//------------------------------// // Cake // Story: The Last One // by computerneek //------------------------------// Unfortunately for the pink creature in front of her, she had not, in fact, been surprised.  She’d known they were bunkering down in here for something- and the anticipatory breathing she’d heard from outside had been enough to warn her what it might be. That they might have been waiting for her had been unexpected; for all she knows, they were waiting for the very next entity to enter the building. All of the entities facing her seem to blink once or twice, including the pink one that had jumped up and set off all of the noisy things, scattering fragments of color through the air.  She stands still as well, waiting for the next cue. Eventually, it comes.  It’s the pink one. “Uh, Welcome to your Welcome to Ponyville party!” she begins, swinging her front legs high and flinging more bits of color into the air. She doesn’t move.  Perhaps she should have picked a different building. The pink one seems to deflate partially.  “We have cookies…?” She doesn’t move. Her head droops.  “Say… something? Maybe even nothing?” She doesn’t move.  Yet. Something comes flying at her from behind the pink one, set to hit her square in the face.  She clenches her muscles, whipping her head to the side. The rest of her follows, and she nearly falls over.  The object misses her by inches, instead splattering against the door.  She looks at the entity that had thrown it. Like the pink one, this one has no wings, instead being colored a light cream. “Come on, these cupcakes are to die for,” the new entity scowls.  “Even if you’re not going to be excited, please enjoy the festivities.” She allows her focus to spread.  She spots another entity at that same table, holding what looks like a remnant of another of the object the cream one threw.  This entity then stuffs it into its mouth. She watches the entity chew, then swallow. “I think she wasn’t expecting it,” a third entity, this one green and with something pointy on her forehead, mutters to the cream one. The cream one raises an eyebrow back at the green one.  “That would be an impressive reaction time,” she mutters. The green one ignores the cream one, turning to look towards her and lifting another of the objects on the end of one leg.  “Catch?” she asks, making as if to throw it. She tilts her head, reprocessing the actions she’d seen the brown one perform.  Is that what they want her to do? She estimates possible trajectories- but until she actually throws it, there’s too many to even think about.  Her senses are starting to blur- but at this short of a range, she should still be able to estimate its trajectory to within an acceptable degree of accuracy. She estimates the object’s size- and, based on a comparison between the larger entities and the few in the crowd that are around her size, she estimates the size, position, and range of motion of her mouth. She pulls her mouth into a smile, adjusting her stance.  She can do this. She nods. The pink entity seems utterly confused.  The cream one seems taken aback. The green one looks surprised, but tosses the object anyways. She estimates the trajectory.  The green one doesn’t have nearly as good of aim as the cream one.  She moves her legs, accelerating herself to the right as she watches it come.  She makes a full stop, then re-evaluates its path. This object must have either some aerodynamic property she didn’t observe or a non-uniform mass distribution, whatever any of that means.  In any case, it isn’t following her predicted course, but traveling a little higher. She lifts herself up onto her hind legs briefly, stretching upwards to catch it. Her estimates pertaining to herself seem to have been accurate.  She feels the object land smoothly in her mouth, right in the middle, as her jaw snaps shut around it.  It tastes weird, right off, but nothing throws up any red flags, so she proceeds to chew and swallow it, as that other entity had done.  Or, not as that other entity had done; this object only barely fits in her mouth as she chews. Her front legs land back on the floor- and her eyes track across the crowd. The green one’s jaw drops.  The cream one follows suit. Then someone starts stomping on the ground.  “Nice catch!” The rest- at least, most of the rest; the green, cream, and pink ones don’t move- follow suit.  It takes her a few seconds to process- they’re cheering. Which only happens after the terrible…  But the terrible hadn’t happened.  Not that she knows what the terrible is. She chooses to push off thoughts of the terrible.  It seems she’s accidentally found a way to circumvent it completely. As she chews, the strange taste goes away as that layer of something shreds apart against her teeth.  With that out of the way, she finds something much softer- and as much as the taste is unfamiliar, she finds it thoroughly enjoyable.  Perhaps that outer layer wasn’t meant to be eaten…? Whatever, it’s harmless anyways. She won’t mess up on the next one. …  assuming they let her have a next one.  She swallows it- and at the same moment, her belly rumbles again. The pink one blinks a few times, and snaps her jaw shut.  “Uh… You aren’t supposed to eat the wrapper…” She looks at the pink one again. Then her ear flicks back towards the door.  That sounds like one of the ones that had been running out of that building after her and that other escaping entity. Which, she can vaguely sense that other entity should only have one burning wing pain left. It’s coming for her. She dodges into the crowd, making her way to the table the cream and green ones are at.  She wants another… whatever that thing was. Funny- her senses have stopped blurring, and started sharpening up once again.  Her survival estimate is also going up. So, she’s avoided the terrible, and found a way to keep living.  She can’t think of anything else- and, as she hops up on a stool next to the table, she shows a smile to both entities- the green one and the cream one- before locking her gaze upon and reaching for the platter of those objects.  Unfortunately, it’s too far away from the stool. A golden glow appears around one of them, matching that on the pointy thing on the green one’s forehead.  The glowing object separates itself from the pile, the not-so-tasty part removing itself as it floats over to her.  The cream one snickers as she accepts it with her front legs and bites off half. “I told you they were good,” she chuckles. Then the doors fly open, showing a single entity standing in the door. A purple entity with both wings and that pointy thing- the one that had first commended her on the catch, she thinks- turns towards the door, having been standing near it already.  “Nurse Redheart?” she asks, sounding surprised. “Is something wrong?” The white entity in the doorway scans the room fruitlessly.  “Yes,” she eventually mumbles. “There’s been…” The purple one tilts her head.  “Been what? Does it involve Rainbow?” “I…  We…” She shakes her head.  “We don’t know.” The pink one practically screeches to a halt next to the purple one.  “She’s not hurt, is she?” The white one- the purple one called her ‘Nurse Redheart’- pauses.  “That’s… She was hurt, then she…”  She shakes her head.  “It’s a miracle.” An orange one trots out of the crowd.  “A miracle?” she asks. “What kind of miracle?” Nurse Redheart shrugs.  “Her leg was broken…  until it straightened itself and healed.” The purple one presses onwards, a feather and a piece of paper appearing in the air next to her, covered in the same purplish glow as the pointy thing on her head.  “Do you know what caused it?” “We only know a strange filly died earlier…  and was seen running away from Rainbow after her second crash.”  She blinks at the purple one. “That filly might be our source…  but she might also just be patient zero.” She stuffs the other half of her thing- had the cream one called it a ‘cupcake’?- into her mouth.  Her senses are definitely getting sharper- and, she notices, the burn in her muscles is also beginning to fade. Nurse Redheart scowls, taking one last glance through the building.  “Whatever. If anypony starts collapsing, come get us.” She turns and leaves, allowing the door to close behind her. “That was…  Weird,” someone states.  She doesn’t know who- but she has a pretty good idea of what just happened. She escaped. Her partner in crime, that larger version of herself, hadn’t, though.  The white stuff had come off of her wing when they landed- so hopefully, since she senses the last of her first friend’s sharp wing pains is disappearing, the aforementioned will be able to escape alone. She accepts a serving of something that the pink one puts in front of her.  It’s a wedge of something- looks like some kind of cake, she decides. She glances briefly sideways to see how other entities are eating theirs.  Some of them are just stuffing their faces into it, while others are wielding cutlery of some sort. She locates some similar cutlery, placed next to the plate she’d been served- and opts to take that route. It tastes just as good. The green one chuckles at her display, having gone the face route herself.  “So, what’s your name?”