//------------------------------// // Genesis // Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot // by Equimorto //------------------------------// "I've seen a lot of different worlds at this point, and more than a few noteworthy things if we're using what a pony normally would as the frame of reference. I've seen things any normal citizen of this country would find terrifying. I've seen rivers of fire, glaciers filling the sky, and mountains of corpses walking the earth as one mind. I've seen worlds consumed, torn apart at the seams, times and spaces where the laws of the universe have fallen apart. I've seen rains of blood turn to a hailstorm of skulls, and temples of ivory filled with the echoing laughter of mad angels. Yet, I was never afraid. I wouldn't say I was, at least." The unicorn stopped looking at the distance, and turned to Twilight. He continued, "All those worlds were lost. Hopeless, and I knew as much the moment I stepped in them. Nothing more to lose, nothing left to save. I saw myself much the same way. A leftover from a dead world, without a place to go back to, without one to go to. I wandered the universes out of curiosity more than out of hope, and I never really found myself frightened at the thought of danger. I had nothing to live for but my drive to see what other destruction was out there. Now it's different." "Why won't you stay?" Twilight asked, not for the first time. Again, she didn't get an answer. "I didn't think I'd get to fear again. I didn't think I'd get to find something to care for again. Yet here we are. A world that's not destroyed yet, and lives I can still help. And now that I have something, I again know what it's like to fear losing it. To fear harm may come to it." He looked away again. "I will help you with what's to come. I have nothing else." "Why are you telling this to me now?" asked Twilight. "And why won't you stay here? Not even just for one night?" "To be remembered," the unicorn said. "I'm no longer the last living creature in the worlds. Danger approaches, and I won't run away from it. For the first time in a long, long while, I don't only risk losing something. I risk being lost. I've carried the memories of my world and all those I've seen. I want someone to carry mine, if I am to be outlived." He looked down, and exhaled sharply, almost a sigh. "It's selfish. A little pathetic. I'm only letting you carry an image of me I've helped craft and polish." "That's what everyone does," Twilight replied, stepping closer. "It doesn't make you worse than anyone else." "I should write it all down," the unicorn said. "All the memories of mine worth being carried. There are things out there no one else will ever see. I think it would be right to ensure they are preserved beyond me." He looked to Twilight again. "That of loss isn't the only fear a living world brings me. I may stay here for longer, but my nights I'll keep for myself. I can choose which of my memories I share, I cannot do the same with my dreams."