Steel Heart

by ChAoS pOnY

Waking up in a new, but familiar place

Applejack had just been pulling her cart to it's place in the market when something hit the cart hard and destroyed it. "Dagnabbit Rainbow Dash! That's the third cart this year you.... aren't Rainbow Dash." she said as she looked at a metal pony wearing saddle bags. "What in the sam hill?"
"Darling, are you okay?" Rarity asked as she came out of the Carousel Boutique.
"I'ma fine Rarity, but somekind of metal pony fell out of the sky and wrecked my cart." Applejack said as Derpy land next to them.
"I'm so sorry Applejack. I tried to catch her, but I don't know what went wrong, it's like she weighs alot." Derpy said as she looked at the metal pony covered in apples and wood. "She didn't look that heavy."
"It's alright darling, at least you tried to catch her." Rarity said as she tried to levitate the pony out of the wreck, only she was heavy and Rarity strained to lift her. "My word, she must weigh a quarter of a ton easily." Rarity told them as the pony was slowly levitated out of the mess.
As she levitated her the saddle bag fell off and spilled onto the ground. From it rolled a small metal ball that seemed to upright itself before flickering and projecting dozens of pictures rotating in a circle around the light. One showed the pony a bit smaller and somekind of two legged creature with hands like a minotaur smiling, both were covered in frosting and eating cake very messily. Derpy tried to touch it and it suddenly came to life. "And here is what happens when you give a strawberry cake to a 4 month old automaton and her 5 year old sister." a female voice said as both the pony and the creature kept eating and laughing as they got messier and messier. "It is my scientific oppion that strawberry cake is a success and my granddaughters seem to agree." with that both of them turned and nodded before saying together, "Thank you Granny Sar-i-san" the creature seemed to have a bit of trouble and had exagerated pronouncing the name. Then it stopped and the pictures went back to rotating.
"My word, that is clever, I wonder what type of spell the unicorn used to enchant it so you can record images like they do at the movies." Rarity said as she sat the pony down.
"Wish I had one for the first time Big Mac gave Applebloom a bath. I swear he had more soap on him than her." Applejack said as she noticed one and said, "Gosh, he is bigger than Big Mac." she said as she pointed to a picture of a large dark blue stallion, "But what's wrong with his face."
Reaching out Derpy tried to touch the picture and it started moving, again. It zoomed out and showed him sitting at a tiny table with a small tea set on it and the pony and the same odd creature wearing funny clothing. "Would you like more tea uncle Brave Steel." the creature asked as she picked up the teapot and held it towards the tea cup in front of him. He then noticed who ever was holding the camera and the person holding the camera took off running and they could hear Brave Steel chasing them, yelling. "Come back here Juniper." "Aww, but your tea will get cold big brother." a new female voice yelled back. Then it stopped and went back to rotating.
Rarity then tried to float the small metal ball up, but the images and light disappeared, only to come back on when she set it down again. "Well that's clever. Something like this would use up all of it's magic if it was on all the time, but picking it up and putting it away shuts it off." Rarity said as she lifted it again and put it into the saddle bag. It was then she noticed the tag on the bag and summoned her glasses to read it. "Carousel Boutique ltd. copy right Hasbro 2052?"
"Rarity, I think this here is something we're going to need Twilight for." Applejack told her.
With a shake Rarity turned to her and said, "But of course darling, but we may need our other friends too."
With a nod Applejack turned to Derpy and said, "Mind telling Rainbow Dash something big has come up and we might need her over at Twilight's Castle?"
With a salute Derpy said, "You can count on me, it's on the way to picking up my niece, Dinky, from school." With that she took off flying as Rarity lifted the strange metal pony and her saddle bag.

Princess Twilight Sparkle sat looking at the strange metal pony on one of her guest beds, trying to puzzle everything out. According to Sunset Shimmer there was no metal ponies on the other side of the mirror. The only thing she came close to any of this was a toy company called Hasbro that made small plastic ponies that looked somewhat familiar. Even Twilights magic was having trouble telling her if the pony was alive or dead. She had tried to check for a pulse but the metal made it impossible, there might have been some kind of breathing but it was hard to tell. The only thing she had was something like brain activity, but her magic kept insisting it was coming from her cutie mark, which made no sense. She had even looked through the saddle bag and checked out all of the pictures in the metal sphere and only learned about her family and her name, Steel Heart. That and that her family were a mix of humans and automatons as they were called.
The bag itself had contaned several treats, a sketch pad, color pencils, crayons, and an Equine Automaton Inc. activity book, and a birthday card from her Aunt Juniper and all her friends at Equine Automaton Inc. All of which told her absolutely nothing more than that Dr. Sarah Sarisan liked cake and she had to help her find her way through the maze to her cake or that Dr. Juniper Sarisan's new Derby hat was to plain and she need her help to make it pretty or that 'Rogues' were hidding in the picture and she had to color them all in to help for Sasha catch and take back to the Doctors to get fixed. It was a simple childrens activity book, the most notable thing it had was the last page where you had to connect the dots to help Dr. Sarah Sarisan's granddaughters so they could find the door to Equine Automaton Inc, and visit their grandmother. In the picture was a cartoon version of Steel Heart and the human named Jenny looking surpised at a blank wall with numbered dots you had to connect the dots to make a picture of the door. It was notable because at the bottom was the line 'Be sure to ask your parents for our next activity book: Jenny and Steel Hearts Big Adventure and get 25% off your next trip to Canterlot Theme Park or Ponyville Theme Park. Also remember to enter to win a walk on role in My Little Pony: friendship is Magic 5: The Secret of The Lost Tribe and meet the entire Automaton cast @ Hasbro.com/contest keyword:Dryads.' Somehow where ever she was from new something about there world. She couldn't help but feel a little creeped out about the thought of an 'Automaton' version of her out there somewhere.
That was when Steel Heart eyes began to open and she said, "Mommy, I had the weirdest dream... umm, your not mommy."
"No, I'm Princess..." Twilight began but was cut off.
"OH MY GOSH YOUR PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE 3.5!!!" Steel Heart yelled as she jumped off the bed and began hopping up and down excitedly. "YOU WERE THE FIRST AUTOMATON TO LEAVE EARTH AND THE FIRST BEING TO TEST THE STAR DRIVE WITH A TRIP TO PLUTO AND BACK IN LESS THAN A DAY! YOU ARE ALSO THE FIRST TO CIRCUMNAVIGATED THE SOLAR SYSTEM!"
"I'm not her, I'm the real Princess Twilight Sparkle and will you stop hopping up and down, your starting to crack the..." At that moment the floor gave way and the two of them crashed through the floor into Starlight Glimmer's room. "...floor." Twilight finished before realizing she had landed on Starlight.
"Ouch." came the muffled voice of Starlight Glimmer before she passed out. Twilight quickly got off of her and began checking her over, only finding a few scrapes and cuts. The only one that worried her was the one on her right foreleg. It was then she heard a gasp from Steel Heart and turned to see her staring at the blood on Starlight's foreleg.
"That's real blood, please tell me my sensors are faulty and that is fake blood." Steel Heart said as she stared.
"It's real blood." Twilight said.
"But automatons can't bleed blood." Steel heart said in a trembling voice. "We don't bleed, only organics like humans can bleed."
Twilight's horn glowwed as she floated Starlight to her bed and teleported the first-aid kit from the bathroom to herself. "Listen, I'll answer what I can, but first I need to bandage Starlights foreleg. So sit over there, then we'll talk, and afterwards I'll try to figure out how to fix the floor we..." Twilight stopped when she looked up at the hole in the ceiling and saw it grow closed, only the crystals looked thicker. "This castle never ceases to amaze me." She said before trying to use some tweezers to remove the shards of crystal from Starlights leg, only to see them dissolve and quickly evaporate into the air, closing the wounds behind them. "Well that helps I guess."
"Crystals don't do that!" Steel Heart said as she pointed to the rubble on the floor as it also dissolved and evaporated quicky. "Granny Sarisan helped me and Jenny with growing crystals for our science fair project and you can't de...desolve crystals like that."
"First it is 'Dissolve', D-I-S-S-O-L-V-E, and second this is a magical castle that I've learned not to question about what it does. Pinkie Pie makes more sense than half the little improvements that just pop up when your not looking. The closest I've come to understanding it is that it was created by the Tree of Harmony and might be alive like the Tree of Harmony." Twilight told her.
"Updating lexicon sub routine entry for Dissolve" Steel Heart said in a harsh machine like voice before saying in her regular voice, "There is no such thing as magic, just science we have yet to understand. Granny told me and she was named one of the top 25 smartest humans in history."
"But does your Granny understand parallel time lines, parallel Universes, alternate realitys, and the Multiverse?" Twilight asked as she lead Steel Heart out of Starliiiight Glimmer's room.
"Is this like when she tried to explain where Galiant goes sometimes when he slips through the cracks in reality by telling me about a road with a fork in it and I go left and a me in another Universe goes right?" she asked.
"Well yes." Twilight answered her, "But did she tell you it happens over and over like the branches of a..."
"Tree." Steel Heart interupted. "Only she says that that was actually to small and the Multiverse is like a forrest where some of the trees have different laws of physics and that Galiant has been to some on other trees where birds swim through the air and fish fly through the water and other worlds that are based on the books she reads us." Steel heart stopped as the truth dawned on her and she looked down at the floor before saying in that machine voice, "Poly-Processor Core Temporary Hyper Processing Activated due to potential Emergency Sub Routine Beta Criteria may have been met. Analyzing.......................... Canceling Emergency Sub Routine Beta and linking Homing Transponder with Galiant Module and Activating..... Link established...." Twilight worried as she listened to Steel Heart and nearly screamed when Steel Heart's voice changed to a decidedly male voice "*Hello, Steel Heart are you there?* Affirmative, this unit is where it is. *She's entered hyper processor mode. Listen, hyper processor mode drains your energy levels, but is needed for the Galiant module to work. So I need you to find another being for me to talk to.* There is one present. *Good, please link your auditory sensors into the Galiant module to act as a microphone for them* Linking now... Completed. Note: 180 seconds remain until Poly-Processor Core Temporary Hyper Processing must shut down for 24 hours at the mark......Mark. *Okay, I can work with 3 minutes. Hello who or what ever you are, can you understand me?*"
Shaking her head Twilight said, "Umm... Yes, I can understand you."
"*Good, okay my name is Galiant, I'm here with both Dr. Sarisan's, Dr. Sanders and Dr. Hong. There was an accident with a teleportation gateway test and Steel Heart was pulled through to your world. We're trying to work out a way to get her home and must ask you.... Umm... What is your name by the way?*"
"My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, former student of Princess Celestia and current Princess of Friendship." Twilight said.
"*Okay, a literary Universe, well at least she didn't wind up in an H.P. Lovecraft type of Universe. Just to establish something, and I do apologies in advance, have any ponies gone missing around there while Pinkie Pie's cupcakes have gotten sweeter or is there a facility called the Rainbow Factory that is very secretive about what they do and what happens to pegasi...*"
"Oh great, those silly books that hack wrote have even spread to other Universes." Twilight said as she stomped her hoof. "Listen, they were just horror stories using public figures to get better sells. Pinkie doesn't chop ponies up for cupcakes, she just accidently added twice as much sugar as usual and it was a big hit. The Rainbow Factory gives regular tours just to prove their not killing anypony. Rarity has not branded a heart on herself and is known to faint when getting a shot at the doctor's. I am not a mad scientist on the run from the law for experimenting on ponies. Applejack doesn't kill ponies to use them for fertilizer. And Fluttershy was a wreck for weeks when she heard about Murdershy. I swear if I was going to kill anypony I would start with Grimdark first."
"*I'm sorry to bring it up, but you know about the stories and how those versions of you and your friends could exist in another universe.* Sixty seconds remaining until Poly-Processor Core Temporary Hyper Processing will shut down at the mark...Mark. *Okay, I need to ask you to take care of Steel Heart until we can figure out how to bring her back because I don't think trying the same way twice is a good ideal since her sister is now in the hospital with mild radiation poisoning, electrical burns, and both hips broken from where Steel Heart kicked her out of there to save her.*"
"Okay, but I will want some answers when you come get her, like how does this Hasbro know about Rarity's shop and a lot of other things." Twilight said.
"*That's easy enough. As for your friends shop, well ideals can pass between universes very easily. So songs, stories, and things like that slip through and spread very quickly. I'll try to reestablish contact tomorrow if I can. Goodbye Princess Twilight Sparkle.*"
"Goodbye Mr. Galiant." Twilight said as she watched Steel Heart begin swaying back and forth.

"Are you out of your mind asking her about grimdark fanfics!" Dr. Sally Sanders yelled as her mother and sister held her back. "Why not ask her about Molestia while your at it!"
"Listen, I can be in that Universe in a few minutes and if that Twilight Sparkle said anything remotely off I would have. I needed to establish if it was a fanfic Universe or not and what type. Good news is she is relatively safe and given the reaction to the question she should be fine for a little while." Galiant said as he watch her settle down. "She has a 'cutie mark' so the crusaders won't have any reason to drag her off on an adventure, Twilight being a princess means Discord should be reformed and somewhat safe, and lacking any unforseen problems, she will just spend a little while in a relatively safe and kid friendly Universe, give or take what the Everfree Forrest does. If all else fails I can most likely do an Emergency Core Ejection and bring it back here so we can build her a new body around it and hope tha most of her Core memory is intact and doesn't get wiped."
"I might not like it, but promise me you'll go save my little girl if things go really wrong." Sally asked.
"I'll be there as soon as possible and save her." Galiant said. "But it would be better if we can find a way to bring her back and establish relations with them. They are a civilization that, thanks to Hasbro, our Universe would be able to get along with and there would be very minimal cultural shock compared to when we do meet a truely alien civilization."
"Well, it could be worst, but we should start working out how to bring her home." Dr. Hong said.

Down the hall in the lab where the accident happened, a marble sized hole flickering rainbow colored light briefly turned pure black ringed with crimson red and a laugh would have been heard in the lab if anyone had been there to hear it. "Well well well, what do we have here? A crack in my prison, no two cracks. Hmm... a world of science and a world of magic, I can use these, but the question is how?" A voice asked the empty room and a small cloud that had drifted out of the Everfree Forrest. A presence push at the edges but only a trickle of it's power got through. Yet that was enough for it to here voices talking, planning how to link the two worlds so a lost child can get home. "Ah... A lost soul alone and far from home. This will be perfect, but how long until they figure it out on their own. Maybe a little suggestion in the right direction can help, a little nudge in their dreams just to speed things up. Hmm.... but I am limited to what I can do, so I can only choose one. The females are too worried about the lost child and the thing is not something I want to alert to my presence just yet. No, that one, I can feel how much they all over shadow him, how everyone has overlooked such genius, how they all get respect and aknowledgement except for him, how eager to prove himself amongst them, and show the word he is not just a footnote in their story. With the right angle I can twist that into something I can use later, but for now I can plant the ideal of the solution in his mind and add a little pressure to his desire for more."
There was a brief shimmer of air as something smaller than a speck of dust wafted through the air. It drifted against the air from the vents and rode them through the ducts, effortlessly passing through filters. It then drifted out of a vent and glided across the room to Dr. Edward Hong, waiting until he breathed in and gently slipping into his lungs and straight into his blood. It rode the currents to it's destination and gently made it's way into the depths of his brain to wait until the next tie he slept.
"That's good, but we can do better... Ah, I got it, a small bit of danger to put a little haste in their plans. Never mind those little details, she should be home with her mother as soon as possible." The presence pushed at the edges again and felt the Everfree Forrest. "Oh what a wonderful place, very primeval, just my kind of place where the predators eat the weak and helpless. But what to choose? What...to...choose? I could go for the most abundant, but the locals problely have dealing with them down to an art by now. And I can feel another presence watching over that big one and her cub. Ah, one of my old pets slumbering away the eons until it hears my call. Strange that I don't remember conquering any realms with equines as the dominate species, but then again I was up to 500,000,000 Universes when they imprisoned me. And for what? Because 'We are meant to guide softly not rule by strength, gentle nurture not encourage dominace and control, to protect the weak and frail not empower the strong and resourceful.' Bah, nature is not kind or gentle, life is never easy or simple, and I have yet to find a single Universe that is fair and just. Only fools and dreamers believe in such nonsense. No they must be lead by a firm hand and not coddled like children only to curse us for it when things don't go their way. They need to be shown how to stand and be strong so when the world hits them they can hit it back, hard. And you my pet need to teach them that try as they might, they will never truely tame the wild."
This time what flew out was something the size and shape of a needle. It shot through the air at an incredible speed and quickly disappeared into the forrest. It twisted and weaved through the trees and duck under and between the legs of a zebra who suddenly shivered despite the heat of summer. It finally came to a cave and whipped inside. Once there it flew into the ear of the creature sleeping in the cave and delivered it's message, "At the edge of the forrest are several towns. Locate this town..." The image of Ponyville formed in the creatures mind. "You will then follow the forrest edge until you reach the third town and begin rampaging. Do not completely destroy the towns, but leave a wake of destruction behind you as you work your way back to the town I showed you. Once there rampage for an hour then fake being injured and retreat back to your cave and wait for further instuctions." With that the creature rose and stretched, before leaving it's cave.
"Now to just wait until my little seeds grow and bear fruit. Soon all will know that Tirano, Enslaver of Realms is free once more."