Voices… voices in my head… They are everywhere and no matter how hard I try… I can still hear them.

This darkness… it’s like an abyss with no end, no matter how bright the light may be, it can never pierce this darkness… as if light was never meant to reach this place.

Who… am… I?

The being shudders and awakens, he stares at the darkness above him; getting up, he takes a look at his surroundings. Far and wide all he sees is more darkness, as a fog of black rolls by, strange silhouettes move and contort in the darkness, almost as if they are eyeing and examining the figure.

With one step, he stumbles and collapses once more back to the pitch dark ground – the sensation is odd at best, as if he can feel the empty cold of it… yet not have any sense of contact.

This feeling… is strange… Just what is this place?

The figure looks up once more until he takes a gander at something that catches his sight; stabbed into the ground is a sword – a katana maybe – its blade long and sharp, with the handled wrapped in an obsidian covering. Laid beside it are two more items, a folder with some papers sticking out, and a tablet of some kind, its screen on with it being the only light source here.

The figure approaches, starting with a crawl before struggling to stand as if he’s not used to this body at all. After making his way to the sword, he reaches it before taking a look at the blade itself. The weapon seemed to emanate some sort of glow, but before he could grab it, the tablet makes a noise. Stopping himself, he kneels down and grabs hold of the device; looking at the device a pop-up appeared with the following.

Location scanned: Data stored. Initiate start-up sequence, and realm map? Y/N

The figure glances at this, before tapping the yes option, only for the device to speak once more.

Command given; beginning operative protocols 1 through 3.

For a while the device stays silent and turns off… before coming back to life once more; the voice is feminine but unfamiliar, it giving an almost professional sound of someone’s secretary.

Welcome user; I am a Void-Artificial-Intelligence, or short for VAI, my designated name is, JIULE. This device you are holding is called the Realm-Strategic-Tablet, or short for RST. The RST has numerous range of choices, as it can be used to scan entities, store logs or information you have scanned, mapping locations of importance you have discovered and more.

You can do all of this from the RST or from your heads-up display that’s connected to your armor’s helmet.

My… armor? Suddenly strange symbols, bars and odd things appear before the figure’s sight… and that is when he looks at himself. The figure realizes he was in a suit of some kind… but not remembering how he got in it the first place, the suit had a sleek look to it. The gauntlets looked heavy but were surprisingly light, the pauldrons poked out and bore an insignia of two stars, with one upside down, giving it ten points, and an eye in the center. The boots were pointed but squared and the last detail was that he wore a cape of some kind that connected from the back; the cape didn’t seem to be made of any cloth and gave off an almost… ethereal look.

What… kind of things do I have here? Staring at the display, he spotted several things – the upper left corner showed three bars, one blue with the initials SI beside it, one red with the initials AL beside it, and the final bar which was at least half the length of the other two bars, was empty with the initials VE.

The upper right corner showed a circle with a compass beside it, but oddly enough the map showed nothing but the word “Unknown”, and the compass was spinning madly as if it wasn’t sure which direction was which.

The lower left corner showed several small boxes but were all currently empty, while the lower right corner showed more empty boxes and another bar that was more boxy and showed a steady straight light green line.

Suddenly, the AI called JIULE spoke from the tablet, as if she knew the being was done gazing at each of the things the display showed.

The upper left corner is your status bars; SI stands for Suit Integrity, meaning the status of your suit. The suit can self-repair itself but not under dangerous conditions or in combat. The bar under that is your AL which stands for Aura Level; to make a comparison, AL is the equivalent of HP, but unlike HP, AL can also restore itself either with items or by “resting”. You can use your AL for certain abilities you have, but once you have only 10% AL remaining, these abilities become locked until you go back to 50%. Be warned, going to 0% AL won’t mean you aren’t in immediate danger but most likely mean there is a high chance of termination. Finally the bar underneath your SI and AL bars is your VE bar, standing for Void Energy. Void Energy is the energy that comes from the Void, the boundaries that separate different worlds/realms, a… wall of sorts, so that other worlds do not collide with each other and is the reason why multiverses exist.

Multiverse?

Moving on; the upper right corner is your map and compass, sadly the location we’re at is unknown but I believe we are somewhere in the Void. Do not worry, your suit was built to withstand the dangers of the Void, as a normal being who isn’t used to ambient Void energy will – in a way – have their very existence wiped clean.

The figure shivered at the thought, but for some reason did not feel an inch of fear, even though internally the thought of having your existence disappear was scary.

The boxes on the lower left and right of your display is your item and ability boxes – items on the left, abilities on the right. The boxy display above your ability boxes is your radio/communicator/music player.

Music player? Wait, I got music?

This will allow you to “speak” with others and communicate with others telepathically, using small amounts of Void Energy. The music player gives you access to infinite songs from across realms – both from the past and future – meaning no matter what, you can access these songs through your tablet and play them and make soundtracks for you to listen through your suit.

The idea of having something to listen to made the figure nod in approval before going back to listening to JIULE.

The display has more options to show you: Do you wish to continue the tutorial? Y/N

Before the figure could click the yes option, the sword suddenly glowed an ominous dark light. Having his finger hover above the yes option, he placed the tablet away – surprisingly, a compartment opened up on his right arm, allowing for the tablet to be stored safely away – then grabbed hold of the sword’s handle.

Instantly, a burst of energy flowed out, going through his hand, then up his arm until reaching to his head. Looking at the bar listed as VE, it instantly filled up, the color of the bar now black. After staggering at the sudden flow of energy, the figure stared at the sword before doing a test swing, for some reason having a sense of familiarity with the sword… almost like an old friend.

Out of instinct and curiosity, the figure placed the sword on his back; a loud metallic clank later and the weapon was magnetically clamped to his back. Finding the need for a sheath unnecessary, he knelt down and grabbed the folder, opening it to look at its contents.

Inside were a sheath of papers, a photo of an armored being, and finally… a pendant with an insignia on it – the insignia was different from the one on his pauldrons, it showed the outline of a sun, being overshadowed by a moon.

Looking at the sheath of papers, most were smeared and aged making the writing indecipherable of what it was about. One piece of paper had enough readable spots for a proper paragraph to be seen.

He shall defend the Void, and… unable to do so means the end of all. A wide range of abilities and skills, capable of… and has caused countless… Both dangerous and volatile; however, is prone to having… moments of uncontrollable rage and… One moment is memorizing things, the next, forgetting… The body is gone, but maybe we may spare the…

He is unsure what any of this is about or who this person is talking about, but nearing the end of the written paragraph is one particular line that has brought interest to him.

...Is the armor of the Maker, capable of withholding all manner of attacks; be warned, this suit is just a prototype, and lets not forget what dark secrets are held within – no one must know about…

The Maker? Who’s the Maker… and why does that title sound so… reminiscent… as if I knew or rather… known who this is for a long, long time?

The next thing was the photo, and it showed an armored being with an interesting helmet – the helmet was smooth at the back, but the front had five points, two on the top as if they were horns, two on the sides that were curved and pointed backwards, and one in the bottom that was blunter than the other points. A black transparent surface was in the center, and had two darker spots as if it represented eyes, but the most oddest and mysterious detail was a very detailed engraving of an eye above the transparent surface, the eye itself looking as if it gazed upon any who stared at it… almost as if it were alive.

Looking away from the photo, he closed the folder before grabbing the pendent and putting away the folder… only to realize he had no pockets.

And where am I going to put this thing?

If you wish to store any items, simply hold it in front of yourself with one of your palms open and the rest will do everything for you.

Thinking about this, he held the folder and with his palm open, the folder began to turn into particles before those particles were absorbed into his open palm. On his heads-up display a pop-up appeared that showed a tiny picture of the folder and a given name under it that said; “Mysterious Folder”. Just like the tablet two boxes appeared but instead of saying yes or no, they said item selection or item storage.

Hmmm… I think item storage will do…

Suddenly the suit seemed to have read his mind and chose item storage, the pop-up disappearing with the picture of the folder moving to the left and away from the display.

Huh… I guess this thing can read my thoughts.

The figure looked at the last item he didn’t check – the pendant – and after opening it with a simple push, it clicked open and suddenly music started to play. The song was soothing and gave a feeling of nostalgia; inside the pendant was a beautiful crystal that changed into several different colors. On the back of the pendant was an engraved name and a series of words that made a phrase.

“When the light is gone, and the world is plunged into madness… only one born of Void can bring the balance.” - Zen

Who’s Zen… am… am I Zen?

WARNING WARNING WARNING! INCOMING VOID WORMHOLE!

The sudden voice of Jiule was sudden but before he could react or ask what was going on, a strange vortex appears, sucking up everything nearby – in this case, it was the figure. Unable to grab hold of anything or stab his sword into the ground to gain a steady hold, he was sent off and vanished into the wormhole.

After the wormhole disappeared and died off… another being appeared, one shrouded in Void energy, with two glowing white orbs as eyes. It glanced where the being from before was, before speaking in an echoed voice, that came from every direction.

“This one… he will do… How will the other Displaced fare against him?”

Somewhere in the north, thousand meters in the sky…

In the far north, the strong merciless winds of the north, bringing forth snow and frost to those ill-prepared. Far above in the sky, a wormhole opens for something to come falling from it; the figure falling hasn’t noticed what is happening, until when it did it was too late.

Where am I?! How the heck did I get here… AND WHY AM I NOT SCREAMING!?

Looking down he saw an endless sea of white… that was slowly approaching. With one attempt to slow his descent, the figure brought both his feet facing the ground and crossed his arms across his chest. Welp, this is goodbye I guess.

With one final close of his eyes, a massive explosion of snow and dirt rose to the ground before the winds of the north was the only thing heard again. For a small while, nothing happened… then a hand rose from the crater that was recently made. Crawling out was the being that was falling, before slumping back first against the snow; oddly enough, the wind nor snow didn’t seem to have any effects on him. He felt the cold winds and freezing snow but at the same time, there was an almost distance from it… as if he knew it was there but didn’t have an affect on him of any kind that would endanger him.

Standing to his full height, he looked around only seeing nothing but pure white and the winds that blew in gusts of snow. For awhile he stood there until a loud ding was heard; looking to his display he saw his map and compass had some new information to show.

The compass showed that north was behind him and he was facing south, with east to his left and west to his right. Another thing was his map, instead of it listing “Unknown” from what he had to assume was the Void, it showed he was surrounded by snow plains and hills and even had a name at the bottom, beside the compass.

The Frozen North; The Crystal Mountains

Taking a look at his surroundings, he saw large tall snow-capped mountains that seemed to surround him from all directions. After a few glances at all directions, Jiule spoke up, somehow still being heard through the loud rush of the wind.

It appears we are located in a realm called Equestria; this world has several kingdoms and lands but the one we are currently located at is neutral ground. It will take me several days to get a full scan of this world, but I seem to detect something ahead of us. To check your world map, simply speak or think of the world map.

For a while he stood there before shaking his head; following what Jiule said, he thought of this world map, and after his main display shifted, it showed a square map of what appears to be a small portion of the Frozen North. Zooming in on his location – which was represented of a black triangle the pointed top showing which direction he was facing – ahead of him just a few meters were train tracks, the tracks barely covered in snow even though the harsh conditions should of covered them a long time ago.

Train tracks! If there are train tracks, that means they have to lead to civilization.

Now finding a destination, he headed to the tracks until he came upon them; the tracks themselves seem simple enough, but when one snowflake landed on it, they seemly melted away. This brought a shock to him until he took a closer look, staring at the tracks a strange symbol was engraved into the tracks, giving off a faint energy.

They appear to have a sort of heat-based energy on these symbols… possibly to make the tracks frost-proof and to not have the tracks buried under snow. Whatever beings live in this world, they seem to have a fair understanding of aura technology.

Aura? Isn’t that the stuff that I can use for these abilities I have?

Before he could continue examining the tracks, a loud whistle was heard, looking both sides of the track, he saw a train coming from the east. Luckily he wasn’t too close to the tracks so when the train zoomed by, it only caused some snow to fly past him; the train looked strange as if it were a toy product of some kind. That was when an idea came to him – with the train heading off, and him finding these tracks it was simple to deduce that this train was heading to some sort of town or city. Bending his legs so he was almost crouched, he unscrewed his position, sending himself launching toward the train and landing on the roof.

Trying to keep his balance, he managed to drop into the very back of the train; looking inside one of the cart’s windows, the train was luckily empty and only seemed to carry cargo only. With that knowledge now known, the being relaxed as he leaned against the rail guard with both his arms, going to a sleepless rest.

This is going to be a loooong trip.

The trip itself was uneventful, as for awhile all he did was check what sort of cargo was inside the carts or rest on one of the empty carts’ seats. Inside one of the storage carts, he found a few strange things – these strange thinks were various fruits and vegetables and oddly none seemed to rot or had bruises on them – other than that, other things were some silks and various metals and gems. While scanning the various items, for some odd reason he didn’t feel hungry and nothing else seemed to be of any value… that and he wasn’t wanting to steal anything.

No reason to be taking anything that’s not mine.

For what felt like hours, the being slept soundlessly inside one of the carts… until sunlight reached him. Awoken from the sudden brightness, sleeping with the helmet still on was oddly relaxing as it didn’t give any strain to his body, especially where his neck was. Rising up, he gazed outside… and saw something that would be in his memory forever.

Where… am… I?

He stared at the far reaching plains, the different forests, the mountain ranges and valleys, and the blue sky… wherever he was, he was somewhere that he’d never forgot.

My scans are quarter done, but so far the location we are currently at is called…

Equestria.

Author's Notes:

So my first ever Displaced story, and don't worry I won't refer to the main character as "he" or "the figure/being", he will be given a name next chapter.

The character is from Earth but how he came to Equestria is a bit ambiguous for now, just so you know... other forces are in play here.

Now for crossover with other Displaced, I'll go and ask who I should let "him" meet in his travels... after all, what's the point of having someone with the power of the Void and not use it.