Carry On

Carry On

The sands of death tumbled in cascades with the spiraling, unpredictable wind. Red, cracked earth crunched under the brutal heat. Bone and rock and mud found their way into an ugly mix, covering the land with nothing but their barren, broken sight. The sun was a massive ball in the sky, red with fury. Nothing escaped its tight grasp, not even itself.

The thing's shoes packed the dying land with each step. Rusted and decaying, they had long since lost their comfort, but remained an everlasting symbol. The once shining gold was scorched and decayed, some parts broken off and others melted into the white, glistening coat. It did not shine with sweat, however. The being did not have enough of anything left to get rid of. All it could do was walk.

And walk.

And walk.

And walk.

It trotted on as it came closer to itself, threatening to crush and extinguish. No life remained here. Nothing of her once great kingdom. Not a scrap of dust held a bacteria, nor a single rock contained fleeing insects.

Nothing remained. It sat there in the shadows, or lack thereof. No. In fact, it was plain as day, watching from a distance. Mocking. Seething. Pleased, but not happy.

The nothingness was not a void. Truly, it was the complete opposite. Nothing and everything were the same, really. Just in a different form.

She tried to remember her name. Cell. Celia. Clea? Celestia.

CELESTIA.

She found it.

Celestia walked on. With her name came memories. Memories of her parents. Children. Friends. Twilight. Dear Twilight...

Her eyes spoke of grief but cried no tears.

As the end came, her friends died or left. Their society had achieved so much--technology, art, culture. Everything had been going up and up and up. Though she couldn't say that she didn't KNOW that this day--or rather, the past three centuries--had been coming. The days that meant her death. She was tied to this place, like her sister. They could leave, but they would still face mortality. So both had stayed. Celestia and Luna walked endlessly, carrying on.

What else could somepony do when he or she killed all the ponies that they knew? Thankfully, most of them had left, an unknowable number of years past, in massive craft of steel and fire. A few stayed with their queens, until they died of starvation, dehydration, or the heat. Their lives ended almost pathetically quickly. No remorse came. Enlightenment, perhaps, but not much else.

The sun goddess felt the pain of the sand zipping into her, cutting and bruising. She didn't care. Nothing really mattered anymore. Was Luna even alive still? The moon rose for brief points when the engrossing light of the sun wasn't coating Equis. That wasn't enough confirmation, though. But wait, it had no meaning anyways.

Celestia almost found that comforting. Death and life had no meaning aside from the things that mortals applied to them. It was like math. They were inherent values in the universe that existed despite if anything thought about them. Or did they really have all the meanings? Was a thought required for truth to exist? If a lie was uttered by the last pony alive--Celestia, probably--and then she died, would that remain true until someone made it false? The moment of rambling in her lazy head passed, and Celestia continued to slowly drift forward and carry on.

On.

On.

On.

The word echoed about her mind, the switch that sent power flowing through the circuit. Until someone turned it off. Until someone shut off the lights. Celestia wondered what that would feel like. Not the death itself, or the life before, but the inbetween. When the the electrical contact point slipped. That moment of twilight before the dawn or the sunset. Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. Sweeping tides of rivers burned away, mountain snow and ocean spray. Celestia found poetry a distracting hobby aside from walking. She hated it, which was exactly why she found it challenging. And, though she was loathe to admit it, Celestia loved a challenge, especially a puzzling one. Strength should be left to the weak, she thought dimly, liking her own irony and finding sense in it.

When that became boring Celestia carried on. Keeping on. Moving forward. Never stopping. Never ending. Until she dropped.

Which happened just then. She didn't need all that much food or water, but three centuries was a long time to go without it. There was no more energy for her to keep walking, so she fell. Right onto another lump of fur. A third came on top with claws and horns, and a final one of insectoid body and fleshy wings.

Celestia almost found that funny. Here they were, all four of them. Mortal enemies. Falling on the same spot.

Ready to die.

Celestia drew energy from the sun. She didn't normally do that because she feared that the star's death would only speed up. Now, though, she realized what she was about to do was far more important. She channeled the warmth to the other three around her, and they blossomed with life.

"You decided to stick around too, huh?" she managed to say to them between cracked lips and dry mouth.

"I couldn't leave, Tia," Luna sighed, too tired to cry. "I couldn't leave you here. I love you, and I know you love me too much.

Celestia let a pleased grunt escape and patted her sister's head. "What about you two? I thought you were both dead and gone," she said, referring to Discord and Chrysalis.

The bug queen answered first. "I stayed because I thought I could survive. Off of your love for your sister. It was stronger than anything I'd ever taken in. Now, though, I am resigned to a quiet, burning death. I think my actions are deserving of such a thing."

Celestia thought about that for a minute. Or maybe a century. She didn't know anymore. Even the rock began to feel soft under her resting head. It wouldn't stay that way, though. No, she'd probably die quickly, but the speed would still contain pain. After all, a massive ball of fire exploding in space might give a little sunburn.

That was when she noticed Discord was quiet. She tilted her head lazily and saw the chaos god breathing slowly. Awake, even. Just not talking.

"Discord? Are you still there?"

The draconequus dimly replied. "I am here. Love."

"You remember, then." Celestia found that pleasing, yet it gave her an odd, annoyed feeling.

"How could I call myself mortal if I didn't try to remember everything? Is the anniversary of the day you tried to kill me?" Discord asked nonchalantly

"If you want it to be."

"Well then. How pleasantly ironic." he said. He didn't say a word for a good half-hour. Thinking. He had all the time in the world, after all, and none of it at the same moment. "Do you forgive me, Tia?"

Celestia would have cried if she had any tears left to send rolling down her cheeks. "I have always loved you,"

"That doesn't answer my question," he said, determined. That same spark in his eyes as he looked at her. "Do you forgive me?"

The sun goddess broke then. Of all ponies, most would say Discord deserved this the most, but not Celestia. She'd made him this. She'd made him a monster when she refused to accept him. When she turned the poor face in the door away. "If anything, Discord, I ask if you forgive me." With her ebbing strength she threw her arms around him. "You don't deserve this. Why did you stay? Why did you stay here when you could have left? You could have lived!" Celestia's body was racked with dry sobs.

"I stayed for absolution," he said, "to be forgiven for my egregious sins. And..." he stopped.

"And?" Celestia managed through her guilty conscience.

"And to be with you. Through the end. I've been searching through these long years, and now I have found you, Tia."

Celestia found the will then to bury her face in his shoulder and cry as Discord continued to talk. "We have at best a few days, all of us. We shall make what amends we can. And maybe make up for lost time."

Celestia stopped crying then. The out-of-place cheerfulness in his voice brought a confused smile to her lips. He always did.