Clank followed Sigmund through another section of the Great Clock, repairing all the damage that had been caused by the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, while at the same time trying to come to terms with what was happening. He knew that Nefarious had been a villain, one that intended on conquering everything to get what he wanted, but now he seemed to be the exact opposite of what he had originally been. Based on what little he had learned so far, concerning the strange time-space anomaly that had apparently ripped the Scrambler from a completely different timeline, he knew that he was still a little confused as to what was going on around him. He also knew that Sigmund was hiding something from him, mainly because when he asked if Nefarious knew where Sunset Shimmer was the robot had answered with both a yes and a no.
Clank crossed over a spinning section of the Clock, which he stopped with his new time abilities, before making his way towards the room that Sigmund had flown into. There he had to deal with more of the smaller creatures that he had seen in the previous section of the Clock, though they were pretty easy to take out and allowed him to access the next room he needed to go through. There he found another puzzle that was straightforward, as all he had to do was send the first recording of himself to the switch on the left, send the second recording to the switch on the right, and use the middle pad to walk through the open door that the recordings had opened for him and Sigmund. It was then that the two of them entered the room that was apparently called the Orientation Room, which Clank thought was just a large movie room the moment he laid eyes on it.
There was even a sofa in the middle of the room with a bunch of controls near it, though Clank hated to think that all of this wasted space was for orientation.
"So all of this is for orientation purposes?" Clank asked, looking around for a few seconds, though he was slightly disappointed that there wasn't more to the room than what he had already seen.
"Not entirely," Sigmund replied, to which he took a seat on a nearby chair and beckoned for Clank to take the sofa, where Clank mimicked the robot's move and climbed onto the sofa, "One of the main purposes this room served was keeping track of your history... as the moment Starlight entered the picture the future became that much harder to read, thus forcing us to watch and see what happened. I mean, when the events on Umbris happened there were only three possible outcomes and we had no idea which one you guys were going to choose, but we were both glad when you decided to continue being heroes."
"Well, its nice to know that the two of you were watching over us," Clank said, though even as he said the words he realized that Sigmund never mentioned Sunset's name, making him wonder if there was something special about her, "but what about Sunset Shimmer? Surely you meant to add her into the statement about the future being harder to read or predict."
Sigmund stared at Clank for a moment, as if he was shocked he hadn't mentioned Sunset's name at all, before he looked in every direction possible before turning to his tablet, making Clank wonder if the Caretaker was hiding something from him. A few seconds later he let out a sigh and put his tablet away, though the look in his eyes told Clank that he was going to learn something, but he had no idea what that something was.
"Look, I'm going to be honest with you," Sigmund said, though at the same time he let out a sigh, as if whatever he was keeping back was some large secret that he needed to get off of his chest, "Sunset Shimmer was never supposed to come to this part of the universe. She was supposed to grow into her new powers in her homeland, where several beings of similar power would have been able to ease her into her role as an alicorn... before she ascended further and became the God of Destruction that everyone knows."
Clank looked at the screen as it shifted to show the four AI that they had running around the Hyperion, keeping it in running order and making sure that all of the security systems were operational, but the major difference was that the ponies on the screen looked real. Resting above the four alicorns was some sort of chimera creature, though one look at it told Clank that he didn't want to bother thinking about how such a creature could even be created in the first place.
"I don't know all of the specifics, but that creature up there is called Discord," Sigmund continued, his eyes narrowing at the chimera for a moment before he turned away, "according to Orvus, that creature is the one responsible for sending Sunset to this part of the universe. All I can guess is that someone on Sunset's home world figured out that her destiny was greater than anyone could possibly guess and sent her off world before she could become a God of Destruction."
"So your saying that the leaders of Sunset's home world wanted to protect themselves?" Clank asked, as he remembered what had happened the moment Sunset ascended to her new position, while at the same time taking note of the fact that Sigmund had said 'a' God of Destruction instead of 'the' God of Destruction.
"Considering that she erased Gleemon Vox from existence and destroyed an entire planet, I can say that they were wise to do so." Sigmund replied, before shaking his head a few seconds later, "but they could have easily sent her somewhere else, instead of warping her close to the heart of the universe. If Sunset had been teleported into the middle of the Great Clock, well, I'm sure the powers here would have sped her up until she collapsed from her own power... or something like that."
"Has Orvus ever told you to not jump to conclusions?" Clank asked, as he was worried about the safety of the Great Clock if this was the best Caretaker that his father could have left in charge of the place.
"Multiple times, but I'm right on this one," Sigmund stated, though his statement caused Clank to bring his palm to his face, "You might not be aware of this fact, but when Destroyer Gods are chosen they generally destroy the place of their ascension with the power of their awakening, similar to what Sunset did. That's why the people of her home planet were so eager to get her off world, even at the cost of turning her back into a baby and taking away all of her memories... they didn't want her to destroy their own world."
"Right..." Clank said, though he wasn't sure if Sigmund was making all of this up or if he and Orvus had studied all of this before hand, "You mentioned that Nefarious knew where Sunset Shimmer was located... do you know where she is?"
"Sort of," Sigmund replied, to which a set of ten equal sized windows appeared on the screen, though some of them looked like they were staring at the same grey crystal, "she's over there, over there, and up there!"
Clank looked at the windows and noticed the names that were associated with each of them; Ysmir, the Witch-Queen of Reepor, Ragenarosa, Sunset Glider, Searing Flame, War, Despair, Doubt, Hatred, and Purity. The windows associated with Ysmir, Fear, Ragenarosa, and War were filled with the same grey crystal, though that was before Clank noticed that there was more than one crystal in each window. Despair and Doubt's windows were shrouded in shadows, meaning they were either hidden from view or had collapsed to prevent people from looking at their true forms, while Sunset and Searing's windows were full of static... meaning that they had to be traveling through warp space at the moment.
The remaining two, belonging to Hatred and Purity, were the ones that caught Clank's attention, because Hatred's showed the shadowy version of Sunset's human form lurking in the shadows, though all Clank could figure out was that she was in some sort of arena... while at the same time the final screen showed a sleeping filly, with a light amber coat and no horn or wings, sleeping in some part of the Great Clock. Clank also noticed that the filly was resting next to Razor, the cat that Sunset had befriended four years ago, but that did nothing but make things more confusing.
"Confusing, isn't it?" a voice asked, to which Clank turned around and found Nefarious standing behind the sofa, though his eyes were locked on the windows on the screen, "Ten different aspects, seven of which are based on the emotions of fear, doubt, despair, hatred, anger, pride, and violence... which really isn't one if you were to ask me. I'd say that violence should be aggression or something else, but that's just me. The other three aspects, Ysmir, Sunset Glider, and Purity, also contain fragments of Sunset Shimmer's godly power... even if she refused to use it once she ascended."
"What are you getting at?" Clank inquired, though as Nefarious sat on the couch he nodded to Sigmund, which caused almost all of the windows to close, until only the one with the filly remained, "And what's so special about this aspect?"
"Purity... Sunset's innocence given form," Nefarious commented, his eyes remaining on the filly that was resting before them, "I asked Hatred about her, back before the aspects tore themselves apart from each other and scattered themselves across the Polaris Galaxy, and Purity, alone, holds all of Sunset's memories... yet she chooses not to acknowledge any of it. Purity is, quite frankly, one of the more confusing aspects that could have been created when Sunset came here during her search for the final Raritanium Core."
"Nefarious, what did you do to Sunset Shimmer?" Clank asked, because the only way that the doctor could know all of this, without having viewed any of it with the Great Clock's abilities, would be if he had played a part in what happened to Sunset.
"Nothing." Nefarious replied, though at the same time he almost sounded sad, which caught Clank off guard for a moment, "She came here with a small machine she had constructed, which she claimed had found the last Raritanium Core, as if she had known ahead of time that her brother and sister would have found Loyalty on their own. She claimed that the machine had used the four Cores to locate the planet she and Starlight had originally come from, though to open a way home she knew she needed all six of them, which was why she came here while her family went to fight Tachyon. Sunset was never supposed to touch the Core that Orvus called 'Magic', not with that device in her hand at the same time... yet when she did the element reacted violently with both the machine and the four Cores she had in her possession and, well..."
Clank looked at both Nefarious and Sigmund for a few seconds, finding that the two of them were trying to hide something from him, but after some time in complete silence he decided to ask the question anyway.
"What happened to her?" Clank asked, though this time he seriously hoped that one of them would give him an answer that didn't worry him more than he already was.
"Her device shattered and empowered the Cores for a brief moment," Sigmund replied, to which the screen shifted to show Sunset in her godly form, which was quickly divided into ten different colored segments that separated from each other, "and the energy surge from five of the Cores somehow summoned the sixth into the Great Clock for a few seconds... to which they tore Sunset apart with the power they contained for a few seconds. Fear, Hatred, Despair, Doubt, Rage, and Violence were thrown to the far ends of the Polaris Galaxy, though they were empowered by the rather violent departure and became creatures with terrifying abilities. Ysmir, who holds a fragment of Sunset's power, awoke soon after the event, though she went on to become some sort of hero until Starlight took her out... while both Searing Flame and Sunset Glider went on to fight Violence after a friend helped move them into position."
"And Purity is here, in the Great Clock?" Clank determined, to which both of the robots nodded for a second or two, "Why was she not expelled as well? What makes her so special?"
"The Cores needed to be stabilized after what happened to them, and so did what remained of Sunset Shimmer," Nefarious stated, to which he picked up a tablet and switched the screen back to the sleeping filly, though that was followed by the surroundings coming into view and allowed Clank to see that six colorful gems floated around Purity, "oddly enough the Cores stabilized Purity, and she, in turn, stabilized them when they cooled down. Its a balancing act at the moment, because we're trying to restore Sunset to who she used to be, but if we force too much of one aspect into Purity's body we risk creating a Destroyer that would annihilate everything... because, in reality, Purity is the core of Sunset's very being."
Clank looked at the screen in front of him again, his eyes locked on the sleeping filly as he wondered how she could deny the fact that she was actually Sunset Shimmer. He was sure that the poor thing could feel Sunset's godly energy inside her body, while at the same time being confused as to why she had the power inside of her without being able to do anything about it. He guessed that he should have been pleased by the fact that Nefarious wasn't trying to take Sunset's position as the God of Destruction away from her, but he truly had to wonder what would happen when Sunset was finally pieced back together. He remembered what happened the last time she had ascended to being a god... and he remembered the destruction she had caused not moments later.
His thoughts were interrupted when Nefarious spotted something beeping on his wrist, though by the look on his face Clank could tell that it was something important.
"I am needed back on my space station, as I have guests waiting for me," Nefarious said, letting out a sigh in the process, "I shall be back whenever I am able... though Clank, I wouldn't think too hard about what we've said. Trust me on this, dealing with a real God of Destruction is much easier than dealing with ten aspects of herself."
Clank watched as Nefarious left the Orientation Room and disappeared, vanishing as quickly as he had appeared, though at the same time his attention was drawn back to the screen by Sigmund. He half listened to the video that had been prepared for him, as it basically said that the station was keeping the universe in balance and not to use it as a time machine. Once that was done he climbed into the nearby station that would allow him to see whatever lesson his father had prepared for him, where he could use his new scepter to fix anomalies on whatever planets needed assistance. When the lesson was over he returned to reality and followed Sigmund out of the Orientation Room, where he made his way to the stations that watched over the planets known as Quantos, Torren IV, and Terachnos.
As he worked on the planets he noticed that Terachnos was the one in more desperate need of fixing, because the moment he arrived he noticed a large rift in the sky, but he was able to fix it with little change happening to the planet... though from the comments Sigmund was making, about heroes already being on the planet, he knew that Ratchet and the others would take care of whatever had come out of the time-space anomaly he had fixed. One of the weird things was that Sigmund used his hologram to keep up with him as he worked, though soon enough Clank had completed his current task and had overcome all of the puzzles that had been put in his way. As he returned to the Orientation Room, however, he found Sigmund floating near the couch, though he appeared to be listening to a recording from Orvus before the elderly Zoni had left the station.
He caught the name Zanifar, which had to be the planet, though when he noticed the look on Sigmund's face he knew that Orvus had to have walked into a trap... which meant that he needed to speak with Ratchet and the others as soon as possible. That meant that he would have to wait for them to find some way to contact the Great Clock, but he knew that Starlight would figure out some way to do so... though at the same time he knew that he was going to have to withhold information regarding Searing and Sunset. He had no idea what Ratchet would do once he figured out that the two new mares he was traveling with were fragments of his sister, but he was going to postpone that for as long as he could.
As much as he hated telling Ratchet a lie, and hurting him in the process, saving Orvus would be a great step to saving the entire universe... and then they could figure out what to do about Sunset later on.