Twilight stared up at the stars, her immaculate vision mentally tracing every constellation she could remember. She sat on top of her little hill, meekly biting into the apple she had brought as a substitute for dinner, which she had skipped. To her, the rumbling in the pit of her stomach was a small price to pay.
In seconds, the sky was filled with streaks of white light. It looked as if the entire sky was rending itself apart, and the ethereal trails were the very fabric of reality, showing itself for maybe a half second, before disappearing into oblivion forever. Twilight knew that meteorites couldn’t damage subspace even if they wanted to, but the idea thrilled her. The meteor shower was beautiful in every respect, just another way for ponies to enjoy Luna’s night. She was startled when one of the pinpricks of light didn’t disappear in the blink of an eye, but rather glowed like a bright new star in the night sky. It took Twilight only a few seconds to comprehend the only logical explanation for the meteor’s movements… She teleported herself off the hill just in time for the meteorite to slam into the ground where she had been standing. Dust flew, and the hill became a crater. The earth-shattering Boom rattled her to the bones, knocking her back another 20 feet with a concussive wave of kinetic force.
Slowly, Twilight got to her hooves, shaking herself clean of all the dust and dirt she had collected. When she had checked to make sure everything was in one piece, she looked back to the crater. The crater was nowhere near concentric, like in the movies, but was like an elliptical trench had been carved out of the ground by some vengeful god with a problem against stargazers. Smoke curled upward from where the meteorite had finally yielded to friction, and the smell of ozone filled her nostrils. Her eyes widened when she saw the meteorite. Or, at least, what she had presumed was a meteorite…
Laying in the center of the crater was a pony. Well, at least, by the most liberal of definitions, was a pony. It looked like it was made of pure silver, the material slightly glowing from the friction of entering the atmosphere. Steam peeled off it in ghostly tendrils, which writhed and bended like wraiths. Its face was devoid of all features, except for its lidded eyes. It almost looked like a forged steel version of one of Rarity’s mannequins. On the pony’s flank was it’s very vague cutie mark; a symbol foreign to her extensive years of studying various pony cultures…
It’s eyes opened slightly, and it was only then that Twilight noticed the pony had large gashes across it’s chest and forehooves, the wounds leaking an ichor the same color as its skin. It tried to lift itself up on wobbly legs, only to fall back to the ground with a metallic clank! Twilight, on instinct, rushed down into the crater, kneeling down by the metal pony. Its eyes, glowing white orbs with neither irises nor pupils, looked up to her, and their eyes met.
It was then that she felt something touch her consciousness; a presence unknown to her and foreign from every other mind she had magically touched. The personality was oddly crafted; as if it was not one, but many minds collated into one, operating in one massive, perfect union. It spoke to her, it’s voice not that unlike that of a stallion’s somewhere around her own age…
'Help… me…'
Through the mental connection, she felt the pony’s pain, extreme and mind-shattering, rending apart his psyche with its brutal spikes. It was all he could do to get those two words across the river of their minds, and after that, the metallic pony just lay there, unable to move as the pain ravaged his mind and body.
It was a split second decision, but Twilight knew if she didn’t help him, there was a good chance the… thing would die. She gently lifted the pony with her magic, and like a shot, she was off.
Twilight opened the door and rushed inside, setting the metallic pony on the dining room table. When she looked him over, she realized she didn’t know how exactly to help him. Twilight had never fixed up anypony with this much damage, and she took a step back to find a book on emergency aid…
No… just, she heard the pony think at her. 'Just… keep the… wounds… together… I’ll take it… from there…'
She was able to, after a few seconds of analyzing the way he spoke, send back her own message through the link, 'What do you mean?'
'Just… trust me…'
After a second of contemplation, Twilight did as she was asked, pulling the two sides of the wounds together as far as she could. She nearly released the spell in shock when the wounds started to heal themselves, stands of silvery skin shooting out over the chasms of the bloody trenches like harpoons. Soon, the wounds were nothing but reflective scars, and they too disappeared in a few minutes.
It took another five minutes before the pony sent a message through the mental link, 'Thank you stranger. If you hadn’t come along when you did…' it paused, before adding, 'Where am I?'
'You don’t remember how you got here?' Twilight asked, confused on how one could simply forget falling through the atmosphere and almost killing himself.
'…No.' The silver pony said, shaking his featureless head.' I… I remember falling, then… then…' it met her eyes with its own glowing white ones, and another emotion made its way across the link; loss. '…Nothing. Not a thing! Not how I got here, not where I came from…' It’s eyes suddenly widened, and joy flowed through the link, 'My name!'
'What? What about your name?' she asked.
'My name! I remember my name!' it shouted triumphantly. 'My name is Shift! I may not know anything else, but I know my name!'
'Alright… Shift.' She said, 'Why don’t we get you comfortable? I bet that table isn’t too comfy after all you’ve been through.'
Shift looked down, and for the first time, noticed that he was indeed laying prone on a wooden table. After a few minutes, and with much magical help from his only acquaintance, he managed to lay himself down on a pullout bed, mentally sighing as his head hit the pillow.
Twilight sat down in a chair next to the bed, 'How did you… um… do what you did back there?'
'Did what?' He asked, a furless eyebrow raised,' You mean the repair? I… really don’t know. I just… followed my instincts.' He cocked his head, staring off into space, 'Give me a second to trace it back down some of my networks…'
'Networks?' She asked, irrediclous, 'You mean… you’re a machine?'
'I think so. Hold on, I found a… self-schematic…?' there was a lull on the link, before his voice came back over the line, a hint of confused awe in his voice,' Project: SHIFT, model XAI-1, Nanite-based life-form, artificial personality…' His voice faltered, and when it came back, there was barely suppressed rage in it, 'The rest of the file is corrupted and fragged. I might as well be reading Latin. I could get the rest of my memory banks cleaned out and defragmented… but it seems to be a bit of a lengthy procedure…'
'How long?' Twilight asked. She had just met this metal amnesiac, and yet she felt a feeling of responsibility towards him. Maybe it was the linkage of their minds; the blinding feeling of somepony else’s pain from a (usually) fatal accident wasn’t something she could forget easily.
'Estimated completion time is a little over a month.' He said. 'In the meantime, I guess I need to stay incognito. If you’re anything like the rest of this planet’s population, I might stand out a little bit.'
'Well,' she thought,' If you want, you can stay here until your… repairs are complete.' She also couldn’t pretend she wasn’t curious; what was Shift? Who had built him? Heck, a better question would be who could build him?
'Thank you…' another pause, and a shake of his reflective head, 'Forgive me, I haven’t even asked the name of my savior!'
Twilight laughed,' Savior? I just held your wounds together, and I am definitely no-pony’s savior! My name, however, is Twilight Sparkle, but my friends just call me Twilight.'
Shift cocked his head to the side, like a friendly pooch would to an unknown person, '…Would I be considered a friend?'
'Sure?' She thought, a thin smile appearing on her lips, amused at the almost child-like behavior this creature was exhibiting. He was almost like a foal separated from his mother in a crowded mall, asking around in a polite, yet slightly fearful, tone if anyone had seen his folks. Shift didn’t really know what to do, and it seemed he was like her in one respect; neither could stand not knowing something.
At her answer, Shift nodded, his childish eyes happily widened, 'I have a friend! I have a friend, and her name is Twilight!' It was then that his mouth-less head made an unmistakable sound; that of yawning (Not even going to pretend to know how he did it…)
'I think we both need some sleep.' She said, grinning at Shift’s fluttering eyelids.
'Sleep? Whazzat…' his eyes shut with an audible clink, and the metal pony fell onto the bed, making a sound not unlike a quiet buzzsaw. Twilight giggled a little, before climbing the stairs to find her own bed.
Twilight awoke at around 7:00. She yawned, stretching her limbs like the petals of a flower in the sun. Running a quick comb through her hair, she headed downstairs to fix herself and Spike some breakfast (She didn’t know if Shift could eat anything)…
…To find the library in complete disarray. Books lay in massive towers like she was in the middle of downtown Manehatten. At her reading desk sat a familiar extra-equestrian, leafing through a gargantuan novel. As she approached him, a casual thought entered her mind,’ Good Morning Twilight. Sorry if I woke you, but It seems my sleep requirements are much lower than yours, seeing as how I only slept 3 hours. So I decided to do something productive of my time and read up on this worlds history. ‘
She smiled. They had another thing in common now; love of knowledge. ‘…And you’re reading Tom Prancey?’
He shrugged,’ I finished all the non-fiction a while ago, and the book is really good! It’s about these three fictitious countries; Amareica, the United Stalliongrad Socialist Republic, and the Pony’s Republic of China…’
‘Yeah,’ she interrupted him, ‘It is a good book, isn’t it?’ She looked at the shelves of her library, all of them almost empty. ‘Did you read all…?’
‘Oh, Oh!’ Shift suddenly shouted through the mental link, jumping out of his chair like a coiled spring. ‘I found out something I can do!’
‘What?’ She asked, curiosity getting the best of her caution.
‘Watch this! ‘Twilight’s jaw dropped as Shift’s silvery coat, starting at his white-ish tail, began to ripple, the color changing to black, purple, and even pink as it worked its way up his body. The process took a couple seconds, but in the end, Twilight stared back at a perfect, grinning copy of herself.
“Well?” Shift asked (in her voice no less, which was both amazing and creepy at the same time). “Cool, huh? I found out how to do it after I…”
They both jumped when they heard a noise on the stairs. Turning their heads, they saw Spike at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Twilight? Can you keep it down? I’m trying-ing-ing-ing…!” he stammered after opening his eyes to see not one, but two Twilight Sparkles staring at him in confusion. Spike blinked once, before saying, “…I… er, yeah… I’m… I’m going back to bed…” It was almost comical how he raced up the stairs, running as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him.
They both erupted into fits of laughter as Spike’s door slammed shut. Shift once more resumed his normal form, the bright purple coat fading to its lustrous silver sheen, and the horn sinking back into his forehead. He nodded to Twilight, ‘That was unexpected. Care to explain to your cohort why he just got double vision?’
‘Later,’ she thought back at him. ‘Rarity and Applejack are coming over for lunch soon, and I wouldn’t want Spike all riled… up…’ Her eyes widened as she shot her head to her right. Her eyes fixated on the antique grandfather clock in the corner of the library, which read 11:27. She spun towards Shift, ‘They’re going to be here in three minutes! We’ve got to hide you!’
‘What? Why?’ He asked, confusion scrawled across his featureless face.
Twilight’s horn lit up as she began frantically resorting the novel skyscrapers back onto the shelves, ‘You yourself said you needed to stay incognito, and Rarity is many things, but a keeper of secrets she is not. If she knows about you, we might as well hang a neon sign above the door saying, ‘Come see the Amnesiac Robot from Space’!’
‘I am not a robot,’ he protested. ‘I am a nanite based life-form with a personality matrix not unlike your own brain, thank you very much!’
‘Alright, so you’re a nanite based Alien. There’s still the problem of you getting discovered and hauled away to be cut up into little pieces and studied. You cannot be seen as you are!’
His head dipped, and his milky white eyes studied the floor deep in thought. A few seconds passed, ‘…What if I’m not an alien?’
‘Come again?’
Rarity trotted down the street, her saddlebags filled with food she’d prepared for their lunch. She trotted into the Ponyville market, her eyes pivoting left and right as she scanned the stalls for a particular pony. In seconds, she had found her; a well built orange earth pony mare with a large tan Stetson adorning the locks of her blond mane. Rarity shot through the crowd, weaving through the crowd of ponies looking to buy everything from toilet paper to hand-crafted jewelry. Rarity walked up to the stall and rapped her hoof on the counter to get her friends attention.
Applejack popped up from behind the stall with a bucket of delicious looking red gala apples, a content smile on her freckled muzzle. The grin widened as she saw her pearly white friend. “Well good mornin to yah Rarity!” She whistled over to her brother Big Macintosh, “Hey Mac! Can yah man the stand for a bit? Me an Rarity are going to go have our lunch at the Library!”
Big Mac nodded once, absentmindedly chewing on the piece of wheat sticking out the corner of his mouth. “Thank you Mr. Macintosh!” said Rarity. In one seamless motion, Applejack flipped a couple apples into her saddlebags, and the two mares trotted off in the general direction of the Ponyville general library.
A few minutes later, still a ways from the Library, Rarity glanced over at her companion to see the burnt-orange cowpony grinning. “What’s so funny?”
Applejack looked at her with knowing eyes, “Since when have you been callin my brother ‘Mr. Macintosh’?”
“Well since I don’t know him personally, I refer to him in his surname.” She said, her cheeks becoming a little reddened, “Its…er… Proper Canterlot etiquette! Why do you ask?”
“…An you’re using eti’whatsit on Big Mac… Why?”
Rarity could feel her heart skipping over many figurative beats now, “It… It’s just a polite thing to do!”
Applejack’s grin widened, “Are yah sure that’s it?”
Rarity, her face now blushing furiously, stammered, “Y-yes, of c-course it is!”
“Then why are yah blushin?”
Rarity’s stammering only grew worse as her mind tried to find a way to lie to the element of honesty. “Erm, well you see…” The pair turned the corner and, like a sunrise over the horizon, Ponyville library towered over the low-rise shops and houses just ahead. Rarity gasped in delight, “Oh look at that, we’re here!”. The snowy white unicorn galloped away from her orange companion, and the embarrassing conversation, toward the tree house. Applejack sighed,’ I guess ah’ll just hold that topic fer a later conversation,’ she thought, running after her friend. Rarity was already knocking rapid-fire on the large oaken door by the time Applejack made it to the patio.
“All right, spill.” The cowpony demanded.
Rarity, gaining her composure, rolled her eyes at her companion, “Come now, You can’t possibly be thinking that…”
Crash!
Both ponies turned their attention to the house, where they heard a shrill mare’s voice shout, “An elephant? Where in Tartarus did you get an elephant from? There isn’t even an elephant on this page!” There was an awkward pause, in which both of the ponies on the patio traded confused/concerned looks, before the voice came back, “Yes, very funny. Hardy har har.” Another pause, “No you can’t stay like that! Now hurry up and change into this one before…”
Rarity knocked on the door again, a little more forcefully this time. “Twilight, darling, are you all right in there?”
Following an array of sounds ranging from a cannon-shot to an oven timer, the door opened, revealing a slightly disheveled Twilight Sparkle. “Morning girls!” she said. “Come on in, I have our lunch ready.”
Both mares walked into what appeared to be a warzone, or maybe a failed attempt to recreate the living conditions of Pinkie Pie’s bedroom. Furniture lay in piles like makeshift barricades. There were four massive indentations in the floor, shaped like elephant tracks. Most confusing was the presence of the random stallion, his head cocked to the side, large neon-green eyes studying them.
Silence reigned.
