Rejected Memories

Chapter Four - Failure

It's been a while since the school incident, and summer has officially started. Cloudracer and I are still the best of friends, and everything is pretty good, although I might have be a little less sane now. I can't help but feel that life is nothing but a simulation of some kind. I can't explain it, but I occasionally feel that it's not real. I've seen weird things too, like white objects. For example, I'll see a flower pot. It will be white, but when I turn to look at it, it goes back to being brown. I'm not sure if this is my sanity playing tricks on me, or something else.

Later...

"Flux where are you? You're supposed to clean your room!" shouted my mom.

"If it bothers you so much, why don't you do it?" I yelled back.

"Oh, so I guess someone doesn't want their allowance this week. More bits for me!" Said my mom, trying to be sarcastic.

"Fine, you win, I'll clean it."

Ugh. I really didn't want to clean my room, even though it would require almost no effort, but I really did need bits. I was planning on getting Cloud something nice for her birthday. There goes another white object. My bed this time. At first the white objects just creeped me out, now I'm quite used to them. I think they might be increasing in numbers too, I've seen lots more than I did at first. They are almost everywhere I look, and some ponies are even starting to go white randomly. They will just go to a white pony standing, no matter what position they were in before.

A week later...

"Cloud, you there?" I said, in a very raspy voice.

"Yeah I'm here, come to say happy birthday to me?" she said, trotting towards me.

"Yes and no. I came here for two things. One, happy birthday, and two, this." I said, taking the elegantly wrapped package off of my back and giving it to her.

"Open it cloud, I had it made for you, and I even put a little something on it to make it yours." I said. She ripped open the packaging and pulled out some goggles. They had white and grey flames going around the reflective lenses and a white head band to match her mane. Her face lit like a lightbulb when she saw them.

"Ohmygosh! Thanks Flux! I needed a new pair of flight goggles!" she said, giving me a hug.

"Cloud, I think you missed the best part. When I said I had something put on it to make it yours, I meant it. Take a look at the headband closer." I said. She took a peek at the headband again, noticing something written in black thread, spelling out Cloudracer.

"Thanks Flux, now I don't have to worry about anybody swiping my goggles any more!" she said, giving me another hug.

Things got really weird after that moment. For about five or so seconds, the entire world went white, like those objects I see often. All the sounds of the world stopped. I was the only thing I could see that wasn't white. Then, the world returned, disorienting and nearly blinding me for a second. I looked around, trying to clear my vision, when I saw a few white ponies in places they probably should not be, such as halfway in the ground or a building, objects in locations they shouldn't be, like an apple cart suspended in the sky, and a house almost in the ground. The entire world looked like discord had come back. Some of the white ponies were moving, but they didn't move their legs. They just sort of floated. I got the feeling that none of this was real. Suddenly, I found myself standing in the most awkward position, inside a tube dimly lit by a little screen of sorts. The screen had some text on it which I could bart make out. From what I could tell, the screen said:

 "ERROR 203: SIMULATION ERROR. RESTARTING SIMULATION FROM LATEST SAVE POINT: 19:40_15.5.3076.SAV.

RELOADING TEXTURES FROM MAIN...

RELOADING OBJECTS...

PLACING OBJECTS...

STARTING SIMULATION...

INJECTING USER INTO SIMULATION AT POS (201,786,471)..."

I was suddenly back in front of Cloudracer's house,  just after I had told her about the writing on the band. She gave me a hug again.

"Cloud, you wanna try those out?" I asked.

"Sure, but how are you going to see me?" she said.

"You see those clouds over there? Let me cast a cloudwalking spell and take me to them." I said, my horn lighting up as I cast a spell.

"Okay!" she said, grabbing me and lifting me up to the clouds I was pointing at.

"Show me some tricks, Cloud!" I said. She nodded and did some loops and spins.

"Wow Flux, these are great! They are the best thing I've ever gotten! Thanks Flux!" she said.

"Only the best for birth...." I started. I didn't get to finish my sentence as I was suddenly back in the pod. The screen had a different message this time.

"ERROR 200: SYSTEMS FAILURE.

TRANSFERRING ALL USER DATA TO SYSTEM DELTA.

TRANSFERRING USER TO SYSTEM DELTA.

TRANSFERRING USER DATA TO SYSTEM DELTA.

LOADING SIMULATION ON SYSTEM DELTA...

LOADING LATEST SAVE POINT: 19:50_15.5.3076.SAV.

STARTING SIMULATION...

INJECTING USER INTO SIMULATION AT POS (250,800,553)...