Waves crashed below, a slight breeze passed through, the sun hung above the horizon.
It was peaceful, for the most part, but there were a few key things missing.
No birds of any kind, the area was devoid of all life. There were no clouds in the sky, there haven't been for a long time.
Celestia sighed, this used to be her favorite place to relax and unwind, but in the past few hundred years, it has slowly degraded until there was only yellow grass, crashing waves, and the occasional breeze. Her little ponies had really stopped taking care of the place.
And why would they? What would you do if you knew the world would as you knew it would end in only a few short years? Certainly not busywork, that was for sure. So the weather declined, the animals disappeared, and the plant life thinned. A depressing turn of events.
Celestia lowered the sun a bit, the sky turned into a mesmerizing orange and purple combination. She hoped that whoever was left out there thought it was nice. It wasn't her best work, not by a long shot, but in times like these, a little effort into anything was outstanding. Ponies nowadays didn't do much, having lost all motivation to do anything long term.
She still remembered when it first started. All the way back to when she lived in Canterlot. One of Princess Twilight's more studious scholars burst into her court, screaming and hollering about the end of the world, Armageddon, the apocalypse, or whatever word choice worked. When they calmed down, they explained how they used magic to view the future, and after a certain amount of time, their visions came up blank. It took a while to convince them nothing was wrong, after all, they were viewing thousands of years into the future, surely something that far forward couldn't be viewed easily.
For a while afterward, all was well, until it happened again only a few decades later. More drama, and more time spent calming down a distraught pony. When it happened a third time, Twilight took the matter into her own hooves. She spent weeks finding out exactly what was happening that made the visions turn up blank. Constantly viewing the future until she could calculate the exact date where everything went blank.
To say she found out was an understatement, she saw everything. Princess Twilight saw all that occurred in what she dubbed "Ragnarök". A strange title to say the least, but to Twilight it was what fit best. At the time, Twilight was still new to leading a country, so she came to both Celestia and Luna with her findings.
Celestia still remembered what she told her that day.
"Knowledge of the future can be dangerous dear Twilight. Sometimes it is better off not knowing."
Celestia adamantly refused all knowledge about "Ragnarök" from Twilight, she didn't want to know the secrets to the world's end. She sent Twilight off to keep her secrets, and to try and forget about it. Twilight did end up keeping her secrets, she kept them to her grave.
Celestia sighed. It was hard outliving her best student, no, best friend. She expected to have her take over and rule from then on out, but tragedy struck, and her life was sacrificed to stop an evil overlord from taking over. Celestia started to tear up. It was so, so long ago that it happened, and she still couldn't get completely over it. On the bright side though, Celestia was glad Twilight wouldn't have to live through this.
It was only a matter of time before the entire population found out about Ragnarök, ponies never stopped looking into the future, so it was impossible to cover it up. Even though none of the ponies alive would have lived long enough to actually see Ragnarök, there was still a huge panic. Birthrates plummeted, jobs were lost by the thousands, and crime skyrocketed.
Equestria nearly fell to anarchy in only a week after the information got out. It took both Celestia and Luna a year to convince ponies to at least start working together again. It wasn't perfect though, a large part of the world was still devolving at a rapid rate, but at least her little ponies had managed to stay together.
Things really declined in the next three hundred years. Pony settlements became more sparse, roaming gangs raiders plagued the country, and mass production of anything stopped, including the weather. Celestia hadn't seen another pony in months, nearly a year, and the last poor mare she saw didn't even have a cutie mark, she could barely even speak as well. A sad sight to behold, but it didn't matter anymore, nothing did.
Celestia lowered the sun a bit more, casting the whole sky in twilight. The stars were still visible, and she was glad about that. She knew that somewhere in the world that Luna was also moving the moon, whether it was being raised or lowered she didn't know, but at least she knew Luna was still alive.
It was almost time, today was the final day, Celestia didn't need to see the future to know this was it. The magic in the air seemed both alive and dead at the same time, filled with anticipation, no, it was herself that was anxious to see what would happen next.
The sun dipped below the horizon, and the sky turned a dark purple. The moon did not come up from behind her, and the stars faded out.
"Oh no..." She trailed off, dread filling her body. Something happened, was this the start of Ragnarök?
The waves below her crashed violently, each time the water crested a rock, a little less was visible above the waterline as the wave receded. The oceans were flooding.
"No." Celestia said, "This can't be, not like this!" She stood up, gazing down at the turbulent waves that continued to raise up the cliff, a distant beach was swallowed by the sea.
Panic began to overtake her as the water continued to rise, a bit of sea spray showered her. She backed away from the cliff, staring at the rising sea. Just then, she felt it. The magic in the air screamed around her, something was upsetting the balance of the world. She sensed something behind her.
Celestia was not alone, not anymore. She whipped her head around to see what or who was behind her. She froze.
A huge white wolf stood there, completely silent, it stared at her intensely. It was only a bit taller than her, but a lot more massive. Fear rocked throughout Celestia, in all her time alive she had never felt so vulnerable. Celestia could only stare as the wolf stated circling her, seeming to inspect her very closely. She could only do the same.
It's shimmering white pelt seemed to glow in what little light remained from the horizon. It's glow slowly changed colors from green, to blue, to pink, and back to green again as the light reflected off of it. There were several designs that seemed to be painted onto it's body, they depicted unknown runes and symbols, but one stood out to her. The sun, in all it's glory was emblazoned right on the chest of the wolf.
It sniffed, and Celestia looked up to it's face, it's eyes were purple, just like her, and from one look she could tell, this wolf was not hunting, it wasn't angry, but it wasn't happy either. It looked somber, just like herself. In that moment she understood, this wolf was meant for her, and she assumed her sister already met her wolf.
"So this is how it is." She said to the wolf, which didn't respond.
The wolf stepped closer, now face to face with Celestia, she felt it's hot breath on her face. She was no longer scared, and together they stared into each other's eyes, almost daring each other to take the first move. The wolf went first, and touched it's nose to Celestia's. At that moment, great amounts of knowledge flowed into her mind, and she understood everything.
This may very well be the end of her world, but that didn't mean it couldn't be reborn. Much like a phoenix, the world itself will be reborn after it is swept clean during Ragnarök. Celestia understood now, this wolf was there to cleanse her from the world.
She closed her eyes, but couldn't smile, this wasn't a happy ending, but she was ready to accept it none the less. The wolf stepped back, and looked longingly out towards the horizon. By now, the ocean had risen to the point where water now licked at the feet of both the wolf and Celestia. It was time to finish this.
The wolf lunged...
Author's Note
If it wasn't obvious enough, this is a farewell fic to G4, I haven't seen much of G5 yet, but it looks... interesting... So there you have it! Another fic that I hope you enjoyed. I had the idea for this fic after playing through God of War 4, and after just hearing about the teaser for God of War 5, I thought I could write about Ragnarök.
