Rejected Memories

Rejected Memories Chapter Six - Disaster

I got out of my terminal and went back into the simulation. Cloudracer was waiting for me, sitting in the same position she had been in when I had gone to my terminal, and almost jumped when I started speaking.

"Corrupt." I said.

"What?"

"His name, if it is a he, is corrupt." I told her, not really interested in speaking.

"Well, can we do anything to get out of the simulation into the real world?" she asked.

"The pods are locked down, we can't get out of them if we tried. Corrupt would have to release them from his side, but if I can get him to let everybody out, we will just have to get everybody into the menu." I told her, trying to explain it without making it too complicated.

"Well, do you want to go for a walk and think about how we're going to do that?" she asked, trotting over to the door.

"Sure, why not?"

Outside...

We were walking around, admiring the many "sights" in ponyville, when we spotted Lyra and Bon Bon sitting on a park bench. As Cloud and I walked past them, they disappeared. About twenty other ponies disappeared from the park at almost the same time.

"Something is going on. It doesn't feel right. I'll go to the menu and check with corrupt." I said, the menu appearing in front of me. I noticed loud banging and crashing of metal I could hear. I tapped "messaging", and then I tapped "CORRUPT". A keyboard appeared, allowing me to type.

"what going on? respond quick - TF"

I tapped send, and a message informing me that the message was successfully sent appeared. A chime sounded around thirty seconds later. A new icon appeared, with a letter. I tapped it and was greeted with a message.

"Massive structure failure. More than 35 ponies dead. System damaged. Might have to speed that ejection up, make sure you and your marefriend are ready. Contact me when you want to be ejected. - C"

I tapped back and then went back to the simulation.

"Oh god." was all I could say.

"What?! Don't hold info if something is wrong, Time!"

"Thirty five. Thirty five ponies dead. We're leaving the simulation with anybody we can get in the next day. Get everypony you can. We're leaving the pods." I told her, not looking up.

"Go! Get as many ponies as you can in a day! We are going to need all of them!" and with that, she ran off. I ran to my house and I told my family. Of course, they didn't believe me, but I just had to tell everybody.

That night...

I laid on my bed, thinking about the next day. I had to make sure over fifty ponies didn't make too much chaos. That would be fun. I fell asleep, clutching my old doll from when I was just a foal.

The next day...

I met with Cloud in the park. She gave me the approval and I told Corrupt that we were ready. Not more than ten seconds later, I was in my pod. The screen displayed a message.

"Simulation for user FLUXUATION terminated. Ejecting pod..."

And with that, the lid of the pod made a satisfying "pshhhhh" sound, and lifted slowly. It opened to display a pod directly across from me, with what appeared to be a name tag on it. The tag read "Power Fluxuation". My father. I looked to my left and saw what looked like a terminal. I walked over to it, and it displayed me with a rather dusty login screen. I typed in "FLUXUATION" as my username and "password" as my password. It surprisingly worked. I was shown the screen I saw in the pod, so I tapped "Messaging" with my hoof. I wrote off a quick message to Corrupt.

"I'm out. Mind ejecting everypony else with Fluxuation in their name? - TF"

I waited. Almost as if on cue, my parents' pods made a sound like decompressing and opened. They stepped out.

"What the hay?" my father said, rubbing his head with his hoof.

"You're out of the simulation. Welcome to the real world. Let me see where we should be going. While I do that, get everypony else back here." I instructed, trotting over to the terminal again and sending another message.

"Where go? -TF"

I got a fast response.

"Follow the floor. I'll light the path. Hurry. Not much time. - C"

"EVERYPONY! FOLLOW THE DIRECTION OF THE FLOOR! GO!" I yelled, following the line on the floor. After about five minutes of walking, I found Cloudracer. We ran together to the end of the line, where a door slid open, revealing a pony at a terminal.

"Oh good! You are finally here! We have to leave. This whole place is going to come down in less than a day. I'll activate the lights leading to the exit so that we don't have to direct them out. My real name is Undefined Variable, by the way. But please, just call me Varrie." the mare said, standing up. She had a green coat and a green and black mane.

"Do you two want to see the outside while we wait for everypony? Be warned though, it's not what it was in the simulation..." she warned. We walked to her, and then outside.

We were on a cliff above Canterlot. The town was almost destroyed, falling off of the mountain. Ponyville was nothing but a crater. There were craters everywhere.

"By the way, Celestia is dead." Varrie said.

"One was made for the simulation, but the real one has been dead for ten years. Only Luna remains, and she should be up momentarily."