Inside the partially exploded and dilapidated test house, the newest attempt at a stable Sunny ZZ-Brony did something COMPLETELY unexpected!

It didn't explode!

John grinned from wherever he existed at the moment. Perfect! Now he just had to merge with the massive zamboni-plant-zombi-cyborg thing and attempt to remain somewhat sane, and they could get this whole ball rolling!

…Uh.

Hey reality, how do I merge with a plant/zombi/cyborg/zamboni thing? Normally you just need to designate a Body and get going, but this feels more like the Sunflower template merged with dead matter and hardware than an actual, ready to go form…

Reality does not understand.

John wanted to sigh. I mean, like… My abilities have been 'modified' and 'adjusted' for safety and stuff recently, and that means any Body I choose has to be… You know, functional. Not like back in the day, when I could just pick some random collection of materials and call it a day while forcing it to act like a local life form.

Reality still does not understand. Template Unit INVADER labeled 'Sunny ZZ-Brony' is fully functional at this time. It matches the stated required capabilities listed for 'merging'.

John pointed at… Well, no, he didn't point because he didn't have a hand or anything right now, but he metaphorically pointed at the Sunny ZZ-Brony.

It is alive and dead. Spell and machine. Corpse and soil. Wires and Magic. Honestly, the only reason it hasn't exploded again like all the OTHER versions we came up with is thanks to the sunflowers we integrated with the thing generating and gathering enough Sun to stabilize it all.

…But said Template Unit INVADER labeled 'Sunny ZZ-Brony' is operational?

John checked it over… Yeah, sort of. Not enough for me to use as my next incarnation, but it follows the laws and Concepts of this place as much as any other zombie or plant does.

After all, more than a few of the things here would make NO sense at all existing if this Realm wasn't basically zombie heaven.

…Should the Template Unit be redesigned?

John wasn't sure actually. So far, this HAD been the most stable…

"Brrrai-AI-AI-AI-AIiinnns!"

…Oh.

Oh dear.

It seems that the new Sunny ZZ-Brony decided that it didn't need a John involved.

And just sort of… Decided to move on without him. Or Reality's approval.

That… That wasn't good, was it?

"Garrr-Rrr-Rrr-Rrr-Rumble!"

Each step shook apart the crumbling house, even as the raw POWER of Sunny ZZ-Brony's presence began to force his Domain to conform to his existence.

Cracks opened down into the depths, slabs of stone were forced upward and crashed into each other, soil was summoned from the cracks as roots began to bind them all in a chaotic mess… Metallic slabs were extracted from the crushed materials within range, and haphazardly attached on the outer walls for defensive dominance, even as the entire structure continued to grow upwards and cave in downwards to expand the space.

A fortress of stone and metal and soil.

And deep within the cracked soil caverns below, metallic claws began to rip free…

"Gar-gun-gun-gun-drr…" "Bra-Vroom!" "Brainz-zzzoo-zzoo…"

Tiny RC cars with zombie heads and leaves, toasters with undead limbs and cheerful Sunflowers providing power, blenders with teeth for blades and roots for movement…

The undead floral cyborgs began to rise with purpose as the Sunny ZZ-Brony screamed his challenge into the spreading night! "Brrrai-AI-AI-AI-AIiinnns!"

The sounds echoed as the Sun was torn from the air itself and darkness began to ooze outwards, ignored by his partially mechanical army and the unnaturally altered plantlife symbiotes.

John just… Stared at it all.

Reality was not expecting this situation.

Which was fair, because John also was more than a little taken back. Like, shouldn't those sunflowers be Sun-Johns? No wait, more importantly: Shouldn't HE be the Sunny ZZ-Brony!?

What a gyp! What a rip-off! What a scam!

What a… Hold up. Why was a second Sunny ZZ-Brony spawning over there?

Reality was caught off guard. Where!? The template isn't finalized yet!

John sort of directed focus towards one of the distant houses. That one over there, see where the… Oh. And over here. And I think in that direction…

But the template isn't finalized yet! Before deployment, it should be impossible to…

John clapped his theoretical hands. OH! Would you look at that? It's nap time.

Reality didn't understand.

John nodded conceptually. Yep! Long day, been dead for a while and stuff, really wears one down and brings up the slumbly grumblies, you know? Probably could sleep like a log! And if John missed his nap time, why he'd be one grumpy Sun-John wouldn't he?

Reality was growing more and more concerned, even as it highlighted the ever growing number of distributed Sunny ZZ-Bronies constructing bases across the entire planet.

John however refused to budge. Yep, but look at them! They're doing fine, the nearby zombies seem to be having fun, and like I said: Very very tired. Nap time is important for a growing zombie plant zamboni whatever I was before this whole stuck in the after life situation.

…Was napping possible without a form?

John couldn't grin. Not sure! One way to find out, right? Just a heads up, my nap may last for a few bazillion years or something, like I said: Very tired… So uh, feel free to handle all this in the meantime, I won't feel left out or anything. Have fun with uh… All of this?

What?

John was unable to nod. Great! Glad we are all on the same page. Oh, and here's a pattern that is sort of a mailbox but not really so we can keep in touch… You know, as I sleep. During the VERY long upcoming nap.

…What? What is this, it seems to not fully exist…

Like John said, it's practically a mailbox, sort of… Now let me just say my naptime prayers. Grace? Anytime please…

And he was gone.

Which shouldn't be possible.

In fact… ALL the Sun-Johns began twisting as they shifted back to the Template's pattern… With some exceptions.

Because the flowers planted on/within/throughout the Sunny ZZ-Brony did NOT seem to follow the standard Template design.

And Reality was already finding said Template FULLY active AND already integrating into the local patterns directly!

When Sun-John returned from his nap, he was going to get a good smack from Reality, he was!

For now though, there was an EXCESSIVE amount of activity that was required to get this all in order!

…But at least it wasn't as monotonous as the last few millennia had been.

~~~Pocket System~~~

John arrived in the simulated conference room… And collapsed to the ground as MASSIVE waves of data began integrating back into one person.

This soil tasted better than that soil. I was in my way! Stupid Sun-John blocking the Sun. Hey, I was ALSO me and I shared the Sun like sis would have wanted! Did we? Well, some of me did. Hey, we can copy memories from each other while integrating like this! Hang on, really!? Sweet, I never got my Zamboni! All other Johns, pony up and share! Sure. Yeah, why not? I got memories of riding my catapult basketball launcher, anyone want some copies? Oooh! Yeah, me too! You really spent hours just growing underwater? Meh, it was relaxing. Wouldn't it be gross with zombies swimming in it? Nah, they didn't really drop bits for long or anything, they all tend to just explode into magic and leave the water clean while passing through. Same for the grass, I've seen armies die on that lawn and never seen a cleaner patch of green! Neat!

John felt gentle hands moving him somewhere softer than the ground, but it was too hard to focus. "My Lord? Can… Can you hear me?"

Of course we can hear her! Yeah, but we can't respond until the integration completes. You mean the safety to prevent infinite data loops? Yeah, we risk making new memories of integrating memories of making new memories. What about this thing we are doing right now? Nah, that's fine. Yeah, every time we make a comment we are also vanishing into the whole. One comment per John, seems fair. BACON! HA, I can't believe you wasted your one chance to leave a mark on our life by saying that. BACON! BACON! BACON! Knock it off guys, please? Yeah, Grace seems to be worried, we need to wrap this up. Uh yeah, about that… Isn't our ability to respond tied up until this thing finishes? Yep. Uh huh. That's right. But there are a lot of us, yes? …Shit.

Someone placed a blanket on his body. "He's not in pain, almost more like a medical coma or healing trance… At least the integration module's safety feature isn't torturing him."

Hopefully we finish combining soon, even with how many of us are in here. Yeah, I can actually FEEL Temptation's concern right now, and she HATES to show 'weakness' like that. Wait, why should we just sit about twiddling our thumbs? Yeah, let's just ASK how long this will take! Great idea, us! Hey System, [[How long will the integration process take at our current rate?]]

[[Integration process will conclude after 301.3 relative years, 1 month, 13 days, 2 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds has passed for HOST. Estimate is based on current rate of integration and may be altered due to outside variables over time.]]

Wait, WHAT!? 300 years!? Actually, it said 301.3 years, 1 month, 13… Shut up, me! Yeah, 300 years got the idea across. That is an UNACCEPTABLY long amount of time! What WOULD be an acceptable amount of time? I don't know, a couple of hours? Less? I mean, I'm just glad the module didn't crash while trying to get us all together. Yeah, we never tested the integration module for any number of Minds above 10, and we thought we were being excessive back then. Damn. How do we speed this up? Simple: Hike up the rate past the 'safe passive integration' marker. Won't that get sis mad at us? Better her get angry than us never seeing her again… 300 years is a long time for her. Yeah, we haven't tested our patches to ensure she and the girls can stay safe and sane from living beyond the natural life spans of those around them. To be fair, we were sure we'd have time to watch over all that in person in case something was going wrong…

His sister was rounding up the others. "I have agents keeping an eye on the Realm, although it seems happy enough right now…"

Temptation snorted. "Although reality is CLEARLY exasperated with Master, it does seem to be fascinated by the ongoing chaos… I'm fairly sure we can wait for him to recover before forcing the Transfer modules to take us away from here."

Grace was stroking his hair. "Reality has no hold over us anyway... We wait to move until our Lord recovers… Just in case something has gone wrong during all this that our monitors couldn't document properly."

Oh, good point. Yeah, Grace always has our back! Of course she does, both our girls think the world of us. And us of them! Yeah, our girls are the BEST waifus! Hell yeah! She sure is… Didn't she take over as a benevolent goddess for that one world? Hush me, I don't think I'm supposed to know that yet. Right, that's going to get classified for sure. What is? Nothing. Anyway… We now have a BIGGER issue than just being stuck here for a long time. Huh? You mean how we'll have to test our sister's 'immortality' setup? Thank goodness that Angels and Demons have basically endless lifespans and our girls match up with the data we gathered from Doe Park… No, a bigger issue. What? If we take too long to fix this: Grace will cry.

He felt a hug. "I'm so sorry, My Lord… Please be alright…"

And the multitude fell silent.

System: Lock down 'John Doe' avatar from current integration process. Yeah, but keep the avatar breathing and stuff! Make us look like we are asleep! Yeah, great idea me.

[[Confirmed. Avatar for HOST is in autonomous 'slumber' mode.]]

This is going to hurt, isn't it? No. Making Grace cry would hurt. Yeah. Still, best hide it from the logs or she'll cry anyways… Good point. System: For the duration of the integration process, please produce data that simulates peaceful slumber.

[[Confirmed.]]

…Shit, might as well get this done. Yeah, waiting will just make it all worse. At least I already said something! Yeah, by saying something for the memory file, I don't exist anymore either! HA! Yeah, suck it me! Me too, me! Enough guys. Yeah, let's… Let's do this. System: Accelerate integration process.

[[Order received… WARNING! Integration process is already at the limit allowed by safety settings in the module! Attempting to accelerate this process will produce unrequired temporary pain and stress for the HOST! User 'Jessica' has determined the optimum rate of integration to be…]]

Just do it, please.

[[...Confirmed. What new rate of integration is requested, and for what duration?]]

Shit. Yeah, this is going to suck. I'm out! I'm also out! Please don't hurt as much as I think this will… Oh come on, what's a little pain? Yeah, we've died a lot of ways already. I mean, I guess? Technically? Besides, when have we cared about a boo-boo or two. Yeah… Especially compared to what it was like before them, or compared to being alone for 300 years? True. Let's do it! Yeah! Alright, alright… System: adjust integration rate as required until the duration till completion is something more reasonable.

[[Non-trivial amounts of HOST'S agony can be avoided if integration is allowed to proceed over the course of three months, two days, 12 hours and…]]

No. One day. Or less.

[[HOST is STRONGLY ADVISED to expand the duration of the integration process to a minimum of three months, two…]]

Even giving ourselves a day to cope risks further scaring the girls. Yeah, unacceptable. Plus, we know the data. Yep, we helped BUILD the integration module after all. Wish we could do this faster than waiting a whole day to wake up… Nah, if we attempt to do this with THIS many Minds in under 23 hours and 42 minutes, we'll damage a few things irreparably. Yeah, and that'd just give Grace MORE work, she doesn't deserve that. True. System, you heard us.

[[...Understood. Sedating HOST for integration module adjustment to better endure integration process without loss of sanity.]]

Oooh, great idea! Honestly, we should have considered adding a painkiller routine to this module in the FIRST place. Yeah, we should… have… Shh… Sleepy…