Chapter 1
David's stomach rumbled. It had been rumbling all day. As he thought about it, it seemed like it was rumbling all the time anymore. Standing up he immediately felt lightheaded. "Man, I really need to eat something" he thought to himself as he leaned on the brick wall of the empty alley. As he closed his eyes until the wave of dizziness passed, he tried to remember his last real meal. It had to have been weeks ago.
The government handouts didn't count, David decided. They were barely tolerable and could hardly be called food. A bland mix of the absolute necessities the human body needed all crammed into a neatly packed square. But that's what happens when overpopulation encounters a reduction in resources. Resources like food and oil. To David, none of this mattered to him until the day his parents had told him they couldn't afford for him to live at home anymore.
David was just shy of six foot tall and as a young man in his early twenties, he consumed a lot of food. After all, he was a growing boy. Or at least he was supposed to be. Lately, he had been growing thinner and thinner. As he slowly moved down the alley he thought about the phrase "growing thinner". It made no sense to him. There was a word for it, but he couldn't think of it. Man, he needed some food. He was having trouble keeping his thoughts together and think about simple things. Oxymorons. That's what they were called.
As he rounded the corner of the alley into the street David took stock of what was around him. The city he had lived in, had grown up in, seemed desolate. No, that wasn't right. As he watched the street, a large truck quietly whirred past him. The quiet sounds of the tires and the electric motor were a stark contrast to trucks he had remembered growing up with large, powerful diesel engines. The truck moved along, the sole vehicle along what was once a heavily trafficked street.
No, desolate did not accurately describe the street for there were still the people. Devoid. Devoid of cars. That's what it was, David decided. The government's decision to halt all use natural resources with the exception of critical infrastructure like military use, agriculture, shipping, and air transportation had killed the car off nearly overnight. As the birth rate increased and the average age of death climbed year after year, the strain on global resources rose at an exponential rate. Seeing that there was a finite number of certain resources like coal, oil, and natural gas left, the decision was made globally to restrict these resources to the bare necessities to prolong the inevitable.
Electricity was the answer, David had been told by his father. Electricity can replace nearly everything, and it will all be fine. As the world quickly found out however, it's much harder to store the same amount of energy capacity in electricity that was comparable to a gallon of gasoline. Lithium prices soared to unseen heights in the quest for energy storage. The second and third order effects of the switch to electricity were unknown and devastating. Commuting to work was now impossible for long distances and the ability to transfer produce across the world diminished in capability. Unemployment soared.
Clip, clip, clip clop. David sluggishly turned his head and peered at the oncoming sound. He knew what it was before his eyes registered the sight and yet he knew he had to look anyway. How could he not? The sounds of hooves striking pavement grew louder, but they were not of a horse. David saw a muscular male pulling a large cart. The idea of a man pulling a cart for work was not a foreign one, there were no cars or trucks to use for the average person. No, the idea of how the man was being used to pull the cart was the foreign idea.
With increasing numbers of unemployed and hungry people along with an increasing demand for electricity usage, a new program was created. The program was called "Horsepower" and the idea was that people could be used as horses used to be prior to the advent of motorized vehicles to do both menial and labor-intensive tasks. Actual horses were few in number and cost a tremendous amount of money. The requirement was simple, armies of human horses could be used to move objects, pull people around, work at things for hours on end. The payment? Food, shelter, and wages. That alone was enough to draw people in the thousands to join. The process to join was rigorous and not an easy one. To become this, several freedoms had to be put aside.
The man, if you could still call him that, had all the outward appearances of a horse. His feet were in boots that went up to just below his knees but on the bottom, they kept the legs tipped forward onto the front of the feet. The bottoms of these boots had been stylized to resemble that of a horse hoof, horseshoes and all. Hoof boots they had been termed and gave the distinct "clip clop" sound. The man himself was very tan, the result of spending countless hours out under the sun working. The term horse did not last long as had been likely intended. The public began to refer to them as ponies instead and after a time, the name stuck.
Covering the man's tanned body was a leather harness. The harness went up and over the man's shoulders and around the sides of his torso. The part that always drew attention however was the large leather section that went under the crotch and attached to the back of the harness. A couple of extra straps went from this crotch strap to under the man's butt cheeks, keeping them more or less in place. Alarmingly, or at least it was when then initial designs first became public, the man's genitals poked out through a hole in the front crotch strap. The whole affair, however, was encased in a plastic cages of sorts to inhibit its function to only basic relief needs and from outside influences. There had been quite the public outroar surrounding specifically this piece but as the necessity for manual labor increased and the want of electricity outweighed any moral objections and it was quickly relegated to being just part of the package.
The man's arms did not pull the cart. After initial testing and fielding of ponies through the horsepower program they quickly saw that a pony's arms wore out quickly and they would drop loads or no longer push and pull items as efficiently. To counter this, the body harnesses were created, and the loads were attached to it. The weight of their tasks was now distributed to their whole body and not just the arms and shoulders. Production increased but the problem with what to do with the pony's arms became an issue. David looked at the man and saw that his arms were pulled behind him and wrapped into a leather sleeve. The poles of the cart passed on either side of the man and attached cleanly to the harness without the arms getting in the way.
The image of the pony did not stop there. The man's head was wrapped in a leather bridle similar to a horse. Like a horse, it became apparent that without an ability to guide them they would zigzag as they walked or drift towards or away from the desired destination. To counter this, the whole gamut of pony tack became increasingly available and commonplace. Bits were fitted to mouths, reins attached, blinders put in place and on occasion a crop to help correct actions. A business owner had put it best when these items were first displayed, "I don't need someone to have a conversation with or tell me their opinions. I just need a means to get my product from point A to point B without question." So many other people had related to this same sentiment that a natural divide between "ponies" and "people" was created.
David stared as the cart went by. The owner of the cart who was walking alongside merely nodded at David and kept walking. How could someone willingly go through that? David continued walking, his stomach feeling like it was caving in on him. He stopped to lean on a lamppost, frustrated at how weak he felt without food.
The world was spinning, and he just wanted to shut it all out. He hadn't realized that he had dozed off until a voice said, "Get up son, there's work to be done." David blinked his eyes, the sunlight filtering into them. He was confused and looked up and saw a large man tacked up in pony gear. The man's bit was not in his mouth but attached to one side and pulled back, so it was out of the way. The man smiled at David, "Come on inside, let's get you some food. You look like you could use it."
David looked up at the building that he was in front of. "Horsepower Recruiting Station" was proudly displayed on the sign. "I, uh...I really shouldn't." David said. The man walked forward to him, his hooves making their distinct sound on the pavement.
"Any why is that? Are you afraid you'll be whisked away and forced to become a pony?" The man asked with a grin.
David stammered his response, "No, it's just...I don't think I want to become...you."
