The End of Ponies
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| The End of Ponies | |
|---|---|
 cover image on Equestria Daily | |
| Writer(s) | short skirts and explosions |
| Date published | October 16th, 2011 |
| Words | 527,556 (as of Chapter 52) |
| Status | Unfinished |
| Type/genre | Adventure Sad Dark |
| Story link(s) | |
 
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The End of Ponies is a fan-fiction novel/series dedicated to the adventures of the lone surviving pony after a Cataclysm has destroyed all of ponykind and much of Equestria.
Contents |
Synopsis
Edit
"A horrible Cataclysm has turned all of Equestria into a Wasteland of barren ash and twilight desolation. The Sun and the Moon have been destroyed. Everypony has died – including Princesses Luna and Celestia. But one pony miraculously survives; she is a lone wanderer, the last of her kind, surrounded by menacing creatures that hate her. She navigates the Wastes in an airship and scavenges off the blighted landscape to keep herself alive.
Then one day she meets an old companion who grants her a gift, the chance to go back in time to the warm and sunny days of Ponyville, where her dead friends live in happiness. How far will the last pony venture into these joyous days of Equestria, even if she fully knows that there is no way to change the horrible fate of everypony she loves?"
StyleEdit
EoP is written in third-person limited perspective for the most part, although the protagonist's journal entries form a significant portion of the narrative.
The story is divided into arcs, which are further divided into chapters. With the exception of those focused on her time in the wasteland, each arc is typically centered around the pony she is bound to during her trips to the past. Thus far, four arcs have been written – The Wasteland (wasteland), Hooves on the Ground (Applejack), Circle of Kindness (Fluttershy), and Dredgemane (Pinkie Pie) arcs. A fifth arc (Petra) has been twice drafted and scrapped, though after a long hiatus the author has recently resumed work on it again.
Each chapter in an individual arc is named according to a certain theme – for example, chapters in the Fluttershy arc were named "Ever[word]" and chapters in the Pinkie Pie arc get their names from the insertion of all or part of "Pinkie Pie" into the names of books, films and video games; for example, "P for Pinketta" is a reference to V for Vendetta.
Plot SummaryEdit
Note: Each arc contains a single story, all of which contribute to the storyline as a whole and have a number of common themes and plot-threads, but are still largely self-contained.
Act I: The WastelandEdit
The setting is twenty-five years in the future, in an Equestria turned wasteland. An apocalyptic event refered to as the Cataclysm brought about the abrupt destruction of the sun and moon, along with the death of everypony everywhere, except one. The story begins with the Last Pony and her attempt to survive in a dead world, scavenging for the things she needs or finding work as a mercenary. She lives aboard an airship of her own design called "The Harmony", and has mastered a number of skills including runecrafting and tinkering, along with being an exceptionally skilled fighter. Her relations with members of other species is mostly strained, as many blame ponydom for the Cataclysm. Her motivating reason to live is in hope that she might someday find other pony survivors.
After hearing rumors of a rare and valuable source of mystical green flame, she embarks on of a scavenging mission to Ponyville, a place she had avoided up until this point. She was nearly killed by trolls, but is rescued by an aged Spike, who also turns out to be the source of the flame. It is at this point that we learn that the Last Pony in in fact Scootaloo. After confirming with her that she is indeed the lone survivor of her species, Spike proposes that they work together to find out what caused the apocalypse.
By using his flame, he can send her back in time to before the Cataclysm occured, where she can attempt to discover what caused it. Although time travel is possible, it is made clear that nothing in the past can be changed; only fulfilled. Though initially hesitant, she accepts the offer. Spike explains that while back in time, she must stay within a limited distance of the soul she is anchored to or she will be pulled back to the future. To her benefit however, her body will be a pseudo-projection of her soul self, meaning that she will both look different (so other's wont recognize her) and be almost completely indestructable (along with no need to eat or sleep).
Her first time-traveling mission sends her to Cheerilee, where she promptly becomes hysterical and scares a classroom of children with warnings about the future, in an attempt to try and change it. She gets arrested and returns to Spike in the future, who shows her that he already knew what happened because the entire encounter was in an old document, further proving to her that the past could not be changed.
Act II: Hooves on the GroundEdit
Ready for another attempt, Spike and the Last Pony decide to make Applejack her next target. After recovering her remains from Sweet Apple Acres, they bond her soul to Applejack and send her to the past. Using the alias "Harmony", and under the pretense of being a clerk sent from Canterlot, she convinces Applejack and her family to let her stay and help with applebucking, though Applejack still distrusts her.
Although her objective is to find a way to arrange a meeting with Princess Celestia to investigate the Cataclysm, she becomes drawn into finding out what has the Apple family on edge, though they are reluctant to tell her anything. After rescuing the AJ and Big Mac during an incident in the forest, she comes to discover that what has them wound up is a pack of trolls that have appeared on their farm, and had begun to terrorize them. Knowing trolls all to well from her world in the future, she convinces them she can help.
After helping to harvest the rest of the orchards, they barricade themselves inside the barn and stand guard. As night falls, the trolls begin to come out, now numbered in the hundreds. Rushing the Apple's to the cellar, the Last Pony blocks them in much to their reluctance, and proceeds to take on the entire hoarde herself, aided by her indestructable body. The fight lasts all fight, and as the sun comes up, the trolls are returned to stone. Boxing the trolls up so they wont be reawoken, the Last Pony attempts to focus on arranging a meeting with Princess Celestia. An old silo nearly collapsing on Apple Bloom interrupts them however, and in saving her she is crushed and forced back to the future.
Act III: Circle of KindnessEdit
In the Circle of Kindness arc, the Last Pony visits Fluttershy and meets the child genius Dinky and her mother Derpy Hooves. She goes on to help Fluttershy find a wounded Capricorn (a starbeast similar to the Ursa Major) in the Everfree Forest. A running secondary plot throughout this arc is the story of a night Scootaloo spent with Fluttershy as a filly before the Cataclysm.
During the Last Pony's time with Fluttershy, Dinky Doo succumbs to a magical illness caused by the wounded Capricorn and becomes delirious, spouting gibberish phrases. It is from this that the Last Pony learns of the Onyx Eclipse, a phenomenon she hypothesises somehow related to the Cataclysm.
Act IV: DredgemaneEdit
In the Dredgemane arc, the Last Pony plans to map out the night sky of pre-Cataclysm Equestria in order to learn more about the Onyx Eclipse. To this end, she visits Pinkie Pie in Ponyville and ends up traveling to the mining city of Dredgemane, near which the latter grew up. She soon becomes entangled in Dredgemane's politics and the lives of its citizens, many of which who are succumbing to deadly mineral toxins from the mines known as infernite.
Act V: PetraEdit
In the upcoming Petra arc, the Last Pony will venture to Petra, one of many grand goblin build tower cities, in an attempt to aquire the remains of her long dead hero Rainbow Dash. She is accompanied on her airship for the first time by a low caste goblin outcast named Warden. Once in Petra, she soon discovers that the goblin in charge is a long lost enemy of hers, who makes it known that he has no intention of allowing her search for Rainbow Dash's remains.
It has been confirmed that the Petra arc will also also feature a crossover with the official side-story Red Wings.
CharactersEdit
The Last Pony ("Harmony")Edit
A brown pegasus with scarlet eyes who makes a living as a scavenger and a mercenary in the wasteland that was Equestria. Upon meeting Spike, she is tasked with travelling back in time to pre-Cataclysm Equestria. During her journeys into the past, she takes on the form of an invulnerable copper-coated pegasus with a black mane with amber streaks. Her eyes are also amber and she refers to herself as "Harmony". The reader discovers in the fourth chapter that she is a grown-up Scootaloo.
SpikeEdit
Having spent over three hundred years (by travelling back and forth in time through the twenty-five years following the Cataclysm) learning and studying in isolation, Spike is much older and wiser than in the show. His green fire breath is what sends the Last Pony back in time, and he is therefore the catalyst for much of what happens in the story.
BrucieEdit
A flying squirrel who speaks with a Russian accent. He's a travelling merchant, and one of the few individuals the Last Pony is on relatively good terms with. Most of her supplies are purchased from his shop.
In Red Wings, we learn that he sees the Last Pony as more than just a customer, when takes up arms against and kicks out Red after the latter mentions his intentions to find and kill her.
PittEdit
The oldest living brother of the family of twelve brothers who run the Monkey O'Dozen Den, a bar and reststop for zeppelin pilots in post-Cataclysm Equestria. He and the Last Pony are on professional terms with each other.
PrequelEdit
The author of EoP has written a 28 000-word indirect prequel, expanding the series' backstory.
- Saros is the story of a sarosian (batpony) in the Lunar Empire on the moon, nearly one thousand years after Luna's banishment there.
Derivative WorksEdit
dylan1kenobi (also known as poni1kenobi) wrote a song based off of the fanfic.
One sidestory by another author has been written for EoP.
- Red Wings (by PropMaster ) is the story of a diamond dog named Red on a hunt for the Last Pony of the main story.
ReceptionEdit
The End of Ponies has been compared to Fallout: Equestria because of its post-apocalyptic setting and great length. Similarly, it has been called the "Moby Dick of My Little Pony Fanfiction" for its great length, niche appeal and dense language.
An art contest for the story was hosted by typhlosionskingdom on deviantART between February 18 and March 18, 2012. It received sixteen entries.
