Twilight stared towards the bright orange sun on the horizon. She could make out individual orange rays as they speared outwards across the desolate landscape.
A strange pink light reflected off the unbroken sheet of crisp snow which she knew covered a layer of ice in front of her, the sea having long since frozen at the touch of the relentless cold.
She exhaled, the breath freezing instantly on contact with the air, creating a blur of minute crystals in front of her. To either side she knew there was a sandy shore and behind her was where a simple chalet had once stood, but now all traces had been erased like it had never been.
There was nopony around for miles in any direction.
She stood motionless; alone with her thoughts. The sun never set up here at this time of year; instead it followed an elliptical path that dipped slightly to the north, just kissing the horizon. She marvelled at how the Sun Princess had known exactly where to place it at every moment of every day and how it looked different wherever you were.
The job was hers now and she stared at it, communing with its being, for it too was alive. They both still mourned her passing, each in their own way. The sun could be playful, petulant or well behaved, especially when it came to rising or setting, and a degree of negotiation had been required not infrequently. In recent years however, it had become more lifeless; easier to control perhaps, but sadly it was like watching the personality draining from a once vivacious friend.
She recalled how the millennia had passed with her always looking up to her mentor, even when they were technically equals, she had still always felt in awe of her. That was a feeling that had never subsided even when they were married. Marriages could only ever last for a maximum of the life of the individuals. They had both married mortal ponies many times of course, and every time had come to stand beside a warm grave too soon; there was never enough time.
She had thought that two immortals would have forever, but that was not to be. They had never had to plan to fit things into the constraints of a mortal lifespan, and had instead indulged in the luxury of time, because that is what they both thought they had a lot of.
They had used to come here as their summer retreat, but in the time since then, the climate had cooled, and now she stood in mid-summer amidst the snow and the ice. She could recall only a small fraction of the things they had done and the things they had said, but the promises they had made still remained the most clear of all her memories. Some promises they had fulfilled, but the opportunity to realise others had been cruelly pulled away before they could be honoured.
She stared at the horizon, the tears she shed freezing on her fur, trying desperately to recall more from what was becoming an increasingly misplaced dream, but the feeling was gone. The letters they had written, the secrets hidden in diaries and the sketches they had made had all crumbled over the passage of time, and now her mind was losing the residual traces of their memories just as surely.
It should never have come to this; to lose all traces of the one she had held so dear. The meeting of their minds and of their bodies; all was fading as surely as when day would turn to night. That was a good metaphor to explain, at least in part why she was here again; the sun didn’t set, nightfall was postponed, nothing further would be lost. Nopony ever came here to spoil or to desecrate; she should be able to tap into their feelings like it was yesterday; but time, like a flowing river, washed the traces away, further beyond her reach every year.
She seemed to remember that they had played together in the surf and held each other tight on the sand under the warmth of the sun. Or was it all her imagination? It had been so long now, she didn’t know any more. Hadn’t they come back occasionally at other odd times too; as a couple, when they needed to feel that the dawn of a new day did not just mean getting onto the same relentless treadmill, and slipped away just for the simple joy of being together? It sounded nice; if it had happened.
Oh Celestia! The sweetest of names, the sweetest of mares! You sacrificed yourself for your ponies; you knew it would cost your immortality, but still you did it without a second thought. Could there not have been some other way?
We never even said goodbye.
You saved Equestria, but you abandoned me! Now I am left staring into an eternal void without you, and with less of my memories of you to support me with each passing year. Soon I will have forgotten about you completely. Please don’t let that happen; give me something tangible to hold dear – anything!
Wherever you are, send me a sign!
She stared towards the sun, the extension of Celestia’s very existence all the time she had been alive, looking for a sign, a signal that she would not forget. The sun too felt her loss, felt her pain, but had nothing to comfort her as she stood alone; watching, hoping, praying.
While she had been alive, immortality had been a blessing, a guarantee that each would be there for the other at the beginning and the end of every day. Now immortality was the curse that threatened to erase all memories, every trace that she had ever existed, to leave her to stand alone without any recollection of the truest love she had ever known.
She shed one final tear as an offering to the ghosts of the past and then stretched out her majestic lilac wings, feeling the chill now more of her body was exposed to the cold. She could have turned back for one last look at the place where so many happy memories had been made, but she didn’t.
There was nothing here for her now.
