Last Light
She set it ablaze. For a moment, that mighty star burst into life and warmth once more, as bright and as powerful as she had been all those years ago. Warmth and heat returning to the world, if only for a heartbeat. But it took only a moment for the flame to die and for that white disc of light to fade into a soft amber dot. The shadows rolled in around her, ash kicking up at her hooves. The now familiar chill gnawing at her flesh and bones.
Celestia looked away from the sun for a moment. What were once verdant plains and rolling hills, picturesque villages and vibrant towns had long given way to mounds of ash and snow. The skies, once filled with life and sound, were little more than dark shadowed clouds, only a rare thunderbolt on a distant horizon breaking up that grey monotony.
She trotted off, away from the dimming sun. In the distance, her last companion started to limp towards her. Willowbite had been too old and injured to travel with the others and, as an immortal timberwolf, would last until it began to rot from the inside out. Its ancient oaken bones creaked and threatened to buckle under the strain of trying to drag its body forwards, so Celestia gracefully but quickly flew over towards it, patting the timberwolf on the back for comfort. For her, and it. The great wolf roared, its teeth clacking against one another while it tried to suck in enough air to sound its ancient cry. Only a strained wooden snap of its jaw echoed across the ashen valley.
Glancing up, Celestia saw the majesty of the stars, no longer able to be held back by the light of the sun. The spiralling cosmos played out above her, the thousand worlds that would live on long after Equestria had, at last, breathed her last. She looked upon the domain of her sister.
Once, Celestia had been the more important, more powerful, more beloved of the two. Inevitable, given all that the sun meant to Equis. But then, it started. The long dying of their star. As inevitable as it rising in the morning, Starswirl had once joked.
All of them were with her sister now. Spread across the cosmos, Equestria nothing more than a memory to them. A home that they could no longer return to; No magic could save it; no mechanism preserve it, no hope restore it. It simply was.
Willowbite whined, unable to bring its own head up to look at the stars. Likely, the wolf would be the last thing alive on this planet. Outliving even her, it would be alone in the darkness. It would bare witness to the last sunrise and tell not a soul of what it saw.
Celestia smiled softly. It was not so bad. To see the next generation leave the nest, to rule in their own way, to live on. After countless aeons of outliving almost everyone she had ever met, it was quite the experience to be, finally, aware of the opposite. A great many would only remember her, and some would only know of her from reputation. And, for the very first time, there will be those that will not know of her at all.
Four billion years of being the most well-known, powerful, important pony, nay, being in the world. Outlived by those she had shepherded and nurtured.
Behind her, the sun flickered, a terrible chill biting at Celestia's heart. For the first time ever, it was still for a moment. But as the sun shudderingly sparked back into life, it beat again. Her children were amongst the stars. They had saved as much life in Equestria as they could and brought them with them on their great journey. To continue on forever, to see...
No. Not forever. Starswirl had mentioned that.
"Forever? Nothing can last forever, Celestia. Your sun is simply another star, another slowly dying point of light. They'll decay too. Even the ground beneath our feet, our bones and sinews will decay into the ambient nothing. Luna will outlive you by quite a while. But I'm afraid that even she will fade."
The end of all things. It had played on her mind for nearly as long as she had been alive. The ashes and snow around her bespoke the end. The gradual sifting, grinding decay of light and form.
"Is there nothing to be done?" She had asked. She was a goddess, the sun made flesh. In those dawn days, there was nothing she believed she couldn't do. "I would protect my ponies as long as I can."
Starswirl chuckled, placing a hoof on the rim of his telescope
"It is as fundamental a truth as my own death, Celestia. As inevitable as the sun rising in the morning."
He tittered to himself, coughing slightly, before continuing.
"Oh, you can delay both. Spells to reverse the ageing process, absorbing the life force of others, this and that. The desperate and the cruel. Those might be your options, and even still, there's only so much that can be done. You'll simply change it from being one point of light in the universe to the last light. Perhaps there may be a comfort in that, but I'd rather see what it may be rather than force it to be ours."
"But there's so much life, and beauty, here. Is that not worth protecting? Safeguarding?" She pointed out.
A small structure, perhaps once a house, or a barn, or some other such building, rose out of the ground. Rust and Ash caked its metallic surface, eaten away by time. Once the sun set, it would continue to fade, to be ground down by whatever winds battered it. They would swirl across the sky for a good while longer, but without the warmth and the heat of the sun, soon it would all be still.
Starswirl span the telescope towards a distant star
"There's beauty and life out there. And more yet to come. Oh, I'll never see it. But those that come after me deserve a chance to see it. And that life, and beauty, deserves its chance to exist. Fret not, Princess. If I am any indication, when its time comes, you, and it, shall be ready."
Only minutes after it had risen over the ashen horizon behind her, the sun was beginning to set in front of her. Long streaks of dull red light bloomed across the sky, and the air seemed to hum in anticipation of silence. A soft smile played across Celestia's face as she took to the sky, beating her ancient, powerful wings and soaring above the storm clouds. Looking down, even covered in ash and snow, her home was still beautiful, as it had always been.
But it was time. She gently closed her eyes and, with a heavy, slowing heart, she blew out the candle.