My Little Cyborg

by Ignimbrite

Otherworldly

"It has awakened. Can you feel it? This energy in the air..." he breathed in, "breathtaking."

Two figures approached a cave. Both had dark brown manes, not that anyone would be able to tell from under their cloaks. The older of the two had a tan coat and a mark of two crossed swords in front of a circular shield. His brother was reddish-orange, and had a mark of several stars linked to each other by fine lines.

"But how? The ring isn't even completed yet."

Sierra Springs, the older of the two, chuckled. "It doesn't need to be complete. Somepony on the other side must have built one of their own and sent something through."

His brother, Summit Creek, stopped just short of entering the cave. "What is on the other side exactly? What do we want from it? I know you said it had power, and you said we could conquer anything we want with it, but you never said how."

Sierra Springs stopped and considered his brother's words. "I'm surprised you haven't guessed." His brother gave a look of confusion, so he continued, "you already know there are other worlds than these, countless others.

"Somewhere out there is a world where the rulers of Equestria lay defeated already. From there, we can learn what brought about their end.

"In another we may find tools or weapons or new forms of magic to assist us, and in another we may find creatures utterly incomprehensible to our kind.

"Our advantages will be limitless, and now," he grinned, "some creature from another world had contacted ours."

"What if these creatures aren't on our side?"

Sierra Springs snorted. "We'll find ones that are."

"No, no, I meant the ones that sent somepony here. And come to think of it, who did they send, and why did they send him?"

His brother nodded. "Odds are, they aren't on our side. They likely don't even know we exist. They probably just sent some harmless object just to see if they could. It's all irrelevant anyway.

"For now, let's finish the ring before the magic fades." He rubbed his hooves in anticipation. "That burst of energy will reduce the ring's charging time to a matter of hours. The magic from between the worlds will do the hardest part for us."

Summit Creek sighed at his brother's carelessness. Sure, the proof that the portal worked was a great source of confidence, but on the other hoof, interdimensional magic was fairly uncharted. It was a realm right adjacent to the chaos magic of Discord.

Now, they had plans to harness such unexplored magic.

He shook his head and forced his thoughts to return to the task at hand. The cave entrance was near.

The cave tunnel was long, but it was well lit thanks to some torches. It opened into a cavern with a ring of stones in the center and a pile of unused stones laying next to it.

The two began pulling out gems, iron tools, and books on the theory of the world's foundations. The construction was slow work, and rather tedious for the most part, but soon, an unmistakable blue glow appeared around the edges of the ring.

The ring was pulling in residual energy from the other worlds, and would soon be ready for its first test.

---

Shadowpiercer checked his list and walked towards Sugarcube Corner. Apparently, business had picked up enough for them to be looking for an assistant baker. It seemed simple enough, follow the recipe and nothing goes wrong. As he approached, he saw Pinkie Pie decorating cupcakes.

He watched as someone bumped into her, causing her to mess up the icing. She looked around, picked up the tray with her tongue, and ate it in its entirety. She promptly pulled an identical one out of her mane and began decorating it.

Shadowpiercer, upon realizing that he would be working with her, checked the next possibility on his list and promptly headed off in that direction.

---

Soon enough, he was kicking trees at an apple orchard. The owner, a mare appropriately named Applejack, showed him the proper technique and sent him towards a field that needed harvesting before tackling the field next to it herself.

He was starting to get the hang of it, or so he thought until he saw that Applejack had finished her section and was already starting on the one after that. Her brother, meanwhile, was matching her pace exactly.

At least it was an opportunity to practice walking, running, and other such skills.

While he was at it, he went ahead and turned his computer back on. One of its functions included a virtual model of his body. As long as he was moving around so much, he might as well get it calibrated. It might come in handy later.

The model had a few missing variables, of course. To fill the first of them, he hopped in place a couple times and checked his accelerometer readings.

He deleted those readings and tried again.

How did I gain that much weight?

He then bucked another tree and watched the apples fall.

Gravity's about average. So that must mean...

He walked over to an apple that had landed on the ground and kicked it into the bucket with one of his front legs.

He looked at his hoof.

Right, new body. Forgot about that.

He facehooved, then immediately winced.

Note to self: never do that again.

Just as he was about to start on the next tree, he heard screaming in the distance. Before he could turn to look, the source of the screaming came to him.

A wagon with three kids in it rocketed past, propelled by six soda bottles duct taped to the sides.

For the second time that day, Shadowpiercer was coated in sticky, food-based liquid.

He watched them plow into a haybale, emerge unscathed, and check each others legs. They then retrieved the wagon and duct taped even more bottles to the sides.

Shadowpiercer shook off and returned to his work, glad that they were at least not as strange as that first one he'd met.

Just before he could buck another tree, he was again covered in pressurized soda.

This was going to be a long day.

Author's Note:

The Equestrian worlds records regulations specifically forbid the use of wings in setting land speed records, which is the only reason Rainbow Dash still doesn't have that particular record.

The rules do not prohibit duct tape, wagons, or prodigious accounts of soda.

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Let's hope the connection is detectable enough when it's needed. 🤔

[Light Ascend]

Just before he could buck another tree, he was again covered in pressurized soda.

Bad Ponies...