It was a warm Friday afternoon when a young teenage girl quietly snuck into her house, making sure not to make a sound.
'ok Zoe, today's the day, the day I finally get away from this place.' the young girl, Zoe, thought to herself as she cautiously walked down the hallway leading to her room, pausing as she reached the doorway to the lounge room, waiting with baited breath, and sighing with relief as she hears loud snoring from the other side.
Zoe carefully opens the door and tiptoes towards the sleeping figure of her father, holding her breath as she does so.
As she tiptoes towards her sleeping father, she frowns at the sorry state of the lounge room, beer cans littered everywhere, shattered bottles of whiskey.......her own blood on the corner of the coffee table, Zoe wincing at the sight.
In no time at all, Zoe reaches her sleeping father and hesitantly reaches out towards his pocket. 'just take his wallet and leave, that's it.' Zoe reasoned with herself as she reached into his pocket, pausing as he began to mumble incoherently, thankfully not waking up, Zoe then quickly snatches her father's wallet and makes her way to her room.
"Alright, I've got everything I need, now I just need to get out before he wakes up..." Zoe mumbles to herself as she carefully takes her yellow bag and stuffs it full with everything she had prepared for her to run away, blankets for when it gets dark, her phone and tablet to entertain herself, a portable charger with a small hand crank generator, a pillow, pepper spray, a taser, multiple sets of clothes, and lastly her father's wallet.
Satisfied with what she has, Zoe zips up her bag and slings it over her back, putting on her Beenie before running towards the front door as she hears her father beginning to wake up.
"Oi Brat! Come clean this up!" Zoe's father shouted and ordered as Zoe reached the front door, which she quickly opens before turning around.
"BITE ME!!" Zoe shouts, having picked up the phrase from her favourite character, Uzi Doorman from the 8 episode series Murder Drones, Zoe then slamming the door behind her as she runs down the street, wincing as she hears her father angrily shouting behind her.
Zoe continues to run for what felt like hours, running in and out of Alleyways randomly to make sure her father wouldn't be able to follow her, and in her attempts to hide herself, Zoe spots a large building where people dressed as fictional characters were entering at large.
"A convention? Perfect!" Zoe exclaimed as she began to walk around the building, smirking as she spots and old side entrance, the wooden door showing signs of rot and mold.
"Perfect....looks like it'll come down if I give a-" Kick, Zoe kicks the rotten door as hard as she can, causing the door to fall off its hinges with a sickening crunch. A few bugs crawling out from the fallen door as Zoe enters the building.
"Ok...I can hide out here for a few hours and then try to head further out..." Uzi murmurs to herself as she sneaks her way through the building, walking through a grey door and closing it behind her. . . . The door fading into the wall as if it were never there in the first place.
On the other side of the door is a shaded room with a single booth situated right in the middle with an assortment of items scattered across it from Devil fruit, a Gaster Blaster and Soul of Determination, an Uzi cosplay, a chaos emerald, Tanjiro's sword, the master crown, Spider-Man web-shooters, Mei Hatsume's goggles, and The Death Note.
"The hell? What is this place?" Zoe mutters to herself with a slight frown as she looked across the items scattered the booth table. "Props and a costume? Tch. How dumb, but the costume could be useful for me to hide..."
"Ah, it is nice to meet you, young lady. Would you be interested in my purchases?" An old man spoke suddenly, startling Zoe, causing her to jump with a squeak of surprise.
"Gah?! W-who are you?!" Zoe shouts, startled.
"The names Samuel, but you can call me Pixel, and as you can see, I am a humble merchant, and seeing as you are in quite the predicament, I'll break the rules a little for ya." The man spoke as he emerged from the shadows and leaned on the table of his secluded stall.
"I- huh? Rules? What do you mean?" Zoe asked in pure confusion and caution.
"Hehe, tell me, have you heard of the recent disappearances around the area? Or how about those stories on that website....what was it called again? Ah right FIMfiction! The Displaced." Pixel chuckled at the baffled expression on Zoe's face.
"I know, I know, it's a lot to take in! Here, take a seat." Pixel exclaimed as he snapped his fingers and a comfy chair materialises out of thin air.
"I- wh- HUH?! H-HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!?!" Zoe jumps at the sudden appearance of the chair as she shouted in shock.
"Well, as you should already know, I, Pixel, am a Void Dweller, and I am here to sell you my wares, what do you say? This is your ticket to true escape after all~" Pixel spoke with an unnaturally wide grin.
"I-....i-i guess..." Zoe murmurs, looking down thoughtfully.
"Excellent! Now, while you would usually be able to buy as much as you can pay for, since I've broken a few rules by explaining my true nature to you, I am only allowed to sell three of my little trinkets to you, costume excluded as it's free of charge!" Pixel explains with enthusiasm. "Take your time choosing, I don't mind the wait."
To Zoe's surprise, Pixel kept his word, he waited patiently as Zoe analysed each trinket for which she would like to buy.
After roughly 13 minutes of thought, Zoe came to a conclusion. "...the emerald, web shooter's, and the goggles."
"Ah. Going for utility I see? Excellent choice!" Pixel praises with a grin as he hands Zoe the items of her choice alongside the iconic worker drone costume. "In exchange, I'll take, let's say... Your father's wallet."
Zoe smirks. "Deal."
"Excellent doing business with you, now, here's a little something on the house, consider it a gift to you from an old pal of mine." Pixel spoke as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a black hexagonal box with a complex red symbol on the lid. "Don't open it until you arrive in Equestria, you won't really understand what it is until you do." Pixel chuckled as he gave the hexagonal box to Zoe.
"Now, enjoy your new life, Uzi Zodiac." Pixel spoke with a sincere smile as a wave of the pure darkness of the Void washes over the Void Dweller and soon to be Worker Drone, the room fading to pitch black.
Author's Note
First chapter of the Split timeline!
