"Twilight, don't you remember?" Timothy pleaded, "You're Twilight Sparkle, you live in Equestria. I'm Spike, remember?"
Lisa shook her head. "I remember the name Twilight from somewhere, but as far as I know, that was from an old project." She narrowed her eyes. "I am correct in saying that, right? You look like my little brother, but you're definitely not the age I remembered him to be."
Samantha sighed, holding out a bloody sliver of metal to her friend. "Here," she said, placing the chip in Lisa's palm. "Lisa, this is Twilight."
Lisa glanced down at her hand, picking up the chip in her fingers. "Wait..." she sputtered, staring at the tiny device, "This... Twilight..." She looked back up at Samantha. "My project." Lisa stated, "This was my project. Since when was it finished?"
"Lisa, it's been over a decade now."
The girl frowned, lifting the chip in the light as her eyes caught sight of the blood-- her blood, still fresh on its metallic surface. She set the chip down, staring into Samantha's eyes.
"What does she remember?"
"Who?"
"Twilight." Lisa deadpanned, motioning at the chip in her grasp. "I'm assuming that this thing's been inside of me all this time?"
Samantha nodded.
"And you know that these things also hold the memories of the AIs we made, right?"
More nodding.
"Well," Lisa continued, "I have a feeling that Twilight might've taken a good chunk of my own memories with her."
"But why would she do that?!" Timothy exclaimed, "She's a good pony! Why'd she be stealing your memories?"
"Studying."
"But--"
"Tim." Lisa began, "You weren't even in the simulations, last I remember. I wanted to enter alone, so why do you keep calling me Twilight?"
"But I was in the simulations with you, remember?" Timothy argued, "I was Spike, Twilight's assistant!"
Lisa shook her head. "Don't remember."
"But I--"
"Okay, geez. Enough yapping already, alright?" Samantha cut in, shushing the siblings. She turned to Lisa. "How about we clear up this fiasco with a trip to our old office?"
The room fell silent as the idea ran through Lisa's mind. A brief moment later, the girl nodded. "Yes," Lisa agreed, "I'd certainly prefer that over arguing."
Samantha turned to the door. "Good. I've got something to show you."
"Wait," Lisa began, standing from her bed, "are we walking there?"
"Lisa. Just assume that you know nothing, okay?"
Lisa fell silent, tightly grasping the chip in her hands as Samantha opened the door.
"By the way," Samantha continued, turning back to her friend, "you might want to carry that thing in something a bit safer. I've got a case for it if you'd like."
"Wait, since when did you have a car?!"
Samantha glared at her friend. "Know. Nothing." She deadpanned, unlocking the door. "And besides, how do you think I even got here? Get in."
Lisa and Timothy piled into the backseats, while Samantha sat at the wheel, plopping her handbag down on the passenger's side seat. She shut the driver's side door with a heavy clunk, and pressed the power button. The two siblings simultaneously watched in awe as the vehicle seemingly came to life around them.
"Yeah, yeah. Stare all you want." Samantha deadpanned, pulling out of the driveway. "If you were thinking that the insides of cars still look like the old clunker Argall drives, then you're sorely mistaken."
The trip to the office was largely silent, save for the near-inaudible hum of the engine.
"We're here."
Lisa turned from her usual spot at the window, staring at the looming building before them. Her fingers tightened around the white carrying case that Samantha had given her.
The doors unlocked as Samantha put the vehicle in park. "Your old home away from home." She sighed. "You used to spend more time at this place then you did at your own house."
Keys jingled in her hand as she walked to the door. Samantha turned for a moment, watching over her shoulder as Lisa and Timothy exited the car.
"It looks so... abandoned." Lisa frowned, staring at the thick layer of dust masking the windows. "Did something happen while I was in the simulation?"
Click.
A blast of musty air hit the trio as Samantha pulled the door open. "Just as I remembered it," she smirked, strolling further into the building.
With a faint buzz at the girl's movement, the overhead lights flickered to life, flooding the corridors with a blazing light. Lisa and Timothy followed close behind. Samantha stopped at a door to the left of the short hall.
Lisa's eyes widened as her friend pushed the door open. "This..." she mumbled, entering behind Samantha, "This is my office..."
"Was our office." Samantha corrected, "When you hooked yourself up to our project, I deployed my AI instead of connecting myself. I went on to help grow our project into what it is today..." she paused for a moment, fussing at something in her pocket. "...with the help of Argall."
She procured a small case of her own from her pocket, setting it and her handbag down on a desk. "Anyways," she continued, "eventually, we released the framework for the simulation under license, and formed a company to manage the whole thing."
"But..." Lisa hesitated, glancing at the dust-encrusted monitors lining the desks. "But what about you? What happened to this place?"
Samantha shook her head. "I retired as lead developer," she began, "I handed that role to the company's licensees. After that, we closed down the office, and sent all the files to the new headquarters." Samantha turned away, gesturing to the computers. "Though, Argall wanted to keep this place as-is for your return, evidently." Her eyes caught sight of Timothy slouching on the office chairs, spinning.
"Hey Tim," Samantha called, "if you'd like, you can go to the room across from this one. There's some toys and stuff if you're bored."
She watched as Timothy rushed from the room, slamming the door behind him. Sighing, she turned back to Lisa. "Anyways, I got a nice sum of cash as part of our first deal. I can certainly say that my parents are quite comfortably retired now, y'know?"
Lisa snorted. "What, so you sold out to some big-name corporation or something?"
"What-- of course not!" Samantha exclaimed in return, "I just told you that we formed the company to run the simulations!"
"Who's this we?" Lisa frowned, folding her arms. "I never agreed on that."
"Me and Argall."
Lisa rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever." she spat, "Either way, it was my project in the first place, and you took it from me."
Samantha slammed a hand down on the desk. "Well, you know what, I've just about had it with you, Lisa. The you from before this whole fiasco would be ashamed to see what they've become." She turned away in a huff. "Twilight did something to you, Lisa. I don't know what it is, but she's changed something in you."
"Does it even matter?"
Samantha spun around again, seething through her teeth. "What happened to not arguing?"
Lisa shrugged, a sly smirk spreading across her face. "I lied."
"Wha--"
"Give me the login for the computer, Samantha." Lisa demanded, setting down the carrying case by the keyboard and holding out her hand, "Let me see what's in m...Twilight's memories."
Her friend sighed, running a hand down her face as she pulled up a chair. "Fine." Samantha began, "If that's what it takes to get you out of this mess, I'll do it."
"Good."
Samantha grabbed a pen and tore a sheet of note-paper off a nearby pad, jotting down a string of characters. She glanced to the side, staring into the eyes of an ecstatic Lisa Garnet.
"Wait..." Samantha paused, the pen dropping from her fingers, "Shouldn't you remember the password to your own computer?"
Lisa shook her head, motioning for her friend to keep writing.
"I'm telling you now, Lisa. Once this is over, we're gonna have a talk about this whole ordeal with Argall."
Without looking up, Samantha finished writing, and handed the password to her friend.
"Thank you." Lisa nodded, snatching the paper from her friend.
The sound of cooling fans filled the room as Lisa turned on a computer; her computer. Samantha watched behind the girl, a frown on her face as Lisa typed in her password, character-by-character.
Lisa's eyes lit up with joy as her desktop wallpaper loaded in. "Yessss..." she hissed, practically pouncing on the keyboard, "Now to see what there is to read!"
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Samantha began, gesturing to the white carrying case beside her friend.
Lisa's eyes darted to the case. "Ah, yeah." she grinned, "Nearly forgot about this little trinket. Now, do I have to... um... connect it to something, or does it just work..."
Samantha rummaged about in her handbag, pulling out a breakout board. "Use this." She grumbled, sliding the device towards Lisa, "Don't you remember uploading Twilight onto it all those years ago?"
Lisa hesitated, then shook her head.
"Fine, just hurry up then."
The girl's demeanor returned as she practically tore open the carrying case, plucking the bloodied chip from its innards and dropping it in place on the board. She froze up, glaring at Samantha as she felt a hand touch her shoulder.
"Lisa, this isn't you." Samantha began slowly, "I've never seen you like this before. Not before the simulations, not after. Tell me now. What happened to you?"
"Feh," Lisa grumbled in response, brushing off her friend. "You tell me, Pinkie." She reached for an available port, the cord for the breakout board dangling in her fingers as Samantha slapped away her hand.
"What. Happened?"
"What do you think you're doing?" Lisa seethed, spinning around and flicking the cord past her friend's face. "Be a good assistant and do what I say. Okay?"
Samantha grumbled to herself, taking a seat behind Lisa.
As for the girl herself, Lisa had already fully-entrenched herself in the memories of her counterpart. Samantha watched idly, cradling her chin in her hand, as her friend scrolled through years upon years of recorded memory.
"Wait... wait, those aren't Twilight's memories..." Samantha mumbled, her eyes flitting through the troves of information scrolling past her friend's vision. She straightened in her seat, pointing an accusing finger at the monitors. "That's--"
"Interesting." Lisa cut in, "It is very interesting information, and very useful information." She spun around in the chair to face Samantha. "As I mentioned before, I have full reason to believe that Twilight took my memories with her when you removed the chip."
Samantha sighed, returning to her position at the table. "Yeah," she murmured under her breath, "but would Twilight really be taking memories like those?"
Lisa stiffened, a hand hovering over the mouse. "Well." She began, still turned away, "Would you like for me to delete her, then?"
"NO!" Samantha shouted, "Just... don't!"
"Then let me study in peace."
Samantha huffed, returning to her sulking. Amidst the silence of the room, however, an idea flew into her mind.
"Lisa, did you know that you can connect to Equestria directly from that very computer?"
"WHAT?!" Lisa squealed, "Show me! Let me see the place again!"
Samantha smirked. "Okay, Lisa. There should be a viewer program on your desktop."
She watched as her friend frantically scanned the mess of icons littering the screen. At last, the cursor landed on the program.
"Well?" Samantha urged, "Go on, click on it. Last I remember, you set the thing to view Twilight's library in Ponyville."
A double-click later, and the program came to life, spanning across the screens a pristine view of Twilight's library...
...and Twilight Sparkle herself.