The ash of my bedroom burned. The mattress and sheets were piles of hot dust, which I awoke, covered in. It burnt, but the pain was diminished by my sense of fatigue. With a sigh, I pulled myself from the room. It always began like this.

The rest of the castle fared no better. The white walls, once pristine and beautiful, were now a charred black mess, struggling to support the dilapidated roof. The ceiling was riddled with holes, through which sickening red light poured into. The areas on the floor the light touched sizzled and melted, turning into molten slag. The entrance has been fused together, leaving me to fly out through the holes in the roof. Reluctantly, I pulled myself from the ground, and towards the sky. I fought through the pain of the sizzling this time, and gracefully exited the interior of the castle. The heat had turned my wings into blackened remains, as they curled up and dried on my sides. No way down now but a jump.

Even with a roll, the landing hurt, the bones in my legs shaking with the impact. I rose to my feet, keeping my gaze on the dirt. Even the low amount of reflected light off the dirt stung my eyes, and dried them at an alarming rate. I spent more time blinking than I did seeing as I walked.

The castle fell behind me eventually, disappearing in the heat and mist. It was just me and the red landscape now, not including the dust, ashes or heat. The hair on my back burned and regrew, my mane also sizzling and reforming. The coat of sweat I perspired helped to dull the burn, even if it evaporated in milliseconds.

I risked a glance upwards, and only sand greeted me. This wasteland was lonely, no matter how many times I made this escapade. The lone howl of wind carried dead words on them, mumbled and forgotten by me, by everyone. A sinking feeling in my gut told me something was off, and again, I glanced upwards.

A city rose on all sides of me. Had it always been here? Was it a hallucination, a sign of my fading sanity? Regardless, I was grateful for the shade the buildings offered me. That is, if I could call them buildings. Like the castle, the exteriors were burnt to a black, the red light from the sun giving them an eerie shadow. Windows bubbled and popped, raining shards of liquid glass down as I passed. They ignited little fires on my back that quickly burnt out as the fur regrew. With every blink, the landscape in front of me changed. The sand came back, then a sprawling city, then a rural village. I passed by a stadium, a dress making studio, another castle, and more buildings than I had memories about. Each of them cried out in their own unique sounds, and I ignored them all. I heard stitching, dancing, laughter, celebrating; but all were just dead whispers on a dead wind. The buildings faded into dust and came crashing down as I walked past them, the sounds dying in the hissing heat of the sun.

This time, when I blinked, I was somewhere else completely. The heat was gone, the sun blocked by great white stone walls. My skin felt cool, my hooves free of the burning pain for a moment, and it was nice. No sun impeded my vision as I looked at my surroundings. Four great walls, each stretching off into forever, but my immediate surroundings were more interesting than this delusion. Ahead of me were seats, hundreds of them, all faced towards a stage at the head of the room. All the chairs were occupied by mannequins, each dressed in a gorgeous gown or tuxedo, all staring at the two under the arch at the end of the room. I strode forwards through the aisles, passing the mannequins, and they turned to look at me and smile, before rotating back into their original positions. The two at the head of the stage seemed different… more colorful that the spectators.

While the audience were all a bland white, with no eyes, no horns and no wings, the mannequin in the tuxedo had a horn, with a faded, frayed blue mane that covered his eyes. The mannequin on his side… wait, where did it go? The figure that had been standing there had gone, leaving only its dress hanging freely in the air. It sparkled in the light. It was beautiful. I ran a hoof over the fabric. It was a soft material I’d never seen before.

Bells tolled in the distance now, an immense cheer rising from the audience of mannequins as they remained stationary. The laughter returned, this time stronger, and a warm feeling spread across my body, as the air hugged me. I felt...

The tolling of the bells beat in an off tone roar that blasted open the doors I had entered through on the far side of the room. The sand poured in… swallowing the first few rows of mannequins. They screamed, their faceless features lost in a sea of heat. The building began to groan and shift, cracks forming in the walls. I glanced to the corners of the ceiling, only to find sand pouring in through rifts that hadn’t been there upon my entry. I had soiled this place, ruined it. I turned away from the crowd, to face massive stain glass windows. They stretched far above me, the multi-colored pieces of glass glistening.

They were also melting…

I squinted, far behind their murals, and saw the redness in the sky outside. I stepped back, shaking my head. “No.” My own voice was a croak and hiss of burnt vocal cords. The heat returned now, the screaming of the mannequins in the background rising to unbearable levels. And yet, I stared at the melting murals on the windows, struggling to see what had originally covered their surfaces.

It was useless. They, too, were now faded and melted beyond recognition. Thick globs of rainbow colored goo fell from their faces, beams of red light finally peeking through. I turned behind me, watching in cold fear as the sea of dirt and sand consumed the room. It rose like a tidal wave, and the immovable mannequins caught in its pull screamed for mercy, only to disappear beneath its surface. The wave came from all sides, even from the right and left edges of the room, which still stretched into forever. More light came through the burnt glass behind me, burning and broiling my skin and fur.

“I love you.”

The voice wasn’t mine.

I turned towards the only other figure in the room, and came face to face with the tuxedoed mannequins that I shared the stage with. His faded blue mane had finally blown free from his eyes, and they were full of warmth, of life. “I love you,” he repeated again.

The wave of sand rose above both of us now, the windows behind us cracking and breaking, before falling to the ground in a cascading rain of molten globs. I hugged the mannequin, feeling his warm embrace as the sun broiled my skin away, and the cascading wave of sand swallowed both of us.

“I love you.”

---

The burning feeling was gone, replaced by the cool sensation of ground underhoof. My eyes fluttered open, revealing an expansive meadow of dew stained grass, shining in the light. Risking a glance skyward, I saw the redness of it, and watched as clouds formed and boiled away. The sun danced like a crimson marble, fire arching around and around before crashing into the surface. And yet, it didn’t burn. I could not feel the heat. A breeze blew through the grass, and caused the strands to tickle my skin. I was wrong, this was the feeling of peace.

“I love you.” The faint breeze seemed to carry the words to my ears, but it also carried something else. I strained to hear the odd sound. What…. Was that whistling?

It was.

I rose from the grass, reluctant to leave behind their cooling feeling. It was soothing on my muscles of ash. I looked behind me, not only seeing my faded wings back, but also at the field that seemed to stretch on and on and on…

The whistling rose in a sharp note and I spun around. There, on a hill, was a figure, shovel in grasp and digging into the ground. The grass parted easily as I approached; the tune and pitch of the figure’s whistling putting my soul at ease.

“Figured you would come and see me.” The figure rested on his shovel as I crowned the hilltop. It wasn’t a pony, that much I could make out under the brim of his hat. He seemed a collection of creatures, with claws instead of hooves, and standing on two legs instead of four. He raised his eyes towards me as I stared at him. They were red… and any emotion behind them was left to predictions.

“You knew I would be here?” My voice sounded full this time.

The figure nodded, throwing the shovel over his shoulder as he approached. “They always do, at some point. Though, you’ve been here more than most.”

I narrowed my eyes. This place was familiar, and so was his face, but… that was all my mind would allow access to. “Is this a game?” The words were harsh.

He smirked, and pushed up the brim of his hat. His face was long, with the fur pointing at where his chin should be. “You tell me, you’re the reason I’m here.”

I frowned at that, taking a few steps closer, but didn’t give him an answer. It’s difficult to give what you don’t have.

He turned, gesturing me closer with a wave of his paw, before beginning a stroll towards the other side of the hill, talking as he did so. “You’ve been here so often I’ve lost count, more so now that everyone else has gone. It’s not an easy choice, you know, but the pain has to stop sometime. That’s what I do for ponies, I help them.” He resumed his whistling.

I followed behind, not too close. Was this nonsense he was speaking, because that’s what it sounded like to me, or did he know something I didn’t. “What are you talking about?”

He laughed, the sound catching me off-guard and causing me to flinch. He gestured towards the horizon. “Look for yourself.” He stepped to the left, letting me see.

Oh no.

The graves were evenly spaced, but they kept on going. Over the hill beyond ours, and further and further and further, disappearing in small black dots on the edge of my vision. Thousands, no millions, of tombstones, all spreading out into the four corners of the world. I turned around, and smacked into one of the slabs of granite. Now they were behind me, too, in all directions, never-ending. The name had worn away ages ago, but the tombstone remained in perfect condition, otherwise. This creature… he was a grave keeper. I turned in anger towards the figure, “What did you do to everyone!?” My voice echoed over the hills for entire seconds, before coming around and striking me from behind.

The smile on his face was gone, his whistle fading on his lips. “They came to me and asked. I gave them what they wanted.” He pointed a paw at the sun, “they all just wanted peace. Everyone except… you.” The paw was now directed at me as he advanced. “Every time, I ask you the same thing, and you give me the same answer, but each day your return and say the same. This cycle has surpassed even my memory, little pony, and eventually, even the grave keeper must claim every life, even yours. Nothing lives forever. He stepped to the left, a grave behind him. It hadn’t been filled, yet, and the name on the tomb had yet to be carved.

“No,” it was a cold, hard, robotic answer, that came unconsciously from my muzzle. My stomach sank, and a feeling of sickness washed over me. “NO!” I screamed, rushing the figure. The horn on my head cast a pink glow over the ground as the magic discharged at the figure. Tears came from my closed eyes, and when they opened, I was alone. He had gone, the only thing left was a shovel at my feet. “No,” I repeated again to myself.

“Are you not tired of life, little pony?” I turned, facing him again. His red eyes seemed empty now, the bright sparkle of life nowhere to be seen. He crossed him arms and approached, walking to the opposite side of the empty grave and sitting with his back to the tombstone. “It’s been so long, you know. Will you not sit with me?”

I watched him cautiously, and yet something told me to sit with him. He seemed to resign his will to resist, and eventually I took a seat next to him.

“They’re all in here. Every single pony. From the princesses to the earth ponies, to the diamond dogs and even the gryphons, all resting here. Celestia came to me, burnt and withered, moreso than you, and asked. We never got along, and yet, I still let her have her request. Immortal beings cannot simply let themselves die, it’s not as simple as that. They have to be killed, and even as a favor, it hurt more than I could imagine.”

I inclined my head towards him, “Am I immortal?”

He stared at me, something about it made me uncomfortable. My mind screamed at me to attack, to cast more magic, but I sat there, silencing the violence in my bones. After another moment, he turned his eyes back to the sea of graves, “I do not know, little pony. Is it your decision, after all. But I must stay here, to tend to these grounds, even as Equestria is melted into a boiling rock and consumed by the sun.”

I shifted, “What happened to this place?”

“Time. Beyond the power of friendship, magic, love, and even chaos,” he said that last one with a sense of yearning, “time is still more powerful than all of them combined. Planets and suns eventually die, regardless.” He pointed towards the sun, “And Equestria’s time has come.”

“Are we the only ones left?”

“Yes.” The exhaustion in his voice was complimented by a weary sigh.

I couldn’t die, I wouldn’t let it happen. Dizziness seemed to creep through me even at the thought of finding a permanent resting place. Something plucked on something else inside of me; there was a goal I had to do, a thing that needed me to know before I could die. But what was it?

“If I die… then you’re to remain here for all eternity?” The gravity of those words was not lost on me. Millions and millions of years to broil and bake in the heat of the sun, before a never ending torment of constant melting when Equestria was finally consumed.

“Yes.”

I looked at him, and I finally recognized the emotion in his eyes. It wasn’t defeat, it was emotionless, it was fear. He was scared to live. Frightened by the very fact of facing such endless torment. It made sense now. The shivering in limbs was easier to notice. This was why he simply didn’t take me when I answered no.

He was scared.

“You don’t have to suffer.” My voice was quiet, carried only to his ears by the whistling of the grass. He turned, that spark of understanding in his face, and stared at me.

“You know what you’re doing, do you, little pony?”

I hated the pain, I hated the sun, the heat, the dust, but looking at this creature, I saw only a thing whose worst fear was suffering alone for all of eternity. Was it compassion that fueled me to do this? Love?

Those words drifted by on the wind again.

“Please. Before I change my mind.” I rose.

He nodded, standing as well. We circled back the tombstone and faced the empty lot. Strange… it seemed bigger now.

“He’s buried somewhere in here too.”

A brief flash of a blue mane floated around in my head, and I nodded at the creature. Lifting my head to view him, a pink glow surrounded him as I worked my magic. I cradled his body, watching him curl up as he floated above the grave.

“Thank you.” His body disappeared from sight, deep into the hole. Years passed before my horn wouldn’t let me drop the mass any further. The magic faded and I turned towards the pile of dirt. The shovel still sat nearby. Its handle tasted bitter, but I still bit into the tool and used it to push the dirt into the grave. There was no resounding impact, no sound of earth on earth, it merely fell into the grave and out of existence.

As I tipped the last shovel full of dirt into the ground, a rumble spread out from the grave. Sweat on my brow began to evaporate and the heat returned in full force. How long had this taken me? Had the sun finally decided to melt this refuge away from us as well?

I could only watch the hills of grass burn from the newfound fury above, frying into black stalks before busting into a tide of fire. I did a full turn, watching the act repeat on every hilltop, slowly spreading towards me. Graves melted like clay, forgotten ponies becoming more lost. I ended my rotation back at the grave I had just buried. It had never filled, of course, a strange black emptiness radiating from within.

Of course, it was only place that wasn’t within a wall of fire now. The wedding hall bells sounded again, closer this time. I took a last look at the landscape around me, and stepped willingly into the empty grave.

---

The cold didn’t waste any time seeping into my coat as I fell. It had been a relief at first, but the eventual chattering of my teeth made me long for a source of heat. I still hadn’t touched the ground; a gentle breeze pulsating at me as I glided down through the black abyss.

There was no light here, just darkness. The faint red shimmer that had followed me into the grave had disappeared hours ago, leaving me and an unfamiliar blackness as reluctant partners. Even the occasional burst of light from my magic seemed to fade into nothing the moment it moved from my horn.

Was I speeding up?

The gentle breeze was now a harsh sting at my belly, and the wings at my side refused to respond to any movements. Some small horror that they had frozen worked its way through my mind. Down and down I went, picking up more momentum. It hurt to breathe, to look. Through teary, squinted eyes, something ahead of me came to fruition.

There was a spot in the blackness where it wasn’t so black. A hooded shaped shifted in a chair, watching me as I fell. The wind bit at my skin, forcing me to curl my head down into my body. There, beneath my feet, was a massive crystal heart, one which I was approaching at an extreme velocity. The impact was brutal, bones in my body shattering to dust and reforming afterwards. Arcs of pain lashed through me, and worst of all, my impact had cracked the beautiful gem.

The crack spread as I stood, and I saw the breaking of those murals as glass rained down upon me. I tried to take to the air, but my wings were still frozen. I resigned to fall into the heart of the crystal heart as the surface gave way and I plunged in.

---

There was light here. It filtered in through my dazed vision in fragments, but it was there. It hurt to stand, muscles pulling at me to just lay there and rest. There was railing ahead of me, and a beautiful icy mountain range kilometres off into the distance. I stepped forward.

It was a platform I was on, raised several stories above the ground. Poking my head over the railing opened up a plethora of new sights. A beautiful city that extended in every direction, but most importantly, there were other ponies.

Instead of fur, however, their outer coats seemed to be a hard substance. Light reflected off their bodies as I gazed at them.

They milled around underneath an arch, watching a strange stone with utmost attention. It was the heart I had cracked. I watched them focus at the gem, and I waited for something to happen, knowing that I had ruined their beloved artifact.

“You have to help them.”

I turned to the voice to my right, coming face to face with the same mannequin from the church. His lips moved when he spoke this time, that blue mane tossing back and forth. I knew this pony…

“I have to help them how?” I asked.

“Their heart, it protects them from the evil of this land. While they fix it, you must keep the city safe.”

I turned back to the city exterior. In the distance rested nothing but snow and mountains. Strange, how the climate of the city seemed so mild.

“He comes for them.”

“Who?” I looked back, but I was alone of the platform.

The sky grew dark, even as the sun seemed barely past its mid-point. The clouds seemed to swirl into a black mass, and the blue tint of the horizons slowly darkened into the familiar shade. I tried to run towards the railing, to warn the ponies below, but collapsed after the first step. Exhaustion seemed to rush into my body. Had I been this tired? A pink glow came from my horn. It fizzled and dimmed considerably. When had I cast a spell?

“You have to hold on.” The voice was back in my head.

My tired eyes could only spot the ponies below as they unsuccessfully dealt with the damage heart. Every second I was forced to tend this spell only sucked my energy. My heart beat unevenly, and breathing shook my entire body. I wanted it to end, it had to stop.

The pink glow faded.

The mountains were back at the edges of my vision; cold, billowing black snow rushing into the city. It spread out, touching and covering and consuming all the structures it met. The vibrant crystalline houses and structures tainted before my eyes, twisting into sinister black spikes upon contact. The screams below did little to arouse my body. It pained to stay conscious, and I could only lie here and watch as I failed the city below me.

A dark cloud landed on the platform next to me, chuckling. Green eyes stared venomously at me.

“A good effort, princess. But not enough. These ponies are mine and they always will be.” The black vapor condensed into thick, grey armor, that walked and knelt beside me. “Watch the kingdom fall. Watch these ponies die, and know it was all your fault.” He snickered, green spreading from armor and down into the material of the platform. It blackened and cracked, sharing the same appearance as the tainted city.

The ponies below ran, only to be swept away in the darkness. Their crystalline coats were robbed of their brilliance, hollowing and dimming out of their beauty. Their screams died with their brightness, only to be replaced by faint shells of themselves, curling up and crying as the city bled around them.

Hooves of lead pulled me closer to the armored stallion, as I crawled towards the monster. “Let them go.”

The response was laughter, cruel and full of mirth. “Or what, dear princess? What will you do?” He bowed low, letting me stare into his green eyes.

“I’ll kill you!” I thrust my head forward. Our skulls missed by inches, but my horn didn’t. He loosed a harrowing scream of pain, withdrawing his head and what remained of his eyes.

“This petty little princess thinks she knows about death, does she?” He growled. Green leaked from his ruined eye, burning the platform we were on. It seeped around my body. I was sinking, this floor melting around me.

He stepped back, laughing. “Enjoy your flight. Please, get out of my kingdom.” The armor evaporated, as did his body, leaving only that one green eye to stare at me as the platform gave.

I fell. The city was falling with me; tainted structures collapsing into the streets. My eyes drifted upwards. It had been a castle… that platform was merely an overlook. Such a beautiful palace it had been too, sparkling and glittering once, now corrupted. The shock of hitting the ground was nothing compared to the agony I felt as the entire castle came down upon my beaten form.

---

The blackness was back. As was the cold. My hooves were on solid ground this time, however. I walked, wincing as the floor froze each hoof. The icy clop of my hooves and the strained breathing of my freezing lungs echoed in the darkness. And yet, it wasn’t as dark as before. I could see the vapor exit my mouth, before it froze and fell to the ground. There in the distance was the chair.

And upon it sat the same figure from before. It didn’t move as I neared, but I was sure it stared at me from underneath its hood.

The atmosphere seemed to warm around the figure, my icy tracks stopping as I came close to the chair.

“A little pony in a world of metaphors, struggling through the oddities of the situation.” He rose throwing back the shroud covering his face.

That blue mane.

“Why can’t you just accept it? Why won’t you confront it?”

Whispers flooded my ears, all of them in my voice, all of them screaming at me. I was back in my bedroom, watching the castle walls rot and fester, watching through the holes in the ceiling as the heat melted the outlying city. I saw the feats of ponykind being erased, I saw the history of our species fade and broil away underneath the sun. Structures blackened into dust and were swept away in storms until nothing remained but ashes.

“The removal of an empire. The end of a legacy. The destruction of a civilization.” He gestured to the wasteland around us. “You walked through it.”

The church bells rang, bursting my eardrums. The city faded away, replaced by hundreds of mannequins, all dressed for a special occasion. The windows were back, murals as majestic as they had originally been. I heard the exiting clamour and cheering of ponies, all beckoning in excitement for the ceremony about to be conducted. At the head of the stage, I recognized a pony. Her coat looked like mine, the same shade…

“The pinnacle of relationships, the moment when two lives intertwine forever. You spit in the face of loneliness . Commitment did not hold you back, but spurned you on.” The ponies on the stage embraced, much to the crowd’s delight. I felt the heat of a kiss on my lips. Those brilliant blue eyes stared into mine.

I love you. Forever.

I repeat the words, but the last fragment dies on my lips. There won’t be a forever for him.

The windows cracked, the sand poured in, and the ceremony was consumed by destruction. The floor became moist underneath my hooves, small blades of grass blossoming. The graves were back too, the endless hills and endless stones, all marking the resting place of Equestria’s population. Everyone was buried here. I walked along the tombs, trying to read the names. The language was gibberish to me, had it been so long I had forgotten? The Gravekeeper was there, shovelling away at the dirt to an unnamed plot, limbs wincing and shaking as the heat of an unbearable giant beat down upon him.

“The pain… the heat. He couldn’t endure. The god of chaos, or unpredictability, finally had his share. Pain isn’t an unfamiliar concept to you, either. You buried a tired soul, but left an exhausted one to continue walking blind.”

I placed him in the grave, watching as fire consumed the cemetery. I descend into the blackness alongside him, falling into an abyss and emerging in another kingdom. The crystals are back, the ponies shining with luminosity as they stroll back and forth. There’s laughter, happiness. Six ponies stand out. They rush back and forth, maintaining food, games and entertainment, all with smiles and joyfulness. There are no mountains on the edge of the city. Inviting blue skies stretch off into the distance, a healthy sun beaming down a comfortable heat.

I’m on a platform, exhausted and in the hooves of somepony. He holds his close, telling me things are going to be okay. The glow around my horn dims and flickers, barely holding steady. My eyes are closed, but with each flicker I can feel the coldness of the snow, hear the laughter of those green eyes.

There’s a scream and I look. My spell has expired. Blackness rushes into the city, into the ponies, corrupting and twisting them into abominations. The soothing voice is gone; instead a harsh tone is bellowed into my ears. He tells me I’ve failed. That it’s my fault.

“You tried, and tried. The spell was costly, and you held for days, a feat that will go down in books of magical expertise. And yet, the city was consumed. You had failed. A Failure that cost many their existence.”

Everything faded. The cold inches back into my hooves and once again I am facing that chair. He was seated again, hood still drawn back. The white coat of fur does little to hide his age. Tired blue eyes look out at me. They shimmered in the dim light.

“And yet, out of all those things, you still fear me. Still fear what will happen to me.” He is interrupted by a coughing fit and I rush to him. The shimmer in his eyes is gone.

“An immortal pony destined to live longer than the stars, and you fret over this.” He sank lower into the chair, breathing thin and ragged.

“It isn’t you I fear,” My mouth is numb, and icy splinters slur my words. We are hugged together, sharing an embrace. I rest my ear against his chest, and listen to the faint heartbeat within.

“Everything dies, Cadance. Eventually.” His whisper barely reaches me. The cold has entombed us both, and pierced through my chest. It poked, and stabbed, and gutted…

---

Sleep is nudged from me by somepony.

“Cadance, is something wrong?”

I turned to face him. The lively blue mane, the radiant white coat, those shining eyes; my fears seem far away now. And yet, those wrinkles on his face seem so close.

I knew that I haven’t aged a day, a grace he will not share. It is worth troubling him? Is it worth making him afraid?

I smiled, sincerely as I could. “No, Shining, everything is fine.” He looked at me strangely, before letting sleep take him again. I turned away, I can’t face him. My eyes are closed again. Is this the right decision?

My breaths are thinned, icy spikes are pierced through my hooves and on the horizon, a violent red sun has risen.