Pinkamena?

Chapter 7

Meeting Old Friends

My eyes opened in an instant.

“Where am I?” I stopped, hoping I was hallucinating, “What’s going on?” My eyes widened. It wasn’t a hallucination.

My voice, it wasn’t the feminine voice I had been hearing the past few days. No, it was monotone, with a metallic hint to it. It didn’t even sound remotely female. But there was something else to it, something... familiar about it.

Then it hit me. It was my voice. My true voice. The one I had when I was with Pinkie was only an illusion. Contemplating how I knew this, I examined my surroundings.

I was in a pitch black space, with the occasional image floating through it. Looking closer, I saw lines of 1s and 0s covering the walls.

A bright blue orb sat what could be a few feet or a few miles away from me. It flashed a picture over its surface. The image was of me, talking with Twilight.

Another scene showed up, this time of me and Pinkie talking to the Cakes.

The orb began going through images at a faster rate. It showed my entire stay in Ponyville. What was strange was that it was all from my point of view...

I realized something the second I stopped seeing the pictures. These were my memories, from the first to the last. They were everything I could remember.

Feeling a strange compulsion to touch the glowing sphere, I slowly reached out and tapped it.

Instantly, my hoof stuck to it and a lifetime’s worth of memories passed through my head at blinding speeds.

I collapsed, exhausted.

I murmured something. Something like, “I remember...”

“Sh–akin–up!” I heard a muffled voice say, with something akin to panic.

Sliding my eyes open, I immediately sat up, nearly tearing all of the medical instruments off of me.

Sitting around me were Pinkie and her friends, along with the princesses. They all stared with expressions of absolute shock. Pinkie’s hair was deflated.

I had been in a similar situation before, and thusly, knew how to handle it. Not that I did handle it, mind you, but I knew how.

I looked over to the medical machinery. Every single one of them said I wasn’t breathing, or my heart wasn’t beating, and similar death-causing afflictions.

Then I registered something. I wasn’t breathing, my heartbeat was definitely absent, and I couldn’t feel a single thing. My entire body was numb.

However, I still knew things. It was odd. I couldn’t actually feel the blanket, but I knew it was rough. I couldn’t feel the warmth, but I knew it was exactly 76.245° Fahrenheit, or 24.5805556° Celsius.

Okay, that last one was a bit ridiculous, but still, I somehow knew these things.

All these thoughts passed through my head so quickly, that when I was done thinking them, nopony had moved. Or maybe that was just the shock of seeing me alive. Maybe even both.

I decided to take this time to examine myself. Still the same pink coat, the same dark mane and tail, same balloon cutie... mark?

I was a blank-flank. It made sense, as I was never one for parties, but at the same time, it surprised me.

I looked over to my friends again. Still not moving. Hm... That was odd. I began to climb out of bed to see if they were alright. After I did, they snapped out of whatever trance they had all been in.

“How did this happen!?” Luna shouted, with the Royal Canterlot Voice.

I was so surprised by this that I fell out of the bed and hit my head. Suddenly, all illusions of me being alive disappeared, along with what I thought was my body.

When I had hit the ground, instead of hearing a muted thud, like I had anticipated, I heard a loud clang. My hair and flesh disappeared, replaced by some sort of metal.

“I-I need a mirror...” I mumbled, after standing back up.

Celestia conjured one and set it down in front of me. I didn’t look at all like a pony.

My body was pony-shaped, but it wasn’t too close.

My legs were made up of various plates, gears, cogs, screws, and other metallic devices used in machinery. While covered in a strong plating, my body was rather unremarkable. My head was shaped the same, however, the top of it was a glowing sky blue dome. The eyes were a solid blue.

I looked back at my friends. I was frowning, despite my face being composed out of a material that shouldn’t bend.

Then I saw Celestia and Luna. Just the sight of them filled me with joy, for some reason. And then my “dream” came rushing back.

“Tia, Lu-Lu...” I smirked.

Celestia’s eyes widened, and Luna’s mouth turned up in an insanely large grin. She could rival even Pinkie Pie on a good day.

Luna pounced on me and shouted, “You’re back! I missed you so much!” Celestia just smiled at the pair of us, especially knowing our history.

Luna leaned back and cocked her head. So adorable! I thought.

“You feel like you’re made of flesh and blood, but you cannot be...” she pronounced, shocked.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“You... you feel warm. You are not solid like metal, either. You feel... alive!” Luna grinned as she swooped me up in another hug, “Oh, you don’t know what it’s like to finally be bigger than you!”

In our excitement, we completely forgot about the six Elements of Harmony in the room with us.

“Uh... is somepony gonna tell us what in the hay is goin’ on?” Applejack asked, rather loudly.

Celestia decided to answer her. “This pony... is an old friend of ours. He was there when we were little fillies, and he doesn’t look like he’s aged since!”

“What!? He!? I thought you were a mare!” Pinkie shouted, rather angrily, “We slept in the same bed, for pony’s sake!”

I grinned sheepishly, “Yeah, I thought I was a mare too. Whoever put that illusion spell on me was really good. Even I couldn’t tell that it was an illusion.”

“Wait, you mean... you didn’t make yourself like this on purpose?” Twilight asked, clearly upset by the news.

I frowned. “No, why?”

“Well then we need to find out who did this and why! Who knows what they could be doing because you’re like this!” Twilight practically screamed, “For all we know, they could have been a dangerous criminal!”

“Oh... that makes sense.” I was still dazed from the whole “You’re actually a robot who’s older than Celestia” thing. Don’t blame me if my thinking wasn’t at its best.

“You know Luna, this reminds me of that time you pranked your sister into thinking she was a tree for an entire month.” I smiled.

Luna burst out laughing, Celestia turned as red as a beet, and the six mares stared at the solar princess in shock. They obviously couldn’t believe that their omniscient goddess could be fooled by such a prank. It was actually because she had thought she was omniscient that worked.

“Luna, may I remind of Captain Woona, the most feared pirate of all the world?” I said, then began doing an imitation of her voice as a little filly, “Gimme all your stuff, because I am Capan Woona, and I want tresshur!”

Everyone but Luna giggled at this impersonation. She glared at me. If looks could kill, I would have never existed.

I caught a glimpse of a grey blur outside one of the windows. Dismissing it as nothing, I returned to reminiscing with the princesses.

The grey unicorn giggled after seeing that heartwarming reunion. She sprouted a pair of wings and flew up above the cloud cover, until she passed the point where a pony wouldn’t be able to breathe.

“Heheheheh,” she giggled again, “ Just remember, my little ponies: Tick Tock, go the clocks, and all around clockwork,” she paused, “stops.”

Flying off, she laughed to herself all the way back to the hotel.

Author's Note

God, it's so much fun to write the "grey unicorn" scenes. In case you haven't realized yet, she doesn't really have a set personality. This is for a reason that will be revealed later on.