//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18: Epilogue 
// Story: The Watcher 
// by GnollReader 
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Two hundred years had passed since her return to Equestria, and even now, Celestia thoughts still returned to the purveyor and his final words. Much had changed during this time, but they had never heard of him again and it filled her with sadness to think of what must have come of him and his kind. No matter what they had done or what they had been, they still had deserved more in her opinion, and it saddened her even more that she had been a part of their end.

And now, as she did so often these days, she wandered the halls of the ruins of the old Canterlot Central hospital, her memories always leading her to the old station of the newborn. Would they suffer the same fate as them? What would they do when their final moment would finally come? What would she do?

As her inner turmoil threatened to overtake her once again she continued her way down the long corridors, stepping past dark and abandoned rooms and tainted glass. Even though this place held no meaning to her subjects any more, it still served to wake old emotions in her. Ever since that day she had viewed her own rule and her subjects with very different eyes, and it filled her with sadness to think of the weight of the decisions he had carried with him for so long.

She wondered, if things could have been different. If there would have been a way for them to help one another... could they have found a way to travel their roads together? So much knowledge had been lost with his race, so much experience that could have helped them on their way into their future, but it was lost now. And she still had so many questions for him unanswered... her mother, the disappearance of their race... all the stories and fates he had carried with him... it still made her shudder.

Celestia continued her walk towards the newborn station, but stopped dead in her tracks as she reached a corner. In the silents hallways of the old hospital, she heard something she had not heard in over two hundred years. Was her mind playing a cruel joke on her?

She strained her ears, first hearing nothing... but then, there it was... the faint melody making her heart miss a beat as she recognized it.

Celestia rushed down the hallways with a maddened pace, countless thoughts and emotions running through her head, but all coming to a halt as she rounded the final corner.

A small swirl of darkness softly drifted through the air.

"Hello, Celestia..."