Mechanic Sapiens

Anonymous sat at his former desk in his former office, confused about why he was dreaming about his job on Earth. The environment around him was obviously a dream, but why did the dream seem fused with his memory? Not to mention how vivid the dream was. It was unnatural. He could... feel things when he touched them.

The entity that hid out of Anon's sight was curious, he could barely make out the shape, but it seemed so familiar. He couldn't move his eyes to see it. Even worse, he couldn't move any part of his body. He was stuck doing whatever he was doing in the memory. Anon looked down at his cluttered desk.

Paperwork.

And lots of it.

At least effort didn't have to be put into the work he was doing. That applied in the dream and when he was on Earth.

Anonymous had been alive a long time. Several universes' lifetimes had played out before his eyes. A side effect from being in existence that long was a memory made of Swiss-cheese. Of the millions of creatures Anon had met, of the hundreds of allies he'd made, of the very few friends he made, he could only remember a handful of them.

Anonymous would forget about all of them in a heartbeat if it would keep the memory of where he came from. It's probably also why he didn't gain wisdom from the secrets of the infinite, or learn any lessons from his mistakes.

A knock at the door startled the working biped.

"Come in!" Anon shouted, against his will.

The door opened to reveal another one of his kind.

A female, to be exact. Slightly taller than Anonymous, but not by too much.

"Hey..." Anonymous said dismissively, shifting his attention back to his paperwork.

"Good morning, ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛." Whatever name she used to refer to Anon was obfuscated by his perpetually fading memory.

"How's the assembly stage going?" He asked the nameless woman. Anonymous recalled he was charge of something at his company. What was he in charge of, again?

"It's armed and ready, you'll want to see it." The girl said in an excited voice.

"What were you building?" A feminine voice interrogated. Anon looked around his field of view for anyone else, but didn't find anything. It wasn't part of the memory. It was happening right now. The figure in his peripheral seemed to turn and face him. Anonymous could barely make out who it was, but one thing was for sure. It was one of the equines.

Anon couldn't talk, but he directed his thoughts towards the pony in the hope of making contact. Telepathy existed in other civilizations, though he never invested in any telepathic implants. With any hope, she might just... Go away.

'Something you couldn't begin to understand.'

"I'm sure that if you could explain it well enough, I could comprehend it." The mystery female replied.

Anonymous stood up from his seat in a hurry, running with the girl who informed him about the 'breakthrough'.

'Reveal yourself, and I'll be willing to... enlighten you.' Anon 'said', begrudgingly. There wasn't much information to use as incentive for this pony to cooperate. Threats always worked, but this was a delicate political situation. Of course he was going to use threats.

"Only on the condition that you won't be mad about my presence here."

'Yeah, sure thing.' He said, somewhat lying. Then again, he couldn't blame this equine. If a highly advanced being was introduced into The Galactic Society, they would keep it under constant surveillance. It only felt right that it should would work vice-versa. Anonymous would let this encounter slide.

The figure stepped into the alien's line of sight, revealing her identity.

Anon quickly recognized her as one of the Princesses, since she had a horn and wings.

'Let's see if I remember your name... Princess Dash? No-- She wasn't one of the Princesses...'

"It is I, Princess Luna." She announced.

'Oh yeah! Now I remember. So... What's with the intrusion?'

Luna looked a little bit ashamed of herself. Whether it was for 'breaking and entering' or for getting caught doing it was a mystery. "My Sister is... uncertain about your intentions. She's willing to go to any measure to ensure her subjects' safety, the same as I am."

Anon saw the bigger picture-- the friendship letters he was supposed to send, it was just an assurance that he would remain friends with them.

'Did she send you?' Anon asked, in a slightly aggravated tone.

"No, I came here because I was curious. Not her. Now... about that project you're working on." Luna pointed her hoof at the girl that was using a security card to unlock a door in front of them.

Anonymous had worked on many projects while he was at Aristoxenus Inc., Artificial Intelligence, Transhuman technology, The Alcubierre warp drive. Whatever he was creating now wasn't anything like it's predecessors. No, it was something bigger, something more...

Destructive.

'Right now, we're working on a Weapon of Mass Destruction.' Anon confessed. He had been honest with civilizations before these equines. As disturbing as it sounded, he found it funny to see them panic. Like ants under a magnifying glass. That's all they were to him.

Princess Luna had a look of worry on her face, surely the visitor that was so kind to them earlier the same day wouldn't resort to using it, would he?
Luna demanded an answer. "How does it operate?"

'It's a Salted Thermonuclear Bomb. Now, to tell you how it works, i'm going to have to give you a quick lesson in nuclear physics.' He explained, hoping to buy some time before she asked any more questions.

The alien didn't remember everything about the operation of the bomb. It was probably for the better, though. If they felt threatened, they might try to construct one themselves. Now that would be catastrophic.

As Anonymous involuntarily followed a girl without a name while trying to remember how Nuclear Bombs worked to stall the equine princess of the night, he reflected on how ridiculous the situation was. Just thinking about it made him giggle. Not the best time to be chuckling, when you're talking about a device that can blow an entire continent to kingdom come. As if poor Luna wasn't already tense.

After a quarter hour of navigating a maze of offices and going through several highly-guarded doors, the female and Anon stopped.

"I looked over your list of possible targets. We've decided to target Ceres for the first test." The mystery girl explained.

"Ceres?"

'It's trillions if not quadrillions of light-years away from your planet, don't worry.' Anonymous assured a concerned Princess.

"Beautiful, just beautiful." Anon remarked while gazing up at the massive missile in the middle of the room.

The exterior was made of a reflective grey metal that would survive the white hot temperatures of being shot through the atmosphere several times the speed of sound.

"Are there any more of these weapons?"

'Of course! In fact, I've got several of them aboard my Flying Castle.' Anon said, waiting for Luna to freak out. After all, if you're going to enter someone's memories, be prepared for some traumatizing sights.

"WHAT?" The Princess was plunged into a state of pure panic, pacing around the room.

'I have a proposal, wake me up now and I'll disarm the missiles for the time being.' Anon said, proud to of finally found some leverage.

Luna thought about it for a few seconds, ignoring the conversation between Anonymous and the girl in the lab coat. Whatever they were talking about wasn't important anymore. The fate of Equestria depended on Luna's decision right now. She took in a deep breath.

"How will I ever know if you're telling the truth?"

'You won't, but that's just a chance you have to take.' He answered, internally smiling at how he was playing the situation.

Anonymous expected a response from the horrified dignitary. Instead, when he blinked he didn't see the missile towering over him. He didn't see the nameless girl. He saw the ceiling of Twilight's basement. He was lying in his cot, not accompanied by any Princesses.

He considered whether or not he should go back to sleep, checking his computer for the time.

'3:00 AM? Eh, it's technically morning.' He thought, pushing the blanket off of him. He stretched in his collapsible bed, and got up to start the day.

THE FOURTH DAY "PONYVILLE" 3:14 AM

Anonymous walked through the dark city, enjoying the cool, misty air. Nature isn't something he had the time to pay attention to, until he came here. Not many ponies were awake at this time of day, but the ones that were awake were surprised that the visitor was already up.

He liked to think that he made a good reputation while at Pinkie's party. Then again, some of them were offset about his disturbing humor. Some were offended when he jokingly said 'Shut up'. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard any of them swear or make threats to each other, even sarcastically.

'Maybe they have advanced morals?' Anonymous thought to himself, taking a second to look up at the starry night sky.

Anon passed by Rarity's place, or 'The Carousel Boutique' as she called it. It had an unusual architecture, though it was probably for show rather than structure. No lights were on, everyone asleep. At least she wasn't working too hard on Anon's clothing.

A bench was placed not too far away from the boutique. Anon walked over to it and took a seat. It didn't have a dramatic view that overlooked the town, but it was a scenic view with all of the trees. The houses looked somewhat medieval, though more colorful.

'This Planet's probably stuck in the 1800's or something.' Anonymous thought while taking in deep breaths of the fresh morning air. At least they didn't have to worry about pollution. He thought about the planet. 'Equis Beth-32C' Beings that visited from other worlds in their mythology were probably just outlaws, running planet to planet from the galactic authorities. It had happened on other planets, there's no reason why it wouldn't of happened here.

Anon heard some pony trotting towards him. When he looked over and saw his roommate, he looked back over at the trees and the houses.

"Good morning." She remarked instead of asking.

"I didn't wake you up, did I?" The visitor inquired.

"No. I didn't get much sleep." Twilight replied.

They sat in silence, enjoying the fresh air, looking up the night sky. Too many stars to be counted, but Anon knew the exact number of stars in their Galaxy. The exact number of planets, and which ones harbored life. It was common information in The Galactic Society, but such trivia would be worth more than all the money on this planet.

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?" She asked without looking down from the sky.

"Are you getting existential on me, Twi?" He asked with a grin.

"I guess. So many of life's questions go unanswered on our planet and on yours."

She wasn't wrong. An infinite amount of time to solve life's problems, and all creatures spent it on improving their understanding of the universe rather than themselves. Anonymous was thinking up an intelligent response.

"Life..." He paused for a second to finish up his thought. "Is too complex to sum up using words."

A smirk slowly formed on Twilight's face.

"That pretty much summed it up."

Anonymous chuckled.

"Let's go home. I'll cook you breakfast."

Twilight didn't hesitate to get back up from the bench and start trotting home. Anonymous looked up at the sky one final time. Whenever he was on his ship, he was a part of the sky. One with the gods. When he was on a planet, the sky would look down on him, observing him. Just like Princess Luna.

He was safe.

He was being watched.

THE FOURTH DAY "CANTERLOT - EQUESTRIAN CAPITAL (TARGET)" 4:12 AM

THE WIZARD OF OZ.
"What is it, Luna?" Celestia sat up and rubbed some sleep out of her eyes, wondering what was so important.

"It's the visitor. He brought weapons."

Princess Celestia frowned. She took a few seconds to collect herself before lowering her head and releasing a large exhale.

"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best." She said, trying to disguise a shaking voice.

"I'll let the troops know immediately." Luna informed her Sister before leaving the room and closing the massive doors behind it.

Princess Celestia reclined back onto her bed, thinking about the implications of these recent events. Their whole existence was in jeopardy, they had to take cautions. At the same time, taking said cautions might cause the event that needed the extra attention in the first place.

There was no escape from this situation.

Each possible outcome was an undesirable one.

If she felt this worried in her own bedroom, how would she tell her subjects? They needed somepony to be fearless. Somepony to show them courage. The stress Celestia found herself in almost drove her to tears.

Almost.

Because a few seconds before the Princess would of broke down, green flames erupted from the corner of the room.

It was a scroll.

Celestia opened it up in the hopes that it brought good news. She needed good news.

Her eyes read who it was from, and she knew that even more trouble was headed her way. It was from Princess Cadence, giving Princess Celestia an update on her mission.

"King Sombra has returned."