…and don’t mention angry kirins. My roommate is a kirin, and she gets kinda stressed if you mention angry kirins. I think living in kirin villages must be pretty traumatic.”

True i mean I've read words of power
Kirin gone angry arent fun

Prim seethed. “No! I am not going to lose it all. I am Prim tape of the Canterlot Prims, and I will get what is owed to me by birthright! I am not going to be disgraced!” She whipped her head around and glared at me for some reason. “And I will not end the year in the bottom third of the class. Watch out, dirt pony, you aren’t going to hold that first-place ranking for long!”

Hmm
You know?
I think she could use other worlds to help her
Lets see here dj? No, Nyx? No
We'll see in a bit

We all turned to see a colt who looked like a male unicorn version of Twilight Sparkle; he even had the same stripe in his mane.

He forgot the flat lens glasses that reflect the light when he pushes them back when speaking? :trixieshiftright:

“That’s worse!” Bright exclaimed. He pointed to the Headmaster. “Look how big humans are. You can fit two grown ponies and a foal en the same space as one of them there humans.”

You'd be suprised Bright

Summer gaped in horror. “Earth has ponies that kill and chop up critters?!”

Also yes summer and YES some people aren't happy with it at times
But i also agree that We need to work on making sure the food we eat is killed humanely
It makes it taste better anyways!

“Students need to pay more attention to what is being said to them. This is a school of magic where following directions can prevent a spell from blowing up in your face. If students don’t comprehend what is being said to them, they can’t follow directions,” Headmaster said. He then sighed. “Such a disappointing lot of students; not one paid attention. No wonder we finished last place last year. Move along, earth pony. I have dishes to wash. Pay attention in the future.”

Reaaaally dont like this guy
He's like blaming EVERYONE for something they have no control over
Was celestia REALLY that angry?

That is Sneaky.

This like starting first year on a Phd course at university and they expect you to remember ALL 4 pages of calculus formula cheatsheets. And youre not even taking maths. :unsuresweetie:

rules this is going to be a interesting year.
okay this story is growing on me.

“Each of you shall try that on, see the result, and pass it on to your neighbor. Keep this up until everyone has had a turn. I expect to hear no hazing of students for their results. I don’t expect it will glow brightly for most of you, only faintly. This puts your power in perspective. If one or more of you do get a bright glow, do not think too highly of yourself for it. I know a mare named the Great and Powerful Trixie, whom this bracelet would glow brightly, but her skill and range of spells are minimal. Far weaker unicorns accomplish much more with their magic. Power is one thing, but power without skill means little. Even the weakest caster can accomplish much more than a mighty one if they know more and have mastered more. The weaker’s need to work harder can be seen as an advantage, for they must strive to understand more to do great works while the powerful often foolishly take for granted that their power is all they need.”

puts on bracelet
Oh cool
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
a small supernova like light can be seen from orbit

I honestly suspect that Professor Newmans job back on Earth, was Bomb Disposal.:rainbowderp:

a vary interesting chapter.

What would be intresting if Equestria didnt have imaginary numbers as such, because they culd see and use them just like the Apple Numbers, that which were discovered first by picking up, and so they extended the number space by doing things like 3!14159 might be the equivalen of what we would call Pi i? And the inverse exclamation mark would be the negated space the same way we use a base full stop decimal point to seperate the integers from the kess than ine decimal representation?

which would result in a cleaner and more compact version of the complex and quaternion representations I tried working on many years ago for a 4 bit calculator. Something about e,i,j,l generalised real octoniion space needing 4 extention symbols, maybe in quarter float to bypass explicit point and negation representaitons?

I really shouldnt try thinking maths when half asleep. I keep breaking things. :pinkiegasp:

Very nice chapter.

Hannah shook her head. “No. Moonbow is my old human family name. I don’t know the tribe…which I feel ashamed for not knowing for sure…Lakota, I think…but it is from a Native American tribe. It isn’t directly related to Navajo or Pueblo–those are the ones who are naturally immune to ETS.”

Oh?
People immune to ets?
Hmmm
This could use research!

Currently, unless and until stated explicitly otherwise, Im going to consider the Headmaster as a certain Equestrian super powerful entity who doesnt want to cause death, destruction or trauma.

If you consider such a list of available entities, he would be pretty much at the head of the queue? :trixieshiftright:

To build structures capable of handling a tiny fraction of that kind of power without melting its surroundings means not just placing atoms correctly, which humans have heavy engineering specilising in, but nudged patterns of atoms which is so ficcult to do reliably its only used in critical parts of CPU construction. And maybe some other extremely esoteric particle research and high energy physics.:unsuresweetie:

i see Neighsay is still sticking his nose were it does not belong.
but he is a raging asshole with a bigger dick attached.

really liking this story .

Neighday snorted loud enough to be heard in the hall. “Hear me, Headmaster, I will not be the only one to notice the staff's power level. There will be questions asked. I question where such an object could have come from. That is no work of Earthlings, and there is no record of such a staff in Equestria. It shows up in your possession, yet we know nothing about you, not even your name. Who are you?”

...that aint good
Well then

11846805
True
Discord would be very likely but who knows?

Humans wouldve been all 6th Day with that level of Magic, if only to duplicate the effects in tech to avoid magical contamination? :trixieshiftright:

Neighsay is poking at a vary large bee-nest, this is going to be good when the bee's get pissed and smack him down hard.

Very nice chapter, loving this story.

I shook my head. “No, I'm from Earth, and I've seen her…well, seen her on TV. She could grow forests in seconds, raise mountains from flat ground, and cause earthquakes. She could even tell where everyone was around her by feeling them moving on the ground because she was so connected to the Earth…but she burnt her power out while saving a city. She can't do that stuff anymore.”

Well then
Sorry to hear that wild

Eventually, the pair of discontent unicorns relented and walked away, grumbling. As they walked by the back of the line, I heard their mutters to each other. They weren't speaking to one another in Equestrian; It sounded like some sort of Chinese language. I wasn't sure if it was Mandarin or Cantonese or what; it was all Chinese to me, but it definitely had that kind of feel to it. I supposed that if there were people visiting from the United States, there were just as likely to be people visiting from other Earth nations. It was just odd seeing Chinese ponies in general. China was very closed off and secretive, aside from their regular declarations that all ponies and all humans that wished to be ponies were welcome and that they would cover the costs of migration and travel for ponies (humans had to fend for themselves on that front, even if they wanted to be ponies). China had become diplomatically and economically cut off from much of the world due to their overt belief that they should convert all humans to ponies. They still did trade through neutral countries—primarily ones who couldn't afford not to trade with China, but for most of the world, what happened in China was a mystery. Equestria must still have diplomatic relations with them if they were visiting here.

So shimmerists huh?
...i am a shimmerist as well
Sometimes a pony is better because they cuter!

The biggest problem tyranical dictatorships have, is when they actually succeed at getting the totality of peaceful quiet and hardworking civilians they claimm they want.

Theres noone they can get off torturing for breaking the law, so they have to constantly increase teh peculiarities of the laws so they get broken.

Eventually theyre foaming at teh mouth demanding the peasants revolt so they can gleefully slaughter them, then complain when the abused army turns round, supports the peasants, and the leadership gets executed. Then to miss out on the resulting conflict.:pinkiesick:

11872350

Wrong.

What actually happens is this: dictators must be constantly wary of any potential rival emerging, specially from the military. So they promote their ministers favoring loyalty over competence and playing power games with them, enforcing rivalry over cooperation. And of course said ministers do the same with their own subordinates.

Unsurprisingly the resulting system is a mess with several agencies undercutting each other; officers backstab their equals, kick down their inferiors and try to look good before their superiors.

Meanwhile, the commoners are abused and often have to endure the result of incompetent policies from a government they are not allowed to criticize in any way. So they must be constantly monitored and repressed to avoid protests and uprisings. And the only way for the dictator to keep plebs down is to point fingers at an enemy, real or imagined, to justify any measure under the guise of protecting the country.

Meaning? unending conflict.

I wonder how much of an understatement the prior unpleasantness was. :twilightoops:

I wonder just how good the samping fields, structures and spells are on Canterlot city to prevent vibrational stresses building up from increasing Earth Pony activity and other such repetative heavy industry?

Torch or equivalent is someone you really dont want dropping in unannounced.:rainbowderp:

Professor Newman stepped forward and clasped her hands behind her back. “I cannot use magic to project my voice, so forgive me if I seem to be yelling,” she shouted. “We have received word that there are Chinese envoys in town. Do not engage with them. Do not answer their questions. If any of them cause you any problems, please immediately report it to a faculty member. Do not invite them onto school grounds or into the dorms. They caused trouble with the previous administration, and they were banned from this campus as a result. We must suffer their school visiting for the games; we do not need to suffer those envoys. That is all I have to say. Please enjoy your lunch.”

Nah
HEY YOU GUYS!
you shimmerists?
Nice!

“Don't call them that. They don't like it,” Hannah said. “They say if you insult too many of them, the Queen of Nightmares will give you bad dreams.”

Nah BAT PONIES FOR LIFE!!
AH--

“Next year, we’ll be the ones competing in the games. Guess that means I'll get to see if all the stories about Earth are true,” Rocky said with a grin. “I don't believe cities get that big. I'd believe the stories about zombies in the woods before I believe a million ponies can live in one city.”

Well you'd be surprised!
Welcome to earth rocky
Population before the Pandemic Event?: 7.8 BILLION
thats BILLION with a "B"

And given the ages of the CMC, the last bit wasnt ominous given Dashs age at all, never mind why would such a magic effect have such consequences? :twilightoops:

Oooh, a puzzle!

The Headmaster is now played by Richard Picardo?:trixieshiftright:

I dont think the quote is Road Best Traveled Least? :twilightoops:

I think his cutie mark stand for read between the lines

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