"Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle! You brought peace and harmony to our land! We will never forget you! May your will still be as strong as ever, and may you get everything you strive for."

Zecora, along with the other inhabitants of this world, accompanied Twilight, who was already standing at the portal. She had already helped them and, unfortunately, hurt them - the latter of which she had seen fit to keep silent in her diary. Perhaps someday she would tell them about it.

‘I shook my head, chasing away all bad thoughts. ‘All that is not done is for the best.’

"I'll definitely be back again, my friends!" Twilight waved her hoof goodbye to them and slowly turned towards the portal, a mute fear running through her young body.

"Why grey..." was the only thing she could manage to mutter.

‘Grey is such an unpleasant colour... Wrong and uncharacteristic for a portal. It's delicious food, it's warm, you're loved and respected... And every time I turn my back on it. For what? I might not come back... They don't need to know that...’

Gathering her thoughts, gathering her willpower, Twilight walked through the ripples and the portal to the other world disappeared.

‘You mean to ask why no one hugged me before saying goodbye? I asked for it myself... No crying, no begging to stay, no hugs... I can't take it. I'm the princess of friendship. And I leave my friends behind every time. My companions are artefacts in my bags from other worlds. Each carries a piece of my friends from other worlds.’

There was a bright flash at the end of the tunnel and a faint pop that the transition left behind. Twilight landed on all four hooves. Her eyes were unable to assess the situation from the bright reflection of the snow, lifting her gaze to the sky, Twilight noticed a second foreign detail: the clouds were black in colour, like those spiky clouds during Discord's chaos antics. Everywhere in the distance, some closer, were strange structures, like a rhinoceros horn reaching far into the sky. A mystery that might be worth solving.

"A futuristic world? Catastrophe?! Again! Aggh!" Twilight felt a burning sensation in her throat as she took her first breath of the air, and regretted it. It felt very unpleasant. She coughed, trying greedily to inhale deeper.

‘Damn it, the damn air! Don't panic! Breathe slowly... It's not working! It's hard!’

Overcoming the lack of clean air, the coughing and the panic attack, she clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth.

"The barrier! Oh, the air! My sweet air! Don't leave me again... It's so disgusting to suffocate and not be able to breathe."

After coughing a bit, she scooped up some snow with her hoof and rubbed it on her face to refresh herself.

"Ugh... Ouch! It burns! What the...?! Healing!" Twilight's face was slightly swollen, but regeneration was successful, quickly relieving the symptoms. "What can I do to help this place if I can't breathe? And the snow is burning! Ouch!"

She lifted her hoof, feeling the burning sensation under her fur, and immediately flew off to avoid further harming her body. The skin under her fur and the pads on the end of her hooves, where they came into contact with the snow, were slightly blackened. This alarmed Twilight to no end.

"Healing!"

‘Disgusting... You can't stand, you can't breathe, there's no food here! There's no water to make from this snow! And it's freezing cold outside!’

Wrapping herself in a warm barrier, she climbed higher. In the sudden gusts of wind, she heard the clatter of water droplets against her own barrier.

"Now, we didn't even need rain yet... Wait... What rain?! The temperature is below freezing!"

Heavy drops began to hit the barrier and slowly, reluctantly rolled down it. Twilight squinted at the substance and noticed that the magic consumption of the combined air filter and heating shield had increased dramatically.

"We've got to get out of here!" Twilight turned sharply sideways away from the passing cloud, stopping when the downpour stopped pounding her barrier. "I don't know what that liquid is, but it's increased my magic consumption by an order of magnitude... Ohhhh... Okay, plan... I need a plan of action... I need to take care of myself first, and then figure out how to help this place... One: I need to reduce the amount of magic energy I use. Two: We need to find a safe place to hide. Three: it is advisable to find a way to breathe without the purification spell as soon as possible, otherwise my strength will eventually run out. Fourth: it's a good idea to get on my hooves... I need impenetrable shoes that won't be corroded by these acids. Fifth: figure out how to save this world" Twilight's mind was popping up dots and another and quite depressing one appeared.

‘Sixth. Don't die,’ she sighed heavily and exhaled, fighting the incipient panic attack that had started to set in and gathering her mind together. - Okay, calmly, let's start with a simple one: legs. I need to find something to make hooves out of.’

The first thing that caught her eye were the giant structures on the horizon. Twilight didn't understand the meaning or use of these buildings, but their material wasn't corroded or deformed by acid. It took about an hour to fly to these very pillars. At first it seemed that these structures were much closer, now quite distant.

‘Up close, nothing much is noticeable, aside from the fact that this wall... is completely smooth and has no imperfections, and it's also a white matte colour. So what is it?’ - Twilight tapped her hoof on the material, trying to find out by superficial means what kind it was.

"Metal... From the sound of it, this whole structure is either one solid monolith or it has very thick walls" Twilight tried to scrape the piece off, or at least scratch it with magic, but it didn't work. She pulled her machete out of her bag with her telekinesis and pressed it directly on the white surface, but it didn't even leave a scratch, just a black line. Like pencil on paper. "Yeah. Hardness above an eight on the Huvs-Mohs Hardness Scale. Problematic... I don't have anything harder than a machete... Scan!" Twilight tried to find small fragments of the same material, because she couldn't transform the massive monolith.

"Attention! Three approaching objects detected!" As if in her head, the intercom beeped.

"Here we go..." the alicorn sighed. "Not even alive... Dead objects again..." Twilight turned around, seeing the three dots coming towards her. "Okay, Twilight, diplomacy first, then run or fight. Diplomacy, so... Ugh, calm down."

She rubbed her temples with her hooves, trying to come to her senses. Soon the objects slowed down, flying closer.

"Attention! Object detected!"

‘It was three ponies, but of a very unusual appearance. All three were pegasi the same colour as the wall behind me. One flew closer and shone some kind of green light through me. Still, I didn't feel a thing.’

"Hello?" Twilight hesitantly spoke, trying to make first contact.

"Attention!" continued the pony in a robotic voice. "Android-12079, scout class reporting! Organic life detected."

‘A multitude of elements and segments covered their bodies. Eyes like faceted eyes in insects, wings like metal prostheses in pegasi that had lost them during their injuries. And all, as one, were exactly the same.’

"Orders to ‘capture,’ obeyed!"

Twilight was brought out of her musings by this phrase when he tried to catch her with his hooves, but bumped into the barrier.

"Attention! Magical shield, recalculating! Remove the barrier!" The android stood up, hovering slightly.

"Hey! You don't want to do that! I will take this as an act of aggression! And I will defend myself!"

' The android turned towards me, eyes flashing red.

"Warning! Subject is aggressive! Detain with antimagic trap!"

"Yeah, who'd have thought diplomacy couldn't solve anything?"

Teleporting away from the net attack, Twilight tore away from them in the other direction.

‘If I calculate it right, at the speed they were flying towards me, at that speed they won't catch up to me.’

Indeed, it was obvious that the pegasobots were a bit ‘dumb’. They turned towards Twilight, there was a sudden flash of light behind them, and then they were flying very fast.

"What the tartar?! You can't be travelling that fast!"

The two androids levelled up on Twilight's sides. Their hind hooves turned into rocket nozzles, their wings folded at an unnatural angle, like analogue aeroplanes.

"That's speed..." Sweat dripped from Twilight's forehead and she stopped abruptly as all three flew past and continued onwards. "Would they... Just fly away?"

Suddenly the trails of smoke behind their nozzles went sideways in an arcing trajectory.

"Well... They make calculations when I do something unpredictable. They learn from my example. That doesn't sound like a good idea, but what if we try to destroy them?"

All three androids rushed towards her, their wings now had wingtips for more manoeuvrability. Twilight held her breath, removing the barrier. The same ones put up a net to already catch the alicorn, but Twilight, letting them get closer, abruptly created a new barrier in front of them. They smashed into Twilight's barrier with a rumble and electrical distortion, sprinkling a pile of metal downwards.

"Great, the androids, although dangerous, their artificial intelligence left a lot to be desired. At least we got lucky with that."

Landing the remains of one droid, she stood on the wreckage of the second, making sure not to damage her hooves with the acid snow. With telekinesis, she tried to pick one of them apart, but had to use the rougher method.

"Okay. Take out all the stuffing, and the hooves are ready!" Twilight twirled her hoof to look at her new accessory. Now her limbs were safe from contact with the snow. "One point accomplished. I can let my wings rest. There's little point in making full-body protection out of armour plates, I think, it's likely to be hard to fly... No... Another option. The air would be great to clean, but that would require a mask... or some sort of gas mask."

Twilight approached the second droid.

"‘I hope you won't be too mad if I gut your insides..." Twilight ripped the android's head off and began to remove the stuffing, "even though he's a robot, it still feels disgusting..."

‘I'm going to put someone's skull on my head, I wonder how that can be morally judged...’

Finishing the job, she tucked the plates slightly on the inside and widened the area under her head slightly. Trying it on, the princess made a couple more adjustments to the plates until everything was at the peak of satisfaction.

"I'll have to put two filters in..." she made round holes on either side of her mouth and joined them together at the lip area with solder. "Right, I'll get one from you. Ooh! Round tube-shaped iron, that'll do. I don't know what kind of material it is, but it suits me very well."

Gathering a pair of cylinders about four centimetres thick, she carefully folded in several layers of fluffed paper from the blank pages of her diary. Closed this stuffing with a lid with holes in it.

"So... let's test it out," Twilight tried the assembly on her head.

‘So, breathing is pretty tight, but tolerable, just takes some getting used to. The air is usable. There is a problem - two filters are not enough, there is an option to clean with magic, the result works. Well, problem two: I can't talk because I didn't have that option, and if I have to start a conversation with someone... I'll have to take it off every time to say something to someone. That'll do for now. Problem three: I can barely hear anything. I could make holes for my ears, but then my ears might get clogged with something I don't need, although that's not critical either. The main thing is that I can breathe in this place and reduce the amount of energy I use. Problem four: I can't see anything through this plastic...’

At this point, the eyes, which were purple plastic, were completely useless without electricity. Twilight had to make them much thinner and fuse them into one mass. Now the visibility was about eighty per cent, but she had to sacrifice the strength of the material, making it brittle.

• I'll be sure to deal with this in a less artisanal setting,’ Twilight took off her newfound helmet, looking over her work. - Okay. We've reduced the magic consumption by a factor of three. I've got nothing for the rain, now we need a place to sleep. It's getting evening already...’ she looked up to assess the state of the sky. It's bound to be quite cold here at night.

‘I hate to leave my trophies behind, but I need shelter.’

Twilight looked around again, but revealed nothing suitable... Just a wasteland with white barchans of snow. And tall poles.

"A barchan? Snowdrifts that high don't come naturally..."

Twilight moved towards the tall pile of snow and realised she was right. A hollow capsule opened up to her view, and she teleported inside without thinking long.

"Luck! Kha-Kha! Air! - she travelled outside again." I'll try to cut a hole in the capsule for ventilation... And the ventilation will have to be made with a filter... No... I don't have that much paper... Okay... I'll just make a hole in the side and sleep in my helmet.

Once inside, she curled up into a crouch, throwing her cloak over herself, the bags being an extra source of warmth for her sides.

"Good night, Twilight" she wished herself and closed her eyes. The emotions and events of the day had exhausted the poor girl and mercilessly plunged her into a deep sleep. Truly, she only dreamed of peace...

* * *

Twilight had had a wonderful day, and she was getting ready for bed. Starlight and Spike were still preparing themselves, they were like two guards watching Twilight's condition and didn't want to leave her all alone. The day seemed to have gone well and should have left positive emotions, but here Twilight saw otherwise as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She touched her chin with her hooves and stared into her own frantic gaze, then her mind slowly staggered, going over every possible event. Her sense of self swam somewhere, as did the image in her eyes.

"A-ha-ha-ah!" came the hysterical laughter in the bedroom, which echoed louder and louder outside the room. "They're afraid of me... Ah ha ha! They're all afraid of me... Cadence was looking at me with terror even then. Ah-ha-ha! I've waited so long, learnt so much, overcome pain, shame, humiliation, for them to be afraid of me?! A-ha-ha-ah!" tears streamed down her face, leaving wet paths of mussed fur.

The laughter grew shriller and longer, but the laughter changed abruptly to a hoofbeat against the mirror, and the glass shattered with a clatter and clang. Shards splintered under the hanging cloth, and there were two hoof indentations in the wall.

"I am no longer Twilight... Saviour, warrior, warrior, terror, murderer, anyone... but not Twilight... I can't be her, I have no friends... They are all behind me... Pain and a shattered mind, my last companions in life."

She looked at her trembling hooves, slowly realising that blood was pouring out of them. They weren't healing as they usually did. Twilight had completely forgotten that it was because of the restrictive measures of her magic and not from her own unwillingness to repair them, taking it as a sign. She settled back on her croup and let out a childish cry that turned into a tantrum. Her hoof picked up the broken mirror itself, immediately bringing it to her throat with the sharp end. One swipe along the right side of her throat at her carotid artery and she would not be saved in time. Her hooves trembled, she wanted to end this, but something was still keeping her on the shutters of the remnants of her mangled mind, though she couldn't figure out what.

"Twilight!" The unicorn's loud voice pulled her away from the matter, Starlight pulled the shard from her hooves, leaving a line of cuts. "What are you doing?!"

She ran closer to her to look into her eyes and finally saw the state she was in. The tears that flowed so treacherously from the corners of her eyes, the blood from her hooves that wouldn't stop flowing, leaving a noticeable puddle on the floor, and the emptiness in her eyes. It even hurt to look into them, and now her eyes read a state bordering on the remnants of self-consciousness and utter madness. Starlight missed the point of her behaviour and her dangerous mood.

"They're all afraid of me..." Twilight was breathing heavily, wanting to press her hooves to her face, but Starlight stopped her, keeping her from rashly rash actions. She stopped her from smearing the glass on her hooves on her own face.

"Firstly, they're not used to your changes. Secondly, no one is going to feel better about your tantrums and your attempts to destroy yourself. Thirdly, you're not used to this change, and fourthly... I shouldn't have left you alone, I don't know what was going on in there, but I do know it wasn't your fault. You just need to socialise with someone more often" she placed her hooves on her injured hooves and gently treated the wounds with magic. "Let's get your hooves healed before Spike sees the state you're in."

"I'm a monster..." Twilight only whispered in a voice that was out of character for her.

She tried to calm down before Spike arrived, looking closely at her healing wounds.

"The fact that you're holding up like a cube of steel right now is great, but sometimes you have to be a little more pliable, like plasticine. Understand, you've been holding yourself back for centuries. Afraid of death, afraid of not getting out of the endless loop, through blood and time. Twilight, if anyone had been in your shoes, he or she would have failed."

Starlight began picking up the shards of mirror from the floor, really, there was nothing she could do about the hole in the wall right now. Taking an old handkerchief from the shelf, she began to wipe the tears from Twilight's face. The sparkle in her eyes was slowly returning with the realisation of what she had almost done, and Starlight berated herself for leaving her alone.

"You're home, Twilight. You need to realise that you're safe and protected" the apprentice continued, running a hoof over her head. "Tell me, what can I do to make you feel better? I'll try to arrange it."

"I can't sleep... I want to dream... Beautiful and good dreams... Starlight, just sleep like a little ordinary pony! I don't want to rot in my calculations forever. I want to be happy, just to finally have happiness and friends."

Twilight abruptly changed the subject, forgetting about today. And about what she just wanted to do to herself. If she did close her eyes, it was just to either pass the time or doze off, as if putting herself into an economical energy consumption mode, but she couldn't sleep. If she was induced to sleep by drugs or herbs, she soon woke up, developing an immunity to spells and drugs.

"Twi..." Starlight hugged the lavender pony from behind, cradling her affectionately. "I understand your fears and those of others, but remember, I'm not afraid of you, Spike isn't afraid of you. The rest of us are just afraid to come over right now and make things worse. That's what everyone's afraid of. Isn't that a sign of love and friendship, Twilight?"

Soon the tension in Twilight's back eased and she relaxed a little, letting herself be hugged tighter, her wings soon relaxing as well. Blinking a few times, warding off extraneous thoughts, she looked up, up at the ceiling.

"I... I'm really scared..." her voice shook slightly, but was calmer. "It's funny, isn't it? But it's the fears that determine whether you're sane or not..." Twilight breathed more evenly, and self-consciousness was slowly being restored, the door ajar, the evidence of the incident having been successfully destroyed.

"Are you all right?" Spike's quiet, childish voice brought them out of their static. She hastily rubbed her eyes and turned her head to the dragonkin, smiling softly.

"Yes, Spike, I'm just not used to the fragility of the objects in the room yet and I accidentally crushed the mirror."

Ta smiled a little wider, while Spike stepped closer, scrutinising the situation. He watched Starlight's face as she stroked Twilight's head, then turned his gaze to the wall, where there were a couple of healthy dents.

"Twilight, you can always share with your assistant the problems that are bothering you... You don't have to try to pretend to feel good when you actually feel bad. And if you don't want to tell us what's making you so upset, you can always just hug someone and cry."

Twilight hugged her dear friend tightly, dropping tears that were embarrassing to her. She berated herself for what she had almost done.

"S... Thank you... You..."

* * *

Waking up wasn't very comfortable this time. Because of her helmet, Twilight couldn't hear her surroundings very well and only woke up when the capsule was opened with a smooth cut right in the middle and lifted up sharply. She would have pinned her ears back in fear if she could have. Around her hovered about thirty androids in the air, with one droid standing out among them.

"Report: organic object found!" reported one of them, flying up to the purple coloured special droid. The special droid replied in a female voice, slightly different from Twilight's.

"Confirming a positive result."

' The droid landed towards me and I squinted even more through my fogged eyepieces, however I would have to remove my helmet to try and talk and see the picture more clearly. After blinking a couple of times, I noticed that there was a droid standing in front of me that looked very much like me. This is very strange...’

"Attention, I am the oldest android of the TWI-113 commander class. Organic subject, identify yourself."

The alicorn's surprise was unrivalled.

"Twilight Sparkle..." the alicorn said quietly. The 113th began to study her.

‘She differs from the others greatly. The purple hue of the armour, the time warped plate elements in places. And her eyes were not faceted like the others, but monolithic screens of green, and she seems to blink? Why? She's a robot! Though, the manner and tone of voice is different too, she's apparently an older model type.’

"Scanning the database bank!" she uttered, and her eyes changed to a diagram of a cardiogram, followed by the hissing of old TVs when there are no TV programmes. "There was no match in the database. Provide DNA."

"Blood?" Twilight wrinkled her nose, peering at her. She didn't know how to communicate with a robot, and clearly didn't want to provoke aggression. Still following the first method of first contact. Diplomacy.

"Android-01220, take an analysis."

‘Soon an android flew up to me, no different from the others except for the moment a needle came out of its hoof and slowly touched me. I didn't fight back as he took some blood from me and scanned me, and much faster than his superior. Apparently, they have command passed down from the most senior droid. Then what happened to 112's predecessors?’

"Warning! No matches detected."

TWI-113 blinked a couple of times, glaring at Twilight. It seemed to Alicorn that this droid's AI was clearly far more advanced than the younger versions, and that bothered her. She must have been making a decision on what to do now.

"Attention, disassemble Twilight Sparkle's subject and search the database for matches!" The 113th commanded her droids and flew away from Twilight, a couple of droids behind her murmuring.

"WHAT?! I'm not a robot! If you take me apart, I'll die!" tried desperately to get through to 113 Twilight shouted loudly at her with indignation and fear.

"Warning. If it will help us awaken the creators, such an action is permissible."

' It was like water splashing again, tail treacherously piped up. Thirty droids. They're nothing in essence, but if... Fight again, remember, Twilight, robots aren't living things, they can be broken.’

"I refuse!"

‘Once again, an attempt to reach 113 with the hope that I might be able to disrupt her thinking algorithms in this way, but no such luck.’

"Attention! Refusal will not be accepted! Disassemble the object Twilight Sparkle!"

‘Three droids flew towards me at once, their hooves replaced by griffin-like claws, and I don't want to feel their sharpness on me.’

"Teleport!"

‘Poof!’ and Twilight was gone, and a bunch of droids were left without a victim, looking around the capsule in confusion.

"Attention, target has disappeared. Scanning the area! Scanning complete, no results found!" reported one of the droids.

"Results accepted! I'm analysing! Adjusting operation! Use the magic echolocator!" 113 immediately found a suitable solution.

"Attention, we have detected a source of magic 300 metres north of here!" The scout droid immediately gave the information to his colleagues.

"Droid RDSH(ER-DE-ESH)-11011, RDSH-11012. Catch up with the target and capture!" The 113th called for reinforcements and already using the data received from the dead droids made calculations and deduced new algorithms of behaviour.

‘Oh wow... Quickly they discovered me, and this special droid is rapidly learning and learning new information. That's who they have behind all this. She said she can't awaken the creators... So they're probably dead, though that's odd,’ Twilight redirected her magic to fly faster and faster. So far, she was doing just fine. - If they were dead, those would probably realise it from the scan. The creators appear to be in some sort of stasis... I don't even know... Will I be able to wake them up?’

Two pulses of magic were felt behind Twilight, causing the air to ripple and shake. Two dots flew towards her and were catching up to her rather quickly.

"Overcoming the sound barrier... I can't fly that fast. Rainbow could do it, but definitely not me... Tartarus... Those same creators must have definitely taken the best of their world. I'd be flattered if they weren't trying to tear me to pieces!" grumbled Twilight, trying to get away from the two daredevils in flight.

They had already caught up with her, and she braked hard to push them against her barrier, but they instantly circled her, having already anticipated this outcome from experience. As they flew around the barrier, they clipped both of Twilight's front hooves, bending them right behind her back.

"Teleport!"

Twilight immediately pulled away from them, but if she hesitated just a little, she could have suffered fractures. For robots, there was no such thing as being caught in one piece. Twilight exhaled when she was temporarily safe and immediately tried to attack them, but unfortunately it was useless. Shooting at them would be like hitting flies with a water pistol from a hundred metres away.

"I promise! When I get home! I won't miss Rainbow practice! I promise!"

Twilight tried to break away from her two pursuers again, praying loudly in her voice and repenting that she wouldn't slack off again. They won't let her escape, hit with magic she can't. Telekinesis to knock them into each other doesn't work because of the strange material in their armour. They also really want to cut her open and gut her because it will supposedly make their creators wake up!

"It's a stalemate, there's nowhere to hide, they'll find us everywhere."

Behind them, the pulses came one after another. And the Dash-droids were no longer two, but about seven.

"Oh, come on!"

113 had already made a calculation and realised that this number of droids would be enough to catch Twilight. Quickly catching up with the alicorn, they took up the position of heptagonSemigon. flying with amazing accuracy at the same distance from each other, and the distance was rapidly decreasing.

‘Are they trying to trap me in the ring? I won't let that happen!’

Only now did she realise that she was trapped - behind her a magical net, like a butterfly net, was trying to catch her prey by the droids chasing her. Ahead of her was the pillar of a building.

‘They're sucking out the magic with that device!’

Twilight immediately slowed down, feeling weak. She had to give a lot more magic to her hooves to keep from losing her advantage.

‘Come on, intuition, don't let me down. These pillars must be hollow.’

"Teleport!"

Boom. Three droids flying along the upper and lower edges of the lined up figure crashed into the building, losing their combat ability. The others flew apart.

"Attention, target lost!" reported one of the entire Dash-droids.

"Result received! Attention, making calculations, correcting algorithms, return to the hangar" TWI-113 again noisy as an old TV set, and gave the order to depart.

"Attention, adjustments accepted, return to hangar" soon the four Dash droids flew off to an unknown destination, as did the rest of the individuals.

‘Doesn't bode well, no one cancelled the momentum after teleporting at speed.’

Twilight flew through several rooms, and only the good old drywall that made up the walls cushioned her speed.

‘Ugh... It could have been worse. I could have crashed through the wall of this building.’

Climbing out of the rubble, she lifted her head to see exactly where she was now.

"No way..."

Author's Note

What about the inverted commas """" It's embarrassing...