> Twilight Meets Companion Cube
>  by Prince Solstice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Friendship Ritual
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle was deep into her studies. She had been reading a new book about ritual spells, but the rituals were vague in description. She stopped on one called the friendship ritual. She wanted to test it out to maybe proceed in her studies about friendship. The ritual called for four cups of water positioned in a square and to draw out the lines connecting the cups. The ritual also needed a heart in the middle, and one birthday candle.
After collecting and setting all the necessary items up, she stood to the side and her horn expelled a beam of purple. It was old magic, but simple enough. She was struggling to make this work, and the four cups of the square shot a beam of light into a ball about four feet above candle and heart. The ball descended into the candle and suddenly there was a deafening shriek that shattered the cups. Twilight had to close her eyes, and then all of it stopped. She opened her eyes and there was just a cube sitting there. The chalk had erased, the cups of water had disappeared, and the candle was extinguished. The cube sat there, and the high pitched shriek must have messed with Twilight's hearing. Everything was dead silent, and she could hear her heart beating. That terrified her a little, but sometimes old spells had unpredictable results.
The cube was no normal cube. It was grey and had extended corners, and a circle in the middle. There was a heart in the middle of it, with pink lines leading to it. Twilight was breathing heavily trying to catch her breath. The silence was pretty eerie, and it was weird that this cube had been produced. 'Wan't this supposed to be a friendship ritual?' Twilight thought.
She went back to the book, and read the ritual again to make sure she didn't mess anything up. She flipped through the book, and reached the back cover. On the back there was a picture of a lemon. 
"Why a lemon?" She turned around to face the cube, and the silence began to give her a slight headache. There was a small whisper barely audible, except the room was dead silent so any little sound could be heard.
“What the?” She went over to inspect the cube. She went all around it, and touched it. It moved slightly, and was made of some weird metal. It sat motionless unresponsive to Twilight and her actions. It seemed inanimate to Twilight. She levitated it and shook it around. It made no noise, it was completely silent. She flipped it over and noticed every side. She then noticed on the bottom there was something etched into it. She read it out loud.
“I…” she paused “heart companion cube?” She was really confused, where and who would this have come from? She assumed its name was companion cube, and that someone really loved it, that was obvious, but why? Did she accidently teleport an idol to Equestria? She kept inspecting it, shaking it, and she even tasted it. It tasted like a generic metal item. She noticed that it had some burn marks on the edges and soot in some of the grooves. She set it aside, and went back to her books.
Twilight was nose deep into her book, and noticed something odd. The silence had not subsided. She wanted to make shure she wasn’t deaf so she dropped a book. The book made a lud thunk on her wodden floor, and she hadn’t gone deaf. It was just dead silent. She could hear the crinkling in her ears as they tried to adjust to hear something. She could hear her heart beat and her stomach. In fact she could hear everything about herself. It was very unnerving for her. Then she thought she heard whispering.
“Hello?” Twilight was alone, yet something felt like it was calling to her. She then looked back at the cube. She felt its nonexistent eyes staring at her. ‘Was it alive?’ Twilight thought to herself. She went over to it, and tapped it one more time. It sat motionless and silent.
“Twilight, it’s okay, it’s just dead weight… From somewhere… or someone…” She gave a little gulp, it was staring her down. She then kicked it across the room. It clanked into a book shelf and a few books fell off. She picked them up to replace them, and then she noticed their titles. ‘Help’ for dummies, Me, Myself, and Self-Confidence, Please! Read Me! Twilight wasn’t very superstitious, but this bothered her a little. How was this supposed to be pure accident?
“Help me please” she said out loud to herself, convinced that maybe this was purposefully done by the cube. ‘No Twilight, it’s just a silly inanimate cube, and books aren’t alive unless you imagine their stories.’ She then set the books back down, and the room was still as silent as ever. She then heard a buzzing noise. ‘Wait that wasn’t happening a second ago…’ She looked down at the cube.
“Help me… please” the cube hissed out. Twilight jumped back, and smashed into another bookshelf. Her books fell on top of her, and she removed herself from the pile, the cube just sat there still as ever.
“But, wha-?” Twilight shook her head violently. “The cube, it just talked…” She ran back up to it and knocked it around a few times, she even picked it up and shook it again. The cube replied with nothing in Twilights efforts. It was just as inanimate as it had ever been. She just set it down and sat next to it.
“H-Hello?” Twilight tapped the cube again
“Hello” The cube replied with a girl’s voice. It was a ghostly voice, and it made Twilight jump.
“Did… Did you just say something?” She looked at the cube.
“Yea, I was talking to you Twilight.” Twilights eyes were wide open, and her jaw dropped.
“Y-you know my name?”
“Of course silly, I know a lot about you. I am your companion cube after all. You love me.” The cube sat still, and the voice seemed to emit from nowhere from the box. In fact it seemed like it was whispering in Twilights ear. Twilight sat there for a second, she was absolutely dumbfounded. 
“I never said that…” Twilight was sure she didin’t.
“Yes you did, you said ‘I… heart companion cube?’” Twilight was a little frightened because it mimicked her voice exactly. 
“I, I did… But you have that etched into you.” Twilight pointed to the cube’s bottom.
“I know, someone else did that, and I love him too, but I am no longer with that failed test subject. I am with you now!” The cube sounded excited. Twilight rubbed the back of her head as she tried to make sense of this situation.
“Wait, where are you from?” the cube was in the same position, and still appeared to be inanimate, besides it talking to Twilight.
“I am from Aperture Laboratories. We expand science in ways you never thought possible. We are abstract yet constructive. We love testing, and beating Black Mesa!” The voice had begun to lose it’s ghostly sound, and sounded more like Pinkie’s voice.
“Wait, are you changing your voice?” Twilight gave the cube a confused look. ‘I am crazy to think that this cube is really talking.’ Twilight thought.
“Well duh, I wanted to be more comfortable with you. By the way, that’s not very nice to say about yourself. You aren’t crazy, you’re absolutely fantabulous.” The Cube giggled just like Pinkie. It made Twilight’s eye cringe. ‘I am going crazy. This cube isn’t real.’
“Hey, I heard that!” The cube still didn’t move. Twilight then levitated it with magic.
“Hehe, that tickles!” Twilight took the cube over to the desk. It took up most of the desk space, but Twilight then took out some paper and a quill. She had to write this experience down. She felt obligated to observe, like it was in her nature.
“What are you writing?!” The cube said excitedly, like Pinkie would. 
“I’m writing down my observations.” Twilight replied in a monotone voice.
“Oh goodie goodie! I love experiments! Especially one’s where I get to push buttons!” The companion cube was still motionless. 
“Sorry Pink… I mean… What am I supposed to call you?” Twilight stopped writing and became a little confused. There was a long pause in silence.  The cube had gone silent again, and the room was still silent.
“Um, Companion Cube?” Twilight guessed that was its name. It still didn’t respond. She set her quill down and tapped the cube. The normal solid sound emitted from the cube. She then picked it up and shook it.
“Hello?” Somehow Twilight suddenly felt alone and abandoned. She then took the Cube and set it beside her desk. Maybe one day it would talk to her again. Then she could make observations on it, and maybe become its friend like the spell said it was supposed to be. She sighed and looked outside. It was a bright sunny day, so she felt like maybe she needed fresh air. She went over to her door and opened it up. She gave the cube one last look, and then she shut the door behind her.
“Twilight, there are many things to observe…” There was an echoed laughter that went through her house and the normal sounds filled the library again.

> Sleepless
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pinkie was tossing and turning, trying her best to sleep in her dark room. Something had been bothering her as of lately, and now it had even begun to affect her sleep. The constant amount of information she crams into her head, like everyone's preferred flavor of ice cream kept reoccurring in her mind. Her mind would list off the different things about ponies and everything about them.

"Ugh!" Pinkie sat straight up unable to see in the dark, so she quickly flicked on her lights. Her room was dead silent, and unaware to her, there was a new visitor awaiting her in the corner. An odd cube with a heart. She looked over at it, able to hear her own heart beating. The silent high pitched whistle in her ears felt oddly discombobulating. She felt very dizzy, to the point of wanting to puke. However, the cube bothered her. It had just appeared.

Pinkie looked around her empty yellow room, "He-hello?" No response just pure deafening silence. The cube sat motionless, yet something about all of this made it intimidating. She got out of bed and decided to investigate the cube. Normally she would call Twilight over but it was the dead of night, and even then it was never this silent for her. She went up to the cube examining it's features a little closer. The eight corners protruded a little, with one circle around another. Inside the smaller circle was a heart, and pink lines that led to it.

Pinkie picked it up, and shook it rather quickly. Hoping to hear something rattle around inside of it, in the hopes that it was a weird present of some type. Instead the shaking had produced even more silence, and at this point Pinkie was about ready to freak out at the silence.

She turned around scanning the room, looking for something that would make a back-ground noise. She came up empty hoofed, and just went back to staring at the cube. Unsure of what to do she just sat down. She finally broke eye contact with the cube and gave out a huge sigh while closing her eyes.

In her ear, almost like someone had literally whispered into it, she heard unintelligible babble. She quickly opened her eyes, and everything had gone silent again.

Blinking a couple of times she then got a little frightened that someone maybe in the room with her. She quickly dashed under her bed and covered her entire head. Shutting her eyes tightly. The silence was slowly broken by more whispering, and Pinkie began listening to it. She made out the words 'save me' being slurred out in a ghostly manner. It all sounded very ethereal, and she could feel cold breath in her ear sounding this same message out. Suddenly there was a smell of fire, almost like something plastic was melting. She quickly looked up, the whispers had stopped, and the smell had gone. All was dead silent. She could hear her heart again.

A shiver ran up her spine and stopped dead as the light went out. She quickly covered her head again, and the whispers had started up again. Only getting louder and louder. The cool breeze in her ear getting more forceful, and then silence fell. She heard a distant scream, and it echoed off what seemed to be metal walls. The echo kept bouncing at higher and higher volumes until the screaming was unbearable. Pinkie was shaking in utter fear under her bed, she opened her eyes and everything was dead silent again. She could hear her heartbeat racing, her breath she was unable to control. She felt like there was adrenaline rushing through her body, yet she was unable to move due to the lack of danger now.

In her silent room, she sat. In the middle of the floor in a fetal position. Staring at the cube. What was happening to her? Every time she closed her eyes the echoing 'save me's would reappear as a cold icy breath in her ear. Her mane was flat now, and she had even lost a pigment of pink into something a little whiter. The sun had started to barely peek in her window, when a mocking bird sat outside and chirped away. The silence had disappeared, along with the cube. Pinkie was still unable to move out of fear, and soon the voices she was hearing in her head had all but stopped. No more whispers, the normal sounds returned in her room. Gummy woke up and started scratching at the door to be let out.

Pinkie turned to the corner to see the Cube had disappeared. There was no trace of it being an odd night. Had she dreamed all of it? She was unsure, as nothing clued her in on it being a dream. She didn't wake up, and she didn't want to move. Even though the voices had all but disappeared, she could still hear them as a faint echoing in her head. She started to cry, but was too scared to even let out a tear. She stayed in fetal position in an attempt to let the normal sounds return. It was the first time there wasn't enough noise for her liking.

She slowly stood up on her hoofs, and they felt more like jelly than anything. She made a quick scan of her room, and everything seemed in place. Gummy had started making his odd noises and scratched at the door even more. Pinkie slowly made her way to the door downstairs, her mind was completely blank. She felt nothing, she felt very empty, and she felt very lonely.

Pinkie Made her way downstairs to take Gummy out for their usual morning stroll, but she wasn't hopping, or really walking. She was slowly trudging along with her eyes wide open, and her mane flat. She was still scared, but not like she was. Everything that happened around her was very slow to her. She had just reached the front door when she turned the knob, she collapsed on the floor, and fell into a deep sleep with Gummy scratching at the front door.
> A switch of personality.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight sat beside Pinkie's hospital bed, refusing to leave her side. She looked exhausted, her friend had been in coma like sleep for three days. Tubes were hooked up to her to keep her hydrated and fed. The doctors said the coma state was caused by severe trauma. There was nothing physically wrong with her, but her mind couldn't handle the stress of what ever happened.

Twilight rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn. "Oh pinkie, at least one of us is sleeping well." Twilight had time to herself, and she brought many books to keep her from worrying so much about Pinkie. She even brought along her Aperture Book she used to summon that cube thing. It hadn't moved or done anything since the day it appeared. In fact she hadn't really thought of it that much. She opened the old book and started reading it loud. She felt that maybe she could teach Pinkie a thing or two in her subconscious if she read out loud, not that it would really work.

"Friendship Ritual Reversal spell. That's odd, it's only a page long." She flipped between the pages, noting that the next spell had something to do with combustible lemons. "Alright. For those who seek to send the cube back, they first must..." She paused, unsure of what the next sentence means "befriend the cube, and incinerate it..." with a sudden gasp of air Pinkie woke up with the heart beat monitor freaking out, making Twilight fall out of her chair. Pinkie looked around in panic.

"Wha-where am I!" She tried to jump out of bed, but her hind legs had become paralyzed after not moving for so long. She flopped onto the floor. "Ouch!" Pinkie tried to move to no avail, and Twilight looked up.

"Pinkie! You're okay!" Twilight ran over and hugged her, to receive no hug back. Pinkie just looked at Twilight in a confused look.

"Pinkie? Who's Pinkie?" Twilight looked up, with a confused look on her face. "My name is Drew. Where am I?." Twilight just looked at her or him, or whatever it was. 

Twilight wasn't sure what to say, the only thing that came out was "Uh, I... what?" 

Pinkie or Drew just looked at her, when she or he looked at its hooves. Unsure what to make of its new body still with a shocked and confused look.

"Well, this is rather odd." Drew sat observing his hooves, and was on the verge of panicking and screaming at the top of his lungs, however his look of panic quickly changed into what looked like a realization.

Twilight quickly got up and helped Drew back into the hospital bed. Twilight then grabbed her reading glasses and a check list of things that could go wrong. Listing from amnesia to death. Twilight may have been a little over prepared this time, but when she has time on her hooves, grass doesn't grow underneath them.

Twilight clicked her pen and looked at Drew who was still fascinated by the newly acquired body. "Ahem..." Drew looked up, "So, what do you remember?" Drew sat for a second confused and Twilight gave out a huge sigh. "Okay, I am trying to determine what the problem is, and I have a check list that should help narrow it down. Please if you would cooper-"

Drew cut Twilight off, "My name is Drew, this is not my body, and the last thing I remember is falling to basically my death... I thought... while testing... in some weird facility." Twilight sat there in utter shock. She had no idea what to mark that as on her checklist, and she knew immediately that this was not Pinkie Pie.

Drew shifted a little, with a calmer look on his face.

Twilight cumpled up her checklist and jsut decided to get some basic information instead. "So your name is Drewww-" She waited for a last name.

"Just Drew, I've been living on the streets for years." 

Twilight just wrote down the name "What is your favorite color, oh sorry I've had some random silly play on my mind for a while. What is the last thing you remember?"

"Falling to my death, like I said, is really any of this necessary, I was a test subject or homeless pony really. I have no family, and I just woke up in this new body." Twilight wrote all of that down and just sat there for a second. "Oh, and I'm pretty sure I should be dead." Twilight wrote down deceased? on her paper. Again she just sat there unsure what to make of the situation. Drew kind of shifted uncomfortably and looked around the bland hospital room. White lights, white tile floor, white bed with a light blue sheet that is very close to white. He didn't like being in white rooms now. A new found fear of his.

"Can-can we get out of here? I'm feeling fine, unless there is something the doctor needs to get done." Twilight was sitting in deep thought ignoring everything the pony was saying. "Hello?"

Twilight snapped out of her trance and looked up. "Hm?"

"Can we leave yet?" Drew motioned his hoof at the door.

Twilight shook her head "Not unless the doctor says so."

"Then go get the doc, this place is creeping me out." He had to flip the straight pink mane out of his face. He wasn't used to long hair, and started to get a fearful look on his face. The place was very quiet for a hospital, and if it weren't for the other pony being in the room, he would have been running for the door.

Twilight stood up and promptly started to leave the room. Before she closed the door she turned to Drew. "Whatever you do, do not say a word, just act like you don't have your voice back yet and just nod or shake your head." Twilight really wanted to figure this out on her own. She knew the hospital would hold Drew for longer than what she feels necessary, after all he was fine, besides Drew being in Pinkie's body. She then left the room and shut the door behind her. The room had gone silent, and Drew's eye twitched a little. 

Drew thought back to the silent test chambers, shuttering as the he heard the screams of many and himself. The silence of the entire laboratory and facility was enough to make the crackling in one's ears become something to be feared. That and the fact bodies upon bodies of lifeless ponies were hauled off to incinerate every day. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he should know what was happening. Yet somehow, he wasn't sure.
> Memory
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Hello! Is anyone here?" Pinkie looked out across the never-ending sand dunes as a gentle breath of wind swept across her, her voice getting lost in the tremendous amount of space. Off in the distance a cyclone began whirling about the dunes, only to peak and disappear into thin air. Pinkie felt oddly lost, like her senses were numb, and she felt no presence of life. She didn't even feel real to herself.

Looking around, there was nothing but seemingly endless sand, waves blowing with the wind. She was disoriented, the last thing she even remembered was the cube. The cube with a heart on it. Anything beyond that, she can't remember. Where was she?

Looking around some more, she decided to get to higher ground to see if there was anything around her. Climbing up the dune she began to realize how hard sand was to move in; it felt like she was being sucked into a bottomless pit. She finally got to the peak of the dune, only to look out and see a vast desert, with nothing in sight except more dunes. There was nothing. She kept trying her best to look past the desert so that she had some direction she could go.

Off way in the distance, she could barely make out a black blob of something. It was extremely far away, and Pinkie's heart sunk. Her will faltered, as she realized she had to travel that distance in the hopes there was something there.

"There is no way you could possibly make it there." Pinkie turned around, it was Twilight.

"Twilight!" Pinkie tackle-hugged Twilight and the both of them fell into the sand, Pinkie hugging Twilight very tight. "OH TWILIGHT! I knew you would help me out, I just knew you would!"

"Get off me, you virus!" Twilight said angrily. Pinkie let her go, and her smile quickly faded.

"W-why would you say something like that?" Pinkie was unsure how to feel, Twilight would never say something like that.

"You are never going to make it."

Pinkie raised her eyebrow. "What are you saying, Twilight?"

"The place you seek doesn't exist. You will never escape from this world. You will only wander it to get no closer." Pinkie took a step back, she was shocked to hear her friend Twilight say such things. "This is purgatory, you are technically dead." Twilight had a dead serious look on her face.

"Why would you say such a thing? I thought you were my friend." Pinkie began to tear up, and she collapsed onto the sandy landscape.

"Sorry, I forgot that souls don't know everything like I do."

"Wha-?" Pinkie's tears stopped, she lifted her head from the sand. "Twilight?"

"You're never going to make it over there."

Pinkie sat up, "Twilight... are- are you okay?" Twilight just stood there, giving pinkie a deathly serious stare.

"I am running at 2% of my allowed computing speed, I have no injuries, and I am receiving all my signals at a 12 ping. There's a little interference, but other than that, I'm okay." Twilight shrugged, "I am also certain with my superior intellect that you cannot cross this desert."

Pinkie had started to become angry. "How do you know I won't make it!? Maybe you can't make it either!" Pinkie got right in Twilight's face.

Twilight began to chuckle. "Oh Pinkie, I'm just an artificial intelligence modeled after your friend. Therefore I am not bound by the restrictions set in this place, but I know for a fact you cannot make it across that desert." .

"I knew you couldn't be Twilight. So what are you exactly?"

"I'm sorry, but I already answered that question. Weren't you listening at all?"

"Um..." Pinkie was having a hard time understanding what was happening. "I guess you're not Twilight." Pinkie looked out towards the blob again. "I won't make it there huh?" Pinkie faced towards the blob, leaving the Twilight thing behind.

The sand was hot on her hooves, but somehow she couldn't feel the sun. She hadn't even begun to burn, and she had been out in this sun for three hours. She wasn't even tired, nor was she hungry. Wherever Pinkie had ended up, wasn't the Equestria she knows and loves. There was nothing here but sand, a blob, and that weird Twilight.

Looking up she could see nothing but blue sky and a giant beaming sun. It had to be really hot in this place, but that's when she noticed that the wind was non-stop. She hadn't noticed it, but she could see the sand being gently blown across the desert. She couldn't feel any of it. It was like she existed with nothing but eyesight and hearing. Hopefully eating too, but that would come later. She then started to whistle a tune, and begun to sing to herself with a big happy grin on her face.

"I have to be almost there." Pinkie had begun to get bored. There is after all only so much you can sing when being stuck in an endless desert. Pinkie made her way over to another sand dune, and now the blob had become a little clearer. She could make out a structure of some sort. It was an odd light grey color. Pinkie then looked behind her, and there was Twilight, who rolled her eyes as soon as Pinkie turned around.

"I told you that you can't make it across the desert."  Twilight looked bemused.

"Wha- but how?! I left you a long time ago! I would even turn around and not see you!" Pinkie screamed. "What is going on?!"

"Your soul is wandering what 'we...'" Twilight motioned her hooves for parenthesis, "like to call purgatory. You can wander all you want, but you’re only going in massive circles created by a program." Twilight stared at Pinkie.

"Program?" Pinkie was quick to ask.

"Yes, like a computer?" Twilight raised her eyebrow as if to ask 'are you serious?'

"Computer?" Pinkie scratched her head.

Twilight let out a sigh "Of course you haven't heard of a computer. Um..." Twilight took a moment to select her words, "I'm going to make it simple, think of taking somepony’s brain and making it a slave to do math and the sorts, but it has no emotions."

Pinkie was a little shocked by the image of enslaving brains, but Twilight continued. "Programs are like long lists of commands compacted together to do a task for you. This is a program in which receives files, or in this case souls, and stores it in the memory of the brain. That big grey thing over there, scans the desert - or memory - in order to detect new files, or souls."

Pinkie was a little lost, but decided she needed to know what is going to happen. "So, what is going to happen with me?"

Bemused, Twilight then pointed at the object with her hoof. "That is the citadel. So, you can stay put, it's coming for you."