Author's Notes:

The following is based on a relatively recent installment of the daily serial The Behemoth Came to Canterlot.

One of the side effects Sunset noticed after becoming the Spirit of Harmony was an almost pathological serenity. Her moods were moderated by the same balance she worked to bring to the universe.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

But the forces of cosmic balance could only do so much.

Twilight watched her pace, stifling a yawn. This wasn’t the first time Sunset had teleported her out of her bed in the middle of the night, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. It didn’t help that Sunset’s unpronounceably Nordic couch was very comfortable. “Okay, walk me through this one more time.”

“So I was doing my usual late night thing, letting this body trance out so I could devote that much more focus to repairing things, when I received a transmission from outside our universe.”

“Right.” Twilight caught herself midnod, not least because she was having trouble getting her head to go back up. “How, exactly?”

“It was magical, and designed to be as easy to process as possible. Had a built-in translation matrix and everything.” Sunset shook her head. “But that’s not the point. The contents are.”

“Those being?”

“It was from one of your analogues, probably an alicorn if I had to guess. She sent it out to the multiverse at large. I don’t know if I was supposed to receive it or not; she seemed prepared for life as she couldn’t imagine it. But based on the data she sent with it, some kind of higher dimensional… thing is squatting on her universe and it’s cracking under the weight.” Sunset paused and pondered that for a moment. “I think. It’s all kind of vague and piecemeal.”

Twilight stood, warding off her drowsiness as best she could. “Is there anything we can do?”

Sunset shook her head. “She explicitly said not to help them. It’ll only cause more damage. But she also said that in an emergency, she’d have to shunt parts of her reality into neighboring ones. If that happened here…” She shuddered.

“How close is this world?” said Twilight, moving closer.

“That’s the worst part. I don’t know.” Sunset stared at nothing. At least, nothing Twilight could see. “I can talk to the ETSAB in the morning, but right now—”

Twilight took her girlfriend’s hands in her own. “Right now, there’s nothing even you can do about this.” She tugged Sunset towards the warehouse’s bedroom. “Come on. We can at least try to get some rest.”

“Even if I restore my need to sleep, I’m way too wound up to do so.” Despite saying that, Sunset still let Twilight pull her along.

“I know.” Twilight looked back with a sad smile. “But I can at least hold you for a few hours.”