Princess of Infinity

by Echo 27

XII: Fathach

As the doors of the wrought-iron gate closed behind them, it took all their strength not to fall prostrate and weep. For a time, neither of them had the will to take in their surroundings and regard what lay before them. All they could see was an absence, a lack of what they truly desired. Their dwelling in such a place could have lasted an eternity, and still it would not have been enough to satiate their hunger for it.

Celestia vision was cloudy, misted by memories she clung so desperately to. She wanted to remember every detail; the feel of the grass against her skin, the gentle warmth of the sun against her skin. Even the names of children over the millennia had begun to fade from her mind, though her will screamed for her to recall them all. Justus, John, Rilian, Diana, Rachel… every name she could recall, she held tight. She bowed her head low as tears began to form, knowing that no effort would be enough to preserve it all. The weight of an eternity, so far away from resplendency, was more than the mind could take.

She wanted to scream. It had been perfect- more wonderful and beautiful than anything she could have ever known. And now it was gone forever. There would be no journey back. Never again. It’s gone. Gone for good and you’ll never see it again. Only Sombra is left ahead of you now. Remember, Sombra? The one you came here to destroy? And your sister. Twilight… home. All of it still needs you.

Celestia wiped away her tears and turned her emotions into power. She had rested long, more than any of her kind before her. Thousands upon thousands of years had given her immeasurable strength. All that was left was one great push and it would be done. She would let that bitter sorrow of departure drive her to seek him out. “You’re not far from me now, are you?” she whispered.

Celestia turned and was unsurprised to see Ford had begun to slowly wander away from her, his face hidden from her view. She knew what pains were tearing at him now, and just how desperately he had come to love that place. It was painful for her own farewell; for him it would be torturous. He needs to stay focused now. If he dwells on it for too long…

“Ford,” she called, trying to gain his attention over the blowing wind. “Ford, come to me!”

Whether or not he heard, she could not tell, and instead he doubled over as if in pain. Frustrated, she came over to him and took his head in her hands, forcing him to look upon her. “Listen to me- it is gone. Forever. We will never find our way back, and even if we somehow did, it would never be the same again. You have to understand that, Ford,” she said, her tone fierce. “I know it hurts- it is agonizing. But we can’t do anything about it any longer. We still have to find Sombra and end this once and for all, it is all we have left.”

Ford’s countenance was ragged, heartbroken from the loss. But what sense and reason that still ruled in him understood full well, and he slowly began to return to himself. “I know,” he gasped. “I know- I’ll be fine, I can do this. You’re right, we need to stay focused.”

“Can you stay that way if I let go? Can you do it on your own without me?”

“I can stand.” Ford separated himself from her and focused his strewn emotions back into order, a slow, deep breath as he did so, finally looking upon his bride and becoming steadied. “How do you feel?”

“Furious,” she answered. “Like Sombra just stole my life from me, and I would dearly love to make him pay for it.”

“Then let us do so,” Ford said, his own voice constricted. “Where are we?”

It was the first they had truly begun to consider their surroundings, and they were surprised by the sheer vastness of the land upon which they stood. A great cascade of endless moorlands was spread out before their eyes, rolling hills greater and wider than even a mighty city that filled the horizon and beyond, open and empty without end. A fine layer of mist and cloud mingled together just above the earth, turning the world into a mixture of dismal green and soft grey that seemed to go on forever in a boundless span. If they were to walk forward and ever on, Celestia doubted they would even be able to reach the edge of the horizon even if they were given the length of a lifetime.

Their journey began slowly, with little more than simple steps in the sole direction of forward. Their place upon the vast moor was well open before them, so great in size that its place over the rest of the landscape gave it the sensation of being atop an endless plateau. They continued on, the minutes slowly churning into hours, the unchanging scenery taunting their progress- if they had made any at all. Even after hours upon hours of straightforward marching, little had changed before them, not even the dim sunlight that somehow pushed through the clouded expanse.

“We should rest for a moment,” Celestia suggested, lying down in the heath and promptly feeling a fierce tightness in her legs as her muscles finally had been given a moment’s reprieve. “We have come a long way.”

“Are we even sure of that?” Ford asked, looking about them with uncertainty. “We have not ascended or descended at all. It feels as though we have gone nowhere at all.”

Celestia found herself wondering if perhaps this was some illusion that had fallen on their eyes and decided to keep those thoughts to herself. It would do little good at the moment to give strength to their gloom. She looked around, wondering there would be materials for a fire and found only peat and grass before her.

The hours passed, each too weighed down by their loss and weariness to yet consider returning to their journey. The wind pushed gently by them and across the endless landscape, no rock or tree to perturb its progress. All around them was the emptiness and it gnawed at their souls until they could hardly bear to look at anything but the ground beneath their feet.

“It’s so empty,” Ford whispered, humbled by the expanse to which they had arrived. “I’ve never seen anything so big.”

“I feel small,” she said. “If the whole world is all this… we have no idea of where we would even be able to begin. It is like trying to find a needle on a mountain.”

Ford was hardly inclined to disagree, shuffling himself on the earth and falling in beside her. “If you have suggestions to make it easier, I would gladly listen. What do you propose we do?”

“I… I am not sure,” Celestia admitted. “Try to find some sort of civilization, perhaps. Anyone who could tell us where to find what we seek.”

“Is there even any civilization to find in this place?” Ford asked, his words disappearing into the ether as though they had never existed, swallowed by the great vastness of the land.

“There is only one way to find out. Come, we need to start moving again. We have much ground to- cover…” Celestia paused. Had she heard correctly? She closed her eyes and focused, allowing the rest of her senses to fill the void.

“What do you hear?”

“Quiet.” She heard it again… a rumbling as though rock and earth were shattering. A tremor ran beneath her feet and she knew it was one and the same. “The ground is unsteady.”

“An earthquake?” Ford asked, a new series of thrums across the ground as the two began to stagger. Each new jolt was more thunderous than the last, growing ever more violent until the ground beneath them rocked back and forth like a toy in the hands of a child.

“No. This is a pattern,” Celestia said, falling to her knees in the hopes of keeping balance. “An earthquake would be constant- something is moving the earth!”

“What could have that kind of power?”

A great shuddering cry rent the air, a vicious, guttural noise that made the air churn and roil as it coursed through the skies like a wave. Toppled to the ground and clinging to each other for comfort, Celestia and Ford turned back to see the clouds and mist twisting and contorting until they were thrown back like the iron doors of a palace, revealing the great being from within their shelter.

“By heaven…”

Never had she seen such a creature, as massive and mighty as a mountain; the very breadth of it was incredible to behold. Its skin was iron shod, strong and fortified as the walls of a fortress. Its many legs moved with a grace ill-befitting its vastness, each loping movement like that of a great creature of the plains rather than a god amongst the wild things. Its tail was long and sweeping, the hairs sweeping lazily behind it like the grasses of the field. A series of horns like the prongs of a deer were upon its head, growing outwards as though limbs upon a tree, and beneath it were eyes the color of fire, fierce orange with the deep black of a coal at the center. Each step was an earthquake all on its own, the great hooved feet falling down with such grace- yet such indescribable force. The mighty beast of beasts surveyed all that it could see, its magnificent head tilting this way and that before releasing a thunderous cry that shook the heavens, a great scream like metal being torn across stone.

“What on earth..?”

“It’s dipping down! Move out of the way!” Celestia yelled, taking her husband by the arm as they fled the creature’s vicinity- or at least as far from its bent head as they could hope to manage-

The beast took to the earth and opened its maw, biting hard into the soil and consuming the earth, the rolling hill disappearing in its mouth as the creature began to chew soil and grass, leaving nothing more than a gaping flatland where once high ground used to perch.

“Look at the ground- where it took the soil!” Ford cried, pointing to the open wound on the earth. “There’s already fresh grass and trees growing. That thing is living agriculture, like it accelerates the growth of the ground!”

Celestia would have marveled at such a thing, taken to the creature’s profundity. But her focus was elsewhere, and she watched as the beast’s crown returned back into the heaven, serenely surveying the endless landscape. She had been sure of it, certain- but she needed to see it again.

“We need it to feed again!” she called, trying to construct some way of grabbing the animal’s attention. “I need to see its head!”

“Why its head?” Ford yelled, only for his befuddled expression to promptly change to horror. “No- it can’t be!”

“I saw it, but only for a moment,” Celestia said. “I think the gateway is upon its head!”

Ford was appalled by the thought; the very idea of a living being holding such a possession within its own skin was horrifying- but to fail now would be catastrophic. “If its feeding accelerates the growth in the soil, then it must look for deficiencies,” he said. “We need to damage the ground beneath us!”

The two sunk to their knees and furiously began to dig and tear at the heath beneath their feet, tearing and clawing frantically at the soil in a wild, desperate attempt to gain the mighty creature’s attention. Neither had reason to believe in its success, with little more than wild theory to sustain them. But if the gateway was atop this beast, then their hopes were no more than to bring it down to earth. Far better it to descend than for them to climb-

“It worked! Move!” Ford yelled-

Celestia dove out of the way just in time as the black, gaping mouth of the beast descended towards them, its steely teeth sinking into the broken soil and tearing it apart, pulling away the damaged earth and allowing rejuvenation to begin. As they watched the creature perform its duty, the beast’s fire-red eye focused on Celestia: serene and strong was its gaze, though it appeared curious that such a creature as she would perform such an act of malice. But Celestia saw it not, instead focusing her gaze on the wrought-iron that lay forged upon its crown, buried deep into the flesh and bone of the mighty beast.

The creature’s work was finished and it head returned to the heavens, leaving Ford and Celestia scrambling to try and reach out for it, with little success, both falling into the growing vegetation that had been left in the beast’s wake-

Ford screamed, watching as the sudden growth tried to consume him, each tendril of greenery, each blade of grass struck against his flesh, thinking him an intruder and assailant. Celestia took him in her arms and they escaped, turning to watch as the wound in the earth rapidly repaired itself, the mud-brown of the soil quickly becoming a dense green-

“Are you alright?”

“I am unharmed,” Ford said breathlessly. “That creature is going to be free of us soon, its gait is too long. What are we to do?”

“We’ll have to climb it,” Celestia breathed, already beginning to race towards the nearest leg of the magnificent beast, pleading for it to slow its pace. “We can’t let it get away, come on! Hurry!”

Ford staggered to his feet against the thunderous strikes of the beast’s hooves and ran to join her, the two in a mad dash to climb the moving mountain before it escaped their grasp. “How do you expect to climb it?”

“I don’t know, hurry!” she screamed, dashing ahead and leaping towards its lowered crown and missing by mere inches, feeling the soft tendrils of fur that thinly covered its rocky skin-

“The legs! Go for the legs!” Ford yelled-

Celestia watched as the foreleg rose from its place in the earth, tearing against soil and dirt as it flew over the ground and began a plunge back down. She tensed, watching and knowing it would fall just before her. If she let the shockwave stagger her again, the opportunity would be lost. “Get ready!” she called-

Ford caught up to her and gripped down on her with force, ready for the jump-

The creature’s limb fell back to ground with a thundering crash, an earthquake with an epicenter just before their very eyes-

Celestia and Ford made their jump just as the great hoof fell onto earth, reaching out and clutching to the creature’s rocky flesh with all their might, feeling the body heat emanate from within it. A terrain that should have been cold as the wind that roared against their skin instead felt hot to the touch, as though a living, breathing volcano was in their grasp-

“Whoa!” Ford struggled to keep his grip, the creature continuing its long gait over the terrain.

“Keep climbing! The further up we go, the easier it will be to stay on!” Celestia cried, trying her best to ascend the mountainous beast each small movement of the behemoth enough to throw her to the ground. It was as though the earth had come to life beneath her, resistant to her hand-

With tremulous, unsteady steps they climbed, working their way up the magnificent beast with all the strength they could muster. Celestia longed to rocket herself skyward, to ascend to the clouds and be done with her journey, but to leave Ford was unthinkable. She prayed that the beast, as large as it was, would not notice two insignificant creatures climbing up its leg and give it as much heed as a dragon would a fly-

“Aah!” Ford scrabbled, slipping down the creature’s leg and down closer to the hoof, struggling to keep hold and not fall to death at the creature’s feet-

“Ford!”

Ford reacted swiftly, drawing a sturdy knife from his belt and plunging it into the creature’s flesh, the blade sinking into a crack between the rocks and solidifying its place there, Ford clinging to his lifeline desperately-

“Are you alright?” Celestia screamed-

“Get to the creature’s head and open that gate!” Ford yelled, both hands clutching the knife handle tightly, eyes wide as saucers. “Throw down a rope when you reach the top, I can’t make this climb! Hurry!”

Celestia turned her head back to the sky and saw how far she still had to climb, many hundreds of feet left to go. She gulped; Ford had only minutes, she needed to finish this soon. Could she still fly, even after millennia upon millennia of her wings being folded away? There was only one way to discover it, relinquishing her grip upon the creature’s hide and falling away-

“Tia!”

Celestia closed her eyes, even as the imminence of her collision came creeping towards her. She felt out into the darkness and found herself once more, rekindling a flame long dormant within her soul, and letting it burst back into life. But this would be no gentle light, but instead a bright burning flame that would tear and burn away at even its master, and so great was the pain that came with her resurgence.

Wings the shape and strength of light erupted from her back, unfolding and allowing feathers to grow long and strong against their brethren, opening wide and thrusting outwards against the currents, throwing Celestia up into the air until she was one with the clouds and sea-

Her hope had been to descend upon its crown with little disturbance, but the very moment her feet touched against the beast’s skin it began to react. Perhaps aware of a threat against it, the mighty animal gave a cry that thundered through the air and tossed its proud head madly, trying to throw off the woman who now clung to the hairs of the beast with all her might, praying not to be thrown from such a height. The creature’s motions were not erratic, and were in fact predictable- but the sheer force of even its simplest movements had the strength of a great storm, and it was all she could do to not be flung into the skies.

Celestia sank herself against the beast’s hide, flattening down and slowly, surely, trying to crawl her way up the neck and onto the top of its head. Each movement was carefully timed with the creature’s throes, one hand and foot at a time lest her grip break and she be killed. The beast’s cries were only growing more volatile and seemed on the verge of cracking the very skies-

Her hand reached out and felt cold metal. She dared to raise her head and saw she had grasped the gateway- but only a small part of it. She recognized the fine point that had nearly driven itself through her palm: this was only the very tip of the gateway, the crown upon its opening. The rest still lay sunken in the rock, the very flesh of the beast itself. Celestia’s blood ran cold. She would have to dredge it out of the beast’s skull in order to continue their progress. She would have to kill it.

A cry of fear and she knew Ford was struggling to hold on. One wrong move and he would fall underneath the creature’s hooves, crushed into the earth. It was now or never, before she had a chance to think it over once more-

Celestia took flight again and took aim, positioning herself just above the creature’s horns with hand outstretched, trying not to think of what she was about to do. This creature was going to die at no fault of its own, having not even attempted to bring harm against them. It had bucked her attempts to reach its crown, but not as an aggressor, treating her as a horse would a fly. If I only ignite a small amount, perhaps it would be enough to simply extract the gateway, she wondered, feeling her strength creep into her fingertips. As she prepared to fire, the creature tilted its head so as to look upon her, and she saw its eyes were wide with fear-

Millennia upon millennia of dormant strength was unleashed from her grasp, a burst of red light emanating from her palm and igniting as an ever-growing tree of lightning, striking through the creature time and time again, crashing through stone and flesh until blood gushed from its wounds in a waterfall of dark green that cascaded onto the moor below, the beast giving a horrendous cry of agony, rearing onto its hind legs to give one final scream before falling the earth in a shockwave that thundered across the endless plains.

Celestia went rigid, slowly descending to the ground as her wings held their form. It was only supposed to be miniscule. I did not mean to do such- it was not supposed to die. No… no, no, no, no-

She fell next to the dying creature, listening to its ragged breaths grow from desperate to weary, much of its neck severed from its body, its stony flesh covered in its own blood. Trembling, unwilling to bear witness to the catastrophe, she came forward and looked upon the beast, staring into its widened eyes that grew ever dimmer, the creature’s gaze finding her and looking her straight in the eye, its fear and confusion still evident even as it died. The fire within it began to fade, the darkened eyes turning pure black as its life fled from it, the last breath escaping its malformed maw like an earthquake.

Standing there in the still-flowing blood of a once-magnificent beast of beasts, Celestia’s mind still tried to make sense of the disaster she had wrought. She looked upon the gateway, freed from its tomb within the creature’s skull, its doors wide and awaiting their passage.

I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to.

“Tia…” Ford walked slowly through the wreckage toward her, his face clearly expressing his own distress at the creature’s fate. His eyes found hers and he begged for an answer.

“I- I meant for it to be weak,” she said tremulously. “I wanted to see if I could pull it out with- without harming it. I didn’t mean… no…”

“Why did it carry the gateway in its head?” Ford whispered, kneeling down beside her as she struggled to keep herself under control.

“Sombra,” Celestia said furiously. “Somehow, some way… I have no doubt.”

A faint Thrum! Met their ears and they felt the ground vibrate beneath their feet. Celestia’s heart leaped with joy- had the creature found a way to revive itself, even after such incalculable damage? Not possible- but then what could make such a sound?

A cry like the songs of winter flowed through the air, and the clouds opened up to reveal their greatest master: a creature more mighty and marvelous than even the one Celestia had felled, its size unfathomable to their eyes. It dwarfed the lesser creature as a dragon dwarfs a mouse, its magnificent head descending from beyond the heavens and leaning down to check upon the dead beast, it emitting a series of mournful calls, gently pushing against the exposed flesh with tenderness… like that of a mother.

As though their guilt revealed their miniscule selves to her, the mightiest of beasts found them, its golden eyes turned upon Celestia with a great grief weighing them down, beseeching her for a reason for this slaughter. Neither movement nor sound came from it, only that lidless gaze that stared endlessly against the slayer of its kin, who had little strength to face such unrelenting judgement.

“Tia, we must go,” Ford said quietly, taking his beloved by the arm and helping her to her feet. “We are intruders here.”

Celestia said nothing as they walked through the gates and into the blinding white, knowing that for the rest of her days of eternity she would feel that gaze upon her shoulders, begging her to answer the question of why she had come to this dwelling place and brought murder.

He thought. He had little else to do in this place now, with all at his command and will. He could feel the dying screams of those who continued to resist and he reveled in their turmoil. The panicked cries of those who turned were like music to his ears. He wanted to smile and gloat at the magnificence of it all: he did not merely rule or dominate this place- it belonged to him in totality. He defined its very existence, for here he was lord and god of all.

Yet he thought. His time here had been long, and his strength was great. He had grown fat with power, luxurious in might. Yet he thought.

He knew she was coming, for her presence in the endlessness of the Palace was only growing ever clearer. She was strong, mightier than she had ever been before in all her long years of life in the universe, just as he had wished. To face her in her fullness –and crush her down into dust- was his last desire before an everlasting conquest. Yet he thought.

He had not considered that this once-solitary princess would travel with another. He had assumed arrogance on her part: that her strength, and hers alone, would be enough to withstand the tide of the Deep. Yet here she came closer, an unwelcome light in the midst of darkness, accompanied by something… else. Something he had not predicted, and did not like at all.

Even she had not known his true nature, what blood ran in his veins. In typical human ignorance, neither had he. A dim-witted bearer of an ancient thing that none knew. It mystified him, for though he was great and his power unrivaled, he had planned for the strength of one- not two.

He was an anomaly. A lost power from forgotten days, when Kin had drawn swords against Kin. The Breaking. Rebellion. Gods and demigods hacking and clawing and tearing their way against one another until it seemed as though the world would shatter in the crescendo of tortuous agony. Man had turned against Man. Father against Son, Daughter against Mother. It had been the last days of many races and things. So what was this anomaly that walked beside her, and what threat did he pose against his Fate?

He knew the answer. It was only a matter of time for him to remember. So he rested, leaning back in his place. And he thought.

Author's Note:

We're getting closer to the Heart of Infinity. Only a little further now till this is all over.

Sorry for the lateness on this one, I had the pleasure of a fairly... temperamental.... week (Hurricane Dorian can bite my perfect ass).

As usual, new additions to the soundtrack found here: Boop

And, as always, comments and corrections below. Keep holding on.