At The End

I’m not sure if I could actually explain what happened to me that night. I had gone to sleep, that I was aware of. Then suddenly I had awoken again, but I wasn’t awake. I was no longer in the forest. I was in the air. I was flying.

I should have been terrified, falling through the air with only myself and no parachute. I wasn’t. My wings were gracefully gliding me through the clouds. I could touch them! The soft fluffy white objects were putty in my paws as I dragged my foreleg through them.

It was magical. It was wonderful. I laughed as I held up a piece to my face. The cloud fragment slowly began to evaporate in my grasp, but I was so happy.

The wind going through my golden mane, the rushing of air passing my ears. This was amazing!

“Enjoying yourself, child of night?” The voice made me jump, beside me was the angel. She was standing there, while I was flying, she was just… sliding next to me. Despite this, she was smiling broadly at me. Like a mother who took pride to see their child do something they thought was brilliant.

“What are--” I cut myself off as I stopped flying and landed on a cloud nearby. Soft, like a pillow it was.

“What are you doing here? Where are we anyway!” I asked as she slid to a stop next to me. I was standing on a cloud. This wasn’t real, was it?

“As a Thestral, it is you duty to roam and defend the dream realm. This is where we are now.” She spoke with that lovely soft voice. Again, it sent shivers down my spine. I just wanted to go up to her and bow for forgiveness. As if I had been rude to her.

“Don’t worry about your urges to bow to me. The old imperial ponies were some of the most loyal subjects I had ever created. You and the others are no exception.” I froze.

She knew?

“Can you read my mind?”

“I don’t have to. I already know everything that you are thinking of. Everything that you are going to say and everything that you will ever do.” The words hung over me, the weight of whether that was true or not felt like a huge revelation of my own existence.

“I doubt that.” Looking around, I began to notice things flying in the sky. Other bat ponies moving through openings of pure light that popped in and out of reality.

“Gateways into the dreams of others. Ponies like you are made for this. I’m sure you’ll be very good at it soon enough.” She smiled, I looked up at her as she came to sit beside me.

“Are you saying that me and the others are trapped here?” I had been worried about such an outcome, but I dared not voice it with the others. They had hardships that didn’t need to be made worse by a looming fear of never going home.

“Can we not return home?”

“Of course you can, though I’m sure you could easily find your calling here.” Multiple circular voids of pure blackness appeared in front of us, slowly sliding past us. She sat there, watching as they floated before her and made their way into nothingness.

“Who knows, maybe Ponies and Humans could end up working together one day.” She then leaned down, breathing into my ear.

“Maybe with you.”

“For a supposed God, you’re putting in a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.” I remarked, she laughed before going back to viewing the portals.

“Plus, if you were my creator, you could just end this now.” I said, slowly looking up at her. Her gaze never left the portals. She just… sat there, continuing to work.

“You would--” My words were cut out as she turned to me with a smile that looked so out of place. It was like the motherly one, like the smile from before, but this one had lost all meaning. It was strange, borderline psychotic.

“You can try to think of me as being some benevolent being. Your human gods are no different from me, because they, like you, are one in the same. You believe that you have free will because I make you believe. You think that you have control over your destiny because I make you believe it. You have to believe it.” I backed away slightly, I was frightened now. It was that look. She was empty, where before she was the kindly guardian angel, now she was a soulless devil.

“Your life is already written, what you will do is what you will do. It’s fate, and you and I are both bound to it. The one difference is that I control your fate. You think that your pain is nothing more than your suffering. You’re wrong, its my enjoyment.” Just like that, she pulled away from my now trembling form. Her entire being changed before me. The mare in front of me changed, from a great white and blue alicorn to one of white and orange. Her features more graceful, seemingly more worn too.

“I’ve lived a far longer life than you could ever imagine. I have created countless realities to call home. In the end however, it just gets so boring. So why not create a little drama from time to time.” She then turned her attention away from me and back to the portal.

My mind was racing so fast, smoke was probably rising from my ears. I was looking at a creature that was impossible. I could not explain the emotions I felt at that time. But the one I felt was rage. I would have moved to strike her had she not turned at that moment.

The look she gave me was like nothing I could ever properly describe. Like looking at someone who had lost it all and I mean everything.

“Do not take my words for your truth. I’ve spent an eternity alone, no one is coming to save me. I didn’t kill Tomy, Romain nor any of the others out of spite to you, but like me, no one is coming to save them now. I told you I wasn’t kind Fire Fly, nor am I unkind enough to deny you a form of existence. Would you really hate me for having had enough of all of it?” I could see tears in her eyes, the more I thought about it, tears of my own began to spring forth at the mention of my brother’s name. I was talking to a being that I had very little understanding of. Despite this, she was asking me to look at her not as an all mighty creator, but as a person. Someone who had been forced by her own creator to just… work. Endlessly.

She had written herself into her own story, I was merely a spectator to her wildest dreams.

A portal then appeared in front of me. Looking up at her, she gestured with a hoof to take a look. Unlike the white portals used by the few bat ponies that flew about the sky, this one I could not physically enter. But I could see inside.

I could see a room. It looked like some strange office space. Sat at a desk was a human talking to some flat object. The person wore a strange uniform. It looked like some sort of flight jacket, padded with protective pads on the shoulders and elbows. The colour was a matted yellow that would have looked weird but the whole aesthetic seemed to fit together quite well.

It was only when the person turned to the door did my breath get caught.

It was Tomy!

“Tomy!” I called out, but my words were here. Not there, before I could see any more the image changed back to black. I looked up pleadingly at the creator beside me.

“Wait, bring him back!”

“That was not Tomy.” It was him, but it wasn’t. She was right. Of course she was.

“Why show me that? Why even tell me any of this?” Of all the things that could have happened at that moment, my thoughts froze when she pulled me into an embrace. Hugging me with her wings pulling me into her side.

“You think that they died for me. My pleasure. It is not. I am trapped and the sooner you realise how similar I am to you, the sooner you’ll realise that I am not as all powerful as you may think.” Her words were spoken softly, hinting on borderline regret. She was alone, she had no one but us to keep her company.

“How real would a world seem to you where no one died. Believe me I tried it. But in the end you just end up controlling the lives of so many, that it becomes hard to focus. I just want it to end.”

“Why don’t you?” I offered, making her smile.

“End it? But then where would you go. You wouldn’t be anywhere. The existence of all rests upon me.” She explained in more detail. “Would you really have me deny your own existence?” That one sentence sealed the deal. There was nothing I could say now or ever that could ever work out for me.

“Who are you?”

“Galaxia.”

I had not expected her to give me a reply so quickly, especially after having withheld that information since the moment we met her in my front room. Galaxia. Great creator, god of worlds was sitting next to me, watching portals flying in front of her.

She had spared me little more than a glance. She was concentrated on something, looking through the looking glass, trying to find something.

“My name’s Louis.”

At that, she glanced at me, almost surprised. Almost.

“Y-you-” She stopped before falling silent. What had I said? She frowned before turning to look at me once more.

“I guess I’m not that ‘all knowing’ as I thought.” She then nipped my right ear. I squeaked, which caused her to laugh even harder before turning her attention to the floating portals ahead of her.

I don’t know how much time passed. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? We just sat there, me feeling totally out of my depth. She was just sat there, looking. The clouds that surrounded us began to dissipate. In the distance, a light began to form on the horizon. The sky was beginning to change colour. Dawn was nearing.

“What are we doing here Galaxia?”

“Do you mean me and you here? Or you and your friends?” She asked, she knew the answers no matter what, she was just playing along. For my sake, or maybe hers.

“Both.”

“You are here because this is the place that Thestrals come to watch over the dream world when they sleep. Most bats are nocturnal, which is why there are so few here now. Entering the dream realm requires a lot of personal magic to enter.” She said, turning her attention the rising light on the horizon. The wind was starting the move around now.

“Why you and your friends are here is due to the ponies of Equestria needing your help with overthrowing the Shadow. But there is far more that you have to do than just that.”

“Like what?”

“You know what happens to a conquered nation. Equestria is at war. The Shadow wants to try and slow you and the others down. The outcome of this war depends on how quickly you can stop the fighting and take back control of Equestria. Knowing full well that there is very little you could do if you are to lose against the other nations.” She continued, the wind was really picking up now. Despite the rising sound, it seemed to whirl and whoosh with a rhythm. Pulsating.

“What’s that noise--”

XXX

My eyes opened as I awoke with a start. The sound of the wind was still in the air. Growing louder and louder before finally coming to a stop. I got up, Twilight was still holding onto me, hugging me tightly as if she was worried I would end up leaving her.

Releasing myself from Twilight’s grasp, I exited the camp. The others were still asleep. Though the sun had still not risen yet, my eyes had no problem adjusting to the lack of light.

Walking out into the path, I made my way towards the ruins of the castle. Ahead was the rope bridge that my friends and I had crossed when we left the castle yesterday. As I made my way towards the bridge, I noticed something that had not been there the day before. There standing to the side of the path, was a box. A large, wooden blue box. I would have paid it no attention had I never seen this box before. But I had.

I then heard voices coming from one of the ruins. Two distinct male voices who seemed to be having an argument judging by the conversation they were having. Approaching the ruined home, I could not find anything strange about the place.

It was in ruins, signs of burning all around, though the architecture seemed far more ancient than the surrounding houses. Its condition therefore was worse than the one I had slept in with the others.

Behind some large slabs, the voices echoed. A passage of some kind in the floor, or maybe a basement. Taking my sidearm in my magic, I gave the surround one last look before venturing into the tunnel.