The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Still Alive

"So, you have siblings?"

Sunset and Penn had been walking in relative silence for too long, and it was beginning to get awkward.

"Oh... yeah. Guess that kinda came out in the whole 'big brother' spiel, didn't it?" Penn chuckled nervously. "Sorry, that might have gotten a touch overdramatic. Two brothers and a sister. What about you?"

Sunset raised an eyebrow.

"Why ask a question you already know the answer to?"

Penn scoffed lightly. "Believe it or not, Sunset, I'm not omniscient, I only really only know about the period leading up to and after you defied Celestia and went through the mirror. Family and personal life? Nothing, zilch, nada."

Sunset smirked, reassured slightly that not EVERY one of her secrets had been exposed.

"Only child. I didn't spend a lot of time with my parents after I joined Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns-"

"Oh! That reminds me, there's something I always wanted to know!" Penn interrupted, cutting her off almost immediately. After a moment, he sheepishly took a step back. "Uhm... heh, heh... sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you opening up about your parents. That sounds really awful."

Sunset shrugged. "I always kept myself focused on my studies, so it wasn't so bad. They always took a hooves- erm- hands-off approach to parenting. I hardly noticed, really. I'd get letters from them, and they always SOUNDED really proud and loving... looking back, maybe I didn't really appreciate what I had."

Penn nodded, humming softly in response. "Well, it's never too late, you know? When you get home, you could try reconnecting?"

The idea certainly brought warmth to Sunset's heart, though she wasn't exactly how it would work without multiple trips to Equestria. "Maybe you're right... So, what was it you wanted to ask?"

"OH! Well, I've been wanting to know: how old are you?"

Sunset blinked, slightly surprised. "Well, that's certainly blunt... Rarity would have a few things to say about you asking a lady her age so casually."

Penn shook his head enthusiastically.

"No, I mean it's confusing! You see, you were Princess Celestia's pupil BEFORE Princess Twilight, right?"

"Yes? I never really asked Twilight much about her tutoring, though."

"Well, Celestia took Twilight as her student as a young filly, and that was AFTER you were already the Equestrian equivalent of a college student, in pretty much the country's best school of higher learning! Well, then Twilight remained Celestia's pupil long enough to basically become the equivalent of a grad student in Equestria, THEN followed you through the portal! By that logic, you spent all of Twilight's childhood and young adulthood on the other side of that portal, yet when you came back through, or when she followed you to the other side, you both were approximately the SAME AGE! Not only that, but you'd gone from being college and grad students, respectively, to high schoolers! Do you see what I'm getting at, here?"

Sunset blinked, slowly thinking over his words.

"Well, you're really basing that on a lot of assumptions, several of which are incorrect. The explanation's simple, really!"

Penn raised his eyebrows, but merely motioned for her to continue.

"First of all-

"Just a heads-up: That coffee we gave you earlier had fluorescent calcium in it so we can track the neuronal activity in your brain. There's a slight chance the calcium could harden and vitrify your frontal lobe. Anyway, don't stress yourself thinking about it. I'm serious. Visualizing the scenario while under stress actually triggers the reaction."

"GAAH!" Sunset nearly jumped out of her skin as a booming man's voice echoed through the air, almost deafening in its volume. Penn jumped slightly, but seemed unfazed by the announcement."

"Huh... That's not supposed to be first. Isis, are taking us on shortcuts?"

"Affirmative. While old testing chambers provided the most efficient route in terms of distance, their other significant obstacles and puzzle elements made them the least efficient route out of the facility, for the most part."

"What was THAT?" Sunset asked, desperately searching for the source of the voice.

Penn chuckled to himself. "Don't worry, THAT voice isn't going to hurt us. The founder liked to leave pre-recorded messages, a LOT of them."

"We are in no danger here, Sunset Shimmer. The path is safe."

Sunset blinked for a moment, looking between her friend and the small robot leading them.

"You two are really in sync, huh?"

Penn and Isis glanced at each other for a moment. Isis gave no response while Penn simply shrugged.

"She aims to please, and we both know this place's history pretty well! Makes sense we'd line up a bit, right?"

"Affirmative."

"But you talk like you two know each other already, how could THAT be?"

Penn grinned, looking totally awestruck for a moment. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that Isis is REAL! I mean, a fellow writer buddy of mine came up with her forever ago for one of his stories, he even wrote ME in as a character! But the book never went anywhere, it didn't even get published!"

"While aware of the nature of my existence, Elijah's credentials have not been invalidated. In fact, his close relationship to my creator places him in a position of high authority."

"So... you're saying your friend wrote her as a character... and now she's REAL?" Sunset's eyes widened, her mind racing with the possibilities this concept opened up. Did that mean that every character everyone had ever written, published or not, existed out there somewhere? It was plausible, considering that the multiverse was infinite there would be a serendipitous universe for every conceivable fiction. Was this proof that what was labeled 'fiction' in Penn's universe was what determined the lives of "characters" created there? Or was it simply a case of some unknown determining factor filtering out duplicitous universes so that they only connected to the ones that matched that fiction perfectly? Could SHE create some new existence simply by picking up a pen and paper? What if she wrote a story about-

"Sunset!" Penn cut off her train of thought with a shout.

Snapping back to reality, Sunset could quickly see what had raised Penn's concern: there was motion coming from below them. Sunset narrowed her eyes, trying to get a good look at what was quickly climbing towards them. It was clearly not human, a creature with long, lanky limbs and white plating matching everything she had seen in Aperture Science. She tightened her grip on her portal gun, trying to convince herself that she was ready for anything.

"It's an Atlas model..." Penn muttered, mimicking her stance.

Sunset felt a weight come down on her shoulder and the pinch of small claws digging into her skin. A quick glance revealed Isis standing on her shoulder, wings spread and back arched as if ready to pounce. Right in Sunset's ear, she heard a series of clicks, then a series of engines whirring to life inside her metal body.

Is... is she trying to GROWL?

Sunset repressed the urge to react to the adorable display of aggression. There would be time to fawn over the tiny robot later.

"Target appears to be traditionally unarmed."

"But given that it's a robot, it's probably a lot tougher than us in hand-to-hand, even if it doesn't have a weapon."

"Affirmative."

A second later, the robot came clambering up onto the walkway they were standing on. Now that it was closer, Sunset could get a good look at it. The design seemed simple: pairs of long arms and legs bolted onto a chassis that housed a singe, giant blue eye.

The robot looked over the three of them, obviously searching for something.

Opposing unit, stand down. Move on or risk retaliation.

The robot paused for a moment, then jolted forward, grabbing Sunset's portal gun.

"HEY! LET GO!" Sunset shouted, instinctively firing the gun at the robot. The effort proved pointless, merely sending orange and blue sparks showering onto the floor.

"GET OFF HER!" Penn cried, fruitlessly kicking at the automaton.

Immediately, Isis leaped from her shoulder and onto the robot's arm, skittering up and onto the robot. While Sunset was playing tug-of-war with the portal gun, Isis jammed her tail into the joint of the robot's arm. There was a grinding sound, and after a few seconds, the arm separated from the rest of its body, falling to the ground.

The robot reacted with reasonable shock.

It immediately released its grip with its other arm, failing wildly at Isis. It was to no avail, the smaller robot had already moved on, effortlessly clawing her way around its body. After a moment, the robot's second arm dropped off, leaving it completely disarmed. The iris if the robot's eye tightened as it turned to run from them, only for a bright spark to come from near the bottom of the chassis before its legs crumpled beneath it. Isis clambered on top of the robot, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. Her tail swung back and forth, several panels open to reveal an array of tools protruding from inside.

You were warned.

"Wait... GLaDOS said something about picking up out equipment, right?" Penn muttered, walking over and crouching down beside the other robot. "That must be why it came down here."

"Hey, that's right." Sunset looked down, watching as the robot's single eye flailed wildly in the chassis, its body completely unresponsive. Sunset couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for the poor thing, helpless as it was. "Did you have to totally disable it, though? It looks like it's in pain."

"Given the fact that it has failed in its mission, GLaDOS will certainly self-destruct it shortly."

All three of them waited for a few seconds, watching the robot's eye writhing fearfully back and forth. Sunset glanced at Isis, pleading for a solution.

"Can't you... I don't know, shut it off? Put it to sleep?"

Isis looked down at the other robot. The tip of her tail flicked aside, revealing a probe-like connector. Without a word, she jammed the connector into a small port. The robot froze in place, its eye tightening for a moment before the iris slowly flickered out.

"Fare well."

There was a brief pause before the iris of the robot began to glow again, this time a matching pink to her own eyes.

"Aaand it's been integrated." Penn muttered, a smug smirk on his face.

Sunset blinked back and forth between Isis and the other robot.

"Did... did you just kill it?"

"As an artificial intelligence, it was never alive to begin with. However, the intelligences of these models is backed up regularly. It will likely soon return with a new body."

Isis's voice was coming from both robots at the same time, clearly displaying Isis's control over the second body. Sunset stared carefully into the eye of the second robot, pondering the facts before her as the first pretenses of an idea began to form in her mind.

"Wait... Isis? Do you think... you could integrate GLaDOS?"

"In my current state with my current hardware, no."

"But Penn said something about them attaching other AIs to her in order to try and stop her from killing people, right?" Sunset mused, pressing her hand to her chin in thought.

"Actually... that's not a bad idea, Sunset!" Penn chimed in, kneeling down beside her and looking more closely at the robot. "Isis, we have an intelligence core right here, couldn't you reprogram it into a new Morality Core for GLaDOS?"

"Negative. While I have initiated a hardware override, our programming languages are fundamentally different. The only possibility would lie in hard wiring this unit's central processor directly into the intelligence core of the Atlas unit."

"Could we do it?"

"Penn!" Sunset cried, shocked at his suggestion. "You're talking about Isis's LIFE! You're just going to rip out her CPU and stick it in this thing?"

Both of her companions turned to stare at her, as if somehow her outburst had been surprising.

"Your concern for this unit is much appreciated, Sunset Shimmer. However, you appear to have fundamentally misunderstood."

"Isis has, like, a million bodies she controls remotely!" Penn continued. "This is just a spare repair unit that maintains the bigger ones!"

[pre"]Affirmative. My own central intelligence is located in a secure location. Installing this unit's processor directly into the Aperture core would send enough data back to decode their AI programming code and adapt my own to communicate."[/pre]

Sunset blinked, seeing the tiny robot with new eyes. "So, when you said that the fact that you were small was relative..."

"I have several larger drone bodies that would easily dwarf you in size."

Sunset sighed. "Alright, so how are we going to put your CPU inside this?"

"Preliminary scans indicate that the process will take several hours, but barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be able to walk you through it."

"Then let's... hrrgh... get to it!" Penn groaned, a pained expression contorting his face. "Ow... back still hurts."

Isis perked up, disconnecting her tail from the robot and gliding her way around behind Penn. Her head quickly nodded up and down, scanning over him from behind.

"Scans indicate that the severe bruising has led to compartment syndrome. The hematomas will need to be drained of blood before there is permanent damage."

"WHAT?" Sunset cried, running over to Join Isis. From her perspective, all she could see was the back of the orange jumpsuit. There were numerous places that it had frayed and torn from the impacts of the bullets earlier, but no sign of blood.

"You are familiar with the cause of bruises, correct?"

"Well, yeah, it's blood vessels breaking under the skin. Anybody knows that!"

"In severe cases, the pockets of blood can place pressure on other blood vessels, cutting off circulation to internal organs. That is compartment syndrome."

"It's not THAT bad... barely hurts!" Penn grunted. "Could have been worse!"

"Hey! What did we say about dumb machismo?"

"You are both exceedingly lucky. In the original "Portal" video games, turret fire was capable of sending blood splatters across the walls with only a few shots. However, unlike the game protagonist, the two of you have worn your jumpsuits properly, providing an extra layer of protection. However, that does not render you immune to needing medical attention."

Sunset sighed. The choice here was obvious, as much as she hated herself for the cold logic. "Isis, how much farther would we need to go to get out of here?"

"According to what little I was able to glean of the Atlas model's memory, there is an extended elevator awaiting its return with our equipment at our point of origin. We would need only retrace our steps."

Sunset nodded. "And if we don't do SOMETHING, GLaDOS is probably going to send more of these things, right?"

"Affirmative."

Sunset sighed again, really regretting what she was about to say.

"I'll go back and keep GLaDOS busy while the two of you make Isis into an intelligence core to stop her."

"WHAT?"

"That is extremely dangerous and foolhardy."

Sunset turned to look back in the direction they had come from, checking for more signs of movement. "Look, if you're putting Isis's CPU inside that thing, she's not going to be able to protect us forever! If I go up there, I can draw GLaDOS's attention until you're done. It's the only way!"

Penn's brow furrowed, obviously running through all the same logic Sunset had moments before. Hiding would likely take more time than it would buy them with the way this place was falling apart, anyplace they could get that seemed out of reach the robots would undoubtedly be able to climb to, and as Isis had so neatly displayed earlier, they didn't stand much chance holding their own without Sunset's lightsaber.

"You know I'm right!"

Penn shook his head. "It's too risky. GLaDOS could just dump you right in front of a firing squad all over again, and this time you're not going to have any way to protect yourself!"

Sunset took a deep breath. It wasn't as if this was something she WANTED to do! "Penn, GLaDOS has to have some kind of weakness, right? Something I could exploit?"

Penn thought hard. "Paradoxes. Aperture AIs, including GLaDOS, are all weak to paradoxes. Shout 'This sentence is false!' or 'Does a set of all sets contain itself?' and it should send them into a logical loop."

"We could also use a similar tactic to protect ourselves here."

Sunset shook her head. "It would just be a matter of time until GLaDOS sends a deaf robot down here, or something."

Penn sighed. "By which point we'd probably be about halfway through disassembling you, Isis."

There was another pause.

"Can I convince you to let me go, instead?"

Sunset glared, getting her point across without words.

"Didn't think so." Penn rose back to his feet, reaching over and pulling Sunset into a tight hug. "Just... stay safe, okay? Don't go taking unnecessary risks. GLaDOS's biggest weakness is that she has a compulsion for testing. I think she tried to kill us because we were a threat together."

Sunset nodded. "I'll stay as safe as I can be in the grips of a homicidal computer..." Penn gripped her a little tighter, and she suddenly felt bad for the joke. "I'll be fine," she whispered as she reached around and gingerly patted his back.

"You JUST told me you didn't want to be alone, Sunset. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Sunset smiled, pulling herself out of the hug with a smile. "Come on. Knowing I've got TWO friends down here fighting to do their part to save us? I'm not going to be alone, you'll be right beside me..." she patted her fist against her chest, just over her heart, "right here."

Penn's worried look relented somewhat. He reached down into the pocket of his jumpsuit, retrieving a single card and pressing it into her hand.

"Here. A good luck charm."

Sunset looked down at the card he'd given her.

"Penn, doesn't this card means a lot to you? You said it was one of your favorites!"

Penn finally smiled again before giving her a sly wink.

"I'm sure you'll get it back to me when this is all over."

Sunset smiled, tucking The Ghostrick Angel of Mischief into her breast pocket. "I'll take good care of her. I promise."

"Now get going! I think Isis is going to need to drain some of this bruising, and it's gonna get ugly. After that, I promise it won't be long. I'll get Isis set up as fast as I can."

Sunset cringed, trying not to think about Penn's injuries too hard. She knelt down, stroking her hand down the back of Isis's head and neck like a cat.

"Thank you for everything, Isis. Without you, neither of us would be alive!"

Isis blinked, showing no sign of outward emotion.

"There is no need to thank me. I was merely following my prime directive. Your appreciation, however, is... appreciated. I shall do my best to continue to be of service."

Sunset smiled and gave the little robot one more pat on the head before turning and heading back in the direction they had come from. This time, she may have been about to fly solo, but she didn't feel alone. She had her mission, and her friends had theirs. They were counting on each other, and there was no way she was about to let them down.

As she made her way back down to the starting point, her nerves began to get the better of her. Her heart pounded harder and harder in her chest knowing that she was walking to her potential death. As she finally made her way back to the starting place, she could see an elevator hanging from an extended cable leading up into the roof of the cave. As she stepped up to the open doors, Sunset's heart clenched in her chest. Stepping in would be the point of no return. Her hand unconsciously reached up to her chest, brushing against her pocket. She let go of the portal gun for a moment and reached down, pulling out Penn's card to look at it again.

The little Ghostrick Angel stared back at her, still with a carefree grin and winking eye. Sunset took a deep breath, then forced herself to smile and return the wink, throwing in a finger gun with her free hand for emphasis. Somehow, even if it was just a picture on a scrap of paper the size of her palm, the card made her feel better. It was a sign of friendship, Penn's trust in her to do what needed to be done.

With that, she stepped up and into the elevator. The doors slid shut and she began to rise, being pulled back up into Aperture Science. She gripped her portal gun a little tighter, readying herself for whatever was coming next.

Oh, it's YOU. You survived. How unexpected. Well, I was getting a bit bored of testing the incompetent robots. At least your stupidity is unpredictable. Entertaining, even. So I suppose your survival was lucky for both of us. Let's make the most of it, shall we?

Comments

[karnazom]

Pizza deleivery guy

sounds familiar

[Raistlin]

"Well, you're really basing that on a lot of assumptions, several of which are incorrect. The explanation's simple, really!"

Penn raised his eyebrows, but merely motioned for her to continue.

"First of all-

I hate you so much . And myself for failling for the old trick.

[Zapper Frost]

Oh, it's YOU. You survived. How unexpected. Well, I was getting a bit bored of testing the incompetent robots. At least your stupidity is unpredictable. Entertaining, even. So I suppose your survival was lucky for both of us. Let's make the most of it, shall we?

That boredom is simulated, you are a robot

[Venerable Ro]

Dangit Cave! I wanted to hear that!

[The dragon hunter]

"So... you're saying your friend wrote her as a character... and now she's REAL?" Sunset's eyes widened, her mind racing with the possibilities this concept opened up. Did that mean that every character everyone had ever written, published or not, existed out there somewhere? It was plausible, considering that the multiverse was infinite there would be a serendipitous universe for every conceivable fiction. Was this proof that what was labeled 'fiction' in Penn's universe was what determined the lives of "characters" created there? Or was it simply a case of some unknown determining factor filtering out duplicitous universes so that they only connected to the ones that matched that fiction perfectly? Could SHE create some new existence simply by picking up a pen and paper? What if she wrote a story about-

I hope there will be a reference to the anime Re:Creators. Meteora would gladly explain her the dynamics between the real world and fictional ones... right before Altair shatters her perception of reality by breaking the 4th wall by calling the author and every reader a bunch of monsters for putting fictional characters in difficult situations just for their own enjoyment.
68.media.tumblr.com/c86ed4feab5ea6e383d893523de27d74/tumblr_oq4774BS1A1v7qtk4o1_540.gif

[MikiStenbeck]

[pre"]Affirmative. My own central intelligence is located in a secure location. Installing this unit's processor directly into the Aperture core would send enough data back to decode their AI programming code and adapt my own to communicate."[/pre]

Ehhhh i think you messed this one up dod,

[silverMEGAlicorn]

"Well, you're really basing that on a lot of assumptions, several of which are incorrect. The explanation's simple, really!"

Penn raised his eyebrows, but merely motioned for her to continue.

"First of all-

Gosei 2.0 LOL! "I'm the green ranger now? I thought I was black?" "There's a simple explanation for that"

[Sozmioi]

> [pre"]Affirmative.

you stuck the quote inside the tag, breaking it.

[The Scarlett Mare]

"First of all-

I hate this

[Magnus_Flare]

"First of all-

Oh come on

[Blitzwing98]

10692934

[PonyList]

"OH! Well, I've been wanting to know: how old are you?"

Now, you’re opening up a big can of worms here Penn

"First of all-

You motherfu-