Celestia helps Twilight remember somepony.

At the end of the world, Twilight must convince Celestia to let go.

(Originally written for the Twilestia is Bestia Lightning Round, expanded upon and made into a one shot.)

The world spins, years pass, and everything comes to an end. Except Celestia. She sits on the shore of the last ocean, watching and waiting for her own chance at death. Because everything comes to an end if you wait long enough, and Celestia is patient indeed.

Darkness holds dominion over the world. Cinders of Sun and Moon gathered from a long-forgotten catastrophe are all that remain to shelter the village from the consuming void. But their power wanes. Lanterns of Sun and Moon held close against his chest, a stallion takes up the mantle of light bearer and forges into the abyss to return light to a world that has all but forgotten it.

Beyond the safety of the village gates, he will meet a voice of shadows and starlight, and many are the revelations it has of the world he thought he knew so well.

7/10/19 update: This story has been completely remastered to meet my 2019 writing standards! Enjoy!
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[Cover art by Ventious]

The relationship between Celestia and Hydia, the Queen of the Lamias, goes back quite a ways: Hydia was the first of Equestria's enemies that Celestia consigned to Tartarus instead of killing, after all.

But as the centuries roll on, their relationship changes somewhat.

This was going to be my entry in the 193rd Writeoff competition, "How the Mighty Have Fallen," but I didn't get it finished before the deadline. Then along came the My Little Pony Renaissance Contest with its theme of "Change," and, well, here we are!

It's not easy to go back to your life after a thousand years of insanity and exile. It's not easy for Luna to even leave her room. All the same, there's a special somepony that Luna desperately wants to get closer to, and that's worth facing the outside for. All she has to do is get up the nerve to talk to her.

Twilight and Celestia go off alone, and Twilight will not say what is the matter, only that she may not return at all. Her friends and Luna gather in a vigil at the library the night of the Twilight's unknown trial, waiting for her to come back to them. Twilight faces the most terrible of all decisions, and learns the nature of what she is, and what hopes she may yet have when the sun rises and she returns to her friends.

When Celestia went on sabbatical into the west, she promised Twilight it would be only a couple of months. A year and a half later, the sun resists control, the country is in ruins, and her teacher is lost in the wilds. Twilight has become the apostate, her faith in her teacher and her teachings waning. In the wake of tragedy, her resentment blossoms into fury and she vows that something must be done. Shadows gather around Canterlot, and old things that should not have been awakened are on the move. The Student goes west, her hope restored by friendship and righteous fury.

The night, at long last, is passing.

A letter from Celestia interrupts one of Pinkie's parties with disturbing news. Now friendships will be pushed to the limit as Twilight struggles to uncover which of her friends is not who, or even what, she appears to be.

(While not a romance, this does contain a shipped pair)

in Russian

Recursive Friction is a pony on a mission. He will rebuild the world Humanity lost, and he will do it right under Celestia's nose.

And if she wants to stop him, she will have to do it over his dead body.

An entry for the Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest.