> Facing the Future
>  by RuinQueenofOblivion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Ghost Town
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was there in those early days back when the Three Founders got together and helped shape the future of our part of America. I was there during the founding of the Settlement, I remember everything that happened after with the Great Schism and the war that followed.

But you don't know my story, maybe its for the best that I was mostly forgotten by the history books of Ponies and Zebras alike. There are a few Zencori that still tell my tale, but there's too much of an argument over exactly how I fit into their historical canon so I get left out of the tale of the Three Founders.

Who am I then you may ask, I'm the pony that started it all. Sure I'm not the one who founded New Atlanta, but if it wasn't for me things would've been a lot different in Georgia, for good and for bad.

So when President Charm asked me to write this story I wasn't really sure what to make of it. There's a lot of history that even Haven hasn't been able to preserve all the way, one such case is the days leading up to the founding of New Atlanta, and its time to change that.

My name is Charlotte Williams, but everypony calls me Charlie, and this is the story of how a waitress from a small town in Georgia changed the future of nations.


00000


My story, like most ponies who weren't born like that, starts on May 22nd, 2015 AD by the old calendar, or 0 BE if you want to be technical. I was just getting off work at the Varsity in Atlanta and made it back home, it was a pretty ordinary day all things considered.

Lately though I hadn't been feeling well, I kept throwing up on occasion and my period was late that month. I didn't think that much of it to be honest, at least not right away. My boyfriend Jake said I should take a pregnancy test just in case, but I honestly wasn't sure.

I had set up an appointment with my doctor for the next day at least, maybe then we'd put this whole thing to rest. In the meantime though, I just wanted to get some sleep, I had been working pretty much all day and wanted to just relax and get some sleep.

I was about to lay down when the phone rang, it was Jake's number he was on a trip to New York at the moment so he wasn't even in town.

"Hey honey, how's it going?" I said as I answered the phone.

"Good, good, I'm just getting into my hotel room now," Jake said from the other end of the line. "Did you do what I suggested?"

"Jake honey, I don't think I'm pregnant, its probably nothing," I said with a shake of my head. "Look, I got an appointment with Doctor Monroe tomorrow, she'll clear this whole thing up I promise."

"If you really think so, just be careful okay?" Jake said with a sigh, it was clear he wasn't sure why I was being so stubborn about the whole thing. "Promise you'll call me tomorrow, I don't want you to hold me in suspense much longer."

I just laughed a little, I loved Jake but sometimes he had a tendency to overreact, this was probably one of those cases I just didn't want to worry him.

"I promise, first thing after I get out of Doctor Monroe's office I'll call you," I said as I tried to reassure him, I don't know why he was being like this but I wasn't going to try and talk him out of it. "I love you, I'll talk to you tomorrow okay?"

"Okay," Jake finally said. "I love you too, sleep well alright?"

"You too," I said with a smile as I hung up the phone and sat down on my bed, I kicked off my shoes and threw off my clothes before I laid down and fell asleep.


00000


When I woke up again something felt, wrong. The world around me felt bigger somehow, like everything had grown, or I had shrunk. It took me a moment to realize that I wasn't even on my bed anymore, there wasn't much of a bed left to speak of, it was kind of rotten.

"What the..." I said with a groan as I tried to get up only to fall forward onto my hands... or what should've been my hands.

My arms, or what used to be my arms at least, ended in what looked like horse hooves. I had hooves, I had actual freakin' hooves, how was that even possible? There was a dirty looking mirror and I brushed off some of the dust as best I could and I froze.

Staring back at me was an orange horse-like creature with splotches of red on its body. The weirdest thing though was my horn, yeah I had an actual horn sticking out of my forehead.

I did the logical thing at that point, I screamed my head off.

When I finally calmed down I took stock of my new body, I was fairly small as far as horses go so maybe I was a pony instead of a horse. That didn't explain the horn though, it kind of reminded me of one of those things Narwhals have only it was on a horse instead of a whale. I guess that made me a Unicorn, an actual honest to goodness Unicorn.

I had no idea exactly what to make of that, was it possible that there were more like me out there somewhere? Did everyone on Earth turn into a horse thing or was it just me?

"Okay Charlie, you're in the body of some sort of small horse creature and you have no idea what's going on," I said out loud to myself. "You're probably just dreaming, yeah, that's it, you're going to wake up in a few minutes and find yourself back in your apartment waiting for your boyfriend to get back home. Yeah, its all just a crazy dream, there's no such thing as Unicorns and people don't get turned into small horses, yep... you're just dreaming, that's all."

I looked out the window at the city outside, it was quiet... almost too quiet. It was like the entire city had gone quiet, there were no cars moving on the street outside or even the sounds of life, it was as if the entire city was a ghost town.

I sat back on my haunches, maybe if I waited long enough I'd wake up from this weird dream. I even tried pinching, or well more punching myself to try and wake up, nope, nothing.

It looked like I was going to have to actually figure out how to survive out there, well that figured really. I was more worried than anything else.

I just had to figure out how I was going to get the door open.


00000


Luckily it had been so long that the door was rotting so I was able to get it open pretty easily. I had no idea exactly what I was going to do at this point, but the first thing that came to mind was getting food, if I was going to be stuck here for a long time I needed to get some food.

The streets were still quiet and empty as I made my way out of the building and along the street. It was weird, I didn't like it but I felt like I needed to find some sort of sign of life.

Was I going to be alone for the rest of my life?

I didn't have time to dwell on that, the first goal was going to be to get to the nearest grocery store, which would probably be the Publix on Piedmont. I looked up at the sky, it was pretty grey and for that matter it was actually pretty cold, that suggested it was probably closer to winter right now.

Weird, before all of this it had been May, what was going on? How long had it been since I had gone to bed? A few months or maybe years? I really had no idea, but that was something I didn't have time to dwell on right now. I headed along North Avenue, that at least would get me to the Publix, hopefully I'd be able to find something there that was still good to eat.

It felt like I was in one of those old horror movies about the last survivors in a city or something, was some sort of monster going to jump out at me and try and eat me or something?

Or since I was the one who had been changed into a pony creature, was I maybe the monster in this situation? That seemed silly but I had no idea.

I took a deep breath, I was becoming much more aware of my new senses as a pony and my sense of smell in particular was stronger than it had been before. I swear I actually smelled some things in the city that were, not exactly human, but I don't really know what it was, which worries me all of a sudden.

Was it possible that there were animals in the city? There was Zoo Atlanta, I had no idea what may have happened to it but it was certainly possible that animals had somehow escaped since, whatever happened here. There was a distinct lack of human habitation though, or pony habitation for that matter, what was the difference? I was starting to get a bit worried, was it even possible I was the only sapient creature left on Earth?

I didn't particularly enjoy that thought, I was afraid that it might be true though.

There was something else, I was starting to get a strange new sense, it was as if I was becoming more aware of my body, but something about it was really weird. I didn't quite know what it was yet, but I didn't have a whole lot of time to focus on it.

The Publix was still in somewhat decent shape at least, it looked like it had been abandoned which made sense. A lot of the buildings were old, but the city could be in worse shape at least. Maybe that at least meant there would be food to get, I just had to hope.

The front doors of the Publix had been broken open, that figured I guess it meant I wasn't the first person to reach here, I just had to hope that there would be something inside.


00000


Inside the building it smelled funky, it actually reminded me a bit of the smell of a dog but it was even stronger than I remembered it, probably because of my enhanced sense of smell. Either that or because dogs hadn't exactly been bathing for awhile, it was hard to tell.

I took a moment to check my body again, yeah I was still a small horse, I even had what I assumed was equine, well, equipment. What was weird is that they felt a little more sensitive than I thought they would, did that mean something? Why did I feel like something was going on here that I didn't understand?

Thankfully there actually was food that wasn't completely rotten or eaten. I was lucky I guess, it meant I wasn't going to starve to death at least.

I thought about Jake, he had been in New York City when this happened and I had no idea what may have happened to him at all. The more I thought about it, the more I was worried about what might have happened to him, its not like I really had much of an option.

I was also starting to become more aware of the fact that I was naked, I mean I was walking around an empty city so its not like anyone was there to see my new equine parts. There weren't exactly a lot of options, but I had to at least consider the possibility of finding some clothes that would fit me somewhere in Atlanta.

Maybe if I could figure out how to use my new hooves I could get them modified at least, things were weird around here and I really had no idea what I was going to do.

Once I got enough food my next priority was going to be figuring out where I was going to wind up living now. I needed to consider getting out of the city proper, there were houses I could probably use or maybe if I could find a good place to stop at in the event that there was something out there that wanted to eat me or something.

I gathered up the food I could and settled in, I would have to keep searching around the city to figure out some way to move around without much problems.

I just had to hope I could.


00000


Three days passed, I managed to come across some old building supplies, and I had to figure out how to build anything with it right now. I kept trying to pick it up with my hooves but it just fell to the floor until I was so desperate I actually wished I could just pick it up with my mind.

That's when I saw it, an orange aura was wrapped around the hammer, I looked up at my horn and saw that it was glowing with the same aura.

I gasped and fell back, the shock of the discovery made the aura vanish and the hammer clattered to the floor. Had I actually done that? Was I moving it with some sort of telekinesis? That was insane, how was I doing this? Was it because I was a Unicorn?

I was starting to wonder more and more about my new body, it felt so, unnatural and weird. The sensitivity I had noticed before wasn't any better either, and I had started throwing up again, how was any of this even possible? I didn't even feel sick at this point other than throwing up, at least I didn't have any other symptoms.

Did horses come down with the flu? No wait, I had felt this way before and the flu wasn't even going around yet, that just raised more questions.

The fourth day was even better, I managed to make a rough wagon with a harness that I could use to pull it. I had done my best to get everything all together.

I still was having a hard time getting used to this new body, but right now I didn't have much of a choice but to at least try and get used to it. That sense I mentioned before was now even stronger, I was getting the feeling that it was more about my magic, maybe some sort of magical aura.

Though the weird thing was, I felt another one, not nearby but actually inside me. I didn't know what that might mean for ponies, but put together with everything else that was happening, there was only one thing it could mean.

I was pregnant.
> Chapter 2: Coping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's something weird about realizing that you're pregnant, its even weirder when you're in a completely different body than you were in before. I was still getting used to my pony body at this point, at least I had figured out how to use magic a little.

A scary thought occurred to me at that point, what if I was the only living being in the city? Was I going to have to figure out how to give birth to this foal on my own? Was foal even the right term? I mean I'm a horse creature right so that probably means its a foal. 

I didn't want to think about that, I wasn't a doctor let alone a veterinarian, I was going to have to think of some way to work with this. I was really just a waitress from a small town who was stuck in this, bizarre situation that I had no idea what to do about.

Besides honestly I doubted that I was really the only living thing in the area, if I had returned as a pony there had to at least be a chance that I wasn't the only one. I wasn't sure if there was anything out there, but I had to at least try and figure that out, I'd be able to figure it out somehow

I hoped so at least.

I thought back a couple of months ago when me and Jake had, well you know for the first time. He was the only serious relationship I had been in so he had to be the father.  So the question then became, where was he and what happened to him?

I still had a lot of time to dwell on this given that I had no idea where anyone even was, but now I had to figure out where to go next.

I had to figure out where to go next at this point, I needed somewhere that would give me a secure place to stay for the time being. Publix wasn't exactly in the best of shape at this point, I had found enough food to at least survive for awhile, and now I had to figure out how to survive from here.

I took a deep breath and gathered up my stuff in the wagon that I had put together and started out into the city once more. I had managed to get as much as I could together, but right now I had to figure out what was going on.

"Okay Charlie, its time to see what the rest of Atlanta has waiting for you..." I said to myself as I slipped into the harness that 
I had made and started out onto North Avenue Northeast again, it was time to hopefully find somewhere to live.


00000


The city was still quiet, almost too quiet at this point. Most of the buildings were in too much of a state of decay for me to use. I was starting to get the feeling that it had been more than just a few months, but I had no idea how long it might be.

I finally turned down one set of streets and was a bit surprised at what I found, it wasn't a town like what I had seen before, but instead it looked like a small grouping of buildings that looked smaller, almost like it was built for ponies, was it possible that it had been built recently? Was there maybe even people living there?

I headed to the rough looking front gate of the town and froze, the whole place looked abandoned. Not just abandoned, there was something else about it, it looked like it had been scorched, like something had lit parts of it on fire.

When I pushed the gate open I looked around and recoiled, there were skeletons laying around. They all looked like they had probably belonged to ponies, but whoever had been living here was long dead.

I poked around the settlement a little, the good news was that there were buildings still intact here and there and I could at least make a home here for the time being.

What worried me though was the fire, it felt strangely directed at certain buildings that were laying in ruins. My first thought was some sort of arson, but something about this was weird,I still had a lot to think about.

I finally found some papers that at least seemed to give me some answers, they looked old and faded but it seemed like whoever wrote them were making some sort of record or log, not that it really did them much good.



Year 1, Day 1:
I still don't quite know what's been going on here, the world is strange and everything is changed. As best as I can tell this doesn't seem to be limited to just Atlanta either, I haven't been able to pick up any broadcasts or anything coming from nearby.

What's even weirder though is the, other change that came with this. I'm not only some sort of pony creature, apparently it turned me into a woman too, or mare I guess. There's something odd about that, why did whatever happened do this to me?



I blinked a little at that, was it possible that whatever force was doing this also could change genders? I was suddenly grateful that didn't happen to me, being male would be really weird on top of everything else.

Then again it probably would also mean I wasn't pregnant, I'm pretty sure even male ponies can't get pregnant. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

I kept going through the logs in hopes that I'd find some sort of an answer about what was going on here, maybe the ponies who lived here knew something I didn't



Year 1, Day 34:
I've found more ponies in the city, we've started putting together a new town in Central Park. There's not been a lot of options for building materials but I think we've about gotten it. Its not easy building a new town from the ground up, but we've managed pretty well all things considered. We've called it Jewel, as far as we can tell its the only settlement in this part of Georgia, so it seems like we're the ones who are going to have to help rebuild this part of America.

Somehow I'm at least starting to feel better about our situation, there's even this rather cute stallion who I found in the city. Its weird not only thinking about being attracted to a pony but a guy too? I didn't really know what was going on, but things are at least starting to look up for us.



Well, things weren't exactly looking that much better, but at least something was becoming more apparent. If the mare who had written this was attracted to another pony it at least meant the species would continue, sort of, I had no idea what to make of this.

I kept thinking about Jake, was he a pony too? Were we going to be able to maybe someday get back together and maybe raise our foal together? Or would I never see him again? It was kind of a depressing thought no matter how I looked at it, and I really wasn't sure I wanted to dwell on it much longer.



Year 2, Day 105:
I'm pregnant! That cute stallion Richard and I are having a foal together, it was weird to go into heat I guess, but it at least got me to get off my flank and admit to him how I really felt. I never really thought about being a parent before, let alone a mother, but I'm getting used to the idea, I'm actually really excited.

We got a visitor today as well, she's a Zebra, apparently whatever causes this turns people into different species including Zebras. She said her name is Naris and that she had been traveling for over a year. She wanted to stop for some supplies and a place to rest for the night before she moved on, she also promised to tell us what she had learned on our journey if we would listen to her.



Okay, I wasn't expecting that, that actually meant that there were more species out there than just ponies, including Zebras apparently. What other species might there be out there? That was something I'd have to explore later I guess.



Year 2, Day 106:
Naris told us a story that I honestly am having a hard time believing. Apparently she visited a place up north called Alexandria who told her a strange story that they said was what had happened to humanity.

The story as she told it involves some sort of, other world called Equestria which is inhabited by ponies and other species. According to the ponies living in Alexandria, Earth was facing a massive extinction event caused by something called thaumic radiation that was spreading out across the Milky Way Galaxy. Equestria cast some sort of spell that did this, its how we turned into ponies.

I still have no idea if I believe this story or not to be honest, but its the closest thing we have to an explanation yet. Richard is about as reluctant to believe it as I am, Naris said that she needs to leave tomorrow in order to get this to her tribe.

I hope that we're all going to be okay if its true.



Okay, that was insane, there was actually an entire world inhabited by ponies and they had did this to us? I had a hard time believing it to be honest, but maybe the writer was right, there wasn't a whole lot of other explanations for what happened to us, people don't just randomly turn into ponies or other species.

I still had to wonder, was there any other species out there other than Ponies and Zebras? I shook my head, I'd worry about that later, right now I wanted to see if it said any more about what happened to this settlement.



Year 3, Day 95:

I gave birth today to a healthy filly, we were all still trying to figure out how our new bodies work but thankfully Naris knew some Zebras who could help. They said they were from something called the Mendi tribe from the south, they seem to be healers and doctors so at least that was going to help.

The filly is a Unicorn like her father, we named her Hope, she's going to be the future of Earth, her and all the other children. We're all doing better, there's even a few more pregnancies, the future is starting to look bright finally.



I looked back around, well that apparently hadn't lasted very long based on what happened to the settlement here. I didn't like this, what had happened to Jewel? I had a lot of questions that needed answers. I took a deep breath and started reading again, there was some things that I still wanted to know answers to, and it was time to see if anything else came to light.



Year 11, Day 299:
The last caravan from the Zebras was late, we were getting a lot more worried. When they arrived they said that they had run into, something while they were passing near Stone Mountain. They didn't get a good look at it, but they seemed to be pretty sure that it was a large flying creature of some sort, and it had burnt the forest in the area around it, so it honestly wasn't clear exactly what was going on.

Whatever it was that was in the area seemed to have moved in recently, which raised more questions. Is it possible it was another human that returned just not in a species that we had encountered before?

Well, as long as whatever was there doesn't come here we should be safe, at least I hope that it won't. In the meantime Jewel is doing a lot better as a settlement and things are looking up, we're even getting more ponies every so often, we may have to start heading out again to get more resources.



Okay, that raised even more questions, exactly what was hiding out near Stone Mountain? I didn't like thinking about it, and I was starting to get the impression that it may even be what caused what happened here.

That worried me to be honest, what was going on here? Was it possible there was some sort of... I didn't want to say it, the idea was just too scary, I had to finish reading these entries, but there was only one left, I picked it up and started reading again.



Year 11, Day 321:
Its over... they're all dead and Jewel is in ruins.

The attack came early yesterday morning, I couldn't believe what it was I saw, it was a dragon, a freakin' fire breathing dragon! It swooped in and burned as much of Jewel as it could. It killed everypony in the vicinity, young, old, anypony it didn't matter to it.

Me and Hope just barely managed to make it out alive, Richard died in the flames trying to get us to safety along with the rest of the foals that weren't killed in the initial attack by the Dragon, I don't know why it attacked us, we never did anything to it, it just came out of nowhere.

The Zebras came today after everything was over, the Dragon was long gone and was hopefully not going to attack us again. They offered to take us to their tribal village to the south, we didn't have much other options and it was our best chance of being able to survive at this point.

I don't know if anypony is ever going to find this, I've left them behind in hopes that whoever found it was warned of what is going on nearby. I don't know if this is the same creature that was in Stone Mountain, but just in case I'd stay far away from that place.

This is Rebecca Carter, founder of the settlement of Jewel and one of its last survivors, I hope whoever finds this will survive whatever is going on in this city.



I lowered the papers and looked up at the sky. There was no sign of anything above me, just a clear, rather quiet day, there wasn't any large flying fire breathing lizards flying to kill me, so that was something at least.

I took a deep breath and headed to one of the remaining buildings and looked around, these ponies deserved to be buried, I was going to have to figure that out soon enough.


00000


It took me the better part of the next day to get the skeletons buried, I didn't really know who any of these ponies were but I was going to at least give them a proper burial. I felt like I should say something about them, but I had no idea what to say, and there wasn't even anypony there to hear it.

"I wish I could've known who you all were," I said with a sigh as I looked at the graves once I had filled them. "You were all just trying to make your home here like I am, I promise that I'll do my best to make sure that you won't be forgotten."

I sighed a little and placed the shovel back in its place, I didn't feel much like eating but I did have a quick dinner at least. I didn't really know what I was going to do from here.

If ponies had returned in the past, was it possible that more could be coming back to the city soon? I hoped so, it felt like I was so alone right now and it was weird, I just had to figure out exactly what I was going to do from here.

I placed my hoof on my stomach, I was still a bit shocked over the fact that I was actually pregnant, I was going to be a mother in this strange world that I didn't know the first thing about. Being a mom was going to be hard enough when I was a human, but now I was going to have to do it as a pony?

I was just going to have to try and relax at this point, it at least would be better if I had someone with me at least, I felt so alone, just me and the life growing in my womb.

What was I going to do now? What if that Dragon showed up after all? Something about this new world felt weird, I just had to hope that everything would be okay.

I made sure that everything was secure before I headed into the house that I had basically claimed for myself. It was decent sized at least for ponies, and I would be able to at least have enough room, and enough room for a little filly or colt when the time came.

I laid on the bed and closed my eyes, my relief didn't last long though as I heard the sound of howling coming from out in the city.

Something else was out there.
> Chapter 3: Alone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was weird sleeping in an empty settlement, even weirder given that it seemed like there were animals in the city. Why were they avoiding this place? Maybe it had something to do with that dragon that attacked, who knows? 

My dreams were still pretty normal, at least I think they were normal for a pony, I really didn't know what was normal for a pony, do horses even dream? That was something I'd have to wonder about some other time, I still had to try and figure out what I was going to do now that I was here.

As I got up the next morning and started eating I thought about what I was going to do now. I was alone in a pretty large city as far as I could tell, save for whatever had made that noise last night. Maybe there were other people our ponies out there somewhere, I mean I couldn't be the only one to return right?

I looked back over the journal entries after breakfast, there was still the mention of Zebras and something called the Mendi, that seemed to me like some sort of tribe or society or something. Maybe if I could figure out where they lived I could at least find someone to be with, it was getting really lonely in the city right now.

It was odd, I had spent most of my adult life living alone in Atlanta except for when Jake visited, and now I wanted nothing more than to be with someone. Jewel was an empty town, whatever that Dragon had done must've scared anyone away from resettling here, not that I blamed them. The threat of a large fire breathing lizard was enough to scare me off if I had anywhere else to go.

There was also the question of how long it had been since I had fallen asleep. I had woken up in what felt like the winter, but I remembered it being late May before. The journal that Rebecca had written suggested that it had been years since she had first woken up, but how long had it been since then?

I sighed a little, this wasn't doing me any good, I had to figure out what I was going to do from here and how I was going to survive. I still had enough food to last me awhile, so the question now was more about what I was going to do from here. I sighed a little and headed to the front gate of Jewel and looked out at the skyline of Atlanta, I had to see if maybe there was still someone out there.

I hitched myself to the wagon once more and headed out after locking the gate to the abandoned settlement. If there was someone or something out there, I wasn't going to let them get at my supplies easily at least.

I just had to hope that everything was going to be okay.


00000


As I started searching some of the buildings I paused a moment when I spotted tracks in the dirt. They weren't hoofprints, they looked more like some sort of paw, but it was bigger than anything I had ever seen before. That was odd, but I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it as I kept searching the buildings for any supplies or signs of life.

I took a deep breath and wrinkled my nose as a scent hit it, it was the same dog-like scent I had smelled back in the Publix but this one smelled a bit more fresh. I didn't want to deal with whatever it was that was in there so I pulled my wagon down the street in hopes I'd have better luck elsewhere.

It was hard to think of this city as empty when to me it felt like just last week when it had cars and people lining the streets. I actually noticed something odd, there wasn't any sign of cars or other vehicles on the road, in driveways or whatever sure there were remnants of cars, but there wasn't anything actually on the road itself, it was like they had all vanished with their owners.

That was weird, was it possible that whatever force had made this happen caused the cars to vanish? Was it the same for boats and planes too? That was something that I didn't know the answer to and honestly I didn't think I ever would, so I just kept walking.

The more I walked, the more I saw, I actually saw deer in the middle of the city, something I hadn't ever expected. The animals had to be a lot bolder given what had happened, but what was it going to mean for us as a species? Was there even any humans left at this point or were they all transformed or dead?

I sighed a little, why did this feel like I was in a really bad monster movie still? Was it possible that the dog like tracks belonged to like a werewolf or something? Something that would try and eat me or turn me into one of them or something? I really didn't want to think about it because the very thought of being attacked by something like that terrified me, and what might happen to my unborn child.

It was weird, but I was actually getting more used to the idea of being Pregnant at this point. Maybe it was a result of the transformation but I wasn't as freaked out about it as I should be. I don't really know what that was about, but I was going to just go with it for now, I just had to hope that I'd be able to find someone that knew how to birth a foal in the next... 9 months?

No, ponies have a longer gestation period don't they? I mean I'm not really an expert on horses or anything, but I seem to remember reading that somewhere that they had a  little less than a year instead of 9 months, that somehow worried me more than anything else, I was going to have to carry this foal for almost a full year?

I sighed a little and looked around the city more, I found a few supplies here and there but there wasn't a whole lot to speak of. This wasn't going to be easy, but at least I was going to survive for awhile. Was I even going to ever be able to find anyone? The fact was that I was more worried about being on my own than I was about anything else, maybe if I was lucky those Zebras would come back through the city or something.

I sighed and looked around, this was going to be a challenge to say the least, I was still worried about the dog creature, but for now I had to focus on survival.

I sighed a little as I took a look at the last building, there was still no sign of anyone having lived here, at least not recently. I sighed a little and was about to head back to Jewel when my ears twitched, there was a sound coming from the backyard of the building, I could barely make it out but there was definitely something there.

I pushed open the back door of the house and looked around the overgrown yard, it took me a moment to find the source of the sound and when I did I stopped in my tracks. It was another small horse creature like me, but this one was a light blue color with a yellow mane and tail, but that wasn't what drew my attention, instead what did was a pair of feathered wings like a bird's that was growing out of its back. A quick check told me she was a mare, at least I think, I mean we had the same equipment so yeah, she was probably a mare.

She looked like some sort of Pegasus or something, I had no idea what to make of that at all. What else was out here if there were Unicorns and Pegasi?

I took a deep breath, I had no idea who this mare was but I wasn't going to just leave her here, I had to get her back to Jewel somehow.


00000


Thankfully getting her to Jewel was easy, I made room in my wagon and loaded her up into it before I started back to the small settlement. The mare was alive at least, I could see her breathing in the wagon when I checked back on her every so often.

I didn't know what I was going to do from here, was she going to be okay? I didn't know anything about equine physiology, let alone equines with wings, so I didn't even know what to make of this. Was she going to be okay? What was going to happen when she woke up?

I sighed a little, I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on these things... no, that's a lie, with most of my needs now taken care of I had nothing but time to dwell on these things and it worried me a little. I levitated the Pegasus mare into one of the beds, she wasn't bleeding at least, but I didn't know what kind of effects the returning process would have if that was what had happened to her.

I sighed a little and looked back out at the city, for a moment I could've sworn I saw something moving nearby but when I looked there was nothing there. I shook my head, I was probably just imagining things.

"Calm down Charlie, this empty city is getting to you," I said and took a deep breath as I worked to secure the gate just in case something tried to get in. "Though, it would be nice to have some sort of defenses here."

I sighed a little and looked up at the sky again, I was half afraid that any moment now that dragon from the journals would swoop in and finish what it started before. I didn't think it was going to happen, but when you're living in a world like this you never know.

I kept going back to the journal entries and what they said about what happened to Earth, it was still hard to believe, but what if it was true? What if there really was another world of ponies out there that had done this to us for some reason? Yeah, it sounded crazy, but it was the closest thing I really had to an explanation.

So, what did that mean for me now? I had no idea, but I wasn't going to let it stop me from figuring things out, maybe if I could get the Pegasus mare awake that would at least help a little.

I sighed a little and got the rest of my gear together, I wasn't going to do me or the newcomer any good if I just moped around right now. There were a few things lying around that would make something resembling a defense in the event that something attacked us from outside, it was a start at least.

It wasn't easy to get it all set up, especially with hooves and magic, neither of which I was particularly adept at using just yet, but I managed to set up a few things that would provide a defense if we got attacked from the ground. By the time I was done, the sun was starting to set in the sky and I had to restart the fire that was providing light for me during the night.

I sighed a little as I looked back at the house where my new guest was still sleeping. I wondered what her story was, did she only re-appear today or had she been lying in that back yard for awhile? It was hard to tell, but given that she didn't have any external injuries that might be a good sign.

I poked at the fire a little and sighed, I wasn't any closer to figuring out what was happening than I had been when I first showed up in my old apartment. There was a lot of lingering questions that I didn't particularly look forward to mulling over, but as long as I was the only one awake I didn't have much of a choice.

I looked up at the sky again, it was actually pretty nice out, with the clouds gone I could see the full moon and the stars without much problem given the lack of light pollution. I guess that's one good thing about everyone being gone, I can actually see the stars, that was something I always kind of missed about living in the country.

I thought about my parents, we hadn't exactly been on speaking terms ever since I left home because they had wanted me to stay in the town and help them run the shop they owned. It had been over a year since I had last said even two words to them, and right now all I could think about was what they must be thinking about when they returned.

Was it possible they were already out there somewhere? Was it even possible that I would get a chance to re-unite with them at some point and maybe we could even be a family again even if we were strange pony creatures? I sighed a little, I didn't know what I was going to do, but I didn't have a whole lot of choice.

After I finally got too tired to stay up any longer I went into my small house and pulled the covers over me with a yawn. I just had to hope that the next morning would give me something better than today had.


00000


I woke up hearing a scream.

I leaped out of bed thinking that something had come in the night and attacked the Pegasus mare, but when I ran into the house she was sleeping in, she was okay, well other than the fact that she was sitting up in her bed and staring down at her body.

"What... happened... to... me..." she said, breathing heavily as she looked herself over, I knew that response, she was trying to find anything left of her old body. "What am I?"

"Are you okay?" I asked as I looked at the mare who's eyes went wide as she looked up at me with soft baby blue eyes. "I found you in the backyard of a house not too far from here."

"What did you do to me!" She demanded as she got to her hooves and tried to walk towards me only to stumble and fall on her face. "Who are you and why did you turn me into this, thing?"

"I, didn't turn you into anything," I said in the calmest voice I could muster as I looked at the Pegasus mare who was still afraid. "I woke up a few days ago just like you did in this body, I used to be human too."

"That's crazy, people don't just turn into horse creatures, that doesn't even make sense," the woman said shivering as she looked around. "Where am I? What's going on?"

"You're in a settlement called Jewel outside of Atlanta," I said with a sigh as I tried to calm the panicked mare down. "I stumbled across it the other day and I've made something of a home here. I'm not sure what happened to us, other than some clues that I found in a journal left behind by one of the previous inhabitants of this settlement."

That seemed to calm the mare down a little, maybe it was because it meant that we were both in the same situation and she didn't know any more than I did. Now things were starting to make a little more sense, at least that meant that I wasn't the only person who returned recently, that might mean there is still a hope of finding more people out there, or ponies I guess.

I showed the Pegasus mare the journal entries I had found and she read them over quickly before shaking her head. I don't think she believed them either, and I didn't really blame her for that, it seemed pretty hard to believe by any stretch of the imagination but it was all we had at the moment.

"Erica," the Pegasus mare said with a sigh and I looked over at her curiously. "Its my name, Erica Stevens, I was a teacher at one of the local High Schools. I guess its kind of hard to believe, but I don't really know how any of this happened."

"What's the last thing you remember?" I asked as I looked over at her curiously.

"I was in my back yard getting ready to head upstairs," Erica said with a shake of her head. "That's all I remember before I met you, I guess I fell asleep or whatever did this caught me up in itself or something."

"Yeah, I was asleep when it happened to me," I said with a sigh as I looked up at the ceiling. "I really wish I had more answers to give you Erica, but this is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. I guess we have to figure this whole thing out and hope that whatever it is that attacked this settlement doesn't come back."

Erica nodded, she seemed to have calmed down a little at least, that was a good sign. Maybe things were going to be okay after all, I just had to hope so at least.

"What's your name?" She asked as she looked over at me with a tilt to her head.

"Charlotte Williams, everyone calls me Charlie," I said as I offered her a hoof. "Why don't we see if we can figure this new world thing out together?"

Erica looked at my hoof for a long moment, she looked like she was trying to decide what to do now. She finally smiled and took my hoof and shook it. "Sure, I'd be glad to Charlie, I just hope that we'll be able to figure it out."

"Me too Erica, me too," I said as I gave her a smile. "Come on, lets get something to eat."

She nodded and we headed out of the house to where I was keeping the supplies. I wasn't so alone anymore, that was a good thing at least, I just had to worry about everything else in this strange new world.

I hoped me and Erica could take it on together.
> Chapter 4: Season's Greetings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was weird having someone else in the settlement with me after being alone for the past few days. Not that I minded having Erica's company, it was just strange given that I had almost gotten used to being on my own.

Erica seemed nice enough really, she helped me get the defenses on the Settlement set back up and search for food. We were actually looking pretty good at the moment and I was starting to hope that maybe, just maybe, we'd be able to make it without any problems.

There was still the occasional howls coming from the city but they didn't seem to be getting any closer and there was still no sign of our large fire breathing adversary that had attacked the settlement before. I didn't ever think that I would actually be defending myself from a dragon, and I don't think Erica did either.

"Do you really think there's a dragon out there somewhere?" Erica asked as we sat down for breakfast one morning. "I mean it sounds pretty fantastic is all I'm saying."

"We've been turned into a Unicorn and a Pegasus, I don't think fantastic is a word that should be said by us right now," I said with a chuckle as I started eating ravenously. "Besides, you never know what might be out there."

"Yeah, first its dragons, maybe there's something like an eldritch abomination from the stars or something out there that wants to take over the world," Erica said and I shot her a weird look.

"You read way too much H.P. Lovecraft, you know that?" I said as I just blinked a little, that was a strangely specific thing to say could happen. "Or do you know something I don't?"

"Nope, just thinking out loud really," Erica said as she took a drink of water. "So, what about you, what did you do before you showed up as a, strangely colored Unicorn. Seriously, what's with the red splotches, did you fall into a vat of tomato sauce?"

"Would you believe this is natural?" I asked with a chuckle as I looked at my red spots on my body. "I kind of like it actually, its something kinda unique to me maybe, I don't know how pony genetics work. But before I was a Unicorn I was actually a waitress at the Varsity, not exactly an illustrious career choice I know, but it put food on the table."

"Oh, I went there a few times," Erica said a little surprised, I guess neither of us had expected to meet with one another. "Small world I guess, I'm just a high school teacher like I said. I'm still wondering exactly what happened here, how much of that story do you think is true?"

"Well, unless you want to walk to Alexandria, wherever that is, we have only the journals to go by," I said with a shrug. "But really, we don't know. People don't just randomly turn into small horse creatures with or without wings and horns, something had to have caused this, right?"

"Right," Erica said with a nod.

"This is literally the only thing we have that resembles an answer," I said as I looked through the journal entries again. "We could find this, Naris maybe she might be able to give us more answers."

"Talking Zebras, do I want to know what's next?" Erica asked with a chuckle as she finished her breakfast and set down the rough plate she had been using. "So what do you think we should do today?"

"I'd say look around a little, maybe we can find some more..." I started to say when my ears twitched a little, there was a sound on the wind, it sounded like someone singing a tune in a language I didn't quite understand. "Do you hear that too?"

"Yeah, I hear it," Erica said as we got to our hooves and headed out towards the main gate of the settlement and opened it up to look outside to see where the sound was coming from.

Walking along the street was an equine figure dressed in warm clothing with a hat pulled down over their face a little. I blinked a little in surprise when I got a brief look at them, they had stripes, that must mean they're a Zebra.

"I don't think that's a recently returned person," Erica commented as she looked at the Zebra, she was probably right, they carried themselves differently than either of us, like they knew the world better than we did.

Finally the Zebra stopped in front of the gate and looked at us with a smile, lifting her hat a little to reveal a smiling Zebra that gave us each a nod.

"Ave, and Merry Christmas," the Zebra said in a recognizably feminine voice. "What brings two ponies into this part of the city?"

I blinked a little, did she just say ave? What did that mean, and Merry Christmas? While I had no doubt that it was sometime in the winter, I didn't think we were that close to Christmas, shows what I knew I guess.

"Uh, ave," I said with a surprised look on my face as the Zebra removed her hat and shook her long mane free before putting it back on her head. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jirani of the Zencori Tribe, I was passing nearby when I saw the smoke from your campfire," Jirani said with a nod as she pointed behind us. "Jewel has not been inhabited in many years, what brings the two of you here?"

"We, recently re-appeared in this world I guess," I said as I just looked at her for a long moment as I tried to figure out what was up with this Zebra as we introduced ourselves. "What about you, what brings you here?"

"I'm a Zencori Storyteller, so I travel around Georgia a lot, and I happened to be nearby," Jirani said as she gestured inside again. "Do you mind if I stop and rest for awhile? I know we just met and I don't want to impose."

"No, no, of course we don't mind, we could use the company," I said and Erica nodded as the Zebra nodded and we walked back into the settlement together.

When we were around the campfire again I was a little surprised when the Zebra removed her outer coat in order to get warmer. My eyes fell on her flank where there was some sort of weird symbol that looked like it had been drawn there like a tattoo with a flowing symbol of, something that I didn't recognize.

"So, are you going to keep checking me out or do you have something else planned?" Jirani asked with a chuckle and I looked away with a blush. "Don't worry about it, if you two are refugees like you said you both have a lot to get used to. Its a shame you didn't return when there was more civilization in Atlanta, but that can't be helped."

"What happened?" Erica asked as Jirani shook her head a little.

"The Dragon of Stone Mountain moved in and started laying waste everywhere he went," Jirani said as she warmed herself up more. "He destroyed Jewel here in a matter of minutes, there were only a few survivors and they were lucky to make it out alive. That Dragon has been nothing but trouble for anypony who wants to make their home here, its why we mostly live farther south."

The Dragon of Stone Mountain? Well that was one thing to call it I guess, and it did confirm that it was the same creature that had been mentioned in the earlier journal entry.

"That's a bit on the nose isn't it? Erica asked which just made the Zebra laugh.

"Well, we do not know the dragon's true name, so we just have to go with what we know about where he lives I guess," Jirani said with a chuckle as she gave us a nod. "But really, the Dragon is dangerous, we're still trying to figure everything out, you'd think after almost 157 years we'd know more about this strange new world we're stuck in."

"Wait, its been that long?" Erica asked as she looked at Jirani with a shocked look on her face. "I had no idea that much time had passed."

"Yeah, well, things have been getting a little hard to get together," the Zebra said with a shrug. "But everything seems to be getting somewhat on track, and the Zebra tribes have been getting everything together as best we can."

"Right, the Zencori are, storytellers right?" I asked and she nodded. "So, you said today is Christmas?"

"That's right," Jirani said with a smile and a nod. "We've been keeping track of the days as best we can, but we believe that it is December 25th, 156 AE yes."

"I honestly never really got into Christmas," Erica said with a shrug. "The fact is that it just became so much about consumerism that its all kind of lost its original message is all I'm saying."

"Well, the Zencori have a tradition for Christmas Day," Jirani said with a smile as she reached into her bags and took out an old bound book and gave us a nod. "Every year we tell the Christmas story to those who want to hear it, given the situation its not always easy to get anything like presents so we consider it more a time of contemplation and reflection on everything that's been happening."

I smiled a little at that, that actually made sense to me, everything that was going on made it hard to do anything else and I could understand why people might want to celebrate it that way. It actually sounded kind of nice to just hang around and talk or read the story, it kind of reminded me of Christmas back home with my family.

I looked over at Erica who tilted her head a bit curiously, she looked like she was as interested in seeing what was going on here as I was.

"Alright, well if that's your tradition for Christmas, then I'd be glad to be here for that," I said with a nod and looked at Erica who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that sounds okay I guess," Erica said as she gave me a nod. "So, the Christmas story huh?"

"Yes, well its more like a somewhat shortened version of it, but its what we tell every year around this time," Jirani said as she opened the book which looked like it was written in some language that I didn't quite understand but the Zebra seemed to understand it well enough as she started to read."In those days, Caesar Augustus ordered a census of all of those who lived in the Roman empire. So Joseph, as he was of the line of David, traveled to Bethlehem with his wife Mary, who was with child."

I listened intently, it had been a long time since I had really heard the Christmas story since I barely saw my parents any time of the year let alone around Christmas. I smiled a little as I listened intently, I had an idea of what to expect of this story, but it still sent me back to a time when I was just a little girl sitting in my father's lap as he told the story.

I thought about my parents, I had no idea what might've happened to them, odds were that they had vanished like I had but I didn't know where they were or what they even looked like now. Maybe they had already re-appeared by now or they were even still missing, I didn't know but right now the fact was that I wasn't in much of a position to look for them.

"As it happened, Mary gave birth to a son while she was in Bethlehem, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger as there was no room for them at the inn. He was given the name Jesus, as he was to be the savior of the world."

I looked over at Erica, I was a bit surprised to see her listening curiously, I didn't know a lot about the Pegasus mare just yet but it was nice to have something that we could listen to together. I placed my hoof on her's and she gave me a light smile as the Zebra continued reading.

"Outside the town there were shepherds who were tending to their flocks by night. Suddenly an Angel appeared above them and the shepherds were afraid, but the Angel said, 'Be not afraid for I bring you tidings of great joy. Onto you a Savior is born on this day, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and resting in a manger, and you shall know him as Christ the lord.' Suddenly a whole host of angels appeared in the skies above and began singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace towards men.'"

I brushed a tear from my eye, the more she read the more I thought about my family and what might've happened to them. I wished that maybe I could've stayed in better contact with them and maybe, just maybe there was a chance that they were still out there somewhere.

My thoughts went to Jake, he was still out there somewhere too and I had no idea where he might be. The fact of the matter was that I might never know, I might be alone in this part of Georgia for the rest of my life. Well, other than Erica at least, and maybe there was a chance of finding other ponies out there somewhere, maybe we could even consider going with the Zebras, it was something at least and we wouldn't have to keep scrounging for supplies like this.

"The Shepherds took their flock into town and as the Angel had promised they found Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus. That evening they returned to their fields, singing praises of the Lord with great joy as the promise of the Lord had been kept."

She smiled a little as she closed the book and looked at the two of us. "So, that's the story of the first Christmas, I'm glad I got to share it with you both."

"Thank you for that," I said with a smile as I looked at the Zebra for a long moment. I wondered what made different people come back as different things, I didn't know a lot about whatever caused this, and for that matter could a dragon be a factor of that or was I missing something?

This new world was strange and was filled with wonders and surprises so I honestly didn't know what might still be waiting for us out there. Maybe there was something worse than just a fire breathing dragon, or maybe there was something we might be missing.

"So, is there anything else we should know about what's going on around here?" I asked as I looked over at the Zebra curiously. "Any, large dog like creatures perhaps?"

The Zebra looked at me strangely for a long moment before she realized what I was talking about. "Oh, you mean the Wolf Beast, well, honestly I don't know a lot about it myself. There are some rumors that its a Diamond Dog that returned sometime after Jewel was abandoned and it has been stalking Atlanta ever since, but nopony is quite sure to be honest."

That wasn't exactly reassuring, that might mean there was something out there that was just as dangerous as a dragon and it was somewhere nearby based on what we had found.

"But that's not important right now, right now we should just focus on the present," she said with a smile as she warmed herself more by the fire. "So, who are you two waiting for?"

"Well, my boyfriend I guess," I said with a shrug. "He was in New York City though, so I doubt he'll be coming back here, so I don't really know what I'm waiting for. My family didn't really live anywhere near here, I guess I'm just on my own unless Jake decides to head south after he returned."

I looked down at my stomach for a long moment and Jirani looked at me sympathetically as she tilted her head a little. "You're pregnant aren't you?"

"You're what?" Erica asked as her eyes went wide and she looked over at me in shock, I hadn't told her yet, I hadn't really gotten the chance to tell her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't really get the chance until now," I said with a sigh as I shrugged a little. "Jake's the father, he's the only one who could be, but I don't know what I'm going to do to be honest. Its not like there are a lot of doctors left in the city or something, so I've got a lot of stuff to figure out."

"Well, doctors are the easy part," Jirani said with a smile. "We're on good terms with members of the Mendi Tribe who are willing to help pregnant mares out as they need it. Its interesting really, there have only been a few reports about pregnant women returning in Georgia, perhaps it'll make a good story someday. You're quite the interesting pony if you're able to survive in this part of Georgia."

"We'll see, right now I just want to focus on surviving," I said as I looked at the Zebra mare strangely, I wasn't sure why she was interested in the idea of making me the main character of my own story, but I wasn't going to tell her otherwise. "How many stories do the Zencori have?"

"Countless," Jirani said with a smile. "We have stories from both the old world and the new, the things I could tell you such as the war over Battle Creek or the attempted takeover of Alexandria by a being from Equestria. So what about you Erica, are you waiting for anyone to return?"

"Not really, I lived alone before this whole thing happened," the Pegasus mare said with a shrug. "I was a teacher so that was pretty much my life and I didn't have much of a love life to be honest. A few dates here and there sure, but it never really went anywhere."

"Well, you never know, maybe this will give you a new chance at something more," Jirani said. "I'm sure that you both will have someone out there for you in no time, at least we can all hope."

She paused a long moment and I realized she was starting to cry a little. This was the first time I had seen the Zebra show an emotion other than cheerfulness and it was weird, like something was bothering her but she wasn't ready to talk about it just yet.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I looked at the Zebra curiously. "Are you still waiting for someone to return too?"

"My children," she said with a sigh as she poked at the fire with a stick. "Justin, Cynthia, and Victoria, they still haven't returned yet. I only returned a few years ago myself, and while I've settled into the Zencori fairly well, I'm still hoping that someday soon they'll return and we can all be a family."

I placed a hoof on the Zebra mare's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile, I could tell that it pained her to talk about this and I understood why. We had all been separated from our loved ones by this whole thing and it wasn't going to be easy on any of us.

What kind of cruel force could do this sort of thing to a mother and her children? I don't care what purpose they may have had, whatever reason they had couldn't excuse this. I don't know what I would've done if this had happened later than it had and I had been a mother in the same situation.

"I'm sure that you'll see them again someday," I said with a soft smile.

Jirani gave me a smile and she pulled me into a hug. "Thank you Charlie, that means a lot," she said and released the hug after a moment. "If not to me then maybe to my other children or my grandchildren, we will never forget the past, that is the purpose of the Zencori, to make sure the past survives and will not be forgotten."

"A noble goal to say the least," Erica said with a smile.

"Yes it is," Jirani said as she gave us both a smile. "And I'm afraid that I should be going, I still have a long walk back home and I would like to see my own foals again. I wish you both luck, and perhaps I can get some help out here to you."

"That, would be nice," I said with a smile as the Zebra got her equipment back together and gave us both a hug.

"It was nice meeting you Jirani," Erica said and we each hugged her back before the Zebra headed out of the settlement's gate again.

I watched her go and sighed a little, while it was nice that there were more out there I kind of wished that she had stayed for awhile longer. At least now things were going pretty well.

"So, scavenging again today?" Erica asked as she looked over at me.

"Maybe, but for now lets just relax, it is Christmas after all," I said with a smile and looked up at the sky above and wondered what more might be awaiting us in this strange new world.
> Chapter 5: Howl
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So why Charlie?" Erica asked as we made our way through another set of buildings in what was left of Atlanta.

"Hmm?" I asked as I looked over at the blue pegasus curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Your name is Charlotte, why go by Charlie?" Erica asked with a shrug. "I mean it's a nice name, but isn't it kind of, you know, masculine?"

"Honestly? I never really liked my name," I admitted as we pushed a door open and I chuckled a little. "My mom and dad said she named me after my great grandmother. It's not a bad name, but I guess I just preferred being called Charlie you know?"

"Fair enough," Erica said with a shrug. "You must really miss your... husband? Boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend," I said with a sigh and shook my head a little. "And yeah I do, I didn't actually think I'd get left all alone in the world like this. I don't even know if he's back yet, or if he will be anytime soon, you know?"

"Yeah, well I'm sure he's out there somewhere," Erica said with a shake of her head. "It's hard to believe that everyone has been turned into, well things like this, you know? Even with what we've been told, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"Well, at least we have something of an answer now," I said as we moved through the house. I frowned a little, this house looked like it had belonged to a family, not a human family either, but it looked like it had belonged to ponies. Had this been another settlement or was it a single family that had come back or been formed. "Okay, that's new."

"Yeah, this is creepy..." Erica said as we looked around together. "What do you think happened to them? What if it was that dragon you mentioned?"

"In this world? I honestly have no idea," I admitted as I shook my head a little. "Any number of things could've happened, or they may have just left."

I headed into the back rooms and pushed open one of the doors and my heart fell for a moment. The room didn't have any ponies in it but I could tell looking at it that it had been a child's room (foal's room?). It had toys that looked like they had been made out of wood or something and other things that were most definitely made for a young pony.

I lowered my head a little as I looked around for a moment longer. On one hoof this was a good sign, it meant that there were more signs of life in Atlanta other than Jewel. But still, there was sadness here because they were gone, I couldn't help but wonder where they might've been.

"Charlie, in the backyard!" Erica called from somewhere outside as I looked out the window and flinched a little when I saw a pair of graves visible. "Well, that answers that..."

"Maybe," I said as I looked at the grave markers from the window. "I'm going to keep looking around in here, maybe I can find something."

"Alright," Erica said as I went back to looking around the foal's room.

Looking around I found some old looking clothes that looked like they would fit a small pony. Finally, when I opened a drawer I found what looked like an old book with the word diary roughly written on it. I levitated it up and opened it and started to read it.



Dear Diary,

Today mom and dad...



Before I could read more than that though there was the sound of a howl from somewhere in the city, it sounded too close for comfort. I quickly slid the book into the rough bags I had found in Jewel and looked out the window at Erica.

"We should get back to Jewel," Erica suggested. "I don't like how close that was, did you find anything?"

"Yeah, I found a diary, it might be useful at least," I said. "You?"

"Just some old food, not much else," Erica said with a shake of her head. "Come on, let's get going."

I nodded as we headed out of the house together and headed back towards Jewel.


00000


I flipped through the diary a few times after we finished putting away the things we had gathered from the buildings today. There wasn't much to go on here, it was written by a filly some years before who had lived with her parents. I sighed a little, even though it was a pony it still felt, weird, it just made me wish I had Jake here with me more and more.

"Is everything okay?" Erica asked as she walked over to me. "We've got about everything set up here, I think we've got enough to last a while at least."

"That's good," I said with a sigh as I closed the diary up and we headed up a set of stairs towards the lookout area for Jewel. "Any idea what we heard back there?"

"Honestly? I don't know, and we can't really get a good view of anything out there," Erica said as she shook her head a little. "It sounded like a dog or wolf or something else canine, have you seen anything like that?"

"No, but I think I've smelled it, and there's what Jirani said about the Wolf Beast," I said with a sigh. "Something is out there, and I don't think that Dragon is the only thing we have to worry about. I don't like being here, it feels kind of exposed, you know?"

“Yeah, but what choice do we have right now?” Erica pointed out. “This is the only place we know of that has the proper defenses against, well, anything that’s on the ground at least. Right now, we need to focus on finding supplies, and maybe see if we can find anyone else who’s returned.”

“Right,” I said with a sigh as I looked back out at the city for a few minutes. I swear I almost saw something moving near one of the buildings, but I shook my head and blinked a little only to see that it was gone. “I still don’t like it, maybe we should start taking turns sleeping at night.”

“Maybe,” Erica said with a sigh. “You’re probably right, it’s not the best option but it would at least help us. It would probably be better if we actually had more people… or ponies or whatever, but that’s not an easy task.”

I sighed a little, even with the information we had there was so much about this area that we didn’t know. A lot had changed in 150 years and we had no idea what exactly we were supposed to be dealing with.

There was something in this city and the more I thought about it the more it worried me. There could be literally anything out there given that we didn’t know anything about this strange new world.

I was starting to get the feeling that the dragon was far from our only problem.

“So, what do you think we should do now?” I said out loud. “I don’t think we can find much more food around here. We’re going to have to start moving outwards, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to start farming once spring starts.”

“Yeah,” Erica said as she shook her head a little. “Maybe if I could figure out how these wings worked I could use them to scout the area a bit more. You know, get an idea of what we’re dealing with out there.”

“Yeah…” I said and shrugged a little. Honestly, I didn’t know the first thing about flying so I wasn’t sure what I could do to help her. For now, we just had to figure out what we were going to do next. “We’ll figure it out, maybe if we head towards the city proper we can find more things and it’ll be less exposed.”

“Maybe,” Erica said and nodded a little. “But exactly where would we go? How much have you explored the city?”

“Not enough to know where we should go,” I said with a shake of my head. “It’s pretty empty in there so we’d at least probably have a lot of places we could go. We just need to decide what we should do.”

“Right,” Erica said as she ruffled her wings a little. “I just wish we knew more about the city right now. It feels like we’re walking through some sort of post-apocalyptic Wasteland. Should I expect zombies, radiation created ones or otherwise?”

“Not that I know of,” I said with a light chuckle. “But yeah, this place is creepy, though at least there’s something of an explanation. Other than that, we don’t really have any sort of answers about what might be going on out there…”

“Yeah,” Erica agreed. “We don’t have a lot of food either so we’re going to have to figure that out. Are we going to have to hunt? Do ponies even eat meat?”

“I think I read somewhere that horses can eat meat if they have to, but I don’t know for sure if that applies to us,” I said with a shrug. “We also have to consider the possibility that Jirani will come back to find us at some point.”

“Right…” Erica said. “But we’re not exactly in the safest spot, we could leave a note for her or something maybe. I don’t think we have a lot of other  options unless you want to stay here.”
“No, that’s definitely not one of the safer choices we have,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little bit. “I’m worried honestly. We don’t know who or what might’ve moved into the city while we were gone. There’s also Zoo Atlanta and the animals there, there could be literally anything in there.”

“So, we’ll be careful then,” Erica said with a nod. “We’ll only move during the day and look for any shelter we can find until we can get to somewhere secure enough. I’m honestly not sure what to make of all of this, but shouldn’t we also be looking for more ponies?”

“Yeah, probably,” I said with a soft sigh. “You’re the only other one I’ve found so far other than Jestiri. And exactly how are we supposed to explain this to them? Hey, we used to be humans, but we’re now magical talking horses because of some sort of spell cast from a world inhabited by magical talking ponies.”

“Sounds like a weird kids TV show, or a fanfiction based on one at least,” Erica said with a laugh and I joined in after a moment. “Yeah, that’s not going to make us look crazy at all. And we’re technically living proof of it so that doesn’t help matters.”

“Yeah…” I said and looked down at my hooves in thought. “I’m scared really… more scared than I’ve ever been in my life. We’re stuck in this strange new world together and there could be any number of threats at any time. And that’s not just the big stuff, what about diseases? Can we get equine diseases or just human ones? Did diseases mutate over the past 150 years so we’re not able to protect ourselves from them?”

“Okay, I think you’re starting to worry too much because now I’m getting worried,” Erica said with a shake of her head. “Jestiri said there were more ponies around and this place was inhabited by ponies years ago. Survival in this world is possible, we just have to band together and be able to work together.”

“Right, sorry, I’m just nervous,” I said with a shake of my head. “There are just so many unanswered questions right now. It feels like we’re going to be attacked at any moment by that Dragon or the wolf thing or who knows what else.”

“Well, all the more reason to find a more secure location,” Erica said and I nodded in agreement. “So, here’s what I suggest we do. Starting tomorrow we start spreading out and looking for more secure areas, I’ll go one direction and you go the other.”

“And, exactly how are we supposed to inform the other that we found something?” I pointed out.

“Right, good point, any way of signaling each other would attract attention,” Erica said as she frowned a little bit. “We don’t really have a lot of options though. We’ll turn back at the end of the day and share what we’ve found, I’d also use those bags we found to carry back any food, and I’ll work on flying.”

“Right, flying,” I said in realization. If she could fly that meant she would be able to search the city from the air. “I mean, do you think that will be safe?”

“Hey, I’m a Pegasus, right? I’m smaller and faster than a dragon is,” Erica pointed out with a chuckle as she spread her wings to make her point. “I think if I had to I’d manage to escape one, at least I hope so.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said softly, I just hoped she was right, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. I thought on it for a moment and looked back at my stomach. “But that’s not going to be an option forever.”

“Yeah, which means that we need to find a better place to settle before you’d put your… baby? Foal? At risk,” Erica said with a nod. “Hopefully we’ll find more help at least.”

“Yeah,” I replied and smiled a little. “This is going to take a lot of getting used to though, it’s weird enough to be either a pony or pregnant but to be both? No thanks.”

“Don’t worry Charlie, we’ll get through this somehow,” Erica said with a nod as we started putting together dinner. “Who knows, maybe Jake is still out there somewhere and is heading this way to hopefully try to find you?”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said with a shrug. “I miss him a lot, and I wish he was here to be with me, but there’s nothing I can really do about it. I guess all I can do is hope that I’ll be okay, that we’ll be okay.”

“Come on, let’s just enjoy our dinner of, whatever this stuff is and get to bed,” Erica said with a chuckle as we started eating once the dinner was finished.

I smiled a little as I looked back up at the sky towards the setting sun. It was a weird sensation to be in a place so empty and quiet, but at least I knew that I wasn’t here alone. I had Erica here with me, and there were more people, or ponies, out there somewhere.

So now I just had to figure out what I was going to do next. I had a long road ahead of me to actually being completely okay, and a little filly or colt that I was going to have to take care of. He or she was going to be born into a whole different world than the one that I had grown up in.

I just hoped that I was going to be the mom that they were going to need. Especially since I barely understood how this world worked myself.

“Do you think I’m going to be a good mom?” I asked softly as I looked over at Erica who was in the middle of taking a bite of her food.

“Charlie, I barely know you, I can’t be the judge of whether or not you’d make a good mom,” Erica said after she swallowed her food. “You’re the only one who can really answer that, you know?”

“I guess you’re right,” I said with a sigh as I looked down at my hooves. “It feels like there’s nothing left of my old life anymore. I have no one to go back to and the only person who’s waiting for me is miles away in New York.”

“Don’t give up hope just yet,” Erica said with a soft smile as she placed her hoof on mine and gave me a smile. “You’re going to make it, all three of us are.”

I smiled and nodded a little at that as I placed my hoof gently on my stomach were the small foal was still growing. I didn’t know what I was going to expect from this, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be facing it alone.

I just hoped that I was doing the right thing.

Finally, we finished eating and made sure the gate and the defenses we had were secure. Erica offered to watch for a few hours while we waited to see if anything else happened, but I said I’d do it, I wasn’t going to get much sleep that night anyway at this rate.

So that’s how I found myself seated next to the fire holding the diary that I had found in the house in my hooves. I stared at it for a moment in the flickering firelight that made every shape look like something monstrous, should I open it? What right did I have with everything that had happened?

This diary wasn’t mine, it didn’t belong to anyone or anypony that I knew. Reading it felt like it would be betraying them, so I sighed a little and put it in my saddlebags.

150 years after the Event and I couldn’t bring myself to read a probably dead foal’s diary. I wasn’t sure if that made me morally right or just crazy.

“Charlie, you’re going to be just fine…” I said softly as I placed my hoof gently on my stomach again. “You too, kiddo… I don’t even know what I’m going to call you now that I think about it. It’s not going to be you and me against the world, but I’m going to make sure that we’re both going to make it through this.”

I smiled a little as I felt the aura in my womb for a moment. I don’t think the foal could hear or understand me, but it kind of made me feel better to talk to them. I was just glad that Erica was asleep or I probably looked crazy talking to my stomach.

“I wonder if this is how my mother felt carrying me…” I said softly. It was a dumb thing to wonder, my mother was human and was in a normal world not this strange world of ponies like I was, but it was what had come to mind. “Like it was just the two of us against the world, but your Grandma Jo wasn’t in anything like I am kiddo. I guess that’s karma for you after I gave her so much trouble growing up.”

I laughed a little at the memories of me running around causing trouble for my parents. I guess I had always had a bit of a rebellious streak, that was why I left home and wound up in Atlanta. Right now though, I’d give anything to be able to see my parents again.

Were they even still around? Had they come back and something happened to them? No, I couldn’t think like that, I had to focus on the here and now, I could worry about that later.

"I wish you were here mom," I said softly as I closed my eyes. "I don't know what I'm going to do with this foal or this world. It feels like I'm stuck in some hell that I can't get out of. Next thing you know, I'm going to do something really crazy like start talking to myself."

I chuckled a little at that as I brushed my mane back. Actually, maybe I already was a bit crazy, maybe this was all a hallucination and I was currently sitting in a padded room mumbling about talking ponies. The thought had certainly crossed my mind a few times, but this felt way too real for that.

I sighed a little and looked back out at the city. It was still a little while until I had to wake up Erica so I was stuck there with my thoughts. I just had to hope that everything really was going to be okay for us, we had a lot we had to figure out if we were going to survive in this city alone.

I poked the fire as I sat there for a while longer and looked up at the moon. It was eerily silent as I did, I wondered if maybe anyone else in the city was looking up at that same moon. I shook my head and looked back at the fire for a moment, I just had to stay up a little longer and then I could...

That was when I heard it, a loud howling sound and this one sounded closer than ever before. I scrambled to my hooves and went over to the gate which I secured tightly again just to be safe. Whatever that creature was, it sounded almost like it was right outside the derelict settlement.

I silently wished I had a gun or something that I could use to defend myself if this thing came after me. I finally managed to peek over the wall and looked out into the ruined buildings beyond it to see what was there.

I saw a shape, something that I didn't recognize as human or pony. It was bipedal, that was about all I could make out but it looked almost, canine in the moonlight. That had to be the wolf creature that Jirani had warned us about. It grinned, which showed its sharp teeth in the moonlight as it looked at me.

"GO AWAY!" I practically screamed at the top of my lungs as I levitated up one of the sharpened sticks on instinct alone and hurled it at the wolf beast. The creature just let out a growl as it missed it and lumbered off, my heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute as I slumped down against the wall.

Whatever that thing was, it wasn't human or even a pony. And it knew we lived here, we had to get out of here and fast or that thing might get us.

"Is everything okay?" The tired sound of Erica's voice said from down below and I looked down to see her standing there looking at me concerned in the firelight. "Did you see something out there?"

"I think so," I said with a sigh as I slumped over. "I think I saw that wolf beast creature, it left after I threw a spear at it though. Still, I'm scared that it might come back for us."

"Right..." Erica said with a sigh. "That just makes things even more complicated, what do you suggest we do?"

"Stick to the plan, we need to find a better defendable place tomorrow," I said with a soft sigh. I thought about it for a long moment, what would be the best option for that? "The only question is where."

"Well, we could go to one of the sports stadiums," Erica said thoughtfully for a moment. "It's a longshot, but if we could be sure that it was secure enough we could use that as a base of operations. I mean, that's working under a lot of assumptions, not the least of which being that two ponies can secure it."

"Right, that's one option," I said with a nod. "We could also try one of the more intact buildings in the city itself. My apartment was relatively intact when I woke up here so that could be an option."

"Right, maybe," Erica said with a sigh. "Still, I don't like this, it feels like we're being hunted more than anything. Maybe its because humans aren't used to being hunted, we're the hunters, but we're no longer humans, are we? I don't even know how this works!"

"Me neither," I said with a sigh as I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I don't even know if I can sleep tonight, everything is just so crazy. I'm sorry for waking you up Erica."

"Don't worry about it," Erica said as I walked down the rough wooden stairs towards where she was. "So, what do you think we should do tonight?"

"For now, we wait and see what happens next," I said with a slight nod. "That's about all we can do at the moment. Tomorrow we set out and try to find something, anything that will help us survive in the city, I can't really think of any other options at the moment."

“Right,” Erica said with a nod. “How about you lay down for a little while? I can wake you up if something else happens.”

“But it's not your turn yet,” I said in confusion.

“No, but I’m not going to be able to get back to sleep right now,” Erica said with a shake of her head. “Right now, we both need as much rest as we can get. We’re going to be just fine and figure this out together. There’s not a whole lot else we can do right now.”

“Right,” I said with a nod as I headed back towards my bed. I laid on the bedding and stared up at the wooden ceiling for a long moment as I tried to close my eyes and sleep, but sleep wasn’t going to come easy for me.

“Charlie… you’ve got a lot waiting for you tomorrow,” I said with a soft sigh as I placed my hoof gently on my stomach. “But you’re going to make sure that you do everything you can to have this foal be born into a safe place.”

I closed my eyes after a few minutes and drifted off to sleep.


00000


When I opened my eyes again I blinked in confusion when I realized that I was sitting in a home. It looked so much like my apartment that for a moment I thought that somehow I had woken up in my old life, at least until I realized that I was still on all fours.

I sighed a little, I was still a pony, there was no way this was real. So, what was I doing here in this weird dreamscape?

“Mommy! Mommy!” Two voices said and two smaller ponies ran in, I chuckled a little, they looked a little like me with the same colors but in different combinations. One of them was a colt and the other was a filly. “Auntie Erica said we should come and find you!”

“Oh, and why’s that?” I asked with a smile as I ruffled the manes of the two Unicorns.

“There are traders who came here from the Zebras again, they wanted to speak with you,” the colt said as we headed out together. I blinked a little in surprise, we were in a town that looked like it had been built out of an old neighborhood. There were a lot of ponies around that I didn’t recognize, it was as if they had appeared out of nowhere.

What was this I was seeing? And what was with the two foals? I didn’t feel two lives within me, so… was this my brain’s way of saying I didn’t know what gender to expect or was I trying to overanalyze this?

Finally, I was approached by a group of Zebras lead by Jestiri who gave me a smile and a soft nod as we shook hooves. “It is good to see you again my friend, how have things been going here?”

“Good, I guess,” I said as I shrugged a little, what else was I going to say? “How about with yourself?”

“About as well as can be expected, the Dragon is still causing us trouble,” Jestiri said with a shake of her head. “This is what we could bring with us to trade, I’m afraid that it isn’t much.”

“It’ll be fine,” I said as I looked up at the flagpole over the settlement and blinked a little in confusion. It had three stars on it, not something that I recognized but I shook my head and looked back at Jestiri. “I’m sure we’ll manage with what you can bring us, we appreciate it at least.”

“Yes, of course,” Jestiri said as Erica waved us over. “You’re doing a fine job here Charlie, this settlement has grown a lot and it’s all thanks to you. Perhaps this will lead to good things for Georgia down the line.”

“Yeah, maybe, if we don’t all get burnt to a crisp by Dragonfire,” I said with a sigh. Maybe I was being pessimistic, but it was certainly something to consider for the future. “I don’t know what I’m going to do honestly.”

“No one knows what to do at the beginning of the story,” Jestiri said with a smile. “Your story has yet to be truly written, Charlie. Perhaps there are more things waiting for you that you do not understand yet.”

“What do you…” I started to say and then heard the sound of a loud roar. I looked up in fright to see a massive shadowy dragon swooping down and breathing fire across the settlement as ponies let out a scream.

“Remember child… your story never truly ends…” Jestiri’s voice echoed in my ears as I covered my face with a hoof and was engulfed in flame.

I woke up in a sweat and breathing heavily as I looked down at myself. It had been a dream, a terrifyingly real dream, and that was what had bothered me the most. The flames had felt so real, but why had I had that dream now?

I was more scared than anything now, and I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to get back to sleep anymore. I sighed a little as I fell back on my bedding, there was no way I could possibly sleep if it risked going back to that nightmare.

What had she meant, my story wasn’t over yet? I had a hard time believing that there was nothing more to this dream than just a nightmare. Somehow, this felt almost directed, but how was that possible?

I looked towards the window for a moment and blinked when I swore that I saw two green eyes staring back at me. I rubbed my eyes and when I looked back they were gone.

“Must be my imagination… this place really is getting to me…” I said with a sigh as I rolled back over and closed my eyes.

Dream manipulation, that was crazy, right? Then again, I was now a magical talking pony in an abandoned city, maybe it wasn’t that crazy after all. For now, I just needed to rest so I could help Erica find a new place to live tomorrow.

I just hoped that I could.


00000


“How’d you sleep last night?” I asked Erica as we started packing our things up for the trip out of Jewel the next day.

“Okay I guess,” Erica said with a shrug. 

“You didn’t have any weird dreams did you?”

“No weirder than usual, I mean I’m a Pegasus you know? I keep having weird dreams, but nothing I hadn’t had before really,” the light blue pegasus said with a shrug. “What’s wrong, Charlie?”

“I don’t know, I had a weird dream last night and when I woke up I…” I said and trailed off for a moment before I took a deep breath. “I thought I saw something outside my window, did you see anything unusual?”

“I thought I might have,” Erica said thoughtfully for a moment. “I thought I saw a pony shape moving at one point but it didn’t last long.”

“Weird,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little. “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”

“Nah, okay maybe a little,” Erica said with a grin that told me she was teasing me. “But seriously, I think you’re fine. This is a creepy place, there might be more things out there that we don’t know about.”

“Yeah…” I said with a sigh as I looked back towards the place I had been sleeping. “You know it’s weird, but I actually feel like I’m going to miss this place. It’s the first place here that really felt like home, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but we need to move on,” Erica said with a sigh. “We don’t know exactly what’s out there so this may even the only safe place in the city. I’m honestly kind of scared, neither of us really know anything about surviving out there.”

“Yeah…” I said with a sigh as I looked back towards the place I had been sleeping. “You know it’s weird, but I actually feel like I’m going to miss this place. It’s the first place here that really felt like home, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but we need to move on,” Erica said with a sigh. “We don’t know exactly what’s out there so this may even the only safe place in the city. I’m honestly kind of scared, neither of us really know anything about surviving out there.”

"Right, which is why we're going to have to learn," I said with a nod as I straightened out my bags for a moment. I had gotten everything together as I looked back at the wagon. "Let's just get going, for now, that wolf creature freaked me out last night."

"Yeah, me too," Erica said as she shuddered a little. I felt a little better about that actually, it meant that I wasn't the only one who felt like this between the two of us. I gave her a reassuring smile and placed my hoof on her shoulder. 

"We're going to be okay Erica," I said reassuringly as I gave her a nod. "Everything is going to be okay, we'll figure this out somehow. At least we don't have to face it alone, right?"

"Right," Erica said with a smile as she made sure that everything was secure.

"I can pull that you know," I suggested. "You don't have to pull it until we get to wherever we're going."

"Don't worry about it, besides you're pregnant, you shouldn't have to pull it," Erica said with a shake of her head. "You'll be fine, just stay close to me and let me know if you ever need to stop and rest. We have the weapons and things right?"

"Right," I said as I checked the sharpened sticks. We'd grab the one I threw at the wolf creature if it was still out there on our way out. "I hope that we're going to be okay."

"Me too," Erica said with a soft smile as I went over the settlement one last time to make sure I didn't miss anything. I left a note behind on some blank paper I had found that gave Jestiri any information that might be useful, though it wasn't much, basically just telling her that we were heading into the city to look for someplace to live.

"Well, that's done," I said with a shrug and looked back at Erica. "Let's just hope that she won't come back tomorrow or something."

"I'm sure she won't," Erica said with a shrug as we started out of the settlement together and looked back towards where the wolf creature had been there that night. I frowned a little when I knelt down and saw that there were claw marks barely visible where I had seen it the night before next to the stick I had thrown. "What do you make of this?"

"It's not a pony or human," I said thoughtfully for a moment as I examined my own hoof for a moment. "It's definitely canine, which lines up with what I saw last night."

"So, it's somewhere in the city, maybe we're in its territory," Erica suggested. "That might mean that if we get far enough away we won't have to worry anymore."

"Yeah, maybe," I said as I looked towards the crumbling skyline of Atlanta. "I'm worried Erica if we do find out something more about what happened in this city..."

"We might not like what we learn?" Erica asked and I nodded a little. "Yeah, maybe, but we can't stay here forever. We have to take a leap of faith, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," I said as I levitated the sharpened stick into the wagon with the rest of them and took a deep breath as I smiled at Erica. "I'm glad I found someone who can help me with this. I don't know what I would do if I was out here alone."

"Don't worry about it, anything for a fellow pony I guess," Erica said with a chuckle as we started to walk together towards the city. "Let's do this then, we still have a long way to go but we're not about to give up."

I nodded a little as we headed towards what was left of the city of Atlanta. We still had a long way to go, but the important thing was that we were going to do it together.