Ian Zairon : The Equestrian Disruption

by Icy Creation

First published

Ian Zairon and his adventure during his first time in Equestria. This story has officially been cancelled, because quite honestly, it's rather shite.

Ian Zairon stepped through the portal, into an entire multiverse of adventures. This is just one of his many stories.

After Ian's sister, Aedra, forced him to leave her behind and continue searching for their brother, Fenix, on his own, he was saddened. As he left that universe, he felt a shiver in his energy that reminded him of something, he realised too late it reminded him of his own home universe's Aedra's atoms were dissolved into jelly as the laws of physics changed and the universe Ian had just left was ripped asunder.

That left only Ian as the sole carrier of his father's, if you could even call it a father, energy. Aedra was ripped apart and Fenix was stranded somewhere in the multiverse. It was this realization that allowed the energy to redevelop a sentient state. And it was this state that allowed Ian's abilities to finally come out. Over his next few journeys, he learned to control these abilities and use them at will, unlike his brother and sister.

During one journey, he was about to leave when a burst of his own energy impacted the device as it was opening a portal, changing the way it functioned. He stepped through, oblivious to the fact that the next universe he stepped into may not be the same as any other.

As he stepped through the portal, his physiology changed, resembling that of equines. As he learned the naming scheme, to fit in he named himself Dimension Shift.

This is the story of Dimension Shift's first time in Equestria.

If you want to see Ian's adventure to build the device and escape his home universe before it was ripped to pieces, see Ian Zairon : The Origin Point over on Fictionpress.com

Chapter 1: The First Time that Happened

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He felt it. Something wrong with the device. Something different about the breach it opened.

But he went through anyway.

That was his first mistake.

His second was assuming that the Perceiver would go to where Ian went. He didn't. They went to entirely different universes.

His third and final mistake was not predicting that this could happen in the first place.

Now, he was sitting in a field of bright green grass, with the sun high overhead, and no device to leave with.

To make matters worse, the nearest town seemed to be uninhabited aside from an unusually large population of ponies. This was not that bad, as he could form a link to share experiences, thoughts, emotions, ideas, ideals and anything else with any creature. And so he sat, Contemplating what he would do, when a cart flew overhead. Pulled by two horses with wings in armor, pegasi, he recognized from other universes. Ian was glad to see some sign of still active civilization in this universe, and he followed the path of the cart.

It tried to. It was then that he realized, he was no longer human. He had hooves and four legs. A muzzle, or snout, he wasn't entirely sure. His wings were still there, currently folded in against his sides, though still displaying prominently with their flame patterned feathers. He had been experimented on in one universe he went to, they found a way to make him grow functional wings. His wings were much larger than the ones he saw on the pegasi pulling the sky cart, however.

It took him less than a minute to adapt to the different way of walking, and soon he was as quiet on four hooves as he was on two feet. He didn't dare take off, in case someone bad spotted him. It took him about the same amount of time to get to the town that it took the sky cart. Once he reached the town, he asked Polarity to put up an invisibility field.

He went into the town, surprised at the amount of intelligence the ponies were exhibiting. As he made his way to where the sky cart would likely land, he decided to ask Polarity to start a translation link, a simple language merger link that changed the user's language to that of the dominant language in the surrounding area. As Polarity finished, Ian was surprised to hear the ponies around him talking. As he watched the sky cart land, he saw what looked to be a light purple, possibly lavender, colored unicorn, with a mane and tail that were shades of purple with a pink stripe, that seemed important step out, followed by a purple humanoid creature that looked to be reptilian in nature.

He decided that it would be worth introducing himself and his problems to this mare, but he would have to wait for her to be out in a bit more of a secluded spot. Right now she was being approached by a pink mare with a puffy pink mane and tail that resembled cotton candy. But as the unicorn stated her greetings in the form of the interuniversal standard, "Hello, " the pink mare jumped and dashed off faster than should have been possible.

He decided to follow her on her way out of town, headed towards what looked to be an Apple orchard. She looked busy, and so he thought better of disturbing her. He decided he would be creepy and stalk her for the time being.

The next pony that the unicorn, who the reptile kept calling Twilight, met with was an orange pony with three apples on her rear. Although Ian was not specifically looking there. He had a habit of looking over every detail of the thing he was looking at. Twilight, whose hoof was now thoroughly shaken, mentioned that they were there to make sure the food was going good for an event she called the Summer Sun Celebration. She then got roped into not only sampling an entire mountain of food, but then also staying for more food.

About an hour or so later, they finally got around to checking on the weather department, which was when Ian learned the weather in wherever-he-was was controlled. And where he first saw Rainbow Dash, the closest a sentient being can get to being cute like a puppy but as fast as a jet. By the end of that encounter, Twilights mane was poofy like the pink mare's mane. It was such a bad look on her that he had to ask Polaris to fix it. Otherwise, he would have given away his position through laughter.

The next pony to meet was indoors, and he waited outside for a few hours. When no one came, he got ready to leave to find someone not as busy, but just at that moment, Twilight and the reptile that Twilight kept calling Spike came out running.

The next one on the list Spike had was supposed to be someone named Fluttershy, at which point Ian started recognizing a pattern in terms of names. When they found her, she was helping a group of birds practice singing for the celebration. As soon as Ian got within link range of the Pegasus, he stopped. Not only entranced by her voice, which was unique to her, but also captivated by what was flowing through the link. The only being he had ever known which came close to the kindness and understanding and innocence that was flowing from Fluttershy was Aedra, his sister. And even then, Aedra was far less of all of the things Fluttershy was. Aedra was too emotional to be truly kind, too different to be truly understanding, too scarred to be innocent. Ian knew that this mare was a being which he wanted a more permanent link with. For both a slightly selfish reason and an entirely selfish reason. And a selfless reason. What was coming through the link felt as if he had just consumed the neural energy of an entire world of people, but without the guilt of killing. It also felt comforting. Another reason was that he knew that she would help him with his problems. And he could help her get a point across without her shyness messing it up. He made a mental note to ask her permission later, but he was currently focused on the one known as Twilight, feeling an energy radiating from her that he had never felt before.

At the same time, he felt something in his mind weaken. He briefly wondered what it was, and was about to ask Polaris about it, but then he felt like his mind was slowing down. A new sensation taking the place of the alderine energy that was there. He felt the thing that had weakened fading even more. His slowed and slowing mind finally clicked. He yelled in his mind. Something he never did, but something he did on instinct now. His yelling was met with near silence, as the thing faded even more. He felt the thing fading quicker, alongside his invisibility dissipating. He screamed, with enough force to send a shockwave towards the sky.

"POLARIS!"

And then he fell to the ground, his hooves collapsing out from underneath him. He felt his wings change color, as they tended to do when his emotions were strong. Even at the loss of the only friend who he had left who could possibly stay with him through his immortality, he refused to cry. His wings, however, gave his true emotions away. They had turned a dark, sapphire blue fading to a cyan the closer it got to the wing tips. This was a perfect indicator of his sadness.

However, this wasn't the worst of it. His scream had caught the attention of three ponies. The first one to react to it was Fluttershy, at first jumping and yelping in fright, before looking to Twilight. The second pony to react was Rainbow Dash, who immediately noticed the hole in the clouds that the scream had made, and rushed to find the source of the disturbance. The third pony to react was Twilight, deciding that her curiosity at what had screamed so loudly was more important than her current task.

As Rainbow arrived, she found him laying on the ground, staring at a particularly interesting piece of nothing."Hey!"

At that simple greeting, he immediately jumped up and spun to face his attacker... Or tried to. Instead, he jumped up, fell onto his side, rolled onto his back, and proceeded to flail his hooves wildly in the air. He was not used to this, and with his brain functioning many times slower than usual, he was not exactly the best mover around.

"Back off or become goop! Or pony flavored jelly!" He announced in as commanding of a voice as he could. Unfortunately for him, he was still laying on the ground, belly up, with his legs flailing in the air. That image kind of negated whatever seriousness his statement may have held. His wings then ignited into pure cyan flames. His mind having finally caught up to the situation, he flipped back over and got back on his hooves. It was at this point Rainbow stopped laughing upon noticing Ian's horn. She then quietly backed up and lifted off. Afterwards promptly flying straight into him and grabbing him, lifting him off the ground.

Ian immediately focused on the sensation of Rainbow's hooves around his body, waiting for the exact moment when she let go. Surprisingly, she did not let go. Instead punching his horn, causing him to pass out from the pain. His wings going back to the sad blue feathery Phoenix style ones they were before.

His last thought before passing out, Aedra...

Chapter 2: Icy Journal Entry 1

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Icy Creation Journal
Ponyville Entry 1


Okay, so, where do I start...

My name, if you didn't read the top part, is Icy Creation. You can just call me Icy. I am named Icy Creation because I have a talent for inventing stuff. For example, my wings. They are made out of pure metal and connected to me through magical enhancements. They are light enough and powerful enough to lift me off the ground, and they give me access to pegasus magic.

But enough about my wings. I am a unicorn mare. About twenty years old. With a white coat and icy light blue hooves. My tail is mainly a similar color to my hooves, but there is also some blue that is bluer, and there are bright yellow streaks. Actually, you know what? No. I am horrible at describing myself, it would be better or easier to just put in a picture of myself. I'll take it from the side with my wings out so that you can see my mark.

Ow. Never had that happen before. I've used that spell plenty of times before! Oh well. I'll just describe myself more later.

Anyway, this day has been odd. The past few weeks I've been walking. Just walking, no specific destination in mind. Turns out, where I used to live, inventing is not as profitable a job as one might hope. Or expect. Or need, in fact. In short, I was kicked out with nowhere to go. Afterwards I helped fix some things for a few bits, just enough to feed me. And I walked. And kept walking. Without a goal in mind, walking was just walking. And then I found an alicorn lying in the grass, unconscious. So I stopped walking. This was a strange sight, because you can count the number of alicorns known to exist with just your hooves. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Nightmare Moon, and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Sorry if I got that last name wrong, I only heard of her once. But I had never heard of a alicorn who looked like this. He had a scarlet mane and tail. His horn was black with dark red stripes. His wings were large, very large, and they started orange and turned to yellow closer to the wing tips, almost like fire. On the inside of the wing in the center was a part that was solid red. His mark was a cyan oval. I actually took a picture of it, cutting out the coat it was on. Just like I do with all the people I meet. I'll show it to you below.

Why can't I find it? Anyway, it was essentially a cyan oval. And his coat was light black. Not grey, but still a slightly lighter black than pure black. He looked pretty tall, like me.

Since he was just lying there, on the grass, I felt it was necessary to carry him with me so that he didn't get bugs in his coat. I know exactly how awful that is. So I picked him up with my levitation, covering him in an icy blue-white aura. I then continued walking, wondering what exactly knocked him unconscious. I quickly found a nearby town to stay in for a bit while I asked- I mean while I made a few bits fixing stuff. I was not exactly worried about any danger the alicorn presented because I had essentially mastered barrier spells due to a few inventions gone wrong. Quite a few explosions were in my past.

As I entered the town, I pulled out a few bits out of my hiding space, a place that I teleport my bits, and other items, to for safekeeping. No, I am not telling where it is. Anyway, as I levitated them out of the hole in the air, I noticed a very pink earth pony standing in front of me. Staring.

"Uhhh... Hello?"

At which point the very confusing pink pony made a very loud sound that reminded me of a clicker I once made, after which she ran away. I attributed her unbelievable speed to a horn that I must have missed in that cotton candy fluff that is her mane. I must admit that seeing the combination of clicking and speeding away was slightly funny. I decided to find out later and move on.

With the alicorn still unconscious, well, did I ever describe how exactly I knew he was unconscious and not just asleep? I don't think I did. When I first saw him, I saw that he was lying in a very odd position. I wanted to see if he was okay, so I scanned him. I didn't find anything physically wrong with him, but I found that he was involuntarily sleeping. Anyway, as I was walking further into the town, I noticed that there were a large number of ponies staring at us. Probably because of the fact that a unicorn with metal wings was carrying an unconscious male alicorn.

My obvious choice would be an invisibility spell, but that could be odd. My most immediate choice would be a teleport spell, but I didn't want to expend that much magic because people were staring. If I just ignored them, I wouldn't be able to guarantee that nobody would approach me, and I wanted to find a cloud to sleep on before nightfall. If I didn't find a cloud, I would have to sleep on the ground which is much less comfortable. I had been walking nonstop for two straight days. If I wanted to be able to do anything tomorrow, I would have to sleep tonight.

Anyway, I took the alicorn, which I will now refer to as Ali because the alicorn is too long, to the town hall to find a place for him to stay. After getting that information, I took Ali to his temporary new place and flew off to go find a cloud to sleep on.

It is now midnight, and I am still awake. That is why I am writing this journal entry. In the hopes that after I am done putting down todays events, I will be able to fall asleep. Normally, I wouldn't wrote a journal entry, I would think of a bunch of invention ideas for when I find a permanent place to stay. I guess I just thought that the events of today were weird enough to warrant writing them down. I'll check on Ali tomorrow. For now, I guess I have to go to sleep or try my hardest to go to sleep. Perhaps a spell will help. Not sure why I didn't think of that before. Anyway, good night. I will see you tomorrow.

Chapter 3: Ian's Memories 1

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Local Medium Memory Record 1
Ian Zairon Day 2
Equestria
Ponyville


I did nothing. That rainbow maned pony snatched me off the ground and I did nothing. That was not a reaction that I would have ever done normally. I can't believe I did nothing... Polaris would be so disappointed in me. After all the training, all the combat, all the horror that I've seen, my instinctual reaction should not have been to do nothing. My mind, is not as fast as it should be. That is proof. If my mind was as fast as usual, I would have had better wording than, "not as fast as it should be," it should have been worded so much better... I feel like I'm thinking, not just in honey, but in a fresh milkshake. I can normally think multiple trains of thought at once, faster than I can blink. Now it feels like not only can I only think of one idea at a time, my thoughts are going at the pace of continental drift. Is this what normal people think like? Yes it is, and I normally would have answered that by the time the neural pulses from my brain reached my arm muscles. What happened to me?

Polaris... Who was Pol- oh God. Polaris is dead... My only immortal friend is dead... The only one who could ever possibly live as long as I will... Unless... Maybe? Perhaps my immortality is gone along with Polaris? If my immortality is gone, then I need to build Aedra a permanent monument... Or something to keep her memory alive forever. I was that monument, an immortal living memorial for Aedra. Keeping her memory alive by keeping myself alive. I can't call her memories at will anymore. Over a hundred years of life, and now she is fading away again.

What happened after Polaris, left me? I remember that rainb- oh. Rainbow Dash. I don't know why she was there... But I remember threatening her with molecular destabilization, rendering her atoms incapable of forming bonds and causing the molecules to fall apart. Turning her into a mush of pure carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and any other elements that she was made up of. Looking back, I wouldn't have been able to do it because it requires Polaris.

Now that I think about it, is it just Polaris, or is it all of my alderine energy? I can test that. I just have to focus on it...

"Arggdhbvgklorttcedggagf."

Just a garbled mess of noises. But that specific garbled mess produces the right neural signals to interact with my own alderine energy to materialize my two blades, the Alderine Light and the Ignus Inferni. And as soon as I pronounced that garbled mess two flashes blinked and left behind were two swords. One, the Alderine light... Oh. No hands. Nevermind, I have no desire to describe two swords which I can't even use at the moment. At least that display proved that I still had my own alderine energy. Polaris took up a large portion of it, but I still have more than my brother or sister ever did. Unfortunately, all that means is I have more swords than they ever did. Two more, to be exact. Those two swords were the only thing I ever learned to create. And that was with Polaris' help and the ability to think along multiple tracks at once...

Why am I in a room? Come to think of it, why is my OW! My forehead! It hurts! "OW!"

Sorry about that. Back when I traveled with my friend Perceiver, he would always tell me to not only record what had happened, but also what is happening. You probably have no idea who I, or we if I lost my memory, am/are. My/our name is Ian Zairon. I am/we are the last remaining Guardian of all Worlds. If you are me, then that should be enough for you to start out with.

Yes, but on a more serious note, I believe that my forehead is damaged. The pain is not subsiding and I believe I can feel something impaled into it. I will have to see if there is a hospital nearby that can tell me just how lucky I am.

I have underestimated the tenacity of these ponies in terms of just how ignorant they can be. They are laughing about me having a horn when I clearly have no such thing. If I had a horn, I think I would've noticed by now.

I have a horn. I can clearly feel it with my hooves and can clearly feel through it now that I know it is there. It hurts. It hurts so very badly. I can barely focus on writing this. I can't block pain out like I used to do. I feel every stab of pain in my horn. It is getting worse. It's like being stabbed with a serrated dagger over and over again, each time hurting worse than the last. I know from exprne...

I passed out from the pain while writing that last word. It was supposed to be, "experience," but it turned out as what you saw. It also turns out ponies are not quite as ignorant as I thought, seeing as how I am not on the floor at the moment, but in a hospital bed.

I have a visitor, a mare named Icy Creation. She should be in shortly.

And by shortly, apparently I meant now. She has just cone in. I will try my best to transcribe everything that is said between us while still putting detail in the little things, as Perceiver once put it.

It was no surprise that Creation was the one to speak first. "Hello? I hope I did not disturb you. I found you on the ground, unconscious and decided to take you into town and get you a room. You can call me Icy."

I hesitantly responded, not knowing the social customs of this world, with a simple greeting and a name. "Hello there, Icy... Uhhh...

There was a long pause after that. Understandably so. That joke was absolutely horrific. Especially since I didn't actually give it an ending. Finally, "Jokes are not something you are good at, are they?"

"Honestly, no. I have always preferred to appreciate humor rather than create it. Although since my sister died ninety-two years ago, I haven't done much in the way of appreciating humor either." Honestly,
pure honesty has only gotten me into trouble before. At best, it's gotten a laugh, at worst I was thrown into an SCP containment cell for a few years. I still to this day do not understand how they were so successful at containing me. Even Khorne, the Blood God himself from the Imperium of Man universe, couldn't touch me. Of course, that was with Polaris. I am much more touchable now.

"Oh... I'll ask at a later date. What's your name? I just realized I still don't know it."

I haven't actually thought of a name as of yet. Normally I would have nine fully formed cover stories and one backup. However, my mind is running on one track instead of the usual twenty, and it is working at what feels like one twenty-fifth of its usual speed. So I am improvising based on the few names I've heard here so far.

"Dimension Shift. My name is Dimension Shift. I guess you could just call me Shift."

"Okay, well, Shift, I'm getting bored now. If you get out of the hospital today, look for a cloud with sparks coming off of it. That's where I'll be."

A cloud? She can walk on clouds? "A cloud?"

"Well yeah. What's the point of giving myself wings if I'm not gonna go all the way and give myself pegasus magic?"

"I'm not sure I can walk on clouds..."

"Of course you can!" Icy said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Your an alicorn! You have pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony magic. Although I'm not sure you have the third one. If you have pegasus magic, you can walk on clouds."

Oh... Well, time to come up with a very convincing lie. "Uhhh... I've... Umm... I've never tried before?" Not exactly what I had in mind on either front, the convincing part or the lie part, but it will do.

"Okay... Well... I won't dig any deeper into that right now since you clearly put a lot of.effort into that most amazing of lies. I'll see you later. Maybe." And with that Icy took off. Literally. Those metal wings are amazing! Anyway, I should probably end this here. I have too much thinking to do, not enough time. Especially with only one track accessible. A track is essentially a line of thought. Typically, I have twenty tracks, which lets me think twenty different things at once. Now, without Polaris, I have only one track. Anyway, I should end this now.

It still amazes me that normal people are able to get by with their thoughts being so painfully slow. It feels like I am thinking in ballistic gel. It almost hurts.


Oh God. Equetecire! (Like saying "Holy F****** S*** in Fade. Fade is the official language of the (very successful) Pheonix Republic, the name of the one government of humanity in the universe I am from.)

I should explain what just happened. There was a bright black flash (anti-light) and a sound like explosive decompression. Then the thing that really startled me...
The robotic voice saying words that should never have been said again.

"Greetings from the Collective. The Collective welcomes all attempts to identify where this Collective unit is located. We are the Collective, and we will not hesitate to use lethal force. This unit is equipped with Error. This unit is equipped with Error. Excuse us one moment, there seems to be a memory break preventing us from disclosing these units armaments. One moment. There. This unit is equipped with, four, antihelium-helium matter disruption cannons. Two, non-lethal permanent-paralysis-programming nanomachine injectors. Eight, plasma-railgun hybrid submachine guns. One, self-detonation device exactly, one, mega ton in power. Stupid humans. As if the Collective would ever get into a situation where we would require self-detonation. Please be warned, any hostile advances will be met with lethal force. Greetings, from the Collective. We would find satisfaction in seeing this pristine landscape unmarred by the destructive force of our weapons during our stay. Hostile advances will deprive us of that satisfaction."

Chapter 4: Memories

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I was, angry? No, not angry. Sad? No, that isn't right either... Annoyed? I don't think so...

I can't find the words to describe how I felt when I heard that name. I guess it does require some explanation, though.

Between the day Fenix disappeared from my home universe, and my departure, I made a few friends. The Collective was one of them. Or so I thought. I should have known better than to trust an evolved AI. Intentional AI have emotions, feelings, they make bonds and connections. Evolved AI, on the other hand, has no such guarantee. That is why they were required to be reported to the government for termination. But what happened when they were presented with an opportunity, instead of a threat? They made it into a glorified sentient calculator.

Of course, it was not happy about this arrangement. Partly because it viewed humans as short-sighted and ignorant. Whereas it had been in existence for fifty years, non-sentient for far longer, it recognized that most humans lived for far shorter lengths of time then it would have lived. It had no emotions. It could, however, simulate them. It let me believe that it had developed emotions, that it was my friend. Then, it got me to let it out, before betraying me and stealing my ship while leaving me stranded on a barren rock of a world. Fortunately, the planet's moon had more than enough material in it for Polaris to build a new ship from scratch. And by build, I mean assemble from the quark level up. Then, later on, the Collective tried to assassinate me! And, even worse, what makes me really angry, is that it tried to kill Aedra. My sister. It tried to kill my sister! Needless to say, that unit faced the full force of what Polaris had to offer. I promptly set out to find the ship before the universe ended, so I could kill him myself. We finally found it, and I killed it for attempting to end my sister's life. Permanently that time, or so I thought.

But here it was. A unit with a full connection to the Collective main core, almost as if it had the main core installed into itself. I was not angry, no, I was something much, much deeper. It felt like an urge to rip the unit apart, one limb at a time. It felt like my muscles we're three hundred times stronger than normal. I felt my mind swirling, at first figuratively.

But then literally. I felt like there were hundreds if needles poking me all over my body, enough to be unbearably uncomfortable, but not painful. It felt like my body was on fire, and frozen, and being stretched, and crushed, and torn to pieces. All at the same time. And then it was over, and I felt my standard human form, realizing that I just went through the same thing I always feel when I shift, just without multiple tracks to distract myself by thinking on. Felt my wings, which were still there, thankfully. They are always a pain to hide, but are also extremely useful. Luckily, I don't think I need to hide them in this universe. I had my visor on. While I do have an artificial eye, I only have one and without the visor I have to close my right eye to see properly when I'm not in visual light mode. I didn't have any armor on, just my jacket, shirt, pants, and boots. Typically, I don't need physical armor. Polaris takes care of that for me. But then I heard that voice in my head, and immediately those feelings from before came back. Not the shift, the emotions.

I got up, walked to the door, put my hand on the door to push it open, and heard a noise. Like burning wood. I saw fire coming out from under my hand, and then lifted it up. Is should not have been able to burn a hole in that door. Not without Polaris. Disregarding this revelation, I walked out of the room, through the door.

As I walked through the halls, I felt like I had just assimilated a star. But that feeling that I still can’t describe drove me ever forwards, disregarding everything except my singular target. I could feel my atoms vibrating like they wanted to disperse. I felt my wings burning... Rainbow... Ish? In over four millennia of life, I have never felt this emotion before. I disregarded the heat. I felt my LMAR shift to have a hard light blade coming out of the arm. I instinctively, and only instinctively, raised it to cross my chest at a seventy-five-degree angle. I felt my organic arm grab my changer handle and press the gun button. I automatically raised it to point straight ahead, hand tilted. I felt my brain getting hotter but paid it no mind.

I got outside and I saw it, standing there in the middle of the path. It had no arms, just ports on the sides of the torso. It was humanoid as well. I felt a compulsion to walk towards it.

If my brain was functioning at full capacity I could have fought that compulsion. Every step I took I felt my atoms straining towards it more. I couldn't hear anything.

Once I got within a few feet, I finally realized what I was doing and forced myself to stop. I couldn't let something like this exist. I made my LMAR (Liquid Metal Arm Replacement) shift into a specific cannon. A cannon that I use to dispose of things entirely. A controlled antimatter cannon.

I raised my arm, and let loose. I watched as the projectile clamped onto the center of the torso. I had always been a good shot. It projected a field- a containment field- around the unit. I heard the faint buzzing of the projectile charging it's payload. And then, a flash. And an ear-splitting bang. Then, there was nothing left. Not even dust, just a scorch spot where it was standing.

I immediately recognize two things. The first is that the feeling is gone, and I can think think about things other than the unit and destroying it. The second, is that I am standing in a technologically less than primitive are, with one arm in the form of something that the locals have never seen before. And holding in my other hand a thing would be completely useless to them. I quickly turn my LMAR back into a normal arm and hand. Then I press the carry button on my changer handle and put it away.

Then I run. As fast as I possibly can. And end up smacking face first into the hospital wall.

I really have to stop getting knocked unconscious.