Last Humans on Earth

Apple Bloom ran through the apple orchard, trying to maintain distance between her and her friends. She swerved in and out of the trees, hearing her friends close on her trail. Apple Bloom finally reached the edge of the orchard, and crawled under the fence. Her friends hoof falls crunching fallen leaves, she didn't waste no time and kept running forward.

"There she is," she heard Scootaloo call out to Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom's heart skipped a beat, and she increased the speed at which she ran. She rounded a corner hiding behind a rock. She heard her friends approach, holding her breath. She leaned her back against the rock. "Found you!"

"Ahh, come on," Apple Bloom complained, while catching her lost breath. "I don't want to seek, you two always find the best hiding spots."

"Hey Apple Bloom, do you know what this is," Sweetie Belle asked. Sweetie Belle was father down the rocky slope. She was staring at something. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked over, seeing what Sweetie was talking about. A giant door was placed in the rock face, about 15 feet in length and eight feet tall. Next to it was a smaller door, that was blown open, the hinges fried and the door bent. Scootaloo started walking towards the door, before she was stopped by Sweetie. "Shouldn't we tell the others about this, what if we get hurt."

"Sweetie, they steal everything we find, and I actually want to be the one to find something," she told her before continuing on. Apple Bloom shared a look with Sweetie before they both ran after Scootaloo. Inside was a giant room, about the size of the princesses throne room. There were crates and lockers shoved over to one wall. Giant automatons sat in the center, some were taller than Celestia and some were longer than Celestia. Apple Bloom found a piece of paper, browned with age, and read it to herself. "Wow, look at this place it's so huge, Rainbow would love it."

"What do you think are in these boxes and lockers," Sweetie asked. The other two shrugged and kept on. At the back of the giant room there was a large metal door, it had scorch marks on it, like it was attacked with spellfire. The door loomed over the small ponies, appearing menacing and other worldly. Next to it was a console, the console was badly damaged but it still gave a light hum and glowed slightly under the damage. "Let's see, 'open' seems like the one we want right?"

"Yes, now just open the door Sweetie," Scootaloo demanded, not taking her eyes from the door. Sweetie tapped the screen, receiving a little chirp. Sweetie groaned, then sat on her haunches. "What's wrong?"

"It needs a password, with out one we ain't getting in," Sweetie told them. Apple Bloom walked over to the console and typed in something random, giving off a positive sounding note. The door creeked and groaned, as it slowly opened. "What did you type in?"

"I typed in my favorite cereal," Apple Bloom told them. Both Sweetie and Scootaloo gave her a dead pan look, unamused. "There was a piece of paper that had a mark that read off as 'The American Nuclear Protection Program', so I just typed in the first letters of each word, honestly I didn't expect that to work."

"Whatever, it worked so let's go inside, I'll follow you Sweetie as you have the light source," Sweetie Belle's horn lit up and a small orb of light flew out of her horn and hovered above her. They group looked down the hall. The hall was cleaned and spotless, nothing appeared out of place, doors lined either side of the hall. "Let's explore!"

"Scootaloo, we should stick together, so we don't get lost," Sweetie told her. They started walking together as a group, coming towards the first door. Approaching it slowly, the door slid open. They all stopped, and stared at the door for a minute before continuing. Sweetie wandered into the room on her own, and by the time Apple Bloom and Scootaloo got in the room, Sweetie was sitting on a small circular object, that was moving slowly across the floor. The thing had a shiny metal coat, appearing almost electronic. "This is fun!"

"Sweetie, what are you doing what if it attacks you," Apple Bloom asked frantically, all the while Sweetie giggled. Sweetie having enough fun got off the item and continued on with the other two. The reached an intersection in the hallway, signs pointing to what was down each. "Which way do we go?"

"Cryogenics, residential, and robotics," Sweetie read off, she started walking off in one direction, until a loud bang resonated down the hall coming from the cryogenics hall. "Guess we're going this way."

Sweetie walked quickly down the hall, keeping her light up. At the end of the hall was a door, with a label reading "Cryogenic sleeping in progress' and under that, in red it read 'Cryogenic sleep suspended'. Sweetie approached the door, and like the last one it slid open without her touching it. Sweetie walked in was stunned, the room went on forever in one direction, lined on both sides of the wall were chambers, giving off a light blue glow. Sweetie was about to tell Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, but ran back out when every pod opened up.

I woke up as soon as my pod opened, depresurizing me immediately. My heart was beating at a million miles per second and my nerves shot to hell. I went to catch myself, but my strength failed causing me to land on the floor. As I lay on the flooe, I heard others fall out of pods landing on the floor. I lifted my head slightly and looked around, I saw many others lying on the ground unmoving, unbreathing, but others were breathing slightly. I lied on the floor for what felt like hours before I managed to push myself up. I stood on my knees, not trusting my legs to hold my weight. I felt a hand pat my back, and I looked up and saw a tall African-American man standing over me, he helped me to my feet and brought me over to a bench.

"Are you okay son," he asked me, his accent thick.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, help the others," O told him, and with out any opposition he left me and started helping others and checking bodies. "Cerberus, are you only?"

"Yes sir," the vault's AI responded. Cerberus was a highly advanced AI, meant to take care of any inhabitants of the vault. Cerberus also maintained the robots that maintained the vault. "Good morning, Mr. Prenot."

"How long have we been asleep, Cerberus," I asked. Cerberus took a moment to respond. "Tell me Cerberus."

"Sir, you've been asleep for 939341005 days," Cerberus told me. "Sir, I do hope you enjoy being awake, but I must say there is several unidentified life forms in the vault."

"Okay, I wan't you to lock the door to the cryogenic sleeping array," I heard the door click shut and the electronic lock beep. "Thank's Cerberus, how many survivors survived cryogenic freezing?"

"My rough estimate would be about a third of the original population," Cerberus told me. I nodded, I expected a major drop in population as cryogenic freezing was a very new invention.

"Thank you, Cerberus," I told the AI. I grabbed onto the side of one of the cryogenic freezers, and pulled myself up. My legs wobbled slightly, but I held strong. I walked slowly down the array of freezers, passing by corpses of mem, women, and children. I saw a family of three hugging each other, and praying to God for their luck in not dying and still being hole, I saw a few muslim women and men praying to Allah, I saw many different nationalities talking with each other and many religious people praying to their gods and beliefs. The amount of Russian survivors were low, due to the U.S. being discriminatory to the Russians not letting them seek shelter.

"Thank you, friend, you saved me and my family and I was mever actually able to thank you for getting us in here," a Russian man told me. He pointed to his family, and I saw an older women, likely his mother, a beautiful young woman, likely his wife, and three small children. "I owe you my life comrade!"

"No, really you don't I was trying to help everyone, no matter of where they came from or what they worshipped," I told him while hugging the man. "Now please, go and be with your family."

"Yes sir," he answered and went over to his family. I smiled at it it reminded me why I saved all of these people.

"Mr. Prenot, I was just wondering what are we going to do,"I turned around and came face to face with a teenager, likely 15 or 16, his face was bruised slightly.

"What you need to do is go find your family," I told him. His face darkened and saddened.

"My entire family died, my brothers, sisters, grandparents, and mother all died when the bombs dropped," he told me, keeping tears back. "So with all due respect sir, I would like to now what we are going to do."

"I'm sorry for your loss, and we're going to get as many able body people as possible and inspect the rest of the vault," I told him. He nodded to my answer. "What's your name kid?"

"Charles, sir," he answered. "Sir, I might not look it, but I can fight."

"Okay, Charles, you can help us, and please stop calling me sir," I told him. A smile adorned his face and he walked over to a bench. "Cerberus, can you hook me into the intercoms?"

"Yes, sir," Cerberus told me. "You're connected now."

"Attention, everyone, I need at least 14 able bodied men and women to meet me at the entrance to the cryogenic sleeping area, I have a job for you, and please make it snappy," I announced. Charles stood up and followed me back to the entrance, and there already I saw the tall African-American sitting on a bench. I saw a few others, a woman with long brown hair, a man dressed in a business suit, and a a group of four kids. The kids had the signs of a the outcast group you'd see in school. "Alright, if this is the group coming with me I want to now all of your names, I'm Tyler Prenot."

"I'm Charles Whitley, I'm 16," Charles told everyone, he stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and looked at the ground. The kid might be a big talker, but he was shy.

"I'm Rebecca Hooper, I was a news forecaster, weather woman," she said and looked at someone else.

"I am Benjamin Hopper, Rebecca's husband."

"I'm Captain Jackson, I was a captain in the United States Coast Guard," the African-American told us, while pointing at the medal on his chest, and the flag on his arm. "I'm proud to serve again."

"I'm Blake Mitchell, this is my friend Justin Thompson, and William Xander," one of the kids announced, Blake was a 17 year old kid that looked 24, I remember checking him in. William was a shy kid that barely ever talked, and Justin was a diabetic, until he had his liver fixed, thanks to the CDC.

"Okay, we need to get moving, Cerberus has told me that there was several unidentified life forms in the vault, explaining why the failsafe was tripped," I told everyone. They all exchanged glances with each other and looked back at me. "I don't know if it's an alien or just and animal managed to get in, but we have to go and secure the vault."

"Mr. Prenot, would you like me to unlock the door for you," Cerberus asked me. I approached the door and took a heavy breath.

"Cerberus, unlock the door," I said aloud. The door popped open and I walked out slowly. "Cerberus, can you turn on the lights?"

"Yes I can," when it finished talking, some lights in the hall flashed to life, filling the hall with light. "Is that better?"

"Yes, thank you," I thanked. I lead the group down the hall, every so often popping into a room, and checking it over for anything strange or unusual. We reached an intersection, and immediately turned towards the residential section of the vault. This side of the vault held the canteen, beds, and infirmary. The hall here was relatively empty, except for one room, the board room, for lack of better words. It was more like a war room, holding our map of America and Mexico. It held pre-Canada annexation maps and post- Canada annexation maps. I quickly looked in the room and saw a Roomba rolling around, cleaning the carpet. A cup of old coffee was sitting on the table.

"Tyler, we were wondering how long were we asleep," Rebecca asked me.

"Cerberus, how long have we been asleep," I asked Cerberus. "In years this time."

"You have been asleep for 2,573,537 years," Cerberus told us. "Congratualtions, you and everyone else are the oldest people in the entire world."

"Thanks Cerberus," I thanked, sarcastically. No one else asked anything out of pure shock. We continued along until we reached the canteen. Inside we saw rows of tables and benches. Robots were cleaning the tops of tables and Roombas cleaned the floor. "Okay, Jackson, I want you and the group of kids to the infirmary, make sure no xenomorphs broke in and see how much medicine we have and if we need anymore, Rebecca and Benjamin go and check the bed situation, me and Charles are going to inspect the food supplies."

"Yes sir," I walked with Charles towards the kitchen. The door was open, probably from one of the robots. I walked through the doorway.

"Okay, Charles, start inspecting the food," he nodded and immediately went to a crate labeled canned goods. I walked over to the several cupboards and opened them, revealing several packets of every type of fruit and vegetable seed. I heard Charles pop off the top of a crate and sort through the cans. I walked into the pantry and opened it, and I turned on the light, I saw shelves full of water. Charles screamed as I heard a crate pop open, I spun around and heard something run out of the kitchen. I ran after it seeing a miniature horse running for the exit. "Cerberus, lock the door to the canteen!"

"Yes, Mr. Prenot," the door to the canteen slammed shut, locking in front of the pony. The pony slid to a stop, and backed up against the door, I watched two other ponies come from both the infirmary and the sleeping quarters. "Mr. Prenot, I'm detecting that those are the life forms."

"Thank you Cerberus, you okay Charles," I asked him, as I helped him up. He dusted himself off and ran out into the canteen.

"Tyler, did you see that," Rebecca, Jackson, and Charles all asked me as I stepped out of the kitchen. I stared at three ponies trying to get out of the room.

"Take a look, they're right there," I told them, while looking at the ponies. They stopped their attempt at escape and looked at me. I walked forward towards them, Charles grabbing my trying to keep me back, but I just pushed his hand. I walked within a few feet of them and stared at them. The looked me in the eyes. "Well aren't you three adorable."

They stared at me, and I stared back at them. Charles slowly approached me and them.

"What are you going to keep them as pets," Charles jokingly asked. He chuckled slightly.

"We aren't pets!" The orange pony stated. Me and Charles both threw ourselves backwards.

"Okay, didn't expect them to talk," I told myself. I slowed my accelerating heartbeat. "Okay, if you can talk, tell me who you are."

"I'm Sweetie Belle," the white pony told me. After looking her over I noticed three things, one she was a unicorn and the orange was a pegasus, their manes were weirdly colored, and they had what appeared to be tattoo's on their flanks. The three had a shield, one with an apple, another a lightning bolt, and finally a music note.

"I'm Apple Bloom," the one that was a normal pony answered.

"And I'm Scootaloo!"

"And we're the Cutie Mark Crusaeers!"

"Okay, I'm Tyler Prenot, this is Charles Whitley, that man over there is Captain Jackson, and those three, you got Rebecca and Benjamin Hooper, husband and wife," I told them. I received groans when I said "those three".

"Wait, your a Captain of what," Scootaloo asked Jackson. Jackson was caught off guard as the orange pegasus ran to his feet. He stared down at the excited pony.

"I was a Captain in the United States Coast Guard," he told her. She tapped her chin with her hoof.

"What's the coast guard," she asked him. "I've never heard of it."

"The Coast Guard was a branch of the United States military, we protected the coast and if we were ordered to became part of the Navy Seals," he told her.

"Scootaloo, get over here, leave him alone," Apple Bloom told her friend.

"Mr. Prenot, I'm sensing a decrease in tention, would you like me to release the lock down?"

"Who is that," Sweetie Belle asked me.

"That is Cerberus, the vault's AI," I told her. "Yes, Cerberus, I do want you to release the lock down."

"Can we go home," they all asked me.

"Where do you live," I asked them.

"I live on my family's farm, with my older brother and sister and grandmother," Apple Bloom told me.

"I live with my sister in her clothing boutique," Sweetie Belle announced.

"I live in an orphanage," Scootaloo said, while looking at the ground. "I don't have a family."

"Okay, you can go home, but not yet, let's see if we can give you a ride back," I told them. They looked at me confused. "Jackson, try and get someone on getting those humvee's working."

"On it," Jackson followed, leaving the canteen, passing by the ponies.

"The rest of you I want to go and secure the rest of the vault and make sure everything is working," I told the rest of them. Charles went to go, but I stopped him. "You and me and a few others are going to pay this race a visit."

"Alright, I'll be next to the vault door when you need me," he told and went to leave, but once again I stopped him.

"Take a shower and eat something, and put some clean clothes on," I told him. He turned around and went into the kitchen and came out a second later with a can of oranges. "Alright, gather Jackson and meet me in the garage with the humvee's in 25 minutes."

"Alright," he passed me, while fingering oranges into his mouth.

"You three are coming with me," I pointed at the three and made them follow me towards the garage. "I want to see something."

"What would that be?" They all asked. I went towards the vault door, seeing it wide open. Already I saw several people one the humvee's, sorting through crates and lockers, I saw crates of gasoline, ammunition, and clothes.

"I want to see if the garage doors open," I walked over to a panel that had two buttons, one green and one red. I pressed the green button and I heard a low groan and squeak. I need to get someone on oiling this. I watched the door open slowly, as a large smile spread across my face. "Open sesame!"

"Wow, how do you manage that," Sweetie asked me.

"That's the marvel of human engineering, my equine friends," I told them while chuckling. "Someone bring me Geiger counter, quickly!"

"Here you go sir," almost as soon as I asked, I had a Geiger counter in my hands. I slowly stepped outside, letting my eyes set in to the intensity of the sunlight. I turned on the Geiger counter and it read that the radiation levels were basically nonexsistant, in some places the radiation was stronger, but the radiation was safe for humans to survive in.

"We're clean, there is little to no radiation," I told myself, this was good. I put the Geiger counter on a table. I looked at the vault door and saw Charles and Jackson standing there, hands covering their eyes. Charles saw me and walked down to me. "There is no radiation, we are safe to go with out radiation suits."

"Great, now we just got to wait for one of the humvee's to be up and running," I watched Jackson walk over to a locker with guns in it, and look over all of them. He finally grabbed a pistol with a stylized grip. He found a holster and put his weapon away.

"When will one of those humvees be working?"

"I just have to change the sparkplugs, and then we are golden."

"Great," I answered. As soon as I said I heard a humvee churn to life. I smiled at the beauty. "Are we ready, Charles?"

"Yeah, me and Jackson are ready," he told me.

"What about you three?"

"Yeah, we're ready," they told me.

"Jackson you want to drive?"

"Yes, I do," Jackson quickly hopped into the driver seat, quickly kissing the cross around his neck. "Hop in!"

"Okay, Charles sit in the back with these three," I told him. He opened the door for the three ponies and they climbed in. He climbed in behind them and closed the door. I ran around and truck and got in the passenger seat. "Let's go Jackson."

Jackson slammed his foot on the gas, and the car sped forward, I heard yelps of surprise coming from the back of the truck as the three ponies flew forward. I chuckled and looked out the window as we road down the hill. I saw a massive town in the distance, with an even bigger orchard, there was a castle in the distance perched on a mountain. I stared up at the sun, but I felt like someone was watching me. I ignored the feeling and listened to Charles talking with the ponies. This was going to be a long trip.