“...What happened? Where am I?”
Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes to see a laboratory of machines whirring and moving on their own. Wires overlapped, and soft beeping filled the air. She was confused until she heard a loud, “YES!”
“What?” Looking around, finding her neck stiff and almost creaking as it moved, Fluttershy saw her friend and Princess, Twilight Sparkle. She was wearing a white lab coat, her mane wildly ruffled as her wings flapped excitedly. Timidly she asked, “Twilight, what are we doing here?”
Twilight jumped around excitedly, tears in her eyes. “Fluttershy, I thought I’d never see you again!”
The unease Fluttershy felt was compounded by the hollow feeling in her stomach, not to mention that something about her own voice felt… off. “Twilight, wait, I’m confused. What’s going on?”
Embarrassed, Twilight cleared her throat. “Mmhmm, yes sorry about that. Basically, you may not know this, but…” she paused, her elation suddenly faltering, “a few years ago... you died.”
Fluttershy did not for an instant think her friend was lying to her, but tilted her head all the same; “But, that makes no sense. Years? H-how?” if anything, the yellow pegasus’ volume shrank further, “What… what happened?”
Twilight seemed determined to spur herself back into a happier state, assuring her friend “It… It is a long story—and I know, by all accounts it doesn’t make any sense, but somehow it worked! I managed to transfer your soul into a robot.”
Twilight returned to her excited prancing amongst the myriad machines, their mystifying noises, lights, and purposes doing little to settle Fluttershy’s unease. She could tell Twilight was hiding her own anxiety under that foalish glee, though whether that anxiety was simply left over from what was clearly many hours if not days… or years... of work, trying to bring back one of her friends, or if it was something else, Fluttershy couldn’t say. Her own disquiet trotted over her patience, and wishing for answers, Fluttershy walked over to her, finding herself rather unused to her new body as its metal hooves clattered on the unyielding floor. Not knowing just what these new hooves could do, she made certain to place her hoof softer than a falling rose leaf on her friend’s shoulder.
“Twilight, why did you do this?”
Twilight almost reacted like the pegasus was joking, “Why? Because I missed you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I needed to try and help you.”
Fluttershy couldn’t help but frown, a little; “So, did you do it for me, or for closure?”
“I… uh…”
Fluttershy was afraid to hurt her friend’s feelings, but she had been awake for all of two minutes, and she could feel deep down that things were not right.
“Twilight, I’m happy that you’re so excited about this, I can tell this is… some huge magical breakthrough for you, or something... but... I-I… I feel that... you should have let me go.”
Fluttershy winced at Twilight’s reaction, as if the pegasus had just slapped her dear friend with a hoof to the snout. Only the slightest edge of anger tinged the Princess’ voice, the rest was something nearing desperation, “But, I brought you back to life; you should be thanking me!”
Fluttershy moved to hug Twilight. Whatever this body was, despite how accurate it conveyed the feeling of contact with the floor, the air currents, another pony... it felt almost like a dazed dream. A nuance of true feeling was missing, and Fluttershy didn’t want to put her friend through what would be an endless sequence of tweaking iterations of this body just so that that hollow feeling would go away. And as much as Fluttershy was not the Element of Honesty, she couldn’t bear the thought of lying to Twilight just so that the poor alicorn would not be consumed and drained by this project to undo nature. Twilight embraced Fluttershy back, at least feeling no hesitation in treating this reincarnation as that of her true friend. The yellow pegasus’ nearly-perfect voice was muffled as she spoke into the mane of the Princess, “I know that this is a miracle, Twilight… I know that you feel this is an unbelievable gift and… and that you’ve worked so hard and long to see it happen, but… please... think about how I feel. To me, it doesn’t feel like I’m actually alive. This all… I’m sorry I just don’t know how to describe it… But it feels fake.”
None of Twilight’s triumphant confidence was left, nor was there anger as she tried to reply with her head resting on her friend’s shoulders, “I…”
It tore at her to make this request, but Fluttershy’s certainty of what she wanted won out as her gentle but firm voice spoke, “I’m sorry, Twilight, but if you can, could you release me, please?”
The Princess pulled her head away from the hug but continued to hold onto this yellow robot containing her friend’s soul. The tears she struggled to hold back only led her to sniffle, “...Could you just hold me for a few minutes first?”
Fluttershy smiled and held Twilight tighter, she didn’t need to be afraid now of this body, “Of course.”
As Twilight felt the mechanical pony’s metal wings join in wrapping around her, the lack of warmth she had hoped for—had expected—was like a winter gust... It proved to her that Fluttershy was gone, and could never be brought back.
“T-Twilight? Could you tell me about how things are now? I know I missed a lot, and I’d like to at least go knowing how everypony’s been doing.”
Twilight gave a pained laugh, trying to make her short time with her friend worthwhile, “Of course, Fluttershy, it’s the least I could do. Who do you want to hear about?”
“Everypony.”
Twilight talked for hours, regaling the robotic Fluttershy with tales both happy and sad about their friends. As she kept talking a smile stretched across her face. When it finally came time to set Fluttershy free, she didn’t want to, but knew she had to.
That night, she cried for her friend.