How long... how long had he been drifting through the emptiness around him? How long had he been here, suspended in darkness and silence? How long had he been waiting for the void to finally swallow him?
It felt like he had been here forever, yet the memories of what had transpired still felt as alive as on that fateful day. He remembered... the endless city ablaze with the fire of their hopes and desires, how it fallen to pieces before his very eyes and how the void had come to claim it at his command.
He remembered Celestia.
He felt a strange emotion run through him. With all that had happened, all the things he had done and forced upon himself and his kind... was this how it had always supposed to be? Could he have done more or should he have done nothing at all? It was strange... somehow, he felt... incomplete.
The purveyor stared into the impenetrable darkness around him, why was he still here? Why would the void not let him pass on? Had his connection to the void really become so deep, or was there something he had failed to understand? Was there something he had missed? He had been ready to fade into nothing just like his kind, yet here he was... still alive.
Alive... that word served to make anger swell inside his heart like a storm... Why couldn't he find peace? He listened, he searched... sending out his mind through the endless darkness, trying to find an answer for a question he did not understand... But there was nothing here except him and his thoughts... and the void.
He could feel its presence like an omniscient being... watching him, unmoving, waiting for him to... The purveyor frowned, his tired mind churning the question over and over again, what was the void waiting for? It had not hesitated to take the others, so why did it not come for him? Why did it hold onto his existence with such perseverance?
His memories came back to life before his eyes... The demise of their old home, their step into the void... all the faces of humans he had once known, or at least thought he had known... his decision to become... more. So much had changed since then, yet he had always remained the same. His pain, his devotion... and his loss.
His loss... The purveyor felt an old pain overcome him. With all his knowledge, all his power and in spite of his efforts he had not been able to save her... and he had never forgiven himself for that.
The purveyor shut his eyes with a tired sigh. He had nothing but pain and old memories of his failure left now... he felt... old. But this had been his decision, or had it not? So he would wait, in darkness and listening to the presence of the void... until he would finally disappear himself.
Then... movement. His thoughts came to a halt, was his mind playing a cruel joke on him? No... there it was, a soft and slow movement within the endless expanses of nothing. What was it? What else could there be, hidden in darkness besides him? He had seen everything of his old world swallowed and vanish, nothing could be here! Yet there it was, like a small stone lying at the bottom of a lake... unseen by the rest of existence like himself, waiting to be found and brought to the surface.
Awakening from what seemed like eons of dormancy, the purveyor reached out slowly, letting his mind close the distance to the object and drawing it towards him. Moving through the void, forming and bending it to his will... he had not done it for so long, yet it came at his command like it had always done... unchanged, just like himself.
He felt the object draw near and opened his eyes, his sharp gaze passing through the void unhindered and coming to rest upon... he froze.
It should have been impossible, yet there it was... breaking all the rules of logic and floating before him untouched like it belonged here. Impossible... and still, here it was.
Slowly, he reached out with his hand, fearing it would fade from existence the moment he touched it. His fingers made contact, and he grasped it, pulling it up to his face to inspect it from all sides.
It puzzled him beyond belief how this could have come here, especially considering where it must have come from. Had it simply sprung into existence just now, or had it been here longer? Why had the void not swallowed it the moment it had appeared here?
He read the symbols written on it, letting the word sink into his mind. Slowly, as he continued to stare at the object in disbelief, he felt something rise within him he had almost forgotten.
It began with the tiniest of chuckles, almost unrecognizable to himself, but then it grew in force and vigor, growing louder and clearer, echoing through the void around him until his sides hurt and tears started to form in his eyes.
For the first time since the fall of his old home and in countless years, the purveyor laughed with his whole heart.
Held in his hand as he continued to laugh, there was a little, pink cupcake... 'Smile' written onto the sugarcoating with happy letters.