The Last Human: A Tale of the Pre-Classical Era
(not to be confused with the similarly-named Adventure Time fanfiction) is a Fusion Fic of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and The Last Unicorn.
Many centuries before the foundation of Equestria, a nameless young man lives his days in relative peace in a ruined city, his only companions following the death of his mother a flock of pigeons. When he hears a rumor from two passing unicorns that he may be the last of his kind, he sets out on a quest to find out what happened to the others. Along the way, he encounters two unlikely allies: Star Swirl, a young unicorn magician with great untapped potential but no ability to reliably tap into it; and Heartstrings, a unicorn spinster who has longed since filly-hood to see a human for herself. Together they seek out the kingdom of General Yarak, a pegasus said to control a mysterious White Roc said to be linked to the disappearance of the humans.
Tropes present in this work:
- After the End: The world of humans apparently ended long ago by a mix of nuclear war and disease.
- Androcles' Lion: When Star Swirl and the Human free the manticore from Pyrite's menagerie, the monster spares them and takes out its frustrations on its captor Pyrite.
- Anti-Magic: It appears that humans are almost completely immune to magic, and their presence can dispel enchantments. To those sensitive to such things, humans stand out like sore thumbs.
- Canon Welding: The story is sprinkled with references to the G1 cartoons, and it eventually turns out the pony world is a merger of Ponyland and the human world after a catastrophe wiped out most of human civilization.
- Emergency Transformation: Much like the Unicorn was turned into a human in the original story to protect her from the Red Bull, the Human is turned into an earth pony to disguise him from the White Roc.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Pyrite (much like Mommy Fortuna in the original story) only has two real monsters in his menagerie, the Human and a manticore; the rest are relatively ordinary creatures masked with illusion spells.
- Floral Theme Naming: The members of the Hartfelt Company are named after types of trees. When the human is turned into an earth pony, Starswirl gives him the alias "Cinquefoil", a common name for many flowers of the genus Potentilla, some of which are known as "five-finger blossoms".
- Fusion Fic: The story blends the mythos of Friendship is Magic and The Last Unicorn:
- Schmendrick the Magician is played by a young Star Swirl the Bearded.
- Mommy Fortuna's role is taken by a (male) unicorn named Pyrite.
- Molly Grue is played by Heartstrings, an Identical Ancestor of the G4 pony Lyra Heartstrings (and implied to be the source of Lyra's
fanon obsession with humans). - Captain Cully and his bandits are played by a band of deer-folk, the Knave of Harts and his Hartfelt Company.
- King Haggard and the Red Bull are played by General Yarak (a rogue pegasus leader) and his White Roc. Yarak's daughter Sunshower seems to fill the role of Prince Lir.
- Giant Spider: The attercops are giant spiders native to the pony lands. Star Swirl accidentally gives one enhanced intelligence in chapter 9 and, in a parallel to the infamous "animated tree" sequence from The Last Unicorn, it ends up falling in love with him in its own twisted way.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Played with. The Human's eyes are noticeably smaller and beadier then pony eyes, but it's clearly indicated the Human communicates quite a lot with his eyes, so much so it actually scares and unnerves most ponies, especially how they can be full of predatory malice one moment and gentle warmth the next. Or attracts them in the case of Yarack's daughter, but the human was a pony by then.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Played with; humans are mostly remembered as aggressive and vicious predators who would make war among themselves for seemingly no reason. At the same time, they are acknowledged as being highly advanced and creative, and capable of great deeds, hence their reputation as "the creature of contradictions".
- I Know Your True Name: The Human is reluctant to give out his name to Star Swirl, being well-aware of such magic.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Star Swirl was very interested about humanity and their time when he asked the human about them.
- Last of His Kind: As in the original story, the Human goes out into the world to discover what happened to the others of his kind.
- Licked by the Dog: While humans have faded to folklore for ponies, dogs remember us very clearly, and are overjoyed to meet one.
- Shrouded in Myth: Humans have been gone so long in the world, all that remains are stories of their great cities and their great civilization. The deer-folk legends of the "wood wraiths" are clearly warped memories of human deer hunters.
- Speaks in Shout-Outs: The Sea Pony, much like the Butterfly from The Last Unicorn, speaks in old snatches of song and poetry.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the ponies in Conemara bat an eye at the Human waltzing through town; they all assume he's a sickly yeti or sasquatch, though some have their suspicions.
