Ending.
Everything was ending.
Twilight Sparkle had never considered the end. Not like this, at least. Certainly, like all ponies, she had thought about her own end; when the inevitability of death is that closely tied to your own existence, it's not something you can easily ignore. Like most others, she had come to terms with her mortality, with the knowledge that she would fade… she would end.
The end of everything, though, was a different matter. It was incomprehensible. It was like the concept of infinity; the knowledge of it was commonplace and accepted, but rarely considered. It was something so vast and so distant, and so it was put aside in favour of smaller, closer issues, the troubles that could be understood more readily.
Right up until the day Twilight saw the end.
It was a night like any other; Luna’s night sky looked as spectacular as ever, and Twilight—along with many others across the land, who had joined in a resurgence of interest in astronomy since the Princess’ return—was ready to admire its wonder. She set herself for yet another sleepless night before the eternal and endless universe above her.
Her life was shattered by what she saw through that telescope.
There, between constellations long known, was a new pinprick of light. A curiosity, she supposed; a passing phenomena, nothing more. Right until she took a closer look. What she saw was little more than a rock, floating through space—but she knew this was something different, something more. Her heart told her what this truly was; a speeding ball of destruction, hurtling towards Equestria, barely a year away by her estimations. If she was right, it would bring an end to everything she had ever seen, ever heard, ever known.
There was a flurry of activity in the library over the following days. Twilight was ever the pragmatist; she couldn’t act on only a feeling, after all. Textbooks had to be checked, to see if this was just a regular celestial occurence, and therefore nothing to worry about. Her findings had to be ratified by some of the most knowledgeable minds in Equestria, too. Finally, though, there could be no doubt.
This would be Equestria’s doom.
Obviously, she had taken her findings to Princess Celestia the moment that she was sure. Her mentor, Twilight had reasoned, would undoubtedly be able to stop this. She and her sister held sway over the skies, over both day and night. They controlled the heavens themselves, and so would be able to avert this coming cataclysm.
They couldn't.
It was explained to her, of course; the cosmic alicorns were bound to their respective heavenly bodies, and though they held enormous power, they couldn't apply their magic so freely to other situations—such acts could destroy worlds. They were so very limited, they told her; surely Twilight remembered the changeling invasion, when Celestia had been rendered useless against the queen?
They knew she did. She remembered everything. Regardless, the truth broke her heart. Her mentor, her ruler, the bedrock of a lifetime… in all her wisdom, glory and power, not even she could stop this.
What of the Elements of Harmony? Surely they could prevent this catastrophe, she had pleaded—they had proven themselves before, stopped rampant alicorns and the god of chaos, so surely they could be used to protect Equestria again?
No. Of course not. The Elements, too, were restricted—they came to be to keep ponydom together, to unite and strengthen the bonds between the pony tribes, and preserve harmony. They could not stop the coming fire.
They could do nothing to stop the end.
By this time, word had begun to trickle through the world. The experts Twilight had consulted were so shaken by her discovery that they could not keep it to themselves, knowing what was nearly upon them. The rumours spread, and the ponies began to fear. As such, Twilight Sparkle was called upon by all who could find reason to request her advice, sure in the knowledge that the most powerful unicorn of their time, and the chosen student of the Princess herself, would be able to lay their fears to rest.
She spoke to war councils and planning committees, builders and governors, ambassadors and representatives of all creatures of the world. Each time, the questions were the same; is this the truth? How long do we have? And, ultimately, the moment she dreaded the most: what can we do to stop it?
That was the hardest part. No matter how often Twilight repeated it, and regardless of the Princess’ many public speeches, it was still an impossibility to most. The very idea of the end of everything was so unfathomable that they still believed there would be a way out, a way to save their world.
There wasn’t. Slowly, they all learned that this truly was unstoppable.
Equestria took the news hard. Panic gripped the world as creatures everywhere came to realise that everything they had worked for… everything that they had built, and that had been built before their time… all of it would end. From the most wondrous city to the smallest of memories, the most hardy of landmarks to the most temporary and fleeting of lives... it had all been for nothing. Their land would be cleansed with fire until no trace remained of their lives, the moments and places that they remembered so fondly.
For a time, there was chaos. The ponies of Equestria went mad in their fear, ceasing to think and running amock. They stole, they smashed... there were even whispers of ponies who, in their darkest hours, harmed each other. In their grief, they would have destroyed themselves, had the Princesses not been forced to intervene. With the Royal Guards patrolling the country for the good of the very ponies they cowed into peace, there could be no further unrest.
The asteroid had an official designation. It had been labelled Sigma TS-6 by the academic bodies of the world.
The ponies of Equestria gave it another name, though. Perhaps it came out of a sense of poetry, or irony, or even a misplaced desire for vengeance, no matter how small.
They called it Twilight's Herald.
That was what it became; the herald of Equestria's twilight. With Celestia and Luna doing their utmost to keep peace, ponies could panic no more. Instead the nation simply stopped; knowing as they did that no matter what they acheived, it would all end so very soon, ponies saw no need to continue. The news spread beyond Equestria's borders, too, and races and species everywhere wept. There was further madness, the other races succumbing to the same grief-stricken insanity that very nearly took the heart of Eqeustria. Some acted with disbelief, decrying it as a pony trick. Others tried to salvage what they could of their civilisations, digging deep into the ground and hiding in the dark, hoping to outlast the coming storm.
The Princesses did what they could, but they were having such trouble maintaining order within their own borders that they could do nothing to truly help those trapped beyond, where the madness roamed freely. In the final days, Equestria became a beacon, a refuge from the destruction that had come before the true end. Even enemies of the state sought the protection of ponykind, and all were welcomed as equals.
Unity was all that these races had left, so they clung to it desperately.
Twilight, meanwhile, had heralded the end of the world, and her own world very nearly ended. The very naming of Equestria’s doom was like the twist of a knife to her; each time she heard it, she couldn’t help but hear the accusations and blame that she imagined came with it. Her very name—which had once stood as a word of strength, of hope, and of the light that fought against darkness— became a sign of the end times... and it burned her inside. Only the strength of her friends, her cherished and loved ones, kept it from crumbling as the world around her did. Even at the end of all things, she was reminded that her friendships had withstood so much, and would even withstand this cleansing of the land.
And so she stood. She watched the world end. She watched, alongside her friends, her family and her mentor, as Twilight's Herald destroyed everything.
She saw mighty cities, small towns, the strain and toil of thousands of years… all of it was obliterated in the blink of an eye.
She watched the world end.
She turned from the devastation and leaned into the warm, loving and everlasting embrace of her mentor.
"All of it," she muttered into the pure white fur as it dried her tears. "It's all gone."
She felt a pressure on her head as the alicorn rested her own atop it, and felt as much as heard the reply as it vibrated through her body.
"All things must end one day," came Celestia’s soft voice, heavy with sadness. "But some may yet endure a little while longer."
Twilight leaned out of Celestia's hold, raising her teary eyes to meet her mentor's clear ones.
"All things end, my little pony," the ancient mare continued grimly, her eyes filled with the weariness of the eons. "I have seen so many endings in my time here.” Her voice dropped, barely a whisper. “Even I shall end, one day."
Celestia looked away. She looked at her world as it burned to nothing, watching the land she had ruled over and kept safe for thouands of years as it crumbled into ash.
For a moment, she was silent.
"Until that day," she continued finally, turning back to her student with a small smile, tinged with a tired grief, "I shall do as I have done for millennia, and as Equestria shall continue to do." She nodded to an area behind Twilight, and the smile grew slightly.
Twilight twisted slowly around to face the encampments behind her. Though segmented, there were representatives of every inhabitant of the ravaged world that hung in the void above her. Off to her right, a flock of griffons, somehow remaining aloof and proud despite the circumstances, ignored the devastation in preference of discussing trade routes through the new world with representatives of the minotaur clans.
To her left, she watched as the kingdom of dragons came together as one, singing their gruff melodies, their odes to the memory of their destroyed homeland. She winced as, even from such distance, she could hear the disharmonious voice of her beloved assistant, as he joined with his people, learning the history that had come so close to being lost. Behind them, in the distance, rose a great black oval—a hive containing thousands of changelings in a hibernation state. It soared upwards, its tip stretching almost to the dark blue energy shield that Luna had constructed as an artificial atmosphere, high above their heads.
Directly in front of her was the seemingly-endless sea of tents that made up the pony camp. Thousands, like her, were watching the apocalypse, watching as their world died. Thousands more had turned away in despair, unable to see their lives destroyed so utterly.
Finally, she saw five ponies, barely out of earshot, and they saw her. They had shared so much together, and not even the end of everything could erase the love she felt for each of them. As they caught her gaze, she was reminded of all the times they had helped her, and she had helped him. She knew that those times would last with her forever, regardless of what happened to the places they had happened in.
She watched as they smiled—even now, they were so ready to support her—and saw them start slowly walking towards her.
She saw all this, and much more. The entire surface of the moon was covered in similar encampments. The lunar body had become an ark, a safe haven from the end of the world. In the last days of Equestria, the idea had formed; Celestia had once told Twilight of the spell used to banish her corrupted sister to the moon. It had been a simple teleportation spell, combined with the power of Harmony, that had created this exile; surely then, a more temporary application of the spell could be used now, in this desperate hour of need?
And so it was that the moon became a shelter, the population transported there, to wait until the crisis passed, and the healing of the world through a combined magical application could begin. Every pony and every refugee of Equestria had been brought, along with as many others who could be convinced to come. Celestia and Luna had saved every creature they could, and every civilisation that was willing to be teleported into space to avoid the devastation was there, sheltered from the storm.
Eventually, they would return to the desecrated planet. It would take an enormous combined effort... years of toil, of pain and of stress... but they would rebuild. Together, the creatures of the world would make it anew. It would never be the same, but it would still be their home.
Twilight’s Stratagem, they had called it. The last hope for the survival of Equestria. The final light in the darkness.
She turned back to Celestia, the same sadness-tinged smile the goddess had shown her now gracing her own lips. She leaned back against her mentor, and felt the comforting weight of a wing as it was draped protectively around her. A moment later, she felt hooves clenching around her, drawing her into a group embrace with the five ponies whom she loved most dearly.
"Endure," Twilight Sparkle whispered. "We will endure."
