> Quiet Days > by AlphaDidAlotOfThings > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Day 0, The Beginning. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 22th, 2015 Today was a normal day at school for me as per usual. I went to my class, did my work yadda, yadda. You get the picture. I SWEAR, I cannot stress how boring that place is. It might be "cliche" or whatever, but they teach you nothing important. Imagine if school was tailored to your specific goals and talents, then it would be so much better! I would have all the time in the world to focus on what I like, and plus kids people would stop complaining about it so much! Ok, ok, enough whining about stuff I don't like, let's talk about stuff I do like! That's what diaries are for right? So, during lunch Alyssa told me about this cool series, it's got things based off of mythology and legends. So of course, she thought I'd like something like that. She's one of the few friends I have. It's not that people at school don't like me or anything. Actually, I don't know if they do or not. I've never really cared about what other people think about me. Call me a loner if you want, I don't care. But she's real nice, a really peppy gal that can make even the downiest of downers like me smile. Oh yeah, about that series. Sorry for getting off topic there. It's called something like records or something… I don't remember the title all that good, I'll look it up later. But it must be really good if she even liked it! Mom's probably gonna be getting home late, again. Look, I know she had to work, I know she has to make money to even feed us both. I just wish it wasn't like this… Look at me getting all sad over my mother going to work, of all things… What am I, a damned kid? I don't know, maybe I am. Sometimes I feel younger than I am, and other times I feel older than I actually am. What do people call that…? Mental age, right…? Yeah, I think so. Enough about that though. Alyssa's here with me. Sometimes when mom doesn't come home she comes over. She's been doing that ever since I told her about my family's "situation." She doesn't have to, she just does. I guess she really cares about me, huh? That's nice of her. She made me a pasta because she knows I like those kinda things and mm-mm is it good. Oh god, I hope she doesn't read this, it's not something like out of "embarrassment" or anything. I just don't want her to. (Besides I'm pretty sure ANYONE would be embarrassed if somebody read a section of a diary where they praise a friend.) But if she is, Hi Alyssa! Thanks for the pasta, you're a great cook! Hey, I've already used a decent chunk of these pages already. This diary thing is easy! I only did this because I thought it would be nice to have somewhere to put my thoughts, but DAMN. This feels oddly nice. I'll probably be doing this from now on. Sigh… It's getting late. I should probably "clock in" for the night. Tomorrow will probably be better today, hopefully… I don't know. Welp, this is yours truly signing off, adios! - Emile > Day 1, Everyone's Gone. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 23th, 2015 There are so many better ways to wake up than I did today, like coffee, or an energy drink. I don't even like either of those things and yet they're still better than waking up like this… I called for mom. "Mom, you home?" Nobody answered. Well, okay maybe she decided to work overtime or something. She does that sometimes. But that was the least strangest thing that happened. My whole body felt sore, When I tried to get up I don't couldn't stand up like I normally do, did my body magically get smaller or something? No, that's not possible… I stood up, tumbled off the bed and fell onto the floor, right in front of the bedroom mirror. But instead of seeing my normal usual human self, I saw somebody else… No, something else… A small light black horse with wings, a light gray mare with purple stripes in it, and royal purple eyes that were staring right back at me… I would've thought this was some strange dream, but dreams don't usually last this long. And of course, if it was a dream I wouldn't be here writing this right now. Y'know, most people would freak out at a sight like this. But not me, I remained cool as can be! (Ok, maybe I panicked a little.) The next logical thing to do was check if anybody else was still here. If mom wasn't home then Alyssa should definitely be here. It's surprisingly not that hard to walk on all fours 24/7. I stumbled a bit at first but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It felt oddly natural… Low and behold, Alyssa was indeed here. Seems like she fell asleep in my mom's room. She walked out at almost the same time as me. We just kinda stared at each other for a hot minute. "Emile, is that you…?" Would you believe me if I told you she burst out laughing the moment she saw me? Because that's what she did. "Just look at you!" Seriously, the nerve of her… I swear she could laugh like that even if world war three happened. Well, I guess that's one thing good about her, is that she'll stay cheerful no matter what. At least she still looks like herself, except she's more red, and blonde… Oh and the fact that she's a small horse now too, can't forget about that. She had this weird tattoo on her butt- Er, flank I think it's called…? I don't know much about horses. (Or animals in general for that matter) It looked like a guitar. I guess that's another thing she's good at, music. When both went out the house to investigate there was nobody outside. Like absolutely nobody. It wasn't like some bloody disaster happened, everything was like it was before. (Aside from the obvious lack of people.) It was like everyone just vanished… But how would that even be possible? How could everyone in a city with over 1 million people like Delaware just disappear? God, do I know. Me and Alyssa spent about a half hour just walking down the street of our small neighborhood, even going to the local corner store if there was anybody there. But of course, there wasn't a soul there. The last thing I figured I should do was call somebody. Hooves are hard to use, so I used my wings instead. (I'm what they called a pegasus, right?) I called mom, no answer. I called my uncle, no response. I called 911, "Sorry, all our operators are busy at this time." Alyssa seemed pretty cheery today, like she thought this was all just some silly dream. But after that when I told her "Nobody answered." She changed… That red coat of hers grew pale… Dammit… We may have retreated back inside for now, but we have to do something. We have to figure out what happened. What kind of awful disaster even caused this? Y'know what this is like, Ragnarok in norse mythology. Except I don't think that said anything about everyone turning into horses, and there's no gods. If we really are the last people on earth we'll have to stock up on supplies and all that good stuff. We actually did get some stuff at the store, mostly just things to make food and some snacks. But that obviously won't last too long. Oh yeah, and before you ask we checked the internet. It seems like everyone stopped posting at the same time, we should've expected that one. Alyssa seems to be doing okay right now, I know she has a brother she's probably worried sick about. I have a family too: My mom… I hope she's doing okay… She's probably a small horse too, that's assuming this happened to everyone though. If things don't go back to normal tomorrow we'll check the school, somebody might still be there. This was supposed to be just a personal diary but now I guess it's a "record in case things go wrong™" (I can trade mark that since everyone else is gone, right?) I could probably make a story about this: "The Two Last Best Friends On Earth." (Nah, sounds too cliche.) Well, Once again this is yours truly signing off, peace. - Emile > Day 2, The Most Awesome Roadtrip Ever! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 24, 2015 Dear Diary, I should probably start putting that more often if this is gonna be a record for future generations I'll have to do it right, y'know? Alyssa tried making bacon for breakfast but instantly spat it out when she tried to eat it. It seems small horses can unfortunately not eat meat. So we both just settled for cereal instead. It's still pretty hard getting used to hooves. But being a horse isn't all that bad, to me at least. Alyssa seems to be taking it differently, to her it's "Disgusting." (Her words not mine.) She's probably just jealous I have wings and she doesn't. These wings are actually pretty useful since using hooves is still pretty hard. I can use these as "feathery hands" instead! (I actually had to help her out with the cooking too) Eventually, I'll be able to fly. Just like pegasi in legends! Y'know, the more I think about stuff like that the more I'm reminded about how grim this situation really is. I always wanted to go to the fantasy world of my dreams, but not like this… I'll make it through, no matter what. And if I somehow don't- No, that's a problem for future me to deal with. Not now. That aside, we couldn't stay here so as part of my "super awesome end of the world scenario game plan by Emile!" We grabbed everything, food, supplies, everything. We used my old toy wagon I still had and put half of everything in there and the other half we used bags. Alyssa pushed the wagon, while I carried the bags. (What? She's plenty strong, she'll be fine.) And with that, we were off. Where are we going? I don't fucking know. We'll check the school for survivors, after that I don't know. Power will most likely go off in a couple of days, and all I know for sure is that we're not staying here. I guess we're going on a road trip! Yeah, that sounds fun. (Best Friends At The End Of The World roadtrip, go!) We finally reached the school, thankfully it's not that far of a walk, otherwise we'd be doomed. Alyssa had to kick down the doors, damn I knew she was strong, but not this strong! She seemed pretty surprised too, maybe the transformation increased her strength or something? But anyways, there was nobody there. Great. Well, onto step 2: Get Transportation! There was a perfectly vacant truck that seemed good, it was locked though… Luckily, Alyssa used her newfound monster strength to literally throw a hammer at one of the windows and smash it. (Go Alyssa wooo!) I kid you not, after that she just looked at me and said "There you go!" Classic Alyssa. She might get on my nerves sometimes, but honestly she's pretty dependable. Thank god I have her with me. I'm the only one with a license so I did the driving, my mom actually used to teach me how to drive before. (That's illegal, I know) Since I was too small to simply just drive it on my own Alyssa sat down and took the pedals, while I took the steering wheel. And like that our road trip is a go! (Also thank god this truck isn't THAT big.) We've driven past a couple blocks now. We saw a pack of stray doings but they ran away when they heard us coming. (Good, I don't like dealing with animals.) Still no people though. Or would it be horses now? God, that's getting kinda tiring. We don't seem big enough to be horses, so how about ponies! Yeah, that works… On the way to Whereeverville™ (Do not steal!) We made a pit stop and broke into (courtesy of Alyssa) one of those election stores. Now we have one of those cb radios! I'm not exactly super duper tech savvy but with this we should be able to contact other people! I'll just ask Alyssa if I need help with it, or uh anything like that really. She seems to be decent at it. Now we have supplies, a radio, and a truck! We're on a roll! Toot, toot, all aboard the last friends on earth train! (Truck?) We checked the radio for anything but, of course we got nothing… So to past the time me and Alyssa left a message and used to talk about our past lives! Honestly, they weren't too good. My mom was struggling with money, Alyssa's parents got divorced… But now we're the only people in the world! We can do whatever we want, baby! Psh, we (I) wish. This is probably getting repetitive but I hope our families are okay. My mom, and her brother… Stay safe. Okay? We'll all get through this, together. Not just our families, siblings, or us either. Everyone! We'll figure out what caused this and bring back everyone that disappeared! We need a name for our squad of two whole people. How about "The Operative Human Initiative!" OHI for short! Sounds cool, doesn't it? Humanity (Ponynity?) will prevail! Dramatic Theateratics aside, We've been doing pretty good so far though. We got a truck, supplies, food, we have pretty much everything we need! Me and Alyssa have been taking turns steering and using the pedals, whenever we're both tired we just pull over so we can rest. I'll probably start writing less and less as the days go on. There's only so much I can write about and only so much can happen in a single day. Especially when you're the only person left on earth. Well, I'm not the only person, I have Alyssa but you get the point. Tomorrow we'll do some "shopping" (shopping pretty much just stealing now. Sorry shopkeepers!) We need stuff like clothes, the ones we still have right now barely fit us. Well that's another thing for the to do list, make pony clothes. Well, Hopefully we find someone soon, I don't think I stand Alyssa 24/7. But for now this is Emile, the head of the Operative Human Initiative signing off, sayonara! (Yeah, I'm not calling us that.) - Emile > Day 3, Hope. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 25, 2015 Dear Diary, Goddammit… I regret saying we have everything we need. We absolutely don't. We've been pretty much only eating cold foods, salads, fruit, vegetables, you name it. We can't keep going on like this. I'm getting sick of this, and I know Alyssa probably is too. So much for "the awesome road trip" ever. God, I'm such a terrible friend… I couldn't plan for this, I'm just a kid after all. God. Fucking. Dammit. It's only been three days, why am I panicking now? I wanna throw myself out the window. Good thing Alyssa's asleep right now or else she'd see my very obvious sad face. (You can't see it either but I'm sad, okay?) Now, about that "errand." run. It went fine, for the most part at least. We both pulled over and stopped at some random convenience store that wasn't too far like usual. But this is where things went wrong, we would've just broken inside but there was a pack of dogs already in there. It seems like most of the animals are getting out now. That's gonna be a problem… I had Alyssa throw an empty bottle to get their attention, while I made a run for it. Pretty good plan, right? It sounded pretty good in my head at least. Well, dumbass me accidentally tripped over nothing. (damn you nonexistent knees and hooves!) But when I did, I swore one of the dogs turned around and stopped for a moment, like he heard. I didn't even make that much noise, but that was one of the scariest moments in my life. What the hell, I knew dogs were smart but what the hell was that? They were never this smart! It was like he knew I was there but just decided I wasn't worth chasing after. Something goes on, and I don't like it. They ransacked the place pretty badly, but we still managed to get most of the stuff that was unscathed. I had to double check though, I don't want a bag of chips a dog opened, y'know? It would be nice if we could eat meat, but there's not much we can do about it. Oh well… (There goes 99% of our favorite foods!) The clothing store trip went better at least. Animals don't want clothes so of course there were no dogs in there. (Yay!) The power seems to have went out earlier today, most of the lights that were still were turned on are off now, and the light in the store didn't work. Welp, there goes TV! I'll miss it… That's another reason to find somewhere to settle down. When we do we'll probably have to set up some solar panels or something, those do work for TVs right? (I think so…) Anyways, we went on a bit of a "spree" in the clothing store. We just tried on everything, goofed off a bit. We're the last people on earth, we might as well take advantage of it. Heck, I even tried on some dresses. I wanted to explore my femininity a bit since I'm a girl now, y'know? I'll just be upfront and honest with you, I don't really care about my old body. It's not like I was disgusted with it, I just don't care. I never cared much about gender so it's not like anything about me changed. I still feel like a guy anyway. I'm also 10x cuter now! (Don't tell Alyssa I said that…) Unfortunately since most human clothes weren't made with wings I made I just settled for a tank top and some pants. I'm still wondering if I can fly with these, they're pretty easy to move, it's like having extra limbs! I guess I'll have to try it later… I also grabbed this bow and used it to tie my hair into a ponytail, it looks pretty cute! Alyssa said it looked "fine." (She probably thinks the same…) Alyssa just got a gray hoodie and some slacks, she said something about wanting to cover her "embarrassing" butt/flank mark. I think it's pretty cute, I have one too. It's some kind of purple flower of sorts…? I dunno, it looks kinda like a red spider lily. I wonder what it means… We're both wearing like little kiddie size clothes since our normal sizes don't fit anymore. When we settle down and I could probably try and use the fabric from our old ones to make some pony friendly clothes! I'm not good with sewing machines, but that doesn't stop me from trying! Still no people. There might not be anyone in the city, we might have to search outside of it. Should we? I dunno. I don't really want to risk it though. Remember last time when I was talking about our families, and I avoided mentioning anyone other than my mother or my uncle? Well, there's a reason for that. I do have a dad, I don't know much about him, but to me he's just some asshole who ditched mom when she had me. I wonder if he's still alive… That would be funny. Out of all the people that would still be alive in the world, my dad might be one of them. God, I hope not. That would just be plain cruel, by whatever "god" planned this… That aside, since I'm girl now how are we gonna repopluate? I have no fucking clue. There's another reason for why we need to find other people… Well there's not much else for me to write about, so- Wait, the radio. It's static now, but I just heard something on it! C'mon, c'mon just adjust this a bit… Please work, please work, please work. It worked. It's faint but I can hear a voice. "For anyone still out there, you're not alone. I'm in the car shop, on Brooklyn Road." Brooklyn Road? That street is nearby, it's right past Everton Avenue, but that's not that far! We can make it! There's still hope… We're not alone… Thank god… And right after I said we needed to find other people too. Is this some kind of weird coincidence or what? Frankly, I don't care. I'm just happy there's someone else out there, and I know Alyssa will be too. Tomorrow, we'll head there. Hopefully whoever this guy is, is still there. Why would I even say that, of course he'll be! Well, this is Emile clocking out,Tata. There's hope for humanity. - Emile > Days 4-5, A Friend And A Dog... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 26, 2015 Dear Diary, We're on our way to Brooklyn Road now. I think that car shop was called "Daylight Repairs" or something. Whoever it is we're meeting, I don't care if they're good or bad. Just let them still be there… And let them be a person too, not a pony. That makes me wonder if this happened to everyone. Chances are it did though. Alyssa seems to be getting better, when I told her the news her face practically lit up. She's been trying her best to seem happy but deep down I can tell how heavily this whole thing affected her. I'm glad she's getting better though, she's definitely doing a better job at taking this situation than me that's for sure. On the way Alyssa made us stop at a pet store. I really didn't want to but Alyssa kept begging me, I don't really like animals but it might be useful to have one right now… (Plus don't wanna make her sad.) This place looked like it had seen better days, everything was knocked over, it was smelly. Pretty much how you'd expect a pet store at the end of the world to be like, with most of animals getting out. I was thinking about trying to eat a dog treat, maybe turning into a pony made that kinda stuff edible? I ended up not doing that (PS: don't eat them, they taste terrible.) I thought it was empty, but in there was a small puppy, all alone. Just like us… I didn't want to, but we took him. You should've seen the puppy dog eyes they both made when I said no. Alyssa actually told me about how she always wanted a pet but her parents wouldn't let her once. Which explains how she was acting… His names buddy. (How original, metal head.) Alyssa named him, not me. I wanted to name him "Alexander Hamilton The Third." But she wouldn't let me… Something about it being too "stupid" or something. (I was only joking, geez…) So, we both settled with "Buddy." He looks kinda a husky…? But I can't be sure, especially since I don't know much about animals. I told Alyssa that if she wanted us to keep him she'd have to take care of him, feed him, clean up after him. All that stuff. I wasn't trying to be mean, I honestly didn't mean all of that. I'll help her out with him, just a little bit. I don't like animals, they're scary and make me uncomfortable. I'm pretty much scared of most things that'll harm me in some way. Little Buddy Alexander Hamilton III doesn't seem like he'll harm me though! So that's good… Alyssa reluctantly agreed anyway. I hope to god she knows I didn't really mean it. God, god… What god do we pray to now? Religions basically gone now soooo…. Pony? Pony Jesus? Oh god, I'm getting off topic again. Right, so now we have a dog. I guess now its "two best friends + a dog at the end of the world!" (That's still too cliche for a title.) It's not gonna be just us anymore anyway. We're meeting someone soon. Man, does it feel good to be hopeful about something for once. I'm getting tired so I'll be going to bed soon, this is yours truly going to sleep, arrivederci. I hope Buddy doesn't bite me in my sleep. - Emile May 27, 2015. Dear Diary, We're finally here, Brooklyn Road at Daylight Repairs. It took us an entire day but we made it. Note for future me: don't underestimate travel distance when you're driving a truck with the help of another pony person. Even if it's not that far. We thought there was nobody there at first but with a "Anybody there?" and a drop of a wrench a person- No, a stallion came out from under a car. Just like my theory, it seems like it happened to more people than just us. I'd never want to wish our "suffering" onto other people but honestly, I'm just glad to find another human being. He introduced himself as "Jonathan." He's big, blue, has green hair and eyes, wears overalls, and has this weird horn-y thing protruding from his skull. (A unicorn!?!) Apparently when the "everyone disappearing and survivors turning into ponies™" thing happened. He was on a day off, he woke up found everyone gone, yadda, yadda, went to work anyway and now we're here. He even set up a little base here, like he's got a bed, he's using the cars as storage units, and… Ok, he's got nothing. He's kinda like us in that regard. At least he's an adult though! He was actually surprised to see that out of all the survivors two "kids" were the first to find him. I told him we're not kids but "wayward adventures sent on a mission to save humanity!" Alyssa says I'm too dramatic sometimes, am I? (Probably.) I can't help it. Besides, I was only joking. I told him that after he gave us the " we're crazy" look. I call us kids but we're really just teenagers, we're old enough to drink at least. So that counts for something right? I told Jonathan that are game "plan" was to find somewhere safe to settle down for the long term, like a farm. He agreed and told us that was a smart decision. The one thing that wasn't smart to him though were the other parts of our (my) plan. To him we "recklessly" left out home with barely anything and "We're lucky we even made it this far." I honestly agree with him. But I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't plan for this. Goddammit. I'm really not meant for something like this.I know alot about fantasy stories, myths, legends, but what good is that at the end of the world? At least Alyssa and Jonathan have something. Alyssa's got her music and Jonathan's a mechanic. Speaking of their butt marks correspond to those, Alyssa's is a guitar with a lil music note and Jonathan's is a toolbox. I hope I didn't get too emotional there. I didn't mean to. God, I just really never change do I? Aside from him "berating" us John's (Yes, I'm calling him that) a pretty nice guy, he's chill, laid back, and oddly confident…? And honestly I call it "berating' but he was really nice with it, he didn't yell at us, he just wanted to help us. It's gonna be pretty nice to have an extra hand (hoof?) to help with things, and I'm pretty sure he's thinking the same thing. When we asked how he got the bed in, John just showed us how. Apparently that horn isn't just for show, he can use some kind of telekinesis with it! He says it's like "magic" or something. Alyssa cursed the world when he did that. Honestly, it would've been nice to have that but I already have wings. So there's three types of ponies, normal ones, pegasi, and magical unicorns! I wonder why we were all turned into these… I'm the one interested in magic and fantasy, why am I not a unicorn? Oh well… I guess the world just isn't fair to everyone sometimes. Tonight, we're sleeping in a bed. It feels nice to be in a bed after so long. (It's only been 5 days, sheesh…) We're both small enough to lay here, John's in the car, and Buddy's on the floor. Y'know, John's pretty big, not as big as a normal horse but still pretty big, I wonder if he can drive a car normally. I'll have to ask him about that tomorrow… Taking a day-long trip like that exhausts you a bit. But for now this is Emile clocking out, au revoir. (I'm gonna run out of ways to say goodbye soon, aren't I…?) - Emile > Day 6, The Plan! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 28, 2015 Dear Journal, I had a strange dream today. The sky was dark, and I was in an empty field. I saw a strange purple unicorn crying over the body of another vanilla colored unicorn. His hooves were covered in blood and there were all these strange purple feathers around him. I called out to him, he turned towards me and… That's where it ends. I woke up to a small husky licking me on the face. That was gross to say th e least. Damn mutt… Buddy really seems to like me alot, even if I don't like him. He definitely didn't deserve such a pristine name like "Alexander Hamilton The Third." (It's still a better name than Buddy at least.) Today I discussed with John where we should stay for the long term. He figured we should stay somewhere like a "farm." I already thought about doing the same thing so of course I was aboard with him already. Thing about that though is that we can't just blindly go out on the road like I did. We need an actual plan. We need food, supplies, and most of all a map. I figured we could probably get a map at a library, and if not we could still get some books from there. John agreed, and with that we were off, me, Alyssa and Buddy went to the library while John stayed at the car shop just in case someone else heard his distress call. The library trip went swimmingly and pretty much how you'd expect a trip to the library to be, except not quite. There was a pack of dogs, most likely strays nearby. It seems like most of the animals are really getting out now. It's only been six whole days and the world's already crumbling… I should've expected this honestly, cities need people to survive. Without them, everything will come crumbling down. We hid in an alleyway while we waited for them to pass by. Alyssa tried really hard to keep Buddy from barking, and I mean, really hard. I thought it would be helpful to get a dog and all he's done for us so far is cause trouble. It's not like he can help much though, he's only a puppy, kinda like us. Still, as much as I bad talk to that dog I feel like I have some kind of weird bond with him. Like when he was barking back there, it felt like I could feel he was angry… What's going on…? I'll ask Alyssa if she felt the same way later… I stuffed those bags with almost everything my little wings could carry. Cook books, survival books, geography books, just anything that would be helpful to us. I even picked up a book in that series Alyssa recommended to me, it's called "Records Of Myths And Legends." This one's about the legend of King Arthur. Well, no wonder she recommended this to me, that's one of my favorites. The library (thankfully) had maps, just maps of the city though. It's better than nothing, and if we need a bigger map we have those geography books. Next on the bucket list, supplies. We didn't have much food left so we went for a run. Alyssa offered to stay this time around in case anybody came back. So it was just me and Jonathan. Seems like the dogs didn't go this way, that's good. We ransacked the store and grabbed almost everything we could, canned foods, bread, milk, heck even chips and candy were good. We were both able to get a lot thanks my wings and Jonathan's magic. (Poor Alyssa, she doesn't have a conventional way of holding things) I actually grabbed one of little sewing machines while we were there. It was supposedly on sale until "May 23th" (Welp, we know how that turned out.) Sorry mr store owner, this is mine now! Well, I said I was gonna make pony friendly clothes but it's probably better if I use this for something more important… We don't even really need clothes right? We're animals er- People…? Are we still people if we're ponies now? I think so… Does people refer exclusively to just humans? Eh…. Getting off topic again… I was thinking of making us saddle bags instead. We've just been using things like paper bags and shopping bags so those would definitely make carrying things easier. We can use Me and Alyssa's old clothes for that, and whatever Jonathan can spare for us… Then… Next I can make socks! To make us more stealthy! Those would muffle the clip clip sound our hooves make and it might even make walking easier! Yeah, those would be good… We've pretty much all gotten the hang of walking, galloping is still pretty hard. Me and Alyssa can't do it without tripping, I dunno about Jonathan though. I haven't seen him try yet. So saddle bags and socks… That's the list for the important "accessories" we need. Proper clothes and shoes can come later. Besides we don't need clothes, our fur is probably enough to cover anything private. (What? I'm just being realistic…) As for where we're going to settle down we've got that figured out too. Using the city map Jonathan figured out a route for us. If we go through downtown we can reach some suburbs on the edge of the countryside and there we might be able to find a farm. And if we need a place to stay on the way we can go to a hotel or a homeless shelter. Our ultimate goal is to reach there by the end of this month, or if we can't then we should be there by sometime into next month at least. Finally, a good plan! It's definitely way better than whatever mine was at least. We probably could've reached the countryside easier if we stayed at home. Ugh… Yeah, it was pretty stupid to go on that "road trip" like that… But if we didn't do that, we wouldn't have met Jonathan. May it's fate for us to meet like this! Psh, I doubt it. Speaking of, that "road trip" wasn't really a road trip. It was more like a road wreck. We didn't even go that far! We'll probably settle out tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I asked Jonathan if he could drive a car at his size, he just shrugged and said "I dunno." Welp, I guess we'll have to try it. That's for tomorrow though. Now, this is Emile probably heading to bed, bye. We're still going strong. - Emile > Day 7, Storm Clouds. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 29th, 2015 Dear Journal, Yeah, I'm calling this a journal now. I should probably be more "serious" about this whole thing if I want it to be an archive for our findings. I'm trying my best, alright? We all are. I had another strange dream again, this time it seemed to be a direct continuation of the first one. No, it was more like a prequel. The same vanilla colored unicorn faced the same weird purple unicorn, now with wings. I couldn't interfere this time though, I was hopeless to watch as the two fought each other and- It cut. I didn't even wake up to Buddy licking this time. Dammit. I guess my body just naturally woke up. I wonder if they're really just "dreams" though. Like visions? Haha, that's what they are visions from the far flung future for I am the herald that'll save the world! Of course, they're not visions. I dunno, dreams are weird they could just mean nothing. Well, if even my dreams don't even have people in them anymore, I dunno what that says about me. So today we all made a list of sorts, a list for all our ultimate goals and our plan for everything really. So first, we gotta preserve human history, find a place to call "home" and ultimately become human again. We all pretty agreed on it. Our true ultimate goal is to set up a "colony" of sorts. If we really are the last people on earth we'll have to repopluate and all that good stuff. I'm still hopeful there's more people out there though. (Please let there be more people out there…) The only reason I wanted to go to farm is because it might be safer, that's not saying bad things can't happen in the city. They can, it just might be safer out there, that's all. Jonathan pretty much agreed, farms have all sorts of neat stuff we need for this situation anyway. Alyssa was the only one who didn't, she actually kinda likes the city. I'm guessing its because she's used to living here. It's not even really the "city" anymore. This places a ghost town! The first I did on the smaller list of important things to do was make saddle bags. Jonathan gave me some of his old clothes since the only thing that fits him now is those overalls. I had Alyssa let me take her measurements, I used her and my body as a base since we're probably the standard for weirdly colored small ponies. He's got his magic, he can just use that to carry stuff. Plus with how big he is he could probably be mistaken for our dad. (Dad… Can I call him that?) When it was my turn to be measured Alyssa just let out this little gremlin laugh. She took as payback for making her do all those poses I guess. I swear that's what she's like sometimes, a gremlin. Did some shoddy patchwork here and there and ta da, saddle-bags. It's made from a bunch of random fabrics and looks absolutely ugly but it'll do the trick. I tried using my mouth and hooves for it and boy sewing is a lot harder than it seems, I think I got the basics down though. (Hopefully. Maybe. I think…) There was only enough to make two, guess Jonathan will have to go without one. Again, like I said before he'll be fine. He has magic… (Sparkle, sparkle…) I had him test whether he could or not. He can still drive the car, he can even reach the pedals and everything. There's actually something weird about seeing a pony acting like a human and doing human things. That car is his too, I asked him and he told me he was fixing it up just the day before everything happened. I'm debating on whether we should use the car or the truck. John can drive his car but I dunno about the truck though. Plus it has more storage…. I'll have to check with him later. We've been pretty much just packing everything up, nothing too exciting. We'll have to leave by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow if we want to reach there by the end of this month. I wonder if Jonathan can use actual magic, that's a thing Unicorns can actually do, right? Well, like in myths And legends anyway. Unicorns don't exist in real life. (Now they do.) That's another thing to ask him tomorrow I guess. I could probably teach him, with the magic expert I am! (Nah….) John's been pretty helpful these past couple days, it's been nice to have extra hands (hooves?) on board. Thanks, dad mr stallion. (I'm not calling him that.) I asked Alyssa about the "weird feeling" I felt towards Buddy yesterday. She said felt the same way. The animals seem to be getting smarter, and we're starting to feel weird towards them… What the heck is going on…? (I hope we don't drive by a zoo on the way, that would be hell.) Speaking of Alyssa she said she wants to try and learn music again. "It's not like I have anything better to do with everyone else gone." In her words. Well, actually you do. I know how much music means to her so on the way we'll probably stop some kind of instrument store. What do you call those anyway? Guitar shops…? Drum center…? I dunno. I'm starting to sew some clouds forming outside. I hope it won't delay our trip. Jonathan says it probably won't be bad, but we can't know for sure. Usually I'd just check the news to get some kind of accurate info on the weather but, we can't exactly do that anymore… Anyways, I'm getting tired so I'm gonna head to bed. As usual, you know the drill. This is Emile, over and out. I hope everything goes okay… - Emile > Day 9(.5), Super Awesome Roadtrip Part Two! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 31th, 2015 Dear Journal, Sorry for skipping a day. I'll try to catch you up to speed on what happened. Alright, I'll just be honest and just say we slept in all day. Nothing too interesting happened too, that's why I didn't write anything. I probably shouldn't do that too much, if this is gonna be a record for future generations I'll want to document every little thing I find, right? God, what is this journal anymore? This started out as a personal diary to vent my thoughts and I just happened to start writing it a day before the end of the world. Imagine writing a diary the day before the end of the world… So, it turns out Jonathan can drive the truck we brought, he just has to slouch a bit like I said. That's good, now we have more room for everything! No strange dream today. I guess I'm not a herald of the future after all then… Sad… Well, I'm still a savior of humanity though! Hehe…. Right now we're finishing packing our stuff up. We can't take everything so we're only taking the stuff we REALLY need. Personally, I'm taking my books, the sewing machine, and the last bits of food we brought on the way to the car shop. (Alyssa ate all the chips I liked… PS: Get payback on her for that.) John took his radio with us, he stopped trying to use it to find survivors yesterday, but if "nobody in the city that doesn't stop him from trying on the road!" He says. Alright so, the plans all set, everything ready, meaning we're all good to go. It's gonna be a real road trip this time. Instead of just two friends it's two friends, a dog, and their dad! (God, PLEASE don't let John see this.) We put everything we could in the cargo bed, Alexander Hamilton III Buddy and Alyssa are in the back while John and I are in the front. Woot, woot! Let's get this show started, pedal to the metal, baby! I sound like Alyssa… 12:15 AM Looks like my theories yesterday were true, it's raining. It's pretty soft right now though. I don't think it'll get worse any time soon. John isn't having any troubles driving in it but I'm here with him in the front if he ever needs help. There's really nothing else for me to do, so I'm reading to pass the time. "Records Of Myths And Legends…" This books pretty interesting. It's not a one to one retelling of the legend of King Arthur, it's more like a story based off of it with elements from other things than anything. Here look, "Oh, back again? Alright… Today I'll tell you a story, one from legend and one you might recognize. This story is about a young boy determined to save the world, and a mystical sword." A young boy determined to save the world… That's kinda like me, right? Well I don't have a mystical sword, but close enough. Instead I have close friends, who'll help each other no matter what…. Thanks guys. Other than that, I've been messing around with my mom's laptop. It still has a bit of battery left. I might have to charge it when we go somewhere with solar power though… Wherever that is. (A farm?) Solitaires fun. I have no idea how to play Minesweeper though. It's something to do at least. I should ask Alyssa how to play minesweeper later…. Nah, she'll just laugh at me. speaking of Alyssa, she doesn't have much to do like me so she's been singing this one stupid song. It has lyrics that go something like "Oh baby, why won't you love me?" Well that's something she likes other than metal and rock, pop. It's pretty annoying though… Should I tell her? Nah, I don't wanna hurt her feelings. 1:00 PM Yo, not Emile here but Alyssa instead! I've always seen Emile writing in this journal thing so why not try it out myself?! And don't worry, Emiles right here, he's asleep right now. So yeah, I'm here! This is pretty hard… Alright so, wow. Just wow Emile put a lot in here… Like ALOT ALOT. And I didn't even know, damn… So, it's been 9 days since everything's happened. We're doing pretty awesome, I've been helping John out with the heavy work since Emile isn't good at lifting things. And I've been taking care of Buddy, just like I said I would! (He's not a "damned mutt" he's a dog Emile!) This are supposed to be used to vent my thoughts right? So getting a little "personal" is fine, right? Okay so, I've been doing pretty good since the event happened. I was a little bummed at first with the whole everyone disappearing thing but I've been getting better! Look, we have Buddy, Jonathan, and Emile! As long as we're together we're unstoppable! The only reason I decided to be friends with Emile is because he was such a loner, it made me feel bad for him, y'know? Plus finding out about his family situation just made me want to be friends with him even more! He's like me! (I had a decent amount of friends though.) My mom and dad got divorced resulting in this whole thing where I had to choose from one from both of them! In the end, I ended up with mother, my brother did too. I'll be straightforward and just say my mom wasn't the best person. She manipulated the damned court to get me and my brother… I was only a kid then, so I didn't really get it that much… But I'm older now, so who's laughing now, huh?! My brother was the one who took care of me after that, he was basically like my new dad! He was the best… He was brave, strong, absolutely awesome! Someone I always inspired to be! That's what made me join the music club. I was a bit sad when he went to college, but look at me now! Brother, I wish you could see this, I'd tell you about all the awesome things that happened so far! I know you're out there, somewhere. You wouldn't let yourself disappear easily… Woah, I didn't mean to tell my whole life story there! Uhhhh…. How do you do this… Well this is Alyssa Thompson heading out, goodbye! (That's how Emile does it right?) I'll teach him how to play minesweeper later, that idiot… (I'm joking…) (Also, that song isn't stupid Emile it's a song about the power of true love!) - Alyssa 3:00 pm Hey, I'm back. Did you miss me? I take one short nap and suddenly Alyssa's using my journal as her own. I swear, that girl… And wow, I knew some of how her life was like but I never knew it like that. That definitely explains a lot… Alright, back to the important stuff. I've been thinking about it and the marks on our flanks/butts seems to be similar to our talents… Alyssa's music… And John's Mechanic skills… Mines just a purple flower though, it's a red spider lily, or a lycoris flower, whatever you wanna call it. But, according to this book I have here these flowers are associated with things like "death" and "last goodbyes." Well, that's a bit grim… It probably doesn't mean anything like that though. Calling them "butt marks" is stupid so we need a better name for them. How about "destiny marks?" Sounds good. The destiny marks don't seem to be removable or anything. It's like they're magically embroidered in our fur. Weird… We're definitely not like any horse on earth. Some of us have magic, wings, horns… It's so strange… I wonder if normal horses turned into ponies too. That'd be funny. Once we stop somewhere I'll try to do more "research." Science is pretty interesting so this would be a good opportunity to actually use some of the stuff I've learned in school. But for now this is Emile, wiedersehen. - Emile > Day 10-11, Friend Or Foe? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 1st, 2015 Dear Journal, Looks like we won't be making it by the end of this month. That's fine, we should be there sometime into this month anyway. Schools out for summer! I think at least… Me and Alyssa were just finishing up our last year before all this happened. Guess we'll have to redo the grade. Well that's definitely one good thing about this. There's no school. or government, or laws…. (Guess we'll just have to set up it all back up then!) Today, we stopped at some kind of outdoor mini mall. There wasn't anyone there, of course. The first place we "ransacked" was a music store (instrument store?) so I could get Alyssa that guitar she wanted. It's a reddish bright orange, like the one on her "destiny mark." She hand (hoof?) picked it out herself. Alyssa probably knows I read her journal entry. But I really meant it, it's a gift from me to her. I hope she enjoys it. The next place on the list was the store. We didn't really need anything since we already have enough food, we've been mostly eating things like salads and fruit since we can't eat meat anymore. That stuff lasts a couple days. I picked up some flashlights and a microscope there. The microscope's for "research." (It's stupid, I know shut up.) And the flashlights could come in handy. (Hoofy? Should we rework language for ponies?) The rains coming down a bit hard now, John still isn't having any trouble driving though. Ugh… I dunno… Maybe I'm just being stupidly paranoid. Either way, we're about halfway there now, just a couple more days and we'll be at the countryside. (There should be a farm there, right? And John called my plan reckless…) There's usually farms out that way though, a place like that would have a lot of valuable stuff we could use. Even if there isn't one up there and we can still find a place to stay. John's been trying the radio pretty often even when nobody responds. This situations been taking a pretty heavy toll on us. Don't worry, John. We'll be fine… But as usual this is Emile, goodbye. (I'm running out of ways to say goodbye…) I'll probably start studying again, since school is nonexistent we'll need some way to preserve human knowledge. - Emile June 2nd, 2015 Dear Journal, I guess I jinxed it. Me and my big mouth… John almost dozed off on the wheel while I was reading, and since the rain made the road slippery he lost control of the truck, and boom. We crashed. We're all okay, Me, Alyssa, John, and even Alexander Hamilton III Buddy. (Thats still a better name) We might have a few scratches here and there though. I wish it was the same story for our supplies. Some stuffs still usable but a lot of our food got damaged. We scavenged all we could from the wreck but we can't last like this. We had to use our flashlights since we can't see all that well in the dark but we found a place to stay, an empty homeless shelter. There's a couple of beds in here, since human beds are pretty big for us we could probably fit about ten to fifteen ponies in here to say the least. He seems fine now but earlier when we were looking for a place to stay John was limping. I think he might've broken a leg from the crash. I feel like we should've just taken his car instead. Maybe the wheels being smaller would've helped…? I don't know. I just feel like John wouldn't have been injured right now if it weren't for me. Dammit…. I know it's not my fault, but…. I hate myself for this… We've made it to downtown at least, about half way there. Good, that's good… 8:00 PM It's late, but I don't care. I went out to some cheap discount dollar store for supplies. Don't worry, I didn't go alone. I brought Alexander Buddy with me, he might cause trouble sometimes but he's obedient. Plus, he can protect me (somewhat) even with his size. There wasn't much left in there but I managed to get some stuff at least. Here's the strange thing though, the store seemed like it had been looted already but not by some animals. No, everything was still neatly (as neatly as possible at least) on the shelves, someone was here. The only evidence I found though was a periwinkle colored hair. I don't think there's any animals on this plant with that kinda color in their hair… There's someone other than else out there, I can feel it… I don't know if I'll tell John and Alyssa the news tomorrow, I don't want them to get mad at me for going out so late. Whatever… This is Emile, checking out, Dasvidaniya. (That means goodbye in Russian I think….) Whoever this mysterious "food thief" is, I just hope they're friendly… - Emile > Day 12, A Goldmine! (Not in a literal sense.) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 3rd, 2015 Dear Journal, He tried to hide it but it was pretty obvious. Just like I thought yesterday, John's injured. I think he's blaming himself for the accident. God. Dammit! I was already blaming myself for this too, now I'm gonna feel worse… John says he can probably fix the truck, it's gonna take a few days though. And since he's injured he's probably gonna need some help. I'll try to help out the best I can… Dammit… I know it isn't entirely my fault, but goddammit! I have to do something to help… But in the meantime we're stuck here, our "road trip" will have to go on pause for now. This places pretty well equipped, there's showers that still somehow, washing machines, and even a kitchen! We could probably stay here permanently if we needed to. (I don't bet on it though.) The water doesn't seem to work though so I just used some water bottles and some soap left behind by whoever was here before everyone disappeared to take a "shower." It isn't much but BOY does it feel good, I can't believe I went 12 whole days like that… It's not that hard to wash fur. Kinda? I dunno how to describe it so you'll just have to trust me on this one, alright? It's just not that hard… Speaking of things like that, since I'm a girl now maybe I should go by a different name. How about, Elise? Nah, I like Emile better. I won't change my name. Like I said before I don't really care about things like that. Besides, I should stop focusing on something so silly. The lights still seemed to be working so I went up and checked the roof, and bam! Solar panels! This place must've been some expensive homeless shelter funded by the government or something. (Of course there'd be one like that downtown…) They don't seem to be connected to the water though, and I'm guessing if the water doesn't work then the washing machines don't work either. (That's how those work, right?) Whatever, we can just wash our clothes by hand. (Should I start saying hoof?) We struck gold with this place, this is still only temporary though. But when we get back on the road we take the solar panels with us! Along with those there was a small garden that had only about three flowers in it. So I dug them up and put them in a pot. They look like daisies… We did another supply run today too, since Jonathan's injured it was just me, Alyssa, and Buddy. There was a Walmart a couple blocks down so we went there. I tried galloping on the way there but I ended up tripping over my hooves. Alyssa of course, laughed at me and tried doing it herself. She tripped too. "Watch how a professional does it." She said. (Heh, Payback.) The saddle-bags have been pretty useful so far, with these we can carry a whole lot more. Guess we won't starve after all. Maybe Alyssa can try cooking something again since we're actually settled down somewhere, I'll ask her later. It would be nice to have some actual food for a change. Aside from the food I picked up some clothes, a camera, and a bucket while Alyssa just got some medical supplies for John. She says I should stop getting "pointless" things. (Like that Guitar I got her isn't "pointless", she hasn't even used it yet!) Besides this camera isn't pointless, it's so we can document things in a more "visual" way, the only thing we have right now is this journal. The buckets for collecting water or whatever else we'll potentially need. While the clothes are for the socks I'll be attempting to make and if I have enough Fabric left, proper clothes for us. Overall, it was a pretty semi productive trip if you ask me. It took a pretty long time though… We walk at barely half of a human's pace. (I guess that's what we get for driving so much.) We'll learn how to gallop sooner or later, it would probably be smarter if we started off with trotting then moved our way up to galloping. After all, you don't learn how to crawl then skip straight to running. (Relearning how to run, that won't be easy….) That aside, John's been doing pretty good so far but that broken leg isn't gonna heal anytime soon. That stuff usually takes a couple of weeks or months at most to heal. If we go back on the road me and Alyssa will have to do the driving. (And this is why we should've taken his car…) We just put a couple bandages along with toilet paper and an ice pack over it for now. Instead of making clothes I might just actually try to make a makeshift cast for John. This recovery is one of the most important things right now. (Speaking of toilets if they only work once now, so if anyone's gotta go they're using a bucket.) Besides the clothes we already have are fine, they just need to be washed. The only reason I'm even wearing these pants still is because I don't like being naked. What else is there to write about… What else… Oh right, in an attempt to catch our mystery "food thief." (Or to find anyone other than us really) I opened a window and played one of the most obnoxious and generic pop songs I could find (and downloaded) on my phone. Nobody came. That was pointless, but if there's really somebody out there they'll come. I'm sure of it. I can't believe I used to listen to stuff like this or ever dared to download something like that. Did Alyssa possess me or something? Younger me was weird… Anyways there's not much left for me to write about so as usual, this is Emile, the last sensible human being on earth. (other than John.) Goodbye! - Emile > Day 13-14, Definitely A Friend. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 4th, 2015 Dear Journal, Today was another productive day so I'll try to get everything down. Without ado, drum roll please… Ta da, the world's first socks for ponies! (For incredibly weirdly colored ones at least.) They're warm, comfy, and this nice slick black! Like no seriously, I'm wearing these right now and holy hell are these comfortable. Other than just being stylish they dampen our hoofsteps a bit so we won't accidentally alert dogs, or any animals ever! Neat, huh? I used me and Alyssa as the model(s) for this project again, needless to say she was a bit annoyed that I had her do all those posesAGAIN. (I'll be honest and just say I'm doing it to purposely annoy her, look I'm sorry Alyssa okay?) But they aren't entirely pointless. Ha, take that Alyssa! ( Emile - 1 Alyssa - 0) These would probably be useful in the winter too. I only pair two pairs of socks for me and Alyssa, but I didn't make John's cast yet. I've been thinking about just taking him to a hospital instead, there's no doctors there but they have things like proper cases and crutches we can "borrow." Alyssa seemed to agree too. I guess it's settled then, we're taking a trip to the hospital tomorrow. Other than that, I did the "laundry" by hoof today, and I've been trying to learn how to fly. It's actually not as hard as it looks, you just need to flap your wings a bit and bam just like I flew! Just kidding, I fell flat on my face. It's definitely as hard as it looks, I don't even know if these wings could lift my body properly even with how small I am. Guessing I'm a flightless pegasus for now… In the meantime while John's waiting for his leg to heal I decided to help him out with his magic. Heck, he might even be able to heal himself if he gets good at it. (Healing spells are usually a thing, right?) So I told him to cast a spell, and he did! Kinda… Ok not really. He shot a beam out from his horn. It was so sudden that it almost hit me. Guess that's what I get for telling him to just "try something." It's not exactly "magic" but it's a start. I guess… I told him to try again, but to just focus. Concentrate and focus… Just focus on hitting this water bottle, and he did! I'm glad the last beam didn't hit me because by god did he fry that water bottle. I'll try more "magic" with him tomorrow, who knows I might even unlock my own magic by helping him out! (I doubt it though…) I'm guessing Alyssa read my mind yesterday because after that I caught her trying to play the guitar with her hooves. She's having a bit of trouble with it though… We're all still trying to get used to our new bodies. It's a bit hard but I think we're getting there, maybe. I dunno. I'm probably the only one who doesn't care about my old body. I mean being human is cool and all, but we have magic now! How awesome is that? Honestly, if everyone else were still here and were still human I'd pick this body in a heartbeat. About magic, I'm just assuming we all do. I mean, John's a unicorn, Alyssa has some kind of super strength. And I have wings… Ok maybe we all don't have magic. It would still be cool if we did though! There's not much else for me to write about so uh, peace. No goodbye for today? - Emile June 5th, 2015 Dear Journal, Usually I'd scold that damned dog for running off like that, but I'm glad he did. Alright so, I woke up in the middle of the night to Buddy barking at something. I thought he was just being annoying at first but it seemed like he wanted to get my attention so I followed after him. And low and behold, look who we found. We found our food thief. She was trying to steal from us this time around instead of a store. I wasn't going to just let that happen, so I tackled her and pinned her down with all might. "Let me go!" She screamed, or something similar. I didn't let her go and just yelled to alert everyone. I swear to god she was about to try something because I saw a slight yellow glow appear around that horn of hers. She gave that up when everyone came running though. I tied her down to a chair and took her in for integration. (thunder….) Her names "Minuette." That's a pretty weird name if you ask me. She has a maya blue coat, hair colored like toothpaste, the only thing she's wearing is a bright green checkered bandana, and her destiny mark is this weird slightly tilted half empty hourglass with sand trails around it. I don't think this girl is right in the head because we won't tell us a thing about her past life other than "She feels like she has to do something but she can't remember…" I ended up just letting her go. Aside from whatever she was going to try back there she's harmless. I guess we have a new member in our "colony" now! Minuettes knowledge doesn't seem to match up with ours. Like, when I showed her the truck she looked at it in awe like she had never seen anything like it before. (Did she grow up on an island or something?) Speaking of, John seemed to think it was still May 23th when we first met him, it was May 26 when I first heard him on the radio and May 27 when we first met him in person. It seems like whatever made everyone disappear is slowly bringing people back on different days. Me and Alyssa woke up on May 23rd, John woke up on May 26th… And Minuette woke up on whatever day she woke up on. I ended up having to tell Alyssa and John why I recognized Minuette and how I went out to the store late at night a couple days ago. Alyssa was not happy… "You could've gotten hurt!" She said. I know but…. I was just trying to help us… At least John understands why I did it. Other than that, we have a new pair of extra hooves aboard so me and Minuette went out to a nearby carshop while Alyssa stayed with John. (and Buddy.) It seems like Minuette can trot just fine so I had her teach me on the way. She looked at me a bit weirdly but she was happy to help teach me. I think I got the hang of it. (I think the socks might've helped a bit) But It's simple really. It's a one a two, one a two, one a two… Like a rhythm. Since she's a unicorn I used Minuette as my extra pair of "hands" and made her carry anything I couldn't carry. One of the really important things we picked up was a new engine since that was one of the main things that got damaged in the crash. John thinks he'll get the truck up and running either by tomorrow or in a couple of days, after that we'll take him to the hospital and we'll be home free. But in the meantime this is Emile you know the drill, bye bye. - Emile > Day 15-17, Magic. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 6th, 2015 Dear Journal, So for "breakfast" today Minuette made me a sandwich, not a normal sandwich though… It had flowers instead of turkey in it, I think she used the daisies from the flower pot… It looks like she washed them so they weren't dirty or anything. She was looking at me weirdly and I didn't want to disappoint her so…. I ate it. It tasted good. I guess turning into a pony changed my diet more than I thought… I don't know if that was her weird idea of a "prank" but there's no way in hell she's getting me to eat anything like that again. I'm not eating grass, I would love to keep the small amount of dignity I have left, thank you very much. That "incident" aside, I made some kind of makeshift leash for Buddy using a belt and a pair of leather pants so he doesn't run off again. He had a reason for it for this time, but what if it happens again? He could get hurt, or worse lost. No, I don't care about that damned mutt. I just don't want Alyssa to be sad, that's all… I told Alyssa that she had to watch him. She understood and wasn't too angry about it. The only reason why I keep trying to make everything by hoof is that I'm trying to learn how to function on my own, fast forward a couple years and we'll have to teach the new generation everything. So we gotta preserve human history somehow. (That's why I got all those history books at the library.) I think I'm getting more mature, I guess that's what 15 days with all this responsibility on their shoulders does to someone. There's a lot on our plates, but I know we'll make it through this, together. 15 days… It doesn't even feel like that anymore… It feels like it's been years… Sorry for getting a bit moody there. Alright, so today we used the car parts we got from the car shop yesterday to fix up the truck a bit. Me and Alyssa helped with whatever John couldn't do. Like I said yesterday, we'll be out of here in a couple of days. We'll follow the same route we were taking. It's that much of a detour but once we reach the hospital we'll either grab what we need for John and go or spend the night there. His legs are starting to get better but he still probably shouldn't drive. I guess it'll be me and Alyssa doing the driving then, like old times! (Or me and Minuette if she wants to help out, I'll ask her later.) Not a lot happened today so sorry for not writing much, but as always this is Emile, bye. I ran out of ways to say goodbye… - Emile June 7th, 2015 Dear Journal, Is it me or are Alyssa and John getting more competitive with each other? I joked about him being like a dad but now he's more like a big brother than anything. Maybe we're just getting closer. But god, those two are like a pair of fiesty siblings. I needed a break from them, so today I went out on a little trot with Minuette. Just because we can. I think I've really gotten the hang of this, I might even be ready to tackle cantering! You know how I called Alyssa "peppy" in my earlier entries? Well, she is but she's more like a hot-headed daredevil if you, if you get what I mean. But oh god, Minuette takes the cake for being "peppy." She's SUPER lively, super happy-go-lucky, I might even call her eccentric. I'm not saying this because I don't like her, I do. Otherwise I wouldn't have taken that trot with her. It's just… Nevermind. She's still pretty odd though, like she doesn't seem to know what 99% of modern technology is. This morning, I showed her the laptop and she was SUPER in awe at it. (Seriously, where did this girl grow up?) She says things like "anypony…" Anypony… Is that what we're supposed to say instead of anybody now? Things like everybody can be used for things that aren't human but we don't exactly have our bodies anymore so… Anypony… Everypony… Eh. She still doesn't seem to remember anything about her past life though, I asked her about it. She just said she couldn't and whenever she tries to remember she feels this weird "stinging pain" in her head. I shouldn't ask about her memories, I don't wanna hurt her. A girl with amnesia… How about that… Well, don't worry Minuette, we'll find a way to get your memories back! I swear it. Nothing else too exciting happened today though, we're still working on fixing the car so there's not much to document. But…. I made this little shirt! It's pink and has a heart on it. Alyssa called it "tacky." (She doesn't have taste.) I feel like I'm really getting better at sewing. Maybe I should be a fashion designer! (Nah…) I'm thinking of tackling knitting next, that seems fun. Alyssa will probably call me a "grandma" for it though… Welp, as always this is Emile, bye everypony! Yeah, I'm not saying that. - Emile June 8th, 2015 Dear Journal, We found something interesting today, very very interesting but I'll have to tell the rest first. Today we all went on a walk, me, Alyssa, John, Minuette, even Buddy. Me and Minuette took this as a chance to teach Alyssa how to trot and John how to walk with his broken leg. Alyssa's got trotting down, kinda… I think…. John's walking pretty good so far. His legs definitely getting better, it still hasn't completely healed all the way though, so we had to help him whenever he needed it. Here's the interesting part I was talking about, on that walk we found this weird graffiti in an alleyway. No, it's not graffiti. It's not even made out of paint, heck I don't even know what its made out of! These are runes! Like magical runes! It's not in English or in any language I've seen for that matter. But some of the characters resemble old norse runes, I could probably decipher it if I tried. Minuette said she recognized them but whatever she got close to them the stinging pain in her head just got worse… She's doing fine now but we'll have to keep her away from stuff like that. First we got turned into ponies, then animals were getting smarter, and now there's magical runes appearing?! What's even happening anymore… Other than the magic business, Alyssas getting better at her guitar, it's not good but it's entirely bad either. It's "okay" to me at least. She's getting used to it. She'll probably be at the level she used to be at, eventually… Oh, and we also finished fixing up the car! We'll be leaving out tomorrow! It's time to continue this road trip! Anyways, not much else to write about so, this is Emile, goodbye! Magic, huh…. - Emile > Day 17.5-18, In Between Everything And Back On The Road. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11:00 PM Dear Journal, I can't sleep. Those runes we saw earlier…. I can't sleep because of them. I was excited about them yesterday, but now…. I don't even know anymore… I feel terrible… But I'll just tell you what happened. I woke up in the middle of the night. Like now, I couldn't sleep. Those runes… They seemed so interesting to me! They're magic! Real magic! This isn't something that could ever happen normally. I could wait until tomorrow. I just had to investigate them. I woke John up, he was less than pleased to see that I was the one who woke him up. When I told him about how excited I was about the runes and how I wanted to investigate them right now he seemed pretty happy too. I'm guessing he figured that they could help us in some way, because he agreed too. We went out in the middle of the night and disguised it as a "late supply run." John's a unicorn, if those runes are really magic he can help me activate them. I would've brung Minuette along too, but her head hurts everytime she gets close to the runes. We can't risk having her get hurt. Thankfully there weren't any animals out, the streets were empty and quiet. We walked to the alleyway where we found the runes, it wasn't too far, just a short little walk. And they were still there, untouched and intact. First thing I did was have John stand in the middle of the circle and activate his magic. A green glow appeared around his horn, the runes lit up, anddd… Nothing. He didn't disappear, the runes didn't change, just nothing…. When I asked him what happened he just looked at me blankly for a minute and said "You have to see it for yourself." I took his word for it and stood in the magic circle. I let him blast me with his magic, the runes lit up and god I wish I didn't now. He was definitely right though, it's something you have to just experience. I'll try my best to explain it though. I saw grassy green fields, serene blue skies, blue beautiful oceans. Everything, so bright, colorful, beautiful, radiant. Nothing like this world… I saw the city. No, not this city. Another city. The buildings weren't tall or grand or anything like here. They had their own charm though, they were made of cobblestone and had straw roofs. Small, nice, and quaint. There were no people, not a single damned human around. Only ponies, they all have the weird symbols on their flanks "destiny marks." I've been calling them. There were lots without horns or wings like Alyssa but some were like John. They performed tricks, magic, and all kinds of beautiful stunts. Above in the sky were ones like me, they flew high into the clouds and beyond, so graceful, so daring! All these ponies they were all so different yet they all were so friendly, so lively! It seemed so beautiful, I wish I could go there! Then, it changed again I saw a radiant capital, distant farm lands with normal ponies where the earth simply blossomed with the touch of their hooves! I saw so many things, undiscovered distant lands, a realm of light! A battle for unity, a battle between hope and despair, battle for those who seeked the truth! I was everywhere and nowhere, I was in between worlds, dimensions, space, time, everything! Then, it stopped and I felt the presences of two people, ponies, entities? One, felt the same confusion and despair I felt. While the other, seemed like it was watching us. They knew us, they understood us, they felt the pain of everything I've been going through and they wanted to help us They reached out, and I tried to reach them back. I grabbed onto anything, something! And, it cut. Just like that. I fell to the ground and runes disappeared. After that I felt so drained, tired… I've felt anything like this before, I feel sick… So exhausted… John had to carry me back, nobody noticed that we left. He put me on the bed, he didn't ask me what happened he just looked at me worriedly and walked away. I think it's for the better. I don't what that was but I don't like it. I feel like there's something bigger at play here… Something even we can't comprehend. I'm gonna go before I pass out so this is Emile, goodbye. - Emile June 9th, 2015 Dear Journal, I feel better today, I have no idea what that was yesterday. Since I'm slightly better I'll try my best to explain it a bit more. It wasn't really like a "vision." I wasn't necessarily seeing something, it was like I had my senses enhanced and unlocked some kind of hidden sense. I'm sorry if I'm not being clear. It's just hard to explain… If that was the future, present, past, another world, universe, dimension. I don't know. I… This morning John asked me about what happened back there yesterday. I just responded with an honest "I don't know." I don't think he saw the same thing as me since he doesn't seem as tired. I guess I know what drugs feel like now… More magical weirdness aside, Alyssa made a caesar salad with dressing and everything! It might be salad again, but it's a damned good one! A proper last meal before we leave this place behind. We're packing everything up again so we can leave. I made another saddle bag for John this time around so he'll have an easier way to carry things with that broken leg of his. He might be a bit big compared to us but his measurements aren't that different. I asked Minuette if she wanted any clothes or anything before we leave, she just said no. Is she a nudist or something because she won't wear anything besides that bandana. It's fine I guess, we're ponies now. But it is a bit weird, and a bit embarrassing to say the least… John and I took the solar panels from the roof and loaded them onto the trunk since they'll be extremely useful when we settle down. We can fit a lot of stuff on that truck but we can't bring everything. So like before, we're only bringing stuff we absolutely need. Trucks all patched up, we got gas, and the engines all ready. We're good to go. There's one more thing I wanted to do before we leave though, I took the camera, made sure it had film and told everyone to go outside. "Alright, everyone say pony!" I took a picture of us all together, it's a memento of our first real home. We're really like a colony now, just one small happy family. I'm actually kinda sad we have to leave this place behind. It's been kinda growing on me these past couple days. But I know it's for the best. We'll make a bigger and better home once we settle down. John can't drive with a broken leg, so instead of me and Alyssa, it'll be me and Minuette! I asked if she wanted to and she said "Yeah, it looks like fun!" So here we are. Alright, we're getting in now so I'll update you when we take a pitstop or on the way. For now this is Emile, goodbye! I hope whoever moves here after us uses this place well…. - Emile > Day 18.5-19, Back On The Road (2)/Calm After The Storm. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1:00 PM Dear Journal, We're back on the road baby! Minuettes been pretty good at this so far. (It's not that hard to just use the pedals though) She's right here! Say hi Minuette! Minuette says hi. I'm the only (or was) with a license so I'm the one doing the rest of driving of course. We stopped at a RadioShack on the way. I thought they all shut down, but apparently there were still a few left. This one seemed like it was preparing to close down though. (We all know what postponed that.) It's one of my favorite stores actually. My mom used to work at one before she got a job at one of those "big" tech companies. I picked up one of those tape recorders there, with this we'll have another way to record our voices aside from just the camera of course. I might even record some Journal entries with it! We're in the parking lot right now, we pulled over to stop for "lunch." Minuettes eating one of her famous "Flower Sandwiches™." While I'm just eating one of those store bought english muffins, I put jelly on it. I'm tired of salad, okay? Cut me some slack…. Besides, it tastes good… Honestly I love bread. I probably just live off of bread and juice if I wanted to. John's eating some strawberries while Alyssa has some of the leftovers from the caesar salad. Speaking of, those two are right here! (Of course they are.) John's sitting in the seat next to me while Alyssa's in the back with Buddy. (Where he belongs. I'm joking, don't hurt me please.) According to the map we should be there before June 15th, hopefully. We're gonna go back on the road so I'll write more later, this is yours truly, peace. - Emile June 10th, 2015 Dear Journal, A decent amount happened today so I'll try to get everything down. I had another one of those strange "dreams" again. This time I saw cars, boats, trains, buses, you name it. Basically every vehicle in the world. They appeared in all places seemingly random, a car appeared in a section of a city, crashing into a pole and leaving a unconscious Stallion in the driver's seat. A pony tried to regain control of her plane while in the air but ended up crashing into a nearby farm. I watched like a spectator as ponies struggled to drive and use things definitely not meant for hooves. I'm guessing strange dreams are just the norm for me now. Maybe I am really a "herald of the future." I've been feeling weird ever since the incident with the rune. I'm not sick anymore. I just feel… Weird… (Maybe the dreams are a side effect of it?) Me and John haven't told the others about that "incident" yet, and we don't plan to, ever. They don't have to know about something like that, and I certainly don't need Alyssa scolding me again. Remember how I said there was someone in the vision who shared the same feelings I did? Maybe that was some kind of shared vision across the space time continuum or something. No, that's stupid… Though, with everything that's happened so far I wouldn't even be surprised if it was something like that. I wonder who that person was… Maybe they're someone like me… Whoever they are, I hope they're doing good. Maybe we'll meet them soon… (I hope so.) That aside, today, I picked up some rose seeds from a nearby flower shop. They're for a little "project" I wanna work on once we settle down. What kind of project? It's a secret. Maybe my destiny mark means I'm good at gardening or something, I don't know what else it could mean. Destiny… I wonder what Minuettes means… John and Alyssa have some pretty obvious ones that relate to their talents and what they're good at but Minuettes is just a hourglass. Maybe she has some kind of super secret forbidden time travel magic or something? Nah… Minuettes pretty nice, she's been kinda growing on me these past couple days. (No, I don't like her like THAT, she's just nice okay?) She's kinda cute too! I need a nickname for her… Minuette…. Min…. MinMin… Minny…. Minute? Huh, I guess that's what her names from. How about, Minny! That sounds good! Everyone's sound asleep and I'm up writing this entry… Minnies sleeping on my shoulder, I feel like if I move an inch she'll wake up. (Please don't wake up…) I've never been too interested in stars but I always wanted to see the milky way when I was younger, never could though. I can see it now, almost as clear as day. I'm guessing the light pollutions died down that much… How many lights are still on in the world? What's earth look like now from space? I dunno, I'm not an astronaut. What do you expect me to say? I feel weirdly drawn to the stars, they're just so bright… It's like they're calling to me… Still no people out here, every time we travel I get my hopes up that we might find someone just to get disappointed every time… Maybe I should… I should shut up, that's what I should do. I'm getting kinda tired now, so I'm heading to bed. So, as per usual this is Emile, adios. - Emile > Day 20.5-21, Calm After The Storm. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 11th, 2015 Dear Journal, I'm bored so I've been studying and watching shows I already had pirated on my phone whenever we take a pitstop or whenever I get the chance. Now I wish John's leg would heal faster so I wouldn't have to drive. I knew we should've went to that damned hospital. I've been reminded of how boring studying is. I hate math, it's stupid and it makes no sense. I hate it I hate it so much. Can we just get somepony else to teach the next generation about it instead? Oh god I said somepony, Minnys rubbing off on me too much! Alright so my whining aside, Alyssas gotten better at her guitar! I might even say it sounds good now! I recorded some of it. That also served as a test for the tape recorder, and it works just fine. Good! There isn't much else to write about, there's nothing really out here. But there were a couple animals on the streets, not dogs. I'm talking about animal animals, like real dangerous ones. That uh might be a problem… (I hope not…) It's been 20 days now, I should've expected this to happen at some point. 20 days… Huh… That's a long time. It's an especially long time to be turned into a small horse for. - Emile 5:00 PM Dear Journal, We stopped for gas. I'm bored and I want chocolate… No, cake! How about just anything sweet? That would be nice. O'Mysterious partner in destiny can we meet sooner, I crave sweets… Yup, that's what I'm calling them. That person who had the same vision as me, they're my partner in destiny! I haven't met them yet but we shall save humanity together with our unparalleled strength and magic! Or uh, something like that… I think being bored is doing something to my brain… That whole thing made me feel kinda hopeful, maybe just maybe there's someone out there like me… If that was supposed to be a "vision" of the future then the future is bright! If not… I don't know… Alyssa "taught" me how to play minesweeper and I still don't get it. Look, it's not my fault it's so confusing with all the numbers and everything… I think I should stay away from things that have something to do with math. You need to know math to play minesweeper right? (If you don't then I look stupid writing this entry.) We should probably reach our destination by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. John said he can sense some kind of "magic" in everything. I guess that means I do have magic then! Yay…. Maybe I can do all the cool stuff him and Minuette do with their horns… Nah… What kind of magic would pegasi have anyway? Does flying count as magic? Maybe, but that would be kinda stupid though. Why can't I just fly then? Once we settle down I'll probably try to start flying again, if I can get off the ground I can probably fly us everywhere instead of driving! Who knows how long that'll take though… That's just another reason why I should start practicing! Alyssa's and John's competitive streak keeps growing. John may be a honest hard worker but I swear he has an ego that rivals hers. At least I have Minuette for when I wanna talk to someone with some common sense… She's nice, very very nice. See how repetitive I'm getting? There's nothing for me to write about. So bored…. Once this is over or whenever we get the chance can we go to Japan? I've always wanted to go there, China too. That's another good thing about the end of the world, we can do anything we want, and nobody's here to tell us no! Woo-hoo! John's finishing up the gas, so uh I gotta go. Emile June 12th, 2015 Sorry if I sounded like a whiny brat yesterday. Being bored out of your mind really does something to your brain… My heads smaller now so my brains probably smaller too, cut me some slack. God, I've written so many embarrassing things in here. I hope the others don't see this. I mean, they probably will eventually. Alyssa 10 years in future could be reading this right now without me even knowing. (Hi Alyssa, how's the future?) Most of these entries are done by hand. (Wing?) I've tried doing some by hoof and with my mouth but that don't go out too well… So if you see any errors, spelling mistakes and anything like that it's probably because of that, or it's just me being an idiot… So much for growing up, I honestly really thought I did and then I went back to complaining about things like studying like nothing ever happened. God, I hate myself. I've never really considered what I'll do for a living or what kind of job I wanted. My mom always told me to follow my heart and my dreams, so I guess I just did that… Since I love stories so much I figured I'd just do that, write stories. When this is all over I could probably publish this journal into some kind of book for everyone. Just gotta remove some of the embarrassing parts… I should stop focusing on the future so much we barely know if we'll make it that far for crying out loud… Sorry for saying something so grim. Just gotta focus on the now, focus on the now… I miss video games. Remind me to steal something from a gamestop later. It's early in the morning right now. I mean like 7:00 AM early. So everyone else's asleep. The only reason these trips take so long is because we're constantly stopping, taking pit stops, resting, all that junk. We'd probably be there by now if we just drove straight for a day. Maybe we should do that… No, we're fine. We've got pretty much all the time in the world, kinda literally but also not literally. And we don't at the same time, we gotta settle down somewhere sooner or later… This soda, food, all that will only last a couple years at most so we'll have to do our best to preserve it. Also yeah, I'm drinking Coke right now. Minuettes apparently never drunk Coke in her life before so I gave her some she it tasted really good anddd Half of the case is gone already. Dammit, Minnie! I wanted those! Speaking of embarrassing, if I made it seem like I had a crush on Minuette in some of these entries that was completely accidental. I repeat, I do not have a crush on Minnie. I repeat, I do not have a crush on Minnie. (She is pretty cute though.) And hey look she's waking up right now! I'll uh stop writing now, so you know the drill. Peace. - Emile > Day 22-23, A New Home And A Grim Reminder. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 13th, 2015 Dear Journal, I found something today but to get to that I have to tell you about everything else that happened today. We finally reached our destination, it took several days but we finally did it. I'm gonna be honest and just say that's probably my fault since I made us stop so much, but hey who cares we're finally here. Where is here you ask? We found a little farm on a "countryside" it's not too far from town. There's a little blue house, not too big but not too small, a barn and a couple of pens. The barns a bit shabby but we could fix it up. (I think it got hit by the storm that crashed us.) So this is it, our new home. I feel like we're gonna love it here. There's some cows and some sheep here, some of them were out of their pens so we had to "wrangle" them back up before we went inside (What are we, cowboys?) Guess we'll have to fix the fences too. But after that we went inside and yeah this is pretty much just your average house, nothing too grand. This is the kinda place I would've loved to get for myself before all this happened. There's about like two bedrooms, one that kinda looks like a kids room and the other has two beds most likely meant for the parents. I went in the "master" bedroom to take a look at it and there was a framed photo on the end table… A family lived here… They had a life here… I didn't even realize it until now but I accepted this situation too quickly. This body, everyone disappearing, everything. I had my body stolen away from me, with even my damned gender and now my mom's gone too. The Event took everything away from us. I'm sorry… I promise we'll bring you back, all of you. Humanity isn't dead yet, we're still here. I just slid the picture under the bed for now, I don't want the others to see on the verge of tears over something like this. We'll use this place well, I swear it. Other than that, I helped John set up the solar panels here, there's no generator here so if something happens to those were fucked. We might have to make a run to Home Depot for that, they sell that kinda stuff right? We're just settling down so we didn't do a whole lot today. We'll be a whole lot more productive tomorrow. For a "radio" we've just been using one of those cb radios, those usually only cover about 20 or so miles which isn't exactly the best when we're probably the last people on earth and need to find survivors. No wonder John wasn't getting anything, why didn't he think of this himself? So I'm gonna get us a shortwave radio instead! According to this book those usually have ranges up to thousands of meters! And basically my plan for tomorrow is to build some kind of pseudo radio station! We'll need an antenna, a transmitter of some kind and all that good stuff! Alright, it's settled then! We'll get a generator and radio parts from home depot or wherever we need to go. We'll also need building materials to fix up this place a bit too… Then I'll try flying again, practicing galloping… And I can start working on my project! Tomorrow's gonna be quite the busy day. We took the bandages off of John's leg, it's way better now so he should be able to drive. We'll just need to help him get back on his hooves. (Oh god, I wrote hooves instead of feet.) What else to write about… What else… Oh yeah, aside from cows and the sheep there's chickens on this farm too, pens a little damaged but we can fix it of course. There's no horses here, but I did happen to see one on the way here. They unfortunately didn't turn into weirdly colored small ponies. Oh well… What the heck even are we then? I guess we're some kind of alien species with human sentience then… It's pretty surreal to see a horse next to, whatever we are. Welp, as always this is Emile, ta ta. Ponies… - Emile June 14th, 2015 Dear Journal, Okay, the first thing we did today was take a trip to Home Depot. It was just Me and John that went since he can drive now. Alyssa, and Minuette stayed home. We took Buddy for protection. No, I'm not starting to like that mutt he's just useful, that's all. Alyssa doesn't seem to like Minuette much, like she doesn't trust her or something. I hope she wasn't too mad about us leaving them alone together… We picked up building materials, paint, and a generator at Home Depot, they don't have radio parts though so we had to go to an electronics store for that. We took everything we could, with John's magic and the saddle bags we were able to get pretty much everything we needed. I got one extra thing for myself, a watering can! It's for the flowers. Still not telling you what the project is though… I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise Tehe~! (God, please don't let anyone see this…) First thing me and John did was set up the radio, we used a ladder that was left in the house to put the antenna on top of the roof. I almost fell but I managed to use my wings to glide down softly. And that is why I hate heights… I'm not too good at tech stuff but with John's help we did it. Ta-da, a fully functional better radio! Well, kinda we might need to do a few adjustments to it but we're almost done with it! After that we decided to work on fixing the farm. We all pitched in to help, we fixed up the fences a bit they have a coat of white, the barn has a coat of red…Boom! We should be able to fix this place up in no time flat. We got the help of two unicorns, one pegasus, one normal pony, and a dog that occasionally helps out from time to time! We're still on a roll! Alyssa's still having trouble doing things with her mouth and hooves though so I had to help her out a bit with that… Hehe… I tried flying again, this time on a nearby hill. I ran as fast as I could and…! Came tumbling down. Still can't fly. I'll just try again later. I've gotten galloping and cantering down at this point while Alyssas got trotting down and John can walk again! I also started work on my project secretly and planted a few seeds hopefully they'll grow… But overall, a pretty productive and busy day! Nothing else to report so as always this is Emile, bye bye! - Emile > Day 24-25, Partners In Destiny. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 15th, 2015 Dear Journal, Today was another semi productive day. We were mostly just finishing up stuff we already started though. One of the first things I did today was finish up the radio with John since its basically one of our top priorities. (We need it to contact people you know.) With John's mechanical skills and my uh, "assortment of special qualities" we were able to get it done fairly quickly. Now all that's left was to test it… "Testing, Testing, 1 2 3…." It works, I dunno if anybody heard the message but it works just fine. Next thing on the list was to fix up the place. We finished up the cattle pen for the cows and we're almost done with painting the barn. We had to use the ladder for some of the really high places, it's actually pretty hard to climb things with hooves… Humans are good at those kinda things since we (apparently) evolved from monkeys, ponies not so much. I had Minuette wait and hold the ladder just in case something like yesterday happened again. Luckily, I didn't fall this time. (Yay…) The barn and the cow pen (what do you call it? Cattle pen?) look pretty good so far, they still seem a little unfinished though. But like I said yesterday, we're on a roll! Even after all we've been through we're still doing good! I tried to fly again today, but I had the same result yesterday though. I tumbled down the hill like a tumbleweed, but just a small moment I swear it felt like I lifted myself off the ground. I think I'm getting there… In a couple months I might even be able to fly like the pegasi in my vision! (One day…) I've pretty much mastered galloping and cantering by now. Me and Minuette are trying to teach the others how, Alyssas still stuck on trotting and John's doing pretty good with walking so far especially with that stiff leg of his. Just give it some time, they'll learn eventually. (I still hope it doesn't take too long though.) We'll probably finish up fixing the barn, the cattle pen and move on to the chicken pen and the house next. Not much else happened today… I'll probably try the radio tomorrow to see if we can contact anyone out there. Maybe, just maybe there's another colony like us… Welp, this is Emile as usual. Over and out. - Emile June 16th, 2015 Dear Journal, Okay, okay, okay. We've discovered something incredible today. Just like I thought yesterday, there's hope! There's more people out there like us! Today I woke up and heard something on the radio. The message was a bit foggy but I could make it out. “If you're hearing this, you are not alone. There are other survivors. We have resources and a growing community. We are presently located in Los Angeles, California at the following street address... We'll listen on this frequency for any replies, this message will repeat…" I was practically on the verge of tears. There's hope, there's more people, another colony just like us! I left them a little reply: "We hear you loud and clear, partner, we're located in Delaware at this address, over." Los Angeles is only about 40 hours away, we could go there right now if we want to! I calmed down and woke everyone up to tell them the news. Everyone seemed happy, Alyssa was ecstatic, John kept his cool but I could still see the light in his eyes, and Minuette seemed overjoyed and fascinated with other people being out there. Heck, even Buddy seemed like he was happy. We got a reply back from them shortly after that: "We got your message, you're not too far from us, do you wanna meet up somewhere?" I thought it over and I simply told them "No, we don't wanna abandon our home, we can always meet up later." But now we're talking over the radio to each other. The person who first sent the message by the way, his name is Alex. He told me about everything, about how he woke up alone with everyone gone, how he got turned into a pony, how he met Cloudy Skies and Joseph, just everything. My god, does it feel good to talk to someone who went through the same things I did. He even got turned into a mare like me! I know I have Alyssa and the others… It's just nice to have someone who just understands me more, y'know? I bet he feels the same way. God, I barely know Alex and I'm already treating him like a close friend. I'm so stupid… I told him about everything that happened to me too. I guess I was a bit luckier than him because I woke up with someone, while it took him a couple days to find anyone else. And remember that shared "vision" I had when me and John messed with turns out Alex had an incident like that too. Mine happened a few days before his though. I joked about it being a shared vision across the space time continuum, but how is that even possible…? Heh, this stuff doesn't even surprise me that much anymore. I guess that's what happens you're exposed to so much magic shenanigans in 24 days. Either way I found you, my partner in destiny. That's what we are, we both share similar fates and destinies. Alex signed off with us after that, I guess he had to go do something. Well, whatever it was it must've been important. Alright so, we finished up the rest of the cattle pen for the cows and the barn today, they look nice. I said we would move on to the chicken coop and the house yesterday but I don't know about that now. The house is fine, it could use a bit of sprucing up though. The chicken coops okay, but we might as well just build another one with the condition it's in. Ugh… I'm just thinking logically, okay? Just trying to save us time and resources. (Not money, that doesn't really matter anymore.) So build a new chicken coop… What else…. Oh right! We've been mostly drinking store bought water but we should probably build a well. There isn't an infinite amount of water bottles and some of the lakes are probably drying up by now, so having a well would be nice. So, a well…. Hmm… Y'know, this place is pretty nice. I wonder how much the family that lived here got this land for… I kinda wanna build some kind of enclosure with a gate around it, not really for any specific use. I thought it might look nice, it could keep some stuff out though… We could also build a shed for storage… Alright, there! I made a little list on what we should do with this place. The others seemed to agree with most of it, except maybe the fence and gate. Alyssa asked me what it would be for, I just shrugged and said "maybe it'll keep the deer out?" I'm sure they'll help out anyway. And speaking of deer. Yeah, there's deer out here. I saw one today. There aren't a lot of animals out here but there's a forest nearby so there's definitely some in there. (Wolves maybe?) I continued working on my "project" today, some of the flowers are starting to bloom. John saw me working on them but didn't question why I was planting them in such a specific order. (I hope he didn't find out… That'd ruin the surprise!) Alex contacted us again today and said something about strange messages on an emergency channel. So, I turned the radio to that same channel and yup. There's static with some kind of robotic female voice repeating some numbers. It's probably some kind of code for something. I don't know if I could decipher it though, Alex said his friend Joseph could try. Hmm… Maybe it's some kind of secret message from a government that survived? But if it was why would they put it in code, shouldn't they be trying to help survivors during something like this? Maybe it's like in one of those science fiction movies where the government is securely evil, eh… Alright, I'm getting tired now. I'm heading to bed so I'll have enough energy to get stuff done tomorrow. Peace. Alex, Cloudy Skies, Joseph… They all seem like nice people, I hope we can meet them soon… - Emile > Day 26-27, Normal Days. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 17th, 2015 Dear Journal, Me and John set up the generator today, we'll need it if the solar panels ever go out on us. Hopefully that never happens though. And the rest of us finished up the pen for the sheep. We have a bunch of animals here and no idea on what to do with them… We'll probably have to learn how to shear sheep, farm chicken eggs, and milk cows. Those would all be useful skills right about now. Trying to fly again, got the same result as the last two times I tried. I think I'm kinda getting flapping and fluttering down though, I dunno. I'm getting there, just very very very slowly. Too slowly even, I wish I had a teacher… I continued work on my project, it's nowhere near done but it looks nice so far. And no, I'm still not telling you what it is. It's a surprise, you'll have to wait until it's done. Alex told me about his day over the radio, it sounded way more fun than mine. He went on a trip with Sky. Cloudy Skies… She has a weird "name" like Minuette, maybe they're from the same place or something? He also said something about setting up a movie room in his group's base. Maybe we should do that too… I still miss video games, I'll probably go out and get some tomorrow. Alex is a nice guy, I'd love to hang out with him sometime. I didn't really seriously mean the whole "partners in destiny" thing, but it's kinda weird the more I think about it. We both had similar visions and dreams, on top of our already similar fates. Why am I the one having these dreams? I'm not special, I'm just some kid. The only reason why I "took charge" is because I just felt like that's what needed to be done… We talked about our past lives too. During that time it got a little moody… It might seem stupid and impulsive but I told him "If he needs me, I'll always be here." Yeah… God, why am I like this… I never cared much about friends or people back then, so why now do I suddenly care now all of a sudden…? I'm such an idiot… I need to just take a break or something…. - Emile June 18th, 2015 Dear Journal, I had another strange dream today. This time I was in space, I wasn't fighting for my life or anything like that I was fine, I could even breathe normally. I couldn't see any of the planets or the moon though, it was just stars. Just stars in the empty vastness of space… They all looked so beautiful, I felt like I just wanted to reach out and touch them. They were calling to me… A pony appeared from the starry night sky, I couldn't see his face but a purple hoof reached out and touched me… He whispered something… I couldn't make it out and yet it felt like it soothed me. I felt like I was at peace… It ends there. I dunno what that was. It can't be a "side effect" from the runes considering how long it's been since that happened. Hmm… Weird… So we all went out into town today. We stopped at a lot of places. First, we stopped at Home Depot. The stray dogs are getting kinda territorial. Minuette and John easily scared them off with their laser horn beams though. (Heh, take that you damned mutts.) We got cobblestone for the well and more building materials, we got a lot so it kinda took a while to load in the truck. It probably didn't help that we got a solar shower and new coop for the chickens too. Next, we stopped at some kind of clothing store and got some actual fabric for me to make us clothes and all that. John got this pair of jeans and a cap. I guess he's just gonna be wearing that cap from now on because he seems to like it. It'll be like my bow, an important accessory that means alot to him. He wears it backwards so his horn pokes out from the little hole. Lastly, we (I) stopped at Game Stop. I picked up a 3ds since I wanted one before all of this happened. I got a couple of games for it too. I'll show Minuette it since she apparently doesn't know what 99% of modern technology is but she seems to be really really really interested by it. So that's how our little shopping trip went. Me and John set up the solar shower, he put down a bunch of wooden planks for the floor, I took the curtains from the shower inside and forcefully pulled the rails off, basically duck taped them to a wall and boom. Now we have a little mini shower outside our house. The actual shower part is hanging from a little wooden cylinder. We did that all with our own hooves and some help, that's kinda neat… We'll probably work on the well tomorrow, John says he just has to find the perfect spot… God, he's good at building things I dunno what we'd do without him. I made Alyssa a little gray shirt since she said she wanted one. It wasn't too hard, just a bit of sewing, stitches, boom. I've honestly gotten good at making clothes, I really should consider being a fashion designer. (Still no.) I'm still working on my project, making sure these planets get lots of sunlight, water, etc. I'm honestly pretty good at gardening that might be what my destiny mark is for. I'm still not done yet, but I might be by the end of this month or earlier if I'm lucky. Tried flying again today, still no luck. I've been practicing day after day after day and still nothing… I'm not gonna give up, I just wish it wasn't so hard… Wings are pretty nice to have though. Like I said in one of my earlier entries it's like having extra limbs. It feels nice to just frolic around and flap them every now and then. I hope the others don't catch me doing that… Destiny marks… Speaking of, Alex told me he doesn't have one. I might not be natural for whatever weird alien ponies we are to just be born with one. I'm guessing Alex doesn't have one because he hasn't found something he's good at yet. (If that's how they work) What does that say about me then? Is my fate predetermined or something? I hope not. But if it is, I'll try to defy it no matter what! Hehe… Sorry for not having a goodbye yesterday. But today, you know how it goes. This is Emile, bye. - Emile > Day 28-29, Normal Days (2) And The Most Awesome Vacation Ever! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 19th, 2015 Dear Journal, Took a shower using our brand new outdoor solar shower, it's not too shabby if I do say so myself. Alyssa seems to like it too, I actually caught her singing while she was taking her shower. Needless to say she was uh pretty "embarrassed" when I told her about it. She told me to "pretend it never happened." Guess the secrets out of the bag now though, oops… (Sorry Alyssa.) I also did some of the laundry too. Minuette still won't wear any clothes. She's got a weird name and she's a nudist, what a combination… She was acting all smug, talking about how "free" she is because she doesn't wear clothes. I hate to say it, but she's right. It does feel pretty good to not wear clothes. I still don't like it that much though so I'll keep wearing whatever I can, thank you very much. (I wanna wipe that dumb smirk right off her face…) Today we set up the chicken coop, we didn't really need to do much with that since it was already built for us and started work on the well. John found the "perfect" spot and immediately started digging since we don't have drills, we stopped at a reasonable amount of feet, I think it was like 20 or something. I'm no well expert, but I'm pretty sure we'll need a pipe of some kind… Well, whatever we need I'm pretty sure John will figure it out. I tried flying again, still no luck. God, I hate this… Why does this have to be so hard…? I wish I could snap my fingers and fly like that. Except I don't have fingers anymore… Can you snap with hooves? What is the pony equivalent of snapping? Slamming your hooves together? I dunno, I'm getting off topic… Alex told me about his day again, it seemed like his wasn't much better than mine. He said he thinking about taking his group to the beach though. Hmm… Maybe we should do some like that. It's just been all work and no fun for us. I already said I wanted to go to Japan when all of "this" was over, but who knows when that's gonna be. We might as well take advantage of everyone being in limbo and have some fun. Maybe we'll go to a hot spring. I heard there were some really good ones around here. Well, before everyone disappeared that is… Yeah, that sounds good. We'll go to a hot spring tomorrow. Our "vacation" aside, the weird transmissions from the emergency channel keep coming. I have no idea what they are, Alex doesn't seem to know either which isn't very helpful… Maybe that computer friend of his can decode this one too. I feel like I'm becoming fast friends with Alex, we've been talking a lot and it's just… Nice… I don't know how to describe it. Well there's not much else to report today, we could have joined Alex's group on their beach trip but I decided to pass on that. We're gonna go on our own little trip instead! Welp, this is Emile, over and out. - Emile June 20th, 2015 Dear Journal, Alright, operation "super awesome vacation trip" is a go! (And a success!) When I told the others about my plan they pretty unanimously all agreed since we could honestly use a bit of a break. John's apparently never been to a hot spring before. I haven't too so it's a first for both of us! Alyssa's went to one before but that was a while ago, and Minuette seemed mildly interested in it too. And yes, we're taking Buddy too. We mapped out a route for us, it isn't that far and shouldn't take that long to get there or get back for that matter, and if we need someplace to stay there's a super expensive hotel near there! So we're pretty much all set, god this is gonna be so fun!!! I would probably never be able to do this normally with the way me and mom were struggling with money. That's just one of the good things about this "event" ; we don't need to worry about things like that! Thank god for the "apocalypse." We packed "all that we could." We pretty much only needed clothes so we're just gonna come right back. It's nice to have a proper home for once. And with that, we're off! We stopped at some kind of cheap dollar store and picked up water guns, beach balls, and all that good stuff! Fun in the sun, baby! That's one of the things I love about summer, it's nice and sunny, and it doesn't rain too much! I absolutely hate the heat though… We packed lunches but I'm getting kinda hungry now… Well, if we need to eat there's a buffet in the hotel I think. We can just steal borrow from that. Alright, we're here! The hotel looks pretty nice, there's nobody in there of course. And the hot springs are natural I think…? They haven't dried up, they seem fine. For the most part at least. We pretty much just broke in and stole two keys for two first floor rooms. One for me and Minuette, and another for John, Alyssa, and Buddy. Alyssa knows I don't like dogs so she volunteerly decided to put Buddy in another room. I'm a bit since I wanted for us to be together, but I'm a bit happy to know she cares about even my stupid fears. (Note to self: try to get over fear of animals later…) Alright so we threw everything we didn't need in the rooms and went out into the hot springs since it was just a short trot away. Alyssa can trot at this point, she still can't canter or gallop though. John can finally walk normally even if his leg still feels a bit stiff. (I hope that's not permanent.) I guess me and Minuette will be the only ones in this group who can gallop for while… Oh well, we'll just teach the others the best we can! We didn't bring swim suits since y'know, we're ponies. I don't think they'd fit us anyway. We did bring a couple of towels though. Alyssa has one right now, I think she's the only one who cares about that kinda thing 8⃣ now. I'm a girl now so it's not like it matters if I see anything… Now this is the life, just relaxing with some sun glasses on… Everything's perfect for optimal "chillaxing", is what someone like Alyssa would say. This may have been some super fancy hot spring made for "relaxing" but it would be boring if that's all we used it for. We used this place more like a public pool than anything! We had an awesome water gun fight with each other, with water spraying left and right! I tried my best to dodge them, but I got hit after making a small mistake…. And at the end of the gruesome war there was one victor, Minuette… Alyssa blamed her lack of opposable thumbs and Minuettes "accused" unicorn magic on her loss. She probably isn't wrong. On the way back to the hotel we heard a loud "BOOM!" and saw some smoke not too far away, we didn't investigate it but hopefully it wasn't anything bad… Overall, today was a fun day! It might've not been productive but who cares?! We had fun. We honestly needed a break like this after everything we've been through. It's nice to just not stress out about anything and just live carefreely every once in a while, y'know? Well, this is Emile. And as usual, peace. - Emile > Day 30, Obligatory Hot Springs Episode. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 21th, 2015 Dear Journal, Yesterday was fun as heck! That honestly felt like an obligatory hot spring episode in an anime. But who cares how "cliche" it is to do something like that at the end of the world, it was fun and that's all that matters! Besides, we deserved it. There was a buffet inside the hotel just like we thought. We just stole "borrowed" some food from there, and honestly we goofed off like little kids a bit too. Cut us some slack, we're on vacation alright? Geez… We were actually able to eat a semi-normal breakfast. Looks like we're not entirely herbivores after all. (Poor Alyssa still can't eat bacon though…) It feels so good to eat pancakes after so long… I missed the taste of them… So, so delicious…. If we couldn't eat pancakes what would be the pony equivalent to them? Haycakes? God, that sounds like something Minuette would make, and like… I'm so not eating hay though. John tried making himself a burger, I advised him not to but he didn't listen. He was extremely disappointed to learn the truth when he tried to eat it to say the least… Sorry, John… Small, alien, and weirdly colored ponies can't eat burgers… After that we went back home. We stopped at Home Depot to get more materials for the well and anything else we needed and made another quick pitstop to get some gas on the way though. We also got some gas canisters there so we won't have to stop for gas so much on these kinda trips so much. Once we got home me and John continued working on the well again, we've pretty much finished digging at this point so we just had to set up the pipe(s). John says we'll be done with the pipes tomorrow and after that we can start putting down the cobblestone. I'll be honest and just say John helped me with it ALOT. Seriously, I don't know what we'd do without him. He's such an honest and hard worker… He's probably thankful we went on that hot springs trip. While we did that though, Alyssa and Minuette (plus Buddy) started working on the fence/gate. We figured we might get that down too since the well might take a while to finish. Multitasking, baby! Alex's group contacted us again today, and you won't believe what they found on their beach trip! Another survivor! They said something about a plane crashing on the beach. I guess that's what that boom and smoke was… Alex said she's unconscious right now, but it's good news! There's more survivors out there! Maybe we'll find another survivor soon too… He also said something about that "plane girl" being injured. That doesn't sound too good… Well, if they ever need medical supplies or anything they can just come to us! That stuff aside though. I worked on my project again today, the roses did well without me but I feel like our "vacation" might have delayed it getting done a bit… Hopefully not… Its coming along nicely so far, still pretty far from finished but I'm getting there! Tried flying again too, my practicing is actually kinda paying off because today I managed to actually get off the ground! Kinda… It was more like I glided for a couple seconds than anything. Then I fell flat on my face again… Alyssa caught me practicing and you wanna know what she did? Instead of laughing and making fun of me like I thought she would, she cheered me on. It was an honest to god cheer. When I told how I had been practicing day after day she just looked at me blankly for a minute and said, "Wow, I didn't know about that…" She then gave me a little smirk and put one of her hooves up in a weird way like she was trying to mimic a thumbs up. "Good luck then!" She said. Wow… Just wow… I honestly didn't know Alyssa could be like that… It always felt like she was just teasing me about everything. Maybe that was her own weird little way of "caring." We've grown. Both of us. We've definitely grown over the course of these 30 days… 30 days… We've really been like this for that long… Welp, as always. This is Emile, and aside from Alex's group we're the last people on earth. Peace. - Emile > Day 31-32, More Survivors And "Bliss Flower." > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 22nd, 2015 Dear Journal, You won't believe what happened today! We found another survivor too, just like I said! I swear my big mouth has the ability to predict the future. Anyways, today I woke up to yet another big BOOM! noise. I looked outside to see what it was and saw a new vehicle that looked something like a police car crashed into our barn. I immediately woke the others up and we all went outside to investigate. And guess what we found? There was an unconscious pony inside with a titled police hat and a officers uniform that barely fit her anymore. Judging by the id she had in her pockets her names "Madeline Brook" She has a purple white coat, silverish purple hair, and silver eyes. Her Destiny Mark looks like some kind of shield with a star on it with a pair of handcuffs next to it. (Will we have to remake those for hooves?) She's a normal pony like Alyssa. She's fine, she seems to be still breathing, she's just unconscious. The barn was okay too, she luckily didn't crash into the entire wall and just kinda damaged it a bit. We might have to fix that… Her car, not so much… It looks like it took a fair bit of damage. Oh well, John can probably fix it up nice and easily if we need ever need too. We took her out of the car and put her down in my bed. She's still unconscious right now as I'm writing this, but we took her clothes off and put them right beside her just on case she wakes up. I dunno what rank she is but she's high enough to have a pair of handcuffs, a taser AND a gun on her. We just put those in a cabinet downstairs for now. It's not that we don't trust her. She's an officer of the law, she's probably a good person. (Or a pony like Minuette would say.) It's just that, that kinda stuff is dangerous, y'know? Alex told me about his day again. The plane girl still isn't up and it looks she's a bit more that just "injured." She lost her horn. Ow…That's gotta be rough, especially for a unicorn. I do not wanna know how she'll react to that. Madeline isn't injured that much, she gets a few cuts and bruises but it's nothing we can't patch up. I told him about how we found another survivor only a day after him, he seemed pretty surprised about it. O' partner in destiny it looks like the hands are fate are moving us in similar directions! For we are the steward heroes who will save humanity and the world! Together, we are unmatched-! Okay, okay. I'll stop it. Sorry about that, sometimes i just can't help it when I get in the "mood." It's a bit of a habit of mine… Apparently Alex's name is "Lonely Day" now. I'm kidding, Sky gave him that name. He said it was some kind stupid nickname of hers. Hmm… Minnie seems to have the same idea of "real" names as her. I should give myself one…. How about, Bliss Flower! After the weird flower mark on my flank. I like it. Minuette said it sounded good too. So, Bliss Flower it is! That's my new pony "nickname." Alyssa would probably be something like "Fierce Fire" that definitely fits her well. John could be something like 'Screw Driver…?" I'm not sure on what his pony name would be. Probably something tool related though. Alex also said his group might be leaving their base soon but he doesn't know for sure. See, that's what I told you. Living in the countryside/suburbs is better than living in the city in a situation like this. God, who knows what could happen in the city, way too many dangerous things. That's for sure. Aside from Alex and Ms Mysterious Police Officer, me and John continued work on the well. We finished the pipes for now, now we just have to get started on laying the cobblestone. Alyssa and Minuette (and Buddy) are still working on the fence/gate. They're doing pretty good with that so far. Alyssa's still having a bit of trouble doing things with her hooves and mouth though. (Poor Alyssa…) It seems like Minnie's trying to help her out the best she can though! Their relationship seems to be getting better… I think Alyssa didn't trust Minuette because of her amnesia, and I'll be honest I didn't entirely trust her at first either. But over time she's proven herself to be a valiant member of the team. She's one of us now! God, I make it sound like we're some kind of cult… Madeline will be too when she uh y'know, wakes up. Worked on my project again, still not finished but I feel like I'm close. Probably about half way there. Maybe. Tried to fly again, same result with slight changes. My "gliding" is getting better. I might be able to flutter for a bit in a few days. Alyssa watching me practice is probably gonna be a norm from now on, because she came today too. She cheered me on just like yesterday. One more thing, Toilet still only works once. We should probably make an outhouse. Let me add that to the list, out house… Alright, it's done! We'll start that sometime in a couple days or something. You know the drill now, this is Bliss Flower, bye bye. (I like my normal name better…) - Bliss Flower June 23th, 2015 Dear Journal, Madeline still hasn't woken up yet. We've tried our best to patch her up but she still hasn't woken up. I don't know if she's in a coma or what. My guess is that she probably isn't gonna wake up for a couple of days. Well when she does wake up I want to have things ready for her, so I took it upon myself to completely remake her police uniform for her current size and Ta-da! The first police uniform for ponies in existence! I did this all by hoof, all by myself. Yeah, I'm proud of myself. So what? Let me have this one okay? It was pretty hard to make clothes by hoof at first, but now look! I went from making garbage like those saddlebags to this! I've gotten really good at this… Maybe I should remake those bags too, they're getting kinda old…. (Let me just add that to my personal to-do list…) Alright so aside from clothes me and John continued working on the well, we're pretty much done with the pipes and working on the cobblestone now. We're putting down the bricks using some kind glue/paste of some kind since we don't have cement. This is honestly the easy part, especially since John has his unicorn magic. He can carry a lot more bricks than I can. We'll probably be done with that tomorrow, then we'll just need to put up a little roof, get one of those buckets and tie it to a string and boom! A well! Alyssa and Minuette are still working on the fence, they're about half way done with it I think. Then after that they'll get started on the gate. I worked on my project again. I'm almost done, just a couple more days left and I'll be done. And I tried flying again, I actually got off the ground this time, only by a bit though. I still fell on my face after that. I was right about Alyssa watching me practice becoming a norm, she came again too. She cheered me on, like always. Well no matter how long it takes me to fly at least I'll have some emotional support on the way. Talked to Alex again today. He told me about his day like always. Plane Girl still hasn't woken up, guess that makes two of them… Apparently he tried a couple stunts to get the attention of survivors, he even posted something online in the first couple days. How come I never saw anything…? Did I check too early or something…? Dammit… That makes me wonder what would've happened if I saw it then, maybe we would've found each other sooner. He also seemed a bit jealous of how well things were going for us. "Wow, you guys got it pretty good." Is what he said. He isn't exactly wrong. I just told him we aren't exactly doing too good either. I might need to go to the store for more food actually. I'll do that tomorrow. But as always this is Emile, peace. - Emile > Day 33-34, Normal Days Again... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 24th, 2015 Dear Journal, Me and John went into town for more food and supplies today, it was one of the most important things on my "personal to do list" so I figured we should get that done first. There's a target not too far from here, so we just went there. We just got a bunch of (mostly) vegetarian and vegan stuff, we're not entirely herbivores so we can eat some meat, we just need to figure out what… We also got some flour so Alyssa or I could maybe bake something. I kinda wanna try baking, maybe Alyssa could teach me… And I got some candy and soda for myself everyone. Look, it's not my fault I liked sweet stuff so much okay? Turning into a pony didn't amplify that. I've always been like this. It wasn't too hard to load everything into the truck, especially when John can just use his horn to do most of the heavy lifting. After that we stopped at a weird clothing store on the way back and got some wool, a knitting kit of some kind and some more stuff for the saddle bags. Also yeah, I'm gonna tackle knitting! Alyssa actually didn't call me a grandma for it, she just giggled a bit when I told her. "Nothing~" is what she said when I asked her what was so funny. I swear, that girl sometimes… She really is a damned gremlin. After we got home me and John finished up the well, we're done laying down the cobblestone now. All we had to do after that was put up a little roof thingy (is there a specific word for it?) tie a bucket to it with a rope and boom. A Well! It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. It's not that deep but there's already a tiny bit of water in it. Now we have another way to get water aside from stores or just putting buckets out when it rains… Alyssa and Minuette (plus Buddy) finished about half of the fence, now they're starting on the gate. I call it a "gate" but it's more like a little entrance than anything. That's why I said it doesn't really serve any purpose. I just thought it would look nice. And honestly, it's only about half finished and it already looks good. It'll probably look even better when it's actually finished! I worked on my project again and tried flying for the 999th time. Projects coming along great and I'm almost done with it while flying is pretty much the same as ever. I feel like I'm getting better though, just very slowly. I probably shouldn't try to rush it, these kinda things take time, right? Speaking of, it looks like I'm not the only one practicing in secret. I caught John working on his magic today. It seems like he's been working really hard on it. I asked how long he had been doing this and he told me "A couple of days now." Heck, he's even been getting Minuette to try and help him with it. I wonder what else I don't know about him… Madeline still hasn't woken up, there's honestly not much else we can do for her. I guess we'll just have to hope she wakes up in the next couple of days… Not much else happened today. So as always this is Emile, bye. I wonder what Alex did today… I should talk to him again… - Emile June 25th, 2015 Dear Journal, Today was a pretty eh day. There's honestly not much going on right now and not much for us to do aside from getting our to do list done. I'm still trying to write anyway since I wanna document everything that happens, even the smallest things. Me and John made an outhouse today. We did a little bit of digging and he put up the rest of it like lightning fast work. The more things we build the better he gets at it. I think it seems just "okay" compared to the rest of his work since he rushed it a bit, but it's serviceable for now. Besides, we can always fix it up later if we need to. With that done we helped Alyssa and Minuette (plus Buddy, we can't forget about him) with the rest of the fence. And with our combined efforts we were able to get half of it done! Now we have a fence with a little entrance that curves upwards around our farm! It looks pretty cute. like I said though, it's still only halfway done. We just need to finish this one small part of it, then we're done! I wonder what we should do after that… Try to make another radio maybe? I don't know, we'll figure it out later… Maybe I should ask Alex what he thinks… Anyway about Alex, that plane girl he found apparently woke up today. Her name is "Moriah Strickland." She doesn't seem like a bad person from what I've heard so far. She's just a bit… What's the word for it…? Stern. Yeah, that. The weird transmissions from that emergency channel just keep going, it changed again recently. I still have no idea what they mean or how to decode them but hey! That happened I guess… They're strange, I don't get it… Strange… I haven't had any strange dreams in a while. Is that good or bad…? It could be bad. I dunno, the only thing I know for sure is that I've had enough weird visions for now. I tried knitting today, it's not that hard(?) But I'm still not good at it. Turns out knitting and sewing are pretty different. I just made this little scarf so far. It's not bad, just okay, it's kinda itchy too. After that I worked on my project and practiced flying again. Those are just daily things at this point. I'll probably finish the "project" tomorrow or the day after that. Flying was the same as always. Alyssa came to watch me like she usually does. The last notable thing I did today was make… Drum roll please… A nailed bat! Yeah, you heard me right. A fucking nailed bat. Why did I make something like that you ask? For protection of course. Now if any animal tries to attack me I'll just smack em in the head and boom! They're dead. God my mom would kill me if she found out I made something like this. I wonder if I can use Madeline's gun…? I could probably try with my wings since they're pretty good for that kinda stuff. What am I even talking about anymore… Is it even legal for me to use a gun…? Probably not. We've already done so many "illegal" things at this point. Laws don't exist anymore so who's cares! We should really re-establish those… Thankfully we all have common sense. Welp this is Emile, you know the drill. Peace. - Emile > Day 35, Awakening And Adventure! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 26th, 2015 Dear Journal, Madeline woke up. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill. Madeline finally woke up. So, I was going up to check on her like I usual do but instead of going up to see her unconscious I went up to see her wide awake. The first thing she ever said to me was "Where am I…?" It was faint and quiet. She seemed sickly and weak. Definitely not good… But I guess that's what being unconscious for that long does to somebody… The next thing she asked me was "Who are you…?" I should've expected her to bombard me with questions like that. I soothed her and calmed her down the best I could and told her how we found her outside our "farm" unconscious in her police car. When I told her how everyone disappeared, something changed in her… She didn't get angry… No. She just looked at me with this empty and sad expression as her ears drooped. It was like watching the light die in her eyes. I honestly think I shouldn't have told her that, especially not right after she just woke up. But what else was I supposed to do? I would have to tell her eventually. God, I'm such an idiot… Okay, we're getting off track here. The first thing she tried to do was get out of bed and stand up like a normal human, and just like me on my first day she failed and fell right onto her tummy. I helped her back up and took her downstairs so I could introduce her to everyone. She should've seen how her face instantly lit back up with a soft smile when she saw our group. Once we got done with the introductions I asked her how she even got here. Apparently when everything happened she was just heading back to the station when she had gotten an emergency dispatch from nearby. She immediately started heading there and then everything went dark. Next thing she knew her car was out of control and she looked entirely different. She tried to slow her car down but ended up losing control of it and in a desperate attempt to stop it she "pulled over" to the first place she saw and now we're here. Just like John she still seemed to think it was May 23th when it's June 26th. I could've asked her more but I decided to just let her be for now. She needs to rest. Alyssa made her a little soup and you wanna know what Madeline did? She gulped the entire thing down in almost two seconds flat, I have never seen someone eat like that before. She must've been starving! Everyone seems to be fine with her so far. We don't have much of a reason to think she was lying about anything and if she really were a bad person, I don't think she'd act so nice… Unless she's some kind of manipulator or something if so she's really good at it. When she asked where we put her equipment I just told her we put it in a cabinet. When I gave her the clothes I made a couple days ago she just looked at me with a soft smile and said "Thank you." Alyssa led her to the bathroom so she could go change after that. Madeline seems pretty nice so far, she gives off this kind and gentle vibe, and she's a pretty good manipulator too. Just the skull we need. I'm joking of course. I guess we have a new member now. 6 people, and there's about 4 in Alex's group. So, so far there's 10 people left on earth… Not a whole lot, but that's fine. I like a challenge. We'll bring back everyone, just you watch…! Me being dramatic aside, hooves on deck would be useful, if she could actually work that is. After getting changed Madeline just plopped herself face down on the living room couch axnd went back to sleep. It's okay, she needs her rest. We finished up the rest of the fence today and just like that, everything on our short to do list is finished. We really have come a long way since we left that homeless shelter. I worked on my project again and it's about finished, I just need to put the final touches on it and I can show you it tomorrow. You probably can't wait huh? It's nothing too grand, what would I even make like that with roses anyway? It's just something meaningful and pretty too. Flying actually went pretty different today. After all these days of hard work it finally paid off. I can fly now! Kinda… It's only for a bit but I can flutter and basically float. Only for a bit though, I can't do it for more than a couple minutes. Me and Alyssa were so happy that we literally jumped up and down with joy. "I knew you could do it!" We were uh both pretty embarrassed after that. For obvious reasons.. Alex contacted us again. It wasn't a usual daily report. No, it was something different. "We're going on a trip to Sacramento and I wanted to know if you wanted to come." He told me all about how he was going on a trip to Sacramento with Joseph to restore power to some offices so they could use satellite phones! "Hell yes." We could use that kind of technology! None of us are good with computers or anything like that so Joseph's skills would definitely benefit us. I've been swinging around the nailed bat I made yesterday and damn it feels good. And now I can finally put this to the test… I'm so excited, a possibly dangerous trip to somewhere I've never been before?! Fuck yeah! It'll be like an adventure! You know what would really make this better right now? If I had a sword. Using that instead of this bat would be so awesome. Now, who should I take on the trip…? Alex's already bringing Joseph but I need to bring someone too. How about Joe? He's strong, hardworking, I bet he'd be good for something like this. His confidence could get us in a bit of trouble though… I'd bring Madeline along since she's a police officer and all that but she's sick. So John it is then… I told him and he seemed as ecstatic as I am. Alright, we'll wake up first thing in the morning to get ready. We'll bring back any supplies we need, and for protection I have my bat and John could use Madeline's glock. I might bring the laptop too just so I have something to do during the drive. We won't need to use the truck since Alex will be picking us up. Alright, we're all ready to go. For now, this is Emile about to go on a trip with Alex, peace. This will be the first time we'll see each other in person, huh... - Emile > Day 36, Heartfelt Moment and The First Meeting. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 27th, 2015 Dear Journal, We still have a decent amount of time before Alex and Joseph come to pick us so I decided to get some things done before that. First things first, those other two saddle-bags were getting old so I made new ones. One for me, one for John. They're a nice slick black like those socks I made a while ago. We packed everything we needed, food, water supplies, just anything we might need that Alex might not have. And a couple other things I brought were the laptop, a book, and my bat. John has his tools and Madeline's gun. And guess what else I did before we left today. I finished my project! Before Alex picked up I called everyone outside so they could see it, even Madeline. She's part of the family now too after all. "Was it you wanted to show us…?" "Just wait for it… A little further back, anddd there!" Everyone opened their eyes and before them was a garden of Roses arranged to spell out the words "We're here." "Wow…" "Heh, nice work kid…" "It's beautiful!" "...." Everyone was in awe, even Madeline was (almost) completely speechless. It may have not been something super grand or super extravagant but it was something meaningful with love and care put into it, and that's all that mattered. "How long did this take you…?" "Just a couple days at most!" Emile said with a chuckle. "Well someone seems proud." "How couldn't I be?" Alyssa turned to Jonathan with a big old stink eye. "Just let him have it." "Alright, alright, geez…" "We should take a picture! I'll go get the camera!" Minuette quickly ran off to get the camera and back. "Well that was quick, alright everyone say pony!" "Pony!" And… Snap! Another picture of everyone together. This time to remember the moment and to celebrate how far they've come together… Let me just put this on the journal and…. Done! It's right on the cover. Hopefully we don't get any more members after this. Well, if we do I guess we'll just have to take it again! Hehe… We've all come so far… It feels like it's been years since everything started… Welp, no time to be moody! It wasn't long before Alex and John arrived to pick us up. A decently sized RV pulled over, then the window rolled down… Me and Alex just kinda stared at each other for a minute. It's so strange seeing someone you've been talking to for so long in person for the first time, especially when they're a small green pony. He looked exactly like described himself. I think he's a bit taller than me though. I've always been decently short, becoming a pony might've amplified that… I'm not THAT short though. I think… I don't know the exact number for pony heights. I tried to break the awkward silence with a quiet "Hey…." Alex just said "Hi…" back. Welp, I guess that's what happens when you take someone as antisocial as me and have them meet someone they were mostly talking to "online" in person. When me and John hopped in the back Joseph handed us two satellite phones. "Here, we had extras, for you." Is what he said. Well, Geez… He seems a bit, cold… Yeah… Maybe he has his own weird little way of "caring" about people… Like Alyssa! I barely know him other than the couple times I heard him, and the stuff Alex told me. I probably shouldn't be judging him this quickly. There's a uh dog in the front with Alex… I'm guessing that's Huan… He's a bit big… I uh, still haven't gotten over my fear of animals… Yeah… Help me lord. Me and John waved goodbye to Alyssa and Minuette as we drove off. "Come back safe!" I'm kinda sad they couldn't have come along but we need someone to watch the place (and Madeline) while we're gone. Hopefully they won't argue too much while we're gone… I've been reading that book I got at the library lately, the one about King Arthur. Honestly this might be one of the greatest stories I've read ever. I hope the writers still alive out there Suddenly, Arthur heard a voice behind him, it was none other than Merlin, the grand sage. "Wait, are you sure about this?" Arthur felt as if he knew exactly what Merlin was gonna say before he even said anything. He didn't come all this way to heed his warning, he came here to pull out the sword of choosing and become the new king of Britain needed. "Once you pull out that sword, you'll stop being human. The moment you'll pull out that sword, only a cruel fate awaits you ahead." Arthur didn't heed the grand sages warning, it didn't matter if he had to give up his humanity or even his own life. If he could do what he needed to do with this sword, that was all that mattered. "No, if I can make people happy with it, then I'm sure it's the right choice…" And so he pulled it out anyway…. This story is really inspiring. Excalibur chose Arthur the moment he even attempted to pick it up. Only death and despair awaited him, and yet he still went along with his chosen "destiny" just for the sake of the people of Britain… I don't usually believe in things like "destiny" but if my path was already written like that, I would've tried to defy it no matter what. Yet Arthur didn't even try to do that, he even try to see if there was another. He went along with what Destiny had in store for him… Arthur's fearless, brave, strong… He's someone I inspire to be. Plus he's about as young as me! This makes me think… Can I really do it…? Can I really save humanity…? There's millions of people on this planet, can we really save them all…? Ugh… All this destiny mumbo jumbo is making my head hurt. Well anyways, Alex stopped at a reststop. "He didn't want us to be tired when we got into town." he said. He? She? They? What do I call him…? (He I guess….) I wonder what Alex thinks of me, maybe I'm like a friend to him? Nah, he probably thinks I'm a fucking weirdo. I'm still excited about tomorrow. We're gonna go on an adventure! And I'll finally get to put that bat to the test…. Hehe… (Hopefully I won't actually have to use it.) Welp, this is Emile, peace! I accidentally said some of this stuff out loud, I hope Alex didn't hear me. - Emile > Day 37-39, The Calm Before The Storm. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 28th, 2015 Dear Journal, We're in Sacramento now! What did Alex say this place was called again…? Right, The City Of Trees! I've literally been to Sacramento or California in general so this is super exciting for me! I've honestly never been out of Delaware, I used to live in Philadelphia and I went with my mom to Florida once for a vacation trip, aside from that I've really never traveled much. There's always a first for everything though I guess. Still no people out here but there's a decent amount of animals here, nothing too scary though. Thank the gods. We've "settled down" in what Joseph said was his building for now. Alex turned on what I'm guessing is his boombox all super duper loud. To "attract more ponies" he says. He definitely has better music than Alyssa to say the least. Seriously, why is everything she listens to so annoying… I have no idea what John and Joseph did. Apparently, John took a computer class in college so he knows a bit about programming and stuff like that, so he's helping out Joseph. On top of being a mechanic he's good with computers too… (Or "okay-ish" in his words.) They're working on something about keeping the satellite systems up for longer or something… Something, something computery sciencey nerd stuff. I don't know, it all sounds like weird gibberish to me. I don't think Alex gets it either. Alex asked me "How long do I think this'll last?" I don't know if he was talking about satellites or just this entire situation in general, so I just gave him an honest answer. "I don't know." Alex said we should head to NYC, I honestly just immediately agreed. New York is one of the biggest cities on the planet, right? We should DEFINITELY be able to find some survivors there. I honestly feel kinda out of place here, everyone's got their own things they're good at while I'm just some stupid kid… Ugh, pstupid, stupid, stupid! I need to stop getting so moody all the time! So, tomorrow we're gonna go out to get solar panels. Since I'm pretty we'll need power for this place. Hopefully this entire thing doesn't take too long. It's not that I'm home sick already or something, I just hope this doesn't take too long. That's all. I wonder what Alyssa and Minuette are doing without us… I'm still kinda scared of Huan. Alex says he's a "good dog" and I have "nothing to be afraid of" but I just can't help it… It's not my fault dogs are so scary, okay? (That damned dog is plotting something I CAN FEEL IT!) I actually got chased by a dog when I was younger. You wouldn't believe how fast I ran when it start running at me, I ran like my life was really in danger. (Maybe it was.) Ever since then I've been scared of any kind of animal that could possibly hurt me in anyway. I still haven't gotten anything back from Alyssa and Minuette, I dunno if that's good or bad but Alex hasn't heard anything from Sky too. Anyways, not much else to report so as always, this is Emile, peace. - Emile June 29th, 2015 Dear Journal, Sooo apparently Alex found a warehouse of sorts nearby so that's good! I've just been mostly helping Alex out with whatever he needed and keeping him company of course! Alongside Huan. Alex actually showed me how to convert a forklift, so that's pretty cool! I don't know if I'll actually ever need to do something like that, but hey the more you know. Maybe we should get a forklift for home… It might take a bit of the heavy lifting off of John's shoulders. What would we even use something like that for? John's been helping us out whenever we need it, but he's mostly been helping Joseph out with whatever they're doing… Alex has been complaining about Joseph like a lot, like alot alot. Something about him being "lazy" and "spending time on his computer all day." I just said "Well he doesn't seem that bad, besides he's probably doing something really important." "You don't know half of it…" Alex grumbled under his breath, or something like that. Is he really that bad? I mean sure, he seems a bit cold… a bit aloof… he's also a complete know-it-all, okay maybe Alex was right. Well at least he doesn't have an annoying metal head who bullies him all the time as a friend. Hey, Alex we can trade friends if you want. - Emile June 30th, 2015 Dear Journal, So hot… So sweaty… I hate summer… Alright, let me just get to the point. So it seems like the strange dreams are back. Yay… This one was unlike any of the other ones I've had before. I was in a weird place, it was like some kind of ethereal garden…? It was so radiant… I was there, alone. Still a pony. Until someone appeared from the aether. It was a strange mare with bright sky blue hair and a blue coat. Her eyes were this weird pink-blue pastel color and she was wearing these weird robes alongside a long shawl. The mare gave off a weird "aura" she felt weirdly serene and otherworldly it felt like I was standing in the presence of something divine… "We don't have much time." She muttered. I was going to ask her a question but she cut me off as she staggered and her attention turned towards something else for a moment. The ethereal sky that covered the garden began to crack and strange gold dust began to seep through. "Child of man, no matter what happens do not falter from your path, please…" The dreamscape itself began to crack. "I'm counting on you bo-" Was the last thing I was able to make out before it ended. What the hell….? That was no dream, it felt too real, too vivid… Child of man…? Do not falter from your path…? What did she mean by that…? I don't know, but I don't like it. And the last thing she said… She was most likely trying to say "both." Both… Both… So that means me and someone else… Me and someone else… Me and Alex…? Now that I think about it, he did kinda seem oddly "on edge" today… Maybe he had the same "dream" as me…? I should ask him later… Our My strange "dreams" aside, I helped Alex set up the solar panels today! It's so damn hot out here… This is why I hate summer and California now too, I can't wait for fall to come… I helped Alex a bit with spots he couldn't reach. He was a bit surprised I could "fly' even if it's for a bit, especially since Sky still can't fly. I guess practicing everyday really did pay off in the end. John helped a bit too, just not as much as he should have. Seriously, what are Joseph and him doing down there…? Whatever it is, it better be important. Minuette was right about not wearing clothes… It feels so good… There wasn't any point for either of us to be embarrassed since uh me and Alex both threw off whatever we were wearing. Again, we probably don't even need clothes, we're ponies now! Nothing much else to report today so, you know the drill. Peace. - Emile > Interlude 1, Minuette Log 1. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 28th, 2015 Let me just take that out, and put this in… Then… Testing, Testing, 1 2 3… Alright, it's on! Hiya, Minuette here! Since I always see Emile with the journal and I don't really have anything better to do while he's on that trip with Alex… Alex, that's such a weird name… Oh right, where was I…? Since I don't have anything better to do I've decided to keep a little something like that of my own! You call these the Minuette logs! What's that nickname Emile always calls me…? Min…? Minnie…? Min Min Logs…? But yeah, the Minuette logs! With your host and star guest, Minuette! There's honestly not much to talk about since it's only been a day since Emile left, but we're doing good! Alyssa's been real nice lately! Even though she's a big ol'meanie sometimes, I like her! Madeline's been okay… She's still having trouble walking though… I'll just have to do my best to teach her then! Teaching her how to walk… That's so weird, how do none of these ponies know how to walk…? Isn't that like the first thing you learn as a foal…? Weird. Everyone here has such weird names, Alyssa, Emile, Jonathan… And apparently I'm the weird one to them… They're all very nice ponies though! No matter how weird they might be. Welcome uh, I don't know what else to say so… Bye everypony! Now how do I turn this thing off…? Recording Ended. > Day 40-41, The Calm Before The Storm. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 1st, 2015 Dear Journal, Bored, very very bored. Helped Alex again today. I'm so damned bored and hot… I wanna do something fun… I'm still thinking about that dream yesterday. "Do not falter from your path" what did she even mean by that…? Did she mean like my destiny? Or…. No… I shouldn't say anything like that. I read more of that book just because I wanted to. It would be cool if Arthur had some kind of "partner." Not a lover, just someone to be there for him with his cruel fate. Like me and Alex. Not much else to report today, so this is Emile, peace. - Emile July 2nd, 2015 Dear Journal, I had another strange dream today, this one was a bit… "stressful" to say the least… I- I'll just try my best to describe it. This time, I saw a group of ponies in a city, one normal pony, one unicorn, and one pegasus across from them were three people… Human. They were all wearing these strange suits, they looked hazmat suits, a bit armored though. Two of them were armed while the one who wasn't armed had a suit that was different from the others. I couldn't see their faces, the suits had some kind of weird letters on them, I couldn't make them out either. One of the men turned to him. "Your orders Dr, ä̸̛̫͉́͠K̸̺͔̅̅̈́ȅ̵̡̮̺͍͙̞ȑ̴̘̐͗͆͠p̷̬̗̊͌̒r̸̡̹̻̽̿̏̃?" I couldn't make out his name. But he turned to him and said, "Kill them." "Roger." He pointed his rifle at the unicorn and lit him a blaze, the unicorn tried to dodge the bullets the best he could only getting him by some of them, he charged right at the man and shot a beam from his horn breaking the face cover of the man's hazmat suit right after he fell onto him and died. The normal pony charged at them next "Damn you…! She wasn't as successful as the unicorn and died quickly. The pegasus watched as the other two died and immediately darted away, he ran as fast as those little pony legs could take him and- It ends there. What. The. Fuck. I've had strange dreams before but what the fuck was that…? I couldn't even do anything… I just helplessly watched as two innocent people were murdered. And those other people, they were still human… How…? Who are they…? Are they some kind of secret government agency? If they are, why did they kill them? Why didn't they help them! I need something to take my mind off this… I just really hope that was only a dream… Me and Alex finally finished the solar panels! We probably would've finished it sooner if Alex didn't complain about Joseph so much but who cares, it's done now! So, apparently Joseph made some kind of program to basically shut all the power down and then turn everything back on again, I honestly don't get it. But I think it saves us power or something… Computer magic. Is that what he and John were working on the past couple days? Joseph's also having trouble getting into the satellite network. Again, not a computer genius here so I barely have any idea about what he's talking about. But basically, he's having trouble with that. He's smart, he'll figure it out, probably. Computers aside, I've just been helping Alex with whatever he needed help with like I usually do. We uh talked a bit today too, Alex told me about how much he missed being human, how much he missed his friends and his family… "I just really miss them, y'know?" Aside from my mom and my uncle I never really had any family, and honestly I'm happy this entire event happened, because of it I've been able to meet so many great people I wouldn't have normally met. But what about those who did have family, those who did have friends, those who aren't me… I didn't know what else to say at the time so I just jokingly said "Well, I can be your sister then." Alex just chuckled a bit and when I asked him what's so funny he just said "Nothing, it's nothing." I felt bad for him so I did what I felt was right at the time… "Well, I'm always here for you if you need me. Remember, we're partners in destiny." I don't regret it. The old me was such an idiot. It feels nice to have friends, and to just care about people for once… "Partners in destiny…?" "Yup. We're both kinda similar, right? So that's what we are, partners in destiny!" Emile stood up and struck a dramatic pose that looked like something out of a cheesy super sentai show. "It sounds stupid." "I know." I think my childish antics cheered up Alex a bit, and honestly I needed that too. Strange dreams, the event, just everything, I needed a moment to just distract myself from all of it. Just a nice little moment of two friends having fun… Alex Lonely Day heard back from Sky today. Apparently things like their Lake nearby have been drying up, should've expected that to happen sooner or later. Good thing we have a well. We can always give them some water or supplies in general if they need it. You wouldn't guess who was there with Sky and Moriah, Minuette and Alyssa! Minuette told me they wanted to visit them, so there they are. I'm guessing they took the truck there. Things seem to be going okay for them too. Alyssa said we might need a couple things like gas and food though. I think we should build a greenhouse, actually farm on the farm, stuff like that. Alyssa seemed to agree. Other than that, Madeline seems to be doing good. She's still having trouble walking though. I guess we'll have to teach her too… Don't worry guys, we'll be back soon. I know it. But as always this is Emile, bye. Partners in destiny… - Emile > Day 42, Approaching Storm. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile… Dammit, dammit, dammit! They just kept coming… Why wouldn't they just give up?! Were they really this persistent on killing one person?! Not that he was a "person" anymore, but that didn't matter right now! His life was in literal danger for pete's sake! An alleyway… And a dead end… This might've been it for Blake, but there was a small barbed fence. He could jump over it with his wings. It was risky but it was worth a shot! No, it didn't fucking matter if it was risky or not. If he didn't do this, he was a goner. If he didn't make this… Sorry everyone… Now… Wings don't fail me now! Blake jumped over the fence with all his might and… Gilded right over it with only a single bullet grazing his hair. He was home free… July 3rd, 2015 Dear Journal, Oh hey look, it's July! My birthday month, woo-hoo! It's not my birthday day yet though… Alright, alright I'll get back on topic. Something incredible happened today! We found two more survivors today, score! Damn, we've been doing good. Okay, I gotta calm down and focus. Me and Alex finished up the panels today. We actually kinda finished up yesterday but Alex said he wanted to take a break, and Joseph's the lazy one… Alex's kinda jealous of my wings and my ability to "fly." It's not even flying, the most I can do is hover for a bit. Geez… Joseph was doing his uh magic sciencey computer nerd things while John seemed to be just chilling. And since we had nothing better to do Alex and I took a little "walk" around the city. He took Huan along too. (Why…) I took my bat too, just in case y'know? Besides, it feels cool to carry it around… I also might've bumped it against some car side mirrors… It makes me feel like I'm in some kind of post apocalypse movie. Which, I kinda already am… There wasn't a soul out there. Until, we both heard the distance clip clop of hooves. Someone was coming. Alex said we should've hid at first, but it was way too late for that. A orange stallion with a firey mane, tail, and wings approached us. He looked kinda like the pegasus in one of my "dreams." He was out of breath and he seemed wounded, I think he even has a gunshot wound in his leg. He kept talking rapid-fire even like that though… The only things I was able to make were "people, white suits, and danger…" I asked him what his name was and he said "Blake Adams." That was the last thing he said before he passed out. We didn't know what else to do so we went back to the office, carrying him as best we could on our tiny ponies backs and rushed him to the hospital. So that's where we are now, the hospital. We slapped Blake down in a bed and tended to his wounds the best our non-trained doctor selves could. You wouldn't believe what happened when I left the room for medical supplies though. I thought I heard whistling so I went to investigate it, and there I found another stallion digging through a closet. No wings, or a horn like Alex, his size was kinds similar to John's, he was a light purple kinda like the streaks in my hair, his hair was golden and he was wearing this doctor's coat. "Excuse me…" I faintly whispered. The stallion jumped up and went alert like some kind of cartoon character. His name is "Oliver Pittman." We talked for a short bit and he's (obviously) a doctor, he was doing his doctors residency before everything happened. He's apparently been staying here for a while, he even has a little garden. He heard Alex's music and our generator running too. The only he didn't go out of his way to find us is because "he didn't want to disappoint himself" by finding nobody there. I don't get people like that… If I heard music I would've gone to investigate immediately. When I introduced him to the rest of our current group he seemed pretty happy, I told him about Blake and he's been doing his best since. None of (probably) know how to deal with bullet wounds so I'm glad we have a doctor here! So, that's how everything's been going for us so far. Joseph was pretty annoyed with the whole thing especially with how "sudden" it was but he seemed to calm down after seeing how bad Blake's wounds were. John's a bit more serious especially with how he is normally. And Alex is…. He's Alex. Blake seems okay now, he might wake up in a bit. I hate to admit it, but flowers taste damned good. Oliver made us a salad with some in it, it's pretty good. It might even be better than most of the sweets I've tasted. I don't bet on it though. Note to self: start a garden when we get home. When me and Alex told Oliver about the respective bases/colonies we set up he seemed pretty hesitant about joining us. However, I was able to turn the tides with my unparalleled persuasiveness! He seemed to change his mind when I told him about the amount of ponies people we had and when Alex told him about Moriah too. Oliver had something he wanted though, he wanted us to bring some drugs he had been preserving with us. According to Alex we'll have to find and convert a freezer truck for that. Which I have no idea how to do… But hey, he can teach me I guess! Just like he did with the forklift. He also wanted a couple days to get everything ready, which is fine. Joseph and John aren't finished with their computer project yet. Apparently, Joseph's planning on sending some kind of "system" to the phones. Again, I really don't understand this stuff, but basically: he send message, we might find more people easier. So two more survivors…. 10 plus 2 is 12… 12 more people… Good. Oliver said he's been hearing engines overhead and he's even seen military planes above, some sounded like "helicopters" too. That shook me and Alex both… Alex doubted him but I don't think he's lying. Could ponies even drive anything like that…? First, strange people in white suits now this… What the hell is going on…? I'm still not sure if Blake was lying or not, I'll have to ask him later when he gets up. But why would he lie about that, especially with those wounds… Then the strange dreams… If Blake really is the pegasus in that dream I had, then those aren't dreams… They're visions, visions from the future… Ugh… Why me…? This trip was supposed to be exciting but now there's too much going on for me to even keep track of anymore… Alex seems to be just as on edge as I am… It's nice to know someone's going through the same things as me. I still haven't told him about my dreams but honestly I really want to. I hope I'm not right about those being "visions from the future." It sounds too stupid to even be true… I need rest so, as always this is Emile, bye. Don't worry partner, we'll get through this together. I know we will. - I'm not feeling Blissful (Flower) today > Day 43.5, Approaching Storm. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 4th, 2015 Dear Journal, Blake woke up. The first thing I did was question him. His memory was a bit foggy but he tried his best to remember everything that happened. So apparently, him and his friends had only woken up a couple of days ago, they only lived a few miles away. They went deeper into town to get supplies and to mainly look for survivors, on their way they heard a plane overhead followed it to the airport. Three men came out of the plane, all wearing white suits, with the letters "HPI" on them. Blake and his friends called out to them and got their attention. Instead of welcoming them with open arms though, one of them pointed a gun right at Blake and shot him. They ran as fast as they damned could, but they even followed them deep into the city… And… They… They… They killed them. They killed the rest of his group. He's the only survivor. It's just like that dream… Dammit, Dammit, Dammit…. DAMMIT! I don't know who they are, and I don't care. The HPI… They're wrong. They'll pay. If they took the innocent lives of Blake's friends then who knows how many people they've killed… Needlessly to say, all of us felt uneasy after that. Joseph and John went back to the office while me and Alex (and Oliver) stayed in the hospital with Blake. Blake's doing fine now, Oliver managed to get the bullet out of his leg and he's doing pretty okay now, he needed some stitches though. We might have to tell John and Joseph about the whole thing with Blake and his group. God knows if we don't he'll probably tell them anyway. Wait…? What's that…? Alright, so update. It looks like Oliver was right, there's planes passing overhead here in this city. Except, these ones didn't just fly above us, it seems like they landed too. We're in Oliver's little garden in the hospital right now, me and Alex only came here to check up on Blake and really didn't have anything better to do. But that's when we heard them, the loud motor sound of several air vehicles that sounded like they were coming from somewhere in the north(?) heading straight towards us. Me and Alex immediately ran outside to get a better look at them. Out there we saw three strange airships. I'm no idiot but those were definitely some kind of military vehicles. Alex said he hadn't seen them before though, and he studied those kinda things. I don't know who or what they are, but this definitely isn't good. They might be that "HPI" group Blake was talking about, if they really are… We should prepare for the worst. The first thing Alex did was call John and Joseph. I couldn't really hear much over the phone but it sounded like Joseph was gonna argue with Alex about something, but then John butted in and muttered something to Joseph that made him change his mind. Alex told them to "turn off everything and just hide, anywhere. Just anywhere, anywhere where they couldn't be found." Again, I couldn't really hear much of Joseph and John's side but it seemed like they agreed. I might be just a "kid" but I'm not dumb. I know what's going on. That anger and fear in Alex's voice… That was genuine… After that I told Oliver to get Blake and hide somewhere, Alex told Huan to stay with them before and he just… Listened… Maybe that dog isn't so bad after all… I don't know if we'll- No, I shouldn't say things like that… Idiot… I don't know if those airships were actually the "HPI" but if they were, they're in a lot of trouble. I swore to Blake I'd make this right and thats what I'm gonna do. We ditched pretty everything we brought to the hospital, Alex just grabbed his gun and the radio while I got my bat. We're heading out now so I'll have to stop writing for a bit. I'll update you on anything we find once we get back but for now, you know the drill. Alex wanted Emile to stay somewhere and hide but he insisted on coming. The two galloped as fast they could, Emile didn't have anything to muffle his hoofsteps so he just "flew" halfway there. He didn't know if it was the adrenaline or just the tenseness of the society, it might've been. But he was able to "fly" longer than he usually could. Soon enough the two made it to the airport. Alex hid somewhere where he was far enough out of sight but could still see the airport. Emile wanted to get a closer look though. Before he ran off Alex looked at Emile one last time and told him something. "Don't do anything stupid." He cared about him, he worried about him… After all, that's what friends do right? It wasn't a promise Emile could keep though, he already knew that. So he just looked back at Alex one last time and gave him a slight smile. "I'll try my best." Three decently sized airships landed at the airport, the backs of them opened revealing ramps, and out came several armored vehicles. They looked like big vans of some kind. They were all the same jet-black as the airships and had the three letters painted on them. "HPI." Just like in the dream, and just like how Blake described on their suits… Two drove towards the roadway access while one stayed behind. It seemed like something was wrong with it… Someone went out of one of the vehicles to investigate. This was his chance. It was now or never. Badump. Badump. The weird tense feeling they both had before got worse as Emile got closer, but he had to do this. He had too! Emile tightened his grip on his bat, and rushed forward… The man quickly turned around, but it was far too late for him to do anything. Crack. The blunt object came towards him and hit him with enough force to crack his skull. The blood poured out from his now damaged suit, and on to Emile. Drip, drip, drip… …. Emile went silent for a moment, and realized what he just did. He killed someone. It wasn't an animal this time. It was a real, living human being… Alex came rushing out from his hiding place and saw Emile on his knees looking down on a dead body with a cold dead look on his eyes, with blood all around him. It didn't take long for him to realize what happened. Alex grabbed Emile and laid him down in his lap, brushing his mane out of his face. "Hey, Emile…" No response. Emiles almost emotionless face remained unchanged. Those trucks… They were heading practically the same way they came in… That's where- Dammit… DAMMIT! 5:00 PM (?) Hey, Jonathan here… Or as Emile likes to say "John." Me and Joseph hide in some random old building with a basement away from whoever those people are. We turned off the power in the office, brought everything we could, me and Emile even got some little mats for us to sleep on, just in case. Hehe… Heh.. I don't know what happened back there, Alex won't tell me. But he came in with Emile laying on his back… Emiles up right now. But he won't talk. Not even a word… I'm worried about them, the kid… And Alex… Alex said that it looks like they were heading for both of our bases… The way he described them scared me. "Devoid of magic, like they were sucking it up like a black hole…" Joseph seems to feel a similar way. Is it because we're unicorns…? Emile said something about unicorns being magical before… We might have to pack everything, go pick Oliver and Blake and head out tomorrow… - Jonathan D. Carter 11:50 PM Hey, did you miss me…? I can't sleep… Especially not after that… I… I killed someone… That flower thing wasn't supposed to be just an art project, it was supposed to be a way to attract survivors too. But now… I'm sorry… I'm sorry everyone…! Alyssa, Sky, all of them… I hope they're okay… Please be okay… - Emile > Day 44-46, The Way Back Home. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 5th, 2015 Dear Journal, I'm okay… For the most part… I've been trying my best… We all have… Ever since yesterday everyone's been super tense, even Joseph's toned down his smug act a bit. We're packing up everything we can right now. It's not that hard since we have about 4 stallions here, and two "mares." Alex is with me in the truck right now, I think he's writing something in his own journal. He's been trying my best to cheer me up. I don't wanna involve him in my problems… Those are mine to deal with and mine alone. I guess the satellite commutation project is canceled… It's a given with the situation right now. I'm guessing John and Joseph will have to finish whatever they were doing later. We need to get home and cast. I don't know how long it'll take us to get back. Maybe a couple days at most? It really just depends on how many stops we take, especially with that "HPI" group out there. We don't know what their objective is, but with what we've seen from them so far, they definitely aren't good. Alex called Sky to check up on her. She said she's been doing "good" and that Alyssa and Minuette were "fine the last time she saw them." I know that they could probably handle things themselves, especially Alyssa but I'm still worried about them. It's just… I just hope they're okay, stay safe, please… Sky has it worse though, aside from Moriah she's pretty much alone. I don't know a lot about her but she's not "strong" like Alyssa. We shouldn't have let them alone… This whole trip was one big mistake. Alex seems worried about her. I'm trying the best I can to make him feel better, if I can't make myself happy then I might as well try to make others happy. That's what friends are for, right? It's funny… That's what he was trying to do earlier… I'm tired, so very very tired… Sky's apparently staying in some old farm somewhere. I don't know about Minuette and Alyssa though, but knowing them they're probably still at home. I know we don't want to abandon it, but…. Now isn't the time for things like that… God, I'm probably getting repetitive aren't I? Well, that's what exhaustion does to you… It's cramped in here… We might be decently small but 7 whole ponies is a bit too much for only two vehicles. At least Alex is here with me, it could be worse, I could be with a complete stranger instead. (Sorry Blake and Oliver.) Alright, it looks like Olivers beginning to pull off, I'll have to stop writing for a bit. But for now, you know the drill. - Emile June 6th, 2015 Dear Journal, We're about halfway there but we've stopped at a reststop for now. Sky said she saw the trucks head into the city, Alyssa too. Sky gave her and Minuette phones so they could contact us so thank god for that. The airships went to god who knows where, we didn't see them. Sky and Alyssa didn't either. I'm guessing they returned to wherever their headquarters is. We might have to hide here until they go away. What the heck do they want with us…? It's like they're intentionally searching for us… They haven't done anything hostile to us, yet… We need to stay on guard though, who knows what could happen with those people…. - Emile June 7th, 2015 Dear Journal, Alex wanted us to lay low for just a bit longer, but we can't hide forever. We're basically almost home now, just a couple more blocks… So, according to Alyssa one of the trucks entered town so she decided to follow it, and guess what they did. They just left them there. She didn't go closer to investigate just to be safe. But they just left them there. Same thing happened with Sky too. They definitely did it on purpose, but why…? I guess we'll find out when we get home. Joseph has some kind of weird system on the phones. Basically, they shut down automatically after five minutes on the line. I guess that's one of things him and John were working on. It's smart. It saves time, power, whatever. Maybe I'll ask him to fix up our radio when we get home… I really hope everyone's safe. Even if those HPI people "left" I still can't help but worry about them. Just stay safe everyone… We're almost there… "Never falter from your path" sorry mysterious lady, it's too late for that… I killed someone. They probably had friends and a family… For all I know they could've just been following the orders of whoever their higher ups are, and I killed them. I'm no better than them now… Irredeemable trash… I hate myself. Y'know, Minuette has been calling me "Bliss Flower" more often when I told her that was my new "pony nickname." Bliss Flower… It's a nice name… It's a way better name than Emile. - Bliss Flower > Day 47, Reunion. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 8th, 2015 Dear Journal, Sorry for not writing much yesterday. I've just been tired these past couple days. But we're home now. Everyone's fine, and everything's just how we left it. For the most part at least, Alex said his base got damaged a bit. It seems like those strange people, invaders, aliens, whoever and whatever they are are left too. Thank the gods nothing bad happened, I was worried sick… It seems like Alyssa felt the same way too. God, you should've seen everyone's reactions when they saw us, it was beautiful. In a good way. "You're back!" Woah, woah, woah… He got that she missed him but geez… Did she really have to hug him so tightly…? "Alyssa, you're crushing me… Alyssa!" "Oh, right… Sorry…" Well at least now he knew she was alright… Minuette just stared at the two for a moment with her eyes on the verge of tears, but the second Emile turned to her she quickly wiped them away. "Welcome back…" While Madeline just stayed silent with a soft smile on her face. And Jonathan, of course, couldn't help but tease Alyssa a bit. "So, you do like me-" "Shut up." Usually she would've punched him in the face for something like that, but after everything that happened in the last couple days she decided to let it slide for now. She was happy that they even came back. Soon after Alyssa quickly turned her attention to the unfamiliar orange stallion that came out after John. "Who are you…?" "Blake, Blake Adams, and I'm…" Blake just trailed off for a moment and didn't even bother finishing his sentence. So Emile just finished it for him… "He's a survivor we bumped into on the trip." Well that's one way to make a first impression I guess… God, it feels damn good to be home. Alex probably feels the same way too. I can only imagine how he and Sky reunited… (She wasn't there with Alyssa :( ) Blake's staying here with us right now, he was a bit awkward at first when I introduced him to everyone but he's better. He's getting there, I think… Blake… Blake… Speaking of him, he's a bit quiet and he doesn't have a destiny mark. (You should've seen how happy Alex was.) but he's been pretty good with helping us plan and organize things so far! Everyone we've found so far has some kind of special talent… A doctor, a police officer, a programmer… Heck, even Alex has his mechanic skills. While I'm not really good at anything. Isn't that weird? Maybe this was all planned by whatever did this to us. (Eh, I doubt it. That doesn't mean it isn't possible though.) Alex and Joseph stayed for a bit before they went home themselves. Alex's still jealous of how "good" we have it here, especially now that he's actually seen our base in person. He had things like a fridge, phones, and even guns! There's no way he's jealous of us… I had Joseph take a look at the radio and he just looked at it for a bit like he had seen the most disgusting thing in his life. I wish I took a picture of him or something. He asked me "what is this?" And I told him "a radio…?" His disgust got even worse after that. I'm guessing I didn't properly set it up, even with John's help… Well uh… Oops. Good thing he was there to help us set it up properly this time though, so it's a bit better now. I still don't get how he does it… Computer magic… Maybe I should've paid attention to those computer classes in school… Alex and Joseph didn't stay for long since they had to go check on Sky. I had to go investigate that truck though, and you wouldn't believe what Alex gave me. a pair of shoes and a gun, a p90 to be exact. I'd rather not touch any weapons especially after something like that, but just in case… Honestly, I would've preferred something like UMP-45 but this'll do for now. I went from being scared of myself to specifying what gun I wanted. What the hell is wrong with me…? I hate myself. After they left I had John drive me to town in the truck. It was right there, one of armored military trucks we saw right by a local corner store just like Alyssa said. I had John stay inside just in case something happened. I felt the same weird "tense" feeling I had back when we first saw them, and it just kept getting worse as I got closer but I had to investigate so…. If there was a bomb or anything like that inside, it would've gone off the moment I opened the back door, and of course I wouldn't be here writing this right now. Opened the back door, and there was nobody inside. They really did just leave this here… There really wasn't anything inside. There was a big crate of sorts and some kind of commutations device. But on the crate was a handwritten note, it read: "Survivors, we're sorry if our arrival frightened you, we just didn't think there'd be anyone else left. In the crate are supplies, enough to last you about a couple weeks. When you're ready, please contact us. The survival of humanity depends on you." There's no name signed so I don't know who wrote it. Apparently Alex found a similar note too. In the crate was some kind of "care package" . It had food, water, just about anything you'd need to survive in a situation like this… I don't get it. First, they want us dead and now they're trying to be all buddy buddy with us…? What's their goal here…? What the heck do they want with us…? "We just didn't think there'd be anyone else left." Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. They knew there were survivors, if they didn't they wouldn't have killed Blake's group. Do they think we're some kind of alien creatures or something? We're not! We're all human, each and every one of us… None of us wanted this to happen, we all had our bodies stolen from us! Did they know this was gonna happen? Why didn't they do anything…?! Dammit… Dammit… I feel so…. I hate this. I'll have to talk over this with the others later. Everything's gonna be okay… Emile > Day 48, First Group Meeting. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 9th, 2015 Dear Journal, Everything's been so tense these past couple days that it just feels nice to just live life normally. We didn't have to do shopping thanks to the HPIs little "care package." (Thanks for that.) The food wasn't poisoned or anything, it's clear they don't want us dead for now. They probably want us alive for whatever "plans" they have for us. Either way, I still wanted to make a greenhouse and actually farm on the farm. So me and John took a quick trip to Home Depot as per usual. There we got stuff for the green house, and things like hoes, nothing too extra. We also stopped at another store on the way back to get a couple things like plant seeds, mostly things like greens, and some fruit. I honestly would've preferred one of those horse drawn reapers (what do you call those?) since we're ponies now but the hoes got the job done. Find the perfect soil, reap the ground, plant the seeds, yadda, yadda, boom. You're done. I'm no gardening expert (that's Oliver's job) but it's nothing too complicated. It wasn't even that hard, especially with Blake helping us out. It's nice to have another stallion around. Next up was the green house which also wasn't too hard. All it reall6 is putting down a couple planks, nailing them together, blah blah you get the point. Now we have more storage. We still never made that shed though, guess we'll have to do that later… Other than our chores we helped Alex and his group fix up his base. Looks like the HPI actually got to his a bit. We don't know if it was accidental or on purpose though. That was also actually the first time we've got together too! I wish I brought my camera, we could've all taken a picture together… Maybe next time. I swear to god Sky and Minnie are the same person, they got along STUPIDLY well, they even have the same eccentricities. They're birds of a feather I tell you. Alex's cool as always. Joseph's the same stupid smug unicorn as he always is and Oliver is… Oliver. I thought Moriah was a bit stern at first but she's not a bad person. She's a nice and strong willed mare, just the kinda person we need. (No, Alyssa doesn't count.) Speaking of, she's doing fine. It looks like Oliver patched her up a bit like he did with Blake. Madeline's good too. Alex wasn't lying about her being a bit more than "injured" though. Ouch… That's definitely gonna suck, especially for a unicorn. She can walk as well as Madeline as in she can't. Or barely at least. Are we gonna have to teach every new survivor we find how to walk…? At least Blake knows how. After we finished fixing up Alex's place with our combined strength of 11 ponies we all got together for a little "meeting". "Personally, I think we should contact them." "Are you stupid? They tried to kill us for pete's sake." "I'm with Alex on this one, we need all the help we can get." "The kids right, we should contact them even if it's a risk." "I say we roughen em up a bit for what they did to our base." "Yeah!" "How are we supposed to 'roughen up' a private military force…?" "Joe makes a good point, have you seen what they've tried to do?" "I think we should just all calm down…" "Umm…." "Guys….?" Nonstop arguing. Usually Blake would've stayed quiet during something like this but… "EVERYONE!" The room fell silent for a bit. "We should all just settle down for a moment." "That's what I was trying to say…" "Why don't we just take a vote instead of arguing?" "Alright, hooves up for those who want to contact them, and those who don't." So, 1 2 3 4…. And 1 2 3 4… A tie. "We need someone to break the tie, Sky?" "If Alex wants to contact them then… I want to, too." "Sky…" "Okay, it's settled then. We'll both contact them tomorrow." End Transcript. As you can see that went as "well" as it should have. They just kept arguing… Thank god Blake stepped in when he did. He might be quiet but he's really good at organizing things and public speaking, maybe he'll be a lawyer in the future… How the heck is a group of 11 ponies supposed to fight the military? I can't believe Alyssa agreed to that. Damned Metalhead. Things thankfully calmed down after that "debate" nobody seemed upset about the vote except for Joseph who just looked at Alex weirdly. "Are you sure about this?" Is what he said according to Alex. He honestly was kinda right about him being insufferable, I can't believe I used to defend him. Jokes aside, he's not THAT bad. Back during the debate it seemed like he genuinely cared about us. He probably just wanted the best for us. Still though, the information the HPI probably has is too valuable to give up. If they know what happened to everyone, maybe they can help us fix this. Alex suggested using the fuel both of our groups still have and Moriah's piloting skills to check on our families. It's a good idea, everyone else seemed to pretty much agree too. Mom, I hope you're out there, wherever you are. I know you wouldn't disappear that easily, especially with how strong you are. I miss you. You too Uncle… Before we left I tried teaching Sky how to fly. "Watch how a master does it!" I said. Then I fell flat on the ground… Sky just laughed at me, and I thought Alyssa was bad… At least she helped me up after that, besides she didn't mean it. She was just playing around, that's all. I didn't take another group photo but let me do something real quick… There… I wrote "we're here" on the journal. Because we're always here, together. Nothing much else happened today, so yeah… Emile… It's still a good name. Bliss Flower is good too. I can't decide… Hm… Tomorrow, we'll contact the HPI. This will go well for us, I know it. - (Not) Bliss Flower > Day 49, First Contact. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Let me just… And alright, it's on. Hello?" "Greetings, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Dr. Johnson Parker and you are?" "I don't really trust so you can just call me Bliss Flower for now." "Alright, then 'Bliss Flower.' We here at HPI didn't expect to find any survivors, especially not two groups. You're aware there's another group just like yours, yes?" "Yes." They must be talking about Alex and his group, and if he was correct then they should be talking with the "HPI" right now too… "So tell me what kind of shielding system are you using, whatever you're doing it seems to be working quite well." Muted. "Anyone know what he's talking about?" "No clue." "Slow down for a minute, we barely know who you are and now you're asking us about some kind of 'shielding system.' Can you at least tell us what the heck the 'HPI' even is…?" "The Human Preservation Initiative, we're a group intent on preserving and maintaining after the collapse. Evidently, you must be using some kind of shielding system to protect yourselves from the radiation. We searched yours and 'Lonely Days' homes and found nothing." "Wait, you know what caused this?!" "Alyssa, wait!" "Why didn't you do anything to stop this?!" "Trust me, we did all we could. But don't worry, that information along with a lot more can be yours as long as you cooperate with us." Muted. "Alyssa, I know you're mad but you shouldn't flip out like that." "I know, it's just that… I…" Emile practically felt the same way. If they knew that this was going to happen, why didn't they do anything to stop this…? He didn't believe them one bit, "we did everything could" my ass. "I think we should just end this here and leave." "What do you mean…?" "We should just pack everything up and run somewhere we can't track us." "I agree, we still don't know if they're hostile or not and all they've done so far is just spout a bunch of nonsense about "shields." "Yeah." "I wouldn't advise doing something like that." What…? "Hey, um guys…? The screen…" "Holy shit…" "What do you want from us…?" "We just want you to cooperate with us. So please, tell us what kind of shields you're using." "We don't know what you're talking about, we don't have any magical 'shields' or anything." "You must be if you're somehow unaffected by everything. We're in contact with your other group right now, if both of you don't cease this folly we'll have to cut ties with you damned animals all together." "He's muted, what do we do?" "They could still be listening to us right now though, I didn't even know satellite cameras could go that far…" "He called us animals… We don't even know what they want with us…" "I don't think anypony knows." "Why do you always say weird things like that? that's not even a real word." "It's not weird, you're weird!" "You both need to shut up." "All of you quiet! I'm gonna unmute him. We'll show these bastards just what these 'animals' can do." "For the last time we don't know what you're talking about. Shields, radiation, energy, we don't know anything about it. One thing we do know is that we're all human. We've just been somehow transformed into 'ponies' if you don't believe me that's fine." "I see, well so be it then. We'll keep in touch." "Wait, one more thing, does the name Emile sound familiar to you?" The "doctor" fell silent for a bit. "Yes, what of it?" "Nevermind." Call ended. "What now…?" "I think we should just wait and see what happens." "Dammit, none of this is right! We shouldn't just 'wait' we need to fight back, now!" "But we can't just fight back…" Recording ended. July 10th, 2015 Dear Journal, They just kept damned arguing. I talked to Alex about it, and it seems like his "meeting" went just as well. There goes our days of peace… I honestly don't blame them though, everything's been tense these past couple days. We still don't even know what the HPI wants. They're so confusing… At least they don't want us dead. If they try something though, we'll be ready. We won't let them just use us like tools. Like I said before, we'll show them just what these "animals" can do. I wonder how they kept humanity… They were talking an awfully lot about "radiation." Maybe they mean becoming a pony…? No. If they did they wouldn't have acted like it was something deadly. Alex's thinking about relocating apparently, they could stay with us but we don't have a lot of room here. Me, Minuette, and John stay in the "master" bedroom while Alyssa stays in the kids other bedroom with Buddy. Madeline and Blake just sleep on the couch. We could probably fit two more people in our bedroom since human beds are pretty big, maybe use those mats we got for the trip… Still, the HPI knows where we live too, so it won't make much of a difference. Dammit… All that gave us was more questions than answers… Can we even escape them? Even if we somehow get away from their satellite cameras they still might be able to use drones to spy on us. I know those are (were) pretty expensive, but they're a military group. They should have those. I feel so powerless… I might go visit Alex tomorrow, radio or phones won't do. I want to see him in person. I probably sound so weird right now…. I just want someone to talk to, someone who understands me. Ugh… Kill me, kill me, kill me. I hope he never reads this. "Doctor Johnson Parker…" That name… That's my father's name, and my last name… It couldn't actually be him right…? Maybe it's just a coincidence…? I hope so… If not… What kinda cruel twist of fate is that…? I'm so tired… There's too much going on… So, this is Bliss Flower, peace. I still don't know if I like that name or not… - (Still Not) Bliss Flower > Interlude 2, Down To Business. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hmm…. This better be worth his time. Dr. Parker slid his keycard and with a beep and a "ACCESS GRANTED" from an electronic voice, the door opened. And there sat Dr. Clark, right in his office. Seriously, whatever he called him here for better be important. If not, he swore to god… "So, what did you want me here for?" Dr. Clark turned his attention from his desk to Parker. "What were you trying to pull back there, Parker?" Oh… So that's what he called him here… Great… Just what he needed… More nonsensical drama… "Isn't it obvious? I was just trying to help." Parker's words couldn't have made Clark any more angrier… Help? Was that really him "helping" or was he purposely just trying to make everything worse for them? "Your 'help' could've costed us greatly." Dr Parker felt the same way too. Was this so-called "doctor" really trying to talk him down? Heh. How arrogant. It confused him so. "You do realize you're not even my superior, right?" Dr. Clark slammed his fists down on his desk in anger. "It doesn't matter if I'm your superior or not, what matters is that you do your job correctly." Now he was telling him to do his job "correctly?" Dr. Parker was flabbergasted. He was doing his job correctly! He was doing everything he could to make sure humanity would prevail in the end. But instead of pointlessly arguing any further, Parker just "accepted" it. "Fine." Tch… With people like this humanity would never have a bright future. Did he pride himself off of not getting things done properly? With that Dr. Parker exited the room, he would've went straight back to his own office after that but he bumped into a certain trouble someone on the way back. Outside was a decently dark skinned man, with blue eyes like him, and decently dark hair… Owen… Great… Just add wood to the fire, why don't you?! "So, how'd it go?" Parker just stayed silent as he walked back with Owen by his side. "Sheesh, tough crowd." Same old Noah… Can't even take a joke. "Y'know you could at least crack a smile every now and then." Noah stopped dead in his tracks. Was he just this persistent on bothering him? He might be his brother, but… "You do realize you're only here because of me, right?" Owen went silent for a bit. Same old Noah… Still as cold and stern as ever. Never change… "Yes…." They might've been family but Noah sure didn't treat him like it. Even with the whole "end of the world" situation. "You might be my brother, but without me you'd be dead right now." That was the one thing that made Owen back off. He let Noah walk away with a quiet, "Alright." It seems their paths split once again. First, that now this… Perhaps it was just destiny for them to end up like this… Soon after, Noah reached his own office and sat right back down. Usually, he would've went back to doing "paperwork" and making sure and everything was in order, but something else caught his attention. It was a framed picture of what looked like two people holding a child with orange hair and brown eyes. Does the name Emile sound familiar to you… What an oddly specific question to ask… Could it be? Was that "Bliss Flower" potentially his son…? No, that shouldn't be possible… If it was however… What an odd twist of fate… If it was true that, that was his son…. He'd cleanse him out like all the rest. Just like the rest of that filth that had taken hold of this world. They might've been human before but not any longer… That was how he felt at least… He'd rid them off the face of this planet and purify this ill-ridden world! And only then, only then could he secure a path for humanity! Only him, and him only could restore humanity and lead it to its proper future! Haha… Marvelous, just marvelous! Who cares about what "Doctor" Clark thinks. He was nothing more than a tool to be used. Leaving him in charge would just drag them all down. Sacrifices were necessary for progress and proper order. Ohoho… Those "ponies" as they call themselves. It'd be best they'd stay on guard… After all, in a world like this, anyone would be ready to take advantage of the situation… > Day 50-56, Days Of "Bliss." > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 11th, 2015 Dear Journal, Alright, I'm not as tired as yesterday so I should be able to write better. It's not like there's much for me to write about though. Everything's pretty much gone back to normal, for the most part at least. We're all trying to focus on things other than the HPI, believe me. It's just hard…. I still don't know if that "Doctor" Parker is my father or not, but… He looks the same, and he sounds the same, of course he is. I wonder if he knows I'm his son. (Or would it be daughter now…?) That damned bastard, how is he alive…? WHY, is he even alive…? Why did the world pick him out of all the good people on this planet? I need to focus on the brighter side of things, if that bastards still alive then there's a chance my mom could be too. Her work place was pretty far from our home town, that's why she always got home so late. It shouldn't be that far from here. It's still pretty deep into the city though… Dammit… Why didn't I check before we left that day…? Idiot… I wonder if I have any siblings I don't know about. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised with that bastard of a man. If I do, I just hope they're alive. Are we in the right here…? Maybe we're the bad guys here. I asked Alyssa that today and she just looked down for a bit then back at me and said. "Of course, we are!" Alex said him and his group are mapping out the route for their new colony, I told him he's always free to stay here if he likes. I guess I was right about the city not being the best place to stay at… I honestly wish they could stay here with us, but we don't exactly have enough space already. This place is perfect for a colony, that's why we set out in the first place: to find somewhere to stay long term. We've got a nice house, a nice farm, we're pretty much all set. We're such a ragtag group, we've got a musician, a potential lawyer, a pilot, then I'm just a kid… I think I'm the youngest here actually. Again, not much else happened today and everything's pretty much going back to normal, so don't be surprised if I skip a couple days. We'll probably put that shed up tomorrow. Still no word back from the HPI… I'm guessing we won't be hearing from them for a while then… So, as always this is Emile, peace. Which name do I use? Or should I just use "E….?" No, that's stupid. There's no point in trying to be anonymous when you already know my name. - Bliss(?) July 12th, 2015 Dear Journal, Helped John set up the shed today. I don't think we'll need to do any supply runs soon, especially since the HPI gave us that "care package." Our little "garden" seems to be doing fine. Here's the strange thing about it though, all the plants that Alyssa planted seem to be growing stupidly fast. Just the ones Alyssa planted, not the other ones. I don't think it's the type of soil or even the seeds either, we used pretty much the same thing for everything. I asked Alyssa what she did and she just shrugged and said "I don't know." I think she used some kind of earth voodoo magic or something. (Is that something normal ponies can do?) Like I said yesterday, everything's pretty much gone back to normal. Everyone's focusing on things other than the HPI, heck even Blake seems happier. I'm envious honestly. I cleaned the blood off that bat, but I just threw it in the closet for now. I never want to see that damned thing ever again. I killed someone, I'm a murderer… Am I really in the right here? Maybe that doctor was right, maybe I am just an animal… No…. I'm human. I know it. I even have pictures of what I looked like before. It doesn't even feel weird to be in this body anymore. The "old me" feels like a different person at this point. Maybe we are… Emile… Who am I anymore….? - Emile July 14th, 2015. Dear Journal, I finally fucking did it! Ha, take that world! That's what endless practice day after day gets you! Okay, okay, I'll calm down. Focus… Gotta focus… So, today was a pretty normal day as usual. Again, everything's gone back to normal pretty much. We're all focusing on our own little things besides the HPI. Alex contacted us again, him and his group decided where to stay. They're gonna move in with us! Okay, not really. They won't be that far though. I honestly can't wait, it'll be a blast when they move near here. We'll all finally be together, like the one big happy family we are. I asked him when they'll move and Alex just said "he doesn't know" but it might be soon. Great, the sooner the better. Okay, okay, time for the good part. So today, I practiced flying again as per usual. Went on the same hill, but this time I decided to start slightly further back so I could build up some more momentum and speed. You wouldn't be able to guess what happened. I ran and… Instead of gliding for a bit this time or just fluttering, I FLEW! I didn't go very high but that doesn't matter. It still felt fucking awesome! Alyssa just looked at me with the most awestruck face she'd ever made. I felt the same too. Unfortunately, I ended up crash landing next to the house… I should learn how to land properly… That was the most awesome thing I've ever experienced in my life ever. Alyssa didn't laugh at me, she just helped me back up and looked at me with a smile. "I knew you could do it." is what she said. I honestly didn't think I would make it this far, but here we are… I guess that's just how life works sometimes. Days, and months of practicing in secret all lead up to this very moment and the payoff was worth every second. I'll practice some more tomorrow, I gotta get the hang of landing and y'know actually flying properly. But I'll get there eventually, I know it! - Emile July 15th, 2015. Dear Journal, Today was normal. Flying went pretty much how I expected it to. Ended up landing this time, not properly but close enough. I might try flying higher instead of just slightly above ground next time. I can't do it anymore. Heh… I'm pathetic… I don't know what to feel anymore. I'm trying my best but I just can't keep this up anymore. I miss my mom. I miss going to school, heck I even miss my uncle. I wish everything would just go back to normal. I'm still the same as ever… This has been going on for far too long. We still don't even know what caused this. It could be worse though… I could be dead. Whoever or whatever did this to us spared us for a reason. I'm not too religious but I wonder if there's a god out there. I wonder if they have anything to do with this… God? God's…? I don't know. What the hell am I even rambling about anymore…? I'm such a mess… Never change, me, never change. - Emile July 17th, 2015 My birthdays in a couple days, yay. We never had a lot of money but my mother probably would've taken me out somewhere. Maybe, we'll do something… We could get cake, throw a little party… Yeah, that would be nice… Flying went pretty different today, not in a good way though. I don't know, It feels like I have no motivation for it… Alex called me again today, apparently him and Moriah are going on a trip to Oregon to look for their families. Mom… I miss her a lot. Please, god if you kept my bastard of a father alive, please let her be alive. I wonder what she would think if she saw me now…? Would she be proud…? My uncle was pretty much the closest thing I had to a "father" after my "real' dad left. He got on my nerves sometimes but he was nice… I'm tired. I should probably take a break for a while. But for now, this is Emile, bye. - Emile > Day 57-58, Recollection. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 18, 2015 Dear Journal, Yo, Alyssa here. Emiles just been laying down for the entire day, so I'm writing for him instead. When I asked him if he was okay he just told me "yeah" he's just a bit "tired" though. He's definitely lying. I've known him for a long time now, what kinda friend would I be if I couldn't see through an obvious lie like that? I know I looked through his diary before, but that's behind me now. Whatever he puts in here isn't my business. I just hope he's okay though… 57 days. 57 days in this stupid pony body. It's not all that bad though, I got this super awesome super strength out of it! John has his magic, and Emile has his wings! He still can't fly all that well, but he's definitely trying his best! It only feels like yesterday since I met Emile…. He used to be a real loner, it was honestly kinda sad! But that's why I decided to be friends with him in the first place. "I'll uh catch up with you guys later!" Ivan just looked at Alyssa oddly with the rest of the music club members. "Oh, Alright." Why didn't she want to spend lunch with him, we'll whatever it was it must've been important… Now, Alyssa redirected her attention to something else… That boy… A boy with messy orange hair, slightly tan skin, brown eyes, and a dark gray hoodie over his school uniform, with the hood draped over his head. Wait, wasn't he in the same homeroom as her, he was in a lot of the same classes as her too… How come she didn't notice him before…? Or did she just not bother to…? He looked kinda lonely… Welp, she would be the one to change that! Alyssa went over to him and looked at him with a bright smile. "Hey, mind if I sit here?" She asked. The boy just looked at her meekly and muttered a quiet "No." Alright, step 1 of operation "make a friend" was a success! Except it wasn't, the two just kinda sat in silence for a bit. Well this was awkward… "So, what's your name?" "Emile." Did he not have a last name or…? "Just Emile-?" Unfortunately, for Alyssa "Emile" immediately cut her off and interrupted her thought process. "Just Emile." Well that didn't help at all… In fact it just made things worse. Well uh, why not try talking about something else? The weather…? No, that's too generic…. Oh, I know! How about that book he was reading? He seemed pretty into it. "Whatcha reading?" "It's a story about a hero of legend." Emile went silent for a bit. "I wish I could be like him…" Alyssa got up and looked at Emile with a look of sheer determination. "You can." What…? Did she really think something like that…? And why about him of all people, she barely knew him. "You really think so…?" Still, Alyssa didn't change her mind even when Emile questioned her words. "I'm sure of it!" I…. Emile didn't know what to say. Aside from his mother this was the first time anybody ever said something like that to him. He barely even knew her, and yet her words still felt genuine to him. Emile took his hood, letting Alyssa see his face for the first time ever. "Thank you…" He muttered. Alyssa didn't say your welcome or anything like that, she just looked at Emile with a big cheeky grin while he tried to smile back the best he could. Hehe… Looks like Operation "make a friend" was a success after all! Actually, not yet… She didn't even ask him if he wanted to be friends yet! "Hey, hey, wanna be friends?" The boy. No, Emile just looked at her curiously. Friends…? He's never had a friend before… "Sure…." he said meekly. And from there on out, the two would be the bestest of the friends. It's been so long since then… Brother would be proud… I finally made a real friend, Akira. It's not like I never had any real friends though! I'm not Emile… Some of the music club members were cool, like Ivan! I wonder if he's alive. He wasn't in the school when we checked though, so I guess not… People seem to be slowly coming back though, so maybe one day he'll return. One day… One day… How long will this last…? Months? Years? Centuries? I'm getting too ahead of myself. I gotta focus on the present. Hehe. That sounds like something Emile would say. Well, uh there's not much else to report today. Everything's going good for us. Emile will be better tomorrow, probably… Should I only use this for important stuff or…. Whatever. Well, this is Alyssa, peace! - Alyssa June 19th, 2015 Dear Journal, Emile still hasn't gotten up yet. He keeps telling me he's "okay" but I don't buy it. I'm worried about him… Why won't he just tell me what's wrong…? I'm his friend… He's never been this down before. Like, ever and I've known him for a long time. Did something happen…? Oh well, I might not have my best friend but at least I have Buddy to keep me company! He's well, my buddy. Emile doesn't like him, which is understandable. I know he doesn't like dogs, or just animals in general for that matter. Emiles birthdays tomorrow. I'm gonna do something for him. I'm his friend, I'm gonna do every damn thing I can to help him, whether he likes or not! - Alyssa > Day 59, Resolve. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 20th, 2015 Dear Journal, Hey, did you miss me? Today was quite the eventful day so I'll try to get everything down. I woke up normally like any other…. Emile laid peacefully in his bed alone, again. He had no intention of getting up, not and not anytime soon. Everyone else could do without him, they all had their own special talents while he… He had nothing. Besides, he wouldn't want them to worry about someone like him. That's how things stayed, until Emile felt a tug on his arm. "C'mon, get up!" It was of course none of than, Alyssa. What did she want now…? He already told her he was okay she didn't need to- "It's your birthday, you gotta get up!" Oh right… It's his birthday… That still shouldn't change anything though. It's just another day like any other. "Oh…. You don't have to do anything for me-" That wasn't how Alyssa felt though. "We're gonna do something whether you like it or not!" She wasn't just gonna let him sit here forever, you damn well know she was gonna help him, whether he liked it or not! After all, she's his friend and that's what friends do. Alyssa yanked Emile out of bed, almost throwing him out of especially with her newfound "normal" pony strength, and dragged him downstairs. John seemed pretty happy to see Emile. "Hey, Kid!" Emile probably killed that vibe though when all he did was silently wave with a faint. "Hi..." Seems like he still wasn't any better… Minuette however. didn't seem to change her mood at all as she smiled brightly at Emile. "Emile!" Happy-go-lucky, as always. It made Emile kinda jealous honestly, how could someone be that happy in a situation like this…? Heck, she had it way worse than him, she lost her memories and didn't even know where she was from. Her aside, Madeline and Blake seemed to be talking about something, Madeline just turned to look at Emile with a soft smile, while Blake just had the same apathetic expression he always has. After forcing me to go down stairs Alyssa made us go into town, John drove us there while Madeline and Blake stayed home. She fortunately, didn't take Buddy. Buildings actually look kinda ruined now, I think I actually even saw a couple of plants on some. I've gotten kinda used to it now, but still doesn't make it any less weird for this place to be completely empty. Aside from the animals or course. First, Alyssa had us pick up some decorations from a store, she had me pick out the decorations. I still wasn't too enthusiastic about throwing me a party though… "So, which one do you want?" Alyssa pointed a hoof over to a balloon shaped like a purple flower, like his cutie mark and to a second one shaped like a star. "Umm…." Did he really have to pick…? Emile just reluctantly chose the flower balloon. "That one…?" After that, Alyssa got some flour and stuff to make a cake. I told her she could just steal one from a bakery. (Would it still even be good?) But she insisted that she'd make one at home. I feel like these stores are gonna run out of stuff the more we keep taking things from them. Places like home depot are pretty big and have a lot of stuff. I dunno if those little super markets will last any longer though… Anyways, after all that we went back home. We all set up the decorations, Alyssa actually dragged me aside and made me help her make this little banner with a bunch of markers and stuff she got at the store. Even though I still wasn't too thrilled about the idea of throwing me a party, I actually kinda had fun… It looks like a five year old made it. Next was the cake, I had to help Alyssa since she still isn't good at using her hooves. Hooves really aren't good for holding things… I knocked over the flour and spilled it on me since I couldn't reach it. (Seriously, who put it up that high?) And, I laughed. A genuine goddamn laugh. Alyssa thought it was pretty funny too. She seemed happy to see that I was happy… The cakes nothing special, just vanilla with a bit of frosting. Alyssa wrote "happy bday Emile!" on it. We made these little cookies with some of leftover cake batter. Alyssa's still a pretty good cook. I wonder who taught her, her mother? Or maybe her brother? Hmm… Oh, right! Getting off topic… Of course, the only thing left to do after that was start the party. Even though I helped her everything and already knew what was gonna happen, Alyssa made me sit outside for a bit and made everyone hide. Was there really any point to this…? Well, fine. Whatever. If it's what Alyssa wanted, he'll play along for now. She better not expect him to actually be surprised though. Emile opened the door and…. "Surprise!" Everyone immediately jumped out of their hiding spots and welcomed him warmly. "Everyone…" Just like he expected… Even though I already knew what was gonna happen…. I… I felt like I wanted to cry. Even now I… I've never had anyone do something like this for now, aside from my mother and my uncle of course. Especially not like that… That was the most fun I've had in a while. That was probably the most fun all of us had I a while, actually. At least since that hot springs trip. John got some alcohol when we went to the store, he got drunk a little bit actually. He tried to hit on Madeline and she just punched him…. Remind me to never mess with her. After that party we had to clean everything up of course. John volunteered to do most of it since he wasn't exactly the best person pony when he was drunk. Me and Alyssa helped him out a bit though. Alyssa's right. I can't keep wallowing in my sadness like this forever. I gotta get up and move forward! We'll show the HPI, the world, or whatever what we're made of! If we're together, there's nothing we can accomplish! Heh, that sounded cheesy… It's true though. That's how we've gotten through everything up to here, together. And we'll get through this, just like everything before. If my mom saw me now she would be proud. It's getting late, so as always this is Emile, goodbye! I wonder what Alex's doing… - Emile > Day 60-64, Days Of Bliss. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 21th, 2015 Dear Journal, Since my birthdays come and gone now, am I really a kid anymore? I'm an adult now! A young one at least… Alyssa's still older than me though… Her birthday was actually a couple days before all this happened. Imagine your birthday being literal days before the end of the world. And I still haven't gotten any taller… Okay, I'll be upfront and honest with you and say I lied about not being "that short." My height was about 150cm I think…? So, yeah… I'm tiny compared to everyone else. You took my gender the least you could've done was make me a little bit taller, whoever/whatever did this! Old me would probably freak out if he saw me, in a good way. He probably wouldn't believe me if I told him I was him from the future though. Speaking of, I haven't had a weird vision or dream in a while. That's such a useless power, having visions of the future but they're so weirdly inconsistent you can't even take advantage of them. I'm gonna take it as a good thing though since they usually only happen when something bad is about to happen. What could that weird lady be counting on me and Alex for…? Hmm… Okay, okay I'll get back on track. Today was another uneventful day, I'm guessing it's gonna be like that for a while. Thank the gods. The HPI have been awfully quiet though… It's got me kinda worried actually, what are they planning…? Them aside. I'll try to enjoy this peace while it lasts. I tried flying again today, it went slightly better than last time. I still barely know how to land though. I have a theory, maybe my magics connected to my emotions. That's why when I saw myself getting slightly higher than usual on that I flew good, because I was determined. Then on that other day when I felt bad, I flew well, bad. Why would flying be magic though…? Ugh, this is so weird… Why couldn't I get something cool, like the ability to shoot fire out of my hooves? I'll probably try to teach Sky how to fly again, if she y'know still can't. I wonder how that groups doing…. We should visit them again. Blake knows how to "fly" just barely though. Guess I'm the only capable pegasus in the world then. That also means I'll have to teach the others if they don't learn on their own… Great… It's not that I don't want to. It's just hard… Plus I barely even know how to fly myself. Never thought I would see the day where I worry about teaching ponies how to fly… There's another thing that past me wouldn't believe. Nothing else to report so as always, this is Emile or Bliss, bye! Seriously, what name do I use? - Bliss July 22th, 2015 Dear Journal, I went outside today just to see Alyssa and Madeline doing some kind of combat training, like they were straight up sparring. I dunno if they teach you martial arts in the police force, I would google it if y'know that still existed by goddamn, Madeline's good. She might be sweet and kind hearted but she's definitely not someone you should mess with. I feel like Alyssa's "normal" pony strength helped her out a bit, she was still pretty good herself though. I dunno, I'm not a martial arts master. I actually wanted to learn karate before all of this, I never got around to actually doing it though. I probably wouldn't be very good at it, especially not now with how small and fragile I am. Curse you, pony body! I was messing around with the radio today, and I think I turned to one of the emergency channels. And It's not like the other messages, this one's different. And uhhh... It sounds like morse code… None of us know morse so I don't know if we'll be able to translate it… I don't think this one was made by the same person as the other ones, or by the HPI even. Hmm… Are there more people than just us out there…? I wonder how many people are truly left in the world… But as always this is Emile/Bliss signing off, peace. - Emile July 23th, 2015 Dear Journal, Days are normal, not much to report. I just wanted to get some things off my mind. About more people out there, there probably are. The world's big, it would be weird if there were only 11 ponies left on it. I don't think everyone's dead. We've been finding survivors at a pretty steady rate. Whatever or Whoever did this to us is bringing people back, like they're in some kind of limbo. So, because of that maybe one day- No. I need to stop being so down all the time! I will meet my mother again, no matter what! I have a couple theories on what caused this. Maybe, this is all some weird simulation set up by the government to test people for some super secret project! No, that's stupid. Oh, I got a better one! Maybe this is all apart of a prophecy of sorts, where humanity dies and it's all up to two heroes chosen by fate to save them! Hark, for me and Alex are those said heroes! We're like Lif and Lifthrasir, the two sole survivors of ragnarok… (No, I'm not counting Alyssa.) Alright, I'm sorry for getting stupid there. And being a little childish. That's just how I am though, when you're friends with me that's just what you gotta put up with, uh whoever's reading this… I did some more sewing today and made myself a little shirt. I think it's safe to say that I'm at least a decent tailor now. Knitting and crochet are another story though… Yeah, I'm still not good at those. Flying went okay, I'm getting better at it just steadily. Alyssas trying her best to cheer me on, as always. I'm still conflicted on what name to use… Y'know, I might not know a lot, or who I even am really, but there's one thing I know for certain. I'm me, and me alone. Nothing will change that. Bliss, Emile, Whatever. - Emile July 24th, 2015 Dear Journal, Instead of just lying around and complaining about being bored, I actually decided to do something. I made Madeline spar with me like she did with Alyssa and uh, she absolutely beat my ass. Geez, lady you barely know how to even run and you're up here beating the crap out of people like it's nothing. Calm down. I blame it on that normal pony strength of hers. (Seriously, why do they have that…?) I still barely know how to fight, even like this. Apparently, Madeline learned a couple of things like karate when she was younger so she could "Protect herself and others." Maybe I should get her to teach me…. I don't know alot about this kinda stuff but how should we rework human martial arts for ponies? I'll help Madeline with that later. I could ask Blake about it, he knows a lot, he's pretty much like a walking encyclopedia. I doubt someone as antisocial as him would know anything about martial arts though. After that I went with a little trot with Minnie, just because I can. We're still the only ones who can gallop at a decent level. Madeline can walk pretty fine now, she isn't good at running though. Blakes in a weird middle level, he knows how to canter but still isn't quite at galloping yet. And Alyssa and John… They should know how by now. I haven't seen them try yet though. We had a little race during that, I was in the lead with Minnie far behind me all I had to do was get back home to the finish line and… Minuette won. Why does she always one up me at everything… I should've just flew the rest of the way. I tuned into the radio today and the message is different today. The last one sounded like some kind of distress signal except slightly different. I have no idea what this one is. I should ask Joseph if he can translate these, he might know something about morse code being the big computer nerd he is. Not much else happened today so, as always this is Emile or Bliss if you prefer that, goodbye. I really should just pick one though… - Bliss > Day 65, Second Contact. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 25th, 2015 Dear Journal, I finally heard back from Alex how his trip went. I would say it went well for them but… His family wasn't there. Not his mother or his sister, and everything was still the way it was for the most part at least. He said the door was left slightly open. He seemed like he wanted to cry… I've never dealt with loss like this before, but I still tried to "cheer" him up the best I could. "They weren't there… What if they're gone for good…?" "Wait, you said the door was left open, right? Was there anything else out of the ordinary?" Wait, now that he thought about it, there was some stuff still left out, like someone was there for a while… "Yeah, It looked like someone had been staying there… I know we didn't have the best relationship at times but why would she leave…?" "I dunno, maybe she was looking for you." I've never had any siblings so I can only imagine what it feels like. I've always wanted one though, a sister, a brother, it doesn't really matter. It would just be nice to have someone like that in my life. But what matters the most though, is that the one "simple" thing he missed means something; they're alive. When I told him he'll meet them again he just paused for a moment and asked me "Are you sure?" I told him "Yeah, I'm sure of it." I can't see his face over the phone but I feel like he definitely felt better after that. I guess sometimes even the simplest things can make someone feel better, even if it's just telling them they did good. Like the party Alyssa threw for me… I should look for my mother, if I don't do it now or tomorrow, I'll do it. Eventually. Looks like Alex is getting the weird morse messages too, it changed back to the 1st one today so I guess it's on loop or something. Alex said he could try and have Joseph translate it. I would've just had John do it but he said he didn't know a lot about morse code. (And here I thought he was a jack of all trades…) He did say he could try though, so that's good. Guess what, apparently Sky hooked up Alex with an in-person meeting with the HPI on the 27th! "Why didn't she tell me" is what I would've said if they didn't contact us too, looks like they want me and Alex to meet them in person. Is that exciting? I dunno, especially with that Dr. Parker around. It's definitely a good thing though, we can finally get the answers we've been wanting and I finally know for sure if he's my father or not. (I'm pretty sure he is) Maybe he'll wish me a happy birthday since he missed it. They want us to meet in some kind of sports stadium or something. It's not that far but it might take us a day or two to get there. (Why couldn't they pick somewhere closer…?) Me and Alex are gonna go together, we'll get up real early so we won't waste any time. I don't think we'll take anyone else with us. Alyssa definitely wasn't too fond of that when I told the others about it. "You're going alone, but it's dangerous! Who knows what they might try to pull." She says. I just told her "I'll be fine" besides it's not like I'm going alone alone. I'll have Alex with me if anything happens we'll protect each other. That's what partners do, right? John was pretty much the only one who was fine with the idea. Blake just didn't care, as usual. He told me to "stay safe" though. And Madeline and Minuette… They're fine with it. They're worried but they aren't Alyssa, so they're not gonna stress themselves over it. I know she cares about me but sometimes… I feel like she's my mom. I gave Blake that one old map of the city we still have so he could figure out the best route for us, and something shone in his eyes. I don't know what it was, but it was just like he instantly knew what to do somehow. Hmm… Maybe instead of a lawyer he'll be a cartographer… I feel bad for Alex, he just came back from a trip and now he has to go on another one. This one probably won't take long though. Aside from the stuff with the HPI and Alex, today was another pretty normal day. I knew John was practicing his magic in secret but he's gotten pretty good with it. He was already pretty good with his telekinesis but he actually do something that's kinda like actual magic now. He wanted to show me it and ta da. He made a barrier of some kind. When I asked him why we would even need something like that he just shrugged and said "I don't know, for protection…?" I guess if we're in a dangerous situation he can be our shield. It seems pretty strong, I don't think even a bullet could get through it. More than one bullet is another story though… He says he's gonna try to move to "other things." now. I find it funny that we've gotten so used to stuff like this that it's just the norm now. Another thing to add to the list of "things past me wouldn't believe™." I tried flying again and it went pretty much the same as the other couple days, I tried going slightly higher than usual this time too. I think I'm okay at it. I don't know how long I can keep it up though. I definitely wouldn't be able to fly for the entire trip but I might be able to do it for a couple minutes. I dunno. I wish I had someone to teach me. Am I the leader here…? It doesn't really feel like it, even if I come up with the majority of our plans. Hmm… I'm the protagonist of this story! Jokes aside, we're all the protagonists of our little stories, kinda. I don't know what else to write and I should probably get some shut eye if I want to be ready for the trip tomorrow, I'm guessing he'll pick me up or I'll be the one picking him up. So as always this is Emile (or Bliss) bye. Is it me or did Alex's voice sound squeakier…? - Emile > Day 66, Second Contact. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 26th, 2015 Dear Journal, Woke up super early today, I think it was like barely morning. Geez. Alex wasn't outside waiting for me so I was the one picking him up instead. It's fine, I honestly didn't expect him to come and pick me up this time. I just took Madeline's police car since John fixed it up a while ago. It's got enough gas, it's not like I'll be gone for a while though. And if we need gas we can always get some from the 20 million deserted gas stations across the world. (How long will that stuff last anyway?) All that was left was to pack up everything I needed. I really didn't want to touch that damned bat again, but if I really have to then so be it. I brought Madeline's gun too, just in case. I'm obviously not properly trained or anything but it's not that hard to use a gun with hooves, you just need to hold it a certain way. Plus if I have trouble I can always just use my wings as "hands." I miss having thumbs now… It's definitely 100% absolutely illegal for me to even hold this thing but who cares! Laws don't exist anymore. Which is a good and a bad thing… God, I'm talking about guns now. My mom really would kill me if she was here… Alyssa was reasonably concerned about me going on a trip to a meeting like this "alone." "Promise me you'll come back safe…" Another promise he already knew he couldn't keep. For all he knew the HPI could've been sending them both to a death trap. So, Emile only did one thing and looked at Alyssa with a soft smile. "I'll do my best." Huh… This was just like before… Oh wait! One more thing before he left. Emile took out his ponytail, let his semi long semi-long hair loose a bit and handed Alyssa the band. "Here." What- Why was he giving this to her? Don't tell me… "I can't-" "Just take it alright, just in case." Emile meant well but Alyssa didn't exactly take it the right way. He was acting like he might not come back from this. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. Maybe deep down that's what he thought was going to happen, or they both did. Who knows…? But both of them certainly weren't in the best mood after that. I gave Alyssa my headband just in case I- No, I shouldn't say things like that. We'll get through this, just like we always have. Together. I know we will. After that goodbye, I drove over to Alex's base to pick him up. I really overestimated the distance between us because it did not take that long for me to get there, 40 hours my flank. They have a nice little place here. The same green pony came out except different… Guess what, somehow, someway Alex got magically smaller! I immediately bursted into laughter as soon as I saw him. I'm sorry, it's just too funny. "Hey, what's so funny?!" Is what he said, or something like that. He's so damn tiny now. I just can't… He explained what happened to him later. So, apparently Moriah tried to do some magic Joseph taught her with her broken horn and BAM! He's like this now. He's 16 now, that's what Alex said he and Oliver think at least. That's actually not far off from my age… All jokes aside, he's not that tiny now. He seems only slightly shorter than me, I think… Welp, I guess I'm not the youngest here anymore! (Yay.) After I picked him up, using Alex's knowledge and Blake's superb geography skills we stopped at an air base. I finally got that UMP45 I wanted. I have a lot more to choose from in terms of weapons than Alex since I have wings, it probably doesn't help that he's basically a little kid now. Basically since we don't know if he's actually younger or if he just looks it. Do ponies even age differently? It would be cool if we did. Woo, immortality! I really hope that wasn't too much of a detour. Alex seemed fine with it, so I guess it's alright. After that we almost made it to the meeting spot, I parked the car so we could look for somewhere to rest for a bit and you won't guess what happened. There was a tiger. A damned tiger roaming the streets. There's a zoo near here so that's probably where it came from. There wasn't really anywhere for us to hide so we both armed ourselves and prepared to just shoot the thing down. It came running at me, I was shaking, I could barely move to put my hoof on the trigger… But, just in time Alex saved me and turned the thing into swiss cheese in an instant. It wasn't that big but that was one of the scariest moments in my life yet. I feel like I owe him for that, I mean he practically saved my life. I'll pay you back for that one day, partner. We broke into someone's apartment for our temporary place to stay, Alex broke the door down. He's one strong 16 year old. (Why are all these "normal" ponies so strong?) There's nobody here as usual. We really need to stop getting our hopes up everytime we go somewhere. We went from finding survivors at a steady pace to none at all. Maybe we'll find someone else, eventually… But yeah, this is our temporary place to stay for now. I had a chat with Alex since there's (obviously) nobody else for me to talk to. (He kept Huan at home, thank god.) We just talked about everything that's happened to us recently. I asked how his trip to Oregon went (aside from his family not being there.) "Fine, there wasn't anyone out here aside from a couple animals." is what he said. I seriously can't get over how small Alex is now. It's actually kinda cute… I wanna just grab him and squeeze the life out of him. (In a good way.) I jokingly called him my "little sister" and he just told me to shut up. Geez, calm down I was only joking. Meanie… (He made a lil pouty face when he said that. Wahhh… So cute…) On a more serious note I told him a secret of mine during that. I told him that Dr. Parker was (potentially) my dad. "I still kinda have family left. That Dr. Parker I told you about, he's my dad." Alex just went silent for a bit. He honestly didn't know what to say to that. He wasn't envious, especially considering how Emiles dad treated him. He just, didn't know what to say or feel… "Oh, I- I see…" "Well, I still don't know for sure though. He could be some alien lookalike from outer space for all I know!" Goddammit. He ruined the mood didn't he? Him and his big mouth… "I guess we'll both get our answers tomorrow…" Alex just nodded with a quiet "Mmph." It felt good to get that off my chest after so long. I definitely ruined the mood though… Answers… Tomorrow is our meeting with the HPI, we'll get our answers there and I'll finally know for sure if he's my dad or not. I finally get to know why that bastard abandoned me and mom after so long… Well, it's getting late. I want to be ready for tomorrow. So as always, this is Emile/Bliss signing off. I have to do this, it's what mom would want… - Emile > Day 67, The Meeting. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 27, 2015 I thought they would've wanted us to meet in separate spots but I guess not. Whatever, it doesn't really matter. Just whatever works for them is fine. Alex brought a radio and a microphone so the others- Well, his group at least can hear what's going on. I don't have anything like that but maybe the satellite phone would work…? Hey, would you look at that. It does. I mean, there's no reason it shouldn't, right? We're not THAT far from home. I just told Alyssa and the others to keep themselves on mute for now. We're walking in now, there's some people in the seats at the top, it looks like they're watching us and woah, woah, woah. Are those snipers? Do they want us to feel safe or not? I have my UMP in the saddlebag, and Alex probably has his P90 in his. If they try to open fire on us, we'll just return the favor. Probably. No, Minuette I'm not gonna actually do it, it was a hypothetical. Wait, Alyssa, why are you encouraging me? I thought you wanted me to stay safe? Make up your mind will you? Okay, that was a bit rude. I'm sorry. They also set up this weird container…? There's cables, a whole lot of cables. I swear, this entire thing is something out of a science fiction movie. Ever seen anything like this John? No? Alright. Here they come now. We now have actual confirmation if these people are human or not, for the most part at least. There's about five of them, they're all wearing the same armored hazmat suits like in the dream, and before. I can actually kinda see their faces… I'm guessing the one with the ornate suit is Dr. Parker. Then the one who looks like he's observing him in a similar suit is that Dr. Carter Alex told me about. I have no idea who the third one is though, he has one of those fancy looking suits but it doesn't look as decorated as the others. I'm guessing he's not as important…? Something about him feels offly familiar though… The other two in the back look like they're either talking about something or setting up something, I can't tell from this distance. There's this weird thing in the middle. Circle, dome, sphere? I'm not sure. Hey John- No? That's what I thought. What about Madeline, she was a cop that's affiliated with the government, right? She doesn't know either. Figured so. Alex's talking to his friends. I wonder if they can hear us… They probably think we're insane. Maybe we are. "Don't take another step. If you try to even go past those yellow markings, we won't hesitate to open fire." Geez, that was oddly aggressive. "We understand, but I can't keep-" Woah. Did he read his mind or something because as soon as he said that a drone came in a dropped a microphone with a little speaker for us. "Thank you…" I'll just let Alex do most of the talking. Even with his current "state" I still feel like the youngest one here. I guess mental and physical really are different after all… "You must be Lonely Day and-." "Bliss Flower." "Right…" "And I'm guessing you're Dr. Parker?" "Correct. I'm deeply sorry for not being closer because well, I can't." "But why, there shouldn't be that much radiation out… That's what Jo- my friend said at least…" "Your bodies are like an exposed core. If I tried to even get close to you, especially without a suit my brain would probably get fried in a instant. Inviting you two here was big enough a risk already." "So, anymore questions?" "You said you knew what was going to happen with this whole "collapse" thing, right? Why didn't you do anything to stop this…?" "We already told you, we did everything we could. Believe me, there's only so many people on this planet you can fit into bunkers." Did everything we could my ass. This bastard abandoned me and my mother just to come years later, like this…?! He doesn't care about anyone but himself. "Tell me why… Why did you abandon me and mom?!" Noah fell silent for a bit. "WHY DID YOU LEAVE US LIKE THAT?!" "Emile, calm down!" Calm down?! He wants me to just calm down?! I waited forever for this, and this bastard still can't give me a real answer! "You should listen to him, if you don't calm down we might have to cut this short. Your radiation levels have already increased by eighty percent." "Y-You and you want me to just-!" Bang. What…? It became very obvious what happened to Emile. A bullet flew by, cutting off a fraction of his hair and slightly grazing his neck. He was left speechless. Badump. Badump. Did they just…? "You… YOU!" Wait, what's going on?! No, no… Stop it! STOP IT! "'I'm your son, daughter, whatever, you can't do this to me!" Alex could only watch helplessly as Emile was forcefully dragged off by two people. The whole left him speechless and in shock. They were willing to- Just because he- Dammit! He carefully turned his attention back to Dr. Parker. "What do you want from us…?" "It's simple, we need you, you need us. Why don't we set up a trade alliance of sorts? I honestly thought you were lesser beings but you're clearly different from the rest." "We're human…." "No you aren't. Humans don't walk on four legs or have fur. You "ponies" as you call yourselves are nothing more than animals." "We were all human once….!" "Yes, yes, sure. I believe you." "Tell me, Lonely Day, how many "ponies" would be able to get into government satellite systems? How many ponies would be able to fix up a plane in mere days? How many ponies would be able to conserve resources like you do?" "How many ponies would be able to get where you are today…? You may be animals but your group clearly sets yourselves apart from the rabble." "You can give us the resources we need, and we can give technology far more advanced than what you have today, we can give you stuff that was never available to the public." "You give us the information we need, and we can make all that and more come true. Think about it, this is a once in a lifetime chance, you'd never get an offer like this normally." "If you don't comply, that's fine. But if you act like your friend over there… Well, it's obvious what would happen." "Yeah…" "So, whaddya say?" There wasn't much to lose from this. It was a win-win situation. But with the HPI potentially stalking their every move he didn't know what to do. "I need to talk this over with my friends first." "Go ahead." … "It's a deal." "It's a pleasure to do business with you." "Before I go, tell me what you mean by "radiation." "Thaumic radiation. Super dangerous to humans, you and your kind are practically made of it. And like I said before, it fries your brain to a point where you're brain dead." "I see…" After that, Alex left the stadium outside at the entrance was Emile, sitting down with cold dead eyes. He had a couple of bruises on him, likely from him trying to fight back. "He…" Emile's face visibly welled up in anger. Alex had a good childhood for the most part so he didn't fully understand everything. But still, for some unknown reason he felt like he knew what he was going through. He wanted to help him. Maybe they really were partners in destiny. Intertwined, forever. "I know." Alex tried to help Emile up the best he could with the body of a 16 year old pony. "Let's go." "Yeah…" > Interlude 3, The Meeting. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alright, looks like everything's set. Hopefully Noah and his attitude don't fuck anything up this time. Seriously, could he learn to be softer please? It's not like he was always like this though. He had a pretty normal life before actually, he even had a nice little family with that Elin! But ever since then and the collapse, he's just been "different." Owen couldn't exactly put his finger on it so that was the easiest way to explain it. Hey, would you look at that. They're here. But seriously, seriously Noah better not screw this over, otherwise they'd both be in big trouble. Hmm… Something about that purple pony feels oddly familiar. Eh, it probably just a weird gut feeling or uh something like that. But of course, Owen didn't know that things just wouldn't play that way. "Emile, calm down!" Emile…? Wait, wait, wait. Could it be…? No, it was too good to be true. There's over a million people on the planet, there's no way it could be him. What he said about his "mother" though… It wouldn't make sense for it not to be him. "Kid..." If it truly wasn't him, then Noah better have a good explanation for all of this. Dr. Clark grabbed Parker by his shirt and slammed him against the wall. "What the hell were you thinking back there?!" Here we go again. Such arrogance indeed… But Parker should've expected this kind of insubordination from Carter by now. Well, if he wanted to remain blind then so be it. "You might be my superior but your actions back there could've heavily affected the organization! You're lucky things even went somewhat according to plan!" Yes, they would have affected the organization, but in a good way. If he couldn't see that, then well…. Dr. Parker just let a cold snicker. And Dr. Carter, of course, didn't take much of a liking to this. Did he just…? Was this some kind of sick game to him?! You… Why, you! But before Carter could anything rash Owen came in and stopped him. "Hey, hey, break it off you two. We're all buddies here, right?" Crickets. Geez, this is the toughest crowd he's had in ages. Lighten up a little will you? "Hey, Carter, can you leave me and my brother alone for a bit?" He wasn't too thrilled with the idea but… "Fine, if you insist." They'll just have to settle this later. So, with them alone would Noah finally talk…? "Noah, you better have a good explanation for what happened back there." Noah just looked at Owen coldly. "I don't have to explain anything, what happened is none of your business." Playing hard to get are we? Well, we'll see about that. "It is too my business, we're brothers…!" Brothers…? Ha… What a funny joke. To think someone as idiotic as HIM would be from the same blood as him. "No we aren't." And with that Noah stormed off without even saying goodbye. I see… So that's how things were. Fine then, he'll play along. He'll just figure things out himself, and if Noah wasn't gonna help he would just do things his own, his style. "Heh…" > Day 67.5-68, A Rollercoaster Of Emotions. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Journal, We're both home now, it didn't take that long for me to drive there. I didn't need to tell Alyssa and the others on what happened during our meeting with the HPI, because well they heard everything over the phone. I had them on mute for (basically) the entire time. My phone went off halfway through though. Alex filled me in on what I missed after they dragged me out, and it went just as "well" as I expected it. God. Fucking. Dammit. At least we know what they want with us though, kinda… Turns out they know about as much as we do. Ok, not really. Even if they don't know everything they know a lot more than we do. Like the thaumic radiation. I have literally no idea what that means, but I have a little theory about it. Joseph and John, they're unicorns. They say magic is in "everything" right? What if the "radiation" or what the HPI thinks is radiation isn't radiation at all, it's magic. Dr. Parker told Alex we're "basically made of it." Magic is in everything and we're made of it! The magic is toxic to humans! Boom. That's still just a theory though, there's no way I can really confirm if that's true or not. That damned meeting was still mostly pointless. We got what was basically the equivalent of pennies in terms of "answers." I'm sorry mom… I couldn't find out why that damn bastard abandoned us… I've been looking through some of my older entries, and I've said a lot of stupid things. A lot of things I would love to take back. I seem so innocent… Oh, where did the time go~ I'm joking. Mostly. "two best friends at the end of the world…" I would never have thought that this entire thing would've led up to this. That name still sucks. What should the name of this "story" be then…? I dunno. God, I feel terrible. I feel like I wanna throw up my damned insides, except I won't do that. Hopefully. The old me might've been an idiot but he was strong and confident. Maybe a bit too confident. He probably would've cursed the HPI and that Dr. Parker in their faces. God, what am I saying…? The old me cared about nothing other than himself, I'm glad I changed. Whether it was for the better or the worse. The way John calls me "kid" reminds me of my uncle. He used to do the same thing. Uncle… I wonder if he's alive… If he is, he's probably with my "dad." I don't know much about their relationship but judging from how he spoke of him they seemed pretty close. I still don't want to acknowledge that bastard is my dad. Why did he have to be alive, why couldn't he die…? He called us "lesser beings" and "animals." Dammit. We're human, every single one of us. We don't even care for these pony bodies, except for Minuette of course. I've been thinking seriously this time. Why did this happen…? Maybe it's judgment from the gods for the sins we mortals committed… I doubt it though. At least we know one thing for sure, we're definitely in the right here. Kinda. The HPI might not even be truly "evil." For all we know Dr. Parker is the one who's issuing all those hostile orders. That actually might be true. That Dr Carter had a similar goal but he was a lot less aggressive compared to him. That's going by what Alex told me at least. He was one observing him during the meeting too, and he definitely didn't seem too happy with the way Dr. Parker was acting… If they're both heads or representatives of the organization, Dr. Parker is probably his superior since he seems to be the one calling (most) of the shots. I wonder if there's anything we can do to help him… If Dr. Parker thinks we're animals than so be it, we'll show him what these "animals" can do. I'm pretty sure we did judging by what Alex told me, he praised him and his group for his accomplishments. Well, that's not fair. We've done a fair amount of work too. We've set up a fully functional home prepared for the long term, we might have done more than Alex's group. Nah, don't count on it. I don't know what else to write about… Everyone's been on edge since that meeting. We're all gonna try our best to get through this, just like I said before. Alyssa hasn't questioned why my hair "magically" got shorter, I don't really see the need to tell her how I almost got shot. - Emile July 28th, 2015 Dear Journal, I made a vow for a reason, and because of that I'm not gonna give up hope. Not yet at least… I've been trying to do other things to distract myself from everything going on. Look, I drew something using those art supplies Alyssa got during my birthday. It's okay. I'm not an artist, alright? I'm not Alex or uh Lonely Day. I wish I was. Even back there, he seemed so strong. Even with his current "age" I guess that's just how all adults are. I uh took a walk, by myself. I also tried flying again, I think I'm okay at it now. I've been trying to continue working on all my "hobbies" really. Okay, I can't keep lying to myself. No matter what I do I just can't seem to feel better, like there's something tugging at my heart. Maybe I'm sick. An illness could do that sorta thing right? Make you feel like absolute garbage no matter what. Everyone's been down lately. Even Minuette, and she's always happy. Alyssa asked about my bruises since they still haven't fully healed yet. I just told her I got hurt while trying to fly. I lied. I feel bad for it, but I don't want her worry about me. I don't want anyone to worry about me.... I wish I had the same confidence old me had now. I need it. I'm just a damn kid… Maybe I'll go visit Alex's group again and have Oliver look at me. He's a doctor, right? He should be able to do something about my sickness. - Emile > Interlude 4, Power. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What…" Dr. Parker just stared at Dr. Carter in disbelief. "From here on out the order to shoot and kill all ponies is abolished." But he didn't even- How could he…. "But-" Dr. Parker found himself cut off once more. "You need to realize you don't run the show here, we can't have you ruining everything for us." But he DID run the show! He was one of the damn heads of this organization and he demanded to be treated as such! And here was Dr. Carter treating him like nothing more than garbage… "That's all I wanted you here for, you're dismissed." Dismissed…?! He was his superior he should be- No. He mustn't get ahead of himself, he mustn't let his anger overwhelm him. Not here at least… Dr. Parker reluctantly left the office after that. And the moment he was alone he threw out "letting his anger overwhelm him" instantly. Dammit… "Dammit!" He needed to rid the earth of that damned mistake. He was lucky that sniper didn't hit him, if Dr. Parker wasn't here; he would've just killed him then and there. He needed a little more time… Just a little more time and he could get rid of him. It didn't matter what he had to do, but he surely didn't any help from something like the HPI for it. He needed… He needed… Power… Suddenly, Dr. Parker felt something. A gripping pain in his chest, and it just got worse. It felt like he was ripped straight from reality for a moment. And a strange voice found its way into his head. "If it's power you seek…" The voice chuckled. "I shall gladly make it so." The pain, it just kept getting worse and worse… Dr. Parker let out an agonizing scream. It felt like his bodies very atoms were being split apart, the very fabric of his being was being harmed. Agonizing… Was this death?! Yet it felt like something was growing inside him… And for moment it all stopped and he was returned back to his rightful place. He felt a huge surge of strength, unlike he had never felt before. Dr. Parker laughed. I see… So that's how things were. He understood everything now. And this was just what he needed… This power… Oh, how magnificent! The HPI? He didn't need them. Connections, bonds, allies? All pointless. All nothing more than tools. He would do this alone, of his own accord. "In conclusion, I Noah Johnson Parker resign from the HPI and will withdraw from the organization entirely. And with that Noah left the meeting, now he just needed to- Someone grabbed his arm and it was of course none other than, Owen. His "brother." "Where do you think you're going?" Where? Shouldn't it be obvious? "Outside." What- Outside, like that? Without, anything…? Was he trying to kill himself? He might not consider him his brother anymore but he still cared about him, dammit! "You can't, you already know what will happ-" Noah just laughed. "Of course, I do…" Death…? No. That's something he needed to fear anymore. Not with this power, he was immortal. A god! That's how he saw himself at least. Noah just forcefully shrugged Owen off and walked away while Owen reluctantly let him go. "Don't die on me." > Day 69-71, A Rollercoaster Of Emotions (2) And Rendezvous. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 29, 2015 Dear Journal, I woke up to the smell of smoke today. Fire. I jumped up and down, banged pots and pans, anything to get everyone up. We grabbed everything we could, just anything that was important to our survival or us in some way. We made it out alive, nobody got hurt. But it was too late for our home, everything we didn't grab is gone, the solar panels, the farm, everything. Before we left Minuette retreated back into the blaze to free the animals. I don't know what she was thinking with that move, but she thankfully made it out alive. The animals just ran off somewhere. The fire spread to some of the forest, I hope it just dies now and doesn't spread anywhere, I don't want my home town to go up in flames. Sorry to the family that lived there, maybe one day we'll rebuild your home. I jumped into Madeline's police car with Minuette and Alyssa, while John jumped into the truck with Blake and Madeline. Yes, even Buddy survived. Y'know, I've been kinda rude towards that mutt, I barely even mention him in most of my entries, sorry abut that. I know fire can change colors depending on hot it is, like blue. But I'm pretty sure it can't be golden. Did somepony, someone, or something do this to us on purpose? Why…? We haven't done anything… We're victims here. The event took our families, bodies, identities, everything! I'm just a kid… No kid should have to go through this. We're on our way to rendezvous with Alex's group now maybe we can- Is that…? My gods…. - Emile July 30th, 2015 Los Angeles burned too, not just Alex's base or a small part of it, the entire damn city. I don't think they were caused by the same person, if they were caused by anyone that is. I told Alex about the "golden" fire and he said he didn't see anything like that. I hope both culprits went up with the blaze. We're all in the Redlands right now. Woo, California. And I hate it here. It's hot, it doesn't rain here that much either. (According to Alex.) I guess that's just the summer for you, and California… I miss Philadelphia… That's where me and mom lived before we moved to Delaware. We used to move around alot actually. I have no idea where we're gonna stay at but for now we broke into some crappy apartment building to stay at temporarily. See, that's the good thing about the end of the world, there's thousands of deserted buildings up for grabs. We're all in "our" little rooms. I'm with Alex, Sky, and Minuette. (Huans here too of course, yay…) John is with Joseph. Madeline is with Moriah and Alyssa. While Oliver is with Blake. We're all finally together! Unless we split apart from Alex's group for some reason, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I guess we're actually a colony now, all eleven of us. Woo-hoo! I'm if I was emotional these past couple days. It's just, there's so much going on right now… I blame it on my teenage hormones. But Alex has those too now soooo, yeah. I still feel like garbage though. The event might've taken my identity and my family, but there's one thing I'll always have, my friends. We've been through alot and we've always made it out unscathed, this wouldn't be any different. We'll get through this, together! Besides, I made a promise. I usually make promises but when I do, I at least try to keep them. (For the most part at least.) So, no matter what happens I'll try to get back up and move on towards the future. With hope. Also, I guess we can all feel like garbage together so that's a plus. Anyways, using Blake's magical organization and charting skills we were able to calculate how many resources we have left. We have about four canisters of gas left, food to last about a couple days that we'll have split up between eleven ponies, anddd not much else…. Okay, we're fucked. Joseph still has his computer, and John still has his toolbox. (of course they do.) And aside from those kinda supplies we have two cb radios, the communications device the HPI gave us, and our phones. Even my old one. Definitely fucked. We'll definitely have to go actually go "shopping" later but for now Me and Alex grabbed some snacks and stuff from a nearby convenience store. That fire took about 90% of our supplies, I even lost my mom's laptop (sorry mom) and Alyssa lost her guitar. Guess I'll have to get her another one, it'll be a thank you gift for the birthday party she threw me. There really wasn't anything valuable on that laptop aside from the movies I pirated. So it's okay. But Joseph has one too, he's got movies, and even games on it! I'm gonna ask him if I can use it later. Speaking of, Joseph called the HPI. Dr Carter answered, he told us "he's deeply sorry for the behavior of Dr. Parker" and that they had nothing to do with both the fires that ruined our homes. He also said hey could give us any supplies if needed and that we might meet again soon, properly this time. That's actually kinda exciting, maybe we won't have to worry about our lives this time. And guess what, Dr. Parker is one of the heads of the organization just like I thought. It's more like was now though, cause apparently Dr. Parker resigned a couple days ago and has been missing ever since. Hmm… I don't really care about him much, but doesn't that sound kinda suspicious? He just resigned from an organization like that and just left without a trace. That aside, just like I said before we'll get through this. Alex said we should get one of those livable rvs so we won't have to stop every two seconds while we're on the road. It sounds like a good idea, but I dunno where we could get one, maybe at a nearby car shop…? I guess we'll do that tomorrow. But as always, this is Emile/Bliss, bye! I just realized I haven't signed off like that in a while… - Bliss Flower July 31st, 2015 Dear Journal, I woke up clinging to Alex today. No seriously, when I woke up I was holding him in my arms like a damned stuffed animal with my wings wrapped around him. Needless to say, that was pretty awkward for both of us… It got even worse when Sky woke up and entered the room. "Good mornin-" Sky stopped dead in her tracks and didn't bother finishing her sentence. The three just kinda blankly stared at each other, like they all needed a moment to process what was even going on. It just got even worse when Minuette entered room literal seconds after Cloudy Skies. "Hi-" And she was just about confused as her too. ["What are you-?" Alex and Emile immediately scrambled up to make it look like nothing happened, but alas it was already too late… "We were uh- N-Nothing! Yeah, Nothing…" They were both blushing… Liars. "You have weird taste in mares." Minuette spoke in the most serious tone ever as she just went along with her day as usual like nothing ever happened, she was obviously teasing Emile though. Emile got up and quickly followed after Minuette so he could explain everything. "Wait, Minuette, I can explain!" While Alex…. "Someone's got a marefriend~" "I do not, you've got it all wrong!" Yeah… Neither of them were gonna let them live this down, we're they…? Well uh… Umm… It was pretty stupid to have us sleep together now that I think about it. There's only one bed, so we just slept on the couch. Look, I was trying to be nice, okay? Besides, it was Alex's idea! (Why is he so cute when he blushes?! Wahhhh… I'm gonna die…) Thank god they were the only ones who saw us… Not that, that's a good thing though. Knowing those two they're gonna tease us about it until the end of time. And they did… But that embarrassing moment aside, first we did today: get that livable rv Alex said would be good. John said he actually saw a car dealership/some kind of camping store(?) that had one on the way here, he brought it up when we told him that's what we were going out to do. "He isn't sure though" is what he said. We went on hoof instead of driving there. Even if what John said wasn't correct, it's nice to get some exercise every once in a while. Besides, if we didn't find it we would probably have to leave the car, or whatever we would've taken there behind. John gave Alex his tools so he could do his magic and covert the RV or whatever and I grabbed some gas so we could take it back "home." Luckily, there really wasn't anything out there aside from a few dogs, I think. And it looks like John was right, there is a camping store out here. (Not a car dealership.) They had RVs, a couple actually. We just took one of course, they also had like your standard camping supplies, tents, water bottles, all that. I grabbed some of those and threw them in the rv, don't know what we would need a tent for though. Alex converted it to make it easier for ponies to drive, he showed me how again too. I filled it up with gas, and drove it home, and wallah. We have a livable RV now. It's got about two beds, a fridge and a toilet! Alex was definitely right about something like this being useful. We'll probably have to leave one of these vehicles when we get back on the road again. Madeline's police car is probably the one we don't need the most, since it's small and doesn't have a lot of storage. Sorry, Madeline. I don't think she has a personal connection to it anyway. We're trying to get back on our hooves. Those fires really screwed us over… I got bored and asked Joseph if I could use his computer. He just looked at me sternly and said "No, I'm working on something." "But I'm boreddd…" I whined, or something like that. "Then go do something if you're bored." Seriously, why is he such a meanie! He gave in after I nagged him enough. I think the puppy dog eyes did the trick. Hehe… Good thing about being the youngest person on the planet: everyone baby's you. All jokes aside, nobody baby's me. Kinda… John calls me "kid" and treats me like one. Joseph does too to a lesser extent. (He doesn't call me kid though :( ) I tried helping Sky with her flying today. It's honestly not that hard when you get the hang of it. You just need to focus, just focus everything into your wings… I told Sky that and she actually managed to do it! Only for a couple seconds though. Guess she'll just have to try harder tomorrow. Sky teased me about that whole thing with Alex again after that. She asked me how my relationship with him was going. I honestly wanted to just punch her there, but instead of getting mad at her, I just played along. "Good. How's yours with Minuette?" Is what I told her. She just looked at me with a smug smirk and said "Good." I think I outsmugged the smug master. (Probably not.) I honestly feel we needed something like that to happen, just to cheer us up a bit. I know it did for me. I still kinda feel like garbage though. But it doesn't matter, I'll keep pushing forward, no matter what. So as always, this is yours truly, bye. I wonder what awaits us tomorrow… - Bliss > Day 72, Another World. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 1st, 2015 Dear Journal, We understand everything now. Well, for the most part at least. We found the ponies who were sending us those messages. (The numbered ones, not the morse code.) They were looking for us this entire time! Alright, alright. Gotta calm down and focus. Focus… So, me and Alex went out for supplies as we usually do. We took Minuette with us this time. Look, it's not my fault okay? She insisted that she'd come. We used Madeline's police car. I figured we might as well get some mileage of it before we y'know, abandon it. I was just gonna take us to a supermarket of some kind or something. And that would've been the end of that, but on the way we spotted something peculiar. A pure white unicorn, with blonde hair, and blue eyes. I'm guessing he comes from a "half-nudist" branch of Minnie's and Sky's nudist club, because the only thing he's wearing is a royal blue suit blazer with a golden outline, a open collar, and a white jabot. A bit too fancy if you ask me. I think he's some kind nobility, judging by his clothes. He also has this weird blue choker with a silver star on it. It looks kinda like his destiny- Ahem, his "cutie" mark. (I still think destiny mark is a cooler name…) He looked kinda confused, like he was lost or something. So, of course I pulled over and we all got out of the car to talk to him. I figured it was just another survivor, maybe from the same place as Minuette and Sky or something. It didn't seem like the stallion noticed them yet. "Great, now where she is…?" He mumbled to himself. For the love of Celestia, could she not wander off like that? And now he's lost too… He didn't get this damned world, it's so confusing with it's weird architecture. Ugh… This entire thing was pointless. "Using me like this, does that damned 'princess' think I'm her tool?" But of course his train of thought was interrupted when he heard something. "Hey!" Who…? "He" turned to see three ponies all jolting towards him. Finally, he found somepony that seemed somewhat friendly. And wait- Was that…? "You need some help?" "No, I'm fine thank you very much." Looks like he found the pony he was looking for, or well one of them at least. The stallion "unintentionally" rudely shoved Emile out of the way and turned his attention to Minuette. [color=4039fa]"Finally, we've been looking for you for ages." What…? Her…? "Me..?!" "Yes, you. Now c'mon-" "He" tried to grab Minuette but thankfully Alex stopped him. "Hold on, we barely know who you are and now you wanna whisk our friend off somewhere?" "My apologies. Ahem Kaiser Von Silverstar, at your service." Kaiser took a regal bow. Yup, definitely nobility. "I'm guessing you two aren't from Equestria, correct?" Equestria…? What in the world was he talking about…? Did he go insane after The Event happened or something? "No…?" "Good, good. Can you two perhaps take to me the leaders here, I need to speak to them." "You're looking at them." They didn't really have any actual formalities or anything, but him and Alex were the first people to wake up (aside from Alyssa) so they kinda were the "leaders." Even if they both didn't really consider themselves ones. "Aren't you two a bit… Young…?" Alex and Emile just stared at Kaiser with the most deadpan faces in existence. Seriously…? He just HAD to mention that didn't he? But that was cut short when Kaiser turned his attention to yet another pony coming their way. Finally…. "What took you so long?" The "sunset" unicorn came in with a cart of sorts with a bit of food in it and a strange device. "One of the wheels broke. So, I just had to fix it, that's all." The sunset unicorn twirled a wrench with her levitation magic and tossed it into the cart. "Just don't run off like that again." "Run off? You're the one who went ahead of me." "Well, it's not my fault I don't get this confusing world." "Ummm, guys…?" The other unicorn stopped their nonsense arguing when I intervened and introduced herself as "Sunset Shimmer." Sunset Shimmer and Kaiser Silverstar… Those are pretty weird names… Kaiser sounds normaler though. (Is that a word?) Both sound like something out of a fantasy story. They explained their "mission" pretty thoroughly. They had been sent here to look for survivors after the event, if they were any they had to find a "ruler or a leader of sorts." They had been looking for a while now, It was a pure coincidence that we met today. I guess fate has a way with things like that… The runes were their gateway in. Like a magical portal of sorts. And guess what, it wasn't just them who came here. Minuette was one of the few ponies who came from their home too, Equestria. She didn't really take that the best way, and honestly I didn't believe it either. But it explained a lot, the way she acts, her lack of knowledge on the most basic things, everything. It was because she came from Equestria. The past three months we spent together weren't a lie, it was all real. This must be alot for her to take in…. Something must've went wrong with the spell that took her here and that's why she lost her memories, that's what Kaiser said when I told him at least. After that we all hopped in the car. Kaiser seemed a bit uncomfortable getting in such a "perplexing contraption." (Why does he talk like that?) While Sunset seemed fine with it. I think she's done this before… We drove to an empty warehouse so that's where we are now. There's a little campfire in here and luckily, since I threw the sleep bags I got yesterday in Madeline's car we have somewhere to sleep. They answered more of our questions when we got there. The person or pony that sent them here. (I don't think it matters since I'm pretty sure person doesn't refer to only humans…) Are "princesses" just like Kaiser mumbled back there. three of them in fact. Or well, two. Kaiser corrected Sunset by saying "I think you mean prince..." As for why they couldn't meet us in person, I have no idea. Kaiser said "it would be better for us to learn everything firsthoof" though. (These ponies say weird things…) I also told Kaiser (not a magic expert) about the visions the runes gave me, for the most at least. He just said "They shouldn't have done that…" Sunset (a magic expert) just added on: "Maybe someone tampered with the spell?" But why? That's so weird… What's even the point of that? Maybe whoever did it wanted me to see all of "that" or something? Welp, I guess we'll just add it to the pile of mysteries. Like, we totally needed more of those… Alex asked Sunset about the weird device thingy she had in her cart. She said it's a transmitter of sorts that lets her send messages back to Equestria. It uses a lot of magic though. Like a stupid amount. Speaking of, that's what she's working on right now with Kaiser. Magic! They're both working on something to take us to their world. Because that's where we're going, Equestria. There wasn't really much of a reason for us not to, especially when Sunset reassured us we would be able to go back home. The others probably aren't happy about it, Alex just called them quickly explained everything lightning fast and hung up before they could say anything. I hope they don't get too mad at us… There's a lot happening all at once, first we lose our homes to a mysterious blaze and now we're going to another world. Another freaking world. This is so exciting! We'll find our answers there and Minuette will learn the truth of her life… A couple more things, apparently Sunset met someone on her face day here. Wanna guest who it was? It was Sky, it was Cloudy bucking Skies. I guess she lied to Alex, and me to a certain extent. So that's a thing. He didn't seem too happy about that… (Just like the others when we told them we're going to another fucking world.) Kaiser apparently isn't that bad, "He's pretty nice once you get to know him." According to Sunset. Alright, he seems like a spoiled brat so far but alright. We'll see. We'll see… It probably doesn't help that they fight like siblings, and I thought Alyssa and John were bad, these two take it to a whole new level. I uh should really go to sleep now so as always this is Emile/Bliss, bye. Tomorrow, to Equestria we go. - Emile > Day 73, Another World. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 2nd, 2015 Dear Journal, We woke up at the crack of dawn today. Kaiser and Sunset wanted use to get up early so we didn't get stuck in her world. According to them we should have about to the ninth to decide if we wanna stay here or not. We all went outside before they did the spell Kaiser and Sunset asked us if we were ready. Me and Alex both silently nodded, Minuette did too. I feel like she considered declining their offer for a moment but decided not to in the end. She still doesn't believe she's from here, does she….? Sunset and Kaisers horns both lit up in unison and BAM! in a bright flash of light all five of us were whisked away somewhere. I'm guessing that was some kind of teleportation. It felt so weird… Like, imagine this: one minute you're walking down the street then suddenly you're right at home and you don't even know how you got there. Like you've been misplaced in the world. Sunset and Kaiser are probably fine with it since they're from a world of magic, but we aren't. I could never get used to that. (I felt like I wanted to throw up…) But, Welcome to Equestria, the magical land of friendship! It's a world like ours, except y'know it has magic. There aren't any humans here, never was, never will be instead we have sentient ponies, fucking dragons, griffins, and more! (The qilin like kirins are my favorite, seriously they're so cute!!! Everything here is so cute!!! I feel like I'm gonna die…) It also has barely any modern technology, guess you can blame magic for that. There's no need for phones when you can just send a letter to someone in a blink of a eye. This place is just like what I saw in the visions, bright and colorful, absolutely nothing like our world. We arrived in the outskirts of some kind of small town of sorts. Not really in the middle of nowhere since we could just walk there, it wasn't that far. There was a weird crystalline castle in the distance not too far from it, I wonder who lives there… But the town is called "Ponyville" according to some denizens. What a weird name… Everyponys so nice here, and I mean like stupidly nice. They treated me and Alex like we were damn celebrities. (I think they know we're from Earth…) Kaiser had to shoo some of the paparazzis off. It probably didn't help that we had a high ranking noble related to the literal royal family of this, and the former student/pupil of one of the princesses with us. Yes, that's right Kaisers a noble just like I thought. (His clothes made that stupidly obvious.) And Sunset is- was a student of one of the princesses. She told us, but wouldn't tell us why she wasn't one anymore. "It's a long story." in her words. I don't know if I should even put this here because it's not that important, but whatever. I got split up from the group, I wanted to see some of the sights before we left alright? Sunset said it was okay. And there I bumped into a pony, she had a fluffy red velvet mane with a braid on the side, like her tail with red bows in both of them, a pinkish red coat, and these bright pink eyes. The rose pony (her cutie mark was a rose with two leaves) didn't seem to notice or even care about me like the other ponies. It probably didn't help that it seemed like she was in a hurry and I just happened to bump into her while she was carrying all those flowers. "Oh, I'm sorry!" The rose pony said. "No, it's my fault. Here, let me help with that." I helped her with picking up the flowers. She thanked me and galloped off after that saying "there was somewhere she had to be." What a strange mare… There was somewhere I had to be too, so I quickly rejoined the others after that. We reached a train station to take the train to somewhere called "Canterlot." It didn't take that long for the train to arrive, only maybe a couple minutes really. I really love looking out the window on trains. I used to do that alot when I was younger, it was cool seeing all the scenery and the inside of the tunnels. Besides, trains are just cool in general! My God, I can't get over how this place looks like nothing I've ever seen before. It's honestly kinda tempting to stay here… I wish the others could see this. I wonder what Alyssa would think of this place. Knowing her she would probably say it's too "girly" or something. Well that's Alyssa for you. Always gotta play tough when she's a real softie on the inside. It didn't take long to us to reach Canterlot either. This place is where the royalty of Equestria live making it the capital. Y'know, a lot of these ponies wondered if Alex was my little sister, especially the ones in Canterlot. (Damned snobby nobles…) Yes, that's what he is! My little sister! Alex didn't take that too well, he yelled at me and told me to shut up again… Meanie… (Tsundere, much?) Then that got followed up with a question asking if I was Kaisers and Sunsets little sister. Needless to say, he got his payback… I'm just short dammit, he's the young one! Seriously, 99% of everyone here thinks we're kids. (I'm gonna kill somepony.) Kaiser led us to a mansion, a whole freaking mansion. This is where we're staying at for now. Sunset saw us off after that. She was nice, maybe we'll see her again… Kaiser has servants too! Or well, a servant. I think she's like a retainer/maid of sorts. "Peco, can you show our guests to their rooms?" "As you wish my lord." Her names Peco Lyntide. She's very nice. She didn't even question why me and Alex were "kids." (Again, I'm just short!) I still can't believe we're in a goddamn mansion right now. A fucking mansion! This is something I could never afford normally! (Yeah, baby!). Me and Alex are sharing a room since there's only two guest rooms. While Minuette obviously took the other one. We don't know if she'll even be staying here for long though because she has her own home here. Her old home, right here in Canterlot. She said she wanted to go and see it tomorrow. She's been real quiet ever since we got here. I'm sorry Minuette, I don't know what exactly you're going through but I'll try to help as best as I can. I promise. That aside, Kaiser told us a little more about this world. There's five princesses, not just three. (If we're counting this prince he told me about.) There's the Princess Of The Sun, Celestia. (That's the one Sunset used to be a student for.) The Princess Of The Night, Luna. The Princess Of Friendship, Twilight. The Princess Of Love and rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire, Mi Amore Cadenza, or just Cadence. And lastly, There's the Prince(ss) Of The Stars, Selene. A lot of princesses and only one prince, wonder what that's about. The first two I mentioned have apparently lived for over thousands of years, I'm not joking I'm being serious here. I can't even imagine living that long… They're both like demi-gods of sorts. They both raise the sun and the moon respectively. While that Selene moves the stars. According to Kaiser he's the child of "that luna" (his words not mine) so he's probably just about as much of a demi-god as she is. This world's sun and moon don't move on their own… That's weird, really weird. I don't think that's even scientifically possible on earth, I'm not an expert though so don't my word for it. Hmm… I don't know if Alex will come with us to see Minuettes old home tomorrow. I'm not gonna force him, it's his choice to make. If he wants to go off and do something on his own he can go ahead and do that. I'm not sure he could even go out alone with his current "age." Maybe Kaiser could pose as his "guardian." But as always, this is Bliss Flower writing this from another world, peace. I've been using that name here, it's a lot more "natural" and I don't have to explain to ponies why my name is Emile. Alex has been going by his "other" name too. Lonely Day. - Bliss Flower > Day 74, Another World. (3) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 3rd, 2015 Dear Journal, We all went downstairs and had eggs and haycakes with some orange juice for breakfast this morning. (Peco made them.) A pretty standard breakfast if you're a magical equine in a magical land of friendship. And yes, I said haycakes. They're like pancakes except made of hay. (I think.) Never thought I would ever be eating things like this but here we are… I legitimately cannot tell the difference. I think one might be sweeter(?) but other than that they're practically the same. This mansion has a pretty big dining room, I mean like SUPER big like it was meant for several ponies, even though it's only Kaiser and Peco living here. (We're temporary guests.) I should ask him about that later… I wonder how many bits this place cost. Bits, the standard Equestrian currency. That's what these ponies use instead of dollars and stuff. After our breakfast we all went out, Alex said "there were some places he wanted to check out" so he didn't join me and Minnie. We saw him off, waved goodbye and temporarily went our separate ways. Well, whatever. I can't force him to come, besides I think he did fine alone plus the ponies in Canterlot might leave him since they're classier and nobler than regular old townponies. (sparkle sparkle, also please pretend I never said that.) So, like I said yesterday me and Minuette went to go check out her old home. It was just a couple blocks from the mansion, nothing more than a short trot away. And there we found a decently sized blue house with a hourglass at the top, like her cutie mark. Surprisingly, the door was left unlocked so we just both just went ahead and went inside. It looked like nopony had been in here or even used this place in a while, it was decently messy like someone ransacked the place heck, I think I even saw some cobwebs. We just kinda dug through everything, not to find anything specific, we were just curious. I went ahead and looked through what I'm guessing what was her bedroom and found a framed photo of seven unfamiliar ponies. It seemed like it was taken recently. One of them was obviously Minuette. While one of them had wings alongside a horn…? Kaiser said only the princesses had both wings and a horn, so I'm guessing that's one of them? Why would Minuette even be friends with a princess though? (Not to be rude.) It's probably either that "Twilight Sparkle" or that Selene he mentioned with the way he talked about them. He made them seem like they weren't as important as the others. Especially Selene, god you should've seen him. I could almost feel the disgust in his words. I wonder if he did something to him…? Knowing Kaiser, he might've done nothing to him. I think that guy just hates everyone, at least he's still respectful though. Being a noble probably did that to him. But as I was saying before, we checked the house. We were probably just gonna leave and go back (or meet up with Lonely Day) after that but we got stopped by somepony on the way out. "Minuette…?" Twinkleshine, one of Minuettes former childhood friends she met in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. She didn't bother questioning or even noticing me for that matter and immediately dashed towards Minuette to hug her. "Oh, Minuette it's been so long since I last saw you! I've missed you so much…" However, Minuette didn't seem to feel the same way. She seemed bewildered and confused… "Who are you…?" That one thing she made Twinkleshine as confused as ever. "What do you mean silly, it's me, Twinkleshine!" It seemed like her name rung a bell and triggered something in Minuettes head because it definitely seemed like she knew who she was after that. She still probably doesn't remember her fully though, or even them for that matter. Twinkleshine noticed me after that, I had to get her attention with the good old "Ahem…" "Oh, sorry. And who might you be?" I introduced myself as Bliss Flower and explained the situation to her, how Minuette lost her memories. She didn't take it too well of course… She just looked at me with a quiet "I see…" Her mood picked up literal seconds after that though. "We'll just have to help her get them back then! C'mon, let's go!" Is what she said as she literally dragged me and Minuette out of the house with her unicorn magic. We had no say in this. I swear, these ponies… I could never get used to being around them. Old me probably would've died by how stupidly friendly some of them are. She took us to meet Minuettes other former friends, Lemon Hearts and Moondancer, also from Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Two of them weren't here today, apparently they're both "busy" with something and those two ponies are Lyra and Twilight Sparkle. Looks like I was right about that purple pony in the photo being her. Apparently she wasn't always a princess, she used to be just a regular old unicorn. As for how she became one I have no idea. We should really go to a library tomorrow so we can learn more about this world's history… We spent the day with them and went out to some little donut shop. God, I missed these pastries… I had some for myself at home, yeah. (Before it burnt down.) But those were store bought, not freshly made. Sweets really are the best… Ok, ok! My sweets addiction aside, Minuettes friends were all very nice. Lemon Hearts is a kind and gentle soul, Moondancer is a big stupid nerd (like me) and Twinkleshine… She's a bit like Minuette to put it simple. Minuettes attitude didn't really change though… Even when we were with her friends. I think her memories might be slowly returning to her, I'm not sure. But even if she does get them back, she won't be the same pony she was before. When you erase someone's memories you're essentially killing a person. This Minuette experienced many different things the old one never went through. Even if she somehow goes through the same things the old one did, even if she got her memories back they would never be exactly the same. Moondancer said she look for a spell that could help Minuette regain her memories, "heck, I could even ask Twilight to help!" (Who she really seems to like based on how she talks about her) These ponies seem really hopefully they'll be able to get their old friend back. We'll have to leave eventually. I don't want to make Minuette choose between her old friends and her new ones but… I hate this. After that we said our goodbyes and went back to Kaiser's mansion. Met back up with Lonely Day there too, his day went fine. I asked him if he could find/saw Sunset Shimmer anywhere and he just responded with a simple "Nope." And that marks our second day in Equestria, I wonder what tomorrow will bring… But you know the drill. This is Bliss Flower, bye. - Bliss Flower > Day 75, The Princesses. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 4th, 2015 Dear Journal, Got up and had breakfast as usual, with oats this time instead. Still, nothing normal though. Food here actually isn't bad, it's kinda like the food humans have except y'know, they don't eat meat. They don't eat grass either, it's about as weird to them as it is to us. They're fine with flowers though for some reason, when they're properly prepared of course. But make it make sense dammit! Hay seems to be the replacement for a lot of wheat based products. Overall: not bad, not bad… I still definitely miss meat though. (I want bacon…) Pecos also a pretty good cook too. (Not as good as Alyssa though.) But, I asked Kaiser about the history of this mansion like I said I would yesterday, I didn't just get the history of his mansion or his family, I got a whole lot more… Apparently, this place has been in his family for generations. Kaiser is just one of the many from a long line of Dukes. His family, the "star" family, is one deeply connected to the royal family. By that I mean they're related to them, not directly, it's pretty distant actually but they're still related. Which of course, is why he has his position. (He's also a prosecutor alongside being a duke) His father "Brightstar" wasn't exactly the best pony. He wouldn't tell me much about him, probably due to his own comfort. But he had an affair with someone letting the "wretched brother" Kaiser has into existence. He wouldn't dare say his name. His parents pressured him. "Why can't you be like your brother, they said…" Is what he said. That was… Wow… Just wow. It definitely explains a lot, how he acts, everything. "All that bastard wants is to prove he's better than me. Well, he did. Is he happy now…?" I don't know much about him or his brother but- Ugh… I wish the world worked like that. But I already know everyone can't magically get along. Sunset was right, Kaiser honestly isn't that bad when you get to know him. He's pretty respectful and oddly humble too. With his whole background I expected him to be a lot more arrogant… But "now is not the time for bedtime stories" as he said. (Seriously, why does he speak so weirdly?) Kaiser wanted us to meet the princesses before our actual official meeting with them. (Which is on the eighth of august) He could only tell us so much about them so it was better for us to just see them for ourselves. So, Kaiser took me and Lonely Day to the castle, Minuette didn't come. I asked her if she wanted to and she just said no. It seemed like something was bothering her. Is she okay…? I really hope it isn't her memories… Then again, usually when I hope something bad doesn't happen, it happens. Anyways, it wasn't a long walk since we're basically right next door. We got past the drawbridge but still weren't let in, Kaiser couldn't get us in either. Wonder what was up with that…? "We just wanna see the-" Dawn Break pointed her spear right at Lonely Day. No mercy, huh? Even to two ponies that probably seemed nothing more than kids… As expected from the current captain of the royal guard. "And why should I let two random ponies I don't know see the princesses?" "Just let us in, Dawn Break." Dawn Break just looked at Kaiser with a scornful look. "Kaiser… Why would I trust you when you-!" "Shut up, and just do it if you know what's good for you." Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice rang and entered the scene. "That's enough, Dawn Break." It was a "unicorn" with a rather feminine build his hair was long and fluffy in a light wisteria color, the inner part was a dark violet. His eyes, bright purple and his coat, a dark amethyst with a dark purple spot on his flank. And strangely enough, he didn't have a cutie mark at all. "You can let them in." Dawn Break just turned to the "unicorn" with a smile. "Hey kid, it's good to see you!" The unicorn grabbed Dawn Break and quickly pulled her towards him so he could whisper something. "Shhh! I told you not to call me that, especially not around them!" Well, Alright, Alright…. She got it, geez… "Your wish is my command, your majesty." Dawn Break took a "regal" bow, she was obviously joking. I swear sometimes… The strange "unicorn" turned his attention to his expected guests. "Kaiser…? Then you must be…?" "Lonely Day." "And Bliss Flower." Wait, if he already knew who they were and what "Dawn Break" said before then was he…? No, he looked too plain, plus he didn't have any wings like the other princesses too. Something about him was oddly familiar to Bliss Flower Though… He looked kinda like the pony from her dreams… "Good, I'm Selene, it's a pleasure to meet you." And despite how the two thought of him, it seemed like he was indeed, Selene, The Prince(ss) Of The Stars "Come now, Lulu and Aunti-" Selene cut himself off as he realized what he was about to say. God, now that would've embarrassed himself big time… "My mother and aunt are waiting for you." Meanwhile, Kaiser probably wanted to say something smart like, "you should get better guards" but he refrained from doing so. That wouldn't do any favors for him, especially with his already skewed reputation. Prince Selene led us to the throne room. This is still extremely surreal for both of us. I mean, we're magical horsie land about to meet the actual demi-gods and rulers of this land. Now that is a sentence I never thought I'd say. Kaiser decided to wait for us outside for his own unknown "reasons." Inside were the two rulers of this land Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, waiting for us all of ponies. And I have to say that wasn't that bad. I might not be nervous when our actual meeting comes. (I doubt it.) Both Princesses and Prince Selene were very nice. Alex wanted to know the truth behind the event then and there but according to Luna "The time for us to tell you the truth is not at hoof yet." "So, you should just enjoy yourselves here in the meantime." Celestia added on. Celestia asked us if Kaiser had taken us anywhere so we could learn more about their world. When we both shook her heads no and told her he took us straight to Canterlot she seemed less than pleased… He APPARENTLY should've done it, but he didn't. I don't think there's any specific reason (aside from how he was raised) for why he does things like this, he just does. Sunset probably would've done if she was here. (Where is she anyway?) Before we left Celestia pulled us both over to side to tell us something. "Watch over Kaiser for me, and don't let him give you any trouble, okay?" She winked at us too. She's a lot more casual than I thought… Kaiser was outside of the throne room waiting for us. He was staring at this painted glass mural of six ponies, the one in the center was obviously Prince Selene, the red one looked oddly like the "rose pony" I met a couple days ago, I have no idea who the other three ponies were but the one Kaiser seemed fixated on the most was the green stallion. He quickly turned his attention to us when we told him when we were done but I think that might've been his brother…. There was another mural too of six other ponies one of looked like Princess Twilight. It seemed like the first one oddly mirrored the second one. Hm… I'll have to ask Selene about those later and his lack of wings… (Why didn't I do that earlier today?) Alex said Luna looked strangely like "a mare he saw in his dreams." Like how Selene looked like the pony I saw in my dreams too. If Luna has the ability to enter dreams he probably has that too since he's her son. Maybe they were trying to reach us through our dreams or something…? Well, that was our third day in the magical horse land of friendship. So, as usual this is Bliss Flower, peace. - Bliss Flower > Day 76, A Day Out. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 5th, 2015 Dear Journal, Not a lot to say about today, it was a pretty normal day we all went out and decided to just explore this place y'know? Kaiser obviously wasn't going to take us out anywhere whether it was in or outside of Canterlot. He was nice enough to give us a decent amount of bits as a "allowance" of sorts to spend while we're staying here though. I really don't get him, one second he'll be decently nice to you the other he acts like he hates your guts. Some ponies man, some ponies… But yeah, we went out but before any of that or just leaving Canterlot we stopped at some boutique of sorts because Minuette said there was "something she wanted to get from there." A pony named "Sassy Saddles" greeted us at the door and helped us pick out and try on some outfits. I swear, these ponies have the most inconsistent naming conventions in existence. First we'll have decently normal names like "Kaiser Silverstar" (still pretty weird by normal human on earth standards) then we'll have names like THAT. Seriously, how do these pony names work? I hate the fact they're actually kinda growing on me too. Hm… My name is Bliss Flower, Alyssa's is Fierce Fire, John is Steady Steel because that's what he is, he's steady as steel! Madeline is Mayday (after the wee-woo sound sirens make) and Blake is Torchlight! I won't lie and just say I basically played dress up with Alex at Canterlot boutique. He didn't have much of a choice, as soon as I walked in and saw all those pretty dresses I already knew I was gonna force politely ask him to try on as many as possible. Alex was surprisingly fine with it. "Well fine..." Is what he (she) said. He (she) still seemed kinda uncomfortable with it though. Dammit Alex, you're a girl now! And there's no turning back, EMBRACE YOUR FEMININITY! Lonely Day (Alex) came out of the changing room wearing an elegant light green dress that perfectly matched her coat. "So, how did I look?" My eyes lit up as soon as I saw her, she was so…. "Cute!" I felt like I was gonna have a nosebleed… It's not like he she wasn't cute before, but that spell Moriah definitely made him her 10x cuter! When it was my turn to try things on, Alex obviously got his payback… Is what I would say if I actually cared about things like that! Jokes on him, I don't care about my gender! I stared into my reflection in the mirror. I had on an elusive black dress with a purple butterfly theme of sorts. "I look like a goth." We didn't really buy anything at the boutique, there's no need to if we need clothes or anything we'll get them later. I'm "naked." I have been for a while actually, I gave up on trying to wear clothes, look we're magical equines, we have fur we don't need clothes. Minuette still got something, I think…? I asked her what she got and she just said "It's a secret." she wouldn't let me see what was in the bag either, it's pretty small though… After that I told Minuette we probably wouldn't see each other until later since me and Lonely Day were gonna go somewhere, likely outside of Canterlot. She just said "alright" and told me she was "gonna spend some time with her friends so she could get to know them better." We both waved goodbye and saw each other off. Me and Lonely Day headed to the train station to go… Somewhere… We didn't know where to go so I whipped out the map of Equestria the princesses gave us when we went to see them yesterday. We both came to an agreement that wherever my hoof lands first is where we're going. So, I closed my eyes andddd… "Are you serious…?" "What…?" I didn't get it so I opened my eyes and my hoof landed on Las Pegasus. Bucking Las Pegasus. It's not that far but still. It's in the freaking sky! I would've just flew us there if I was actually fine with flying more than two inches off the ground so we just took a train to Ponyville to hitch a balloon ride. (It was the last place we saw one.) It didn't take that long to get there or to get to Las Pegasus. We were lucky enough to not get swarmed by Paparazzi. Thank, Celestia. (That's what ponies say here instead of things like "Thank god") I might not like heights too much but even I could tell that it was beautiful. Just seeing everything from a bird's eye view like that, it was so pretty… It honestly made me want to give flying a try. Maybe, it won't be so bad… (I doubt it.) We enjoyed our time at bootleg horsie Las Vegas.™ Played a couple of games at the arcade (I suck at DDR), went on this super duper awesome roller-coaster (I still feel like I'm gonna throw up…), and saw this pretty cool magic show! We unfortunately couldn't gamble, besides I don't think Day is old enough for that… We probably would've stayed at the super expensive resort if we actually had money for that. Kaiser didn't give us that much. (He should've he's probably stacked!) On the way out these two ponies tried to con me for some kind of souvenirs…? They asked me a bunch of weird questions like, if I was a tourist or if "I was new around here because they've never seen me before." Thankfully, Day came to rescue and shooed them off, well sort. He told them "We aren't interested in your junk."[/color) That got them pretty riled up. "Well, well looks like we've got a feisty one here, whaddya think brother?" One of them said. "Maybe you should run off to your mommy, little filly." The other one added on. They didn't believe him when he said he was twenty. In the end I had to step in too. "Look, we don't want anything you're selling so just leave us alone, okay?" That somehow got them to back off, phew… I felt like Day was gonna kill them back there, he seemed pretty angry especially when they called him a "filly." I think their names were Flim and Flam… Ten bucks says they run the place. There was a statue of them at the fountain, so yeah, probably. We took a balloon back "home" after that and met up with Minuette there. I asked her how her day was and she told me is "good!" and that "she had alot of fun!" Well, that's good. It's good that she's happy… I asked Peco about Kaisers behavior and apparently, he's always been like this. "It just got worse after his trip to Saddle Arabia though… Maybe something happened there…?" is what she said. Hmm… Well, that was a pretty fun day! I can't wait for tomorrow. Alot of the places here are horse puns/horse related. I would say that's weird but, yeah… Not anymore. Quick question, why does nopony swear in Lunas name here…? Sweet Luna… Eh, it doesn't sound as good. Well, as always this is Bliss Flower signing off, bye! - Bliss Flower > Day 78-79, The Truth. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 7th, 2015 Dear Journal, I'm so sorry for not writing anything yesterday, I was so busy I barely had any time to get anything down! If you wanna blame someone, blame Sunset not me, alright? Yup, guess who randomly decided to reappear after disappearing for a week: Sunset Shimmer! According to her, she "Just had some things to do somewhere." She didn't tell us where but, alright. I believe her. When we told her Kaiser didn't take us anywhere she just said "Of course he didn't…" with a sigh. So, she took us everywhere, and I mean everywhere. That's why I didn't write anything yesterday. We learned, saw a lot of things, met a lot of ponies, creatures, whatever. This world is everything I've ever dreamed of… I want to stay here- What the hell am I saying…? I can't stay here. I can't abandon my friends. Besides, when my mom comes back I gotta be there to greet her. But, maybe I could try to- Ugh! Shut up, shut up, shut up! There's no way in hell I'll do that! They have families too! And lives there… Heh, heh… Anyways, I can't sleep so that's why I'm writing this right now. Minuette was up too; she's probably asleep now though. She asked me if I "would be okay if she chose to stay here." I just told her "Of course, it's your choice. I'm not gonna stop you." Which is right. It's her life, Earth, Equestria. Wherever she wants to stay at is her choice to make, not mine. The more I think about it the more I just feel like things would be better if we stayed here. It's peaceful here… We wouldn't need to worry about the HPI watching our every move or anything. We could all live happily here… Maybe I'll- I'll think about it. If not then- I should probably go to sleep, I wanna have all my energy for the meeting tomorrow. - Bliss Flower August 8th, 2015 Dear Journal, Today's the day we'll learn the truth from Princess Luna Princ- or well just Selene. I don't know if I should feel excited or conflicted… But uh anyway there's a couple things I wanted to get down before I go. I've been reading some of the history books here and even some of the "restricted" stuff in the castle library. (Thanks for that Selene!) And using the power of these memory crystal thingys (magic…) and Selene and Twilight filling anything magic couldn't, I finally figured out what those visions were! They were adventures Selene and his friends went on! Like the first part was a venture he and his friends went on in a state of "peril" to unify a part of Equestria that defected off of it because of a conflict over a thousand moons ago called, Adrestia. The second one was a trip to the kingdom of Vala to save it and the entire world from this evil sorceress called Gullveig. Selene and Twilight wouldn't tell me much about her because they didn't know who or what she really was either. The third one was supposed to be just a trip to a festival of sorts but because of a mysterious cult and Kaiser, who tried to kill his brother, Gale Windchaser, it didn't exactly go as planned… Which also explains Kaiser's behavior… The ponies in the glass murals I saw were Selene and Twilights friends respectively. The elements of harmony and disharmony… I have so many interesting stories to tell everyone when we get back home. Selene seemed a bit bothered by something when I told him about my "future" visions, I wonder what that was about… But, uh he's right I should really get going! I have a meeting to get to. I'll probably update you later. Maybe I'll put the transcript of the meeting in here or something. Maybe Day will do it… One more thing though, remember those first couple dreams I had? Those were Selene's memories. That was how he lost his wings. Unfortunately Alicorn wings don't grow back. Did you know Alicorns are actually practically like gods? Pure breed ones at least. Not that one's who became one. They're of divine descent. So they're like demi-gods of sorts. Also "normal" ponies aren't called normal ponies, they're earth ponies. They're heavily connected to things like the earth so that explains their strength and "earth magic." Okay that was a couple more things. Gotta go, for real this time! Don't wanna be late… - Bliss Flower "I'm kinda nervous honestly…" Selene put down his book and turned his attention to the pony who entered his room who of course was none other than Bliss. "Don't worry, my mother is a kind and gentle soul, I'm sure she'll treat you nicely. Plus, I'll be there too." It kinda eased her worries knowing someone she already knew was going to be there, not that she didn't know Luna but still. Selene was just different, he gave off a far more casual air compared to the royal sisters he looked a lot less "grand" too. "Oh and there's something else I've been meaning to tell you for a while now." Bliss added on. "I've been having these strange visions, like they're from the future…" Selene didn't say anything and just stared blankly for a moment. This sounded familiar this was just like- But why….? Why would she do that…? Was it possible they didn't really defeat her…? Unfortunately Bliss interrupted Selene's train of thought by asking him something. "Is something wrong…?" Selene just looked at her with a smile. "No, it's nothing. Besides, don't you have a meeting to get to?" He'll have to ask Fickle Fate about this later… Oh crap, he was right! "Oh yeah!" Bliss galloped off as quickly as she could. She couldn't be late for something like this! Soon after she met up with the others, Lonely Day, Sunset, and Kaiser. Just on time… Lonely Day was just about as nervous as Bliss Flower. It didn't matter if she already met Luna to her either. She was most the nervous she had ever been in her life. After all, she was about to meet with a literal demi-god and learn the truth… She was terrified, terrified of learning the truth, terrified of everything. But no matter how afraid she was she had to learn the truth. She had to know, why this happened, who and what caused this. They both had been dying to know since their very first day. The dress didn't really make her feel any better either. Lonely Day had on a serene blue dress with a cloud theme, ironic since she wasn't a pegasus. While Bliss had on a beautiful white dress with a flower theme that perfectly clashed with her black coat. It almost looked like a wedding gown. Lonely Day had her mane in her usual braid, with her tail being braided this time too. And Bliss had her mane in a ponytail like her old cut except lower. A bit too fancy for both of them. At least they had their guides with them. Or guide since Kaiser didn't really do his job. They both took them through the castle halls which they both knew very well all the way to Lunas tower. "Here we go again…" Kaiser grumbled. Seems like he had went here before. Sunset just looked at him with a smirk on her face and nudged him on the shoulder. "C'mon, it's not that bad." It was indeed that bad. Stairs… Far too many of them… As for why she built her tower this way, who knows? Maybe it's to make it purposely difficult to meet with her. "Can't you just do that thing again where we just poof somewhere?" Day asked. "Hey, I could carry you up if you want." It seemed like Blisses mood still didn't change even now. As carefree as ever, like always. I swear… Her sometimes… "No thank you." Bliss ignored that and picked her up with her wings anyway. Day seemed out of breath, so Bliss just decided to help her. Hopefully she didn't mess up their dresses… Bliss held Lonely Day up in the air like a parent trying to make their kid "fly" Plane sounds included. "Vroooom!" A faint "Hey, put me down!" could be heard in the distance… Seriously… Never change Bliss, never change… Sunset just giggled at the sight, despite being obviously tired from all those stairs. While Kaiser on the other hoof… Ahem. Uh-oh, here comes the fun police… Bliss put Day down as soon as she heard Kaiser "cough." Right… Back to the matter at hoof, the meeting. Kaiser looked at the two with the same old stern face he always had. "We'll wait out here." They couldn't come…? Why not…? "Don't worry, I feel like you'll like Selene and Luna, they've both been through their fair share of stuff too." Sunset said in an attempt to ease both of Bliss and Day's very obvious worries. Damn you, pony ears. Yeah… They already knew what Luna and Selene went through… Bliss understood it, being the big magic fanatic she was. Day didn't, probably… "We'll be right out here waiting for you." Sunset smiled at the two and carefully patted them both on the head, easing their worries. And with that, the two went ahead. But before they left Bliss swore she could've saw what was the faintest trace of a smile of Kaisers face, it might've just been her imagination though. Everything they had been through had led up to this moment, they were going to find out the truth behind the event and why humanity vanished. And maybe, just maybe she or they could make everything right. The door opened. Darkness… Pony eyes still aren't good for the dark… The duo could see something. A galaxy…? Stars…? The projection shined just as bright and as radiant as the real thing. The room wasn't as dark as they thought.. They could see the faint shadow of two ponies. One, with a mane as lustrous as the night sky, the other, a purple that perfectly reflected his mother's. "Welcome." Luna said. "We've been expecting you." Selene added on. Oh, right! Royalty! Lonely Day dropped into a bow and nudged Bliss to do the same and she did. Luna just giggled gently. Reminding them both once more that they were just anypony else in this world, princess or not. "There's no need for such formalities here." Luna signaled for the two to stand back up, they did, straight and tall. "You've both been using the names Lonely Day and Bliss Flower here, correct?" The two nodded. Selene looked at them with a smile. "Or would you prefer if we used your true names, Alexander Haggard and Emile Parker." His words triggered something in Alex, and in them both. "How did you-" Bliss stepped in and cut her off. She knew how to be serious when the situation called for it. "You've already seen our dreams, so you already know everything about us, right?" It didn't matter if Alex never even told Sky his name or if Emile never told Alyssa his name. Their names before, their appearances, life experiences, they knew it all. The princess of night's expression changed a bit. "Correct." Bliss didn't even know that was Alex's name, she never told her, but she assumed she had her own reasons for it. Just like how she didn't tell her, her full name either. Selene and Luna took their obvious change in tone as a silent request not to use those names. This was already getting tense and barely anything happened yet. The two felt like they wanted to cry, so Bliss pulled Day closer to her with her wings. Unintentionally or intentionally, whether it was for Day's comfort or her own, it didn't matter. It's what she did. Perhaps it was just an impulsive decision she just felt like doing. Selene and Luna turned their attention towards the projection of the galaxy. "In truth, we've been watching you and the other ponies left on earth." "Considering there are few of your kind left, it hasn't been hard." Selene spoke with a bit of sadness in voice. He could not…? He felt sorry for them too. Luna turned her attention to her son's sorrow, she felt the same way as well. "We had to make sure you both were fit as emissaries for us." "We're certain you're both perfect for the job we have laid out ahead of you." The Prince tacked on. Job…? The duo wanted to ask them what they meant but they were interrupted by Luna and Selene both levitating a pair of saddle bags with a elegant moon and a bright sun on one side and the other, however there was a four pointed star embedded on the strap representing someone very obvious. "Here." "In those bags there is everything you need for the future, and an explanation of sorts for the others…" Bliss took the saddlebags so Day wouldn't be weighed down by them. Honestly, Bliss just wanted to grab Day and get the heck out of there but she couldn't do that. Not when they hadn't gotten their answers yet, or the truth… "We ask that you hear us out." Selene commented. "We will answer all you seek, we simply ask that you-" Selene silently nudged his mother with a slight cough. "I ask that you be patient with us. Day and Bliss silently nodded, and the princess of the night and her son turned their attention to the projection of the galaxy once more. "Very well." "Let us begin." > Day 79, The Truth. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What you see before you is nothing more than an illusion crafted by a spell." Selene looks at his mother with a soft smile. [ "It's all we've ever seen of the stars since her rule over the night." Luna returns the favor as the map stops for a moment and zooms in on what looks like earth but different. The map focused on what looked like a white tree…? It was unlike anything Day and Bliss had ever seen before, its roots spiraling out of control, complete discord yet it still seemed orderly somehow. It seemed like the tree was embedded into the world itself, like it was supporting it on its roots. "This is Yggdrasil, the world tree." "Or the root." The princess and the prince paused for a moment. "It's where all magic comes from." "Even beings you might consider 'divine' such as us don't understand it fully yet. But let me tell you this, all living beings come from and return to the root." Yggdrasil…? The root…? This still all felt like some wild dream to Day and Bliss but they let the two continue anyway. They were probably too stunned to speak anyway. "Magic may work off mystery here but it's still a force as natural as any other." Luna zooms the map out once more as the roots of Yggdrasil can be seen everywhere with all these brilliant white sparkles. "And magic can come from almost anything, not just the root, but definitely not like that." Selene comments. "No matter where it comes from though, magic is a source of life and harmony." The white sparkles begin to swirl as a tiny little "tree" is born, its roots growing. It was so mesmerizing to Day and Bliss, they couldn't take their eyes off of it. A bit hard to explain too but everything swirled, joined together as one and then a spark hit what was once an empty world, giving birth to life. "And all life on all worlds, like Equestria, that's what we thought before at least…" Selene and Luna step aside as they let the magic flow to Day and Bliss and through the whole room. Despite its intensity it doesn't make a monstrous roar. No, no, no. It was something quite different. It was far more peaceful… They saw all sorts of colors, combining, joining together, flowing through them. It felt like it touched their souls. It didn't hurt though, it made them feel at peace.. Like all their worries were lifted off of them. "As you saw there, life is special, it's one of the things that interacts with the thaumic field." Luna goes silent to let Selene add on his own comments once more. "Rare" forms of life with a body and a soul don't just slow it down, they absorb it." Luna and Selene's horns light up practically in unison as the projection zooms out… Far, very far… Not just past the planet, the galaxy, or anything like that it zooms out for practically thousands of light years away until all that's left is a single bubble. The partners swore they could see another smaller one but that wasn't important now. "Many, many moons ago Starswirl The Bearded made a spell that could…." Selene trailed off for a moment. "Just think of it like a semi-gate between worlds, kinda like that mirror but not quite." Bliss and Day cared naught to ask what he meant by "mirror" ; they were far too focused on everything happening before them. They both leaned closer to get a better view at the projection, with both Selene and Luna moving out of their way. Heck, Bliss even picked up Day again so she could see better. Day didn't even notice to care, again they were far too mesmerized by everything… It zoomed in until they both saw another world. They knew exactly what it was, Earth. Their home. Even if it looked almost exactly the same. One thing was different about it though… "The magic…" Bliss finished Day's sentence for her. "It's all gone." They almost wanted to call it a sad sight, it seemed so empty… So lifeless, even if they knew that wasn't the case. Even so, it was a better look at their home than anything they'd ever seen in their lives. They both wanted to ask Luna and Selene how they could see all this at the same time but that would be silly. Luna is the Princess Of The Night, and as such she has domain over it. Selene is the Prince Of The Stars but he doesn't hold domain over just the stars, since the sun is technically a star as well, you could say he holds domain over it too. He was the bridge between Celestia and Luna, the in-between of Dawn and Dusk. "We thought your universe was lifeless. Without magic, how could anything live there?" Selene looks at Bliss and Day with a smile. "But, we were obviously very wrong." "You've heard the story of my-" Selene continued where his mother left off. "Our banishments, correct?" Bliss and Day nodded. "There are no records or anything of the sort of your universe doing that time." And as usual Selene added on his share to the conversation. Seriously, were these two in kahoots or something? Well, that's just mother and son for you… "And since I disappeared too, I couldn't gather them for her." It's not like anything changed that much though, is what Selene would've said if. Well… Selene zoomed the image in on earth and the same white sparkles as before could be seen just fainter. And something else was much like "Yggdrasil" began to form… "It was faint but we knew it was surely magic." Luna would've treated this as a good thing but her grim expression contradicted that. Selene moved closer to her to try and attempt to comfort her. "Maybe we just didn't see it before, but we saw it now, and that's all that mattered." Magic randomly appearing out of nowhere, it definitely shouldn't be possible. That (probably) wasn't something even discord could do. "We were both surprised when we saw this. Magic just can't come out of nowhere, especially in a world already devoid of it." "But maybe, just like how ponies can influence magic with their emotions, your kind did the same." Over thousands, millions of years, or who knows how long of human invention and expertise all led up to this. Happiness, sadness, everyone's experiences contributed to this. "I gathered enough power so I could hastily open a gateway into your world." "When we made it public knowledge, or well semi public knowledge at least. Ponies here debated on whether we should contact you." Selene pauses for a moment. "While some things showed us we could live without magic, like that Tirek, it was too risky." "But there was no reason for why you couldn't come here, that's what we thought until…" Lunas ears visibly droop as her expression gets worse. Selene turns to her as if to express concern, she simply turns to face him and makes a soft smile as if to say "she's okay" and goes back to what she was saying. "We opened a gateway, made contact and they came." Selene's horn lit up as he made a projection of a human. "But when they did…" The projection begins to break like glass. [color=a69cdc]"The magic here was far too much for them to handle, and they returned to the aether whence they came..." Instead of the shattering and breaking part like it though the projection simply vanished without trace as if to mimic what happened to the humans they contacted. A quick and painless death. What the HPI thought was a human becoming brain dead was their soul itself being overwhelmed and lifted from their bodies. "We expected that to be the end of everything, no more contact, no more nothing." Selene spoke with bitterness in his voice. "Our worlds could never coexist, we're too different…" "But as you can see now, that wasn't the end of it, because…" "We're here." Bliss and Day spoke almost in unison. Both were equally shocked. They could never imagine something like that, one minute you're living the next, poof. Nothing. No matter how "quick and painless" it was it didn't stop them from shaking in horror from the sheer thought of it. "Correct. Any ponies with the knowledge of that spell withheld from using it, aside from me…" "And a few obvious ones." "We decided to simply observe your world from a distance, see how magic would affect your development." "And maybe your world would become just like ours." [color=#a69cdc"But one day, upon checking your universe..." "It was then that we saw something." The illusion zooms into earth once more but what looks like it at a later date. The "tree" looked far more lesser than Yggdrasil. But something was off about it, it looked like it was pouring into Earth's core… No, the world. "Your equivalent to the 'root' was fusing with your planet. No, the world itself." "Your kind most likely couldn't handle magic on that sort of scale. "Couldn't you stop it?" "No, something like that is beyond even our power. "Equestrias radio technology had progressed a far amount since the doorway first opened, largely because of the observations we made and the things your people brought here." Luna takes out a laptop, obviously older. Looked it was taken apart too. Not just a laptop, she took out all sorts of things: clothes, a bag, some books… A sad sight. "And I have gone through a number of things since then too…" The Prince looks down in silence for a bit as his mother brushes him with one of her wings, reassuring him everything will be okay. "So, we contacted your government in an attempt to find a way to stop it." "Once they figured out we were 'aliens' they had a lot of odd requests, like demonstrations of magic which we gave through the doorway." "More lives were lost in that time frame… In the end they told us there was nothing they could do, they didn't have enough time or resources to attempt to stop it." "We didn't give up though." "We refused to just let your kind die like thay so we gathered Equestrias greatest minds, pony and non-pony alike. Together, we were able to make a spell." "The one that made us ponies…" "So the magic wouldn't kill us…" "Precisely." "Not just ponies though. Our world's magic is balanced by many species. We made sure to recreate the same thing in yours so it would flourish. Each person received a body that best matched their soul and our world." Lonely Day felt anger quelling up inside of her. This princess… She practically killed everyone they knew and loved, she took everything from them, she was the one to blame for everything! Rash or impulsive it might've been, but it was how she felt at the time. On the other hoof, Bliss wasn't angry. She was confused, conflicted, frightened. So many emotions she never felt before… She understood but… She couldn't accept it… "Simply transforming you was not enough, we learned much about your society through your government. In the chaos your civilization would surely tear itself apart so we…" Luna stuttered even she knew it wasn't the best decision. "We split your numbers across time. Those the spell matched with perfectly would be forgiven and remain in your world." "Over the course of many, many, many… Years, missing people and the generally less ideal matches would return to a world that could care for their needs." Selene couldn't hide his rather somber tone. He just wanted to help and yet… He failed at protecting those he cared about yet again. "The spell changed you to forms that could survive on magic, the majority of you were sent to a future that would be able to feed and tend to your psychological needs." "And that is how you're here now." Their explanation made their emotions worse. They were the reason why they lost their families, who knows when they'll come back. One hundred years? Thousands? Millions? Both of them equally confused. > 79.5, The Truth (3) And A Deal. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lonely Day felt like she wanted to just combust with anger, but before she could do anything stupid a certain someone took notice of her rage and tugged on her dress, Bliss Flower. Bliss looked Day dead in her eyes, and told her one thing. "Day, don't do it…" Day wanted to go with Blisses request. She really wanted to, honest to god. But she couldn't, she just couldn't! This… This was all their fault! In the end, she followed her gut instead of her head. Not the wisest decision. She shrugged Bliss off of her. "You had no right, you couldn't just make a decision like that for us! You could've at least….! I-I!" Selene looked at Day with a hopeless expression. He wanted to help. And yet, they made things worse. "We did all we could…" "Did all you could? Why didn't you at least-!" Before Day could do anything worse Bliss jumped on her in a hug. "Day!" Blisses decision was just about as stupid as Days. But she felt like it was the right thing to do. She didn't want Day to end up like her when she reacted like that against her father. "Stop it…" Day felt a storm of a emotions, to losing her body, her family, her age… And now, this… Suddenly, being pulled into a embrace by someone like this… It was all too much for her to take in… And yet, she didn't fight back… A part of her did, yes. A part of her told her "she knows nothing of what you went through, she knows nothing of what it's like to suffer" but Lonely Day didn't give into those desires of hers. "But they…" Bliss didn't let go, instead she kept Day close to her. "Just stop it… You've already done enough… You did good…" You did good…? Day felt weird… What was this feeling…? This was a feeling she only felt towards ponies she was close with like Sky or Rune. So why, why was she feeling this way towards Bliss…? Why…? No, she should've realized it sooner. She knew why. It was because they were friends. And that's what friends do, they care for each other. No matter what happens. It's funny… Was that all she needed…? Just a simple "you did good…?" Maybe it was… Maybe it wasn't… Who's to say? She barely knew how she even felt anymore. And both of them hadn't even realized they already had tears rolling down their faces. Maybe they could just stay like this a little bit longer… No rush. Besides it's not like the others would see this. And there wasn't- Okay, maybe there was someone else with them. Two someone's actually. After what felt like an eternity to them but what was probably only a couple minutes, the two got up. The first thing Day made sure to do was apologize to Princess Luna. "I- I'm sorry…" "There's no need to apologize, we understand what you're going through." She replied. Yeah, that's right… The Equestrians suffered their fair amount too. They both already saw that with ponies like Kaiser, or Selene, and now with Luna… Selene simply silently nodded to add reassurance to Luna's statement. "Can you make us human again…?" "Yes, most likely." What Luna said next shot down any hopes the two had of getting their human bodies back. "But you would suffer the same fate every human that was exposed to magic has had." Was there really anything they couldn't do…? Was this really the only way they could live on…? "Is there really nothing else you can do…?" "I'm afraid not. I'm truly, truly sorry." So this was it huh…? They'd just have to be ponies for the rest of their lives… Well, at least they're alive. And that's all that mattered, they were alive. Pony life was better than no life. "There's just one more thing left to do." What…? What could they have left to do… Wasn't this meeting over? They told them the truth, they could go home now, right? "There needs to be someone to watch over your species for the next generations to come." Selene raises a hoof and points it at Lonely Day. "And that someone, is you." Wait, wait, wait. Watch over them for the generations to come…? What did they mean by that-? Then, it clicked. I see… First they and now- No. If this what she had to do to make sure that her people would be remembered then so be it. "We won't force you if you aren't-" Selene and Luna already both knew what the horrors of such a thing were they wouldn't want to doom Lonely Day to that, but to Selene's surprise she accepted. "No, I'm ready." "Good." Luna and Selene both gestured towards the door as they both headed for it themselves. "Come, my little pony." Whether if Day knew it or not, Bliss understood what they meant too. With that, the four headed out. Only briefly making Sunset and Kaiser question why they were going out. "You think we should follow after them…?" "No, what the princesses do is none of our concern." Besides, if he- They were right they should be doing what they thought they were gonna do right now. It was long before the four reached the throne room. Inside, was of course Celestia waiting for them. Seems like she knew what was going on, either that or she was listening to them. But before anyone could do anything, Bliss spoke up. "Wait, I want in too." What…? What was she doing…? She was doing this for all of them, why was she…? They're friends, no best friends! Lonely Day didn't want Bliss to just give up her life like this! "But-" Bliss just turned to her with a smile. "I'm not gonna let you go through something like that alone, after all we're partners in destiny, right?" I see… Bliss, ever so Blissful… Never change, never change… "Yeah…" Lonely Day sounded a lot stronger than before… Of course she did... She had been through so much up to this point... Now, was the time. Celestia simply accepted Blisses deal and nodded with a soft smile. "I see…" "Now, are you ready?" The two nodded. Next, Celestia's, Selenes, and Lunas horns all lit up in unison and a sudden downpour of raw magical power came down on Bliss and Day. It was intense… Not in a bad way, it felt like they both had a sudden burst of energy and power. It continued until… It ceased. The light vanished leaving Bliss and Day unscathed and not different well, visibly at least. That, was the day they both sealed their fates. Their end, and their beginning. > Day 80, A Promise To Meet Again. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 9th, 2015 Dear Journal, Well that was certainly something… We learned the truth. I honestly don't know how to take this… There's a lot going on, alot to unpack… In the end I didn't even try to convince the others to stay in Equestria. Luna said something about "some humans staying behind." That's understandable, it's fine. I just couldn't do it, okay? I shouldn't have even thought of trying to do it in the first place. Earth is our home, I can't leave it. When our families come back, which they will. Eventually… We'll have to be there to welcome them into this new world. Besides it would be kinda stupid if I decided to stay after that whole thing with the princesses. Those saddlebags they gave us have a lot of things in them, history books (even some of that "restricted" stuff that was hidden in the castle library) spell books on things like weather craft, which is pegasus magic, I doubt I'd ever be able to do it though. Just a lot of books, and many many things to help us survive. Lonely Day didn't get it when Twilight explained it but I do. Kinda. I think it's like some kind of pocket dimension of sorts. I dunno, so I lied when I said that… Whatever, who cares. It's magic, which I also understand now too. I guess all those years of being obsessed with myth and legends really did pay off after all. Kaiser, Sunset, and Minuette all came onto the train back to Ponyville with us. Lonely Day got her cutie mark. We both didn't even notice. I don't really know what it means but I think it has something to do with our "mission" at least she has a talent… I understand mine now too. I used to think that it meant I was just a burden, and that my existence was bad luck in itself. But lycoris flowers, don't just represent death. Only the red ones do. They can also represent things like friendship and courage. The yellow ones do at least. Mine is a purple one, one that does not naturally exist in this world. A unique and special case. I'm not saying I'm unique. I dunno. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Who's to say? But, they all said goodbye to us. And Minuette… She chose to stay, oh well. There's nothing I can do about it. Equestria is her home. Earth is mine. But before she said goodbye… She gave me a little something… "Wait!" What, what was it? They couldn't wait forever, any longer and they might not be able to get home! Bliss turned to face Minuette, confused at what she possibly wanted. "I want you to have these." Minuette took two purple bows out of a small bag, and carefully put them on Bliss with her levitation. One in the ponytail in her mane, and the other on her actual tail. I see… A memento, something to remember her by. "And promise me something. Promise me we'll meet again." Bliss just smiled at Minuette, there's no way she could keep a promise as outrageous as that but as always, she'll try her best. "It's a promise." Minuette smiled back at her until they both heard someone call out Bliss. "Hey, you coming?" Oh crap… Can't wait, or else the portal might close! With that, Bliss galloped off and rejoined with Day. Sunset and Kaiser said a similar thing too, we'll probably see them again. That's right. We'll meet each other again, no matter what. Even if it takes a thousand years… Yggdrasil… Y'know, it's pretty weird but alot of things like, mythical weapons, legends and stuff were all named the same things as stuff here on earth. Like for example: one poneish (their equalivent to old English) seemed to be derivative of things like old norse and latin. Which is why I recognized the runes back then. Day was just about as confused as I was when I pointed it out to him. I don't think the world's are connected in some way, but it's definitely something to think about… Hmm… The spell to take us back was apparently pretty costly, it took Celestia, Luna, and Selene just to hold the damn portal open! Wow… But after that, we went through goodbye Equestria, hello home. The warehouse was exactly how we left it. Yes, Huan was okay too… Day seemed pretty happy about that, but I was more worried about our friends. So we both hopped in our Madeline's police car and set off… They were, indeed, perfectly fine! They were right where they left them, thank the gods. But, according to Fierce Fire, Blake suggested that "they might have to go on without us if we don't come back soon." Thankfully, Sky and her didn't agree with him, nopony did actually, the only one who even thought his idea was good in the slightest was Rune but even he had his doubts. I'm not too mad though, Blake was right. It would be smarter for them to go on without us if we didn't come back. They couldn't wait forever. We saw something and met someone on the way back though. A RV that definitely hadn't been there before. Me and Alex hopped out to investigate. There, we met another pony, a pegasus. His names Adrian. He's an alright guy, not a lot to say about him since we just met him today, especially since he's just chilling in his RV right now. It didn't take that long for us to get back to the apartment building, when we got back the others wanted to know everything. And I mean, everything. When we told them what we saw in Equestria, Moriah in particular said it "That sounds like a bunch of baloney." Blake also added on it. "And it isn't logical either."(Like anything about this is logical.) Me and Day promptly, shoved them both into the saddlebags and sentenced them to whoknowswhere™ They weren't very happy with us later… I'm sorry… Fierce said "I shouldn't have done that." I'm sorryyy… Hey, look it's their fault it's not like they worded it nicely! The bags just kinda become heavy as a rock when there's something alive in them, I'm gonna assume that either Twilight or Selene made them that way as some kind of "defense mechanism." I'll ask Blake and Moriah what it was like in there later… We told them our story and showed them our memories with those memory crystals. They saw me and Day's little "moment" and they know her and my full true names now. Well, it had to come out eventually. I'm surprised I managed to even hide my last name from Alyssa this long… We got about the reactions we expected. John, seemed about conflict as I did back there, Madeline too. Alyssa seemed angry… While Blake was the most understanding out of them. Of course he was, he lost his friends to the HPI. He's probably happy he's lucky to be alive right now. Sky asked what happened to Minuette when I told her the truth about her she just looked at me with a sad face and said. "Oh, I see…" There was one thing we didn't show them. One crystal we kept to ourselves, our "deal' with the princesses and what happened after… Me and Day both promised to never tell them about it ever, unless we absolutely have to. But we'll have to tell them eventually right…? They'll grow old while we… Did we make the right choice back there? I can't help but feel like, like maybe, maybe that wasn't the right decision… No, I shouldn't doubt myself. I made this choice, I chose to bear this burden alongside Day for a reason. I can't give up now. Whatever awaits us ahead, we'll be ready for it. Day pulled Sky to the side to ask her why she lied about Sunset Shimmer. When came out she had slightly watery eyes. When I asked Day what she did to her she just said. "Nothing, I tried not to be too hard on her." I believe her but geez… Apparently, Sunset just told her "not to tell anyone about her" and Sky didn't even question it because she was so "nice." She also said she was looking for "a regally dressed stallion with bright blonde hair" before she left. We all know who that is… You know, I don't get those ponies in Equestria. They're so weird, why would Sunset tell her that…? Ugh… Their world is just about as "weird" too. I'm looking through one of their history books right now. Specifically one of the "restricted" ones Selene entrusted us with. Let's see… Vala, the land of light. Home to pony-like beings known as the Aesir and the Vanir said to be like the opposite of the "Umbrum." Seior, the god(des) of hope and magic… Wait, that name. Seior. It sounds familiar. Where have I- My gods, that's her! That's the mare I saw in my dreams a while back! What the hell… I got visited by none other than a god… How exciting… What did she want though? What did she entrust me and Day with? Mysteries upon mysteries.. Well, we're gonna set out tomorrow. We'll try to find a place similar to how me and my group had, it shouldn't be that hard. We also might have to meet with the HPI too. So, as always this is Bliss Flower, bye. - Bliss Flower > Day 81, A New Beginning. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noah cackled as he limped through the empty city streets. He had seen a few "others" here and there but most were either scared or generally tried to avoid him if they didn't then well… He made sure to make quick work of them. He knew the truth. No, he knew far more than just the "truth" behind something like "the event." He knew everything, the world, the universe, no scrap of knowledge was beyond his reach! Resigning as the head of the HPI was probably the best decision in his life since abandoning that garbage of a woman and that failure. It wasn't just knowledge he had but power as well!! He had power beyond his wildest dreams, he could snap any insignificant being out of this disgraced world in an instant! Such was the job of the envoy of humanity. Or well, that's how he saw himself. Deluded. But yet, he still felt weak… Everytime he used this power- No, every time he used this "magic" as some people or ponies would call it, it took a tug at his heart. No, his very soul itself. It felt like his body was splitting apart even walking was beginning to become a struggle. But, no matter. He must press forward. Where you ask? Noah stared down at the golden fire that materialized in his hands. Why, wherever he went of course. He already drew that mistake of a child out with that blaze, which was well, easier than he thought it would be. Now, he just had to lay waste to the poor fool but even that shouldn't be that hard. He already had him cornered now he just had to let fate do the rest… Oh, poor poor Noah… He didn't even realize it himself but he was already far gone, all that remained was an empty husk of the once renowned and famous scientist. The so called "envoy of humanity" being used as nothing more than a pawn by someone far greater and powerful than him. What a sad fate… What a pity… Meanwhile, Bliss, Jonathan, Joseph, and Moriah all went out on a trip for supplies and were just on their way back to the others. Of all the ponies in the world, why them…? Well, there wasn't any specific reason for why they were doing this. They were the ones who all just happened to be free at the time. With Joseph just happening to finish up something on his computer, much to his own dismay. The others were all busy with their own things… But hey, it could be a nice friendship building exercise! Is what Bliss would've said if it was actually possible for Jonathan and Joseph to get along. Seriously, she got that John was annoying sometimes but did they both have to be so insufferable? Moriah seemed to pretty agree with her too. "Seriously, I can't believe you didn't know what kind of gas to get. Aren't you a mechanic?" Joseph said with a groan. Jonathan stopped for a moment just to do an incredibly dramatic pose for absolutely no reason other than he could. "I told you before, I'm not a lowly mechanic, I am a star meant to shine!" Moriah rolled her eyes. Geez, and Bliss was supposed to be the dramatic one here… "Yeah, right." Oh, how his heart flutters at such a lovely maiden treating him so, is what Johnathan probably would've said if Bliss didn't insist that they get back to the others as quickly as they could. "Can we just get back to the others please?" All four seemed to unanimously agree to that. But it was there that they saw something, or someone coming towards them… A pony, another possible survivor…? No, they looked far more…. Human. That shouldn't even be possible though. Wasn't magic toxic to humans…? All four stopped dead in their tracks while Jonathan and surprisingly Joseph prepared to protect Moriah and Bliss. As selfish and anti-social as he may have been, he still cared about people (somewhat) besides if the big oaf was going to do it he might as well too. The figure grew closer and closer, until whoever and whatever it was practically started running at them. Wait, they knew that person. Or well Jonathan and Bliss did since he was the one who first contacted them, but Moriah and Joseph did too from what they were told at least. Dr. Parker. It was time to put an end to this mistake once and for all, he rushed at them specifically trying to target Bliss. But Joseph's and Jonathan's horns both lit up and thankfully they were able to conjure up a magic barrier together, with golden fire whooshing past them. "Go get the others, we'll hold him off!" Jonathan yelled. What? Hell no! That sounded like a stupid idea to even Jonathan, though Moriah was the first to object. "There's no way in hell we're leaving you behind!" She couldn't just leave them to potentially die, that's inhumane! "Just listen to the oaf and go, dammit!" Joseph replied. "No, we can't just leave you behind!" Moriah retorted. All the while Bliss sat in absolute silence and watched the scene unfold… And for the first time she got a vision. Not a vague one during her sleep, but a clear one while she was conscious. It was like time itself paused for a moment. The barrier broke sending them all flying with Moriah trying to shield Joseph, surprisingly. Then, everything returned to the way it was. All that was nothing more than a possible future, one of many. Dammit, dammit, dammit! She had to do something she couldn't just sit here and do nothing, if she did then they might- The barrier broke just like in vision but in a twist of events without even Bliss noticing it Moriah stepped back and started galloping… "Outta the way!" And kicked Dr. Parker right in the face with Joseph and Jonathan both sliding out of the way just in time like something out of a cheesy action movie. No matter, he still had one trick up his sleeve. Dr Parker dug through his pockets just to realize it wasn't there, the gun he had wasn't there. He dropped it, Dr Parker rushed to get it, he just had to pick it up and end this! But, in the confusion and chaos Bliss grabbed the gun before him. It made her feel oddly weak, but she had to do this, to protect her friends… BANG! She pulled the trigger. BANG! Again, and again… Until she knew for sure her father was dead. Bliss sat in horror as the other three were just as equally shocked. She killed someone, again. It didn't matter if it was for her friends, it didn't matter if it was her own safety, it didn't matter if it was just. She killed someone, this time it was her own father. The sole reason she existed in this world. Bliss rushed towards to make sure he was okay. "Dad!' She shouted just adding more to the others confusion. Dr Parker looked at his son turned daughter as she held him in her arms. I see… In the end, he failed. They weren't the foolish ones here, he was. Heh… What a cruel twist of fate this was… To have his own child to be one of the few left on this planet, and to be the one to kill him. Before he died though he whispered something to Bliss, it was faint but she could make it out. "I'm sorry…" And those were the last words he said before the light left his eyes. Hmm… It seemed another one of her pawns failed her yet again… Heh, It mattered naught. That "Dr Parker's" time here was already limited. She just prolonged it a bit, and made use of it. That's all. Forcing two family members to fight once again, a despair fitting of a being such as herself! Oh how joyous it made her! She could never get tired of these pathetic mortals and the ways they insist on living. "How will you fare in the upcoming trials I wonder….?" Without even her intervention history has begun to stray from its intended path. It started out with small changes but as time went on the changes grew more and more. Like a snowball effect. Giving up their lives like that… How very selfless indeed. There is a wretched fate awaiting them both ahead, struggle all they like it will arrive all the same… "Come forth if you dare, humans!" She'll be waiting… > 81.5-83, A New Beginning. (2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 10th, 2015 Dear Journal, Today, I killed my father. I don't even know how it was possible but he somehow became immune to the thaumic radiation. We ran into him and he tried to… Kill us…. He was aiming for me… And judging by the golden fire he used, it's safe to say he's the one who burned our house too. I was so confused, I didn't know what to do. So I grabbed the gun he dropped and… I shot him. Someone died by my hooves, again… I didn't want anyone to hurt, I didn't want to lose my friends! I didn't have any other choice! I had to do it, I had to… I had to explain to the others how Dr. Parker- Or well, Noah was my dad. Joseph and Moriah already detested him and that seemed to just make their feelings worse. Heck, Moriah even said "good riddance." She seemed to change her mind after my expression changed when she said that. "Oh, I uh-" I just told her "It's okay, it's nothing to worry about." After all, it's not her fault my dad was an asshole. John asked "why didn't I tell them about this before." I was honest and up front with him. "I don't know." I didn't have any reason to not tell them that he was my dad, I just didn't. Either way, the cat is out of the bag now. It was gonna happen eventually. When we got back to the others they believed our little "story." Of course they did, we've all known each other for months now there's no reason for them to think we're lying. Plus me and Day got sent to magical horsie land only a week ago so that happened. We're all confused how Dr. Parker managed to even survive this long outside. Me and Day especially. According to what the princesses said that shouldn't even be possible, yet here we are… Maybe there's ways of becoming immune that even they don't know…? If there is then maybe there's hope for humanity. What happened back there was so weird… It was like the world itself stopped for a moment just so it could show whatever that was… The future? No, a future. Something like the future isn't that set in stone. What that vision showed me didn't happen. Not even in the slightest. Guess I can thank Moriah for that one. I told Day about "Seior" and my visions and she seems just as confused as me. Unsurprisingly, she saw a similar lady in her dreams a while ago too, just like I thought… I don't even know how I recognized that name it was just like something in my head suddenly clicked, then boom. I'd snap if I still could. (Seriously, What's the pony equivalent of snapping?) "I'm sorry…" I'm not stupid, I know what he meant by that back there. It's gonna take alot more than an apology to fix what he's done, but I'll take it. For now. I'm not gonna let my fathers death bring me down too much. It's not what he or mom would want. And I know for a fact it's not what Alyssa or the old me, Emile would want either. We're on the road right now. We actually saw a couple of lights, fires, and even got a few radio transmissions here and there, some of them were pretty nonsensical. According to Adrian there should be about a thousand people left. He's actually visited some settlements here and there too. Guess we're not the only people on the planet anymore, lame… That means we'll have to share stuff soon…. Well, what can you do about it? Those morse code transmissions stopped, they stopped a while ago actually. Huh… Day also apparently somehow has a photographic memory. I have no idea how that happened, maybe whatever the princesses did to us caused it? Who knows, they did a lot of weird things to us aside from just "that." I honestly can't wait until we settle down somewhere again. I just relax and let all my worries fly away, plus it'll be nice to have a bed again. Well, as always this is Bliss Flower, bye. - Bliss Flower August 12th, 2015 Dear Journal, We're here, we're here, we're here! WE'RE HERE! Okay I'm sorry for that, I'm just excited that's all. It took it about two days but we're finally here, our new home. Welcome to Paris, Illinois. We found these two farm houses not too big, not too small, kinda like my group's old place. Not too far from each other either, so one can be Day's and one can be mine! Ugh, we'll set up everything again… No solar panels here so we'll have to go and loot some, wherever those are. (Man, we were REALLY lucky to find those in a homeless shelter weren't we?) Gotta set up a well again… And we might have to wrangle up some animals too since we lost those in the fire. Actually, there's animals here too, so score! (We still might have to do that though…) All that can come later though. Today was our second meeting with the HPI. Me and Day took a little "walk" into while the others stayed, she brought Huan with us, just in case. There weren't any animals out there, no stray dog packs (super big ones at least) and nothing insane like wolves or anything. We got to the assigned meeting spot. One of their carriers was right there waiting for us. Don't know long it had been there, probably like a day at most. Judging by the yellow safety line they had on the ground at least. (Like at the previous meeting.) The hatch opened and out came two people in protective suits. One was Captain Wright, the one who ransacked Day's shelter a while ago while the other was someone I thought I definitely didn't know at the time, but I definitely know who they are now. Captain Wright gave us the same warnings Dr. Parker gave us during the first meeting with them needing to shoot us if we got too close blah blah, you get the point. He was a lot less aggressive though. "C'mon, Wright can't you at least be a little more lenient, these two can't hurt you." The other one added on. Lonely Day had this good idea of using the manacles we got as one of the MANY gifts from Equestria. I doubt we'll need them but hey, we can use them for criminals if they potentially come back I guess… But they made it easier to talk to the HPI, they don't need to use any of their fancy shmancy shield technology. They work. I got decently weaker and my wings felt stiffer and generally harder to move too. It felt so weird… I don't like it one bit. But hey, it got rid of the weird tense feeling we kept getting from the HPIs vehicles and machines so that's good I guess…? Captain Wright was surprised by our radiation levels (sparkle) magically (sparkle) dropping to zero so he ordered his men out and about six people came out, and because of that I got a closer look at the other person's face… "Long time no see, kid." It was Owen, uncle Owen! My god, he's alive… I knew it, I knew he was alive! I don't how he recognized me but who cares about that, I almost wanted to cry dammit! (And I did.) I gave him a big hug and we both had a heartfelt reunion, which is none of your business! We both had to explain how we're related to Day and Wright since they were pretty confused. We told them everything or well almost everything we could about Equestria, and all that. We couldn't just give them the memory crystals because magic radiation, if human no touchie. Big "surprise" they already knew about Equestria. They didn't know what they looked like but from what they told us they definitely were dealing with Equestria. We didn't tell them about Dr. Parkers death. Why? We just didn't think it was a good idea, that's all. "It's safe to assume he's dead by now." Captain Wright said. "A shame, he was a good man…" Owen added on. But you know what we did tell them about, Luna, or well I did. Day didn't seemed interested in it. Captain Wright and Owen were about as stunned as we were when we first found out about her. "Wait, wait, you're telling me you met with a literal demi-god who could lower the moon…?!" Is what Owen said. "That sounds rather unbelievable…." Wright added on. But it was the truth, it's what happened. I think Wright might've considered her a potential "threat" but since she saved us, I'm guessing he let it slide… He asked us similar questions to the ones we asked her, like "could she turn us back into humans?, could she do the spell again? And if not, could earth unicorns do a similar one a smaller scale. Because according to him, "if we ever reach a point where we need it, it would be better to live on as something else, then dying uselessly as ourselves." Which, I agree with. I'd rather be a pony than be dead right now. Plus you get all kinds of cool bonuses from it, like magic! (I wish I was a unicorn…) Uncle killed the serious tone right after that by saying "Yeah, like you'd want to live as a tiny horse." He hasn't changed at all… Wright just looked at him and said "Would it kill you to be serious for once?" He backed off after that. (somewhat anyway.) We told them no, and "we weren't sure" to the last question. I don't know how long it'd take for earth unicorns to get that powerful, a thousand years? They want to do some research… One the magic books we brought back, so I guess we'll have to scan them for them. (Let us use them too, dammit!) You know, I was pretty skeptical we'd be able to forge some kind of alliance with the HPI with how weird they act but with uncle Owen on our side I'm sure we'll be able to do it, no problem! We went back after all that, they actually wanted to take me and Day to their home base to learn more about us we just said no. We've got friends and a colony to tend to after all! They didn't force us, which is good. Maybe there's hope, for all of us…. - Bliss Flower > Day 84, A New Beginning. (3) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 13th, 2015 Dear Journal, Today was the official founding of both our colonies! (Our one united colony? Insert dramatic medieval trumpets here.) We finished unpacking and setting up the very small amount of things we had, and the first thing to do was go into town and document EVERYTHING! Courtesy of Blake, he split our group up based on "work efficiency and relationships" in his words. Which somehow involved putting John and Joseph in the same group together. (Or the "oaf" as Joseph calls him) I'm just not even gonna say what's wrong with that, just not even gonna say it. Seriously, I don't get him, he's so weird… Did he just want to see them argue or something? So weird.. But uh anyway, we came back together for lunch later. (Thanks for that, Alyssa and Sky!) The town once called Paris isn't that big of a town, much like my group's old place. There's a couple machine shops here and some construction employer places(?) or whatever you call them. That's good, we're gonna need construction materials for everything we're gonna do here. So, we can (obviously) have John work on anything that requires heavy lifting, and maybe Adrian- No, he always keeps that wing of his in a wrap, it's probably injured or something. He can't help. It probably doesn't help that Pegasi aren't all that strong physically, me included. Maybe Joseph can help since he's so good at magic. And Alyssa and Moriah can too if they want to, I'll ask them later. So there's the construction crew… Cloudy Skies can work with the animals since she's good at that, and Oliver with plants… Blake can just do his thing. And me, and Day…. We'll do whatever we can. Ugh, I hate this. Oh crap, I got off topic didn't I? Sorry about that. There's plenty of housing here, we'll need that if we ever get more ponies. (We will.) And there's a primary and a secondary school, and a hospital too. God, this town is absolutely perfect for our colony. Baby, we're all set! We found barely any solar systems, maybe only a few. That's no good… Day says she's planning an expedition to get some soon. My god, I'm getting too into the "work mindset." Never thought I'd see the day where I'd do that. Setting everything back up is gonna be a pain in the flank, but in time we'll have ourselves a nice little village. (town?) In time… After all that we had a meeting, with all eleven of us. We needed a name for our new little community. Day came up with one of the most stupid and unoriginal ones yet "Nueve Angles." Seriously, and I thought my names were stupid… Alexandria. That's the name, or one of them at least. Day didn't like it. Personally, I think it's fine! It does seem kinda stupid to name something after her though… Everyone else liked it though, seriously even Moriah liked it. So that's one of the names. On the other hoof, I came up with something way better. Mimiris! Much better than Alexandria, right? It's a REALLY REALLY long story but it's named after Hoddmimis Holt, the wood Lif and Lifthasir survived ragnarok in and Mimir in norse mythology. So, without further ado, welcome to Alexandria and Mimiris! Our new home, and united colony! Alyssa thought the name was stupid, of course she did… But everyone seemed fine with it, for the most part at least. After all that I made everyone gather outside in front of the house and using a camera I stole borrowed from a store, I took a group photo of us! "Move over you oaf." Joseph said to Jonathan. The big oaf simply returned the favor by calling Joseph a similar dumb "nickname" and scooting over "As you wish, Glowjoe." Meanwhile Oliver and Blake were uh, getting along "well." As usual. Well, I can see someone's happy." Blake just looked at blankly. "You're weird." "Not as weird as you." "Here, let me just…" Madeline tried to make room for Sky as she stood next to her. "N-No no, it's okay. You're good." She replied with a bright smile. Alright, looks like everyone's in their places… "Is everyone ready?" "As ready as I'll ever be!" Moriah yelled, Alyssa added on a little "Yup!" onto it too. But wait, someone was missing! "C'mon, you too!" It was of course, none other than Adrian. "Wait, Wha-" unfortunately, he found himself cut off as both Bliss and Day forcefully dragged him into the group photo. "Alright, now for real this time, is everyone ready!" Most of them shot understanding nods or just said "yes." Alright, just gotta finish setting up the camera… "Okay, say cheese!" Bliss Flower and Lonely Day both quickly rejoined with the group's and stood in front so they actually get in the photo because of their heights. Now, 1,2,3… Snap! A group photo of everyone was taken, everyone smiling… That was probably the happiest Bliss- No, not just her all of them had been in their lives. And there… I took a group photo of all eleven of us. Let me just take that one off, and… Done, it's on the journal. Everyone looks so happy… After that we threw ourselves a huge party in celebration of our colony and our future! Got everything we need, courstey of the nearby Walmart we raided. (Sorry about that…) I had some alcohol during that. Joseph told me. "Kids shouldn't be drinking at this hour." But I don't care, I'm an adult, a fully fledged adult! And he's not my dad! John just HAD to say something about it, because he just HAD to. "He's right you know." Seriously, these two went from arguing every two milliseconds to ganging up on me! How??? I don't remember much of the party because uh… I may have gotten a tiny bit drunk… Okay, I lied. I got VERY drunk. God, I still have a headache. Maybe I'll have Oliver look at it tomorrow… Nopony would tell me what happened or what I did. Nopony, absolutely nopony. The closest thing I got to an answer was John telling me "You don't wanna know…" with a little chuckle. I think I should've listened to him and Joseph… But guess what Sky showed us after! She led somewhere with a decent amount of space and took off. She flew! She bucking flew! Woo! Go Sky! I guess my expert teaching got her somewhere after all. You wouldn't guess who also knows how to fly too. Blake! He went with us and showed us. It wasn't really flying, it was more like a flutter, like when I first started. But he's getting there! I practically threw myself in bed after all that, that was alot of action for one day. It was fun though… I liked it. Never thought I would see myself saying I like having friends but here we are. After four months, we've gone through so much from becoming a pony to having our lives threatened by a secret organization to going to another world… We've all been through alot. I might be a magical equine, I might not have my mom with me, but there's one thing I do have. Friends, friends who'll stick by our sides to the very end, no matter what. The least we can do is move on towards the future, for our the families we lost, for each other, and for ourselves. Press on, no regrets! This isn't just a new beginning for just us, the HPI, or Equestria, this is a new beginning for all of us! So, as always this is Bliss Flower, bye! I wonder what the future has in store for us… - Bliss Flower > Epilogue, Gold Dust. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, in lands unknown. Syndicate "Headquarters." Four months, four months since everything happened, four months since she lost everything and her life began… Ivy turned her attention to the bright blue stallion that was supposed to be her "companion", Aegis. "So, what is it that Maverick wants now?" Aegis just rolled his eyes and spoke in the same annoyed tone Ivy had. "He said he just wants to 'meet us' for something. Didn't specify what." That didn't make Ivy's feelings any better. Maverick, the bastard who was supposed to be the "leader" of this entourage. They both didn't like him one bit, but without him they wouldn't even be here right now…. The same could be said for a lot of the ponies here. Well, no point in wasting anymore time, they didn't want a certain someone to yell at them after all. So, with that the two got up and headed for the Mavericks "office." First however, they took a little "stroll" through the town. This was their headquarters of sorts, their base of operations if you will. Most of these houses were already here before everything happened, a lot of these places had been made by hoof though. Soon enough, they both came to a decently sized building. It looked like a mayor's office of sorts, it might've been before the event. But now, this was Mavericks "office." Take a quick walk, a couple turns, here and there and boom. You'll know it when you see it. The two opened the door, and inside the office was a stallion with a bright white coat, hair that covered his left eye with bright green stripes, and bright green eyes. By his side was a strange mare with long golden hair, with eyes and a coat to match. Sin. She went up to Maverick and leaned on him like she was trying to swoon him, sinful snake she was… He paid her no mind. "Good, do you know why I called you here?" Maverick asked. Aegis replied in the same stark and serious stone he always used around him. "No sir." However Ivy didn't feel the same way, she wasn't as "obedient" as him. "We'd probably know if you actually-" Sin caught wind of her insubordination, she wouldn't take such insubordination to Maverick, and especially herself. She got up and went towards Ivy and Aegis. And somehow, someway the two were forced to their knees in an instant. Whenever Ivy was near Sin she got this weird vibe from her, like she was in the presence of something sinister, something that wasn't human… And yet… Dammit… "You know, if it wasn't for him, you two wouldn't be here right now." The heavy feeling in her chest got worse. Dammit, dammit, dammit… Maybe if she just closed her eyes everything would be okay… Everything would be okay… Aegis felt the same way Ivy felt, even if he wasn't the one Sin was directing this to, he could just feel the malice coming from her. "Or, would you like it if I-" But before Sin could do anything Dangerous, Maverick called her off. "That's enough, Sin." She reluctantly went ahead with his orders, even if she didn't like it she just had to play along for now… Now, back to the actual important matter at hand, the reason he actually called them here. "The reason I called you here was because of things like that." "But-" Ivy tried to say something but got cut off. "You both need to get your act together or else I'll have no choice but to take action myself." Aegis and Ivy both wanted to say something. This wasn't fair, none of this was fair in the slightest! They didn't even do anything except… And yet they complied, they had no other choice. "You're dismissed." The two nodded against their will with a "Yes sir." And left the room. Dammit! Ivy wanted to just break the damned wall down, that's how angry she was. What the hell was that?! Why couldn't she move? How did that Sin, how did she-?! Dammit… "I don't trust that Sin one bit." She said very obviously trying to hide how she felt from Aegis. Aegis understood her. After all, what kind of companion would he be if he didn't? He wanted to rebel as much if not more than Ivy did. Yet he kept the same stoicness all the same… "I know, but if it wasn't for Maverick we wouldn't be-" My god, was everyone just gonna repeat that same phrase again and again…? She was getting sick of it. "Yeah, yeah, I know. If not for him we wouldn't be here right now." "Besides, if he trusts her he probably has his reasons." Aegis commented. The two would just have to go along with everything for now… Whether they liked it or not. Maybe Ivy would go ask Radiant Sky how she thought about this later… She was one of most normal people in this damned group, right next to them. Back with Maverick he almost felt similarly as those two felt. Without the thoughts of rebellion of course. He was just thankful Sin didn't do anything to them. God, was it that hard just to listen to his orders? Maverick turned his attention to the staff in his hooves. This staff… This was one of the many artifacts from that place, right…? Equestria… With this and it's power he would be able to shape the world into one he desires. Digusting filth they may be, this world nor humanity can keep going on like this. Someone needs to take a stand, and teach them to better themselves so they may move towards a prosperous future. And that someone is him.