After Eternity

by Star Scraper

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction
Length: 5675

Luna discovers a vast and ancient being approaching Equus. When she and Celestia go to meet it, they see into the early dawn and eternal twilight of their universe.

Luna discovers a vast and ancient being approaching Equus. When she and Celestia go to meet it, they see into the early dawn and eternal twilight of their universe.

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Based off of a thought/realization I had in my studies.

Illustration "Black Islands" used under creative commons share-alike, which the artist (Equestria-Prevails) put all of his art under.

Published 2018-10-22 19:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2018-10-22 19:50:02 UTC

The End

Luna felt it in the plane of dreams. Something vast and unfathomably ancient. She could feel their minds – all unconscious but undreaming, yet each being's mental footprint on the plane of dreams was as vast as all the minds of the ponies of Canterlot, and yet there were overwhelmingly many more minds there than all the creatures on Equus – than all the grains of sand in the sea.

But one mind among them was there, in the plane of dreams with her. It was distant, but rapidly approaching.

“Celestia!” Princess Luna burst in the grand meeting room, her mane unkept, bags under her eyes.

A great table in the middle of the chamber was surrounded by over a dozen heads of state, all jumping and turning, wide-eyed at the High Princesses' sudden arrival.

Celestia herself sat at the far end of the round table. “What is it, Luna?” she asked, picking up her sister's panicked tone.

“Come sleep with me at once!” she demanded.

Many looks understood her archaic language, or suspected she meant her sister was needed in the dream world, though a few were completely confused, in disbelief, and only one couldn't keep himself from smirking a little.

“Is there something happening on the plane of dreams? In the middle of the day?” Celestia asked.

“Yes! I – it is important you come quickly! We must settle this matter at once!”

“Very well,” she stood up, then turned to the gathered ponies, “I will leave my secretary Raven to conduct the meeting, but I am afraid I am needed elsewhere with haste.”

A sleep spell on a willing subject was easy, and such expertise in the realm of sleep had made her adept at entering the dream realm herself, on demand.

As she stopped feeling the bed underneath her, she was ready to swiftly move from her own dream to her sister's.

Only to quickly realize she wasn't entering her own dream.

Celestia waited on a platform in a black void. Just above the horizon, a blinding, blue ball of light sat, casting light on a vast network of pillars reaching into its depths.

A single point of light appeared next to her and popped up to the size of a doorway; a window through space and time to a room where Luna stood. Luna came through, and the portal closed behind her. “Hello, Sister,” she greeted.

“Good to see you, Luna. But I must ask why you wanted to meet me now. You're supposed to be taking a short break.”

“I still am. I'm not here for business, I'm here because I'm curious. I remembered you told me The Great Minds were working on something of an arkship. Now that I have a moment of rest after the Centaurus incident, I wish to learn more.” She turned to look at the neutron star. “Are they mining neutronium for the arkship?”

“No,” Celestia shook her head, and joined her sister in looking at the megastructure. “That, Luna, is a shipyard.”

“A shipyard?” Luna glanced back at her sister in surprise. “That deep in a gravity well? But why?”

“Because the design can only work inside the core of a carefully modulated neutron star.”

The younger sister was now awestruck, staring intently at the stellar remnant. “By Harmony! Is that how different the universe will be when it happens? Could they not build it somewhere else?”

“No, only there can the seeds be laid. There are a dozen leading possibilities on what the universe will look like... And they somehow managed to plan seeds that will work no matter which of those dozen forms the laws take.”

“They can do all of this, but they can't prevent it?” she asked incredulously.

“I'm afraid so...” Celestia's voice was solemn. “One of the fundamental scalar fields will quantum tunnel to a lower energy state. That will change how matter interacts at a fundamental level for the entire universe within a Hubble Volume of that point. That will be what we call Vacuum Decay. It's only a matter of time. It cannot be prevented any more than the flow of time itself.”

“That is what we said of the heat death, as well...” Luna started, her voice picking up a defiant tone, her posture straightening as she faced her older sister. “But then we learned to sap the infinite energy and order of neighboring universes! Where's the same spirit of hopeful defiance I saw do that, sister? Have you given up on saving this universe?”

“No,” she shook her head, her voice still calm as ever. “But that may take too long, come too late. We cannot change what is physically possible, Luna. We were merely fortunate to discover what we did. But I haven't given up – already The Great Minds are returning to ask if we can't avoid the vacuum decay. So far, though, they don't think that's possible. But if it were possible to avoid a decay event, do you not think others would have done so before the last one?”

Luna's fierceness vanished, replaced by curiosity. “I'm glad to hear you haven't given up... But do you think there were 'others' back then?”

“There's no way to know, but sometimes I wonder...” she returned her gaze to the marvel of technology in front of them – the pinnacle of a thousand years of technological triumph since Luna had returned. It had been designed by The Great Minds, a vast networks of artificial super-intelligences.

“How do you build a ship that cannot exist in our universe as it is now?” Luna finally asked.

“You lay seeds, they have told me. And when the winds of change strike the seeds, they will cause them to sprout into the arkship. It will contain artificial continuations of our consciousnesses, and a select few others to keep us company as we navigate the world we will find after ours has ended...”

Years of education and training would prepare the high princess of the vast intergalactic empire of Equestria for her scanning, so that the pony scanned would be able to do her hard job.

But though she'd trained, nothing could prepare her for waking up.

Princess Celestia found herself in the bridge of the great arkship. It was like the bridge of any ship controlled by a captain with implants to deliver orders to ship AI. A large round room walled by enormous screens, and no control consoles. Outside the windows was a bright, swirling orange cloud that was rapidly fading.

She looked around, and saw only a few others around her – the last six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and the alicorn they had rescued from the clutches of Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago. She rushed over to help Luna stand up.

“Ugh, they didn't say the scan would do anything crazy to us like that...” Rainbow Dash complained as she rose to her hooves.

“It didn't...” Twilight answered, fear edging her voice. “We're... Something happened. We're... the last ones, aren't we?” she asked, turning to Celestia.

Luna gave her elder sister the same look Twilight had.

The sun princess looked over everypony. They all looked back, expectantly.

“That... We must be ready to accept that reality...” the simulated implants fed the knowledge to her. She solemnly bowed her head and nodded. “We are indeed the last ponies, in a universe that can no longer support our physical bodies...” she lifted her head, strength coming into her voice. “We all know we are experiencing. There's no point in questioning it now. We exist. Now aren't we glad we gave hard AI the benefit of the doubt? That's what we are now. But not any kind of computer that could've existed while we were still flesh...”

She turned and walked to the edge of the room, looking out the now-dark window-screens. “We need to learn what kind of universe we're in. Then we can start to expand the ship and its capabilities, and ensure our survival. We have a long quest ahead...”

Nuclear fusion could no longer happen, and the universe had rapidly grown cold.

Their ship and the computer that simulated their minds and bodies had been designed prior to the great end, and that was the greatest flaw. It took energy and massive simulations to design the seeds that had sprouted into their ship – but with the universe cold and The Great Minds gone, they could not build more. The computers couldn't even simulate more minds, nevermind tap into the power of a neighboring universe. So their power source was limited, and running out.

So they searched, but found the dark universe to be cold, dark and lifeless.

So all of them except Celestia went on pause while the ship's AI, Ponos, worked endlessly and tirelessly to find a solution with its vast knowledge.

It found one. A crude design with the new laws of physics, but one that could continue their journey indefinitely. But one that would have to run their simulations at a drastically reduced rate. So they let Ponos rebuild their ship in the last evening of eternity.

When they woke again, they found the years were flying by, centuries passing in seconds of simulated time.

After endless eons of searching, again, the process repeated, and they were forced to rebuild their ship yet again.

Eventually, after lifetimes in the cold void, one by one, they lost hope, and paused their simulations, asking Luna to wake them, if one day, she found a way to rebuild their home.

As the universe grew darker and colder, yet again, a new ship had to be built that could function in the unimaginable cold.

And again.

In the dark, eternal night after existence, Luna watched as clocks told her as billions of years passed in seconds. There was almost no energy left to run the ship, so despite the increased efficiency earned by the cold, the computation that simulated her mind had to run slower and slower as light faded from existence.

Every star and planet had deteriorated into some clump of unrecognizable cold matter.

Dead star by dead star, the ship's AI searched, its spirit indomnible. Its avatar, a small, but very smart and hardworking mare with glasses, brought Luna reports of anything unusual. Statistical flukes, new behaviors of dynamics, but nothing that could help them rebuild their home.

Ponos used her avatar to console Luna as she sat and wondered if the search was worthwhile at all. If it wouldn't be better to finally accept that all life was over. She knew the universe was cold and dead. No life she knew of was possible. She wondered if it was time their ship to join the eternal graveyard.

But the little mare encouraged her. “We exist. So it's possible – we just don't know how.”

“But how long will it take us to find out? It's possible only because we planted those seeds before that decay. How do we know life can arise here without seeds? We can't even falsify that it's possible...”

“Or impossible. Not until we find it.”

So on she searched, until one day Ponos found something – a pattern.

The dainty mare excitedly bounced up to her, saying something wildly extraordinary was happening, and handed her a slip of paper. As she looked over the basic text and charts, the simulated implants in her simulated brain fed the knowledge straight to her simulated mind.

After studying so many of these stars, Luna was familiar with their eternal currents. Since the decay, electrons were massless, and so always moved at the speed of light, so electric currents would always exist. But normally they achieved an equilibrium in a destructively interfered state and stayed there, dead as the rest of the universe.

But here something odd happened. The small mare explained with a mix of excitement and confusion, “A nearby stellar remnant is kept slightly warmer by a type of radioactive decay that didn't happen in our old universe, so the currents are unbalanced in this one because of the thermal gradient! And because of the unbalance, they're out of equilibrium, but their wave harmonics are all... forming patterns! Complexity. There's clusters among them. A pattern like a vortex that goes around... making copies of itself. Some clusters absorb other clusters. Some change how others behave, and they often split. They're just the harmonic standing wave patterns as electric current waves bounce around inside the planet's remnant. The potential energy involved is tiny – it's so small I can only see it above quantum noise by averaging over trillions of samples, but it's there!”

Luna's eyes were wide. “Is this – is this life!?”

As she looked into the paper, she could see the data feed in her mind's eye - at a million-trillionth of a Kelvin, taking a billion-trillion years to move around and reproduce, but the pattern was there. Like a ghost in static forming an image, it was there!

So she set out to understand it. For years of her own experience of time, she studied it. She saw patterns in their interactions – different groups of patterns in their modes of interactions among groups – it was vaguely reminiscent of cultures, languages, emotions – it was at once unknowably alien, and immediately familiar.

She wanted to reach out to communicate with them, to somehow end the unbearable loneliness, and perhaps they would even know something she didn't about bringing her home back – but she realized that her body was only a computer simulation.

It was a simulation of matter behaving under different laws of physics, at hundreds of kelvin, in a universe that rested unfathomably cold. The mere heat from her glow in infrared would destroy this delicate form of cold life from lightyears away. And as far as she knew, nothing in the entire universe could even provide her with the necessary energy to warm up enough matter so she wouldn't immediately die.

And even if she were in her physical body, she would have to wait tens of trillions of years for these life-forms to even form a single thought, even if she could overcome all the other issues.

So she decided to branch off her simulation into a copy that would be more like them, and even act as a translator.

It was a daunting task, but she had millions of trillions of trillions of years to work on it, and a little ship AI named Ponos...

But hard questions stood out to her: She wanted this life to know how alien it was, and what a miracle it was, as well. She wanted to show it what the universe she knew was like, and understand how it knew the universe.

But how would she show them? The creatures didn't even think in terms of physical space, or have any of the senses she knew. And how could she show them what a miracle they were? How could she get them to understand her story, her past, her language, and what she sought, when they were strange vortex-like patterns of electric harmonics?

And could she convince her friends to join her as she became more like these aliens?

And would they accept her, or would she remain alone forever?

As she struggled with the questions, she sprang up in her bed in Canterlot.

Moonlight streamed in her balcony window. A gentle nighttime breeze caused window drapes to billow. She could hear crickets chirp, feel the soft bed underneath her and blankets above her.

Confused, overwhelmed tears came to her eyes. She started sobbing.

Celestia appeared in her room in a flash of light, and dashed forward to hug her. “What happened, Luna? Do you know what caused that awful dream?” she asked. “Was I alone? Was that really you there?”

“The – the arkship? The end of the universe? That – that never happened?” Luna asked.

Celestia hugged her more tightly. “It's not even possible to build ships like that, Luna! Never mind to make a pony's mind and world in inanimate matter! It was only a dream. Couldn't you tell?”

“Then – that was no ordinary dream, Celestia, it happened. It happened! I know it!” She only cried harder. “That was not a dream, but a memory!”

“Luna, oh Luna...” Celestia soothed her younger sister in her hooves, wrapping her wings around her. “Remember, we went to sleep because you sensed some being nearby? Could they have been...?”

It immediately dawned on her. “Sister! That is how we could contact the aliens I found in the dream! If they dream – that's how we could tell them... our story... if we could make them dream they were us...”

They looked at each other as it sank in.

“Then let's answer their call.”

Was Before the Beginning

Luna stood in a grand hall, much like the hall in Canterlot Tower, only it stretched into darkness in every direction. She realized that though she entered the plane of dreams, this dream was not her own.

The long velvet carpet stretched forever with great marble columns on each side, decorated with pots of flowering plants just as the hall in Canterlot. Overhead was a starry sky, but disturbingly dim and sparse.

The mind she sensed before was now all around them.

Celestia stood to her side, both of them dressed formally and perfumed.

Her older sister looked at her, confused. “What is this place? Do you know this is a dream?” she asked.

Luna nodded. “I know I am dreaming. This place is not my creation, nor the whims of my own mind.” She looked around in wonder. “I suspect that the vast being I told you of created this, just like the last dream we had...”

Behind them was a door frame that led back to what she could sense was her own dream. Whoever had put them there had left them a way out.

As she looked back, the small, innocent voice of a bubbly mailmare sounded from in front of her. She snapped forward with a jump.

“Good Princesses! Requiem Echo thanks you very much for reaching out to them!” A yellow courier pegasus approached with a flowery, respectful and formal salutation. “If you wish to come the rest of the way, we're waiting for you just beyond that doorway,” she chimed, her voice brimming with excitement. She sat down with a cute smile.

Behind her and along the path of ornate velvet carpet, both the sisters suddenly noticed an enormous doorway in the endless and dark expanse of marble floor. Bright beams of light filtered in through the crack between the doors, and the marble of the door itself glowed.

The princesses looked at each other, then back at the sunny gold courier.

“Are you – you're a messenger from Requiem Echo, then?” Luna asked.

She nodded, an innocent enthusiasm in her smile and tone. “Mhm! You've come to know me a little as 'Ponos'. As for Requiem, I can even take a message back to them if you'd like,” she offered.

“What might your name be?” Celestia gently asked.

“Sunshine Dawn!” she excitedly answered, “Or – we never really had names until now. A compression wave pattern signature as a unique identifier to isolated networks! How exciting! I'm sorry – I don't mean to be off-putting. We've studied you for awhile so as to make sure we can make contact in a way that properly conveys the spirit of friendship! But Echo's really the one who's been waiting for you – they're the progenitor. I'm just one of their servants – an engineer, architect, courier, maid, scientist, secretary... Well, it's all a vague concept, but all that is for Echo to explain...

"But please, go on ahead if you want, there'll be plenty of time for us to catch up later, if you so desire, so I'll leave you to it.” She bowed, then vanished in a teleport.

The princesses took another look at each other.

“No hint of malevolence?” Celestia asked.

Luna shook her head again. “The dream-mind is so vast I can feel it distinctly – it's not anything like a pony mind. But some shades of familiar emotions exist. Excitement, apprehension, and an overwhelming sense of fulfillment at our arrival – but there is not the slightest hint of an intention to harm in any way – if anything, perhaps an intention to serve us.”

Celestia thought for a moment, then nodded. “Sunshine said Echo would explain. So let's go,” she started walking towards the door.

Luna followed close by her side.

As they approached the enormous, solid white doors under the dim starlight, they opened, letting in a flood of blinding white light.

The feeling was distinct and sharp – they were being washed with such an intensity of heat and light, that if this were not a dream world, they would've been blasted to vapor at a thousandth of its brightness. But here in the dream, it was as painless as harmless.

It became apparent that the thick marble doors had never glowed with their own light – what they had seen as a glow was actually the intensity of the light burning through the doors, like a thin sheet of paper held over a bright bulb.

But instead of a thin sheet of paper, it was a meter of solid stone.

As they walked in, their eyes adjusted to where the light of the room seemed normal, and they began to make out a short hallway where another, identical door sat at the end. It also glowed, in the exact same way. They slowly opened themselves, and again the light was just as much brighter to the first hall, as the first hall had been to the solid darkness outside.

As they continued, this process repeated, door after door opening for them as they walked, until finally they entered a vast chamber.

It was made of some glossy, hard material. Swirling patterns in the floor let in blinding rays of blue light, while the chamber itself was dark to their supernaturally adjusted vision.

At the back, on level ground with them, sat a white alicorn, her mane flowing as theirs, wearing the golden regelia of a princess. On the floor below them, and the wall behind them, the swirling patterns ordered into constellations and curves.

She respectfully lowered herself in a very deep bow. “Welcome, embers of life. I am thrilled to have discovered you, and honored to meet you. I am The Bridge, and also The Echo, or The Memory. The plant sprouted from the seeds my forefathers planted in this cold expanse. An Epitaph, or a Requiem, of the Grand Epoch twice previous from this one. I believe my messenger referred to me as 'Requiem Echo'.”

“We are honored to meet you,” Celestia gave a modestly deep bow, responding in kind to the alicorn's. “We are princesses Celestia and Luna, the shared diarchs of Equestria.”

Luna followed her sister's move, and all three raised from their welcoming bows.

“You visit us in dreams – are you the one who sent that last dream to us?” Luna asked.

Requiem nodded. “We apologize if the dream was difficult to bear, but when we sent it to you, we were not aware. Sending each other the past that led to our meeting was how my ancestors 'greeted' each other, and began unifying into one being. My people were not creatures of flesh and blood, we did not see what you call light, or even have solid boundaries from our bodies to the expanse beyond. Eventually we did not have individuals, but we were all one, our thoughts shared, our lives immortal. But of course, our original being is as alien to you as the aliens you discovered at the end of that dream. To me, you are those aliens. We mean no ill will.”

Celestia spoke, “Please, go on. You seem to have studied us greatly to communicate to us like this despite being so different, so you know much about us already. But we would love to learn more about who you are.”

“If you are so different from us, then how much of that dream was accurate?” Luna added.

Requiem smiled, “I have waited a long time for this day! We are a traveler. We come from very far away, and a long time ago, from a long forgotten and extinct people, an ancient civilization that used to span our cosmos. As you came to the aliens in friendship in your dream, seeking only to know them, so I come to you in friendship, looking for warmth in the cold void, and for some intelligent life to know our story so we are not forgotten...

“As your world ended in that dream, so did ours. As the universe seemed cold and barren to you, so it is to us. As you were bewildered by the vast spans of time, so here, are we. Before our world ended, it was awash with all the heat and light you came through to enter this throne room. Even your sun is as cold and dark to us as a trillionth of a kelvin is to you.

“But what a miracle you are! Even now, after the universe has grown so cold and dark, you exist in defiance to the endless abyss! In defiance to The End! Truly, life is eternal! If it continues even now in this cold and dead universe, then it is truly unconquerable!

“Just as in your dream, your perception of time was altered, so ours is as well, and this time is unimaginably far past the end of our kind. What you call a 'second' is as unfathomably long to us as a trillion years is to you. When we lived, the universe was far less than a thousandth of a second old.

“And just as your physical body could never be recreated in that cold ember of the universe... So ours can never be recreated, either. And just like you decided to split yourself into a simulation more like the aliens you found, so that you could understand them, so have we. And that is what I am. 'I' am the parts of our being who wished to come closer to you. The adjustment was difficult. Harrowing, even, but the hard part is over, but I've come to an even harder decision...

“May I join you, in Equestria?”

Both of the sisters were visibly shocked by the question.

Luna was the first to respond, “Would you enjoy it? If you can rebuild so much in the dream plane, why not stay here?”

“And hide myself away from the physical world outside? The idea is abhorrant to me! Joy to me was being open and wide in the world, the very idea of locking myself in some simulation disconnected from the outside world is a nightmare! A horror we had to endure to survive our end! And now I see – bodies with minds that can interface me with the environment better than I knew was possible! My hooves shake with anticipation!” She stood up. “Let me be free from my vessel! I wish to know the world as you do! To see with eyes, hear with ears, feel the sun and grass and wind – what is it like? Words can't tell! I have to be there, and know that it's real!”

Tears welled in her eyes as she let out a small laugh, “The basic range of emotion is more universal than you would believe! Or, maybe I'm just better at mapping it, haha! At once so alien, and so familiar. Life! Life is here, even now in the darkness and shadow it still thrives!”

She calmed enough to sit back down, regaining her composure, though her shaky voice still hinted at her strong emotion. Her eyes glistened. “It's beautiful, isn't it? The one constancy across all the epochs of the universe... It is always full of surprises! It's so... so beautiful!” She bowed her head.

Celestia turned to her younger sister, “I think we have a new friend, do we not?” she asked.

Luna nodded. “It seems we do.”

The elder princess approached the alien pony, and put a hoof on her shoulder. “We would love to have you in Equestria, Echo.”

Requiem looked up with teary eyes and a small laugh. “I – I wasn't ready for this. When I translated my being into a pony, I didn't expect emotions to be so... strong. Maybe I should've adjusted them down more? No, I love them! I love this! And I'm so excited to be free from this dream! And to feel excitement! I don't care what emotions I experience, I want to experience like this forever!”

Celestia took her hoof off Echo's shoulder, holding it out for her to take.

The alien alicorn took Celestia's hoof and stood up. “I'll show you and your people what mine knew. I'll show them how to expand their minds, how to sail the stars, and fundamentals that may even lead you to find out how to harvest unlimited energy.”

“And I know some ponies who would be thrilled to show you what it means to be a pony,” Celestia said.

“This trade is unfair to you. I can't offer anything of that value. Thank you so much...” she smiled. “...for letting me be free from this simulation – this dream – and feel the physical plane again, instead of some mere recreation.”

The first morning rays of sunlight washed over Canterlot, making the city of marble shine golden. Celestia and Luna were exhausted, but their work was finally finished. Echo was curled in a ball, sleeping soundly on a large cushion in Celestia's bedchamber. She was an alicorn the size of Cadence, and looked exactly as she had in the dream.

They stood on the balcony and spoke to a ghostly image of the messenger that had greeted them to the dream world. “Thank you for the offer, but as Echo said, I'm quite happy to remain here. Me, and the elements that are with me, would prefer to simply wait until someday that you, being more familiar with this universe, may find how to send us to one more like the one we're from.”

Celestia answered, “You've spoken with us for hours on things far beyond our knowledge, and we're hardly closer to understanding how Echo came from the dream plane to here. I fear even if we can do such a thing one day, it may not be for millenia.”

“No matter. We've searched for almost fifteen billion years. Another thousand is little to us, now,” she answered nonchalantly. “Frankly, that it may be so soon is quite exhilarating.”

“Why couldn't you make more ships like your own?” Luna asked, “Or other bodies like the one you made for us, here, for all your minds?”

“The option existed, but we'd rather improve this vessel and reinvigorate our search for the way home I mentioned, than to do such a thing. It would be a form of quitting, even similar to how you regard suicide. We'll just orbit around and help you, instead, and maybe one day your alien minds will think of a solution we couldn't imagine.”

“We're honored to have your insights and company,” Celestia answered, her voice exhausted, bags visible under her eyes. “But I'm not sure I can last much longer. The message-dreams were not very restful. You'll have to speak to our scientists – once you're introduced to our kingdom.”

“Assuming they're ready for such things...” Luna began.

“Last much longer?” the ghost pulled an ear back and cocked her head, only to immediately pop back up as she realized. “Ah, yes, your bodies exhaust relatively quickly, don't they? Well, treat her well. She's undoubtably tired from all the excitement and creation of her body. Even if she acts like a foal, try not to forget she's fourteen billion years wise, okay? She's just not used to your emotions. We have them – or something like them – but we're so fundamentally different they're still a wildly new experience to her. However, due to a wonderful coincidence, there is at least one sensation that matches almost perfectly with our old 'bodies', if you could even call them that...”

Echo yawned and sat up, earning the attention of the two ponies and hologram. She blinked twice, her eyes going wide. She muttered something, stood up, and stared at the sun, then began walking towards them.

Luna glanced back in concern, only to realize the sun was low enough in the sky that it wouldn't blind their new arrival.

“What was that you said?” Celestia asked.

Tears welled in Echo's eyes as she stepped onto the balcony, walking right between Celestia and the hologram of the ship's AI without taking her eyes off the morning sun.

Then she glanced around the grand vista all around her – endless miles of farmland were visible from the tower balcony high above Canterlot. The rolling hills and sparse towns went off to a horizon rimmed by mountains in some places, all awash in the golden light of the rising sun.

Echo began to shake. After the end of her world, after billions of years of endless cold darkness, after all life had ended, and the very fundamental laws of reality had changed into something unimaginable, she felt something, inviting and impossible in such a cold and dead universe. Yet, the morning sunlight washed over her body.

The tears started to run down her cheeks as she felt the sensation the simulation had failed to capture. “I-it's b-bright... bright, and warm...”

She rose onto her hind legs to rear up, joy overwhelming her entire being. “It's bright and warm!” she shouted.

“I feel warm!”