End of time

End of Time

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Jason knew was going to die long before it happened. He expected it, and he dreaded every minute that passed that he was out in the open, running through the large streets. The rest of his team had been killed, torn to pieces by the unicorns, or impaled by the swords and spears of the rest. It seemed like magic that the ponies had defeated them. And that was the reason they had lost: magic. Magic. That one ability had destroyed most of the armies of Humanity. When they had first met the ponies, Humans could not fathom what the horns were for, and suffered the consequence when the war started. Magic had been used to destroy tanks, planes, entire armies had been decimated when their guns had stopped functioning, or just blew up in their hands. Whatever those damn unicorns wished, happened. Not that there hadn't been any victories. In the last few battles, people had adapted and began using tactics that caught the ponies by surprise, or utterly destroyed them through sheer number and technology. Unfortunately, the ponies kept adapting to whatever strategy they threw at them.

Though, that had all come to nothing. Now, the ponies had defeated most of the other countries on Earth, though Jason hadn't heard any updates on who was left for some time now. He did know that this was likely America's last stand, here in New York. He remembered with slight pity at how, just about a decade ago, humans had been fighting about a horrible war in what used to the Middle East. Divided they had been then, and now, at their species darkest hour, divided they died. He supposed that was one of the reasons the ponies had won: they stood together, all of their kind, even with their obvious differences. He was about to turn down a small alleyway, but stopped dead in his tracks. Walking through it was a group of about three ponies; one unicorn, the other two were pegasi. He immediately dropped down on the ground before the caught sight of him. Holding his breath and being as still as he could, he heard the sound of hoofstepes as the enemy soldiers approached him.

"Check this out," a distinctively male voice said. "Poor guy. We'll have to see if he's dead, don't want that trick pulled on me twice." So, you've heard this one before? Jason thought to himself as the three stopped next to him. There were a few moments of silence, and then he felt a hoof hit him square in the back, bruising him at best. It took all of his self control not to move, but it hurt. A lot. He felt tears come to his eyes, but with his face down they wouldn't see anything.

Then another voice broke the silence. "You didn't have to do that, Storm," this voice sounded feminine. Jason's past experience with ponies showed that females were just as dangerous as the males. Even more so, as they could be pleading for mercy one moment, then the next, they would stick a knife in your throat. "I could have just checked with my magic."

As she uttered this sentence, a faint hum and tinkling sound that Jason knew all too well - the sound of magic. He just had to wait for the right moment to strike, now. His hand had already been next to his holster for his pistol, he grabbed the handle of the gun, and waited. "Oh no. He's still alive!" Jason heard the unicorn say, he heard swords being drawn, and he flipped over, the gun aimed at the unicorn.

"You bet, bitch," Jason said as he pulled the trigger. For the moment that he had seen her face, the pony had looked to be young, but any trances of youth on her face were blown away as the bullet hit her. He rolled away from the ponies and heard as the tips of swords scraped across the ground he had been on moments ago. Leaping up to his feet, he saw that the ponies had closed in on him quickly. He raised his gun, and precisely fired two shots at the closest pegasus. That left only one, which he quickly dispatched in the same way. Finding his magazine empty, he reached down and grabbed his last full magazine. Last mag... Better make it count. He knew where he had to go, he had been debriefed on where to head if things went south for him.

After walking for ten more minutes without any encounter, he finally reached the safe zone. As he approached the small, ruined building that was currently the only safe haven left in this part of town, he gave the signal that meant it was safe. After a few moments of tense silence, he saw a hand give the okay signal. He sprinted to the entrance of the building and dove inside.

"Jason, glad to see you," he heard a deep voice address him. Ty, a close friend of his, told him as he rose from the floor.

"Ty, good to see you, too," Jason told him.

"Jason, please tell me... Is everyone... " Ty's face changed to one of worry.

"Yes, they're... dead. We ran into a group of ponies and they tore us apart. I got away... Everyone else didn't make it."

"Shit," Ty said. Frankly, that was what Jason felt like right now. Ty suddenly lifted his head. "Shh... You hear that?"

Jason focused his hearing. The sound that met his ears was like thunder. Thud. Thud. Thud It was only then that he realized what he was hearing were hoofs - and lots of them. Jason went over to the nearest window, and risked a glance outside. What he saw was disheartening, to say the least. Ponies - dozens of them, and in the front, a shining white pegasus - wait, no unicorn. The harder Jason looked, the more he realized that the pony was a mixture of both.

Princess Celestia had come to finish it.

Jason removed his head from the window and walked back to Ty. "Princess Celestia's here," he told his friend. She was know for destroying everything. When she showed up, that usually meant that whoever was fighting her was screwed.

"... So she's finally showed up?" Ty said with a face that seemed that he had accepted his fate. Jason supposed he had, too. With everyone he loved or cared about, dead, he only had one wish: revenge.

"We have C4 here?" Jason asked Ty.

"We do, brother, not a lot, but we do," Ty responded, a wicked smile growing on his face.

"You ready to show these ponies hell?" Ty asked. Jason nodded. They had been over the plan: they would wait for the small army of ponies to move directly under the building. Then, they would kill themselves with the C4, for they had both given up on life by now, might as well go out with a bang. The ponies were close now. In a few moments, it would be time to end it. Jason and Ty both pressed down on the trigger for the explosive and held it down. The ponies were finally right below them.

The two friends looked at each other one last time, and they jumped through the window, fell one story, and into the center of the mass of ponies. Right before he hit the ground, Jason released the trigger.

But in the brief second before that, he swore he could hear a soft... hum and a tinkling sound.