The remains of the Tree of Harmony materialized in a room that had already been prepared for their arrival. Red magic surrounded it, solidifying into manipulators that grasped it and gently moved it into place. The center of the floor opened, and the Tree was lowered into the cold steel below. The aperture closed as it was clamped into place. Conduits were attached to each of its roots, mimicking what it might once have found in the soil and rock of nature.

Several spells appeared around it, their geometric nature shifting rapidly. They reached out and touched the Tree where it had been injured, and Thebe poured her own energy into it, using the few remnants of the Finality Core that still had any activity to attempt to at least marginally heal it.

The Tree responded reasonably well. The gashes and wounds in its crystalline flesh partially sealed, and its heart was covered. Its form shifted slightly, and the shards of its severed limbs retracted as it prepared to regrow what it had lost. There was only so much that could be done, though. Thebe had managed to stabilize it, but she had not managed to heal it completely. That would take time. Until then, it would need to rest.

Several of the spells coalesced, and a virtual body was formed in the floor of the vast domed room. Thebe’s original body was now little more than a component inside the machines that gave her the power she desired so badly. It could not be moved, so instead, she had taken to producing bodies of pure light when she needed them.

The body walked across the plated floor, its feet making no sound. This body was not like the one she had displayed to her eternal enemy Vale. Instead, it was far more subdued, complete with bluish white light intermixed with the ever-present red.

Thebe looked at the mound of machinery that she had assembled to keep the Tree alive, and then at the Tree itself. Even in its sorry state, she remembered when she had first seen it so long ago growing beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters, when she had been little more than a young unicorn with no idea the glorious destiny that awaited her.

“I’ve never understood,” she said, at last, to the Tree. “Why?”

The Tree did not respond, at least not on any level that Thebe could comprehend.

“I know what you are,” said Thebe. “You are a Lord of Order. You are a transcendent being whose sole purpose is the absolute annihilation of life. I’ve seen it…I’ve seen what the Finality Core brought through into this world in ancient times.”

There was still no response from the Tree. Nor did Thebe expect any.

“You had so much potential. You could have burned this world in an instant. Even when they were tearing your body apart, you could have killed them all. Even with all my power, I am just the tiniest fraction of what you are- -so why? Why did you waste it? I’ve just never understood. This planet could have been yours. But you rejected it. Why?”

These were honest questions, things that Thebe had always wondered since the day she had learned about the true nature of ‘Harmony’. They were answered only with silence.

“I suppose I should thank you. It was you, after all who gave me my power. After Twilight failed, you made me. You corrected your mistake. ‘Harmony’ is what destroyed Twilight, tore her soul apart. But I was made to function alone. Perfect harmony in my pure unity, my singularity. My eternity. You could not possibly comprehend how much I hate you.”

The Tree glowed slightly, as if it were trying to speak.

“No,” said Thebe. “I will not hurt you, any more than I would hurt any of my artifacts. Once this planet is empty, I will study you. Learn from you. Right now,” she put her hoof to her chest, “your brother’s heart beats within me. Soon…I think I can transcend you. I will do what you were too weak to do. I will restore Harmony to Equestria.”

The Tree protested- -or perhaps it was an artifact of Thebe’s imagination.

“I am the end product of what you have created,” whispered Thebe. “Just rest, my friend. Sleep. Or die. It doesn’t matter to me anymore. Just watch. Watch as I complete your work.”

The image of Thebe faded, and Thebe once again found herself linked inside her body, perpetually immobile, her consciousness expanded beyond mortal comprehension. The time had finally come, she knew. This was the end of the Fourth Era, and the end of Equestria- -and it would die by the hand of its One True Queen.