//------------------------------// // Chapter 60: Time to Take Back Equestria // Story: The Last Human // by Blackdragn18 //------------------------------// Bust out the balloons and party hats that will inevitably become beaks! Because today is my stories birthday. Just one year ago I was writing this and getting pissed off about all the hate it got. Now all the hate sits in the corner grumbling to itself and I have more than twice the number of likes to dislikes. Though I swear there is a little gnome that waits for my story to get a little ahead then gives a dislike. Anyway, to mark this I give you a freakishly long chapter. Enjoy. “You see Twilight,” Sean lifted a Minotaur in front of him. “When a creature dies there is a short time where there is a burst of magic that can be captured.” He snapped the Minotaur’s neck then he quickly enveloped the body in a green bubble. He lowered the bubble so Twilight could see better. There was a faint blue sphere near the top of the bubble. “That blue thing?” She looked closer. It looked unimpressive. “It is true that one is barely worth noting, but if you get enough of them together they can offer unimaginable power.” “Here is your equipment.” Patch Celestia opened door, the element bearers following. Inside there were six different suits of armor. Each suit would cover their entire bodies other than their heads with armored wing guards for the pegasi. Each suit was a darker shade of its owners color and had their cutie marks on them. On each one their element was attached. “Get ready, we leave in thirty minutes. “And so it begins.” Sean watched the screen that showed Valkas, watching as the army of ponies left their little base. “We will rest for the day.” Patch Celestia looked at her ponies. The sun was beginning to set and they needed to find shelter soon. “Why now?” Luna looked at her. “It’s only just becoming dark, we could easily cover more ground before rest was necessary.” “You don’t understand Luna.” Patch Celestia worriedly eyed the sky. “Valkas is not a place to be moving in the dark.” “Why not?” Luna asked. Following Patch Celestia with the rest of the group towards a large cave. “Night is when it hunts.” Patch Celestia hurried towards the cave as the sky grew darker. “You mean a dragon?” Twilight asked. Then there was a roar. The ponies looked to the sky to see a dragon above them, it was not as large as the others but by no means was it small. The ponies of Jund began to scream and run towards the cave. The dragon slowly landed. It was probably forty feet long, the body was a dark gray the front legs were large and looked plated near the front, the hands had three massive claws the hind legs looked similar but somewhat smaller. The wings were well muscled and larger in comparison to the body than most of the dragons. Its face was shorter than most and rounded, it had two large curving horns on the back of its head, and it had one large spike on the end of its muzzle. The eyes were small and orange, it had spines going along its back. “Run!” Celestia ordered as the ponies turned and ran towards the cave, they felt the ground shake as the dragon gave chase this one seemed to be much faster following just behind. They reached the cave and dove in, the dragon tried to follow but it was too big. After a few attempts to hit them with fire it gave up and flew away. The ponies trekked through a forest. They had been traveling now for three days, according to Celestia they were only about a day away from the capital city Dominaria. They had to occasionally hide for a few seconds when they would hear dragons fly overhead out of fear of being eaten. “Princess.” Cadence looked at Patch Celestia. They were in the front of the pack. “Yes Cadence?” She looked at her second in command. It was hard to avoid looking at the stumps where her wings had been. “Are you sure about this?” “About what?” “These ponies, I mean the yellow one seems pretty vulnerable and prone to fear, and the two earth ponies seem like they’d be vulnerable to Sean’s magic.” “Cadence it shouldn’t matter. The fight against him will likely take a few seconds all we need is one opening for the elements to hit him.” “If you say so.” “Alright lizards.” Sean looked at the army of viashino in front of him. Hivis and Zirilan were at the front. “The ponies will be here in twenty hours.” “So?” Hivis looked at him. “Forgive me master but ponies have never been a problem. Why was this meeting necessary?” “Because, I want to make sure you understand the ponies are to be fought in the castle courtyard. If any die outside of that general area there will be severe consequences.” “There it is.” Patch Celestia pointed at the large city sticking out of the mountain with jagged stone walls surrounding it, the castle could be seen towering above the other buildings. She was surprised it only took twenty hours. “We will rest and tomorrow we shall attack." Twilight nervously went to sleep. The nightmares had been much worse every night as she relived his conquest. “We are ready master.” A viashino in a lab coat looked at Sean, who was staring at the statue of the being Discord. “Excellent, and the way we get him out will release him unconscious?” Sean looked at the viashino. “Yes sir, just like you ordered. The same will be the case with the one called Nightmare Moon.” “Perfect. Release him.” Several viashino approached the statue and placed suction cups on the body that lead to a sort of battery. One of them flipped a switch and several volts of electricity could be seen traveling through the wires to the suction cups. There when the electricity reached Discord the statue began to shake before shattering and an unconscious Discord was on the ground in front of them. “You may do your idea now.” The viashino backed up and bowed. “Thank you.” Sean walked to the heap of mismatched limbs. He placed a hand on its horns and drained almost all of its magic. “There we go, that should keep him in check. Plus,” Sean looked at a nearby statue and concentrated. Then the statue was wrapped in a green aura and shakily lifted off its podium. “Excellent.” “Release her.” Sean looked at the moon. The lizards nodded and pointed a laser at it. They pressed a few buttons and fired. The laser was able to make contact with the moon and thanks to some infused magic there was a flash and Nightmare Moon appeared in front of them unconscious. “Perfect.” Sean walked up to her and drained most of her magic. Sean then turned to a nearby viashino and was able to easily levitate him now. A few more drains of Celly, Discord, and Nightmare and he’d be unmatched in power. “Strange.” Cadence looked around. “What?” Twilight asked. “No resistance.” They had gone right to the front gates of the city and walked in. The city had been built over Canterlot, so many buildings looked similar. There were markets, homes, and restaurants. Of course they were all different, the shops were selling weapons mostly, while they were able to see a sign outside of one restaurant that had pony meat and grubs on the menu. Also the entire city was mostly made of jagged stones and looked much grimmer. The mountain had also been transformed into a volcano. “Maybe they all went on a vacation, or are attacking a few pony cities looking for us.” Rainbow said. “No, he knew we were coming and knows we’re here.” Patch Celestia eyed the top of the buildings expecting attacks from above. “They are likely at the castle. Be ready.” The ponies reached the castle gate. Patch Celestia turned to the ponies behind her. “This is it. Today we take Equestria back.” She then turned back and pushed at the gate till it opened. They walked into the courtyard, it was strangely quiet. Once they were about halfway in the, doors behind them slammed shut and they saw two viashino behind them wielding axes. Then there were several hisses. The ponies looked to see a massive army of viashino in front of them. They were easily outnumbered three to one. Hivis and Zirilan stood at the front. “Hello ponies.” Hivis smiled showing his pointed teeth. “Cadence behind you!” Twilight warned as a viashino with a sword leapt at her. Cadence dodged and kicked it. “Thanks.” Cadence nodded before turning to another viashino. Twilight noticed one strange thing, the viashino seemed to be much clumsier than the ones they had previously seen. The ponies were having no trouble fighting them. Even Hivis was backing away from a unicorn, and Zirilan had dropped his staff. “There’s a gap.” Patch Celestia got the attention of Twilight and the others. “Let’s go, it’s our chance.” The element bearers, the Celestias, Cadence, and Luna ran towards the large castle doors and ran inside. No viashino tried to stop them. Cadence quickly closed the door as Luna ran in being the last one. Hivis watched as the door to the castle closed. “I thought they’d never leave.” He turned. “Let’s take this seriously now guys.” The viashino nodded and adopted much more aggressive stances. Zirilan picked his staff back up. “We aren’t scared!” A pony yelled before attacking Hivis, he stepped to the left and swung his sword, easily decapitating the pony. The ponies looked at the dead pony in surprise. “Shall we continue?” Hivis raised his sword. “Ok, we’re in.” Luna looked around. “Now how do we get to the throne room?” “Good thing I remembered to take this.” Twilight levitated the map of the castle in front of them. “There.” Patch Celestia pointed at a room that said throne room. “It’s only a few levels up, should be easy enough.” The ponies climbed up the stone stairs. They were almost to the throne room. According to the map there was a long hallway, then another flight of stairs before they reached the throne room level. As they entered the hallway a blast of blue magic shot past them. The ponies looked to see Discord and Nightmare standing in front of them blocking their way. “Look what I found Nightmare.” Discord said pointing at the ponies. “Excellent, it’s time to redeem ourselves.” Nightmare glared at them. “This should be easy.” Patch Celestia looked at them. She turned to the elements. “Would you mind?” “Of course not.” Twilight walked forward with her friends. “You think we’ll let you use those?” Nightmare smirked. Before she could do anything the giant rainbow smashed into her. When it subsided the little Luna was on the ground. “Well, that escalated quickly.” Discord looked at the Luna in surprise. “Discord,” Patch Celestia walked up to him. “You have two options, either become a statue again, or join us.” “Why would I do that?” “We both know this isn’t the kind of chaos you like. You don’t enjoy all the death, if they’re dead how will they appreciate your genius?” “True.” “Help us stop him and you can have part of Equestria all to yourself.” “Sorry, but no.” Discord then snapped his fingers and disappeared. “There’s the door.” Celestia pointed to the large stone doors with an Utvara carved into it. “Are you ponies ready?” Patch Celestia asked. Her Luna was next to her looking nervous. Patch Celestia had been so happy when she was reunited with her. “Let’s do this.” Rainbow said. Patch Celestia nodded and slammed the doors open and the ponies ran into the stone throne room. They looked around until they saw Sean sitting in the middle on his throne with Alicorn Twilight next to him. “Finally, I thought you guys had gotten lost.” He stood up smiling. “It’s over Sean.” Patch Celestia glared at him. “Your army is being finished as we speak. Luna has been fixed and Discord ran off. You have nothing left.” “My army is losing?” Sean tilted his head in confusion. “You mean this army?” A screen appeared in front of him showing the castle courtyard. The ponies were shocked, the army they had worked so hard to assemble was mostly dead. The ones that were left were being brutally beaten by viashino. “How is that possible?” Cadence stared in disbelief. “I can’t believe none of you were suspicious that the viashino were being beaten so easily.” Sean lowered his head in disappointment. “I mean your Twilight was the only one to notice, and even then she dropped it pretty quick.” He looked at Patch Celestia. “Let’s flip that earlier statement. It’s over Celly, your army is being finished as we speak. Oh and your Luna is gone.” Sean’s eyes glowed. “What!?” Patch Celestia looked in confusion and her Luna backed away in fear. Then a dark aura appeared around Luna. It enveloped Luna creating a black sphere. “Luna!” Patch Celestia turned to Sean. “Let her out.” “No problem.” Sean raised his left hand and the black aura began to move towards it. Luna fell to the ground. She was freakishly thin and looked more like a skeleton. “Luna! What did you do to her?” Patch Celestia held the Luna in her hooves. “Oh, all I did was take back all that magic I lent her.” He looked at the small black sphere in his hand. Then he crushed it in his hand and it dissipated. “Of course, I have no need for it.” “Sister.” Luna said weakly. Patch Celestia leaned in. “I’m here Luna. I can fix you.” “I’m sorry big sister. It’s a shame we didn’t get to spend time together.” Luna closed her eyes and her head fell back. “Luna?” Patch Celestia shook her. “Luna open your eyes.” Patch Celestia began to cry. “Luna. No, I just got you back.” “Oh that was good.” Sean began to laugh. “You monster!” Cadence yelled and charged at him. She didn’t get close as she was hit by a purple beam of magic and sent flying into a wall. “Thank you Twilight.” Sean nodded to Alicorn Twilight. “Wouldn’t want to get the blood of someone so weak onto my newly cleaned armor.” Sean then ducked as a shot of fire flew over his head. He looked to see Patch Celestia glaring at him, her mane was on fire. “This ends now Sean! I will kill you no matter what.” “Finally, I was waiting to see that form.” Sean cracked his knuckles. “Twilight, take care of the others.” “Yes master.” Alicorn Twilight’s horn glowed and a wall of fire separated Patch Celestia and Sean from the rest of the group. “Alright Celly, let’s go.” Sean looked at the new Celestia in front of him. Her mane and tail were on fire, her eye looked like fire, her eye patch had disintegrated and in place of the eye there was a small flame, and she had armor like Nightmare’s. Celestia glared and shot a blast of fire at him. Sean’s eyes glowed and the fireball suddenly turned and ended up smashing into her. She went flying and smashed into a wall. As she picked herself she was grabbed by her horn and thrown into the air, before she could move Sean leaped into the air grabbed her flaming mane and threw her into the ground creating a massive crater. Sean walked up and put his foot on her face. “I’ll be honest Celly that was a bit anti-climactic.” “I will kill you.” Patch Celestia said weakly as she returned to her usual form. “Finally, after centuries this will end.” He put more weight on his foot forcing her face further into the ground. “I won’t deny part of me will miss you.” Sean’s eyes then glowed. Patch Celestia forced her eye shut waiting for the final blow. Then she heard a scream and a thud. She opened her eyes to see the other Celestia picking herself up with a bit of blood on her face. “You know, two on one isn’t very fair.” Sean walked away from Patch Celestia to face the other. “What do you know about a fair fight?” Normal Celestia glared at him. “All you do is manipulate and use cruelty to weaken your foes before a fight.” “It’s called tactics.” Sean shrugged. “Something you ponies lack.” “Like my counterpart said, this ends today.” Celesita glared at him her horn glowing. “Oh boy, two dead Cellys for the price of one. I love it!” Sean’s eyes glowed. “Shall we?” “Hey!” Rainbow flew away from the massive wall of fire that had just appeared. Rainbow looked at Alicorn Twilight along with the rest of the ponies. “Let’s get this started.” Alicorn Twilight stretched her wings. “I want to see Lord Sean’s ultimate victory.” “It’s eight to one.” Luna counted the ponies, Cadence had recovered and joined them, and she had seen her sister teleport past the fire to help the other her. “Hardly a fair fight.” “You’re right.” Alicorn Twilight eyed the group. “Should I call some backup for you guys?” Her horn faintly glowed for a second. “Lots of talk for a pony that was captured so easily by us.” Rainbow looked at her smugly. “Well, that won’t work again.” Alicorn Twilight flew into the air. Her horn glowed and a large black beam flew towards the group. The group scattered except Twilight who seemed frozen. Just as the beam was about to hit her Cadence shoved her and was hit by it. She screamed and fell to the ground. “Cadence?” Twilight looked at her. Her eyes were completely blank and she was barely breathing. She looked at her counterpart. “What did you do?” “Just a little bit of destruction magic.” Alicorn Twilight shrugged. “I will say, her soul is so weak, I’m surprised she survived this long.” She looked at the shell that was Cadence. “Now she’s more brain dead than before.” “You’re going to regret that.” Rainbow flew at her full speed. She managed to ram into Alicorn Twilight who was surprised at her speed. Alicorn Twilight went flying into the ceiling, as she recovered she glared at the ponies. “I’ve had enough of you pests.” Her eyes turned green. “It’s time to end this.” The ponies watched as her wings became dragon- like, her teeth sharpened, her horn grew and became more jagged and her tail changed to resemble a dragon’s, her hooves changed to clawed feet, and she grew purple spines along her back. “I did not see that coming.” Luna looked at the dragon pony. Alicorn Twilight then growled and her horn glowed, then a flame appeared around it and she shot a fire ball at them. “Look out!” The ponies ran, as the fireball made contact with the ground it caused an explosion. The group looked at the huge crater then watched as Alicorn Twilight flew down. “It ends now rebels.” Alicorn Twilight she landed. “This rebellion will be crushed today.” Her horn glowed again. “A mini sun? That’s all you got?” Sean watched as normal Celestia flew into the air and charged her spell, she had created the miniature sun she had used on the other Sean. She looked at him before flinging it at him. As it flew towards him Celestia gasped as it shrank more and more until it vanished without even touching him. “What?” She looked in shock. “That was it? Alright, my turn.” His eyes glowed and the ground shook Celestia looked down barely dodging a column of fire. She looked where Sean had been a moment ago. To see he was gone. “Behind you.” Celestia turned just in time to be punched in the face and fall to the ground. Celestia tried to pick herself up. But a foot stepped on her back forcing her to the ground again. “You know, I would have expected more fight from two princesses of the sun.” He looked at Celestia with disappointment. “Oh well, goodbye Celly one and Celly two.” “You aren’t going to get away.” Alicorn Twilight said as she fired another fireball the direction the group of ponies had been running. Then there was a snap and she became covered in cotton candy and fell to the ground. “What’s going on?” She struggled. Then there was another snap and she was unconscious. Sean looked as the wall of fire vanished. He looked to see the group of rebels looking in surprise at Alicorn Twilight trapped in cotton candy unconscious. Sean put his foot off of Celestia’s face and looked around. Then there was another snap and he became encased in stone. “Dizzy, stop hiding and come out.” Sean looked around the room. Then there was a flash and Discord stood in front of him. “So I see you’ve joined the ponies.” “I haven’t joined them, I just realized we had a common enemy.” Discord looked at him. “Can’t say I’m surprised, you always were about as smart as a brain dead goldfish.” Sean looked at him bored. “I’m the stupid one? You’ve been trapped in my spell, which by the way is suppressing your magic.” “Clever.” Sean looked at the stone trap in surprise. “This works great on normal magical beings.” He looked at Discord and his eyes glowed. “Sadly, I’m not normal.” “Ha!” Discord snapped his fingers and stone trapped a Sean that had materialized behind him. “That won’t work twice.” He looked back to Sean. But he was gone. Discord looked behind him expecting Sean to be there but he wasn’t. “Discord look out!” Discord heard Patch Celestia warn him weakly. He turned and was immediately stabbed through the stomach by a sword. He looked in Sean’s green eyes. Sean pulled the sword out and Discord fell to the ground bleeding. “Oh Dizzy.” He kicked him in the face causing him to fall onto his back. “You truly are a fool. Thinking you could take me on.” Sean then picked him up by his horn and stabbed him several more times each time he removed the sword Discord’s wound would heal. The ponies were too shocked to help. After a few stabs he glared at him. Discord weakly tried to snap his finger but Sean’s eyes glowed and Discord’s hand shattered. “Goodbye Dizzy.” Sean’s eyes glowed and Discord slowly began to become encased in stone. Before it reached his head Sean snapped off one of his horns. “A little trophy for my victory.” Then he dropped the stone Discord. Sean turned his attention back to the ponies and walked towards them. “As fun as this has been I have omnipotence to gain.” As he passed Alicorn Twilight his eyes glowed and the cotton candy vanished. “Twilight.” Luna looked at her. “It may be a good idea to use the elements.” “Right.” Twilight and her friends ran to gain some distance from Sean. “Alright girls. Let’s do this.” Sean watched in amusement as they did their little routine of floating and glowing and all that. Then the giant rainbow came at him. It hit him dead on. “Got him!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Wait, what’s going on with the rainbow?” Luna looked at it. The rest looked to see it was shrinking and progressively resembling a ball. After a minute Sean was in front of them with the rainbow in his hand. “No. That’s not possible.” Twilight looked at him. “Ah the Elements of Harmony.” Sean looked at the rainbow. “Loyalty,” A red lightning bolt appeared in his hand. “Honesty.” An orange apple appeared in his hand. “Laughter.” A blue balloon. “Kindness.” A pink butterfly. “Generosity.” A diamond appeared. “And magic.” The star appeared in the center of his hand with the rest of the elements circling it. “The most powerful magical weapons in the world.” “How are you completely untouched?” Twilight looked in confusion and despair. “The elements should have stopped you.” “Silly pony,” Sean looked at her. “These are the most powerful weapons. But weapons are a mere tool, it is the person who makes use of it. A weapon can never best a stronger being.” “What are you talking about?” Twilight asked. “Power doesn’t always matter.” “How dumb are you?” Sean glared. “You’re the dumb one.” Twilight glared. “Some things matter more. Like friendship.” “Friendship is nothing. You don’t get it. The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists.” Sean raised his hand. “Let me show the true power of your precious elements.” Then each of the elements shapes shot back towards its owner. When it hit them they slowly began to become enveloped in stone until they were statues like Discord. The only pony to dodge was Twilight. “No!” Twilight looked at all her friends who were now statues. “What did you do?” “Oh just a little magical backlash.” He began to walk towards her. “All it took was some of my magic and boom! The effects are turned against them.” He lifted her by her throat. “Drop her.” Sean turned to see Luna glaring at him with her horn glowing as she stood over Alicorn Twilight. “Or what?” Sean looked at her bored. “I’ll kill her.” “No you won’t.” Sean smiled. “We both know you can’t. You worry that if you do you may become her again.” “I’m not kidding.” Luna looked at him. Though Sean could see the nervousness in her eyes. “Fine, do it. I’ll just revive her. Birth and death are both reversible.” He shrugged. “In the end you’ll hurt only yourself.” Luna looked at the Alicorn Twilight then Sean. “Go on, do it.” Sean ordered. “Give in to the desire, kill her and let all that anger out. Won’t it be a relief to let all that stress out?” Sean began to walk towards her, still choking Twilight. “No more second best, take the chance, let go. Give in, we both know you yearn for the power you once possessed.” By now he was a few inches from Luna looking down at her. Luna looked at Twilight again then backed away. “No.” Luna said before she was lifted in green magic and thrown into the wall knocking her out. “Shame.” He looked at her. “I could have used a new Nightmare.” He turned back to Twilight. “As for you. It’s over, you have nothing. Your friends are stone, your princesses are of no help.” “You won’t win.” Twilight glared at him. She was then thrown across the room. Before she could get up she was lifted and thrown across the room again. “It ends now.” Sean levitated her to him. “I should thank you. This little attack of yours really helped me refresh the memory of Jund on why I am the king.” He threw her through Discords statue shattering him. “I don’t understand.” She said weakly. “Nothing is stronger than friendship.” She was still mostly trying to register how everything had gotten so out of hand. “Pitiful creature. There is always a greater power.” He picked her up preparing to kill her. “Hey ugly.” A voice said. Sean looked around for where it had come from. Then he saw what looked like a small tear in reality. Then two hands gripped the ends and began to widen the rift more. Until a familiar figure stepped out of it. It looked like him from several centuries ago. Still wearing the ridiculous outfit. “Hands off my pony.”