The mountains erupted from the earth like a volcanic eruption frozen in time.
Her wings pumped at her side, several feathers spinning off into the chilling breeze. Her nostrils stung with the coldness of the air, but she ignored the sensation and continued to fly. Eyes the color of the moon hung in her face, eyelids nearly covering them. Weary and ragged breaths were all that came from her mouth.
Below was an expanse of sheer gloom. Grey, rolling banks of fog covered much of the land, stretching into the horizon. Eerie towers of black stone sprouted from the ground and twisted into the sky, though not as high as she flew. Before her were the craigs of a vast mountain, towering over the rest of the earth. Above her was nothing but a purple sky and the fading light of the sun. Inside of her was nothing but determination.
Her wings were heavy and her head was pounding. Her thoughts were torn between a desire for water and a desire to stop flying and rest, but there was nowhere to settle save for an occasional thin wisp of a cloud. She gladly would have stopped to take a break, but she knew the consequences of falling asleep well. The saddlebags at her side, decorated with arcane symbols of protection, bore the necessity of her struggle into her mind. Already, the sun was beginning to sink beneath the horizon, and if the scroll was not delivered by the twilight’s end…
Shaking her head, she made a renewed effort to reach the castle on the craig, worn wings pummeling against a heavy breeze.
*****
There it was.
Her tiredness went away for a second as it was replaced by awe. The castle was everything the paintings had shown it to be and far more. Every inch seemed to be studded with a unique detail, countless stained glass windows and twirlings of gothic architecture wrapping the blackened stone at every possible interval. Amongst the heights of its conical towers, other pegasi were arriving to the castle, bearing their own packages. Their heads were hidden by the same black cloaks that she wore, though already she knew their purpose in coming to this place.
As she got closer, a sensation of warmth filled her. For a second, the leeching coldness of the air was lifted and even at this distance her body reacted to the strange sensation of warmth that radiated from the castle. It was powerful, she thought. More powerful than anything left in this world. It did not go unnoticed, however. Her saddlebags twitched and a litany of vileness surged forwards. The scrolls at her side were eating into her, their magics twisting into her mind, dividing her between her duty and the brainwashing sensation of their dark energies. Before long, the energy springing from the castle overcame the darkness.
It did not take long to see the ledge she was to land on. Several other pegasi had already landed on the slab of castlestone peering out from a tower and she knew she was awaited. She surged downwards to land on a red carpet. There were other ponies there, their heads hidden by cloaks and armored helmets. Their numbers were almost too many to count. They stood in a silent vigilance, their eyes watching her with a variety of purposes. One of their number advanced towards her and began to speak.
“Do you bear her Word?” His voice was bare of any trace of emotion, the phrase recited in the coldness of absolute determination and duty.
In response, she bowed her head and shrugged off the saddlebags. Several other members came to retrieve them and another figure approached her, flanked by two golden armored sentries of the Solar Guard. He commanded her to reveal her mark with the usual gruff sternness that seemed to be the etiquette of this fortress.
She sheepishly shrugged off her tunic, shivering as the cold air assaulted her. A stallion with a beard nearly reaching the ground began to examine her. His eyes felt like they were boring into her. The discomfort was great, but she bit her tongue and tolerated the procedure. The stallion withdrew a dusty, ancient tome and flipped through the pages. At once he closed the book and something resembling a smile came about his face.
“Your mark appears to be a book, opened to a blank page. Puzzling. Were you a teacher, perhaps a professor of sorts?”
She did not answer, but hung her head low. Words simply could not come to her at this time. Her tongue seemed to have retracted deep inside of her and she did not know what would make it come back out.
After he realized the reality of her silence, the stallion spoke. “You are affirmed, stranger. Now, do you wish to observe? Or will you retreat and vanish?”
She thought for a second. It was an impactful question, she realized. Looking about, the pegasi on the ledge seemed divided. Some of their number soared back off into the mists and darkness, while others entered into the castle through dark entryways. For a moment she ignored the question and simply wrapped herself in her tunic once more.
Her curiosity got the better of her. “Am...am I allowed to observe?”
“If you wish.”
“Then…” She could not decide. Looking at the gloom outside of the castle, she realized it was an easy end. If she were to fly away, her fate was certain. To soar into the outer mists and be consumed by nature, instead of risking her very soul at the machinations of dark and mysterious energies.
But if she did not stay to observe, then she denied herself the spectrum of possibilities that awaited her within the castle. It was a battle within her between curiosity, and a sure but comfortable death within the icy crystals of the fading lands that were once known as Equestria. Two or three ponies had already made their choice and soared above into the recesses of the sky, to be lost to time and history forevermore. Anypony who did not seek this castle as a refuge was doomed to be placed in the same basket of forgotten things that the rest of the world had entered long ago.
She began to weep. The burden of this choice was far greater than any challenge she had faced on the flight here, or at any other point in her life. Nopony truly wants to die, but at the same time, she did not want to suffer if the ritual were to fail. Her mind ran around and around on itself. She did not truly feel afraid, but it was hard to realize what it was she wanted. This is the way things were now; perhaps that is why she weeped.
She wanted nothing but the taste of apple cider and the sweet embrace of caring friends once again. Though it was all a distant memory now, memories of old and forgotten friendships surged into her mind. Their smiling faces penetrated her, images of summer times and jokes shared in the back of classrooms resurfacing. Where was that friendship now, she asked herself through the throbbing pain in her heart. What had happened to make it all this way?
Suddenly, a hoof landed on her shoulder. She followed the purple leg back up to its owner and immediately recognized Twilight Sparkle. The mare seemed to her to be a rock of reality in the river of her panic and she wrapped herself around her, crying into her mane. The wind watched them with its voyeur breezes and brought with them a quick dryness to the tears on her face. Once the tears stopped flowing, she was able to regain a smidgen of her dignity.
“This isn’t easy for anypony.” Twilight gently took a step back and smiled. The pegasus didn’t respond, the river of grief in her mind still flowing, even if it didn’t show on her face.
“Let me help you.” Twilight’s horn glowed with a soft light and she placed it against the pegasus’s head.
It was the warmth of a campfire after a long hike in freezing snow. It was the feeling of a towel against wet fur after swimming. It was the scent of apple cider after a tiresome day in the fields. It was all of those things and more. At once, the pegasus knew that the unicorn before her was the source of the energy that drove her through the skies and silenced the evil in the scrolls she had been tasked to deliver.
She stood a little straighter, embarrassed that she had been a sobbing wreck only seconds ago.
“Let’s go for a walk. Nothing helps you think like a clear head.” Twilight smiled at the pegasus and trotted to a stone stairway spiraling down from the ledge. Before proceeding down, she looked over her shoulder. “Are you coming? Not that you have to or anything…”
With nothing particularly better to do, the pegasus followed Twilight down the stairs.
*****
The stairway of grey cobblestone fed into a long pathway that looped around the castle, its contours spiraling down to the base of the mountain and led into trails even beyond that. Its stairs defied any attempts to count them and there was only a short stone wall to separate a walker from the leering face of the huge cliff on the other side. The wind was silent along the trail and nothing shone upon it save for the faint sunlight far above.
Twilight’s face was overtaken by a thought as she weighed her words before she spoke. “So, what’s your name?”
The pegasus was quiet for a moment and Twilight feared that she had somehow insulted or intimidated the pony. Before long however, she spoke. “I’m Apple Cider, but everypony calls me Cider.”
Twilight gave an internal sigh of relief that she wasn’t going to be ignored. “So, where do you-”
“Why me?” Cider’s words were like a spear thrust into the guts of the fledgling conversation.
Twilight reeled and produced a response. “I don’t know what you mea-”
“Why are you, the great Twilight Sparkle, talking to me anyways?” Twilight felt a touch insulted at how Cider spat her name out.
Twilight thought for a moment. The crisp air hanging about helped her to think through the nuances of the difficult question and she found her answer. “You seem like you needed a friend.”
Cider froze in her tracks. Twilight cringed, waiting for a rant or piercing insult to be hurled at her. “My friends are...gone. I left them because I had to and now I’ll never see them again.”
Twilight’s response caught in her throat before she could deliver it.
Cider continued the conversation for her. “It just hurts. I wish it didn’t all have to be like this.”
“I’ve lost ponies too. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie...they didn’t make it here.” Twilight’s eyes began to tear up and she fought herself to keep her composure. “Not to mention everything else in Equestria-”
“I don’t care about Equestria. Its little hamlets, the mountains and forests and all of that, it means nothing to me. I just want them back.” Cider turned to look up at Twilight. “That’s all that really matters to me, just my friends.”
A cold draft swept over the two. Twilight spoke after a moment in the chilly wind. “Why did you ever love your friends?”
“Why did I love them? We…” Cider paused. “We made so many good memories together. When I was a filly, they were all I had.” Cider smiled and Twilight was happy to see some of the sadness lift from her face. “I remember picking apples in the summer and we would mash it into cider and spend all day drinking it. Then we would screw around town and try to get into trouble because we thought it was funny when the shopkeepers would yell at us and we always liked to...”
Little changed in the scenery about them, but Twilight could sense a shift of sorts. It was an inwards feelings that changed everything about her surroundings, a strange stirring that brought new meaning even to mundane things. Listening to Cider speak reminded her of the times she had shared with her own friends. The memories were too many to ever possibly list, but she remembered each one like vivid, detailed paintings that had been carved inside her mind.
Nothing could ever taint or dislodge them, she realized. Even if the end of the world had vaporized Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Mane Six, there was nothing that could destroy her memories of them. Those at least would always be sacred to her. She looked at Cider, halfway listening to her stories of childhood and realized that the same process of pain was stirring inside of her. Even if the good times had been good, what was their meaning when they were taken away by the end of the world?
Cider finished speaking and was looking to Twilight for an answer, for anything.
“Cider, do you know what the Ritual of Chuzadaar is?” Expectantly, Cider shook her head. “It’s the reason why you delivered those scrolls. The Ritual will…” Twilight briefly struggled to simplify it in a way Cider would understand, with her lack of magical education. “It will open a door to a new place, a new world where the survivors of this” she gestured to the endless mist stretching past the horizon, “can have a chance to start over. A chance to rebuild and have another Equestria, somewhere else.”
Hope flashed on Cider’s face for a moment. “Will it bring my friends back?”
“No.” Twilight tried to keep her tone steady and gentle, but Cider still began to sob. Twilight used the same spell of peace to help her regain her composure. “Cider, from what you said earlier, your favorite thing about your friends was the memories you made with them, right?”
Cider nodded.
“I know what it’s like to have friends and ponies you care about more than anything. I know how haunting it is to lose them. But this world is done for; as long as we stay here, there is nothing that we can gain from it.”
Twilight and Cider both took a moment to look at the horizon. If it seemed that the conversation had lulled, many silent things were said between them, even if no words were spoken. They could both see that Equestria was gone beyond a shadow of a doubt. The magical mists covered the earth and with them, they had destroyed the very ground that Equestria laid on.
There was nothing there now except for an abyss that continued endlessly into the hole where the earth used to be. What little remained of the ground had either been corrupted into horrid, twisting towers of evil energy or composed the floating mountain that Twilight and Cider stood upon. The sun itself was beginning to fade as the world drifted further and further away from it and the sky darkened as the light of the last day slowly vanished from it. In only a matter of hours, the world would be plunged into a permanent darkness that held no future for ponies.
Twilight broke the silence. “But over there, in the door that Chuzadaar opens...there may be new memories.”
Cider turned to face Twilight. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if Chuzadaar works, then there will be a future for us. And with a future, we can move on from everything that we’re leaving behind here.” Twilight took a moment to compose herself. “Even our friendships.”
“So even if our friends are gone forever, we can move on and make new ones?” Cider’s face fell. “Isn’t that just replacing them?”
Twilight paused. Cider raised a good point, but she had a counter to it. “Cider, you know how much I like to read. Just imagine it this way; if my library burned down, would I just never read another book and refuse to ever open one again, just because I lost a lot of books in that library? Or would I keep reading and collecting books throughout the rest of my life and make a new library someday for my new books?”
Cider frowned. “I don’t get it.”
With a deep inhale, Twilight began her explanation. “Just because you have an experience ripped away from you by a tragedy, it doesn’t mean that it’s worthless or that it never meant anything.”
She paused to catch her breath and then spoke some more. “It just means you have to move on and find new experiences and make new memories, and that doesn’t mean that you’re replacing anything or trying to forget the old ones. In a way, you’re adding to them, to make it all into something even better.”
Cider’s eyes squinted as she began to grasp Twilight’s words. “So loss doesn’t have to be loss, it can be the start of a new thing, even if it only got started because you lost something important.”
Joy overcame Twilight’s face and she took Cider in a comforting hug. “Now you get it. So will you come into the castle with me?”
Cider nodded. “Even if the ritual doesn’t work, at least I tried to find something new.”.
Twilight grinned from ear to ear and put her hoof on Cider’s shoulder once more. “That’s all that’s important. You can’t ever stop trying, even if flying off into the mists sounds easier.”
The two ponies had a moment of staring at the other as their new understanding began to blossom. “Now, follow me. I have a ritual to help perform.”.
The two ponies silently trotted back up the stairs and into the castle.
