After driving north for nearly a day, you are now arriving in the outskirts of Denver.
Or what used to be Denver. Only the buildings on the fringe of the city resemble anything human-built. The center has been completely transformed into the Crystal Empire. Gleaming ponies prance about, carefree. Occasionally, one will stop and greet you. None of them seem to find a human on a motor scooter chugging through their city the least bit unusual.
Celestia’s doing, no doubt.
Out of curiosity, you pull alongside a pony and poke her. You expected a Crystal Pony to be hard and cool to the touch, but she’s warm and soft. “Hey!” she says, glaring at you. You ignore her and examine your hands.
Still human. No transformation.
You lean back and stare at the sky. What exactly does Celestia want from you? Will you be a human forever, wandering Equestria as the only living remnant of your extinct species? Or maybe she’ll stuff you and put you in a museum.
You are jerked from your thoughts by the pony you poked, who is now inches from your face and glaring angrily. “HEY!”
You stare at her and shrug. “Sorry.” She scoffs. “Look, we try to be nice to visitors here in the Crystal Empire, but that doesn't mean you can be downright RUDE!” You throw your hands up. “Really, I’m sorry.” She regards you warily. Suddenly, you see an opportunity.
“Say, do I seem unusual to you? I mean, as a lone human just wandering around.”
The pony shrugs. “Not especially. Many strange creatures come from all corners of Equestria to see the Empire.”
Hmm.
“What about you?” you say. “Do you remember being a human at all?” The pony squints for a second before answering. “I guess so. Seems like a bad dream, really.”
“Could you tell me about who you were? Before all this?”
She shrugs. “Can’t see much point in it. Why dwell on the past when today is such a beautiful day?”
She prances away, whistling.
---
The Crystal Ponies quickly nickname you “The Poking Prick”, but you don’t care. You ask many other ponies about their former human lives, but few seem interested in reminiscing.
Parking at the edge of the Empire, you lay on a soft bit of grass and think awhile.
Technically, Celestia wasn’t lying. These ponies have retained all their old memories. Furthermore, their personalities seem like cheerier, bubblier versions of who they were as humans. But something about them has been fundamentally altered. They view their past lives with disinterest or disdain. Is this maybe a mental defense mechanism, to bury away all the horrors of human history that Celestia is trying to purge?
Continuity of consciousness, she said. But it’s impossible to deny something about them, their core personalities, have been fundamentally and forcibly altered.
Who’s to say if this is a loss or a gain?
---
You catch a glimpse of a single Crystal Pony leaving the Empire, heading down a dusty, disused road that leads high into the Rockies. A sudden thought strikes you.
You mount your scooter and race past the pony, down the road. She waves at you as you pass.
---
Exactly as you suspected. Sixty miles down the road, a small isolated mountain town. There are still humans here. That pony is coming to convert the place.
You wonder if you should warn them. Would there be any point?
That question is quickly answered as you drive through the town. A few people are wandering about aimlessly, in a daze. Some are running. Some are crying. Some are boarded in their houses, guns poking through the window. However, most are simply sitting or lying down, sometimes in the middle of the road, lethargic.
They already know what’s coming, and how pointless it is to resist it. Those who can muster the will are getting in their last hurrahs. You spot a teenager who keeps trying to stab herself with a kitchen knife, to no avail. Further down the street, a street preacher is yelling apocalyptic platitudes at anyone who will listen. A young couple is frantically having sex on a park bench. A bearded man is looting an electronics store. A child is wandering around the street, crying for her mother.
These are the last dregs of humanity. The closing moments of an extinction event.
The Crystal Pony appears on the horizon, bounding towards the town. A shriek as someone spots her.
The teenager starts bashing her head against a wall. The preacher gets on his knees, frantically praying. The couple embrace tightly and kiss. The bearded man drops his looted goods and runs.
But the pony ignores all these and instead slowly approaches the crying child, cooing words of comfort and encouragement. Mollified and mesmerized by the sight of a friendly cartoon pony, the girl giggles as her body morphs.
Seconds later, she is a foal.
The teenager, sobbing hysterically, spreads her arms and runs towards the Crystal Pony. She is embraced in a warm hug, her flesh suddenly soft and swirling.
Now there are three ponies.
The preacher begins to scream. “SALVATION! SALVATION!”
You turn and drive away as fast as you can. You’ve seen enough of this.
---
No matter how fast you drive, what you just saw hangs like a cloud on the fringes of your thoughts.
It’s almost as if those people were… better off as ponies.
You shake your head. No, never forget their despair was induced by Celestia in the first place. Her apocalypse drove them to this desperation. Her redemption is a false one.
Or maybe she was simply exposing the ugliness of human nature before scouring it away?
Lost in thought, you fail to notice the wire strung across the road until it strikes you square in the chest, lifting you into the air. Your scooter keeping going, tilts the right and skids fifteen feet down the dirt road before smashing into a tree trunk. You are hurled backwards by the released tension of the wire, bouncing along the ground a few times and collapsing.
It doesn’t hurt a bit.
Shadowy figures surround you. Human hands grab your limbs. A sweet-smelling rag is mashed over your mouth and nose.
***
“Oh. Very funny, Celestia. Fucking hilarious.”
She tilts her head quizzically.
“Weapons don’t work, but fucking CHLOROFORM does?!”
“Well, it’s not exactly lethal. My spell is only designed to stop lethal weapons, death and pain.”
“Maybe the military should have gone after the ponies with tasers and pepper spray, then.”
Celestia smiles. “Do you really think that would have worked?”
You sigh. “I’ve had enough of this. I’ve observed, like you wanted. I’ll probably never forget what I’ve seen either. Do whatever it is you’re going to do, because I’m done playing your game.”
Her smile grows. “Not just yet. There’s still one last thing for you to see.”
You glare. “Celestia…”
She holds up a hoof. “Just a little longer. When you come to a decision, I’ll be here.”
“A decision? What do you…”
Again, the dream fades.