It Didn't Have To End This Way
My name is Celestia. I am very old… I couldn't tell you how many years it has been since my birth. The days of this flaming wasteland have merged into an endless blur of sand and fire. I walk on, accompanied only by my lifelong friend, Philomena. She never left my side, even after millions of years. Even as I etch this into the remains of a mountainside—now a smoldering hill—Philomena watches over me.
It wasn’t always like this. This world was once beautiful, rife with life and love stretching to all corners of the globe. I ruled alongside my younger sister, Princess Luna. Together we molded our continent, our home, into a place of prosperity and harmony. We called it Equestria.
Equestria.
The word feels foreign and dated on my parched lips. Flashes of past times, and the color green flash to my mind for a moment. Memories of Before are difficult to find, and not so easily lost within. I remember faces, but their names have been lost to the burning of the time that is Now. The only names I can conjure are my own, Philomena’s, my dear sister Luna’s… and Him.
The one who did this has a name, but names are for those who deserve them. He is nothing but an animal, bent on nothing but the mindless torture of all under his power.
It is because of Him things are this way, that the world I built is now a tan, featureless ball of fire floating in the cosmos. Because of Him I am alone, left to wander these wastes. I will find the bastard.
We trusted Him. He will pay for what has been done to my beautiful ponies, and beyond.
Philomena pecks at my hooves, urging me that it is now time to leave and continue searching for now. But I cannot leave, not without telling you how this happened.
He was a being of great power, wielded by a mind of great evil and chaos. We could never defeat him, only stone him for a time until another option came to our knowledge. I found a way to change him, reform him into something better, more pure a form than his anarchistic habits.
It worked, and he seemed changed. Years passed, everypony trusted him. Even thwarting disasters that he would have applauded, saving lives. I trusted him. Years passed this way, with the former being of evil and malice now our ally. At least for a while.
I do not know how long it was planned, or how, but he did something unforgivable. There was a place Before, a place where many more evils dwelled away from the world, locked up the way they deserved. My sister and I spent the better parts of our lives trapping malicious beasts there, and ensuring they never escaped. We called it Tartarus, the underworld, the home of demons.
It was because of Him this place was opened, and the countless evils within poured out to the world, devouring all innocent life in their wakes. By the time we tried to do something, it was too late. Equestria was quickly being cloaked by darkness, only the capital was safe.
Luna and I immediately confronted him, with no intention of working it out. We were going to kill Him. In the ensuing battle above our citadel home, my sister was mortally wounded. As I tried to take her to safety, he overpowered me. With a sinister grin, he tapped into my cosmic powers. It was no use stopping Him as I felt some of my magic ripped from me.
He had stolen some of my core essence, my power over the sun and moon. Barely alive, we were forced to Canterlot mountain. It was there we saw him exploiting what he had no right to control. In midday, the moon was pulled far closer to the planet than it had ever been.
Luna cried harder as she felt her precious moon being forced from its arc. His manipulation of the moon was just a test, to see what his new powers could do.
’Let’s turn up the heat now.’
He’d had his fun, and wanted to really see what the extent of his newfound powers could do. The rest is too painful to recall.
I will try to return here, to this smoldering mountainside. I do not know what drives me to leave this when nothing is ever going to read it. But my feathered friend insists it be good for me. Philomena always knows what is best for me. It may be a thousand years before I stumble upon this area again. I am a machine. Driven to keep existing for the sole purpose of justice, and revenge. This is a large world.
And I will go to any lengths to find the one responsible.
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My sun screams to me, even after so long. It fears for its lunar counterpart, which was sent too far from magic’s grasp when he finished playing with it. And with it went the pony destined to control it. The only pony left on this sun-blasted rock was similarly linked.
The abnormal closeness of the sun allows me to draw enough energy to survive. Philomena has adapted to this as well. We do not require food or water to survive, but neither are we satisfied.
I found the same area I engraved my words into so long ago. Since then I have circled the planet by hoof many times. It feels centuries have passed as well, reflected by the weathering on my old works. The heat of my too-close solar body makes rock soft, and easy to etch. This fact forces the smallest of smiles to tug at my muzzle.
Philomena tugs at my foreleg, urging me to keep writing. Her persistence is appreciated but not required. For I have much left to say…
I found Him.
After tens of thousands of years of searching, pushing through the flaming wastes, he was finally found. I could always sense his aura, even across the globe, I felt Him. I knew he was somewhere, walking the planet’s surface with hope I would not find Him.
But I did.
It was some time ago, while walking along the scorched coastline to the southern sea. His signature was faint, but it gave me a direction. It took two days of walking, but there he was. He was laid out in the sand and embers of the seabed. He looked too weak to move, patches of fur burned away leaving his flesh raw. His powers had run out. He looked up to me and spoke between fits of coughing.
”Ahem… long time no see there. So… no hard feelings?”
He put out his lion paw in a gesture of peace. I stared at Him with pure molten hate. Here was the one responsible for the destruction of all things good. My sister, who would have lived as long as me, dead because of HIM.
Without a word I brought my hooves down on his throat, drawing a sharp shriek from his hoarse throat as my bare hooves dug into his seared flesh. I glared down upon his pitiful form, desperate to watch him suffer for all that he put me through. He deserved nothing less. He tried to resist but was too weak, hands pointlessly flailing in panic. Philomena pecked at my hooves, trying to stop me, to finish him more humanely. When I did not relent, she screeched loudly in a vain attempt to halt me from my long-awaited vengeance. It was all for naught. He would receive no mercy.
Thousands of years’ worth of fury saved up for that moment, seeing the lights leave his eyes. With a bloodlust scream I pressed all of my weight into my forehooves. A sharp crack later, and he stopped moving. His neck lay at an awkward angle, even for Him.
I spat on his broken body then left him to burn. He would haunt me no more.
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Alone
Alone Alone Alone Alone.
Am I all that remains? The only life left?
No. I can’t be. Not after all I’ve done. My life dedicated to lead, now there is nopony to follow me. Nopony to lead, to teach, to love.
Philomena left me. I woke up yesterday and she was no more. She drew her life force from the sun, like me. But… her age finally caught up with her. She completed her final life cycle while I slept.
All that is left for me is an obsidian statue in the perfect likeness of my oldest and best friend. I never got to say goodbye. Never got to apologize for never giving her a chance to make a family. I take her everywhere with me, even in that stone form I cannot be without her, I cannot abandon my family.
But now I have no family. I could have had so many children, so many beautiful children. I never can now, but as I gaze on the endless wastes I wouldn’t want them living here anyways.
There isn’t much room left for me to write. I suppose my feathered friend was right, this was good for me. I’m going to miss it.
I’m going to take Philomena with me and keep searching. I need to find somepony, there has to be somepony. My sun still has a few million more years left until its time is up too.
Plenty of time. Philomena and I will find survivors. I must’ve missed the cities that escaped the evil and infernos. Surely I just haven’t found them yet. Years of walking await me, I better get started. I will miss you, you served well as a place to put my thoughts. There’s no room left so I can only leave one more.
We trusted Him
It didn’t have to end this way
-Princess Celestia of Equestria
