//------------------------------//
// Truth 
// Story: The Artificer 
// by Rennoc215 
//------------------------------//

	With a soft click, Cog Nition awoke. He looked up, realizing he was laying down, and sighed. To his amusement, the sigh almost sounded like him, before it was followed by a hiss of steam. Closing his eyes, he laid back, content. I've done it, He thought, pleasantly. I'm one step closer to being free from this horrendous form.
That's when he heard pop, rapidly followed by a fizzle, and a snap of purple light illuminated the room. Instinctively, his defense went off, and he was on his hooves, ready to face the intruder. He came face to face with Twilight, and sighed. He was about to say something, when she went on the offensive. "Who are you?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
Cog cleared his throat, a grinding sound, and tried to say "I am," but instead, out came a short static burst. He coughed, and a tinge of oil dripped from the vent on the front of his face. That's when he remembered: He had gone under for the full respiratory upgrade. The one with the communication kink, his head helpfully reminded him.
He held up a hoof, telling her to wait, and then he reached up under his brass jaw, and found the adjuster dial, and began twisting it. Slowly, the static buzz diminished, before slowly become sounding more like a machine's monotone, mumbling "Teasting, tehehesting, testing." Once the words became understandable, Cog stopped fiddling with the knob, and turned to face Twilight once more.
"Thank you for waiting," He said, nodding. "Though I feel like re-introductions aren't in order. You know me, Twilight Sparkle. I am Cog Nition, Artificer exemplar." He tilted his head, and crooked an eyebrow. "Why?"
Twilight's eyes narrowed, and Cog took a step back. "If you're Cog, then what's with the goop outside?"
Cog smirked, but all that did was pull the flesh near his respirator taught. "It's a complex psychoanalitical chemical capable of detecting an excess of emotion, and draws the chemicals extruded by those emotions into itself, reacting to that biological chemical and causing it to undergo a chemical change. For example, terror causes it to sieze up, locking prey animals tight, while ecstasy allows it to become mellow and smooth."
"And it is produced by changelings," Twilight interjected, hostility practically flowing from her mouth. "So why is it in this 'Workshop' of yours?"
"Simple," Cog said, trying to smile through his face vent. "This used to be a changeling's warren, before they were chased away. I had happened upon it during my travels, and it turns out that they left in a hurry. I moved this space in, so that I wouldn't be disturbed while I was undergoing surgery."
Twilight smirked, a predatory grin crossing her face. "And the lungs?" She asked, straining the last word for an uncomfortable period of time.
Cog gulped, or at least tried to, only receiving a puff of smoke from the stacks behind him. "T-they're green due to the chemicals preserving them. I may not need them, but if something goes wrong with my setup here, it's always good to have the originals to use as backups."
Twilight nodded, not believing a word he said. "Then, you wouldn't mind me casting a De-Spell on you, would you? Seeing as your devices are techno-arcane, they'd have to stop for a few seconds, but we both know you're smart enough to put in a backup system to turn everything  back on, aren't you?"
Another puff of uncertain smoke left his back, and he glanced around nervously. "Perhaps we shouldn't. I wouldn't want to risk damaging the few precious devices I still need." Quickly turning to a scrap pile beside him, he rummaged about before pulling out a small cube that hummmed quietly. "Like this."
Twilight, amused by his desperate attempts to waylay her, decided to play along. "Alright, what is 'this' then?"
"A memory cube," he stated, holding it up triumphantly. He quickly lowered it and coughed, a quick burst of static, before continuing. "It's a working title, believe me. Still, this device allows you to play back you memories at the touch of a button, so that you can not only re-live your life, but you can see into others' as well."
Now this was curious, but Twilight wanted more. "Oh, then go ahead and play me something."
Eyes widening, he quickly scrambled the device, spinning dials and pushing buttons, before clearing his throat, setting it down, and putting a hoof over a small opening on the top. "Record," he stated clearly, before wincing slightly, and lifting his hoof from it, a small needle quickly retracting into the opening.
The box whizzed, beeped, and buzzed, before letting out a satisfying ding, like the bell at a front desk, and in a soft, mechanical chirp, asked "Where do you want to go?"
Cog chuckled sheepishly, before saying "One minute ago."
The side of the box popped open, and he set it up on the table, so that the open side faced a wall, and then pulled a lever that exposed itself. With a soft click and a whirr, a beam of light shot from the open side, and quickly the wall was bathed in dim light. It took Twilight a moment, but she realized that the image projected was one of herself, facing the camera. "... what's with the goop outside?" The box chirruped in an imitation of her voice. The image shook a little, before a voice sounding like Cog's responded. 
Twilight turned away from the box, to a proud looking Cog, and smiled. "Now that's impressive. Why isn't this on the shelves?"
With that Cog barked out a quick laugh. "Could you imagine all the nefarious uses for this? Extortion, Blackmail, Stealing secret codes and finding out secret caches. The device allows you to see everything somepony has ever done, said, or been. No, the risk is too great. Maybe for law enforcement, but corruption would have it on the streets in an instant."
"Everything, huh," Twilight asked. The recording ended, and Twilight smirked as the box chirped its' question again. "Take us to when Cog was 4."
Cog gasped, but there was nothing he could do unless he turned the box off, and that would be incrimidating in it's own way. Let's just hope it catches me at a good time, he prayed. After humming for a moment, it flicked on again, and it showed him running down an alleyway between two gray-brown buildings. He glanced back, beyond the parcel on his back, at a similarly aged colt and three fully grown adults, one of which looked like a grocer.
"Ye darn varmints, give back what ye stole!" the grocer shouted, and the colt behind cog stuck his tongue out at the pony giving chase.
Cog looked back forward, before focusing on a point where there was a high walkway. High enough for the two colts to slip under, but not enough for the grocer. "This way," he called out, before darting underneath the ramp. The other colt followed, and the grocer grumbled as he began to run around the building, to catch them on the other side.
Which is where they'd be, if Cog hadn't doubled back under the ramp and led the colt in a completely new direction. Calmly, quietly, they darted into the alcove of a building, before cog pulled the back from his back and opened it up, revealing a loaf of bread and two apples. Quietly, he broke the bread in half, before handing it and an apple to his companion, whom Twilight got  a good look at for the first time.
He was a light lemon yellow color, like the filling in a lemon meringue pie, his mane a whispy silver color, unkempt and disheveled, but managing to keep a rogue-ish look about himself. His eyes were a deep, dark ocean blue, and a small horn parted his hair. "Nice haul, dude," the foal said, taking the gift and digging into the meal. Cog watched quietly, not eating. "Not hungry, bro?" the colt asked, crumbs falling from his mouth.
"Not right now," Cog replied, waving a hoof. "Too excited to eat."
"I feel ya, but if you don't eat now, you'll be even more hungry. And then we'll have to do this again tonight."
"Fair enough," Cog replied, smiling and taking a meager bite of his bread.
"Who is that?" Twilight asked, motioning to the companion in Cog's memory, turning to the one beside her.
She looked away at just the right moment, for while her back was turned, a distinctly changeling-green hue overtook the screen, and stayed that way for a few moments. Cog grimaced, though the respirator concealed it well.
"Who, him?" he asked, waving a hoof. "Just a foal I used to hang out with. He and I looked out for each other on the streets."
"You were an orphan?" Twilight asked, turning back to the screen as the tinge fell away. She watched the foal on screen voraciously devour the meager meal, while Cog had barely touched his, having only nibbled on the bread.
"Dude, if you don't eat it now, we might get caught with it," The foal stated, tossing the rest of his hunk of bread into his mouth.
"I'm just not that hungry," Cog said, looking down. "Here," He said, holding out the apple. "Help me finish this, quickly."
The colt was taken aback. "Whoah, dude, that's an apple. That's not just anything you just hand off."
Cog only nodded, putting the rest of the bread in his own mouth. "Sure is. But it's my birthday, and this years' wish is that you eat well."
The colt took the apple and smiled. "You're the best, bro," he said, happily munching away at the apple.
Cog flipped the lever, and smirked as Twilight turned back to him. "Satisfied?" he asked, putting the box away.
"No," Twilight muttered quietly, shaking her head. Raising it, she looked him in the eyes. "But everything seems to fit into place. You are who you seem to be... For now," she added quickly, eyes narrowing.
"Alright, alright, I'll keep my head down," Cog joked, reassuringly.