All Roads Lead to Darkness
She was not having a good day. Now, as anyone like her could tell you, when tenth dimensional beings have bad days, all of reality feels it. Even more so in her case because she stood at the very pinnacle of creation in this multiverse.
Normally when she was like this, randomly destroying a universe put her in a better mood. It had worked wonders for her temper before. But today was not one of those days.
"Dammit Barbatos." She cursed as the lights of several universes were snuffed out and in their place a darkness that was not as mortals would describe it. Not even she could in a way that made sense. "This is not what was supposed to happen. Not yet."
Finally something responded. "You know the truth. All roads lead to darkness in the end."
She rubbed her forehead. "I know. But that time isn't here yet. What changed? You're not one to do something this fast."
She could hear the Dark God shrug. "The failure of my Dark Knights in killing the ones they were supposed to has lead to the opening of the Source Wall. New Genesis knows this, as do some of the heroes of that pocket multiverse."
She sighed. "And now with it open, all that is out here will have a chance to get in there, and what was in there will have a chance to get out here."
"And more worlds will be ripe to be taken down here. Pulled down into the dark. You cannot stop all of them. Some belong down here as they are now."
She nodded. Most of those she kept for when she was in a particularly bad mood. Going out on her darkest impulses there might have been considered a mercy for those realities.
She called it taking the garbage of the multiverse out. Worlds that had no right to exist up here in the light, products of a corrupted or dead World Forge.
"What will you do now?" He asked. "The dark is held at bay for now, but the time will come when all fall down into darkness. Even now the seeds are being planted."
He was right, of course. The seeds were being planted all across the multiverse at that moment, and by the time she found them all, it would be too late to exercise them except by a complete and utter reprogramming of the entire multiverse.
And she knew for a fact that time had not yet come. And it would not for many ages yet to come. Thankfully. There was still much she had to do, that she wanted to do before that time came. And by her True Name, she hoped her sanity survived that long.
She was going to need the stiffest drink Pinkie Pie could give her at the In Between Inn after this she knew it. And she didn't all that often. But today she was making an exception. Besides, it had been awhile since she had last visited.
"Nothing. I will do nothing." She finally replied. "Just as you won't Barbatos. Remember, I rule supreme up here. My avatars will soon know of this, as will those yet to awaken."
She sighed. "And maybe, some of them can stop the corruption before it's too late for those universes."
All she heard in reply was mocking laughter in the Darkness. There was nothing she could say to rebuke it either. For the first time in her long existance, one that predated time itself, she knew for a fact one thing.
Her words were hollow, and Barbatos knew it.
***
She felt it before it began, and for the first time in her life, she cursed her inability to stop it.
"I'm sorry." She said quietly as her tears fell and the darkest secret of creation was revealed in all of its horrifying glory.
***
One a desert world, one where life clung to existence by a small thread, twelve ponies in shapes they were still getting used to came to a halt as visions more terrible than anything they ever know came to them.
Even those five who had lived through the horrors of the Apocalypse War and Crystal, who had lived through the reign of King Sombra, were horrified by what they saw.
To the day they died, none of them spoke of what they had seen that day. Even after learning of what it was and meant they never spoke of it. And Cosmos could never blame them. Even those who hadn't seen violence like them were green in the face. Twilight looked like she was about to throw up.
Only Cosmos knew what they were seeing, and she wept, for it was the only thing she could do now. She wept for their lost innocence. No, she wept for all the innocence that had been lost now for all time.
The darkness had been revealed, and now there was no going back.
***
In another multiverse entirely, one of her avatars felt the wave incoming and braced herself for the impact and fought back tears of her own. There was no way she could prevent all those around her and Equus beyond from feeling what was coming.
All across the base, every member of the Multiversal Alliance felt their senses assaulted by images and sensations that cut deeper than any weapon could. No made any sense, and yet they made sense in a way that horrified them all.
Princess Luna would spend many sleepless nights to come fighting off the nightmares that the visions had given birth too, even while she fought off her own nightmares
***
Across an infinite number of worlds, all beings felt a sense of dread wash over them. Not all knew why, but they could not escape it. Only those with with some connection to powers beyond that of normal beings had seen the images, and it had confused those of evil intent and terrified those that were good.
They had looked into the abyss, and the abyss had looked back. But it was far worse than anything they could have imagined.
***
Only one being knew what had happened, and once again she cursed Barbatos for what he had unleashed before it was time. Now she had to do damage control and try to limit the disaster. If that was even still possible.
But first, she had someplace she needed to visit.
***
Pinkie Pie knew something was up as soon as she saw 'Twilight' walk into the Common Room of the In Between Inn. Of course she knew that this wasn't any Twilight Sparkle at all, only a being wearing that look. It was one of her favorites too if her memory was right. Why she didn't know, but Pinkie knew better than to ask about her. Besides being a good hostess, Pinkie knew 'Twilight' didn't like to talk about what she did.
And it was rude to pry into other's business if they didn't want to talk about it. So she didn't. "What can I get ya?" She asked as 'Twilight' sat down at an empty table.
"The strongest drink you've got Pinkie." She replied. "By the gallon if you can. I'm going to need it."
"Twilight' didn't near to the hear the collective shock from the rest of the patrons to know she was getting odd looks. Most of them she knew. If not from her own multiverse, then because she recognized them from past visits.
She hoped they didn't start asking questions. She didn't have a good way to explain how she felt, and frankly she just didn't feel like explaining at the moment. Maybe later she would.
Right now all she wanted to do was to get as drunk as a tenth dimensional being could.
Author's Note
This one, is hard to explain. The P.O.V character here is the one Cosmos from Long Live The Empress is an avatar of. The bit with her is from a future chapter of that story. It'll make more sense when it gets there.
Everything else is, sadly, from a story that for one reason or another will never be on this site. Look me up on Deviantart and I can point you in the right direction.
