//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14: Admin 
// Story: Steel Solstice 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

Sunset Shimmer wasn't going to wait any longer. She struck. Not with the sword—that would require crossing the room, making her intentions clear. It would also require the will to kill someone, which she lacked. She would not make herself into Nightmare Moon, no matter how justified her cause became. With the Element of Intellect serving her, the resources of thousands of minds and all the power of their thoughts, it should be easy to defeat even a determined enemy. She attacked unconventionally, focusing on the space around her enemy, solidifying it with solid ice. Even if this man was an admin of some kind, he would have a hard time stopping her if he couldn't move his body to access his powers.

Something around him resisted modification. Thick ice formed near him, but none got closer than six inches or so. Sunset drew on every resource the Element offered her, and in a split-second, she had a new spell written, a program that would overwhelm the server with modification requests, enough that the system would overflow and one in every million would get through. Each user could only make a few per second, but Sunset's crown had the permissions of hundreds of thousands. Even as the man reached to one side, pushing his robes aside to access his GIO, the ice reached his arms.

Only then did Sunset begin crossing the room, the sword still resting on her shoulder. She kept the program running, which took a surprising amount of effort on her part. This user was an admin, though how he'd known to wait here in the departure station she couldn’t guess.

"How much longer will that take?" Sunset asked, walking past him and over to the door. It was still closed, still firmly resisted her yanks to get it open.

"Several minutes," Twilight answered, nervous. "You should've gone first, Princess! You'd be out there now, freeing us! If you get trapped in here..."

Sunset used what spare resources she could and opened another transit-portal, right beside the frozen man and the cowering woman. She ignored the one who hadn't caused trouble, the one who was even now still hiding, and instructed two of her soldiers to push the frozen admin through. They did, and the huge chunk of ice vanished. Hopefully the castle's defenses would slow him down once he escaped, even if she wouldn't be there to operate them. They wouldn't need long.

Sunset froze. Not just her—everyone and everything in the room abruptly stopped moving. Her guards were still standing just before the portal, mouths hanging open. The human in her robes on the other side of the room seemed paralyzed in mid-cry. Everything stopped moving.

Except one. Almost the instant he had gone, the man came striding back through the portal. "You shouldn't have done that," he said, his voice calm, amused even. "That trick you were using probably would've kept working for another minute at least. But sending someone between shards is expensive, the operation doesn't transfer objects that don’t belong to the one being moved. Like icy prisons, for instance."

Sunset couldn't call on her program this time, couldn't do anything except watch. The Element of Intellect was still there, within reach almost, but as paralyzed as she was she couldn’t use it. Far more helpless than the admin she'd tried to freeze, since she couldn't even speak.

Behind him, the door to the outside world swung suddenly open. "Fabrication complete. Ready for next transfer." It was right there, less than ten feet away, and she could only reach vainly towards it with empty fingers.

The man gestured casually with one hand, and the gravity of the room suddenly turned on its side. Everyone but Sunset and the admin went tumbling ten feet to land in a crumpled pile. He didn't even spare his fellow human passenger, who landed limp only a few feet from where Twilight had collapsed. He gestured again and gravity righted itself, leaving only the two of them standing by the door. "I'll admit, weaponizing the ghosts was a clever plan. Maybe the most inventive strategy I've ever seen. But you had to know it was doomed." He walked right up in front of her, folding his arms and looking into her eyes. "But how did you discover the Equestrian records?" He gestured back at the ponies. "And what madness would possess you to use them in a rebellion?"

Sunset found she could move again, or at least speak. The rest of her body refused to respond; she couldn't even twitch her fingers. "I didn't discover anything. I came from Equestria. I'm trying to get back."

"Really?" He reached out, gently prying the sword free from her hand. He spun it through the air easily, aiming it right at her chest. "Prove it."

"My name is Sunset Shimmer," she said. "I used Starswirl's portal spell to travel to the home of the Builders and seek your wisdom." Her eyes narrowed contemptuously at the sword. "I discovered Clover's records were full of lies. You weren't a noble race of harmony, but the most dangerous creatures we'd ever known."

"Really?" The man reached back, removing the hood from his dark head. "I spoke with Clover myself when she was here. She spoke of dragons, of armies that dig under the earth, of endless waves of goblins that eat their dead. Birds of prey that darken the sky. What are we to all that?"

"Worse," Sunset insisted. "Because you have civilization. Dragons can pillage and griffons can enslave, but you invented bombs to kill your whole planet. The diamond dogs couldn't have done that. You're everything I hope ponies never become, and I have to get back. I have to warn them."

The man's eyes narrowed with anger, and it seemed for a moment like he might strike Sunset in the chest with the sword. Instead he stepped back, dismissing the blade with a wave of his hand. It vanished. With another gesture, Sunset dropped to the ground, able to move again. Only her crown refused to work. She struggled to her feet, though she didn't back away. What was the point? There would be no flying away, no attacking him without the Element. "It's too late for you then. You've already done worse than the ones you fear. You fought your little war with an army of slaves! What does that say about your moral superiority, Sunset Shimmer?"

"I... what?" Sunset asked, the anger vanishing from within her, replaced with shock and fear. "I didn't... I didn't enslave anyone... those are forks!"

"Those are forks..." he repeated, turning away from her, walking slowly up to the exit door. "Do you think we give forks the same resources are a person? That we would... maintain a shard of that size with nobody living in it?" He spun around. "Forgive my manners, Sunset. I neglected to introduce myself. You can call me Tesla, CTO of—I mean, Headmaster of the Technocratic Order." He raised one hand, pointing all around them. "The Infinity Engine was my creation. So believe me when I say I understand how it works." He pointed, and ones of the ponies came zooming across the room, hovering in the air before them. He wasn't struggling—apparently didn't have the ability to move as she did.

Sunset could only watch, powerless to stop him. Powerless to protect the pony that, while he was just another program she'd appropriated, still felt like he was one of "her" citizens. She was trying to be a princess after all, didn't that mean she protected her ponies?

"Your weapons here were... my creation, in a way. A mistake, a tragedy..." He gestured, and the pony body reshaped itself into a frightened-looking student, about her own age. "This child... perhaps not a child, perhaps something else once... it is difficult to say. This person was a casualty of our rapid modernization. One of those lost in our great leap forward. The mind is a delicate thing, Sunset. As it turns out, apes evolving on the Savanna are sometimes ill-equipped to deal with the stresses of digital life. Much moreso when they're forced into it. Or join us here unexpectedly. When unprepared... some shatter."

"They were just forks!" she said again, though less confident this time. "Scenery. Like buildings, or—"

"But we are an enlightened society, you see. We could not make changes to someone's mind without permission. Sure, we had the tools. You yourself used them. But while we waited for leave from our noble king, they languished in that school forever, unable to progress. I may have... significantly reduced the resources flowing into that shard since nothing useful was emerging. But when you entered, well... all the lights came back on. And here they are, broken minds of the digital age, rewritten at your whims. Tens of thousands of capital crimes, and I have the criminal captured. Tremendous."

Sunset lowered her head, any trace of resistance gone. There was no reason to doubt this man's words, not with the powers he had shown. He was clearly an admin, and his authority was the only authority that mattered in here. He couldn't be wrong. I'm not Nightmare Moon, she thought. At least she only killed her enemies. I'm much worse. Worse than the Sirens, even.

"If that's true, then I deserve whatever punishment I get. I didn't know... I had no idea that... but that doesn't matter." She reached up, removing the Element of Intellect from her head and tossing it on the ground at his feet. The crown of a slaver princess. It felt dirty just to touch now that she knew what it really meant.

"Deserve." Tesla stalked up to the crown, scooping it up with one hand. "I have contempt for this word, Equestrian. Who decides what is deserved? Not the universe. Nature gives us only pain and horror, it is only fair in its cruelty. But men can't decide—we are just as cruel, only for us it is worse. We know what we do is wrong, and we do it anyway." He squeezed the crown in his hands, in a way that should've done nothing. It was made of strong metal, enchanted even. It shattered anyway, into splinters and bits of gemstone. As they went flying through the air, so too did Sunset's network finally break apart. This did not undo her changes—only free the many minds she had trapped, using their mental resources at her command.

"Now, our noble king would see this as you do. He is... somewhat backward in that respect. Abstractions like justice matter to him. Fortunately, he does not have to know. For all he pretends to judge the good of his people, I never saw him visiting the ghosts. As of this moment, only the two of us know. Well... three." He gestured over his shoulder, at the open doorway. "Your friend will be in the custody of my servants. There can, therefore, be another arrangement between us."

"What arrangement?" Sunset asked. "You said what I did was a capital crime, right? It would be in Equestria too... rewriting minds... I broke them forever... hundreds of thousands..."

"Quiet." Tesla sliced her with a gesture. "Those minds were already broken, and you were ignorant. But more important... you are valuable. Do you know how long it's been since you came from Equestria?"

Did she? Sunset considered the question, but found no easy answer. She'd been in accelerated time for so long, she had lost track. It was like spending a long time indoors, and leaving the building to find that it was far later outside than she thought. Like that, only much worse. "I don't."

"Decades," Tesla answered. "Long enough that contact with your world has resumed. As of this moment, the king is preparing an honor-guard. We will present ourselves to your princess, and establish diplomatic ties."

"I don't..." It seemed hard to believe so long could've gone by, but what did she know about time in Equestria? She had spent many years learning. Had she really thought she could spend all that time and not pay a price? "What do you want from me?"

"Join the Order. I want an advisor who knows the world we're traveling to. More importantly, I want one I can trust to be loyal." He pointed behind her, at the assembled masses of ponies. "You're a mass murderer, Sunset Shimmer. If 'Good King Richard' ever learned of your crimes, he'd kill you himself. But so long as you do as I say, he never will. In time, when we have a good relationship with Equestria and we've gotten what we want, I will allow you to return to them. You can take the ghosts you ruined too... they were just wasting resources anyway."

"My friend," Sunset said, remembering her promise. "She wasn't part of this—she never knew what I was doing. I dragged her into it. If I do what you say, you have to let her go."

"Impossible," Tesla answered, without hesitation. "She knows information that could indict you. More importantly, it would cast aspersions upon my own character if the king heard from another source that I had apprehended a criminal and not told him."

"Then... you must bring her in on it," Sunset eventually said. "She doesn't know about Equestria, but... she's in one of the pony bodies my... my slaves designed. She can help me help you."

Tesla considered that a moment. Then he extended a hand. "Fine. Do we have a deal?"

Sunset Shimmer took the offered hand, and was a princess no more.