Despair is the Only Answer

by Gravitiaxis

Chapter Three

Despair sat amongst the mortals who lived on this planet.

The planet Eternium, named so by its discoverer, is an ocean planet in a thinly populated solar system with only 4 other planets. Eternium is about 17 times bigger than Equis and its gravity is about 4 times that of Earth's gravity. Despair could easily feel the difference between the planets, but it wasn't enough to put any real pressure on him. The days on this planet didn't last very long. A single day lasted around 13.35 hours in a year of 476 days. The last time to Despair had checked up on this planet it was made up of 13 small continents, which made up 32 %of the planet's land mass. The original continents had already sunk into the oceans.

The race that inhabit this planet has adopted the rules of a true intergalactic empires, but surprisingly they didn't think of themselves as rulers. Guardians is a more fitting term. This species have advanced far beyond anything that ponies or humans would be capable of creating in the next few centuries, if not millennia.

They have traveled to all the nearby planets inhabited by life and made sure that it was protected, aided and sometimes even altered so the planet may better serve their native species.

They've even terraformed planets without life, allowing Gaia the Earth Mother to work her magic on the barren planets.

While most of this was done to study other species, evolution and the possibilities of their own technology, this has also led to biological breakthroughs ranging from cures for diseases to altering and enhancing their own DNA.

As one of the oldest species in the Meissar Galaxy, they are revered by the younger and races as gods and are one of the few races that can see recognize a god or goddess regardless of form by peering through the Aether with their advanced technology.

Despair felt a pain in his chest. He didn't belong here, this was a place of hope and progress. His power was weak on this planet, but not absent.

He watched as the kids played back and forth through the courtyard despite receiving stairs from the older adults. He couldn't place a proper age on the kids, but he was sure they were equivalent to that of a young teenager.

Many of the people who passed him by paid their silent respects as they knew who he was.

Prayer was always nice. It gave a god the extra strength that they couldn't create for themselves.

He could feel a small empowerment by it. A almost warm fuzzy feeling washed over him, but it quickly faded away as a distant, yet familiar presence appeared. There was a few moments of silence before one of them decided to speak. “What are you doing?” The newcomer asked.

“Desire.” Despair thought. “I am just thinking.” He murmured letting out a huff.

“You think too much. No wonder you have a swelled head.” Desire joked. “And don’t get me started on that nose.”

“You do know we look the same, right?” Despair mentioned while taking a look at his twin sister. She hadn't changed from the last time she had saw her. Two thousand years and she still had that youthful spirit that she was so infamous for.

Desire made a fake gagging noise. ”Ugh, don't remind me. Why did we have to be born as identical twins? Almost all our features are the same. It's infuriating to wake up in the morning and see your face in the mirror.” She yelled out while waving her hands in the air.

Despair shook his head. “You were born first. If anyone should be complaining it's me. I was born with your face, not the other way around.”

“Shut up. That's besides the point.” She said standing up from the bench that Despair was sitting on. She began to spin around on her tippy toes like that of a dancer, succeeded in making her younger brother chuckle. "So tell me? What are you thinking about? Tell your big sister what's bothering you.” She snickered, finishing her last twirl before stopping in front of Despair.

“What makes you think something's bothering me?” Despair asked, almost sounding amused... Until Desires hand went across his face, startling him. “What did you do that for?” He asked now rubbing his bruised cheek.

Immediately she backed hand smacked him, almost succeeding in drawing blood. “You have to be the most idiotic, infuriatingly, stupid anthropomorphic personification on this or any other plane.” She screamed while laying down a few more hits onto her brother before he decided to defend himself by pushing her away.

“What is your problem?” He yelled getting ready for a fight if the situation called for it.

“What is my problem? What's yours? Where have you been for the past two thousand years? Why did you leave without telling me? Why didn't you tell me that you were back?” She screamed at the top of her lungs grabbing the attention of the nearby bystanders.

“I didn't think-”

Desire immediately threw another punch but he anticipated this and ducked out of the way. “You didn't think that I would care? You didn't think that I would miss you? For gods sake we’re siblings. Why wouldn't I care?” She yelled sitting back down. She began to shake her head as an attempt to calm herself down but Despair could see that she was failing. He could see that despite her anger problems she was capable of restraining herself if needed to be.

Despair was shocked. He never thought she truly regarded him as a brother, even though he had always thought of her as his sister. She often showed no indication that she cared for him in that manner. As a matter of fact he didn't even think anyone besides for Celestia would miss him. He always thought of himself as a loner, an outcast among the others. He was glad to know that there were others who cared for him.

“I'm sorry, Desire. I know you're angry with me, and I know you want answers-”

“You’re damn right I want answers!” She yelled.

“But I don't have them. I've lost 2000 years of my life. I have no more information than you on my whereabouts for the last 2 millennia.” He said placing a hand on her shoulder. He could tell that she was trying to resist the urge to punch him, because she clenched her fists once again.

She looked at him again to study his face. He was telling the truth, she can see it in his eyes. They both had the tendency to have shift their eyes when exchanging looks with the person they were trying to lie too. Though it's an obvious sign that they're lying, most people tend to overlook it.

Believing her brother, Desire sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a deep, comforting hug. “It may not seem like it, but you were missed more than you know.” Desire whispered as she hugged him tighter.

Letting go, Desire began to wonder. “What do you mean you don't know where you've been? Do you have amnesia?”

Despair shook his head. “I don't think so. It's not that simple. There is a big hole in the middle of my memories, I remember exactly what I was was doing before everything went blank.” Despair recalled that day with it clarity. He had left Celestia’s castle after a small argument about her relationship with Discord and soon afterwards there was a flash and Despair found himself two millennia into the future without any knowledge of what happened to him. Gods don’t simply get amnesia.

“Then I believe there are only two people we can go to for answers. We can either go to Truth or Time. Personally I'd rather go to Time. He could see if you've time traveled in anyway.” Despair nodded his head and in a split second they were gone.