[On Earth]

The cruel gods of death that the Ghouls worshipped had a great love of the undead thus the Ghouls were the only living species in the world to actually ally themselves with the Kingdom of the Wraiths within the Dead Lands in order to please their gods. In fact whenever a ghoul was old, sick, or mortally injured and knew they were going to die they would make pilgrimages to the Dead Lands — which they viewed as a holy land deeply blessed by their gods — in order to be resurrected and come back as undead. They even viewed Caedes as a saint for his invention of necromancy. Thus their mages always became priests and the first type of magic they ever learned was necromancy in honor of Caedes, the father of liches, and whenever they died they would willingly turn themselves into liches just like him.

The Monstrous Wraiths that ruled over the entirety of the Dead Lands absolutely loved the Ghouls for that very reason. They were the one and only species of living mortals that the Wraiths were willing to tolerate the existence of due to their intense love and worship of death and their eagerness to become undead themselves. The two kingdoms had a very symbiotic relationship and would often make gruesome trades with each other. The Ghoul’s would give the Wraiths raw materials and in exchange the Wraiths would give them rotten flesh to devour or freshly captured slaves to ritualistically sacrifice to their gods. And whenever one of the Kingdoms went to war the other Kingdom would always fight alongside them every single time.

That’s exactly what was happening at that very moment. The Wraiths seeking to take advantage of the chaos caused by the start of the second War of Survival, had joined the war themselves and the Ghouls immediately joined along with them. The two kingdoms were attacking both sides, the Humans and their allies as well as the Serpents and their allies, turning the war into a massive three way brawl. The one leading the war effort on the part of the Wraiths and Ghouls was the leader of the Kingdom of the Wraith’s military. An extremely powerful demigod by the name of Mors. He was the son of Erebus the lead God of Death worshipped by the Ghouls and Phasma the Queen of the Wraiths. He appeared as a fifty foot tall skeletal monstrosity made of pure darkness.

He had eight glowing blood red eyes, multiple rows of razor sharp teeth that were each about a foot long, four skeletal arms that ended in hands with claws that were strong and sharp enough to rend through the scales of a fully grown dragon with ease, large spikes protruded from the back of his monstrous skull, his shoulders, elbows, and each individual segment of his spine, and his lower half was little more than an inky black cloud of death that would instantly kill anyone who came in contact with it and resurrect them as undead. Like shades everything slowly withered, died, corroded, and crumbled to dust in a thirty foot radius around him, though unlike with shades this only happened if he willed it to be so. He also had an insatiable hunger for souls and would immediately devour the souls of everyone he killed. The only ones he wouldn’t devour were the ones from the individuals who died from being in a thirty foot radius of him or from coming in contact with the cloud that was his lower half. Those would become his slaves. The mere sight of him invoked an instinctual sense of existential dread in all living beings.

He was currently laughing in sadistic glee as he eagerly slaughtered Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Serpents, Orks, Ogres, and Trolls alike. With every swipe of his massive claws or spells he cast, more and more souls would be forcibly dragged into his mouth where they would then be consumed. All around him a massive army of ghosts, zombies, skeletons, shades, liches, wraiths and all other forms of undead monstrosities wreaked death and destruction upon the armies of the living. Grabbing a twenty foot tall heavy combat golem he lifted it up off the ground and proceeded to rip it completely in half before tossing its remains at a couple buildings in which he sensed living souls. The buildings collapsed and hundreds of souls flowed into his mouth.

He was having the time of his life! He couldn’t even remember the last time he ever had this much fun! Though it was entirely possible such a time had never occurred before now in the first place because he had never had a chance to do this much killing before! He was positively elated that Silvanus had started this war with the Humans otherwise he may have never had an opportunity like this! All this death, all this destruction, all these souls for him to devour it was positively exhilarating! Almost intoxicating even! Absolutely nothing could ever compare to this!

He was about to cast another spell to exterminate more of these insignificant mortals when something grabbed him by the spine and flung him backwards. He crashed through several dozen buildings, killing who knew how many hundreds if not thousands of mortals in the process, before he ended up completely outside the city. He kept flying for quite a ways, trying his best to grab himself with telekinesis to slow himself to a stop but something even more powerful than him was disrupting his spell. As such he tried to slow himself through more conventional methods but even that proved mostly unsuccessful. Hitting the ground he skipped like a stone across a lake a few times before he eventually landed and dug a fairly long and deep trench into the ground.

When he finally came to a stop he growled in fury and immediately forced himself up off the ground. Looking around for whatever had done that to him he quickly spotted both Silvanus and Lanius the Executioner floating in the air in front of him. “Hm… Little gods, why do you attack me? Shouldn’t you be trying to kill each other?” He inquired, his voice sounding like a ghostly whisper though his tone was as cold as the grave.

Lanius pointed his sword at the massive monster of a demigod and said, “You are too large of a threat to the mortals who fight alongside us. As such the two of us have come to an understanding that you must be dealt with before you cause any more destruction.”

Mors laughed and said, “I’m flattered you think so highly of me, executioner! Though, I’m afraid I don’t believe my father would approve of you trying to destroy me.”

“Your father’s opinion is irrelevant, you disgusting abomination!” Silvanus growled. “This is not your war so I will give you one warning, stay out of it! Otherwise I would be more than happy to wipe your malignant presence off the face of existence!”

“A very generous offer, oh grandfather of necromancy.” Mors said in a clearly sarcastic tone. Silvanus bristled at that title. “However, I’m afraid I must decline. Mother says she wants all of these pathetic mortals dead so I fully intend to fulfill her wishes. Besides, this is the most fun I have ever had! Why on Earth would I stop now when there are so many souls just waiting to be devoured?!”

A disgusted look crossed Lanius’ face for a moment before his stoic expression returned and he said, “How foolish… Very well, monster. If you wish to die then I shall gladly oblige and take your head.” Then in an instant he was in front of Mors with his executioner sword raised to chop off his head. However something had blocked his blade mid swing. It was an extremely familiar scythe.

“What were you about to do to my son, executioner? Because to me it seems that you were about to kill him had I not intervened.” Erebus hissed in barely restrained fury. His skin was as pale as a corpse, his clean shaven face looked extremely emaciated, he had long blood red hair that appeared to be falling out, his eye sockets were completely empty, his nails appeared long like those of a corpse who’s nails were about to fall out, and the scent of death emanated from him like a miasma. He wore a tattered pitch black robe that was covered in bones. The handle of his scythe appeared to be some unfortunate creature’s spine and its blade was made of some unnatural black material that seemed to consume all the light around it.

“Erebus…” Lanius growled before quickly backing away from the lesser god of death. “Order your son to leave and not get involved in our war or we will be forced to destroy him.”

“Hmph… No. I don’t think I will. Mors, go on and bring death to those pathetic mortals all you want. I shall deal with these two myself.” Erebus growled. “Just make certain to make their deaths as painful as possible for me, would you?”

“With pleasure. Thank you father.” Mors said before teleporting himself back to the city to continue his murderous rampage.

When Mors was gone Erebus pointed his scythe at Lanius and Silvanus. Then a massive beam of ethereal green energy erupted from it and streaked towards the other two lesser gods at several dozen times the speed of light. Both of them teleported out of the way before it could hit them. Then the battle between the three lesser gods began in earnest. It started out with both Lanius and Silvanus focusing all of their attention on Erebus, though eventually Silvanus started attacking Lanius as well. Thus, Lanius began attacking him back. At that point all three of them were just fighting each other with zero regard for which of the other two they were attacking at any given time. The sky was practically burning from the intensity of their battle.

[Back in the City]

High Lord Mechanica Mk. 2 saw Mors teleport into the middle of the city. He sneered at the demigod in disdain. His E.P.U. had zero space left to process fear as it was already overloaded with processing anger, hatred, and disgust. Mors was the single worst demigod in existence, as far as the original Gerhardt had been aware. He was nothing but a blight upon the face of the Earth that needed to be eradicated.

He had been hoping to test his latest weapon on Silvanus in the unlikely event that it might be able to kill him, but he supposed Mors would work too. After all, if it couldn’t kill a demigod what chance did it have of even so much as harming an actual god?

As such he kneeled down and braced himself and raised the massive cannon-like weapon he was carrying. Setting the crescent shaped stock around his shoulder he looked through the panel on the side which acted as the weapon’s sights. He then aimed straight at the monster’s head and pulled the trigger. There was a low pitched whine as the weapon slowly charged up, then after a few seconds an extremely intense concentrated beam of necromantic energy that was approximately two feet in diameter lanced forth from the weapon and slammed straight into the demigod’s inky black skull. Massive tendrils of concentrated destructive necromantic energy began erupting all over Mors’ body before proceeding to immediately lash out and start shredding him.

Mors screamed in hellish agony as the large beam continuously bored into his head and the giant tendrils ripped through his ghostly body. He tried raising all four of his skeletal hands and raising a powerful shield in order to block the beam. However the shield began to crack almost immediately and completely shattered in a matter of seconds. The beam then blasted all four of his hands apart before slamming straight into his skull again. This went on for a few more seconds until Mors apparently decided he had enough and teleported away again. That wouldn’t save him, the High Lord had made sure of it. The necromantic arcane energy would continue tearing into him for hours even after the beam had stopped firing on him.

Unfortunately Mechanica Mk. 2 sincerely doubted that it would actually kill the demigod. Seriously injure him and force him to flee from the battle until he could recover, yes definitely. Kill him? No. It just didn’t have enough power. The beam would have completely obliterated the souls of all but the most powerful of mortal creatures in an instant but Mors was decidedly not a mortal creature. Hell given the fact that he was half Wraith he was unusually powerful and resilient even as far as demigods were concerned. It would take a lot more than that to truly kill the bastard. So given a few weeks to recover he would return to battle as good as new. His hands would have fully regenerated and the gaping hole in his head will have completely sealed up as if nothing had happened in the first place. But at least he had bought everyone on both sides of the war a couple weeks where the monster would be in no condition to fight.

Even so he was far from satisfied with the results of the experiment. He knew from the start that this weapon wouldn’t actually kill Silvanus. It wasn’t even truly designed to. It was intended to prove whether or not the bastard could truly be harmed by weapons like this. Judging by what it had done to Mors, he sincerely doubted it. It had done about as much damage to the Demigod as some of the more powerful conventional bombs and missiles in the Human Kingdom’s arsenal would, and even full on W.M.D.s were effectively useless against Silvanus. So even if he scaled it up massively to fit on a Super Heavy combat golem it still wouldn’t have enough power to kill the bastard.

He would need to completely redesign this worthless piece of shit. Still at least it should prove useful in battle against many normal forms of undead. That had already been proven by how he had been using it to kill Ghouls and Undead for the past hour and would continue using it to do so until the battle was over. The bastards deserved to have their souls destroyed and this weapon was very effective at destroying souls.

[In Equestria a few days later]

About a month had passed since the opening of the factory and Gerhardt’s business was growing at a rapid pace. The sudden boom in business occurred about a week after his first few patients who needed new organs had fully recovered from the surgery and were experiencing none of their previous issues. Now that it was proven that his augmentations actually worked and worked extremely well at that, apparently hospitals had started recommending him to patients who were in dire need of new organs.

If they were well enough to be moved then they would often take the train to Ponyville and come to him. However if the patient’s condition was too bad for them to be moved then the hospitals would send him letters informing him which organ they needed and would request that he schedule a time to come to their hospital to conduct the surgery instead of having the patient come to him. Individuals who needed new limbs, wings, or horns had also started coming to him as did individuals who had deformities that they wanted or needed fixed. He offered a choice between biomancy and augmentations to the ones who simply had deformities.

So he was already making quite a bit of profit and had started paying the Princesses back for the loan. However his schedule was now pretty much constantly full. So much so that he actually had to have the factory build a golem to man the waiting room of the surgical portion of his lab to have his patients schedule appointments because he simply didn’t have enough time to deal with all of them himself. Unfortunately he rarely even had time to build machines in his lab anymore as he was now always either conducting surgeries or traveling across Equestria and even all the way to the Crystal Empire to various hospitals in order to conduct surgeries. His days were now constantly packed the only time he ever had time to do anything other than conducting surgery or traveling was at night. Even then he occasionally had a few patients that were apparently nocturnal in nature.

His name was already fairly well known throughout Equestria from the first book he had written and from the machines he had been selling to the hospitals. So his new factory and business just made him even more well known even faster. That was not necessarily a good thing apparently as wherever he went now there would be at least someone who recognized him and would come up and try to talk to him. Apparently his intentionally eerie appearance and movements were no longer having their intended effect as very few of the ponies seemed even remotely intimidated by him any more. Those that were either had never heard of him before or were children. It was infuriating.

He may as well either redesign his exterior like he had done for Pixel or redesign his exterior and give himself hair and self repairing synthetic skin. He had enough money to buy the materials to make the machines to create synthetic flesh and hair. Maybe it was time he added them to the factory and used them when building his next body. After all, what was even the point of looking like this if it was no longer having the intended effect? He might as well look like a normal human.

Perhaps he should offer Pixel the same opportunity and give her the chance to decide what she looks like for a change. He was the one who decided on her last two appearances. That wasn’t very fair to her. After all, why should he be the one to decide what she looked like? In the Human Kingdom everyone with augmentations were allowed to decide what they looked like as long as they resembled their original species. Pixel had no original species and this was not the Human Kingdom so while he would prefer if she looked like a Human or at least an Elf, Dwarf, or Merperson she could decide to look like a pony or even gods damned dragon from his world for all he cared. As long as she didn’t look like a Serpent from the Serpentine Republic, an Orc, Ogre, Troll, Ghoul, or any form of Undead then her actual appearance was largely irrelevant to him. She was still his daughter no matter what she looked like.

He still didn’t like the fact that he now had a daughter and he doubted he ever would like it. However with his current plans already in motion he was slowly starting to hate the idea a bit less as she would no longer be able to be exploited in order to get to him. She was still a distraction, but that fact was tolerable if a bit annoying so long as she was not a major weakness that could be used against him.

Eventually he decided to use his factory to create a functional surgical golem to conduct surgeries in his place, at least there in Ponyville. He still needed to have facilities constructed all across Equestria and have more golems built to staff them so he would no longer have to conduct any surgeries himself any more. Still that one golem freed up a lot of his time once again. As such he finally managed to spend a bit of time back in his lab to build a machine to grow perfect crystals. Finally he had managed to replace the green sapphire that he had been using as an eye up until that point with another perfect blue sapphire. It was a major relief for both of his eyes to have the same tint and image quality again. He had honestly grown to loath that gods forsaken green sapphire. It had served its purpose but gods above it had been so unbelievably frustrating.

Another week had passed and he was currently in the Crystal Empire. Pixel had recently learned of it and told him how much she really wanted to see it for herself. So he had agreed to bring her to visit it. Of course he was here for more than just sightseeing. Since they were already there he decided to take advantage of this opportunity to find another source from which he could purchase crystals. He was also planning to speak with a realestate agent to find a plot of land where he could have another factory/surgical facility built. He couldn’t afford to purchase the land at the moment given he was still in debt to Princess Celestia and Luna. However he wanted to know if any such land was even available in the first place so he could save up money in order to purchase it at a later date after he had paid off his debt which he was certain shouldn’t take too much time.

Pixel looked around at everything with a look of awe and child-like wonder on her face, eagerly taking in the sights. Gerhardt noticed that her gaze kept being drawn to the tower-like castle in the middle of the city. “Would you like to see the castle up close, little one?” He inquired as they continued to walk.

Pixel looked up at him with an excited look on her face. “Yes please! Can we?!” She asked eagerly.

“Indeed we can. We can’t go inside, of course, but there are streets that cross directly beneath it which civilians pass through every day. So we may get as close to it as we like.” Gerhardt explained. “Would you prefer to walk there or would you like for me to open a portal so we may get there in an instant?”

“Um… I would sort of like to fly there if that’s okay. I really want to see what the city looks like from above and I haven’t had a chance to use my wings ever since we got here.” Pixel requested with a pleading look on her face.

“Hm…I sincerely doubt anything will happen to you in the time it would take you to reach the castle from here, so I suppose that would be alright. Very well. I shall meet you there.” Gerhardt said before opening a portal to the path beneath the castle and stepping through it. Turning and looking in the direction where he had just left Pixel, he zoomed his vision in and saw her fly up into the air high above the crystalline buildings. He then watched as she began flying towards him and the castle. She was very clearly taking her time and enjoying the scenery as he knew full well that she could fly a lot faster than she currently was. He had specifically designed her wings to allow her to fly at maximum speeds easily exceeding mach 2. Not that he expected her to break the sound barrier in this case, but the point remained.

After exactly ten minutes and twenty eight seconds she finally landed in front of Gerhardt with a large smile on her face. “It all looks so beautiful from above! I wish you had wings so you could have seen it too, daddy.”

Gerhardt opened his mouth to respond but paused as his sensors detected a demigod approaching the two of them from above. He knew for a fact that it had to be Princess Cadance. Looking up at where his sensors detected the demigod, his suspicions were indeed proven correct. He assumed the reason she was coming down to meet them was because she had seen Pixel flying and was curious about her. Princess Cadance landed next to him and Pixel with a completely shocked look on her face. “Mr. Mechanica? Who’s this?” She inquired curiously.

“Ah, greetings princess. This is my new daughter, Pixel.” Gerhardt informed her.

“You have a daughter?! Since when?!” Cadance demanded. She then turned her head and looked at Pixel with a friendly smile on her face. “Also, hello Pixel! It’s very nice to meet you! I’m Princess Cadance, ruler of the Crystal Empire alongside my husband Shining Armor. Your father has done quite a bit to help my husband and I. I would love to get to know you better!” She then looked back at Gerhardt with a more serious expression. “Now I would appreciate an answer, Mr. Mechanica. Since when did you get a daughter and why exactly didn’t you inform my and Shining Armor? We would have loved to have met her sooner!”

“Hi, Princess Cadance! I’m glad to meet you too! Your city is really pretty!” Pixel chirped happily.

“She was first activated about two months ago, give or take. I never informed you because why in the world would I? As I told Princess Celestia and Princess Luna during the party Miss Sparkle and her friends held on the night she was first activated, I used to be a High Lord of the Human Kingdom but now I am merely a civilian. You and your husband, on the other hand, are the rulers of the Crystal Empire. So why would I bother you about the fact that I had built a daughter? You have far more relevant matters to attend to.”

Cadance gave Gerhardt an incredulous and slightly hurt look. “Celestia and Luna already know and you didn’t tell Shining Armor and I? Even worse Twilight and her friends held a party to celebrate her birth… or activation and didn’t invite us?”

“To be fair, I didn’t wish to bother you and I had thought that either Miss Sparkle or the Princesses had already informed you. I meant no offense by it. I merely assumed that neither of you would really care as I had no reason to believe that you would.” Gerhardt said in a placating tone. He honestly didn’t understand why she seemed so upset about this. It made no sense to him why the royalty of this world was so interested in his personal life. Excluding Queen Chrysalis. He knew exactly why Chrysalis was interested in his personal life, she wanted to use Pixel as leverage against him. The ponies, on the other hand, had no such reason as far as he was aware so their interest confused him.

“Mr. Mechanica… No. Gerhardt, you saved my and Shining Armor’s wedding. Your methods may have been a bit over the top but that’s besides the point. Not only that but you also helped quite a bit in saving the Crystal Empire from King Sombra not too long after that. I am well aware of your views on friendship but I thought it would have been pretty obvious that Shining Armor and I view you as a friend even if you don’t exactly feel the same. Of course we would be interested in the fact you have a new daughter!” Cadance exclaimed.

Gerhardt sighed. What was it with these damn ponies and their irritating obsession with friendship and harmony? Whatever, he supposed it didn’t really matter. “I see… Then I suppose you have my sincerest apologies, Princess. As I said, I did not intend to cause you or your husband any offense.”

“Hm… Well, since you and Pixel are already here in the Crystal Empire, I suppose you could make it up to us by having dinner with us this evening. I would love to have a chance to talk to your daughter and to catch up with you a bit.” Cadance said.

Pixel gasped in excitement. “Does that mean we would get to go inside your castle?!” She inquired.

Cadance chuckled and said, “Of course it does. And just so you know, you’re both always welcome to visit the castle any time!”

Gerhardt sighed again. “Fine… I suppose we shall attend. What time shall this dinner be taking place? I have a few errands I must attend to in the meantime.”

“Dinner is at seven thirty. I’ll inform the staff and let them know you’re coming so they can lead you to the dining hall. I expect you both to be there.” Princess Cadance informed them.

“Very well, we shall be back here by seven thirty. Until then there are a few things I would like to attend to. Also, before we go, just so you are aware unlike me Pixel is actually fully capable of eating. So I’m sure she would appreciate it if you would set out a plate for her as well. Isn’t that right, little one?”

Pixel nodded eagerly. “Yes please! If that’s okay. I know I don’t really need food so it’s fine if you don’t give me any, but I would really appreciate it!”

Cadance smiled at Pixel and said, “Of course. I’ll definitely have the staff set out a plate for you. Now I should let you get to your errands. We’ll see you both at seven thirty!” With that she turned and launched up into the air before flying back into the castle through the balcony.

After that it took quite awhile but Gerhardt eventually found another supplier of crystals and discussed prices with them. He also eventually found a realtor and spent a few hours discussing plots of land that he could potentially purchase and build his next facility upon once he had the money to afford it. By the time he had finished it was already seven o’clock. Since it was still a bit too early, he and Pixel spent another twenty five minutes wandering around. When it finally turned seven twenty five Gerhardt then opened a portal back to the castle, then he and Pixel made their way inside. They were greeted by a servant almost as soon as they walked through the door. Said servant then led them to the dining room. By the time they had arrived it had just turned seven thirty.

Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor were already sitting there waiting for them. The table was currently still empty for the moment. Shining Armor looked absolutely astounded the moment he saw Pixel. Cadance smiled at the two of them and said, “You’re right on time! Go ahead and take a seat.”

Both Gerhardt and Pixel walked over to the table and sat down in two of the empty seats along the side of the long table. Before either of them could say anything Shining Armor said, “I can’t believe it… Mr. Mechanica, when Cadance told me you had a new daughter I honestly thought she was joking. I hope you don’t mind me asking but what made you decide to build yourself a daughter? It just seems so out of character for you.”

“I am fully aware. Well, to be perfectly honest originally I did not expect Pixel to have the mind of a child nor did I anticipate that she would view me as her father. Her creator, most certainly, but not her father. You see, I had originally intended for her to be my friend/lab assistant as a means of getting around one of Miss Sparkle’s “friendship lessons”. That being to make a friend by the end of that month. Thus the reason I gave her some initial programming to ensure that the philosophical concepts behind the “Elements of Harmony” would form the core of her personality. However upon her activation, it turned out she did have the mind of a child, did view me as a father, and apparently had a feminine personality. Thus I had to accept her as a daughter rather than merely a friend and lab assistant.” Gerhardt explained.

“Oooh… Yeah that makes a lot more sense.” Shining Armor stated in a tone of realization. “Well moving on. What brings you all the way out here to the Crystal Empire? I assume you and Pixel are here for a reason.”

“Pixel recently learned about the Crystal Empire and wanted to see it for herself. So I decided I may as well bring her here so she could take in the sights. I also planned to use this trip as an opportunity to try and find a new supplier of crystals for my business. I also went about finding a real estate agent and finding out if there are any available sections of land which I may be able to purchase in order to have another factory/surgical facility built here in the Crystal Empire so I may expand my business. It will have the added benefit of making it so that people from here do not need to travel all the way to Ponyville in order to receive augmentations if they are in need of any. I can’t afford it now as I am still in debt to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for the loan they were so generous as to provide me with in order to have my first factory/surgical facility built. Though I should be able to soon enough so it is good to know ahead of time. Those were the errands I had to attend to before coming here.” Gerhardt explained.

“Yup! This place is really pretty! I had a lot of fun exploring it with daddy!” Pixel exclaimed happily.

That was when servants came in carrying trays containing plates of food. They quickly set the plates down in front of Cadance, Shining Armor, and Pixel before exiting the room. As soon as they were gone Princess Cadance said, “Well I’m very glad you enjoyed it, Pixel! I hope you can come visit the Empire again some time soon! Anyways I’ve heard quite a bit about your business, Gerhardt. Apparently you’ve given some of the local ponies limb and/or organ augmentations. From what I’ve heard some traveled all the way to your facility in Ponyville for their operations while you actually came all the way here yourself for the others. It’s good to hear that you’re planning on expanding your business all the way out here in the Crystal Empire. Personally I would suggest setting up multiple facilities in different locations here in the Empire but having even one out here will make it much easier to access for a lot of ponies.”

“Indeed it should, and that’s actually a very good suggestion. I shall consider opening multiple facilities out here once I have the funding to do so.” Gerhardt said, glad that the Princess was so encouraging of him having multiple facilities open here in the Crystal Empire. After all the more factories he had, the more weapons and combat golems he could produce at a time. Then with a network of underground portal or perhaps even teleportation devices linking all of his factories together, including the hidden ones that no one but him would know about, he could deploy his forces anywhere across Equestria at any time. His production rate would become truly immense when he could finally send some ships full of mining golems into space to start mining asteroids and potentially other planets within the solar system for resources.

“Actually I’m also considering allowing individuals who don’t necessarily require augmentations to purchase them as well. In the Human Kingdom it was quite common for individuals to want mechanical upgrades over their weaker organic body parts. After I finish building the machines to make synthetic skin, hair, fur, and feathers the option of replacing one’s body parts should be more appealing to a wider variety of individuals as there will be no visual difference between the organic and artificial body parts. Except for the eyes, of course. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do to make the eyes look organic.” Gerhardt informed them.

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at that and asked, “Oh, is that so? Then do you have any intention of ever making yourself or Pixel look more organic? Sorry I don’t mean to be rude but while Pixel looks perfectly fine your current appearance is a bit… unsettling.”

“I take no offense. My appearance is intentionally designed to be unsettling in order to intimidate others into leaving me alone unless they have something important to discuss with me. Though, unfortunately ever since my business started and people started to learn of me beyond just my books they have started approaching me and trying to speak to me despite my appearance. So actually yes. I am planning on making myself look like my young organic self — minus all of the scars, malnourishment, and heavy bags under my eyes from self imposed sleep deprivation — since it appears that there is no longer any point in looking like this since it is no longer having its intended effect. And yes, I planned to offer to make Pixel look like an organic human too and allow her to choose her own appearance after I had finished building the machines to produce synthetic skin and hair. After all, why should I be the one who decides what she looks like?”

Pixel stopped eating the salad that was sitting in front of her and looked at Gerhardt excitedly. Quickly swallowing what food was already in her mouth she exclaimed, “Really?!”

Gerhardt gave her a small smile and said, “Of course, dear. You may choose whatever appearance you wish. Whether you would like to look like a Human, Elf, Dwarf, Pony, or even one of the Dragons from my world. The only appearances you are not allowed to choose are a Serpent from the Serpentine Republic, an Orc, Ogre, Troll, Ghoul, or any form of Undead. Spirits are also out of the question as I am limited in what I am actually able to do with physical materials so I can’t exactly give you any sort of conceptual form even if I wanted to.”

“Hm… It would be nice to look like all of my friends but you’re Human so I want to look Human just like you!” Pixel stated in a definitive tone with a large smile on her face. “And if I’m allowed to choose what I look like, I want to look like this!” She then cast an optical illusion spell. Floating above the table was the slowly rotating image of a girl wearing the same clothes as Pixel but with the hood of her robe lowered. She had ghostly pale sun-deprived skin just like the image Gerhardt had shown Pixel of what he used to look like, a relatively small nose, the same solid pink eyes that Pixel currently had, perfectly straight silver hair that reached just an inch or two past her shoulders and had an obviously metallic shine to it, and had pure white wings on her back.

Cadance and Shining Armor both examined the image curiously while Gerhardt merely recorded every little detail for future reference. “Understood. Would you like your hair to be made of actual metal or would you like it to be made of the same material synthetic hair is usually made of?” Gerhardt inquired.

“I would like it to be made of actual silver please!” Pixel requested.

“As you wish. I’ll have your new body built as soon as I finish the machines my factory requires to do so.” Gerhardt informed her.

“Well, other than that has anything else of note happened with either of you?” Princess Cadance inquired as the illusory image vanished.

“Hm… I have come into possession of something called the “Alicorn Amulet” which dramatically increases the power of the wearer at the cost of corrupting them the more they use it. An individual calling herself “the Great and Powerful Trixie” was using it to effectively take over Ponyville. I used a bit of mental illusion magic to show her some truly terrifying imagery and scared her into giving it to me as it was unable to be removed by anyone except the one wearing it. I am currently studying it to determine how it works and have discovered an entirely new form of magic I previously had no idea even existed. It shares some similarities with chaotic magic but is more than different enough to be classified as a completely separate form of magic entirely. The closest thing I can come to describing it is the exact opposite of you ponies' superstitions about “Harmony”. Thus not knowing what you ponies call it — since I assume you have to know about it to have been able to make the amulet in the first place — I have decided to call it “Discordant Magic”. I am currently researching this Discordant Magic in order to find a way to safely use it without risking being corrupted by it.”

Shining Armor and Cadance shared a worried glance before looking at Gerhardt again and Cadance said, “I see… Um… If that’s the case then please be as careful as you possibly can. To be perfectly honest, knowing what you’re capable of and are willing to do to other ponies, the idea of you being corrupted by this “Discordant Magic” is legitimately terrifying. It may very well be just as disastrous if not even more so than when Auntie Luna became Nightmare Moon.”

“Hmph. You seem to vastly overestimate my abilities. Hypothetically assuming I was corrupted by this magic and sought to conquer the world, what chance do you think I would have fighting three demigods? Even if I was using this Alicorn Amulet and it increased my power to match that of a demigod, it would still be three against one. Using the amulet I may be able to defeat you in a one on one fight but not all three of you at once.” Gerhardt stated, intentionally ignoring the fact that he was planning to build up his own personal army of combat golems. He actually agreed with her, the idea of him being corrupted was indeed truly terrifying. He could very well throw the world into a war on par with if not surpassing the First Necromantic War if he truly had any desire to, especially since he now had a factory capable of producing combat golems for him.

Neither Cadance nor Shining Armor looked convinced. Shining Armor shook his head and said, “Maybe that’s true but who says you would do it all on your own? What’s to stop you from making an army of beings like your daughter? She can use magic. So you could build several generals who could command your army alongside you and give them the ability to use magic. Then you could provide them with their own copies of the amulets. And if the amulet is as powerful as you say and can increase the wearer’s power to be on par with an alicorn like Cadance, Luna, or Celestia then you and your generals would be effectively unstoppable.”

That was something Gerhardt had already considered. He could effectively have his factory mass produce an army of mages for him if he really wanted to. He had already figured out why Pixel had the mind of a child so he knew exactly how to ensure the rest didn’t. He still didn’t understand why she considered him her father, however. So it was entirely possible that everyone in that army might consider him their father just like her, though that was not necessarily a bad thing. Ultimately them considering him their father would just make them all the more loyal to him than they otherwise would be all things considered.

So realistically the pros would outweigh the cons if one were to look at it from a purely logical standpoint. However, he really didn’t want to do that so he simply wasn’t going to. He would much rather have an army of mindless, soulless, combat golems than actual people. In fact he had spent centuries pushing for that very thing back in the Human Kingdom. After all, why send good men and women to their deaths when you could send an army of combat golems to battle instead? To do so would be just plain cruel. Sure combat golems would never replace mages, unfortunately, but they should definitely replace normal soldiers. At least in theory. Unfortunately it had been proven time and time again that normal soldiers could do things and make decisions that simple combat golems never could without giving the combat golem sapience which was illegal and completely defeated the purpose of phasing out normal soldiers in the first place.

He did not like sending people to their deaths. He never had and he never would. Unfortunately that was just the simple reality of war back in his world. Here in this world, however, while raising an army of sapient golems that were also all extremely powerful mages was the objectively superior option from a purely logical standpoint he still refused to do so. Specifically because they would all be intended as soldiers and would thus be expected to fight and die for him. There was also the fact that they would all technically be his children so he would be sending countless numbers of his own sons and daughters to fight and die for him which just made it all the worse.

“Prince… If I did that each and every last one of them would think of me as their father, which would technically be correct since I would be the one who made them. So I would be sending my own sons and daughters to fight and die for me. I do not enjoy sending average soldiers to fight and die for the Human Kingdom which is so much more important than I am. So the idea of sending my own children to do so merely for me appalls me even more. So even if I were corrupted I would never do such a thing. Perhaps I may build an army of mindless and soulless combat golems but that would be it. Granted, that would still be extremely bad but it would be nowhere near as bad as if I were to make an army of sapient golems like Pixel.”

“I know you don’t want me to but I would fight for you, daddy.” Pixel stated.

In response Gerhardt just sighed and said, “No.”

“Fine. The point is, this magic you’re working with sounds very dangerous and you yourself are a very dangerous individual. So you being corrupted by it would not be a good thing no matter how you look at it. So please try not to use it unless you’re absolutely certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will not corrupt you. I don’t care what sort of army you would raise, we simply can’t afford to have you trying to take over the world.” Shining Armor told him.

“Neither of you need to worry, I assure you. I am already well aware of the risks and have no intention of ever letting myself be corrupted by Discordant Magic. I will figure out a way to safely harness it long before I ever risk using it myself. Thus the reason I am conducting research upon it in the first place. I know what I am doing.”

“I’m sure you do.” Cadance said. “Anyways this seems like a bit too serious of a topic for a casual visit like this. So to change the topic, I’m sure you will be happy to know that we finally have our own guards to help defend the city!”

“Very good. I expected that you would by now but it is good to have confirmation on that. Are there any unicorns among them and if so have they started utilizing the exercises and training methods detailed within my book?” Gerhardt inquired.

Shining Armor smiled proudly and said, “Of course! I made sure of it! I want the Empire to have the strongest defenses it possibly can in the event of another disaster like King Sombra’s return. Speaking of which, at some point I would sort of like to talk to you about improving the weapons and armor of my soldiers as well as installing some defensive technology to protect the Empire if possible. Whenever you have the time, of course.”

Gerhardt blinked in surprise. “Interesting… That is not a request I had expected to ever get from any of you ponies given how pacifistic you tend to be. Very well, I would gladly schedule a meeting to discuss that with you. The soonest I will be available to meet with you after tonight will be in about five days. Does that sound like a good time?”

Shining Armor nodded. “That sounds perfect. I have nothing else really planned for that day. So let's meet in the throne room at noon.”

“Understood. Do you mind if I open a portal to get there?” Gerhardt inquired.

“No, not at all. In fact I was already expecting that you would be using a portal in the first place.” Shining Armor stated.

After that the four of them drifted into a bit more casual conversation. At that point Pixel took over for Gerhardt as she was far better at casual conversation than he was and she had far more to talk about than he did. This went on for about an hour before Cadance and Shining Armor had to go to bed. Thus they said their goodbyes and Gerhardt and Pixel returned to Ponyville via portal.

Author's Note

This one's mainly filler. Also just so you all are aware, it is officially fall by the time this chapter takes place. There's going to be a bit of a fall and winter arc. Then I suppose shit will finally hit the fan at Mach ten. So look forward to that! 😊

Fun fact: Having your soul devoured by Mors is actually the second worst fate you can possibly have other than being trapped within the Infernal Realm to be tortured by Spirits of Evil for the rest of eternity. That's because when he devours someone's soul, their soul is still very much intact and aware. They are also in constant mind shattering agony and will remain that way for the rest of eternity. Or at the very least until Mors is destroyed.

Fun Fact #2: Wraiths are by far the most powerful sapient undead in existence, thus the reason they are at the top of the undead hierarchy. Liches are a close second. There are undead monstrosities that are even more powerful than Wraiths rivaling if not surpassing even demigods like Mors. However they are definitely not sapient. Hell they barely even qualify as merely sentient like most animals! Regardless whenever one is made and unleashed it is always a disaster in and of itself, much like dragons in a way just a lot worse. And not just because of the smell either, though the smell is more than enough to make one want to puke their guts out. Spirits of Undeath don't really count since they are literal conceptual beings.

Fun Fact #3: Erebus is even more of a dick than Silvanus. Cruel is a serious understatement when describing him. And the Ghouls worship him as their main god. Let that sink in for a moment then realize how horrible the Ghouls must be, especially since they are one of if not the single most religious species in that entire world. Now, aren't you glad neither of them, Erebus nor the Ghouls, actually exist? Not in our universe at least. Considering that the multiverse is infinite they have to exist somewhere out there. But that's that universe's problem, not ours!

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and how you think I could improve if at all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much if not more than I enjoyed writing it!

Stay safe out there everyone!