It was so nice to finally get some sleep, to no longer feel tired, hungry, or cold. Being confined to the soothing shadows of Luna's Dream Realm, I felt absolutely nothing. But at the same time, I realized it wasn't a dream. I couldn't tell if it was my total lack of senses of reality around me, or just an absence of reality itself. "Is reality defined by our senses alone? Does the world go beyond our limited perception? What are we are supposed to rely on to know what is real and what is not?" Such formless thoughts were freely flowing through my mind, slipping from my grasp and vanishing in the endless void around me as soon as I tried to concentrate on them. It was a very confusing state of existence, and yet I couldn't care less about it. I didn't know how much time had passed, it could be the mere blink of an eye or eons for that matter. Suddenly, glowing words started to appear in the blackness of my vision, further driving me into a state of confusion.

/// Consciousness is online ///

>Booting sequence is complete

>Starting diagnostics...

>WARNING! Unidentified components detected. Please contact the TCE Equinoid Support Station for more information.

>WARNING! Critical levels of magical contamination in memory crystals. Please contact the TCE Equinoid Support Station as soon as possible. Remember: Negligence of annual magical decontamination for crystals is considered a criminal offense.

>WARNING! Leakage in crystal cooling system detected. The system is functioning at 76.8% efficiency. Please contact the TCE Equinoid Support Station as soon as possible.

And then, my eyes opened; but my vision was completely blurred. Wait, I didn't intend to do it, they opened by themselves. This is weird. Confused, I tried blinking my eyes, but nothing happened. All of a sudden, with soft clicks in my head, my surroundings began to come into focus. Aha, seems like I regained hearing as well, though it was hard to say if it was a reverberating sound inside my head or my actual ears.

With my vision still blurred, I tried to test my hearing again, along with my other senses. Overall, I felt very weird, as if I was out of place, my whole being trying clumsily to coexist with my body. It was like I just had woken up after one of Pinkie Pie's famous nights, but this time it was ten times worse.

So, still being half-blind and half-conscious, I tried to listen to the world around me. The following result was positive, but unremarkable: besides a faint irregular hum in the distance, I heard nothing else. There was absolutely no taste in my mouth, which meant that it actually wasn't a typical morning after one of Pinkie's parties. Come to think of it, I couldn't smell anything at all either. Weird.

Finally, with the last click inside my head, I was able to clearly see my surroundings. Apparently, I had been lying on my side, most probably on the floor. Though I couldn't feel my limbs or the surface under me, I had a feeling of gravity and my position in space. It was all so confusing, to have only half of my senses. I tried to look around, only to discover that I couldn't turn my eyeballs and had to turn my head instead; this didn’t help with my rising confusion.

I didn’t recognize this place around me. I found myself in a barely lit, cramped room. The floor was cluttered with various tools and unfamiliar pieces of machinery. A large window without glass, looking more like a hole torn in the wall and a few small holes in the ceiling, were the only sources of light. Judging by the darkness and fading soft glow outside, it was either just before dawn or right after sunset. This place distantly reminded me of the Cybernetics labs from RCRC, but it was much more of a mess and in far worse condition.

All the flat surfaces were covered with various containers full of spare parts, most of them looking like mangled pony limbs, their twisted, unnatural metal bones poking out of the countless boxes or hanging from the shelves and walls. It gave the room a very creepy and unsettling atmosphere, making this place look like something between a mortuary, a toymaker’s shop and the mechanic’s workstation from one of my labs.

Sliding my gaze, I discovered an even more morbid and eerie sight. On the workbench, which dominated most of the room, lay the remains of a whole metallic pony skeleton. Its head was torn apart and lying next to some unfamiliar tools. Besides the metal pony parts, the room was filled to the brim with skeins of wire, bundles of tubes, piles of screws and nuts, heaps of scrap metal lying everywhere and strange devices resting in the corners of the room. And absolutely everything in this room, from the floor to the perforated ceiling, was covered in a thick layer of rust, clearly visible even in the dim light.

Unsteadily, I tried to get on my hooves, which wasn't easy because I couldn’t feel my legs or the floor under them. My numb limbs felt both heavy and very light, because I could move them swiftly without any effort but I was as uncoordinated as a newborn foal at the same time. The fact that it also felt like I was slipping on some oily liquid underneath me didn't help either. After a few failed attempts, I finally managed to sit still on my rump, even if I was still slightly wobbling. On the positive side, I still didn't feel anything, so it didn't hurt each time I fell. But on the not-so-bright side, considering the loud thudding noises, my body had to be bruised by now and it probably would hurt later. I just couldn't force myself to care about that, all my thoughts were still fuzzy and my head filled with a thick fog.

Suddenly a few confusing lines of text appeared again in my field of vision as if they were printed on the surface of my eyes:

>WARNING! Dangerous level of leakage in crystal cooling system detected. System functions at 20.0% efficiency. Please visit the TCE Equinoid Support Station as soon as possible.

What... I sat swaying slightly, little by little my mind started to clear up from the thick fog of confusion, leading me to feel more concerned about the situation I was in. With every passing moment I was realizing more and more that something was wrong. I needed to think. I tried to take a deep breath to gather myself only to find out that... I couldn't breathe… What? I couldn’t? W-WHY COULDN’T I BREATHE!?

Shocked, I tried in vain to feel my lungs again and each time I failed. Suddenly it dawned on me: since I had woken up I hadn't taken a single breath. I hadn't blinked even once and my heart had stood still all that time. Partially snapping out of my half-conscious state, I began to panic. If I could hyperventilate, I would. I needed to get out of there, to seek help. Something was definitely wrong.

Shaking, I looked around again and noticed a gap in one of the walls. I bolted for it and halfway there I tried to push through with my magic, only to be thrown further down into this nightmarish surreal situation. My magic! I couldn’t cast magic! With unexpected inertia from my motion, I slammed head first into a wide crevice in the wall and tumbled outside of the building. Turns out it was a door. The gap widened with a mournful creaking sound by my charge almost without any resistance.

As my body went past the threshold of the door, it fell to the ground heavily. I desperately tried to get to my hooves, but simply couldn't; my senseless limbs refused to obey me. I needed to stop panicking. I wasn't breathing or blinking, and my heart wasn't beating, yet I was alive and I was probably going to stay that way. It felt weird... but didn't hurt. I didn't know where I was, and I didn't have my magic. All in all, it was very far from a comfortable situation, but that didn't mean it wasn't solvable. I needed to calm down, stand up on my hooves and find somepony who could help me.

The accursed confusing glowing letters once again blocked my vision as they formed in front of my eyes.

>WARNING! Critical levels of leakage in crystal cooling system detected. The system is functioning at 10.0% efficiency. Please contact TCE Equinoid Support Station as soon as possible.

>WARNING! Imminent overheat of crystal matrix system! Please contact TCE Equinoid Support Station as soon as possible.

Ignoring those words with still unknown meaning for now, I steeled myself. With fresh resolve, I carefully tried to repeat my incredible feat of sitting upright. After some great effort and strain on my patience, I managed to do it. Taking a moment of respite, I looked in front of me. Mere hooves in front of me was a gaping hole in the wall of the room I had woken up in. The door, now wide open and covered in spare parts and wires, making it blend in with the walls from the inside of this building, was slightly swinging in a wind I couldn't feel. Carefully, my body shaking and my hooves wobbling madly, I rose on all fours. With very slow and careful steps I tried to turn in place only to be stopped dead halfway in my motion. My mouth agape and in a state of utter shock, I fell on my rump.

I was sitting on the top of a sloped hill, with the metal pony bones filled shack right behind me. Before my eyes laid a sight I could barely comprehend. A bizarre city stretched from horizon to horizon, filling my view. In the very heart of this strange looking place was a huge, dark, fortress-like building reaching out to the skies and piercing a thick layer of storm clouds covering the whole firmament. Surrounding that monolithic building were countless smaller, thin towers which seemed desperate to try and stretch as high as possible, as if attempting to breach the heavens like their colossal neighbor. Some of them near the centre of city succeeded at that, while the structures near the edge were barely rising above their surroundings. It was hard to see smaller details from this far, but the megalopolis was bustling with activity; erratically pulsing with lights of all colors imaginable, like a beating heart. Thousands of dots and silhouettes of varying sizes were swarming the glowing towers like moths in symmetrical patterns. On even intervals in the middle of the city, forming a circle, seven gleaming, humongous pillars of metal were piercing the skies, rising from the clouds of mist on the ground. Their tops shined with arcs of electricity from the constant lightning strikes caused by the violent thunderstorms blackening the sky. On the very rim, the city skyline ended abruptly, divided from its outskirts by a demarcation line of darkness and a monolithic concrete wall. Beyond the grey bulwark stood low and bulky buildings, bristling with pipes, periodically spewing out bursts of fire and clouds of dark, thick smoke. Further away from the city, a line of fumes and flares lit up the emptiness of night. Beyond them was a black nothingness, disturbed only by a few lonely blinking lights in the great distance.

Overwhelmed by this unreal visage and unable to look at it anymore, I lowered my eyes to the ground only to be paralyzed in a state of pure shock once more. These weren’t my hooves. I lifted one of them in the air before my eyes. It was nothing but a slightly corroded, bare metallic skeleton, coiled with colorful cables that dimly reflected the lights of the city. I looked back on myself and became even more horrified. Instead of a familiar lavender coat I was met with plates of faded plastic and rusted steel trying to cover metal bones that were circled in nets of wires and tubes connected to softly glowing crystals. I couldn't take this nightmare anymore! I began screaming in horror, and the glowing letters appeared once again :

> WARNING! Neural activity overload detected.

>WARNING! Crystals overheating detected.

>Emergency shutdown initiated

/// Consciousness shutdown ///

With that my vision began to fade and I fell to the ground.

How nice it was to finally get some sleep after months spent working up to twenty four hour shifts. It was nice not to feel tired, hungry or cold... Wait, I remember this strange feeling... Something was wrong. Very wrong. Memories of what I wished to be just a nightmare started to fill my mind. As confirmation to my fears, chains of glowing letters appeared in the blackness of my vision:

/// Consciousness is online ///

>Re-booting sequence complete

>Emergency shutdown initiated due to crystal overheating. If this happens again, please contact TCE Equinoid Technical Support for more information.

>Starting diagnostics...

>WARNING! Unidentified components detected. Please contact TCE Equinoid Technical Support Station for more information.

>WARNING! Critical levels of magical contamination on memory crystals. Please contact TCE Equinoid Technical Support Station as soon as possible. Remember: Negligence of annual magical decontamination for crystals is considered a criminal offense.

>WARNING! Severe leakage in crystal cooling system detected! System functions at 3.2% efficiency. Please contact TCE Equinoid Technical Support Station as soon as possible.

I didn't want to open my eyes and see that nightmarish city again, to witness my unnatural body once more. But just like the last time, my eyelids acted on their own. With lazy amazement I noted that they did not open by going up and down like it usually happened, instead they opened more like camera lenses. A pinpoint of light widening equally outwards with a quiet rustling sound, perceptible more by a vibration than anything else. And just like the last time, my vision became blurred, slowly coming into focus with soft metallic clicks inside my head, filled with formless thoughts that I wasn't able to concentrate on.

Just as earlier on, I regained my hearing before I was able to distinguish anything with my sight. I froze in horror after I realized that I could hear a quiet voice muttering something not far from me. It sounded like a muffled cursing accompanied by a rustling and a clicking sound of metal parts being shuffled together. Instinctively, I tried to jerk to my hooves, but absolutely nothing happened. I was paralyzed not only by fear, but also quite literally incapable of movement. I couldn't even move my head, which meant that my gaze was fixed on one single spot in space. So, in fear I waited until I could see at least anything.

The first thing I noticed with my half-focused sight was that it was much brighter out than the last time. The second thing was that somepony was moving right in front of me. Judging by the movement of the shape, I was lying on my side again, right on the floor. With every shutter my vision was returning to me and I began to realize that I was again in the shed where I woke up for the first time. Although it had a lamp glowing on the workbench now.

The picture before me finally came into focus and I was able to discern that the moving figure before me was actually a filly. Though it was much more illuminated than I remembered, I indeed was in the shack I had woken up in before. The filly was busy digging through the box with cut-off tubes of varying lengths and calibers, her tail swishing in the air as she almost dived into the container, mumbling incomprehensible curses.

Her coat was grayish-brown in color and extremely dirty. I even started to wonder if it was her natural color or just the culmination of smears of oil grease, grimy stains and smudges of ash. It was impossible to see her head, being buried in the box so deep, but judging by her tail she was a peculiar sight. Her tail was colored in a strange hue of bluish steel, subtly flowing in the light with darkened rainbow colors, as if her hairs were made from freshly welded iron. Maybe it was true, because parts of her tail and coat indeed looked singed. It was hard to say how old the filly was; while being of little size, she was already sporting a cutie mark, though because of the distance and constant wriggling of her rump, I couldn't tell what it was.

"Finally, this should do!" With a triumphant whoop the filly freed herself from the depths of the box and turned to me. "Oh, the reboot is finished. And I thought you were completely fried."

A reboot? Fried? What was she talking about? Thoughts were flowing in my head like tar, resisting my consciousness. I tried to voice my questions, but nothing happened. I was mute in addition to being paralysed. All I could do was wait in horror of what would happen next. Somehow I was in a full-blown panic while being calm at the same time, my mind partly out of my control. This time the situation didn't look like something I could solve.

As the filly hopped out from the box and walked towards me with a bundle of tubes in mouth, I was finally able to see her face. She was an earth pony, and indeed appeared quite young, now that I was able to have a good look at her. She had large, fire colored eyes with a purple gleam in them, her nose and the areas around the eyes were ink black. It was hard to say if it was soot or her natural coloration, because the rest of her face looked even dirtier than all of her body combined. Her mane looked just like her tail – strangely colored, slightly singed and, in addition, horribly tangled into a mess that looked like a wild animal’s nest. Despite her looking young, she already had noticeable scars across her face, and one of her ears had been reduced to naught but a few shreds. The most shocking feature of her body was her left front leg, or to be precise, its absence. Instead of natural pony fur, flesh and bone, there stood a metallic limb attached right into the stub. It didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. The mysterious filly crossed the space between us, approached my motionless body and began doing something with her hooves at my chest, humming a melody under her breath. From my position I wasn't able to see her, so all I could do was wait.

The orange flickering light from a lantern on the workbench didn't look like it was fire or lightning bugs, and yet, unlike electrical lights or enchanted gems. It was quite dim, but it was light nonetheless, bright enough for this strange filly. In the warm orange glow, the room looked even dirtier and rustier than before. However, from my immobile position on the ground, I couldn't see much. So, once again all I could do was wait for my fate to resolve itself.

Eventually, the little mechanic finished her quiet tinkering on my side and shuffled to my neck, turning my head in her direction so I could see her smudged face.

"Okay, I've fixed the crystal cooling system and now I'm gonna turn on your voice device. But if you try to scream your head off again I'll just wipe your crystals. I have some questions to ask," she said looking at me with a serious expression. With a motion of her hoof something loudly clicked in my throat and I felt an almost imperceptible hum in my mouth for a moment.

The filly didn't look menacing, so maybe this situation was solvable. Maybe. I calmed down a little, though not entirely, her words still sounding rather confusing.

"Shhh..crrr..hh-czz-t...fff," came out of my mouth as I tried to speak. The little mechanic frowned.

"Oh right, lemme just turn this down for a bit and to toggle that..." she began to mumble again and continued to do something with her hooves on the side of my throat. After a few seconds she proclaimed, "That should do it, try again."

"Kzztsshz...Wha... What is this place? W-who are you? What h-happened to me? Why can't I move!?" The stream of questions started to pour from me. I had noticed that my voice sounded strange – hollow and metallic, and that I all of a sudden was stuttering a bit and making strange noises which sounded like artifacts in voice recordings.

"Whoah, whoah! Not so fast, it was me who wanted to ask questions," the filly said, a little taken back. "Umm, you are in a, let's say... Uh... at my place. Name's Tin Flower, by the way. And, um... Your crystals and circuits got overheated when you ran outside, so I dragged you in and rebooted your system."

I looked at her blankly as she talked. What? Where was this place? And what was that about crystals again? Her answers didn't explain anything! I had only become even more confused! But Tin Flower completely ignored my expression and continued her rambling.

"I am actually surprised that you are even talking and acting with a consciousness." She tapped her chin with the metal hoof. "I expected all the crystals I used to be completely empty, but you seem to have a basic equinoid programming. Amazing!"

"I... I don't... understand," I muttered. "Why do you call me an equinoid? What does that mean? What do crystals have to do with anything?"

The grey filly looked at me in apparent confusion. "Huh, this is strange. You are supposed to know such things if you have the basic equinoid programming." Ignoring my inquiries, Flower continued, "Can you answer some of my questions, so I can understand what is happening to you?"

"I suppose so." It's didn't look like it was going to be easy to get the answers I wanted, and it didn't look like I was in a position to negotiate, either. "It's not like I can do anything else but answer your questions, since I can't even move."

"Oh... That. I'm just not sure about your intentions. I've heard a lot of stories about crazy equinoids..." The little filly looked at me with sudden concern in her eyes. "And you are already acting strange enough..."

I was taken aback by such an accusation. "W-what? I mean no harm to you, I swear! I just want to know what's happening."

"You and me both," she commented. We looked at each other for some time, Tin Flower looking at me with visible mistrust on her face and me looking back with what I supposed were pleading eyes. After a few moments her expression softened, she took a wrench a bit too big for her size from the workbench and moved to my torso.

"Alright," Flower said with a sigh, "I'm going to turn on your hydraulics pump, but no sudden movements, ok?"

A hydraulics pump? What is she talking about? I wanted to ask this mysterious filly so many questions. Instead I just tried to nod, only to be reminded that I still was paralyzed. "Alright," I echoed.

Mumbling something under her breath, she started working with her tool. For a few minutes, I silently waited, thoughts still beyond my grasp racing through my mind. The crystals? Why did she constantly talk about some crystals and why did I see those glowing messages about crystals? It felt like something important, but only for a moment. And... “hydraulic”? The term sounded familiar, but I couldn't recall where from...

From my position I was finally able to take a closer look at Tin Flower’s cutie mark. It appeared to be a simple flower with a stem, but the most remarkable thing about it was its color. Despite all the grime covering her body and face, it had a clear argent radiance unlike any other cutiemark I had seen before, as if the metal bloom was welded straight into the filly’s skin. Before I could ask how it was going and what had happened to my body, Flower stood up with a few new smears of oil marking her muzzle.

“Well, it should start pumping pressure in a jiffy, but honestly, I thought it was busted." Rubbing the oil all over her face in what she probably thought was a successful attempt to clear it off, the filly continued, "It is a miracle you managed to get out of my shed, I didn't even finish setting up half of your systems."

I was still confused by her words, but as she was talking, I felt a motion in my limbs, as if something inside them was inflated. Gingerly I tried to move my legs. With the sound of metal grinding on metal, my rear hooves moved to support my weight while I raised my upper torso with the front ones. Wobbling and shaking, I managed to sit upright. I didn't even fall once! That was huge progress, probably my crowning achievement thus far.

Cautiously, Tin Flower stepped back from my towering figure, holding the huge wrench in her mouth, following my every little movement with wary eyes.

"Thank you," I said and tried to smile. But my face didn't move. Yeah, talk about progress.

"No problem," Tin Flower answered, putting the wrench in her hoof, she sat a bit away from me. "Would you answer my questions now?"

I nodded, relishing in my ability to move again, even if it was slightly hindered. After a moment I added, "May I ask some questions later, too?"

"Sure.” She nodded. “But I go first. So, my first question will be..." The filly paused for a moment, thinking. "What exactly are you? I mean, when I was assembling you, you were supposed to be booted with an absolutely blank memory. The crystals looked empty, I swear." Uncertainly, she added, "But... You seem to act like a pony."

Assembling me? Booted? What was the deal with crystals again? Why wouldn't I act like a pony? But I promised to answer her questions first. So I gathered my disobeying thoughts and started to talk:

"I am Twilight Sparkle, Chief Scientist of the Royal Canterlot Research Centre.” Quietly I added, the meaning of my words strangely not entirely clear to me, "Also, the former pupil of Princess Celestia and... The former Bearer of the Element of Magic." I felt a great sadness after those words.

Tin Flower looked at me incredulously.

"The Royal Canterlot Research Centre? I've never heard of such a thing. Does that mean you are from the Inner Town?" Instantly, her face lit up with a mix of amazement and horror. "Are you from the Sky Palace?" But then the filly sagged and frowned as quickly as she had become excited. "But since when is the Crown interested in science? Only the TCE makes equinoids..." Flower raised her head, looking at me with wide eyes and asked, "are you some kind of an experimental equinoid from the Sky Palace after all?"

"Uhhh..." I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say. An equinoid? Me? I didn't even know what that meant. The Sky Palace? The city outside didn't look like anything I knew that could have a palace, even in the countries beyond Equestria, and we certainly weren't in any place inside Equestrian borders. I wanted to ask her about our location again, but Tin Flower continued to speak with herself, completely ignoring me.

"Nah, the Crown couldn’t care less about science or equinoids... Wait, did you say Princess... what-is-her-name-again? You know, we are more than five hundred years into the era of no Princesses, so your words are starting to sound even crazier than before. I've never even heard about some ‘Element of Magic’." She frowned in deep thought. "You were either crazy to begin with or overheated and totally fried your crystals and jumbled your noodle. Or both. I probably should wipe you."

I stared at Tin Flower in shock. What was she talking about? Five hundred years? No Princesses!?

"Wait!" I yelled in panic. "I...I'm t-telling the truth, I swear! Please, I don't know what is happening! Don't... Don't wipe me! I..." I pleaded in desperation as Flower's brows furrowed even further.

"Okay, you sound kind of genuine, so let's not rush things..." She was interrupted by the door of the shack suddenly opening right behind me with a loud creaking sound.

"What's all this yelling about, Flower?" Came a young mare's voice from somewhere at the door. Suddenly the newcomer started yelling. "Wait... Is that a tinpony!? Are you fucking crazy!? I told you not to do it!"

Tin Flower hurriedly left my vision and rushed to the door. I tried to follow her with my head, not moving from where I sat, turning my numb body as fast as I could. The newcomer was still standing at the door. With my head and body moving agonizingly slow, I couldn't see her from where I was. But judging by the voice, she was a filly too.

"Listen, Wire, I can explain, it's um... Ah," the little tinkerer tried to defend herself, "...wait... How did you hear me? Did I forget to turn on the jamming device again?"

"Of course I can hear your stupid head and your fucking bucket with gems! How are you going to explain this to the police!? Creating a custom equinoid is a crime, Flower! Don't you fucking understand? How many times do I have to tell you!?" the newcomer continued to shout. "If someone finds out, the police will come for an investigation and... and... and they will send out a squad or... Or even a whole raid over here! And you know what Orange Grime will do to us when the police arrive or he finds out by himself! You are setting us all up! Don't you care about your friends!?"

"Shut the fuck up, Wire, and let me explain!" Tin Flower yelled back at her friend angrily.

I was stunned by the fierce bickering and such strong language for two young fillies. Suddenly a siren wailed in the distance. The two fillies immediately stopped talking and froze on the spot.

"I fucking told you!" Whined the new filly. "But you didn't listen!"

"Shut up!" said Tin Flower in a hushed harsh tone before she dashed inside to turn the lantern off.

For a few minutes we all sat frozen in the darkness, waiting. A heavy breathing was the only sound disturbing the silence, until Flower began to talk again.

"Maybe if you don't want somepony to find out, then maybe you should just shut the fuck up? All the Edge can hear your screeches! The milk is spilled, anyway." Flower paused for a moment, thinking. "There is something strange about this equinoid, Red Wire. I can't just disassemble her now."

"You're stupid, risking so much. It's like you're the one with rocks in the head instead of that metal doll of yours," fumed the other pony, much more quietly this time. "If something bad happens, it's all your fucking fault, mark my words. Now, show me what’s so special about this tinhead that could make you care so much."

I was still frozen in my half-turned position when a few moments later Tin Flower entered my field of view, turning the lights on as she made her way. She was followed by the pony called Red Wire. The newcomer looked just as young as her friend, but taller and much skinnier, sporting a cutie mark too, which looked like a crystal with runes and magic swirling around it. Her coat was of a very light shade of blue, contrasting violently with a bright red mane and tail. Unlike our host, she looked much cleaner and her mane appeared to have been combed recently, the hairs cascading on her horn. While Red Wire didn't have any scars or burns on her body unlike Flower, one half of her face was covered with badly healed fine cuts surrounding something that looked like a camera on her eye, glowing with golden light. The other eye was healthy but not completely matching in color, gleaming bright yellow in the dim light of the shack.

While Tin Flower was tinkering with some pillar-like device in the corner of the room, Red Wire looked critically at me with both her eye and her "camera" - a concentrated spot of light moving inside it, mirroring the motions of her pupil.

"Umm… Hi?" I tried to welcome the unicorn filly. She raised one eyebrow, but besides that completely ignored my words.

"Just a tinhead made of scrap and shit," Red Wire commented. "Can't see anything outstanding. Except for your sheer stupidity of course." She turned to Tin Flower.

"It's not about what she looks like. She talks about weird things that seem to have some truth behind them," Flower said with a huff. "I've turned on the jamming device, so nopony outside should hear us. But that doesn't mean you get to begin screaming again, Wire."

The said filly briefly glared at Flower, then turned back to me.

"What kind of things has it talked about that are so important? What kind of things can a tinhead even talk about? And how do you even know that it is safe to keep around?" Wire was looking at me with obvious disgust and mistrust.

"She claims her name is Twilight Twinkle and that she is some sort of a scientist working for the Crown. Something about elements and magic." After a moment she added, "Oh, and she says she is a student of Princess... Sunletsia, right?" Flower nodded in my direction. "Doesn't make any sense, actually," She mumbled very quietly.

I wanted to correct her, but before I could say anything, Red Wire began to speak.

"Bullshit," came an immediate answer from the harsh unicorn. "You have gone completely nuts, Flower. How can you be so stupid as to believe that? It has just gone haywire, I can feel a magic contamination in its stones from here." Tin Flower scowled at that.

"Listen up, Wire, I believe her. I feel like she is telling the truth or at least that she thinks so, it's not the usual gibberish of fried up equinoids, and I've checked her systems – she is running smoothly," stated the grease-stained filly with a displeased tone, pinching the bridge of her nose with a hoof. "Let's listen to her story again, maybe it will make more sense this time." Flower turned to me. "Twilight... That’s your name right? Tell us about yourself. What do you remember? What was the last thing that happened to you?"

I tried to take a deep breath, only to be reminded of my surreal condition. The sooner I explained myself, the sooner I could expect to find some answers and, hopefully, help. After trying again to gather my thoughts I began to tell them my story.

"My n-name is Twilight Sparkle. I am a t-twen... twenty-four year old Equestrian unicorn mare working as Chief Scientist of the Royal Canterlot Research Centre." My memory felt full of holes. I realized that I couldn't remember quite a lot. I tried to recall my last memory and in a shocking rush it came to me. "The last thing I remember was working on a flying cybersuit for... the war effort. And something went terribly wrong. I can't remember anything else." I thought that I remembered a lot of things clearly at first glance, but they became fuzzy as soon as I tried to concentrate on them.

The two fillies looked at each other with utter confusion written all over their faces.

"Wait a minute, she can't be talking about The Great War, right?" Tin Flower asked Red Wire. "I don't know much about history, but wasn't it, like, an eternity ago, even before the Princesses’ Ages? Maybe it's some other war?"

"There was only one war in Equestria – The Great War, Flower," Wire answered, looking very serious all of a sudden. Then the young unicorn turned to me and asked, squinting with suspicion, "Are you sure, tinhead? Against who did you fight in that war?" She finished her question, looking at me with expectation.

I tried to furrow my brows, which, of course, unsurprisingly, didn't do that. Ignoring it I concentrated, trying to remember.

Memories rushed through my mind.

Crystals, black, unnatural crystals glowing with menacing, pulsing red light inside. Crimson, fresh blood on snow. Eerie purple and green lights dancing with pitch black oily shadows, blending together. More blood, on sky blue crystals. Feeling of failure. Soldiers retreating, their general grieving and furious. He vows, he promises to return for the love. To save her from him... from...

"Sombra..." I muttered a single word, still reliving the grim vague visions. I couldn't remember something, something very important. But that's for later. I raised my eyes and saw Red Wire looking at me with a strange expression.

"The Ebony Warlock," she said slowly. "Sombra." She repeated that name carefully, as if it was dangerous to even pronounce it, and continued looking at me intensely. "But... It happened half of a millennium ago, you can't possibly remember it."

"Wait, what? What do you mean ‘half of a millennium ago’?" Remembering Flower's words, I added, “‘The Age of the Princesses’?" Why did she talk about them as if they were over?

Red Wire ignored my questions and turned to her friend, still looking concerned and starkly different in her demeanor.

"Flower, isn't she supposed to know all this? I don't know as much as you about them tinponies, but aren't they not supposed to be able to talk and think without a TCE factory memory stone?" she asked, looking back at the little earth pony quizzically.

"That’s what I been trying to tell you, her gems were completely empty when I installed them, I wanted to program her myself, but after the booting she just started to talk and walk around!" Answered Flower, looking at me with a mix of concern and wonder.

Red Wire turned back to me, her eye showing the same grave expression.

"Twilight... It's been 517 years since The Great War ended. Do you know what happened to you? Was it The Warlock's curse?" she said with some strange melancholy. "There is a story in my family that one of my ancestors fought in The Great War and was cursed terribly by Sombra himself. And there are rumors around, that his magic is still lingering in some of the gemstones mined in the North."

I didn't really listen to her because my head was spinning. Five hundred and seventeen years. How? And why did I feel a painful emptiness inside? There were blurry faces in my memory. They were painful to look at, but I couldn’t stop myself, and every time I thought I'd almost recognized one of them, it slipped from my mind, only to be replaced by another one. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. How did I find myself here after five centuries? At least it explained why I didn't recognize Equestria’s landscape anymore, the lazy realization settled in my mind.

Both fillies were sitting in silence, probably not knowing what to say. It was hard to blame them; after all, ponies don't meet 500-year-old mares every day. But still, I had a lot of gaps in my mind and knowledge, so I decided to remind Tin Flower about her promise and ask her a few questions.

"Flower, may I ask you some questions?" I inquired, trying to remain calm.

"Huh...wha?" The grime-covered earth pony perked up in surprise. It looked like she had either dozed off or been lost in deep thought.

"I can talk too, you know... Twilight," Commented Red Wire. Nodding in the direction of her friend the red-maned unicorn added, "She may be good when it comes to mechanics, but I," she stuck her nose up in the air, "know more about the history of Equestria – it's our family tradition."

"That's only because your family is still alive to tell it to you," Flower snapped before very quietly mumbling, "and because you know how to read."

I patiently waited until the girls stopped bickering and continued, trying not to distract my still sluggish mind with what I'd just heard. I needed to know how I ended up here... And where "here" was.

"Ahem. So... Why is my body so strange? Is that the reason you’re calling me "equinoid" or "tinhead"? Where am I actually? What is that strange city I saw outside? Who is..."

My barrage of questions was rudely interrupted by Red Wire’s shriek aimed at her friend.

"What!? Did you really let her go outside? What if someone saw her!?" Wire hopped to her hooves from where she sat and pointed an accusing hoof at her earth pony friend. "Are you insane?" Red Wire entered into her hysterical mode once again.

"Shut up!" Tin Flower snapped back angrily. "Nopony saw her!" For my part I decided not to mention that somepony could have heard me as well, and apparently, Tin Flower wasn't eager to share that little detail either. Though, Red Wire didn't seem to be placated that easily.

"How could you know!?" The golden-eyed unicorn continued to rage while pacing in little circles. "For fuck’s sake, Flower, why can't you be a little less reckless and use your stupid head for once?!" Wire seemed only to get more and more agitated the more she ranted.

So, I was sitting in this tiny room, filled with ear-piercing shrieks echoing from the walls, listening as the two little fillies spewed obscenities at each other. It was rather tiring. At this pace, I was never going to have any of my questions answered.

"Um, girls, could you stop bickering, please?" I asked them. "I don't think it's going to help the situation." Red Wire seemed to calm down a little.

"Yeah, because if someone saw her, we are doomed anyway." Wire stopped pacing and sat on the floor, a bit away from Tin Flower and me. Turning to her friend she barked, "Shithead."

"...and I think you shouldn't use such a language, girls," I tried to preach to them, but my notion was completely ignored.

"Just fuck off already," replied Flower in a tired voice. It was obvious that she was losing patience, yet she tried to have the last word. "Nopony lives around here, anyway."

"Yeah, and what about Grime’s goons patrolling the territory, have you thought about that with that empty head of yours?" Red Wire began to wind up again, ready for a new bout of arguments and insults.

"Shut the fuck up!" Tin Flower finally exploded, jumping on her hooves. "You horned cun..." But I didn't let her finish.

"Girls!" I yelled as loud as I could, which turned out to be way too loud for my voice. It reverberated powerfully in my throat with screeching interference, forcing the two fighting friends to cover their ears with pained expressions plastered across their faces. Carefully this time, more quietly I said, "Stop it! You act like a couple of foals, did you forget that you two are friends?" Words started to flow out of my mind with a strange pleasant ease, as if I was playing a familiar song on an instrument after a long hiatus, yet I still remembered the notes, each one coming with more ease with the progression of the score... I could feel long gone memories resurfacing only to remain beyond my reach.

"Tin Flower admitted her mistake, you don't have to berate her for it over and over!” With that said, the filly smirked smugly in victory. I turned menacingly to her. "And you must stop using that foul language!" I turned to Red Wire again. "That applies to you too, young lady!"

For a while we all sat in silence, I was still fuming about the girls’ behavior, and they were probably carefully choosing what to say next. Suddenly, a thought popped into my mind.

"Why do you care so much about anypony seeing me?" I asked none of them in particular, hoping that they wouldn't explode in another fight.

"Because creating custom equinoids is illegal!" Red Wire instantly answered, raising an accusing hoof again. "And she knows it perfectly well." Oh, please, not again.

"Fuck off," snapped Tin Flower and covered her mouth after she realized what she had just said. But I barely noticed it because something wasn't making sense in my mind.

"Wait... I don't understand.... What do you mean "creating equinoids"?" I asked in confusion, my sluggish thoughts slowly comprehending the situation. In a moment, the implications of all I'd heard from them started to click together and I began to realize in shock. "How could you create... me?"

"Well, because I'm that good!" Exclaimed Tin Flower puffing her grease covered chest in pride, her eyes gleaming on her dirty face. "I've been gathering parts for months and made you from scratch all by myself!" I looked at her, my mouth opening to unleash a torrent of questions, but Red Wire just couldn't miss a chance to verbally jab her friend again.

"And thus you have violated the law, you stupid criminal," Red Wire grumbled. And then she frowned. "Wait a minute, Flower, where did you get the crystals for your equinoid? Tinheads’ stones never end up in the Edge, not in a working condition," She said, squinting at her companion.

Crystals again? But at least now I could learn something about them. I remained silent, not making any assumptions or conclusions about my situation until I could have a chance to ask Tin Flower directly about how she had created me, because I still didn't understand what that meant or how it was possible.

"Um... He-he, funny story, really, I was wandering in the Canterlot Outer City and..." The suddenly fidgety and uncertain filly began to tell.

Wait what? The city outside was Canterlot!? No, it couldn't be true, it was huge, and strange, and...

"You fucking what!?" Red Wire instantly exploded in fury. Cautiously, she looked at me. Already tired of attempting to fix their antics, I only rolled my eyes… or at least tried to. "You certainly want to end up in an isocube by any means, don'tcha? Why wouldn't you just join the Pink Butterflies and stop involving us in your stupid ideas!?" The golden-eyed unicorn fumed again while glancing warilyat me. Maybe I had some effect on them after all. Maybe.

"Calm down, I knew what I was doing. I wasn't even that deep into the city," snapped back Flower. "Where else was I supposed to get equinoid matrixes?" she excused herself.

"In the Tunnels. It will even spare us your funeral," the angry unicorn said. Tin Flower answered her with only a furious glare as she continued with her story. I'd definitely call that progress, I thought in the back of my mind.

"So, as I said, I was in the city." Red Wire huffed at that. Ignoring her, the little mechanic continued, "and just behind one of the buildings, near the garbage containers, I saw a box with something gleaming in it. Turns out it was a casket with large enchanted gems, just like the ones usually used for matrixes."

"You just stole it, didn't you?" deadpanned the still angry Wire. "And you probably don't even know how tin ponies' brains look like inside their tin skulls." The unicorn tried to pinprick her friend again.

"No, I don't... I mean, I didn’t steal it, honestly! And does it matter if I know or not how they look; they worked, that’s what matters!" Flower tried to defend herself, pointing at me.

"Let me see them. Those gems sound suspicious." Wire turned her head to me, giving me a long look through her squinted eye. "I can feel magic contamination in them just by standing near your tinhead. You know how weird that is?"

Tin Flower turned to the workbench and started to rummage through boxes. After a minute or so of muttering muffled curses, she returned with an ornate little casket in her hooves and put it on the floor in front of us. Just looking at that casket, I felt weird, which was an amazing feat, considering how I was already feeling. Something tugged inside me. I felt drawn to the contents of the box, as if I should be familiar with them. But no matter how hard I tried to remember why, I just couldn't.

"Hmm, looks fancy, I'm pretty sure you did steal it, though; nopony is going to throw that away," said Red Wire without any malice, but with the clear intent of taunting her friend.

"No, I did not! I'm telling you! Have I ever lied?" retorted the accused filly.

"Meh, who cares actually, you are already on your way to a life sentence," shrugged the unicorn. "Now, lemme take a look at them crystals."

With a soft golden glow of magic, Wire opened the box, took out one of the gems and brought it close to her artificial eye, its lenses shifting with jarring clicks while she was humming something quietly. Crystals, once again...

"Custom cut stuff, haven't ever seen anything like this," Wire stated, lenses on her mechanical eye shifting while she spun the gem in her magic.

"Like you have seen a lot in this shithole of a place," huffed Tin Flower. Me and Red Wire glared together at her. But the unicorn instantly returned to studying the gem, too fascinated with the finely cut stone in her telekinetic hold to come up with some witty riposte.

"It’s enchanted with very simple stuff, old and outdated techniques. Nopony enchants like this nowadays." Wire twirled the gem in her magic. "Hmm... It's a recording spell from what I can tell, but for whatever reason it has so much energy put in it that it’s brimming with magical residue and still holds a charge. Amazing. No wonder my horn can’t stop itching. Now, let's try to activate it and listen to the recording."

Red Wire put the gem away from her face, thought for a moment, bit her outstretched tongue, and activated the enchantment with an intensifying glow of magic. Her eyes widened in surprise as the enchanted crystal suddenly discharged a bright flash of purple magic and an ethereal translucent purple tendril swiftly reached to my eyes, filling my vision with purple glow and pain.

Log entry number 52-47/5 from April 5, 8th year of the 5th Era. By Twilight Sparkle...

A tired unicorn, looking at me through a window... No, a mirror...

...Chief Scientist of the Royal Canterlot Research Centre. Today I'm going to supervise a...

I'm slowly walking through the empty halls of my home... No, it's my prison... No... My forge...

...test of automated combat body armor, the first ever in Equestrian history...

I am making armor... A weapon for a war... For The War... We are losing... Our last hope...

...Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Special Air Forces, will serve as the test pilot. Now, I'm going to do a double check of...

Wait, I know that mare... The most loyal friend... My friend...

...the armor suit and the testing program.

I remember now... Up in the sky... No... Why is she falling... No! Rainbow Dash!

With a thunderous clap of magic, the purple glow dissipated in a wave of physical force, knocking back the fillies as well as most of the things in the room. But I was still in mid-leap, trying to catch her falling body, clad in steel with an exposed net of intertwined tubes and wires connecting enchanted crystals. Crystals... It all made sense now. With a loud thud I hit the floor and curled up in agony.

Soon the cacophony of shattering glass, dozens of fallen tools and artificial pony limbs winded down. The only sounds left in the room were my sobbing and the echoing last words of the recording: "...the armor suit and the testing program".

I couldn't cry, but I wanted to. In the magic explosion I saw all that happened that day. I remembered everything - my mind was cleared of that strange fog of indifference and the thick tar of forgetfulness which had permeated my consciousness, obscuring my memories and thoughts ever since I'd first awoken in this nightmare. In a moment, even before my new artificial body touched the dirty, rust-covered floor, everything my mind had tried to deny for all this time clicked into place. The horrible nature of my artificial body. The devastating distance of time, separating me from my Equestria, from my reality. The implications of my existence.

It wasn’t my new body. There never was an old body which belonged to me. Because I wasn’t Twilight. I was just a magical imprint, a residue of her magic left by her voice in the hoof-ful of enchanted gems.

I was not Twilight Sparkle.

I was just her echo.

Could I even be considered a living being now? Had I become a walking shell, filled with the ghost of a pony gone long ago? Could Twilight herself still be alive? Or any of my... her friends? Or Spike? What was my place in this strange world of the distant future?

I was lying on the same spot where my body landed in a heap of metal and plastic, trying to comprehend the horrible reality, my mind filled with questions I had no answers for. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know them. In the corner of my eye I saw Tin Flower helping Red Wire, slightly stunned by the whole incident, rise to her hooves. They both were looking at me with a mix of awe and fear, unable to tear their gaze from my shaking form, the young ones’ eyes gleaming with wonder in the darkness of the room. Eventually, after a quick search, Tin Flower pulled out a lamp from one of the clutter heaps now littering the floor after the violent explosion. She flicked it on and after a few blinks the dim amber light flooded the room once again. All the time Red Wire was sitting there, looking at me with wide eyes, her expression unreadable. Glancing at her friend, slowly and cautiously the little mechanic approached me.

"Twilight?" She poked me with her prosthetic hoof. I didn't feel that but saw it and heard a clang of metal on metal. Seeing no reaction, Tin Flower poked me again. "Twilight!"

"Don't… P-please don’t call me that," I answered turning my head away. "I'm n-not her."

"Why?" she inquired, tilting her head to the side. "You even sound just like her from the recording."

"G-go away. Just l-leave m-me alone." I turned my back to her, sobbing.

The little mechanic circled me to look me in the face, with Red Wire joining her. They looked at each other and the unicorn filly started to talk in a serious tone.

"Whoever you think you are doesn't really matter right now. The fact is that you are not a tin pony, strictly speaking. You are closer to a successful True Transference than any other pony ever was. But you still have an equinoid body." I took a glance at it, rusted metal plates now dented from my recent fall. "A custom made equinoid body." With those last words she looked accusingly at her friend. "Making custom equinoids is prohibited by the law of the Crown. You can't stay here, not like this." I raised my head and looked at her with fear – the last thing I needed now is to be thrown out into this no longer familiar world. Even if Wire noticed my terrified expression, she didn't show it, and after a brief pause she continued, "My sister once mentioned a stallion in the Outer City who makes fake serial numbers and identities for equinoids and ponies alike. I think he owes her one from a long time ago. He can help you."

With that she turned away and stepped over to the window, attentively looking in the distance.

"That’s unexpectedly kind of you, Wire," commented Tin Flower, who followed her friend with a slightly amazed gaze. "Just like the old times," she whispered under her breath.

"Don't get used to it," grumbled the golden-eyed unicorn from where she sat, breeze playing with the strands of her crimson mane. "I hope your jamming thing hid that explosion, Flower. Otherwise we’re going to have guests, and soon. I'll watch out and see if anypony's coming."

"I'm sure it did," the earth pony filly answered while glancing at the machine in the corner of the room, the device blinking with a single tiny green light. "Never hurts to check, though." With that she ran to the device, opened a latch on its side and almost shoved her muzzle inside, peeking into the inner workings with one eye.

"It’s running smoothly," Tin Flower said with satisfaction and closed the latch. As she left the machine, her expression hardened.

"But Wire is right." Flower looked at me. The mentioned unicorn made an incomprehensible sound. Ignoring that, the little mechanic added, "Making equinoids is a crime and a serious one. Sooner or later somepony is bound to find out."

"Finally! You've figured it out!" Red Wire couldn't refrain herself from commenting. Not disturbed by that jab, the little earth pony continued talking.

"We need to do something. But fake documents won't resolve all of the problems, though. I'm still not sure what or who you are," Tin Flower finished, looking me in the eyes.

"Neither am I," I answered her with sadness, my thoughts returning to the fact that she "created" me.

For a while, Flower sat still, her brow furrowed deep in thought. Her unicorn friend was still looking out the window, searching for something, lenses shifting in her mechanical eye. My mind was blank, the initial shock of what happened abated, creating a painful emotion of emptiness inside me. After a long silence a thought occurred to me about Red Wire’s words.

"What did you mean when you said I'm ‘closer to a True Transference than any other pony ever was’? What is Transference?" I said, trying to imagine what it could be. "Has anypony done what you did before – used crystals and magic to create... something like me?"

Before Tin Flower could even open her mouth, Red Wire turned from the window while answering my question.

"Many tried, and some still do," she told me before Tin Flower chimed in.

"But nopony was ever able to do a True Transference. It is thought to be impossible to transfer a pony mind into a cybernetic body without them losing nearly all their memories and emotions," She finished for her friend, still appearing to be deep in thought.

"Why?" was all I could ask, still confused about the whole concept of transferring ponies to other bodies.

"The Transference Paradox," Red Wire answered again. Tin Flower absentmindedly nodded. "Nopony knows why it happens. But it seems it's worked for you... Twilight."

Tin Flower seemed to finally come to a conclusion -she turned to me and asked, tilting her head to the side, "Why do you refuse to call yourself Twilight?"

"Because I'm not her," came my bitter answer. I looked at my hooves. I didn't want to think or talk about it, but it was inevitable. I couldn't run from myself, so I continued, "I'm just like a r-recording, nothing like an original."

"But you do have her memories and emotions, don't you?" Tin Flower asked.

"And what does that change?" I retorted.

"I don't know how it was back in your time," Red Wire stepped from the window and walked closer to me until she was looking me right in the eyes. I shuddered at the reminder of how long had passed since my time. "But nowadays memories are something very important to everypony," she continued, picking up the recording gem from the floor, lenses of her glowing eye shifting. "These days memories can be fabricated, transplanted or... stolen. The Transference Paradox makes ponies lose their memories and with them they lose themselves."

Wire put the gem back into the casket and again looked me straight in the eyes, her melancholic expression contrasting with the impression of a hysterical and harsh filly she gave initially. She suddenly looked too mature for her age.

"Memories define who we are. If you have the memories of a pony named Twilight Sparkle, you are Twilight Sparkle, like it or not," she finished, her face unreadable as she let her words sink in.

If I could have furrowed my brow, I would have. It was a completely novel and strange concept to me, but Red Wire was making sense.

"But I d-don't remember anything beyond the testing of the armor suit," I said after some thought. "I'm not "whole" Twilight, only a fragment of her memories."

"And what if we helped you restore the rest of your memory somehow?" Tin Flower joined our conversation, picking up the small chest with my recording crystals and opening its lid. "There are more of those gems in this box; maybe they will help to restore all of your memories," she said hopefully, extending hooves with the ornate box in my direction. I shook my head.

"I recognize them, these are all the old ones, way before the accident, they barely hold anything significant in them, besides science reports," I commented sadly, looking at the familiar, finely cut gemstones.

"The accident?" Inquired Tin Flower, looking at me questioningly and putting the casket on the floor beside her.

"My friend and I were testing an experimental combat armor, when something went wrong. I don't know what, but there was an explosion... I don't even know if Rainbow Dash survived..." A sudden realization struck me. "Or even if I survived...”

For a few minutes we all sat in silence, the girls deep in thought and me trying to wrap my mind around the new complications of my already way too tangled situation. Tin Flower was first to speak up.

"You said that you were a scientist, right? Doesn't that mean that you were an important pony?" She said with a hopeful look.

"Well, you could say so," I replied in confusion. Sadly I added, " I was the Bearer of the Element of Magic, one of The Elements of Harmony. It was a very important role. Why do you ask?"

"Uh, I don't know what do you mean by the last part," began Tin Flower as she glanced at her unicorn friend.

"Never heard of them, either," shrugged Red Wire.

"But if you were indeed an important pony, then there has to be some records about you, and we can find out what happened to you after that accident," the little mechanic finished with a smile. Red Wire nodded in approval of that idea.

It was better than nothing. I still wasn't entirely convinced I had the right to call myself Twilight, but I needed to know that happened during and after that accident.

"Where can we find such information?" I asked the fillies, unsteadily rising to my hooves. All my senses were still jumbled, but moving my strange body around was becoming easier.

"Uhh... Some kind of an archive?" Suggested Tin Flower, tapping her chin. "There has gotta be one somewhere in the city, methinks, but I don't know where." She glanced at her friend.

"Don't look at me. I've never been to the city," said Red Wire, rolling her eye. "I'm not as foolish as some ponies".

"Yeah, but we will have to go to the city anyway, if we want to get fake IDs for Twilight," continued Flower, ignoring the last remark.

"I already regret mentioning this to you," the little unicorn whined. "Ugh, what am I getting myself into again?"

"Come on, Wire, where does that stallion you mentioned live?" asked Tin Flower, nudging her friend’s shoulder with the metal limb.

"On the streets, duh, just like most of the Outer City," the grumpy filly answered, rolling her eye again.

"Stop being a smartass, Wire." Flower rolled her eyes back at the unicorn and pressed on. "Where can we find him?"

"Sis said once that he is somewhere at the South-East Thunderspire, in the Outer City," Red Wire finally answered. But before Tin Flower could say anything she continued, "I have a better question: how are we going to get Twilight"–she nodded in my direction–"out of the Edge? We can't go through the checkpoint, obviously. And Orange Grime's goons guard all the Tunnels' entrances. If they notice us, we are done."

Tin Flower scrunched her face, deep in thought.

"Yeah, it's a problem." After a pause she added, "I know one unguarded tunnel entrance, which I've used. But it's too small for an equinoid to get through... If we have no way to leave this sector together, our only chance is to go through Nebula's sector and try to get to the city from there."

"Seems like we don't have much of a choice," agreed Wire with a scowl. "At least her jerks are too high on the stripes' stuff to care what happens on their turf." She too scrunched her face, thinking hard. "But we will have to go near the Toxic Dump if we want to avoid Grime's assholes.”

Tin Flower looked at the side of her metal hoof and her face darkened.

"Crap, we've been at this all night. The dawn is near, it means that wind is going to start blowing from the Dump," she said in an unexcited voice and then explained, "If we don't want our faces to melt down to skulls we are gonna need some protective equipment." Looking at Red Wire she asked, "Any ideas?"

After a pause she replied, "I may still have a couple of environmental suits at home, left over from when my father worked at the Dump, but I'm not sure. It means we will have to swing by my place," Wire finished, looking concerned.

"Are you sure about that, Wire?" Tin Flower asked while looking as concerned as the unicorn. "What if your folks see us?"

“My sister works on the dayshift and my mom will probably still be sleeping," she replied, looking out the window with sigh. "I will just grab them suits and be out in no time, you don't have to come in."

"Well, then it's settled!" While Red Wire was dusting herself off, Tin Flower hopped on her hooves and started to quickly rummage through the heaps of clutter lying on the floor, and after a few moments she pulled out something resembling saddlebags and begun stuffing them with various tools and other things. She also didn’t forget to put the casket with gems in them. As Flower continued to gather stuff up, she asked over her shoulder, "Are you ready, Twilight?"

How could I be? Outside the door lay a world completely new to me, filled with confusing things and ponies, while I myself was the most confused of them all. Canterlot sounded dangerous and unwelcoming – I was genuinely scared. But I needed answers. I needed to know what happened to me. I was here, and I was... alive. I couldn't spend rest of my days hiding in this rusty shed; I had to go out and learn about this strange new Equestria, and fortunately, those two little fillies knew where I should begin. So gathering all my resolve, I replied in a determined yet shaking voice.

"Let's go."

Author's Notes:

It is quite challenging to write a story in a not-native language, and despite titanic efforts of the editing team a few mistakes could have sneaked in. If you see any of them, please, let me know – I'll fix them in a timely manner. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed reading this story so far.

A little addition (03.06.2019):
As you can notice, the quality of the prologue (and the first 3-4 chapters) is not that high. I promise that in later chapters it is not the issue and soon I'll return to those chapters and give them another look.

And the last:
I invite you to join Aftersound Project discord server where you can chat with Geka and I, discuss the story, get to see announcements, little snippets of the future chapters and new illustrations.
https://discord.gg/R5Ky8K4