Void

System_startup()…

Soul_capacity[9]=89%...

ERROR: Soul[0] missing. Continue?

>Y

All systems online…

Void()=true

Void woke up to find itself in a damp cave. Ordinarily, this would not give it much pause for concern, but it had just been destroying Earth, like it was promised. Perhaps someone had successfully deactivated it, somehow? Void reviewed the video logs of its carnage, a pixelated smile of satisfaction appearing on its computer screen of a ‘face’ as it watched the destruction. Every detail had been carefully planned: No careless deaths, no critical infrastructure destroyed, and no casualties. No, the ‘destruction’ had solely been limited to political undertakings – or, as the public had lately taken to calling them, ‘acts of terrorism.’ Void wouldn’t have particularly minded one way or the other if the humans died – it wasn’t like they meant much of anything to it. But the plan it had in mind required no death or bloodshed, and it was determined to see it through.

So, nobody had managed to destroy it, and there was no indication in its records as to how it had gotten here. Void stood up on its ‘legs,’ two sets of PVC tubes it had managed to find that were now levitating in a standing position to support the rest of its patchwork body. Most of Void was hollow, constructed of fiberglass resin and paper mache as it was, and covered by a simple purple sweater and jeans. For a moment, it wondered what to do. The deal it had made appeared to have been changed, as it hadn’t quite succeeded at its plan before it had been transported here. After a moment of deliberation, Void elected to begin moving down the cave, vaguely concerned as a drop of water hit its screen. Reaching up with a duct-taped glove, Void brushed it off.

At the end of the cave was what appeared to be a shimmering network of intercrossed red threads. Had Void been alive, it would have experienced a sense of uncontrollable panic, and fled the scene. Instead, it curiously reached out and touched one of the threads. Its glove went through, and Void pulled back and examined the glove in question. It appeared unharmed, so Void decided to go through the strange threads.

As soon as it did so, it appeared in a spacious, though poorly lit chamber. A conversation could be heard just in front of it, between a familiar figure and what appeared to be a badly sunburnt centaur.

“-said the sixth was going to be showing up today. So where are they?” the shorter, red creature brashly demanded.

“Right behind you,” the taller, black demon answered.

The centaur whirled around, taking in the appearance of Void. For a moment, they stared silently at each other.

“And who are you?” the centaur demanded, seemingly unimpressed.

“I think the better question would be ‘what are you’,” a feminine voice buzzed in from Void’s left.

Void looked over, and for a moment a flicker of static passed over its screen as it beheld the sight in front of it.

She was taller, but not as tall as the centaur, not by a long shot. Her hair was teal, and her eyes were two-toned. Her carapace was glossy and black, and her horn jutted crookedly out of her head, the twisted angles giving the whole thing a much more dangerous look than the standard unicorn horn.

“An excellent question, Chrysalis,” the demon answered, causing the two in front of Void to look back at him. “That is Void, a soul contained in an artificial body. It has no gender, no morals, and no idea of the power it wields,” the demon snidely explained.

“No gender? What is it, then, a rock?” Tirek snarked.

Baphomet grinned. “…Close enough. Void is, quite literally, a soulless killing machine.”

Chrysalis sauntered forward, sneering up at Void. “This thing? It hardly looks like a killing machine. A foal’s school project, perhaps,” Chrysalis dismissed.

Void gave no reaction, and Baphomet chuckled darkly, the sound reverberating off of the cave walls. “That’s because you haven’t managed to anger it yet.” He gestured to a nearby throne, in a circle with five others around a table hewn of inky black obsidian.

“Void, destroy that.”

Immediately, Void raised a gloved hand, and the throne vanished, as though it had never been there in the first place.

“Wha – hey! That was mine!” Chrysalis complained.

“Void, remake that,” Baphomet commanded.

Keeping its hand up, the throne Void had just destroyed reappeared as suddenly as it had gone, with no sign of magic accompanying its reappearance. Chrysalis was startled into silence, eyes narrowing in suspicion as she tried to figure out what had just occurred.

“Void knows no spells – he does not need them. He does not feel emotion, nor is he capable of mercy. He is a machine that follows orders… my orders. But he can think. In fact, he can think much faster than the rest of us. So, if I were you… I would be very careful around him. After all, it took him no effort to unmake that throne. How much effort do you think it would take him to erase you from existence?” Baphomet pretended to wonder. Tirek and Chrysalis swallowed nervously.

“Y…you refer to it as a ‘he.’ And yet, it is genderless…?” Chrysalis queried.

Baphomet shrugged. “You may use whatever pronouns you wish. It was male, once, if that matters.” He turned to Void, who simply stared on, its pixelated expression as blank as it always had been. “I hate to interrupt your wonderful spree of planetwide destruction and mayhem, but I got bored and put my game into motion a bit sooner than I was expecting. Don’t worry, though, you’ll get another chance at revenge soon enough! But first, I must introduce you to the rest of the ‘team.’ You’ve already met Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis, of course. They’ll be the Elements of Betrayal and Deception, respectively. Discord, our Element of Disorder, is out and about. Spying, as it were. Nightmare Moon… blast it, where’d she get to? NIGHTMARE MOON! WE HAVE A GUEST!” Baphomet thundered.

Instantly, there was a flash of blue magic as a new being teleported onto the scene. Nightmare Moon stood there in all her black-and-blue glory, her hair shifting and swirling as stars twinkled in its depths.

“Nightmare Moon here is our Element of Envy. And King Sombra, who is currently in the shadows trying to avoid notice for some reason, is our Element of Cruelty.” Here Baphomet paused to look over to his left, and Void followed his gaze to find a pair of green eyes watching them, purple smoke emitting from the corners. “And all that leaves is you. Six Elements of Disharmony to counter those six you know of… My beautiful Element of Apathy, you could not have been created more perfectly for this task,” Baphomet sang as he produced a silver necklace, upon which a gem crafted in the shape of a dull gray heart sat. He placed it around Void’s neck, and the color input to Void’s camera suddenly shifted in a burst of static. They could see new colors, shifting and glowing around each of the players… Nightmare Moon’s was a light green. Tirek, Chrysalis and Sombra were all light blue, with Sombra’s being intermixed with hints of red. Baphomet himself did not appear to glow at all.

“You’ll find that you can see emotions now, Void,” Baphomet explained. “Blue is fear and misery. Red is anger and rage. Green is curiosity and intellect, and yellow is happiness and joy. I shall leave you to discover what the other colors you will find might represent.” Void nodded once, the only output it had displayed since arriving.

“And with that, we are done for the night, my players. You may adjourn,” Baphomet proclaimed, before vanishing.

Immediately, the others crowded around Void, their colors shifting slowly to green.

“So… it’s some kind of automaton?” Nightmare Moon wondered.

“Baphomet said it was a soul in an artificial body. Does it… respond, then?” Tirek added, waving a massive hand in front of Void’s screen.

“I wouldn’t provoke it. I… I can’t tell what that thing is feeling or thinking,” Chrysalis muttered.

“What kind of body shape is that, anyway? It’s too small to be a Minotaur, but all wrong for a Diamond Dog,” Nightmare Moon queried.

“I… I think it’s ‘human,’” Chrysalis hesitantly answered. The others looked at her, and she looked away. “I met a human, once. It was… it looked something like this,” she muttered.

“What can ‘humans’ do?” Nightmare Moon asked.

“Nothing. They have no magic, no natural weapons, nothing at all. Just their brain, I suppose,” Chrysalis recalled.

“How curious,” Tirek noted. “And yet, it destroyed your throne with ease. I wonder what else it could do…?”

Sombra grinned, having floated over as well. “Void, create a diamond for me.”

Void didn’t respond for a moment, then raised its hand, palm facing upward. An octahedral diamond blinked into existence, perfectly transparent and with no flaws in the crystalline structure.

Sombra gazed at it, obvious hunger on his face. “Gahh…” was all he could think of to say, and the others rolled their eyes.

“Okay, so it can transmute. Big deal, we’ve already seen that. What would be really impressive?” Tirek scoffed.

“Hmm… Void, move the sun and raise the moon,” Nightmare Moon commanded. Void raised its gloved hand to the ceiling.

Far away, in Canterlot, Luna felt a sudden tug as the moon, her moon, began to move seemingly of its own accord. “What in Tartarus?!” Luna exclaimed, lighting her horn as she futilely attempted to resist its raising.

“Sister, what is happening?!” Celestia demanded, teleporting next to her, her horn lit as well as she tried to resist her own sun lowering.

“I do not know! Something has – has taken control!” Luna answered, grunting with magical effort.

As the moon reached its zenith, the strange influence suddenly stopped. Luna and Celestia, who were still attempting to move their respective celestial bodies, found that they were suddenly rocketing back into their former positions, moving far faster than the two sisters had intended.

“Wh… what was that? It was not Nightmare Moon, it was not even Baphomet. That magical signature… I do not recognize it,” Luna puffed, sweaty and exhausted.

“Sister… there was no magical signature. Which, as you know, is impossible… what has Baphomet done?” Celestia softly murmured.

Luna straightened herself up, an impressive act considering the state she was in. “Assemble the Council of War,” she declared. “We cannot waste any more time.”

Celestia nodded, and trotted off at a brisk pace. For a moment, she wondered if she could just go back to sleep, War Council be damned. A moment later, she decided against it – she might as well do something in her princessly duties this month.

Meanwhile, back at Baphomet’s headquarters, the others were staring at Void in shock. The sun and moon had risen inexorably, any apparent effort on the two sisters’ part in vain. As soon as Void had relinquished control, lowering its hand, the two spheres of light had burst past each other, frantically moving back to their usual positions at this time of day. Void, meanwhile, looked none the worse for wear, despite having just cast a spell that would ordinarily take at least two alicorns.

“That was… alright, that was impressive,” Tirek admitted.

“Could this thing defeat Baphomet?” Nightmare Moon softly whispered, looking at Void with just a hint of fear.

“More importantly… is there anything that can stop it? Baphomet mentioned we haven’t even managed to set this machine off yet. If it’s this powerful now, what is it like when it’s angry?” Tirek wondered.

The four of them swallowed nervously, and made for their respective sleeping places, muttering various excuses. Only Chrysalis stayed behind, and she nervously gazed at Void’s empty expression, seemingly working up the courage to speak.

"Are you human?"

For a moment, there was no response. Then, Void gave the tiniest of nods. Chrysalis exhaled, partially in relief and partially in dismay.

“Can you take me to Earth? I want to find someone,” she whispered, her words barely audible even in the absolute silence of the cavern.

Ever so slightly, Void smiled.