An hour after the Griffon forces had been repelled, Jacob and Sierra were waiting outside the throne room in the spire of the Empire, the two sat in chairs, Sierra hunched over, elbows on her knees, both hands over her mouth, while Jacob had slid into the chair to the point his legs were straight, arms crossed over his chest, and chin resting on his collarbone with his eyes closed.

Thirty minutes ago, Marcus had arrived, along with Princess Luna. Marcus -begrudgingly- had gotten the job of making sure nothing approached the other two ACUs, a result of his late arrival. Luna, however, had barged into the Throne room as Cadenza had, for lack of a better term, interrogated Sierra and Jacob. That led the two where they were now; waiting outside the Throne room.

Jacob? Monika said over Jacob’s implants that connected him to his ACU. Jacob remained how he was. Jacob.

“Fwack ofth,” could be heard mumbled.

If Monika had a real body, she would have taken a deep breath, and sighed. Okay, then. With that, she sent a small electric shock through the implants, as if delivering a small static shock right to the brain that could be felt at the base spine.

“What?” Jacob asked, one of his eyes cracking open. “I’m trying to nap, Monika.”

Yeah, I noticed, she said. Marcus keeps trying to get to you guys, but you surprisingly sleep like a rock, and Sierra doesn’t have a comms device even if she weren’t praying. A beat passed. What exactly is she praying to, anyway?

Jacob opened his mouth to reply, but closed it. “No idea.”

I thought you two were dating?!

“Doesn’t mean we don’t have personal lives,” Jacob said. “She’s religious, I’m atheist, neither of us really give a shit beyond that. Now, you were saying about Marcus?”

He keeps trying to get you guys. More accurately, he keeps asking if one of you can explain what’s going on.

Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a headache after dealing with Slut Princess’ namesake and Miss Royal voice right now. Can you do it? He needs to learn about you anyways.” Before Monika could protest, she felt Jacob block off access to his implants. She let out the digital equivalent of a sigh.

In the hall, Jacob’s open eye focused on a castle maid that was nearby, and quaking in fear. “Boo.” He chuckled at the sound of panicked running, then closed his eye, hoping for a little more time to nap.

Outside the boundaries of the Empire’s only city, Marcus sat bored in his ACU. The lore has these these things as command centers for an entire army, he thought. Why isn’t there anything for dealing with fucking boredom in here? Currently, he sat with his left elbow on its arm rest, and leaned his head on the knuckles of his left fist, and exhaled in boredom.

He had been like this for the past half hour, waiting for either Jacob or Sierra to talk to him, but so far, he had nothing. That was, up until a female voice projected itself over the internal speakers of his cockpit. “Hello, anyone there?”

Marcus jumped a little at the voice, not recognizing it. “Who-”

“Don’t freak out, I’m a friend,” the voice said before one of the screens turned on, showing a teenage girl with long, red hair in a ponytail with a white bow, wearing a school uniform. She had green iris and a small smile on her face. Marcus, while recognizing her, was unable to think clearly.

“You-you. . .what the fuck is going on here?” he asked, his mouth open a little in terror and pointing down at the corners. “Don’t fucking kill me, you homicidal bitch.”

“Aw, I’m hurt,” she said. “I guess you know my name, then? Well, it saves time, I guess.”

“The fucking hell do you want?!” Marcus asked, a little more terrified.

Monika sighed on screen. “Jacob wanted me to answer the question have about what’s going on,” she said. “To answer your question as to what I want?” Monika shrugged. “Honestly, I’m just happy I’m not a scripted program anymore, however advanced it was.”

“That doesn’t help fill me with confidence,” Marcus said, still terrified. “But how in the fucking hell did you become his A.I.?”

“You remember the light he had on his costume?”

“No. If he did, I probably forgot them after being transported to another FUCKING DIMENSION!”

The image deadpanned him. “First, it’s universe in this case. Dimension just implies another level of reality in a single universe,” she said. “To answer your question, Jacob had his laptop with him as the back component for his costume to act as a battery for the lights he added on. He struck a deal with the two that put you guys here, and he asked to have an A.I. to help run his ACU.”

Marcus, relaxing physically but still quite terrified, asked, “And what, they took a random character file from his Steam Library and made it an A.I.?”

“I can hear the sarcasm, but yes. Along with his other game files, but I was the one picked.”

Marcus opened his mouth, then closed it as he thought. “Well, I can think of worse.” Tali. Morinth. Any one of the Chosen. Decimus. Harbinger. Marcus was like this for a few seconds.

“Yeah, I don’t think any of the ones you’re thinking of could do much worse than detonating the ACU core indirectly,” Monika said.

“Not helping,” Marcus said. “And just why aren’t you going yandere on Sierra?”

“For one,” Monika said, “Jacob managed to work out to where he’d have a relative week with his ACU to learn how to use it, and get to know me. In that time, he managed to explain what was going on to me. And besides, like I said, I’m not just a well programmed character in a visual novel anymore.” Monika crossed her arms, and her face adopted a smug look, with a small smile and closed eyes. “I like to think I’ve gotten as close to an actual human as something like me can right now.”

Marcus ignored the last line. “And what about the other files?”

Monika shrugged, and opened its eyes. “In the memory core for Jacob’s ACU. They’re inactive, and it would take time for them to reach the level I’m at. And please, don’t call them files.”

Marcus shrugged. “Well, isn’t that all A.I.s are? Self writing files?”

The image glared at him. It looked as if it was about to speak, then shook its head. “Jacob just wanted me to fill you in, not play twenty questions. You three are in what Jacob assumes to be Equestria from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic approximately a thousand years before the show proper, with everyone being anthro,” she said. “And what he also assumes to be a much more volatile political climate.”

“Oh yay,” Marcus muttered. “Anything else?”

“The ponies speak Shakespearean English. I took the liberty of creating a translation program, but you and Sierra can’t use it without implants,” Monika continued. Her image then held up a folder. “So I made a dictionary that shows modern English and their Shakespearean equivalents. If you want to talk to the locals, I’d recommend memorizing it.”

“That why I can’t be with Jacob and Sierra?” Marcus asked.

“Yep,” Monika replied a small smile on her image’s face. “You don’t have implants, and Empress Cadenza doesn’t want others involved in the talks between those three. From what I overheard, it’s because using telepathy is rather tiring when used for two people, excluding the one actually doing it, let alone three.”

“That why it’s taking so long!?”

“No,” Monika said. “Apparently, Princess Luna couldn’t wait to get into an argument with Empress Cadenza.”

Marcus groaned, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, can you tell Jacob I’ll be waiting out here?” he asked. Mumbling he added. “Not like I have much else to do but sit.”

On it,” Monika said before her image disappeared. A few seconds later, her voice said, “By the way, I just transferred a copy of Jacob’s movie collection into your ACU’s database. Have fun.”

“Ah, fuck off.”

On the west coast of Equestria, just as the sun began to rise, in a small house away from any town or village, a single mare gasped as she shot up in bed, clutching her sheets, taking deep, haggard breathes, her mind replaying what she had just seen.

A large settlement with building as tall as the sky aflame, screams audible for miles as strange creatures flew in the skies, far larger than any pegasus or Griffon, two agile for their speed to be dragons, firing beams of energy and containers of explosives at one another.

An entire forest swept in fire, smoke rising to the heavens as eleven giants stood, eight with a mountain to their backs and in varying forms and similar size, three with an army of giant, silent beasts behind them, two nearly as tall as the buildings in the previous image, standing on two thin legs, and possessing a head which seemed to float. Between these two, a smaller giant with similar legs, but with a pointed head and spires from the shoulders.

A destroyed room that still contained a remnant of its former splendor, housing debris, tattered flags with barely discernible sigils representing the two sisters, and two individuals facing one another. One with a blazing sword and shield, the other with nothing in its hands, spread in a mocking fashion.

Finally, a single being stepping out from a fire toward a small pony army with only a vampony-evident in the slit eyes and canines visible in a deranged grin- and lavender unicorn with clouds of black and green magic in her hands.

Still gasping, the mare got out of bed and stumbled over to her dresser, where a quill and parchment were, and began to write, her breath calming as she did so. Once she was done, she turned around, and slid down to the floor, staring at what she had written in disbelief.

A shiver ran through her as she uttered what she had witnessed and wrote. “A- a death prophecy.”

Author's Note

Soooo. . .how many of you guessed where Monika was from before now?
Also, do I hear any guesses on what the images specifically were and who was in them?