In The End

by tom117z

Rating: everyone
Tags: Science Fiction, Slice of Life, Crossover, Doctor Whooves, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Doctor Who, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2459

The end of all things. When the universe dies all is meant to be empty of life... but one still remains.

The end of all things. When the universe dies all is meant to be empty of life...

The Doctor knows this, but he can't help but be curious. So he travels to the last star holding out in the void, slowly blinking out as a massive black hole in the centre of what is left of the universe prepares to begin life anew, as it has done so many times before.

But the star isn't alone...

Published 2016-06-30 17:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-06-30 17:00:01 UTC

The Last Star

Author's Note

Inspired by this video

Make sure to click the links in the text as you see them, the music goes well with the text while you read. :twilightsmile:

The Last Star

Darkness.

That is all that remains in almost all of the universe. A blank void silently awaiting the death of us, and the birth of something new.

At the centre of everything, the largest black hole in existence churns away at what was once cities, parties and happiness. All those people, all those memories dragged into a place where not even light can escape.

Light.

That too would be a distant memory, not even gracing the few barren rocks left in the vastness of space, not even the soft twinkling of the stars.

Because there are no such thing as stars. Not anymore.

Except for one.

The shrivelled blue form of what was once Celestia’s bright sun hangs in the sky. No, not the sky. There is no sky anymore. No blue, no fluffy clouds, nothing. Just blackness, with just one bright spark remaining up above. A bright spark only maintained by my ancient power.

And even that is running out.

Equus, my home, died so long ago. The flowers and grass and ponies all died out.

There was just rock reminiscent of the moon’s surface stretching around the globe.

There isn’t even a moon anymore. It died with its caretaker so many years ago.

There aren’t even ruins, in the nearby spot where Ponyville once sat all signs of the buildings that once sat there have vanished. Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner, my castle. All gone.

There was once even a forest above the cave I now inhabit, sitting in the soft glow of the only other living thing aside from myself and the timid sun.

A tree, with six glowing gems brightening the darkening cave.

All that is left of my friends.

Rarity.

Pinkie Pie.

Applejack.

Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy.

I remember all their names.

So why can’t I remember mine?

The wheezing of the TARDIS’ engines filled the control room as it flew through the time vortex. The Doctor flicked a few levers and buttons as he made his way to his destination.

He stretched his limbs as he brought the console around to study the information it displayed.

The feeling was still alien to him, the body being so new and… young.

In the console, he briefly caught his unfamiliar reflection that was reminiscent of a former form back when he was still bipedal, and he saw in that reflection that his bow tie was slightly at an angle. He fiddled around with it and gave a satisfied huff when it straightened out.

The cloister bell rang out in protest.

“Yes, yes I know, girl. But we are still going.”

The cloister bell rang out again as the TARDIS voiced her annoyance.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as the TARDIS began to slow, and simply turned off the safeties and set them back on course.

“I know you hate endings about as much as I, we aren’t meant to be there. But I am curious, this universe is so much different than our own. Perhaps it is different there too?”

A pillar of smoke puffed up from the console as the TARDIS sighed, seeing she was not going to dissuade the Time Lord.

The TARDIS lurched and a few sparks burst from the various control panels as the ride got bumpier, the vortex becoming more unstable the closer to the end of all things.

The Doctor watched the console intently, and when they reached a certain point in the time stream he pulled the handbrake to bring the TARDIS to a stop.

“End of the road,” he muttered. Any further and they would crash right into the next big bang, the creation of the next universe in one fiery explosion.

Something that would penetrate the vortex itself and destroy the TARDIS should it venture there.

The Doctor pressed a few controls and set The TARDIS out of the time vortex and into normal space once more.

As he scanned the immediate area all he could see was darkness. An empty void devoid of life.

The Doctor sighed. “Just like home. At the end of all things, there is nothing. So singing, no laughter, no friendship.”

The Doctor was silently thankful his companion was asleep further in the TARDIS, Derpy shouldn’t have to see what he was seeing.

The Doctor nearly left that time and place then and there, but he hesitated. He thought of Equus, a world that was the counterpart to the Earth he knew and loved from his home universe. A planet that was by far the most extraordinary of all planets he had thus far explored in this exciting new reality he found himself in. So much so he had spent so much time just living there in Ponyville under the guise of ‘Doctor Whooves’. He only began exploring the rest of the universe after his most recent regeneration.

But Equus was a world that still fascinated him to no end, a world he was quite fond of.

Thus he imputed the system’s coordinates and set the TARDIS to scan that area of space, wanting to see if anything of the world remained. If there was any sign of its magic or powerful, immortal alicorns.

He expected just another empty grave.

But instead found something he wasn’t expecting.

“That’s impossible,” he murmured as he viewed the results of the scan.

The system was dead, almost all of its planets no longer existed.

But there was a system.

And there was a single planet.

Equus itself.

He immediately set the time machine to dematerialise from its current location and rematerialize on the planet, specifically where his home in Ponyville should have been.

The TARDIS’ engines picked up in frequency as fazed into existence on the world.

On arrival, he scanned the qualities of the immediate area and found something surprising.

“It’s breathable outside? But there is no atmosphere. How?”

Curiosity increasing, the Doctor grabbed a device and departed from the TARDIS’ console as he approached the doors. The blue police box from 1960's Earth opened up as its pilot exited it and closed the door behind him.

Looking around he could see no sign of Ponyville, or anything else. All he could see was rock and a single blue star in the sky; all that was left of Celestia’s sun.

“Hello, you...” He smiled at the sun. “How are you holding up? Still holding on are we? Good for you. Oh good for you, you wonderful old thing.”

The Doctor brought up the device he had mounted on his right foreleg. “But the question is, are you getting help?”

The device began to beep as a single life sign was detected, the device pointing the Time Lord in the direction of what was once the Everfree Forest.

“Somebody is still out there.”

I can feel something. Something I have not felt in a very long time.

A presence.

Somepony is here, walking upon the face of this world. And they are approaching. Nothing exists anymore, how could somepony else be here?

I look up at the tree questioningly, as if it can answer my question.

Of course, it cannot. So I look towards the entrance instead.

There is something out there, somehow. I am not alone, but how?

Unless…

Could it be?

Could he be here?

He once told me he doesn’t like endings, so why would he be here?

Maybe he got curious.

Or perhaps…

Perhaps he somehow knew I would be here?

For the first time in untold centuries, I get to my hooves, stretching my ancient lavender wings as I do so, the bones creaking in protest.

I then walk outside.

The beeping got louder and louder as the lifeform got closer and closer. The Doctor couldn’t tell where about in the dead forest he was, but he had to guess near where the Castle of The Two Sisters used to be.

Then with no warning, the device bleeped out, the beeping stopped.

The Doctor groaned in frustration. “Oh come on! Why do these things always break?”

When the device refused to reactivate, he simply sighed and took in his surroundings.

On first glance it was just the same old dark, barely lit landscape as everywhere else.

But on second glance The Doctor noticed something.

A short distance away, there seemed to be more light than anywhere else.

Investigating the light, The Doctor found himself on the edge of a very large crevice leading down into the dirt. Now he knew he was on the edge of the old castle. And he had a hunch what the light was, considering he could see it flowing from a familiar cave at the very bottom.

The climb down was treacherous since the staircase had long since eroded away. However, after a little while of rock climbing he successfully found himself at the bottom, and gingerly approached the cave’s entrance.

Walking through the passage, he came upon a chamber at the very end and took a sharp intake of breath at the sight.

The crystalline form of the Tree of Harmony sat there in all its glory, as pristine as the day it first appeared. A six-pointed star was embedded right in the centre, the Element of Magic, right above the carvings of both Celestia’s and Luna’s cutie marks. Around the five branches of the tree, five other gems glowed magnificently.

The Elements of Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty and Kindness. All back in their original forms.

“Oh you beautiful thing,” The Doctor grinned. “At the end of all things harmony still reigns supreme, and your light still reaches into the universe.

“It is quite the sight, is it not?” a voice said from behind him.

The Doctor slowly turned to view the source of the voice, and there he found the form of a large lavender alicorn smiling down on him, her ethereal mane flowing through the non-existent breeze.

“Hello Doctor.”

“You, you’re still here?”

She nodded, weakly walking up to and sitting beside the far younger of the two. “It has been too long, old friend.”

“Well, it had been said at the end of all things we are to expect the company of immortals.”

She gave a small, sad chuckle. “Even the other immortals have gone. It’s just me.”

“Just like Me,” the Doctor muttered.

“Who?”

“An old friend. Sort of. It doesn’t matter,” the Doctor dismissed. “Are you the one keeping the sun alive?”

The alicorn smiled. “She does most of the work. I just lend a hoof every now and then. The fact you and I can breathe on the other hoof… that is the tree’s work,” She looked towards the tree affectionately. “I think it is doing it for me. Giving me a place to rest as I wait.”

“Wait? For what?”

“Death,” she responded. “This place is my refuge against the dark. A place where I can die peacefully,” she said shakily.

The Doctor looked at her with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Doctor, I have lived for so long. Towards the end, I grew to feel everything and everyone in the universe. I became the universe. And I felt it die. I felt the agony of dying stars, the cries of the children and those brave mortal few holding out long after they should have perished. Even they faded in the end.”

Her legs began to shake unsteadily.

“And then the immortals began to die. We alicorns are connected to the universe, more specifically to its magic. Magic sustains us in these forms, and this only became truer the older we became. But the universe has died, along with all its magic. Only the tree sustains any. It keeps me alive.”

Her legs began to strain painfully, and she was forced to lay on her stomach to avoid falling over. The Doctor sat down next to her.

The cave around them began to rumble, and the tree dimmed slightly.

“The tree sustained us few remaining alicorns, but it is losing its power. Now it only has enough energy to sustain one. And not for much longer.”

The Doctor sighed. “I arrived at the very end. I literally could not travel any further even with the failsafes offline.”

She looked up at the Doctor, sympathy and pain in his eyes. “Then, today is the day I die.”

The cavern shook again, the tree growing dimmer still. The ancient alicorn’s mane stopped flowing and reverted back to its original state.

“I have lived so long and seen so much. And yet death is completely unknown to me. Doctor… I am afraid.”

Tears brimmed the alicorn’s eyes as the once powerful goddess trembled in fear. “Please. I don’t want to die alone.”

In the distance the cloister bell of The TARDIS could be heard, the end was approaching fast.

The Doctor looked down upon his friend, and their eyes met.

“It’s alright. I’ll stay,” he said softly, wiping the tears gently from her eyes.

She smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

He smiled back. “Anything for a friend.”

She chuckled lightly, laying her head down between her hooves.

“You know what. Friendship really is magic,” she said as her eyes closed for the final time.

Her breathing steadily began to slow, and the rising of her chest with each breath became rarer with each passing moment.

The Doctor stayed at her side as the last alicorn breathed her final breath. Her body relaxed as all tension in her muscles was released.

A small smile stayed on her face as Twilight Sparkle finally died.

The Tree of Harmony looked sadly on at the death of its friend. The light glowed dimmer and dimmer as it too prepared to face the unknown.

The Doctor placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and sighed, before looking up at the elements. “Farewell, all of you. It has been the greatest honour.”

The Doctor turned away and walked out of the cave.

On his journey back the tremors became more common as the planet destabilised. The cloister bells became more frequent until The Doctor finally returned to the side of his oldest friend.

He traced a hoof down the door, and briefly looked back in the direction of Twilight Sparkle’s final resting place.

“Come on old girl, let’s go.”

The door opened with a creak, and then closed again as the Time Lord entered.

A wheezing sound echoed throughout the landscape as the TARDIS dematerialized, and as it did so Celestia’s sun finally dimmed and blinked out of existence.

The final light in the universe had finally been extinguished.