The Susurrations of a Pale Star

by the7Saviors

Entry #6

Final Entry – --:--

I'm all alone.

The world is so quiet now. So peaceful. No screams. No whispers. No sounds of crackling flames. Nothing but absolute silence—like the calm before the storm.

It's strange.

I don't remember how I got here—to Canterlot, I mean. I remember falling asleep down in my castle's cellar, but when I came to, I was in Canterlot. Specifically, the road leading up to Canterlot Castle. My body was sore, my mind exhausted. I certainly felt like I'd flown for miles and miles, but I had no recollection of doing so. I still don't.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what was going on, but all I got was a horrid migraine and a single memory I'm not even sure was real. At least, I hope with every ounce of blood and harmony in my body that what I saw—what I did—wasn't real. No, it was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. Wouldn't be the first time. Even with the world gone mad, I'd never do something like that. Not to one of my friends. Not to Pinkie.

I want to believe that, but I can still see it, those blameless eyes, that sad, resigned smile. I can still smell her blackening, bubbling flesh and the ashes tickling my nose as the flames grew brighter and brighter. I remember the whispers so clearly. They were so loud. So joyous. So appreciative. I'd done a good thing. I fed the pyre, just like it wanted. Just like I was meant to. We were all meant to burn. At least, that's what the whispers told me.

But the whispers are gone now. Silent. Like they never existed. Like they were all just in my head. Everything is silent now. Canterlot is silent. It was silent when I got there. There were so many ponies on the street. So many voices gone quiet. They're all asleep now. Just like Spike. Luna's gone quiet, too. The only one who didn't fall asleep, aside from me, was Celestia. No, Celestia is gone now.

I made my way to the castle and found her on the balcony, just staring up at the sun. I might have joined her. I'm not really sure. She told me some things, though. A lot of things. It all seemed so ridiculous, but standing here now on this balcony beneath that blood-red sky, her words don't seem all that far-fetched. She talked about "cracks in the vessel" and an "imminent rebirth", but I didn't understand what she meant.

Not until the blinding glare of the sun started to dim.

That's when I saw them. The cracks. That's when I realized there might've been some merit to the insanity she was spouting. That was when she told me her role was finished. That was when she set herself on fire and burned to death right in front of me. She was smiling the entire time, that same motherly smile she always used to give me back when I was still her little protégé.

My memory of what happened immediately after that is a bit hazy, but I'm fairly sure I didn't take it very well. All I know for sure is that the constant whispers pressing at the back of my mind stopped after that. Now it's quiet, and in this strange world of ominous silence, my mind is oddly clear—maybe for the first time in days and likely for the last time. Why the slumber hasn't taken me like everypony else, I don't know.

Perhaps I'll never know, but as long as I remain relatively lucid, for however long it lasts, I figure I might as well make this final entry. It was no big feat to summon my journal from my castle, and there's nothing else left for me to do at this point. Luna and I had a plan, but that went up in smoke the moment I saw her sleeping form slumped over on her throne.

Now it's just me and my trusty journal.

Sitting here, I've had quite a bit of time to think. To reflect on everything that's happened over the last week and on everything that Celestia told me before her self-immolation. The Church, the Great Conflagration, the Great Pyre, Celestia's own role in some kind of prophecy. After thinking about all of this, I found myself coming back to one question.

Did Pinkie know? And if so, how?

Was she already aware of all of this? Is that why she acted the way she did? Is that why she was in the cave? Why she so willingly became a sacrifice? Was she dealing with this same despair that I feel now, even before the world turned to Tartarus? I'm sure there are several revelations to be had here, but this was all I could think about after all that reflection. I'll never get an answer now, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

I also thought about ending my own life at some point. I almost went through with it, too. I was far closer to throwing myself off the balcony than I care to admit, but ultimately, I chose not to go through with it. Not because I was afraid, but because I realized that wouldn't have been fair. It wouldn't have been right. If what Celestia told me was true, then all those sleeping ponies were suffering a fate far worse than death.

Fluttershy was one thing. She likely had no choice in her escape from all this madness. If I'm being honest, I envy her, wherever she is, but I can't just end it all knowing that everypony else won't get that same choice. Sure, there's Celestia and what she did, but that was no choice. Not really. It's for that reason that I resolved to see this "Great Conflagration" through to the end, whatever that end might actually be.

Maybe I'll finally join everypony else in that infernal slumber, maybe whatever is in that "vessel" will break out and burn me alive, maybe nothing will happen and I'll just go insane. I don't know, but in the time I've waited for the end to come, I've already documented everything Celestia told me and sent it all back to my cellar. Once I'm done writing all this down, the journal will go next.

My cellar is so heavily enchanted that I'm almost certain anything in there will survive whatever the Great Pyre has in store. I do all this in the hope that, once this all over, maybe somepony will remain to discover what happened here. I'm not sure what state I left the cellar in, but it should have sealed itself off after I failed to return. Getting in won't be easy, but as long as whoever finds it has some skill in magical wards or enchantments, they should be able to open it eventually.

And with that, I don't think there's anything more to be said here. It's just as well, because the temperature is rising again. It's actually getting harder to focus on words. More cracks inthe Sunvessel. Flames. Burning. FalseSun. Heatis unbearablesohot notime leftplease be okay fluttershy

imso sorry pink

Comments

[Wild Stallion]

Dark ambiguity and vagueness cloaked in aura of despair. Perfect for the last or second to last chapters of a slow paced horror story. I'm looking forward to the wrap up.

[Mix-up]

Awesome dude, love how this is building up and we really have no idea what's going to happen next at this point.

[Blood Rarity]

[TheAncientPolitzanian]

Dang, "I can't kill myself because everyone else doesn't have that choice" is such a uniquely bleak perspective. Wow.

Twilight's mysteriously restored last-minute lucidity raises quite a few questions. Between her own musings on the matter, her final act of documenting everything, and the journaling itself being abnormal for her from the outset, I'm left wondering if the Conflagration requires a quote-unquote "Archivist" and she was unknowingly chosen to, ahem, "fulfill that role". For what purpose, I'd have no clue; maybe a way of kickstarting another solar cult on another world, but that's just errant speculation that may not even be accurate to the in-story lore.

Elsewhere, Pinkie and Fluttershy remain somewhat loose ends, though the former's might just be an extended nod to her frequent 4th-wall precognition (to inappropriately appropriate Jon Bois, "She saw the writing on the wall, and it terrified her."). The latter could easily remain a mystery as well, though I can also imagine an epilogue in which Flutters and Discord become the "someponies who'll remain to discover what happened" Twilight alluded to… and inadvertently trigger the first step of the next apocalypse in the process.

…That, or the final chapter will entirely consist of a grotesquely prosaic description of the Vessel breaking free and incinerating everything (which, ironically, would probably be tantamount to a mercy killing for all its living batteries at this point). Either or neither works! :P

Looking forward to the ending!

[David olvera]

Basically the the plot of Dead Space but with stars instead of moons.

[Mr Swanky Hat]

11591559
And less monsters with pointy bits

[AvoidingFever17]

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