"Uugh!" Twilight let out a sound of frustration as she landed in yet another future that didn't look even remotely close to being right. "That Starlight just doesn't get it, does she?" She stomped her hoof and reached for the spell scroll that would help her travel back in time again. "I don't care how many times I have to do this! I won't let her take away the Equestria that I've loved since I was a filly!"
"Uhm... Twilight?" Spike quietly addressed the princess.
"No time, Spike! We have to get out of here before whatever villain responsible for this finds us and tries to prevent us from getting back!" Twilight retorted and began casting the spell.
"Twilight..." Spike ignored her seemingly harsh tone and interrupted her spellcasting by pulling her by her tail. "I don't see any villains here," he said while gazing around himself. "Or anyone, for that matter."
Finally acknowledging Spike's words, Twilight turned around and began inspecting every inch of the land around her. She turned around twice before realizing that she was witnessing the same area for the third time already... Everything just seemed so... alike.
There was absolutely no indication of anything alive in the vicinity... The land was completely dead. Most of the land had already become nothing but an endless ocean of sand, and everything that was still standing out was already in the process of disintegration... If all of Equestria looked like this, then Twilight wouldn't even be able to tell apart Ponyville from the Everfree forest.
"Who could have done this?" she asked as she took a few steps away from the cutie map and into the wasteland. "This doesn't make any sense," she murmured to herself. "Every villain we've ever faced... I can't think of anyone who would want something like this." She tramped through the dead soil while recalling all the other futures she had seen earlier. Whenever she stepped on anything that was even a tiny bit higher than the ground itself, it simply dispersed right under her hoof and sank back into the soil it had once arisen from. Odd how even without a single leafy tree anywhere within the nearest half a mile radius, the wind seemed to be noticeably strong in force. However, Twilight paid little heed to the way it sailed her mane like a wave on the sea... she had other things weighing her mind down.
"Queen Chrysalis just wanted a perfect utopia for her changeling army to live in and be forever loved. Nightmare Moon wanted eternal night. King Sombra wanted a kingdom to rule over and slaves to do his bidding. Tirek basically just wanted power. He never actually cared much for destroying everything in his sights. The Flim Flam brothers also wanted power, along with much fame and riches. And Discord..." Twilight paused for a moment and rubbed her chin. "Well, the only thing Discord ever wanted was a land of infinite chaotic fun... Of all our foes, he'd probably be the last one to want to see a land this dull and boring."
Twilight stopped moving forward. She began to fear that if she moved too far away from the cutie map, then she would no longer be able to find her way back... Getting lost in a land like this would have been easier than getting lost in the middle of an actual ocean. As she stopped dead in her tracks, Spike finally caught up with her.
"D-d-does this mean..." The little dragon gulped loudly. "There will be more villains to come? Ones that would quite literally want to destroy everything and everyone!?" he shouted out and grabbed his temples in fear. He would have started running back to the map if Twilight hadn't placed her hoof on his shoulder.
"I don't know, Spike," she admitted and hugged her beloved assistant. "But if there is, then maybe it wouldn't hurt to stick around. Maybe we could find out how to stop him or her in advance."
"But what if it finds us!?" Spike suggested with an expression devoid of courage. "What if we get caught by it and destroyed before we get a chance to start running back!?" He threw his claws in the air and began running back. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to find out!" he shouted in terror.
Spike did have a point. Twilight knew that all too well. Here -- in a land of unfamiliar rules -- alone, without her friends or mentor to help and guide her, she was as vulnerable as ever. Her number one priority was still preventing Starlight from preventing Rainbow Dash from completing her sonic rainboom. Any complications that would occur for her here would mean an inevitable demise for everything that she ever knew and loved, and yet... she found it hard to just leave. Before turning around and following the panicking baby dragon, Twilight took one last glance into the worst future she could have ever imagined.
"What happened here?" she asked herself with great sorrow in her eyes and hung her head.
"Nothing," an anonymous voice answered and attracted Twilight's attention. "And everything."
"Huh?" Twilight uttered, baffled by the sudden voice in her head.
"Nothing that should have happened," the voice clarified. "And everything that could have happened."
"I don't understand..." Twilight addressed the presence that she still couldn't see. "Who are you?"
"One question at a time, Miss Sparkle," the voice answered, making Twilight widen her eyes and mouth even more after realizing that it knows her name. "Without you and your friends here to prevent their reign, all of your worst enemies succeeded in shaping the world just the way they wanted."
"What?..." Twilight only grew more confused with each word that she heard her conversation partner speak out. She kept constantly turning around to try and catch the correct direction from which the voice was coming from, but no matter how many times she turned, the voice always remained as clear as it was the moment she first heard it.
"Eternal night was the first thing to plague your home," the presence continued with little regard for Twilight's perplexity. "Then chaos and disharmony came and joined its side. By the time the changeling horde had arrived, the board was already set, and even though the chocolate rain and ballet dancer buffaloes would sometimes get in the way, the three forces would have little trouble ruling together."
As the voice continued, Twilight only grew more and more frightened by it... It seemed to know absolutely everything that had transpired and was still alive to tell the story... Whatever she was dealing with, it was something of immeasurable power.
"But then there was the snooty king who wanted more subjects to rule over. He found the answer to his whims in the changeling horde, but the queen had little wish to let her changelings serve under a different master... and so, there was war. A war that consumed the entire land and everything in its way. The war raged so fiercely that none had time to look and see that black vines were spreading across the land like wildfire, and by the time the power-hungry centaur got to the party, there just plain wasn't that much power left to be had."
Nightmare Moon... Discord... Queen Chrysalis... King Sombra... Tirek... even the black vines... They were all there... at the same time!? Twilight's mind was having considerable difficulties processing all the information so quickly. She was speechless. The voice noticed her anxiety, so it decided to take a short pause before continuing... but only a really short one.
"As the world itself was being torn apart around them, even the black vines eventually ran out of suitable plots of land to grow upon..." The voice switched to a more dramatic tone before finishing its monologue, "Harmony died... and Equestria died with it."
Tears had already started lining up in Twilight's eyes before the voice said its final statement. Just as it did so, Twilight collapsed to her knees and began crying her heart out. "But if everything and everyone is dead... then who are you?"
The voice let out a quiet laugh of victory before introducing itself, "I am nothing... and I am everything," it answered with a riddle. "I am the nothing that has always been present in your land while it was still alive... always watching... always learning." The presence flicked from Twilight's one ear to the other and changed its voice. "I am everything that you see around you right now... this is my home... this is my playground."
"Nothing... *sniff* and everything..." Twilight whispered. "How can you possibly be both at the same time?"
"Whoever said anything about being both at the same time?" the voice replied. "I was here before your world was formed. Back then, I was everything, but when the land started flourishing and life started prospering all around it, I became nothing... I had no voice, no body, no eyes, no ears... and yet, I could still see, hear and feel everything that was going on." Again the presence switched its tone, right before making a formal revelation, "I am what existed before everything, and I am what will once again exist, after everything... I am Aeterno."
So this is what the ultimate end looks like, Twilight thought to herself. She slowly stood up and wiped away the last teardrop that was still caught in one of her eyes. "And here I am -- the only living being in your vast world of nothingness." Twilight put all the courage and life she still had left in her in that one sentence. As she kept standing, she lost the ability to cry, and her legs soon stopped shaking from fear... She realized that there was absolutely nothing that she could do to harm the ubiquitous presence surrounding her, and that trying to run now would no doubt be pointless and would only anger it... she was a pawn on Aeterno's board... she was fully at his mercy.
"Indeed..." Aeterno quickly replied. "And I would very much like you off of it," he added in a casual manner.
"Do what you must," Twilight said as she hung her head in sorrow and despair. It was at that very moment that she realized that she had failed... Her friends, her mentor... her home. She had failed everything and everyone she ever knew, and it was all because she just couldn't help but let her curiosity get the better of her... She focused her mind on the persistent wind in her mane and the empty soil under her hooves... she was no doubt about to become one with them.
"You misunderstand me, princess Twilight," the voice said in a surprisingly caring tone. "I was merely suggesting that I wish for you to leave this land. There's no need for you to become one with it." Aeterno laughed.
"What?" Twilight raised her head and widened her eyes. "You're just going to let me leave?"
"Of course!" Aeterno blurted out.
"But... if I go back in time and stop Starlight, then your future won't happen!"
"Hah!" her conversation partner laughed. "My future will happen, regardless."
The thought sent a vehement shiver through Twilight's entire body. "Well, you're going to have to wait a very long time for that to happen unless Starlight isn't stopped."
"Twilight..." the presence addressed the alicorn in a very stern manner. "Tell me -- how old do you think I am?" After giving Twilight a little time to rub her chin and ponder on the thought, he continued, "For me, it quite literally felt like princess Luna was banished and reformed on the same day," he quietly added, inspiring an unintelligible feeling in the already weary alicorn princess. "Don't take this the wrong way. I simply love what Starlight's meddling has done with this place. It's the paradise that I've been wanting to feel for countless eons!"
To everyone's surprise, Aeterno's exceedingly excited tone even managed to give Twilight a reason to giggle.
"Khe khem," the voice cleared its nonexistent throat and calmed its tone. "But what seems like a split moment to me, might just seem like a lifetime to one such as you... I have little trouble waiting for you and your friends and all of their great grandchildren to live out their lives in harmony and peace... I've already waited so long. What's another eternity or two?" he humorously added. Even if he had no material form, it was rather evident that Aeterno was somehow still smiling right now... and so was Twilight.
"Thank you," Twilight closed her eyes, bowed her head and whispered in the most cordial tone she could.
"Don't mention it," Aeterno quickly replied. "Just be sure to have a fun life, will ya? It might seem like a short period of time to me, but I still have to somehow keep myself occupied during it, you know," he said in a playful tone.
Twilight chuckled. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." After letting her hoof follow her words, Twilight started walking back towards the cutie map with a heartfelt smile on her lips.
"Take care, Twilight Sparkle," Aeterno whispered. "I'd say "Hope to see you again, some day," but... you know."
"Uhm... Twilight?" Spike asked with a raised eyebrow as his traveling companion finally found her way back to the table. "Who were you talking to?"
Twilight giggled before answering, "No one."
Author's Note
Inspired by this absolutely amazing song by this absolutely amazing musician.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsytX2Irwr8
