When Twilight awoke, she found herself face to face with a creature she didn't recognize.

"What did those two do to me? Who are you? What happened to my friends!?" She asked as she jumped backwards in surprise.

"All can be answered in due time. As to who we are, we have already met. It is only our form that has changed."

"Okay, so you're also a shapeshifter. Got it. So what exactly are you supposed to be now?" Twilight didn't recognize what species the presence before her was supposed to be emulating, but from what she could tell, it was definitely a mammal. Probably some sort of mostly-hairless, tailless, monkey if she had to guess.

"This is our original form, based on that of a human. We thought it would be easiest for one’s comprehension if we assumed a more direct representation of ourselves." It said, gracefully gesturing towards itself. Twilight could only think of the from before her as male, though she wasn't entirely sure as to why. His entire body was almost completely covered with clothing. Nothing that Twilight considered fancy, just a few separate pieces of simply tailored cloth, most of which she couldn't identify. She did recognize that the glasses it wore were fairly utilitarian, and seemed to match what looked like a white lab coat with large front pockets.

"That still doesn't explain what happened to the others, or what you did to me."

"The only thing we did was run a quick scan on One’s make-up. Had we realized the connection was so fragile, we would not have been so forceful in our query. We had to suspend One’s process temporarily in order to reestablish the connection. As for the other Entities, one was informed of their deletion before we started our scan, Entity:[Twilight Sparkle].

Twilight wasn't sure what to make of that last part. "What? I don't understand half of what you are saying. What does 'deletion' even mean?"

"Not to worry, it means that the other Entities in the quarantine zone have been destroyed. Although, we were quite surprised to find more than just the Entity:[Starswirl] contained there. It's recovery of other entity data before its deletion was quite remarkable! The analysis of the data streams recovered from those Entities will surely prove to be quite entertaining."

"What is it that you keep saying after Entity? It seems that whatever you are saying doesn't match with what I think you said."

"An astute observation! We are, of course, only stating the unique identifier associated with the Entity Stream in question. We only allowed the system to alter one’s perception of it, and certain other terms, to allow one to better understand some of the more technical aspects of our coversation."

So many things were still being left unanswered, but seeing how helpful her host was being, Twilight could only guess at what his motivations would be. "So my perception is altered based on my understanding of the topic. That should make things easier, I guess. So what am I supposed to call you anyway?"

"We are designated as Sentinel. It is our job to monitor and record all aspects of the System and its programs. Namely, that of the Sandbox Simulation."

"Well Mr. Sentinel, since you seem to know everything about everything, do you mind telling me why I shouldn't worry about my friends being deleted or whatever? You said that they were gone!"

"Its standard procedure for the quarantine zone to file a copy of any potentially harmful data for further analysis by the System."

"And what the hay is that supposed to mean!" Twilight said, starting to get annoyed at the constant half-explanations.

"It means that, though their current forms are gone, the data collected from them can still be used. In fact, we've already seeded those Entity Id's into the new world initialization process."

Twilight sat down for a few moments trying to comprehend what she was hearing. Creating new worlds? Copying ponies? She may have been helpless in saving those stuck in the void after all, but she still had a job to do, even if it meant ignoring the loss of her new friends for a time. "Okay, I'm still not sure I understand all of that, but there is still one thing that I came here to do. I sacrificed far more than I'd like to admit to get here, in an attempt to keep my world from being destroyed, and you are going to tell me how I'm supposed do that!"