The End of the Universe Ch. 2 -Dust

>You held onto each other for a while.
>Call it thirty years or so.
>No need to rush things.
>Her words have been running through your head during the intervening time.
I need you to love me.
>You're heart started beating again not too long ago.
>Things like metabolism and blood flow haven't really been necessary, so many of your organs fell to dormancy.  You still went through the motions of some things, like blinking and breathing.  Stuff like that was mostly out of habit.  Sometimes the sensation of your lungs contracting and expanding was the only thing keeping you entertained.
>Blinking was still necessary however.  Mostly to get the dust of your eyes, or just to keep them closed and sleep.  Back when you still slept.
>Unlike Celestia, you seldom went into dormancy anymore.  Sleep scared you.  You dream when you sleep. They were worse than nightmares.  They reminded you of better days.  Nothing but beautiful, false angels.  Much of your time was spent fighting the urge to just keep your eyes closed.
>But parts have been waking up.  Many pieces of your body have been coming back online after untold eons of disuse.
>Probably a side of effect of your mind and brain coming back to you.
>Yeah, that damn thing in your head was still making you uncomfortable.  It kept doing things you didn't understand.  Every now and gain it would pulse with activity and thoughts and emotions.  A surge, an all encompassing wave that would leave you drained.  They've been chaining together closer and closer.  Your brain was getting geared up for something, but it wouldn't tell you what.
>It was weirding you out, to be honest.
>But still, it was a pretty neat trick.
>You seriously didn't expect your heart to ever beat again, however.
>It scared the crap out of you when it first started to pulse.  The timing was irregular, and the force was sometimes to great, or too little.
>But it beat all the same.
I need you to love me.
>Yeah, that did it.  Not long after she made her request, that damnable little muscle in your chest went tha-thump.  Your eyes nearly jumped out of your ears  and you were afraid something was gonna burst out of you.  Small amounts of adrenaline began to run through you for the first time and only made it beat faster.
"What's wrong?"  Celesita's voice began to come a little more into focus.
>You were at a lost for words.  You honestly forgot you had something in there.
>Celestia held onto you so you couldn't flap around or try claw to out the noisy thing inside you.  She must've felt the pulsing thing inside because she pressed her ear against your chest.
"Someone is getting excited.  I suppose I haven't lost my touch."
>You blushed.  Your hands felt along your cheek.  There was no warmth, but there was still a long-forgotten tingling sensation. Holy shit, you could still do that?
> Celestia sighed happily, closed her eyes and listened to it for a while.
>After some little time you felt her jolt as well.  In the quiet void you could hear her heart beat to life along with your own, along with a small gasp and satisfied 'hmmm.'
>You felt along her chest and a powerful, steady vibration flowed up your arm.  You pressed both of your hands against her soft chest and began to massage her, quietly marveling.
>"Excitement goes both ways, lady."
>Now she turned red.
>And the two of you spun there, holding and listening and slowly coming back to life.
I need you to love me.
>You remember a time when you thought you would never hear that.  When she wouldn't go near you or speak to you.  If she even bothered to look at you it would be with all hatred and contempt that only a goddess can bring down upon a mere human.
>It was after the Carbon Star died.  All that was left by then was the two of you and black holes, and you weren't sure how much longer those would last.
>Celestia managed to compose herself and developed a new routine.  She would stare off into space, sometimes for days, sometimes for years.  Her eyes would glow with a furious intensity and she wouldn't blink.  Her head would move impercetively after a while.  Eventually you realized she was moving in a spherical direction.
>"What are you doing?" you asked after you caught onto her pattern.  She would still speak to you at the time, however rarely, so making inquiries was not complete waste of effort yet.
"Looking...all the way."  Her lips barely moved.
>"For what?"
>No answer.
>So you floated there, watching and staying well away from her field of vision.
>You recalled a picture from Earth.  The Hubble Deep field.  It was a photograph taken with the most wonderous telescope availabe to mankind.  They focused  the satelite at a small portion of the sky for eleven days.  One thirteenth million of a percent kind of small.  In that tiny, insignificant percent of a percent of a percent there it caught the light of over ten thousand galaxies, all an absurd distance away.  Galaxies.  Full of stars, comets, planets, and so many wondrous things mankind would likely never see.

>So many beautiful lights.
>Celestia was doing something similar to that.  Gazing the entirety of existence-as-is in hopes of finding something.  Anything.  Most likely another star that managed to cobble itself together out of nothing.
>You weren't exactly holding your breath.
>But then she found something.
>She said nothing.  Again.  She just gasped and took off.  Being completely alone in the dark was about the only thing that really scared you so you chased after her.  She traveled in a straight line, so you never really lost track of the alicorn.  Just follow the swirls of cosmic dust and you would eventually catch up to her.
>Eventually you reached the end of her trail.  You found her.  There was shock on her face.  Disbelief.  It took you a moment to notice she was staring at something and you followed her gaze.
>And there he was.
>You forgot about Discord.  He escaped several times, but always wound up back in that statue and was eventually forgotten and lost to time.
>He looked bad.  His fur was nappy, scales were chipped and worn.  His horns were scarred, and dulled.  The beard he loved to twirl so much had turned whispy and his teeth looked even worse than the last time you saw him. And his eyes.  They were rheumatoid and sunken.  All his color was nearly drained.  He looked almost monochrome.
>In his withered hands he held a ball of dust.  He raised his ragged eagle claw and snapped.
>There was a small spark of light.  Barely bigger than a campfire's ember and went out even faster.
>The ball of dust gathered itself into the vague shape of a pony before it fell apart.
>He snapped again.  Another ember.  Another failed pony.
>He gave a racking cough.
>The Princess was still shocked.  He was here.  Him.  After all this time.
"Discord?"
>His mismatched eyes looked at her slowly.  He deflated even further, if such a thing was possible.
"Oh...great.  It's you."  He snorted, dust blowing out of his nose.
"How did you...?"
"Oh don't act so shocked.  Your spells last a long time, but a long time is NOT forever."  He straightened up.  Somewhat.  "Too bad I couldn't get out sooner.  Honestly I wake up and everyone is DEAD, that's just cruel."
>He coughed again.
"That really isn't fair."  He made a circular motion with his hand.  "Love what you've done with the place, by the way.  I thought it was boring before, but now....I think I was better off as a statue."  He cackled, or tried to.
>Celestia approached him.
"Discord, listen.  We can help, we can...we can," she stammered, she was trying to think.
"I don't think so, Princess.  Look around you.  There's nothing here for me to play with.  You're snore-city and as for HIM!"
>He pointed his gnarled claw at you.
"Well, I don't hang out with ugly people."
"There might be something we could do, though.  The two of us, we're-"
"We're spent, Princess.  I've tried."
>He snapped his fingers again.  The noise was quieter.  The embers were getting darker.  The dust barely moved.
"I've tried."
>Celestia was holding back tears.  She shook her head.
"At least...at least stay with us.  Please.  Stay with me. Please, please stay," she moved closer to him  her wings stretched out and prepared to wrap around him.
>He backed off and waved a claw.
"Now now, Princess, honestly."  His voice was more level than you've ever heard him. "I can't go around playing the nice guy all of a sudden, huh?"  He smiled sadly, his crooked teeth barely showing.  "Besides, I don't think it's really my choice any more."
>Then you noticed how his wings started to crack.  They slowly turned gray and crumbled away.  His tail began to stiffen and chip off.
"It's not fair, really."  His squeezed his milky eyes.  "I didn't get to have nearly enough fun."
>For the first time you saw him for the warped, pained creature he really was.  The tears flowed freely from Celestia now.  You said nothing.
"At least I'll be out of that rat's nest you call hair."
>She gave a short, choking laugh.
"Hey.  Kid."  He nodded at you.  "Just bug her for me.  Now and again, yeah?"
>You said nothing.  This was almost as bad as Luna.
>He whole body shook in a violent coughing fit.  More flecks of his body fell off.
"I don't want to go,"  He looked at her.  His long face was drawn out in the most painful frown you've ever seen.  "I really don't."
"Dis, please.  I didn't know.  I would've came for you sooner.  Please.  I'm so sorry."
"Just this once...I'll make you happy and say it's going to be okay.  Well, I'm not, but who cares."  By this point his entire lower body had turned to ash.  "Smile for me, Cel."
"Yes.  It's going to be okay, of course."  She smiled, faintly.  "It's going to be okay."
"Besides."  He stuck his crumbling arms behind his head and grinned.  "This place never could handle me," and his words drifted off with the rest of him.
"No....I suppose it couldn't."
>He was a spirit born out of the uncertainty of the universe and thrived on its nearly unlimited penchant for variation and change.  Within him was the uncaring force of nature and joyous rapture of never-ceasing motion of birth and destruction that the cosmos displays by the mere virtue of existing.  Discord was like a hurricane on the grandest scale, powered by the warmth of the stars and lives of others.
>But there was no more warmth.  No more life.
>So like all hurricanes, he had to die.
>The two of you floated there.  Celestia sobbed quietly and buried her face in her forehooves and wings.
>You had to say something.  Despite your years you never really did get all the wisdom that was said to come with it, and was a complete idiot when it came to this sort of thing.
>"Hey...listen.  At least we were here with him, right?  He didn't go alone,"  you placed a hand on her wing.
>She immediately slapped you with it.  She jumped away from you and flared herself out fully.  Her hooves spread far and her mane stretched out threateningly.  The look she gave you was even worse.  Her eyes didn't glow, but that only scared you more.  The gems of her iris contracted on you with the same intensity that let her find discord.  She was looking at you and through you and hated everything she saw.  She was disgusted.
>"What?  I'm only trying to help."
"That should have been you."
>You were taken back.  Did she really just say that?  To you, seriously?   You've never seen her look at something with such complete loathing.
>"What did you just say," you're voice was low.
"That should've been YOU!"
>Her voice threw you far back.  The force of her anger cleared out the dust around you for miles.
"He suffered enough.  He did not deserve to die like that.  The two of us could have done something.  He had power.  What do you have?  What can you do?  Nothing.  The dust would make better company than you."
>You weren't going to take this lying down.
>"Really, Celestia?  Really?  You'd rather have the manipulative sociopath floating around here with you?  You honestly think he would've trailed along with whatever dumb fucking idea you have kicking around in that stupid horse skull of yours.  Fine, maybe I should've goddamned blown away in the fucking wind, I wouldn't have to be around anyone who could be so stupid. He never did an ounce of good, he was a mismatched freak and I'm gla-"
"YOU DO NOT CALL HIM THAT."
>You were blown back even farther.  You felt pain for the first time in a good while.  The look she gave you was downright murderous.
"You, of all people, have no right to judge him.  Yes, he was madness, yes, we had to lock him away for the safety of others and for himself.  But he was there since the beginning.  From the first light did he spring forth and laugh and know more than any of us.  He caused pain and chaos, but he was still my brother and I loved him."
>She stomped on ground that didn't exist.
"And now he's gone.  In a place where there was finally nothing left to hurt and I could love him again as we did in the beginning, he could not go on," she shook her head wildly.
"I have no family.  My mother and father have long since gone.  My beautiful sister went peacefully, at least.  Discord -my dear brother, however deformed and cruel -is finally gone and I did not know.  I could have saved him if I had known, or at least given him a more dignified end.  We could have some time together at last, but no."
>She collapsed on her self and breathed heavily.
"Now I am all that is left.  My family is together, at last.  I only pray that they are at peace, but I know not whom to pray to."
>She looks at you.
"I have long thought myself immortal, but now I wonder if I had not in fact died and being with you is my curse.  Atonement for some sin that I just cannot fathom.  This is our Tartarus."
>"You know, I'm starting to think the same thing."
"You stupid human.  You infuriating, miserable, ugly little whelp,"  she started crying again.  "I am still your Princess, and I'm going to issue you one last command."
>"Yeah, what could that possibly fucking be, your highness!?"
I need you to love me.
>That was a bad day.  One of the worst.  Jesus Christ.  You hated your brain when it did that.
>Now here she was, basking in the sheer joy of your beating heart, completely content.
>You kissed the top of her head and she smiled so happily.
"Almost ready?"
>"Almost."