Everything is dust.

It is all I can see.
Stretching from one horizon to the other, an endless desert of grey sand, with nothing in it.
Except for me.
I walk.
I came from nowhere and I'm heading to nowhere. There's nowhere to head.
Maybe the next horizon will herald something different.
Probably not.
Probably just more dust. Like everything in this world now.

Everything is dust.

It wasn't some big villain that caused this. Not some great evil that caused the world to turn to dust.
It was the tree.
The tree of harmony died and everything died with it.
The tree gave life force to the world. A special magic that everything needs to live.
With it gone, everything fell and became dust.

The plants died first. They had no magic of their own to sustain them. With the tree gone, their life force drained quickly.
Without life force everything will become dust. So they became dust.
The lesser animals came next. The one's who hadn't achieved sentence and now never would.
They died and became dust. Like all else.

Everything is dust.

The dust (as it was called) then came for the greater, more sophisticated animals. Those with greater intelligence, who could communicate with other species.
They died slowly and in great pain, begging for help from the ponies of the land, who had yet to fall victim to the dust.
That wouldn't last for long.

To begin with, nopony knew what was causing the dust. It was thought by many to be some kind of disease.
A highly lethal, airborne pathogen. Spreading through all plant life and eating away the remains.
When the animals started dying, it was said that the pathogen had evolved.
That it had found a way to spread to animals from plants.
It was then that the panic really began to set in.
Despite the best efforts of the scientists of equestria, there was no sign of a cure.
There was no cure, as it wasn't a disease. It was simply death. The death of everything.

Everything is dust.

Then ponies began to die.
The earth ponies and pegasi came first. There was nothing to be done.
There were no real symptoms.
They weren't sick.
They didn't get a fever.
They didn't sneeze, cough or get aches and pains.
They just died.
The energy just ebbed out of them, like they had lost the will to live.
And the unicorns of equestria could only watch as they died.
By now it was obvious to all this wasn't a disease. This was the end of all life.
This was death itself. And there was no way to fight it.

Everything is dust.

The unicorns lasted the longest. Their magic kept them alive.
But they couldn't last, nothing could.
Their life left them, as it did with everything else, and then they were dust.

In the end, only the alicorn princesses were left. Standing in the ruins of the kingdom they once ruled.
The lord of chaos, discord, had left the world long ago. Whether to his own realm or to another I do not know. But either way he was gone.
And the princesses were all that remained. They grieved for the loss of everything they had ever known, until, inventively, they became dust too.

Everything is dust.

And now I wander.
I'm not dust, obviously, but I don't count.
I'm not of this world. My life force doesn't come from the tree. I carry my life force with me and have done for all my life.
But I do not matter. Nothing does, not any more. There's nothing too matter.

Everything is dust.

There is a strong wind blowing across this land. I'm not entirely sure where it came from.
My running theory is that without the pegasi to control it and with nothing in it's way to slow, the last wind that blew just keeps going, cycling around the planet getting stronger and stronger. Or maybe it's something to do with the dust, that it's somehow moving the air around it.
It doesn't really matter. Either way, the wind brings more dust.

Even the ground has lost it's strength, for it too was alive in some capacity. And now, as the winds blow stronger and stronger, the hills of this land begin too to erode to dust.
Soon this world will be flat. Flat and empty. Empty for nothing but dust.

Everything is dust.

It's cold under my feet, the dust. The cold of death.
I don't particularly care. I've seen plenty of death in my times, caused a lot as well.
I walk as I have nothing more to do. Here or anywhere.
To walk and to watch, that is my lot in life now.

A hill, a welcome change in this featureless landscape.
In my own weird way, I look forward to them. I cherish them.
Maybe because I know they will be gone soon.
Maybe because a small part of me believes in the chance that there will be something new over it. Something different from the dust that surrounds me.
But there won't be. There can't be.

Everything is dust.

I reach the top of the hill and stop.
I gaze at the lands surrounding me.
As I expected, dust. Dust, nothing else.

Except, maybe not.
There's something, something in the plain before me.
Something standing on top of the dust.
Something that isn't dust.
But this has happened before.
With nopony and nothing around, the mind begins to play tricks. I often see mirages of things that don't exist, can't exist, in this desert of the lost.
It would change once I got close enough, I know that for sure.

Everything is almost defiantly dust.

I'm getting closer.
It's not dust yet.
It looks like some kind of table. A table made of crystal.
I wonder why this is what I'm seeing.
A table that I have never seen before appearing to me as a mirage in this dustland.
I wonder what that says about my psyche.
Maybe I'm just hungry.

Everything is probably dust.

Closer and closer.
I can't be anymore then 10 meters away and it's still not dust.
I don't think it's dust.
It's been a long time since anything excited me, but I feel like this might just be doing it.
Something different, something new, something unknown.
Could it be a way out? A solution to my problems? Or maybe something left to harm me. To catch me unawares and take me out.
Unlikely but not impossible.
Thinking about it, I don't care if it is. It'll still be something different.

Something isn't dust.

I reach it.
It is a table. I'm not sure why, there's not much use for tables in this world now. Not much use for anything.
There is also some kind of set of chairs around it. Made out of the same crystalline construct that the table is, they're joined at the ground too. A large slab of crystal just sitting on the dust. Like somepony just cut it out of the ground.
It's also buzzing with energy. Energy of all kinds. Life energy, magic energy, heck, even chronal energy. This thing is practically supercharged.
But most importantly it's real and it isn't dust.

I know what it's made out of as well. It's made out of the most impossible material. Vivens Cristallum, living crystal, the same substance that the tree was made of.
There was no way this table could be from this world. I don't know how, but it must have come from another.
Another world.
A world where the tree had lived. A world where everything had lived. Where everything was still living. A world that wasn't dust and this table could be my ticket there.
A way out.
Salvation.
I could travel to a new world, a world full of life and possibilities.
I might even find a way to fix this world. To use this table and the other world to restore this land to what it used to be.

Nothing had to be dust.

But I can't.
Not now.
Maybe in my past, when I was younger, I might have done.
But that isn't my lot in life.
I am not the hero and savior.
I am not the god and creator.
I am not even the villain and madman.
I am just the watcher, the sentinel, the wanderer.
Sitting at the sidelines, no longer being involved. Simply watching as those around me die. Being unable and unwilling to raise a hand to stop it.

Everything has to be dust.

I place my hand on the table and drain the energy from it.
I feel it flow into me and fill my very being.
Should I care for it, I might call it pleasant.
But I do not.
It is simply a duty I must carry out.
And with it's life force gone, the table begins to crumble. To disintegrate in front of me.
It's turning to dust. Like everything else in this land.
But I don't bother watching it. I have already seen this many times before and with much more interesting, more alive, things.
Not that I cared then though. I watched because I had to. But there's no point seeing the same thing twice.
And anyway, I don't have time for it.
I have walking to do.

I turn and begin my journey again.

Everything is dust.

Author's Note

This is my first attempt at writing. In case you couldn't tell, this based on the final alternate timeline from the cutie remark. That timeline particularly caught me as it showed what I thought was the most drastic and indeed, interesting future.
That and it also fit a character I already had quite well.
As for who or what he is, I'm not saying yet. He may return in some of my future stories. Then again I might not write any more, depends if the mood takes me or not.
Feedback and comments of all kinds are appreciated, but I'd like it a lot more if it was of the constructive kind.

Thanks for reading. Ice.