The Last Ones Left

Celestia sat in her throne, the soft cushions providing a great amount of comfort for her. Everything had gone according to plan. The wretched humans had been pushed back to their last stronghold in the United Kingdom, all of her armies laying siege to it. She sighed in relief. The war would finally come to an end. The previous 20 years had been nothing but Tartarus for her and her subjects, with their own casualties in the billions. What had once been a thriving nation with many ponies had become almost barren. You only needed to look at the cities of Manehattan and Vanhoover, both of which had fallen into a state of extreme disrepair. But it was necessary for the war effort, and it would all be worth it. The new human lands they had conquered could be fully analysed and assessed upon the completion of the war.

She had done it. She had singlehoofedly saved planet Earth from the horrors of the humans and halted their inevitable destruction of it. Now the ponies of Equestria had all they could ever want. She had given them a planet afterall...

Three days after the fall of London..

Celestia stood in a wasteland, it's churned mud staining her once pure white hooves as she walked through it, her personal guards following a reasonable distance behind. She looked around, trying to find an end to this terrible landscape, only to find the looming horizon filling with more of it. She stopped as her hoof clanked into something, her golden shoe clanging as it hit the object. Curious she tapped what appeared to be a lump in the ground with her shoe again, finding it to respond with similar clanging. Using her magic she wiped away a portion of mud, somehow making her feel dirtier despite only touching it with magic. Her eyes widened as they fell upon the eyes of a pony, his once gold helmet covered in brown sludge. She gulped as she wiped away more mud from the pony, revealing more of his armor and finding a pair of five different hooves attached to him.

Five? Shoving back her disgust she wiped upwards the fifth leg, finding it connected to another pony, this time a mare. She was in much worse shape in him, having half her body missing, the presumably once red entrails a sickly brown. Breathing deeply she stepped back, turning to move towards her personal carriage. Her guards beat her their, standing at their posts at either side of the door. One of them opened the door for her to enter, only for Celestia to stop and look at him. He simply stood still however, staring straight ahead.

"Do you know what this place was?" She asked, eliciting a blink of shock.

"No I'm afraid not ma'am." The guard replied, unsure of how to react to the question.

She smiled sadly at that before it disappeared in an instant, "This was the Amazon rainforest." She whispered quietly, almost to herself, before stepping into the carriage.

The guard blinked once again looking around the desolate wasteland. There was no way she was telling the truth. But she was Princess, so she had to be. He had visited the forest once, when he had gone on a vacation with his family during his break. Yet it had been completely destroyed by the warfare. His eyes glanced to where Princess Celestia had stopped, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of gold armor. His eyes turned back to his partner who was already strapping himself into the harness to carry the carriage. And as he followed suit, preparing to take off, he asked himself.

Was it all worth it?

3 years after the fall of London...

Vinyl banged her head as the blasting music in her headphones drummed through her ears, making a sound most would find unpleasant, as she lent on the railing. She was currently on a cruise headed to Australia, the mythical land of beasts. Not only was she headed to Australia but she was on the first commercial cruise ever given the go ahead to go there. Plus, they had departed from the Chilean coast, which was also a first. She moved her headphone slightly off her ear to upon hearing the faint noise of a megaphone.

"Attention pasengers, it is with great pleasure that I must inform you we are now 2 days away from Australia!" The captain said, eliciting excited cheers and talking. They had been on this ship for about 30 days now, so it would be a relief to make it to land. Turning away from the ocean she headed to the bar cabin, planning to prepare her things for landfall...

Daring Do stared at her reflection, going over her plans as she fixed her hat into position while also straightening up her classic green safari shirt. The whole reason she had even come on this trip was the chance to explore a mythical continent without the military getting involved. There were many tales about Australia, ranging from giant lizards to giant spiders. It was exactly this reason that it had taken so long to get clearance to have a commercial cruise go there. Sure Equestria was nice, but the same temples and villains got boring fast. She needed something new and exciting for her next book, and Australia was the perfect place for that.

Breathing deeply she closed her eyes, using her breathing technique to banish any thoughts of worry. Opening them again she looked back down at the mirror. A white unicorn stood in her doorway, headphones over her ears as she stared at Daring. The unicorn than smiled, waved and trotted away. Whipping around she bolted to the door in an attempt to find the unicorn. Looking to her left she saw her happily trot around a corner, prompting Daring to shoot after her, flapping her wings for extra speed.

Stopping at the corner she looked behind her to make sure noone else had seen her before peeking back around. She whipped her head back behind the corner as a singlular sailor made his way toward her. Thinking quick she dove into a nearby closet, leaving it just a tiny smidge open to look at the sailor. Once he had gone by she sprinted out of the closet after the unicorn. She couldn't risk her identity being revealed. Even if she denied being A.K Yearling people would still realize that Daring Do isn't a fictional character and ask questions that she couldn't answer.

Rounding another corner she spotted the unicorn trotting down the hall straight in front of her. Speeding ahead of the unicorn, she whipped around, staring her dead in the glasses. She slowly walked toward the unicorn, eyes narrowing as she continued to smile and wave. Stopping just inches from her, Daring continued to scrutinze her.

"You do not say a word of this to anyone, understand." She said in a threatening tone, pointing her hoof at the unicorns face. What she did not expect was the unicorn to smile again before moving her hoof over her mouth in a zipping motion before sidestepping past Daring to continue her walk. Blinking, Daring whipped her head back around to stare after the mare, still unsure of how to react. Yet she still trotted away, slightly banging her head to whatever music was playing in her headphones.

Her head shot back forward upon hearing other noises, making her remember that she was in the middle of a public hallway. Thinking quick she dove into a nearby closet, thanking her luck that their was always a closet nearby when she needed one. After making sure the coast was clear she bolted back down the hall, making sure to check her corners so she wasn't spotted. After safely reaching her room, she shut and lock the door before diving into her luggage. Finding her desired purple cloak and glasses she flicked them on with practiced precision, doing one last look over in the mirror before nodding to herself.

"Adventure here I come."

"Target is getting closer with no sign of stopping, moving to engage."

"Um, C-Captain." Another sailor in the bridge said, staring at something on his side of the massive spanning window.

Curious Steel Hoof called out to him, "What is it sailor?"

The sailor slowly raised his hoof to point at something that was blocked by his body, not allowing the captain to get a good look. Walking up to the sailor he opened his mouth to ask what it was when he suddenly spotted what the sailor was pointing at. It was what looked to be a ship on the horizon, yet you could clearly see that something was different about it. A plume of smoke poofed out of it's side, confusing the captain even more.

The bridge was engulfed in flames.

Vinyl continued her happy walk to the room, eager to finally get off this boat and touch land again. Her thoughts were interrupted when the ship lurched to the side violently, throwing her against the wall and causing her glasses to fall off and descend to the floor. Confued she picked herself up only to realize the ship slowly turning and fall over again. Thinking quick she snatched up her glasses in her magic before sprinting down the hallway, careful to not lose her footing. The ship was now so sideways that Vinyl had to walk on the wall(floor?). She skidded to a halt as she reached a corner. Or rather a drop. There was no way she could walk up or down these. Her worrying is interrupted by the sound of hoofsteps, bringing her attention behind her. The same strange mare from before was running down the hallway as well, her hat nowhere to be seen. Their eyes met for a split second as the mare stopped beside Vinyl.

She made a show of pointing up and down the vast square chasm. The mare simply rolled her eyes before picking Vinyl up and flying her up albeit slowly. Once they reached the top the both nodded and continued running down the hall. They both stopped as they looked up at the open door into the world, a flurry of screams eminating from it. Gulping she looked at the mare before nodding that she was ready. Picking her up the mare flapped her wings, getting them through the door.

A scene of chaos filled their eyes as they landed on the wall. The entire ship was on it's side, with ponies either falling off into the water or hanging on for dear life onto anything. Looking to the place that wasn't just a giant wall of ship they spotted what appeared to be another ship on the horizon heading towards them. A poof of smoke suddenly eminated from the ship followed by a distant boom. Before either of them had time to react the front of the ship suddenly exploded, sending chunks of metal flying everywhere, hitting those who didn't have time to get out of the way.

The shockwave knocked both of them onto their sides, with Vinyl almost sliding off the edge only to barely grab onto the edge of the wall they had been standing on. The mare beside her quickly stood up and rushed to her assistance, linking both of their hooves together as she slowly began picking Vinyl back up. Another boom could be heard bringing their attention to the ship. Sure enough a plume of smoke was once again coming from the ship. Thinking quick, Vinyl pulled the mare down with her, causing them both to land in the water.

Waving her hooves all around in an attempt to get above the cold surface. Her head peaked above the water, allowing her to breath deeply. It didn't last long however as a similar explosion to before happened just above her, the shockwave sending her back down under. Looking around under water she instinctively curled up into a ball as she spotted pieces of metal descending from above. After the sounds of explosions ceased she got out of her ball looking around. The metal had stopped falling, meaning it was most likely safe to reemerge.

Doing just that, Vinyl blinked away the water in her eyes looking around at the scene before her. The ship was currently in the process of sinking, several fires sprouting up from the places it had been hit. Vinyl gagged as her eyes fell on the strewn out bodies either floating lifelessly or impaled on the jagged metal spikes on the sinking ship. Her eyes than spotted a small floating piece of ship, pulling herself up onto it. With the need for swimming now delayed Vinyl let out a deep breath as she coughed out small spurts of water as she simply lay down on the piece of ship. Her eyes slowly closed as she drifted off, exhaustion catching up with her...

Vinyl slowly opened her eyes, the sound of crashing waves and seagulls filling her ears. Groaning she lifted her head, gazing at the vast treeline in front of her, the sand on the beach stopping there. Wait sand! Trees! Excitedly she picked herself up, staggering of her makeshift lifeboat. As soon as her hooves touched the warm and soft sand she immediately collapsed into it, rolling around it as she grinned like a maniac.

After doing this for a while she lay there, happy that she had made it to land. She didn't even care what land it was. Whispering caught her attenion, causing her ears to turn towards the source.

"What should we do?"

"I don't know, go talk to her."

"What, no! You do it."

While they were talking Vinyl had rolled back over to get a good look at them. What she saw made her jaw drop. A bright red unicorn was facing away from her speaking to her companion. That wasn't what had shocked her though. Rather it was her companion. A tall, lanky human stood in front of her, a red hoodie and black pants being his attire. And he was now staring right at Vinyl. The unicorn noticed his silence and turned to look at Vinyl as well, her eyes widening.

Gulping the unicorn decided to speak, "Um, hi?"