Not the last

Sunset Shimmer awoke to a dull pain in her legs and a sharp pain in her head. She opened her eyes, and the red light almost made her panic until she realized it was the western sky at dusk. She greedily guzzled the stream’s water and wolfed down the nearby cattails before she felt sound enough to attempt to stand.

She was dizzy and her legs wobbled, but she managed to make it upright. Her legs and head ached, but she gritted her teeth to step upstream despite the pain. But now there was another source of red light there — standing in the stream bed was the bull ox. He pawed at the stones and snorted. Sunset decided she was too exhausted to run and stood her ground. The giant ox charged forward, and adrenaline overrode Sunset’s pain and fatigue as she galloped recklessly downstream in the twilight.

Sunset blasted the door to Hollow Shades’s library off its hinges. “Banishing spells! Where are the banishing spells?” she yelled into the unoccupied building. Sunset frantically looked around the shelves by the green light of her horn, but her search was quickly halted when the giant ox, aglow with a hellish red light, smashed its own entryway into the library. Sunset screamed and ran back outside into the night, the bull racing after her.

Sunset Shimmer stood on the moonlit beach, panting and drained of endurance. She was barely able to stay upright, but the demonic ox had run out of land to chase her down. She glared at her pursuer. “This is it! This is all there is.”

The bull stepped silently forward, and Sunset stepped into the surf. “This is the shore, there’s nowhere else to go.”

The red ox advanced and forced her another step onwards, and the saltwater stung all the fresh scrapes on her legs. Desperate, Sunset pleaded, “There’s no more land!”

The bull pressed forward, and Sunset took another step into the sea. Her legs were mostly submerged now, and the sea–spray stung her eyes. If she went any further, she’d have to swim. She’d been driven harder than she thought was possible, driven for half a day and half a night, and she knew she didn’t have the fortitude to swim after that. “I’m sorry I summoned you! I just wanted wings!”