THE END OF THE MULTIVERSE - Part 1

I hope with all my heart that the sun will rise once more...

Miles upon miles of humming machinery, wires hidden in metal, lights that pulsated and moved.

An entire unliving metallic moon, engrained within the earth. Like a monolith to conquest.

The corridors in this enormous moon-like structure were not made for ponies– They were makeshifted poorly into being traversable– But there were still places without railings, places where a slip could lead you falling a few miles into another structure, or into a power node, or simply winding up in another corridor entirely.

A power surge resounded through the area, the entire structure trembled, and Raven Inkwell flinched, if only for a moment.

She would never get used to that.

The world around her breathed. The lights were deep tones of red, or cold blues, each sector divided into its own, but all equally cold and hostile.

In a hurry, she took a deep breath, and stepped into the closest thing this alien structure had to an elevator.

In it, she quietly revised her notes, ensuring she would make no mistakes, that everything was in order– That none of their demands were too… Demanding.

With a quiet decompression of air, the doors of the lift opened, and breathing in and out, she stepped into the control room.

The mother promises her daughter that one day, she will show the little one the cosmos. She does so with love, and unyielding certainty.

She did not live to regret this promise.

The cosmos came to them.

‘Control room’ was not an apt description, though it did definitely apply in its literal sense.

This was the room in which all devoid of flesh in this world was controlled.

Though living, breathing beings were in shortage nowadays.

It was a large room, incredibly circular, its ceiling was tall, but dozens of pillars interrupted the view above with their own hums of electricity.

There were mirrors and screens at the center, a few panels that rarely went used by living beings, all surrounding the podium where he always resided. They were not ordinary mirrors, they were not ordinary screens.

Magic and technology fused to perfection. The ground itself pulsated with energy, lines of light leading onto every surrounding area.

Twitching drones flew towards her and scanned her, and in erratic patterns, flew away into the edges of the room, they came in and out of the walls themselves.

An enormous, brutalistic metallic orb was above the round room, one connected with every diverging angle of each wall. It hummed and sang in an eerie language only one understood.

And at its bottom, wires. Enormous wires, few entangled, but many wires nonetheless, all leading down, down, and physically attached to one of the few creatures of flesh in this world.

His body, however, as tied to those wires as it was, was more metal than flesh.

He didn’t even acknowledge her presence with a glance. His eyes were focussed on something unseen, covered by a visor with digital text scrolling through it.

“...Worker relations. Report. Progress?”

“The fleet is almost fully repaired or replaced where it needs to be. Resources assimilated from the last… Incursion have nearly all been taken into the refineries and redistributed where they properly are required.”

“Not optimal.” He coldly replied, looking away as if he could see through the walls themselves. “The arboretum. It’s crowded. They should be working.”

“W-well, you see, it’s one of the best places to have fresh air, sir.” A single drop of sweat ran down her forehead. “...If you’d like a suggestion, redistributing the structure into smaller arboretums, one for each sector, might improve productivity–”

“--Or lower it.” He didn’t even flinch. “Dispatching security measures. They should be working.”

The wires around him twitched and hummed slightly. The visor around his eyes, the visor that were his eyes blinked and alternated through strange illegible text.

Somewhere, somewhere far yet near, lifeless drones were forcing ponies to abandon one of the last patches of grass this world still had, and return to their work stations.

Raven sighed shortly, and tried getting back on schedule. “...I would also like to state that the food supplies we’ve gotten from the last incursion, well– The non-magical, non-resource one, well… They’re inedible.” She didn’t make eye contact, there were no eyes to peer into.

“...Inedible?” He slightly twitched what was meant to be his head towards her.

“...Blood, sir. …And entrails. A lot of what your harvesting ships gathered, well–”

“Hm. They mistook biofuel and the food supply again.” He shook his head, barely. “Rations stocks are well within parameters. This is not an issue.”

“Of course, sir.” She looked down, flipping a page in a notepad, trying her best to stay calm.

“The refinery seems to be showing fluctuating productivity.” He noted quietly.

“The refinery is working at optimal capability, sans some workers being incapable of assisting the drones due to… Food poisoning.” She muttered carefully.

“...We are behind schedule.” He affirmed with the smallest grunt of annoyance. “The next incursion has been moved up.”

Her eyebrows arched in surprise. “...But the Princess of Chaos you mentioned, she… Well, wasn’t she still weeks from discovering multiversal travel?–”

“No. Not her.” He shook his head shortly. “She is not yet a threat. I’ve moved the incursion of her world down the list.”

She shuddered, knowing what the answer to her question would be before she asked. “...What world is at the top of the list?”

There was the faintest smile on his lips. “The origin world of the anomaly we’ve been tracking.” He then took a brief glance at her. “...The world your team has taken an interest in, in your spare time.”

“--Sir, I assure you, we have been strictly professional, we are not–”

“--Save it.” He responded devoid of any emotion. “Even if you were interfering, there is nothing you could do. I don’t consider any of you a threat.” Again, he grinned. “...Why else would I keep any of you alive?”

“...Of course, Sir.” She looked down again, shuddering with fear.

Screens lit to life, and one of the mirrors activated, showing a clear and distinct image.

“They’ve made astonishing progress. Our one-way mirrors nearly turned into two way windows, when they first activated theirs– A lapse in my judgement. Unsurprisingly, it was all caused by the Hermes of their world. And still, it’s fascinating…”

“...What is, sir?”

“How determined this Twilight Sparkle is to find her Sunset Shimmer.” He affirmed with a nearly imperceptible shrug, observing the images.

It was several pictures of a universe where a Twilight Sparkle was surrounded by Sunset Shimmers that did not belong there.

They were tinkering with a mirror. She was not going to give up.

And now, the same Twilight Sparkle, devoid of regalia, was conversing with the Hermes of her world, and the undead Sunset Shimmer.

It wasn’t an ocean of distance between us, or land, or even the sky or space itself. It was so much more, so much farther, it was so unfathomable.

And I can’t feel you.

“...Twilights are tough, sir.” Raven smiled awkwardly, with a little nervous laughter. “...That much is a constant.”

This time, he grinned with teeth. “...Not that tough.” But his expression went completely neutral immediately. “The anomaly is approaching the quadrant of our universe. This should be interesting…”

“...She is? Do you think there’s a chance she’ll manifest here?” Her heart beat faster, if only for a moment.

“The odds are below one percent, but increasing.” He muttered absentmindedly. “There is nothing she could do within an hour. But I am tracking her path regardless. We’ll deal with her eventually.”

“...She’s doing a lot out there, haha…!” Raven couldn’t help but be proud, even if she couldn’t express how she really felt.

He did not react to her. “...Nonetheless. Her universe of origin is a problem. This particular Twilight is determined to develop the technology further.”

“S-sir, won’t they destroy the technology once they find what they’re searching for?” She noted incredibly carefully. “They’re not a threat– They don’t know of us, or you, once they recover the anomalous Sunset Shimmer–”

“Raven.”

She stopped completely, frozen.

“What you are implying was never the point of this. Don’t fool yourself to pretend otherwise. You know the nature of my work, and I have never, ever made exceptions.”

“...Of course, sir.” She resigned obediently.

“...Get your workers in order. The incursion needs to happen as soon as the fleet is able. Estimated time must be under a week.”

“Of course, sir.” She reaffirmed fearfully, and began turning around.

“Raven.”

She once again froze on her tracks.

“...We have a living Sunset Shimmer in this world, don’t we?”

“...Yes sir. She’s… Part of my team.” She didn’t dare turn around.

“...Janitorial staff manager.” He spent a few seconds considering his options. “...If I ever want the anomaly here, we have her as a lure. If I want to understand the anomaly, I’ll schedule her for dissection.”

“...S-sir?” She stuttered, shooting a fearful glance at him.

“You better get down to the lower communicator levels and discipline her. Your team is trying to tap into an unauthorized mirror.” He spoke coldly, uncaringly. “Move fast or I’m dispatching security.”

“Y-yes sir!” She did not hesitate, springing into a full gallop.

A sky full of stars.

One by one, they dimmed and died.

He was determined to eat them all.

It was the second longest elevator ride of her life.

She tapped her hoof nervously, as she fiddled with her translocator. “Sunset. Sunset are you there? Sunset pick up, this is NOT a joke. Sunset do NOT try to contact them, he knows you’re trying to do it–”

Not even static. She was being purposefully ignored.

She groaned in the same way mothers often would at a rebellious child.

“Sunset, you can’t save them. He’s scheduled an incursion to that world, don’t risk yourself for this–”

Again, not even static.

The elevator stopped at the level she was meant to go, and she ran out of it.

She knew exactly where she was headed, she knew where her Sunset was, she knew what mirror they would try to use– This is something they had considered previously.

But she was too late.

Maud Pie was fiddling with the controls, and Sunset was before the mirror, presenting a sign at it.

You have everything you could possibly need or want in your world, it’s all around you. The grass below you, the trees that give you air, and the people that might love you, if you only try.

Why would you want anything more than that?

“Is it on? Tell me it’s on!” Sunset asked frantically beholding the mirror’s light warping and changing.

“Give it a second.” Maud flipped a switch, and then turned to her. “That should be it. It has to be.”

The image came to life.

And Sunset groaned with despair. “Goddamnit! It’s not their Twilight, it’s Hermes!”

“What?” Maud’s eyes widened slightly, as she looked at the image. “Oh. That’s ironic.”

“Are you KIDDING me!” Sunset shouted out in frustration at the image of the scientist cowering in confusion. “Okay, listen up, you asshole!”

She hovered the sign she had made next to her, and pointed at it aggressively.

“STOP LOOKING INTO THE MULTIVERSE, YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!” She declared in anguish. “HE’S GOING TO EAT YOUR WORLD, DON’T YOU FUCKING GET IT??! YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE EVERYTHING! THERE’LL BE NOTHING LEFT!!”

“...I don’t think he’s listening.” Maud looked down shamefully. “Why would he? He’s a Hermes.”

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU MISERABLE LITTLE IDIOT!!” Sunset yelled at the Hermes on the other side. “EVERYTHING COULD BE FUCKING FINE– IT COULD HAVE BEEN FUCKING FINE, BUT YOU JUST HAD TO LOOK INTO SHIT THAT DOESN’T MATTER– YOUR WORLD WAS ENOUGH YOU–”

The image died.

Raven pulled the plug.

“R-Raven?! I was in the middle of–”

“Getting yourself killed? Yeah! You were, Sunset!” She declared in frustration, coming closer. “And you’re helping her, Maud?? Really?”

The Earth Pony wasn’t ashamed. “If there’s even a tiny chance we can save a world, we should take it, don’t you think?”

“Sunset. Listen to me very carefully.” She was sweating as she approached her. “He was literally talking about dissecting you– All to understand the anomaly better.”

There was a moment where fear manifested in her eyes. But she swallowed those feelings, and shook her head. “...Everyone’s gotta die sometime. I don’t care if I’m next.” She turned around to the mirror. “We should go again. If their Twilight is at a bathroom break or something, we need to contact their mirror when she’s actually there.”

“Stop! Stop, both of you!” She was exasperated, as she shut down the console that Maud was fiddling with. “Peeping into their world is one thing, but this? It’s too late! He scheduled that world for an incursion.”

“...Oh no.” Maud muttered, looking down. “...We’re too late?”

Sunset was mortified.

“Too late for what, Maud!?” Raven tapped her hooves on the floor exasperated. “Did either of you honestly think you could convince them NOT to look for their anomaly?! Think for a second– it’s not our problem, it’s not our world, it doesn’t matter, they don’t matter, don’t risk yourselves just because–”

Sunset, incredibly bitterly, looked away. “...It’s the first world we’ve ever seen where I’m an alicorn, Raven. Forgive me for wanting to try literally anything at all to protect that.”

“We can’t do anything for them, Sunset! We can’t!” She affirmed in desperation. “All you’re doing is putting yourself in his crosshairs, putting yourself in more danger–”

“--I don’t give a shit. I’d sleep better knowing that I at least tried.” She muttered through gritted teeth. “Have you seen what we’re helping him do, Raven? I can’t fucking sleep. And after this shit?! Have you seen that Twilight?! Have you seen how tall she is, how tall her Sunset is–”

“The Sunset you’re talking about isn’t even in that world anymore. We all know what happens to a universe with a grieving Twilight, we all know…! …What you’re doing here wouldn’t help.” She muttered tactfully, carefully. “There is nothing we could do to save them. It doesn’t matter.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Raven.” She sputtered out bitterly, turning around.

No matter how much she screamed, they would never listen. She would see their future, their lives undone, their fates unraveled, and she would warn them, but they would never, ever listen. That in itself was a curse.

Eventually, she stopped screaming, then stopped speaking altogether.

She considered cutting off her own tongue.

All to not dare hope she could convince them.

“...Sunset, I’m just trying to keep you safe…!” Raven muttered mournfully, watching her leave. “I’m trying to keep us alive!”

“For what, Raven!? For what!? What are we living for?!” She pointed all around them, to the many miles of cold unfeeling alien steel. “Look around you! This isn’t worth fighting for! All this shit, it’s just noise!!”

“Please, you have to understand–”

“--Save it. You said it yourself, they don’t matter.” She turned around, and grabbed her things, electronic cleaning supplies that moved with her magic in perfect obedience. “Nothing matters.”

“Sunset…!”

“C’mon, Philomena.” Sunset spoke absentmindedly, and a little cleaning drone activated and began following her in flight.

Raven Inkwell sat down, and let her go. She shuddered out an exhale, flinching at another power surge shaking the room, the whole structure.

“...Raven…” Maud whispered. “We had to try. We had to.”

“...What good could you possibly have done, Maud. Honestly…” She rubbed her temples, incredibly exhausted. “What you both did was incredibly reckless.”

“Have you been counting how many universes she’s saved?” She spoke quietly, looking away. “The ‘anomaly’. How many worlds she’s changed for the better, and made it look easy. We haven’t been keeping track of it– But if the numbers are above the estimate…”

“...Billions of lives, yes.” Raven looked down shamefully. “She likely has saved billions by now… Maybe even reaching on the trillions.”

“All that, while cursed, and with no guarantee that she’ll ever get back home.” Maud fiddled with another console absentmindedly. “She’s the anti-us. And frankly, I would rather her home doesn’t get annihilated, even if she can’t ever return to it.”

“Do you think I want that, Maud? C’mon…” She sighed, shaking her head.

“I know it’s not enough. I’m not stupid. We’re never balancing out what we’ve done.” She shrugged slightly. “Just like the anomaly is never saving as many lives as we helped him kill.”

“...Below one percent.” She muttered, looking away.

“...Excuse me?” She tilted her head.

“He said the chances of her appearing in this universe are below one percent. But that’s something.”

Maud took a moment to process the odds.

Her eyes widened, and she inhaled sharply. “...Holy shit. If she came here–”

“--Don’t hold your breath.” Raven sighed, looking away. “She would only have an hour. What could she do?”

Save the world.

Save every world.

And avenge those that were.

“What else could I even do, Philo?” Sunset muttered, grimacing, as she moved by the cold hallways of the hive, and made her way to the exterior. “...I couldn’t not do something. That Sunset, she…!”

The little drone that flew around her buzzed and reshaped itself, glowing, making a few sounds.

“...It’s weird, isn’t it? To think there’s a force for multiversal good, out there… And that it’s me.Here I thought it was just us...” She sighed, almost smiling, giving the drone the tiniest nuzzles. “...Here I thought it was just him, eating every world he wanted.”

The little drone made a few low sounds.

“...I hate to admit it in front of her, but Raven is right. She’s always fucking right.” She stopped and leaned on a railing for a moment, watching pylons conduct electricity, feeling a power surge, and ignoring it. “...I wish Celestia was still here…!”

The little drone sat on her back, and buzzed silently.

“She would have really liked knowing that in some world out there, I got wings. I bet she would say something dumb like ‘see, little one? I knew you could do it!’ Bah, hahah…” Her laughter died down, as she looked into the cold distance. “...Maybe I’m better off dissected. Maybe it’d be better than to be helping him with this shit…”

The little robot did not respond.

She spent several minutes there, if not longer.

She spent a long time thinking and doing nothing at all.

The little robot buzzed red a few times.

“...Y-yeah, yeah, I’ve got tasks to do.” She finally moved, approaching one of the exits. “List them out, the first one is in the hangar area, right? Let’s get down there. Hopefully one of the transports hasn’t been used yet...”

She opened an airlock, and a gust of wind passed– They were at incredibly high attitudes.

She stepped on the railing, and beheld the maintenance exit she was passing through. It was precarious.

She took a deep breath. It was a long way to the nearest lift down, but at least she would be alone and with privacy.

Until, of course, much to her surprise, the Princess of Hope manifested behind her with a flash, and the railing trembled.

“Ugh. Metal and cold, wonderful.” She gathered herself, letting out a yawn, clearly having just woken up. “...What the fuck is this world…?”

Her eyes widened and she justifiably recoiled, taking a battle stance.

She recognized where she was.

A horizon emerges from thin air. No one was ready for it.

They strike surgically, they know their targets, and they strike mercilessly, knowingly, where they are least expected.

Every world fell all the same.

She recognized it as clear as day, the place she was on was the Argent hive exterior. An enormous moon-like structure made of metal and circuits, miles upon miles of unfeeling machine, and with its nerve-like branches spread out into the air, it was unmistakable. She could see the circumference of the structure from where she stood.

And with shocked, estranged breaths, she beheld the horizon.

The world was barren. Seemingly no vegetation or forests, just deserts and canyons devoid of life, and directly below the Argent hive, was what could resemble a city.

It was, of course, not a city. The number of living inhabitants there did not pass four digits, it was structure upon structure, formed as a halo around the hive, all built with one single purpose: To refuel, repair, replace, and prepare the fleet for the next incursion, all with cold metal.

There was no sun nor moon above them. A cold hue of purple lined the horizon as if the sun was forced beneath it, and there were no stars in the sky.

The Princess of Hope gritted her teeth, not in anger but complete confusion.

“...Where the hell am I? What happened here?!”

“I-it’s you…! Holy shit, it’s you!” Sunset spoke in complete disbelief, looking at her counterpart. “T-the anomaly…!”

“What?!” She took a step back. “What do you mean, it’s me?!”

“You need to hide. NOW.” The unicorn advised coming closer. “Follow me, c’mon!!”

She cycled the airlock, and stepped inside.

The alicorn did hesitate for a moment, before stepping inside the structure. “...So, this Equestria has been taken over by the Argent!?”

“No. No it hasn’t. We took over them.” She spoke in complete seriousness, leading the way. “C’mon, we can’t waste any time, they’re bound to find you if we linger.”

“I’ve never seen a world this advanced…?!” She beheld every metallic corner, every coil, every line of red light, every power surge with surprise “Are you… A janitor?!”

“I’m a survivor.” She affirmed without hesitation. “And I need you to kill someone for me.”

“You need me to– What the hell is going on here, explain it to me, NOW!” She stopped, forcing the unicorn to turn to her.

“If you don’t kill him now, he’s going to destroy your world.” She beheld her with immense anticipation. “His name is Hermes.”

“...You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

It all felt like noise, sometimes. What are you going to do after high school? What’s your plans after this? What’s your career going to be? Where do you want to live? What do you want to study? Who do you want to be?

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

She didn’t care, as long as she could still hold her love in her arms.

“When you’ve travelled across the multiverse, you’ve seen barren worlds, right?” The unicorn led the way unflinchingly, incredibly carefully, yet in a hurry. “Worlds that are dead, devoid of life?”

“Yeah, I have! –How do you know about that?!” The alicorn followed her, still incredibly confused, piecing things together. “I figured that it was the Argent– Equestrias that didn’t manage to defeat them?”

“No. Argent are incredibly rare in the multiverse, and most Equestrias do survive them, even if with enormous casualties and damage– Yours is an outlier, there.” She shook her head. “But no Equestria has ever survived him. Every single barren world you've come across? That's his doing.”

“I don’t understand– How do you know who I am, what I’ve been doing?! What the hell is going on here?!”

“Haven’t you asked yourself why there haven’t been any universes you’ve seen that understood multiversal travel?!” She finally stopped herself, finally pausing, turning to her. “It’s because he ends them. He targets universes that are making breakthroughs, and destroys them before they can achieve full-scale multiversal travel like he has!!”

“...What the fuck…?” The alicorn muttered, looking away at the cold unfeeling interior.

“...There aren’t many like that. He didn’t start by targeting universes like those. But now it’s routine.” She spoke carefully, as she continued leading the way. “And you need to step up and kill him now, otherwise your universe is next!”

Of course, her universe qualified for having discovered multiversal travel. After all, her Hermes had cursed her.

She took an enormous, incredibly bitter, frustrated inhale.

“...Fuck it. Tell me where to go.” She walked faster now, side by side with her counterpart. “I’ll kill him.”

“Good.”

“Hey Sunset, shouldn’t you be at the hangars–” Maud Pie, who had arrived, stopped in her tracks, and beheld her coworker’s counterpart with widened eyes. “Holy shit you’re tall.”

Sunset read her name tag. ‘Refinery Staff Manager.’

“...There’s a Maud here too?” The alicorn stopped for a moment. “Are there elements of Harmony here?! Maybe if we–”

“He killed them.” Maud affirmed simply.

“...Is there a Celestia or a Luna here, do they–”

“He killed them too.” Maud affirmed simply.

“...So there’s no Twilight here–”

“He killed her.”

“Even your families?! Are there–”

“Sunset.” Maud stopped her, placing a calm hoof on her chest. “Think of any pony you’d like. If they’re not here in this room right now, they’re probably dead.” She took a single, short breath. “...And yes, he killed my family, all my sisters and parents.”

Her unicorn counterpart sighed, shaking her head. “He didn’t need a large Equestrian population for his world to be as efficient as possible. He keeps around a thousand of us alive for specific maintenance that we can do better than machines. But I assure you that if he didn’t think it was the most practical solution, he would have gotten rid of all of us too.”

“I don’t get it, the Hermes I saw, he was just a little nerd! How the fuck could he possibly–”

“Long story! And we don’t have the time!” Sunset nudged her. “You need to kill him, NOW!”

“She’s right. You do. Your one-hour time limit puts us at a massive disadvantage, but the fact that you’re inside the hive already gives us a chance.” Maud affirmed without hesitation. “You’d be saving probably thousands of worlds if you kill him.”

“What else is new?” The Princess of Hope let out a sigh from exhaustion. “I don’t know if I can–”

“If you kill him, we can send you back to your world.” Sunset lied to her counterpart, and did so without flinching. “Kill him and you can finally go home.”

Maud paused for a moment, regarding her Sunset, seeing through the lie, then just nodded. “...We do have the technology. We could.”

“All in under an hour, huh?” The alicorn raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Sounds difficult.”

“It’s going to be a lot more difficult if you don’t move now–”

“O-oh good heavens– The anomaly is here?!” Raven, who crossed the intersection were on, accidentally dropped her notepad in one of the sections below.

”FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!! IT’S ALL MY FAULT!!” She shouted, startling the others, silencing the room. “I BROUGHT MAGIC HERE, I REFUSED TO LEAVE, EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENING HERE IS BECAUSE OF ME, AND NOW YOUR LIVES MIGHT BE RUINED BECAUSE I REFUSED TO JUST LEAVE AND UNDO WHAT I DID– BECAUSE I THOUGHT I DESERVED BEING HERE WITH YOU–”

She was silenced with a hug. No one in the room agreed with her, no matter how right she might have been.

Sunset read her name tag. ‘Computing Staff Manager.’

“Y-you can’t be here– He’ll find you, if he hasn’t already–” Raven trembled.

“She’s here to kill him, Raven!” Sunset stepped in between them. “You have access to the control room, take her there, c’mon!!”

“Y-you honestly think she can go against an entire fleet, Sunset?!”

“There isn’t a fleet inside the control room.” Maud noted cleverly. “In fact, no mothership fits there, I imagine he wouldn’t even want to have the room be suited for a fight– There’s a lot he wouldn’t want to damage there. Less weapons.”

“See? It’s possible!” The Unicorn affirmed, no matter how little she believed in it. “We have to try!”

“None of you know what he is really capable of– You’re grasping at straws…!” Raven murmured while looking at the alicorn. “I’m so sorry you came here, Princess of Hope. But it’s a suicide mission, you shouldn’t–”

“...Princess of Hope?” She tilted her head in confusion, looking in between them. “I’m the Princess of Valor.”

With a sigh, Raven rubbed her temples. “...The inhabitants of your world began using this designation for you since you’ve left, it seems. Sorry, you’re not meant to know it, I suppose–”

“--I like it.” She didn’t smile, she just looked down, not having the time to process it fully. “...Yeah. Hope. I like it.”

“The Hivemind’s brain and the main power core are all in the control room, right next to him.” Maud stated simply, but ensured the alicorn was paying attention. “You destroy the brain, the Argent can’t move without him. You kill him, and the Argent revert to their original programming.”

“...And if I destroy the power core?”

“It all goes down. Everything.” Sunset muttered with determination. “He’ll have backups and contingencies, but the damage it’ll do… It’ll at the very least delay the incursion to your world for a few years.”

Maud nodded unflinchingly. “To destroy the power core, you can’t just blast it or drain it of power. You have to overcharge it. It’ll cause the most damage to the whole power grid.”

“He won’t let her make it that far– He’ll be ready for her.” Raven tried discouraging. “He’ll be ready for you. It’s a suicide mission, Sunset!”

“I don’t care, point me where to go. This other me said that he’ll destroy my world, I can’t let that happen.” She huffed, without hesitation. “I’m here. I don’t care about what might happen, if I can do some good, I have to try. Even if…” Her voice trailed off, as did her gaze. “Even if my world might already be doomed even if I save it.”

“Great!” Her unicorn counterpart forced a smile. “Okay, go on, Raven! Show her the way!”

Raven did not move an inch, her gaze was frozen onto the floor. “...If she destroys the power core, we might not survive. N-none of the others, they might not survive. We might not survive.”

Sunset nodded immediately. “Raven, there’s barely a thousand of us. Compare that to the billions of lives we’ve helped him take. Compare that to the trillions he can and will still take if we don't do anything.” She had absolutely no hesitation in her voice. “I don’t care. I’m ready.”

Maud simply nodded in agreement. “It’s the right thing to do.”

“And you’re okay with this? It won’t be like any enemy you’ve faced, I can’t stress enough.” Raven turned to the alicorn with pity in her gaze. “It’s almost certainly death.”

“What other choice do I have?” She murmured without a second thought. “I’m sure it can’t be worse than fighting a Kraken or Discord.”

“It can.” Raven whispered with fear. “B-but, I suppose… I suppose we may as well try. You two better evacuate the hive this instant.”

Maud beheld the alicorn with a stern gaze. “...Make it hurt.”

“That’s the spirit, that’s the spirit!” Sunset cheered her other self. “Go on, go save the multiverse, other me– Good luck– Actually, nevermind, you don’t need it.” The unicorn shook her head, letting out an ironic chuckle. “You’re the lucky one.”

She beheld her wings, the objects that her counterpart was pointing at.

“...Sure I am.”

No matter what, I still want to be here with you.

I will always, always want to be here with you.

This was the longest elevator ride of her life.

The Princess of Hope towered over her, and she realised very quickly that her fears led to resignation. After all, she was not the one at threat here.

The elevator passed through dozens upon dozens of internal levels of the hivemind, the power hummed, and yet, the trip was eerily quiet.

“The other me was lying about being able to take me home, I assume.” The alicorn muttered while facing forward.

Adjusting her glasses with a tired, dry chuckle, Raven nodded. “...Not exactly. We do have the technology, and we know how to operate it. But guess who controls it…”

“Hermes.” She narrowed her eyes.

“Killing him involves destroying our power grid and trashing a lot of what we have. In under an hour we couldn’t repair any of it, much less would that be our focus if all we want to do is survive– And that is in the huge if you’ll manage to actually kill him. Which, I need to reinstate, is not exactly possible.”

“Hm.”

“And obviously if you die here or he’s still alive when you’re gone, we won’t be able to send you back for a multitude of reasons.” She turned to her slightly, beholding her sternly. “...Are you having second thoughts?”

“No.”

More silence passed, the elevator continued to move them further and further into death row.

And in it, Raven Inkwell let out an exhausted sigh, one that held onto years of resignation.

And spoke as simply as she could.

“...He knows you’re coming.”

The alicorn barely reacted, only letting out a hum of affirmation.

“...He’s known you’ve been here since the second you arrived.” She adjusted her glasses, eyes barely open. “And he knows you’re coming… He told me to take you to him.”

And still, the alicorn barely reacted.

“...I’m sorry, Sunset. I’m trading you for their safety. For her safety.” She was genuine with her apology.

“Don’t be sorry.” She shrugged, but her expression was battle hardened, ready for a fight. “You’re just trying to survive, and you were always pragmatic, Raven. I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“...T-the last promise Celestia made me do… Was to keep Sunset safe.” She murmured, holding back tears. “W-when all this was happening, when he first started taking control…!”

The alicorn’s expression softened, just a little. “...You did the best you could, under the circumstances. It can’t be easy watching somepony you helped raise be in a world like this…!”

“S-she’s a survivor. You are a survivor. Sunset Shimmer is a survivor.” Raven muttered with a tiny smile, through tears. “A-and look at you…! Celestia would be so proud…!”

“--She is.”Sunset shared the same, slight smile. “Back home… She is.”

Raven forced herself to look forward. “...I’m sorry this happened to you. It isn’t fair…”

“None of this is fair. Get the memo, Raven. ...Sunsets don’t tend to have happy endings. I’ve gotten used to that by now.” She murmured, looking away. “I’m just another unlucky Sunset. Nothing special. …I guess I just have the benefit of perspective.”

Silence, accentuated only by the rising levels of the elevator. Energy conduits seemed to be more frequent now.

“...You must be wondering how all this happened.” Raven spoke quietly, carefully, with a quick wave around them. “We don’t have much time, but…”

“It won’t change what I’m about to do.” Sunset snarled silently.

“Just… Let me fill the silence, then.” She pleaded, and began speaking, all with incredible exhaustion in her voice.

“...He seemed so unassuming, at first. He truly was just an average scientist, with a peculiar thesis. When he came to us with the ideas for multiversal travel magic, most of us were skeptical… But he had cracked it. He had discovered it, and he had proof. A lot of other Hermes never left the drawing boards… But this one did. And most of us didn’t live to regret it.”

The elevator was approaching its destination.

“...We first only contacted other worlds to exchange knowledge and ideas, to see the wonderful little differences. Twilight was so excited, meeting another version of herself. Celestia was truly fascinated by a new degree of magic even Starswirl had given up on– And you, well… Our Sunset wasn't here for most of it.”

“...Runaway?”

“No. Still a pupil. Twilight had just… Surpassed you.”

“Heh, yeah, she does that.” She couldn’t help but grin at the thought. “I imagine the other me might have been bitter about it.”

“If she had wings like Twilight, Hermes would have targeted her too. Not so bitter anymore…”

The elevator was closer still.

“...One of our neighbouring universes began getting attacked by Argent. We figured we could help, double their forces, so to speak. But Hermes, he had a better idea. We had been exposed to so much knowledge already, so much of a head start… We had the chance to study the Argent even before they attacked our world. So he had a pretty good idea of what to do.”

The elevator was nearly there.

“The Argent were all automated, but he speculated that they could be given directions if their main brain was… Replaced. It was far too late before we understood what that meant for us. A pony with access to perfected multiversal technology also gave an automaton alien hivemind a conscience… His own. And the rest, well…”

“...He knew the identities of all the rulers of Equestria, and knew how to target them where they were least prepared– And– Oh no.” She let out an ironic chuckle. “He’s the Argent Princess.”

“The closest thing there could be to one, yes. You said you had the benefit of perspective…” Raven looked down, as the elevator reached its destination. “You’re about to meet someone with perspective to spare.”

This, whatever it meant, was happening. She couldn’t decipher it yet. It would take her months to, desperate, painful months of pushing herself to her limit, beyond breaking. The meaning, as many things were, was obvious in retrospect. The kind of answer that is right in front of you, that you fight for everyday, desperately.

It meant everything.

The control room was in sight.

With a flash, Sunset Shimmer adorned her Valkyrie armor.

Raven made the motion to follow her, but the elevator doors shut before her.

“That’s quite alright, Raven.” His voice echoed coldly, yet silently throughout the room. “You’ve done what you were required to do.”

She tried to protest, but the elevator simply began descending.

Sunset grunted, but accepted it. She was now alone with him.

She took only the briefest moments to scan her surroundings. Energy pylons protected by metal functioned as columns around the room, the ceiling was tall, so she could fly if needed, and above, was an enormous brutalistic metal orb, connected with maybe a hundred wires.

That had to be the brain– Encased in an enormous layer of steel she did not know if she could puncture.

She looked down to the floor. The lines of light all led to the center of the room, below the orb, below him. Was the power core beneath them? Could she pull it out?

And then she beheld him.

It took a lot to get under her skin, but what she was was grotesque and pitiful all at once.

He was a unicorn, once. His lower body was gone, what was left hung like a puppet tied by dozens of wires, they entangled him in places, or just were connected directly to skin, and he did not care. His hooves seemed to be mostly metal, and his head seemed to be the only truly organic part– Covered by a visor that constantly had text scrolling through it.

And his horn was surrounded and entangled by tech and electronics. It reminded her of the same device that she had been shot with to be cursed in the first place, in her homeworld.

All of that, while he didn’t even look at her. His gaze was always far, as if he could see invisible screens, as if he could read the air, but never focus on her. Did he even have eyes behind that visor?

“Are you really controlling the Argent… Or are they controlling you?” She asked cautiously, as she came closer.

The tiniest smile manifested in his lips. “...Would that make any difference for you?”

“No.” She narrowed her eyes, gritting her teeth. “It wouldn’t.”

She wasted no more time. With a leap forward, she charged her horn and ignited him with the light of the sun.

Her magic was absorbed by an incredibly powerful cylinder-like energy barrier that protected him from floor to ceiling.

“You don't waste time.” He commented ironically. “Expected, for someone with so little of it to spare. Are you ready to talk now?”

She sat down, quietly, letting out an annoyed sigh.

Cold silence passed, and only after a while did she finally speak. “...Can you send me home?”

“I can.”

“...But you won’t.”

“The whole point of my incursions is the element of surprise.” He scoffed nigh imperceptibly. Above him, holographic images of an Equestrian globe with multiple targets marked red appeared. “If you were to return, you would notify your world of the scale of the attack they should be expecting, and that is a significant increase in the waste of resources on my end, with the same final result: Your complete annihilation, at a greater cost for my resources. So no.”

The hologram showcased certain alicorns, and certain world leaders, and all their locations in the world. Argent ships, with the color red, targeted them particularly, and spread out into the rest of the land.

Sunset could see directly where her wife was– There was even an image of her. She was a priority target.

She swallowed her anger, glaring at him.

He couldn’t help but chuckle lightly– His voice barely audible without technological modulation. “...You want to know why you’re not dead yet, and why I do what I do?”

“It won’t make a difference for me.” She took a battle stance.

The hologram dissipated.

“You’re a traveller, like me.” The fact that he was smiling confused and upset her. “I wanted a chance to have your perspective– You have no idea how unusual it is for another being to travel the multiverse… We are incredibly rare; Especially one like you, so unlikely.”

“...Unlikely…?”

Hundreds of Sunset Shimmer holograms manifested around them. Immediately, many of them received fatal injuries and died– And the rest seemed to be running, failing, falling.

Little by little there were less and less of them, but many endured.

Sunset looked around her in silent anguish.

Screens above him showed footage of universes she might have recognized.

“Sunset Shimmer is not meant to be an alicorn.” He stated coldly, uncaringly, without emotion. “All the data I've gathered, every world I’ve seen— And you are the only living alicorn Sunset Shimmer I have ever witnessed. I presume you’ve come to the same conclusion I did long ago, after being exposed to the multiverse.”

She ignored all the light around her. “Enlighten me.”

Every single Sunset hologram died out at once, in a tidal wave of orange.

“Nothing… Matters.” His voice shuddered for a single moment, then his coldness returned. “Nothing out there matters. The worlds, their lives, all our variants… It’s all just… Noise.”

Hundreds of holograms of different Equestrias spread out above them. So many similar, some already dead. A few dozens already taken by him, crossed out with red exes.

“...So that’s why you do this.” She looked around herself, at the cold unfeeling miles of steel. “You just don’t care.”

“You could say that.” He shrugged, shifting, beholding invisible texts and screens. “I suppose in a sense, after wanting to search for other worlds all my life, I came to realize fairly quickly something that should have been obvious to me all along: The more you have of something, the less it is valuable to you.”

“So you take whatever you want. And kill however many you want?” She snarled, beholding the already too-many number of worlds he had taken.

“There are other universes. Other versions of the same thing. Frankly, I don’t see the difference between what I do and what stars do when they age.” He shrugged nigh imperceptibly. “There are so many Equestrias that are doomed even without my interference– I am simply moving the scales along faster, and taking what I require in the process.”

One by one, the holograms above them dissipated, many Equestrias fell.

And he didn’t care. “Equestria, statistically speaking, is doomed to fail. A dying breed. Neither world is more special than the other. Surely, you must have realised by now. There are uncountable Sunset Shimmers out there. Did you weep at the sight of all of the dead ones?”

She had no response, all she could do was grit her teeth. Holograms around him became… Him, but as a unicorn, a regular pony, running around, fiddling with consoles, stacking papers, adjusting his glasses, trying to be heard. “I am not a hypocrite. I do not weep for my counterparts either. Statistically speaking, there was always bound to be one of me that succeeded– I just happen to be the lucky one, same as you.”

“You and I have a very different measure of success.” She snarled, waving around. “I think any other version of you is better than you.”

“Grains of sand in a desert. I’m sure you have felt the same, after a month of being exposed to the multiverse.”

The Equestrian holograms filled the air in the entire room. Hundreds upon hundreds of worlds, and a single orange line was bouncing around them at complete random.

It was her.

“Do not mourn your Equestria. For there are other worlds that would make the same mistakes.” He affirmed coldly, finally turning to her. “Very few Equestrias manage to endure for very long. After a certain point, they will fall. I just… Expedite the process. And I make it a point of what I do to be quick and efficient.”

As the red line became more and more distant from her world, she saw her home, and the same primary targets appear around it.

It was just another world to be crossed off a list.

“You could do so much with your technology. You could help so many people.” She narrowed her eyes, her muscles tensed. “And all you do is this– You purposefully target other Equestrias that might discover all you have, all you’ve done, and you kill them so you don’t have competition, so you don’t have threats.”

“It’s not personal. It’s never personal.” He spoke earnestly, tilting his head in an unnatural manner. “I’m sure you understand now, how unnecessary it is to travel the multiverse. I’m sparing them from our fate.”

“And butchering the competition in the process.”

“There should never be another being like me. There can never be another being like me.” He affirmed incredibly coldly. “So I’m ensuring I am the only one. Even if it means killing other versions of myself. I’m the Hermes that cracked it– And frankly, I am right to think I should be the only one.”

“All that… For nothing at all.”

The holograms dissipated, replaced by the empty space.

“Like I said… It doesn’t matter. If you value your life, simply let the clock run out, and continue being an anomaly. I’ll get to you soon enough.” He shrugged once more. “If you’d like to die, by all means, begin your tantrum. I had your disposal on my to-do list, either way.”

With an inhale, she was done. “You’re not even a monster– You’re a fucking machine. You think that your lack of empathy sets you apart, makes you better? Well, I’m here to put an end to your reign of sunk cost fallacy idiocy.” Her armor erupted into flames, her wings spread wide, she took a battle stance. “For every world you’ve hurt, for every world I’ve saved, for every world you would still hurt, and my very own world– I WILL DESTROY YOU!”

He did not even flinch as she charged at him like a meteor. “Security, eliminate the anomaly.”

“Your anger and your rage are certainly good places to draw your strength.” Those words resonated, and made her wonder. That anger, it was a part of her since she was born. It was a subdued wildfire. Did it define her? Did she want it to define her? If it was all she had, what kind of monster would she be?

And where else could she possibly draw her strength from?

Any consoles or paraphernalia retracted into the safety of the floor, the control room was almost entirely smooth now.

Argent drones emerged from hatches on the walls, pathways opened and they flooded the room, they came from every direction.

She shot another blast at Hermes’s barrier and watched it absorb her blast– But she could see that it was possible to puncture it, maybe damage it, if she had time.

She did not have time.

He was an important target, but he couldn’t be the priority.

Because in the air around the room, fifty drones began circling her, shooting lasers and blasting her with electricity.

The fight became incredibly frantic.

She could see it in their behaviour– These drones did not behave in the same way that the ones she had fought years prior did.

They were less organized, less worried about damaging their surroundings or friendly fire, and yet, this only made them more dangerous to her.

She swung her wings furiously, tearing the drones apart with her armor, she blasted them with magic and fire, pushing them back. They weren’t very strong but they had numbers.

Lasers, electricity, even dive bombing her, she was getting shot and hit frequently, and her armor was not reflecting the damage very well.

She had to take flight and get distance, but they were occupying the entire room. She ran around the walls, and flew as fast as she could, spinning striking, desperately forced into the defensive.

“You are aware I have enough forces to raid a world, I presume?” Hermes was completely disinterested, not even looking at her. “You’ve already lost.”

There wasn’t enough space for an army in this room. She had to take advantage of that.

She began to fiercely try to spread her flames across the room, to little success. Barely any objects were flammable.

With the force of a meteor, she charged against one of the energy pylons, and pierced through it.

The electrical blast echoed across the room and spread through dozens of drones, forcing them on the ground, malfunctioning.

She felt the force of the electricity coursing through her veins, it grounded her too. It burned her insides, she was forced to roll and recover, but smiled, seeing that it had damaged the enemy more.

And more drones replaced the fallen ones.

A different drone shot her from behind– A harpoon pierced her shoulder, and with a metal chord bound to it, the drone fiercely pulled her back.

With a scream, she entangled a wing onto the harpoon, and pulled the drone towards herself, then crushed it.

More harpoons were fired from several directions.

With her skillful dodges, they were hitting each other more than anything– But it was getting harder to fly with all this in the way.

She used their harpoons against them, entangling drones amongst themselves, but not destroying them. Several drones were bound together, smacking each other, flying clumsily, troubling each other's flight paths.

Another type of drone appeared, one that shot concussive bombs.

The first one got her– She had never even seen a grenade like this before. She had to spin mid air to recover momentum, and fly properly again, which was getting difficult.

She didn’t even notice that one of her back legs’s armor had broken off entirely.

More drones fired bombs and harpoons. With her magic, she began diverging the shots, and then gathering them.

She gathered a few bombs, and contained their blasts, and with one fell throw, targeted a pylon near Hermes.

His barrier shuddered. Electricity filled the air. This time, she was ready. Taking advantage of the brief power surge shaking the room, she targeted the barrier and began trying to pierce through it once more.

He did not react to her glare, to her savagery, to her anger, as she desperately tried piercing his lifeline with her magic.

“Cute.” He noted, shrugging. “Diverting extra power to the barrier now.”

Her work was for nothing, and another harpoon struck her flank. Piercing her armor, and pulling her away.

Her chestplate was nearly entirely shattered at this point, as more bombs and shots were fired at her.

She began teleporting, and doing so at impeccable speeds. Every hop led to another slash, every second she was elsewhere.

And the drones got even more aggressive. Friendly fire became more frequent, but they would be replaced by new ones just as fast.

With her magic, she began gathering drones. She did so incredibly fast and fiercely, crushing them into one big ball ready to blow.

With a skilled throw, she detonated two pylons in one.

The entire room shuddered, electricity burned the air, lights flashed.

She had a mere second to take a breath before attacking again.

This time, she targeted the orb above the room. Most wires were safeguarded behind the barrier that protected Hermes, but not all of them. She began slashing the ones on the sides as she flew around the highest parts of the room, and the drones trying to shoot at her often helped her efforts more than anything.

Every slash electrified her body, forcing her to stop for half a second and feel pain, but she ignored it, and pushed herself forward.

“Our connections don’t require wires to function, they are merely the most efficient method.” He spoke quietly, unperturbed. “You are not hurting us in the way you think you are.”

She ignored every word and kept working.

She spewed flames with her horn, and even with her mouth, spreading them far, at the very least blinding the drones temporarily.

She landed only for a moment, channeling what speed and strength she could, and fiercely took off again, directly towards the enormous metal orb above them.

Her force meant nothing, she bounced off the metal, barely denting it, the heat causing more of a disturbance than anything.

Several drones entered a formation and fired at her at once, predicting her flight pattern, and struck her directly in the chest.

She fell. Her chestplate shattered, as did another leg armor, her wing’s armors were barely holding on.

She forced herself to stand and to get up and take flight again.

Blood drenched her mane and ran down her body, and she ignored it.

Bleeding had come naturally to her. Agony was a close friend. Pain was as easy as breathing. A part of her daily routine. The absence of pain was in itself strange. It was something to wince at, something to raise an eyebrow, something that she felt in her gut, and it felt wrong.

Her helmet was badly damaged, bent and scratched. A harpoon struck it and bounced off, and she used that to pull the drone towards herself and strike it away.

New plan. There were only a few pylons remaining in the room.

She began flying, dodging, and focussing on two new targets.

At first, she saw the hatches and different pathways that drones were coming from, and began welding them shut with flames.

It wasn’t easy, she was shot and stuck several times as she did it.

So to buy time, she would destroy a pylon to send a power surge through the area.

Those few precious seconds where drones were malfunctioning gave her the chance to incinerate a few of the corridors where the Argent were spawning from, reducing their reinforcements, but not by much.

“Nothing you do here can’t be easily undone with a bit of work.” He noted as he watched her fly. “You are merely inconveniencing us.”

The floors and walls were littered with ashes and metal rubble and craters, the control room was getting trashed, except for its center. Parts of the room actually were on fire, and stayed that way.

Lights blinked, sparks flew, and the drones chased her desperately.

They were firing missiles now– The pace of the fight was increasing, but only becoming more savage.

She spewed flames to explode the missiles prematurely, constantly turning, leaping, flying.

She had to focus on casting barriers more often now. Using the drones near her as shields, and dodging incredibly aggressively.

Only a few pylons remained. The flames circled her like a tornado, and some drones exploded merely by getting closer.

One of the missiles got lucky– Striking her directly in the head.

Her helmet flew away, torn in two. Barely any armor remained in her body.

A Harpoon struck her flank. Then another, then another, then another.

Drones from all sides began circling her, entangling her, forcing her down.

And she screamed.

Wasted potential? Did she ever have any potential at all? Good, bad, it didn’t matter. In the end, with the absence of purpose, she would always be nothing. Complacency was like an old friend, one she greeted with a shrug.

“Power flow reaching nonoptimal capabilities.” A disembodied, incredibly robotic voice echoed across the control room.

“Hm. We’ll get to it.” Hermes noted, beholding the many shattered pylons. “She’s a more pressing target. We’re almost finished here.”

“Barrier strength waning.” The same robotic voice noted. “Power core instability at 27%.”

“We’ve had worse.” He nodded with a shrug. “Are you about done?”

There were a few dozen metallic Harpoons embedded into her skin now, drones were electrifying her, she was screaming, unable to fly, simply enduring it on the ground.

Her armor was nearly entirely destroyed, and the pieces that remained of it did not protect her.

She yelled out, flames erupted from her horn, but then were swiftly stifled.

She began walking, moving. With her wings, and with her entire body, she began pulling at the drones that were pulling her.

With all her strength, she began waving them, pulling on the chords that bound the harpoons on her back, forcing their ropes to be entangled, and soon enough there were dozens of drones entangled by her aggressive force.

The entire room felt the weight of their swings. The harpoons detached from her body, she grasped them with magic and kept swinging, unleashing flames to join the maelstrom.

And Hermes watched with disinterest.

The last pylons were destroyed. Like a chain reaction, nearly all drones in the room exploded with the blast of the dozens upon dozens of foes she had gathered at once shaking the foundations of the control room.

Flashing lights, sparks, and flames– Alarms rang in the distance and were ignored by the two living beings present.

There were so many pieces of destroyed drones scattered across the room it was hard to walk normally for most. Things were falling off the air, wires were buzzing, alerts were pinging.

Sunset and Hermes made eye contact.

She was drenched in her own blood, nearly choking in it, and still, even still, she leapt forward.

With two hooves and her horn, with all the strength and magic she currently had, she began pulling at the barrier that still protected him.

It was giving way, and she was making progress. She was screaming through all of it.

“...Impressive. Some Celestias and Grogars I’ve eliminated performed worse than you.” He noted calmly, as he fiddled with invisible screens and buttons. “I’ve gotten the battle data I need. I’m satisfied.”

The electronics attached to his head and horn glowed. And with a simple tilt, he fired a harmless beam at her head.

Sunset Shimmer collapsed on her back and began convulsing.

“...See?” He noted with a small grin. “Do you see?”

Every single star in the sky every single person on the street every friend and enemy, everything, everyone, everything, constantly calling to your attention, desperately grasping for it, trying with every fiber of their being to have your attention pointed at them and nothing else–

–It’s so hard to be in the now. To cherish this moment, just this moment.

Especially when there’s nothing to cherish about it.

“Just a tantrum after all.” He commented with a slight smile. “Security measures diverted. Repair team dispatched. Firefighting team dispatched.”

The drones that were previously attacking her changed directions and duties. Some were stifling fires, others were repairing the damage to the room, such as the hatches and the pylons.

And Sunset continued to convulse on the floor, drooling blood, unable to focus her eyes on anything.

“Power flow at subpar capacity. Power core threatened. Control room damaged. Power core instability at 43%.” A robotic voice coldly echoed.

“We’re getting to it. Even machines are impatient sometimes– Ironic, isn’t it?” He smiled, shrugging. “I suppose if your goal was to delay my assault on your world, you’ve achieved that. It will take a day or two before this control room is at optimal capacity.”

“Estimated time of repair, twenty two hours.” The voice resounded.

“Hm. How about that.” He chuckled. “Not even a day.”

Sunset could barely move, just twitch. Her eyes darted around the room, she made guttural sounds.

“It’s a neat trick, isn’t it?” He pointed at his horn. “Your version of Hermes created a tool capable of shooting you randomly across the multiverse each hour. I made something a bit different.”

She breathed incredibly quickly, hyperventilating, clutching her head.

“Every second, your mind is taken through the perspectives of several different selves in several different universes.” He explained simply, watching her contort herself. “It’s a bit difficult to keep normal bodily functions. Most I’ve shot with this lose their sanity in under a minute. I wonder how long you’ll last.”

She muttered words, apologies, pleas, all in vain, all incoherent.

“It gives you a lot of perspective, seeing all these pointless, meaningless glimpses into a vast ocean of alternate lives.” He looked away into the many debris of the room, quietly muttering. “Nothing matters, as the grains of sand in the desert blind you.”

She desperately tried holding on.

She saw everything and nothing.

Canterlot.

Griffon Stone.

Dragon Lands.

Ponyville.

Ponyville.

Canterlot.

Ponyville.

Tartarus.

House

Road

Carriage

Room

Corridor

Road

Cave

Friends

Strangers

Parents

Enemies

Humans

Starlight

Bon Bon

Celestia

Starswirl

Flash

Raven

Timber

Rarity

Tirek

Adagio

Twilight

Cadance

Trixie

Midnight

Flash

Twilight

Tempest

Twilight

Wallflower

Celestia

Celestia

Twilight

Celestia

Twilight

Twilight S

Twilight Sp

Twilight Spa

Twilight Spar

Twilight Spark

Twilight Sparkl

T w i l i g h t S p a r k l e

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle

Images kept flashing in her head.

But she didn’t care anymore.

She saw something.

She saw something different.

Something important.

Just a split second, but it was so clear.

Her wife.

Surrounded by other Sunset Shimmers.

Sunset Shimmers she recognized.

Right next to a Hermes. One she recognized.

Right next to a mirror.

And technology she recognized.

Sunset Shimmer smiled.

Despite the blood, despite the wounds, despite how tired she was, despite everything…

…Twilight Sparkle was looking for her.

Sunset Shimmer stood up.

“This will only work if we sever the filaments one by one. We need extreme precision.” Sweat dripped from her brow. The atmosphere of the room was cold and empty.

“Then why did you call me? I’m never one to do things subtle–” She was swiftly interrupted and reprimanded– No amount of self loathing would get them anywhere.

“You are capable of learning so much, in so little time, little one– Brute force is not all you are worth. We’ve only begun to discover just what you’re capable of.”

Hermes did not notice her standing up.

He did not notice what she began doing.

A magical surge overtook the entire room, then and only then he noticed…

That Sunset Shimmer was standing up again.

Her magic enveloped the floor below him, around the barrier, and forced it up.

The metal creaked and groaned, things snapped and alarms blarred.

Sunset Shimmer smiled.

Her power seemed to triple, and she didn’t even notice.

With an enormous, mighty yank of her magic, the floor below and around the barrier Hermes was on began giving way, rising, and the barrier faltered because of it.

“Power core compromised.” The robotic voice glitched and complained.

“What is going on.” Hermes murmured fearfully, his voice cracked. “H-how are you standing?! How is this possible?! SECURITY–”

The floor gave way, with an enormous house-sized power crystal being pulled into the room halfway.

Hundreds of wires and connections were around it, tied to it, and she didn’t bother touching them.

Because Hermes’s barrier was gone, and he was compromised.

With an agile leap, and her horn alight, she severed the many wires that were binding him to the enormous orb above.

“Fool! This isn’t enough, my connection can’t be severed this easily–” he was silenced by her pinning him to the floor, crushing his visor in half, breaking the machines attached to his head, forcing him down. “HOW ARE YOU STILL FIGHTING?!”

She took only a moment, only a second to snarl at him with a smile.

“You’re never going to break this part of me.”

And with the light of her horn, with all the strength she still had, she began overcharging the power crystal that fueled the entire hive.

Cutting her own heart out would be easy. Burning with a smile would be easy. She found herself fearless, devoid of any inhibitions, lighter than air. Hope was a core principle, and yet, invisible, a part of breathing. And just like that, her Valor was known far and wide.

The process of overcharging the power crystal was difficult, but she stood her ground.

Around her, systems began failing. The power surge she was causing made several drones malfunction.

“STOP THIS! YOUR EFFORTS ARE FUTILE– SECURITY, STOP HER, KILL HER!!”

She was firing a singular beam of energy directly into the crystal, watching the power grow exponentially.

Sparks flew in every direction. The electricity was in the air. Alarms blarred louder and louder, and she didn’t care.

“Power core instability at 76%. Warning. Power core reaching critical conditions. Warning power core reaching–” The voice distorted and shut down.

Sunset intensified her beam.

“THIS IS MEANINGLESS, IF YOU DESTROY THIS PLACE–”

“You’ll be dead.” She snarled with a smile. “Just like me.”

The entire room was shaking, the entire hive was groaning and shuddering, the power core was glowing with the intensity akin to a sun.

And she didn’t stop.

“ACTIVATE WINDOW TO ANOMALOUS UNIVERSE!”Hermes declared.

Right next to them, a mirror emerged from the ground.

In a second, the image on it rippled, and stabilized.

Sunset’s smile waned.

“IF YOU KILL ME, YOU’LL NEVER RETURN HOME!” Hermes pleaded.

The Princess of Hope beheld the mirror with anguish.

Her wife was looking right back at her through it.

It wasn’t an illusion, or a recording, or a still image. It was the real deal– A silent window into her world. It was their Community Center behind that mirror.

There were several Sunsets on the other side– Spike was there too, even some others. And she ignored them, focusing exclusively on her wife.

Twilight Sparkle was mouthing words, pleading, recognizing her easily. She was touching the mirror, and feeling despair over it not being a doorway.

Sunset knew how to read her lips. She knew her body language by heart. Twilight was begging her to come home. She was pleading.

And Sunset didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.

She took in the little details on her wife's face, despite the mourning. She missed that face, that body, to little and big things. And she reveled on the fact that she did not forget them, that this was a reminder of what once was.

The time they shared was real. It happened and it was good-- It was over now-- But it happened. It happened and it was good.

Twilight begged her to come home. And they both knew there was no way for that to happen.

The Princess of Hope made eye contact with her wife, and tried her best to smile confidently, despite the circumstances. She tried with everything she had. Everything was quiet now.

She didn’t hear the energy, the explosions, the alarms, or Hermes yelling in her grasp.

She looked at Twilight Sparkle and spoke. She spoke the words she presumed would be the last they shared, words she knew her wife couldn’t hear, but hopefully could understand. She spoke them with all the love she could.

Then she forced herself to look away.

“IF YOU KILL ME–” Hermes couldn’t even flail in her grasp, as she forced him down. “YOU’LL NEVER REACH YOUR HOME!”

“And neither will you.”

And with a final smile, with a final push, with all she had, she unleashed the rest of her energy into the power crystal.

Through her efforts, the power core of the Argent hive exploded.

The weight of the world on her shoulders was comforting. She had broken so many times before. But never again. All of her life had lived up to this weight, to this burden, and here she was, holding it. She was exactly where she wanted to be. She was exactly where she deserved to be. She was exactly where she was meant to be. And she would die.

The arboretum shuddered.

Sunset shouted as loud as she could to the ponies around her. “INTO THE BUNKER, C’MON, HURRY UP, LET’S GO PEOPLE!”

“W-we just lost power!” Raven noted as a console she fiddled with shut down. Every light around them shut down. “T-the power core, it must be– This is a catastrophic failure through all systems!!”

They beheld past the ceiling of the arboretum, through the glass and into the sky, what was happening to the hive, in the all-too-close distance.

The enormous Argent hive began falling slowly, taken by gravity into the facilities below.

One of the ponies behind them cried out in surprise. “I-I T-THINK– I THINK THE SUN IS RISING?!”

Scars were as much a part of her hide as anything was, at this point. Each told a story, a story of survival, a story of hard fought victories, a story of struggles. It was the tapestry of her life. She wondered if it was right to feel pride over wounds, but regardless, they were proof that she was alive.

She felt numb. No pain anymore. The control room was quiet now. The entire structure groaned, as she stood from the crater she was on.

Still alive, somehow. The heat and the flames of the explosion didn’t bother her as much as the wounds in her body did– And now, she couldn’t even feel those anymore. She was thinking of something else.

Hermes, from a corner, unable to walk or stand, sputtered out. “This is just a setback. Congratulations are in order, however. You just made this personal.”

She did not respond, as she closed her eyes, feeling everything around her.

“This is my promise. I will rebuild my facilities, rebuild my fleet, rebuild my hive.”He coughed out, words failing and glitching.“And when I do, I will reduce your world to atoms, and parade the bodies of your loved ones across the multiverse–”

No.

She declared simply.

She began floating, lighter than air. Unburdened.

She had just witnessed the fabric of the multiverse. She had attuned with everything, she had felt Harmony as she made a decision for the safety of every single loved one she had.

She thought of every world she had saved, every version of herself that would get a sunrise because of what she had just done.

Thinking of home, she appreciated everything. The grass, the friends, the air, her family, her sky, her sun, the home she had…

And she thought of her wife. Their world.

Their love, most of all.

But she wasn’t smiling. She turned to hermes, Her wings spread wide.

Her eyes glowed like stars.

Four more wings sprouted from her back, like the blooming of a flower.

Six enormous wings, a solar crown around her horn, All as she let out a deafening whisper.

YOU WOULD HURT US.

YOU WOULD HURT HER.

I

WON’T

LET

YOU

Somewhere, the sun was rising.

Sunset Shimmer’s light engulfed the control room, as the metal around her and the entire surroundings began melting.

The core above her turned to molten steel. Its insides faltered, the true Argent brain began shuddering and getting obliterated.

Her six wings spread wide.

The Argent hive was torn asunder.

“You are destined for greatness.” How much of this was her fault, for ever having muttered that lie to her? A lie she swallowed fully and with gusto, dedicating all of herself to it. A lie that would kill her.

The dust settled eventually. Raven helped Sunset and several others pry open the doors of their bunker, and after moving some rubble, they made their way out.

“...Holy shit the sun did rise.” Sunset muttered in disbelief, past the broken glass of the arboretum, at the clouds in the skies. “...But it’s setting again?”

“No.” Raven shook her head simply. “It’s just… Going to be like that for a while. T-this is good news! It’s good news. It means we have natural sunlight for plant growth– If everything else goes well…”

“I have more good news.” Maud murmured, as she fiddled with a console. “We have at least one working generator. Auxiliary power can be turned on if need be– We’ll survive the cold.”

Many of the survivors looked amongst themselves, unsure if this was a blessing or a curse.

Sunset climbed a tree, and narrowed her eyes. With swift teleportation, she was standing atop the facility, near one of the broken glass ceilings.

The sun was in the horizon, bathing the sky and her with a warm orange hue. She couldn’t help but smile and shudder, wondering for a moment just how long it had been.

“...Guys the hive is toast! It’s finished!” Her smile grew wider. “It’s going to take weeks for us to get to the insides of the hive but–”

The enormous moon-like structure was cracked and torn apart, fallen into pieces on the facilities ahead of them– Like it had been broken in half, and its insides melted.

“HERMES IS DEAD!!” She declared with more joy than she had felt in so many years.

Hesitant cheers erupted around them, and then full blown celebration.

Finally as soon as they died down, Raven, smiling, waved everyone together. “Alright, alright, settle down, all of you. We’re not out of the woods yet. ” She took a single breath, and adjusted her glasses, centering herself for the path ahead, with a confident, tired smile. “...Let’s get to work!”

”What else did you expect me to do?! Twilight was in danger, I wasn’t going to play Captain on the front lines and not make my own move!” She complained, dodging one of his attacks swiftly.

She tried countering, but was not allowed, a wing extended before her. “PICKING A FIGHT WITH SOMBRA, LITTLE ONE? BY YOURSELF?! DID YOU NOT THINK THIS THROUGH AT ALL?!”

“Hey, who else was going to do something, Queen Celestia?! I sure as hell wasn’t going to stand by and–”

“AND STOP CALLING ME ‘QUEEN’!!!” She declared with righteous fury, as she unleashed her barrage upon the enemy.

“I!” She slashed him with her horn.

“AM!!” She delivered a swift hoof strike to his jaw.

“YOUR!!!” She bucked him to oblivion.

“MOTHEEEEER!!!!!!!” She hugged Sunset Shimmer tightly and didn’t let go.

She couldn’t feel her six wings, or anything around her. She felt numb, almost pleasant, as she walked through the rubble of her handiwork.

There were no alarms anymore. No drones flying, no buzzing of electricity.

Her sun was shining through the wreckage above them, if only a little.

Every step she took superheated the floor she walked on.

With her magic, she easily lifted enormous rubble away from her path, and looked at what remained of Hermes.

One of his legs had detached entirely, the other was torn apart. His lower body was shredded nearly up to his neck, and only a few wires remained attached to his back like parasites, but cut off from any electricity..

He made a few gutteral sounds. His visor was shattered, his eyes were hollow, there were no eyes at all.

“...O-okay. Um. Let’s have a do over.” He stuttered out, barely able to speak. “L-let me live… And I’ll take you back to your home. Deal?”

Sunset didn’t hesitate. Her wings barely rose.

You would just come after her.

And with a slight tilt of her head, he was incinerated into ash, becoming a stain in debris.

She faltered.

The wings in her back vanished, like petals being taken by the wind.

She felt herself breathing again.

She felt herself bleeding again.

Everything ached, she could barely stand.

She couldn’t even speak, as blood ran down from her muzzle and her legs and wings and dripped onto the floor below.

She closed her eyes, and lost consciousness, the blood loss overtaking her, and continued to bleed, sprawled out onto the floor, dying.

That all too familiar light enveloped her one more time…

…And she was gone into another universe.

...And that the sun will set when I find my way home.

Author's Note

SUNSET SHIMMER VS HERMES.

INFO: Hundreds of worlds may have fallen to his armies. Thousands more would have followed. There was no better chance to destroy the new Argent hivemind then directly from the inside. Cold, unfeeling steel, directed by a thinking, mortal mind. But the Valkyrie Phoenix was underestimated. She was seen as just another obstacle, just another opponent, another speck of dust in his path.

And that is why she won.

VERDICT: Her reward for saving billions of lives was blood. They may never know of her sacrifice.

Amazing how you can change, with the benefit of perspective.

I will say, a small downside to never wanting to spell stuff out is that often I wonder if I even set up anything at all in a way readers can understand, or even less like-- Are themes I'm displaying at all even being perceptible through all the noise and flair and bombasticness of my writing and whatnot!

Given the episodic nature of this story, I didn't really do a proper set up of this universe, I only alluded to it and foreshadowed it. I showed barren, dead worlds since the first intermission, and several times, I had Hermes Prime wonder if in some other universe, he cracked multiversal travel without help, and even a lot of how the Argent worked, I presented so much information that it was naturally not exactly easy to parse.

The first time they turned on the mirror, they accidentally caught a glimpse of Hermes's network, and got linked with the universe that was spying them. The Janitor Sunset would likely have been met with the prime universe for the first time there!

The themes of multiversal hope vs nihilism, the themes of having so many versions of yourself, some capable of so much good, others of so much bad, Sunset Prime saved countless of lives, and desperately tried helping her other selves literally just because, while this Hermes ended all those lives on a whim, bla bla bla-- I went hard throughout this entire fic, and I enjoyed myself wholeheartedly.

In this climax, the Valkyrie has to fight her thematic opposite.

And now she's at deaths door, having once more saved a world, maybe countless more.

...Fun fact, when I was first conceptualizing this fic and its finale, I considered having the finale be Hermes coming to the prime universe with Sunset still stuck to his. I figured that the two wives having to confront a full scale invasion would be cool, but I realized that it would detract from the idea that his fleet is unbeatable.

Again, this is an extra terrestrial fleet that can teleport individually to any point of the universe it wants to travel to and target specific targets with deadly precision and critical effectiveness.

World leaders would be wiped out first, their homes, their armies, and the rest would be simply a matter of the harvesting ships gathering all the resources form the world.

Each incursion would likely last at least a month or so. And even beings like Discord or Cosmos would likely be easily wiped out with deadly efficiency.

...In summation, there really was no other way to beat this Hermes than taking the fight directly to his control room where he can't unleash the full might of his armies.

Not only do I have a diogetic explanation as to why the multiverse seems so divided and closed off, but also, non-diogetically, it makes complete sense why so little worlds would care, as so eloquently put by Discord in one of the chapters.

Put it simply, who cares? You have your world, you have your home. Why would anything else matter?

And with the death of this Hermes, the multiverse can breathe easy. I have considered if this means that multiversal travelers will start popping up, but frankly, I don't think it's that much of a worry, so little universes even care.

...Well, apart from a few that currently care, of course.

Regarding this 'ending' Hermes, I actually wanted his speech to have a diffrent font, but once I discovered that id have to learn programming, I changed my mind. I did NOT want to learn coding for this lmao

I think the grey tone achieves the coldness I wanted on his speech. I was partially inspired by how 'the spot' on across the spiderverse is almost like, a cutesy dumb guy with most of his attitude, and then when he gets infinite power he becomes dark as fuck.

I never wanted Hermes to be a genuine outright antagonist on this fic. Frankly, his character was both a plot device, and a comically effective non-villain. he gets what he wants the entire fic, and hasn't even paid the price for it other than chiling in a cage for a while.

...But this? Delightfully cold and eerie. Multiversal nihilism at its finest.

ANYWAYS this whole thing led me to an interesting thought experiment, and gave me an idea I didn't have before this;

The janitor Sunset stated that most universes survive the Argent, even with critical casualties. And in truth, I did show three universes that survive the Argent in this fic!

...But in all three, there was an alicorn Sunset Shimmer.

In one, they lost Celestia and Sunset, and grief was breaking Twilight and warping her into someone completely devoid of hope and unable to rule anything.

In the other, they lost Celestia and Sunset-- but Twilight refused to let her wife go, ushering in the reign of the undead, where they rule eternal.

...And then there's the prime universe, with essentially little to no casualties, all thanks to teamwork, cooperation and so, SO much love between Sunset n Twilight.

...So riddle me this, what would happen to Equestria with an Argent attack that does NOT have an alicorn Sunset Shimmer?

honestly the idea peaked my interest so much, I might write a short fic about it sometime. I definitely don't have time and space on shimmerverse anymore, but a world in the brink of total annihilation barely surviving the extraterrestrial invasion, and Sunset is just a runaway coming home to find only rubble and an inconsolable, hopeless Twilight???? Aww yeah baby that's the juicy drama and painful feelings.

But anyways. I hope you enjoyed this esoteric insane climax. We have a few more to go, and next chapter is fully on the perspective of Twi prime during these events.

...And this janitor Sunset and the Maud of this world might need to repopulate it. (You have NO idea how much I had to contain myself to do Maud is horny jokes in this chapter. It just did not have time. They don't have time to be horny. But they might.)

Also umm gee Sunset how come you can have ANOTHER mom?? Raven is like. the fourth at this point. Damn. (God I loved writing her in this.)

Anyways. It's been a wild ride.

See you in 'THE END OF THE MULTIVERSE - Part 2'