The sky was bending, spinning, twisting, creating a whirlpool of clashing day and night that spun dizzily above Discord as he stoically marched along crumbling paths. The sun and moon flew through the air in circles above him, eclipsing over and over again as the world revolved beneath the ancient temple. Dilapidated pillars holding up the ceiling fanned out before a blue stone staircase, covered in vines growing out through it. The temple had laid dormant for centuries, and the decrepit air seemed to distrust the presence of any living creature within it's walls.
Discord kept face, holding his head high as he climbed the steps, finally coming face to face slowly with the one who summoned him; a rainbow tufted reptilian tail swinging back and forth through the void, armoured claws on the heavy alabaster-furred barrel, a set of mismatched wings, a long prehensile neck, and finally the pleasantly smiling face of a draconequus, crowned in royal regalia, long since faded and rusted from the pristine gold it has once been.
Celestia lazily sat suspended in the air before a large hole in the temple, the direct center of the whirlpool of light and darkness climaxing behind her. Discord brought himself to his full height, flaring his wings out in a show of aggression and pride to the beast floating before him. The eternal rivals remained like this, facing down at the edge of reality for a long moment before either spoke.
"Good morning, Discord. Or is it night?" She giggled softly into her paw. "I can see why the other one found this so fun."
"Cut the games, Celestia. What is the meaning of this?"
"I can't simply invite you out here for a quick spot of tea? Catch up on old times?"
Discord growled, leaning down and baring his fangs. Celestia sighed, pinching the bridge of her muzzle and staring down at her rival pitifully.
"No, no, it's always fighting with you. You never hear me out, never ask how I'm doing, just fighting, fighting, fighting. This time really could've been different, but I suppose that parts on me. I did do the whole 'turn Equestria into my playground' thing, after all."
"Is that all this is to you? A game?" Discord spat. "The lives of billions are more than chesspieces. You've put them in danger time and time again."
Celestia bit her lip in a smile, casting her gaze to the endless abyss below her. "To be honest, it seems more like a game to you. YOU are the main character, after all. I'm the final boss at the end of the game, you beat me, feel good about it for a few centuries, aaand then we wait for the sequel and start all over again. That's how it all works, isn't it? You're going to win, not because you're particularly good or smart or strong or anything, but because you're the main character. You have to win."
Discord slowly raised his head, perplexed. "I... what are you talking about?"
"I'm saying I'm not doing this again. I got bored. I've been playing the bad guy since before you were born, to hundreds of thousands of characters just like you. To people who have ruled Equestria, who saw me as a threat to it, and fought me. And I've been playing along. I was defeated, I was reformed, I was a hero, then I waited for those feats to stop mattering and started all over again, making subtle changes each time, toying, playing, seeing what did what when I did what."
"Cease this nonsense. There has only ever been one ruler of Equestria, and it's me."
Celestia had to stifle a laugh. "I can say from experience you're wrong. Because I was ruler. I fought a draconequus who only cared about me because it was fun, and I defeated him, thinking it mattered, thinking I was saving my people."
Discord's anger had almost completely faded, replaced with confusion and wariness. "Nothing you're saying is making any sense. What are you trying to tell me?"
"I'm trying to tell you that it doesn't matter. Not a single thing we can comprehend matters. I brought you here to end this."
Discord took a cautionary step forward, hopes steadily rising as he approached his longtime nemesis. "You... you want to reform? You want to help Equestria? I... That would be wonderful! We can put all of this behind us right now, and start anew."
Discord lifted his hoof over the chasm out to Celestia. She stared at it for a few moments before stifling a polite giggle, looking back up to his eyes.
"I... believe you have misunderstood the purpose of this visit."
Discord was being lifted into the air. His eyes widened and he bagn kicking and flailing, throwing spells every which way in an attmept to break the grip put on him. Celestia jerked him over the drop into nothingness, the swirl of light and night spinning ever more ferociously behind her, like two clashing oceans in the sky.
"In all my years since I became this creature, I've played my role well. But I've long since gotten bored of that. This planet will crumble, this sun will explode, this universe will collapse under it's density, and I will live, floating through the void, waiting for another universe to be born, and another sun to form, and another planet with another Equestria with another you, who will defeat me time and time again until the entire process repeats, over and over again ad infinitum." Celestia's grip tightened as she maintained her pleasant smile. "So why don't we both do me a favor, and mix things up this time, just to see what happens?"
Discord could barely breathe, mass teleporting oxygen around him into his lungs as fast as he could. Without batting an eye, Celestia snapped a claw, and the oxygen completely disappeared from the Chaos Shrine.
"W... what are you.. what are you doing?"
"Spicing things up. See you next universe. I promise I'll let you win next time."
The Shrine was shaking now, chunks of rock and rubble coming off and falling endlessly below. Watching it from his perch in the air, Discord could see it had been ripped from the ground completely, orbiting around the center of the whirlpool like a planet revolving in a spiral towards a black hole. Up, down, and a sense of reality clashed as Celestia fell into a perpendicular orbit, dragging Discord through the air with her. Space was bending towards a single focal point, creating a spinning merry go round of earth and sky the two were trapped in. Celestia cackled merrily as they flew, light blurring and whipping around their eyes, gaining speed and bulleting through infinity.
"Chaos, chaos, let it rain!" Celestia joyfully sang as she gripped Discord tightly. "All these bugs are in my brain! I see now a world gone blind! That is how I found my mind!"
Irregular shapes Discord's mind could barely begin to render began flying around them the closer they drew to the center, and Discord could barely muster the energy to struggle against his captor's grip, slowly asphyxiat ing. For a second he swore he could seethe sun directly in front of his minds eye, burn ing into his soul, growing, aging, changing from yellow to orange to red befor e collapsing in on i tself, becoming the greate st shade of white Di scord had ever seen, p ulling itself inw ards al ong with e verything a round it, the pla net and the sta rs and the da rkness filling every c revice of rea lity until only the b linding whi te of light c ould sur vive. T he universe a n dg alaxy began anew, and h e f e l t h o p e f o r t h e v e r y l a s t t i m e
---*---
There was a long field, covered in tall green grass that stretched out for miles around, covering what seemed like every inch of the planet. The new sun was shining brightly, distant birds could be heard chirping, and in the center of it all, a single raised hill, covered in flowers with a gnarled old oak tree atop it.
Celestia sat underneath it, quiet, pristine, allowing herself a rare moment of peace. The view was lovely, and rays of light delicately danced across her barrel through gently shifting leaves as she lay in the shade, forgetting her troubles and patiently waiting for sapient life to form, creating a society so she could begin again.
She sat waiting for a very long time.