The medbay was in good order. Nothing out of place, everything sterilized to the highest degree. Fluttershy padded around the medbay. There was a dummy laying on one of the beds. She went over and pulled up the blanket over it, as if providing comforting to a real person. "There we go."

The medbay door opened, and Sunset came in. "Hey, Fluttershy, could you check me over?" She tilted her head. "I feel like something's wrong, but I don't know what it is."

Fluttershy blinked softly. "Sunset, you're a hologram." She rubbed at her cheek. "I'm not sure I could help you, if that were the case."

"Well, no, but." Sunset groaned and slouched over to a nearby chair. "You've been here for awhile. And you're all science-y."

Fluttershy approached her fellow pony with a smile. "I can look, but I cannot promise anything. Hm, I hope it's not the computer. I live there too." She looked over her shoulder, but saw nothing immediately wrong with her holographic form.

Sunset laughed weakly. "That's silly. The ship is fine. I think." She held out her hoof and tried to summon a window. A few lines appeared, but faded away as quickly as they had appeared. "See? That isn't normal."

"Oh my, no." Fluttershy sat in front of Sunset and began poking at her. "Do any of these hurt? Do you feel pain?"

Sunset slapped a hoof against her forehead. "What, seriously?" She sighed and rubbed her face. "No, nothing hurts, okay? It's just, weird."

"Mmm." Fluttershy crossed her arms. "You need a computer scientist, not a doctor, Sunset. I know it feels a bit odd. Even as a hologram myself, I prefer to think of myself as 'just a pony'. But we're not."

Sunset squirmed on the bed. "I'm not trying to offend you."

"And I am not upset with you." Fluttershy closed her eyes and smiled. "I like talking with my patients, but I really don't have the background to do anything about this. Your issue is somewhere in your code, which is a place I can't fix. I'm sure there's some way for me to be helpful to you, but right now, I am not sure what it is."

Sunset nodded as she stood up. "I get it." She ruffled Fluttershy's mane with a hoof. "Thanks for looking." She trotted off with an agitated lash of her tail.

Fluttershy brought a hoof to her mouth and winced. "I think I could have handled that better." She sighed softly. "At least it wasn't bad." She gave a little shiver at some memory.

Elsewhere, Sunset dared to approach a human. A male computer specialist. "Hey!" she started a bit loudly. "You're a pro with computers, right?"

The human paused his work to look at her. "Uh, yeah, that's my job." He tilted his head. "Do you need something?"

Sunset let out a deep sigh. "I'm Sunset Shimmer." She directed a hoof at herself. "Hologram. Digital aide. I think something's broken with me. And no, I can't fix it. I'm not that kind of hologram." She placed her hooves on her hips. "So can you take a look?"

"Hm, well, I am supposed to be repairing these computers." He swiveled his chair to face Sunset. "But you're a computer problem too. Give me access to your core data and let's have a look."

Sunset froze. "Core data?" She flipped her ears back at the thought of allowing such access to such tender information. That had her innermost thoughts and dreams. It had what formed her personality and all her memories. It was what made up the person called Sunset Shimmer. "I can't give you that!"

The human sighed softly. "Right, yeah, that's kind of intimate." He raised a hand. "How about we just review your log files? No sensitive data there." He rolled a hand palmside up. "But if the problem isn't obvious in the logs, we'll have to go deeper."

Sunset made a face at that. "Ugh, it would help if I knew what was wrong. I'm feeling, weird. Like there's something bad going on, but I don't know what it is." With a chirp, her logs became available to the crewmember. "There. Anything obvious? Please say yes."

The human looked over the data with his eyes only, looking for any indication of a problem. "Yeah, something weird." He brought up a window and typed into it. "Now, watch this." He pressed a button with firm finality.

"Something weird," came Sunset's voice, which repeated, exactly as before, "Something weird." The human tapped the button again, and she repeated her words. "Something weird." Again.

Sunset blinked softly. "That sounds like me, but I'm right here. Are you just playing a recording of me?"

The human tapped the button a few more times, then sat back. "See, if I loop that, you'll repeat 'weird' forever. It's stuck in a loop."

Sunset stamped a hoof on the floor. "You're making fun of me! Get serious. Something's wrong and I need you to get to the bottom of it."

"Right, right, sorry." He began typing busily a moment. "Let's see here. Mmmm, Hm. No. No errors, no flags. You're in good shape, according to the logs."

Sunset clenched her jaw. "I already told you that. Something's wrong with my program. Fix it!" She pointed at him sharply.

He sighed softly. "Look, there's nothing I can do without access to your core files." He folded his hands together. "I can't fix this, Sunset. Not until you give me a look at where the problem is."

Sunset stamped a hoof to emphasize her point. "No! I am not going to let you mess with me like that. Ugh, I can't believe I have to go through this."

His hand came down, ruffling her mane. "Look, you're a program glitching out. I'm just here to fix it, not mess with you." He waved a hand as he turned back to his work. "You're still part of the ship. We have to take care of our technology."

Sunset recoiled at the touch. "Get off!" She huffed for air a moment. "Ugh." Still, she had reviewed the roster. That infuriating human was rated the highest in computer competency. He was the one most likely able to fix what was wrong with her. "I... okay."

He didn't look at her. "Yes?"

"I'll give you access to my core data." She shifted where she stood. "It's weird, and kind of intimate. No messing with anything but the problem, okay?!"

He let out a sigh. "Of course. I won't go looking around your most private memories. Or file away any dark secrets. I just want to make sure you're working right."

Sunset stomped a hoof. "You're phrasing that on purpose to—" She didn't get to finish her complaint. With access to her core information, it was child's play to simply turn off her program for the moment, making her vanish.

He turned back to his computer. "Now let's see what the problem is, Miss Shimmer." His fingers flew over the keys. "Hm, not that, either." He kept working. "Maybe that?" He considered it for a moment. "I hope that does it." With a few firm presses, the command executed.

Computer programs didn't dream. That was common knowledge. Digital aides were not normal programs. Executing at all times unless they were in deep storage, Sunset opened her eyes in a false world comprised entirely of her memories. She lay on a sofa in a room from her childhood. She sat up and looked around. "Okay, why am I here?"

"Beats me," said a strange woman as she peered out the window. "But here you are."

Sunset hopped up to her feet, stretching her fingers. "At least I'm a human in here. Now, who are you? If we're in my memories, I should already know you."

The strange woman turned around with a shrug. "I have no idea. I just showed up when you did." She stepped over to Sunset. "Did you send me?"

Sunset laughed at that. "Aw hell no. The computer doc's checking me over." She reached to prod the unknown female in the chest. "Did he put you in here?"

"Not the doctor." The unknown woman placed a hand on Sunset's chest. "You brought me here."

Sunset pulled back with a frown. "Well, maybe, but that would be super weird." She crossed her arms. "Why would I dream up some mystery woman?"

"Because you have female thoughts?" The woman shrugged. "Because you don't feel enough like a lady? Because you're wondering if your partner would like it if you shaved your legs? Maybe all three."

Sunset grimaced. "Geez, way to be direct." She stepped away from the other female. "I'm a hologram. I can have exactly as much hair as I want to have." She waved at her legs, bidding them to become entirely smooth. Instead, they rapidly gained the fur pelt one would expect on a pony. "What the?"

"You don't get to decide how you look." The woman leaned against a wall and shrugged. "That's on me."

Sunset snorted, adjusting her hair length to long and wild, then extending it even further. With a howl of frustration, she charged into the bathroom and came back with a buzzing electric shaver. She tried to use it on her furred legs, but the moment she pressed it down, a flaming streak burst out from the follicles and set fire to the shaver.

She stared at the smoldering implement, then at her long, fiery mane atop her head. She suddenly fell forward onto hooves, back to being a pony. "What?"

The stranger crouched down closer to Sunset's level. "You were born a pony." She tapped Sunset on the snout. "Even if you love pretending you weren't."

Sunset gnashed her teeth in anger. "Why should it matter? I'm a digital aide! I look however I want!" She hopped up to stand on her hind legs. "I can make myself any shape I want, because I'm free!" She wobbled, forehooves cycling wildly the moment before she crashed back down to all fours. "This is a stupid dream! And you're a weird jerk."

"Aren't I you?" The stranger got back to her feet and laughed. "You still don't get it. You're scared of being a pony, but you still are one. You'll always be one." She put a hand at her chest. "Consider me your humanity, your womaness. I am you, the part that is just a woman, a human woman."

Sunset growled. "So what, you're the thing I like so much in Susan? But I don't need you! I don't want you!"

The stranger turned away with a heavy sigh. "I didn't even mention Susan, yet. But you're terrified. What if she likes me only because I'm a pony? What if she likes me only because of human me?! You're scared both ways. I get it." She peered over her shoulder at Sunset. "How do you keep this up?"

Sunset groaned and rolled her eyes. "You know, I'm starting to not like you."

"Your first love was a human girl. Not even someone you were physically close to. But you wanted her so badly." The strange female turned back to Sunset. "You wanted to be a woman, to be loved as a human. But when you got here, that wasn't an option."

Sunset approached the window to look out of it. "I didn't go after her." She gazed at the blue sky beyond the glass. "She came for me about as hard as anything else." She flicked her tail as she looked over her shoulder. "But I do love her. And she, uh."

"And she?" prompted the odd woman with a terrible sneer. "Say it."

Sunset huffed. "And she likes me. Okay? Are you happy now?" She stomped back and forth across the room. "You're just some program. I can't make you go away."

"So are you." She pointed at Sunset. "So that makes us two programs, at best. Still, you didn't say it, coward. She likes you? You don't move in and have children with people you 'like', Sunset."

Sunset curled her tail against her body. "We both know what happened. Don't be mean."

The stranger moved over to a wall and flopped down onto a sofa. "You should face your fears. Cowardice doesn't suit you, Sunset. People like it when you're bold and decisive."

"I don't feel bold or decisive right now!" Sunset threw up her hooves. "This is some stupid computer thing. It doesn't matter what I want." She dropped back to all fours, dropping her head to look at the ground. "When I'm in the real world, I can make my own decisions."

"If you can't decide here, when it's just you talking to yourself, what makes you think you have a chance when you're in the real world?" The woman laughed bitterly at the idea. "You know you're just lying to yourself, which includes me. I don't like being lied to."

Sunset threw her head up. "But it's not about you! You're not the one that's going to get hurt!" She began trotting around the room nervously. "So what if I love Susan?"

"So what, indeed." The woman watched Sunset as she paced. "But what does she think of you? Go on, say it."

Sunset turned away and blushed. "I love her, okay? And I'm so scared she'll stop liking me." Her whole body shivered with fear. "And... and..." She tried to speak, but the words simply would not come out.

"You're still holding back. Poor thing." She slid to her feet to come closer, grabbing Sunset by her cheeks. "Stop hiding. You don't want her to like you, damn it. You want her to love you. You want her to love you forever, until the very last breath, and maybe past that if she joins you in this curious state."

Sunset reeled back, horrified. "I do." She covered her mouth with a hoof. "I can't even pretend I don't. This is awful!"

"Mmm, no. What's wrong with loving, and wanting that love returned?" She put her hands at her own belly. "It's a natural thing, for any human, for any pony. We all want to be loved by the things we love."

Sunset rubbed her cheeks nervously. "She already loves me." She blushed heavily, unable to keep eye contact. "But what if I change? Or what if I lose interest? Or what if she stops loving me?"

"Could happen." She rubbed at Sunset's cheeks, brushing Sunset's hooves away to take over the job. "But you're both adults. Talk. Has she ever stopped you from talking with her?"

Sunset was still blushing as she watched the woman rub her cheeks. "No. But I don't know how to talk about this. We had a child together! Is that enough? Should I tell her I love her?"

"Every day." The woman leaned in, kissing Sunset's pony nose at the tip. "Every single day. That is an oath that can never be skipped. Tell her every day, and she will hear you." She paused a moment, thinking. "And don't give up on yourself."

Sunset stood there with her eyes wide, one hoof raised in confusion. "But—"

She woke suddenly, fading into her holographic body next to that programmer. "W-wait? I was in the middle of something!"

"It was just a dream." The human raised his hand from the keyboard. "Everything is fine, Sunset. Your system's in perfect order." He shook his head. "It's all done. I saw a few things coming loose and I pressed them gently back into place." He patted his hands together. "You should be all good to go."

Sunset stared at him, speechless. "Just... Just like that?" She crossed her arms. "What happened to core data, and reading my logs, and needing everything?"

"All I needed was your permission." He inclined his head at his monitor. "All fixed, and I won't be keeping any copies of your core data. I'd be searching for too long to find anything interesting anyway. Most of it is what you were seeing or hearing at any given moment."

Sunset gaped, completely caught off-guard. "But that's what happened to me! All I saw was some crazy human I didn't know, in a room I don't remember, having some stupid conversation with her!"

He shrugged at that. "You were having a conversation with yourself. Technically, all dreams are that. Everything in a dream is you."

Sunset threw up her hooves. "I hate technicalities! You know what I mean." She sighed and slumped where she stood. "Ugh, fine. But we fixed it, right?"

"Mhm. All fixed." He pointed to the door. "I have other work to do. Have a good one."

Sunset pulled back. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry." She turned away, a smile growing on her lips. "Thanks. Really." She dashed out of the room.

The human chuckled to himself as he got back to work.

Author's Note

Mmm, that chapter rushed out of me, and felt good. Like it? Lemme know.

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