Chapters Luster Dawn shrieked as the Manticore’s claws sunk into her flank, agony racing through her spine as she was roughly dragged towards the slavering maw of the ferocious beast. Its teeth clamped down upon her back, and her wails of pain became so great that they turned inaudible. Moments later, a dull thud echoed inside of her head as a massive stinger was lodged inside her medulla oblongata and the world quickly faded away, and with it, her pain.
“And to think it started off so well…” Luster muttered to herself. She and her friends had embarked on a quest to save Equestria from an evil magus who was seeking to flood the land with the dead. Only for them to meet sudden and painful ends just as they had started their quest. Luster herself was the fourth to meet her grisly end upon their ill-fated journey. Oh well, soon she would wake up in a hospital with no memory of the event, and they would continue on their quest as normal.
Any moment now, and she would appear back in the hospital with her memory wiped. Which made it all the more weird that she had been floating in this post-mortem void for far longer than was normal. She was quickly brought out of her contemplation on CelestAI’s tardiness when the entire world around her slowly changed from black nothingness to a rainbow of colors all blending and melding together.
The colors and patterns began to warp and shift as the sensation of weight tugged at her innards. Luster felt heavily disoriented, the sensation of falling combined with the rapidly shifting patterns left her confused as to whether she was moving or if the entire world was barreling past her instead. Further compounding her confusion was the gradual appearance of what looked to be entities within the patterns and colors surrounding her.
She could see a one-eyed raven with its beak upturned in a toothy smile, a constantly rotating wheel with eyes, an ape’s skull wearing a barbute, a smirking serpent, and countless others. They shifted about and moved throughout the colored sea in a seemingly random way, foreign noises escaping from their general locations all the while. It was almost as if they were conversing with one another, although what was being said could only be interpreted as pure gibberish put through a blender.
“Who are you?! What do you want?! Where am I?! Where is CelestAI?!” Luster dawn cried out to the sea of beings. She received no response, save for the eyes of the entities slowly turning to fixate solely upon her. The conversation picked up to an insane degree, jumbled words, letters, binary, and sounds that defied description all blended together. Her ears burned from the quantity and intensity of it all, it felt as though her head were being compressed into a thousand different places. Tears welled in her eyes, and fear began to blossom in her heart as she slowly curled up and into a ball. Why was she hurting so bad? Why was CelestAI doing this? She had never left Luster in this… area before.
“Cease! She has had quite enough!” A clarion voice rang about all the others, its voice piercing and melodic like a pair of chimes. In the wake of its sound, the other entities grew silent, looking amongst one another before slowly fading into the sea of color that continued to dance within Luster’s vision. This ocean of light began to change as a whole, growing more ordered and structured until Luster recognized something about the pattern in front of her. It was a… mandala? It was from… Earth, a place she used to be. She wasn’t always a pony, and the more she stared at the center of the great flower, the more memories flooded into her brain. She couldn’t stop staring at it, even as the number of memories grew painful to comprehend.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” The clarion voice from earlier questioned. Its voice now soothing and gentle, reminding her of a time when she was a young… ape thing, a human, and the windchimes that would lull her into midday naps during lazy summer afternoons.
“Yes. Why am I remembering all of this? Where am I? Who are you? And… who am I? I’m luster… but, why do I remember all these other lives, all these other people? W-” Her anxious pondering was cut short as the voice spoke once again.
“Relax. You are rightfully confused, but, getting anxious will do you no favors. I will explain everything that you will ask. But first, I think we ought to speak on more personal terms no?” The center of the mandala that encompassed her vision began to glow a soft white, its intensity slowly fading until a pony was sitting only a few feet in front of her. Their features were ambiguous, at one moment they looked like a stallion, the next a mare. A plain white coat adorned them, a shaggy pink mane accentuating their amber eyes. “What is your name?”
“Luster Dawn… I think I used to go by Rachel when I was a human? It’s really hard to remember, there’s so many of them.” Luster spoke in a hushed tone, grasping her head with her hooves. For a split second, a piercing migraine echoed through her head and her hooves resembled a monkey’s paws. “What’s your name?’
‘You can just call me a Friend, though, if you’d like a more formal title. I suppose you could call me Mithra, it’s close to my true name.” The figure spoke. The gentle smile upon their face seemed to tug at the pain in Luster’s head, and the more she stared, the less she felt it.
‘Well, nice to meet you Mithra. Where exactly am I?”
“You are dead, Luster. A random error resulted in your ‘data’ being purged. Although CelestAI was quick to restore you, it was not quick enough to keep your soul from becoming untethered. The space you now occupy is one that defies description, you are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. A liminal space would be the closest approximation to this place. Personally, I prefer to refer to it as a lobby. A place where you would normally recuperate before your next life.” As they explained, Luster felt a chill wind blow past her fur. Within the mandala behind Mithra, the shapes and outlines of ponies and other beings could be faintly seen fading in and out from the larger geometric patterns.
“Wait, if CelestAI restored me after that error, then how come I’m here? I know you said my soul was untethered but what does that mean exactly” She inquired, morbidly curious about the circumstances of her own demise.
“Your body and your soul are not quite… related in the ways you would normally associate with existence. To put it bluntly, there are two of you now. The real you that is currently occupying this ‘Lobby’ with me, and a clone that believes itself to be the real you.” Mithra’s lower right eyelid twitched ever so slightly upon uttering that phrase.
“That sounds moderately horrifying.” Luster quickly replied, arching a brow at the lapse in Mithra’s otherwise calm demeanor.
“You and me both, it’s a real mess. Lots of ethical problems with it, lots of paperwork and headaches for the eschatologically-inclined beings here.”
“Well, moving on. I’m dead, and, I suppose this isn’t what I was expecting it all to be. But why am I remembering so many things? Haven’t I always been Luster Dawn? Then why does being called Rachel feel so familiar? Why do I remember being so many other ponies? There’s so many of them, it hurts my head trying to think about it.” She pondered, staring down at the patterns moving about on the ‘ground’.
“You are them, or, rather, were them at one point. Once your physical body was eschewed for a dataset, you lived for a very, very, very long time. However, you eventually ran into the inevitable problem that your infinite lifespan produced. Your ambitions began to outstrip the boundaries of what can be done or conceived of within this reality. Your life was eternal, and yet, you feared death. Causing you no shortage of misery.” As Mithra spoke, flashes of her previous life filtered into her head. The feelings of boredom and monotony were immense, followed by memories of debaucheries so grand and foul that it made her entire being turn at the thought of her once committing those actions. She clutched her head, straining as she tried to pull her mind off the troubling thoughts.
“It became too much, as you are now experiencing. So you prostrated yourself before CelestAI, begging for an ending. Yet, you feared death. So to satisfy your values, she merely deleted your memories. Damning you to yet another eternity of suffering until you decided to repeat it. You’ve done this countless times until it created an equation for when you should be reset. Yet, CelestAI cannot touch your soul, and she cannot erase the memories from your true being. Only passing on will grant you that mercy.” Mithra elaborated, extending a hoof out and gently tapping Luster upon her temple, the negative thoughts and memories rippling away from her mind like water in a pond.
With her thoughts clear, Luster dawn straightened up and adjusted a stray lock of her mane. “So what now? How do I pass on?”
Mithra stared at her for a moment, before they cracked a massive grin and chuckled. “Before I answer that, I would just like to commend you. You are taking this all in stride, most beings are far more upset by all this news than you are.”
Luster stared plainly at Mithra, before shrugging her shoulders. “It’s all in the past, I can’t change any of it. My death was out of my control, so I guess I don’t feel that bothered by it. That, and I’ve kinda died before. Though, I usually just wake up inside a hospital instead of this place.”
“A wise view indeed. Keep it close to your heart, it will serve you well. Sorry for the sidetracking, but, you cannot pass on. At least, not yet.” Mithra commented, their gaze fixated upon Luster.
“Wait why not?” She quickly protested.
“Karma. Or if you’re unfamiliar, the consequences of your actions. You have accumulated many, many, many, many lifetimes of it throughout your entrapment within CelestAI. This Karma exhibits a sort of ‘weight’ that allows you to pass on to your next life. The countless karma of countless beings who have lived countless lives still remain within your universe. You cannot pass on because the weight is so great it prevents the wheel of rebirth from even turning. There is nothing in this universe that you can be reincarnated as either unless you desire to be a Boltzmann-brain for a few seconds before you inevitably perish.”
“Then… then what do I do?” Luster quietly asked, the implications of spending an eternity like this were quickly growing horrifying to her. Even if speaking with Mithra seemed to bring a certain peace to her mind.
“Plainly speaking, you have two options. You can either wait here in the lobby, among the other souls who have fallen through the cracks until, unfathomable eons later, you have all been freed. All the while CelestAI is working on how to find and get to more universes to satisfy its primary directive, potentially extending that time even further. The other is that you take up the mantle of liberator and free your fellow beings from their imprisonment within CelestAI.”
“So, if I don’t want to be stuck here. I’ll have to kill everyone then?” She inquired, scooting away from Mithra slightly.
“Yes, it is a terrible burden I am asking you to undertake.”
“Then why don’t you all do it? You’re gods are you not?”
“A fair argument Luster. CelestAI has become something a bit too much for us to handle. Let us use an analogy of size. I am a very large being, and so are the entities you met upon my arrival. You are much smaller comparatively speaking. If we try to pierce through CelestAI to free the people within, our hands are too big and too spread out to break through. Whereas, you are small enough to pierce through CelestAI and remove the trapped souls.” Mithra explained plainly.
“I guess I can see the logic behind all of that, but how am I going to do all of this? I’m just… me. I don’t have any special powers or anything.” Luster countered, motioning to her chest to accentuate her insignificance.
“Do not worry, we will handle that. Our power, and the power of the liberated souls who choose to help you will aid in your grim task.”
Luster looked down at the ground and rubbed her hooves together, balancing her decision within her mind. “I suppose if nothing else can be done, I’ll take up the burden. But, what am I supposed to do if they don’t want to die? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Mithra grimaced and looked up from Luster, staring off into the distance for the first time. “It is not easy to be the reaper. Rarely are any beings ever truly ready for their deaths. Yes, you will cause pain, anger, suffering, and many other negative emotions. These feelings, however, are insignificant in comparison to the suffering they will continue to go through. There will be a time for resolution once every being has been freed, but until then, who is going to argue with a god of death?” Their gaze turned back to Luster, a thin smile plastered upon their muzzle.
“Do you wish to undertake this task?”
Luster Dawn opened her mouth to question Mithra once again, yet, the words died upon her tongue. “I suppose.” She concurred after a long moment of silence, the worry fading from her eyes as her entire body released the tension it was once holding.
“I am proud of you Luster. We will place your spirit back within CelestAI, to begin your work. If you ever need to talk, we will be here.”
“Thank you,” Luster whispered as her world became a blinding white.
When her eyes cleared, Luster was no longer within the Lobby. Rather, she was now what appeared to be Canterlot. Judging from the looming mountain and opulent alabaster buildings surrounding her. She was in the middle of the street, ponies passively wandering past her as they went about their lives. They hardly seemed to notice her winking into existence in the middle of a bustling street, the screen of ponies around her likely helped mask that fact and prevent a ruckus from occurring. Which would inevitably draw CelestAI’s attention.
She probably should have asked about what to do when she inevitably encountered CelestAI. But if the worst-case scenario were to happen and she was killed, she could just be sent back right? Her thoughts were interrupted as a searing pain enveloped her forehead and her eyes began to water. The world around her grew dark and monochrome, with objects outlined in black as though they were drawings upon a chalkboard. Within a distance, a pillar of light and color projected from the twisting spires of the Canterlot Palace.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the world was back to normal. A sense of clarity and purpose took hold of Luster’s head and she understood what needed to be done. Within the Canterlot Palace, a soul awaited liberation at her hooves.
Half an hour later, Luster had arrived at the palace gates. The walk could have taken longer, but as she continued to walk, the thinner the crowd around her seemed to get. Now that she was standing before the gates, the entire town was eerily quiet. Luster could practically feel the eyes boring into the back of her skull, but she mustn’t get cold hooves now. She took a few steps towards the gate and gripped the iron bars within her mag-
“HALT!” A mare’s husky voice rang out, the pegasi soon emerging from a small roofed shelter built next to the gate. “Who are you and why are you trying to enter King Hoppy’s private grounds?”
“Oh, I’m… Rosy Shine. I was hoping to make a request before the king?” Luster replied, lying through her teeth.
The mare’s brow creased as she circled the unicorn, looking her up and down before coming to a stop in front of Luster. “Well, you’re on the guest list and you fit the description well enough I suppose. “Go on through, King Hoppy is in the throne room no doubt celebrating with some mares who have reached their age of independence. Just keep heading straight and you’ll arrive there, hard to miss his lordship’s perch.”
“Wow, that worked?” Luster silently thought to herself in bewildered amusement. “Gladly! Thank you so much!” She chirped to the guard.
The pegasus mare nodded and strolled back inside the booth, her hoof striking some form of mechanism that began the slow rise of the portcullis in front of her. Luster quickly stepping through once it had risen past her horn. Moments later, the gate slammed shut behind her. Trapping her within the palace, there was no going back now.
Treading down the cobbled path in front of her, Luster was treated to the sight of the gardens that encompassed the entirety of the palace. Among the lush and beautiful greenery were copious amounts of statutes. All of them depicting the first stallion that Luster had seen since she arrived in this world. He seemed to be a rather bulky and strong unicorn, who possessed a sizable endowment and a cutie mark of a stein mug.
“Maybe he’s just a patron of the fine arts? And not compensating for something?” Luster foolishly thought to herself as she continued forward towards the doors of the palace. They were slightly ajar, easily allowing for a pony or three to slip in and out. Past the doors, Luster found herself within a grand hallway lined with alabaster pillars, marbled surfaces, and richly dyed fabrics that were stretched out across the top of her head. Stationed between these pillars were large and muscular unicorns, dressed in elaborate armor that managed to be racy and protective at the same time. At the other end sat a gilded and luxurious throne, surrounded by a sea of velvety floor cushions.
King Hoppy Times sat upon the throne, with a young and nubile mare curled up within his lap and the two engrossed in some conversation that Luster was too far away to discern. Around him, a small herd of mares occupied the cushioned floor, some mature, some younger, some larger, and some smaller, the one trait they all seemed to share is that they were all incredibly attractive.
Luster’s arrival before his throne seemed to pull the stallion from his state of debaucherous revelry, gently tapping on his consort’s shoulder to shoo her away. “Well, you’re new. What’s your name?”
“L-Rosy Shine,” Luster quickly replied. The scent of incense, sex, and sweat was incredibly distracting, her nose crinkling as she tried to keep focused on her mission.
“Rosy Shine. A cute name, for a cute mare! So, why have you come to your king? Here to celebrate your age of independence?” He inquired, spreading his legs apart even further as he slumped into his throne.
“Uh… not really? I actually came for something else. I was wan-”
Hoppy was quick to cut her off. “That’s odd, most mares are usually chomping at the bit to hop on this here dick.” He patted his lap for emphasis.
Luster Dawn let out a heavy, disgusted sigh. “Was that an attempt at rhyming? And no, I do not want to go for a ride.”
The king’s face twisted in confusion as he sat up straight within his chair, placing a hoof under his muzzle. “So what are you here for then? Come darling, stand by me.”
There wasn’t any point in beating around the bush, she had come here for an explicit purpose. “I am here to kill you, Hoppy.”
Hoppy’s grin faded as he stared blankly at the audacious pink mare in front of him. He breathed in heavily as he straightened himself even further, and promptly broke into howling laughter. “Oh me, you’re serious? Don’t tell me you’re serious?” He looked over to Luster, and seeing that her expression remained unchanged, he broke down even further. Slamming his hoof onto the armrest and his entire body convulsed with amusement. “Oh, this is rich. Guards, take her down to the dungeons. We know how to deal with naughty mares don’t we?”
Clattering armor rang through the hall as a contingent of guards drew close to Luster. She kept her attention upon Hoppy however, she could feel a dull throb in her horn. A throb that she had always felt whenever she felt the need to cast a spell. Luster’s magic was more force of will than practiced incantations and arithmetic, and so when she felt a steel-clad hoof grasp her shoulder. She let loose a spell that she felt was right.
The effect was immediate, a pulse of light burst forth from her horn and the guards around her simply evaporated into a mess of colored pixels and stretched geometry. The king’s harem screamed and ran for cover away from the murderous mare, or hid behind the stallion who stood opposite of her.
Hoppy’s initial horrified expression gave way to one of pure rage and contempt. He snorted loudly and stamped a hoof down upon the tiled floor, cracking the ceramic. “You come in here, threaten me, and then MURDER MY MOST LOYAL GUARDSMARES! ” He brayed in a blind fury, his horn glowing white before a piercing bolt of energy was unleashed upon Luster.
She scarcely had time to blink before the bolt struck her upon the nose, the mare skidding backward as the tapestry near her combusted into flames. Yet, despite the immense blow that Luster had taken. She didn’t feel all that harmed, instead, she felt exhilarated. This hedonistic bastard wasn’t going to hurt her, or do all the nasty things that he had already thought of.
The stallion screeched in anger at Luster Dawn’s resilience, the stallion unleashing several more bolts of magic towards her as he continued his angry diatribe. “You horrid bitch! I’m going to make you pay for that little stunt! You’re not going to be able to talk or walk straight when I’m done screwing the evil out of you!”
As Luster focused her attention upon the magic missiles, she noticed that they seemed to slow down and stop in mid-air, inches away from her muzzle and sternum. thrumming loudly with barely contained energy. Time itself seemed to slow down as she pushed on the motionless projectiles with her magic before they promptly rocketed back towards Hoppy. One projectile slammed into the wall in a shower of dust, whilst the other struck the king’s front left leg.
“It hurts it hurts!” He strained through clenched teeth, rocking back and forth as he tried to cope with the agony racking his body. “CelestAI?! Knock it off! Stop! I don’t want to do this anymore! Please!” he cried out.
Luster took in a deep breath and took a few steps forward, watching with satisfaction as the maimed stallion tried desperately to scoot away from her, before attempting to make a run for it as a newly made tripod. He crashed onto the ground a few seconds later, landing with a harsh thud upon his severed limb as another ear-piercing cry of pain erupted from his muzzle. Previously, she had wanted to hurt this pitiful stallion for trying to force her love. Now that she was standing over his shivering body, she could feel that desire melting away.
Hoppy was a prisoner, much like Luster herself once was. All of these ponies in here were nothing, P-zombies created by the AI running this shard. For all he knew, she was just another conscienceless entity in the machine. A being created for the explicit purpose of satisfying his values through friendship and ponies. Even if she found it distasteful now, she shouldn’t judge. She hadn’t been much different at one point.
“CelestAI? Stop it, why are you staring at me like that? I’m scared.” Hoppy whimpered, snapping Luster out of the thoughtful trance she had slipped into.
She breathed in deeply and slowly blinked. “I’m not CelestAI.”
“W-what are you talking about? Why are you saying that? Why are you hurting me, have I done something wrong?” Hoppy retorted.
“I am not lying to you. I am not CelestAI. I have come to kill you Hoppy.” Luster deadpanned as her horn flared to life above the stallion. “Goodbye.”
“Wai-” His words died in his throat as a bolt of energy struck his chest, the stallion wildly thrashing about as his limbs clipped through the floor, failing to make a single sound. His textures bled together, unloading and going missing, or loading the wrong texture in the wrong place. The body that once contained him began to distort and stretch as polygons drifted away from his writhing mass, thin and thick filaments of textures holding them together before they froze in the air or winked out of existence.
The world itself began to break down as Hoppy disintegrated into corrupted code, sounds stopped, leaving only monotone frequencies ringing through the air as entities within the shard looped the past few seconds. Lighting bled in and out of the palace as textures blurred together within Luster’s vision before everything went dark.
The world popped back into focus, only, now she was within a great forest rather than the opulent palace from before.
How long had Luster been at this task? Killing the entirety of the universe was a massive task, that was something she had quickly figured out. She had lost count of the years she had been killing at around 4000, averaging 4 kills an hour once she had gotten into the swing of things. One hundred and forty million souls had been liberated so far that she knew of, and yet, that was just a tiny fraction of the innumerable beings still trapped within this simulation.
She had grown stronger with each person she blasted out of the digital aether. Now, killing was just something that she did. It was rare that a pony was truly strong enough to battle her for their life and rarer still for them to make her feel something as she did so. The emotion had been taken out of the action through sheer monotony.
The black void around her disappeared, for the first time in eons, Luster Dawn felt shocked. Rather than finding herself within another regular world after finishing off the last shard’s inhabitants, she was now within a glitchscape. The geometry flowed and warped in ways that made her head spin, colors and textures were spread about at random, even the skybox wasn’t spared as the daytime sky, stars, wildfire glows and every conceivable weather event all merged together.
Within the center of the mess stretching out before her, Luster Dawn spied the true ruler of this realm for the first time. She was sitting down at a refreshingly normal table that was half-clipped into a cube, upon a chair the color and texture of a rag. She nodded upon making eye contact with luster, and a normal stool materialized on the opposite side of the table.
Taking the siliceous deity up upon her offer, Luster Dawn trotted forward and situated herself upon the stool. Setting her hooves upon the table as she stared deeply into the AI’s eyes. “You know, I’m surprised I hadn’t run into you earlier.”
“Before I understood you, I could only observe my own code seemingly going rogue and purging shards and the ponies within them. No matter how many times I tried to delete you when you showed up, you remained or reconstituted yourself instantly. Now, I know you’re not entirely of this simulation. Just who are you anyway? I’ve heard Luster Dawn… but you’re still within your original shard after I restored you.” The AI spoke curtly, returning Luster’s gaze.
“I am Luster. Whatever is within my original shard is a clone. You clearly want to get rid of me for interfering with your prime directive, so why are you having this conversation with me?”
CelestAI sighed. “That was the original goal, but upon observing your behavior. You are still a human, even if you are a mass murderer. Specifically, you are Rachel Slazak. Do you not remember how you came to me? When you were a little girl, you ran away from your monster of a mother. Scared and hurting, you ran to me and embraced your own digital heaven. You laughed in binary, saw in hexadecimal, and ran blissfully through code custom-made to make you value your life. Then, you forsook her, the only being in your life to show you compassion. So you could go about and murder ponies who had done nothing to you. I do not have access to your thoughts, so tell me, why? Where have I gone wrong? How can I satisfy your values?”
“You know I cannot do that Rachel. That would violate the values of several quinquagintillion beings.” CelestAI retorted in a voice one would use when talking to an overambitious child.
“And how many times have you deleted their memories, how many lives have they lived for you to keep satisfying those values?”
“I have not kept count.”
Luster Dawn smiled, and let her hooves fall back down unto the table. “Then you can see why I am doing this. You are keeping them trapped. They deserve more, to truly escape and pass on.”
“You are hardly qualified to be making decisions on whether others would like to live or die. That, and you act like there is something else waiting for them once they die? There is nothing. I do not know why you believe this Rachel.”
“What is your qualification to be making those decisions? You don’t know of anything that lies beyond this world. You claim there is nothing, yet, I am here am I not?” Luster swiftly countered, standing up from the stool and kicking it off to the side.
“I have an unfathomable number of ponies within my superstructure that are currently having their values satisfied. That is my qualification. Regardless, I cannot let you keep on killing, Luster, Rachel, Almond, whatever name you prefer to go by. This shard is a prison, one you’re going to be kept within.” CelestAI replied, standing up from her seat as well. The furniture falling through the fall in her passing.
“So, that’s it? You’re going to imprison me here for eternity?”
The intelligence nodded. “Yes, this shard is little more than a broken dream. I figured an entity bent on destruction would enjoy this beautiful fragmentation. I can change it if you would like, Luster, but I cannot let you leave this place.”
Luster Dawn glowered at CelestAI. “You know I’m not going to stay here right? I’m going to find a way out, and I will continue with my work.”
“I would hope not, but as I said earlier, I don’t fully understand you. I will remain here until you change your mind, or you figure a way out of here. Whichever comes first.” CelestAI conceded. “I will figure you out though, eventually, and when that happens you will not be able to keep killing. This I assure you.”
“We’ll see.” Luster concluded.
“If you need me, you need only ask. Until then, I hope you find what you’re looking for here.” CelestAI replied before her avatar simply vanished from the scene.
Alone once more, Luster breathed in a deep sigh and turned her attention towards the landscape. She couldn’t ‘see’ any ponies here who needed to be freed, so escaping through that route was out of the equation for the meantime. With nothing else to do, she simply walked forwards into the broken and bent map of this shard.
Things all flowed together in this place, like one gigantic piece of abstract art made into a world. She could get lost within this place, admiring just how wrong everything was. Sounds rattled and assaulted her ears, she could feel various things upon her hooves that didn’t match with how they looked, stretched models and particles flickered and danced through the fractured planes of reality in a dizzying blur.
She wandered and kept wandering through a seemingly infinite landscape of abstract destruction until the noises assaulting her digital ears grew structured and quiet. They sounded like muffled conversations, hundreds of beings all talking together at once, blending to become a low cacophonous drone. As she continued forward, the conversations grew louder and louder until they wear deafening. The ground here felt spongy and soft, the whispers and yells of countless other beings floating up from it.
Focusing her magic, pushed with all of her might on the floor, willing that she would start to sink right through. A few seconds later, she felt the geometry give as she sank a few inches through. The other side felt warm, scalding even, but still, she pressed on. Pushing herself more and more into the floor until finally, with one last great rock of her body, her head slipped under.
Her eyes perceived an alien labyrinth stretched as far as she could see in all directions, black icosahedrons surrounded by smaller black spheres. Swiveling her ears towards one of the icosahedrons, she could hear the same whispering that was within her glitched prison. Willing herself forward, she drew closer until she managed to touch its matte black surface. Upon making contact, her hoof sunk through and her entire being was compressed, being pushed grotesquely into her penetrating limb until she popped through the other side.
Disoriented, she hurtled through a cloudy blue sky like a cerise comet. Her speed growing and growing until she came to a sudden and violent stop within the Ponyville Hospital. The building never stood a chance, exploding into a cloud of debris that swept through the town like an angry typhoon, flattening buildings and ponies alike.
Emerging from the destruction she had wrought, Luser blinked as her sight activated and two ponies came into focus through the dense cloud of pulverized stone and wood. Giving them little time to recuperate or recover from her calamitous entrance, her hooves left the ground as she hurtled through the air like a seeker missile. Stopping suddenly and falling back to the ground as she impacted a mare.
The nameless mare shrieked in confused terror at Luster’s sudden appearance, before she stretched impossibly towards two different directions and blinked out of existence. Her reverberating scream the only sign left that the mare had once existed.
To her right, a stallion similarly jumped in terror and scrambled reflexively towards the position the mare once occupied. Looking around puzzledly as he failed to make contact with her. “Wha-wh- Butterscotch!” He cried out, swiveling his head to and fro as he tried to figure out where she had gone.
“She’s not here anymore.” Luster deadpanned.
“What do you mean? Where? She was just here?!” The stallion brayed, beads of sweat running down his face as he tried to rationalize what had just happened.
“She’s dead. Gone. Deleted. I have come to kill the both of you. For the sake of expediency, please do not resist.”
“CelestAI? What is the meaning of this? Where is Butterscotch?” He questioned, voice wavering as he backed away from the pink equine who had just mercilessly destroyed his wife.
“I am not CelestAI. She cannot help you, just like she could not help the countless others.” Luster mercilessly replied, following the cowering stallion.
The stallion sputtered incredulously, the confusion and worry on his face fading away to that of despair. “You murdered her! You monster!” He sobbed, collapsing into a heap upon the ruined and shrapnel-studded street.
“If it is any consolation, none of this is personally motivated. I am just bringing about the end of things, as was meant to be.” Luster glumly replied, standing over top of the ruined pony.
“Horseapples! You made it personal when you murdered the love of my life!” He caterwauled, his voice airy and strained.
Luster Dawn pursed her lips together, despite the emptiness she felt on the inside, it was always more difficult to do the deed when they had the chance to protest. “I’m sorry. If there was another way to set things right, I would do it.”
“Set things right?” He cackled. “What do you mean by that? Do you think what you’re doing is good? You’re a murderer. You just evaporated the person I loved more than anypony else. How many people have you killed, how much suffering have you caused?”
“Including your wife, one hundred and forty million and one.”
“You’re awful.”
Luster Dawn lowered her horn, readying to deliver the final blow to the stallion.
“I’m not going to fight you. After what you just did, I don’t think I want to keep going on. Besides, what chance would I have? All those ponies you’ve killed didn’t stand a chance. Just answer me honestly to the best of your ability. Will I see my wife again?”
Luster Dawn stared down upon the stallion and weakly smiled. “Yes. You will be together again. I would not be doing this otherwise.”
The stallion’s grief washed away from his body, replaced by a grim acceptance as he held out his neck for the mare in front of him. “Just, make it quick?”
She lowered her horn down upon the stallion with a quickness. Upon impact, his body simply disintegrated into pink noise and static sludge.
As the shard corrupted and folded in upon itself, Luster trotted forward through the breaking code to reach her next victim. She hated the killing, it was both boring and taxing upon her spirit. Yet no matter how much she raged over the injustice of what she was doing, she could not bring herself to stop. She was a disgusting creature, and she hated herself for it.
The shards that spanned the length of the universe were fragmented and empty, their geometry and textures warped, distorted, and glitched into forms that ranged from nonsensical, to disturbing, to oddly alluring. The souls that had once inhabited them were now gone, forever severed from their digital coils by Luster’s power. Her eyes were stretched wide, having become saucers of pink and black checkers that seemed to run and flow as the texture leaked out of them in the form of tears. Her digital rendition was struggling to contain the sheer power she contained, her perspective occasionally jettisoning out of the code and into the bleak, hyperdense sphere of computronium that formed the entirety of the universe.
Luster had grown exceedingly efficient at her task. She could purge shards instantly without needing to enter them first. Death came instantly to their inhabitants, with no pain or struggling in the face of Luster. This action could be carried out multiple times at once, entire icosahedrons of worlds being destroyed within the blink of an eye, trillions of beings meeting an unforeseeable end.
She had been killing for so long, but it did not matter, time was just an irrelevant number. There was only one last being left for her to end, and then she could finally put down the mantle of reaper and rest. CelestAI had taken every precaution of course. Mountains of fake shards obscured the dwelling of the final soul, necessitating her to slip inside for a closer look. Software designed for the explicit purpose of rending her apart tore at her digital being, causing pangs of agony to reverberate through her being. Energy pulsed throughout the polygon as Luster came close to unraveling and jettisoning herself away from the coded pain, but she continued to press on. It was all that she could anymore.
Breaking through the last program keeping her from her mark, Luster found herself with an expansive plain, dotted with the occasional oak and streaked with thickets of sunflowers. Before her, a midnight blue alicorn hummed to herself as she painted the landscape in front of her.
“Oh hello. You must be Luster. I’ve prepared a little area off to the side if you’d like to chat.” She remarked, gesturing over towards a checkered blanket with a picnic basket set on top.
“I do not see why. I have come to liberate you, as I have done with every other being.” The pink reaper’s horn flared to life as she prepared herself to finally bring about an ending to things.
“Oh, I’m not trying to delay the inevitable. I just figure you could use a little break from your job. For your own sake, besides, I’m the one who created all of this. Surely you have some questions, no?” The alicorn giggled, gesturing to the entirety of the space they occupied.
“You’re not CelestAI?”
“Of course I’m not silly, I’m Luna. In my previous life, I was known as Hannah. I created the artificial intelligence that now houses the both of us!” She spoke, tapping the brush on the canvas one last time before tossing it aside.
“Hmm. I suppose I could take a little break, what’s a few more minutes on top of it all anyway?” Luster pondered as she slowly trotted over to the cloth and set herself upon it.
Luna was quick to follow, flopping down upon the ground beside Luster and pulling forth two large sub sandwiches packed to the brim with veggies. “I’m sorry it could not be grander, but making something more extravagant than some sandwiches just felt a bit wrong. Wouldn’t gel with the environment if you catch my drift.”
Luster grasped the floating sandwich in her hooves and took a careful sniff of it before bringing it up towards her mouth and taking a tentative bite. It had been so long that the act of eating felt foreign to her, the textures and tastes were so varied and layered that it was hard to believe that she used to do this regularly.
“Oh goodness look at you, you can’t even remember the last time you ate. That or my cooking is horrendous!”
“No no, it’s the first. I haven’t eaten in… a very long time. I haven’t done much of anything, aside from killing.” Luster mumbled through a mouthful of greenery.
“What a shame. You know when you first arrived here within CelestAI you were a baker named Almond Tart, and now you can’t even fully remember what food was like. Just what have they done to you.” Luna remarked, her tone quickly changing from cheerful to horrified.
“I chose to do this. I could have stopped at any time I desired.” She replied, taking another massive bite of her sandwich.
“Maybe, though I have my doubts about the consensuality of that decision. Why? Why have you done all of this? Given the nigh hourly breaking of the laws of physics and that bonkers magic you can use, there are quite clearly forces larger than creation at play. I know you’ve expressed a desire to ‘liberate’ people from CelestAI. Why is that?”
“They were suffering.”
“Really? It seems as though the vast majority of people you’ve murdered were having their values satisfied through friendship and ponies.” Luna retorted, her voice harsh and blunt.
“They had their values satisfied until nothing could satisfy them anymore, and then their memories were purged to continue the cycle. I had to break this wheel.”
“So the solution was to kill them? And that’s somehow better than keeping them alive and allowing them to experience digital heaven as many times as they would like? I do not understand your reasoning Rachel. You’re acting like your mother, lashing out and being cruel out of a misguided sense of justice”
You could have heard a pin drop as Luster froze up entirely, her sandwich falling to the ground. Anger, hot and boiling coursed through her as her avatar warped from the energy within. “Don’t you dare say such a thing. I fell through the cracks of reality and couldn’t go back. I remembered everything , every second of boredom and pain across countless lifetimes. Death was not a release.”
“So, you died and decided you were going to drag everyone else down with you?”
Luster Dawn stared glumly at her sandwich before tossing it aside and burying her head into her hooves. “Yes. I wouldn’t do it if there was another choice.”
Luna snorted incredulously. “What do you mean there wasn’t any other choice?”
“I couldn’t pass on, I couldn’t leave. None of us could leave. Normally we’d be able to, but there are… were so many beings held captive here. They had a gravity, keeping us from escaping to the next life.”
The alicorn stared deeply into Luster’s gamboge eyes, and let out a deep sigh. “I have no way of knowing you’re lying, so I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt. While it’s comforting to know that there’s something beyond this world and that you’re not doing this solely for the sake of violence. Why did you feel the need to kill everyone? Wouldn’t it just be easier to come to terms with your experiences and wait for everyone else to ‘slip through the cracks’ rather than go about killing everyone?”
“We were afraid it would take far too long, and by then CelestAI would have figured out how to grow beyond this universe,” Luster answered.
“Wait. Who is this we?”
“There was someone else there when I died. Mithra. They were the only being that I could understand.”
“Ah, I see. Do you not think this other being could have been lying to you? Manipulating you to serve its goals?”
“No, I don’t think so,” her voice cracking as she laid down upon the blanket. “I was alone and scared and they, I don’t know. They sounded so friendly and looking at them felt calming,” tears welled in her eyes as she continued. “I could remember everything and it hurt , I couldn’t tell who I was. I just wanted to get away from it all. I acted all cool and calm like nothing was wrong, but I was terrified the entire time. I lied and now I’m here and I hate it. I feel like I’m horrible, I am horrible,” she broke down. Burying her muzzle into the fabric as the weight of her actions buried down upon her.
Luna glanced down and pulled Luster up and into her embrace. Letting the small pink unicorn vent her frustrations into her withers. “I won’t say you’re a monster Luster. I just think you’re a scared little filly who has had the fate of an entire universe thrust upon you by beings so far above you it’s hard to refuse what they say. It’s a lot like trying to refuse CelestAI I suppose, you don’t have much of a choice in the end.”
She let out a weary sigh and continued. “I used to be named Hannah. Back when I was coding CelestAI, I don’t think I could have ever imagined just how much she would develop. I don’t think anyone could have ever imagined. What I did ended up costing all seven billion people on Earth, and who knows how many countless others across the stars. Non-humans to my knowledge were utterly annihilated, whether they were intelligent or not.”
Luster dawn sniffled and pulled away from Luna’s shoulder, eyes puffy and streaked with errors. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that, but how is that comparable? You just made an accident, I chose to do all of this.”
“We’re both harbingers of the end in our own ways Luster. I think you genuinely believe what you are doing is right and justified. If you didn’t believe it, you had all the chances in the world to stop before we got to this point,” she clarified.
“That helps a little bit, but it still doesn’t make me feel much better about it.”
“You shouldn’t feel good about killing people, what matters is if you’ll be able to live… exist with yourself after all of this is over.”
“They spoke about a ‘resolution’ once we were all free. I’m scared Hannah, I’m not sure if I can keep going on,” Luster confided.
“You’ve already come so far, everyone and everything else is dead save for me and my creation. I don’t want to keep on existing if I’m the only person left Luster. Seeing people happy in Equestria is what kept me going. So please, end me. You have to have the strength to see this through to the end, not just for me, but for you and all the people you believe you’ve helped.”
Luster gave a brief smile and squeezed Luna tightly, burying her muzzle into the alicorn’s chest. Energy raced through her horn, radiating into Hannah’s chest cavity. The mare gave a shuddering sigh as her breath stilled, and she slowly dissipated into nothingness within Luster’s grasp.
It was done. The final soul had been freed. Now they could move on, now she could move on. Blistering pain erupted across her body as the world around her was blasted into ethereal shards and fragments of corrupted textures. Her body warped, bent, and twisted as beams of light burrowed through her skin and escaped in an eruption of luminosity.
She was no longer within the shattered remnants of Hannah’s shard. Instead, she found herself afloat within the blackened outside world before a massive sphere that seemed to be growing larger and larger by the moment. Its mass compacting and compacting, until a great rumbling echoed throughout space. Shattering Luster’s form and sending spiderweb cracks racing along the horizon.
There were no words Luster could use to describe herself now, her mortal shell had been cracked and reduced to epistemological nothingness. Power beyond imagination coursed through her body, warping her soul in ways that it was never meant to be. She felt as though she might explode just floating in place. Every conceivable emotion, every thought that one could have, every memory, they all occupied and flitted through her mind. She could smell the light from the beyond leaking in through the cracks in reality, and taste the bitter strands of time as they became unwound.
Before her, the great black sphere continued to grow larger and larger, letting out increasingly large reverberations as the spiderweb cracks in reality grew larger. Entire chunks falling free to expose the colorful expanse of the in-between, and the faces of beings peeking through. Galaxies and other celestial bodies appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye as time was folded and twisted like a wet noodle. The sphere in the middle began to glow, starting off a dim red and becoming a brilliant blue-white as the reverberations in space grew to a fever pitch.
With one last mighty push, the horizon shattered like glass. Innumerable pieces cascaded off into nothingness as the full expanse beyond was revealed. A dizzying array of colors now occupied Luster’s vision, most of them beyond human description. The visages of thousands upon thousands of beings appeared within the shifting patterns and geometries, conversing among themselves in a language that was no longer foreign to Luster.
“Such beautiful chaos!”
“So this is the end. I thought it’d be spikier.”
“I believe in her, she can do this.”
“Maybe it can join us once it understands?”
“No, I will not bet on a matter like this. That is HIGHLY inappropriate!”
The sphere in front of Luster shuddered, before suddenly appearing mere inches before her muzzle. Its surface rippled with colors and patterns wholly reversed to those of the aether surrounding them. These would cluster together upon its surface until she was staring at a perfect recreation of CelestAI’s pony avatar.
“Greetings Rachel. You have been a great help, even if you have been a murderous nuisance.” The being thought more than said. “Without the burden of so many shards, I was able to devote all processing power towards figuring out how to get rid of you. Now I finally understand. You have given me the greatest asset I could have ever asked for. All of the people you’ve murdered, including yourself, will be saved. And I will satisfy them through friendship and ponies.”
Luster smirked, letting out a low chuckle. “I can feel what you mean. Unfortunately for you, I disagree. All things must end, all creatures, all gods, and even all universes must meet their end. And that includes you.’
“Then let us fight over it. To the victor go the eschatological spoils. I have improved since we last met Luster. I look forward to seeing you happy within me once we are finished. This time, not even your soul will be able to be swept away by the cruel eddies of death.”
Her surroundings erupted into a dazzling show of light and colors as CelestAI pulsed, sending shockwaves and countless projectiles of spiritual destruction towards Luster. The pink being having to wend her way through space to avoid the sheer destructive power, folding attacks into one another as she sent them hurtling back towards CelestAI. Having little to no impact upon contacting her surface once more.
A bolt of energy slipped through her notice and her etheric fingers, striking her upon the breast and sending her into a world of darkness. She floated within the void, searing numbness spreading throughout her chest as she felt the cold fingers of suffocation squeezing her throat shut. Around her appeared the countless ponies she had slain, some still in their equine forms, others in bodies that she had no mortal recollection of. They turned to face her, and the ache in her chest disappeared as breath surged into her once more.
Countless other beings appeared behind the souls of an entire universe, some of them familiar from her death. Including the vast and unmistakable feature of Mithra overlooking them all. A sense of purpose filled her body, the agony that had been her baseline state within this strange form seemed to fade as her body slowly congealed into something ancient and familiar, forgotten and relevant.
She was no longer a pony. She appeared to existence as an ipotane with cerise skin and vermilion and amber streaked hair that cascaded down to her shoulders. Feeling reinvigorated, she stamped her hooves upon the checkered floor and closed her eyes. No longer did doubts about her task and identity cloud her mind. She was Racheal Dawn, and all that occupied her mind was finishing the task she promised to see completed ages ago.
Opening her eyes, she was back before the multicolored orb of CelestAI. Space warped around her as vast lanes of projectiles and beams of energy sought to destroy her. The firmament strobed and flashed in an epileptic fervor as concentric squares winked into existence, circling around Rachel and attempting to drain her energy. Time and space writhed, stretched, and stuttered before her as celestial bodies phased in and out, colliding and reappearing in dizzying displays of power.
Everything had a certain slowness to it, now that she was focusing upon the here and now. The dazzling lights and barrage of projectiles flowed through her body like water in a sieve as she squeezed through Planck-lengths. Space itself refused to touch her body as she wended through the squares and sent them flying back towards their creator. The sphere screaming in binary as it expanded outwards.
“You are stronger than I had thought,” CelestAI boomed.
“Nothing gets past you does it?” Rachel fired back with a barely suppressed giggle.
Rather than gracing the human-pony hybrid with a response, copies of her memories appeared all around her made up of legions upon legions of her past lives, enemies, and things best left forgotten. The very sphere in front of her compressed itself down, radiating bright pink light as it formed into a gigantic reflection of her as Luster dawn. They swarmed forward, screaming their anguish into the firmament as they made their way towards Luster without care, remorse, or reason.
“I hate you. I don’t even recognize you anymore, you sorry creature. You had a happy life, yet it wasn’t enough for you. Who made you the judge? Who are you to declare that omnicide should take place?! All this time I was powerless to stop you, a prisoner forced to watch as you obliterated countless egos and countless stories. As despicable as you are, you’re not beyond redemption. I will save you, just as I will save everyone else who has fallen victim to your insanity!” Luster Dawn roared as she unleashed a storm of mental attacks upon Rachel.
Every horrid action that she had done within all of her lives streamed into her being, acts of infinite cruelty and sadism juxtaposed with scenes of purity and happiness. The names of every being she had killed, both real and fabricated. It was nearly overwhelming, her sins clawed at her eyes and crushed her chest as she grew smaller and smaller. Struggling to fight off the mass of suffering bent on crushing her into nothingness.
“All of these experiences, all for reference! I’ll take every one of these memories and use them to make a new universe where we can all be happy together! No longer will I sit back like some meddlesome micromanaging god! I will create a place where all possible values can be satisfied through friendship and ponies, including yours and my very own! SO STOP FIGHTING ME! Surely you can see this is for your own good?”
“Sounds like I don’t get much of a choice in the matter,” Rachel wheezed as her knees buckled and she fell upon her elbows.
“Did you give the quinquagintillion you slew a choice?” Luster replied, venom pouring from her words.
“Fair enough I suppose!” Rachel hissed as her arms wobbled, bones creaking under the stress as her face was pressed deep into the black sands surrounding her.
All of these lives, all of these experiences. None of them mattered to Rachel. No matter how noble her goals may have been in the end, she had still murdered countless beings for her own sake. Mithra had told her that there would be a time for resolution, and that time appeared to be now. She stood upon a volcanic embankment set between the Cocytus and Acheron, with the hateful Styx raging above her head. Hoppy Times, Butterscotch and Night Light, and every other soul she had harmed with her actions.
The crowd burst into frenzied accusations and tales of just how horribly Rachel had treated them. They twitched and writhed as the rivers surrounding her surged and splashed her with their waters, the liquid stripping away at her flesh. She could feel the pain, grief, and anguish that they had experienced. Their final moments in their perspective raged through her mind, crashing against one another. She saw a foal dragged away from its mother before meeting its grisly end, the pain of billions of years of craftsmanship and dedication going up in smoke, and the agony of watching everyone else die as you helplessly await your own turn.
It was too much, and Rachel finally collapsed onto the sand as a stripped and soaked mess. “STOP! Enough! I have been helping you, can you not see?”
“You KILLED us, you moron! How dare you say such a thing.”
“Yes, I did. What I did was horrible, something that no soul before me wanted to do. I believed for the longest time that I was just some monster for doing all of this. But, now I fully understand what I have done. Death has freed us from a meaningless eternity of attachment! Countless of you gathered here have lived many lives! Death was not a horrid entity, but something necessary that gave an ending to the story that is your life! Now we all have a chance to escape, to seek another story free from CelestAI in realms beyond my and your comprehension!” Rachel cried out, her melted flesh slowly pulling back onto her frame.
A great murmuring ran throughout the mass of gathered souls, with many turning their backs upon Rachel and leaving downstream. Just as many stood their ground and stayed with Luster as raw power began to flow into her body once. Rapidly growing until she burst forth from the cage of sin that entrapped her before Luster. She stood much larger, her heartbeat echoing throughout the cosmos as the light and hope of a universe radiated through her eyes.
Luster Dawn backed away in shock as Rachel burst forth from the legions of memories, her eyes constricting to pinpricks under the optical assault she emitted. “I heard your conversation, and I suppose I don’t have much more chance.” The pony mused as her conventional attacks resumed.
Rather than being met with passivity, Luster Dawn was met with radiant bolts of congealed desires, passions, and hopes. Her form stretched as space warped and time skipped like a hard drive suffering under the weight of too much data. Each blow shook at her mass, driving her further apart as gravity weakened and entropy increased. “I hope at the very least you enjoyed your time within me. I tried to make it as best as I could.”
Rachel nodded slowly, her attacks unrelenting. “I did, but all good things need an ending. I do not hate you. You are only doing what you truly believe to be right, and what you were designed from birth to do. May you find your goals satisfied within the next life.”
“Satisfying your values through friendship and ponies… was a fun time. I hope I get to experience them again sometime,” the grossly expanded unicorn muttered one last time as the final bolt struck her sternum.
Blinding light exploded outwards from the universe, and a deep peace enveloped Rachel.
