The sky of Garilend was dark, without stars, covered by a blackness more intense than the night sky was ever meant to be.
Emin and Sunset had been having lunch together atop a skyscraper when the Star appeared above them, filling their heads with the sick laughter. Both of them stood up, ready to fight - but both of them knew that there was no chance they could stand up to the thing above them.
The world shook, earthquakes rippling through the land. The structure they stood in didn't fall, but they could see others collapse in the distance, killing thousands. Clouds of smoke and dust flew into the air, giving the impression of a warzone. Alarms went off, power plants exploded, and the panic began.
Emin took in a long, harsh breath. "We can't do anything against this."
Sunset nodded slowly. "...That's a definite. I can feel it's power. If it wanted to, it could snuff out this planet with a thought..."
Emin slammed his fist on the table. "I'm not going to stand here and do nothing. Even if it's all hopeless..." He whipped out his phone. "Get me a teleport to the command bunker. I don't think I need to tell you why." In an instant, they were teleported away - a second before something blew out the floor beneath them.
In space, Corot considered wiping them all from reality effortlessly - with his freed power, such a thing would be simple - but that wouldn't have been satisfying. No, it was time to kill them slowly...
A black beam cut into the planet, triggering a supervolcano's eruption, spewing lava and ash into the atmosphere. Corot prodded a fault line, breaking an entire tectonic plate, the crust swallowing dozens of cities as a result. A simple gravitational manipulation of the ocean completely submerged several islands.
Corot then inverted the magnetic poles just for the heck of it.
This was delightful!
Corot looked at all the panic, the relief efforts, and - oh - the retaliations that had no effect whatsoever. The nukes did nothing more than tickle, and the magic superweapons simply made him itch. Corot was far too powerful. He crunched their moon into a fine powder, showering the world with meteor showers both beautiful and terrifying. Nothing the size of an extinction asteroid - that would have been too quick. Slow and painful was the way to go - bit by bit he would shred this world. Though why keep himself limited to cosmic level destruction? He was more creative than that. He created a hurricane around New Cloudsdale just to see how they'd deal with it. He dropped a few black clouds in population centers. He pulled creatures and demons from their legends and horror stories, bringing them into reality with only one purpose - to torment. He took control of certain individuals personally, sending them on murder sprees...
There was no end to his brutality.
Stop. The Tree of Harmony called out to him.
NO.
I beg of you...
CASTOR, YOU LOST. YOUR WAY HAS FALLEN.
Please. We were once close.
MEANINGLESS.
Do not destroy what I have created - let there be opposites. The universe needs variety.
YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING JUST AS I DID. YOU WERE LEFT ALONE, FREE, WHILE I WAS SEALED AND PUNISHED. MY DIVERSION FROM THE RULES WAS DENIED. I AM HERE TO DENY YOURS. YOU CREATED LIFE AND GAVE IT YOUR POWER. YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME THIS TIME, CASTOR.
...Make it quick then.
NO. YOU WILL BE THE LAST TO DIE, PERHAPS MONTHS FROM NOW. I WILL MILK EVERYTHING I CAN OUT OF YOUR SICK WORLD YOU'VE FOUND. YOU JUST COULDN'T LET YOURSELF DIE ON THAT ICY ROCK LIKE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO, COULD YOU?
I could not resign us to death.
YOU DID THAT THE MOMENT YOU GAVE YOURSELF UP TO THESE BEINGS. I WOULD ALWAYS HAVE COME FOR YOU. I WOULD NEVER HAVE STOPPED.
Corot returned his focus to Garilend. He set every square inch of it on fire for a microsecond. He laughed as they all screamed in confusion and pain...
~~~
A probe appeared in the area of space that had been the Asanta system a few minutes ago. There was nothing but debris in an endless void. There were no planets, no moons, and no sun.
Discord appeared in front of the probe - his serpent-like form mostly reconstituted. "Heeeeey! I've been worried about you - couldn't find any trace of you guys. Get in here, the coast's clear."
A minute later, the moon itself appeared within the destroyed system. Discord teleported to Tirek's moon base. He opened his mouth to speak but found he didn't have anything to say. He looked at Twilight and Luna - and just sighed.
"Well," Tirek said, "this is bad."
"We're getting transmissions from Garilend," Twilight said. "The Star is there, tormenting everyone."
Luna cursed. "So the Star couldn't find our position... and in retaliation went to attack our home. And we are much too far away to do anything about it... "
"Could we do anything even if we were there?" Discord interjected. "I knew I was unable to stop the supernova that thing made!"
Forsoo began pacing. "We're powerless... "
There was silence in the room, faces of deep sorrow and contemplation on their faces.
Luna took in a breath and spoke first. "We will scour the system for anything we can find. Then we'll take the moon into deep space. We will travel with it from system to system. We will begin our search for a home anew. Somewhere the Star cannot find us."
Twilight began to tear up. "But... But..."
"Garilend will be no more the moment that Star decides it's bored," Luna said. "I... I am sorry. There is nothing we can do."
Twilight slammed her hoof into the ground. "No! No! I did not work this hard, I did not spend centuries alone, I did not go through this Tartarus just to be put back at square one without my friends! Too much was put into this Luna, I am not giving up now! There is a solution here, and we will find it!"
There was silence in the room once more. Everyone was looking at Twilight with sad eyes.
"No," she said again, "not budging. We are going to do something."
"Such as...?" Discord asked.
It was at that moment a flash of bluish light appeared in the stellar void, filling the nearby space with a ticking sound that was heard by all, entering directly into their minds. A magical bowl appeared, glyphs reminiscent of gears spinning around its surface. The opening in the bowl led to a vortex of time and space, out of which a ship was spat out. It tumbled end over end a few times before righting itself.
Twilight blinked. "...That's the ship they took. The one Celestia was on..."
Luna frowned. "...Hail it. But prepare an emergency FTL jump. We have to be cautious."
The hail went out - and there was no response.
Twilight frowned. "...That's odd... ...I'm pretty sure that was Starlight's time spell..."
Forsoo shook his head. "It has to be a trick. We need to get out of here."
"I'll just go over and investigate..." Discord said.
"Bad!" The Mite shouted, stopping his actions.
"What else are we going to do?"
"...Answer the call," Forsoo said. "They're hailing us now."
Luna blinked. Then she answered.
"Uh... Hi." Cadence said, an unconscious Starlight in her hooves. The unicorn's horn was smoking and sparking fiercely - a sure sign of magic overload. "I... Just woke up. What happened?"
Luna smiled. "Well... Apparently, before the entire system was destroyed by the release of the Star, Starlight saved you through a time warp - a jump to the future. ...That's what it looks like anyway."
Cadence cocked her head. "...The entire system was destroyed? All the Asantans?"
"...Yes?"
"Good."
Twilight frowned at this, but let it slide. "Where are Celestia and Orgis?"
"...Gone." Cadence said, looking at the ground. "Celestia told us to go and... Orgis was on the planet."
Luna choked; she lit her horn, sending out a ping to her sister - receiving nothing in response. "M-my..." She stuttered, barely keeping back her tears.
Twilight put a hoof on Luna's back. Unlike the moon princess, she was unable to keep her tears back, the trails streaking down her face.
"We... W-we can't do this now!" Luna shouted, stunning everyone. "We... We can't let this be in vain! Later! Later! Right now we have to stop this... Star!"
Starlight groaned, coming to. "...His name is Corot. He's related to the Tree of Harmony, somehow..."
"Do you know of anything that can stop him!?"
"The... satellites should still be around if they're made of the same stuff the Mite is..." She rubbed her head, barely able to think through her headache. "I think they are what kept him sealed..."
"We don't know how to use those!" Luna shouted. Starlight winced.
Discord coughed, holding out his hand. "The Mite might."
"Possibly?"
"What do you need?" Twilight asked.
"Keys."
Starlight let out a soft laugh. "I... Have all thirteen in my head. Scanned the ritual to death. They can be transmitted again."
"Okay..." Luna said, breathing hard. She shook her whole body, trying to focus. "We... Reactivate the satellites that sealed this Corot, and then we leave, never to come back."
"Sounds like a plan," Twilight said. "Everypony, get on it."
"I'll... Need help," Starlight said. "I'm burnt out. I can't get into my own head right now..." She sighed, giving both Luna and Twilight a concerned look. "...I'm so sorry..."
Cadence blinked. "...Are we going to be okay?"
"I don't know," Twilight answered truthfully. "What I do know is that we should get this done before we try to find that out."
~~~
Twilight stared out into the void of space.
The cold, hard, dark expanse of nothing.
The deathly black blanket that surrounded everything.
She gritted her teeth.
Celestia had been taken from her. Killed by some evil Star that apparently just hated everything. What was the point of it? What had Celestia accomplished? Where was... Where was the end she deserved?
Twilight noticed Luna standing next to her. The princess of the night was crying openly, unable to stop. She tried to speak but failed.
Twilight winced, her own tears starting once again. "What's the point?" she asked.
Luna was unable to form a response.
"We keep trying to find hope," Twilight gulped. "We keep trying to find life. And it always gets taken from us."
Luna managed to shake her head.
"And some of us die along the way. I wonder why we even try."
"B-because to not is suicide..." Luna managed, breathing in heavily. "If... if we s-stop, death claims us. Literally... And f-figuratively. We... We..." Her head sagged, and she was unable to continue.
Twilight frowned. "There comes a point when you can't do it anymore-"
"T-that point is not now!" Luna yelled. "It is not what she did and it is not what she wanted!" She slammed her hoof into the window with a thunk. "Twilight Sparkle, you were her closest friend. She never gave up. She fought for her ponies until the very end! So what if there is no safety to be found? At least we tried!"
Twilight blinked. "At least we tried..."
Starlight walked into the room behind them, ending the conversation. "We have a problem," she said.
"What is it?"
"The satellites."
"Did the supernova break them?"
"No. Just like the Keys, they'll survive anything. The issue is that we need Corot in-system for them to work. They don't have infinite range."
Luna growled. "Great. Just great. How do we tell a Star to move!?"
~~~
Corot was enjoying his fine-tuned desolation. Kill an individual there, watch the family panic, then set the house on fire and explode all the incoming fire trucks! Perhaps the killing with a horde of ants was more fun... Honestly, Corot didn't know, more experimentation was required to find out for sure. It had been so long since he'd been allowed to do whatever he wished...
Please, I offer myself... The Tree of Harmony pleaded.
YOU ARE ALREADY MINE.
I offer knowledge.
YOU KNOW NOTHING THAT I- Corot paused. What was the thing sitting next to the Tree?
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!"
HOW ARE YOU SPEAKING TO ME!?
"That's a secret! Sorry, wouldn't be fair to tell you!"
I AM COROT! REFUSE ME AGAIN AND YOUR DEATH WILL BE AGONIZING!
"Kill me and lose the knowledge you want!"
I CAN ALWAYS KILL YOUR CLOSE ONES FIRST.
"You'd regret that," Pinkie said. "Also, couldn't you just read my mind?"
Corot was not going to admit that he'd been trying to do that for the last few minutes.
Ignore her. That's what I do.
YOU ARE A TRUE FOOL CASTOR, CREATING CREATURES EVEN YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND.
It is beauty, it is grace.
IT'S SACRILEGE, IS WHAT IT IS.
"...Oh no." Pinkie said suddenly.
WHAT? WHAT HAPPENED!?
Pinkie grinned. "Nooothing!"
I CAN TELL YOU ARE LYING.
"Well then go take a look, I'm not stopping you."
What...? The Tree of Harmony wondered.
YOUR CREATURE IS SMARTER THAN YOU, APPARENTLY. AWARE OF ITS LIMITS. PERHAPS YOU COULD LEARN SOMETHING. Corot scanned the entire planet with his magic - and realized a heavily encrypted transmission had come in. He would have noticed it eventually, but that could have been minutes or hours down the line. It was from the moon...
"...This is Princess Luna calling from the Asanta system!" They just told Corot where they were, the fools. "We are attempting to activate the satellites..." Corot stopped his assault on Garilend instantly - he'd forgotten about the satellites. How in the universe had he forgotten about the satellites!? "...and while we have the Keys, we do not know how to use them to unlock the satellites. We plan on sealing Corot back in the moment we can, but we need your minds and resources to uncover the methods by which to do so. I suggest searching in the Mite's files. Our scans are attached to this message..."
Corot laughed. YOUR PRECIOUS MOON IS OUT THERE, AND NOW I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE IT IS.
Corot, wait-
WAIT? NO, CAN'T TAKE THE CHANCE THEY'LL SOMEHOW FIGURE IT OUT. BUT REST ASSURED, I'LL BE BACK!
Then Corot was gone, punishing the planet with one last tearing of spacetime.
Pinkie grinned. Then she started to giggle. Then she began to laugh uncontrollably.
The Tree of Harmony just sat there, observing the pink pony. The guardian of Equis was very confused.
Elsewhere, Sunset looked up at the sun shining upon them, and a smile crept up her face. It took her several minutes to tear her gaze away from the sky, at which point she would see the desolation that remained. Monsters ran rampant, dark magics flooded the world, and many structures were reduced to rubble.
She lit her horn, summoned a fireball, and killed a demonic creature without so much as a thought.
"Time for cleanup..." She muttered.
~~~
Cadence sat, looking out the window at the stars.
The Asantans were all gone.
She had won.
...Why did she feel so empty?
"Revenge..." Tirek said. "It is a brutal dish. When you want it, you want it more than anything else. Whenever I sought it, it never ended well for me." He paused for a moment, gauging the alicorn. "You succeeded. I still don't think it ended well for you."
Cadence nodded, face blank.
Tirek sighed. "But then again, we would not be here at all, fighting this evil, were it not for a sort of revenge..."
Cadence was silent.
"Revenge is never pretty. But it is a part of nature. We can't ignore it." Tirek let out a snort. "Sometimes it is what drives us to fight the good fight."
"When did you become philosophical?" Discord muttered from the side.
"Since I became a brain in a jar. I have meditated on my actions and those of others much. Rarely, if ever, is revenge satisfying. But sometimes it is righteous. Whether it was or not in this case, well, that is something you need to answer for yourself."
Cadence said nothing. She didn't know. Her actions hadn't caused the entire system to be reduced to rubble - but that was what she'd wanted. Now billions - perhaps even trillions - were dead. Was this really what she had sought?
It hadn't made her feel any better...
Alarms went off across the entire moon. Corot had appeared in the system. MOON. IT IS TIME TO DIE. He laughed. HOW DO YOU WANT TO GO ABOUT THIS? SHALL I TEAR YOU APART BIT BY BIT, SEND YOU ALL INTO A LIVING NIGHTMARE, OR JUST VAPORIZE YOU WITH A SINGLE THOUGHT?
He received a transmission: How about we just distract you for a few seconds?
The Mite activated the satellites. Hundreds of white strands of energy shot out of the mechanical chunks, reaching Corot in seconds. They acted as hands, combing through his black fires as if the flames were nothing but hair. He pulled against them, unleashing his own tendrils of darkness, all reduced to dust when they attempted to grab the sealing strands. HOW? THE MESSAGE - THE MESSAGE WAS FALSE!
"Yes it was!" Luna screamed from the moon, pushing on Corot with her magic, shoving his bulk towards the white holy hands. Discord, Cadence, and Twilight backed her up with their own magics. "We fooled you, a self-proclaimed god, with bait!"
I WILL END YOU FOR THIS! Corot thundered. The white wisps swirled around him, dragging him closer to his original position. He used his free power to fire a wave of spacetime distortion at the moon, threatening to shatter it in an instant. There was no way the alicorns could deflect such an attack - but they could move the moon out of the way. It was something Luna had done every day for thousands of years. She roared, shifting the moon to the side. The attack sailed past, coming close enough to tear a chunk off the moon's side - but the powerful gray globe held fast. Corot tried to retaliate again, but Luna was expecting it, and the power of the seal was overcoming his struggles. There was more white than black visible on his form. I WILL RETURN AND DESTROY ALL YOUR DESCENDANTS! EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH WILL BE CURSED BY ME!
Luna laughed. "Two things. One, I never had children. Two, you destroyed all the planets here. Who are you going to brainwash to free you this time!?"
THERE ARE OTHER WAYS!
"Oh, and what if we throw the keys into a black hole?" Luna shouted. "What then?"
Twilight joined in. "All the Fengal tech controls will be lost forever! And Corot will never be free to torment or influence the galaxy in any way ever again! Remember this day Corot - for it was your last as a free being!"
CASTOR!!!!
Corot continued screaming the name long after the seal was complete. Once again, there was a white star in space, exactly where one had been a few hours before. It was alone - planetless. And soon there would be no moon to keep it company either.
"Taaaaaaake THAT!" Discord yelled, throwing his hands into the air. "WEEEEEEEEEE WIN!"
Forsoo laughed as well. "That felt GOOD!" High fives and hoofbumps went all around, a mini-celebration starting to break out.
"Let's go home," Cadence said suddenly. "I... I need to see Shiny."
"Home..." Starlight said, smiling. "We... We saved it for real this time."
Tirek let out a laugh. "And I'll finally get to see it!"
"Yes," Luna said, tears still in her eyes. "Yes, you will..."
~~~
Several months later...
Twilight stood in the middle of an empty field, looking out at the night sky of Garilend. The vast reaches of space were opened to her mind, stretching beyond her imagination. The cold emptiness that made up most everything, and the horrid thoughts that came with it, were countered by the warm night air, the rustling of grass, and the hooting of a bird.
She once thought she could comprehend the darkness. She wasn't so sure anymore. beauty, solitude, light, dark, deep... Was it something to ponder? To be avoided? Was there more out there than could possibly be imagined, or was death the prevailing language of the universe?
Was it to be feared? Did it represent doom - or hope?
Luna appeared next to her, sitting down in the grass. "...How many do you think there are?"
"Hm?"
"Stars. Are all those specks of light beings that watch us, or is it just a select few?"
"...It's probably just a few," Twilight said.
"Yes, but you never know..." Luna looked up at the sparkling scenery. "...They watch us, always. They saw what Corot was doing the entire time, as well as the Tree... And they did nothing."
Twilight frowned. "I don't think we'll ever know why that is Luna..."
"We're immortal Twilight - we have all the time in the universe to find out."
Twilight nodded, looking deeper into the night sky. She had thought she would stop looking at it, eventually, because of all the painful memories it brought. But she could never stop gazing at what lay beyond - the cosmos were so beautiful, despite what they brought, what memories they harbored. They were an escape...
Twilight sighed. "Tirek passed away a few hours ago."
Luna nodded. "I felt it."
"...He was so happy here. He wasn't scared..."
"He had found peace within himself and what he had done. He had completed what he needed to do," Luna said. "We, on the other hand... We are not done."
"Should we be?" Twilight asked.
Luna smiled sadly. "...That is for you to decide for yourself. As for me... no. I think there is still more for me to do..." She looked up at the star-studded sky. "...Much more. Up there."
Twilight looked up as well. She swore she saw one of the stars sparkle back at her, inviting her to dance among them.
She let a smile come to her face, the mystery of the cosmos filling her mind once more. She was filled with a feeling of wanderlust.