The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Build Our Machine

Even before her eyes had adjusted, the first thing that Sunset noticed on the other side of the portal was the sound of liquid dripping. The second was an acrid stench in the air that felt like getting punched in the nose with every breath. It felt like an industrial smell, some kind of chemical she doubted was healthy for her lungs. The area on the other side was poorly lit, but she soon adjusted well enough to see where she had entered.

At first glance, it just seemed to be a narrow hallway, one barely held together by wooden boards, but Sunset quickly recognized several things about it that didn't make sense. First of all, everything was monochrome. There was no color anywhere other than the same bland tone of sepia. Second, every object seemed to have a thick black outline, as though she'd stepped straight into a drawing. She took a moment to kneel down and brush her fingertips across the boards between her feet. The heavy black outline made it look as though there were some gap between them, but the surface was perfectly smooth and uniform. Even the boards that had been diagonally nailed down, apparently to patch a hole or hold some gap together, were completely flat and flush with the rest of the surface. The only disruption to the floor came in the form of a large puddle of black liquid being fed by a heavy leak from the ceiling. It looked like the same substance that the portal had been made from, and it didn't take Sunset long to figure out that it was the source of the smell.

If it's leaking from above, then there are either pipes leaking above us, or we're underwa- well, under-whatever-this-stuff-is. Sunset took a moment to hope that it was the former.

The other thing that drew her attention was a set of posters on the walls. They were all drawn in a style harkening back to old animation of decades past, with simply-drawn characters wearing large white gloves.

Bendy in... The Dancing Demon!

Bendy in... Sheep Songs! With Boris the Wolf!

Bendy in... Little Devil Darlin'!

It seemed innocent enough at first glance, but Sunset narrowed her eyes at all the mentions of a demon.

"Ugh, what's that SMELL?" Missy groaned, still clinging onto her from behind. "It STINKS!"

Sunset walked over to the puddle, being careful not to get in the way of the falling globules as she took a sniff. After confirming her suspicions that the liquid was the source, she dipped the tip of her finger into the puddle. She examined it more closely, but there didn't seem to be anything special about it. The only thing she noticed was a dark stain on her skin after she wiped the substance on the floor.

"I... I think it's ink."

"Okay, but why does it smell so BAD?"

Sunset felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

"Inks that decline the use of particulate pigments are made with dyes and evaporative solvents such as glycol ethers, acetates, or diacetone alcohol."

"Guess you never really wind up around enough of it at once to really get much of a smell, huh?" Sunset muttered, moving on to examine the edges of the nearest poster. Just like the floorboards, it was perfectly flush with the wall, as though it were one solid piece of material. "This is really weird."

"You're telling me!" Missy finally released her grip on Sunset's neck before floating to another one of the posters. "Rubber hose animation gives me the heebie jeebies!"

Sunset paused. "Wait a minute. You literally love anything related to Halloween, live in a haunted house, command a small army of monsters, and Felix the Cat creeps you out?"

Missy put her hands on her hips in a show of indignation. "Some of those old cartoons could get dark, even by MY standards! Plus, why do they ALWAYS wear gloves? What are they trying to hide?" She held up her hands and gave her fingers a wriggle to demonstrate her point. "As one of the more cartoony duel spirits, it just crosses into the uncanny valley for me!"

Before Sunset could continue the discussion, Missy had floated away down the hall. Sunset followed, and the two of them found themselves in a larger area. In one corner of the room, she could see a projector running by itself, illuminating an empty white rectangle onto the wall in front of it. On another wall, three oversized film reels were turning behind a plaque that read "JOEY DREW STUDIOS" in large letters. Whatever purpose the building had served in the past had been long-abandoned, judging by the state of disrepair. More spare planks had been used to try and patch holes in the walls, and an array of ink, paper, and mechanical pieces seemed to be scattered haphazardly around the area alongside spare promotional materials for their cartoons.

"Huh, reminds me of Penn's place..." Missy muttered. "Except they actually managed to get covers on the outlets here!"

Sunset nodded. "I mean, you're not wrong..."

"So, what's the plan? Are we just gonna track down Penn, pin him to the wall, and demand answers out of him?" Missy floated slowly in a circle around Sunset, reclining on the air. "Because that kind of approach really hasn't worked for you in the past!"

Sunset pondered the question for a moment. In reality, she really hadn't come into this with much more of a plan than that, but Missy had a point. If there was one thing "Penn" was good at, it was getting defensive. If he felt pressured, he'd shut up tighter than a clam.

"Okay, we'll take a more subtle approach. Once we find him, we'll try to figure out what he's doing here without him seeing us."

"Ah, so we're going to SPY on him..." Missy muttered. "Because that's a thing friends do."

"More productive than trying to force answers out of him or your big sister."

Missy's expression shifted to a grimace as she bit down on her tongue for a second. "Okay... good point. Doesn't mean I like it, though..."

Sunset folded her arms. "Do you want to leave? I'll do this on my own if I have to."

Missy sighed and shook her head. "No. Somehow, I get the feeling that would be a bad idea." She glanced around them before shivering. "This place has got a bad mojo to it..."

Sunset smiled, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. "Good. I'll go this way, you go the other. If one of us finds him, call the other one with Isis and don't let him out of your sight."

Missy nodded, finally smiling again. "The old Fred Jones method, huh? Let's split up, gang!"

Well, among other things, Sunset had figured out that her first suspicion had been correct: this was some kind of animation studio. It was hardly an excuse for the excessive amounts of ink dripping everywhere, but at the least it made for a decent explanation of other items strewn about and numerous illustrator's desks all around.

For the moment, she'd made her way into the animator's break room. There were several round tables with chairs and assorted means to entertaining oneself, including a pile of books and a dartboard. It was what was in the back area, however, that frightened her.

There was a large switch on the back wall labeled "Ink Machine Main Power," accompanied by six pedestals to her left and right. Each one had a unique object set on top, and the entire room had an energy to it that made Sunset's skin crawl. It was eerily reminiscent to some ritualistic spells she had seen in her days as Celestia's protégé. As she stepped up to one of the pedestals, the unsettling feeling grew stronger, coming to a climax as she nearly touched it. Deep in her mind, she knew the feeling, it was one of Princess Celestia's earliest lessons, and one of the ones that had been driven the furthest into her brain.

"This is dark magic, Sunset. It is the most dangerous and volatile of magics. You must never treat it lightly, and NEVER try to use it for yourself. One day, I'll teach you how to fight and contain it, but until then I want you to promise me that if you sense it, you'll run and tell me where it is..."

It was like a mother's warning to her child about stranger danger but amped up to the tenth degree, and as a young filly, Sunset had vehemently agreed. Fat lot of good it did me later in life, though... she thought as she pulled her hand back away from the pedestal.

"So, a hand-drawn world touting cartoon demons and bristling with dark magic..." she muttered to herself. "Yeah, totally not suspicious for 'Penn' to come here by himself."

Rather than the items on the pedestals, Sunset found herself draw to what looked like an old-style cassette player. She stared at it for a moment before tapping the play button and setting the tape inside unwinding.

You know, I'm gettin' awful sick of Mr. Drew's demands! The only difference between him and a slave driver is that he'll crack the whip while spouting crummy motivational speeches about dreaming! I've got no clue how Henry Stein managed to get these things out so fast, but even with THREE of us we can't match the pace! You can't get good art when you wring it out of people like this!

If there was ever a creative type in Joey Drew, I'm sure the businessman killed it stone dead a long time ago!

The player gave a loud click as it reached the end of the recording. Sunset sat and pondered for a moment.

"Well, looks like whoever Joey Drew was, he didn't wind up as successful as he would have liked..." she muttered as she left the room.

"AIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Just as she left the unsettling area, a piercing cry ripped through the air. Fear gripped at Sunset's heart as she took off at a dead sprint in the direction of the scream.

"MISSY?"

"SUNSET!" Missy tore around a corner in the hall at breakneck speed, slamming straight into Sunset's chest and nearly knocking her over backwards. Once Missy was safely in her arms, Sunset grabbed the lightsaber off of her belt and held it defensively across the both of them.

"What happened? What's going on?"

"It- It- I- I saw-" Missy stammered, eventually just settling on pointing back in the direction she had come from. Sunset pulled her a little tighter against her chest and readied her blade, steeling herself to be ready for anything as she turned the corner.

One of these days she was going to realize that "ready for anything" was a myth.

The room was like a sight out of a nightmare. Ink and paper were scattered everywhere, moreso than anywhere else she'd seen, yet, but it hardly even registered compared to what was in the center of the room.

It was Boris the Wolf. From the posters. In real life... or something close to it. He still had all of the proportions and traits of a cartoon, even going so far as having a pair of Xs where his eyes ought to be to indicate his death. He was strapped to an operating table by four heavy leather straps, a situation that brought back an unfair share of frightening memories of Sunset's own near-vivisection in Aperture Science. Unfortunately, it looked as if Boris hadn't been as lucky as she had. His chest had been ripped open and hollowed out. His ribs seemed to have been split down the center and ripped out of place, poking out at awkward angles to hold the incision open. There was no blood from the dissection, only larger and more violent splashes of ink scattered around the room, making Sunset momentarily envision how much more gruesome it would be if she were to see the scene "in color."

The entire table sat in the center of a mechanical assembly that could rotate it from level to vertical, and he'd been propped up to almost look as if he was standing. Ritualistic-looking candles sat on either side of the massacred corpse, along with several chairs that looked to have been positioned for others to watch and an ancient-looking toolbox. On the wall, three words had been scrawled in thick black letters:

"What on Earth?" Sunset whispered, unsure if she could believe her own eyes. She reached into her pocket with her non-lightsaber-holding hand and took her phone, snapping a quick photo of the area for Isis.

"I don't think so..." Missy replied, peeking for only a moment before burying her face deeper in Sunset's shoulder.

"Suddenly, I'm having second thoughts about staying here much longer... Did you finish checking the other rooms?" Sunset muttered. Missy only nodded, keeping her face turned away from the scene. "Well, I had one more room to check, then we'll head back to camp, okay?"

"Let's just not split up any more, okay?" Missy whispered.

"Deal." Sunset chuckled to herself as she gave the angel a pat on the back and shifted her up on top of her shoulders. "Watch your head!" she added as they passed back through the door to the room. She was trying to play off her fears for Missy's sake, but this place was looking more and more like her geode had been right: they didn't belong here.

As they walked back to the other end of the studio, Sunset couldn't help feeling much more worried about what kind of "ink" had been used to scrawl the other assorted graffiti on the walls.

She stepped lightly as they walked down the final hallway, trying not to draw any more attention to themselves than they already had. She couldn't shake the chilling feeling that they were cornering themselves as they walked further and further along. She tried to comfort herself by pointing out all the signs that this studio was long-abandoned, but one question kept her on edge:

If this studio was so empty, then who was paying to keep the lights on?

It was little comfort when the narrow hall opened up into a gigantic room. It was mostly empty and several stories tall, but Sunset could see an array of heavy chains leading into a pitch-black hole in the floor. She and Missy were standing on a balcony overlooking the rest of the room, with a set of simplistic controls: one button with a lighting bolt emblem.

Missy leaned down to whisper in her ear. "It's a button..."

"Yes, it is." Sunset cocked one eyebrow as she glanced up at the kid sitting on her shoulders.

"A big, glowing button..."

"Well, I wouldn't call it a BIG button..." Sunset mused.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That Penn's not here, so it's time to go?" Sunset asked, turning a little further to look at Missy. She jumped slightly as she realized that Missy was gone. Swiveling back to the button, Sunset could see Missy standing there, her finger already on the button.

"MISSY!"

"I couldn't help it!" Missy sheepishly shrugged, still not removing her finger from the button. "You put a big, glowing button in front of me, I've gotta press it!"

Whatever they'd started, it quickly became clear it was too late to stop it. They could only watch as the chains began to rattle and shift as titanic engines revved to life. The scent of diesel joined the stench of the ink as something massive began to emerge from the pit. For a moment, Sunset grabbed for her saber, but the titan bound to said chains didn't seem as if it could attack them.

It was a machine, a huge one that took up most of the center of the room. The main body was box-shaped, but hoses, pipes, and gears littered the surface in a way that gave it a distinct silhouette. The front had some kind of massive nozzle plastered to the front, a pipe large enough for her to be fairly certain she could stand inside without hitting her head. More pipes and hoses trailed from the bottom, all descending back into the dark depths of whatever lurked underneath the studio. A slow trickle of ink poured out the front of the nozzle, splashing in a small reservoir before spilling out into the hole. Once again, Sunset could feel the tingle of dark magic in the air, stronger than ever.

"Wow..." Missy whispered.

"What... what do you think it is?" Sunset felt curiosity beginning to overcome the fear of the dark magical aura.

"Well, that's the ink machine, silly!" Missy cheered. "Any studio worth their salt has an ink machine!"

"Well, what's an ink machine supposed to do?" Missy asked.

"Pfft, she doesn't know what an ink machine does!" Missy scoffed.

Wait a minute.

"YIPES!" Sunset and Missy both grabbed onto each other as they spun around to find the source of the third voice.

It was... Missy, but not. For one thing, she was completely in black and white, without a single hint of color outside the same sepia of the rest of the world. She was wearing a much simpler version of Missy's dress that only had a single layer of fabric, her thorn-vine stockings had been replaced with a pair of black leggings, and her wings actually seemed to be putting in the work to keep her airborne, albeit at an unrealistically slow rate of flapping. Most disturbingly, she was wearing a small pair of white gloves, a pair of small devilish horns poked out of her hair just under her halo, and her eyes had been replaced with a pair of pie-cut black imprints on her face. The not-quite-Missy grinned at them and giggled at their reactions.

"Geez, you'd think you've never heard of TOON monsters, before!" she giggled.

"H-HEY!" Missy pointed an accusatory finger at the other angel. "Who are YOU supposed to be?"

The twisted doppelganger tapped her chin in thought for a few seconds. "Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana-Fana Bobesca the third and a half?"

Sunset, for her part, was still beyond words. This was... bizarre.

Missy hopped out of Sunset's arms and into the air, poking her finger into the other angel's chest. "Cut the cute act, Dottie, that's MY schtick!"

"And this is MY stick!" the other Missy declared, reaching into her hat and retrieving an impossibly large wooden mallet. Before anyone could react, she had bopped Missy firmly on the head and knocked her straight to the ground. With a hoot of laughter, she sprinted back into the hallway leading to the rest of the studio.

"Missy! Are you okay?" Sunset dropped to one knee, trying to look Missy over more closely. She seemed to be fine, aside from the small cartoon birds and stars flying circles around her head. She shook her head for a second, causing the apparitions to vanish. Sunset could hear the hissing of a tea kettle as her face turned bright red with rage.

"Oh, it is ON!" Missy declared, snatching her hat off of her head and reaching inside. With a hand full of cards, she hopped back into the air, legs spinning fast enough to be a blur. "GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE MISCHIEF MISPRINT!"

Without warning, she took off down the hallway again, leaving Sunset alone in the ink machine room. The only precaution she took was to ignite her saber as she ran down the hall.

Somehow, in the few seconds it took for her to make it back to the room where they'd entered, the lounge studio had turned into a battlefield. Several jagged holes had been blown in the wooden floor, and she could count at least five Missy-shaped holes in the walls. For the moment, what she could only guess were the two angels were locked in desperate combat... inside a large white dust cloud.

"You can't win, faker!" Missy shouted. "If you strike me down, I'll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!"

There was a brief interlude as the fake Missy stepped out of the cloud, bending over to catch her breath as the cloud continued to rage behind her. After catching her breath, she ran back inside.

"FAKER? You're comparing yourself to me? HA! You're not even GOOD ENOUGH to be my fake!" Missy replied indignantly. The real Missy took her turn to leave the cloud, reaching into her hat and grabbing a small paper fan which she used to cool herself off for several seconds before leaping back into the fray elbow-first.

After a few seconds, both of them stepped out at the same time. The cartoon Missy pulled a tall glass of what appeared to be lemonade from her hat and took a long sip on the straw. The real Missy was handed a towel by Alucard, using it to dab her forehead before hanging it around her neck like a boxer. Behind them, the fight continued as the dust cloud refused to leave. After a moment, the two angels realized that neither of them were still there and took a second to point at one another.

"That angel's an imposter!"

"No, THAT angel's an imposter!"

Sunset groaned, running her hand down her face. "Missy, I KNOW which one's you... You're the only one in color."

Missy looked down at herself, as if surprised at her appearance. "Oh... yeah."

The fake Missy took the distraction as an opportunity, running up to the wall and pulling an oversized paintbrush from her hat. Using the brush, she painted what appeared to be a tunnel on the wall and ran inside. "MEEP MEEP!"

Alucard seemed to do nothing to stop her, simply pointing over Missy's shoulder before disappearing. Missy gasped with indignation before flying straight for the painting. "You're not getting away THAT- OOF!" Unlike her cartoon counterpart, Missy ran directly into the wall because the tunnel painting was simply a painting. She took only a second to examine herself for injury before her anger seemed to mount higher. When it had reached its peak, her hat flew off of her head with a burst of steam and the sound of a train whistle.

"NOBODY MAKES A WILE E. COYOTE OUTTA ME!" She declared as her hat landed back on her head. As absurd as the whole situation was, Sunset wondered just how much of an insult Missy had suffered in her reality-bending frame of mind.

"Missy, wait!"

Missy didn't heed Sunset, running headfirst into and through the wall with the help of Ghostrick Go-Round. Sunset ran onward, following close behind before the trap could wear off. The dizzying effect only had her in its grip for a moment as the whole world seemed to spin, and she found herself deposited back in the room she'd explored earlier with the pedestals. Missy had frozen in place, and a second later Sunset realized.

The fake angel was sitting on the ink machine's power lever. She kicked her legs wistfully and grinned at the two of them with uniform, evenly spaced teeth.

"You put a big, ominous lever in front of me, and I've GOTTA pull it!" she declared, hopping off and grabbing onto the handle. With a heavy clunk, her weight pulled the lever down into the "On" position.

Penn paused for a moment in his reading, using his thumb to keep his place as he looked up at the ceiling. A low noise had started to rumble from above, making the entire building hum with life.

"Huh... I wonder if somebody turned on the heater, or something?" he muttered to himself. After a small shrug, he opened the book back up onto his lap. He rarely liked memoirs or biographies, but The Illusion of Living had proven a riveting read, so far. Some of the philosophies inside had done more to ease his worries than everything else he'd tried in the last week combined.

"Joey Drew, you're a genius... completely mad, but a genius nonetheless."

"So, you think you know what you're going to say to Sunset, yet?"

He paused for a second, running through the conversations he'd imagined in his head for what felt like the hundredth time. Still, he couldn't imagine Sunset Shimmer ever backing down from her stance that he wasn't the "real" Penn.

"Maybe a few more pages..."

Sunset and Missy both grabbed on to each other as the entire studio began to shake with the force of the ink machine turning on. The fake Missy simply giggled to herself before removing her hat, setting it on the floor, and diving inside like it was some kind of miniature swimming pool. A second later, her hand reappeared, pulling the hat inside out and causing it to wink out of existence.

Before they could question what was going on, the entire power assembly began to groan and bulge. Bolts began to pop out of place as paneling cracked, allowing pressurized ink to spray violently out into the room. In a matter of seconds, they were standing ankle-deep in the black liquid.

"We've gotta get outta here!" Missy screamed, trying to make herself heard over the machinery and spraying. Sunset felt no need to argue the matter, running for the door out of the break room at full speed. In the rest of the studio, the problem was even worse: ink was EVERYWHERE. It was pouring from the ceiling and seeping from the walls. She ignored the stains on her clothing as she sloshed through the black goo. Wherever 'Penn' was, it looked like he was going to be on his own for now.

Provided this isn't what he wanted, to begin with!

She forced the myriad of questions out of her mind, focusing all of her efforts on getting back to the portal without making a wrong turn in the mazelike studio.

Thankfully, her memory served her well, and they were soon back in the lobby area where they'd come in.

"Almost there!" she shouted.

"S-Sunset!" Missy pointed at the hallway leading towards the ink machine. Sunset's heart nearly stopped when she saw the creature limping into the room.

It was... well, it almost looked like Bendy, the "Dancing Demon" from the posters, but if someone had put him into a taffy puller and stretched him out. His body was twisted and emaciated, and black ink dripped down from the top of his crescent-shaped head to cover his eyes, leaving only a devilish-looking grin drawn on to the bottom of his face. He was limping because his limbs were distended and twisted, underdeveloped in places.

Sunset shuddered as the same chilling aura ripped across her skin. The sheer force with which this Bendy-thing radiated dark magic felt like standing in front of a pressure washer. There was no doubt that THIS was the source of the dark magic she'd been feeling throughout the studio. She tightened her grip on her saber, but deep down she had a feeling it wouldn't be much use. Despite its gaunt appearance and limping gait, that monster had a staggering amount of mystical power.

This was a time for flight, not fight.

She sprinted for the hallway, dreading every inch closer the thing drew.

"ISIS! WE'RE COMING IN HOT!" Sunset shouted, hoping that her phone could pick her up her voice through her pocket. She was able to make it across the room to the hallway, but the creature was close behind her. She tried not to think about it, focusing on the black portal leading back to the real world. They were so close...

Just as she was closing in on the way out, Sunset felt something grip her ankle. She felt her heart stop as she tugged with all of her strength, trying to free her foot. Looking down, her eyes widened as she realized that a hand had sprouted from the ink, itself, and grabbed her to slow her down.

"LET... GO!" Sunset swung down with her saber, severing it at the wrist with a hiss and a pop of vaporizing ink. She pushed onward, even as more forms began to emerge from the black pools. She tried to focus purely on the portal, blocking out everything else.

She was only a few steps away when she heard the wood beginning to creak and groan. It wasn't nearly enough warning. In a cascade of ear-splitting pops and cracks, Sunset felt the floor fall away from beneath them. She reached desperately for the portal, even as it moved up and out of reach for her. She could feel Missy trying her best to lift the two of them as the plummeted into the bowels of the studio, but her efforts were fruitless. The last thing she saw was the inky Bendy leaning over the hole, looking down on them with that painted-on grin.

The last sensation she felt was the impact with more of the thick liquid, and then everything went black.