Memories of a Star

by Karach

Chapters

Prologue
Lesson 1 - History: Memories of a World Long Gone
Lesson 2 - Physics: A Lecture on Stellar Evolution
Lesson 3 - Music: A Sonata of the Dying Universe
Epilogue

Prologue

Wha...

What happened?

Where am I?

I strain my senses as my consciousness slowly returns to my body.

For that matter... Who am I?

It's mildly uncomfortable, to have forgotten even such an important fact.

I try to scour my memories, salvage any traces of my identity I can find. My mind runs back. Far, far, back, taking me on a trip to the times I thought I had forgotten eons ago.

I close my internal eyes, letting a vision form before them. A vibrant, clear, sparkling-blue sky, with white patches of vapors dotted all over it... Clouds... Was this their name? Yes, clouds... The ground is covered with a carpet of small, green blades. I try to recall the names for them, but at the same time struggle to keep the vision going. I lean down, inspecting the imaginary greenness closer. Grass. The name invades my mind almost breaking the vision altogether. But miraculously, the image before my inner eyes persists.

I look up, noticing the mountain range in the distance. Had it been there before, or had it just appeared? No matter. I spot an outline of a building on top of one of the mountains. No, not just a building. They had their special name, like everything else in this strange world of the past long forgotten. I search the reservoirs of knowledge I once possessed. A castle.

The moment the name appears in my mind, my imagination takes me inside the building. Though the walls are high, and the throne room is fairly large, for some reason I feel cramped. I look out of the hole in the wall—a window. The castle is surrounded with paved streets, dim lamps lit across them, running between neat little buildings. Once again, I'm left wondering whether they had appeared just now or the moment the castle has manifested itself in my mind.

I float through the air, a stream of lone consciousness in the deserted town. Deserted. Why does it sound... inappropriate? Should there be something more in the city? What does the word deserted imply? What does it even mean? A lack of presence of another being, my mind hints. Is this really the meaning of the word? Does it mean other beings should populate the city?

Other than me... Another being... Someone... SomePONY!

As soon as the word appears in my mind, the vision explodes with a torrent of images, swamping my consciousness with memories. In an instant, the castle is populated with ponies of various colors, species, genders, and sizes. They're all anxious, holding their breaths, obviously waiting for an important event to occur. Only now do I notice they all look at me. I inspect my body, realizing it, too, is shaped like a pony. I search the audience for a similar pony, but they all seem smaller than me, and none of them has both a horn and a pair of wings.

The sky is dark, but a hint of violet sparkles in the distance over the horizon. I know what I must do. I raise my horn, feeling the rush of power within it. My wings unfurl, and I beat the air around me with them, my body ascending into the air. Both my bodies! What is happening?

Then realization dawns on me, leaving me speechless, paralyzed. I had been separated from my celestial body back then. The me I'm now... the sun as the ponies called me, was a star my pony self guided through the celestial dome, to complete the cycle of day and night.

The sun rises and the ponies explode in an ecstatic cheer. Long live Princess Celestia! I hear their united voices. So that was my name...

My pony body slowly descends on the platform in the center of the city, while my celestial one drifts above our heads. I notice everypony gathered around me bowing their heads... Out of respect, perhaps?

Everypony but one. She stands next to me, dark as night itself, smiling proudly. She pats me on the back with her wing, her delicate feathers brushing against my flowing mane. "Good job!" she smiles.

"All in the day's work, sister." I reply, grazing through the crowd with my curious eyes. So I had a sister. What has happened to her?

The vision disappears as abruptly as it began. It does, however, pierce the dam blocking my memories, and they trickle through the hole, filling my mind with scenes from the ancient past. As image after image unveils before my inner eyes, each memory brings another one, enlarging the puncture in the metaphorical dam. More and more scenes flash before my mind, until the dam breaks altogether, overflowing my mind with a tsunami of memories.

FLASH

Lesson 1 - History: Memories of a World Long Gone

FLASH

In an instant, a period of time shorter than it takes for a fleeting thought to manifest in a pony mind, a universe is born—a void, cold and empty.

I must have been there at the time. At the very beginning, when the Creator brought our world forth. I cannot see her clearly, but she's a great, all-encompassing, perfect being. Compared to her, me and my sister seem but specks of dust, unworthy of her attention. She's an alicorn, too, with pearl coat and brown mane. Our Mother, the Creator, the Cosmic Matriarch... Ponies gave her many names, though not one of them could ever comprehend the magnitude of her being.

With a flinch of her glowing horn, she creates the Sun, the Moon, and the Planet. Our alicorn forms—mine and Luna's—dissolve into energy and we are buried in our respective celestial bodies.

"You three will sleep until my children need you, until they are ready for you," Mother explains, her melodic voice filling the universe, making every atom vibrate to its rhythm. "You will then don your pony forms back, and lead them into the glorious future."

FLASH

I drift through the void of space, watching the planet and its satellite—my two little sisters—from within my core. The planet revolves around me, a naked, barren rock in the no longer lifeless void. My other sister makes her relentless rounds around it, as if we're playing a game of hide and seek.

Seconds pass into millennia in a blink of an internal eye for a star. I don't know how long our game lasts, but we both notice how the planet changes over time. It changes its colors, gathering pools of blue amongst patches of brown, which are then hidden behind the makeup of green. Our sister must be prettying herself up to welcome her guest, I remember thinking.

And then the whole planet bursts into a song.

A symphony of creation—the most beautiful melody ever created by anypony—fills the universe as the atmosphere of the planet vibrates, sending the melody of life being born into space. And I can hear it, despite the lack of ears, despite the lack of medium to transmit sounds. And I know my sister does too. And our cores shiver, as we cry with joy.

We both know the symphony is the start of something grand, something bigger than the three of us drifting in the void, something almost as glorious as our Mother.

Life.

FLASH

Our sister's children—our Mother's children—slowly venture into their lives, filling the planet with joy unlike anything I have felt since Mother conceived us into her universe. The children are but colorful specks on the planet's surface, but they can manifest their presence. They shape the world to their liking, drawing yellow patches of fields across the landscape, splashing colorful circles of cities, and harnessing white clouds into meaningful shapes. I wonder how does my middle sister feel with myriad of the tiny creatures reshaping her body like that...

Is she proud of them, or is she infuriated?

FLASH

The three races of ponies fight back malevolent ice spirits—windigos, I believe they were called—and form a historic treaty. Though the borders around the new country are only metaphorical, we can almost see them from the sky. Ponies name their land Equestria, and as they sing their anthem under the clear sky, both me and my little sister feel the wards placed by Mother cracking and dissolving into nothingness. It's finally time to fulfill our duty.

FLASH

As we mingle with Mother's children, we soon notice the difference between us and them. Our connections to the celestial bodies give our pony forms eternal life, something Mother's children can only dream of. They proclaim us goddesses of their world, and—despite our refusal—seat us on the thrones of the country they had created. Their enormous creativity, driven perhaps by their short life spans, bestows us with our own names.

Celestia, Terra and Luna.

FLASH

Grief and misery consume the entire planet as a Draconequs, a powerful being made of pure chaos, corrupts many ponies and declares war on Equestria. Far too many of Mother's children die in squabbles as Luna and I are powerless against the manifestation of chaos who has invaded our peaceful world. We both seek refuge in the only part of the planet which seems free of the evil creature's influence—a place the children had earlier given the name of the Everfree Forest. We hide our pride, licking our wounds as we weep to Mother to aid us, to show us the way to liberate her beloved world from the malevolent creature's claws. She stays silent, however, as we—the most powerful ponies, wielding the celestial magic itself—curse our helplessness.

Just as everything seems lost, a barely noticeable hum breaks throughout the forest. The trees hear it too, and add the gentle whispers of their leaves to the heart-wrenching melody. It doesn't take too long for the birds to join the song, and soon the whole forest sings a tune of loss and a call to fight with its deep voice.

Is it the deed of our sister, ever hidden within the planet itself, mourning over the loss of her children?

Through force unknown to me or Luna, the ground splits in two, revealing a colorful tree made of crystal.

We approach it slowly, our curiosity magnified by the intimidating force the tree emanates. Hesitantly, I raise my hoof to touch one of its fruits. It shrivels back into the crystal flower encompassing it.

We know the fruits are powerful enough to stop Discord, yet are forbidden to use it. Why, sister? Why present us the mean to stop the draconequus from destroying you, if we cannot use it?

Luna cannot find refuge in her kingdom of dreams that night. She struggles in her sleep, but I am unable to wake her up, no matter how hard I poke her with my horn.

She finally wakes after several hours, her eyes wide and glimmering with excitement. She tells me she saw Mother in her dream, bestowing the Tree of Harmony upon our sister, Terra, as the mean of ultimate defense against anyone threatening to harm her or her children.

"You shall use them on your own, however," Luna repeats the message Mother had relied to Terra. "You have to ask your sisters to wield them for you. But they, too, will have to prove themselves worthy before they are able to wield them."

FLASH

Far too many years have passed in chaos, but finally Luna and I have completed our trials of harmony. By helping ponies tormented by Discord, who saw them nothing more than toys in his chaotic claws, we understood the six virtues of the most powerful magic. Armed with our wisdom, we once again enter the cave and stand before the tree. This time, however, it accepts us, offering its fruits at our disposal.

As tremendous power—far more powerful than either celestial or alicorn magic—fills us, threatening to break our pony bodies, we understand why we had to prove ourselves, before we were deemed worthy of wielding them.

With great power comes great responsibility. A responsibility we couldn't have hoped to take on unprepared.

FLASH

Finally, after so many years of the children's misery, we are able to use the Elements to break Discord's evil magic. A cry of surprise merged with a threat to come back escapes his twisted mouth as his crooked body is turned to stone. The blast of the magic of harmony clashing with pure chaos is so strong, however, that it forces the souls of every living pony out of their body, effectively reducing Terra to a lifeless garden it once was.

We share the fate of Mother's children as well as we are forcefully expelled from the dying world. As our pony forms wither away and die, we return to our celestial bodies, wondering whether we will be allowed to visit our sister on her planet ever again.

Oh, Mother, how could you have let us fail Terra so utterly?

FLASH

A song of loss is sung across the planet, and our cores weep with Terra for the loss of Mother's children. I keep watching my sister as she cleanses her body, ridding it of any form of life, reducing herself to a barren rock she once was.

I immerse myself in her cry, lasting Mother knows how many millennia.

Then comes silence, and we know it is Terra's way of paying her last respects to the children. And we join her in the silence. It lasts but a fleeting moment in the life of a celestial body, and soon Terra breaks into another song, joyous and rhythmic, full of hope and promises. And we feel the end of it will mark the birth of a new generation of children.

Oh, Mother, there are no words to describe our joy and excitement.

FLASH

Terra's song is over, and we are allowed to don our mortal bodies and descend on her surface again.

Immediately, we notice that the new generation hasn't started from scratch, but rather continues where the last one left off, inheriting their memories and experiences.

A quick survey reveals that the ponies believe only a couple of decades have passed since the victory over Discord. It cannot be right, but neither of us makes any effort to explain the truth.

FLASH

We travel west, emissaries of the civilized world, to inspect the rumors our subjects have been spreading among themselves. A race of sentient, aggressive creatures, looking like an offspring between an eagle, a lion and a pegasus is supposed to live in the unwelcoming West Mountains.

The rumors prove to be the truth, and we organize a meeting to negotiate a form of cooperation between our species.

The negotiations are hard, and only after Luna looses her temper, and demonstrates her alicorn magic by issuing an eclipse at her whim, we are able to reach a consensus.

We leave the mountain strongholds, exhausted but satisfied, and I let my mind roam, wondering why had our sister decided to welcome another race into her world.

FLASH

A pair of invaders, half ponies half creatures I have never met or even heard of, breach the borders of the Mother's universe, lured by the abundance of magic they hope to take for themselves.

Assured by one of my subjects—a magic prodigy, no less—that he could befriend the guests, as he calls them, I and my sister do not intervene, trusting his wise judgement.

His charisma, however, is not enough to persuade both of the centaurs, as they call themselves. The older one, a malevolent being named Tirek, steals the unicorn's magic and uses it to banish his own brother out of my sister's world.

Before we are able to intervene, he steals the magic equivalent of a whole country, proving a difficult opponent even for the Elements of Harmony.

We engage in a long and arduous battle, before we are finally able to counter his stolen magic. His body mortally wounded, he unleashes all the force he had stolen in a one powerful blast.

As I and my sister lose our mortal bodies, and are pushed back into our celestial ones, we observe the beloved children of Terra whiter and die, the magical essence supporting their lives stolen and destroyed.

FLASH

The song of destruction is sung once again, and both Luna and I pray to Mother to be given a chance to hear the song of life after it.

And we are, after countless of aeons during which we had almost lost all hope, and our hearts explode with joy as we prepare for our descent, once Terra will have finished her rhapsody.

FLASH

Once again, the new children of our sister have no recollection of the time which has passed since Terra had been rid of life. It seems like only decades for them, and perhaps it's all for the better?

I have no time to ponder on this as I and my sister travel north, guided by rumors of our subjects sighting giant, ferocious beasts spewing fire from their mouths.

After a long and tiring climb, we finally fly over the mountain ridge in the north. What we see on the other side is so unlike Equestria we know that we stop, shocked and horrified that maybe Discord or Tirek has returned, transforming the peaceful meadows into a barren war zone of sharp crevices and lava pools.

Only after Luna has discerned a giant lizard bathing in one of the pools, we collect ourselves from our stupor, and descend to bid our welcomes.

The dragons cannot live among the ponies, and neither they request to. The only thing they want to discuss, is the freedom to fly around the world in the yearly cycle of their migration. On behalf of my subjects and despite Luna's concerns, I agree, forbidding them the freedom to land and make nests between the borders of Equestria.

The dragon emperor seals the pact with his royal scale and we are free to leave for home.

Once again, my mind is occupied with other things as my wings push me through the unwelcoming land. Could those creatures be the guardians of Terra, given birth by our sister to patrol its borders like giant and powerful sentries, as they make rounds around the whole planet like the hands of a giant clock, driven by their yearly migration cycles?

I look around me at the towering figure of the dragon emperor. I certainly hope so.

FLASH

During our flight back to the capital of the pony country, we sway aside, curious about the unnatural light mingling with the northern lights, painting the sky baby blue.

A pillar of light, like a beacon guiding ships to a safe shore, lures us into a small city, seemingly carved in ice.

Our surprise knows no bounds as we are welcomed by a gathering of ponies, whose bodies shine and sparkle with light reflected off their glittering coats.

The crystal ponies are curious to see us, afraid even, and we wonder why. Have they not seen the countries outside their crystal kingdom?

The leader of the tribe, a non-crystal unicorn with a black coat, rushes to meet us. We are almost dragged into his castle, where he explains his back story and asks for the autonomy of his city-state.

We both listen to his story—of a knowledgeable unicorn explorer who discovered the savage tribe of ponies and imparted his wisdom upon them—and I notice Luna's brow furrowing with his each word.

Finally, she explodes, slamming her hoof against the crystal table, shattering it to smithereens.

"Thou art forbidding thy crystal tribe the knowledge thy country hath bestowed upon you," she cries, her eyes blazing with fury. "Proclaiming yourself the tribe's leader, thou limit and distribute thy wealth just to remain at the very peak of the false society thou hath created."

The unicorn cowers in fear at the frightful display my sister had given. I, too, am a little startled. Never before have I seen her so ferocious.

I step between the pair. "My sister speaks truly, Sombra. The freedom to do whatever the ponies choose to with their lives, is the right with which each and every pony is born. We cannot allow you to hinder the lives of your tribesponies."

Sombra's eyes flash as he collects himself from the floor. "If what her majesty says is true, am I not allowed to live my life as I choose as well? Would her grace not name forbidding me to fulfill my desires as hindering my growth?"

I open my mouth, but no sound comes from it. Are me and my sister in a position to resolve the squabbles between Mother's children? Standing between our children is definitely different from protecting their world from outside threats. Are we meant to do that?

We leave the city of the crystal ponies, but not without the promise to return in case Sombra violates the freedom of his subjects in any way.

FLASH

The Elements of Harmony in our saddlebags, we travel north to the Crystal Kingdom one more time.

"We should have put an end to Sombra's rule on our previous visit!" Luna snarls, her wings pumping the air angrily.

"Would intervening and trespassing on his freedom not make us the same as Sombra?" I dare to ask.

"The cost of our inactivity is far greater. Would thou not agree, sister?" She pierces me with her furious eyes. "How could I look Terra or Mother in the eyes after we had let him enslave a whole species of ponies?"

"Bear in mind that Terra's soldiers—if dragons are indeed the militant forces our sister has brought on her world to protect it—have not lifted a claw to intervene. What right do we have?"

Luna slams her hoof against the cloud below her. It blackens and explodes with a loud thunder. "The very one given by our Mother. The duty to protect her children and lead them towards their bright future, the duty Mother has bestowed upon us. If not anything more, then at least the obligation of a parent to scold a rowdy child, who upsets their playmates in a sandbox."

I cannot help but smile. While Luna's metaphor is a little far fetched, it also hits the nail on its proverbial head. Indeed, Luna would know a tad more about raising a family than I do. She has formed closer bonds with her subjects than I have ever had the courage to. Up to the point, in fact, of testing the limits of the pony body Mother had given us.

Who would have thought we were genetically compatible with the children?

Perhaps it is the reason why her heart burns with fiery passion while mine remains cold, collected. Funny, how our respective celestial bodies should dictate otherwise.

FLASH

A crystal arrow deflects off my force field and shatters into tiny pieces. As in slow motion I watch the fragments fall to the ground, a vision of hundreds upon hundreds of broken crystal ponies screaming in my mind.

I no longer wonder whether Luna had been right or not. It does not matter. What matters is my conscience, forbidding me to allow such misery any further.

Luna and I cross our horns. They erupt with colorful light, casting the evil king deep under the ice surface of the northern plains. His magic leaves him and he will soon wither and die himself, like the kingdom he had created and destroyed.

As we leave the land of crystals, shattered in the recent battle, I weep my apologies and prayers to my sister, hoping that she would let the crystal ponies again into her world.

FLASH

Since then, Luna and I take a more active role in leading Mother's children towards their glorious future.

The treaties with zebras and griffins are signed, dragons keep their promise to fly over Equestria without landing within its borders, and we take pride in ruling the country the children have created.

I sometimes worry about Luna, though. She seems distant, absent almost, so unlike the cheerful and rumbustious sister I've known for so long.

I cannot and will never understand the pain she had felt when her loved stallion had died. Neither will I ever know what it feels to watch one's children, then one's grandchildren, and then their children, all pass away, generations after generations of ponies withering away before her eyes. I do know one thing, however: I will never be as courageous as Luna to form such a bond with a child of Terra.

Especially after watching Luna's suffering.

If only there was a way I could help her...

FLASH

I have waited in my helpless denial far too long. Oh, Luna, why must you pay for my stupidity?

After several centuries of watching her descendants die, Luna finally snaps, welcoming darkness blacker than the void of the deepest space in her heart. Powered by delusions, grief, despair, and decades of mourning, she refuses to lower the moon.

I try to plead and reason with her, but my words fall on a pair of deaf ears. I wrestle with her magic, trying to force the sun up the sky. She responds with force.

"If my family is forbidden to stay on Terra, what right do other ponies have? The night will last forever, until this world is as dead as my moon!"

Her words ring in my ears as I fall inside the castle, stricken by a blast of her alicorn magic.

I lie there, watching the starry sky above me, fighting an internal battle. I bit my lip, tears flowing from my eyes, as I make a final decision.

I can't let Luna destroy the children. By the duty, bestowed upon us both by our Mother, I have to protect the ponies. A sacrifice of one life will result in a salvation of millions. If only the choice was as simple as this arithmetic. But lives are not comparable this way. Each of them is equally precious, yet each of them imparts a different weight on our lives.

I rush to the castle vault where the Elements are stored and ready to be used. Magic, kindness, and generosity respond instantly, sharing their warmth with me as they rotate around me like little planets around the sun. Of all the ponies, I know best how it feels.

How can I persuade loyalty, honesty, and laughter? I know I can't, but so can't Luna. Not the way she is now. Oh, where has the smile on her face gone, where does her loyalty lie?

The stones of her elements lie dormant—broken, lifeless husks of their former glory. Magic flows through my horn as I bid them towards me. And they respond. Out of pity for their former bearer? Or simply because of detecting a host with a fraction of those traits? It makes no difference.

I soar above the castle, the Elements revolving around me. Luna is already waiting. Our magic clashes together as I briefly wonder what she has been waiting for. She could have easily buried me beneath the ruins of the castle and hold the everlasting night over the planet... Has her love for her descendants forbidden her to make her threats a reality?

The Elements concentrate their magic, and a powerful beam of force strikes my sister. Her cry of pain mingles with mine of regret as her mortal body evaporates, and she is sent back to her moon. The wards, akin to those Mother had placed upon us, secure her stay there as I fell from the sky, washing my aching heart with rivers of tears.

Eventually, after an eternity of pain, I gather myself up and look above me. The moon looks back at me, its twisted surface displaying a horrified face of a very familiar pony. Oh, Luna. I hope Terra will invite you back to her world after you will have served your punishment.

FLASH

How can mere years and decades drag on so slowly for a pony who remembers millennia and knows what it's like to be a star?

I rise the sun each morning and the moon each evening, only because of routine, and thanks to the faith my subjects have in me. Life on the planet is so empty with no one to share it with. I tried searching for Terra, but she has been as secretive as ever, clearly not interested in meeting her sister.

FLASH

During my travels, I visit the northern plains of Terra. For a moment there, I thought I heard a faint hum of my sister, but it disappeared as soon as I arrived. The plains look different, however. Ice and crystals seem to be growing, taking shapes of buildings. Could this mean Terra plans to sing the crystal ponies back on her planet?

If that's the case, I cannot let the tragedy of Sombra repeat itself.

FLASH

Mother, forgive me, for I know not what I am doing.

An orphaned filly by the name of Cadence sleeps in the chamber I have prepared for her, while I gather the Elements from the palace vault. Six stones revolving around me like my personal tiny satellites, I look down at her. She's so innocent, so trusting, so... vulnerable... Mother, let my damned soul know salvation after what I'm planning...

The filly rolls in her sleep, revealing her chest... It's now or never.

Mother, sisters... Please, forgive me!

I pierce the filly's heart with my horn, exiling her soul from her body. Her scream pierces my ears and stabs at my heart in return, as my mind nearly collapses under the weight of my guilt.

I must be strong now. My horn dripping with blood of the innocent filly, I forcibly inject my alicorn magic into the dying body. I have no time to watch it sprout a horn and a pair of wings. The Elements revolve around me in protest as I leave my pony form, catching Cadence's departing soul in the net I have woven with them.

My mind nearly shut down with disgust towards myself, both of my magic sources completely drained, I push the filly's soul back into her transformed body. Her heart starts its beating, and I nearly cry, both of shame and of joy, as my exhausted body falls on the filly's side.

With the last ounce of magic left in my star, I cast the final spell, reforging Cadence's memories, ridding it of my horrible deed. I won't let anyone else share my guilt and shame.

As my mind drifts into oblivion, I hope my sisters—both of them—will forgive my foolhardiness. I can never hope the path I have chosen is right, but I pray it will be worth it.

FLASH

I can feel the wards placed on Luna breaking. She will soon join me on Terra's surface. Oh, how I have missed her, every day without her dragging on—an endless torture of solitude. Will Luna's heart be free of the pain it had been subjected to, though? Or will she return as a vengeful spirit?

I cannot be sure. I am certain of one thing, however: I will do anything in my power to restore her back to her previous cheery self.

But how can I do it without the Elements? They have forsaken me and turned into ordinary stones the moment I used them to alter the body of Mother's child.

I wonder, though... Will they react to a new set of hosts?

FLASH

It's now or never. Luna's ward will not last longer than two decades. I have taken an apprentice—a unicorn filly, skilled in magic beyond her age. The magic I hope will help her to unite and rekindle the spark in the Elements. My soldiers have found five other fillies, and are following my instructions to lead their lives in the proper direction, forging strong bonds towards a particular element. It requires certain sacrifices, I'm well aware of this...

But I will do everything in my power to restore my sister.

Mother, please forgive me.

FLASH

The wards on Luna's prison finally break, and she invades our old castle with a fury of ravaging tornado. I don't stand to fight, cowering in the vault the Elements had been hidden in. I put all my hope—and perhaps the fate of all the ponies—in my student. She gathers her carefully prepared friends, brought together by my agents always working in the shadows, and together they rekindle the Elements. As the magic of friendship flows through the castle, I can't stop my body from shaking. I would have never believed how perfectly they are able to bond with the Elements. Their synchronization is far beyond perfect, reaching levels I would never even dream of. Is it because a single pony was raised to harbor the single element?

I don't have time to ponder on this. Nightmare Moon strikes, and they fight back, the purple unicorn—my faithful student—leading the charge. In one glorious blast, they unleash the power of Harmony upon Luna. Her poor heart, drowning in pain, guilt, sorrow and shame, is cleansed and wiped, and she returns to the caring and cheerful personality I have known. I rush to her, offering my friendship, and she accepts, tears flowing from our eyes.

FLASH

What is this uneasiness I have been feeling for several months? Like a drop of atmospheric pressure, announcing a storm before a single cloud can hinder a perfect, sunny sky, the feeling of unease which hasn't left me ever since I adopted Cadence only grows stronger.

I have little time to worry, though. Luna still struggles with her guilt, quite unable to look our subjects in the eyes. I try to convince her to join the court with me, but she refuses, instead deciding to guard ponies' dreams.

FLASH

How is this possible? Discord has broken from his stone prison and threatens the country once again. The element bearers wield the magic of harmony, casting him back into his prison, but the damage he caused will take many moons to repair.

I had hoped the uneasiness I have felt would pass with his banishment, but it only grows stronger. If he was not the cause for it, what was?

I'm much too occupied with the royal wedding which is about to take place in the capital city to worry about it, though. The alicorn princess I have created is going to marry the brother of my faithful student. Admittedly, it was not part of my plan, but doesn't obstruct it in any way. However, I cannot shake the feeling that forces far beyond coincidence are at work here.

FLASH

A perfect copy of Cadence storms into the castle, stopping the ceremony dead in its tracks. The princess at the altar bursts in green flames, revealing her hideous form. She calls herself a changeling, but I cannot see her as anything more than a twisted caricature of an alicorn.

The fact that she had taken the form of my Cadence...

It takes a while before I am able to shake myself from the shock. I strike her with my magic, but she deflects it and strikes back. As a jolt of pain shoots through my body, her image mingles with Cadence's before my eyes. The two creatures clash in the vision, and a new alicorn—her body mangled and covered with holes as if she was decaying—pierces me with her undead eyes.

I snap awake in a cocoon of green goo, quick enough to witness the defeat of the changeling queen at the hooves of my princess.

The wedding ceremony is started from the beginning, and the ponies celebrate the victory of love and life anew.

The only one unable to share their happiness is me, as I am left wondering whether the giver of all life on the planet—my own sister, Terra—was trying to tell me something...

FLASH

The squad of pegasi, whom I have ordered to keep the northern plains under surveillance, brings back the long awaited news. The tribe of crystal ponies has emerged from under the ice, like I anticipated.

I quickly dispatch my envoy, Cadence, to station there and welcome them back. A good thing too, as dark magic of the fallen unicorn king from the past reawakens with his former subjects.

My student is there with the princess, preparing the magical weapon I devised. The crystal heart the shape of Cadence's cutie mark is placed in the socket and northern lights erupt above the kingdom. I can see them from the castle. As they paint the sky in colors, I could swear I hear a sigh of disappointment reverberating throughout the atmosphere...

Terra?

FLASH

I wake up with a scream, my body drenched in sweat, trying to remember the nightmare which had caused such a reaction.

The only thing I can summon from my memories is a broken pony doll with a long horn and a pair of wings.

I fly through the window to a balcony at which Luna, the keeper of dreams, takes guard each night. I ask about the vision which has tormented me. She merely shrugs, oblivious of what I'm talking about.

Weeks pass and I can't shake the image from my mind. What forces have I unleashed by altering the body of one pony?

I take another huge gamble. I free the spirit of chaos from his prison, trusting my student and her friends to befriend him. His power could become of use in case the Elements are too weak for whatever my sister tries to warn me about.

My student and her friends are successful, and I rejoice as Discord announces his power to be accounted for the good of pony kind.

But what if it is not enough? I can't take the chance, not when the safe being of my subjects is at stake.

The whole atmosphere seems to be buzzing with anger as I take another gamble. I make up a fake spell and trick my student into activating the Elements' powers against herself. As her body evaporates, I intercept her mind and soul, casting them into an undying alicorn body.

Just like Cadence.

Just like the broken doll of my dreams.

The moment I do, the angry humming of the planet explodes in a violent, thunderous cry of anger.

After which there is only silence.

FLASH

An otherwise peaceful night is disturbed as a set of semi sentient vines invade the castle and kidnap me and Luna. We wake in the midst of the Everfree Forest, right in front of the crystal tree which our sister had created to bear the Elements of Harmony.

I look around, half-hoping to finally meet her, but the cave is empty. The entrance is blocked and we cannot escape or break free. The vines are impervious even to the powerful alicorn and celestial magic.

I no longer have doubts it is the doing of our sister. But what could she mean by all of this? Why doesn't she meet us muzzle to muzzle?

Is it a test set up for my student? Will she and her friends make the right choices this time?

My pondering is broken when a powerful, soundless, ground-shaking blast of magic rolls over Equestria, evaporating the vines wherever it reaches them.

I leave my prison just in time to see my student and her friends gathered in front of the tree. A quick glance at its branches confirms my fears. Terra had demanded Mother's misused Elements back, and my student has delivered.

What of Equestria, sister? Will you risk leaving your world and your children with no defenses? What of this box you left for my student? Is it a consolation prize of sorts?

I have never imagined you so spiteful, Terra...

FLASH

The trials of my sister continue as she brings back yet another threat Luna and I had defeated long ago.

The magic thief, Tirek, breaks free from his prison in Tartarus and roams the land, stealing the life essence of the children and growing stronger. Sister, what are you planning to achieve this time?

I feel like I'm playing a game of battle chess with Terra. I usually consider myself quite versatile, the number of my wins over many skilled players being a testimony to my skills, but with her... I feel like a foal whose hoof is guided by a grandmaster to her own demise.

Yet I refuse to give up. I order my student and her powerless friends to step down. Instead, I send forth an ally even Terra's schemes couldn't have taken into account.

As Discord falls prey to Tirek's deceitful words, I see my chances of victory diminishing. Still, I refuse to hoist the white flag, as I take yet another gamble. I, Cadence, and Luna forfeit our alicorn magic, transferring all of it to my student. She makes a stand against Tirek, whose pool of stolen essence was empowered even by the magic of chaos taken from humiliated Discord.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen... Is this what you wanted, Terra?

As the spells of my student and the magic thief clash, penetrating the walls of his former prison Tirek had sent us to, I can't shake the feeling that a much more devastating spell is being weaved deep within the planet's core.

My student takes a gamble—has she learned this from me?—giving up our combined alicorn magic to the thief. As he walks away, reveling in his victory, my student and her friends use the fail safe device left by Terra in her magic strongbox. Magic similar to that of the Elements explodes throughout the planet, vanquishing Tirek, and freeing us from our prison.

How could you do this, Terra? Don't you remember what happened the last time? Children will die without their essence.

I brace my consciousness for the impact which will send it back to my celestial body, pretty sure my mortal one is already doomed. But... Nothing of the sort happens. Terra gathers all the essence Tirek had stolen under her atmosphere, and lets my student and her friends redistribute it back to its owners.

With our magic restored as well, we join my student to celebrate her victory, just in time to witness a crystal-carved castle sprouting from the ground like an enormous flower.

To me, it is but a caricature of Canterlot and the Crystal Palace mashed together.

Touché, sister. But... I am allowed a small victory too, am I not? The land of ponies is saved and my subjects enter another time of peace.

FLASH

My wings burn from the effort I'm pushing them through as I soar through the sky with the speed of a white comet. Luna must have been mistaken! There is no way her words could be true.

I land in front a small house on the outskirts of the city of Baltimare, my gilded hooves cracking the ground below me.

A pair of confused ponies—a unicorn stallion and a pegasus mare—rush forward to check what happened. They bow before me, but I shove them aside, storming into their house.

My hoof skips a step and I tumble forward, as a figure of a filly playing with her toys reaches my eyes.

By Mother...

I drop on my haunches, unable to utter a word as the little alicorn smiles shyly my way.

The filly's parents jump inside. They try to help me up on my hooves, but I can't miss the fact that they have instinctively taken place between me and the filly.

I pierce the mother with my glaring eyes, forcing out the only question which really matters. "Are you her biological parents?"

The young mare blinks in confusion, smiles uncertainly, and nods. In that single moment, I feel the whole universe created by Mother collapsing on my shoulders.

I leave without saying a word, my shaky wings taking me back to the castle in wide zigzags.

Is this the reason you had demanded the Elements back, Terra? Is this why you had let Tirek out of the prison within you? Have you used the Elements to alter the stolen essence of the children before giving it back? Have you modified it to allow the birth of alicorns among other ponies? You must know the consequences...

FLASH

My worst fears are confirmed. As decades pass, more and more alicorn mares are born into this world. It makes ponies happy, as they still consider having an alicorn daughter a blessing.

A cry of helpless frustration escapes my lips as I lower the sun from the palace balcony one evening. Can't you all see, you blind lot? All too soon you will miss the days stallions were born into your families.

FLASH

More decades pass and the number of alicorns matches the population of ordinary mares. The ponies begin to catch a glimpse of the tragedy where they had looked for a blessing before.

I watch over the nation of princesses, hearing every single cry of a mother who gave birth to an alicorn. Is this my punishment for pushing my dirty hooves into the process of life and death?

Even despite the large platoon of guards, sent all over the country hospitals, to make sure helping little alicorn fillies into this world is uninterrupted, the unfortunate incidents still happen.

My hooves are stained with the blood of hundreds of unborn fillies, whose life was extinguished before they could take their first breath of Terra's air. Red spills from under my horseshoes, and I can't wash it away, no matter how long I drench my hooves in water.

Sister, why do you torment me so? What must I do to earn your forgiveness?

Oh, Mother...

FLASH

And so it happens. As the natural process of procreation was broken beyond repair, with the alicorns giving birth only to fillies, the day every undying mare dreaded beyond death finally comes.

I read the eulogy during the funeral of the last stallion who had lived in Equestria. My voice is calm and my eyes are dry, but the only reason behind it is that I have no more tears to shed.

As his body is buried underground, a perfect, uninterrupted, ear-shattering silence spreads over Equestria like a poisonous cloud.

Everypony left alive knows what's left in store for them as a species. The selected few mares, lucky enough to be non-alicorns, will soon grow old and die. The remaining lot, trapped in their unageing bodies, are forced to roam this world until they die of wounds or live to see the end of times.

I unfurl my wings and fly away, not caring where the winds will take me. It is no coincidence, however, that I soon find myself gliding over the place where this chapter of the story had begun.

I fold my wings and drop heavily into the Everfree forest. It takes me a while before I find the cave where the tree of Elements once grew.

"What do you want from me?!" I cry out, a fresh batch of tears dripping from my eyes. "You have made your point! How can I atone for my sin?"

I drop on my haunches, burying my snout in my hooves. For the immeasurably long time, my own weeps are the only sound reaching my ears.

And then I hear it. A faint, barely audible humming coming from under the ground. As the notes of the song I heard twice so far invade my ears, my heart ties into a tight knot, trying to switch places with my stomach.

"No..." I whisper. "I couldn't..."

The song of destruction continues.

FLASH

I have no idea how much time has passed, but the song of destruction continues to ring in my ears, every second of the day and even in my sleep. Luna has forsaken her pony body centuries ago, and I'm left on the surface of the unchanging world with a population of alicorn princesses.

Nothing ever changes, and nopony seems to care any more. They just live their life away, every day the same, the world submerged in an eternal stasis, praying for salvation. But death doesn't visit alicorns, and those who lack courage to take their lives, are doomed to roam this static world forever.

I now see what my sister was trying to warn me about. The price I have to pay is great, but so is the magnitude of my sin. There is no future for this world. By altering the genetics of a single pony, I have inadvertently disturbed the plan my Mother had for her universe.

My horn flares with light as I overload my mortal body with more celestial magic than it can handle—a sophisticated suicide, no less. Moments later, I'm back inside my celestial body, my mind set on the only thing I can do to fix what I have broken.

Terra's gentle hum still ringing in my soul, reminding me of my duty, I grasp the planet firmly within my gravitational pull, effectively stopping the movement of the sun right above Equestria.

As the temperature on the planet's surface steadily rises, rivers evaporate from Terra, soon followed by seas and oceans. With no water, the flora my sister had tended to with her loving hooves dries into oblivion, and soon the food chain is broken beyond repair.

The cleansing lasts centuries and, although I'm back in my star, I feel the flow of time as if I still had my mortal body. After an eternity of torment, the last alicorn dies from hunger and heat. Only then does my sister stop her dreadful song, and I welcome the silence of death with indifference.

My core feels empty, devoid of any emotion, the overwhelming silence reminding me of the funeral of the last stallion so many millennia ago.

In perfect silence only the complete extinction can bring, I move my sun away, restoring the cycle of day and night.

FLASH

Eons pass in complete silence, and a tinge of dread creeps under my corona, as I begin to wonder whether I will hear our sister sing the song of life one more time.

I try to probe the planet with a fragment of my celestial consciousness and—to my utter surprise—I find the wards around it put down. Could this mean...

I share the piece of news with Luna, and together we don our mortal bodies, descending on the planet's surface.

Everything is calm and quiet under the sun, which travels slowly across the celestial dome as it should. The ground is scorched and splintered, the sky perfectly clear, with no signs of any water to form clouds. The air, though as dry and hot as the splintered ground beneath our hooves, has at least cooled down enough for our mortal bodies to breathe.

The planet has survived, but it has become a barren wasteland. And the fault is all mine.

We both spread our wings and soar into the sky. Tears well up in my eyes as I see the familiar ruins of the Canterlot castle on the horizon. Below it, the ever-living forest, rightfully deserving the name Everfree, stains the beige of the ground with its vibrant green trees, like a nasty purulent pimple on a pony's face.

As we fly over the remains of the Everfree Forest, a movement catches Luna's eyes, and she points her wing down. Like a pair of vultures, we circle around the spot, before finally deciding to descend on the border of the forest.

We take a few steps towards the wall of trees, unsure neither what to expect, nor what we are expected to do. As we loiter before the wall of thick trunks, afraid to disturb the ever-living forest's serenity, another alicorn emerges from between the trees, greeting us with a distant smile.

Afraid that blinking may make the vision vanish, we slowly approach her, our mouths widely open.

She's slightly smaller than me, but a notch bigger than Luna. Her coat is brown, like the flourishing ground; her eyes are blue and sparkling, like water in the oceans; her mane and tail—dancing in the ethereal wind, just like ours—are different shades of green, interwoven with leaves and twigs. I squint my eyes, trying to discern her cutie mark.

The alicorn beacons at us to come closer. As we do, she opens her mouth and her voice carries a gentle hum. Notes string into a song which seems familiar and yet feels different.

As my heart skips a beat, paralyzed by the beauty of the melody she hums, the alicorn paws the ground with her hoof. The soil, previously dry and cracked, moistens and takes a nourishing brown color—similar to the hue of her coat. She points her horn at a nearby rock and crystal-clear water springs from under it, forming streaks, then streams, then rivers.

She spits at the nourished patch of ground, and immediately a green twig sprouts to life, blossoming into a healthy, strong oak.

She turns around, and finally I get to see her cutie mark. It's a blue circle, dotted with patches of brown and green and white.

"Terra..." I hear Luna's trembling voice, and it acts like a trigger, breaking the invisible chains which held us bound to the ground. Our third sister, Terra, keeper of life and protector of the planet. After all those eons, I finally get to see her. Tears invade my eyes as both Luna and I jump forward, tackling her in a powerful hug. Terra's humming never stops and all too soon she breaks free, much to our regret.

Her gentle smile never leaving her face, she nods at me and raises her left wing. Several crystal orbs, all wrapped in the warm embrace of her emerald magic, float up. Each orb is semi-translucent, and through the glow I can make out the silhouettes of a dragon, a griffin, a zebra, a camel, a deer, a mule... She hides them under her wing and raises the other one. There are only three orbs there, floating in the embrace of her magic, but they are all larger and shine with distinct orange light. I can discern silhouettes of an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn within them, the tiny figures looking like sleeping foals, ready to wake up any moment and seize the world Terra is restoring.

I hung my head, fresh batch of tears dripping on the ground beneath me. Though Terra hasn't spoken a word, her message is clear. There are only three races of ponies conceived by Mother. There should never be other alicorns than Luna, Terra, and I.

"I'm sorry..." It is everything I can mutter as tears roll down my cheeks and fall on the fresh, nourishing ground.

Terra accepts my apology with a gentle nod and squats on my side, wrapping her wing around my back. She's so warm and soft...

I open my eyes as Terra knocks on the ground with her hoof. A hexagonal crystal strongbox—why does it look so familiar?—sprouts from under her hoof. She presents it to me and—after a moment of hesitation—I tap it lightly with my horn. The box unfolds, letting a set of scrolls and a book spill from inside.

It takes me a while to recall what those are, but finally I recognize the friendship reports my student had sent to me, and then—after I made her an undying princess—noted down in her diary. Silent tears roll down my cheeks as I skim through the parchments, memories of my sin refreshed.

Terra points at the box, then at the castle, and our sisterly bond lets us understand each other without such a meaningless medium as words. The lessons on friendship are worth preserving and passing on. And it will be my duty in the coming generation of ponies.

I nod, offering a non-verbal confirmation. I understand and agree to fulfill the duty.

Her smile brightens for a moment as Terra points at Luna. She comes closer, and our middle sister wraps us in a tight embrace. The sweetest tears of joy of finally meeting muzzle-to-muzzle flow from our eyes as we bask in each other's warmth, the three immortal beings celebrating their bond stronger than the flow of time itself.

Warm smile never leaving her face, Terra gently unfolds from the embrace—much to my and Luna's regret—and points her wing at the sky. We both understand and nod quietly. She relayed what she had to, and wants to continue her work in peace. Though the meeting with her ends far too soon, we respect her wish and leave our mortal bodies.

Terra's work lasts for several millennia, during which we observe from the sky how the planet slowly turns blue and green and brown. We know immediately when our sister finishes. Her song ends, the wards are lowered, and the planet shines once again—a colorful gem amidst the dark universe.

We descend on the planet the moment we feel Terra's call vibrating throughout space, like a mother's evening call to make her children come back home. The whole atmosphere is still vibrant with the echoes of her song as we don our pony forms, reviving on the freshly recreated planet. We try to locate our sister, but our efforts are fruitless. The pony kind has been restored by her, however, and ponies welcome us as their rulers again, letting us lead them towards the glorious future.

FLASH

And so we do, leading ponies through the age of prosperity.

The teachings contained in The Book of Friendship—a compilation of lessons and anecdotes my student had written down in her life—are taught to little ponies in schools, making them live their life in Harmony since their youths. As time passes, the facts described in the Book grow into myths and legends, starting a religion. My student is proclaimed the messiah of the new faith, and as long as she and her teachings are remembered, Equestria prospers.

FLASH

Millennia pass uneventfully as we keep Equestria under peaceful and benevolent rule. We can observe first hoof how the evolution changes ponies, and are beyond amazed at how rapidly they grow.

Unicorn inventors create breathtaking contraptions which let earth ponies and pegasi use some of their magic. They name the new branch of magic technology.

It eases the lives of Mother's children, letting Earth ponies slowly replace their natural labor with technological tools. Meanwhile, the pegasi craft complex weather systems, making the necessity to tend to weather by hoof a thing from ancient history.

The golden age of ponykind is upon Equestria, and both Luna and I—and I'm sure Terra too, wherever she is—revel in it, proud beyond words of Mother's children.

FLASH

Sadly, all good things must come to an end.

Even the memory of my students cannot withstand the corroding flow of time. As millennia pass, times and beliefs changing with them, her existence is questioned, up to a point where she is considered nothing more than a fairy tale remembered by few, passed onto fewer still.

As the ponies abandoned their natural ways, their connection to the magic of harmony is severed beyond repair. Nopony cares about me or my sister anymore. We still bring forth day and night, but are regarded as mere relics of the days long passed. We are still the princesses, but have no power over any subject in the democratic society. Though it saddens both of us, remembering our past mistakes we choose not to intervene, letting the children follow the path they have chosen for themselves.

If we regret one thing, it's that the children don't even allow us to guide them, our teachings falling on their deaf ears. The bored minds of ponies, who have too much free time on their hooves, lean towards violence. Spears and swords, and bows, and arrows are replaced with crafty weapons designed and enhanced to end life in an instant. As killing tools advance from pony-on-pony skirmishes to weapons of mass destruction, the whole Equestria holds its breath, every little spark able to start a carnage of ponies.

And neither I nor Luna are allowed to do anything more than watch, bringing forth day and night over the battle zone the whole of Equestria will inevitably soon become.

FLASH

War... War never changes.

Even Discord teamed up with Tirek couldn't have hoped to do it better.

A simple misunderstanding between the dragons, griffins, and pegasi over the unused part of the sky, escalates out of proportions with a speed of a stuntpony performing a sonic rainboom. Casualties on every side increase as the conflict grows, consuming more and more of the land.

The pegasi cover the sky with dark, impenetrable clouds, hoping to hinder the movement of griffin patrols. What they don't take into account, is the fact that no amount of technology can help the earth ponies grow plants without sunlight which they all need to flourish.

The earth ponies are forced to issue a food export ban.

Needles to say, the griffins and dragons—carnivores as they are—find means of satiating their appetite, even at the cost of sacrificing lives of herbivores. The pegasi patrolling the sky or the earth ponies unprotected by semi-automated defenses of city complexes, are an easy prey.

Our mortal bodies discarded long ago, Luna and I can only watch as the formerly allied nations jump to their throats, hundreds of thousands of lives extinguished like frail candle lights with a strong gust of wind.

If only we were allowed to intervene earlier...

Driven into the corner from which they have no hope of escaping, the unicorns finally decide to launch the cleansers.

As terror fights with regret and the sense of loss within our cores, Luna and I can only watch as those high-casualty, low-precision spells of mass destruction—a perfect opposite to the magic of harmony—hit cities and countries, reducing them to ashes faster than it takes a pony to blink. A chain reaction grows out of control, and in mere hours, in a gigantic flash of epic proportions, the pony civilization, upon which all the nations and species worked for millennia, is wiped from the face of Terra.

And we can only weep in our celestial bodies, like mothers who have lost their children in battles they had no interest in winning.

Because war... War never changes.

FLASH

When the flashes on her surface are over, and the whole planet submerges in the silence of extinction, we notice black clouds forming over Terra.

As a mother donning a black funeral dress, our sister wraps the whole planet in a shroud of impenetrable clouds.

There is no song this time, probably because there is no more life to sing to sleep. Only black silence accompanies us as we drift through lifeless universe, three celestial bodies gifted with undying consciousnesses.

FLASH

I can't recall how much time has passed, but the period of silence is the longest yet. Our sister is mourning, and both Luna and I regret nothing more, than being unable to descend to offer our company and a shoulder Terra could cry on. But her wards are raised, and we are reduced to passive spectators of her grief.

Until she specifically asks us to come over.

The day the clouds dissipate and uncover the scorched planet, she lowers the wards, calling us with a song she has never sung before.

We respond immediately, donning our pony forms without a moment of hesitation. Hearing Terra's song vibrating throughout the atmosphere is enough to tie my throat in a tight knot, tears streaming from my eyes as I'm powerless to stop them. I glance at Luna. Her face doesn't display emotion, but tears flow from her eyes as well.

The air is heavy with loss and despair. The sky slowly frees itself from the embrace of the dark clouds, patches of blue ripping from the black surface. I look up, noticing my own sun from behind the clouds. It looks red, ill, like it was bleeding. The clouds soon disperse, however, leaving it as bright and warm as it ever was.

Our sister comes to greet us, her eyes red and swollen from all the tears she must have shed. When she sees us, a fresh wave flows down her cheeks, her song breaking with an occasional weep. Luna and I embrace her in a gentle hug, and we just sit—the three immortal beings basking in their comforting presence—on the surface of a dead planet, letting our hearts bleed with loss.

I can't tell how much time has passed as we simply lay, sharing our embrace. It could have been minutes, it could have been centuries. How can you tell when time has no effect on your body, and there is no change in your surroundings to measure its flow by?

It is Terra who eventually breaks the hug, ever so gently, like she was afraid to offend us. She raises her left wing, uncovering the several crystal orbs with silhouettes of various non-pony creatures. The seeds of life.

Her song stops, letting a near-perfect silence—broken only by our breathing and Terra's sobs—encompass us like thick fog. The emerald glow around the dragons' orb dissipates as our sister frees it from the gentle embrace of her magic.

Before Luna and I can so much as blink, the orb touches the rocks and crashes into thousands of tiny shards, the ear-shattering tink reverberating in the perfect silence like an explosion of a supernova.

Luna and I try to rush forward, hoping to stop our sister from doing something she would regret, but are stopped as our hooves sink in the mud.

Terra only looks at us, her eyes distant and emotionless, as she releases the orbs of zebras and griffins from the embrace of her magic. As in slow motion, we follow the orbs with our eyes all the way down, until they shatter into oblivion, rendering the life of the whole species contained within them effectively extinct.

I try to shout at my sister to stop her foolishness, but my voice cannot break free from my throat. Soon, though, it is too late. As the last orb—holding the essence of the crystal ponies—shatters against the unforgiving ground, the chains of mud around my hooves are loosened. I can finally move my body, and yet I remain glued to my spot.

What can I hope to achieve now? What words can I utter to a mother who had just buried several of her children?

Terra raises her head, and pierces me with her eyes, all emotions sucked away from them. She raises her other wing, revealing the three orbs of pony kind.

My hoof shoots up as I try to stop her from shattering those as well. But she doesn't intend to. The three orbs dance before my eyes, then return under her caring wing. Our eyes connect, and—like before—I understand her without the need to exchange words.

I wanted to protect Mother's children by adding my own to her playground. But my children got rowdy and quarreled with Mother's. And, instead of punishing them like a good mother should have, I let them run as they pleased, until it was too late to intervene. What a hypocrite I am, teaching you not to intervene with Mother's wishes, only to repeat your mistake later on. Can you ever forgive me?

All that expressed with a single glance. Tears well up in my eyes as a lump in my throat forbids me from speaking. So I nod instead.

A hint of an apologetic smile crosses Terra's face as she buries her head in my neck. I wrap my wing around her, feeling her warm tears flowing down her cheeks and into my coat. I wave my hoof at Luna and she joins us into yet another sisterly embrace.

Terra eventually breaks free, wordlessly thanking us for assisting her in this difficult moment in her life. Then she points at the sky again, and we know that—once again—it is our time to leave her to her work.

As soon as we reach our celestial bodies, Terra's vibrant voice, singing the most beautiful of songs—the song of life—reaches our cores, filling them with indescribable warmth.

FLASH

In record time, the world is restored, and new generation of ponies fills the planet with their cheerful presence.

We immediately set down to teach them about the harmony of life, and they accept and soak up the knowledge like a sponge soaks up water.

The civilization grows and prospers in the astoundingly short amount of time, making both me and Luna—and I'm sure Terra the most—proud.

Mother's children never forget about the magic of harmony, which brings them as a civilization farther than every generation before could ever hope to get.

FLASH

Lesson 2 - Physics: A Lecture on Stellar Evolution

FLASH

The visions are gone as soon as they had appeared, but my mind scrambles to put them together for a very long time—even for a star. As it does, I realize something. Through the countless millennia, I've always been with my sister... Both my sisters, although Terra would rather keep to herself. But even if she had, I used to feel her presence. Yet I don't feel neither her nor Luna anywhere now. Where are they?

I strain my senses to look around me. It's not easy, being a star. With no sensory perception, one can only use light and gravity to do their bidding. As the light I give off reflects off the surfaces of near and distant objects, a vision of my surroundings forms in my consciousness.

The space is filled with dust and debris, but not a piece of it comes even close to the size of Luna... Where is she? I strain the senses of my light-based perception, but I can't feel neither her nor Terra. They are both gone, and only I remain amidst the littered, lifeless space.

I feel different as well. As I search my memory, struggling to remember whether I have always felt so cold and small, a vision—as clear as if I was actually reliving it—unfolds before my inner eyes.

FLASH

"Your highness..." a pegasi guard calls as I walk down the corridors of the Canterlot V castle. I stop, looking at the young stallion. His eyes dart down as he nervously pawns the crystal floor with his armor-clad hoof. I offer a gentle smile, encouraging him to go on. He must be new, not used to the presence of royalty yet.

"Her majesty's presence is requested at the Royal Observatory," he finally utters. "Her highness, Princess Luna, awaits there, wishing for her majesty's urgent departure."

I nod at the guard, earning a salute and a nervous smile from him. I unfurl my wings and fly through the nearest window, wondering what could be so important that my sister was awoken in the middle of the day. Could it perhaps be about those strange force surges I've been feeling through my celestial body? They started a couple of centuries ago, if my memory serves, but only grew more frequent over the years.

I glide towards the enormous dome of the Observatory, enjoying the unexpected break from the monotony of the day court. Though the flight isn't long—a couple of minutes at most—I enjoy the opportunity to stretch my wings. The opportunity I wouldn't have were it not for the dome's enormous size. I have to admit, the Royal Observatory is nothing like any building I had seen in any previous civilization. Towering above the Canterlot V like a fully grown dragon over a tiny cricket, it directs its humongous lens at the sky above it.

To think I have considered building a castle on a mountain top the peak of the children architectonic skills, all those civilizations ago... And just look at the wonders they can build now.

I raise my head, trying to spot the object of the telescope's interest. It seems to follow the movement of the sun across the celestial dome. My star is being observed quite detailedly, I'd say. What ever happened to privacy, I wonder, shedding a tiny smirk under my breath.

Just before I reach the entrance to the dome, I slow down, shutting off my magic completely. The apparatuses inside the observatory are very sensitive to it, as the professors working there constantly remind me. I activate the voice carrying device near the vault entrance and introduce myself.

"Princess Celestia, we've been expecting you," metallic voice replies. Through the complicated set of levers, gears, switches, and many other various machines I will never bother to understand, the immensely heavy door moves apart. To think an ounce of magic could have the same effect... Then again, using it would make all the delicate devices inside go instantly haywire.

I step through the vault door, into the long corridor. The floor, packed with electronic sensors to the brim, immediately detects a passenger and starts moving, taking me with it. I have nothing against the walk, but maybe it would take too long? Just how important is the message?

The moving pavement takes me along the corridors, then down the spiral route around the ocular. I look down at it and it looks back, like an enormous eye of the ever watching beast. I feel a sudden urge to stretch my wings. I jump above the railing and soar down impatiently. I just saved the ponies waiting for me—and myself—a couple of minutes of a boring ride. They will be glad about it, right?

"Your highness!" the professor cries, the irritation in his voice easily detectable. "I asked you many times not to do that."

"I'm sorry." I lower my head. Displaying genuine remorse is hard, however, while watching Luna desperately trying to stifle her chuckles in her hooves behind the professors back. "More importantly, what was so urgent that you summoned both me and my sister here?"

"It is best if I just show it to you, your highnesses." The professor leads the way deeper inside the observatory.

Passing door after door of nearly identical, sterile rooms, I try to recall the stallion's name. And for the love of our Mother, I can't. It bothers me to no end, because throughout my unimaginably long life, it has never posed a problem before. I've always been able to find at least one unique trait of a pony, and assign its owner's name to it. But with the professor, I simply can't. He's neither tall, nor short; neither fat, nor slim; his coat is light gray, and besides, he always covers it with his lab coat anyway; his mane and tail could just as well not be there at all... No, this would be a perfect unique trait to remember! His eyes... I looked into them a minute ago and can't recall what color they were. His cutie mark is an eye with a deep black pupil, but even it is not enough to make his name reappear in my memory.

"Is something the matter, Celly?" I hear Luna's gentle snicker. "You seem to be eyeing dear Void Eye's flank quite vigorously."

So that's his name. I try to memorize it, but can't shake the feeling I will forget it as soon as I leave the observatory.

"Here we are." The professor clears his throat, pointing at the several-pony-high screen in front of us. An orange sphere, the size of an average swimming pool, is displayed in its center.

"Excuse me, professor –" I raise my hoof "– but isn't this the sun? I, of all the ponies, should know how it looks."

"Do forgive my bluntness, your highness, but do you?" The professor narrows his eyes.

I have to admit, the question throws me off balance a little. My eyes dart between the professor and my sister as I furrow my brow in confusion. I raise my head at the screen, straining my eyes in a valiant attempt to spot the secret my star would hide from me, to no avail. "For the sake of argument, let's assume I do not." I draw a sigh. "By all means, do enlighten me, professor."

The professor's eyes follow my gaze. "Are you familiar with Star Catcher's theory of the lifespan of a star, your highness?"

"I am," Luna interjects. "He divided the lifespan of a star into several cycles. Firstly, its birth, when a cloud of gases reaches the critical mass and collapses. The pressure increases as the gravity squishes the gasses in the star core, eventually reaching the temperature required to—to put it colloquially—set the star on fire. Once the furnace inside a star is ignited, it burns eternally, fueled by the constant process of nuclear fusion in its core.

"By eternally –" Luna makes a circle with her hoof "– I mean for as long as the reaction is fed its fuel. Which is, of course, gaseous hydrogen. Once all of it is used up, and the pressure inside the core reaches the required level, the star starts to burn helium, a by-product of the earlier fusion. Compared to burning hydrogen, the helium fusion is quite a rapid and drastic process. It generates much more energy, too, making the star heat up and expand. Scientists agree that this state could as well be called agonic. Once it is finally over, depending on the mass of the star and—consequently—of its gravitational pull, the star can blow its shell, leaving only the core—such a star is called a dwarf—or collapse under its weight and explode in a brilliant supernova. The beauty of such a rare event notwithstanding, it lasts for but a few days—a blink of an eye in the cosmic scale. Once it is over, the core of the star collapses into a very dense neutron star, or—if its gravity is high enough—into a black hole."

I look at my younger sister, my mouth hanging open. The cosmos has always fascinated her. Many millennia ago, ponies still believed it was she who had painted the night sky with stars. It was a blatant lie, and she would never take credit for Mother's work, but—in all honesty—we didn't know the truth behind the whole process either. But what gods didn't know, mortal ponies discovered with their curious and inquiring minds.

The professor allowed himself a tiny smile. "Correct." He looked back at the screen. "Princess Celestia, have you felt any force surges coming from your star recently?"

"Why, yes. In fact, I have." I take a hesitant glance at the screen. My star, formerly radiating its pleasant warmth, looks back at me, a menacing, scorching hot, burning orange eye. "Do you mean to say..."

The professor looks away, all of a sudden taking great interest in his hooves. An eternity passes before he finally looks up. "I'm afraid so. The sun has used up all the hydrogen, and entered the phase of its helium fusion."

Luna's terrified gasp escapes her lips before she is able to cover her mouth with her hooves. The professor paws the ground nervously, avoiding my eyes. I look at the image of my star on the screen. Has it always been this big and orange? I lick my lips, noticing how dry they have gotten. "But... What does it mean?"

The professor grits his teeth under Luna's terrified glare. "It m-means that..." he gulps loudly, trying to calm his breath. "It means that in a few hundred of thousands of years, the sun's corona will expand, devouring Terra and the moon."

As dreadful silence encompasses us like a suffocating cloud, I look at the screen, trying to process what the professor has just said. My beloved star, which was essentially the giver of light and life for Terra's children, will now act as its destroyer?

"No." I state simply, my hooves moving me back from the gigantic screen. Never before, throughout my whole eternal life, have I felt so small, helpless, and insignificant. "No!" I refuse to believe it. Something warm flows down my cheeks, but I have neither time nor desire to check what it is. I turn around and gallop away, my horn gathering magic despite my will. I hear Luna calling my name. I close my eyes.

An unwanted surge of magic I cannot stop, a flash and a pop, a moment of uncomfortable feeling of being squeezed through the hole the size of a single atom, and I'm no longer in the observatory. My teleportation spell must have destroyed many of the delicate electronic instruments there, but I couldn't possibly care less about them at the moment. I look up at the sun.

The great burning orange eye glares back at me, the atmospherless sky of the moon making it much more horrifying than at the observatory screen.

FLASH

"Sister, how long are you going to seclude yourself here?" Luna asks not without irritation.

Until it's all over. I think, but do not bother with a verbal answer.

"I've held an emergency meeting with the councils of every race. Everypony knows what's going to happen, and nopony blames you! They know it's not your fault!"

I remain silent.

"The ponies nowadays are very considerate and understanding. And it's mostly thanks to you teaching them the magic of harmony. Do you want to know what they decided?"

I respond with more silence, followed by Luna's grave sigh.

"They could have as well stop breeding and make Terra devoid of sentient life in two generations. But no! They intend to go on, for as long as they can."

Why should I care?

"Celestia!" Luna shouts in my face. "Do you understand me? They still want to live, even though they know Equestria will cease to exist in a couple of millennia."

I turn away from my sister. This enrages her more than I could have anticipated. She grabs me by the shoulders and forces my muzzle in the direction of the sun. It's grown significantly in the last few centuries.

"Look at it! Brave ponies see its furious red glare every single day, yet they refuse to give up! The ponykind is about to go extinct! Forever and ultimately this time. Do you not care about it?"

"I do not," I whisper quietly.

For a barely noticeable moment, Luna's eyes flash red with actual, bare fury. Her gilded hoof slams on my cheek with enough force to make me tumble backwards, making little stars and colorful planets dance before my eyes. As the crown falls on the barren lunar surface, I feel appreciative of the fact that I can still feel. Even if it's searing pain in my cheek.

"Let me make myself clear, sister," Luna forces through gritted teeth. "Ponykind can survive a couple of millennia more, but only with our help. If we do nothing, the temperature on Equestria will increase dramatically in a couple of decades. Do you understand that?!"

I look deep into my sister's beautiful teal eyes. Never before have I seen her so determined.

"I am not going to let them die just yet!" She slams her hoof against the moon's surface, and turns away.

"Is there even anything we can do?" Though my voice is barely a whisper, it manages to stop Luna in her tracks.

"Yes," she says, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "I'm going to shield Terra with my Moon."

Say what now?

"I'm going to redistribute Moon's mass a bit," Luna explains, having noticed the blank look on my face." I will make it flatter and wider, and freeze its position between Terra and the sun."

"What good will it do?" I hear my own voice. "Heat traverses obstructions."

To my surprise, my sister bursts in a hearty laugh.

"Oh, Celly, physics was never your forte." She shakes her head, a lenient smile plastered on her muzzle. "Come with me." She offers her hoof and I feel myself wrapped in her magic. A flash of her horn later, we're standing on a dark, barren surface. It's freezing here, I can feel it even through the life-sustaining spell without which my pony form would die here.

"Welcome to the dark side of the moon," Luna says cheerfully. "Do you like it?"

"It's lovely," I lie, making her chuckle.

"Heat doesn't traverse obstacles in space, because it travels in waves, like light. In fact, those are pretty much the same waves, only of different length. If you shield something from them, you will also shield it from heat. Like hiding in the shade of a tree on a sunny afternoon."

Though I feel like an ignorant foal, to which a patient teacher explains how the universe works, even I can see the wisdom in my sister's words.

"I cannot do it all alone, though." Luna sighs, her teal eyes staring deep into my soul. "I will require your help," she pleads, her voice full of worry.

I raise my head, feeling the joints crack in my neck. "What am I to do?"

Luna shrugs. "Not much. Only redirect most of the energy of the sun in a direction opposite to Terra, and lower its gravitational pull a notch." Luna smiles teasingly as I blink, feeling as though she has just ordered me to tie my own tongue in a knot.

"By every ounce of my celestial magic, I have no idea how to do what you just said." I draw a resigned sigh as she desperately tries to hide a chuckle.

"It shouldn't be hard." She winks. "Come on, I will show you."

FLASH

It took us several centuries to reshape and remold both the sun and the moon. Our magic was tested to the very extremes, but it was well worth it. According to Luna, our efforts should make Terra able to sustain life for a couple of millennia more. Not a negligible feat, considering the alternative. Which is, quoting Luna, turning the planet firstly into a giant fishbowl—when the ice caps on the poles will have melted—only to let it dry into a barren desert after all the water would have evaporated.

"But the sun will sooner or later swallow the moon," I say hesitantly, remembering the words of the professor whose name I have forgotten long ago. "What will happen then?"

"I guess this will be the end," Luna says quietly, looking through the window of the Canterlot castle. There is no sun on the sky, but Equestria is not covered in darkness. The fierce red ring of my star is clearly visible around the remolded moon—the moon-shield, as Luna calls it—giving enough light to sustain the plants' photosynthesis. Actually, dropping all those scientific names, the day looks just as bright as it has always looked, if a bit more red, like Equestria was kept in the state of perpetual evening. The nights are darker than I remember, though, as there is no moon in the sky. Before remolding its shape, Luna moved it from the gravitational pull of Terra, and anchored it closer to the sun, making it move across the sky dome in front of my star, constantly shielding the planet from its scorching rays.

I have to admit I've felt the change too. The magic that has always flown through me, from the moment Mother gave birth to us, is no longer warm, and gentle, and pleasant, like it used to be. Instead, it's hot, impatient, and burning. Not a pleasant thing to feel. My appearance has changed slightly, too. My coat turned to a shade of pale yellow, and my multicolored mane looks like an orange-and-red bonfire. Every morning, when I look at my muzzle in the mirror, I have to quench the desire to pour a pitcher of water on my head...

"The end of pony kind..." I whisper. "I can't imagine what Mother's children must feel... You know, Luna, any and all comfort I can find these days comes from the fact that I will still have you, after all this happens. You and Terra."

Luna opens her mouth as if to say something, her moist eyes glimmering in the orange light. She closes her mouth and opens it again, but still no words come out. Tears flowing freely from her teal eyes, she embraces me in the strongest hug I can remember.

"Thank you, dearest sister," she sobs into my ear, "and I'm sorry."

"For what?" I tease her gently, trying to bring her cheerful self back. I had no idea a tiny display of sisterly love could affect her that much after all those years. I offer a teasing smile, still holding her firmly in my legs. "Of turning affectionate all of a sudden?"

A flash of different feelings clashes in her eyes for an almost unregisterable moment, disappearing long before I could properly analyze it.

"Yes, sister," she says, breaking the hug and forcing a smile. "I'm simply grateful."

FLASH

"Can you hear it?" I prick my ears, discerning the notes in what other ponies would reject as mere ambient sounds of the day going by. "It's Terra."

"She feels it too. It will happen any day now, sister." I hear Luna's faint voice. I rush to her bed, offering a shoulder she could lean on in case she wanted to stand up. Every second I see her suffering so much, causes one more needle of guilt and pain to pierce my aching heart. Luna's horn has been aglow for almost a millennium non stop. The use of magic has drained nearly all of her strength.

"Why don't you give it a rest?" I ask recklessly.

"I will have plenty of rest soon enough." She offers a weak smile.

"Right," I throw casually, missing the true meaning behind her words. I smile gently. Luna doesn't like it when I treat her like a child. "I'd like to ask you not to over-extort yourself, but I see it's pointless."

"I think you should call forth the... Final Court." Luna pants, the light on her horn fluctuating slightly.

"You mean it this time." It's not a question and Luna doesn't feel the need to answer. So the time has finally come. I nod at my sister and head to the throne room immediately.

I fly through the corridors, reluctant to waste time. I look through the window at the menacing star of mine. Its red glow covers all Terra. The moon-shield is still in its place. It seems smaller now, but it's probably because of the sun's increased size. I storm into the throne room.

"Type Fast!" I call the royal secretary. Through all the years of my ruling, I have learned that remembering the name of the secretary is the bare minimum of being a respectful ruler.

"Princess..." a voice says from behind me, making me flinch. I hate it when she does that.

"Type Fast... I..." I try to tell her to call the Final Court, but words fail me. I look at the secretary blankly. What am I to say? That the time of pony civilization has come to an end? That she and all of the ponies she knows and loves will die? That the whole pony civilization will perish? That the whole planet and every life form on it is going to be burned to cinders and I can do nothing to stop it? I stare at Type Fast with my mouth open, unable to form a coherent sentence.

To my utter surprise, she just corrects her glasses with a hoof. "The time has come to call the Final Court. Am I correct, your highness?"

I feel a treacherous tingling in my eyes, but manage a faint nod.

"I see..." Type Fast whispers, studying her hooves. It lasts but a fraction of a second, and she turns back to me instantly. "The court shall be called, your highness." She bows, and with a flick of her horn, she summons a screen before her. She taps it with her both hooves and the horn with a speed only the most skilled unicorns can boast.

The Canternet. Through the centuries of its existence, it has remained beyond my understanding. Luna loves it greatly, though, and tried to introduce its wonders to me on numerous occasions, to no avail. Well, it does make communication swifter... All of a sudden, I remember letters traveling on a dragon's breath. But that particular way of exchanging information became obsolete somewhere near the end of Equestria IV. Besides, there are no more dragons on Terra's surface anyway.

I look back at Type Fast, noticing a few drops of liquid on the sparkling crystal floor. The tears, however, do not dampen the secretary's amazing typing skills as her hooves dance over the magic screen leaving a blur behind them.

I try to hold back the tears of guilt myself, as I limply straggle back to Luna's chamber.

FLASH

I look at the masses of ponies gathered in the palace garden. Canterlot is filled to the brim with Mother's children. To save space and allow more of the wingless ponies on the ground, every spare cloud in the vicinity has been gathered and reshaped into a sitting bench for Pegasi.

Countless recorders, cameras, snappers, sensory overriders, and direct-to-mind transceivers, have been set to provide coverage for those unable to gather here personally.

I rise my hoof and the buzz of the masses of ponies dies away. Canterlot, whole Equestria, and the whole planet covers in a blanket of deafening silence.

"My little..." I begin, but my voice is quiet and hoarse. I try to swallow the lump forming in my throat, to no particular effect. By the love of Mother, what am I supposed to say here?

I struggle with the desire to teleport away, when a reassuring hoof touches my back. I turn around, meeting the teary teal eyes of Luna. She gives my back a much appreciated hug.

"They know what you're about to say, Celly," she whispers. "They know what the court has been gathered for, and they are waiting to hear it. You can't run away now. It would be a shameful act of terrible disrespect."

I gulp audibly and nod. Luna is right, of course. A ruler must fulfill their duties, especially in the time of need. I raise my head, facing the crowd.

"My little ponies!" I am surprised at how clear my voice sounds. It's not the fabled Royal Canterlot Voice, which Luna had abused all those eons ago, but I trust it to carry the message.

"I am sure you all know what is the purpose of the Final Court. Several millennia ago, your ancestors have decided to continue living under this red sky..." I raise my hoof, pointing it accusatively at the overgrown sun. Even though it hasn't even been raised yet, its red ring looms over the horizon. "They knew the implication of their decision very well. They knew the day would come when their great grand children are faced with the fact of extinction. They could have stopped giving birth to foals, on account of fear or simply by cause of the lack of purpose." I take a short pause, surveying the crowd before me.

"But they have not!" I raise my voice. "Each and every one of you here is the glorious result of the decision your ancestors had made!" My voice is loud and clear as I, too, push my worries to the back of my mind, loosing myself in the heat of the moment.

The short break in my speech gives the crowd an opportunity to erupt in wild cheer. A quick glance at the crowd would fool the observer into thinking the ponies have gathered to celebrate a holiday, or a sport event of some sort. I can't stop the corners of my lips from rising... Nor would I ever want to. I'm proud of the children and of the work my two sisters and I have put into guiding them throughout the ages. As I am sure Mother would be in our stead.

Such a shame our common adventure has to come to an end. Which reminds me...

"I am and will forever remain grateful to them and to you," I continue a little calmer, "for living your lives despite knowing that doom is upon this beautiful planet you... we all call home."

I take a deep breath, trying to blink away the tears which have welled up in my eyes. I look upon the countless rows of ponies in the garden, the courtyard, and filling the capital city of the Last Equestria. Any day now it will all perish without a trace. A lump in my throat grows bigger as I struggle to force the words out. I feel the reassuring hoof on my back. Luna surely suspects what I'm going through. It helps a little, giving me strength to wipe the tears away.

"As y-you all know, the time has come, finally and irrevocably." I force with a trembling voice. "For the last couple of millennia... m-my dearest sister Luna has shielded E-Equestria... from the scorching rays of the e-expanding sun with... the moon guided by her precise and powerful magic. And she..."

I bury my face in my hooves as the guilt overcomes me. Oh, how fleeting and short lived my courage turned out to be. I just cannot force myself to say it.

"And now, standing here before you," Luna takes over, her voice carrying clearly in the air despite her fatigue, "I must admit that my magic will soon give away." As if to punctuate her words, her horn—burning furiously with celestial magic—flickers as she stumbles to a side. A collective gasp escapes from thousands of throats as I rush to support her.

I can't help but notice the change on the ponies' faces in the crowd. They all knew why they have gathered here, but the difference between suspecting and being certain of their own demise, is as vast as the red sun's disk across the sky.

"Without moon's protection," Luna continues, "the blast of sun's scorching rays will reach Terra in the matter of minutes. Once it does, the planet's atmosphere will simply be blown away." Luna lowers her head slightly. "If it's any consolation, all of us will die nearly instantly, without even realizing it."

I admire my sister's diplomatic skills—she used plural, even though she's an immortal goddess and will survive the cataclysm in her moon.

The silence which drops over the crowd of ponies could be cut with a knife. However, my dear sister continues her speech unabated.

"What I would like to ask of you, my dear ponies, is that in your final hours you wouldn't put the blame for what's to come on my sister." Luna's hoof pats my shoulder as she smiles my way. "She is not the reason her sun is expanding—thus are the laws of physics of the universe we live in. Rest assured that if she had anything to say in the matter, she would certainly protect every single one of you and the whole Terra, even at the cost of her immortal life."

As my sister speaks, I watch from the shadow of the balcony at her back. Tears of gratitude and helplessness flow down my cheeks, as I admire how much my younger sister has grown. I can still remember how much trouble she had adapting to Equestria III after her banishment, oh so many eons ago. She seemed like a tiny, helpless filly then... And now look at her—she has mastered the Canternet, excels in science, celestial magic has no secrets to her... It is I who should be taking lessons from her. And perhaps I will, once I come to terms with the destruction of Mother's children. The faint glint of happiness forces its way from underneath the veil of guilt and sadness, warming my heart ever-so-slightly.

Luna's speech nears its end and I move next to her, where the ponies can see us both.

I feel I should say something, but Luna's speech left no words unspoken. Veil of complete silence falls over Canterlot, as instead of speaking, I ignite my horn to raise the sun, for what most likely is to be the last Solstice Celebration ever. As I slowly raise my head, the weight of my star resting on my horn much heavier than usual, a lonely voice reaches my ears.

"The fire of friendship burns in our hearts..." A mare begins. Her lonely voice, which seems familiar despite the fact that I'm pretty certain I'm hearing it for the first time, carries clearly over the crowd, sounding like she was standing right next to me and Luna.

"As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart..." Several other ponies join in, but I can still hear the warm, clear voice of the progenitor.

"Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few,
Laughter and singing will see us through..." More and more ponies chant the anthem, their voices reverberating through the capital city.

"We are the circle of pony friends,
a circle of friends will be to the very end."

By the time the first verse comes to its end, several thousands of voices in the Canterlot Plaza and the whole city carry the song into the air. My blazing horn drawing a trace in the air, I unfurl my wings, the words of the ancient anthem dancing around me, filling my heart with warmth.

It's the first time I feel like this. My wings beating furiously, I slowly make my ascent above the balcony—a procedure I have completed countless of times. The feel of my star is far from pleasant, burning like it tried to scorch me from within, as I haul the heavy cinder across the sky. I ignore it, however, instead concentrating on the vibrant song, which pushes my wings from below, helping me up in my ascent.

The magic of friendship flows through our souls,
As long as it's there, our lives remain whole.
With friends all around, no problem's too grave,
By combining strengths, hardships we brave.
We are the nation of pony friends,
The nation of friends, we'll be to the very end.

I'm at the very apex of my ascent, the sun burning my back like I was submerging my wings in flowing lava. I feel its scorching energy even despite the shielding my sister provides with her moon. I crack an eye open, turning my head back a little.

Gigantic red orb fills nearly half of the sky, the rest of which is the same color because of the light. The moon is merely a speck in the orb's center. I look down at Luna, her horn blazing with a silver veil of celestial magic of the night. Where does she get her strength from? I notice her eyes following her tiny moon on the celestial dome. Is she frightened? No, more like resigned to her fate. I want to fly down to her, to comfort her, but Terra reaches her first. She lands near Luna, embracing her in a warm hug, and I'm finally able to recognize the familiar voice which has started the anthem.

I finally manage to raise the sun all the way up, and I feel exhausted, like I have lifted a mountain with my bare hooves. I float down in a hurry, landing beside my sisters. The glow around Luna's horn is barely noticeable.

The whole planet's atmosphere vibrates with the song as Terra and every pony on the planet repeats the words of the pony anthem, written down several civilizations ago, but their words barely reach my ears. Luna struggles to speak and I lean over her, straining my ears to catch her faint words.

"Looks like that's it," she whispers, the aura around her horn flickering and dying altogether. "Farewell, sister." She closes her eyes. "And... I'm sorry."

I blink in confusion. Before I am able to demand clarification for what she is sorry for, Luna gives her last breath, her mortal body blackening and crumbling, like it was made of ashes.

I raise my head, frantically searching for the tiny speck in front of the giant, menacing, red orb. There is none. As the reality slowly dawns on me, and I struggle against my sanity to accept it, I feel Terra's snout burying in my chest.

"Try not to blame yourself for it."

I briefly register the fact that it is the first time I have heard Terra speaking. I latch onto this fact, anything to avert my mind from the reality that begins to crumble beneath my hooves.

"I will soon join Luna and Mother's children," Terra whispers, her warm tears sinking in my coat, "and I don't want the last thing I see to be your devastated face... Cheer up, sis."

She puts on a brave smile which I fail miserably to reciprocate, as my mind struggles to process her words. I open my mouth to speak, but it's already too late. The last thing I feel is Terra's caring, delicate hooves wrapping around my back.

Then everything is gone in an orange flash.

As my mortal body burns in a wave of heat and fiery plasma, I cry out my Mother's name as my consciousness is forcibly pushed back into my star. The moment it reaches the sun, I feel an enormous pressure building in my core. It reaches the limit my celestial body can handle in next to no time, and I explode into countless little pieces.

FLASH

Author's Note

Dear reader,

Have I interested you—even in the slightest—in stellar evolution? Probably not, because I dumped nearly all the interesting facts through Luna's monologue. :twilightblush: All of what she said, however, is the truth which describes the facts we humans have come to learn by observing our surrounding stellar neighborhood. Before writing this chapter down, I made an assumption Celestia (the star, not the pony, although the difference between the two is nearly non-existent in the story :twilightsmile: ) is roughly the size of our own sun. By our current volume of knowledge, scientists agree that our sun will share Celestia's fate. Of course, it won't happen for another five billions of years, so you can pretty much rest assured you won't wake up to be fried in the expanding sun's shell in the foreseeable future. :raritywink:

If you would be interested in reading a bit more about the stellar evolution, please take a look at the National Schools' Observatory section. It describes the process Luna summarized with several more details. If that's still not enough knowledge for you, you can also visit the stellar evolution section in Wikipedia (however, be advised that it's considerably more detailed and can probably bore someone not interested in astronomy :raritywink: ).

It never hurts to know a bit more about the neighborhood we live in, right? :twilightsmile:

Lesson 3 - Music: A Sonata of the Dying Universe

FLASH

Just as I thought I would be able to join my sisters in whatever afterlife our Mother had prepared for us, I woke up in the deserted, cold and empty void of space. My star must have imploded, as Luna and the scientist had predicted all those eons ago, swallowing both Terra and Luna into its corona as it had been expanding prior to that.

I cursed the life I was given, wept the dry tears within my core for my sisters and ponies, and prayed to my Mother—or whichever god was listening—to end my misery.

A lonely core of the expired star, gifted with consciousness, who would wish for nothing more than death.

Eventually, after all the feelings died inside me, I fell in an unconscious lethargy, in which I was fortunate not to feel a thing anymore.

Was it any different than death? Perhaps only in the sense that I could wake up.

Like I did earlier.

The question remains: why now? I have no idea whatsoever how long have I been hibernating in the barely glowing, cold core of my star. I suppose it has been eons, millions if not billions of years. But now something woke me up. What?

I strain all of my organless senses to detect any kind of anomaly in the unchanging dead void of space I'm drifting through. There is none.

But... There had to be something to wake me up from my eternal slumber...

And then I hear it. Not much of a sound per se, because of all those scientific reasons I can't recall anymore. But it is similar to the feeling I felt whenever Terra had sung. The closest thing I can find to describe the feeling is as if a single sharp note reverberated through the whole universe.

I feel like a lonely pony in an empty concert hall, in which a musician I can't see tests their instrument before a grand concert.

I had been to many concerts in my pony life, most of the time accompanied by Luna. I briefly wonder whether she would enjoy this one as well, before the memory of my sisters and her demise in my corona causes fluctuations of feelings in my core.

In the overwhelming silence of the dead universe, a quiet music starts. It is unlike anything I had ever heard from Terra, but I can't shake the ominous feeling, I felt each time she sang her song of destruction.

***

Like a paralyzed spectator bound to her chair, I have been enjoying the concert of the universe for I don't know how long. What else am I to do? What say do I have in the matter?

But... are my celestial senses deceiving me? Just on the border of my gravitational field, which is as much as my senses can pierce the lifeless void, I sense a disturbance.

Back again in the concert hall I imagine myself to be, I can see an occupied chair on the verge of my field of view. The other guest must have sensed me too. I have no idea what a creature it is—I have never seen such a being created by Terra—but I can clearly see it turning its head and flailing its arm at me. Its face, though so different to mine, displays a vibrant smile.

I hesitantly smile and wave back, wishing for the guest to get closer so maybe we could talk.

***

As time passes by, another silhouettes appear in the distance, the space between them and between them and me shrinking with each passing century. Each of the guests is different, too. Some seem grumpy, some cheerful, some are distant and concentrated, some seem like life was sucked out of them—if it was ever given to them in the first place. They are of different sizes and colors, and some of them look similar to the long-gone children of Terra! Just what is happening?

"Hi!"

A cheerful voice of the first guest to join the hall beside me reverberates in my ears. His—well, I assume whatever species he represents, he's a male, because of his masculine voice—chair has closed most of the distance between us by now. And we can talk, just like I desired.

If only I knew what to say to him.

"Greetings," I force out, immediately regretting how formal and cold I sounded.

If he noticed that, however, he didn't show.

"I'm Sol. Who are you?" He asks, his cheerful smile reminding me of Luna.

"Celestia."

Before he can respond, another creature similar to him jumps from behind him, and starts walking my way. The planet balances on the brim of Sol's gravitational pull, almost falling into mine, but then falls back, throwing their tongue at me.

"One of these days you will break from my pull, Neptune." Sol makes a warning gesture with his arm. "And another star will pull you into their gravitational field. I wonder how much you will like your new host. And how much you will miss your other brothers and sister. It's only your luck we haven't met one of those red giants along the way yet."

"Or a black hole." Another one of Sol's siblings emerges from behind him.

Neptune waves his arm. "Shut your trap, Saturn."

The biggest one of the siblings jumps from behind Sol, subduing his unruly brother with a light pat at the back of his head. "Language, Neptune."

"Thanks, Jupiter." Sol sighs heavily.

A cute little planet—if the others were males, this one must surely be a girl—pulls Sol by his trousers. At least I believe they are trousers. Hard to tell since every one of them has only two legs on which they walk. "Sol, are black holes really that scary?"

The oldest brother grabs his sister and places her gently on his laps. "I'm afraid so, Mars. If one was to catch you in their pull, I wouldn't be able to pull you out."

The girl covers her mouth with her... hands? Was that the word Tirek used to describe his forelimbs? She dives deeper into his brother's embrace. A few of Sol's gentle pats on her head seem enough to calm her a little, though.

"There, there, I'm sure Neptune will notify us if he feels a black hole entering our system." He says with a calming voice."Won't he?" he adds a little louder.

The rowdy boy turns his back on the pair, but a quiet whimper from his sister is enough to turn him around on the spot. "You can count on me!" He puts a bright smile on his face.

"I wish I met a black hole..." a boy, who staid quiet ever since I saw him, finally speaks, his voice distant and cheerful, like he was having a peaceful dream.

"I'd rather you didn't, Uranus –" Sol draws a deep sigh "- but if you do, please let us know about it."

"Sure." The boy puts his hands in the pockets of his blouse, leaning back like he was enjoying a sunny afternoon.

"Sorry about all of that." Sol's cheeks flush red as he turns back to me. "They can be quite a handful, especially Neptune. And Uranus, ever the odd one out."

I can't help but chuckle. "Not at all. I envy you of your companions. I'm all alone, as you can see." I wave my hoof around.

"Then I envy you of your peace and quiet." Sol chuckles. "You have no idea what it's like having to watch over them all the time."

"Indeed, I do not." I smile back. "I used to have but two sisters. We sometimes quarreled, but I loved them dearly." I look away, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye. "Sadly, they are not here anymore."

Sol looks away. "Sorry to hear that. "If you don't mind me asking..." He bites his lip. "Out of hydrogen, burning helium, and poof, they're gone in your corona?"

Though the process he described is far from laughable, the way he put it forces a weak smile on my face. I nod.

"Been there, done that." Sol hugs the girl sitting on his lap tighter. "Besides this little angel, I had three other sisters. A shy Mercury, a pretty Venus, and ever curious about the universe around her Earth. Can you imagine—little Earth was so eager to learn and get to know the universe that she bred her own lifeforms?"

I offer a meek smile. "Just like my sister Terra."

Sol raises his eyebrow. "Oh?"

"We were entrusted with the seeds of life from our Mother. We were told to nurture and protect them, and we did, up to the moment Luna and Terra perished in my corona."

Sol draws a positively surprised whistle. "Wow, you must have risen a mature species. Earth's experiments didn't end quite so well. And she had experimented for quite a while before she came up with a race focused on gathering knowledge and exploring the universe. In their prime time, humans even invented means to cross the interstellar space and paid a visit to Mars." He pats the head of his little sister.

She responds with puffing out her cheeks. "I didn't like them."

Sol bursts in a hearty laugh. "I don't suppose any of us did, beside Earth of course. Quite the arrogant creatures they were... Much too self-centered and convinced the universe was their playground. They did what Earth wanted them to do, though. They understood some part of the cosmos my sister wanted to learn of so eagerly."

"What happened to them?" I ask.

"Well, for some reason Earth couldn't explain, beside their drive to understand and explore, they were a race of conquerors and warriors. Along the copious amount of devices they had crafted to help them understand how everything works, they had also created weapons and tools to kill. Even on the global scale. Needless to say, one time they used them against their own kind. Nearly every form of life Earth had ever created perished on that day alongside them... Can you even imagine such arrogance?"

I draw a sigh. "I can. Similar thing happened with Terra's children once, too. She then understood she wasn't supposed to experiment with the seeds of life Mother had entrusted to us. She allowed only them to reborn."

"A wise decision, I should say." Sol nods, his eyes half closed. "As humans wiped nearly all life from little Earth, she concluded her experiment a failure. Her heart nearly broke at the time, and she jumped in front of the first comet passing through our system. She wanted to end her life and take the remaining rest of her children with her, but the comet, thankfully, wasn't large enough. It gave Earth a huge bruise, that's for sure, and destroyed the rest of her inhabitants, granting at least that part of her wish. She never recreated any life afterwards."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I lower my head. "Did... did the humans look like you do now?"

Sol takes a confirming glance at his body. "As a matter of fact, they did. A curious thing, really. Neither of us had any names before they had given them to us. We took to like them and decided to take their forms as a little token of our appreciation." Sol pierces me with his yellow eyes. "Did the dominant species on Terra was a horse, like you?"

"A horse?" I blink.

"Oh?" Sol raises his eyebrow. "Am I mistaken, then? During her experiments, Earth had created a race which looked nearly like you-except for the lack of wings and a horn. That's what she called them."

"Mother called her children ponies. There were a few different kinds, too: winged pegasi, unicorns with their horns, and earth ponies with no accessories, so to speak." I stifle a light chuckle. "Also, they were smaller than me. My sisters and I were the only ones equipped with both wings and horns. Such was the world Mother had desired."

"We never got to see our mother." Sol lets his sister off his laps and she joins her brothers, running relentless laps around him. "She had to die, so that from her ashes scattered around the space, I and my siblings could be born. At least that's the theory humans deduced as to their, and our, origin." Sol offers a gentle smile. "I wonder what it's like to know your mother. Yours must have been a wise star, indeed."

I blink. "You know, it has never even crossed my mind to consider her a star. I always pictured her as an alicorn, just like me and my sisters. But, to be honest, after she had created our world, and named us its guardians, we have never seen or heard from her again."

Sol opens his mouth to speak, but before he can utter a word, we both notice an enormous mass, entering the region of space we share. I strain my senses, expecting a humongous star to breach the border of my gravitational field any moment. Imagine my disappointment, when a tiny, luminous ladybug, several times smaller than Luna, appears on the border of my perception.

"Neptune, now's definitely not the time to play dare! Get over here this instant!" I hear Sol's frantic whisper. His siblings cover behind him, and even the rowdy Neptune heeds his brother's words.

The ladybug flies beside us, its enormous gravitational pull almost tearing me apart despite it merely sliding on the borders of our system. As it passes by, I notice a leash hanging on one of its tiny legs. At its other end, a series of other stars, each considerably bigger than me and Sol—not to mention the tiny ladybug—draggle behind it like its obedient pets. Some of them carry their own planets, too.

"That was much closer than I would call comfortable..." I whisper as the last member of the procession passes by. "How could a star so little have such a strong gravity?"

"A great example of how appearances can be deceiving." Sol sheds a nasty smirk. "Rest assured, however, that when we still burned hydrogen in our cores, that ladybug must have been an enormous star, several times the size of you or me. A few more suns added to its mass, and it would have collapsed into a black hole. But it survived this drastic catastrophe, and remains a neutron star." Sol follows the ladybug traversing the concert hall with his eyes. "According to humans, they're objects of tremendous density, topped only by the black holes themselves. That's why so much mass can be cramped into such a tiny creature."

"Sol, where is it going?" Mars looks up at her big brother, fear slowly draining from her face.

Sol runs his gentle fingers through his sister's hair, his calming smile radiating his warmth over to her. "I don't suppose it can choose its path. Just like us, bound to our chairs in this concert hall of a dying universe, it too patiently waits to be given its own place."

I clear my throat quietly. "Sol, you seem to know a lot more about what's going on here. The moment my core imploded, I entered a state of hibernation I never expected to wake up from. And yet I did. Why now? What is this music? What is going to happen?"

Sol scratches the back of his head, an apologetic smile creeping slowly on his face. "I wish Earth was here. I'm sure she could explain it better than me."

"And I'm sure Luna would be more than interested to hear it, if she was still among us."

"Right." Sol runs his palm through his blazing hair. I almost expect it to come out burnt, but of course it doesn't. "See, humans calculated two different outcomes for the universe to meet its end. According to the first one, the cosmos will keep expanding indefinitely, until it dies, cold and empty, when every single star burns its fuel out, and there is no more energy in it. They've given such a state a poetic name of Big Freeze. But, as we are given a chance to witness, such a thing won't be happening."

"Then what will?" I ask, somehow managing to stop my lip from quivering.

"The Big Crunch."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well, according to the other of their theories, this universe was born in a giant explosion of all mass, space, and time, squeezed previously in one point of infinite density. They named the event the Big Bang. Now, that we know the gravity managed to overcome the expanding force, the universe is shrinking back to a pinhead."

I narrow my eyes. "Will we... will we be given our final rest, then?"

Sol shrugs. "Who knows what will happen with us. But it's getting rather crowded here, don't you think?"

I look around. Wrapped in the conversation with him, I didn't notice stars lining behind me. I fold my imaginary wings when I feel something hard brushing against them. "Sorry," I whisper towards a tortoise. He offers an apologetic smile and nods, before moving away.

"Brothers, come join your sister here." Sol points at the small fragment of unoccupied space between me and him. "That means you too, Neptune!" He extends his arm, an apologetic smile plastered on his face. "Do you mind?"

I shake my head. "Of course not."

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune move to the spot between us, and Sol grabs my hooves. I extend my wings, shielding us from the pushing crowd.

I have never manipulated the gravity of my star this way before, but Sol helps me, bending to my pull and shifting his own, to assure his siblings won't be burnt by either of us.

"There." He winces, but immediately covers it with a smile. "All comfy? We shouldn't get trampled here. Well, not unless a black hole or another neutron star decides to pass through." He whispers, trying to hide his pain and effort behind a brave smile. Does shifting his gravitational pull cost him so much?

The hall is full to the brim with stars and planets. Over the constant murmur, not unlike the atmosphere of the ever busy Canterlot railway station, I can occasionally hear a plea or a threat not to push, or a distant cry. An unwanted meeting with a black hole, perhaps?

I look back at Sol. His face twisting in pain, I notice a distinct lack of the star behind him. I lean over him. A black shade, looking like a hole in the fabric of the universe, stares back at me.

"This might be it for me." He winks, forcing a smile, as he notices what I saw. "Stay with aunt Celestia for a while, won't you?" he asks his siblings. Over the voices of protests, the loudest from the little girl, I can clearly hear his painful whisper. "Sorry about that. It was nice meeting you here."

I open my mouth, but before I can utter a word, Sol gives out his last flash, before disappearing within the black hole. I grasp his sibling in a tight embrace, shielding them with my wings, saving them the view of their devoured brother.

"I'm so sorry," I whisper. "I might not be able to protect you much longer." I force out, feeling the tips of my wings bend outside by the enormous pull of the black hole. A wince of pain crosses my face, as my wings are torn apart by the enormous gravitational pull. Like Sol, I try to hide my pain behind a weak smile. "Looks like your wish might be granted after all, Uranus." I manage a wink. "You wanted to meet a black hole, didn't you?"

The boy looks at the dark abyss, tearing my wings apart, then back at me, his face ever behind that absent smile of his. "I don't wanna anymore. I want to stay with you, auntie."

Before I so much as blink, he jumps at my neck, burning against my faint corona. A moment of sizzle is all that takes for him to disappear within me.

"I think Uranus did just the thing we were all thinking about." The biggest of the siblings says. "Rather than being sucked into a black hole, may we die within you?"

My lip quivers, as I open my mouth to protest. But then I take a peek inside the glaring hole of void in front of me and my mind is clear. I force a weak nod, extending my hooves towards them.

Jupiter kneels in front of his little sister. "Do you want to go first, Mars?"

Her eyes dart between him, me, and the black hole for a moment of hesitation, but ultimately she nods, the tears in the corners of her eyes shaken away with a smile. She jumps at my neck. "Thank you for looking after us while brother was gone." Mars say, managing a tiny kiss on my cheek before disappearing in my corona.

"Thank you." Saturn offers a shallow bow, then pushes himself towards me, following his brother and sister silently, his face ever rid of emotions.

Jupiter takes a look back at Neptune, who balances on the very edge of my gravity, as if daring the black hole to swallow him. "Neptune, you coming?"

"After you, big brother," Neptune snickers, affording the deepest bow he can manage.

Jupiter only shakes his head, drawing a deep sigh, then looks back at me. "Take care, Miss."

I manage a weak nod, before welcoming him as well in my fiery embrace.

As the last cloud of Jupiter's gaseous atmosphere evaporates in my heat, I look into the hole's black maw, and locate Neptune, balancing on the thin border of my gravitational pull. I strain my wings, ripped to pieces and bare of their feathers as they are, to hold the rowdy boy.

"I won't be able to hold you much longer, Neptune," I cry towards him. "Do you want to end your life inside that ever-hungry maw?"

"What choice do I have?" he shouts back, relaxing at the edge of my pull. "To burn to a tasty crisp inside your corona?"

"I cannot offer you any better alternative. The choice is yours to make." I pierce him with my sad eyes. "Whatever your decision is, though, just please make it quick."

As if to punctuate my words, my left wing is torn from my body at this very moment. Uranus loses his balance as my gravity pull is broken, and for a fraction of a second I think I see a hint of fear cross his face. I turn to my side, extending the remains left of my right wing towards him. "Just make sure you have no regrets!"

Neptune looks at me then in the black maw. "Ah, to hell with it!" He makes a—most likely insulting—gesture with his fingers towards the black hole, before jumping towards me. "Brothers, sister, wait for me!" He cries, crashing against my corona. Before he disappears completely inside me, he manages to steal a kiss from me, a proud smile brightening his face.

I'm not given any time to regret or even miss Sol's siblings, as my right wing is torn from my body the moment Neptune evaporates in my fire. Curious thing, though. Besides a barely noticeable itch, I don't feel any pain; definitely not as much as when my other wing was torn earlier. By and large, I don't feel much at all, except for a decrease in my already weak celestial power.

I take a glance inside the maw of impenetrable darkness, its gravity so strong that even light is not fast enough to escape its powerful grasp. "Come on, eat me, you insatiable monster!" I shout in its faceless maw. "I will gladly join my sisters on the other side, after all those years of solitude." That is, if the afterlife theories of Mother's children are correct, and there is, in fact, an afterlife even for us, celestial beings.

As my body is being torn apart, bits and pieces of it sucked into the black hole, I feel my power slowly draining from me, as my life is gradually sucked away.

Are my celestial senses deceiving me? Has the ever present murmur of the nearby stars ceased? Has the music of the expiring universe died, or is it no longer audible from the inside of the hole? Did I really register a blinding flash, or is it simply the last part of my core dying in the black hole?

So this is the end, huh? Even a celestial being has to end their life at some point.

There is no immortality in this universe.

FLASH

Author's Note

Dear reader,

There are several theories regarding the ultimate fate of the universe. One of them (chosen for the story's theme) states that the gravitational pull of all mass in the universe will ultimately overpower the expanding force gained during the Big Bang. If such a thing (named the Big Crunch) happens, the created singularity might give birth to another universe, in a process called the Big Bounce.

The scientists leaned towards the universe's oscillatory life cycle for up to 2010, but in 2011 the Nobel prize in physics was given to three brilliant minds "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae". Unless they are wrong, and the expansion process doesn't stop for whatever reason, the ultimate fate of our universe might be the Big Freeze—a heat death, after every star has burned all of its fuel, and all matter has decayed into dark matter, electrons and positrons.

Not a happy scenario, if you ask me. Personally, I sincerely hope for a reincarnation cycle, like the one Celestia has experienced. :twilightsmile:

Epilogue

"You're wrong, sister." A cheery, familiar voice I haven't heard in eons reaches my ears. "Quite the contrary. There is no permanent death in this universe. Every form of conscious life is immortal."

I open my eyes, then close them, then rub them with my hooves, then open them again. The vision I was so afraid might turn out to be a dream, remains before my eyes. The three ponies I missed so much, praying every day for nothing more than to see them again, stand before me.

My lips quiver as I open my mouth and close it, like a fish taken out of water, struggling to articulate my feelings with words.

"Luna? Terra?" I finally struggle out. "Mo...Mother?"

The three alicorns smile at me. My hooves trembling, I reach out one to touch Luna's snout.

She closes her eyes, turning her cheek towards me. "I can assure you, this is no dream." She winks. "Trust me, I would know."

My hooves react on their own, passing behind my sister's cheek, embracing Luna in a hug so strong I fear I might break her neck. As tears of my joy flow into her coat, Terra and Mother join our embrace.

"I missed you all so much..." I manage between the sobs.

Mother caresses my mane with her gentle hoof. "As did we, honey. But the laws of the universe are strict and intransigent. The living can't meet with the dead. Not until their life flickers away and their souls leave their bodies."

"So I'm dead, after all?" I ask, not bothering to untangle from Mother's legs.

"If you were, would you be able to ask that question?" Mother smiles. "It is only your body that has died. Your consciousness—your soul—remains."

I crack an eye open, looking up at Mother's gentle smile. I never want to leave her again. "How come you're dead too? Aren't you an immortal god?"

"Me?" Mother's delicate laugh reverberates through the eternal plane. "Heavens, no. I was but a single life on my home world, one of many billions at that. Mortal, like my little ponies living under Terra's sky."

Luna peaks from under Mother's wing. "Was your life really that short?"

"Compared to you, celestials –" Mother boops Luna's muzzle with her hoof "– it was definitely much shorter. But it doesn't really matter how long you live, does it? What matters, is how you spend the time you are given."

"What will happen now?" I hear my own voice.

"You won't be dead for much longer, sweetie." Mother caresses my mane with her wing. "The endless cycle of life and death will soon begin anew. Like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, so will the universe draw its next breath in a fiery explosion. And when it recreates, it will be up to you whether to inhabit it again and enlighten it with your light."

I share a glance with Luna and Terra. No words are necessary as we reach an understanding. It seems our decision had been made long ago. I bury deeper into mother's coat. "Of course we will."

Mother's hoof travels through my mane as I bask in the warmth of her and my sisters. "Then the ponies who have left, will have a place to return to as well. I'm so proud of you, my little ponies."

I peek out from under mother's wing, like a shy foal afraid to ask her a question. "Will you join us then?"

Mother's clear giggle reverberates in my ears like the song of thousand nightingales, filling my heart with warmth. "I will have my own world to return to. But I promise to visit you from time to time."

"I already can't wait." Luna says, burying under mother's other wing.

As we share a laugh, basking in our warmth, I feel the stream of consciousness that we are all being part of—the pool of life so vast and infinite, I feel like a tiny drop of rain which has fallen into an ocean.

And the ocean is full once again, all life gathered together—ever alive, never dead—waiting for their universe to recreate, for their stars and planets to be born again so that they, too, could return.

The perfect cycle of life and death, fractal in its nature, the same regardless of the scale considered. The true immortality.

As our consciousness merge together for one brief moment, I can touch every being that has ever lived. As they can touch me.

And we are one, a pool of immortal souls, sharing our consciousnesses for the briefest of moments, before the universe bears anew in a...

FLASH

In an instant, a period of time shorter than it takes for a fleeting thought to manifest in a pony mind, a universe is born—a void, cold and empty.

Ready to welcome new life in it.