Starlight often forgot she even had that time tracking spell running in the background. The spell wasn't her best work. Ideally it would categorize the time she spent, but unfortunately it mostly worked as a method to quickly review her day. She liked to watch her day at 100 times speed, quickly glancing through the day before writing in her journal for the night.
She slowed down her review of her day today though because so much had happened, meeting Sunset Shimmer, going to the human world, making new(?) friends. She couldn't imagine a better day.
However, there was a very, very odd anomaly when she had gone into the portal. Starlight had thought it had been a quick trip, but the time tracking spell had more memories than Starlight had experienced. She slowed down her viewing of her day, pinpointing the irregularity and watching it unfold.
Starlight Glimmer closed her eyes and followed Sunset Shimmer into the portal. She felt her entire body move into an entire separate realm of existence, stretching her and—
Plopping her down in the middle of nowhere.
Of all the places she had expected to see, it had not been an ethereal plane with an Alicorn Rarity standing in the middle of it.
“Hello Starlight, darling! It’s so nice to see you!”
Starlight stared at Rarity. She was wearing a gorgeous lilac dress that seemed to swirl like star dust all around her. It somehow matched the universe of stars and smoke around them perfectly. But it almost felt like the ethereal plane had been designed to match the dress and not the other way around.
“Uhh…” said Starlight Glimmer. “I take it this isn’t the human world?”
“No, not yet,” said Rarity, her amethyst mane twinkling and somehow ebbing and flowing like water. “But I know you’re anxious to get there, so let me get started!”
“Uhh…” said Starlight again. She knew she ought to have a million questions, but seeing Rarity as an Alicorn had thrown her so completely for a loop that her brain had not even begun processing what to ask. This was not helped any when suddenly her body began shifting and contorting in awkward ways.
“What’s happening to me!?” shouted Starlight.
“Sorry, this takes a bit of prodding, darling. Not to worry though, I’ll have you looking like a beautiful human version of yourself soon.”
Starlight couldn’t exactly feel what was happening to her. It was as if her entire body had been numbed. She knew something was happening to her hooves, torso and everything in between. Only Rarity’s mutterings every so often like: “No… that nose isn’t nearly cute enough,” made Starlight aware that anything was happening at all.
“And done!” said Rarity.
“Done?” said Starlight.
“With phase one, I mean,” said Rarity. "Now comes the best part, CLOTHES!”
“Clothes?” said Starlight.
“Well of course, interdimensional travelers deserve to look their best!”
Rarity brought out a dazzling array of outfits, shifting her eyes back and forth between the clothes and Starlight.
Starlight's brain finally caught up enough to ask a question: “How did you even get here?”
“Peer pressure,” said Rarity without skipping a beat.
“Wha—“ Starlight barely uttered before Rarity’s horn glowed and her entire body was encased in fabric.
“Okay, look. You started it,” said Rarity, still teleporting clothes onto Starlight. “There was this crazy thing that you made happen where time compressed all at once into a single moment and you became a Goddess of Time. And then Twilight became the Deity of Knowledge, and then Discord became a Deity of Harmony, and then Spike’s debacle where he became a Death Deity. Basically everypony was becoming omnipotent and I wasn’t about to abandon my friends—no matter how strange their new hobby of collecting godlike power was. Oh! That hat looks good—just need to figure out the outfit that will go with it.
“Well anyway, I caved to peer pressure and due to time compression shenanigans, I am—and have somehow always been—the Deity of Space,” said Rarity, who's horn flashed and Starlight felt herself wearing what must have been the tenth outfit in the last thirty seconds. “Really, there's not much for me to do besides monitor the constant expansion of the multiverse. Space will be rather boring until Rainbow Dash fails to completely protect the multiverse and commences the end of all things. Until then, I spend most of my time making outfits for interdimensional travelers to worlds that have a nudity taboo.”
“I— wha…?” said Starlight.
“Speaking of which, you’re going to need a nudity taboo spell for your human form,” Rarity's horn flashed. “There, that’s better.”
Starlight’s entire brain seemed to have evaporated and her only desire left was to stare. With a flash, she felt her body encased in yet another outfit.
Rarity squealed in sheer delight. “Perfect! You look magnificent darling, take a look!” Rarity held up a mirror.
Starlight took one glance and then started screaming.
“You’ll have to get over the shock of becoming human a few seconds from now,” said Rarity. “You’ll be forgetting this whole thing, anyway.”
“Forge—?“ was all Starlight managed to get out before Cosmic Rarity shoved her into a portal to the human world.
“What’s this all about, Starlight?” asked Discord, who was pretending to be Fluttershy but nopony had noticed yet.
The crystals of Twilight’s castle rang cacophonously as the ponies gathered around. Whatever it was, they were sure making a big fuss of it. Discord waited for the opportune moment to spring out of nowhere. What would be the best way to spring out? I mean—Pinkie Pie had already worn a Fluttershy suit and no one had noticed. Could Discord beat that? Of course he could! Though Pinkie did always give him a run for his money.
“I’ll answer that question when everyone gets here,” said Starlight.
“Who are we missing?” asked Rainbow Dash, while Rarity gave a nod in agreement.
Sunset Shimmer slid her way into the room, trying not to be noticed but cantering strangely on her hooves. Discord made a mental note to mildly ruin Sunset's day sometime in the far flung future. Everypony else here had not gotten off so easy with him around.
“Sunset!” waved Twilight frantically. “I’m so glad you could make it!”
“Well it seemed kind of important,” said Sunset.
“I’ll say!” shouted Pinkie Pie, who sidled next to Sunset and whispered in her ear. “I know Starlight said not to, but I have a party planned and ready to go the second this is over. Oh this is gonna be so much fun!”
“I just hope this ain’t one of them world ending catastrophe’s,” said Applejack. “I’d prefer a git together when everythin’s going fine.”
“Well… it doesn’t look like any Equestria ending catastrophe’s right now,” said Spike. “I mean—Starlight’s been planning this for months. You can’t really plan for the end of the world, so I think we should be fine.”
“That means we’re only missing Discord,” said Starlight.
"Present!" Discord's normal voice came out of what looked like Fluttershy. "Fluttershy's missing though, I'll get her!" He jammed a yellow hoof into the wall, chaotic energy seeping from it, and pulled out a nearly identical Fluttershy.
Claws suddenly appeared from his hooves and he snapped them, turning back into his normal Draconequus self.
Most of the ponies stared at him before rolling their eyes. What a boring response. I guess they had known each other for several years, but the least they could do would be to give a decent look of shock.
“Umm… hello,” said the real Fluttershy.
“Well… that means we can get started!” said Starlight.
“Get WHAT started!?” said Rainbow Dash. “You gather us all here—you could at least let us know what’s gonna happen.”
“I just need you all to trust me for this next part,” said Starlight. “And I need everypony to choose to do this. I’ve… well… I’ve been messing around a lot with time lately, and I’ve come across some knowledge of the past and future that concerns all of us.
Starlight breathed in and out. “But well… I think everyone should have a chance to agree to what’s going to happen. I know how it turns out, but you all should have a chance to say no.”
“What are you going on about?" Discord asked. She wasn't making any sense, and he was the one that wasn't supposed to make any sense. Discord had always felt uncomfortable with time manipulation. Chaos demanded that life constantly be changing and time traveling anywhere brought a level of chaos and order that even he didn't dare touch.
“Something happens to us?” asked Fluttershy.
“Only if you want it to,” said Starlight. “You can always say no.”
“What is it we’re even saying yes to?” asked Discord.
“I think… I just need to get started to make this happen,” said Starlight, her horn starting to shimmer. “You can make your choice once we get there.”
Discord felt himself distort, his entire body melting and amalgamating. He reflexively grabbed onto Fluttershy's hoof before the spell got too crazy. It was always relaxing when he morphed his own body in chaotic ways, but somepony else changing him felt sickening.
The entire room and everypony else was also being disfigured, convoluting anything and everything about themselves into something quite different. It felt like all of everything Discord had ever known was compressing down to a single point. His past selves all seemed to come out all at once. Him turned to stone, him at the start of this universe, him as an agent of chaos devoted to tearing apart the multiverse bit by bit. They all seemed to merge into one single point.
His future self also met to join him. But that future self was oddly… blocked, as if there was a wall confronting him and everypony else.
He was suddenly aware that he was in darkness and the voices of his friends started to bubble up from the surface. He held on tightly to Fluttershy’s hoof next to him, grateful she was still there.
“What in the hay?”
“What is going on!?”
“Wheeeeeeee!”
“It’s so… dark.”
Pinpricks of light suddenly shot around them, illuminating a lilac alicorn floating in the void in front of them. “Everypony, it is now… ‘now,’ and it will forever continue as such. The multiverse needs us for various roles, and here at the ‘now’ of everything, you need to decide what you are going to be."
An amalgamation of colors surrounded them. Greens, reds and a rainbow of every color in between mixed in odd patterns of light surrounding them. Each of the colors felt responsible for something different. But they were also inextricably linked to each other. The white in the background seemed to hold it all in place.
"As for me," shouted Starlight Glimmer. "I will control Time.”
When Starlight Glimmer fell into the colors, all the green everywhere seemed to wrap around her before straightening out in a regular pattern.
“We’re doing what now?” asked Applejack.
“It’s alicorn party time!” shouted Pinkie Pie, who had dived into the colors, pink surrounding her as she assumed her new role. “And the Life of the party is here!”
“I’ll take Knowledge,” said Twilight, all the blues reconfiguring in perfect order.
“Discord,” whispered Fluttershy next to him, I take it you’ll pick ‘Chaos?’”
The yellow Chaos called to him. The golden glow felt like a poison he was used to taking every single day, something he would have to do the rest of his existence. But he felt oddly pulled elsewhere too.
He suddenly realized how naked he felt. All of his chaos magic was gone. All of the desires to wreak havoc on the multiverse and ponies lives... just gone. He was empty and now got to choose whether he really wanted all he had ever known all over again.
Discord floated there dumbfounded. “I… suppose… Chaos is all I’ve ever known.” It was strange to even be asked that. He was always Chaos. It wasn't a choice. It's just what he was.
“Is that something you truly want?” asked Fluttershy.
Discord could only stare at the amalgamations of colors before him. Not just Chaos was calling out to him. He could be Space, or Death or Soul or Hope or... everything he had always fought against. His eyes drooped as he looked down at mere Chaos. It seemed so... painful in retrospect. Creating things... keeping things in line... those seemed like a much more noble pursuit now that he had a chance to look at it all from this vantage point.
"I don't know..." said Discord, staring deeply into the colors still left.
Applejack had joined in and become Matter, the convoluted oranges shifting into a regular cohesiveness.
“I think you’d be happier if you got to experience ‘Harmony,'" said Fluttershy.
Discord tried to stare at her, but light was behaving in strange ways. He knew she was right there, but she seemed to be nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Harmony?" asked Discord. He looked back down at the colors and noticed the layer of white seemed keeping everything together.
"Take care of me, okay?" whispered Fluttershy. She gave him one last kiss before diving into the everything. Every other color but yellow ran away from her, as if the colors knew she would slowly destroy them all.
“What— no! What are you—“ Discord’s body contorted itself in shock as he saw her dissolve.
Yellow Chaos tore at Fluttershy, disfiguring her until an electrifying Alicorn erupted out of her old body. A hot pink mane made of shimmering nebulas draped from her head. She seemed to pop and fizzle with golden lightning with every move she made.
The fierce deity smiled at him, "it's okay to try something different now."
Discord could only stare in shock back. Seeing raw chaos brought a disdain over him he never imagined he would feel. It hurt. He needed to help this multiverse from her as much as possible. And protect her too. Every Role needed help, every creature, every... one.
“Harmony!” Discord shouted as he fell into the mixture of colors, roles and raw power. The white that had kept everything together absorbed into himself. He could seep his claws of Harmony everywhere, easing Chaos's power, tempering Time, flourishing Life, and kept the Roles in balance with each other.
Discord organized the colors—Roles that were left—and beckoned the rest of his friends to choose. He was going to need all of their help for a very long time.
It was going to be a wonderful eternity, he'd make sure of that.
A small candle was still alight on the bedstand next to her, a pinprick of light in the crystal darkness.
It felt wrong.
Everything felt wrong.
Starlight laid in her bed in Twilight’s castle. The castle of her enemy. No—her... friend? She had to be friends with her. It wasn't really a choice at this point, was it? She couldn’t hurt her or anything. Anything that happened to Twilight could destroy life in Equestria as she knew it.
Destroy all life.
She had almost destroyed absolutely everything.
She didn’t deserve to be forgiven. According to Twilight, her time-traveling had enslaved ponies, hurt them, tortured them—killed them. How could Twilight forgive her so much? How could this be the case at all?
Starlight stayed in bed that night, her mind racing and racing along without any way to stop it.
She woke up the next morning with a terrible fever.
Starlight refused to let Twilight help her. She deserved this fever. She deserved to experience all the pains of everypony hurt by her actions, but a fever would be a decent start.
Twilight tried to barge in a few times and Starlight didn’t blame her. After all, she had been an enemy the day before. But somehow Twilight trusted her and so Starlight was able to hide in her room and feel pain for another day.
The next night, the candle slowly burned, but not as much as Starlight. She couldn’t move. The pain of her actions on her mind far outweighed the physical sickness, but the added pain of her body made her feel like she was being punished properly. No—it wasn’t good enough. She deserved far, far worse.
She lit her horn—
All at once the flame on the candle next to her brightened. Starlight's eyes went wide and the light from her horn vanished.
It rose out of the flame and then coalesced into a tall, strange creature before her. Although it floated in the air, it looked like it stood on two legs and appeared to be made of fire itself. It’s muzzle was somehow squished into its face. It— no her hair slowly flowed downwards while the flames still danced along inside of it. Her wings blazed with ruby flames. It reminded her of a phoenix, except this creature was most definitely not a phoenix.
“Starlight Glimmer,” said the strange creature.
Starlight only stared at her.
"When will you forgive yourself?"
The fever distorted Starlight's voice, as if her vocal chords were made of sandpaper. "I... never."
"Never is a very long time Starlight," said the creature made of inferno.
"I've caused so... much pain," said Starlight. "I deserve the same."
"I suppose that makes sense from your perspective, Starlight, but not from all perspectives."
Starlight didn't know what to say to that.
The crystal darkness around Starlight was suddenly bathed in flames. The inferno disappearing as fast as it had appeared, placing her in some strange cosmos alone with the Deity. Tiny multicolored lights danced and weaved their way around her, flowing in and out of tiny microscopic worlds back and forth from the deity. Some small dark shadow of a dragon seemed to be flitting back and forth between those tiny worlds, sending the lights on their way.
"I provide rest for the souls in this multiverse, Starlight," said the Deity.
"Oh... I guess that means..." said Starlight, a sad but relieving thought squirming it's way into her.
"Don't worry, it is not your time to feel such rest. I merely wish for you to see this."
The deity held up a dozen small worlds in the palm of right hand. They looked like brown and gray Equestria's. A rainbow of orange, blue, and black criss-crossed their way around the worlds until each of them disintegrated. Billions of multicolored lights erupted from the shattered worlds, flowing into the Deity's other palm.
"Those universes you accidentally created have now ended, Starlight. Their pain is over and their souls can now rest." The lights flitted away to the Deity's wings. Each of the feathers had tiny little worlds on them, billions of little heavens that the lights could choose to go to.
"I... I really did do that, didn't I?" asked Starlight.
"Yes," said the Deity.
"Can't I do anything to make up for what I've done? I can be sick for a long time. I can—"
"Much pain was caused by you Starlight, more than your current form could ever imagine," said the Deity. She breathed in a deep breath and then breathed out a deep purple orb of darkness. It loomed in front of both of them, oppressively painful to look at.
The Deity held out a palm to Starlight, and absorbed the pain. All at once Starlight felt her fever disappear. She felt so incredibly light, as if a huge burden had been lifted.
In the depths of the Deity's palms, a tiny dark purple orb amalgamated from Starlight's pain.
Starlight looked to her small own pain and compared to the huge sphere of anguish from the finished alternate Equestrias. It barely compared. Her own pain was nothing compared to the combined anguish of billions of souls.
"This," said the Deity. "Isn't something you can overtake, Starlight Glimmer. You cannot atone for your own sins. Attempting to..." Starlight's pain sphere grew bigger "... just increases the amount of pain in the multiverse. It's such a waste. You cannot ever catch up to the pain you have caused others, Starlight."
"What—what am I supposed to do then!? How can I make this up?"
"You make it up by not adding any more pain to the multiverse than is necessary. You make it up by changing your very soul."
"Change my soul?"
"Yes, I had to do so myself." The Deity smiled sadly. "But it was so very worth it. Everything I am today comes from the decision to change for the better, to acknowledge mistakes... and to deeply understand..." the Deity held up the deep purple pain of all those universes in front of her, all at once they caught fire and then disappeared into the aether, "...that my past is not today."
Starlight gulped. "How... am I supposed to do that."
"Time," she said.
The Deity reached out her hands to Starlight, and Starlight let herself be wrapped in her warm embrace.
"Forgiveness always takes time."
The Deity's flaming arms and wings felt warm and comfortable around her.
She held out Starlight's small pain in her palm, which burned away in a small spark.
"There... now sleep well, Starlight. You have the rest of your vast existence ahead of you. Forgive yourself—love yourself—accept yourself, for you will be you for a very long time to come."
Starlight's fever was gone the next morning. She had had a strange fever dream, but couldn't for the life of her remember what it had been about. All she knew is that she felt... done. As if it was now the next part of her life and she just had to greet it.
She knew it was illogical to not feel more remorseful. But at the same time, perhaps it was more logical to let the past be the past.
She took off her covers and trotted downstairs where she knew Twilight and Spike would be there to greet her.
The throne room was cold and empty, the walls echoing Celestia’s shallow breathing. She didn’t belong here, there, or anywhere in between. What she really deserved was death.
She had been like this for several weeks. Silent, unmoving, never eating nor sleeping, her immortality keeping her tethered. She felt each and every moment as it passed. Time was as constant as it always was. Every minute—every second—felt like eternity. Each infinity compounded on her. The weight of the duration of her future life felt completely suffocating.
Each hour that passed felt like an impossible dream had been fulfilled. Somehow the eternity of that hour ended. It took all time just to make that hour finish, but it eventually did. However, each hour compounded on itself. Multiple eternities made up a day. The eternities kept compounding and compounding and crushing her of the sheer weight of the duration of the eternities she would be required to endure.
One thousand years. Each year made up of hundreds of days, each one of those made up of dozens of hours, and each of those made up of infinities of moments that took a perceptively infinite amount of time to pass.
She had always heard other ponies say such things like: “Where did this year go?” when nearing the end of another year. Never had she understood them. For time moves at the same rate for everypony. They felt every moment and every second she had. How could they experience time in such a way? How did they grow old and wonder where the time went? It was always there—that infernal infinity. And it would always be, uncomfortably, “now.”
Only the thoughts of the void filled her with any measure of hope.
She deserved death. She wanted death. What happened to her sister was her fault. Everything was her fault. Her fault. Her fault. Her faUlt. HEr fAUlt. HER FAULT!
For the first time in weeks, Celestia flared her horn. She didn’t know if it would work, but she could at least try to die. She closed her eyes and her entire body shimmered as she cast the spell.
In a single moment, all the magic within her dissipated.
“I’m so sorry,” said a slow deliberate voice.
Celestia opened her eyes, and then immediately tried to shield them from the blinding darkness with a foreleg. It was almost the opposite of light, instead of the light blinding her, it felt like darkness was overwhelming her, making it hard to see.
An ancient, dark dragon floated next to her. He forlornly flapped his wings and spoke once again, “I’m so sorry.”
Celestia hadn’t said anything in weeks, and her voice couldn’t come to her. She wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind.
“I bring hope to the hopeless that there is an end to everything,” the dragon spoke, it felt like each word was punctuated by an eternity of thoughts and feelings. “But for you, Celestia… hope will need to be delayed for some time, I’m so sorry.”
Celestia started weeping. She didn’t know why, but she was grateful for the feeling. It had been so long since she felt anything at all.
“Starlight,” said the ancient dragon looking up. “There is no comfort I can give to her, but she will need help if she is to fulfill her role.”
From absolutely everywhere, lilac lines streamed into the throne room, swirling around like a tornado made of flower petals. The lights reached into crescendo and a light purple alicorn stepped out from the vortex.
Her hair was a nebula of stars, flowing out and somehow dissipating into the room around them. She turned to face the dragon.
“Spike, what do you need?”
“I cannot grant her death right now, but she demands it so very badly. I cannot cut short her life, but perhaps you can do something to not make it feel so long.”
The alicorn’s eyes stared into Celestia’s. It felt like she was being pierced by her, each and every moment of her long life judged and evaluated by this creature.
“Time moves slowly for her. Each moment feels like eternity. It’s too much for her to handle,” said the Alicorn, crouching down to be next to herself. “I’m so sorry you’ve experienced time in this way for so long, Celestia.”
Celestia continued to cry.
“Death won’t come for you today, but I can make it feel like it will,” smiled the alicorn as her horn began to shimmer. “I will alter your perception of time, Celestia. Yes, every moment will still be lived, but it will go by swiftly for you. It will feel like 1000 years will have passed in the blink of an eye. I have given this gift to many others, but now I see that you require it as well, forgive me for withholding it from you.”
Celestia blinked.
Celestia could barely remember the Deities that had visited her. Their names forgotten, their forms hazy, but she knew they had visited, because after that day, everything had changed. Time passed by quickly for her.
Yes, it was still “experienced,” but she really did feel like time passed swiftly.
Where had the last day gone?
Where had the last month gone?
Where had the last decade gone?
Where had the last 1000 years gone?
Celestia had never thought that such questions could ever be asked by her. But now she felt time pass differently. And she knew that the hope of death would come for her soon. A warm smile caressed its way across her muzzle.
Applejack stared into the void. The darkness was all-consuming and all-encompassing. It was the darkness of being completely alone in all of time and space. Just her, alone.
"Hey, can I git some help from y'all? This sector of the multiverse is lookin' kinda sparse."
"Whatever do you mean, darling?" asked Rarity, sliding next to her from out of nowhere. "The space is alright, isn't it?"
"Yeah... but it don't got that 'oomph' it's supposed to have."
"Oh, that's probably my fault," said Starlight Glimmer. "You're expanding space too much, Rarity. I don't have enough Time to fill in all the space you're making. And besides, you could make things a little easier on Rainbow Dash."
"Uhh... you don't have enough Time?" asked Applejack. "You can't really expect me to believe that you can run out of Time. You're like the Queen of Time."
"Actually, that is a huge problem I have to deal with. I have about 100 trillion universe cycles of duration of Time to work with and assign to each universe... but after I use it all up the multiverse will just kind of... end..." Starlight said, biting her lip. "But don't worry! That's what Rainbow Dash is for."
"Right. Well anyway, I'm gonna need some of that Time if I'm going to get this batch of space populated and stuff."
"Do you really need it now?" asked Starlight.
"Why not now? The space is there, ain't it?"
"It most certainly is!" crooned Rarity.
"What I mean is," said Starlight slowly. "There's already a ton of other multiverses out there running. You've completed another 100 Big Bang spells just this decade, Applejack. Why not... I dunno... take a break?"
"A break? What do I need a break for?"
"Darling, I think what Starlight is trying to say is that you're a little too good at your job. This space will still be here when you get back. You could spend a couple lifetimes on some worlds. Ooh! I know! There's this neat little planet of Twilight's you could take a break on. Get a nice memory reset, live a few lifetimes, and pop right back to work when you're done! I highly recommend it. Nobody makes a planet quite like Twilight. Except for maybe Pinkie..."
"Look—I don't need a vacation. I get the most satisfaction from just doing my job. And that's making something from nothing and makin' it as fast as possible."
Starlight frowned. "Applejack, you're doing too good of a job. Most of the multiverses we make have only a dozen or so actual planets with sapient creatures on them. And the rest of the billions of Galaxies are empty. You have no idea how upset some of these creatures get when they finally take over several hundred galaxies and they still don't meet an alien race."
"Isn't that more Pinkie and Twilight's fault? They should make more creatures. Heck—just put a bajillion ponies everywhere on every nice planet. That'd be fun!"
"Worldbuilding takes a bit more care than that, Applejack," said Starlight, frowning slightly.
"Well then, if it's takin' 'em so long to get life up and running. Why not let me take a shot at it?"
"You're specialty is Matter, sweetie," said Rarity. "Why not just take a vacation for a couple centuries?"
"Nope, this is far better than any dumb vacation will ever be," said Applejack. "Starlight, gimme some of that Time for one more big bang spell. I'll try my hoof at some worldbuilding. That," she said staring at Rarity, "sounds like a much better vacation."
Applejack stared into the void. And then promptly punched it in the face.
A huge rupture in space-time exploded outward into a small bubble universe. Applejack slipped inside the universe and got to work.
The stars still simmered from the Big Bang spell, and Applejack had a rather long time to wait before anything substantial could really be attempted. She spent a lot of time reading over several million books from Twilight on worldbuilding. When that got boring (which was all the time) she talked to Pinkie and Sunset, gaining more information about the creation of life.
Her first attempts were laughable. A copy of Equestria didn't seem to sprout so much as a seed. The earth was fertile, the sun shone, the weather even rained correctly. But nothing Applejack did ever made any difference.
Reluctantly, she asked Discord and Fluttershy what was wrong.
They appeared next to her. She still had a hard time getting used to Discord's long snake-like longma form. Fluttershy though—chaos did a real number on her. Applejack always felt a little uncomfortable around her, as Fluttershy always seemed to be undoing with entropy everything that Applejack stood for.
They listened to her problem well though, and as usual, their advice was as annoying as they were.
"Life is a group effort, Applejack," said Fluttershy.
"It takes a little bit of everypony to get something like this off the ground," said Discord.
Applejack frowned. "I really gotta rely on everypony else to get some measly life to grow?"
Discord shrugged. "There are many pieces to all of this Applejack, it's when everything works together in Harmony that life can truly thrive."
Applejack sighed, "Alright fine."
It took her ages to get the information as well as the materials from everypony.
Matter from herself.
Space from Rarity.
Time from Starlight Glimmer.
Souls from Sunset Shimmer.
Knowledge from Twilight Sparkle.
Life from Pinkie Pie.
Death from Spike.
Chaos from Fluttershy.
And Harmony from Discord.
Microscopic life ebbed and flowed—reproduced, died and evolved—on Applejack's planet. It took her a very, very long time but when all was said and done, she reached up to the first apple tree with her hooves, and took a bite.
It tasted disgusting, but that was okay. She felt proud she had been able to get this far at all.
She planted some apple seeds into the ground, and smiled.
"If you wanna bake an apple pie from scratch, you just gotta make yerself a universe first."
Fluttershy watched as Coloratura arrived at the Fillydelphia Theatre early. This was Coloratura's 11th stop on her piano tour of Equestria, the five thousand seat theatre had been completely sold out for months.
This concert series was special for her in the fact that it was the first time she had ever done completely improvised concerts. It was merely her and her piano, beautifully crafting new songs and melodies from scratch in front of thousands of ponies. It was the epitome of putting her art and skill to the ultimate test.
Coloratura stepped inside and went straight toward the grand piano arranged in the center of the stage. This was going to be her instrument of power in a few hours. She envisioned each new piano, each town, each theatre she went to on these tours as telling a different story. And all of those special pieces of each place stirred in her mind and heart and transferred to the keys into new music that nopony had ever heard before.
Fluttershy, who had been watching Coloratura, smiled. Several bat-like fangs shone as she snapped her mane and chaos magic coursed through the piano.
Coloratura swung her legs over onto the piano bench, and started to play. The beautiful melody she had envisioned in her head sputtered cacophonously out.
Her eyes clenched as the grating, out-of-tune notes reached her ears.
She opened her eyes slowly, staring at the piano more deeply. She moved her right hoof over the keys and played out the first few notes of Winter Wrap Up. The first note sounded fine, but the key stuck to the keyboard for far longer than it should have. The next note was absurdly flat compared to what it should be. And several of the black keys were devastatingly higher pitched than they had any right, and that's when they worked at all.
Horrified, Coloratura placed a hoof on the first key and dragged her hoof across all eighty-eight keys, hitting each one in quick succession. The highest and lowest octaves wouldn't play at all. The rest of the keys, mostly in the middle, were a hodge-podge of actually decent, sticky, off key, and just plain disgusting.
"MELODY!" shouted Coloratura.
A spry young pegasi popped out from backstage. "Oh! Countess Coloratura! I didn't hear you come in."
"I need a new piano! Now!" fumed Coloratura, her face growing scarlet.
Melody stared at the black grand piano. "Uhh... what's wrong with it?"
"What's right with it!?" shot back Coloratura, punching several nonworking keys. "It's out of tune, so many keys stick so I would have to punch them the entire concert to do anything, and two of the pedals don't even work. How did this piano even get here?"
Melody stood stock still for a moment before regaining her composure. "Uhh... I'm sorry about that. I'll get it fixed before the concert!"
"Is there even time for that?" asked Coloratura. "Because I absolutely cannot play on this and we should cancel the concert now if we're going to have to cancel."
"WE CAN'T CANCEL!" shouted Melody, her eyes growing wide in panic before shrinking back. "I—I mean... I'll get a new piano! Or get this fixed! Or something! Very soon! Promise!"
Coloratura sighed and then went to sit in the back of the auditorium. "Let me know the second the new piano gets here. I need time to warm up."
Fluttershy rubbed her hooves together in delight.
"And what exactly are you doing?" asked Discord, appearing in front of her. His long, white longma form extruding down into basic existence.
Fluttershy shot a glance back at him, her hot pink mane frizzling and popping with various cacophonous colors every few moments. "Just having some fun."
Melody frantically called everypony she could. Flying around Fillydelphia at blazing fast speed. All she needed was a piano tuner or a new grand piano.
"I must say, this is much more low stakes than your entropy work in universe #00728," said Discord.
"It's the little things that are nice to mess up too," said Fluttershy.
"Rest assured, Fluttershy. I'm not about to let more chaos seep out of you and into this world."
"Oh, is that so?" asked Fluttershy, her mane snapping. The sole piano moving company in town was suddenly inundated with calls to move a piano far in the suburbs of the city.
"Oh, I know your game," said Discord. He snapped a claw and Melody suddenly got the bright idea to call the rock concert hall across from town to see if they had a piano.
"Really?" asked Fluttershy. A large skylight fell from the roof of the rock concert hall, splintering several keys off of their piano.
Discord frowned, and an idea popped up in Melody's head.
"Would an electronic keyboard work, Coloratura?" asked Melody frantically.
"Perhaps back in my pop days, but for a performance of this magnitude, it has to be a real piano," said Coloratura.
Fluttershy and Discord bickered back and forth against each other in this war over pianos, several musical instrument repair ponies in town suddenly becoming busy. Melody grew ever more and more desperate and eventually—to her and Coloratura's horror—a few patrons started filing in and taking seats.
Coloratura rounded on Melody. "Where is my new piano!?"
"I—I— there's nothing I can do," admitted Melody dejectedly.
"Well then, we'll need to cancel the performance."
"No! You can't! Ponies have been waiting for this for months! I've been waiting for this for months! Please play!"
"How can you expect me to play on that garbage over there!?" she said gesturing to the chaotic piano.
Discord frowned, placing one final idea in Melody's head.
"You're creative!" Melody forced herself to smile and look sincere while doing so. "This is just a new limitation for you! Just give it your all and see what happens."
Coloratura frowned and then looked back on the auditorium. It was somehow already a fifth full.
"Fine, but I'm recording this! And every musician I know will find out about how terrible it is to perform at this theatre," said Coloratura icily. "Is that really what you want?"
"Yes!" said Melody far quicker than she had wanted to.
"Oho! This is gonna be so good!" said Fluttershy, tapping her hooves together in delight.
Discord didn't say anything. They both floated together in the very center of the theatre, watching as Coloratura stepped up to the piano.
She put herself in tune with the piano, embracing the chaotic cacophony it could unleash. But keeping keenly aware of the keys that did work, fiddling and playing around with them as much as she could.
It was one of the most exhausting things she had ever done. Within fifteen seconds of the performance she stood up just so she could jam harder onto the keys, enabling the back of the audience to still hear her melodies. The highest and lowest notes wouldn't even play at all, so that left her to focus on the what melodies she could create in the center of the keyboard.
An hour later, Coloratura took one last sweeping crescendo across every key that could be played and then finished the improvised song.
When she stood up, the entire theatre burst into a standing ovation.
"How—how did you manage that Fluttershy!?" asked Discord. "That was by far one of Coloratura's greatest performances ever!"
"Chaos, my love," said Fluttershy smiling. "Surprisingly enough, it allows ponies to be more creative than they would otherwise.
"Chaos..." said Discord. "It has been so long since I've thoroughly tasted it, I've forgotten why it's so important."
"So..." said Fluttershy. "You can see why it's so crucial in all this now?"
"Chaos is just one more piece of Harmony," said Discord, smiling.
Kodo had been trapped in the Time Loop for hundreds of billions of years. He couldn't really comprehend the amount of time he had been there. It all didn't matter.
The first million loops he learned absolutely everything. He learned every language on the planet including the dead ones. Learned to play every single musical instrument. Learned every programming language. Read every single book and wrote sequels to every single one just to see if he could (he, in fact, could). He talked to every single sapient being on his planet. Hugged every living thing, even the things that he could only hug once before it killed him. He could speed up scientific, mathematical, technological and medical discoveries by hundreds of years
But every lifetime, it all reset. He died, and then kept his memories after his death and was reborn in that exact same body again after death, flung back in time to the moment of his birth. Depending on the loop, he decided to tell his story, made himself rich from knowing the future, or kept it all secret. He tried everything. He could see every branching path from every direction, and so he took every branching path from every direction.
At a certain point, somewhere along the fifty millionth loop, he started killing. It wasn't that he wanted to kill everyone, but he just wanted to see what it was like without certain characters in the picture.
It took a very long time, but eventually he was able to make himself immortal, even lasting until the end of his universe when everything dissappeared into a big crunch, unfortunately he woke up a few days later as a baby again.
It just kept going.
Life always kept going, and each and every lifetime he was always himself. Oh, sure, give him two years and he could introduce nanomachines that could transform anyone into anything else, but even that lost it's luster after the 10 millionth loop. He wasn't even sure how long it had been. Everything had been explored. Everything had been learned. Galactic civilizations founded and refounded in millions of different iterations.
For the last million cycles... Kodo had simply decided to die the second he gained consciousness as a baby. It didn't really matter anymore at this point. Everything had been tried in every single way. There really wasn't a point to it all anymore.
"No!" shouted a voice in Kodo's head. "NO! NO! NO! I'm so sorry! I'm SO SO SO SORRY! I—YOU—I'm SO SORRY!"
All at once Kodo felt himself transported somewhere... entirely new. The strange creature before him was quadripedal, pacing up and down on stars in the cosmos. His eyebrows shot up and he started crying. It wasn't what he meant to do, but he was a baby after all.
"I'm so sorry," continued the strange purple quadruped incessantly. "Oh! You need a better body, sorry about that!"
At once, Kodo felt himself become an adult again. It had been a few thousand years since he had let himself grow to such an age.
"I..." the quadruped sighed. "I'm so sorry, Kodo. Are... are you okay?"
He somehow found his voice. "O... okay?"
"Yes... you... well... I've left this subsection of spacetime alone for a little while... but you have somehow been trapped in a time loop for 897 million years."
He frowned. "I... no... I'm not okay."
All at once the creature embraced him. It was a very strange feeling. Her hair waved ethereally and wings wrapped around him. Had those wings always been there?
"I've stopped the time loop, Kodo. I'm so sorry you were there for so long. I... I know how hard too much time can be," she shuddered.
"Who are you?" he finally asked.
"My name's Starlight Glimmer, I'm the Deity of Time. But I think I... well..." she stared down at the ground. "I don't think I have failed someone this much since I was mortal."
Kodo felt like he should be angry, or annoyed, or upset, or something, but no emotions came out. It was just a calm, "Okay." He didn't understand the kind of organism the Deity of Time was, but she seemed very on-edge.
"Okay? Is— I— I'm so sorry." She reverted back to apologizing. He supposed she might deserve that. Perhaps one 'sorry' for every lifetime he lived? No... even that didn't seem like it was worth it.
"So is this the end?" he asked.
"The end?" she asked. "Oh yes! Of course! The time loop is over. You're done, if you want to be."
He looked down at himself. "I'm not sure what I want to be at this point."
"That's... not really my expertise," said the Deity of Time. "Do you want help deciding?"
He stayed silent.
"Twilight, I need your help," whispered the Deity.
A book sprung out of the ground and blossomed open to reveal another purple quadripedal creature. Though with the wings, perhaps they were actually hexapedal.
The Deity of Time stuck her horn against the other creature's horn, and the Deity of Time disappeared entirely.
He couldn't really tell the difference between the two, they looked so much alike.
"My name's Twilight Sparkle, Kodo. I'm the Deity of Knowledge. At this point, Time isn't your problem... but knowledge. You know so much."
He looked down at the ground, swirling stars appearing below.
"I suppose this is where I get a memory wipe... huh?"
"If that's what you want, but I don't think you're sure what you want, so it's best to take things slow after the ordeal you've been through."
He slumped to the floor. "It has been a long time since anything has been any different."
"This is a very personal thing to ask, but may I read you?" asked the Deity of Knowledge.
Kodo thought about it, one of the books he had written springing to mind. "I don't believe you can. I have billions of years worth of lifetimes and information. I think any book about me would take up the space of ten million universes."
"143 million universes," said the Deity. "I know how long it's been. But I don't know what you've gone through. I'd like to comfort you if I can. And the best way to do that would be to experience all you have experienced."
He shrank back. "You can't be serious!? You're going to absorb billions of years worth of me? Won't that overpower you!?"
"I have experienced the lives of 2^1000 sapient creatures. A few billion years won't even be a drop in the cosmic ocean. But it will matter a lot to you, Kodo. May I read you?"
He stared at her, and then nodded his head.
All at once he felt every single lifetime and decision packed into a single moment. Each and every decision passed by him and somehow passively went to the Deity.
The Deity sat down on the ground, and closed her eyes, completely absorbing each aspect of Kodo.
He was being judged... wasn't he? This was leading toward some kind of afterlife. He never planned for this. He never thought it would actually happen. He—what had he done? Would this Deity hurt me like he had hurt so many others?
She finally opened her eyes. "You've been through so much, Kodo."
Once again he felt himself embraced by a Deity. Her feathers felt so warm and comfortable as they enveloped him.
"I'm so sorry you went through all of that, it's been such a long, long time."
He... somehow felt at peace. As if all the bad things he had ever done were simply... over. And he didn't need to feel anything at all anymore.
He felt like he had been asleep for trillions of years. The memories and sheer weight of all that he had done and experienced felt... subdued. Like some past self had done all that. It really was over.
It took him a long time to reply, but the voice didn't repeat itself. After a few moments, he finally opened up his sensors to a complete void. One of the quadrupeds was there again. Though at least this one looked different, or at least pink.
"You've had a long time to rest, my friend," the Deity smiled. "Do you feel ready for more life? It'll definitely be different this time!"
He initially wanted to object, but he really had been comfortably slumbering for eons. "I... haven't I done everything yet?"
"What!? Everything!?" piped up the pink Deity. "As if! You've only scratched the surface of all the things you can do! Of all the creatures you could be! All the roles you could act. But most importantly, all the friendships you can make!"
"I feel like I got most of those."
All at once the darkness that surrounded the Deity and him exploded like a firework, a shockwave pulsar emanated around them and then scattered into a billion pieces, landing and fusing all around him. The pieces of everything started amalgamating around him, changing him, shifting him in every which way.
He looked down at his hands... err... claws?
"Ta da! Everybody loves dragon form! You like it!?"
He opened his mouth and coughed out a fireball, which landed on the void and ricocheted out and formed a swirling starscape around him.
"You haven't done that before, have ya'?"
He shook his head. The new form was beyond his imagination. Which seemed frankly impossible. He had to have tried everything already before, right?
"What even was that?" he asked.
"Magic! That's definitely not something you could have encountered before. Your last universe didn't even have that system in place."
He coughed out another fireball which somehow careened very far away, slamming into a distant star, making it go supernova and causing a blinding light to come over them.
"See? Fun!" said the Deity, smiling.
He stared at her.
"Oh and don't feel limited by what form you wanna be. You can be a—," her horn glowed. Had that always been there?
"Human!" With a flash, his form changed to something mostly hairless and bipedal.
"Or a Jodikslurb!" suddenly he felt himself have way too many legs.
"Or an Atrasurn!" he somehow felt like he was made of wings and only wings.
"Or a Birnopian!" He felt his body shift into hot magma.
"Or a—"
"Stop!" He yelled, the rocky mouth making a harsh noise.
His old form returned, and he felt much more comfortable.
"Sorry, I often get pretty carried away. We can just scroll through a couple trillion species and you can pick the one you want to be."
He stayed silent for several moments. The pink Deity looked like she wouldn't be able to handle silence, but then she busied herself elsewhere, focusing on shifting the distant stars into fantastical shapes which must have been more alien creatures.
He shut himself off from the inside and rested for a few more moments. After some thinking, he finally spoke up, "I'd like to try out your form."
"Me in particular? Or the pony race?" she asked cheerfully, jumping back into the conversation as if no pause had taken place.
"A 'pony' you said? Yeah... I'll be a pony."
With a flash, he suddenly found himself as the same species as the Deities, though he lacked wings and a horn, or any distinctive features.
"Ooh! It's been a long time since I worked on a pony form! I love ponies so much! But I am kind of biased. I mean it was the first form I tried and I got really attached to it. I'm still wearing it too! Oh! I love me!"
The pink pony somehow managed to hug herself, though he had no idea how her form was even capable of that.
"Well anyway! Lot's of options here! You wanna be a mare or a stallion?"
He stared at her, his face suddenly betraying the confusion in ways his previous form never had been able to.
"Oh sorry, hmm... so... which feels more comfortable for you, this?" He felt himself change again. "Or this?" His form changed once more... but the difference was nearly imperceptible. A height and snout difference among other things, but the four legs were the real difference and they both had four legs.
He supposed that being slightly bigger was nicer, so he eventually said "The second one."
"Stallion it is! Okay! Next stop! Pegasi?" He felt wings somehow attach to himself. "Unicorn?" The wings disappeared, a single horn appearing in the middle of his head. "Or Earth Pony?" The horn disappeared, but he felt more... muscular somehow.
"What's the difference?" he asked.
"Short version: Flight, magic, or strength. Take your pick."
"Can't I just have all three?" he asked.
"That's something you'll have to earn once you get down there," she said.
"Down where?"
"Equestria! It's the main planet for ponies. I mean—unless you wanted to sleep for a couple more billion years. That's fine too." She smiled again.
Sleep was very tempting. But he had already done that for a very long time. He shook his head. "I'll pick magic."
"Unicorn it is then!" said the Deity, and a horn flashed onto his head. "Any preference for color or anything?"
He shrugged, not sure where he had gotten the custom from.
"Alright, leave that to me and maybe Rarity. Now... here's the interesting question. How much of a memory wipe do you want?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well... you have a LOT of memories, my friend! I don't think we can store all that inside a baby foal. Would you like a perfectly clean slate? Or as much as you can remember? Or just general... vagueness? Lot's of options here!"
He stood there, unmoving for a few moments. All of his lifetimes upon lifetimes of experience weighing him down. It really was too much.
"Can I get those memories back at the end of my life?"
"Oh, for sure! We don't throw memories away up here. Twilight makes sure of that."
"I guess... erase everything but my personality. I'd like to keep my ability to learn."
"Sounds great!"
The pink Deity's tail suddenly started twitching, and then suddenly a small green creature bit onto it. She plucked the creature off her tail and then jammed it against her face and gasped.
"That's a great idea, Gummy!" she said, shouting at the green creature.
He blinked.
She turned to him. "I got something super duper ultra extra super special for you, Kodo! You'll do great in Equestria! You'll have so much fun, it'll be great!"
He shrank back a little. "I— well... it has to be better than what I went through in my last life."
He blinked and then suddenly he didn't remember anything about himself anymore.
"I was wondering who Star Swirl the Bearded would end up being! Nice catch, Gummy!"
It's what she was good at. She raced when she was mortal, raced when she was immortal, and now as a Deity, she continued to race.
She was the border between the entirety of her friends' multiverse and the void beyond. She was the electron cloud surrounding that precious nucleus of life. She was the Hope keeping everyone going.
But as much as Rainbow Dash raced, Space kept expanding, demanding to keep going. Chaos kept seeping, sinking her claws everywhere. And void demanded a way inside. And all the while, Rainbow Dash dutifully circumnavigated the multiverse. A blur of white everywhere at once keeping all of existence safely nestled in a perfect cocoon from the outside void.
But it was too much. There was a certain breaking point trillions of universe cycles into the process where even Rainbow Dash couldn't hold it all in. She did her best to race and be everywhere at once. But holes in her flight path started to form eventually.
It was her fault. She should have been stronger. She should have been faster. She should have—have... should have been able to stop this.
"No, Rainbow," said Fluttershy calmly.
Chaos was floating at the edge of existence, her electric pink mane had long since succumbed to gray. And the myriad of shapes, colors, and other amalgamations that sometimes made up Chaos's body had whittled down to a mere shadow of the mortal that had once been Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash continued flying of course, she could never ever stop. But despite being every border at once, she could still talk to Fluttershy. Rainbow's voice emanated from edge of the multiverse itself.
"You did this, Chaos—Entropy—whatever you are!" shouted Rainbow.
Fluttershy shrugged. "This is the roles we chose, Rainbow. This is what we decided when we became Deities. Just as there was a beginning in existence when we weren't Deities, so shall there be a point where we aren't Deities anymore."
"That's quitter talk Fluttershy, and you know it," said Rainbow.
"But—that's what we agreed to. We all saw it y'know, when all of Time was compressed in the moment we became Deities. We saw how it was all going to happen."
"Yeah—well what we agreed to is stupid and I hate it and you just get out of here and stop entropying all over the place, okay?"
Fluttershy paused, some of her hooves shrinking back into her body. "I— would like to stop, Rainbow."
"Huh—well glad you finally learned to stop being such a jerk."
Fluttershy started crying of all things—the nerve of her!
"I—I— just... I didn't want him to have to be Chaos anymore. I thought that if I took it myself I could soften the power of entropy somehow—that it wouldn't be so bad if I was the one in charge. I failed... Rainbow. But at least Discord didn't have to do this. That's the least I could do for him."
"You think you're some kind of martyr, Fluttershy?" asked Rainbow Dash, the edge of the multiverse reverberating with the question.
Fluttershy's head sagged and she hid her faces behind her mane. "I just— I prevented what I could Rainbow. And he didn't have to do it. He had suffered enough as the Deity of Chaos before. And now... I'd like to... well... I'd like it to be over now."
"Well tough luck pal, I'm just going to keep racing and filling in every hole in my flight path. Nothing you can do about it."
"Space is expanding, Rainbow. Blame Rarity. And now... this is the beginning of the end. And I Hope you'll forgive me."
Rainbow flinched. She sometimes hated her role.
"I think Sunset Shimmer is better at the whole forgiveness thing, Fluttershy. You may want to go to her for that."
Fluttershy huddled inside of herself, the strange amalgamation of her disfigured body parts somehow wrapped inside themselves until Fluttershy was curled up into a ball of sadness.
"Do you really not remember, Rainbow. What's supposed to happen at the end?"
"I try not to think about it."
Fluttershy sighed. "I—well... if you don't remember... well... I suppose I am to tell you of what's next."
Rainbow Dash continued racing.
"May I join you for the end?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've lost the color in your mane, Rainbow."
"Well duh, rainbows mix into white at this speed."
"Before the end, you're supposed to get the colors back. The rainbow, and the colors beyond and everything in between. You are more than just the shell, Rainbow. You are the Hope that we can hatch."
Something pierced inside Rainbow, burrowing it's way into her consciousness. Fluttershy was right—there was an order to all of this. And she just needed to keep going and keep flying forever.
"May I join you, Rainbow?"
The edge of the universe blinked in agreement. And Fluttershy leaned into the electron cloud of white streaks that was Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow noticed the yellow streak in her mane. There shouldn't be color at this speeds. But it was there. Fluttershy—Chaos was there. And it was the beginning of the end.
The memories absorbed into her own and her flight path started getting more erratic. She tried desperately to keep the multiverse in one piece from the void outside.
Life came next.
She was battered, torn, barely a fragment of her former self. And still... she smiled just like she always had.
"I feel bad leaving the party early," said Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow Dash didn't know how to respond to that.
"Everypony's dead," said Pinkie Pie, her mouth quivering. "But still... they lived really good lives. I made sure of that. Really... really fun lives."
"I saw, Pinkie," said Rainbow Dash. "I saw everything. You did such a good job."
Tears started to form in Pinkie's eyes. "I—I did?"
"Yes, you did Pinkie. So many wonderful, happy, joyful lives. You made that happen. You designed it and made it happen."
"It wasn't all good, Rainbow," sighed Pinkie Pie, her head sagging and her smile disappearing. "Being alive is often very sad."
"But you overcame that sadness, Pinkie, like only you could. Can you imagine how much sadder life would have been without you?"
"Without me!? I—NO! That would've been terrible!"
"Then you did good, Pinkie. You did it."
"So Life is good?" asked Pinkie.
"Yep, Life is good," said Rainbow.
"Thank you," said Pinkie.
Pinkie disappeared into the white and yellow edge of the multiverse.
A pink stripe appeared in Rainbow's mane.
Soul came next.
She stayed in her human form, even as a Deity. Although the fire and feathers around her always made her seem more like a phoenix than a human.
"It's over... isn't it?" asked Sunset Shimmer.
"It's over," sighed Rainbow Dash as she continued to race around. More and more gaps of void were starting to be seen through her racing path, Chaos and Life weren't the best flyers, but as long as Rainbow tried to be herself they didn't slow her down.
"I brought... well... everyone," said Sunset Shimmer.
"Everyone?" asked Rainbow.
"Absolutely everyone. Every soul, except the few Deities left."
"Thanks," said Rainbow.
"I—I—" Sunset stuttered. "Did you... see?"
"I saw everything," said Rainbow.
"Did I make a difference?" asked Sunset.
"What are you talking about!? Why is everyone all second guessing themselves because it's end!? You did great! I mean—I couldn't shuffle souls around like you did. Pinkie, Spike and You really had a good system going."
Sunset smiled. "Life, Death and Rebirth."
Sunset unfurled her wings, her red feathers shimmered with the light of septillions of souls.
"Hey, don't think you're dying or anything, I'm going to need you. ALL of you!" said Rainbow to Sunset and the souls.
Sunset smiled as she flew into Rainbow's light.
A large red streak appeared in Rainbow's hair as the memories of absolutely everyone that had existed across all multiverses flooded her mind.
Knowledge came next.
"Oh dear!" said Twilight flapping her broad wings next to the white, yellow, pink, and red wall of the racing Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow's flight path was absolutely erratic. There was so much information here. So many souls now working together. She had lost herself in everyone, and she could barely keep up her protection.
"Well... here goes everything," said Twilight.
A blue streak appeared in her mane.
The souls made sense. Everything made more sense now. The clarity that came from understanding Life, Chaos, Souls, and Hope. It was everything.
Rainbow Dash raced on. She had nearly everyone with her now, all working together to keep racing. The border between the multiverse and the void thickened, overtaking the multiverse that lay inside. She felt so much calmer with Twilight's understanding. But her flight path would never be the same.
Matter was pretty pissed.
"I just can't get anything to work right!" shouted Applejack. "All this entropy and stuff!? Would you look at this!?"
Applejack gestured to pitiful looking hydrogen atoms, or what was left of them. Spare upquarks and downquarks and other subatomic particles fizzled and popped and generally did nothing like they used to.
"Applejack, it's the end," said Rainbow, and everyone else.
"I know that, sugarcube," said Applejack. "Doesn't mean I can't be good and angry about it."
Rainbow shrugged, even though she was sure Applejack couldn't see.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
"Uhh... everypony else just seems to be absorbing into my mane and stuff. You gonna do that too?"
"We're doing what now!?" asked Applejack.
"Uhh... I dunno... this is just kind of happening. Everyone else just seemed to do it and uhh... well... there's a lot of us in here right now."
"You don't say?" asked Applejack.
Despite how many Rainbow had with her, she still felt like she was missing parts of herself. "There's a place for you, Applejack. You ready for what's next?"
Applejack stared back at the faulty matter, nothing would form into anything anymore.
"Alright, Sugarcube."
Applejack raced into the colors, and an orange stripe appeared in Rainbow Dash's mane.
Time wasn't her usual self.
"I regret everything," said Starlight Glimmer.
Rainbow Dash squinted at her. "Seriously? What do you have to complain about?"
"Rainbow Dash—everyone," said Starlight, grimacing. "Ponies... humans... creatures... souls... whatever we are. We are not comfortable with time. Nearly every form that high level existence took required reminders of time everywhere. Wristwatches, clocks, timepieces, timers, alarms. Everywhere they looked, they saw time. They measured time, they tried to control it, to grab onto it with every appendage they could while all it did was slip through their fingers. We weren't meant to live with time, Rainbow. I demanded we did because that's what made sense to me! I needed to organize everything chronologically for it to make sense to me! But them!? They are not at home in time. And I forced it on them, and I'm sorry."
Rainbow didn't know what to say to that.
"So I'll make sure you won't have to deal with time forevermore."
And with that, Starlight Glimmer teleported beyond the multiverse into the void itself.
The effect was instantaneous and forever all at once. The cocoon that was holding the multiverse together started to unravel at the seems as Rainbow's flight path started convulsing erratically.
Cause—Effect and everything in between started to zigzag out of control and seep into the outer void.
"WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO WITHOUT TIME!?" screeched Rainbow Dash.
For the first time since Rainbow had become a Deity, she altered her flight path, blue and red navigated for her. Rainbow made a beeline toward Starlight Glimmer, who was trying to race away into the void.
Nopony could outrace Rainbow Dash, not even Time herself.
Rainbow caught Starlight and then rushed back to the rapidly diminishing cocoon. Rainbow did her best to gather anything that might have escaped into the void. But there really wasn't much left at this point.
Starlight held tightly on to Rainbow. "Are you really sure? I— I— shouldn't be with all of you. Time hurts. It hurts so much. I'm the villain in all this. I've always been the villain! We wouldn't even have to have an end if time wasn't there to establish a beginning and an end. I'm so sorry!"
"Starlight," said Rainbow, staring intently at her while she continued to race. "We need you, okay? We need you and we can't do this without you."
Tears started forming in Starlight's eyes. "You're wrong though."
"Well then, we'll all be wrong together, and we wouldn't have it any other way."
As Rainbow raced, Starlight absorbed into her. And a green stripe appeared in Rainbow's mane.
"The end certainly does some weird things to ponies," said Rainbow to herself, which was quite a lot at this point.
"Darling, I have no idea what's supposed to happen next," sighed Rarity. "I mean—Time's gone too? What am I supposed to do with all this Space now!?"
"We'll take it," said Rainbow.
Rarity took another look at the myriad of colors that crisscrossed the outside of the multiverse.
"I suppose you shall," said Rarity, flipping her cosmic mane. The stars and galaxies that made up her mane and body had long since hardened and lost their light. "There's really not much left to it."
"We'll take it all the same."
"Hmm..." said Rarity, staring at the colors at the edge of infinity. "What's it like in there anyway?"
"Pinkie says it's 'fun,'" said Rainbow.
"Can she still talk like normal?"
"Not exactly. We're kind of... together... now."
"Agh..." coughed Rarity. "Remind me never to have an end of the multiverse ever again. This is getting too strange."
Rainbow Dash kept racing forever further and faster, carrying with her an ark of everything that ever was and would be. "I suppose it is."
Rarity flew into the colors and a violet streak appeared in Rainbow's mane.
They all dutifully grabbed every scrap of space left.
Death came for her next.
"Hiya Spike!" said Rainbow, her voice was starting to distort as it melded into everyone else's. "Ready for the end?"
"I have longed to die myself... for a very... long... time," said the ancient dragon, his gravelly voice emanating across what was left of the multiverse.
"Woah, is that what you expected?" asked Rainbow.
"I have been letting creatures pass on to Sunset Shimmer for a long time. Is not this death?"
"Oh yeah, sure! I just thought— you look like doom and gloom all the time. I figured you wanted the void outside, rather than Death or something." Rainbow blamed Sunset and Starlight for that particular insight.
"Death is not—nor will it ever be—void, Rainbow. It's simply the transfer from here... to what's next."
"Do you know what is next?"
"No idea. But won't it be nice to reach it though?" said Spike, smiling.
A black stripe tainted Rainbow's mane.
And that's when everything fell apart.
There was nothing left. No cohesion. No nothing. Rainbow Dash found herself racing around void. Nothing. The nothingness from outside had seeped inside her cocoon. Everything was falling apart. Everything was wrong. There was no... thing. Nothing.
Is this... how they all died?
Not died. Became void?
It was all around her. No matter how much she raced and raced and raced. The void surrounded her on all sides. She absorbed all the Matter, Space, Time, Life, Death, Souls, Knowledge, Chaos— everything. Could she keep racing?
Could she keep going?
What was she even going to?
What was even left?
She was alone.
Yes, she had septillions of souls inside of her. The knowledge of trillions of multiverses keeping her fueled and fascinated. But what was next. The void was all consuming. It had always been there. As the edge, Rainbow had always spent half her life facing the void, and half protecting her delicate multiverse. But now the multiverse was inside her. And she wasn't sure what she should do at this point. When time had compressed for her when she became a Deity, those moments of understanding had finished.
This was new.
And frightening.
"Don't stop!" said Harmony.
"What the—?" said Rainbow Dash, trying to see where the sound had come from.
"I said, don't stop!" repeated Harmony.
"I—They— we need you to keep going, Rainbow. Keep racing, it won't be much longer now."
"Discord!? Seriously? You're the last one at the very end?"
"Chaos was first to succumb. And the penultimate will be Harmony," said Discord. "You are the final Deity Rainbow, you are the Hope for that next future."
"But—what's supposed to be next, Discord!?" asked Rainbow.
"Keep Hope alive."
"Where am I flying to!?"
"Keep Hope alive."
"You shut up and explain everything, Discord. What's gonna happen."
"Rainbow... I don't know either. I kept things in harmony for this multiverse. But I don't know what's next. But you are Hope itself, Rainbow. You must have the Hope that there is a next. Or all will be lost. So keep Hope alive."
Rainbow didn't know what to say to that, so she kept racing forward.
She felt as Harmony absorbed into herself and a white stripe appeared in her mane.
And Rainbow Dash did as she always did—she raced. But this time, she wasn't herself anymore. With Harmony keeping everything cohesive, she now simply "was." She had no name. She everything and everyone.
She finally dropped out of her circumnavigation of the multiverse. There wasn't a multiverse to protect anymore. She was her multiverse. And she had to carry it forward.
She flew straight. It was incredibly strange to fly completely straight. The entire cocoon unravelled. She was flying through the void itself and it scared her. Nothing had ever been so scary before. The void demanded that it seep inside of her. But she wouldn't let it. Emptiness had no place within her.
The cocoon finally unravelled entirely and all that was left was everyone streaking across the void.
She raced
And raced
for
a
long
time.
"Welcome my daughter," said a voice from beyond.
She had always felt ancient, racing along everywhere. And the combined ages of everything within her brought her to a level of eternity she didn't think could be outmatched by anything.
But the voice she heard, even if she had repeated the entire multiverse hundreds of billions of times, would not reach a fraction of duration of time that voice had been alive.
"Hatching is hard, I know," said the voice, embracing her. "But I'm here now, and so are your siblings."
She stared up at the Deity, and then to all the other cocoons with their own multiverses inside of them. And then to all of the other Deities around her.
