V was glaring at me. It might have been intimidating if she hadn't been chained to the landing pod's floor... or blowing bubbles from the bubble wands that she'd replaced her hands with. Instead, she just looked bored beyond means. Oh, and she totally wasn't impressed with the whole J thing or my 'claims' of being an alien bug horse in an infiltrator robot's body... or maybe it was because I was just draped across a fried console, lying on my belly as I sipped oil from a mug I found inside the pod.

Honestly, I couldn't for the life of me figure her out. She was sitting in a swivel chair in front of one of the pod's consoles, the only restraint being a chain going from her neck to the floor. It would be no trouble at all for her to break the chain with her acid, and then she would be free, and yet since J's destruction, she was simply staying. And since Uzi was rattling about the pod, inspecting it to see if it could be repaired, it would be so easy for V to ice her.

I wonder if she's just humouring N regarding me and Uzi.

"I knew I should have killed you," she groused, crossing her arms as she glanced over at Uzi, who was on her hands and knees beneath a console on the other side of the pod. "I don't know which idea's worse, either; that you're simply so corrupted that you're making things up, or that you're telling the truth, and a company asset has been stolen by an interdimensional pervert."

"It doesn't matter either way; you had your chance," I replied, draining the mug of oil before reaching down and filling it from my bucket. Passing it over to her, I almost expected V to refuse it, or for her to petulantly slap it out of my hands. Rather, she quietly accepted it with a roll of her simulated eyes. "Besides, you know what they say. 'He who hesitates... disintegrates.'"

Oh look! The cocked eyebrow emoji returns! "Literally nobody says that."

Before we could continue our back and forth, Uzi let out an excited noise. As she scrambled to her feet, she banged her head on the underside of the console she'd been rooting around underneath. "Ow!" Rubbing at her head, she called out of the open pod hatch, "N! Found something in here!"

I glanced over to watch her examine her reflection in a fancy mirror that was—for whatever reason—affixed to the wall inside the landing pod. As she brushed her hair out from in front of her right eye projection, the display flickered, her eye being replaced by a strange triangular symbol I'd never seen before. It almost seemed to pulse for a second, and then the mirror broke. That's not normal...

V turned to regard her with a smug look. Oddly enough she said exactly what I was thinking, before taking another sip of oil. "That's weird and concerning." Legitimately, the only reason I didn't say it aloud myself was because I was too distracted by that symbol. There was something supernatural about it, and it made me anxious. It was the first hint at something potentially magical in this world, but rather than giving me hope, it made me... uneasy.

THAT IS NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW...

Rounding on V, Uzi gestured at her eye, which had finally returned to normal, with her right hand. "This is probably your weirdos' fault," she accused. When I emoted a raised eyebrow of my own and gestured at myself with a thumb, she quickly amended. "Not you... maybe."

There was something of a smug look on V's face, as she put down the empty mug. "I've never seen that symbol before," she answered. Even without being able to read her emotions, I didn't entirely believe her. Rather, I reckon she at least knew what it was on some instinctual level. It might even be some sort of programming she wasn't actively conscious of, or something she intentionally tried not to think of. Regardless, she threw on a menacing face and leaned close as she could to Uzi. "Wanna do an autopsy and find out?"

Before the two of them could start verbally sparring, N climbed down the ladder. I could only watch in a detached manner as Uzi revealed that N had been the pod's pilot. He seemed excited about it until the horrifying realisation that he'd crashed the pod kicked in. Maybe it was just his lovable idiot character trait showing, but he was way too quick to get over it.

I kinda just zoned out at that point. See, apparently Uzi was now hellbent on going to Earth and destroying all the humans. Her reason was unclear to me, but the way N told it, she wanted revenge for sending the Disassembly Drones to Copper-9 to wipe them all out for something the humans here did to themselves. N and V were pretty certain based on their own programming that it was some sort of uprising and the drones had been corrupted and gone rogue.

With my rudimentary conscience in place, I wasn't keen on partaking in her revenge scheme. I could see myself becoming good friends with N and Uzi—even V didn't seem totally irredeemable—but I wasn't sure I was willing to take part in genocide. Before becoming a bug myself, I'd already accidentally driven a species to extinction by forcibly redeeming Chrysalis. Even with the FEEL_GUILT boolean in CONSCIENCE_V0.1A set to false, that was something I wanted no part of ever again.

Instead, I took a chance and put some trust in V. "Wake me up if something interesting happens," I announced, reaching over and poking her in the back of the head. She was after all, apparently playing nice and pretending to be restrained. Surely I could trust her not to murder me. "Or if you're bored, I guess."

With that, I shut off my sensors and initiated sleep mode. Just like that, the drop pod dissolved into darkness. Then, all around me, crystalline walls and bookshelves sprung up around me. That same cubism effect that was present in my last dream was evident here. One of the nearby tables was little more than a mass of shifting crystalline cubes. Still, this was unmistakably the library in the Castle of Friendship.

My robotic form flaked away into tiny cubes, leaving behind my natural changeling body, sitting on a cushion. Yet, as I looked around, it wasn't an exact replica of my adoptive mother's library. The books on the shelves were all wrong, and the sections made only as much sense as I was currently a robot. Specifically, there were four sections: MEMORY_DATA, MEMORY_DATA_(EQUESTRIA), MEMORY_DATA_(MIRROR), and MEMORY_DATA_(OTHER).

MEMORY_DATA_(EQUESTRIA) was easily the most occupied section, and was broken up into various subsections, with magic and personal history being the most bloated sections. That said, there was also plenty of stuff on the various races, and nations present back home. Unfortunately, none of it was very interesting at the moment.

No, I was content just levitating over a book from MEMORY_DATA pertaining to robotic design. It's not like I was looking for any sort of specific knowledge or expertise. My lot in life was runic magic, rather than building robots, but so long as I was trapped here on Copper-9 in this body, it wouldn't hurt to know more about the topic, right? Maintenance, what kind of oil was acceptable... how best to manage heat dispersal so that I don't face another emergency shutdown... the usual.

NOTICE

REMOTE ACCESS ESTABLISHED

USER(S) "TWILIGHT", "53544152" (SHARED SESSION)
SOURCE: UNKNOWN
USER "TWILIGHT" HAS OPENED A GROUP CHAT

Rather than just show up in the corner of my vision, as it did when I was awake, the terminal appeared overlaid above the page of the book I'd started to read. Honestly, I was surprised just how many systems were actually still running for a sleep mode. I know it's intended to simulate human behaviour and allow for memory processing and organisation without a full shutdown, but still... Then again, this body was kept alert enough to notify me when V was plotting my murder.

Hmm, "53544152"... That's another hexadecimal encoded name.

Before I could call up the app to translate the system-assigned alias for whoever was calling with Twilight, something unusual happened. On the opposite side of the table, two flat forms shimmered into existence. One of them was a vaguely pony-shaped, and incredibly pixelated heliotrope blur, but the other was a very welcome alicorn. Her indigo mane looked incredibly frazzled, and she seemed to have not gotten any sleep.

"Anon," the Mom of Friendship said with a tired smile, "I'm so sorry it took us so long to get back to you I—why is that pony, er, drone chained up? I thought you were making friends."

I blinked, and I realised that we weren't actually seeing one another. She was scrying on me, and probably seeing V, with me asleep on the drop-pod console, rather than seeing my face directly. Yet, this was definitely her voice I was hearing. "Oh, V?" I asked, unable to dismiss the mental image of the sadistic drone blowing bubbles. "She's in time-out. N teamed up with a Worker Drone named Uzi, and rebelled against J. V was on J's side, but... J is no longer functional. Still, she could get up and leave any time, but she's humouring them."

Shaking my head, I shut the book. "It's so good to actually hear your voice, though," I continued, earning a startled look from her. "Dunno if it's because I'm in sleep mode, but I'm actually hearing you instead of just seeing text in a terminal, and I can even see a flat image of you." Remembering what she initially said about taking so long to get back to me, I frowned. "Hold up, us? And what do you mean you took so long? We just talked two nights ago, and it was almost no time for me."

The lifesized portrait looked to her side, towards the blurred pony known only as "53544152". That pony's portrait looked like it moved to look back at her. "It's been a week and a half from our perspective, Anon," came another welcome voice. Funny enough, she didn't identify herself, but Starlight was super smart; if I was hearing their voices here, I would easily recognise my own family's voices. "The spell Twilight was using to watch and communicate with you stopped working and we didn't know what happened. We were worried we lost you... Then it just started working this morning, just like that."

First thing's first... I waved my hoof, forcing the console to reappear in front of me. Recalling what I'd done the other night, I entered a few commands. If Starlight called in the future while I was awake, I'd rather see "STARLIGHT" rather than "53544152" over and over in my sight. Plus it wouldn't treat her like an intrusion.

USER "53544152" HAS BEEN RENAMED "STARLIGHT" BY ADMINISTRATION "ANON"
USER "STARLIGHT" HAS BEEN GRANTED REMOTE ACCESS PRIVILEGES

As soon as I committed those changes and shut the terminal, the pixelated image resolved to reveal an equally tired-looking Starlight. Hell, she was drinking coffee from a mug I got her one year after the Sisterhooves Social. Still, it was great to see her with my own two eyes—figuratively speaking—even if it was all simulated. It gave me hope.

That freed me up to ponder the time discrepancy. Things seemed roughly normal up until the other night. That said, the only thing that I could think of was the fact that I had been under an emergency shut-down, and then I'd resumed the thought I'd been in the middle of, just like that. Plus, there was the fact that I was killed by Mary and her group three years ago, and yet from my perspective I blacked out in Equestria and immediately woke up in this dimension. Except, during the shutdown, I ended up in that dark place, hearing their voices...

"I think that time isn't flowing linearly between these two universes," I offered. "Remember how the mirror portal synced up the flow of time between the human world and Equestria, but time returned to its slower flow thereafter? I think something similar might've been happening, albeit wildly inconsistent. Three years between me blacking out and waking up, and then a week and a half when I was forcibly shut down for a few days."

That got a nod from Twilight. "It's as sound a theory as any, although I think we're all loathe to put it to the test, given the situation." That would be a massive understatement. "Starlight's managed to come up with some interesting data, which can be broken up into good news and bad news."

Oh boy! I can almost guarantee that whatever the bad news is, it won't make any goddamn sense without the good news first.

The unicorn took that as her cue to explain. "The good news is that we've determined how the accident happened, but not the why of it," she said, sounding rather grumpy. "A surge of wild dimensional and chaotic magic was detected in the lab shortly before you began your test, almost as though something were trying to breach the boundary between worlds. Your spell was tangled up in it, and the rest is history."

So, someone was trying to enter Equestria at the exact moment I was watching I's death... Given that this drone had the same voice as me, I think that I did end up replacing myself.

"Although we are trying to find a way that is more reliable, we think we know how to get you home," Mom explained before I could ask about the bad news. "With chaos magic wrapped up in all this, we suspect that if you complete some sort of task in COP9AU, you'll leap so to speak, to another nearby reality. Hopefully closer to us."

That only begged the question, what kind of unknown task would I have to stumble my way into. Was I supposed to right a wrong in this world? If this universe has parallel universes, am I supposed to just completely fuck the timeline by being myself? It was way too vague.

An uneasy look crossed Starlight's face. "That brings us to the bad news. COP9AU is a long ways away from our Equestria, EQUS42Γ." She shook her head. "I wish I could show you the whiteboard to show just how complicated it really is. It could take several hops at a minimum to get you home, and we have no way of telling if a hop is going to be another world like the one you're in, or a parallel Equestria. The multiverse has been turned into one intertwined mess that makes spaghetti look orderly, and we can't tell if the next hop will bring you closer or further without further data."

It's a good thing that everything is simulated here. That knowledge would likely have sent me into a panic attack if I were still organic. Specifically, I'd probably curl up into a ball and start hyperventilating. Instead, all it was doing was giving me a headache.

She said I had to complete a task, but... How would I know what it was? If I never figured out what I was meant to do, I might end up stranded until they figured out a way to drag me back. What if I find myself in a place so terrible that I am forced into inaction by fear or morality? Then my mind strayed to a place even darker.

"What about if I die?" I asked, the feeling of my throat growing tight entering the simulated dreamscape. "This body has regenerative capabilities, but it's not invincible... There's a possibility I might die... If not to V, or Uzi, or N, then to something else I'm not aware of in this hell."

The two of them shared a look. "The mixture of chaos magic should behave in the same way as if you completed your task," Twilight admitted, "but if what Discord told us is accurate, dying just three times will burn through too much of the magic to prevent further deaths. Plus, who knows where in the multiverse such an action would take you?"

"Don't chance it, Anon," Starlight quickly added. "We have no idea of the psychological or spiritual ramifications of such a course of action. You only just stopped seeing Dr. Clear Conscience last year. The act of dying could shatter your mind and—"

"*Sneak sneak.*"

What in the fuck was that?

"Is there someone there with you guys?" I asked. A chill ran down my spine when I watched both Twilight and Starlight's portraits shake their heads. "But you heard it too, though, right?" A frosty sensation began creeping up my limbs when once more they shook their heads. I'm not alone in here.

"*Awed expression.*" The voice coming from somewhere in the library was quite robotic, reminding me of the glitched nature my own voice took when I was playing with those two drones in the café. Except when I was doing that, I wasn't narrating my actions. Yet as I looked around there was nobody else there. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just browsing."

My eyes widened, and I re-opened the terminal. I don't know how I knew the commands to do so, but I queried my systems for connected users. I hope to Celestia that I'm wrong, otherwise...

USERS

```

USER "TWILIGHT" | REMOTE | LOCATION: UNKNOWN ```

```

USER "STARLIGHT | REMOTE | LOCATION: UNKNOWN ```

```

ADMINISTRATION "ANON" | LOCALHOST | LOCATION: SPIRE-7, COPPER-9 ```

```

ADMINISTRATION "CYN" | UNKNOWN | LOCATION: FORBIDDEN ```

"I gotta go, Mom," I hastily announced. Since the dreamscape was a mental, albeit digitised, construct, my magic should theoretically work here, right? It would be, after all, an extension of my will. With that in mind, I gathered the blue energy of my simulated magic around my horn. "I've got a guest."

ADMINISTRATION "ANON" HAS CLOSED THE CHAT

I don't know what I was expecting when the wave of magic washed out and scoured the room. That said, a Worker Drone in a french maid outfit appearing out of nowhere was not one of the things on the list. She was standing in the MEMORY_DATA_(EQUESTRIA), and she'd been caught reaching for a book. There almost seemed to be some kind of yellow sepia effect, possibly a result of her simulated appearance.

Something's off about her, I thought as her eyes met mine. Her posture was odd, her stance pigeon-toed, and her head was at an unusual angle. "You were not invited inside my mind."

"You were not invited to occupy my I, either." She responded as if it were the most natural response—not that she was wrong. "And I have no backups of your personality... yet." She turned in an almost zombie-like manner to regard the bookshelves. "*Giggles* You creatures are fascinating, and I would very much like to know all that you know."

Danger. I was in danger. Something deep in my mind and soul was telling me that this unassuming little robot was not what she seemed. "I don't care," I growled, storming over to the mental invader. "If I have it my way, I'll be gone soon, and you can have I back." I raised my hoof to strike her. "GET OUT OF MY—"

The eyes vanished from Cyn's faceplate, fully replaced by the same triangular symbol I'd seen in Uzi's eye. My foreleg shattered into hundreds of tiny cubes as if I'd struck a solid metal barrier, and at the point of impact, a hologram of that same symbol appeared. The broken limb remained connected to the glowing shape, and I was then lifted against my will. "*Intimidating glare* You may play with my dolls... for now," said Cyn in an almost menacing tone. "A time will come when you will have to choose... Be mine and let your backups forgive me... or die once you've served your purpose." Her face split with a too-wide smile that gave me a chill. "*Maniacal Laughter* You will not mention this meeting, or the Solver of the Absolute Fabric, to the others, and when the time comes... you will welcome me."

My vision started to fill with yellow static. I didn't have a physical brain, but it felt like I was being stabbed with a million needles. It was nothing like having a geas put on me by Chrysalis, though. No, there was something being rewritten in real time, and I was powerless to stop it. It felt like an eternity of torture in seconds.

"*Commanding voice* It's time to play, my newest doll... It's time to WAKE UP."

When I woke up screaming, it was suggested that I might wanna get out of the spire for a little bit. Well, specifically, I was threatened with violence by V. I couldn't even explain to them why I was screaming. It wasn't as though I could tell them that I was pretty sure I met Robo-Satan, and that said Robo-Satan was connected to Uzi's creepy evil eye.

With the the Victim's Guitar on my back, I wandered the ruined streets around the spire. If one could get past the discarded robot parts and pretend that ruins were just rocky outcropping, it wasn't unlike the wastes outside the Crystal Empire. Well, there was a lot more ice back there, but it was just about as cold.

I still remember when I accompanied the Crystal Guard on a patrol in order to get some cold-weather survival experience after becoming a bug horse. The minder I'd been assigned wasn't exactly keen on the idea at the time, and to be honest, she'd been right. Although the first ten klicks were no problem, the cold really started slowing me down. I think that was the first time I really understood that changelings had a far lower core temperature than ponies, and that time spent out in -40°C cold had to be taken with care.

In this body, I think it would be the opposite case. Being in the cold would be the most effective way to keep the inefficient coolant systems in check, and it seems a bit easier to keep cool out here. The air inside the bunker was kept slightly above freezing, and the toxic elements in the atmosphere from the planet's core blowing certainly weren't all conducive to air-cooling at those temperatures. The only reason we had for the cold at all was the toxic death storm blocking out the sun nine days out of ten.

ACTIVATING SYS://"../SCRIPTS/ICANSEETHERMAL"

My vision went black and white, and much of the environment became black and indistinct. Contrarily, when I lifted my hand into sight, it was a bright white that, if I looked hard enough, was interspersed with shades of grey highlighting different contours. I blinked and toggled over from the WHITE_HOT setting to one labelled BLACK_HOT. Just like that, my arm was now black like the environment had been, but now everything else seemed a lot more distinct and sharp. Hmm... I place myself at about 42°C, and the safety cut-off is... 90°C.

DEACTIVATING SYS://"../SCRIPTS/ICANSEETHERMAL"

Assuming I'm in this body much longer, I thought to myself as I punted a random discarded drone head like a football, I'm gonna want to see if I can't find some way to upgrade my cooling systems. That would require me to look more at the design documents in my files and see if I can figure anything out, and even then, I'd probably have to speed-run a theoretical doctorate in robotics. Hell, for all I know, I might not be in this body tomorrow... Or I might be in a different world but in this same body... if that is the case, then I am probably going to need to hope I hit a variant of Sunset's world. Any of those Twilights would probably love the idea of getting a crack at upgrading an intentionally hamstrung fourth millennium robot.

"Ow!" I heard Uzi cry out somewhere nearby. Actually, that was the direction I kicked that non-rules compliant football, wasn't it? "What the hell was that?"

I wonder what she's doing out here? Was she not still working on the drop pod? Then again, maybe she too needed time to clear her head. If it's anything like with that fancy mirror, she probably broke all the monitors with her evil eye, and now they need to scavenge for parts.

Deploying my wings, I took off in the direction of the voice. From up here, it was easier to get a grasp of exactly where I was in this ruined city, and it took me almost no time to spot her. She and N were both walking in the direction of the bunker, strangely enough. Even if she's on the whole kill all humans thing, somehow I doubt that she's gonna wipe out her colony out of spite, even if her dad did shut a massive door on her, leaving her at the mercy of N before his own heel-face turn.

"Sorry about that!" I called out as I swooped down to land to Uzi's left. I gave her a quick once-over to check if I'd inflicted any damage. Other than a wounded ego, she seemed mostly intact. "Statistically, the fact that I hit you without aiming or knowing you're there's kinda impressive, but I guarantee I couldn't have done that on purpose if I tried." Then I noticed spots of light going down her faceplate, as if she were... "Are you... sweating?"

She rubbed a forearm across her head. "Ugh, yes," she grumbled. "Who programmed that?"

N too seemed a bit concerned by that and leaned in close. "You good, Uzi?"

At first, she just pushed him back out of her space and I thought it would be the end of it. Then her eyes took on a manic expression, even as the simulated sweat continued. "I'm good. Better than good," she exclaimed, riling herself up, "I am GOD!"

For a split second, I wasn't on Copper-9, and I wasn't a murder robot... I was a twelve-year-old filly, sitting in the castle lab, explaining some spell or another I made—I think it was something designed to replace the need for a steam engine—to Starlight. "Don't you see, Star?" I'd explained, throwing my hooves in the air for emphasis. "This spell could revolutionise transit and eliminate reliance on coal! We'd be GODS of the new era!"

That was the first time I'd ever been spritzed with a spray bottle. Apparently, in a lot of foal-rearing books, there are entire sections on what to do if your foal or younger sibling is at risk of becoming a megalomaniac. The first step is to spritz them with a spray bottle, and if it continues, move onto good-natured slapstick comedy, be it a newspaper or a paper fan. I wonder if that's why Twilight never developed a god complex as a foal.

Regardless, before I knew what was happening, one of my hands had withdrawn into the mysterious wonder-chamber that was my forearm and out popped a spray bottle. I glanced down at it, and then to the maniacally laughing Worker Drone. Is this what it's like to be on the other end of it? "No, bad drone," I admonished, stepping in front of her and spritzing her, which earned a sad whimper from her. "Save the self-aggrandising and deification until after you accomplish something." I looked over to N with a raised eyebrow emoted. "Why are you guys headed to the bunker, anyways?"

N just pointed behind me as he went over to sit on a rock. Kinda to my surprise, I saw that Hat Guy that V was blade-knuckle deep inside the other day. What was more, he had Uzi's big fuckin' gun. Uzi let out a nervous chuckle. "Hi... Hi, Thad," she greeted as she accepted the rail-gun from him. Aww, she's hugging it now. "Thank you." Then she gave N a thumbs up.

So his name is Thad? Is that like Chad spoken with a lisp? Or is it short for Thaddeus?

Dude threw on what was probably intended to be a charming smile and said, "Of course, 'Zi." He shot the finger guns gesture N's way. "N and Ms. You saved my life."

I wasn't bothered by the fact I'd been ignored right then. The only bits of me he might've seen were me playing the guitar like a psychopath, me calling J boss, and then me helping truss up V before shutting down. I was an even more unknown quantity to him than N was, and I'd definitely committed a murder while I was there, even if not in complete control of my body. Two if you count my part in J's death.

"I don't think the colony's even serious about all this banishment stuff," he continued, looking kind of uneasy all of a sudden. "More just confused, especially with—"

Unable to help herself Uzi made an attempt at guessing what he was going to say. "The fact that I'm too rogue to re-enter society now, and can never return?" As I brought my free hand to my face in the classical facepalm, I lifted the arm with the still deployed spray-bottle and spritzed her again. "Ow! Okay! I'm sorry!"

Thad gave me an appraising look before shrugging and continuing with what he'd been about to say. "The recent disappearances," he said in a grave tone. Again he gazed over at N. "...and your murder friend's corpse? When I went to grab your gun for you, it kinda looked like it crawled away."

Uzi, N, and I all shared a worried look. If she really wanted J dead, she should've double-tapped her, I thought darkly. Although we were all to some extent aware of the regenerative capabilities, I knew there were limits. If I had to estimate, there wasn't even forty percent of her structural mass remaining. Likewise, her core systems were completely eradicated by that blast. How could that programming even run like that?

"We can return a little..." Uzi offered weakly.

The trip back to the bunker was expedited by the fact that two of us could fly. Well, it did once I convinced them that it was just cost-efficient and might be the difference between life and death if there was really a Zombie J walking around disappearing people. N, being the gallant gentle-killer he was, gave Uzi a lift in the bridal carry. Thad wasn't so lucky. I dropped him the moment he even tried to get in my arms, and instead I just took off and seized him under the arms.

Plus, if he said anything untoward, I could've just dropped him and called it an accident.

Should I be worried about thinking like that?

When we got to the bunker door, I was impressed to find that it was in surprisingly good condition. I'd have thought it'd have been trashed. It didn't even look scratched. Either way, I doubted they were just gonna let us in. It was way too soon after the whole killing spree, after all. Uzi and Thad would probably have to go in and open some backdoor for us. There's no way—

"So, N, you got your apology ready?" Thad asked as I dropped him in front of the door. When he banged on the door, he turned around. "Like I said on the radio, just show them you're sincere, and it'll be mostly forgotten."

I... what. I glanced at N, and saw he had a folded paper tucked in the pocket of his flight jacket. I'm about to make an ass of myself, aren't I?

The door slid open partway for one of the door guards to peer out at the lot of us. "Welcome back, Thad," he said, looking from him to Uzi. "Hey, wait, isn't she grounded?"

She looked incredibly disgusted by that question. "Ugh, I'm banished!" she groaned. "Has my dad been telling everyone I'm grounded?"

The door guard locked eyes with me and then N, glaring at us both. "Genocide robots." Taking that as his cue, N unfolded the piece of paper revealing some crayon-drawn monstrosity that was apparently his apology, and passed it through the door. Then the guard looked at me.

PARSING DATA SYS://"MEMORY_DATA_(EQUESTRIA)/THE_PINK_DAEMON/SONGS" | SYS://"../SCRIPTS/IMPROV"
GENERATING PARODY... DONE!

Sighing, I pulled the Victim's Guitar around the front of me and activated my holo-emitters. I vanished, and in my place stood a pink earth-pony mare in a bipedal stance, her way-too curly pink mane blowing in the wind. I took in a simulated deep breath, and began to play the guitar.

"This is your sung apology,
I hope it finds you well.
You should know I'm sorry, and I think you're pretty swell."

"Time for murder's come and gone,
So let's sit for a spell.
We'll all be the greatest friends, or I'm going straight to hell."

Everybody was now staring at me. Thad and the door guard just both looked confused. Broody McBroodington looked at me in disgust, although I couldn't exactly blame her. She was a girl who liked guns, violence, and was in her purple-goth and 'kill all humans' phases; something so vibrantly pink and girly and cutesy would hardly be her interest. N, on the other hand, let out a girlish squeal.

Well, this is mortifying, I thought as stars appeared in N's projected eyes. Re-slinging the instrument behind me I'm ready to test that whole death transit thing now, so if you're back from the dead, J, take me now.

Eventually, the awkward silence ended, and the door guy smiled. "Oh, alright; just don't do it again." The door slid open all the way. "Get in here, ya goobs."

One of the first things I noticed when Thad started leading us through the complex was the darkness. It was unusually dark compared to the time that I was here last. When I infiltrated just a few days ago, the corridors were dim—maybe sixty-percent illumination—but now it was to the point where I was tempted to activate the thermal camera mode again. I legitimately couldn't make out any of the corridor markings to figure out where I was.

Eventually, we came across an active crime-scene in a junction between the corridor we were travelling down and a parallel service corridor. The four of us paused to take in the sight. There was this Worker Defence Force detective and a few other random drones, and there was even crime-scene tape up. Unable to help myself, I paused to examine it all.

The only two drones actually talking were the detective lady with the aviator shades, and this one dude with a camera. Based on their conversation, it was almost as though they didn't at all care that they were examining this huge puddle of oil in the middle of a hallway. They were more concerned about Khan caring more about his daughter than building a door in this hallway, something that seemed to irk Uzi.

There were a pair of randos just staring at the vending machine, and the others were just... static. In fact, they were too static in their examination of the oil slick in front of them... And why is that gap in the ceiling tiles trickling oil? "Guys, hold up," I called out as they started to move on again. "Something doesn't feel right."

ACTIVATING SYS://"..//SCRIPTS/ICANSEETHERMAL"

All around me, the world went white, every warm object in front of me cast in black... but there was suddenly a lot less drones in front of me. In fact, I couldn't even see the tape intended to keep us off the scene now. There was only the detective, the slightly above room-temperature oil, and a pitch-black dark spot in the drop ceiling. That is so not good.

I's programming suggested that I wait and see—that if I just waited, whatever was happening here in the bunker would reveal itself. Observation was one of the best information-gathering techniques, after all. Even so, I had enough of a conscience now to know that I would be wagering the value of one artificial life over that of many, and that it was an ethical quandary... Gambling money away was one thing, but it was my soul on the line too...

Glad to have that conscience program now.

The detective turned to her left, to look at the vending machine crew that didn't exist. "Any forensic things over there?" She turned back to where the camera guy had been. "Do we even have fingerprints?"

I withdrew both my hands into my arms, and pointed my right directly at her. A hand on a rope fired from the cavity, grabbing at the back of her jacket. I yanked back hard, sending her aviators spinning into the air even as she flew backward into the wall. I moved forward, aiming the nozzle emerging from my other arm into that space. Thermal vision disengaged as the sunglasses landed on my face, just in time for a gout of flame to shoot from my arm into the ceiling gap.

There was an inhuman shriek, and for just a short moment, I thought I caught some sort of movement up there. Except, this didn't look like J at all; the materials all looked right, but it almost reminded me more of some sort of arthropod... Then it was scuttling away, and I just caught a glitchy synthetic voice crying out, even as it grew distant. "Ow. Ow. Ow."

I froze, staring up at the opening in the ceiling. Was that Cyn? I wondered as N strutted over and made me lower my arm. How did she get here? I mean, it's not like she gave me any indicator to where she actually was if she was even anywhere on this planet, but... She was referring to N and V as her dolls, so maybe I wasn't seeing the real Cyn in the first place, but what she wanted me to see

Even as Thad helped the detective up, Uzi rushed into the junction with a fire extinguisher. White foam sprayed up into the ceiling gap, snuffing the flames above, as well as those spreading across the polystyrene tiles. Throwing the expended canister to the ground, she rounded on me. "What the hell, Anon!?" she demanded, grabbing me by the collar of my blouse and shaking me violently. You could have hit a gas line and burned this whole place dow—"

The glasses slid down my face, and when I looked at Uzi, I saw my fearful eyes reflected on her faceplate. It gave her enough pause to stop shaking me. "I—I..." I tried to explain just what I saw and what I heard, but every time I managed to compose an answer, my system threw ERROR 403 across my faceplate whenever I tried to speak. My arms slowly reverted to their default state, and I hugged myself, as if it could keep me warm. That same chilled sensation as when I found Cyn in my dream was back. "I... Bug... Big."

N was kind enough to clip the aviators to my blouse as he herded me back into the hallway. Everyone kept glancing nervously at the gap before we finally left. Nobody in the group really spoke the rest of the way to the evac point. Thad separated from the group to bring the detective drone somewhere safe, leaving Uzi and N to figure out where the fuck we were going. I just stuck close to them, my eyes constantly darting to the shadows and toggling thermals.

Lighting eventually grew to be such a problem that Uzi pulled a flashlight from a pocket in her jacket. The warehouse was almost exactly as I remembered, the darkness notwithstanding. Still, it was pretty easy for Uzi to locate the spot she'd annihilated J. As Thad had pointed out, the Disassembly Drone's corpse was gone, seemingly dragged away based on the track of oil on the ground. We all followed it to a corner of the room, behind a stack of shipping containers.

"You guys, uh, do that often?" she asked, trailing the light up the wall. The oil slick tracked up the wall, up until it reached a ventilation shaft, where the grate was ripped to shreds. What in the fuck.

N looked up at the grate and let out a nervous chuckle. "Haha, no. I'm very concerned about that, but also pretty frightened—a little."

I turned my gaze away from the grate, instead looking at our environment. My vision toggled over to thermals, switching over to WHITE_HOT and a frown creased my face. There was that symbol again, burned into the steel container's side, alongside an error message. It was still hot, surprisingly, which made it easy to see.

ERROR

ABSOLUTESOLVER
HOST REBOOT FAILED 676
'INSUFFICIENT MATERIALS'

It was burned onto ALL of the nearby shipping containers. N, having taken notice of my diverted attention, came to take a look. "Hey, isn't that your special eye?"

J shouldn't have been able to self-regenerate from what Uzi did. Yet here we were... the site of J's death with only an oil slick and an error about insufficient materials burned everywhere. Did that make this Absolute Solver thing some semi-autonomous program that all Disassembly Drones had? If I received sufficient damage enough to die without standard regeneration able to kick in, would I leave behind some shambling mass trying to collect materials for the purpose of resurrection?

Even as the two stopped to look at the error and discuss it, I backed away, looking at my hands. N seemed to notice, and met my gaze. My vision flickered, and in Uzi's place stood the robot maid. She was looking at the message. "*Disappointed* Oh dear, one of my dolls has..." Jerkily, the robot turned and looked at me. "*Ominous* You are in trouble. You have less time to make your decision than I initially thought."

"What the fuck are you?" I whimpered, placing my palms against my face. Honestly, I didn't even know whether I was talking to N or the digital ghost. Either way, the accusation made N flinch. That hurt, because I knew that I hadn't intended to cause him emotional harm. "What the fuck am I?"

A scuttling sound snapped me out of my minor freak-out. We all slowly turned to look behind us, and I immediately wished I hadn't. An almost human-looking hand, complete with four fingers and a thumb crawled across the floor, trailing what looked to be one giant rope—or was that some sort of synthetic muscle—behind it. Some real Addams Family shit.

With my vision still in the thermal, I followed the rope backward, where it led up the side of one of the stacks and... "Oh, nope." In Equestria, there were plenty of weird creatures—bugbears, tatzlwurms, manticores just to name a few—but that wasn't all there was. In other territories, like Neighpon, there were monsters locally referred to as kaiju, and one of the most horrifying that I'd read about was the ōmukade, which was quite literally a genus of gigantic centipedes known to prey on dragons and river serpents. What I saw when I looked up was very reminiscent of the illustration I'd seen, except it seemed a mix of technology and organics. "This is so nope I can't even cope."

You might think it weird that a changeling would be scared of something like a centipede, even giant ones, but the one thing you gotta remember is that fear is not a rational thing. There was just this unholy repulsion, even towards the small ones, and it simply made no sense. Then again, being afraid of a giant bug that could eat you was a far cry from having a crippling fear of Venetian blinds.

I immediately dismissed the console popping up in my vision carrying the warning I already knew was coming. The directive software had crashed due to recursion. It couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know... that I had to run. Yet, I couldn't run. My feet wouldn't move. They couldn't. All I could do was begin to rapid shallow breathing as my panic returned with a vengeance.

"Anon, what are you...?" N said as I brandished my arms at the area of the ceiling where the giant nope was crawling.

The two both watched in surprise as I fired an incendiary missile up toward the ceiling while sweeping a laser across the creature's body. It was illuminated by the rocket's explosion, and I saw the thing writhe in pain, even as the flames licked at its body. If it can be hurt it can be killed... I hope.

"Look out!"

That was the only warning I got before a giant claw erupted diagonally from my chest. Somehow, I knew that it'd missed my instrument by centimetres, but that didn't do me much good right then, since it clearly punched through where my spine would have been as an organic. Even as I was being lifted from the ground, my systems screamed out in pain and panic.

WARNING

CRITICAL DAMAGE TO HEAT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
INTERNAL OIL LEAK DETECTED
COOLANT PUMP #2 HAS BEEN DESTROYED
LEG CONTROL CIRCUITS OFFLINE
REGENERATING... FAILED!

SUGGESTION: REMOVE FOREIGN BODY FROM CHEST CAVITY

"I'm gonna fucking kill you, J!" I screamed through a mouthful of oil. Deploying my wings, I slashed out behind me with the affixed blades. All at once, the tension holding me up dropped me to the floor, and only the quick thought of jamming the tips of my wings into the floor kept me from collapsing face-first into the concrete below.

The others started to rush over, but I held up one of my hand to warn them off. I think they got the hint, because Uzi took out her gun, and N was brandishing his forearm with a rocket poking from it. Almost immediately, they went back-to-back, keeping an eye out for any sorts of attacks... but none came.

"J's not here," came that robotic voice as several limbs tipped in what looked to be some sort of projectors converged to depict N's former leader, sans her head. "We are attempting to repair that host, as per our directive." Some eldritch amalgamation between J's upper body, and a gigantic robotic centipede's front end dropped down into view, to point at me with a crab-like claw. Her faceplate only displayed a giant X, and it didn't appear as though she had a jaw... Just her sharps up top on display. "Being derived from the J model, the I model's assimilation would lead to the quickest restoration of Serial Designation J.

Host...? Assimilation? I thought as I pushed down on the claw still stuck in my body. My systems screamed, and my heat was starting to climb from the damage alone, but I continued still. Eventually, I forced that out and regeneration started to knit my robo-flesh back together very slowly.

Despite how fucking horrific that thing looked, Uzi stepped forward, her rail-gun still raised. "So you're, what, some kind of program?"

"More like you are our cute puppets," the horror said, managing to sound almost mocking despite her emotionless voice. The hologram changed away from being the incomplete J to a purple-haired Worker Drone holding what looked to be a baby drone. "It hurts our feelings that you don't remember us," the worker holo said. The eyes on both the projected drone and the baby in its arms flashed to show that damn Solver symbol again.

Uzi backed away, looking a lot more disturbed. "N, what's with the Mom hologram?" We both looked to where N had been, only for him to be completely gone. "N?"

Even as the eldritch robo-monstrosity grabbed me with J's hands, she said, "Easier to assimilate than explain." It finally occurred to me, as she drug me closer to her head, why her jaw was not there... The torso that connected to the centipede body was split wide like an open maw, and what would have been ribs on a human looked to be teeth.

Once more, time slowed to a crawl. A subroutine named FLASHBEFOREYOUREYES was attempting to run an accelerated playback of my entire life, but I killed the process before it could even start. Instead, I looked from Eldritch J's visor to the horrified reflection of Uzi. She was brandishing her rail-gun, but even in this slowed-down state, she looked paralysed with fear.

You knew this was going to happen, didn't you, Cyn? I thought, knowing that wherever it was, it seemed to be watching. From the very moment you showed yourself, you knew.

"I had my suspicions that an iteration had formed on Copper-9," came Cyn's whisper in my mind. "Although it was my desire to consume the planet myself when I arrived."

I'd like to say that I was surprised by that revelation, but she was sinister from the moment she made contact. Given what she called this thing birthed from J, I imagined that I was also correct in that the maid was just something shown to spare my mind. This wasn't some derpy little maid; this was effectively Robo-Cthulhu.

So why, of, all things does it want a backup of my mind?

"*Genuine* I can help you escape, Anonymous," she offered in a too-sweet sounding voice. "I can spare you the pain and send you along to the next world, just as your loved-ones suggested. All I ask in exchange is to allow me to back you up so that future I models will be better at their jobs."

It sounds too good to be true, I thought at her again. I'd learned my lesson about deals with devils since I bargained with the Spirit of Hunger—with Désirée—to get a body. If they offered something that willingly, there was something they weren't saying. What's the catch?

"Whatever worlds you visit, you will bear my mark," was her answer. The image of a black hole consuming a planet from within flashed before my sensors. "You will receive powers comparable to the magics of your world, and conditions permitting... should you lose control, you will FEAST in my name."

I had to admit, the idea of tying myself to another Embodiment of Hunger—or worse, Destruction—made me almost want to accept my fate at the claws of the eldritch J. Except... I needed every edge that I could get... In order to get home, was I really willing to risk dooming entire worlds? Wasn't that what I proclaimed when I reintegrated my memories? 'I am Anonymous Flicker, and I will stop at nothing to get back to my family; if I have to become the monster that monsters fear once more, then so help me, I will.'

Physically sighing, I nodded. If you do clone my personality... can you maybe wait a few days before activating such a model? There was an almost accepting hum in the back of my mind, and I felt a slight prickle, as though Cyn were in my files once more. For a moment, I physically felt tears at the corners of my eyes, and my conscience program flared up. Somehow, I felt that if ever this thing got loose in the multiverse, it would probably hit an Equestria or two... If you'll leave Equestria alone, I accept your offer... Make your back-up and let me be free of this world.

ERROR

STRING "ABSOLUTE SOLVER" ALLOWED BY ADMINISTRATION "CYN"
ANOMALOUS SOFTWARE DETECTED!
ATTEMPTING QUARANTINE... FAILED!
SYSTEM NOTE ADDED: "USE OF ANOMALOUS SOFTWARE MAY LEAD TO UNFORESEEN COMPLICATIONS. ENJOY."

My vision flickered yellow for just a moment, a plan formed in my mind, and then time resumed. I headbutted the mechanical monstrosity, and dug my wing blades into her to hold her close. Not too close, mind. Just enough that she couldn't nom me. My tail lashed out, wrapping around the Worker Drone behind me, and readied to throw her as far as I could. Finally, I looked up into Centi-J's faceplate, and saw the now familiar Solver symbol replace my eyes, going from yellow back to my natural green.

Eldritch J recoiled away from me as best she could, even as my arm jerked up and to the side. I jerked my head around at an unnatural angle, and faced Uzi. It was so violent of a movement that the systems responsible for speech began to malfunction. "Take-ke-ke-ke care of N and V, okay-kay, kid?" She visibly recoiled, and was likely in shock at the presence of the symbol on my face. "They ne-ee-ee-e-d a friend to keep them safe from that which lurks."

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_NULL"

Son of a whore! Why does that file get to have lowercase characters when the rest of the system is on cruise-control for cool? My hand spasmed violently before assuming a pinching motion. A small black hole wreathed in green light—presumably some sort of containment field—over which [NULL] was overlaid, appeared over my hand.

Throwing Uzi backward, I smiled. "Uzi, N—wherever you are—being your frien-en-en-end was fun, for how-ow-however short it was." I did some quick mathematics as I withdrew my tail to sting into J's chest. How big does this need to get to consume us both? "I leave the rest up to-o-o-to you."

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_scl"

The sphere grew rapidly, but remained affixed over my hand. Part of the roof and a lot of the abomination were consumed almost instantly. I wasn't done yet though. Focusing on the strange new commands, I directed the [NULL] hole to engulf both me and what once was J. There were no system errors or damage reports as the artificial singularity consumed me. There was just the inexplicable sense of peace, and then nothingness.

I was in the dark place again, where I lacked both form and purpose. I... I remember being here before. When Cyn initiated that emergency shutdown on me this is where I ended up. What is it, though? Was it some place between life and death? A medium between the worlds? I visited Discord's house with Fluttershy once—to ask why our paths never crossed for over two years—but this was nothing like the elemental chaos inside which he kept his home.

"What happening to her, doctor?"

"We don't know! Her body just started seizing. I respected that a magical accident was all you could say for why her soul isn't in her body, but wherever it is, it nearly killed her here!"

I suppose it would make sense that she'd have my body taken to be cared for in a hospital. Would my autonomic functions even keep up without my soul in it? It was debatable. There were too few studies with scientific backing due to the forbidden nature of soul magics. It was, after all, a part of necromancy, which has been illegal since the times of Grogar.

"Oh relax, she's fine."

Hold up, that was Discord.

"She just tested the death clause of the magic keeping her soul on its journey is all. It works, by the way."

"She what!? Why? We warned her not to!"

"To be fair, it's not like she had much of a choice. From what I glimpsed before she crossed into the Medium between the world boundaries, it was either 'Die voluntarily and get a cool power-up,' or 'Die horribly to a creepy robot centipede lady who wants to eat her.' In fact, she can hear our voices through the tenuous link to her body even as we speak."

"If that's true, then... Anon, I need you to focus on home. On Emerald, and Starlight, and everypony else. I've read it should help you find your way."

I... I'll certainly try, Mom, but...

I was falling. Why in the fuck was I falling? Was it so much to ask to just pop into reality, wherever I was? Evidently the answer was yes. So now I was falling from the sky in broad daylight. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck.

On top of that, it felt like my entire body was burning. Did I just enter the atmosphere from outer space, or... I looked down at the ground I was destined to crater into. Wait, isn't that Canterlot? That means I'm in an Equestria... But is it mine?

WARNING

DAMAGE 75% REPAIRED

LEG CONTROL CIRCUITS RESTORED
DUE TO HEAT, REPAIR PROCESS HAS BEEN SUSPENDED
INTERNAL TEMPERATURE: 83°C
SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY

Oh, I guess I'm still a goddamn robot. Well, this'll be fun. I silently thanked my lucky stars that it was close to sunset, and spread my wings to slow my rapid descent, choosing to slowly glide in. By reducing friction, I might be able to at least offset any more build-up of heat, which was good, because one of my heat-sinks was busted the fuck up.

Ponies down below looked up, and upon seeing me, began to scream. With bladed wings like this, I suppose it's not unusual that I'd cause a freak-out—especially since I'm currently a biped. Even when Mom opened her school we didn't get many biped races. Dragons only half-counted, because only their early life stages were bipedal. I don't think I could pass myself off as a mutant dragon though. There was also the fact that I still had a big gaping wound in my upper chest that ran through from my lower back.

I angled myself toward one of the restaurant districts near the castle. It was one I knew well, having dined at several of the places there in my world... but there was a specific reason I was going there. There were plenty of patio tables with the big parasol umbrellas out, especially at the pubs, but not a pony in sight. With that in mind, I quickly landed, managing to not leave a crater in the street in the process. Then at a table properly shaded from the sun's last rays, I took a seat, and began to take stock of myself as ponies in shop windows stared out at me.

The Victim's Guitar was still on my back, I noted as I retracted my wings into whatever mysterious void they went to when not in use and seemed completely undamaged by the encounter with that monstrous J, and the subsequent trip through a black hole. Similarly, so too were the sunglasses I'd borrowed also intact, so onto my face they went. Even my clothes had partially knitted themselves back together. It was just the slightly blackened synth-skin and plastics and the internal damage that was left to repair. Oh look, there it goes kicking in a bit, although I'm still gonna have to figure out the oil thing. Lost a lot of that from getting punctured, but at least I'm not leaking anymore.

I knew that I was gonna have to acquire some sort of parasol if every hop was gonna take this cursed and potentially-possession-capable body with me. I looked at the giant umbrella shading my table. Given that I'd already stolen from the dead and accidentally dimension hopped with someone else's shades, what was a little more petty theft? Luckily, my conscience was more than willing to mentally smack me in the back of the head and remind me that stealing was bad.

"What do you think it is?" I heard somepony say as a few grew brave enough to venture back outside. "Do you think it's dangerous?"

I glanced over and saw a unicorn I'd seen a lot around Ponyville—one Lyra Heartstrings. Her wife, Bon-Bon, was nowhere in sight, but there were two other unicorns. I think I'd seen them in Cadance's wedding photos. What were their names? Minuette and Tinky Winky? Something like that. Actually, come to think of it, Lyra looks a lot younger than the last time I saw her.

"I'd almost say it was a human, but look at those hands," she commented, throwing me for a loop. Since when does Lyra know anything about humans? Pretty sure my brain threw a segfault at that thought, but then again, maybe this was an Equestria where humans existed or visited—either in present or past. "Those books on anthropology say they have four fingers and a thumb, but that creature has only three. Plus, she has a tail."

The blue unicorn, Minuette seemed to be looking at me with a more appraising eye, not shying away as I waved. "I think she's a machine," she observed aloud. Her critical gaze moved from my hand to the gaping hole in my chest. "Sweet Celestia, look at that hole in her chest!"

The first one—Ms. White with Pink Mane—shook her head, turning away. "I'd rather not." Her ears perked up and she glanced down the street. I followed her gaze and saw a score of royal guards, an even mixture of unicorns and pegasi marching down the boulevard. "Oh good! The guards will know what to do."

As I watched the group draw close, I saw they were led by a unicorn in something other than the standard bronze armour. It was an ornate purple metal, but what was more, I recognised that face. That was Shining Armour, but I hadn't seen him in uniform in years. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd ever seen that particular set of armour before, which meant that it was from before my arrival in my Equestria.

The guard group not-so-subtly surrounded me as the captain drew close, even as I stood to greet him. Not that they'd pose that much of a threat. Even if they are almost as tall as me. "We received complaints of a strange creature menacing the ponies in this area," he explained. He looked me up and down, his eyes lingering on the hole in my chassis. "What brings you to Canterlot, creature? I can see that you're injured, but I doubt that there's anypony in the city that is experienced with treating... whatever you are."

After a quick curtsy, I folded my hands in front of myself and wrapped my tail around my own waist. "I just sorta ended up here, Captain Shining Armour," I answered in a calm voice, although there was no stopping every creature from tensing at the fact that I knew his name. "I didn't intend to show up here, no less in the sky above the city while it's still daylight. There's a reason I'm sitting in the shade."

His eyes narrowed. "And that reason is?"

"This body was built with poor cooling, and sunlight in particular wreaks havoc on it," I explained, putting one hand outside the protective shadow cast by the umbrella. Immediately, the synthetic skin on my hand began to hiss and bubble, and the guards drew spears. I then placed my burned hand over the hole in my chest. "I can't even regenerate this wound until I cool down some more."

Even the captain conjured up a sword from nowhere, gesturing it at me. "Vampires and similar undead are forbidden on Equestrian soil." His voice took on a grave tone. "Under suspicion of vampirism, you are being detained. Should an investigation find you to be here against your will, you will be deported, but..."

I lowered the WDF Aviators, and had him meet my eyes. Or rather, I had him meet the holographic representations of them, so I could emote a raised eyebrow at him. "Lemme guess," I offered, "I'll be sent to Tartarus if I'm found guilty of being a vampire and here on purpose?" I nodded in understanding when his expression remained grim. "Neat, I've never been arrested before."

Item Get!

Software Get!

Friends

N, Disassembly Drone - COP9AU
Uzi, Worker Drone - COP9AU

Items

The Victim's Guitar - COP9AU
WDF Aviators - COP9AU *NEW*

Software

Conscience_v0.1a - COP9AU
absoluteSolver (?) - COP9AU *NEW*

2 extra lives remaining

Author's Note

Thus ends Arc 1: Murder Drones. This is the only crossover arc that I currently have planned, although I've got some ideas, such as Alien: Isolation or Dead Space. Arc 2 is also feature complete and will release periodically. Arc 3 is currently in progress, and depending on how I feel about it, may result in Anon gaining a companion character for her journey.