//------------------------------// // Last Resort (Prompt #226) // Story: Thirty-ish Minute Pony Stories // by Abecedarian //------------------------------// TMP Prompt #226 - “Science Fiction Double Feature” Prompt: The day Equestria stood still. - Last Resort “'March,'” Twilight said. “Can mean a step-by-step advancement, but it can also mean a borderline. And we're dealing with both, girls. It swept across Equestria thousands of years ago, and it’s happening again today.” She looked toward the Royal Throne and bowed her head. “The…the March of Order has returned.” *** One morning, Twilight had awakened and taken a deep breath, as most ponies did. The air, she noticed, seemed rarified, as though she were a couple hundred feet up. Opening her eyes, she saw that the colors in everything had faded, and heard the sound of birdsong in a monotone chirp-chirp-chirp. Trying to get out of bed had proven difficult, as the sheets had almost refused to move. When she’d finally extricated herself from them, they’d formed into a perfectly-made bed. “Spike?” she called, voice muffling itself as soon as it left her mouth. “Are you—” Her little assistant, eyes wide in fear, approached her in lockstep: left-right-left-right, and she rushed to him, taking him into her embrace until he could no longer move. *** “Order,” Twilight said. “Is a complete lack of variance. Absolute stillness. No molecules of air can stir, no movements can be made, no sounds can disturb the silence, no thought. Nothing.” “No air!?” Fluttershy gasped. “Is…nopony’s dead, are they?” “Spike—Everyone, I mean, is still alive, more or less,” Twilight said. “Dying would be a change, and the March won‘t allow it.” “Can they think?” Rainbow Dash shivered. “Jeez, I really hope not. Can you imagine being trapped like that?” “Thinking would—You get the point.” “That’s some relief, then, knowing that Sweetie Belle’s all right…for a given value of “all right”, I suppose.” Rarity said. “But how are we unaffected?” “’Cause we’re Elements, maybe?” Applejack asked. “But the air’s gettin’ awful thin.” “Yeah, it’s taking longer to affect us, but…” Twilight shook her head. “I’d really hoped, but…even the Princesses…we-well, even…” “We saw, sweetheart.” Applejack patted her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Ah-Ah‘m sure.” “There’s gotta be something we can do!” Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof. “We’re the ‘Lest-damn Elements of Harmony! It can’t end like this!” “She’s right, Twilight!” Pinkie said. “You have to think of something! Do you realize how hard it is to pull off a party when the confetti keeps catching itself in mid-air and putting itself back in the box? Separated by color?” “Ah realize yer tryin’ ta lighten th’ mood, but that really ain’t helpin’, Pinkie.” “Sorry.” Twilight was silent for a while. “This…this is big,” she finally said. “By now the March of Order is everywhere on earth, and getting worse by the second. Even with the Elements, I can’t think of a spell to deal with it. My Fail-safe spell invokes order, and that would just make it worse. Coming up with a new one would take way too long…Order can’t be fought, or negotiated with, or reformed. Heck, it can’t even be spoken to.” “Aw,” Pinkie remarked. “If only it had a face.” Dash snorted. “I’d sock it right in the snoot!” “A face would have too much variance,“ Twilight said. “They’re practically chaotic, and—” She froze. “No. Oh, no.” “But-but someone beat it once before somehow, didn't they?” Fluttershy asked. “Maybe we could find out what they—Twilight, what is it?” “Oh, no…no…no we can’t…” “Twi?” “Order doesn’t have a face.” Twilight swallowed audibly. “...Order can’t be spoken to, or negotiated with...” *** The glowing aura subsided as they gently settled back to earth. “Any—” Rarity panted. “Did anything happen?” Twilight shook her head. Birds hung unmoving in a shadowless black-and-white sky. All around them foals who had been on a field trip stood, faces once etched with horror perfectly calm, their features fading. Carefully, some unseen force was sorting them by race and gender. Soon, however, even those distinctions would be gone. It had been getting harder to run, to fly, to move at all, and so their hearts had leapt when they saw the round patch of bright green grass surrounding the statue of Discord. But now… “Why isn’t this working?” Dash asked. “Three times we’ve tried this, and he‘s still—!” “Maybe we cast the stoning spell too hard last time?” “I don’t think so, Fluttershy.” Twilight peered into Discord’s stone face. “It really should have—Wait...” That expression, she thought, it still looked scared, but something— “Twilight!” Pinkie cried, pointing over Twilight's shoulder. The green of the grass around them was beginning to fade. “No!” Twilight cried. “Dammit, Discord, wake up! I know you’re doing this on purpose! I can see it in your eyes!” No response. “You like toying with us this way? If the March of Order takes over the world, there won’t be anypony, anywhere, to play with, anything to change! If it gets powerful enough, I don’t think even you could stop it! It’ll be boring, Discord! Is that what you want!?” No response. “Damn you!” Twilight pounded her hooves on the statue. “You want me to say you’re right!? Fine! We need a bit of chaos in our lives, or nothing will ever change! You want me to say we need you!? Fine! We! Need! You!” She slumped against it. “…Please.” And all of a sudden, she felt a tingle on her cheek. It was the same cold/hot/pleasant/unpleasant/spiky/smooth/snakes-writhing feeling she’d had every time Discord had touched her before, and she looked up into a grin that made her blood freeze. “Looks like somepony learned the magic words.”