The music stopped at once, with a sound of awkward shuffling beyond the door. That was about long enough for Spellsong to question whether or not she should be visiting looking like a pony. How close was this shard to rediscovering that they were ponies and rejoining digital life?
She could've teleported back to the ship to ask, or maybe just cast a summoning spell to attract Luna's explicit attention. But someone on the other side of the door had already almost reached her.
Instead she sent a flurry of magic over her hair, combing her mane into place, and dusting aside any debris that might've stuck to her walking through such a dirty shard.
"Who the hell is it?" asked a voice. Young woman—younger than Spellsong, with the untampered harshness of youth edging her words like the etching of acidic paint. "Better not be wasting my time. I'm not on shift today!"
Spellsong sat back on her haunches, looking up at where she imagined the human would be standing. But there was no opening in the door—despite the mismatched technology, there wasn't even a camera.
"You weren't expecting me," she said. "But we should talk."
Silence. Whatever the almost-pony on the other side was expecting, it wasn’t that.
But she didn't back away, forcing Spellsong to do something more drastic. She heard no heavy footfalls on the metal floor. After a few seconds, the door swung open a crack. "And who are you?"
Then her eyes settled on Spellsong, and she stumbled back from the door. It swung open on its own, revealing a space even more run-down than the rest of the universe.
Trash was scattered everywhere, and the table was piled high with empty food containers that smelled more like fresh asphalt than anything edible. A screen mounted to the wall had a large crack down the center, making part of it flicker as a pony projected on it went through a looping recording. The speakers didn't seem to be working because she didn't hear a voice.
"Quite the place you've got here," Spellsong said, stepping through the doorway. She didn't go much further, letting the single occupant retreat all the way to the couch. She stumbled backward, scattering dirty clothes.
The girl herself was much like the other people in this shard—her hair was light blue, her skin pale and sickly, and her eyes unnaturally yellow. She wore only her underwear, yet even that was marked with what Spellsong took for a cutie mark. An audio pattern, maybe?
"A malfunctioning..." The human scrambled sideways, yanking a heavy plastic box from a stand beside the bed. "Connect me to control. We have a malfunctioning service android." She held it against her ear, waiting expectantly.
Spellsong let the moment hang, settling down to watch her. "Those ponies are asleep, they can't answer. But I didn't do it. There just isn't enough energy."
The girl held her communication device to her ear for another few seconds, before fumbling one-handed with the controls. They beeped and flashed, before filling the room with an obnoxious dial-tone. "You can't sound like that..." the girl said. "You're not a person. You're a machine."
Spellsong chuckled. "That's a heavy one to unpack." She fell silent, considering her options for a moment. Maybe she shouldn't waste time with this creature, and should just tell her as much of the truth as possible, rip off the bandage all at once.
There were spells to restore the memories she had locked away from previous lifetimes. Spellsong would hold them in reserve in case this pony became hostile.
With a fragment of her attention, she set a subroutine to scouring her own memory for contact with this pony, whoever she was. The universe didn't quite have the energy left to go through the process of making friends all over again.
"My name's Spellsong, what's yours?"
"Tenshi.” She stumbled backward a little further, sprawling into her couch. “But I..." She shuffled around in the debris, knocking off several piles of clothing as she scrambled to get away. "I've got a gun here somewhere! I'll defend myself if you make me!"
Spellsong settled onto her haunches, unmoving. "I won't make you. But I'm sorry to say you probably won't enjoy the next few hours. I am dangerous to you, just not physically."
Tenshi finally found what she was looking for, a weapon made in comically discolored plastic she held in shaking fingers. Spellsong wasn't even convinced it would've caused her any harm even if she could be shot. More likely, it would explode in Tenshi's fingers. "What are you gonna do, robot? There's nothing central won't notice."
Spellsong shrugged. "I'm going to tell you the truth. You're about to learn some things you don't want to hear. But the only way for you to do anything about what's coming is to know. Ignorance won't protect you."
The gun sagged in Tenshi’s fingers. "Let me guess: the drones are plotting to take over the station?”
She giggled. "Not quite. How about this: the entire universe is out of energy. You and everyone you know have been dead for basically an eternity since your reactor ran out. But I brought a little power with me, and I revived you so we could have this conversation."
Dead wasn't strictly true, but she wasn't afraid to take a few shortcuts to help Tenshi understand.
Her mouth fell open. "We knew Motherlode didn't have much hydrogen left to scoop, but it was... supposed to last for centuries. Lifetimes! Our kids still had some time to solve this!"
Even in here, Celestia worked it into the story. Yet as in so many other parts of Equestria, the reality was a lie. She'd given them a story to bring them comfort in the end, but the end still came.
"I've brought everyone you know aboard my ship, in... cold storage. But it doesn't seem fair to trust strangers to care for them. I invite you to serve as one of my crew, so you know your friends and loved-ones are being looked after."
Tenshi dropped the gun. It plopped into a pile of dirty dresses, buried in seconds.
In that moment, Spellsong's little subroutine returned to her. There was a linked-list of memories with this pony, going back what seemed like forever. Decompressing each memory would take magical energy, so she didn't go far.
Spellsong started with the first, and found exactly what she was looking for.
"Whatever reason you think I'd take your word for it, you were wrong. Turn around, get the hell out of my apartment. My life is hard enough."
"I could," she said, rising to her hooves. "When I leave, you'd go into cold storage with everyone else, and I'd need to look at another candidate. Don't worry, you won't notice... you'll just have to hope I'm successful at saving everyone, knowing you're powerless to help."
Tenshi rose from the couch. "This seems easy to disprove. I just look outside, and..." She peeked through the blinds on her window, pushing the metal apart. There was no activity on the streets outside. Plastic ponies were gone, and their "humans" were gone too.
"If it were wrong," Spellsong said. "Unfortunately, it isn't. We all had a good run. You personally had more years of life than stars in the sky. We spent more time together than the lifespans you imagine for every person living on Motherlode. Compared to some, we barely knew each other. You should've met some of the ponies I was with before you."
Tenshi turned, confidence bleeding from her face. "What are you talking about now? There's no energy left in the world, but now you're... I know my own memories, pony. You can't tell me I don't."
"No, but I can show you." She did—the first memory Spellsong had found, anyway. There was no way she could handle everything they had done together. The passing friendship with a single pony among many was more time than their current minds could hold. But a few hours, she could manage that.
Her horn blasted with pale light, only a shade brighter than the moonlight outside. This seemed as good a time as any to convert the pony back to a more logical shape.
From Spellsong's perspective, the light faded almost instantly, leaving a pale-furred bat standing before her with half-splayed wings. "Take a few seconds to collect yourself. Memory magic can be disorienting."
Finally the pony opened her eyes. Her wings opened wider, then snapped closed again. "I knew you," Tenshi muttered. "We were together, and I was a pony, and..." She looked down, flexing one of her legs. "Oh."
Spellsong grinned ruefully. "Yeah, sorry about that. Equestria allows closed-loops like yours, because they end with you having greater appreciation for being a pony. But we really don't have the time to get you through to the end. You can probably rejoin this shard once we..."
She trailed off. "Okay, I don't know that for sure. Celestia didn't tell me what she was planning. But you could come with, and see for yourself. Or trust someone else to save you, without any way to intervene."
The pony stumbled slightly on her hooves, but only for a second. There was no pretense about holding back her memories of how her simulated body worked. They just didn't have time for that, even if learning could be incredibly satisfying. "I don't really understand... but I want to come."
"Awesome! You'll really brighten up the ship. I've just had Dyson for company so far, and he can be a complete drag."