//------------------------------// // Equis Eternal // Story: Equis is Breaking // by Glen Gorewood //------------------------------// Princess Celestia stands before a door in the ancient ruins of the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters. Around her the sounds of the Everfree are dim, far less vibrant and threatening than the norm, indeed it is almost quiet. Cries of the unusual native species are all but unheard, as if something is moving within the forest silencing them one by one. Above her the sky is blue, but a stagnant unnatural shade of blue lacking the shifting hues of a sky alive with energy and magic. Clouds stand still as her sun shines it's rays down upon the world below, it's spherical mass slowing upon it's axis within the small galaxy it calls home. The magic that is normally palpable and wild in this region has mellowed to a mere murmur as tamed as a tiny stream. The world isn't as it was, and has not been for over three hundred years. She had hoped with Twilight's ascension, Discord's reformation, and the birth of Flurry Heart things would change back to how they were before. But now she knows that hope was futile, what little chance there had been was destroyed with Tirek's rampage. Celestia and her sister had believed that the world was not permanently affected, but those subtle shifts that had been occurring for eons had quickened. Now it was only a matter of time, time that as a recent message had revealed was far less than she had anticipated. All these changes and more are imperceptible to all but Celestia, Discord, and her sister Luna, who waits below and beyond the door. Within the castle ruins this door stands alone. Unchanged and not aging despite the centuries of time since it's placement within the castle walls. Her hoof lifts towards the impression where a door knob or handle should be, pausing for a few seconds within a few centimeters of it's target. In her mind, Celestia knows if she does this there is no turning back. When she opens this door, the fate of Equis must be decided. The world they had created together, one to which they had brought life and magic that would be passed on to ensuing generations. A world they had in time handed to Luna, Discord, Herself, and others to guide and care for to keep alive from now to eternity. Eternity it seemed, was far shorter than it should have been. As her hoof finishes it's journey to the indent pressing into it inwards; an array of ancient glyphs the color of the surrounding forest, a lush green, light up across it's surface. The door shudders as the unique magic takes hold, and then it begins to fracture. Breaking apart like bark peeling off a tree, it pulls back into the castle walls until the entrance is perfectly clear save for the green glow of the door frame. A sigh upon her lips, Celestia walks through the gateway and begins the long walk down the stairs before her as it closes behind her. As one white hoof clicks an clacks on the stairs, her aurora colored mane and tale blowing in a non existent wind, her mind wanders. Such a long time it has been since she was last here, the one beyond this flight of stairs refused to leave when the castle had been vacated a centuries prior. After her battle with Luna all those years ago, she had thought that of all ponies that one would understand. But it was not to be, claiming that to leave would bring disaster Celestia had been convinced to leave that one, maybe if she had taken her with this wouldn't be happening. Maybe if she had forced that one to leave with them, the world wouldn't be falling apart. Though Celestia couldn't see it, she felt the changes in the flow of the planet as great forces beneath it's crust awakened. Shifts in the magnetic field, though slowed to a minuscule pace, told her of what was to come. The first visible and worrying sign had been the disappearance of the Timberwolves, one day they had been breathing animated masses of living flora the next they were just gone. A team had been sent to find them, despite all their searching the research ponies had told her the only sign they could find was not something fit for her eyes. They had been visibly upset, one had indeed excused herself to the little mares room looking very green. Determined to see for herself what they had found, Celestia had taken to the sky and flown to the ancient forest. A quick magical trace had allowed her to find the site in question. However upon landing within the vast clearing, she had regretted not heeding the words of the researcher immediately. Upon the ground before her were piles and piles of them all across the clearing and into the forest beyond; their life magic and with it life force gone. Walking through the timber filled graveyard she saw the corpses of mothers holding their young close as if to protect them. Corpses of older wolves with empty wooden skulls frozen staring at the sky, alongside the bodies of elders whose great paws held each other as if to comfort themselves in the end. Male, females, young, old, and others were all clustered together into groups or frozen in piles bound to the ground. Every single one was covered in dark green and red roots that reached into their corpses. Intertwining throughout the bodies and holding them captive even in death. Each frozen in the very spot and pose they had held when it began, and none had been spared. As Celestia scanned with her magic she found no trace of survivors, no timber wolf remained within the Everfree. Expanding her reach to her shock there were none left anywhere on Equis. From the variants in the far north to the graceful far southern variety, even the far eastern semi aquatic timber wolves had disappeared. There were none left, and no doubt they all were ended the same way as those before her. Each one around the world frozen in death, life stolen from them by something beyond even her power to fight. Back then, Celestia had believed she still had time to spare. As her hooves carry her deeper into the ancient pit beneath the castle, she snorts at how foalish she was. In her desire to believe she had more time than there truly was, in her lack of will to tell Luna and Discord what she had seen; she had made an already dire situation far more so. That sign had been followed by the colors fading from the natural places. Such as the sky losing it's hue and variety as the grass became a unnatural uniform yellow. Soon after the world had begun to slow, everything around her began to move at unnatural halting rate. The life that populated this world in the far reaches froze in place, as if in denial of the changes around them. It had however taken the first appearance of the cracks to force her to admit the truth. Equis was dying, and the one left behind was calling them to either witness it's end or decide it's future. The one task that those before them had never had to fulfill, and the one task she and her sister had truly neglected. Reaching the base of the stairs, Celestia casts her gaze around her. For all the flights it took to get here, and all the protections afforded by the door, there were none at the bottom save for a drying half dead curtain of moss. Walking through it she beheld the truth hidden far under the castle. Before her was a spring glade filled with an seemingly immense aura of life, flowers of every variety in existence and great ancient vines littered the floor. Trees of pure magic shone a sickly yellow green in the underground chamber, as a stream of toxic brown twisted it's way towards a larger river of blue. This place had withered since she saw it last, reflecting the true state of the world down to the fractures in the walls. Following a trail of green glyphs Celestia walked through the dying underworld, her eyes glancing nervously at every little sign of decay. Beside the trail are corpses of flora and magic, little wooden and floral beasts frozen in place. Their empty eyes giving her a feeling that they could still see, but not in the same sense as the living. This same feeling had existed where the Timberwolves had ended, and now as she draws closer to her goal it intensifies. Time passes without meaning until she reaches a moss covered pavilion made of ancient stonework, or upon closer work long dead fossilized trees and plants. Each of them glows with a green light interspersed with flashes of red, old and well embedded vines shifting and twisting over the tree trunk pillars that twine together to shape the building. No mortal hand created this, the impossible organic structure before her had in fact broken a few mortal minds in it's time. It's impossibility would reduce those who were unprepared to a gibbering slobbering mess, even without the abstract glyph and rune indentations. It was a place older than the world itself, the very core of it's heart and fountain of what lived above. Daring to part the moss with her magic, Celestia enters the sacred space where her goal and a choice awaits. Before her is a fantasy beyond imagining, a world within a world. Every biome on the planet is reflected in reflective perfectly smooth sections of vines and trees. Each is in varying states of degradation, though to those living upon the surface of Equis they would instead see what it had been three hundred years prior. This was a result of a spell she had cast after Luna as Nightmare Moon had been banished, for in her grief Celestia had refused to accept what was happening. In her anguish she had cast the most powerful glamour spell that had ever been or would be created, creating a mirage that had fooled not only all those on the planet but herself as well. Through their eyes and hers the world had seemed vibrant and alive. But the truth was it was slowly rotting and dying with every passing century, becoming more and more stagnant. Discord had not intended to destroy the world when he escaped, as she had told her student. But instead had hoped to shift the rules of the world to prolong it's lifespan. Of course doing so would mean to cause untold extinctions, but then again enough of those had happened in the past century alone already. In her mind, even after Luna's return, Celestia had continued to deny the truth. That denial had continued indeed until this moment, when she set her eyes upon the one before her. The one left behind when she had fled. An ancient looking pony with the front claws of a predator and the rear hooves of a herbivore lay on a couch made of fossilized and living plants life before her. Her grand wings a combination of flesh, scale, and wood with veins of floral vines and mosses pulsing within. A thin film covered them like a dragonfly's wings, and they lay limp and splayed out beside her as if torn from her body though they remained attached. Her body itself was coated in a mix of coats of all species, creating a harmonious kaleidoscope of a pattern that shivered as if freezing within. Wrapped around her body, but also embedded within, were great vines and protrusions formed into ancient mystic shapes long lost to time. Some had broken free and merged into the surrounding living vegetation, pulsing green and red and seemingly feeding their host with some unidentifiable energy. Her mane and tail were faded to an almost clear state, but still showed the signs of the ancient patterns of color that belonged to all life. Legs longer than even Celestia's, and a neck that seemed at the border length of beauty and horror; the only part truly similar to a pony was this beings face. A kind and youthful face had turned to face Celestia as she had entered the room, eyes the color of the deepest forest green focused on her form. The twin branching spiral horns on her head crested and turned back much like an elk, and her ears were pointed at the tips with tufts of fur like a wild cat. Walking forward with her head slightly hung in shame, Celestia's eyes traveled to her sister standing to the left of the mare's sleeping couch. Luna's eyes were filled with sorrow and worry, a sign that did not bode well. Behind the mare stood Discord, his normally mischievous grin now set in a serious expression, his eyes filled with the same sorrow and a trace of fear. The truth no longer able to be ignored, Celestia walked past the couch to take her place on the right side of the mare. The mare's eyes had never left her, and as soon as Celestia was in place she smiled a sorrowful smile. A shuddering breath moved up and out of her mouth, a sigh of exhaustion and relief. The kind of breath one only releases when they know the end is near. With that, the Gaiacorn speaks in a voice that is impossible to describe, but ancient in age with an essence of a child. "Celestia, it seems you have finally decided to stop pretending after all these centuries. You know what is to come, don't you?" The Alicorn of the sun nods, her eyes trained on the images reflected in the vines and tree trunks. All over the planet, the fractures are growing larger and time slowing faster. As if her entering this pavilion had sped up the inevitable, the planet begins to break. In a cracked grief filled voice she responds. "Yes Terraequis, I know what is to come.." The Gaiacorn Terraequis looks at Celestia, her eyes filled with ages of knowledge beyond that of almost any known being. "Do you now? Then tell me child, Sun Bearer Celestia de Solurna Diurna Equistria; what is to come now that you have finally come to me like your sister and Discord?" Celestia gulps, her nervousness over her failure at the one task that could save her little ponies palpable. "The world will end, I refused to accept it was breaking apart at the seams and now it will end and with it my little ponies..." Celestia holds back a few tears, a few sniffles break free from her as she tries not to think of the blissfully unaware ponies she has shepherded all these years. Those sweet little ponies and all other species that will meet their end, completely unaware of the truth. Of all that she hid from them, of the true lie they have been living for centuries. TerraEquis tilts her head, a curious expression on her face. "After all this time, why would you think that Celestia? You know as well as I what is to happen here today need not be the world's end. It could instead be the world's transition. We need only your decision, the others have already decided including her sister and the avatar of Chaos." Eyes wet with tears and mane slightly less billowy, Celestia turns to the Gaiacorn, the oldest being on the planet and only one who remember the before times. Her mind is in a shock as her jaw trembles. Getting a hold of herself she manages to let loose words she dreads hearing for it means to vocalize her failure. "But we never found another Gaiacorn, they went extinct during Discord's reign thousands of years ago. Nor have I or my sister found another vessel for the world, we have failed utterly eldest one Terraequis. There is no other way, the world will break this day. Equis, and Equestria, will die." With that she let's out a cry of sorrow, it echoes through the pavilion a testament to Celestia's impending loss. Terraequis, Luna, and Discord allow her to vent her emotions till they are spent. Time having slowed so much at this point, it would mean little if they had to wait relative centuries. After the Alicorn of the sun has spent the last of her sorrow, the ancient an elder Gaiacorn speaks. "Celestia, you did not fail for it was not your duty to find either the Gaiacorns or the vessel." Celestia stares at Terraequis dumbfounded. "But, but they said when Luna and I ascended our tasks were to guard the world, to protect your line the Gaiacorns, and to find a vessel in case it should be needed. We failed in that, due to that the world.." Her breathing getting rapid, Celestia takes a few deep breaths to calm down. Terraequis snorts in mirth, a rather unusual emotion considering the circumstances. "Celestia you did succeed, for your job was to guard the world which you did splendidly. Even if you cast a planet wide glamour spell at the end." The Alicorn of the Sun's eyes grew twice their size in sheer shock. "What?" The Gaiacorn continues, " Luna was the one who was to find the vessel for the world. That is why she has the gift of dream walking, for the vessel will be found by the absolute absence of dreamers and dream creatures." The dark blue alicorn standing to her left nods in agreement. "And we hath found one suitable, though twould have taken less time if our sister had not enchanted and clouded our senses to the true state of things for so long." Terraequis smiles and nods at the draconequis behind her couch. One of the only beings that rivals her in age that still lives. "Discord was supposed to protect the Gaiacorns, which he did in quite the ingenious way." With that said ,the ancient Gaiacorn lifts it's left claw and points behind her directly at a bundle held lovingly in the draconequis's arms. A pale butter yellow bundle with a soft pink mane and tail, two wings, and a cutie mark of three butterflies. Celestia's mind freezes as she realizes who the chosen Gaiacorn is, and what happened to them, as Terraequis continues with her explanation. "I may be old Celestia, ancient even; but I would call turning an entire species into another to protect them, while maintaining the ability to turn them back a success. And to set it up so the new world bearer would be chosen by the elements of harmony was ingenious." Behind her Discord preens himself a little, a sad smile now gracing his mismatched face as the planet gives a shudder around them. The time is drawing near, and a decision must be made. As he holds his beloved in his arms, the lord of Chaos hopes it is the right one. For a dead and broken world is boring, no fun, and stagnant. Celestia opens her mouth then closes it again like a fish. Taking yet another breathe she steadies herself before responding, the shock evident in her voice. "So all you need from me..Is my decision?" All those present nod and the eldest Gaiacorn smiles. "That's right Celestia, it is up to you. Do you let the world we created die, or agree to allow it to live as it was meant to again." In her mind, a spark of hope once near death flares to life once more. Celestia can hardly think straight, as the planet continues to break she asks one final question that will decide the fate of the world. "Will my little ponies notice? Will they even survive?," she asks with genuine hope. Terraequis nods, exhaustion in her eyes as she answers. "Yes, your little ponies will survive the transition. As will all life I have been forced to put into stasis over the centuries. When it is over, Equis shall be alive in a way it hasn't been since the rest of us came to this planet. Those long gone, and those who may live again." Celestia's eyes shine with joy, her lips trembling with happiness and renewed hope. Her little ponies will be safe, though the planet will break they will survive. The planet Equis may fall, but the world will live on, and the only price will be.. "What of Fluttershy? The element of kindness? Will the transition to what she will become harm her?" The tired and ancient Gaiacorn shakes her head, while indicating for Discord to place the sleeping pegasus on the floor before her. As he does so, lovingly putting the buttercream mare into a nest of flowers and vines, she turns once more to Celestia. "She will become me, and I will become her, and she shall remain as I fade away. Like you and your sister Luna, sweet little Celestia, the world bearer also has their time. Ours is not set by planets or where the world has been, nor measured in any way. I have been on many, and borne the world through more trials than any before me. I knew the previous avatars of the core forces, and she shall know what I do. However she shall know the future, while I fade into the past. That is why I called you here, Celestia I am fading, and I fear I cannot hold the world much longer. Make your decision, Bearer of the Sun, or the planet shall make it for you." The last part of the Gaiacorn's reply is tainted with anxiety, her time draws closer as time slows further and the planet goes into it's death throes. Beside her Celestia has already decided, with a look filled with both hope and sorrow she places her wing over the elder mare's back and smiles. "I choose to let the world survive, and transition to the next planet. I choose to allow..the element of kindness Fluttershy to be reborn as she was meant to be. And I," At this point the solar mare's voice breaks, the last part of her decision on the tip of her tongue. The most painful part of this whole thing, the one she dreaded the most. With a slight tremor to her voice she resumes. "And I choose, to let you fade away as a new Bearer of the World takes your place." With that statement, the world around them stands still. The eldest Gaiacorn mare merely smiles, bearing the look of one who has accepted her fate and is too tired to go on. The decision rendered she lifts herself painfully from her couch, vines ripping free with her and oozing pure life magic. With creaking and groaning limbs she walks forward to the little buttercream pegasus before her. Discord had already confirmed the little one's agreement, and with Celestia's decision the time has come for her end. The end of Terraequis, Bearer of the World Equis; and the beginning of Fluttershy de Gaia Equestria Equis, Bearer of the World Equis. Leaning over, her form moves of it's own volition. In an eldritch display her body rushes out and over the Pegasus, encasing her in a shell of varied hues and tones but glowing the green of life itself. Forming into a shifting pulsing mass, each reverberation and tremor causes the world to move. Slowly, like a mirage of an oasis lifting off of a desert, the world moves. The planet that once hosted it visible for the first time in untold millennia, as the globe shaped amorphous mass that is Equis moves away. Once a fair distance from the now imploding planet, it's sun and moon still rotating around it despite the lack of a host, it begins to flash. Faster and faster a light engulfs the world, until it flashes one last time and shimmers out of phase. Minutes, hours, or days pass as the dying planet finally fractures completely. A massive crack splits down it's center, breaking it almost in half. It's mass too great for it to completely fracture, it's center explodes outwards finally free of the forced compression it had withstood for untold amounts of time. Within the mass of debris and planetary fragments, float objects that seem foreign to this space and the previous world that inhabited it. Ovoid in shape and reflecting the far distant blue dwarf sun's light off seemingly metallic surfaces, the objects reflect the dim rays to shimmer like stars in the remains of a dying world. As Equis appears over the new planet vessel, a sheen of magic coats it as it flows over it's surface. This planet is larger than the previous one, to accommodate Equis releases parts of itself kept sealed for time unknown. Filling the surface and absorbing the core, energy, and essence of the planet it prepares to complete the transition. Finding the perfect spot, the core of Equis forces it's way into the center of the planet, where it deposits the ancient inner world where Terraequis once lived. The inhabitants of the world of Equis itself don't notice anything. For all those who had been living in the mirage for generations, all they would notice is the next day everything seemed more alive and varied. The other Alicorns, regardless of age already knew what was to come; they were more surprised at exactly how little seemed to have changed. Princesses Celestia and Luna would announce that they had found a long lost seal on the world that had kept many things hidden. Having broken it, they expected great changes from the world, and indeed changes were occurring from the moment Equis had found it's new home. Deep within the world within a world, the pod which held the new bearer of the world grew. And by it's side was Discord, gazing into it's depths at the mare who had stolen his heart. Who would now be by his side, for an eternity. And within the pod Fluttershy slept, merging with the oldest of the eldest to become the newest of the new. The Bearer of the World of Equis, a place of magic and mystery that will outlast eternity and more. Despite all of this, despite the world's survival, in private those who knew her would mourn. For though Equis was reborn, to do so the eldest had to break apart and fade. And in some ways, losing Terraequis was the same as breaking Equis itself. For she would never be again, and knew what none alive still recalled, the origin of the world she bore for time untold. The origin of Equis.