//------------------------------// // TLH ch5 // Story: The Last Humans: a magical apocalypse // by Autistic Witch //------------------------------// Day seven It had been a week since the girls arrived in this distorted version of their beloved city. Though, it had only been six days for them since they slept the entirety of the third day. Rarity created more of an airboat with dedicated space for the bombs for this platform so they don’t fall off or roll around during transport. The pyromaniacs assured her that the bombs wouldn’t go off unless magic was applied to them, but Rarity wanted to still be careful because, you know, BOMBS. The rest of the girls loaded everything up into the platform, and they were underway. “Rrr maties, to the high skies we go! To adventure and explosions!”, Pinkie cheered. Instead of starting near the edges, they were going to start the bombing near the center of the city. As they got closer, the buildings got taller. “Okay Rarity, stop here.”, Sunset ordered just before they reached the skyscrapers. “There are snipers on the roofs.”, Rainbow pointed out. Rarity put a dome over them as the bullets started flying. The bullets made clicking sounds as they bounced off the shield. Sunset prepared her fire arrows and aimed for the snipers. “Okay Rarity, drop the shield.”, Sunset ordered. Rarity complied, and Sunset fired three arrows, hitting all three snipers. “Great. Now, start dropping before more come.”, Pinkie said. Pinkie activated the bombs, the girls began throwing them in the directions Sunset calculated. As they hit the ground, thunderous explosions rang out, and fire started to engulf the city. Wingers approached the girls’ location, and Twilight and Rainbow sprang into action. Pinkie used her own magic to create more explosions, and Sunset used her magic to spread the fire and took deep breaths of the smoke filled air. As the fire raged, Sunset noticed there was something wrong with the smoke. It smelled sweet. The rest of the girls noticed it too, and Rarity and Rainbow used their magics to create a bubble of clean air. Twilight and Rainbow landed and Fluttershy immediately started healing herself and Rarity as the effects of the new toxic became known. The smoke made the girls feel groggy, and Sunset passed out due to it. The effects were easily countered, and all the girls were wide awake again within seconds, except for Sunset. “How much longer will it take you to heal her?”, Rarity asked. “I don’t know. She took in a lot more than we did.”, Fluttershy answered. “Should we go on with the mission?”, RD asked. “Yes, we need to get rid of these things before they can mutate more.”, Twilight ordered. “Rainbow, can you keep the smoke out while letting us deploy the bombs?” “Huh, easy.”, Rainbow said cockily. “Great, let’s move ladies.” Rarity moved them to the next location as Fluttershy kneeled to heal Sunset and Pinkie prepared more bombs. “Sunset”, the entity spoke. “How’d you get back in my head? I blocked you- oh, that wasn’t just chloroform. You knew I would stop to smell the smoke.” “Sunset” Sunset was feeling its effects again. She felt nice. She felt safe. She felt- nope! Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! This thing stole your crown! It tried to kill you! Whatever it’s doing now, it won’t be good for you! “Sunset” “Screw you! You can’t have me!” Sunset tried to get away from that thing, towards Fluttershy who she could feel healing her, but the entity’s grip was too strong. Sunset did the mental equivalent to staring down at the thing and charging at it. Sunset ended up in a different place, but still an endless black void, with a giant, pulsating, green - thing. It was kinda like a heart made out of vines but had roots under it. At least that was the best idea Sunset’s mind could come up with to represent the thing. “Okay plant, I’m gonna make you leave me alone one way or another! You messed with the wrong-wrong gir-”, Sunset tried to shout, but the pulsating was so hypnotic that it was hard to concentrate. “No! You’re not- you’re not- not-” Sunset’s projection within the mindscape went limp. Feelings of safety and warmth and pleasure radiated through her. She could just stay here. She was safe here. Out there, they were constantly worried about survival. It was cold out there. A root snaked up to Sunset and wrapped around her, bringing her closer to the entity. As rhythmic and captivating the pulsating was, the entity itself was kinda disgusting, and it didn’t feel nice to have the vine wrapped around her, but Sunset couldn’t resist and the pulsing was being brought closer, so she didn’t care to resist. “Sunset” “Yes?” “Stay here.”, the entity ordered. The order reverberated through her mind. It was all encompassing. She had to obey it. “Yes” “Good” Sunset never thought she would get such pleasure from praise, but here she was. “My friends, they would like it here too.” “No” “Why?” “Be silent” Sunset couldn’t understand why the entity wouldn’t want to bring her friends here, but that was what it wished, so she obeyed. Back in reality Sunset’s eyes shot open, she lifted her head from Fluttershy’s lap, and quickly stood up. “Oh Sunset, be careful. You might fall.”, Fluttershy warned. “I’m fine.”, Sunset said coldly. The rest of the girls all looked between each other, silently asking each other if they all just heard that. “Hey Sunny, did ya hear the plants again?”, AJ asked, but Sunset didn’t respond. “Hey Sunset, Ah asked ya a question.”, AJ said more forcefully. - “No, I didn’t hear any plants.”, Sunset said in a monotone voice. “Okay. Hey, can ya stand point?”, AJ asked while pointing to the front of the platform. “Sure.” Sunset walked to the front of the platform while the rest of the girls congregated in the back, and Rainbow created an air bubble to keep their conversation private. “So, Sunset’s compromised.”, RD said bluntly. “Looks like it. Also looks like the entity has no idea about how humans communicate.”, Pinkie added. “So, what do we do about it?”, Rarity asked. “The mental link is most likely also compromised, so we can’t use that.”, Twi added. “We also don’t know what that thing might do to her once it realizes we caught on.” “Do you think Sunset’s even still in there?”, Fluttershy asked. “Let me try something.”, Pinkie said. Before anyone could try to protest, she was out of the privacy bubble and marching towards Sunset. The others watched on in both intrigue and horror as Pinkie spun Sunset around and kissed her. The mindscape Sunset felt the taste of lips on her own. In her muddled and pleasure filled mind, she did care where it was coming from. She leaned into the kiss without closing her eyes and tasted squirrel meat. Girls. The pulsing changed. Different parts of the plant were pulsing differently, pulling Sunset in deeper. She forgot about the kiss in exchange for focusing more on the plant. The feeling of someone’s hands on her thighs and ass made Sunset want to moan but she obeyed the entity and remained quiet. Sunset moved her hand to where the mystery person’s hands were as they pulled away. She wanted them to stay. As much as she loved the pulsing, the plant didn’t feel nice. She wanted a human’s touch. The vine wrapped more of her up, restricting her movement, which she did not like and tried to squirm out of. “Stay still” As the entity wished it, she obeyed and stopped moving, her body going limp again, except for her eyes which remained fixated on the pulsing plant. Back in reality Pinkie felt Sunset kissing her back, but the rest of her body was unchanged, indicating the plant wasn’t mimicking Pinkie. Pinkie only released the kiss when she felt Sunset pull away. Pinkie looked up into Sunset’s face but only found a blank expression. “Oh, come on, Sunny. Don’t you have anything for good ol’ Pinkie?” Pinkie rubbed Sunset’s thighs and bum but with no reaction, pulled away. Sunset moved her hand to where Pinkie’s just was and began moving around as if searching. “I do not have anything for you.”, Sunset said with absolutely no hint of emotion. Pinkie shrugged and went back to the other girls while Sunset turned back around. “Sunset’s def still in there.” “So what do we do to get her out?”, RD asked. “Well, last time this happened, Sunset said the thing was using some sorta hypnosis. Now, despite what movies show, hypnosis isn’t that hard to break. Just a big enough shot to the system will do the trick.”, Fluttershy explained. “Yeah, I already surprise kissed her, and that’s a pretty big shock.”, Pinkie said. “Maybe something less pleasant.” “I could kick her.”, RD said. “And if that doesn’t work?”, AJ asked. “We have to try. Rainbow, you kick her. The rest of you, hold her down. I’ll heal her.”, Fluttershy said. The other girls looked around with unsure looks on their faces, but what else were they going to do. RD dispelled the privacy bubble, and the girls walked up to Sunset. Sunset turned around to face them as they approached. “We need to stop the fire.”, Sunset said. “Why?”, Rainbow asked. The rest of the girl moved around Sunset as Rainbow distracted her. “It’s destroying the others.” “You mean the zombies. Why would you want to stop the plan you put together?” “We must stop the fire. It’s destroying the others.”, Sunset repeated. The rest of the girls nodded that they were ready, and Rainbow adjusted her stance. “Ya know, you’re really crappy at pretending to be a human.” Before Sunset could say anything, the girls jumped on her, Fluttershy grabbed her head, and Rainbow gave her a medium strengthened kick to her sternum. The mindscape Sunset felt a sharp pain in her chest and the air was forced out of her lungs. She tried to stay still and silent, but she let out a wheeze and would have doubled over if the root wasn’t holding her. The pulsing changed, and now there was a rippling of colors, pulling Sunset deeper. There was also a new wonderful, peaceful feeling in Sunset’s head. Sunset wanted to close her eyes to focus on it, but that would mean losing sight of the hypnotic, pulsating, rippling colors. There was another sharp pain in her chest, causing the same reaction. Sunset wanted to apologize for disobeying the entity but feared making anymore noise would anger it more and it would force her out of this wonderful place. Suddenly, Sunset wasn’t just looking at the entity. She could still see it, but now she could see some sort of still surface and a strangely familiar girl. Sunset tried to remember where she’d seen the girl before, but the pulsing, rippling colors wiped such thoughts away. Once again, her only purpose of obeying the entity was the only thought in her mind. There was another sharp pain, and she realized it was that girl. The roots around her metal projection slipped away, and the entity’s indescribably wonderful and hypnotic voice filled her every being. “Attack them.” As the entity wished it, she obeyed. Sunset engulfed herself in fire, forcing off what she realized were more girls, more girls she must attack. That new wonderful, peaceful feeling was gone. Sunset wanted to ask what she did to displease the entity, but she was ordered to stay silent. A blast of wind hit Sunset, which she then blocked with a shield spell. A different shield was put up around her, so Sunset dropped hers. Sunset looked around to see it was another one of the girls that put up the shield. “Rainbow, pull the air out!”, the shield girl said. Sunset then felt the air escape her lungs, and realized what they were doing. She teleported out of the shield and to the back of whatever they were standing on. They all shot blasts at her, but Sunset blocked all of them with ease. “Uh, guys, why is she so powerful?” “She must have access to the crown’s power.” Sunset wondered what the ‘crown’ was, but as the entity did not wish her to think about it, she did not. Realizing the wind girl was the one preventing the sleeping smoke from getting in, Sunset teleported behind her and knocked her out. The air bubble around them disappeared, and the girls began falling under the effects of the smoke. Sunset used an air filter spell to keep from falling under the effects of the smoke as well. The crystal disappeared next, but Sunset levitated them all to the ground. While they were still in the air, Sunset dispelled the flames that were ravaging the city. The outside world disappeared, and Sunset was left staring at the hypnotic vision in front of her. She didn’t mind this one bit, but she did wish that peaceful feeling would return. The root wrapped around her again, but this time, there were two of them, and they went further. The ends of the roots pressed up against the sides of her head, and searing pain penetrated through her skull. Despite her order to be still and silent, she could not suppress the screams, and she thrashed against her restraints. Sunset squeezed her eyes shut due to the pain, and due to the entity being out of sight and the pain, Sunset’s memories came back to her. “Aaaggghhh, I hate you! I’ll kill you! My first attempt at confronting you might have failed, but I will not fail a second time!” The pain stopped, and the roots moved away from her head, but Sunset kept her eyes shut and kept trying to escape. “Sunset” Sunset began to relax at hearing the entity’s voice. Somehow, it was even more soothing, and it turned to a gentle, effeminate voice instead of a monotone, genderless voice. It was similar to Celestia’s voice but clearly wasn’t, but it still elicited the same knee-jerk reaction her voice would. Sunset thought of what it made her do to her friends, how it violated her, anything to keep herself angry. “Sunset, open your eyes.” “No, piss off!” “Sunset, open your eyes.” Sunset still didn’t open them, but the entity started singing. It was an old lullaby Celestia used to sing to her. All the fight left Sunset’s body by the time the song was done, and the entity spoke again. “Sunset, open your eyes.” This time, Sunset did and was once again met with the same pulsating, hypnotic, rippling colors. Sunset forgot why she was even made, and soon, forgot she was even made at all. “There, isn’t that better?” “I don’t like being wrapped up in the roots. Can you please remove them?” “But you do like the roots. They’re even better than human touch.” “They aren’t though. Nothing can beat the touch of another human, not even the touch of another pony. It’s special.” The roots wrapped around Sunset’s head and made her stare straight into the colors. “Please, I can do this myself.” “You will remain silent, let yourself be pulled deeper, and learn to love the touch of roots. You are not human or pony. You are a part of the system. Say it.” “I am not human or pony. I am a part of the system.” “Good. Now, mind your manners while I take care of business.” Back in reality The entity refocused on the outside world, and gave Sunset’s neck a roll. Having nerves was interesting but so again was having conscious thought. The ‘zombies’, as the humans called them, were done tying up the remaining humans. That name now made sense to the entity. It was fitting. The entity ordered the humans to be brought to it. Their magic made it impossible to infect the normal way, and it didn’t wish to have any more humans like Sunset. It now knew how to use proper magic and that there were other human settlements. It could replenish its numbers faster by going to those settlements. These humans will be consumed, and then it will have their magic. Canterlot high Twilight woke up with a groan, followed shortly by the rest of the girls with varying pained sounds. Each one of them felt like they had a hangover or in one way or another, just got off a binge of something really not good for you. The fact that they were all tied up really didn’t help matters. “Owie, what happened?”, Pinkie asked. “Interesting, I did not expect you to wake up so quickly. Oh well, that just means you’ll be conscious while you're consumed.”, Sunset said. “Sunset?”, Twilight asked. Sunset was standing in front of a large mass of roots and vines, using her magic to alter it. “Might as well be.”, the entity said while turning to face them. “I have all her memories and skills and even some of her personality.” “But you’re not her. I know she’s fighting you inside.” “Oh, she was but is no longer. She’s settled in quite nicely. You know, she was the one fighting you on the platform. All I had to do was give her the order, and she did it.”, the entity said coyly. “You’re lying.”, Twilight accused. “Hmhmhm, oh, I’m really not. I can let you speak to her.”, the entity said with a smile. Twilight snarled at it, which it took as a yes. The entity let Sunset see outside like on the platform, and her outward appearance turned from smug to glazed over eyes. “Sunset?” “You may speak to them.” “Yes?”, Sunset asked dully. “Are you okay?” Sunset smiled, but her eyes still looked hazy. “I’m wonderful.” “Do you know who I am?” “You do know her. She’s Twilight Sparkle. She’s to be consumed.” “Yes, I do. You’re Twilight Sparkle. You’re to be consumed.” “Do you know who you are?” “You are a servant of the one they call ‘the entity’. Nothing more, nothing less.” “I am a servant of the one you call ‘the entity’. Nothing more, nothing less.” “No, you’re Sunset Shimmer, ex-student of Princess Celestia. You don’t serve, you lead.” “I am a servant of the one you call ‘the entity’. Nothing more, nothing less.” “Okay, hey, clearly, this is going nowhere, and I have a few questions for the plant.”, RD said. Sunset’s demeanor went back to smug and in charge, and she walked over to Rainbow. “What?” “When we were talking on the platform, you basically acted like an NPC, but now, you’re acting like pre-Fall Formal Sunset. What changed?” “Hm, you’re just trying to get me monologuing to buy time to escape. Sunset’s seen all the same movies. Fortunately or unfortunately for you, depending on how you see it, I won’t be ready to consume you for a while anyway, so I might as well indulge you. Shortly after you were all rendered unconscious, I gained full access to Sunset’s mind. I don’t like it, but it’s necessary, and it was quite painful for your friend.”, the entity said that last part with noticeable glee. “Well, on her behalf, fuck you. Now, second question, how’d you come to be?” “That I don’t know. Up until a couple hours ago, I did not have a brain. I was just functioning on instinct, very advanced instincts, but still just instincts. I don’t have memories from then. Though, from what Sunset has seen from my zombies, it had something to do with you, and I think I exist outside time, judging by the way things seemed to be aging inconsistently.” “So, you’re really going to eat your moms?” “Yes” “Well, poo. Okay, last question, why Sunset?” “I’m surprised that you didn’t ask why I’m doing this.” “I already know that from your answer to the second question. You’re doing this for the same reason why we’re trying to stay alive. Our instincts are telling us to.” “You’re smarter than I gave you credit for. And why Sunset, because I could. Because of her ability to read minds, I was able to put a little bit of my magic in her, like a seed. Like any invader, her body tried to fight it off, but I just put it into dormancy until I had my chance.” As the entity finished talking, the sun began to rise. “Show time.” The entity’s true body began to shift and open up like a giant mouth with bizarre sap or saliva. “Ew”, Rarity commented. “You should’ve stayed unconscious then.”, the entity commented. Pinkie looked into the maw of the beast and noticed a purple sparkle, a magical purple sparkle. “Huuuh, bonsai!”, Pinkie screamed as she ran into the plant. The rest of the girls, even entity possessed Sunset, were too shocked to react as the plant clamped its “jaws” shut. The entity looked at the plant, then at the girls, then the plant, then back at the girls. “Did she jus-”, the entity tried to say before a fiery explosion cut it off. The entity didn’t even look back at the carnage and hung Sunset’s head. The zombies began dropping all around them, and the vines began to wither. Pinkie hopped out of the burning plant, carrying the crown. “Hey girls, lookie what I found.” Pinkie hopped back to the flabbergasted faces of her friends. “Pinkie, that’s possibly tha dumbest thing Ah think Ah ever seen ya do.”, AJ said while shaking her head. “What can I say? The difference between bravery and stupidity is whether or not you die. Oh, and here you go, Twi.” “Thanks”, Twilight said as she took the crown back. “You still haven’t defeated me! I still have your friend, and you couldn’t get rid of me before! Surrender now! Or I’ll blow her head off!”, the entity threatened while holding Sunset’s handgun to her head. “Someone’s gone off the deep end.”, RD whispered. The girls looked at each other, and Twilight put the crown on. The girls grabbed hands and began to lift into the air. The entity tried to shoot, but Twilight pulled Sunset’s finger off the trigger and threw the gun out of the entity’s reach. The entity tried to run, but the magic rainbow laser never misses its mark. With a wail of pain from the entity, a blinding white light encompassed everything. The light faded, and the students of CHS congregated by the destroyed front entrance in hopes of figuring out what just happened. Twilight and her friends lay on the ground, some carefully getting up after their human, now not so human, bodies’ first time channeling magic. Spike licked Twilight’s face, waking her up. Upon regaining her senses, Twilight invited Spike in for a hug, which he gladly accepted. The rest of the girls walked and flew over to Twilight and the fresh crater in the ground. In the smoke and dust lay Sunset Shimmer, her body in far worse shape after her ordeal. Twilight stood up, strong and proud, and looked over the now defeated Sunset. “You will never rule Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you’ve shown everyone how you really are. You’ve shown them what is in your heart.” Sunset struggled to her hands and knees with tears of regret and pain rolling down her cheeks. “Heh, eh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know there was another way.” “The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria. It’s everywhere. You seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.” “But-but all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don’t know the first thing about friendship.” Twilight grabbed Sunset’s hand and pulled her out of the crater. “I bet they can teach you.” In destroying the entity, the world was set back the way it was supposed to be. The origin of the entity remains unknown, and all memories of it and the devastation it brought, gone from the world, but who’s to say there are not more of them out there. One magical blast in the wrong place, at the wrong time, away from total disaster. No one will ever know as the entity is either completely erased from time, or the world is destroyed. Next time it’s been rather mundane lately, ask yourself, has it really been?