Roxanne could hear them arguing. In her experience, it seemed to be something that Morgana excelled at or even enjoyed. In contrast, Lynnette had always seemed quiet and subdued. Admittedly, though, Roxanne did not know the latter terribly well, only that she had been Hexel’s rookie partner years earlier and that she tended to hate people quietly and equally.

Hearing them argue was strange, but Roxanne was not able to tell what exactly it was about. She had used most of her funds to optimize her body for physical performance and not bothered with any advanced processors or sensory equipment. Her vision was impeccable, but her hearing only good enough to hear subtle cues in the music she danced to.

“Here,” she said, motioning to a listing and dusty couch. “You can sit if you want.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight, climbing onto the chair. She coughed and sneezed as the dust came up to her, which was as unnecessary as it was adorable. “Ooh. Dusty.”

“Yeah, I know. Stuff down here doesn’t exactly get much use.” Roxanne gestured to the things around her. “It isn’t registered on my taxes or anything, so for a while I was trying to rent it out for people who didn’t want their stuff found.”

“So these are other pony’s things?”

“Ponies and people, yeah. But just stuff they left behind. I’m holding it, but I had to stop taking new stuff because I found…” A body. She had found a body one day on a check of the area, or rather what was left of it packed into a refrigerator. It had surprisingly not bothered her that much. She had seen people die, and the sight of bodies was not uncommon in the city- -but she did not want to tell Twilight that. “…something really gross. So it’s just low-cost storage now.”

“Oh. I hope they don’t mind that I’m sitting on their couch.”

“Trust me, if they minded it they would have kept paying me. But I’m not going to go into collection over old furniture.” Roxanne looked over her shoulder. “Sorry. I would get you something to drink, but I don’t exactly have any food here. Or food at all. I don’t have a solid digestive system. Too much weight.”

“Oh.” Twilight’s expression seemed to sink. “So you really are…you know.”

“Know what?”

“A robot.”

Roxanne sighed and shook her head. Then she crossed the room and pulled out a small and faded ottoman. She pushed it across the room and climbed up onto it, where she sat. Although it was meant as a footrest, it was large enough to function as a stool for a pony.

“We’re not robots,” she said. “Robots are a different thing. Like drones, but not as smart.”

“So I was being insulting, you mean.” Twilight sighed. “Sorry. This is all new to me. What should I call you, then?”

“Just a pony. That’s what pony means here. I guess it used to be little horses, but now it means us.”

“There are more of you?”

Roxanne chuckled. “Well, there’s only one of ME. But there are other ponies. Billions of them. A lot of those are Rainbow Dashs, too, but like I said. None of them are ME.”

“And they’re all…” Twilight struggled for a moment, trying to phrase her sentence in a way that made sense but was not offensive. “…organically impaired?”

This time Roxanne laughed in earnest. “Sorry!” she said. “But that’s hilarious! Yes!” her laughter slowed. “Sure. You can call us that. We’re all ‘organically impaired’. Machines.”

“And you are too?”

“Yup. I mean, come on. Do you think I would look this great if I couldn’t customize and fine-tune every single part of my body?” She extended one of her wings. “You know these actually work, right? Not long distances because of the cooling, but I can still go pretty far AND pretty fast. I could…” she trailed off for a moment. “Well, I could always beat Morgana in a race.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why would Morgana have wings?”

“Because she’s a Twilight unit. All Twilight units have wings.”

Twilight looked at her back. “But I don’t have wings. I’m a unicorn, not a Pegasus. But Morgana has a horn, so…” Her eyes widened. “So she was an alicorn?”

Roxanne winced, but Twilight did not seem as observant as Morgana and hardly took notice. “It’s not as big of a deal when you can just bolt a pair on.”

“But then you could get a horn and be an alicorn too!”

Roxanne winced again, this time much harder. “I could, but that would look like shit!” This time Twilight recoiled. “Oh. Sorry. You don’t like it if I swear, do you?”

“You can if you want to, it’s just that…where I’m from, ponies don’t say words like that.”

“Really?” Roxanne lay down on her ottoman. “And this place you’re from. What’s it like?”

“Well…” Twilight thought for a moment. “It’s a lot different from here, that’s for sure. Everything’s smaller, and greener, and all the houses are painted in nice colors. We have a train station, a few farms, a hydroelectric dam, and a Library- -that’s where I live!- -and lots of other stuff too. I mean, it’s not as big and grand as Canterlot, but…” She paused and suddenly looked sad. “But I made a lot of really good friends there. Best friends, even.”

“Really?”

Twilight nodded. “Pinkie Pie, and Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash- -I think you’d like her, and I think she’d like you too.”

“I’m modeled after her, so maybe.”

Twilight sighed. “And I miss them. I don’t know. I have this really bad feeling. Like, what if I can’t get back to them? What if I can’t get home, and they never see me again?” She considered for a moment. “Or if I never see them again? I just…I don’t want to think about that.”

“Then don’t.” Roxanne put her head on one of her hooves. “Try to remember the good things. About all the fun you’ve had together. That place, it sounds nice. I wish I could have memories like that.”

“You don’t? I mean, of course you don’t remember Ponyville, I think I’d remember having seen a robot- -I mean, organically-challenged- -Rainbow Dash there.” Twilight paused. “Unless I didn’t…”

“No, not like that. Well, actually…”

“What?”

Roxanne sighed. “Memories like that. Back when we were made, ponies I mean, we were programmed with memories of the ponies we’re based off of. If I had been born back then, I’d have remembered actually being Rainbow Dash. You know. Ponyville, Wonderbolts, flying. And not flying over dirty streets, but in the real sky. With sunlight and clouds and birds that aren’t pigeons.”

“But you aren’t Rainbow Dash. How would you have her memories?”

“It’s just how we were made. But only the first generation. See, there was this Revolution…”

“Well, of course. You can’t have a large population of sentient machines and expect there NOT to be a revolution. I mean, come on! It’s in almost every science fiction book I’ve ever read- -and I’ve read a LOT.”

“Yeah. Well, in the Revolution the ponies took Hasbro. They destroyed it. We don’t really know how they made us in the first place.”

“So then all the ponies now were ponies then, too?” Twilight paused. “Wait. That sentence could be improved.”

Roxanne shook her head. “No. We found ways to do it. Ponies of the time created Genesis programs. But it’s not the same.”

“I don’t really understand computers,” said Twilight. “Where I’m from, they’re mostly just science fiction.”

“It’s how we make more ponies. We can’t exactly do it the old-fashioned way.” Roxanne chuckled again, this time with an awkward snort. “If that was the case, I’d have SO many foals…”

“Um…why?”

Roxanne shook her head. “Not important. And not my point. We make more of us with the Genesis programs, either by mitosis or budding. I was a bud, just so you know.”

“That sounds adorable. But I don’t know what it means, at least in this context.”

“It means that every time we reproduce, we lose part of ourselves. We get diluted. Like if you mixed a drink by cutting it in half and filling it up with water. Budding is a little different, but eventually you end up budding until there’s nothing left, you know?”

Twilight looked at her, clearly trying to understand. “So…you don’t have the memories from when the first one in your family was made?”

“Family…nobody really says it like that. Kind of weird, now that I think about it. But you’re right. I don’t. A few ponies do, but they’re usually old. Most of them has budded off. Those memories, of Ponyville? Almost no ponies remember.”

“Almost?”

Roxanne smiled. “Morgana does.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Really? She didn’t say anything about that tome!”

“She wouldn’t have.” Roxanne’s smile fell. “And I wouldn’t talk to her about it, not unless she asks.”

Twilight looked confused. “Why?”

“Because she never talks about it. Not even to me. I think something really bad happened. It has something to do with that gemstone she wears, and I can almost remember…but it’s an old memory, you know? One my mother could barely remember too.”

“And you…you’re her friend?”

Roxanne laughed. “No, I hate her guts! But we used to be lovers, back when I didn’t.”

Twilight gasped. “But you’re both mares!”

“Ninety percent of our population is mares. So what?”

“Well, it’s just that…I didn’t…I didn’t mean…” Twilight began to blush. “I mean, I know about Lyra and Bon Bon, but I never took you for…you know…”

“Like I said. I’m not Rainbow Dash. I’m Roxanne. Pleased to meet you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight sputtered, clearly confused. Roxanne extended a hoof, and Twilight took it. “P- -pleased to meet you too, Roxanne.”