Location: Countryside, New York, USA. - Time: 2:00 am

The sound of an engine roaring broke the silence of the countryside as a vehicle tore down the road towards its destination; The Holdout Point.

The Holdout Point was a place Markus had picked out a while back for just this situation when he was on his last legs, which he was. He didn’t have enough time or room left to breathe, he was after all being hunted down by an entire species who he thought wanted him gone.

“Fucking… Shit.” Markus cursed for what seemed to be the fiftieth time that night. He still hadn’t gotten any rest, and he was trying to keep himself awake. What made it worse was that he didn’t have any food with him. This may truly be his last stand. Thinking about it more reminded him of the last stand of the Swiss Guard in 1527 as well as the stand of the Lost Battalion in World War 1. Funny, now it was his turn to face an onslaught of enemies wanting to end his life. Except for this time, it’s one against thousands.

Seeing what looked to be buildings in the distance, he slowed the car down and parked it on the side of the road. What stood in front of him was a farmhouse, one with sandbags piled high on the walls and barbed wire everywhere. Since no one was clearly using it, he used his gloved hands to drag the barbed wire and dump it into the back of his car, then did the same thing with the sandbags.

“If I want to have the ability to fight back, I need to build up some sort of defense.” With his heart racing at the thought of fighting off thousands, he worked faster.

Time: 5:00 am

For three hours, Markus dragged every length of barbed wire and every sandbag into the car, which could somehow handle the weight. But with that job done, he turned around and looked at the farmhouse. He still hadn’t taken a look inside, and it had two floors. Approaching the door, Markus took out his pistol, getting ready to open up the door. He didn’t know if a pony was on the other side or not, but it was always a good idea to be cautious.

Reaching a hand out to the doorknob, he grabbed it and twisted. The door was unlocked and opened with no trouble. He turned on his flashlight that was mounted to his shoulder and swept the room. The room looked to have been abandoned a month or two ago, and everything was a mess. Sweeping the left side of the room, he didn’t find anything interesting aside from a few broken chairs and shattered picture frames. Moving onto the right side of the room, he didn’t find anything there either. He scoffed and cursed aloud once again more wasted time, time that he didn’t have.

Pulling back from the right, he made his way to the staircase, flashlight pointing up the stairs. He slowly but surely made his way up, the stairs groaned under his weight but held strong.

“I hope this isn’t a waste of time… but I need everything I can get.” He said aloud, making it to the top of the staircase. The hallway was nothing special, just more smashed picture frames and broken chairs. There was a door to his left, and directly ahead of him. He decided to try the door on the left first. Putting his hand on the knob, he slowly pushed it open. Inside was nothing. “Are you kidding me?! Why?!” Markus half-shouted in anger. More time wasted, less time to prepare. He left the room and slammed the door. Taking a look to his right he contemplated even going into the last room, so far this place had been useless to him.

“Fuck it, might as well.” He walked down the hallway and opened the door. It was a bedroom with a large mattress in the middle of the room, along with a dresser to the right of it. Seeing the bed, he suddenly grew exhausted… almost like someone or something was forcing him to walk towards it.

“A few hours of sleep couldn’t hurt, could it?” he yawned, already taking off his gear and laying them beside the mattress. Having not slept for three days straight, he immediately passed out.

The same figure from earlier was watching his every move, with another watching at the same time.

Location: Canterlot, Equestrian Captial - Time: 5:00 am

Celestia was glad that Markus was now asleep for the first time in three days. This meant that her sister, Princess Luna, could finally monitor his dreams to see if she could spot what was causing him to think that the Equestrians converted the entire human race. She knew it wasn’t Markus’s fault he thought this way, she knew deep down that someone was causing this pain in his life. She knew that he just wanted it to all end without bloodshed, even if he didn’t know it. She was going to try her hardest to make sure that he was saved.

“Princess, I have assembled the army as you requested. Maybe I ask why though?” Captain Shining Armor questioned, confused.

“Well Shining Armor, I am planning to confront the human in the next two days. I want you to assemble the best unicorn you can, and develop a shield that will prevent his weapons from harming us in any way.” Celestia answered in her motherly voice.

“Yes Princess, right away.” With his question answered and new orders received, he made his way to assemble the best unicorns he could find.

Meanwhile In the Dream Realm

“Wha- Where am I?” Markus asked out into the black abyss. Looking around, he saw that he was in a city, but not any city on Earth. The buildings around him were white, with golden accents and purple roofs. It was familiar to him in a way that he couldn’t explain, it was almost as if he had been there before. The sky was a dark purple, so it must’ve been pretty late out.

Running for about 20 minutes, with distant screams and whispers in his ears, he ran into a palace of some sort, with the same style as the rest of the city. The architecture from what he could see should be impossible, but he’d seen the impossible done. Flying ponies is a good example. As he approached the door, he instinctively reached down for his pistol, which wasn’t present. In fact, all of his gear was gone, revealing his pale white skin.

Ignoring this, he reached for the door handle and grasped it. Once the knob was twisted, he blinked. He was at the main entrance one moment and in a throne room the next. Confused as all get out, he turned around looking for what had caused that oddity. Finding nothin he turned to face the thrones only to see a spectral figure staring at him. Needless to say, he was freaking out at this point, as he didn’t have anything to defend himself with. The figure slowly morphed into a horrid being by his standards. It was spectral, and it was huge. Looking much like the night sky, it slowly enveloped him into inky blackness.

What reached his ears next made him shed a tear. Screams, screams of the damned. Screams of those who were lost, and screams of those long dead. He wasn’t mentally prepared for this and nearly broke down into a fit of tears, clutching his head in pain to try and make the sounds go away. He’d been through near hell and back, but this was something new. It was now his turn to scream out in distress and pain.

“Please! Make it stop! It hurts!” He screamed out in pain. An echoed laugh rang throughout the space as if it was mocking him and enjoying his suffering. It was evil, he could tell that much. A cold chill ran down his spine, he had never experienced anything like this.

Then suddenly, a voice that held authority and power shouted back in response to the evil laugh.

“BEGONE FOUL DEMON!”

With a flash of light, the darkness was gone, once again replaced by the throne room he was previously in. In front of him wasn’t the black abyss he was expecting, but instead, a dark blue Alicron, making direct eye contact with him. His emotions were going crazy right now, with a mixed feeling of relief, surprise, horror, and terror. A motherly voice, though a bit rough, spoke out to him.

“Sorry I’m late, I ran into a few complications,” The Alicorn said, looking at Markus,” My name is Luna, Princess of the Night.”

Author's Note

Hey everypony, thanks for checking out chapter 2 of The Last Stand, The Last Lie! I know it's not the best quality and the pacing is a bit off, but I tried to make it as smooth as possible.
The story isn't so well developed, but I'll say it again. This story is to help me get rid of my writer's block on The Lost Courier, so the pacing will be off and the chapters will not be as refined.

Thanks again for all of your support, I hoped you enjoyed!