The Ledge

by Officer_Sam

Rating: teen
Tags: Royal Guard, Suicide / Self Harm, Profanity, Adventure, Human, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Sad
Length: 2309

A man is compelled to walk a trail he's walked before.

The last human in Equestria and maybe the universe. He walks a lonely trail everyday, but this time he feels compelled to walk the trail one last time.

Published 2020-03-06 23:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-03-09 22:51:47 UTC

1 - The Ledge

He didn’t want to go, but he felt compelled to go.

He walked the path until he was at a clearing and at a cliff. So he stood at the cliffs edge, with the cool wind blowing past him. The air moved around him, like life would. Uncaring but always moving, even if it was slow at some points. He asked himself how long could he continue this, coming back and forth just to stand at the edge. He felt like he should just leave.

Here the last of humankind was standing at the edge of a cliff. He was waiting for a moment to click in his head and allow him to lunge forward off the cliff. He felt so alone, yet he had so many friends and people who cared. Albeit they weren’t human friends, maybe some humans aren’t cut out to love anything but other humans.

But the cliff seemed so peaceful, yet he was scared. He sat down on the edge, looking down into the forest below. He had a fear of heights yet looking down from this cliffside made it seem peaceful and calm, instead of scary and endangering. His fear slowly went away and he was enveloped by the peacefulness of nature around him. The birds chirping around him, the movement of the leaves in the wind brushing against one another. Even the sound of the wind blowing past his ears, nature was always a beauty when you sat down and listened and observed it.

A smile grew on his face as he listened and looked about, the peacefulness always made him feel happy, yet insane. He continued to look about and in the distance he watched as two pegasi raced against each other, although he couldn’t see the colors of them. Wait the colors, he just noticed as he was listening, he forgot to note the lack of color he could see.

He started to hear footsteps, not the usual clip clop like a pony would make. But actual human-like footsteps, he froze and continued to look forward as the footsteps got closer behind him. The footsteps stopped and he heard a figure take a seat next to him. However, it did not speak to him nor attempt to touch him, but it just sat next to him. He was tempted to just greet it, hoping it was another human, maybe one he never met.

So, he looked to his left, it was not there. He looked to his right, still there was nothing. How could he be hallucinating at a time like this? That’s when he knew, it was only a matter of time at this rate. Then he noticed nature wasn’t making any sounds. He couldn’t hear, yet he could hear. He could hear the footsteps approaching, but there were no sounds of nature. After awhile, it was just silence.

There was then no color, and there was no sound.

But yet he heard the footsteps, again and again. They would quiet down and start up. But even when he turned to look, he saw nothing, the paranoia and insanity grew in his head. Yet he wasn’t panicking. That’s when it let itself be seen to him. It was a dark shadow, in the shape of a human. He studied it, it seemed rather feminine.

It sat next to him and put it’s hand on his. It was a warm touch, a human touch. A touch he had longed for, one he had not felt in ages. They both turned to each other and then the shadow hugged him, the color and sound returned to the world as he was warmly embraced the hug. This couldn’t be a hallucination, it must be real. It was all so peaceful and it was real.

The shadow stood up and offered him it’s hand. He took the hand and stood up, it was then a pathway appeared, extending from the cliff into a door filled with light.

The shadow pointed to the door and in a soft female voice it whispered,”Home is beyond there.”

Could he finally go home? He knew that there must’ve been humans left somewhere, maybe they finally mastered technology and we're here to save him from this lonely world. However, not once did he think to check if he was hallucinating or if anyone else was around him.

Behind him two earth ponies questioned what he was doing, he was silent and standing at the very edge of the cliff, he couldn’t hear them at all. He could just hear his inner thoughts and the voices in his head. The ponies panicked as they could slightly understand what he was about to do, they began to plead for him to come back towards them. Even though they knew it was futile.

He couldn’t hear, the world was silent. But yet he heard sound. He couldn’t see the world’s color, yet he saw color. He could only focus on the shadow and the pathway to a door. The way out was right before him and all he had to do was walk forward. Forward is the way home and safety from his lonely world.

The two earth ponies watched in absolute horror as he took a step forward.

He did it, he was walking on the pathway to the exit, yet he felt like he was falling and falling. But that must be a side effect of this technology, so he continued into the doorway. The doorway which would lead him to salvation.

Falling.

Not falling.

I will be safe.

...

The two earth ponies went to the edge of the cliff and looked down, they looked at each other. They must get help from anypony nearby, or from town. One of them waved to the distant flying pegasi, the other earth pony ran back into the forest towards town.

The two pegasi by some miracle saw the earth pony jumping about and waving at them and so they flew that way. The earth pony in the distance pointed down as they got close, the two pegasi gave each other a look before looking down.

. . .

The two pegasi landed next to the earth pony and they put their wings around them and took a step back from the cliff side. All they could do is wait for some form of help.

Soon the royal guard came into the area and closed it off. Princess Twilight took the time to also visit the scene. They wish they could have been there sooner, maybe they could have done something. They were blind and distracted with so many other things, like work and the exhausting job of being the princess of a kingdom. Twilight stepped to the edge of the cliff and looked down, then they looked back up. She realized this spot of the cliff was so very peaceful, even despite one of their fears being down there in the forest below.

2 - The Ground

The mission is just beginning, come forth.

He was walking the pathway when he reached the opening door, he was embraced by bright light coming from the door as he walked into the doorway. He closed his eyes and suddenly he could feel the falling feeling again.

He opened his eyes, there was no light, no pathway, no door. He was falling, falling from the cliff in slow motion. He watched the world around him slow down, the colors changed to a darker shade, the colors seemed more natural. The sounds of nature were slowed down around him. How could he be hallucinating, at a time like this? He replayed the day in his head, wondering how this could all go wrong, but he was still falling in slow motion. The peacefulness slowly dissipated into calmness and boredom.

He couldn’t move, just think and helplessly watch as the top of the cliff got further from his view. Surprisingly, there was no flash of life in his eyes as he might have expected. He couldn’t recall any past memories as he fell, he could only think about how the day played out and the moment he reached the pathway. He slowly got bored of thinking, he just wanted the slow fall to stop.

Maybe if he just closed his eyes, he thought. So he closed his eyes as it got darker.

Suddenly a female’s voice from the darkness around him.

“It isn’t over yet. Your mission has just begun,” the voice echoed.

…

Suddenly he opened his eyes and woke up, he hit his head on the surface above him and decided to just lay still. He was surrounded by stone and some sorta fabric, like he was in a box. He could barely move about in this damned box. He tried to put his hands up and feel around for a way to get out or push something open. That's when the stone slab popped up as he pushed above him, as he pushed it off, it went from feeling heavy to lighter. Then a soft orange glow slowly illuminated him as he pushed the slab off the top of whatever he was in. The slab fell to the ground with a crash as he slowly sat up and rubbed his head, he looked around the room. There were two torches to the sides of him and a framed painting behind him, the painting was of someone, he couldn’t see the face in it though. It was also surrounded by flowers of all colours.

He realized as he got out of the stone box, that this was someone's burial spot. It didn’t feel like his, he didn’t remember dying, or is that something you even remember? But here he was, in a sealed stone tomb, somewhere in Equestria. The stone tomb was illuminated by the orange flickering glow of the torches, he could feel a slight draft of wind through the room. Engravings and writing were spread about the stone walls around him. Even the stone casket that lay on the slab in the center of the room had detail engraved onto it, along with someone's name which had crystal lettering.

He couldn’t see the name, he just saw letters in some weird order. He tried to focus on the letters and read them aloud, but he couldn’t understand the string of letters. So he just decided to continue to look around for an entrance, he then noticed what seemed like an entrance. There was a circle carved out in the wall with a round purple gem in the middle. He pushed against the gem and the stone door began to move down into the ground, the room flooded with sunlight as it dropped down. He put his arm up to block the sun's light from hitting him as his eyes adjusted from the darkness he was in, he slowly stepped out of the tomb.

Once his eyes adjusted he put his arm down and looked to his left and right. Next to him were two royal guards looking up at him in silver armor and with purple plumes on their helmet, both of them seemed to have gone white, like they’ve seen a ghost. They even dropped their spears on the ground in shock. Although, I guess they were usually white anyway, weren’t they? He looked around more, and saw that there was a staircase down from the entrance and a stone path that lead through a grassy field and a forest further back. He looked down at the staircase, it had all sorts of flowers and unlit candles on the sides of it.

Then he looked to the guards on his left and right, they were still in shock, staring at him. Even had their mouths hanging wide open.

“Um, Hello?” He said quietly as he tried to make a friendly smile.

“Y-you’re, You’re alive?” The guard stuttered trying to keep his mouth closed.

“I uh, believe so”, He said looking down at his body, now noticing he had a black suit on.

One of the guards fainted. The other just kept staring in awe and shock.

He also thought to himself, how is he alive? He doesn’t remember what happened, just that he went from falling to being here in a stone tomb. He noticed since he got out of the stone casket that he felt a bit stronger than normal and a bit pumped up, but he still can’t remember who he was or even if he had a name, but he could remember ponies and such.

His eyes were drawn to the staircase and he looked down and saw two guards approaching, both of them in the same armor as the ones next to him.Interestingly, he thought the guards usually wore gold. He shrugged to himself. The approaching guards looked up at him, they looked at eachother. A clear look of worry and shock was coming from them.

One of the guards turned around and ran down the path through the forest. The other approached him and studied him closely and walked around him to look into the open tomb. The guard talked to the standing guard as they all both looked in the tomb and back at him and back at their fainted comrade.

He then started to descend the staircase, the guards looked at him and couldn’t decide how to proceed, such a situation was never thought of.

He continued down until he stepped off onto a stone pathway before him.

It was then that he didn’t know why, but he felt compelled to travel the path ahead of him.

Author's Note

I have unfortunately cancelled this, maybe one day I could try to come back and fix it up and continue. But for now, a sudden end.