"I'm the last one....the last one..."
You used to be able to hear ponies socialising as they went about their daily routines. Now explosions and disturbing roars replaced that. It all started when....they found Twilight ....and then HE appeared.....the single being responsible for the extinction of all the species that once inhabited Equis. No more. The only surviving member of the ponies was Celestia herself. She was the only one left.
And she knew that her time was coming. He was coming for her.
She remembered when she first saw the thing that was now coming to end her life.
Crota.
It was a normal day in Canterlot. Snobby ponies were trying to see the princess so that they could brag to their friends about talking to royalty, the streets were incredibly busy and the giant orb known as the sun was beaming down onto the city.
There was only one thing that made today feel a bit different than any other day.
Twilight hadn't written a letter to Celestia. She stopped writing friendship reports after she became a princess, but she still to this day wrote to Celestia just asking how she was and what not. She did this everyday. Except today. Celestia was starting to get a tad bit worried.
"Maybe she's just busy? I shouldn't be worrying. She's a grown mare now. A princess as well. She can handle herself."
Throughout the rest of the day, Celestia kept trying to convince herself that Twilight was alright and either just forgot to send her a letter for the first time ever or was really, really busy. But, even when Twilight was really busy, she still managed to send her a letter somehow.
"I worry about her as much as I would if she was my actual daughter..."
Then, something startled her. A sound was coming from the door. Somebody was knocking. She sighed and raised her voice so that whoever was behind the door could hear her clearly.
"Please, come in."
The door slowly opened to reveal a male Pegasus clad in golden armour. He walked up to the princess and saluted.
"Your highness, I'm deeply sorry for the sudden intrusion...."
Celestia cut him off before he could finish his sentence. She looked at him with a warm smile on her face. "It's fine, my little pony. Honestly. Now, go on."
The guard smiled a bit at that. "Thank you, princess. Anyway, I was about to say that the castle received a letter today from her majesty, Twilight Sparkle."
Celestia's face lit up at hearing that. "Oh? What was it about?"
The guards face now held a nervous expression. "Well, your highness...she said that she went to look for this...thing...in the Everfree Forest. Supposedly, according to her letter, she was looking through her telescope last night, just observing the stars, when she saw something fall down out of the sky. Apparently, it looked strangely like some sort of giant spear. "
Now Celestia looked more nervous than ever. "A spear, you say? Did she at least go with anyone else to investigate this....spear shaped thing?"
The guard shook his head. "No, your majesty. She specifically said that she was going alone. She wanted to see it by herself."
Faster than she had ever done before, Celestia ran to her closet, put on her royal regalia and ran to the door. Before she was about to exit the room, she turned her head and looked back at the guard who was still standing there. She flashed him a gentle smile."I'm so sorry, I didn't even find out your name. What is it?"
The guard stood up straight and held his spear upright. "I am Lieutenant Hind Hoof, your highness."
She still had her smile on her face. "It has been lovely meeting you, Hind Hoof, but I must go and see if Twilight is in any danger. Inform the other guards where I have gone."
Before she could actually exit the room, Hind Hoof shouted her name and she turned back once again to face him. "Yes, Hind Hoof?"
He walked up to her and saluted. "Your highness, I should accompany you to your destination and stay with you. We can't afford you to get hurt. I will bring some of the other guards in my battalion, as well."
She sighed. "I can handle myself just fine, Hind Hoof. But, thank you for your concern. If you really do want to come along, however, meet me just outside of the Everfree Forest in an hour. Is that alright?"
He saluted. "I understand, your highness. We will meet you in an hour just outside of the Everfree Forest and then we will escort you further into the forest."
She nodded. "Alright then. See you in an hour."
Hind Hoof nodded and saluted. When Celestia had gone, he went to get the other guards.
By the time Celestia had got there, the guards were already there. She smiled at them all. "Here early, are we?"
They all nodded and saluted. "Yes, your highness. We have been ordered to escort you into the Everfree and help you find her majesty, Twilight Sparkle."
She kept her smiled plastered on her face. She looked at one of the guards in particular.
"Hello again, Hind Hoof."
He saluted and nodded to her. "Hello, your highness. Are you ready to go?"
She nodded. "Yes, I am ready. Let us go."
The guards all nodded and saluted again in unison as Celestia started her journey into the Everfree, with the guards all around her. She sighed. "I hope Twilight is alright..."
Celestia and her guards had been trudging through the Everfree for what seemed like hours. No creatures had attempted to attack or come near them, though. Every time Celestia had seen glowing eyes in the woods or heard the sounds of the creatures inhabiting this dark forest, they never did anything. Nothing. They just...watched. A Manticore or something along those lines would have usually tried to do something by now, but they hadn't. She saw a Manticore earlier, but she saw the look on its face. It was...terrified...of something. That scared Celestia.
"What could scare a Manticore like that?"
Then, they came across something that nearly made her vomit. There was blood everywhere. She saw the scattered remains of several creatures, including a Manticore and a few little bunnies. The Manticore had been decapitated and she couldn't see its head anywhere. It had several marks on its body that looked like burn marks. The bunnies had fared no better. Some of the bunnies had been crushed. She assumed that something had stomped on them. Something big.
The guards formed in front of her apart from one guard who was currently throwing up in a bush beside them. Then, she heard a blood curdling scream. The worse part was...
It sounded an awful lot like Twilight.
Celestia pushed past all the guards and ran towards the direction of the scream. The guards followed her and when they eventually came to a clearing, they saw that Celestia was just standing there. Completely still. As if she had seen a ghost or something. The Lieutenant, Hind Hoof, walked up to her.
"Your highness, are you alri...."
Before he could finish his sentence, the guards saw what was in front of them. It was Twilight. Except, she on the floor in soaked in a pool of blood. She had claw marks on her face and burn marks all around her body like the dead animals that they had seen a few minutes ago. They was also a message written in blood next to her. They couldn't read what it said, though. Before they could say or do anything, Celestia ran to her lifeless body at lightning fast speed. Tears started forming in her eyes.
"Twilight?! Twilight?! Twilight, wake up! Please wake up!"
The only thing that could be heard around the forest now were screams and anguished cries.
The guards now looked forlorn as they stared at Celestia cradling Twilight's corpse. Hind Hoof once again slowly walked up to her.
"Your majesty, we should..."
Celestia turned her head around at an insane speed and stared at him. He looked into her eyes. He could see fire. Nothing but fire and rage. He took a few steps back and didn't say a word. When he was beside the other guards again, Celestia took her eyes off of him and went back to staring at Twilight's corpse. Before she could start crying again however, a really loud and disturbing roar was heard from behind them.
The guards jumped into position, turning around and holding their out in front of them, ready for anything that might come by and attack them. Hind Hoof started shouting orders to the other guards. He pointed his hoof at the two unicorn guards at the side of him.
"You two! Escort the princess out of here!"
They saluted and nodded. "Yes sir!"
They ran over to Celestia and tried to get her to move, but she wouldn't move. One of the guards looked at her, as if pleading. "Your highness, please, we have to go. You aren't safe he..."
There was a weird sound what made all the guards jump slightly. The guard who was talking before didn't get to finish what he was saying. He suddenly collapsed on the floor, screaming and wailing. The other guard who was next to him ran over to him and shouted to the Lieutenant. "Sir, we've got a man down!"
Hind Hoof ran over to the guard and checked the injured guard, who was still screaming, and noticed that he had several burn marks on him. "They're just like the marks what the creatures had on them earlier. And princess Twilight also has the same marks..."
Before he could even say anything to try and comfort the injured guard, they heard that same sound again and a purple beam went flying past Hind Hoof's head. He ducked and rolled to the side instinctively. He brought up his spear and faced it towards the forest in front of him.
"Alright! Come out, whatever you are!"
For all he could have known, it might have been a creature that couldn't understand him, but he had a feeling that it wasn't. All that he got in return was the sound of something moving.
Moving towards him.
He backed up a couple of steps. Something came out of the woods. He kept his spear raised towards it.
"What the hell is that thing?"
What he was seeing was scaring him. It was some sort of bipedal creature. It looked as if its skin was rotten and flaky. It was clad in some sort of rusty looking armour. It seemed to have three glowing eyes. It also had something in its...claws?
Before he could make another move, the creature growled and pointed the object in its claws towards him. It shot out what seemed to be a purple beam of some sort. Hind Hoof didn't dodge in time as the purple blast hit him square on in the chest and sent him sprawling out on the floor. He started screaming loudly in pain. All the other guards ran over to him screaming "Lieutenant!".
After what seemed like hours, Celestia had come out of her trance like state and was pushing back the creature that had injured Hind Hoof. "Get back!" She tried to get rid of it with her magic, but the magic wasn't affecting it.
"Why is my magic not working?! Is this creature immune to magic?"
The guards heard Celestia's shouts and went over to her, getting in front of her.
"Get away from the princess you vile creature!"
The guards all formed in a line and pushed into the creature with as much force as they could, stabbing it with their spears in the process. It roared and disintegrated into dust.
They all formed around the princess once again. She looked at the dust that the creature had left behind in its apparent death. She sighed.
She looked at all her guards. "I'm sorry for freaking out back there, my little ponies. I just......I didn't know how to react after seeing...." She looked back to Twilight's corpse. Tears were forming in her eyes again. She looked towards the bloody writing next to Twilight. She went over to it and stared at it.
"What does this say? I wonder if I can use a translation spell... Her horn glowed and after a few seconds, it stopped glowing. She looked to the guards.
"I just translated the text via a translation spell. It says something along the lines of "This world now belongs to our king. He will devour all of the light here and wipe everything out. Crota is coming."
Before she could say anything more, she heard something behind her. It sounded as if...something big...something really big, was coming towards her.
She turned around and looked in horror at what she saw.
It was another bipedal creature. This one was about 15ft tall. It had what looked to be like a giant green sword in its right hand. Its whole body seemed to glow and pulsate, as if it didn't have any actual skin and was just a ghost. It looked down to her with its 3 glowing, menacing eyes.
She flew into the air and charged her horn, only to be swiped out of the air by the creature. She came crashing down and she tried to resist passing out, but the darkness overwhelmed her.
When Celestia finally woke up, it took her a few minutes to remember where she was. When she actually did, she jumped up onto her hooves as fast as she could. She walked forward and noticed the clearing where she encountered the giant creature.
"Was that thing....crota?"
She noticed that she had walked past a giant object that she didn't notice before. She walked up to it and gasped in horror.
"That object looks like the one what Twilight described in her letter...a giant spear..."
Then, the roars and horrible screaming came from underneath her. She looked down at the grass to see a claw burst out of the ground and attempt to grab her hoof. She managed to move just in time before it could get a grip on her. A body now burst out of the ground, following its claw. It appeared to be another bipedal creature. It didn't seem to have any eyes. It looked as if half of its head had been removed and what looked to be a brain now sat there instead. It looked like some sort of zombified skeleton.
Celestia screamed and ran towards the clearing where she remembered that she encountered that beast. When she got there however, she nearly puked.
All of her guards were on the floor, not moving what so ever. There was blood everywhere. Two of the unicorn guards didn't have their horn anymore. It looked as if someone had ripped it straight off. There was blood in its place what went down onto the guards face. She saw Hind Hoof, laying there, motionless. He had several burn marks on his body along with blood that covered his mouth. Then, she saw the one thing that she didn't want to remember...
Twilight's corpse.
She was in the exact some position that she was before, except now, it looked as if someone had further damaged her body. Her head was now gone and her insides were coming out of a cut in her stomach.
Celestia couldn't take it anymore and vomited. When she had finished said vomiting, she heard a series of roars behind her. She turned around to see the same creature from before that had tried to grab her, but he wasn't alone this time. There was a bigger as well, with some sort of object in its hand. It pointed it at her while it ran towards her. A blue projectile came soaring towards her. She managed to dodge just in time. When she looked back, the creature was attemtping to charge her. It tried to smack her with its weapon, but she dodged again and kicked it with as much force as she could muster. It didn't appear to damage it much at all, but it pushed it back, which gave Celestia the time that she needed. Before the other creatures could get her, she flapped her wings and lifted herself into the sky.
She started soaring forwards in the air, heading for Canterlot. As she was flying, she looked back. She could see some of the smaller creatures eating the corpses of her guards and Twilight. She had to hold back vomit once more.
Celestia was still crying. The barricaded door wouldn't hold for long now. The sounds of something trying to bash down the door was getting louder every second.
She remembered what had happened after that. She had told Luna about what had happened, they prepared themselves with all of the armour and weapons in the palace's armory and got all the guards in the city to get ready to defend against these creature.
She remembered how fast the city had been overrun. Only an hour after her experience in the Everfree Forest, reports came in of ponies being slaughtered by the creatures. And leading them was the giant one that injured her before...
Crota.
She remembered how Crota and the creatures had wiped out Equestria in days. Her dear sister, Luna, had been killed when trying to protect the citizens of Canterlot. She was pummeled and crushed by Crota himself.
"Lulu..."
The tears kept coming. If they didn't stop soon, she might flood the entire room.
All the memories were coming back to her now. Everything that had happened. She remembered when Ponyville had been overrun as well. The elements of harmony had tried to defend the Ponyville, but to no avail. They all fell to the creatures.
Crota and his creatures then spread all across Equis. More of the spear like objects that she had seen in the Everfree had crashed down from the sky into each country. They had wiped out everything but the pones. And now, the only member of pony kind that was left was Celestia.
And that wouldn't be for too long.
"It's the end....he's coming for me..."
Celestia looked up to the ceiling, which had now been ripped off. Something peered its head in. She screamed and cried for this all to be a bad dream, but she knew it wasn't the case. She stared at the creature in fear that was about to to take her life from her.
Crota.
