Equestia: Ballad of a fallen world

by Vivien

Rating: mature
Tags: Original Character, Mystery, Sex, Violence, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Death, Human, Main 6, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance
Length: 29578

Twilight has always known that there was another great civilisation before the era of Ponies. She searched for traces of it but everything was just blind clues. However, when she finds an ancient being everything changes

What if there was someone else before the first pony? What if there was another more developed civilisation? What if all ponies owe their existence to them? And even if they did exist, why did they fall? These questions have troubled many scholars and all because of ancient paintings in one of the caves near Canterlot. Nobody could answer what they represented and so they were forgotten.

However, when one of the guards discovers them, Twilight begins to investigate. She can't understand them, but when she accidentally activates an ancient being, everything begins to fall into place in a logical whole. Watch as Twilight, her friends and the ancient being become friends with each other.... and maybe even something more.

This is a story heavily inspired by the Mass Effect series but is in no way connected to it. The story takes place during season 4

Published 2024-11-16 05:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2025-02-07 17:42:31 UTC

Someone's end is the beginning of others

Author's Note

Hi. Well. This is my first story on this site and I hope you enjoy it. I apologise in advance for my English. If anyone catches mistakes it would be appreciated and I will correct it.

Enjoy reading

Someone's end is the beginning of others

Year 2100 - Half an hour before Operation Ragnarok

"The human mind is capable of creating and comprehending truths that cannot be decided by any mechanical procedure."

This was a sentence once said by the famous Austrian scientist Kurt Godel. However, I do not know if I am able to agree with him although I should. I am a robot, a mechanism that should not feel anything.... but it does. I feel immense sadness and grief. Humanity is collapsing, monsters from outer space are killing them every last one. Every time one dies two more come in its place. We cannot fight something that is practically impossible to even defend against. These creatures are capable of possessing others. They are literally living shadows that look like mythical werewolves by default. It is not known where they come from but it was known that they would carry out invasions of our galaxy for a long time.

Humanity and the allied races prepared for their arrival but their attack was far more powerful than expected. Already in the first days of the invasion they literally brought the so-called Greys living at Alpha Centauri to their knees, later the Orans, Guddans, Qazers and so on fell. Humanity was attacked at the latest and as they had defended themselves the longest the largest horde was sent, along with the mothership, which obscured the sun and the shadowy creatures blocked the possibility of escape from the planet. Right now a handful of survivors are fleeing to the Last within miles of an undestroyed bunker that is the best protected. Humanity doesn't stand a chance and the sight I see ... of creatures killing everything that moves against a red sky as if from an apocalypse that is now taking place only confirms this to me. It's over.

"042. 042!" I heard a shout from the general who was helping panicked people enter the shelter. This shout made him gain my attentions "Where is Sasha?! He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago!"

"I don't know General." I replied honestly not knowing how you can get lost during an apocalypse and your only point of reference is an intact fortified military base" I know only that he ran to look for his friend."

"What was that kid thinking! 042 I'll run for him and you try to accommodate as many people as possible!"

The general ran for his son trying to avoid as much as he could the omnipresent explosions and monsters People tried to run towards us so that the last barrier that provided protection from the aliens would protect them but it did not always work. Once a child and his parent tried to run but failed. It was kidnapped and the distraught mother went beyond the barrier without a second thought, perishing herself. In that moment, I felt something more than the software and uploaded artificial intelligence told me to feel. I felt sadness. I looked into the pieces of glass that were still in place.

I saw myself. I am just a medium-sized motorised flying robot created with nanotechnology so I could change my body to a small degree, although the default was a round drone whose head was slightly open backwards with tentacles at the bottom. Sasha, or my creator, said himself that he was inspired by a robot from his favourite film called Wild Robot. Vontra because that was the name of my prototype was bad but I was supposed to be good and I'm honestly not sure I'm doing it right. I was programmed as a research robot so sometimes I have an unhealthy habit of scanning and investigating everything. Sasha jokes that I'm about to get interested in lobotomy because of this curiosity. I was honestly curious about it but this is probably not the time for those thoughts. I see the general and Sasha running towards us. Very hard for them through the chaos but they make it. Oh no...

"DAD!" Shouted my creator as one blast reached them but the general pushed his son away and himself flew into the air and fell practically a dozen metres from the barrier. Sasha ran up to him and tried to pick him up but alas. He is a skinny nineteen-year-old boy with little muscle. He never wanted to join the army. He wanted to be more of a scientist like his mother. He can't cope. "Dad get up! It's close!" The boy continued to try even though he understood it was impossible "I'M BEGGING!"

"Young one." Whispered the general quietly but I was able to hear him. "You have to go. You will make it through. You will rebuild the world. You can do it."

"I won't walk away from you! I won't let you die!"

"You will cope. I know that."

Those were his last words before his hand fell from the boy's freckled face to the ground and his son, in his torn jacket, trousers and already soiled T-shirt, cried into his chest. I felt once again that feeling that people would call sadness. I tried to understand it but I don't think I had time. At that time I noticed that one of the shadow monsters was running straight at him. I couldn't run there. I was given a clear command that I have to stay here and help other people. But this is my friend. My creator. But the command. A creator in danger, a command.... A friend in danger. But a command... But... The friend who gave me the ability to think abstractly is in danger....

"Damn the orders." Thanks to nanotechnology, I created a blaster for myself and flew at tremendous speed to Sasha, who only realised the creature was trying to kill him. He wouldn't have had time to react but I flew in time so I managed to shoot it down and kill it. Unfortunately a whole horde of other monsters came running from our direction. "Sasha we have to go." I wanted to take his hand but he rejected it. "If you stay here, you will die." I said.

"At least there will be an end to all this madness." He replied with tears in his eyes. "I just want it all to be over, I want to see the sun again. I haven't seen it for a two years. My mum died three months ago and now my dad. Go to the shelter yourself Kit. I want to die here."

"You are my friend. I don't want to feel sad again like I did with your father." He looked at me in shock. "I was surprised too but listen. I don't think your father would want you to die in vain. Come with me. The shelter's almost full and there's not much to save anyway. You will go to sleep and when you wake up it will be you and the other people who will rebuild civilisation anew."

In the turmoil of the chaos, he had time to still think about the things I had said to him. Meanwhile, I was trying to stop the aliens from attacking us. "Good." He finally said. "I want my father to be proud of me" I nodded to him and a smiling face appeared on my screen where a face should have been but Sasha when he looked at me looked scared. "BEWARE KIT!"

He pushed me away covering himself with his hand. Seconds later he lost that hand when a creature with a blade instead of a hand cut him. With shock in his eyes, Sasha looked once at the creature and then at the stump that was left behind. I reacted as quickly as I could by putting the blaster to his face, with which I killed the monster. The boy fell to his knees and I picked him up, and with the greatest speed I could achieve I flew into the barrier and into the lift that took us several kilometres underground. This base is not specialised in medicine but it could be. It is one of three left and between them you can teleport but there is too much danger now. When we arrived I flew with him straight to the hospital wing. On the way I heard the higher-ups saying something about some kind of Ragnarok operation. I didn't have time for that.

I put Sashe on the table where a snake-like Eir medical unit started scanning him. To stop the bleeding he anaesthetised my creature and burned the stump due to very little supplies. I moved away to not disturb and took one last look at the screen of probably the last camera still out there. I have ... hope that this is not the end. I hope that the people will return and with them a rebirth and not the destruction they almost wrought on the earth....

Current times - Canterlot

To be completely honest, being a princess is boring. Even very boring when, like me, by day you have to deal with the boring affairs of boring nobles who think they can do anything. Eh how much I would give to be Luna. Practically no one would come to me, the nobles wouldn't bother me and I could fight nightmares. Yes. That would be interesting and so I have to sit and listen to complaints. As much as I enjoy helping my dear ponies it is tiring. Fortunately, the day is coming to an end and I can leave the sunshine soon and let Luna take over. Unfortunately, since Twilight defeated Tirek not much has been happening. It is quiet. Too calm.

Maybe it's just the calm before the storm or some paranoid thoughts of mine but it feels like something might happen. "Princesses!" I heard one of my guards shout. So I was right.

"What's going on?" Asked my sister who had just woken up. "I know it's my time but there was no need to shout like that."

"It wasn't me sister. Apparently the guard has detected something." We looked at the panicked guard, who is quite terrified. "What's the matter? What happened?"

"Princesses. There. The monster. Glowing eyes. It attacked me with a spell and it didn't look like any species I know!" He shouted practically on one breath shaking all over.

"Calm down. Where was it?" I asked him. "Did it follow you?"

"I found him under the castle." We looked at him crookedly. "I went on my rounds and that's when I noticed the hidden door. I opened it and there was a cave. I went in and saw strange symbols that I couldn't read and then there was a monster!"

I looked at my sister and she looked at me. So it was this cave that our parents had told us about. Supposedly there were some caves under the castle but even they didn't want to go in there. If these are the caves our parents told us about then I guess it's high time to check if it's true. "Lead the way."

The guard went and we followed him. We said we would be gone a while. He led us a good few minutes because it was right downstairs but he finally got to the door he was talking about. He was afraid to open it so I did. He was right. It is the entrance to quite a large cave. I walked in and the first thing I felt was that the ground was not stone but metal. Luna also noticed this and did not understand it as I did. So I went first and the further I went, the cave expanded and there were strange symbols and paintings on the walls. One of the paintings depicted a strange creature. It looks like a hairless monkey wearing clothes. I'm guessing it's upper body because its what I'm guessing are upper limbs similar to those of minotaurs. One of his limbs is attached to his body and the other salutes his forehead. Judging by the medals on his chest he must have been some kind of hero.

"Do you recognise these creatures sister?" My sister asked. Wanted to answer her but was unable to when she saw another image. "Sister... By all creation..."

Apparently she also saw what I saw i.e. small versions of that creature what I had seen before without eyes, ears, noses and mouth giving what looked like bows to another unknown but terrifying creature or rather just its white smile with sharpened teeth, red eyes on so many creatures that looked like shadows. I stepped back slightly but then I hit something. It wasn't a wall because the wall was a little further away. I turned around to see something metal. Nothing happened after a few moments this thing opened its eyes. The guard hid behind me and Luna activated the horn with me. A couple of strange sounds came from the metal monster, it straightened a large limb similar to the creature in the painting and wanted to approach us but just as quickly as if it had activated its eyes those eyes disappeared and the thing all but fell inertly to the ground.

"------------."

The creature spoke? I couldn't understand but I'm sure it spoke. Luna was the first to dare and touch the monster but nothing happened. I approached as well. I wanted to try to talk to it but nothing. The dark eyes did not move. I looked at Luna and at the huge wall as if divided in half in front of us. It must be a door. So what my parents had told me was true. Twilight also said she was researching an ancient civilisation she had stumbled upon recently but had come to a standstill. Well. I guess it's a lucky day for her. I don't know where this will lead us but one thing is certain. Whatever created this guardian must have been defending itself against the monsters in the painting....

Guardian of the ancients

Author's Note

I just wanted to thank you for such a great response under the first chapter. I am very pleased and enjoy reading

Guardian of the ancients

The year 2100 - Twenty minutes before Operation Ragnarok

"War is organised madness destroying the best of humans".

I used to think that the words of Eugene B Sledge.... American soldier and World War 2 biologist were exaggerated. Because oh that's me. The commander of one of the last bastions of humanity, who should have no feelings whatsoever, I sit beside my nephew who is barely looking at the wall as the EIR unit tries to clean the wound from his cut hand and prevent infection barely holding back tears. I try to keep my cool but I have failed on so many levels. I have failed as a sister.... an aunt... or just a soldier. Seemingly I should be used to it after such a time of shadow warfare but I'm not able to. Seeing people whose psyche is slowly being destroyed I can deduce that they were once like me. Warriors who thought that war was just a pastime that would end quickly. However, no. It is a nightmare from which one cannot wake up.

I close my eyes having my nephew's only hand at my mouth. I try to calm him down but it's really difficult. "Aunty." The boy finally spoke up. "Is this the end of us?"

"No." I replied quickly. "Certainly not. Remember that you and your mother planned Operation Ragnarok? This is a chance for all of us." He only looked at me with eyes faintly red from crying.

"This is not a rescue. It's the ultimate form of desperation..."

"We live in sheer desperation all the time Sasha. At times like these.... desperation is the only weapon we have." I patted him lightly on the head. "It will work Sasha. It doesn't matter how but it will work. Everything will be fine." I smiled at him falsely because I didn't believe it myself and he picked up on it and at that moment this Kit flew up to us. Sasha's robot with a glass of water. So the robots will be serving a glass of water in their old age... "How's the Kit situation?"

"Well..." He started rather reluctantly as he gave Sasha a drink from his cup. "Totally it's over. We're losing. Some people said they had a plan. I hope they succeed."

"Yes. Hope is also a good weapon." Suddenly we heard a bang. "What was that?"

"The Shadows have broken through the barrier!" Shouted one of the situation monitors. "Exactly ten of them. They're trying to get through the door! If they come in here we will all die. We practically have no weapons!"

I looked at the screen where you can see perfectly how ten rather sizable shadowy monsters are trying to force their way into the base. With trepidation, I could hear the powerful thuds of claws even kilometres underground. A general panic began to set in. I, in this situation, only looked in the mirror. Years spent fighting had taken place on me. My dark brown hair is cut short and always in disarray, as if I haven't had time to groom it in a long time. My face is adorned with scars - two particularly prominent: one runs from my right eyebrow arch diagonally to the middle of my cheek, the other, narrower, cuts across my left lip. My once bright blue eyes have faded slightly. The muscles show that I have trained for years but.... for what I'm about to do physical strength is of no use to me.

I run for a shotgun with technology that is capable of killing shadowy people. Unfortunately this was only recently discovered so the chances of knocking them all out were poor anyway. So I loaded the cartridges with pain in my eyes and approached my nephew, who already knew what I wanted to do. I touched his cheek and kissed his forehead. "I love you Sasha. Create a new better world for us."

"Auntie please. I just lost my dad." His eyes glazed over. "I don't want you too."

I smiled at him lightly stroking his long hair. "You're made for great things darling."

I heard a sudden gasp. I looked in that direction to see Sasha's girlfriend. Zeira is a representative of the Thalven race. Her purple face is slender, with clear, sharp features. She has five eyes. Two aligned vertically on either side of her face and one larger, vertical one on her forehead. They are all of an intense golden colour. Her hair is a luscious green colour, reaching slightly past her shoulders. Zeira does not care for her hairstyle in the traditional sense. Her race is practically all warriors including her. This lifestyle does not allow her such luxuries and especially not in the last few years. Her pointed, distinctly elongated ears stick out from behind her strands, accentuating her exotic figure. Usually she is dressed in armour but now in a plain white shirt, which she had to modify to accommodate the extra two arms, jeans with a tail of fur sticking out the end and some sneakers.

She ran up to us with a fastidious face. Several scars from years of fighting were clear. I have rarely seen this breed worried but now I understand her. She is terrified. "And what happened to you?!" She roared so that half the people were looking at us. "That's how I asked you to be careful! I can't lose you!" He didn't answer me anything just looked at me. Zeira looked back at me. When she noticed Shotgun she understood what I wanted to do. "Ms Novákový. We can't lose any more..."

"There is no other way Zeira." I touched her arm. "Good luck in the new world." Without looking back I ran to the lift where I could already see that this would be my end.

Present times - Canterlot

"To be honest I didn't believe you were right." Said Rainbow Dash to me as we walked towards the castle after exiting the train. I rolled my eyes at this unkind yet honest to goodness comment. Yes I know the concept of an ancient civilisation even before the first pony is madness but apparently I was right. From what the princess wrote in the letter there was a mechanical guard that shut down and the room itself looked dilapidated so it must be old. Unfortunately I couldn't think on it because my friend kept talking. "Like was this supposedly ancient civilisation really that advanced now that it's gone?"

"Gosh Rainbow stop it." Applejack replied to her. "Didn't you listen to what Twilight was saying? This civilisation could have existed millions if not more years ago. And if this is some kind of bunker then they were hiding from something."

"And that worries me." Fluttershy said. "They were probably defending themselves from something bad. What if it comes back?"

"That's scary darling but if that thing was going to attack us it would have already attacked. What do you think Pinkie Pie?"

"What do you think Rarity?!" Shouted our pink friend. She's been so excited ever since she found out about all this. "I'm going to have a welcoming party! If there was a ranger there then there are probably these ancient creatures somewhere! So many new friends!"

Ah. All Pinkie Pie. Always so happy and upbeat, and the chatter about ancient beings had started between them again. I wish I could be as optimistic as Pinkie. I would love to believe that these creatures are alive but since there was a guard and not just one, they must have been defending themselves from something. The princess also said there was an image of monsters they were probably defending themselves against but also possibly their language, which is incomprehensible to us. I'm lucky to have learned the translation spell. Maybe it will come in handy.

However, I still can't pull myself away from one thought. What if Fluttershy is right and what once attacked them may return? We don't even know if the creatures are alive or not. Eh. I don't know what to think about that but luckily I don't have to anymore because we finally arrived at the castle. One of the guards led us to the very bottom of the castle where in a cave the princesses were trying to study something.

I was about to ask them something but my attention was caught by images. One creature in particular. It looks like a monkey in clothes with many medals and the fur is only on its head. There is something written on this painting but I can't decipher it. Will try later. "Twilight." Princess Celestia called back to me. "Hello, how was your journey there?"

"Everything was trouble free only Pinkie and Rainbow kept talking about it and it was a bit noisy. Now they are quiet so I think they like it." Suddenly we heard a shout. "Fluttershy?" The cream pegasus hid behind me showing me a picture which also scared me and I think that's what the princesses were talking about. ‘What is it?’

"We don't know." Princess Luna replied, coming up to us. "We only guess that these Shadows monsters led to the end of this race. Or they were the reason for their hiding."

"So what? A great ancient civilisation lost to.... shadow? That's a bit weak."

"That shadow dear Rainbow Dash must have been powerful" Princess Celestia stated, looking at the image hostilely. "Since this civilisation was so powerful that it created strong guards it couldn't have fallen to a mere opponent or even an invader."

"That's right. The letter mentioned some kind of guard. Where is he?"

The princess wordlessly went to the other wall where some sizable creature of metal lay. Most of my friends refused to approach except Rainbow and Pinkie. Rainbow was flying over it trying to get a closer look and Pinkie was just being Pinkie and jumping around it. I tried to look at it but I completely didn't understand it. There was some writing on the guard but I couldn't decipher it. I also tried to scan with magic but nothing.... nothing but something in his head that pulsed terribly. I climbed on top of it because it was indeed really sizable and I saw a sort of indentation. Wanting to figure out how it worked I started describing possibilities on how I could open it. However, everything was interrupted by Rainbow hitting it with her hoof, this.

"RAINBOW!" I shouted when suddenly its head opened. "Eeee. Thank you."

His head seemed to open showing what looked like a metal brain. Unsure I reached out with my hoof. It was too deep so I tried to grab it with magic which succeeded. But not for long, because as soon as I lifted it slightly the guard suddenly started to move. Strange lights came out from inside it and it started to get up. Oh no. Oh no! I jumped to the ground from a height. I was caught by Rainbow. She put me on the ground and, slightly terrified, we watched the guard come back to life. His eyes flashed red. He leaned on one of his forelegs enough to stand upright. Oh boy, no legs. He must have been struggling with something. The other of his limbs turned into a sort of .... I can't describe it. It became sort of hollow but there was energy inside and he aimed it at us. He started looking at us and after a while a beam of light came out of his eyes. It was not painful and his eyes turned blue and his limb turned normal. After a moment of silence I was the first to come out to greet him.

"Greetings O eternal guardian." I bowed to him as he looked at me wordlessly. "I am Twilight Sparkle. And these are my friends and the Princesses" The Princesses came up and said hello but he still didn't answer anything. "Emmm. Mr. Guardian?"

" --------------- ------ -----"

"He seems to have said something. Maybe it's his language." Applejack approached a little more confidently. "He looks friendly. I have something versatile." She handed him an apple. "Here you go. It's a gift from the Apple family. I hope we can live side by side without any problems." The guard accepted the apple. Wait wait wait. Well, of course. He speaks his language. We have another one.

"Wait a minute. I'll cast a translation spell on us. Then maybe we can communicate with him." They all nodded and I started to charge the horn and concentrate on this one spell. It is quite difficult but after a while I finally managed to cast it on all of us. Slightly tired I had to sit down which didn't escape the attention of my friends. "It's nothing like that. It's just a challenging spell. Princess. Can you come up and see if it worked?"

"Of course. You did a great job." Princess Celestia approached the guard. The guard bowed slightly? This caused us a little consternation. Did he understand what we were saying to her? "Guard. Do you understand us now?"

"Yes Princess Celestia. Thank you for the activation." The guard spoke up as if in a mechanical voice. We all started to rejoice and celebrate but that was only half the story. "Can this unit know where it is? I can't detect any satellite connections." Okay. I completely misunderstood him.

"You're in Canterlot." She replied feeling increasingly confident. "And forgive me but I didn't understand. What is this satellite connection? And more importantly what is your name?"

"I am a Goliath unit numbered 069, and a satellite link is a link that allows me to determine where the unit is located." Pinkie shouted and ran towards him jumping on top of him. I wanted to stop her but the guard didn't react to her. He just stared. "Can the unit ask a question?" He addressed the princess directly, who nodded. "What is your racial ID? There is no intelligent race in my database with your appearance."

"We're Ponies silly!" Squealed Pinkie laying on his shoulder and started to point at us. "With wings they're Pegasuses, with horns they're Unicorns, with nothing they're Earth ponies and with wings and horns they're Alikorns! EEEEEEEEEEE! I'm so happy to throw you a welcome party! Do you have any more friends?!" Before she could start running after him again Rarity took her in magic and put her on the ground. "Rarity!"

"Pinkie darling. I understand you're happy because we have a new friend but he's probably been asleep for so many years. You can't torment him like that" This time the Rarity walked up to him. "Hello guardian. I'm Rarity. I wanted to say hello and welcome to our world." Rainbow Dash flew up to his face. "Rainbow!"

"Well what? I want to say hello too! Hi Guardian. I'm Rainbow Dash! The fastest Pegasus in all of Equestria!"

Although I was very excited that we had woken up a friendly ranger there had to be something else somewhere. I said I'd have a look around. There was a mass of these guards in the walls. They were all asleep or as Goliath said.... not activated. They can probably all be activated somehow but judging by the sophistication of our new friend, his creators must be able to activate them all in one go but I don't know where they are. Maybe behind that locked door. Just how to open them? Maybe Goliath can help. I wanted to go to them already when I felt something completely different from the metal floor under my hoof. I picked it up with magic and saw a strange smaller piece of very dirty metal with something engraved on it. I looked closer and realised it must be a name.

"General Novákový. Born 22 March 2055." This is the immortal of the ancient! My brother has one similar to it. I turned it over because there are usually some quotes on the other side but no. There was nothing. However, something was flashing. Like a little light. I didn't press it. I walked over to my friends where I saw Fluttershy, who was worried about Goliath.

"Are you sure you're okay?" My shy friend asked. "You don't have any legs. Doesn't that hurt you?"

"This unit has no preloaded pain sensation. I'm immune to it." He looked at me. "Princess Twilight. Did you find General Novákový's immortal?"

"Emmm yes. I think. Who was she? Why was her immortal lying here?"

"Unfortunately I am unable to answer this question but with my activation the black box of the immortal has been activated. By pressing on the pulsating light you can see the last moments of the owner."

As he said so I did. Unfortunately I think I pressed in the wrong place because suddenly a light appeared, which formed in the air into a probably ancient one that began to dance. "Never gonna give you up; never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you! Never gonna make you cry! Never gonna say goodbye! Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!"

The song continued to fly. Pinkie just started dancing but the rest just stared at the forebear. This is how they looked... Rarity's jaw dropped and she even blushed and Goliath just stared. It might be one of his creatures. I walked up to him and showed him. "Do you recognise him? Is this one of your creators?"

"It's a so-called meme princess. According to my database, you have been rickrolled. It's an event that didn't pass by any human."

"A human. Was that the name of their race?"

‘Yes but the more common form was people.’

"Human." Applejack spoke up. "Human. Ha ha. That's even a cool word. How about we see what was in that.... black box yes?"

Goliath nodded and pressed an even smaller limb from his shoulder with a flashing light. An image appeared before us of a man without an arm lying on a bed and another strange purple creature beside him. It was perhaps some kind of variation like ours. In any case, in this moving image I think this Novákový, who had some kind of weapon in her hands that I cannot describe, ran to a door that closed behind her and began to go upwards. After a moment, another door opened in front of her showing the shadowy creatures from the painting we had seen earlier. Fluttershy hid behind Princess Luna, who herself was terrified but this was not the end. Novákový started shooting at nothing but only managed to kill three of the monsters before they learned to dodge better. Then she pulled out a small oblong thing, and said a very sad thing when she looked at the picture of the man who had been lying on the bed earlier. "Goodbye darling. May the world to come be more kind to you." At that moment everything went dark for a moment. The image reappeared as another creature made of metal with tentacles flew up to her. And this is where it all ends.

To say that most of us were sad is like saying nothing at all. The Princesses, Rarity, Fluttershy and I had tears in our eyes. Applejack was hugging Pinkie with her mane down and Rainbow had flown somewhere far away. If she died somewhere here then there must be something more. I walked over to where I found the immortal and magically tried to find more. At first nothing but after a while something appeared. I went in that direction and saw the same creature made of metal as in that black box. It was sitting in a corner lifelessly overgrown with vegetation. Hm. If we could activate Goliath then maybe we can activate him too. With him we might at least learn more....

Another landmark awakening

The year 2100 - Ten minutes before Operation Ragnarok

‘When you lose a person you care so much about, the pain is as intense as the happiness before.’

These words come from a book by Simone Elkeles. I used to read it and now after losing my aunt this quote is constantly on my mind. I can safely say that she was right. I am crying in bed being completely broken. First my father and now my aunt. It hurts so much. Zeira tries to help me by stroking and hugging me. It is unbelievable that a warrior as strong as her can be so tender. Her light kisses make me feel better but I know she has also lost a lot through this war. It is said that the Shadow King himself killed her parents laughing in her face and humiliated her by leaving her alive. Her family who were royalty fought against him. From her story they almost defeated him but the shadows came and killed her parents and left her alive. This is the biggest sign of disrespect in her culture. Her race is very honourable but also feisty. The best warriors in the galaxy had fallen so the rest didn't stand a chance.

When I heard the explosion literally moments ago I knew she had sacrificed herself for us. I cried and my girlfriend told Kit to check it out and she hugged me tighter to her chest. She knows very well that listening to the heartbeat of someone close to me calms me down so she put my head against her chest. Her heart was beating and that calmed me down. There was omnipresent chaos all around and that made it difficult for me to calm down but in her embrace everything was better.

"They're going to make us pay for all this." Zeira finally spoke up, looking menacingly at the lift doors. Her tail seemed to involuntarily hug me. The tail for her species is the most sensitive yet one of the most intimate places on the body. A tail hug implies great trust and I am grateful to her for that. "I will murder any Shadow. For my family and yours."

"Zeira darling." I touched her sad face. "We can only hide here for now. I understand you're angry but..."

"Don't kill?" She asked grimly. "Revenge for me is important. It is part of my culture. He humiliated me... " She closed her eyes and took a breath. "But I won't do it for you.... Mhm? Mmmm."

I interrupted her with a quiet kiss on the lips. It surprised her at first but she quickly reciprocated it. She smiled at me and hugged me and I had to tell her something. "I'm not going to stop you. "I think I shocked her slightly. "We're both going to beat him... and when that happens... I promise I won't take away your choice between life and death. I'll be happy to watch him die."

"Thank you Sasha." She touched my cheek lightly. "It means a lot to me that you understand. When we wake up we will move on him. Together."

We touched foreheads and just stayed like that for a while. I don't know how much had passed. Seconds, maybe minutes or hours. She just really made me feel better. It makes the apocalypse outside not so scary. Maybe we really can rebuild the world from scratch when we get up. I hope so albeit the mother of fools.

Suddenly at this point we heard another bang and the sound of ripping metal. The lift door began to bend and finally a shadow rushed into the room and threw Kit, who was barely functioning, under our feet. The monster roared and threw itself at its first victim. Zeira's pupils narrowed and a spear appeared in her hand. I stopped her but she wanted to go on. Just as I was about to say something to her she kissed me.

"Sasha. This is one of the Alphas. The one who helped defeat my parents. I won't let him kill us. I love you Sasha. I always will. And I'm sorry. Alpha code. Take him to safety."

She said this to the EIR unit. Before I had time to say more she moved on the shadow and the EIR took me elsewhere. I still had time to see one Goliath unit get chopped in half by the shadow and I realised I couldn't leave them without help. Mutation serum... I took the untouched syringe out of my trousers. It's not finished but I have no choice....

Before the monster had time to kill another man I ran my spear into his side pinning him to the wall. It roared in pain trying to hit me with its tail. He was unsuccessful. I cut through the spikes that came out of my skin on my arms. Fortunately, it's a spear made of my planet's metal, which is capable of killing shadows instantly. That's probably why they took our planet as their first target. Well. They succeeded but not completely. Every survivor of my race wants to kill them and I will stop at nothing. Alpha apparently recognised me and wanted to take out my weapon but I grabbed it and threw it at a pillar, which it pierced and landed under the stairs, which I smashed with my blaster. They collapsed on top of it and I summoned my spear.

"Run away." I said to the scientist as I created a shield out of magic. He ran away but I saw him hiding in the corner with another blaster. "Come on you bitch! I'm waiting! You will die this time!"

"Thalven." Replied a husky genderless voice from the ever-present dust. "We have driven you out..."

"As the earthlings say of us.... We are like the Hydra. Cut off one head and two more will grow in its place."

The roar that Alpha let out was powerful. He threw himself at me emerging from the battle dust. This time he pinned me against the wall with his teeth, which I blocked with my shield. I hit him on the jaw with my knee. This distracted him for a moment. I kicked with my foot and hit the underside of his head with the shield. As he is a shadowy werewolf he yelped in pain and I was able to drive the weapon into his head but failed as his tentacle stopped my spear. The scientist tried to shoot at it but to no avail and I did what I could. I hit him with my head. Confused he let go of the spear but it only flew into his leg, which he ripped out inflicting a strong wound on my face and cut my upper left eye. Having a high tolerance for pain I didn't get too distracted so I was able to go for a counter attack this time with my knife.

I jumped on him tearing his paw. He rolled over onto his back and I was able to drive the knife into his neck. He roared once again. With his claws he scratched my back causing a mass of small bleeding wounds. I could bear it but I couldn't bear it when it pierced the wall with its tentacle, turned orange and breathed fire at me. Oh well. Absorption abilities that only Alphas have. At the last moment I shielded myself with my shield but the firepower was too strong and it reached me. I fell to the floor in pain. In the reflection I saw that half my face was burnt. This one wanted to run at me but I threw my shield at his stomach with all my strength. This sawed him in half. He was not indebted to me as he fired a spike which pierced me through.

I couldn't stay on my feet much longer so I fell to my knees and in the distance I saw a cooler of food. Maybe I could freeze it. So with my last strength I got up and started walking towards it. A little blood flew from my mouth but I kept going. I ordered ZEUS or the main artificial intelligence to open the nearest door to the cold room. There's a railing and I'll drop it there. Maybe it will work. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll be able to get there because the Alpha started running towards me despite the lack of legs. I sped up my stride but at the same time summoning my spear. He caught up with me when I was already close but I blocked him with the spear. With my extra hands I cut him with my claws. This hurt him but to my misfortune not very well because he crushed one of them with my tentacle. I hissed in pain when he tried to pull the other one away from me. Then I started stabbing him with the blade using my tail. Each blow was felt by him but not quite when he turned orange again and was about to breathe fire but luckily someone knocked him away from me. It was Sasha with the metal prosthetic.

"You were supposed to run away!" I roared at him as Alpha stood up. "What are you doing here!"

"I saved you. You're welcome. The serum is apparently working. I don't know how much but it's working. Now what?"

"Sasha. You can't handle him. Even with this serum. You can't handle it."

"Don't treat me like a child! Zeira. I may not be a fighter but I can fight."

"You lost your arm in the fight with Omega. You are in no condition to fight...Watch out!"

I blocked the spear attack again but this time the monster threw me into the wall. I fell and noticed it coming towards me but Sasha takes one of my knives left in it and jumped on its head. He roared as he daggered his neck and neck again and again. The tentacle that was supposed to take him snatched it away and I stood up and realised he was on a perfect straight line to the freezer but maybe that won't be needed because Sasha is doing well.... unfortunately not anymore because he grabbed his denture with his teeth and threw him against the ground.

Alpha was surprised that the prosthetic easily stayed in his mouth and Sasha stuck a knife in his neck and tried to cut him open. He almost succeeded but grabbed it with his paw from the head, driving it into the ground. I looked at it with fear but to my surprise he was still breathing. In my mind I apologised to him and with a scream on my lips I started to run at him. He wanted to do it again but didn't make it in time when I again thrust my spear into his side and this time I jumped over the railings with him falling down hoping that Sasha was safe....

Present times - Canterlot

I've been sitting on this robot as Goliath put it for a couple of hours now and have been unable to activate it. Supposedly our new friend gave me his schematics but what can I do when I don't have the right tools. I have tried everything. There is nothing about it that is similar to Goliath. This is a THOT unit. He was in charge of gathering information so surely he will know how to open the door. From what Goliath said these robots were extremely curious and had the ability to develop abstract thinking which robots usually couldn't. This one is supposed to be created by that man without a hand on the video.

"Come on." I said to myself. "After all, there must be a way to activate you! Just how?"

Eh. I'm already too tired for that. Cadance and Shining are arriving tomorrow so maybe they can help us. The princesses sent them letters with news of the ancients. They stated that they were coming immediately because they didn't believe us. I smiled slightly at this. Just a few days ago I would not have believed such information and now? I sit in the same room with the ancient robot trying to activate it and I look through the so-called black box of the immortal. To be honest I am stopping all the time on a man without an arm and Thalven which is a race from another planet. Slightly blushing all the time, I wonder how their story turned out. Maybe they are still living behind that door or maybe they were killed by the shadow monsters. This I do not know. What I do know is that for creatures alien to me they look even nice. Eh. What am I thinking about?

Maybe I'll just go to bed now. I hope Pinkie has given Goliath a break by now. She kept jumping around him and asking lots of questions. Even the princesses who had to ask diplomatic questions asked less than she did. I'm a bit annoyed that I can't activate it as easily as Goliath but maybe I'll get something tomorrow. So I tried one last spell on it, which did nothing, and went to bed.

I fell asleep, quite quickly but in between I heard strange sounds. I don't know what it is but maybe it's just the nobles being pranked again. In the castle fortunately it's not so audible so I fell asleep. Surprisingly I didn't have any bad dreams so in the morning I woke up quite sleepy. However, I heard someone walking around my room. Thinking it was someone from the staff or a friend of mine, I opened my eye to say hello. What I saw was not a pony but a metal eye staring at me. For a moment I thought it was a dream, but when I touched it and met resistance I realised it was not a dream.

Surprised, I screamed and shot out uncontrollably with magic. The robot I was trying to activate activated and also started screaming raising its limbs up as my magic projectile bounced all over the room until it finally flew out of the room hitting something.

"MY CABBAGES!"

Shouted the pony who was apparently selling cabbages. I apologised to him as the robot continued to shout. For moments we stood there, unsure what to do until I grunted. "Emmm. Why are you shouting?" I asked myself as politely as I could. The man stopped and flew over to me.

"You shouted first. I thought that was your habit." Honestly yesterday I had so many questions for him and now they had all escaped my mind. So I ran to get my notebook. I grabbed it and walked over to him. I was already about to ask a load of questions but I noticed that he was just standing still by the window. He was looking out at the landscape without moving at all. I stood next to him and looked along with him.

"Excuse me Mr THOT. Is something wrong?"

The man continued to say nothing. I guess he is surprised that after this war there is still life on his former planet. So we sit in silence for a while. He seems to be enjoying the view. Apparently he fell asleep when his home was ravaged by these monsters and now it is different. "We did it." He finally speaks up. "Life has been reborn. I'm Kit, by the way." He handed me his tentacle. I handed him my leg, which he shook. Apparently this was how people used to greet each other. "And who are you?"

I didn't immediately register the question so I didn't answer but after a moment I realised he had asked a question and I was just staring at him. "Oh I'm so sorry Mr Kit. This is all so new to me. I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm very pleased to meet you. I take it you are happy with your new world? Despite the lack of these people?"

"Satisfied? It's beyond our wildest expectations. And the people are alive and in capsules. I am sure we will live together in harmony."

"Oh for sure. It's their world after all. It's changed a lot but I'm sure we'll be able to live together in harmony side by side. If I may ask. Do you know how much time has passed since the fall of humanity?" This clearly left him in quite a bit of consternation.

"Well, probably a lot. Certainly more than two million years because my counter stopped there. We'll get more data when we get into the cryogenic rooms."

"We're going to meet your makers! I'm so happy... And terrified. What if we make the wrong impression?"

"I'm sure we'll be fine Twilight. Admittedly people had a hard charter but I think you'll like each other."

Before she could ask him another question I heard some commotion outside the door and then more, more, more until finally my friends and princesses came running through the door along with Cadance and my brother, who at first asked what was wrong that I was screaming and then Pinkie fainted with happiness when she saw Kit. Oh dear. This is going to be a long conversation....

There is no such thing as the end. Never.

Year 2100 – Five Minutes Before Operation Ragnarok

"Every ending is a beginning of something new."

Such noble thoughts crossed my mind when I was creating Project Ragnarok with my mother. These words by Libba Bray fit perfectly here. Together, we worked on this operation when the Shadows invaded our planet. We knew we didn’t stand a chance against them, so this ultimate act of desperation pushed us to it. We were well aware humanity probably wouldn’t survive, so we wanted to give others a chance. However, we didn’t realize how much we would have to sacrifice to make it happen.

Now, I’m being carried by Kit to the cryogenic chamber. Just a few moments ago, Zeira sacrificed herself so I could live. And now... because of it, I feel lifeless. As I looked at my reflection, the only thing I noticed was how unkempt my fiery red hair looked, and how my green eyes seemed to have lost their color. Tears welled up, but I tried not to cry.

Kit finally arrived at the chambers. A doctor was supposed to check me for injuries that needed bandaging, but upon finding none, I looked at perhaps my last friend. "Will we meet again in the new world? I don’t want to be alone."

"I’ll do my best to always be with you, my friend." replied my mechanical companion, stroking my head. I smiled faintly, though a single thought struck me.

"Can... I step outside one last time? Just to see the world once more?"

"That’s not possible, Sasha." Interrupted ZEUS. "Operation Ragnarok will commence in exactly five minutes. The cryogenic capsules will activate then, and there will be no way to exit until I deem it appropriate. The most I can do is allow you to enter the capsule and project your consciousness holographically to the surface of the facility."

"Alright. I’d be grateful for that. At least something. Kit, will you come with me?"

My friend only nodded. I smiled and glanced at the capsules. Not everyone would survive till the end... Eh. I hope at least half do. Mother and I worked hard to ensure that. From the beginning, she said this was a risky project, but it was worth the fight. The capsule opened, but before I stepped inside, I looked at her photo. Her fiery hair, which I often joked about by calling her "Wise Bacon," always amazed me. How could she have such a unique hair color? She said it was a very rare shade of red. To me, it was beautiful. Smiling at the photo, I stepped into the capsule, which closed shortly after.

I closed my eyes, feeling light tremors and a headache until I felt nothing. When I opened my eyes, I found myself on the highest possible point of our base, the ruined communication tower. I sat on its edge, and shortly after, the holographic Kit joined me. Together, we looked at the ravaged Earth. Numerous ships hadn’t yet launched, including the mothership that blocked out the sun. These creatures would destroy our planet until the very end.

When I saw human survivors, mostly civilians desperately trying to enter the protective field but failing, I felt an immense thirst for vengeance. That would come when I awaken. Together with other races, humanity would journey to the Shadow's planet to finally destroy them. Eh. Those are dreams, but for now, I must watch as invaders kill children and their parents.

"Attention," a loud voice boomed from the speakers. "Four minutes remain until Operation Ragnarok." After this loud announcement, there was silence again, interrupted only by roars and pleas. I looked at Kit, who touched my back. Yes. This is possible.

"Do you think the new world we wake up in will be better?" I asked, on the verge of tears, not even sure what I truly wanted to say. Kit simply looked down and then at the scenery as the voice announced there were thirty seconds left.

"One can only hope, Sasha... The only thing I know is that we’ll be there together." The voice announced three minutes remaining as a shadow loomed above us. Kit turned and showed me it was a hologram of the Shadow King in armor. "Would you like to be alone with him now?"

"Yes, please, my friend."

Kit vanished as the King approached. His armor seemed almost ephemeral, as if it were dissolving into darkness. He had no helmet, revealing his face, a black and purple werewolf like snout. Eh. He wasn’t some strange, unknown race. He was Lykarion, or rather, what was left of them. Once a race of proud and noble warriors, they had been corrupted by darkness during a war with another extinct race. Not all of them, of course. Those who didn’t want to be corrupted perished, while the corrupted survived. This supposedly happened billions of years ago in another universe, but no one wanted to believe it. Not until the corrupted Lykarions attacked.

Their hierarchy ranged from Omegas, the weakest, to Betas, akin to nobility. Above them were Alphas, an elite group, and at the top stood the Rasvertar, the strongest of the Lykarions and their king or queen. Such is the hierarchy of the Shadows.

The King approached me from the side and looked at the landscape as if relishing the sight, yet he said nothing. His eyes and expression were stoic and emotionless. Still, he placed a clawed hand, covered in armor, on my shoulder. This was possible because the holograms tracked limb movements and created an illusion of touch. "Your race has my respect until the end of time." He said in a calm voice. "I must admit, at first, I underestimated you. Now, seeing your courage, I must honor you."

Honestly, even if he killed me now, I wouldn’t care. I just had to point something out. "What honor is there in attacking the weak?"

He didn’t react. He didn’t get angry or try to kill me. He merely lowered his head slightly.
"I know. It tarnished my honor. I tried to remain honorable, but it wasn’t always possible. I heard that humans possess a weapon capable of stopping me. I had to strike first. What I do... is for a greater good. I know you don’t see it that way, but it is so."

"For the greater good, you’re annihilating an entire galaxy?"

"There are far worse things than me. Without my actions, the Titans would awaken, and it would be much worse."

"We would’ve defeated them."

"Perhaps them, but not her... But that’s not why I’m here. Where is the royal Thalven? I know she came here. I intended to kill her for their honor but was occupied with someone else."

"She’s dead. She fell in battle against an Alpha."

"At least she died honorably."

The voice announced one minute remaining. "I assume this countdown is your plan?" I nodded. "I see. I’ll ensure you are remembered."

He disappeared, and in the last minute of my time on Earth, I tried to absorb my planet’s essence. This might be the end, the end of everyone but the end of the Shadows is yet to come... The voice announced the final ten seconds. The countdown began, and gradually, the Earth was enveloped in even greater darkness than before. A solar eclipse... The Shadows didn’t understand what was happening, so they stopped what they were doing, only to watch as an even greater darkness consumed them. When the countdown reached five seconds, I felt a chill. I took a deep breath, and when the countdown ended, everything went black.

Present Day – Canterlot

I really hoped my friends wouldn’t be so insistent with Kit… Really. I was so wrong. Apart from the princesses, everyone bombarded him with questions as we made our way to the bunker. Even Cadance couldn't hold back. What will happen when they meet Goliath…? Kit couldn't answer a single question before another came his way. The princesses, particularly Princess Luna, seemed to sympathize deeply with him. Eventually, she approached him, shielding him with her wing.

"Friends..." she began, silencing the group. " I understand your excitement about meeting an ancient being like Kit. But even a robot needs a moment to breathe so to speak." She took a deep breath, smiling gently at him. "Kit, may I ask you something?" He only nodded. "What was the world like before the war with the Shadows? We saw another being, Thalven, from a different planet. Were humans allied with them?"

"Well..." Kit started. "The Shadows attacked our planet in 2098, and humanity fell two years later. The war against them in our galaxy actually began ten years earlier. Before all that, things were better, simpler. Earth developed slowly until 2050, but that year we made contact with our first extraterrestrial race: the Greys, from the nearest star system. They initiated peaceful communication with us."

"There's more than just Thalvens?" Applejack asked, her eyes wide with curiosity. "I can’t wait to meet them all. Think of all the apples we could share!"

"Another party!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, hopping with excitement.

"If I may ask," I interjected, "How many races were there in the galaxy?"

"Honestly, my database has suffered from the wear of time, but I recall at least eleven other species besides humans, though there were likely more. The Greys, Qalmarian, Tigerd, Thalven, Wicherry, Zelturai, Tryyl, Qazer, Guddan, Serrter, Mimmirc, and Kautchia. Then there were the Rndartry, though I’m unsure if they count, as they were simply artificial intelligences that gained sentience after their creators perished. No one knows what happened to them."

"Incredible." Princess Celestia said, her voice filled with wonder. "If these races survived, they could rebuild the alliance, and this time, Equestria would join."

"Do you want to join?" Kit asked, his tone curious. "On most planets, the idea was to prepare cryogenic preservation and organize a counterattack to obliterate the Shadows completely. Judging by what I’ve observed, your race seems rather peaceful."

"That’s true, friend." Celestia replied. "But now I realize that such a conflict could happen here. Shadows could attack us, and apart from our magic, we have little means of defense. If we are to fight, I wish to stand alongside allies, not alone. I don't want anything to happen to my little ponies."

"Princess. I understand that you are afraid but the shadows have not attacked us since as long as we've existed which, by the way, I'm going to want to know how that happened. Perhaps what humans once did has meant that the Shadows are no longer here."

"Twilight." Celestia interjected, "Even if the Shadows are gone, I’d like to establish peaceful relations with other races. A trade or cultural alliance seems like a great opportunity. What do you think, dear Kit?"

"Well." Kit mused, "It sounds like a good idea. Humans joined the alliance not because of wars but for trade and peace. They had excellent relations with others. My creator, for instance, was in a relationship with a Thalven, a proud warrior race. Oddly enough, my creator followed more in his mother's footsteps. He was the scientific type... albeit a reckless one."

"What do you mean by 'reckless'?" Rainbow Dash asked, smirking. "Sounds cooler than being careful like Twilight." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, he often lost things, was clumsy, and loved experimenting with strange ideas. For example, once, he tried firing long strands of spaghetti at the speed of light into a black hole. I never learned the outcome of that experiment, but he always did such things with his mother. Both were scatterbrained scientists."

I was about to ask something else when I noticed my brother, Shining Armor, hadn’t said a word since we arrived. He wasn’t asking any questions or engaging at all, just silently watching. Maybe he doesn’t trust Kit... Perhaps I should show him the immortal of the ancient. It might convince him. But not now. Just as I was about to decide, we reached the cave. Shining and Cadance weren’t there, so their jaws dropped.

They didn’t know what to say. They looked at the pictures, especially the one of Sasha's father, who turned out to be the creator of Kit. He was a general who sacrificed himself so his son could live. I can't even imagine the pain he must have felt when that happened. After that, they moved on. Fluttershy didn’t even want to approach the shadow picture, but Cadance and my brother did. They gently stepped back and ended up bumping into Goliath, who waved at them. They waved back while Pinkie jumped onto his head.

"Goliath! Hey! How’s it going?! Any news?"

"Hey Pinkie. Yes, I have something new. Can you get down? I’ll show you." She jumped down eagerly and Goliath shot confetti from one of his fingers. He must have learned that from Pinkie. She was overjoyed. "Do you like it?"

"Do I like it?! That was amazing! You know how to do it! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I’m so happy!"

She jumped on him, hugging him. Applejack and Rainbow tried to pull her off so she wouldn’t accidentally break him, but they couldn’t. Kit finally flew up to the doors. He touched them with one of his limbs, which seemed to activate them. Slowly they started turning blue until they began to open. This time, I started jumping with joy, but Kit didn’t look happy. Fluttershy noticed and approached him.

"Did something happen? Are you sad?"

"These doors should have opened almost immediately. They shouldn’t be this slow."

"Maybe just time has taken its toll on them."

"They should be in perfect condition for five million years... If they’re barely opening, then too much time has passed."

"Is that bad?"

"Cryogenic capsules can only keep people for a certain amount of time. If it’s too long, something bad could happen to them."

Hearing this made me a little worried. Since it’s been over five million years since humanity’s fall, and these cryogenic pods have a limited operational time, I got concerned. I felt an unpleasant sensation in my stomach. Slightly nervous, I watched as the doors opened, but there was nothing inside. Just a massive chasm. Cadance was the first to look down.

"Did people know how to fly?" she asked. "I didn’t see any wings in the pictures."

"No, they didn’t." Kit replied. "They had special machines or suits for that, but naturally, no. It seems that due to explosions and time, the elevator broke. I also can’t activate the gravity well from here. The jump down could be fatal, so I suggest using wings."

"And what about those who don’t have any?" Applejack asked.

"Goliath can help. You can climb onto my back. I have jet engines."

Pinkie was the first to jump, all excited. Applejack climbed up, followed by Shining and Rarity. I approached Kit, who flew into the darkness, and I followed right after him, with the others behind. Goliath lit the way for us with his eyes. As we flew down, I saw many claw marks bigger than me. I swallowed nervously at the sight. The shadows must have been huge. With that uneasy thought, I flew further down. Fluttershy, scared, flew onto Goliath, and the princesses were carefully observing the tracks. They seemed quite worried as well. They must have communicated telepathically because, after a moment, they nodded at each other.

The descent took us about five minutes before we landed on something solid. Kit said it was the elevator and opened a hatch. We climbed into it and finally stood in front of the doors. Goliath stayed on the roof. He pressed a few buttons, which seemed to be for opening the doors, but nothing happened. He said something was broken, opened something, and began fixing it. For a moment, nothing happened except for blue sparks and light, but soon the lights came on, and some music played. It was calm and soothing. Kit said it was typical elevator music, and finally, the doors opened. It was dark, but Goliath could enter and light everything up. The first thing we saw was a human skeleton. Fluttershy probably noticed it first. She screamed in terror and flew into Goliath. Kit tapped it, but all we heard was an empty sound.

"Plastic." He said. "Someone must have left Halloween decorations up." We all looked at him. "I’ll explain later. Probably, the ones who weren’t frozen were just having fun... Alright, now to get the power running. You can look around if you want... Oh, and you can turn off the translation spell in our direction. I’ve already analyzed your language and uploaded it to the database. Oh, and..." He activated smaller versions of himself, which each flew over to us. "These are the Wiki information drones. Just so you know."

Wow. That was fast. Well, thanks to magic, I lit up the way ahead and tried to examine as much as I could. There’s so much interesting stuff. Judging by the room I entered, it looked like a small kitchen. There was a fridge, which I recognized, and a strange device called a mixer, an induction stove, and something called a Roomba charging station. According to Wiki, it’s a very old model of a cleaning robot. But why is there a knife taped to it? Anyway, I went into another room where most of my friends had gathered. There was a device called a television, which could display various things like series or movies, but mostly ads.

"Were there... farming shows?" Applejack asked.

"Yes, indeed. There were tons of them..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Suddenly we heard a loud scream. Princess Luna came running from the kitchen where I had been earlier, hiding behind us. Moments later, the Roomba came rolling out with the knife attached, making strange noises as it moved. The princess was terrified, but Wiki had told me how to turn it off, so I pressed a big button in the center, and it stopped.

"Can I get an Awa Awa?"

"Awa Awa!"

The Roomba said, then turned off, and Pinkie repeated it. That’s when it became clear, and Kit shouted that we had to go to the chambers quickly. The sightseeing would come later. We headed there, and he gave us access to the bunker by scanning us, as Wiki called it, and we entered. However, we were stopped by a robot, another one. It jumped out so suddenly that my brother was about to jump on it, but I stopped him.

"Unit EIR. What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing? I don’t even know. I’m waking up after who knows how many years, there’s no one around, I can’t hear anything, and the only thing I see is that someone got authorization, and now I see you." He pointed to us with his tail, which had fallen off. "Rusty? It should have lasted a long time..."

"Mr. EIR, probably it’s been too long," Princess Celestia said. "But we need to go to the capsules to save the people."

"No way. You have so many new species of bacteria that aren't in the database, and you’re probably not resistant to them here. Also, there’s probably nothing to save. I detect only two life signs... or maybe my sensors are rusty. Fine, go ahead, but I’ll examine you later."

Hearing that only two people had likely survived, we ran after Kit, who took off pretty quickly. Worried, we didn’t know what to think until we reached a huge hall, where there were probably human capsules in the walls. Kit started pressing things intensely on a console, trying to find or activate something. After a moment, a number appeared on the wall next to us. Eleven million? At first, I didn’t understand what was going on, but then it hit me.

"Eleven million? So many people survived?" Shining asked, but unfortunately, he was wrong.

"No, bro bro. It’s been eleven million years since the fall of humanity..." Everyone put a hoof to their mouths, not knowing what to say.

"That’s six million years longer than the longest scenarios predicted..." Kit stated. I approached him and wanted to calm him down, but he flew to another console. "This is impossible. ZEUS was supposed to disconnect them then. What happened? Oh no, no, no!"

"What happened?" Cadance asked, slightly agitated. "Why are these points... turning red?"

"No one survived."

Tears fell from my eyes when I saw how the small dots on the hologram, as Wiki called it, were turning red, meaning the people there were dead. There were about a million people in the whole large bunker. The red dots became a literal wave. Everyone was dead. The princesses had to sit down, Fluttershy started crying in Rainbow’s shocked arms, and Applejack and Rarity couldn’t stop staring with their jaws dropped. I, saddened that I wouldn’t meet any humans, but also that no one had survived, was about to leave when I suddenly heard a faint beep. When I turned around, I saw one dot on the hologram, at the very end, wavering between green and red. I immediately ran over.

"Someone’s alive!"

Kit immediately flew to the panel and started pressing things again quickly. I was so happy that there was hope. I watched as a gigantic mechanical arm reached for the last capsule, placing it near us. We ran to it. Unfortunately Kit couldn't find the other man so maybe the EIR was wrong. Anyway, when we got there Kit flicked a few buttons and until I saw the happiness in his eye.

"Sasha..."

The last of the humans is alive!

On hearing that only one man had survived.... or at least here I was terribly saddened. However, I was quickly consoled by the fact that at least one survived. The last of the humans is alive and can tell us about his world. However, I know that when he wakes up and realises that he is the last one he will be devastated. We will have to help him. Kit for now is trying to disconnect him from all the machines so as to cause as little damage as possible. He stated that it might take a while so we can look around and in doing so he gave us an access code. Red which means by human qualification we are almost at the top and have access to almost all information and rooms. I got excited at this thanking him for his confidence but for now we all sat and waited for Sasha to be woken up.

No one wanted to take a step away from him worrying. EIR has already prepared a hospital bed for him in case of emergency so he is here with us. Wiki told me that most of the robots and machines in this bunker are named after deities and beliefs of ancient people. Ancient even to Sasha. EIR was supposed to be the Norse Goddess of health and healing. I think I understand. Goliath is a giant warrior from Christian mythology and Thot comes from Egyptian mythology and was the god of wisdom and patron of sages and explorers. These three mythological figures alone have made me so curious that I can't wait to learn more about them from the guardian of knowledge, who is the robot Mimir. In human mythology, an advisor to the Gods and the greatest of the sages. Humans really must have liked these mythologies since they named most of their inventions after them. Of course Rainbow had to ask about the fastest character. It would have been annoying but I'm curious myself.

"The fastest of the Gods in Greek mythology was Hermes. Messenger of the Gods, son of Zeus. King of the Gods." Wiki said.

"Maybe I'll be nicknamed Hermes. How about that?"

Everyone groaned at her question so she gave herself that title. At this time I watched Wiki tell the princesses about this Zeus and Odin, who was the most important of the Gods in Norse mythology. Wiki was telling Fluttershy about the animals that did not live to our time. And while I understood horses that were similar to us, I didn't understand beaks. It was a mammal that laid eggs, was venomous, had a beak and sweated milk.... I will have to find out more about this creature. Applejack admired the so-called agricultural machinery and Rarity the human mode. They were both downright mesmerised. Pinkie was telling all sorts of things to Goliath which was even cute and my brother and Cadance were listening about a human city of lovers called Paris and a big tower.... If I understood Eiffel correctly. I smiled at this and was about to ask Wiki something again but then somepony or rather somebody as Kit said interrupted us.

"11 million years?! How did that happen!" Shouted a blue figure that appeared in front of us. It looked like a human. A stallion as far as we could tell, with small muscular, long hair as Wiki described it and a long beard. He is dressed in a sort of tunic. "Why didn't anyone inform me about this?" He looked at us. "And what kind of creatures are these?"

‘ZEUS. These are ponies. The new dominant species of this planet." Said Kit to ZEUS. So this is ZEUS. I think that was supposed to be the commander-in-chief of this bunker. "And what do you mean nobody said? You were supposed to wake them up. Now probably only Sasha survived!"

"I woke them up. Six million years ago!"

"As you can see I think you got something wrong. Look at these people. Who was supposed to be responsible for waking them up in case HELA went down? As you can see the HEL source code has gone mad so you should take charge."

ZEUS looked at the million dead people in the capsules. He is aware. That's for sure because the Wikis told us that the main AIs are conscious so he is too. He lifted himself off the floor and walked around the whole hall. I could see the shrinking hope in his eyes which hurt me a lot. The horror on his face grew bigger and bigger until he reached the last pod near us where I saw two skeletons. One large and the other is held by the larger one and is small. The princesses saw them too and tears immediately came to their eyes. Princess Luna walked over to this capsule and put her hoof on it. She turned to ZEUS and asked about something she already knew but probably wanted to know the scarier truth.

"Is this... mother with child?"

"Unfortunately." Replied ZEUS sadly causing everyone to almost start crying and Cadance came up as well.

"I promise you will not be forgotten."

"I let them down." ZEUS said sitting down on the floor. "I don't understand how this could have happened.... After all, I was monitoring everything, I had everything under control. How on earth..."

"Perhaps the Shadows attacked and broke something Mr ZEUS." Cadance tried to comfort him. "Even five million years is a very long time. You couldn't have seen to everything."

"But I should have. I don't know what happened... Eh. Maybe it was meant to be. Sasha. The last of the humans."

"Actually..." Rarity interjected. "EIR said there were two humans alive. Are you able to find the other one?"

"Two? I don't see any other human. Maybe he was mistaken for some rat or something."

"We did it!"

There was a sudden shout from Kit, who opened the capsule. Cold steam escaped from it showing Sasha. He is clearly young. Of weak build, red hair and one arm dressed only in short trousers. His skin is very pale. Paler than the ancient one from the immortal. EIR immediately appeared with what looked like a bed on wheels. He placed it on him and very quickly ran with him to his part.

During this short sort of walk I saw that the bunker had awakened more to life if I may say so. A mass of small robots were flying here and there, blue holograms of other AIs also appeared. One of them was probably a cooking robot. Eventually, however, we got to the EIR part, which put Sasha on a bigger bed. Kit-like robots began to help him. They connected his IV, his venflon but also a strange device started beeping every now and then. Momentarily we became very warm and the EIR gave Sasha something he called a narcotic. A substance to keep him asleep until the EIR saw fit to wake him up. This would be of great use to us. Perhaps Sasha will share with his inventions.... O ZEUS appeared.

"And how is the EIR? Are you all right?"

‘Yes. Fortunately, unlike me, who had to tape up his tail, all the medkits are serviceable. Cryogenising them was a very good idea albeit it is terribly dirty.’

"Oh. Sure. Come here my little minions!"

Practically immediately, small robots with brushes entered the room and began cleaning the floor, walls and ceiling. In doing so, they were very thorough and besides, it was quiet. The EIR stated that Sasha was on the verge of life and death. The fact that this bunker was discovered now saved the last of the people. Sasha looks emaciated, weak and very pale but he was alive. When he is able I want to talk to him. I hope he will be willing. That's when Kit came flying up to me and asked to speak to me privately. I agreed and we went to another room.

"I just wanted to thank you Princess..." I interrupted him with a hoof.

"Kit. I know you found out I'm the Princess of Friendship and that's my title but please. To you and everyone else, I am Twilight."

"Okay then. I just wanted to thank you for being so persistent that you woke me from my sleep. If it wasn't for you... I don't even want to think what would have happened to Sasha..."

"You're welcome Kit. I'm happy for Sasha too. It's a shame it's only him but the most important thing is that at least one of the humans survived. Thanks to this, my search for the ancient civilisation I once started is over and I can ask myself how things used to be."

"Have you come across traces of people before?"

He asked somewhat puzzled and I nodded, recalling an object I had found under the castle in the crystal kingdom. It had been with me for some time and I had no idea what it was. It looks like a not very long orange coloured object but only on the sides. It's metallic on the top and bottom and the top is kind of open. Kit took it and looked annoyed.

"This object became the start of my search. What is it?"

"How did people litter this world without even being on it?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's a soda can. Judging by the colour I think it was Fanta. Rubbish like few of them."

"So my starting point in searching for people was rubbish?"

"The rubbish of destiny." ZEUS spoke up, appearing beside us. He took it in his hands and looked at it from several sides.

"Can you please not spill pop culture references in every sentence?"

"Forgive me but Indiana is my favourite film."

"Indiana?" I asked slightly bewildered.

"It's kind of a movie about the Great Archaeologist. For some it was the best, and now if you'll excuse me Twilight but I have to monitor Sasha all the time. When he wakes up I'll let you know and you guys do whatever you want. ZEUS. You are their guide."

"Me? HERMES is the guide!"

"Yes but he is currently broken. O. And the Goliath must go to Brok and Sindri. There is no other half." ZEUS slapped himself in the face.

"And I'm the one rolling in dry jokes..."

Kit just laughed as ZEUS flew towards Goliath. I looked back at Sahe still lying lifeless on the bed. I know he's going to wake up soon and I'm looking forward to that moment but at the same time I'm terribly scared. The very fact that he has been asleep for eleven million years is strange and the fact that he is perhaps the last of the humans is terrifying. It will probably be a nightmare for him but he needs to wake up. Perhaps we can provide him with a comfortable new life in the world he fought for....

The legacy of our world

Author's Note

Hi. I would like to start by saying thank you. I didn't expect this story to be interesting at all and it has already had masses of reads. Thank you. And the other thing is that for the story the ponies don't know some of the fruits, vegetables and animals

The legacy of our world

All the time I can't get one thought out of my head. It is so uncomfortably insistent that it has become embedded in my mind. Ever since I found out that the human species has been over these eleven million years and not a day longer. Usually when there's an extinction it's a long process. Ba. It can last up to a few million and here people have suddenly disappeared from the face of the planet in one day. What has happened? Does Sasha know about this? And if so, what could have happened? Did the people have any super weapons? Since they didn't have magic they defended themselves with technology but I don't see anything here that could have caused a mass extinction. Especially since the Shadows also disappeared on the same day and Kit won't tell us about it. Well. I'll have to ask Sasha.

For now, me, ZEUS, Pinkie, Goliath, Rarity and Princess Luna are waiting until Brok and Sindri's forge is ready to receive Goliath. ZEUS let us explore the surrounding rooms until the door opened. So we entered the pantry together with the help of WIKI. Here I have no idea what is what. Much of the food has not survived to our time. The big green fruit called watermelon looks very appetising. They have loads of seeds so we can keep growing. Iduna's food processors treated us to some fruits and vegetables specially prepared. The so-called potatoes were delicious let alone fries made from them. Much better than hay fries so honestly. With so-called ketchup or mayonnaise or Thousand Island dressing, they were perfect.

During the tasting, we also learned that people are omnivorous, so here there are not only vegetables or fruit, but also meat. Mostly from birds or farm animals. I felt a bit sorry for this, but I had to accept it. Since humans are omnivorous creatures, we have to respect that they eat both meat and non-meat. It's important to maintain their diet but WIKI said that with the right diet they are able to eliminate meat from their menu. Well. I'm not going to force Sasha to do that.

"If I may ask." Princess Luna began, having a strange yellow something in her magi that looks like it's made of dough. "What is that? I smell strawberries from it."

"It's dumplings." One of the robots replied. "A popular dish in eastern Europe." We looked at him dully. "A continent. Eleven million years ago we would have just been in Europe."

"How many continents were there? And how many kingdoms were there?" I fired back practically immediately.

"7. Europe, North and South America, Australia, Africa and Asia. And the kingdoms aka countries were 195. Practically all of them had different cuisines and we have loads of recipes but now if you'll excuse us we have to make food for Mr Sasha. He will be very hungry when he wakes up."

Whoa. Seven continents and almost two hundred kingdoms. The people must have been huge. And anyway, since they had alliances with other races, maybe they were on other plents too. Maybe they still are... It's worth dreaming. Well. Now the WIKIS have taken us into the meeting room. If it wasn't for one huge thing there would have been nothing to see. A table, a mass of chairs and a TV upstairs but right in the middle is the huge and massive skeleton of a huge monster. It looks bipedal with small front paws, a long tail and a massive skull.

"What is it?" Asked a terrified Rarity. "These are the kind of creatures people used to live with?"

"This is the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. It was a dinosaur and ancient even to humans themselves. In their time it became extinct 66 million years earlier. In the present day, it is 77 million years old."

"How could such a beast become extinct? What happened?" Princess Luna is probably as curious as I am and Pinkie just stares at the skeleton.

"About 77 million years ago an asteroid hit the earth. A huge rock from outer space. Since then the extinction began. First herbivores and then carnivores. Tyrannosaurus was one of the biggest predators that walks the earth."

"Will we be able to have a party and show the ponies that such great creatures once lived?" Pinkie asked. ’

"The ponies have a right to know the history of our planet so of course. If only Sasha will let us." Answered the princess again looking at the skeleton. "Is there a natural history written down by humans? I would like to know it."

"Of course. MIMIR has all the collections."

"Good. Come on! Forge open."

We heard ZEUSA shout so we went to where we were. The door opened and we entered a large room. Seemingly empty and the only thing in the middle are two robots that look like hands that start in the walls. However, when you take a better look around there are various parts scattered everywhere. Here a head, somewhere else an arm and at the top there are Kit-like robots flying around. Next to the walls are robots that I have not seen before. They look similar to cats from the face but it's probably a species I didn't recognise. WIKI stated that they are CERBERY patrol robots and bodyguards. Hmmm that's strange. Apparently we and the humans had common ideas.

"Welcome newcomers." A voice sounded out of nowhere and suddenly a small-sized man appeared in the light in front of us. He has a beard and is quite muscular. "Brok at your service. And this is my curly-haired brother." Suddenly he was hit on the head with something which made him disappear for a moment and quickly reappear slightly annoyed. At that moment a slightly larger man appeared this time with long hair and no beard with a proud smile.

"Think on what you say brother." They showed their tongues to each other and after a moment he turned his attention to us bowing. "Curly brother. At your service. I am Sindri."

"Hello!" Pinkie jumped to them cheerfully. "I'm Pinkie, and this is Twilight, Rarity and Princess Luna. Can you fix our friend!"

They both looked at each other somewhat bewildered. I wanted to start intervening but ZEUS bailed me out and covered her mouth. "Yes, thank you Pinkie. Listen. Goliath has lost his legs. Can you help us?"

They both disappeared without a word and appeared beside Goliath. The mechanical arms moved and lengthened enough to be next to our friend. The two talked, sometimes argued and sometimes just punched his stomach while shrugging their shoulders. Eventually I think they came to a consensus and the arms gripped the goliath and the floor opened up showing a lake of lava. Wait a minute... they want to destroy it?

"Wait a minute!" I shouted. "What do you want to do?!"

"Well what do you mean?" Sindri asked. "Destroy it. It's badly damaged. It will be easier to create a new one than to rebuild this one's legs and you can see it's an older model."

"NOOOOOOOO!" Shouted Pinkie loudly jumping on her new friend trying to free him from her mechanical arms but it did nothing. Rarity and the Princess tried to help her.

"What are you guys doing? It's an outdated model..." Brok began but Rarity interrupted him.

"It's a friend! Friends can't be replaced with "better" ones!"

While they were trying to save Goliath and Brok and Sindri were trying to understand them I approached ZEUS. I tried to touch him with my hoof but as expected it penetrated him but he looked at me.

"Please. We'll give you as much material as you need."

"Pinkie. I'm just a robot. That's how it works." After a few minutes, a goliath finally spoke up and touched my pink friend's cheek, who was on the verge of crying.

"You are not ONLY a robot! You are MY friend. I know only the likes of ZEUS have consciousness but I know you do too!"

This brief exchange of words moved me a lot so I asked ZEUS all the more. This one seemed to agree in the end. "Brok Sindri. Leave this unit. We'll fix it."

"But it's not even worth it..."

"Yes I know. I understand but it is a friend to these Ponies. So for now I ask you to fix it."

They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and put Goliath on the ground. A happy Pinkie jumped on his head and hugged him. The arms at this time took a few metal parts, which seemed to have started to come together.

"Okay. Fine but now we need some time and peace and quiet."

"Brok is right. The older models need more time..." Suddenly the guard robots activated and the three of them ran out of the room. "And to these what?"

"Three little ponies and one creature the system doesn't recognise have entered the facility and the security system has deemed them a danger. Do you know them?"

At the very words "Three little ponies" I already knew who they were about. When ZEUS showed us a picture of the Crusaders it was Rarity who nearly exploded with anger but among them was... Discord. Sweet Celestia. What are they doing here. And why do they look like they're running away? Rarity immediately told ZEUS to help us get there so I think he showed us four dots on the map to symbolise them. I predicted where they were about to go so I moved us to that spot with magic.

We found ourselves on the crest of Princess Celestia, who was admiring the ancient fish, I think. We surprised her and the rest of our friends. I apologised to her and together with Rarity we walked to the door where the Crusaders with Discord were about to appear. And indeed they did. The door opened with a bang and Sweetie Belle fell right into the hooves of Rarity, who looked at her sternly.

"Eeee. Hi sis."

"Sweetie Bell. Can you explain what you're doing here? How did you get to Canterlot? And what is Discord doing with you?"

"They wanted to follow you and asked if I would accompany them. I didn't agree but before I knew it they were already on the train. So I went with them.’ Discord replied."

"Couldn't we let you out of sight for a few minutes so you wouldn't get into trouble right away? What were you running from anyway?"

Without a word they pointed with a hoof at the door through which a large blue feathered creature ran in a moment later. It looks like a bird judging by its beak and similar legs but birds don't have horns on their heads. It looks angry but then suddenly fell when sleep darts appeared on its neck.

"What was that?!" Applejack asked. "I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

"It's a cassowary. A bird from the time of humans." stated ZEUS as the little robots took it somewhere else.

"Are you sure it's not the Dinosaur?"

"Birds are the descendants of dinosaurs so theoretically they are dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs? What are dinosaurs?"

"It would take a long time to explain Fluttershy. Think of them as huge lizards that were the dominant species on earth." Robotic security guards rushed into the room. "Oh. You have access." The security guards left but I'm sure one complained that he couldn't kill someone. We were about to go back to our business but suddenly ZEUS started looking annoyed. "That what woke up? Oh dear. Well, all right. Let's go. All right. Listen. Whoever wants to know and reassure the fauna of the ancient land then please follow me."

Following ZEUS'S invitation, we all went. I don't know what this is about. Perhaps it's some kind of predator or worse another casuaroo. Or maybe a dinosaur... just some kind of herbivore. Eh. We're close now so it remains to be seen. This place is coming back to life after 11 million years so it's no wonder there's a lot of trouble. Some robots are going crazy, these subsystems if I remember correctly don't all work and rats and cockroaches are running around here and there.... Oh sweet Celestia. I just walked in where we were supposed to. The creature that woke up was the one ZEUS told us about. The horse. He looks terrified and is wiggling all the time. Hmmm. It's very similar to us. Even too similar. Perhaps it is our ancestor. All right. I'll think about it later. Right now I need to reassure probably our cousin....

Demons of the past

A being called a horse is terribly anxious. I feel fear and confidence from it but I cannot determine if it is a conscious being. I feel from it the same as from our animals which means it is probably an animal. ZEUS has tried to calm it down but is unable to. He himself has stated that they only listen to humans so apparently he is afraid because there is no human with us and I guess we are not able to explain to him that humans are no longer there. There is only Sasha who needs to wake up and we don't know when that will happen. Even Discord is confused by this. My sister looked at me with slight consternation.

"Tia. Do you think it's our ancestor?" She asked herself with a face full of incomprehension. I was slightly taken aback by this question. At first I wanted to say that of course not, but after looking at it for a while I didn't know myself anymore.

"I honestly don't know sister. Perhaps. Eleven million years is a long time and there's no telling what might have happened and I think I know how I can help here."

I approached our likely ancestor. He was scared, willowing, jumping and jerking around trying to free himself from the luminous ropes. I asked ARTEMIDA to stop looping him. We are practically the same height and when the ropes let go he was still terrified but when I lifted my hoof to him he calmed down a little and finally when I calmed him down a little thanks to magic he became completely calm. It makes strange sounds. The WIKI called it a croaking sound. Surprisingly, he started to cuddle up to me and not in the... animal way but like he used to to people. At least that's what ARTEMIDA said, which is the subsystem responsible for animals. In mythology, the Goddess of hunting and nature.

"How did you do it?" She asked, showing herself as a human woman with deer antlers. "The stress hormones have practically completely disappeared. How?"

"I just used magic to calm him down. I think that's how he saw us as his friends and not his enemies. And tell me. Are they always this skittish?"

"They're animals that could be frightened of their shadow. Yes. They've always been like that."

"Emmm. Celestia. Can we talk somewhere for privacy?"

Discord asked and I nodded. Pinkie said the conference room would be best for that while laughing. I don't know what she meant but oh well. We went in that direction. We didn't talk on the way. Discord is more preoccupied with looking at the bunker. He doesn't know what to say and I honestly understand him. It's like some fantasy land with technology beyond my understanding and everyone else's. The rest of our friends also started exploring further. The Crusaders as they are called said they would get explorer stamps. They are cute but troublesome.

When we were almost under our feet a strange black creature with a white neck and very aggressive ran by. Behind it the robots flew. WIKI told me that it was the so-called Tasmanian Devil, which came from Tasmania. I don't think that island is there anymore but I'm sure we can find a home for them. The mass of creatures and mechanisms are coming to life. WIKI said the Kazuar didn't get the Crusaders and the Discord just because it was sluggish. They slept too much. Thanks to everything. Eh we finally reached the hall where there was a massive skeleton of a huge monster. A sort of plaque with a name and description appeared in front of us. That's probably why Pinkie wanted me to come in here. I was going to see a dinosaur. I think I understand why she wanted to show me. It's majestic, especially when the probable appearance appeared next to the description but that's not why I'm here. Discord wanted something.

"Discord." I said calmly but obviously snapped him out of his reverie. "Did you want to talk to me about something?"

"Eeeeem. Yeah. I just wanted to talk about all this. Like... what it is, why we were chased by some strange unknown bird, we met a wild pony these strange blue creatures and metal monsters and along the way I saw a hairless monkey with a metal snake next to it. What is all this? Are they aliens that have come?"

"Discord. It's really a lot of explaining but I'll try to explain it to you as I understand it. Well. It's not aliens but inhabitants of our planet."

"Then why haven't I seen this before?"

"I'm getting to that. We are not the first on this planet. I don't know what came before and after these dinosaurs but there were humans living before us. This hairless ape as you put it is just the last of the humans. Let us hope that it is only probably. What is here was built by humans. These blue creatures are the so-called subsystems that run it all and the metal monsters are robots. Artificial life. And these animals are simply creatures from their time that survived."

"Well ... But why was the last one left. They couldn't practically become extinct if they created such things."

"Well, that's right. Don't tell the children this but they became extinct through invasions by monsters called Shadows. Humans have had alliances with other races and I want to renew those alliances but the Shadows have attacked everyone. We've seen some footage and believe me. You don't want to see that. The Shadows are monsters that humans have stopped. Somehow. I don't know how. Sasha meaning this man can tell us but unfortunately.... The shadows may return." At those words I literally saw fear in his eyes, the likes of which I hadn't seen in a long time.

"Come back? We must prepare somehow!"

"Discord." I silenced him with a hoof. "I'm already doing that. Ares which is the war subsystem and Tyr, the strategy subsystem is already helping my guards and soldiers who came in here to develop a defence for now and when Sasha wakes up an attack. As soon as I heard about the Shadows and their possible return I understood that we have to prepare for this eventuality. That is why I want to renew the alliance. I don't want anything to happen to my little ponies." I walked over to one painting that hung near me called ‘Freedom leading the people to the barricades’. It shows a revolution against a tyrant. I hope that in our case such a revolution or even a war will succeed. "Humans have sacrificed almost their entire species to weaken or even defeat the Shadows. If they return ... we must continue their legacy."

And suddenly now there is silence between us. It is pleasant but the sounds continue. I can hear various noises that are not very familiar to me. I know that at least some of them are animal noises and others are the work of machines. The room has also started to be cleaned by small robots and those less advanced roomba hoovers. Discord was completely terrified of them so I learned to just knock them off and they drove off apologising for driving into us.

"Aren't you scared of it?"

"Afraid of what? Roomba? They're older cleaning robots. They're harmless but, as ZEUS stated, they act like animals and get blocked everywhere."

"Could I ask for help?"

Said one of the robots blocked between the chairs. I laughed, walked over to it and got it out. Discord, meanwhile, was thinking about something until finally, being careful not to touch the roomb, he approached me. "And this human?" He started, probably not really knowing what to say. "He is the last of his species and judging by what I have seen he is quite young. How would you like to tell him he's the last?"

Well, exactly. That's the question I didn't want to hear. ZEUS said he was only nineteen years old which for human years is just entering adulthood and he is still young. When I heard that I saw a little foal in him and it's even worse now. He is the last of his kind. A young man who needs to learn this terrible fact. I looked straight into Discord's eyes feeling weak.

"I honestly have no idea. This is too much for me let alone him. He's young and I honestly don't know. We just have to tell him."

After that he was quiet again but this time he looked at me for a while which I didn't like very much and I think he thought of something

"He reminds you of him. Doesn't he?"

"We agreed not to talk about it."

"I thought you didn't want them to be forgotten. Celi."

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO MENTION MY WIFE AND SON OR TO CALL ME CEL!" I roared at him furiously barely in control of myself but then I calmed down. "Forgive me. Discord. The death of my family is none of your business."

"Luna will find out about them sooner or later."

"Better later. Now let's go to the rest. WIKI told me that Sasha is waking up. We need to be there for him."

Further upset, I went with my companion to the room where Sasha is. How could he. He knows this is a delicate matter for me. My wife and son died a horrible death about four hundred years ago but it still hurts. I ... still miss them. I remember them all the time and yet the worst thing is that the memory of them hurts me in my heart. A tear escaped me when I remembered them....

"Mummy!"

Shouted my little darling son when I once again made our day. My beautiful white and black foal. He's five years old and already so bouncy. He came running to me cuddling into my chest. Happy I hugged him with my leg and soon after my beautiful wife came into the room. An earth pony. She has a black and red coat, a red mane arranged in a bun and gorgeous jade eyes. As usual in the morning I got up first but of course she came after me. As she came up we kissed and hugged.

"And how are you doing Celi?"

I laughed lightly touching her face with my hoof. "I love that nickname darling."

"I know, that's why I call you darling Celi. And how was your morning this morning? Was the night quiet?"

I looked at her slightly sad. I told my son to go to the kitchen so he could have something to eat already and I sat down and, typical of me, asked for a cuddle. My Cherry Breeze did it practically immediately and I was able to start crying.

"I'm having these dreams again... I miss Luna so much..."

"I understand honey. It's horrible but you had no choice. Someday this will change. Someday we'll meet her and help her."

"I hope so. Otherwise I don't know what I'll do anymore."

"I will always be there for you Celi. I promise you that. I love you more than anything."

I thanked her giving her a light kiss on the cheek. That's when Cloud Star came in. Our son came to us with delicious food. We happily took a sandwich each and laughed for the next hour. I just couldn't be happier to have such a family. Maybe one day Luna will be with us but for now I have them and thanks to a spell .... Forever.

For ten years I had terrible dreams all the time. Dreams that seemed so real. I'm losing my family and because of the monster in the shadows. I don't know why. Luna is not there. She's on the moon and unable to get out. It's making me so tired that I don't know what to do. I've already been to the best psychologists and doctors but they haven't helped me. I have no idea what to do. It's so strange. However, after a while I got used to them and ignored them. Day after day the same nightmare that is always the same. However... today I didn't have one. I lay in bed bewildered awakened by Cherry. She wanted to go and get a glass of water. I wanted to fall asleep but.... it made me wonder. Why exactly not today. Maybe I woke up too early? Maybe it was some prophecy that didn't come true.

I don't know. In any case, I was trying to fall asleep when I suddenly heard a shout that lifted me out of bed. "Cloudy?!" That was my first thought. I know he had long since outgrown his nightmares because he hadn't had them for a long time but I couldn't resist it. So I listened further but heard nothing. There is complete silence and all I can hear is the rain outside. Maybe I have misheard. No. It was too real. It had to be real.

"CELIII! HELP!"

It was Cherry! Without thinking, I ran towards the scream. The castle corridors were illuminated for me by torches, magic and lightning. I saw claws on the walls and where not where dead guards. Oh no. What had happened here? Cherry continued to scream and I was closer. I could hear the sounds of fighting. I don't know what's going on in there but if something has happened to them it will kill them!

With full anger I broke down the door to my son's room where I saw something monstrous. My son, in a pool of blood is being pressed to the ground by a strange shadowy creature that looks like a Minotaur but with a wolf-like appearance. Cherry is held in his paws and my eyes flared gold with rage.

"LEAVE HER!"

"Celi." Cherry said tearfully with blood in her mouth. "I love you."

"You're going to tell me in bed when you get out of hospital and this is the only warning. LEAVE HER OR I KILL YOU!"

The creature threw my beloved against the wall and jumped at me. Without thinking, I shot at him with powerful magic. He almost dodged however lost his arm. He roared in pain and with tears in my eyes I charged at him. He wasn't expecting it, so I scooped him up in a corner and pierced him, pinning him to the wall. My hooves began to burn and with them I hit again and again the creature that had taken my son! Fire was coming out of my mouth and nose. I even managed to breathe fire into him. After that, he fell to the ground but I did not give up on him. I pierced with my spear and moved closer to him angrily.

"You will ... die a thousand times. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW DEATH! YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE ETERNAL!" The monster looked at me weakly. It looked as if it wanted to tell me something but I didn't let on by tightening my gun but it just spat black blood and smiled at me.

"Don't you want to save her?"

"What are you..." I realised what he was talking about. I turned to see him stretch his body so that he threw Cherry out the window. My instant reaction was. "NOOOOOOOO!"

I screamed as I cut his head off and I jumped out of the window to fly straight at my wife at the fastest speed I could reach. Tears were flying out of my eyes because of the speed and all I could see was my Cherry looking at me with terrified eyes. She doesn't scream but I do. I can't catch her but I have to. Come on. A little more! She's already close to the ground. No, no no! She can't die. Even she realised by looking back. She turned to me with a smile. I didn't see terror... Just a smile.

"I love you Celi..."

"CHERRY NO!"

I roared in a final form of desperation. However, that was the last I had to say to her. In an instant, there was literally a flash of lightning and I was already on the ground with her in my hooves crying into her chest and screaming out loud hoping that whatever Cherry had taken from me heard it....

I am now sure that what killed my wife and son was Shadow. For the rest, it now makes more sense that the body wasn't there. They can only be killed with special weapons. I don't know where it came from, I don't know why or what it was doing here but one thing is certain. If Sasha knows how to completely destroy and kill them then whatever she offers us I will be more than willing to completely destroy their race....

How it all started

2098 - Mars

"How much longer are we going to be here Sasha? Earth reassured me."

"I'm sorry darling but just a little longer. I have to help my mum with the calibration."

I said to my girlfriend, who is impatient with my science stuff. Of course. She is a Thalven. Her race is divided into warriors and scientists and there's nothing in between and she's a warrior and we're at the Martian base to calibrate the plasma cannons to defend us from the Shadows who are getting closer to earth if we need to. We don't have much time so we're in a hurry. Zeira was so lucky to escape instead of fighting even though it was a lack of honour for her. She preferred to be by my side and help fight than to die alone. Now she has post-traumatic stress syndrome because of it. Earth helped her because it is similar to her planet and the sight of green always calmed her down and Mars.... even though it went through terraforming it's not like earth. It doesn't look or feel like it. Even indoors.

"I understand but I'm just stressed. This whole situation is highly stressful."

"Hm. Maybe you want a little stress relief?" Her facial expression momentarily changed. She went from terrified to curious but quickly returned to stressed. I had learned that Thalveni de-stress most through intimate moments with loved ones. Therefore, I walked away from the console and approached her and started kissing her neck.

"Sasha what are you... mmmm.... I think you need to calibrate something." Clearly she liked it. Long workout. I can't be sexy or intimate. Sex has never interested me but I think I've succeeded.'

"ZEUS finish please."

"Of course. Serve me while you deal with primal instincts. Monkey."

"That's what you're a hologram for."

"I know but I can complain too."

I snorted at that and started kissing Zeire quietly on the lips. She enjoyed it judging by the calmly dangling tail. This one with her extra hands grabbed my buttocks and lay on the ground with me. Amazing how horny her race is. She had been asking me for a long time if I wanted to approach her but I wasn't ready but now.... when we have the time and space I'm eager to see what it's like. She looked at me with one eye and I stopped.

"Are you sure you're ready? I know you're doing this so I can calm down."

"You have to try it sometime."

We went back to kissing while she put her extra hands in my trousers and slowly started rubbing my penis. Wow. That's really pleasurable. I in return started kissing her neck and put my hand first into my mouth and then into her trousers to slowly and lightly rub her vagina. These two things led her to moan slightly. Amazingly, being a great warrior whose voice is downright bass in tender moments, she became docile and lovely. Her faster breaths caused her moans to turn into squeaks. Especially as I put my fingers inside her. She in retaliation grabbed my testicles and massaged them. Finally I took her in for a very long kiss which resulted after separating a small strand of saliva between us. I wanted to continue this and was almost pulling her shirt off when suddenly ZEUS stopped us.

"Your mother is running here Sasha. I don't advise doing that in front of her."

We looked at each other in shock and quickly got up. We kissed some more and I went back to calibrating and Zeira just sat at the table. Eventually my mother entered the room. She looked terribly panicked. She immediately ran for her gun, which she armed.

"ZEUS. Activate our fighter, activate all guard cannons. Start surrounding the lands with Athena's shield." She said in a very serious tone as she began transferring files from the computer to the ground while deleting everything else.

"Mum what's going on?

"They are already here. We need to get to earth as soon as possible. Otherwise we'll be stuck here."

"What do you mean so fast? After all, it was supposed to be longer..."

"Apparently we've become a prime target for them. Here." She tossed me a gun. "Thanks to the technology of the Zeira race, we can kill them. They're already on the surface and have made their way to the base. We need to get to the fighters. Do you have anything?" My girlfriend summoned a spear. "Good. We stay together, away from the windows, ZEUS will give us the fastest route and Kit from Earth will try to hold the shield so we can still fly through it." We heard a mighty roar and a sudden explosion through which some fighter from above fell to the ground causing explosions. "Listen. I'm not a worrior but I'll do my best to make it. Let's go.'

We simply nodded our heads. I unlocked the gun and Mum was the first to go through the dark corridor, which lit up red every now and then. Gosh. I didn't think the Shadows would get to us so quickly. We thought it would still take them at least a month and not already. I honestly started to get scared. I was shaking all over. That's why Zeira took my hand and we ran together. She is more determined. You can see she's vindictive and you could see it when she threw her spear into the dark corridor nailing one of the monsters with it. She summoned it and we ran in another direction. ZEUS closed that door behind us.

Mum runs from memory. You can see that she knows where she's running but it's still hard for her, especially as there could be danger around every corner. She's already shot off a few of them. I managed one when he dashed at us. The alarms even went off and after just a minute you could hear shots all over the base, which does little to them. It's plasma bullets and not the kind that will kill them. Eh. What now. Oh. There's a light. There's nothing there and you can already see the landing pad. We're saved!

"Almost there!" ZEUS closed the door centrally behind us. "ZEUS?"

"There's a whole horde of them running around here. I'm afraid the door won't hold but I'll try to stop them with everything available."

My mother's eyes momentarily widened in fear. She also looked at the situation outside. The Shadow Air Force is occupied by our troops but the ones that are running here also have wings. And they didn't go through this door just because there's a hologram of a blank wall. Oh dear. The horde has already hit the door and is slowly breaking it down even despite the constant gunfire. We finally got out though and me and Zeira entered the fighter but then we heard a bang and a roar. Shadows tore through and ran at us. I got at the controls and told my mother to go to the cannons but she only looked down the corridor from where it was only louder.

"Zeira. You have a good eye. Go to the plots." She finally replied when she looked back at another fighter.

"What do you want me to do? Please don't do anything stupid."

"I'll pull them away. You guys fly to Earth before it's too late."

"I'm flying with you." I said almost immediately.

"No. You need to fly there and help with security. It's a priority now. Here." She handed me a memory stick. "Here are the final plans for Operation Ragnarok. We don't have a lot of time so you need to finish it as soon as possible. I need you to deliver it to them, help them and not let the Shadows ever find out about it. Can I rely on you?'

I took the flash drive and looked at her with tears in my eyes. I simply nodded to her but couldn't help but ask one question. "Will I see you again?"

"I'll do what I can. Now fly. Don't stop."

The engines took off as my mother fired some kind of explosive shell at the base, whose corridor exploded scattering Shadow bodies everywhere. I started to fly upwards as she looked at me and got into the fighter. She activated it, fired her cannons at them a few times and flew into another as they rushed after her. I lost sight of her as we entered the atmosphere and saw that there was fighting in orbit and almost throughout the system. Zeira was firing at the nearest Shadow ships but there were still too many of them. I at top speed, started flying towards Earth.

"You can't go fast with that?!" My girlfriend shouted. "There's a lot flying behind us!"

"I'm trying but higher is only the speed of the overlight and that could kill us!"

"They're about to kill us! No matter how you fly or what tricks you do! Something we have to do!"

I glanced at the handle that activates the highest speed possibility. We'll get to the planet in a few seconds in that case and if I get out of that speed too late we'll die. We will shatter, however, if I don't do something now we will be shot. I hate making decisions but I don't think I have a choice.

"I love you Zeira."

I heard her want to reply but I turned on that speed. In one second we were literally sucked into a tunnel so dark that the only thing illuminating us were the lights of the ship. Yes. We are faster than light. That's why the light doesn't reach us. However, we could only be here for a few seconds. That's why I turned it off after just a moment. Unfortunately, due to this speed and the small amount of time spent in the tunnel, the engine was damaged and we flew inertly straight to the ground. At full speed we slammed into the atmosphere. Zeira barely reached me to help stabilise the flight which was successful but unfortunately the landing would still be hard. Fortunately we are where we were meant to be so we land hard at the airport.

"Sasha?" Kit spoke up. "Is that your signal? You're flying too fast. You're going to crash."

"We're trying to even out the flight somehow. If you can give us some decelerators! The engines have been damaged!"

"Ok. Try to stabilise as much as possible and then try for the longest runway!"

Gravity pullers emerged on the longest lane. I don't know if that will help us but let's hope at least in a small way. Ok. We're close to the ground now. If nothing bad happens then.... THE FUCKING BACK OF THE FIGHTER FLEW OFF! I think it was the turnbuckles. Well the landing was hard too but the main thing is that it didn't explode and we are slowly being slowed down. We also try to help with our braking but most of the brakes were in the back of the ship. It's shaking terribly but there's a bit more to come.... Just a little more... AGH! We hit the wall of the observation tower.... But we're alive. We're alive! We made it!

"We're alive!" I shouted.

"I'm never flying anywhere with you again while you're at the helm. Never."

"It wasn't that bad."

"I defeated one of the strongest monsters on my planet without fear at the age of nine and now I can barely walk with fear."

"Sasha. Sasha can you hear me?" I heard Kit's voice from the communicator.

"Yes? We're alive!"

For a brief moment all we could hear was silence, which was only drowned out by the loud heartbeat of my girlfriend.... And she threw up. "It's an achievement." My friend replied. "Listen. The shadows are approaching the ground. The military is already flying in to stop them but we need you here to activate the Nanoguards."

"We'll be right there... and what's the catch?"

"Part of it has landed on the ground. The guard robots will rough you up but I don't know how long they can withstand their attack."

"We'll try." I unlocked my weapon and looked at Zeire with my spear, who nodded. "We'll be there in a while. Over and out." I hung up and we looked outside where the mass of these monsters were already swarming and the tower where Kit is is at the other end of the landing site. It was fortunate that there was a mass of smaller buildings. "Ready?"

"I won't be more ready." She picked up a small blaster. "Here we go, then. Just like we trained. You cover me and I get rid of the ones in front."

My weapon is a sniper rifle not because I can't fight. No. I have a sniper rifle because as soon as I turned five we discovered I had amazing aim. I first trained with the bow and then with this weapon. It's reliable even though I don't like to fight but when I have to I have to. I also have an exoskeleton in me that increases my strength but unfortunately it is not permanent. Ok about that later.

Zeria came out first. I looked around for a while and when I thought it was safe I ran after her to the nearest building. There she surprised the first one by jumping on him. She drove a spear into someone's neck and broke it. I shot off the snout of another who wanted to jump on us. My girlfriend told me to run after her so we ran to another tower and on the way I shot off two on the run and she pierced one. She blew the door open. I ran in killing one behind us. We ran upstairs where there was no one but quite high up so Zeira told me to shoot the monsters while she was preparing something. I did as she instructed so I set up and from the window I shot mostly at ones that were about to kill someone else. That's how I rescued the Greyhound and Tigerd and the Kautchia kid that the man took into the room. I'm lucky they're plasma missiles and don't need physical ammunition but still too much of that.

"How much more Zeira? What are you planning?"

"Something stupid."

"It's taking you this long to think about it?"

"Of course it doesn't. We just have one chance. That's why I'm trying to make it perfect."

"And could you think about it?"

"No time." She walked over to me and started measuring something. "Get ready."

"But for what?" I was already slightly annoyed by this when I shot off the head of another one of them as she went for something.

"For this!"

She shouted as she grabbed me and jumped up piercing the window. I shouted the whole time as she threw a spear with a rope tied to it straight into the back of a flying shadow that roared. When this happened she grabbed the rope and pulled herself towards it so that we landed on top of it and it was as if with this rope she started to steer it and fly straight towards the tower where Kit was.

"That was your plan?!" I shouted.

"Yes. And we're alive.... somehow. Now shoot the ones flying towards us because my hands are busy.... oh shit!"

She had to turn right because one of them appeared in our path. He started flying after us and I aimed at them. Jeez. I didn't think I'd ever fly on the back of a Shadow and shoot other Shadows in the process albeit that was my bingo for this year. It was a joke and yet it wasn't. And there you have it! One went. Damn. Zeira got him up to speed pretty good and he's doing some good acrobatics. And by stunts I mean my crotch and ass hurt from the constant bouncing. Eh. The most important thing is that at that time I killed another two. The last one left, who realised that a good sniper was shooting at them. He started to dodge my shots better. I looked up looking for an idea and I think I found one.

"Zeira. Fly in that direction. That way we'd fly under that supply ship."

"If you say so. Go!"

She drove the spears deeper making Shadow fly even faster. This startled the one behind us and he tried to catch up with us and luckily he didn't notice that I was aiming in a completely different direction and fired. We heard a bang and just as he was about to catch up with us, a supply ship fell centrally on him causing an explosion.

"Good. We don't have a tail!"

"I don't know how You did it but you'll have to teach me that."

Zeira drove the spears deeper so as to kill our already dead aircraft. It fell a dozen metres from the entrance. Perfect. We started to run there while shooting at the Shadows and we were almost inside when a huge individual appeared in front of us from above. According to the Thalven classification, a higher alpha. I don't know why exactly on us, but he started to get purple in the mouth which means that he has discharged a plasma shot. Oh boy. We have no way to escape because he's going to hit us anyway. I tried shooting at him but it didn't do anything. I thought of any way to escape but failed. Other smaller ones started encircling us. How do we escape... how... do I hear any whistling? I guess I wasn't the only one because the alpha also started looking around until something flew into it and exploded. Zeria quickly picked up a piece of metal and covered us from it. When it was over we looked at what had happened and when the figure started coming out of the fire I couldn't believe it. Especially as she hit right back with the weapon of one of the Shadows.

"She's alive!"

"I don't believe..."

"Then believe it. And I have support."

It was my mother. She's wearing damage-reducing armour. It was only supposed to be a prototype and yet it works. Suddenly, too, a huge ball of weapons came out of the door at full speed and when it unfolded it turned out to be one of the Goliaths. He started shooting at them slowly killing everyone. Mum ran up to us and took us to the tower where a titanium shield appeared instead of a door. I only had my jaw open and the whole tower to us started running.

"Mrs Shimmer... how?"

"Apes together strong. What's wrong son?"

"You're alive." It was all I could say before I ran into her to hug her.

"Of course. I said I'd try. Now come on. We have to defend Earth."

I nodded to her and together we walked to the main room where we sent the final instructions to the greatest desperation in human history. I don't know if we'll succeed but if we do, we must do everything we can to make this plan work....

Awakening in another world

Present times - Canterlot

I didn't expect that in the age of humans there were ponies or any creatures like us but apparently I was wrong. In addition to the horse, we also met a Shetland pony. A very similar species to us, which I think at least could be our ancestor. In humans, evolution has just created humans from an ape-like creature. They and humans had a common ancestor and not, as many supposedly erred and claimed, that man descended from an ape. And that is exactly what happened. Monkeys have not survived to our time but I have seen one. Even cute creatures but the only one I met was a so-called capuchin. Playful and cute but there was also a gorilla in our path. A mighty ape classified as a great apes.Oh my. There is so much information, research and documentation here that I don't know what to do. ZEUS didn't know what he was doing by giving us full access to all sorts of information. This is so exciting.... and surprisingly not just for me. Rainbow reads articles about flying machines that humans have created.

"Humans could fly faster than light?!" Exclaimed my friend as she browsed through one of the computers. "They could fly from this planet to the nearest one in a few moments!"

"Rainbow please. Be quiet." Replied Rarity, who is reviewing human mode throughout history. "I'm trying to understand human style. Maybe Sasha will need clothes.... although I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't happily borrow that style."

"Sory but just listen. The fastest flight between our planet and Mars, the nearest planet, was just over 3 seconds and that's over 100 million kilometres! I would so love to fly like that..."

"That seems too fast to me." stated Cadance, who, together with Princess Luna, is playing the human game. ZEUS taught it to us. It's called air hockey. It is simple but very rewarding. It involves trying to get the puck into the opponent's goal using strange dynxes. So far, Cadance has won against all of us. "Humans as well as other races probably had to do a ton of things to achieve it.... YES! I WON!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Shrieked the princess. "Sasha will beat you. For sure."

"That's right. When will she finally wake up?" Asked AJ, who was watching a so-called video on the popular platform in people's time YouTube. She's watching the big agricultural machines do their work. "I want to give him an apple eventually," she said.

"He probably needs a lot of time. He's been asleep for so many years and he needs to recover." stated Fluttershy, who had already made friends with her new pet beak. An absolutely strange creature. "ZEUS. Maybe you know?"

"I'd like to know that too. It is needed. The mass of systems need human authorisation. By then most of the broken units will be broken.... Wait a minute. What?" He seemed to start talking to someone else. "What do you mean fluid? Shit."

"What happened?"

"Sasha's dying. I have to go there!"

Wait a minute. What do you mean she's DIEING! No. That can't be right. The last man is going to die even though he had a chance of surviving? I looked at my friends and we immediately ran towards where he was lying. The whole bunker must have been alerted to this because suddenly Shining and the Crusaders ran out of a room and joined us. We ran as fast as we could, but unfortunately we were not as fast as ZEUS, who was probably already there. However, after a while we finally arrived where after a while Princess Celestia and Discord appeared. We entered the room where little robots were trying to help him and the monitor, which had previously sort of rippled now looked like a thin long line. Kit was flying from the table to Sasha in a panic. I don't blame him so honestly.

"What's going on?!" Shouted Celestia, who was trying to get to him.

"Cryogenic fluid has suddenly appeared in his lungs. We are trying to do something about it but more and more problems keep coming up. Necrosis, damage, choking.... We're fucking losing him!"

Shouted the EIR trying to help him in any way possible. Unfortunately, he was losing life with every passing second. No. This can't be happening. Fluttershy looked like she was about to cry and Rarity took the Crusaders into a hug. I'm trying not to panic either but I can't. We've been through so much already. No no no. In the midst of the chaos, trying to keep my sanity, I walked over to his bed and came up with a very stupid idea. But I don't think I see any other way out.

"Sorry Sasha."

I started to charge my horn and once I had pronounced the spell in my mind I fired magic at his head. The rest of us stopped and watched what I was doing. I honestly don't know myself but I learned this spell recently. I got into his mind and I'm trying to find something to help him. It's not for him to look into something private but you don't always have a moment. I have something. Eventually I stopped and was slightly dejected. I couldn't get up and I was barely panting but I know what to do. Meaning probably.

"What was that Twilight?" ZEUS asked.

"Project Ultron."

"Excuse me?"

"Project Ultron. I entered his mind. I don't know what it is but it might save his life."

"Twilight. It's a very powerful spell. You could have died." Princess C said.

"But she's alive. And I hope it comes in handy. What is this project?"

"It's an initiative that was, by design, ahead of its time." replied Kit, "It involved downloading consciousness from a dying body into a computer at a time when the body could quietly be healed or grow a new one. It's Sasha's project but there hasn't been any practical trial yet."

"This kid really liked Marvel." Heard ZEUS.

"Apparently today is the day of the trial and it needs to work."

"Okay but it needs more power and without his authorisation we're only working with half of it."

"I think magic will be good. Tell me what to do."

ZEUS, Kit and EIR looked at each other then at Princess Celestia. They nodded then EIR started to put some suction cups on Sasha's head. ZEUS and Kit instead disappeared somewhere. All systems began to seem to flicker. EIR ordered a powerful dose of magic to be shot straight at Sashe. She was reluctant but decided that if it was the right thing to do then so be it. She positioned herself and shot straight at the man. She was very focused. Purple flashes appeared on his body, his life monitors began to go crazy and literally everywhere light flashed until finally everywhere was dark. After a while, the electricity returned. All the machines that helped with breathing, for example, switched off and the EIR prepared a huge tube. The princess looks unmoved. She only looks curiously at the strange tube.

"And how? Did it work?"

"That's what we'll find out in a little while. For now we have to wait. For now there will be nothing here so please. Spread out somehow because I need the space."

I so honestly don't know what's going on. It feels like I'm in a void. There is darkness everywhere. I can't feel anything. I know that something should be hurting me but it's not. I tried to move my hand but I was not able to. I am tired but at the same time I do not feel tired. I don't know how to explain it. It feels like I'm in some kind of lethargy. Ygh. What has happened? Why am I in this situation? What is it about? Wait a minute. What's the last thing I remember?

Shadows. Shadows everywhere. They were attacking from everywhere. People were dying before my eyes. My father... my father died. It was a dream or a figment of my brain after something hit me and I died and now he's in some afterlife. What's going on here. Hm. No. That's not possible. I remember meeting my aunt later. She herself ran to save us. Zeira? She died. Wait a minute. I'm in a cryogenic capsule? Yes. I went in there and then the conversation with the Shadow King but I don't remember what happened after that. I was frozen... And what, now I'm in the chamber?

"Project Ultron ninety percent complete." What? What was that? Who said that and why did I hear it in my head? "Transfer of consciousness completed. Simulation of all brain hemispheres successful." Simulation of the hemispheres? "Subject fitness is good. Simulation of limb movements successful. Activates Project Ultron."

I didn't understand... or I'm just too tired to understand what it's about. In any case, I finally started to feel something. I felt my hands. I moved my finger, then my foot, my whole hand until finally I opened my eyes without thinking. The light momentarily blinded me. What is it? Awakening was not what it was supposed to look like.

"ZEUS. The room was supposed to be dark when you woke up. Do you want me to go blind?"

"Normally I would confirm this but in this situation I am glad to see you.... admittedly you are more handsome but it is you."

"ZEUS you compliment. I already have a girlfriend..."

As I was saying this my... 'eyes' got used to the light and I could see my metal hand. I seem to remember that I lost it and they could give me a prosthesis but the other one too? Wait a minute. I looked at the glass where I saw that I was a robot similar to Ultron from the Avengers. What is it? Wait a minute. Isn't that Project Ultron?

"ZEUS? Can you explain that to me?"

"Well... Maybe... Kit will explain it to you."

He took my friend in front of him, who was confused at first but then put out his hand and showed him the middle finger. Then he also looked at me. "Well... There have been minor complications..."

"Minor? That's like saying that after Mexican grub you get baked lightly twice.... Eh. I'm going to miss those tacos."

"Isn't that racism?"

"The racism is gone."

"I'm sure I've heard at least two Twilight stories about..."

"Kit!" I shouted.

"Oh. Yeah. Well look. There were... a lot of complications when we were about to wake you up. Cryogenic fluid, limb necrosis, etc. Like a full package. But you're alive even though we're only operating at half power!"

He gave two thumbs up as did ZEUS smiling. I slapped my forehead. I regret a little that I can't feel anything but I guess that's even better. I'm frankly tired that a conscious artificial intelligence that was supposed to be smarter than everyone else is so incompetent. I at least hope someone else helped them. Ok. But first I got up. I had to hold on to something to catch my balance. Good. Now somehow I took a few steps trying not to fall which I succeeded in doing. Wow. That's not even that bad. What is it? Why are my eyes glowing?

"What is it?"

"You turned on a torch. A very weak torch. Why did you mount it when you've incorporated seeing in the dark?"

"I honestly have no idea. But all right. Let's get off the subject. At least say you woke someone up before me to go through at least partial authorisation?" My voice is terribly mechanical but what a surprise.

"Well that's exactly what the problem was with that." he says.

"How many times have I explained to you and even written down that the capsules won't open just like that? Just because mine is automatic doesn't mean they all are. What day is today anyway? It feels like Monday."

"Well. According to the native's calendar, it's Monday."

"I knew it... natives?"

"Well, yeah. Well because here's the thing that ... there's a new dominant species. Or rather, several. And they discovered us and woke us up."

"A new species? By what miracle? After all, after Operation Ragnarok the Earth was uninhabitable. Eight million years would have taken and yet it took six." They looked at me quizzically. "Right?"

"Well..."

"------------------------"

We heard a loud shout and a clatter of hooves. It couldn't have been hooves. But what were those strange words? It was the language of this new species. I looked at my friends who looked at me and before I could do anything Kit pushed something into my head claiming it was the translator then flew off after shouting. Oh dear. I'm curious to see what the new dominant species looks like. So I went in the direction of the scream. After a while I heard a cry. In one of the lounges sat a white Shetland pony.... With a horn? Have they taken to some unauthorised genetic crossbreeding experiments again? And it's even fertile because she has cubs. I guess I have to take them into the pen so they don't do anything to themselves but why are Kit and ZEUS talking to them?

"Did they try to make a narwhal and horse mix again?"

When they didn't hear this little one cuddled even more into the body of this big pony. "Monster!"

Wait a minute. Who said that? I started to look around for the voice of the little girl who said it but saw nothing. Kit flew up to me saying to the ponies that it was me.

"Emm. Kit. Why are you talking to these hybrids?"

"Mr Sasha?" The big white hybrid spoke up to me. Honestly my jaw dropped and I tried to recognise if there was another human here.

"ZEUS. Are you making fun of me?"

"Thanks for the compliment but even I wouldn't have come up with a joke like that."

"Sasha. This is Rarity and her sister Sweetie Belle. They are part of the new dominant species on this planet. Ponies."

"Mr Sasha turned into a robot?" Sweetie asked.

"He had to. That's what keeps him alive. Sasha. Aren't you going to say hello?"

I so honestly didn't know what to say. Shetland ponies have evolved into unicorns that can talk and.... are like humans? Okay. Like I understand that the ancestors of Greys were mice but come on, no exaggeration. But oh well. Since this is the new dominant species I guess we need to come to a diplomatic agreement. A task perfect for someone who hates politics.

"Hello Miss Rarity. Eh. Sorry. It's just..."

"In your time, my race was a mere animals? I see. Nothing happened."

"I didn't mean to be so direct but well. Yes. It was but now I would like to say hello. I'm Sasha Miss Rarity. And hello little lovely Sweetie Belle."

"Oh how kind you are but enough Rarity."

"Hi." Quietly said Rarity's increasingly bold sister. "You look like a metal scarecrow."

"Oh. Young's right." ZEUS said. "In his body it looks all the more so."

"One more word ZEUS and I'll turn you into a toilet-cleaning AI."

"Eh. No jokes allowed? All right. Come on. We need you to meet the princesses. And get your authorisation finally done."

"I'll go with you." Rarity stated. "We've waited so long to meet you..."

I nodded to her and we walked slowly towards the ponies. Whoa. How many years has it been that there is a new dominant species on Earth. It takes millions of years for that to happen. And I'm sure there were no Shetland ponies on the surface. Eh. Okay. Maybe I'll get to that later. One thing is bothering me though. I'm doing calibrations and already have most of the systems working but why can't I see any humans in the bunker. The system only detects a few lives including three whose species it can't recognise. Is it possible that... no. They are alive. They certainly are.

To stop thinking about it I looked at our new companions. Rarity looks like a mythical unicorn.... and I'm sure she is, but I don't know how. She is quite tall. Including her head she is about sixty metres tall. Ultron is over two metres, but in my normal body she'll reach my chest and she's probably not the biggest so they'll probably be bigger. Sweetie by my calculations will reach my knees. Normally she will probably be too heavy for me and now she looks stressed so I took her on my shoulder. At first she didn't know what it was about but after a while she was enjoying it and laughing.

It's even cute. I remember Zeira had a younger brother and I carried him the same way. Oh my. I hope he survived the war. Her race is very long-lived so maybe he is still alive. There have been some who were older than this universe. They lived in another but I don't know if there will be anything to collect after that. Maybe it was humans who marked the end of the war but that end was too late. I don't want to know how badly they've overrun the galaxy. Eh. Better not to think about it. Rarity must have noticed that I was sad because somehow she telepathically took her sister off my back and told me to follow ZEUS to the rest and she wanted to talk to me. So we went to one of the rooms which, thanks to full authorisation, was changing to our needs. Nanotechnology tuned into Rarity's appearance and created a seating area that suited her.

"How did you do it?"

"Authorisation. I don't know why no one did it before or why they didn't wake up some diplomat but apparently I have to do everything myself. It's nanotechnology. And translated into the language of normies.... A sort of liquid metal that can change as needed."

"And I thought what I saw earlier was the pinnacle. Well, nothing. But that's not why I took you here. I wanted to talk to you. Are you all right? I don't know how it all works for you but you don't look so good."

"Eh. It's nothing like that. I just woke up from a very long sleep.... still in a body not my own, there's a new dominant species on earth and I don't know why I can't detect other people. It's... It's just very confusing."

Judging by Rarity's facial expressions she knows something that I don't seem to know. There's something wrong here. She looks quite sad but quickly looked at me smiling artfully. "Well, I understand. For me it was a big shock to discover you guys and all that. A friend of mine had found the dodo on you before. Nobody wanted to believe her but apparently she was right."

"I need to talk to her. And say. Do you know ... what happened once?" She nodded slightly and the word Shadow came quietly from her lips. "They made everything look lifeless. What does the Earth look like now?"

"So honestly it bears no traces of that war. Like it never happened. Everything is normal. Admittedly, sometimes we find large valleys that look like craters but we thought it was from something else.’ She looked behind me. "Should it blink like that?"

"Blink?" I turned and walked over to the computer. The screen read one big sign, ‘Death Authorisation.’ In Japanese. Eh. I'd forgotten that this was part Japanese. "Someone must have died in their sleep." I heard a quiet squeak and when I looked at Rarity she looked very sad. "Rarity? Do you know anything about this?"

Her only words to me did not give me optimistic thoughts. "Look at it yourself. I'm scared."

Scared? But why should she be afraid of anything? I didn't understand. I turned on the authorisations and suddenly there was even a wave of red dots, symbolising the dead people in this facility. In an instant a million dots became red. Each dot was a person, each had a name. Even though I am not in a position to cry it made me want to cry a lot. At first I didn't want to believe it. I stepped back and had the system do all the recounts again several times. Each time it was the same. All dead. And not just here. In every outpost on Earth where there were capsules people were dead. I fell to my knees covering my mouth with my hand. Rarity hugged me and I realised that was what she meant.

‘I'm the last...’ That was the only thing I could get out of me before letting out a loud scream of despair....

Wounds of the past

31 December 2099 - Moon

"Charging ninety per cent complete. Operation Ragnarok will be active in these minus ten minutes."

The computer's quiet voice said when I had already waited a good hour until all systems were operational. I flipped a few switches, entered new data and pressed a few buttons. I had already been sitting on this moon idly for days preparing the greatest human desperation. Almost two years have passed since the Shadows attacked Earth. Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of that. I would rather make myself useful there. Especially since it's been night for almost a year now that the Shadows have obscured our sun. But I guess the best I can do is sit on the moon, which we barely got to, and prepare our desperation. However, it is even peaceful here. Insofar as the ubiquitous fighting and firing guns can be considered calm.... and yet. Since the Shadows attacked, the planet has become a war zone. It's terribly noisy, it's virtually impossible to sleep, the fighting is exhausting and the only safe refuge is shelters.

"Now should we divert another twenty per cent of power to the reactor?" Asked my son, who is deep inside the facility.

"Yes. And you Zeira carefully irradiate the reactor core. Just be careful. We don't want to have Chernobyl in space."

"What in space?"

"That's really a lot of explaining. Sasha. You're good at shortcuts."

"Do you remember Fallout? You played it."

"Yes."

"Imagine that kind of thing actually happened over a hundred years ago in the Ukraine but without the mutants.... I think."

"That's yours I guess, but I wasn't sure."

"Nah. At least no mutant was proven."

"Can we fly there?"

"Sure but that's later. The Shadows are mutating there now. One was reportedly seen turning into a cow."

Shadows are mutating in Chernobyl? That's interesting. I didn't expect that. But well. I should know that even the strangest scenarios can come true. And just as I expected. The irradiation will accelerate the download slightly. Only seven percent more and we can activate this weapon. Not now, however, because our guess is that the biggest attack will come in three months. That's when the mothership will arrive and it's possible we'll be able to defeat them all on the first try, but I honestly don't think so. The Shadows are tough motherfuckers. Our plan, which is that after Raganrok, all humans are frozen and dormant for four million years. After that time the Shadows should be gone or they will be in retreat. We have communicated with most of the races in this way. They trust us so as soon as they detect our signal they go to sleep. Let's hope this works. Otherwise, it an be very bad. Just five per cent... Why is my cup shaking?

"ZEUS?"

"It surprises me too. I'm trying to detect something."

"By being quick."

If it was the Shadows who discovered this base then we're screwed. Five more minutes to go and I don't know if extra time won't be needed. Four minutes and with each passing minute it's not just the mug that's feeling these vibrations anymore but me too. They are getting stronger and I don't like it. I looked at the camera view outside the facility. You can see the battles in space and on Earth perfectly but what is this vibration.... Wait a minute. What is that shadow? It looks like... Oh no.

"Sasha! Zeira! They've sent a cruiser here! One of the biggest ones I think! You guys have already finished. Charging is about to finish. Run to the armour! I'll be right there!"

No. It wasn't supposed to be like that. The Glim Glams were supposed to keep them at bay! Shit. Now we're totally screwed. So I started getting my stuff together, set up my defence turrets and prepared my armour, which I would fly to Earth. The fighters would have been shot down immediately and such small objects are practically invisible to their scanners. That's very good but I don't know if the cruisers won't pick us up. Damn. All right. Cargo bay completed. We're good to go. Fortunately, this base isn't needed for Ragnarok so if they detect us and destroy us it won't be a big problem. Don't think about that now. The most important thing now is to get back to Earth.

"Activate your armour! It's already running!"

"Mom, they can see us! They know we're here!"

"What, how do you know!"

"Kit intercepted their conversations. The bombing is about to start!"

"I'll be right there. If anything happens, use all the base's energy!"

All I heard was a quiet ok and sudden gunfire from the cruiser. He is almost as huge as this moon. Since this one is that size I don't even want to think about the size of the mothership. So I ran along the corridor with the knowledge that they might be after us soon. If they kill us then activating the Ragnarok will be more difficult as impossible. No. I can't think like that. We'll be fine. We're about to get into the armour and fly to Earth. Shit. The power went out. It's terribly dark but thanks to the torch I found the way to our rescue. The kids have already arrived so we put them on. It's pretty simple armour similar to what Iron Man had. It's Sasha's design. The helmet over the eyes is semi-transparent so that everything is clearly visible. The rest, apart from the tabs on the head, is plain. We were about to take off when suddenly we heard something I never wanted to hear....

"Their guns are loaded. I advise you to run away. NOW!"

ZEUS shouted and I looked at Sashe and Zeire. I nodded to them and after the ceiling opened up we flew out at full speed. Unfortunately they had already managed to shoot into the base. Fortunately not in the part where we were but some tens of metres away from us just where the fighters were. They exploded with tremendous force and immediately afterwards there was a chain reaction. Parts of the base were exploding. We could feel it. It looked like a huge fiery trail was coming towards us.... because it was getting closer. And worst of all immediately after that the room below us exploded. While I managed to create a technological shield and Zeira with magic, Sasha was not so lucky. His shield was just forming when the fire caught up with him. He was thrown to the surface several metres away.

"Sasha!" I shouted as the Shadows began to fly out of the ship.

"Fly! I'll deal with them!"

Zeira created spears and, thanks to her armour, flew to fight them. And for that I flew to Sasha avoiding the explosions and firing at the Shadows that approached me. Oh dear. Sasha is conscious. Good. He started to get up as I flew to him. However, he couldn't get up not knowing why so I helped him up.... and I got scared. The glass over his eyes started to crack and the air started to escape which made him breathe hard and you can see he's terrified.

"Sasha! Breathe easy!"

"Mo... m. Help. I can't breathe!"

There's voice was barely audible. I try to think of something but I don't know what. The fighters have been destroyed, the nearest base is five kilometres away but even on the fastest mode of this armour I won't survive the journey. "ZEUS! Send the nearest fighter! AHHH!"

Another cruiser shot, this time at the moon's surface made us fly up and that only made things worse for my son. He was already even choking and I could already feel the tears in my eyes.

"ZEUS!"

"All bases on the moon have been destroyed. The nearest fighter jet is already flying from Mars. Five minutes!"

"He won't last that long! Speed it up!"

"I'm sorry but if I turn on above light speed I won't have time to brake him and he may fly into the surface and destroy himself."

He will die. He won't last. Already his skin is turning blue, his lips have become like Zeira's. Purple and the veins in his eyes were already slowly bursting. Looking at it with fear in his eyes I don't really know what to do anymore. We are in a dark asshole. The fighters will only arrive in a few minutes. By then he'll be dead when the glass breaks. Zeira fights on but there's such a horde of them that she's unlikely to make it for long. I try to think of something but all I can think of is.... Eh. I stared at Sasha's eyes, which were fading with each passing second and growing fear.

"ZEUS. Give the message to Flash Novákový. I love you darling. I always will. Do you remember how we used to look up at the stars and dream that one day we would live among them? I had another dream. I wanted to die among the stars... This is about to come true. Please remember me. Look up to the stars because I will always be there. Done ZEUS."

"Miss Sunset. You don't seem to think..."

"ZEUS." I touched two hands to Sasha's head. "Begin armour transmissions."

"Miss Sunset. You will die in a few moments. The damaged glass will not withstand the transmission. Please wait for the fighter. Maybe Sasha will survive..."

"He may not MAY survive. HE. MUST. SURVIVE!"

"But..."

‘That wasn't a request ZEUS. It was an order. NOW!"

"As you wish. Goodbye Miss Sunset. You were a brilliant scientist and friend."

I heard a screech and suddenly our helmets swapped places through the liquid metal. For half a second we were exposed to a lack of air but that quickly changed. We both gained the ability to breathe.... unfortunately only for moments. I momentarily felt the air escaping and the glass cracking faster. When Sasha was finally able to breathe I smiled but tears came to his eyes when he saw what I had done.

"Mom no! No!" He wanted to do the transmission himself but I wouldn't let him. "Mom no! What are you doing?!"

"Sasha." I spoke up quietly. "This is where my story ends."

"No, no no. Please don't do this. You can do more. You will be better than me! The new Earth will need you. A new world..."

The pain I feel is getting worse. The cold and the lack of air are getting to me but I adorned myself still to stroke his hair. "Promise me. Promise that in the new world...you will help everyone. You will be their role model. You will be their guide."

"I don't know if I can manage without you..." He said in a broken voice. I gained myself to smile despite everything. I touched him by the cheek when suddenly something I hadn't seen in a long time began to come into my eyes. The sun. The sunset.

"You'll be fine Sasha. I believe in you." The glass has almost completely broken now. "Smile for me. Please. I want to see your smile. I love you."

My vision finally began to darken. However, the sun was setting again and I could feel my fingers becoming more and more numb and I could no longer feel the skin of my face. So with my last strength I hugged my son and so that he wouldn't have to see my face I pushed myself away from him. I heard a crack.... and everything went black...

Current times - Canterlot

My mother sacrificed herself, my father died for me.... my aunt, Zeira and hundreds of lives given up just so that no one but me would survive? This... all this for nothing? Yes. There is a new species but no human survived? How is that possible? What happened? After all, it shouldn't have happened. They were supposed to be awakened after five million years. What failed. Why did all the artificial intelligence of the base go crazy? What happened? There are so many questions and so few answers. We were supposedly awakened five million years ago but no systems caught it. Nothing. No capsule was opened. And now they're all dead. Apparently... everything we worked for was in vain. There are no people. And if the same thing happened on other planets then there's no one I know. Then I guess I have nothing to live for.

"Sasha. I understand this has hurt you." Rarity spoke up. "I'm honestly not the best at comforting but the princesses want to see you. They are good at it. I don't want to intrude on your personal space but if you want me to hug you then just say so."

The white unicorn is really trying to help me. He hasn't taken a step away from me for a good ten minutes. She sits with me, talks to me and gives me encouragement. She seems really nice but there's no point in me living if nobody survives. I was supposed to be a guide for people. I was supposed to be where they couldn't. And now. Eh. What's the point of all this.

"ZEUS. Rarity's race has full access to technology and everything here. Of course, this one depends on Rarity who she gives it to."

"I see. And what are you going to do?"

"Get Hades ready. It's over."

"Sasha. Your mother..."

"You have no right to mention my mother."

"Wait a minute. What's going on? I don't understand. Why are you giving us all this?"

"I have nothing to live for Rarity. Tell the others I didn't make it out alive or something."

I was about to go to destroy my consciousness. However, practically immediately I felt something strange and was pinned against the wall. What is it? Like... Is that Rarity's horn glowing? Tal. I think. I saw it when she pulled her sister off me. She looks very upset.

"We've tried so hard, we've been there for you and we've done everything for you to survive and now you want to give up?!"

"I was supposed to be a guide for the people. I promised my mother when she was dying so that I could live! If there are no others then why should I live?"

"For your mother! Do you want her to die for nothing? You said she sacrificed herself for you so tell me. Why do you want her sacrifice to be wasted? She died so that you could live. Sweet Celestia. Me and my friends sat by you for so long and you want to squander it all?"

"I'm not going to squander it. I have turned on the authorisations. I have given you full control. ZEUS and the rest will assist you. With this technology you will leap forward hundreds of years in a few months."

"I understand. I really get it but we need you. We need you to be human. The Princess I want to renew alliances, I want a museum to be built in your honour and we need you to defeat the Shadows if need be. Please. Understand that we need you. Please. If not for us then for your mother."

I started to think about it. Indeed, my mother sacrificed herself so that I could live. Eh. I really don't know what I'm going to do in this world but if everything has indeed been reborn and their princess needs me then ok. This sounds more like a Wattpad shtick story than real life but ok.

"Fine. I will help you. But I will also have my conditions."

"As long as you live." Suddenly we heard a loud shout and like something crashing down. ‘Sweetie Bell!’

"What happened?"

"I don't know but something bad."

The first to run was Rarity, who directed me to her friends. The light turned red and guard robots ran past us. What do you think this is? I tried to ask ZEUS but he didn't even answer me. He must be busy with something else. Okay. Never mind. We're getting there now. The closer we got the more familiar sounds I heard. No. How the hell...

"Shadow."

I said when we finally reached. He attacked the rest of the ponies. The biggest one with white fur wings and a horn protects the rest with a shield and the dark, pink and purple one tries to help her hold it. I know him. This is the Shadow that Zeira fought. How did he survive? That means he killed her and he escaped. It's fortunate that Ultron has combat functions in him. I also don't know why this Shadow had a sizable scar on his chest and a heavily scarred hand. It looks like he was looking at the big white one with rage and the other little blue one.... pegasus? It lies unconscious against the wall. EIR has secretly taken her but those there are in danger.

"Alfa! Why don't you fight me?!"

Alpha looked at me with her red eyes. She momentarily started sniffing me. After a moment, I think she found out who I was because she stood up on two legs and roared at me. "Human." He said in a husky voice. "You are alive. Unlike Thalven."

"Yes. I'm alive but you're scion is already dead. You're the one who killed those people!"

"We have nothing to do with it. But we're happy about it."

"So like all the rest. Just plain cowards."

"Was it the last time your Thalven didn't defend you?"

"Yes." I created a blade from my hand. Good. I didn't expect it to work like that. "But now it's going to kill you!"

"That'll show human. RAAAAA!"

He threw himself at me first. Pinning me against the wall. I drove the istra into his shoulder as deep as I could. He roared in pain and threw me against another wall. He whined and ran at me. The robot guards started firing at him but it didn't do anything. Once he was close to me and wanted to bite me I grabbed him by his open mouth completely disabling him. He jerked and tried to knock me down with his tail but the big white one snatched his tail with magic screaming that vengeance was hers. Unfortunately he kicked it in the muzzle with all his strength sending it into the big dark one. Gosh I need to know their names. No matter. I instead grabbed him better and slammed him against the wall. When he lost his orientation for a moment I tried to shoot him in the head but he jerked and I shot his paw off instead.

‘Not again! You'll pay for this!’

He didn't seem to mind the guard robot shots. The Goliaths are still inactive so they're unlikely to help us and Purple and Pink's magic rather just pisses him off. So he breathed black fire at them, which went through their shield. Fortunately, fairly quickly ARES put a holographic shield in front of them, which destroyed itself and exploded slightly disorienting them. I, meanwhile, jumped on it and pounced on it with everything I could. He tried to throw me off by hitting me many times against the wall which made Ultron destroy himself a bit. Eventually, though, I jumped up. I bounced off the ceiling and knocked him down. I stabbed the blade into his neck and charged the cannon. However, I didn't manage to kill him when he somehow grabbed me pinned me to the ground and ripped my arm out then started massacring with his claws. He managed to inflict some single blows, but it was of little use. Once he even pierced me through with his whole paw. Fortunately, when he exposed himself, I think the white princess shot at him with magic. I think it was fire because it burned him but then some form of energy that made him start to retreat. Increasingly pissed off he didn't notice he was approaching a wall. I knew I could take advantage of this, but he massaged me so badly that I could barely move anything. I managed to get up somehow, but only one leg is functional. The other... let me put it this way. If it was a broken leg in the real body I would howl in pain. It's literally holding on to a few cables but it's not the only one. Most of the body is jagged and half of the head is smashed. There's a huge hole yawning in place of the cage.

"Sasha!" Shouted the princess, who walked up to Shadow and seemed to start hurling him with magic. "Kill him before I lose my strength! Kit! Twilight and Cadance need help!" Suddenly, another magic started pressing down on him from three sides. A dark probably princess and a rather rather massive unicorn guy. And a strange thing that looked like a hybrid of some drunken scientist.

‘Coming.’

Because of one damn Shadow, the Ultron project has been so destroyed that rebuilding it could take a ton of time. It already took four years just to build it. Eh. I will avenge my work. I will avenge Zeire. Apparently I'll help the white princess too.... How that sounds. I wonder if they have racism here. Okay. It doesn't matter. The important thing is that I approached him. I created a gun and put it to my head.

"For Zeira. For my family. And all my species!"

"For Chrerry. For my son."

Silently said the princess until I finally fired. Shadow's last roar rang out across the outpost and the energy I had used to do this ran out. I had no control over what I was doing so I fell and in front of me I saw information that consciousness was being transported to the main computer and I felt nothing again....