The planet of Ultimatum IV was a place of vast and titan-sized industry, evident by its yellow skies and toxic air.
There, many buildings of absurd scale and never ending factories worked. Guns, bullets, parts of various things, armors, and much else were produced to feed the never ending fires of war of their Imperium.
Men that were more machine than human, wearing red robes and carrying weapons branded with a half-machine half-white skull were going about their usual tasks and routines. Some were surveying the fabrication of molten metal, its heat doing next to nothing to them. Others were chanting while maintaining their precious machines.
And yet, none noticed the one sitting in the corner, slumped against a wall.
She has been there for a while now. How long, she didn't know. Maybe days, months, or just a few minutes? She didn't bother to keep track at this point.
As soon as the device recharged, she would be out of here, and in another place that most likely wouldn't be her home.
Discreetly, silently, she turned her head to her arm and looked at the boxy thing. She noted that it has almost refilled its energy, if the symbols on it didn't lie, she understanding them already. She also noted that her arm, outrora silvery and with a coat of blue, now looked like something you would see in a scrapyard.
She put her gaze back to the equally rusty ground, attempting to ignore her own state of body.
She still remembered who she was, atleast. XJ-9, or Jenny Wakeman as she liked to be called.
It's...Hard to forget when you have a mind of metal.
And she remembered every single thing she did since she found the thing that put her in this misery.
She would gladly break it to bits, mash it and melt it down, but...Without it, she wouldn't be able to travel worlds.
And she needed that to find her world again. Return to her family and friends.
Try to at least.
Saying that, she had barely survived her last encounter from the last world. She had suffered a bad bullet hit to her chest. It was far too close to the thing that kept her hidden at that moment.
Then, she looked up to see if there was something aside from rust to look at, and far too many times now, felt that familiar feeling.
Fear.
One of the men, this one in a red robe, metal mixed with skin for a face, and many lenses was observing her with them, reaching into his robe.
Doing a lightning-fast system analysis, she found that her worst fear came true. The Stealth Module has finally gone offline.
She should have shot. Should have.
As she bolted up, she slammed the man with her arm, which meanwhile has transformed into a shield. The weird gun he had as well as himself went flying into the wall opposed to her with a robotic grunt. As they crashed, she did a mad dash down the many halls of the place.
Soon, as sounds of alarm echoed through the giant forge world, her metallic legs sped up.
She was almost out of that place, she couldn’t stop now.
As she ran, she turned a corner, then another, then another. Then she ducked under two large metal pincers. She didn’t manage to see who they belonged to, before suddenly, she found a worn down dead end.
Spinning around, she saw the pale man who had been made into an aberration of a machine, to which belonged the weapon she just dodged. Then, behind him, a squad of red-robed men were catching up to her.
She had to fight.
The next moments passed in a blur.
She remembered dispatching the robot. She remembered striking down the red-robes. She remembered blocking and taking blasts from their weapons. She remembered the noises they made as she fought them, them not staying down, and having to be put down for good.
She hated every moment of it. She wasn’t made for this purpose.
Then, finally, the device recharged with a beep. Wasting no time, Jenny activated it.
The device immediately shot out a laser that cut a square portal in the air. It was her escape to the next world, but then she heard deafening thunder in quick succession. Next thing she knew, one of her arms went missing. Shrapnel plunged into her head like hot needles into butter. Yet, she gathered her last forces, and threw herself into said portal.
Next thing she knew, she was sailing through the air, falling down.
Then, slowly but surely, darkness started creeping in, until it was all that remained.
***
Twilight Sparkle was sitting at her writing desk, a cup of tea by her side, reading a book about multiverse theory.
It was yet another one of her late at night reading sessions, that would usually happen when she found a good book, this being one of such occasions.
As she took a sip from her tea, she looked out of her castle’s windows, the dim light of Luna’s moon being one of the only things illuminating the room...Aside from her humble candle.
Then, she heard a loud crash, and the entirety of the crystal building shook slightly, ripples forming in her drink.
“What was that?” She thought, and so it all began...
Chapter 1 - In the Shadows and in the Morning
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Chapter 1 - In the Shadows and in the Morning
In the beginning, there was nothing. The sound, perfect, nothing.
Nothing existed, and it was just that: Nothing. And everything was great, oh how great it was.
But yes, then, yes, the accursed They came, accursed they be, and started to soil the perfect nothing!
Whenever they went, everything appeared, yes it did, and the noise, the colours, made me hurt yes yes, made me hurt!
So, so, I fought back, yes, for the great Nothing I fought, wherever I went, I left the sound, and the perfect, nothing.
And then, there was nothing again- No! They, the accursed, and malign, They, came again and everything was once more!
And so I clawed, striked, hissed, roared, split, spit at them, but they wouldn’t cease, they wouldn’t!
And so they smashed, shot, burned, froze, pierced, and slashed me with their accursed dark weapons!
And then...Then They backed me from all sides, and tried to bind me, no, no, NO, NO!
But...Before they could, I slashed and nothing they became, but the prison still appeared, cursed prison and cursed they be!
And all that noise...All those things that made me hurt were still there, there!
But what's this? The walls have lifted? But closed again, before I could traverse! It Hurts, oh, it Hurts!...But what's this again? A grain, a grain of me escaped..?
Go little grain, go! Make the world nothing again, hear my plea grain!
***
And so, the piece of the Nothing traversed the many layers of reality without moving an inch, until it finally found the material one...In the alleyway of Canterlot, dimly illuminated by Luna’s Moon.
***
The late-morning Sun had already risen some time ago, the drowsy town of Ponyville already bustling with active villagers.
It was a small village, made out of sturdy cottages, that although sounded like it, were far from primitive. The townsfolk were friendly, if not a bit paranoid of outsiders, and just the right amount, making it so everypony knew everypony, and that's what they were, ponies.
In between the buildings however, stood a small crystal castle, and through one of its windows was coming Celestia’s sunlight. It fell right onto Jenny’s battered form, and made a few dust particles visible, those lazily floating about.
Her body was scratched in most parts, a lingering memory of her many hardships, rust covering the open metal. She was quite a sorry sight, the right side of her head bended inwards, seemingly from a strong impact. Her two “pigtails'' on her head, which somehow managed to stay intact this entire time, still had a tint of blue on them. If you ignored the mud and the ominous red stains of course.
Then, her imobile body twitched. She had finally harnessed enough solar power, the little that was, to activate a reboot.
Then, she opened her eyes, the glass on one of them broken, and looked at the ceiling.
For one peaceful moment, she did nothing. And then the memories hit her like a railgun.
She bolted into a seated position, aiming her arm at anything that could harm her, ready to defend herself. She only calmed down once she confirmed the place was, indeed, safe.
She then noticed that she only had one arm, and proceeded to-
She looked again. Her arm was missing.
She groaned, noting that her voice-disks were still intact. At least she had that.
Then, another thought hit her before she could further lament the loss of her limb.
Frantically looking around, she saw the bookshelves and the large windows. The writing desk with a bunch of items on it she didn’t care about at the moment, and finally, a nightstand. It was to her side, and on it, was the device.
She sighed in relief, or atleast came as close to that as a machine can, and once again calmer, she picked it up and stored it in a chest compartment. She would NOT lose it again, not after the last time.
Now having room to think, and a room to look around, she finally noticed she was laying on a bed. It was one of those fancy ones with the posts above which hangs a blanket. It was a bit small for her however, her legs almost sticking out of the end of said bed.
So, whoever put her in the room was fancy, and liked reading, if the tall bookshelves were anything to go about. And that was about it, save for the...Writing desk?
She looked closer at the things that were on it. A half-open book, a burnt out candle, and a picture frame.
She zoomed on it, and saw a purple horse with wings and a horn, as well as a purple lizard with green scales pointing upwards on his head on his hind legs. Both were smiling, which looked plain weird.
Before she could question it, the door opened and someone barged in.
“...Let's see now if-!” They didn’t finish as a panicked shot blew a hole in the side of the door.
“Friendly, we are friendly!” The woman yelled as she put up a transparent purple dome around herself.
Only that it wasn’t a woman. It was a rather small purple horse with wings and a horn, as well as a purple lizard with green scales pointing upwards on his head and going to his tail. He was clinging to the horse’s hoof, and was on his hind legs.
Both wore a scared expression on their faces.
Her aim didn’t come off them for a few moments. Then Jenny realised what she had done.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to-” She cut herself short as she facepalmed with her one hand. Good first impression.
The horse and the lizard looked at each other, before the mare nodded in understanding at what just happened and slowly approached.
“Don’t worry,” She said, and looking at her Jenny saw her giving a friendly smile “It's alright.”
Jenny smiled back after a few moments. They didn’t seem to be bent on harming her...Although from what she had just done, she probably deserved it.
She was glad that she missed.
“I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. And what's your name?” The horse offered and asked the obvious question.
“Im Jenny,” She replied “Jenny Wakeman.” Been a while since she heard her own name. It was...Nice to hear it again.
“Who are you?” Twilight then asked the next logical question, yet before Jenny could respond, ask anything about the mare, the concerned looking lizard by said mare’s legs, where she was, or about the silly sounding title, the whole dam broke. Naturally, questions spilled out.
“Where did you come from are you alright are you hurt what happened to youareyouanalien-” Jenny could only smile awkwardly as she was barraged with words, while trying her best to answer.
This would be a long day.