“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute, that can’t be how it ends!”
“Yeah, you’re here talking to us, telling the story.”
“You’re right, obviously. There is a little more to say. Don’t worry… I’m almost done.”
When I blinked my eyes, I saw I was still within the dried lake. The black hole in the sky was gone, only grey clouds remained. All around me was stillness and silence; not even the wind blew anymore. Despair’s twisted sword had cooled, it was just blasted iron now. My wing hung limply at my side, and pain shot through it with each breath. My left rear leg was stiff; my bloody flank ached where Despair had impaled me with his horn. The horizon glowed faintly, not quite sunlight, not quite the night.
Not far from me stood an equine figure all in black. It stood on all four legs, waiting for something. Softly the weak light reflected off its surface, it was made from obsidian or something like it. I stumbled towards it, dragging my stiff leg through the ashen ground beneath me. The face of the statue was raised towards the sky, a Unicorn horn upon its brow. Jagged lines traced across its face, the lightning scars of Despair.
When I recognized it, I yelped and fell back, my pulse rising again. The figure did nothing. It was only stone. Slowly I picked myself off the ground and looked around for signs of life.
I was alone. Truly, alone. Sable was gone. My friends were gone. Discord was gone. Even Despair was gone. What happens next? What can happen next? I could go home. See what remained. My eyes were drawn back to the face of black glass.
“I hate you.” I stepped closer to it, something clinked under my hoof. A broken red diamond lay in the dust. The core of the Alicorn Amulet, destroyed. “I hate you.” I picked up the largest red fragment with a hoof. “I hate you!” I screamed myself hoarse yelling at the statue. Weakly I flung the red gem at the black figure, a tiny chip of obsidian fell to the ground. Unable to stand any longer I collapsed to the ground, ash rising about me for a moment. All I could do was breathe in short shallow gasps; in pain, in sorrow. I didn’t have any tears to cry, or I would have.
Something cracked. A sound I had heard before. No. Not again. It had to be some sick joke. He was dead. He had to be dead. Sable killed him.
Black glass fell to the ground, in small flakes at first, as the fissures spread from where the cracked red diamond struck it in the chest. Something silver glinted underneath the obsidian. Then the stallion shook off the rest of the casing, the glass shed off him like water. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He stood tall, alive, looking up at the grey sky.
"I suppose that's fair, after what I've done. Oh... what have I done?” His voice was breathless, ashamed. Now he looked down at me, neon blue eyes peering out from behind the silver mask. It was not a terrifying thing anymore, the lightning filigree lines framing his face and eyes were bright and clean. His face was no longer the mask of despair. His mask was now the face of hope.
“Sable Stardust?” Was it really him? Was he really alive? He reached up to pull the mask off his dark purple face, dropping it in the ash next to him.
“Twilight Sparkle.” He nodded, so very familiar and comforting. All pretense of restraint fell away, he reached out to me and drew me close and embraced me the way I did for him on the balcony. Was that only last night? I couldn’t have pushed him away even if I wanted to. “I’m so sorry.” He could barely even whisper it. He cried over me, and I rested in his arms, for how long I didn’t know. Until at last, we could both speak again.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Slowly he helped me to stand, I couldn’t manage on my own for long and had to lean against him. There was something strange about him now, something new. In his mane alongside the neon blue, there was now a streak of silver and another of gold flanking it.
“Yes. It was.” Something draped over me, a wing… Sable’s wing. It didn’t feel like glass. I gasped when my own damaged wing was touched. “Your wing! Are you alright?”
“It's broken. He shattered it.” My breath hissed with the pain.
“Wait here; I’ll make a splint.” For a moment I stood alone and watched him walk away. His cutie-mark was plainly visible. It was a heart-shaped golden shield, flanked by a pair of wings made from blue lightning. My own six-pointed star in silver rested at the core of the heart shield. He hadn’t noticed, had he?
He lifted the iron blade from the ground, and it crumbled into slag and dust. Then he shook his head in disappointment before leaping into the air and over to the treeline. I could see his wings now; they were different than they used to be. At first, I thought I must be seeing things. But when he returned bearing solid branches and ivy vines, I saw them clearly.
Where once there were panels of glass there were now soft feathers. Where once there were gaps and magic there was now bone and muscle. His wings were the same color as his body, the individual feathers fading from purple to black, and then to silver points at the tips. From beneath they seemed so much the same as before, stars reflected on a midnight lake.
“Sable!” He didn’t even know. “You’re…”
“Shh, don’t speak.” He wasn’t listening. He scanned my wing, looking at the damage with a spell much like the one he once used to peer inside Rarity’s sewing machine. His eyes meet mine. “This is going to hurt.” I nodded and braced myself, gasping as he moved the bones back into place. Compared to what Despair did to me, it was not too much to bear. Then Sable tied the branches to my side, holding the wing immobile. I had to lean against him again as he finished, the injury bleeding away what strength I had recovered. “Do you need to lie down?” I glanced down at the ground; it was so tempting just to lie down and quit. Bile rose within me, from pain or from hate, I didn’t know or care.
“No, I need to be away from here. This place is nothing but pain and ash.” Sable nodded, and picked his mask off the ground, putting it back on.
“Pinewood Village isn’t far away. We can find medical aid and a place to rest there.” Even with the mask on his voice was perfectly clear. I had no will to argue, it was a good place to start anyways, and slowly he helped me up the dried lake’s bank. I stumbled with almost every step; my leg was so stiff and sore. “I’ve got you. It's alright now.” It really wasn’t, but it was a pure pleasure to hear him speak.
“Sable, wait. I have to stop.” Once we made the shore, now the lip of a crater, I had to sit and rest. My rear left leg wouldn’t bend properly, and I had to lie down. Sable eyed my side with some concern.
“Let me take a look at that leg.” He repeated his spell, viewing the injury done to my side. I felt his magic as a slight tingle, although it didn’t hurt.
“How much damage is there?” He shook his head.
“It’s bad, his horn went in deep. It’s a lot worse than anything I could heal. We need to get you to a real doctor.”
“Let me rest here a minute, and we can keep moving.” Sable sat beside me, just outside of reach, looking out at the dried lake. He must have been considering everything that happened down there. My personal thoughts were on the more immediate change to him. “Sable. You haven’t noticed yet, have you?” On sable’s right foreleg I saw a faint scar line, where Despair had torn it off. I looked up to see his left eye; there was a thin faint line there as well. He probably wasn’t the only one with new scars.
“That somehow we’re still alive? I think I have.” I wanted to laugh.
“Look at your wings.” It hurt to laugh, at least I could manage a smile.
“My wings? why…?” Only now did he look back, and really pay attention to his change. He flared one wing up high and stared at it. Wordlessly, dumbstruck, he opened the other, his eyes gliding over the feathers.
“You’re an Alicorn now.” For this moment whatever consequences lay ahead meant nothing. He laughed, joyful, almost childlike in his happiness. It was even better than when I first heard him laugh. But then his joy faded, it only lived a moment.
“So I get to be the first blank-flank Alicorn? What insane luck.” Now I couldn’t help myself and laughed despite the pain. He hadn’t noticed that either.
“That particular achievement is denied you.” He blinked, confused at my joke. “Come here.” He stepped up beside me, wings still wide, and I reached out to put a hoof on his flank to caress his brand new cutie-mark. “See?” His eyes opened wider as he beheld the symbol there. Tears rolled fresh down his face and dripped off his mask, joyful, not sorrowful. It was impossible to see under the silver, but I knew he was smiling, even more beautiful than his happiness at becoming an Alicorn. He had no words, needed no words. His joy reminded me of my own, those many years ago, and I looked down at my bloody side. My smile died on my face.
A few minutes later I was ready to move again. Sable walked alongside me, holding me steady with a new Alicorn wing. His body warmth was a comfort, helping fend off the coldness I felt within. There was a hollowness to me now, my magic and my mark were gone. Despair’s destruction had not restored my Cutie-mark. Was it because he ate it, swallowed it whole? Did it burn away in the magical fires that must have been consuming him? Was it because it wasn’t me that destroyed him? What about Celestia? Was her mark gone for good too? I glanced up at the grey sky and the faded horizon. The sun still hadn’t risen. What about all the others?
It took some time for us to hobble back to Pinewood Village. The walk exhausted me, my final desperate assault on Despair had burned out my stamina, probably done severe long-term damage to me. Right now, I didn’t care. We were still alive, that was enough.
“Listen? Do you hear anything?” I hadn’t been listening to my surroundings, concentrating on walking and my thoughts. There was precious little to hear when we stopped.
“No.” I could hear my own pained breath, but behind that nothing. Sable frowned, his eyes watching the trees around us. The little wooden buildings of Pinewood finally came into view, he turned us towards the local clinic first. The streets were empty; no ponies were about. “Did we forget to take out the curse?”
“No, it is gone, its work was finished. This is… something else.” I wondered what he meant, but my weakness and pain prevented me from asking. The clinic was empty, no doctor on duty. So he left me on one of the exam beds and scoured the building for better bandages and splints for my wing and leg. When he returned several minutes later, he was visibly shaken.
“What’s wrong?” He met my eyes for a moment, and I saw fear there before he looked away. In silence, he cleaned and dressed my wounds. What helped me most was the painkillers. “Sable. Please, tell me what’s wrong.”
“I know it hurts you to walk, but I need to see my family.” There was something strange in his voice. But the medicine was dulling my senses and my mind, and I couldn’t figure it out. Another minute of rest and we headed out again.
Sable guided us through the village, passing by the Alicorn statue on the way out to the little cottage. The garden had been maintained recently, the weeds pulled and the ivy removed. Probably Sable’s doing before he returned to Ponyville. Despite the recent attention the flowers were wilting. He took off his mask for a moment and looked from it to the statue. Then he shook his head and put the mask back on his own face, and we left the icon behind. I didn’t see any other pony as we walked.
It took such an agonizingly long time to finally reach the cottage. It was just as I remembered it, peaceful and quiet. So very quiet. The silence bothered me now; it shouldn’t be this still. Sable opened the gate and the front door for me.
“Mom? Dad?” No pony answered his call, a tinge of panic in his voice behind a faint hope. The fireplace was cold, full of ashes. The loom waited for Softwear to make beautiful cloth, the table full of parts for another ship in a bottle for Earl Grey to assemble. Sable set me on the couch, where I had discovered the memory curse in his parent’s minds.
Before I could ask, he’d gone away, not far. I could still hear him moving through the house, searching for his parents. Somewhere above me, I heard him cry out, and I knew now why the silence bothered me so. I had seen Earl Grey’s cutie-mark in Despair’s vortex. I shut my eyes as Sable returned slowly down the stairs, unwilling to stain the memory of his joy with what he must have been feeling now.
“I’m so sorry.” Once he had hated sympathy, no longer. He was silent for a long time; he just sat on the floor beside me. I heard him weep softly. Wordlessly I felt for him, finding his mane and the points of the lightning mask with my hoof.
“Before we go…” Voice cracked, barely audible. His hoof reached up to mine, holding my arm weakly. “I want to bury them.” I nodded, I didn’t have to say anything. He stood and walked away, going back up the stairs and returning a few moments later. I could very faintly hear the sound of a magic aura; he was carrying them outside. The front door opened, and Sable left. For the next very long time I heard the sound of shoveling dirt. I would have helped him if I could. Eventually, Sable returned, brought with him the scent of freshly dug earth. He rested beside me for a while longer. “We should go. There’s nothing here anymore.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.” I wished I could keep my eyes shut, but I needed to see where I was walking. He led me back outside; he couldn’t bring himself to look at me. In the garden, there was a new mound of earth. He buried them together. Sable glanced to the side, and I followed his gaze towards a small cart. “We have a long way to go. This will be easier.”
It only took a few moments for him to set it up, space for me to lay and a few supplies from the house, just some food, water, blankets and pillows for me. The last thing he did was remove the front panels of the cart, so we could see and speak to each other without a barrier between us. Then Sable placed me in the vehicle, gently as he could, and put on the harness. The wheels squeaked slightly as he pulled me away from the little cottage in the valley where he lost his family all over again.
The ride was bumpy, but on my blankets and pillows, it was no great hurt to me and much less straining than walking. Now and then the cart squeaked as we ran over a bump or divot in the road. Hours and hours passed, it was impossible to tell what time it was, the light never changed, the sky stayed full of grey clouds. The air was still, there was not even wind.
“Sable.”
“Hmm?”
“We need to talk about what happened back there.” The cart slowed, although to his credit he kept moving regardless. “I still don’t understand what you said to him; you said he was you.” He spent some time to consider how to respond. His hooves on the ground and the creaking of the harness the only sounds apart from our breathing.
“Back at the friendship map, where this all started, when I stole the Amulet and tried to go back in time. It wasn’t possible, and something had to give. With all that power flowing through me, with the amulet affecting me, I think I know what happened.”
“Your spell failed, there was a backlash.”
“I know. But, something happened with all that power. My memory was split, my personality and thoughts and all that I was became two. One part of me got my real memory and my self-loathing and my sorrows and despairs. The other got my hope and my spirit, and my body I think. One of us, one of me?” He shook his head, trying to clear it. “One stayed there in Ponyville with you. The other slunk off and grew into that evil we fought. I created Despair.” Now he stopped, and I could see him look up at the clouds again. “I think part of me wanted it to happen. This is all my fault. All of it.”
“What was he even trying to do?” I couldn’t bring myself to think of Despair and Sable as the same pony. The thought was just too horrible. The Sable I knew would never have done such terrible things.
“Despair’s motivation? My memory after I was vaporized is a little fuzzy. I think Despair said it himself. He… I… gave up on life. I wanted… I needed to know, before I ended myself, if I was special.” That didn’t make any sense.
“Even if you were only special because you gave up?” He nodded. It still didn’t make much sense.
“If everypony else had faced the kind of sorrows I did, what would they do? Would they give in and quit, as I did?” He paused for another long while. I let him think, still trying to comprehend it myself. It was hard to separate which parts he called ‘himself’ were Despair and which were Stardust. “Without the Amulet, without Discord’s incredible power, my despair would have only been a threat to myself. With it?” He actually laughed at himself. “How disappointing, I became a generic doomsday villain.”
“I think I understand now.” He returned to his earlier pace, and time passed slowly. My thoughts turned to the last moments when there were only darkness and the tiny golden spark of hope. “Do you remember what happened, right at the end?”
“Not… clearly. My body was gone, I didn’t have eyes to see it with or ears to hear. But I felt it. I was there, between you two, and I knew somehow I wouldn’t let you get hurt anymore. And then they came.” I had to close my eyes, the ache in my heart returning. “I couldn’t possibly describe it, what they gave me.”
“You don’t have to. I know what it feels like.” He stopped again and looked back at me. I nodded, smiling faintly as I remembered them, and he returned the expression.
“I’m not sure how I came to be again, when it was over. I think it was a gift.” He flapped his Alicorn wings, imagining there was a breeze for him to feel with them. “From your friends, from destiny.” I looked at the mark on his flank. Golden shield, Lightning wings, my six-pointed star. “From Harmony itself. I don’t know, and I don’t think I ever will.” He took off the mask, turning it over in the air before him. “Maybe… even from Despair and the Amulet.”
“You think Despair gave you back your life?”
“For all the hate and pain, in the end, he was still me. What would I do, in the same place?” He had no answer for that, and I had none for him. None I was willing to say.
The wheels creaked as the miles passed below us, at some point, we passed through other small towns but were met only by silence and quiet. The same quiet we found at Sable’s childhood home. Eventually, Sable’s physical endurance faded, he’d been pulling the cart for hours upon hours. We stopped to rest and sleep for a while somewhere on the empty road, setting a small fire to keep warm. I still had to lie down; my leg wouldn’t bend properly. Sable rested beside me, where I could lean on him. He’d thrown a blanket over us both, it helped.
“Why aren’t there any other ponies on the road?” I hadn’t been watching the whole time, maybe there were, and Sable just didn’t mention it. I could only pray that was why. Please, tell me that was why.
“I think you know.” He stared at the silver mask on the ground between us and the fire.
“Just like your parents?” He nodded, sadly. “Are we really all that’s left?”
“I don’t know. Probably. I haven’t even seen any animals.” The truth stung, as bad as a hot knife to the side, I knew that feeling intimately. There was nothing more to say. All the pain and all the exhaustion finally took hold, and I let myself sleep.
Despair glared down at me with vile lava pits, his volcanic breath on my neck. He laughed, pinning me down. I couldn’t fight back. He pressed down on me. I screamed as he impaled me.
“Twilight! I’ve got you!” Sable’s voice, Despair’s face. I tried to kick him away. Something was holding me still, I was caught in a trap. “It’s alright. It's just a nightmare.” I blinked, panting hard. “Shh. It’s not real.” The Monster in ash and fire was gone. It was a dream. I had to gasp to get my breath, shaking and crying as Sable held me. The blanket was twisted around me, pulling on my wing and leg painfully. The fire had gone out.
“Please, Sable. Tell me he’s gone.” The purple Alicorn held me tight.
“Despair, the monster. He’s gone.” He whispered in my ear. “The fire and the ash, that form is gone.” I breathed deep, listening to the sound of his voice and the truth within it. My pulse steadied, and I calmed. Sable let me back down to the ground and retrieved some of the food from the cart. I didn’t taste it, eating slowly, knowing Sable would berate me if I did not eat. Once I had finished my meal, I didn’t even pay enough attention to see what it was, Sable helped me back into the cart, and we headed slowly back north.
“You said, that form is gone.” It was some hours later; Sable was taking a short rest. “What did you mean?” His neon blue eyes behind the mask met mine, and then he tapped his chest over his heart.
“Because he’s still here. He’s a part of me.” He looked up again at the perpetually clouded sky, letting his eyes close. “Every time I look in the mirror I’ll see him there. When I stumble, when I fall, when I fail, I’ll see him in my mind once again. I’ll fight him for the rest of my life.” Then he stepped over to me and placed a hoof beside me where I could hold it. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll also beat him for the rest of my life. He’ll never win, you’ll never have to see that monster again.”
“How can you be sure?” My dream flashed in my mind, and I shuddered.
“Because.” He smiled, I could tell even through the mask. “I’m not alone anymore, and I’ve got hope.”
“I thought you said it was almost over?”
“I didn’t realize how much there was left to say. I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you just teleport back?”
“Sable wasn’t that good with magic, and I… I couldn’t either. All my powers were gone with my Cutie-mark…”
“So… everything was dead? All the animals too? Even us?”
“As Sable said, we never met any other living thing, all the way back to Ponyville. And there this finally comes to an end.”