//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Technomancer 
// by Phantomdust 
//------------------------------//

In an old run down workshop in the slums of the City of Copper a man in a plain black hooded robe stood over an incomplete little metal golem with tools in hand as he worked on its internal components. This man was 6'5" had very wrinkled old skin covered in several scars, sharp eyes with irises the color of polished blue sapphire, and a long white beard and similarly long white hair both of which were an uncombed tangled mess stained black in certain spots with grease and oil. Both of his hands and arms were made of steel rather than flesh and blood and appeared to have been damaged and subsequently patched up with scrap metal several times over in various locations and his robes appeared to be tattered and torn having numerous crudely sewn patches of its own.

As he continued to work on the robot he grimaced in pain as his stomach grumbled at him. He had been so focused on his work that he hadn't eaten anything in quite some time. He couldn't remember how long it had been exactly. Several days? A week? Two weeks? Longer? He had no idea. Most of his body was mechanical so he didn't need nearly as much food or water as fully organic individuals and he didn't need to eat or drink as frequently. However, he was still partially organic and thus still needed to eat at some point. It was starting to get to the point that he could no longer ignore his body's nutritional requirements otherwise he would give out before he could finish the golem and there would be no one to help him.

Reluctantly setting down his tools he gently stroked the head of the little robot. "Soon, my child. Soon you'll be complete. I just need another day or two, and you'll be ready."

He then sighed before turning and walking to a metal cabinet elsewhere in his workshop. Opening it up he saw it was mostly empty save for a can of beans he had been saving. Reaching into the cabinet he grabbed the can and looked at it. It wasn't much but it would hold him over until the next time he went to the store and could use what megere savings he had managed to earn with his skills as a washed up technomancer working for the most powerful gang in the city. He just hoped he would have enough left over to buy a cake to celebrate his child's activation day without having to dip into his resource budget.

To be fair the gang he worked for paid him very well for his services but the vast majority of the money he earned went into buying more materials for him to work with since some of the metals and crystals he needed were quite expensive, especially the crystals. He didn't have the tools or materials to build a machine to grow the crystals he needed otherwise he would have built one a long time ago as it would have saved him a lot of money. So while he earned a lot of money, he was still quite poor as he always had to spend most of what he earned in order to continue being able to do his job and fund his side projects. He would stop working on his side projects as much once his daughter was fully built so he would have more money and could take better care of her.

Finding a can opener he opened the can of beans before taking a spoon out of a drawer. He then sat down in a rusty old metal folding chair, closed his eyes, and said a prayer of thanks to Scientia, the Goddess of Technology, for all the technology that had been involved in the production of this can of beans and proceeded to devour the contents of the can. He could have cooked the beans first had he wanted to, but he simply didn't care. Food was food. At this point in his life he had learned not to be too picky about what he ate. Besides, with his stomach all of his other internal organs and over half of his body being artificial it wasn't like he could get sick or get food poisoning anyways. If he could get sick or be poisoned then he would be long dead by now.

As he was eating the front door to his workshop was knocked off of its hinges and a group of people carrying baseball bats, pipes, and even a gun or two came barging in. Seeing this Gerhardt just sighed and set down his half eaten can of beans before getting up. "Markus, you could have just knocked you know. I've always answered the door every time your gang has come by." Gerhardt said. His tone wasn't hostile, angry, or even so much as frustrated rather it was just tired.

A fairly muscular young man with short brown hair, a goatee, sunglasses, and a white tank top stepped forwards with a smug self satisfied smile on his face. "Hey, old man. Yeah we could have but we aren't here on a friendly visit this time. You see, we're gettin' reeeeal sick and tired of you refusing to sell us those fancy gadgets and such you've been sellin' to the Skulls. So we aren't asking nicely anymore. You're gonna sell us those gadgets or else."

Gerhardt rolled his eyes. "Or else what? You'll kill me? You're smarter than that. You know what the Steel Skulls will do to you if you do that considering I'm the one who makes them all of their best stuff. They're the most powerful gang in the entire country because of me. Pissants like you wouldn't stand a chance if you crossed them. So no. I'm not going to sell your gang of murderous psychos and human trafficking thugs anything, and there's absolutely nothing you can threaten me with that will convince me otherwise. So, unless you have a death wish I would highly recommend you get the fuck out of my workshop and never come back."

Markus chuckled and shook his head before walking up to Gerhardt, placing a hand on his shoulder, and saying, "Gods I was hoping you'd say that!" He then proceeded to punch Gerhardt in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground. "Alright boys, you heard the old man! He's not gonna sell us shit so let's wreck the place. If he isn't gonna sell us anything then we're gonna make sure he can't sell shit to the Skulls either."

Gerhardt sat up and looked around in a daze as the thugs began smashing and shooting everything in the workshop. "You know you've signed your own death warrant…" He muttered.

Markus then kicked him in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and breaking several of his ribs. Fortunately Gerhardt's heart was artificial otherwise that kick may very well have killed him. "Shut up, old man. The Skulls aren't a threat to us no more. You see, we've got a new weapons supplier and his weapons are even better than the ones you've been sellin' to the Skulls. Says he used to know you back when you were still hot shit. Remember Dorian Insidiae, the best technomancer in the world? Yeah, he's our new supplier! So the tech you sold them doesn't matter anymore since we're way better armed!"

Dorian? His former apprentice? The man who plagiarized his work, dragged his name and reputation through the mud when he called him out on his plagiarism, and destroyed every last ounce of respect and credibility Gerhardt used to have in the field of technomancy thus causing him to lose everything? "D-Dorian…? Why…? Wo-would he sell… scum like you… any-anything?" Gerhardt asked between fits of coughing and wheezing.

Markus shrugged. "He said something about hearing you were still alive and what you were doing nowadays, and wanting to put you outta your misery like the broken old dog you are. I don't get it but hey, I sure as hell won't complain! These new toys he gave us are freaking awesome!" Markus then reached behind him and pulled out a large bulky military grade pistol and pointed it straight at Gerhardt's head. "Well, no hard feelings old man. It's just business."

Gerhardt just stared up at him unflinchingly. He doubted he could cast a spell in time to save himself but he simply refused to give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing him react in any way whatsoever to his imminent demise.

However, before Markus could pull the trigger one of the thugs used a sledge hammer and smashed one of the projects that Gerhardt had been experimenting with. Suddenly there was a deafening BOOM and a bright flash of light and everyone in the factory was knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion. From an outside perspective it appeared as though the entire workshop just vanished in a magical explosion.

[Elsewhere]

Gerhardt was the first to recover after the explosion and seeing Markus's pistol laying on the ground he grabbed it before using telekinesis to help him to his feet. He then proceeded to shoot Markus in the back of the head before using telekinesis to grab all of the rest of the weapons off the ground and levitate them all out of reach of the rest of the thugs. From there it was easy enough for him to shoot them all as they tried to scramble into cover or run away.

When the gang was all dead he looked at the bulky pistol and snorted in disgust at the shoddy design. It would have been insulting to have been killed by a weapon with such shoddy craftsmanship. Oh it looked fancy, but Gerhardt could see a dozen flaws with the design and that was without looking at any of the internal design. He could see that Dorian's skills had not improved much in the decades since they had last seen each other. Regardless it was an arcane pistol thus Gerhardt could scavenge it for crystals and could use the rest of it as scrap metal. For the moment, however, he set it off to the side before immediately making his way back over to the golem he had been building.

"Oh thank the gods… They didn't hurt you… a-as badly as I had feared... I can f-fix these dents and the crumpled parts of… your frame easily enough… I just need a bit of time." He said to the currently incomplete golem between bursts of pain from his broken ribs and fits of coughing and wheezing. He then stepped away and walked over to his phone. Picking it up he tried to call the leader of the Steel Skulls to let him know what had happened and to request he send someone to clean up the bodies but for some reason Gerhardt couldn't get a signal.

Scratching his head in confusion, he decided to take his phone outside to see if he could get a better signal outside of the metal building he was currently in. However as soon as he got to the front door he was shocked to see that he was no longer in the City of Copper. Instead he found himself in the middle of a forest with no civilization in sight.

Blinking in surprise he looked back inside his workshop and saw that the long distance teleporter he had been working on had been smashed, presumably by the thug that was lying dead next to it. "Oh shit… Nonononono! Where the... h-hell are we?!" Terrified about what area of the world he may have ended up in he looked at his phone and looked at the G.P.S. app that had come preinstalled on it. After all, even if he didn't have any access to phone signals or the internet, surely he should have access to a G.P.S. signal since there wasn't a single inch of the planet that wasn't covered by G.P.S. It was as if there were absolutely no satellites in orbit whatsoever, which should have been impossible.

Gerhardt began cursing furiously. This was bad, this was very bad! Not only was he trapped here but he had no clue where he had ended up. He could be anywhere from the Human Kingdom to the Serpentine Republic or even worse the Ghoul Theocracy. He shuddered to imagine what would happen to him if he was found by the Ghouls. At least the Serpents would just kill him and get it over with, the Ghouls, however, were not nearly so merciful. The best possible situation would be if he had ended up in the Elven Kingdom. The most they would do is deport him back to the Human Kingdom, which he was absolutely fine with.

"Wait a moment…" He muttered to himself in sudden realization. If there was no G.P.S. signal then he couldn't be anywhere near any of the major kingdoms. He had to be trapped in what is likely the single most remote part of the entire world. "Oh thank the gods… Hm…" In that case he was either going to have to build something he could use to get back to the Human Kingdom or he was going to need to find a new source of ore and crystals… Well, he had enough materials stored in his workshop to last him about a month give or take so that was a problem for later. For now, he just needed to get rid of these bodies before they started to rot.

Heading back inside his workshop he grabbed the corpses with telekinesis before levitating them all outside and setting them all down in a pile. He then went back inside and grabbed a canister of the alchemical acid he often used for cleaning his equipment. It dissolved everything except for metal so it was perfect for cleaning his machines, though he supposed it was also good for disposing of bodies in a pinch since it could dissolve flesh and bone just as easily as it could dissolve most other things. Opening the canister he proceeded to pour the contents all over the bodies ensuring as much of their corpses were covered by the alchemical fluid as possible. As the bodies started dissolving Gerhardt walked back into his Workshop and began the process of cleaning up all of the blood that was splattered and smeared everywhere.

When he was done cleaning he went back out to check on the bodies and saw that they had finished dissolving. Now all that was left was a puddle of sludge where the bodies used to be. He then cast a spell and lit the sludge on fire and watched it burn just to ensure he didn't accidentally end up starting a forest fire. When it had finished burning he went back inside and proceeded to finish eating the rest of his can of beans between coughing fits as he was not one to waste food. When he was finished eating he got back to work on his daughter.

Eventually the sun began to set and exhaustion began to grip Gerhardt. As much as he didn't like it, he needed sleep just like everyone else. So he set down his tools before using telekinesis to prop the door up in the door frame. He would fix it tomorrow morning but for now he needed rest. Walking over to his bed, he took his boots off before laying down and drifting off to sleep.

[Gerhardt's Dreams]

"Dorian! Why?! Why would you do this to me?! I raised you as if you were my own son!" Gerhardt shouted at the shadowy figure in front of him. He couldn't see any of the details but he knew for a fact that it was Dorian.

"Why? Why do you think? Fame and fortune of course! The two most important things in the world." Came a smug response from the shadowy figure.

"You self absorbed greedy ingrate!" Gerhardt shouted at Dorian.

Dorian waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes… Whatever. I don't really care to hear your complaints. I think we're done here. GUARDS!"

Suddenly Gerhardt felt hands on both of his arms that began dragging him backwards. He struggled against the hands and shouted, "No! Let go of me you bastards! Dorian! Dorian! DORIAN!" Suddenly he felt a taser be jabbed into his back and his body became stiff and his muscles began spasming uncontrollably as electricity flooded through his body. As the hands continued to drag him away he tried his best to continue glaring at Dorian in a mixture of fury, hurt, and betrayal despite the fact that his muscles were no longer responding to him.

Suddenly the electricity stopped flooding through him and the hands that were dragging him away vanished along with the shadowy image of Dorian. Now Gerhardt found himself scrounging through junk and scrap yards trying to scrape together enough materials to build some crude augmentations to replace his limbs and internal organs when he eventually sold them on the black market to get enough money to buy some food and some higher quality materials to work with. Then he found himself talking with the leader of a small gang that went by the name "Steel Skulls".

"So, my boys told me you wanted to talk business with me. So what exactly does a washed up technomancer like you want with me and my gang?" Another shadowy figure sitting down on something asked Gerhardt.

"I want to sell you weapons." Gerhardt responded.

"Oh? And why us specifically?" The shadowy figure inquired.

"Well, I don't exactly have anything other than my skills as a technomancer and I need to eat just like everyone else. I've lived a very long time but I'll admit I'm afraid of dying so I don't want to just let myself starve to death on the streets. So I need some sort of income and no one else will hire me after Dorian destroyed my reputation, so this is my only option. Besides, I've done my research. I know you and your gang aren't nearly as bad as some of the other scum out there. You're the single best gang in the city that I could sell my weapons to as I know you're by far the least likely to hurt innocent civilians unnecessarily. Please, I'm begging, you can have the weapons I have in this suitcase. I don't even want any money in return for these ones. All I ask is that you give me one can of food and maybe a place to sleep for a couple nights. If you like my weapons then I'm happy to sell you more and maybe even a few other gadgets in the future."

The shadowy figure chuckled and took the suitcase from Gerhardt before opening it up and revealing the guns stored inside. The shadowy figure then whistled. "Damn. These are a lot nicer than I was expecting. Alright, old man, you have yourself a deal. We'll let you stay in this abandoned workshop here on our turf and a few cans of food. I'd say these guns are worth more than one single can of food and you know, seeing you grovel like this, I honestly can't help but feel bad for you."

The dream shifted again and Gerhardt found himself sitting in a mostly empty workshop using what metal and crystals he had left over from selling his body parts to build a gun. Time passed and he was no longer using cheap rusted tools he had found in a scrap yard but was using brand new high quality tools that he had actually managed to buy with the money he earned from selling weapons to the Steel Skulls. Then he had higher quality and rarer crystals to work with. Then he was working on stolen vehicles as well as weapons among many other things. Finally he was able to replace his crude augmentations with much higher quality ones, increasing his quality of life drastically from when his body was a barely functional mess of cheap plastic, cheap silicone, and scrap metal.

However despite being far better off than he had been when he had been forced to sell his limbs, most of his torso, and his internal organs more than any other time in his life Gerhardt was lonely. Almost cripplingly so. He had no family nor friends nor even so much as any pets. All he had in the world was himself and his machines. Sure there were the Steel Skulls and a few would come for casual visits every so often, but he couldn't call them friends. He didn't trust them as far as he could throw them. He couldn't trust anybody. After all, Dorian had not been the first person to betray him in his life, far from it, he had just been the most recent and by far one of the most painful considering Gerhardt had viewed him like a son more than just an apprentice.

Gerhardt had been betrayed far too many times in his life so as far as he was concerned the only reason the Steel Skulls didn't betray him too was because he was useful to them. He was positive that they would stab him in the back just like everyone else the moment he stopped being useful to them. Thus he worked to be as useful to them as possible so they couldn't betray him no matter how much they wanted to. So he was well and truly alone in the world and his dreams shifted to reflect this. He was no longer working in his workshop, rather he found himself sitting alone in an empty black void.

[In the Dream Realm]

Princess Luna was having a busy night that night. A surprisingly large amount of ponies were having nightmares and it was her duty as the Princess of the Night to fix them. Unfortunately since there were so many of them that night she couldn't spend as much time fixing them and interacting with the dreaming ponies as she would have liked. At least until she got to the last few and she knew she had enough time to spend a bit longer on them.

Finally she got around to the last nightmare but as soon as she did she immediately realized that there was something very strange about it. For one thing she could immediately tell that it didn't belong to a pony or in fact any creature she had ever encountered before. For another thing it felt too "real", for lack of a better term. Finally instead of being filled with fear like most nightmares it was only filled with hurt, betrayal, sadness, and an almost overwhelmingly pervasive sense of loneliness.

Cautiously entering the nightmare she saw a strange bipedal ape-like creature with long white hair and an equally long white beard and metal hands wearing strange crudely patched black robes sitting alone in a pitch black void. He wasn't moving and very clearly didn't notice her.

She tried to approach him but ran into what appeared to be a wall of sorts. Almost like a magical barrier but completely invisible. She was confused for a moment before realizing what was happening. Whatever this creature was despite his loneliness he would never let anyone get close to him in real life and his dreams were reflecting this by manifesting a barrier around him that literally stopped her from coming anywhere near his dream self. Fortunately this wasn't the first time that Luna had encountered such a situation before and she knew exactly how to deal with it.

She cast a spell and simply teleported herself past the barrier only to immediately get violently thrown back out of the barrier. This surprised her greatly as most such barriers were hollow as most ponies typically wanted to let others get close to them but were just too afraid to let them in. This creature was clearly a very different story. She could only assume that his desire to keep everyone away from him was not hollow and he genuinely didn't want to let anyone get close to him despite his loneliness. It wasn't simple introversion or the typical fear of trusting others so much as it was rampant paranoia. And that paranoia was fairly intense judging by how aggressively she had been thrown back out of the barrier.

Luna could only wonder what had happened to him in his life to cause him to end up like this. It broke her heart to see such a lonely and obviously miserable creature be so completely incapable of trusting others that his mind would create such a powerful barrier in his dreams. Still, she wasn't about to give up barrier or no barrier. So she cast a spell and the dream shifted. They were no longer in an empty black void, rather they were in the middle of an empty field at night. She had also altered the dream so that the barrier was no longer there. Thus she was finally able to approach the creature.

[Gerhardt]

Gerhardt just sat there wallowing in his misery when suddenly his dream shifted again. Now he was no longer sitting in the void but was instead sitting in the middle of an empty field at night. He was confused for a moment but quickly dismissed the change. It didn't matter if he was sitting in a void or an empty field, he was alone either way and he always would be.

He then felt something tap him on the back. He was startled by this for a moment before turning to see who or what it was. He was immediately surprised to see a small blue equine-esque creature with cartoonish proportions with the horn of a unicorn from Elvish mythology and the wings of a pegasus from Dwarven mythology staring at him. "Hello, I'm Princess Luna, diarch of Equestria and Princess of the Night. What's your name?" It asked him with a friendly smile on its face.

Gerhardt blinked once then twice. Finally he shook his head and muttered to himself, "Alright… So either someone drugged me with hallucinogens or I must be dreaming, because there's no way this is real."

The equine creature gave him a slightly amused look. "You are dreaming, but this is all real I assure you."

"Uh-huh… Right… Well, your highness I'm Gerhardt Mechanica. If this is real then how have I never seen nor heard of any species like yours before? My species has mapped the entirety of the globe and has traveled to every continent, yet we have never encountered a species like yours before." Gerhardt inquired not believing her in the least when she claimed this was all real despite it being a dream.

Her amused look turned to a look of irritation. "Apparently you have not else you would have encountered Equestria long ago. It's fairly large so it's rather hard to miss. Regardless, I'm not here to prove my existence to you. You were having a nightmare and I came to assist you with it. However, I noticed that you weren't afraid so much as you were sad and lonely among other things. I could also tell you have difficulty letting anyone get close to you, to say the least. What I want to know is why? What happened to make you like this?"

Gerhardt frowned at her. "If you are real then it's none of your business. If you aren't then you're just a part of my subconscious and thus telling you would be redundant. Either way I don't want to talk about it so leave me alone." He then turned away again and looked off in the distance.

Princess Luna then walked over beside him and sat down next to him. "I suppose I should have expected that. Well in that case, may I ask what you are? I've never seen anything like you before either."

Gerhardt sighed in annoyance. "I'm a human. More specifically I'm a mage, a human born with the ability to use magic. I'm also a technomancer, a mage who combines magic and technology to achieve things beyond what a mage is capable of while using magic alone. Depending on the machine it could even be capable of doing more than what even a Demigod or Fay is capable of especially if a Demigod or Fay assists in the machine's creation but those are extremely powerful, extremely rare, and extremely expensive pieces of technology."

"Oh? Interesting. What sort of technology can you make?" Princess Luna inquired curiously.

Gerhardt rolled up one of his sleeves and showed her his steel arm. "This, for one. Assuming I have the materials to work with, I can make fully functional augmentations to replace almost any part of the body including internal organs. I can also make long distance teleporters and portal arches for instantaneous travel between continents or even the moon, any sort of vehicle from a basic car for travel anywhere over land to a spaceship for travel to other planets or even nearby solar systems, weapons that can violate the laws of conservation and destroy matter or energy, generators that can also violate the laws of conservation and create energy which can then be converted into matter, quantum entangled communications systems for instantaneous communication even over infinite distances, basic household quantum computers, quantum supercomputers, and a lot more."

He didn't mind talking about his job. After all it was just that, a job. He may have enjoyed his work at one point in his life; now it was just something he did to get by. There were only two or three projects he was currently working on that he actually enjoyed. All the rest were just business. So he couldn't care less who knew what he did for a living, especially since most people already knew since he used to be quite famous.

Princess Luna appeared quite taken aback by this. "I-I see… I'll admit I don't quite believe some of what you claim but your augmentations are quite impressive at the very least."

Gerhardt rolled his eyes. "I honestly couldn't care less if you believe me or not. I know what I can build."

"I apologize, I didn't mean to offend you. Regardless, would you be willing to sell any of that technology, perchance?" Princess Luna asked.

Gerhardt glanced at her, "Talking business, eh? Sure, assuming you actually exist. You apparently rule a country so what would you want? Weapons or armor for your armies? Maybe some weapons of mass destruction to devastate or destroy your enemies? My supplies are fairly limited so I can't build anything in great numbers or anything too large in size but I guarantee the quality of my weapons."

Princess Luna looked almost offended by this. "No, the weapons and armor the Royal Guard currently have are more than sufficient thank you. I'm much more interested in your medical technology. Do you have any idea how many lives these augmentations could save? I'm also interested in the teleporters and these 'spaceships' you've mentioned, and to a lesser extent the communications system you mentioned."

"Oh. Well I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't have enough materials to make more than maybe a dozen or so augmentations or maybe two or three teleporters at most and I sure as hell don't have enough to build even half of a spaceship. I might be able to make a few quantum entangled communications systems too but don't expect me to mass produce them either." Gerhardt stated.

"That's fine. If you can produce a dozen artificial organs then that's a dozen ponies whose lives you will have saved. I guarantee you would be quite well compensated for it." Princess Luna said in an understanding tone.

Gerhardt glanced at her and gave a short mirthless chuckle. "A ruler of a country who actually gives a damn about the lives of others? That's certainly a first."

Princess Luna looked at him. "It sounds like you have only ever met very poor leaders. A ruler who doesn't care for her subjects doesn't deserve to be a ruler at all. Anyways, where are you currently? I'll be sending somepony to speak with you tomorrow though I'm pretty sure her map would lead her to you anyways considering how lonely and closed off you are… Regardless, it might help her find you if I could tell her where you're located. This is a dream so you can easily alter our surroundings to reflect your real world location."

Gerhardt gave her a suspicious look. "How do I know you aren't just going to send someone to kill me?"

Princess Luna was very obviously offended by this. "What?! Who do you take me for?! Why in the world would I send somepony to kill you?!"

Gerhardt was completely unphased by this. "People have tried to kill me and have sent people to kill me for either piss poor reasons or even no reason at all in the past and I'm not one to take risks. You are a complete unknown with unknown goals and motivations and therefore are a possible threat. So answer the question. What guarantee do I have that you aren't just trying to kill me?"

Luna appeared horrified upon hearing what he said. "Somepony has tried to kill you in the past… for no reason? But… That doesn't make any sense! Surely they had to have had a motive of some sort."

"People as in more than one person. And no. A few did it just because they felt like it. They had nothing to gain from my death. In fact the only reason the most recent one gave the people he sent to kill me was because he 'heard I was still alive and what I was doing in recent days and he wanted to put me out of my misery like the broken old dog I am.' I'm dirt poor and have lost every ounce of respect and power I used to have amongst my peers because of him so he had nothing to gain from sending those thugs to kill me other than just kicking me while I was down… But that's none of your business and you still haven't answered my question." Gerhardt hadn't meant to let her know that Dorian had destroyed his reputation, he was just still extremely angry about the entire debacle and he let his rage get the better of him for a moment. He was mentally berating himself quite aggressively for that mistake.

At this point Luna just looked sad. "I… I'm so sorry to hear that, and I'm glad to see you're still alive…" She then sighed and said, "Your technology is too useful to just kill or imprison you. So if you can't trust that I don't mean you any harm, you can rest assured that the value of your technology far outweighs any reason you may suspect me of having to want to kill you."

Gerhardt looked at her and searched both her face and voice for even the faintest trace of a lie. Detecting none, he nodded and said, "Good enough. That's the only reason my previous employers had to not betray me so fine. I honestly have no fucking idea where I am. In the most recent attempt on my life the thugs the individual sent to kill me destroyed an experimental interplanetary teleporter I had been working on. It… exploded, for lack of a better term, and my entire workshop and everything inside, including me, was teleported the gods only know where. Does this place look even remotely familiar to you?"

He then shifted his dream to match what he had seen outside his workshop while he was disposing of the thugs' bodies, minus the bodies themselves or the blood trail that he had created while levitating them out of the factory. Thus their surroundings became that of the slightly rusted corrugated metal of his workshop and the strange forest it had ended up in.

Princess Luna looked around. "This looks like the Everfree Forest. Hm… I would strongly recommend staying inside your workshop. There are quite a few highly dangerous plants and animals in the Everfree that could very easily kill you if you aren't careful and don't know how to deal with them properly"

"Hmph… I didn't plan on going outside any time soon anyways. I'm too busy." Gerhardt stated.

"With what, if you don't mind me asking?" Luna inquired.

Gerhardt was silent for a moment as he mentally debated if he should tell the truth or not. On the one hand, he didn't want to risk making his new daughter a potential target. On the other hand, assuming Luna was real she was probably going to find out about his daughter sooner or later anyway since she was very close to being fully built, he had no idea how long he would be wherever he had ended up, and she was apparently sending someone to come talk to him and he had nowhere to hide his daughter while he spoke to whoever it was. And he was confident in his ability to protect her even if she was targeted. He had to be confident in his ability to protect her otherwise he couldn't risk building her to begin with for fear she would be destroyed or would be taken away from him if anyone with any power ever learned of her existence. So reluctantly he opened his mouth and said, "My daughter. I'm building myself a daughter."

"I'm sorry, did you say 'building'? Not to be rude but how can you possibly build a daughter?" Luna asked, clearly genuinely confused by this.

"She's a sapient golem. A true artificial intelligence. The first true artificial intelligence the world has ever seen. When she's activated she'll be just as alive and aware as you or me and her thoughts and emotions will be just as real as anyone else's." Gerhardt explained.

Luna nodded in understanding. "I see… When will she be fully built?"

"Either late tomorrow or by afternoon the next day. Be warned I can and will kill anyone who tries to take her from me. Furthermore I would destroy her myself before I let anyone take her. You aren't taking her from me and you aren't getting your hands on the technology I invented in order to make her and that's final!" Gerhardt growled defensively.

"Calm yourself. I have no interest in taking your daughter from you and I will not try to make you give us the technology you used to create her. I was just trying to make friendly conversation. Have you thought of a name for her yet?" Luna inquired.

Gerhardt went silent and thought to himself for a moment. Eventually he said, "I've thought of a few but when I activate her I'll let her choose."

"Would you be willing to tell me any of the names you thought of? I would love to hear them!" Luna asked in a friendly tone.

"No." Gerhardt stated bluntly. "My daughter is none of your concern."

Luna frowned at that but didn't press the issue. "Very well… You know, there is one thing in particular I find rather… concerning."

"That is?" Gerhardt inquired suspiciously.

"Well, I apologize for what I'm about to say but I'm going to be blunt. I am concerned that you will let your paranoia get in the way of raising your daughter in a healthy environment. For example, I'm concerned that you won't even allow her to have friends." Luna stated.

"She doesn't need friends! All she needs is me and the machines we build! Anyone else would just betray her just like…" Gerhardt shouted before cutting himself off. He had almost revealed how Dorian betrayed him. He was glad he managed to catch himself before he revealed too much of his past.

"Just like, who? I already surmised that you had likely been betrayed by somepony close to you in the past. Perhaps even multiple ponies. I promise you it wouldn't hurt to talk to me about it. As the Princess of the Night and the guardian of dreams I know better than anyone the importance of confidentiality and discretion. If there was anypony in all of Equestria, if not the entire world, that you could talk to about it, it would be me." Princess Luna said in a sympathetic tone.

Gerhardt scoffed at that. He didn't buy it for a second. This had to be an act. He didn't know what sort of ulterior motives she could possibly have for this and he didn't care. He absolutely refused to fall for such deception under any circumstances. "Just leave me alone…"

At this point Luna sighed in reluctant acceptance. "Very well… I suppose our time is running out anyways and it's clear I won't be able to get through to you as easily as I had hoped… Regardless, I won't just abandon you to the nightmare you were having before. Instead before I go I shall alter your dream so you may relive some of the happier moments in your life. I hope to meet you in person soon, Gerhardt."

After that she cast a spell and altered the dream once more before exiting his dream all together.

Suddenly Gerhardt found himself reliving his childhood memories, which was objectively the happiest time in his entire life. He very much enjoyed seeing his mother and father again even if it was just in a dream.