I can't remember how long I've been alive. I can't remember my birthday. I don't even know my own name. I'd like to think I had a family... but I'm not sure. All these things are meant to be important to me, things I was never supposed to forget, and yet, I have. I have taken shelter in an old castle, in a forgotten city. I do not know why I'm writing this. I suppose just to keep myself sane, but perhaps keeping a record of my activities will help me piece together what happened to the world.
A/N: This is Celestia's immortality, taken to its logical (in my mind) conclusion.
Special thanks to my editors FanNotANerd and Rainbowloyalty
Chapters (1)
aww, and here I was hoping for a Highlander explanation...
My God.............Well Written and an original concept..........TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
P.S. MOAR NAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
That mindfuck ending...
Love it! :D
So, is Princess Celestia going insane?
NUUU
Such brutal denial of happiness. Here I was, thinking it was a little sad one-shot that ends with Celestia waking up and being grateful and happy. BUT NO, it's Groundhog Day all over again and she's still wandering the desert of Equestria.
That being said, I'm faving this.
Weird, someone disliked it. They must be a Luna fan.
Really liked the ending to this.
Well, from what I can decipher regarding well-written literature, is that is is meant to instill a curiosity in the reader, to edge them towards a further plain of understanding or to make them reconsider their boundaries of reality. To make them think, to effect them on a deeper level then to simply read a story and to move on. If the reader is affected, if they are plagued by the thoughts of your prose through his or her daily routines, and find themselves considering and reconsidering the ramifications of your version of reality, then you're job as an author is as good as accomplished.
You, my dear friend, seem to have done just that. Damn you, I say, damn you.
Seriously, I was hoping for a happy ending, and it was really slow close! Then you just snatch it away. Granted, this ending is much more applicable, but still! Anyway, keep up the good work.
Read this while listening to Castle of Glass by Linkin Park.
Is immortality a blessing or curse? Happiness or suffering?
I was full out crying after the reversal at the end
854473 only the end of the Highlander's sword knows the true answer. Wasn't this story great though?
Wow...just wow...A apocalyptic world with Celestia, the only survivor...
I.Am.Speechless.
So wait, Luna is just as immortal isn't she? What happened to her? Also I'm assuming the final scene is part of her tragic cycle, any clarification on this?
Yay, questions.
Edited for spoilers.
854520 thats an interesting point oh that makes me sad
Reminds me of the ending of (spoilers) Believing Stories. Completely mysterious and crazy!
[youtube=vzrDpj6M1ig]
That is all.
Favorited with extreme prejudice.
I know someone else did something similar with a story called "Waiting", with both Celestia AND Luna. It goes on with the premise that "Immortality doesn't just mean losing every pony close to you. It also means watching the world crumble to dust.". I read it not long ago, it's a rather bleak and nihilistic story.
Your's equally well done in the way it conveys helplessness and torment of having to endure eternally while the rest of the world die and crumbled to dust, especially when it happens to be the person's fault it was so. I felt sorry for this version of Princess Celestia. Overall, brilliant!
855244
Was a great many eons before the writing of Waiting. Might could fit this story into that time period with a bit of interpretation on the Luna part and some finagling otherwise and have a more complete headcanon.
I.... I... Wow... Talk about Tragic as in Tragically Tragicly tragic. There are 4 tragics and that's bad
854992
I was just thinking the same thing. Only that story is kind of longer and she didn't have to get burned every day.
Amazing story. Truely amazing. This almost made me cry and My Little Dashie didn't phase me in the least.
I've managed to plug up a few things that struck me as being plot holes, but the biggest question I can't get around is simply...why would Celestia DO that? How desperate could she have been? How far gone was she that she couldn't come up with something better? Or was it just that her power was limited when it came to feats of such a grand scale?
This is still an amazing story.
That was an epic story. Seriously, I loved how the story unfolded. I've never felt so bad for Celestia before.
856197 Moving an entire planet takes a LOT of magic. It would have taken her months to regain that strength, and by then, the world had died. As to why she did it, her armies were faltering before the the combined tide of the changeling and griffon horde. their inexperience in combat proved their downfall, so Celestia decided to smite the advancing armies still attempting to breach the gates of Canterlot, by reigning down upon them, the fury of her star.
856880
Obviously. My point was that she had to have known that what she was going to do was going to kill everything, not just her enemies.
...hehe. brings new meaning to the term, "scorched earth".
857236 It was a tough choice to make. Let your citizens get killed by an invading army, or kill the army, and most of your citizens. In this case, it was all of her citizens, and everything else. Truly, it was a 'nuclear' option.
Anyway, I've decided that Luna exiled herself to the moon rather than live on the same planet as Celestia. Yup. That's what I've decided. Specifically, the dark side. It'd be cooler there.
Maybe Luna was burnt like all the other ponies because she wasn't immune to the sun like Celestia.
855244
Thanks for noting this! Now I have something new to read.
This story is going to haunt me for a long, long time... I have to tell my friends about this..
" - I must go now, to explore the rest of this castle. Perhaps there are still beings other than myself taking refuge in the ruins. -"
"Submited for your aproval tonight is the story of a single lone suvivor of a dead and deserted world. as you spend the next few nights with this suvivor you and her will bolth learn what happened to cause this destruction and why civilazation is no more. you will also learn why she was spared. here..in the Twilight Zone"
end
"And such is the fate of Princess Celestia. once beloved goddess and ruler of equestria. haveing mad a tragic mistake during a war gone south she now suffers a fitting fate of tourture and insanaty over all the lives she burned to ash. and it will remain this way for all eternity. i beg you not to take pity on this soul. for this justice is well deserved as decided by the court room of The Twilight Zone.
Now, that is deep.
It brings up an interesting point, too, come to think of it: the reason why Celestia has invested so much time and energy into making Equestria peaceful and happy, and why she is always so kind and benevolent, is because she wishes for her people to survive and flourish for as long as she lives.
When you realize you're immortal, most people follow the same progression as Bill Murray from Groundhog Day: first, deny it and get all existential. Next, fuck around and be reckless and horrible. Next, learn as much as you can about everything. Finally, after exhausting all your options, you realize the truth: when your own life becomes of no concern, the lives of everyone else take priority.
Celestia, after realizing her own lack of mortality, similarly realized that she would much rather make the lives of her subjects as wonderful and happy as possible, rather than indulge herself in things that she will eventually grow tired of and let by the wayside. So the plan, therefore, would be to make sure she can be there for Equestria as long as she lives.
Of course, the world, unlike Celestia, can't last forever. And thus, this story.
And, that, my friends, is how Equestria was made.
854216 the correct word here is gone. 10,000 years of alone time'll do that to ya.
859318 I loved the Twilight Zone! hoof for you! /)
Overcome with such greif Celestia starts becoming a prisoner to her own hallucinations.
Nicely done.
857304 Actually, considering the sun is basically a massive hydrogen fusion reaction, it was literally a nuclear solution.
SCIENCE!
At first, the tone of the story didn't affect me, but by the end I was terrified. The whole part where you thought it was a dream, with Twilight being so real...
*shiver*
Also, I don't suppose you could PM me the same answers Bairne got...
862715 Certainly!
Is it possible to both really like and dislike a story?
On one hand, the mood, the merciless twists, the bleak and hopeless outlook, are all great elements to the story.
On the other hand, I don't like sad ponies
Would it be possible to ask for details concerning your theory about Luna in all this (I'm somewhat fascinated by theories about the nature of the Princesses/Alicorns/whatnot), and why The Vault seemed like a good idea?
It's not a badly written story, but honestly, if you see this premise once, you've seen it a hundred times.
Celestia ages, Celestia pines for a tiny tiny number of very specific ponies in her vast, vast lifetime, Celestia wishes for death. The fact that she accidently killed everything is giving her an idiot ball the size of Texas, and the fact that Luna is apparently dead undermines the whole immortal alicorn concept altogether.
865573 Luna isn't dead. How could she die if she's Celestia's sister?
865573 As far as originality of the concept goes, I'm sure it has been done before. You'd be hard pressed to find a 100% original plot that didn't borrow in some way or another from a story that has already been written (intentionally or otherwise). Celestia's mistake is part of the tragedy. Just because you're immortal doesn't mean you can't make a snap decision and regret it. Her capitol was about to fall, and she thought she;d have the strength to move the planet back after they'd retreated.
I appreciate the concerns, and hope I cleared some of them up.
I believe this fits in here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvrP79RjS58
Well, kind of, the mood of the song definitely fits.
Wow. That was amazing. I don't know what to say.
Btw could I also get Bairne's answers?
865679
Why does this statement lead me to believe there's another part to this story we haven't seen? (yet)
If Luna isn't dead, then there are three possible solutions that I can think of as to where she is:
1- She has found her own refuge from the unrelenting sun, wherever that may be.
2- She allowed her body to be burned away hoping for death (hence the scorch mark and faint ash on her balcony), and now exists as pure magic or as living ash. (reminiscent of Death Becomes Her [god, I'm old! DX ])
While less likely, I would not be surprised if the latter turned out to be the case.
Sad Story.
Though I do have a question I'd like to ask. It seems a bit artificial which is I'm guessing is purposeful. After all, everything has become sand dune besides a few ruins of Canterlot as well as a few old relics such as the drawer, the mirror, the decaying furnishings of the rooms, etc.etc. So I have to ask if Celestia purposefully did this to herself some time after the end as a way of punishing herself. After all, if 10000 years really did pass, then there is no way parchment or the other surviving objects are going to last that long unless due to magic. As well as the remaining structures and other things. I'm guessing she did, but it seems just a bit too coincidental, especially since a vital portion of it depends on her insanity as well as certain things being done, like resetting that door or re-locking the drawer. However that is where another question comes up. I'm also guessing Luna is also part of this cycle. Perhaps its really not just imagination as she thinks. Perhaps Luna is actively assisting in the torture and punishment of her sister by assuming the form of her beloved student, stringing her along, resetting the door, re-locking the drawer, etc. etc.
Am I correct in my guessing? I'd appreciate it if you can answer my questions. Thanks.
For a while there I thought this was an "End Times" story of Celestia far in the future, when the sun would have bloated out, and all the ponies would have either died or traveled to a new star. Luna herself would have perished with the moon when it finally entered the Roche Limit and shattered, and even dragons would have perished under the burning of a red giant expanding greedily towards what was once a lush world.
This was a bit more tragic than the mere march of time. I kind of saw the ending coming, things looked too nice after such a terrible horror. You gave me a nice little cry over the fate of the Mane 6 and Spike, as well as Celestia's self-recriminations.
All in all, a great story, if a bit too tragic for my regular tastes. I do hope that Celestia finally dies when the sun expands to engulf the world, so that after her long purgatory, she might find peace, and hopefully forgiveness.
855026 pleaaaase PM me to, I'm so confused as to Luna
Really loved this fic
OH and I finally read something on my read later list! I'm so proud of myself
855070 so many laughs
duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. you just blew my mind. so sad....so very sad. i was actually hopnig she would kill herself, you know, stab herself in the end or something. thats just rough... great story though, congrats on being awesome.
This is so awesome. I totally did not see that ending coming. That was some serious Nightmare Fuel. That aside, I am all atwitter with curiosity as to what happened to Luna. May I also request for the information? I am betting that she either flew to the moon, or she died in the war and that's why Celestia did the whole burn-everything-with-the-sun thing.
855026
Me too would like to see your rationalization of Luna's fate.
Sad story, but it didn't get to me as, for example "Eternal" did. Too much, too fast maybe. Not bad, but... What I couldn't let go was the whole level of OOC act that endangering the whole world with moving the planet towards the sun (or the sun towards the planet) is. If Celestia could do that, she wouldn't for no reason. I honestly can't see it. And I normally can see almost any rationalization for fanfics...
Good work anyway :)