Princess of Infinity

by Echo 27

XIV: Zerstörung

She ran through the gates and into the twilight so quickly that her husband’s hand fell from her grip. The thoughts and memories from her nightmare, born by that ungodly pool, still held fast within her mind and taunted her without ceasing. She had get away, as far away from that horrid place lest more of the crystalline water came forth and filled her eyes with horrors. She could still hear the clash of battle and the sound of metal crushing bone, smell the reek of rotting flesh- hear the sound of iron piercing her sister’s heart.

“Tia- Tia!” Ford called from somewhere behind her, perhaps reaching out for her in an attempt to assuage his own terrors-

She felt the presence of something solid the moment before she collided, the darkened scene hiding it easily from her already frantic senses. She tried to slow herself and managed to do so- but not enough to avoid slamming into it and crumpling to the ground.

“Tia! Tia!” Ford’s voice was distraught and on the verge of panic, separated from the one person he still trusted.

“Here…” Her voice was weak, choked by her roiling emotions and the stunning blow she had dealt herself. Shaking herself vigorously, she called out again. “Here! Ford, I’m here!”

“Tia- are you alright, did something-”

“I ran into a wall, I think,” she said, trying to rise to her feet. “I am… I’m…”

“Please, don’t run off like that again!” He threw his arms around her and held tightly to her as though she would disappear into the vapor. “Please, please- don’t do that, ever again!”

“Ford, are you-”

“I am NOT alright!” he shrieked, his body quivering madly against her. “I don’t remember what I saw and it’s like it’s sitting there at the edge of my mind, just keeping me on edge and I do NOT want to be alone with it!”

“Ford, please-”

“If I could just remember, I could tell myself it wasn’t real but I can’t-”

“Ford, you’re hurting me!” Celestia cried. The pressure he dealt, strength born from his overflowing panic, was beginning to press hard against her bones.

“No, I- I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he said, immediately releasing her from his grasp, though he went to wring his hands tightly to help maintain the pressure. “I didn’t mean to-”

“I’m not hurt- truly, I am,” she said, wishing that at least one of them was not still on edge. His meltdown was only helping to increase her own and she felt what little vestige of sanity she still had under control starting to slip. “Please, I need you to try and settle yourself. I am on the verge of falling apart and if you do then I will too.”

“OK. I’ll- I’ll try.” His face was taut, pale as he tried to bring his fears into order, his words of calm meant more for himself than his wife. “Easy now, easy…”

The silence that surrounded them in their darkened quarters was deafening. Celestia still had little knowledge of where they had come to, only knowing that the gaze of that wretched place could still be felt along her skin, leaving her flesh crawling. If she did not concentrate on trying to return to normality and convince herself that it was indeed all a dream, she would begin to lose focus and see it come to life before her; her vision would blur and she would see veiny cracks flow begin to erupt across her arms as they turned grey with rot, or her hair had begun to fall out from her scalp.

“So- you said you cannot remember what you saw,” she said, wishing for any sort of distraction from her memories. “Not a piece of it?”

Ford took a deep breath, trying to steady himself in the hopes of answering her. “I- I saw darkness, just- just so thick, like a blindfold on my eyes, and I feel something around my neck, then something cracking or- or laughing or something-! Then the next thing I knew I was standing before the gateway and you were just rolling on the grass screaming like nothing I’ve ever heard before.”

“Did he say anything to you? When you awoke?”

“Only for a quick second. He told me, ‘you will remember the truth when the time comes’ and then he turned his back on me to face you- Tia, just what was he?” Ford replied. “That wasn’t Sombra, or the Sanctelior’s power, that was- it was just-”

“I do not ever want to know. I do not want to spend a moment thinking about it,” she answered. “Please, I can’t get the bitter taste of that water off my tongue, or off my skin-!”

“Let’s go.” Ford went to his feet in an instant, offering his wife a hand up. “I can’t stand being here any longer, just sitting here thinking about it, not for one more second.”

Celestia, though still unnerved, was calm enough to agree. The two moved away swiftly from the gateway and the shadows, moving towards a weak twilight emanating from somewhere above them. “I feel we are climbing a path of sorts,” said she. “Not a natural one, but man-made. It is too smooth.”

“Put your hand upon it! By heaven, it feels smoother than glass!” Ford exclaimed, kneeling down and pressing his hand against the black. “Certainly not stone, but harder than rock. What sort of place is this?”

“I can make out a doorway ahead of us. We just need to continue our climb,” Celestia said. On and upwards did they go, the distant glimmer of dull light growing from barely the strength of candlelight in the dark until they at last reached the threshold and had only grown to the strength of the late evening sun, the air outside cold and empty as the mountain peaks. “That chill in the air… it feels as though it were winter.”

“Tia… look at this place!” Ford said faintly, slowly walking out into the open world with his head low as though he expected an attack. His gaze darted this way and that until he came to a standstill and gazed upward into the skies. “By heaven…”

Slowly, Celestia made her way out of the gloom to join him, only to come to his side and be left struck just as he had been, awed by the world around them. Before them was a great tower, built of materials the likes of which she had never seen, even in the early days of the world when the Deep had not yet found its strength. Great in size and shape, it soared into the skies, rising so far into the deep black and blue of the night that its peak could not be seen by their eyes. While her husband remained stunned, her eyes flickered all across the open street, the mighty tower that lay before them just one of many- a city of such size and grandeur that just one of these massive towers would have held the entirety of her people ten times over, on and on it seemed to sprawl, perhaps covering the very world in this constructed land of iron grey and black.

“What kind of civilization could build a city like this?” she wondered. “Each of these towers feels as tall as Equestria is long…”

“And there are so many. Yet- yet not a soul to be seen.”

Celestia gazed at the tower yet again, and this noticing a distinct drabness to its appearance; chipped cracks along windows, and pieces of the walls having fallen away, perhaps by the rot of time. The glass-like street they stood upon was tinted tan with a thin coating of dust. Strange vehicles, similar to carriages but far stranger, lay strewn across the roads pointing this way and that, the doors of some left ajar-

A faint, dim call echoed in her ears, like the weary whisper of a tired soul. She walked slowly down the street to the next intersection, Ford following cautiously behind her. As she came to the turn, she turned right and looked upwards, finding exactly what she had suspected she would see: consuming the skyline and turning the dim blue-black of the dead sky into a singular color was a massive star, deep red in hue and its surface broiling with many fiery flares and giving the air a dim rumble. Celestia looked upon it and heard the small words yet again, now more faint than the one before. She closed her eyes, letting that magnificent sun speak to her, its memoriam resounding as it faded slowly away.

“What is that?” Ford asked.

“A dying sun,” Celestia answered. Her ears were empty, the star now took weak to continue in its words.

Ford gave a start, jumping back. “What, like the Colony’s world-”

“No. No foul scheme of mankind,” Celestia said calmly. “Merely one that is coming to the end of its lifespan. This place is older than ancient things, Ford. We are treading upon a world that has been left to die.”

Ford found no comfort in her speech. “So this is a graveyard,” he whispered.

“The most ancient of graveyards. It is impossible to say how long this place has been abandoned. But as you can see, this star is swallowing all around it. In time, even this place will be taken by its grasp and eaten away.”

“Should… should we be concerned?”

“It is a slow process, Ford. Perhaps years, or centuries may pass before it is complete. Far more time than we will need.”

The thought did little to ease his nerves, but Ford simply nodded and peered about the place. “So where should we begin?”

That was an answer she could not yet provide, the colossal city as much a mystery to her as it was to him. “I do not know. Perhaps we should wander.”

Their walk through the world was dim, the empty sky only marked by the weak crimson light of the red giant that was consuming the heavens, surrounded by a black so deep that no star in the horizon could be seen. Everywhere they walked their footsteps echoed across glass and stone and materials the likes of which they could not guess. The faint rumble of the gurgling sun was the only sound they could hear beyond their footfalls, and no sign of life ever came before their eyes. There was not a droplet of water, nor even the smallest blip of grass or plant life to be found. What humanity had been here was long gone, leaving only their refuse behind in a world that remained lifeless, the last burning spark a pair of souls that did not belong in it at all.

“I do not like this place,” Ford said, holding his arms around his chest in the hopes of keeping himself warm. “It is worse than a graveyard, even the air we breathe feels lifeless.”

“And what of the people who dwelled here?” Celestia mused. “So many of these machines of there, just simply abandoned. Some look so purposely left behind, while others- it is like whoever manned them just… just disappeared.”

Ford peered towards a tunnel that went down into the depths, walking over to a flickering color that was stuck to the railings. Pulling it from its entrapment he found it to be clothing, tattered and frayed at the edges. “It looks like- like a tunic of sorts,” he guessed. “Small, maybe a child’s.”

“No signs of a struggle,” Celestia remarked. “Just… rotting away slowly. Very slowly.”

“It is like time is slowed here,” Ford said. “Like this world is dying a day at a time- each day a thousand years long.” He peered about the cityscape as though he waited for some great specter to reveal itself and throw its hatred and strength towards them in malice. “I do not want to be here.”

“We are alone, Ford. The dead cannot touch you,” she said in the hopes of comforting him.

“But is this place truly dead?” he challenged. “This place could have become like this in the matter of millennia, or a matter of seconds. Nothing of this world is natural! I cannot conceive of such a thing in my mortal mind- can you?”

Celestia said nothing, knowing full well he already understood her answer. “Inaction will only bring paranoia. Let us continue on our way.”

She did not know how long they traveled; time in this dying land felt twisted and decayed as the environment itself. Each footstep could have been a day in its own, or perhaps their journey through the abandoned streets could have been only a few minutes. She thought back to her words- of calling this land a graveyard. She still held true to that statement, though she wondered if this graveyard still possessed its vision and gave no welcome to intrusion.

“Wait…” Ford came to a halt, peering over at one of the strange contraptions. “There is something there, just at the edge of the seat.” Leaving his beloved’s side, he walked over to it and held an unusual, metallic sort of tablet in his hands, feeling it cold against his skin-

Celestia felt an icy chill run down her spine and suddenly all her senses were on alert. It had only been for the briefest of moments, but she knew something else had been there with her and Ford, watching down on them with ill intent. She peered this way and that but found nothing- yet the cold in her bones remained, more frigid than the empty air; she had not been wrong, of that she was certain.

“Can you make sense of this thing?” Ford asked her, returning with the tablet in hand. “It is an odd machine… a glass piece upon it, yet the rest of it is a metal I have never felt before- and so lightweight! Look at it yourself, tell me: does it seem strange to you?”

Celestia felt the device fall into her grasp and she wielded it with distaste. “Man-made, for certain,” she said. “Electrical, perhaps. It may still be unfamiliar to you, since its adoption in Equestria is still slow- but this is far more advanced than anything even our most brilliant minds have been able to conceive.”

“Hmm…” Ford gave his focus to the device, pressing his hands against the glass and suddenly finding it come to live, a long, think crack now visible across its surface. “Well then!”

“Does it say anything?”

Ford scrutinized the device. “It requires some sort of password for entry,” he remarked, pressing at it again in the hopes of a new discovery. “Maybe, if given enough time, I could decipher it.”

The chill in her bones left in an instant and suddenly a great weight lay upon Celestia’s shoulders, an exhaustion so great that she felt it was a miracle that she could even stand. “Heaven help me!”

“Are you alright?” Ford asked, coming to her side and helping her over to a nearby doorway. “You seem like you’ve been awake for days now. How long has it been since you slept?”

“I do not know,” she answered dimly. It was such a sudden thickness, so heavy against her…

Ford gave a grunt and struggled to bring her into the safety of the darkened room, leaning down and placing her alongside the wall. “You feel heavy- unusually so. Are you alright?”

“Merely exhausted,” she said, now hardly able to keep her eyes open. “Perhaps I have… overexerted myself.”

“Perhaps I will have my time to decipher this device after all,” Ford said. “Sleep until you are well. Your face is tired.”

Setting his rucksack beneath her head, Celestia was lain down and granted rest, her whole body feeling pressed upon in force. Just began to slip away into slumber, a flash of her nightmare came forth in her mind and she wondered how she could hope to sleep at all.

“Tia. Tia. Tia, you must wake up.”

Ford’s voice came to her sharp and clear, Celestia awakening immediately. Her body felt like as though a great weight had finally been taken from her shoulders and she began to look about-

“No. Here. Right here.” Hands fell upon her face and she was brought towards him, Ford bringing her right before him until all her vision was encompassed by his visage. “Do not look anywhere else, do you understand?”

She became rigid. She was a deer in the open fields, a lone swimmer in the open ocean. That horrible, slinking sense of being caught in a snare was on her, and she found herself desperate to find its source, but Ford’s grip remained ironshod.

“You do not look anywhere else. Only at me, alright?” Ford said. His voice was deliberately even, but when she looked into his eyes she could see the terror evident in them, his face pale and taut. “I know where the gateway is.”

“You do? Let us be off-”

“You must stay here. For only a moment,” he replied. “I have to make sure the path is safe before we can venture any further. When I leave, I am going to put a blindfold around your eyes and you are going to wait for my return, do you understand?”

“Did you unlock the device-”

“It is destroyed, and do not try to repair it,” Ford replied. “Do not look for it, do not go outside, do not do anything. Merely close your eyes and wait for me to come back and get you, am I clear? Tell me you understand.”

“I understand,” she replied, her voice starting to quiver. Something here was very, very wrong-

“None of that. Hold it down or do not speak. I should not be long, it is not far from where we are. But I may take time.”

“Ford, are we not alone in this place?” she asked of him.

“We are. Close your eyes.” As her world went dark, she heard the tearing of fabric and she knew he had wrent his tunic to craft a makeshift blindfold, putting it about her head and tying it painfully tight. “Now wait for me. Do not move from this spot, do not speak, do nothing. Wait for me to come get you. If it sounds like me, do not move. If I call for you, do not move. If –and only if- it feels like me, do you journey onwards. Do you completely understand?”

In the blackness, she wanted to scream. All her memories of that ungodly nightmare had returned in full strength and it would be torturous to be alone with them. “I understand.”

“Good. I love you,” he said, kissing her and suddenly rushing off into the city, his footfalls quickly disappearing into the ether.

The wait was an eternity contained in the span of a millisecond. Each breath was both a thousand years and only a heartbeat. Each thought was long and drawn as the history of the world and yet no larger than a tissue. She waited, her world now so empty and void of all sense and life that the only sound of which she was certain was that or her own heartbeat- and even that, Celestia wondered if it was merely an echo.

He was afraid. Of what he would not say, she began to think. He says we are alone, but for him to be so specific would require a threat to be around us. And perhaps close by. But why simply leave me here, blind and vulnerable? Why leave me here at all?

She pondered the though further. He fears for my safety, as Ford always has. Not once, in our many years in this Palace, has ever not given thought to my wellbeing. He is the soldier, willing to give his life to ensure I reach our destination: Sombra. Ford would willingly fall as long as it assured I stopped Sombra from completing his goal. So he goes out to find our path to the gateway and leaves me here as little more than a statue. And if Ford is willing to leave me here unprotected, it must be the safest place for me to be. Blind, silent, and unmoving- everything he is not. So what is it that stalks him now?

A rush of footsteps outside the door. “Tia! Oh, thank heaven- come on!” Ford’s voice was desperate now, clearly frayed from his ordeal. “We need to go right now, hurry!”

By instinct, she jerked forward in the hopes of finding his hand in hers- but she stopped. Only if it feels like me… that horrid chill that infected her very bones came forth in a vengeance, and her heart began to pound inside her chest.

“Tia, come on!” Ford was insistent, standing perhaps right before her face. “We cannot wait, the gateway is open but only for a little while longer! Let’s move!”

She waited for his touch, sweat forming in miniscule beads on her brow. He would touch her and she would know, he had promised. She waited-

A pressure fell on her arms and it was all she could do to not scream and split the heavens. An icy grip was wrapped around her, the sensation so much like human flesh, but something far worse. One hand around her arm, then another- and two more just like them, feeling their way up her arms and up to her shoulders, shaking her wildly in its insistence.

“What are you waiting for? We have to go, and I won’t wait for you!” Ford roared. It relinquished its grip on her and turned away, pausing at what sounded like the threshold before rushing back outside.

Silence filled the air again, but only for a moment. A slow, cautious step came from outside, a far gentler footfall that slipped discreetly into the room, the presence of it pausing as she felt herself under scrutiny.

“It cannot be,” said the voice, so recognizable that the sound of it nearly struck Celestia from where she stood. “… Tia?”

Luna. Celestia so desperately wanted to cry out and reach for her sister’s arms, but the fear she had felt when ‘Ford’ had first arrived only grew in intensity. Something far, far worse was now in the room with her-

“Tia, please… let me see you. I’ve been looking for you for so long here, hoping you would come at last. I thought I was following your trail, and I have been here for centuries!” Luna cried. “I began to lose hope that I would ever find you at all! Please, come to me! We have been looking for you for so long!”

More voices joined ‘Luna’ in her pleading. ‘Twilight’ joined in, with the weary voice of gentle ‘Cadance’ adding her part. They told her a story of how their world was burning, how Equestria had been struck by Sombra’s army, too great and endless for even their combined strength to overthrow. Equetria was gone, reduced to little more than ash, and the few that had survived the destruction had fled to this place in hopes of finding salvation- of finding the lost Princess of the Sun. They had looked for her over endless years, across countless worlds, and they only wished to be with her in full at last- if she would only join them.

“Please, Tia,” ‘Luna’ said, the sound of tears falling down her face. “Look at me, please. Do you no longer love me?”

Celestia’s pain was only outmatched by her terror and she remained silent, immobile; she had become a living statue, lifeless and mute to all the world, though her heart was shattering as she heard the mournful sound of her sister’s agony, knowing that what she heard could not possibly be real-

A scream so violent that it ripped the air asunder, squelching and violently inhuman. Celestia wished to block it out from her ears but remained still, letting the horrid sound tear through fabric and flesh and bone and all the materials and trappings of man until it seemed the whole world was filled by the dreadful shrieking that struggled against dying light and empty life until it seemed all that had ever existed, or would ever be, was that dreadful, endless, echoing sound.

And then the world was silent. She did not move. She did not breathe. Perhaps it was still there with her, waiting for the slightest hope of movement or sound-

“Celestia.” Warm hands, rough, scarred, yet unbelievably filled with life, held her wrists gently as dried lips pressed against her own. “You did well. We can go now.”

“Ford!” she threw her arms around him and held so tight she may as well have squeezed the life out of him. “It is really you!”

“It is. I promise,” he replied. He did not have to, for she knew his touch by heart. The mere fact that he had spoken her name in full was evidence enough.

“Where is it?” she asked.

“Beyond the way. I know the path well now- for safety, both of us will be blind, just to be safe.” Perhaps he felt her body tense against him, for he gave a small squeeze of assurance. “I have placed markers to guide our way, do not worry. You will be able to feel them as we go. But until I tell you to, do not remove your cover.”

“Ford, when you were gone,” she said, holding on tightly as he led them back outside, “something else was here with me. You said we are alone.”

“And we are,” he replied. “It will not speak now, but they are still close by. Hold on to me, in case they wish to follow.”

When they first began their blinded trek through the empty city, Celestia wondered just how they were to find their way. Yes, there had been so signs of danger in the environment, but what she heard –and felt- still felt very much close by. If their senses were to be kept dulled, Ford’s trail markers would have to be distinct for them to succeed.

“There we are,” he said, a small note of satisfaction in his voice. “Take your hand and feel it against your skin, beloved. What do you feel?”

Her hand guided by his, she stretched out and felt a strange roughness; a jagged edge now dull, starkly different from the artificial smoothness they had encountered since their arrival in this place. “One of your markers, I take it?”

“Yes. In case I have to detach myself from you. Unlikely, do not worry,” he added, hearing her breath stutter, “But just in case, I want you to know its touch. If it is ahead of you, continue forward. If it is to your right, turn right. Your left, turn left. Do you understand?”

“Certainly.”

“Good. Then let us keep going.”

Their journey was slow, steady, and continuous, little on their journey that wound hinder them. Only the rumble of the red sun was there to meet their ears, beyond the pale echo of their footsteps through the emptiness-

Celestia’s spine went rigid as she heard it. Another pair of footfalls somewhere behind them, heavier and its pace erratic. She could not find a word to describe the sound they made- flesh, but not quite flesh, no sound of machinery or equipment. She wanted to say she could hear its breath, but the sound was so faint that she could hardly make it out against the faint rumble of the dying sun. “Ford-”

“Do not give it heed,” he encouraged. “I wondered if they might follow. Do not worry, they will not try to hinder us.”

“We are not alone.”

“Yes, we are,” he said again. “So do not let it cause you worry.”

Their journey went ever onwards. Likely only a few minutes, an hour at most, but her blindness added an eternity to every footstep. Just how long had they traveled through this place? Had Ford’s preparations been successful, or had whatever was haunting them found a way to bring them to confusion? Celestia waited for the moment things would go wrong and chaos would descend, but each jagged marker came after another. Ahead, ahead, left; right, ahead, ahead, and left. She felt the pathway beneath her feet begin to curve and descend downwards, the world obscured through her blindfold turning ever darker- save for a small pinprick of white that appeared at the faintest edge of her senses.

“Are you alright?” he asked her.

“Yes.” She paused, listening for that strange breathing. “Are we alone?”

“I believe so,” he replied. “Hold yourself for a moment. Just in case.” She heard the movement of cloth and guessed he had removed his coverings, peering about in the hopes of assuring their safety. His breath was held for a time, then exhaled in a long, slow sound of relief. “We are alright. Here, let me remove your blindfolds.” As her cloth was removed, she felt lips press against hers and she opened her eyes to see her husband standing before him, absolutely covered with dust but his eyes sang to his relief. “I hope you do not resent me for my actions. I believed it was the best course of action.”

“What was with us? You keep saying we are alone, but- what I heard,” she murmured. “It put its hands upon me; I’ve never felt such a thing!”

“I promise you, once and for all, we are indeed alone. That tablet was able to reveal everything to me, and I think my machinations with it caused our struggle,” Ford answered. “We are safe here; it will not follow us down to this place, where the gateway dwells.”

“Then we should press on,” she declared, sweeping past him and moving towards the open doors of wrought-iron, “the longer we stay the more danger we-”

She paused at the threshold, the white light of the doors spilling out onto her fair face. She scrutinized it, listening intently for the sound of endless whispers and voices from beyond the timeless doors. Yet the longer she waited, the more she was confronted by the bluntness of an empty silence. The light swirled about like a vortex, seemingly eager to suck in all who came too near. As she stared, all she could see was a false light and void, filled by one long, slow, thunderous Call.

“What is wrong?” Ford asked, noticing her hesitation. “Shall we not go forth?”

“Something is wrong,” she said, her voice quiet. “This gateway is real, but its light and strength… it belongs to something Other.”

“Shall we be able to travel through?” he said.

“We must,” she answered. “But it hungers for us. If we go through, the gateway will close.”

“Have they not always done so?”

“Not just this one door- every one across every world, sealing us away,” she whispered, staring at the false light and finding it detestable to the eye, a repugnant corpse that masqueraded as life. “If we go through… we may never find a way out.”

They were hesitant, disquieted by the sound of silence and the sensation of pale light. With one last breath before the plunge, they strode forward together and walked through the doors of the wrought-iron gateway, feeling the gates close behind them as they were bathed in a relentless tide of bitterest Cold.

He felt them move the moment before they had arrived, a great taint of white on his endless blanket of black. A poison of purity diluting his blight. He knew their trace by heart, memorizing it until he would know it better than they would ever know it themselves.

So. They had come at last. The wait had been long, slow and empty. They had come to him and found strength beyond themselves, turning even a Little Light into a great force. If they had returned to their homeland, they would have been seen as something akin to gods and found themselves the object of worship.

But here, he had grown fat with strength. His knowledge was endless. His very life had become as much a fundament of existence as the very air they would breathe. He was the fabric upon which the world had been crafted. Soon, they would know this themselves.

The stage had been set. The actors would come on to the stage to greet the newcomers, and invite them onto the stage. It was time for the play to begin.

He knew they had come. He felt them. So he smiled.

Author's Note:

It has come. A new chapter for this week, helping us get back to speed. If this pace keeps up, the last chapter will be released the same day as the final episode.

New additions to the soundtrack can be found here: Boop

Are you ready for the next step forward? It is ready for you.

Comments and corrections below. As always, enjoy.

Comments

[Hazel Glow]

A few chapters ago, you mentioned something about the chapters’ names. I think I may know the meanings of them for they are in multiple different languages, each containing the meaning of each chapter. For instance, the word ‘Órama’ meaning ‘Vision’ in Greek proved that indeed, in that chapter, Celestia and Ford see a vision of the future after drinking water from the pond. 🙂