Lisa Garnet rested her head on her seatbelt, teetering in and out of slumber as the car rumbled down the road. Her little brother, Timothy, slept soundly beside her in his baby seat.
She yawned, taking a drowsy glance out the window at the white-dusted nighttime landscape stretching on for miles around. Smiling, she closed her eyes again, leaning back in her seat. Winter was always her favorite time of year, and this one was no exception.
The girl opened her eyes again, turning to stare at the frosty window beside her with a small grin. With a finger, she reached over to the frigid glass, smearing a fat line into the condensation. More lines followed after it, twisting and turning and connecting themselves to each other until a crude finger-painted picture had formed within the window’s borders.
Lisa smiled at her drawing, and her drawing smiled back in all its scribbled glory, the faint sparkle of the stars twinkling through the lines. A crude image of a unicorn sat on full display to all who saw the girl’s window, but rapidly began to fade in its struggle against the winter air’s unending chill.
“Lisa,” the girl’s mother reminded from the front, “don’t draw on the car’s windows, remember? You’ll leave oil marks all over from your fingers.”
“Oh. Oh yeah, okay!” Lisa chirped, wiping away at the unicorn-embellished window with her sleeve. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s alright. We’ve got about half an hour more before we get home. Why don’t you take a nap?”
Lisa nodded, curling up against her younger brother’s baby seat as she nestled herself inside her puffy winter jacket. With a final yawn, she closed her eyes, drifting off into her dreams.
A filly Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, staring silent with wonder as she stepped out of her room in Canterlot Castle. Newly-chosen as Celestia’s personal student, she had much still to discover about her new life as a student.
She rounded a corner, concentrating as she imagined what the hallway ahead would look like. Sure enough, the exact hallway in mind came into being; a long, wide corridor lined with pillars stretched out before the filly, a path clearly marked through the hall by a plush red carpet.
“Oh, there you are, Twilight!” a friendly voice greeted from behind her.
Twilight turned to face her mentor, an enthusiastic grin rapidly growing across her face.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight squeaked, hugging the alicorn’s foreleg, “did you miss me while I was gone?”
The Princess stooped down, returning the hug on her student. “Of course I did, Twilight,” she replied, picking up the filly in her magic. “now tell me, what fun things did you do today?”
Twilight squirmed in the Princess’s magic before dropping onto Celestia’s back.
She quickly climbed over her mentor’s eternally-flowing mane, peeking over Celestia’s crown before answering.
“Well,” she began, still dangling her hooves over Celestia’s eyes, “today at school, I built a snowman during recess!”
She paused for a moment, thinking of her day.
“Ooh, an-and I spent some more time playing virtual reality games with Professor Argall!”
Celestia brushed aside her student’s hooves, setting her back down on the ground with a warm smile. “That sounds fun!” she replied, “Did you make any new friends?”
Twilight’s smile drooped a little.
“No,” she shook her head, “it was just me and Samantha again. Ooh, do you want to meet her sometime?”
The Princess shook her head. “I’m sorry Twilight. I can’t,” she apologized, “remember?”
“O… oh,” Twilight sighed, “Oh…”
Celestia pat her student on the head.
“Don’t be sad, Twilight. You still have friends here!”
“Mm-hmm!” Twilight agreed.
“And besides,” Celestia continued, walking her student to a window, “here, you can make anything you could ever imagine!”
An infinite stretch of nothing filled Twilight’s view from the window – a blank canvas of sorts – ready for her to fill it with anything she wanted.
“This is your world, your dream, Twilight,” Celestia reminded the filly, “Keep working on it, and we might just have something beautiful on our hooves.”
Twilight smiled. “I know, I will!” she beamed, giggling as she received another pat on the head.
“Now Twilight, it’s about time you wake up.”
Lisa stirred in her sleep, turning over to the other side of her seat.
“Lizzy?” her father began from the front, “You cold back there? I could turn up the heat a bit.”
Lisa opened a groggy eye, squinting in the light streaming through the windshield. Slowly, she shook her head.
“Alrighty then,” Lisa’s father responded, “Just tell me if you’re co-HOLY MOTHER OF—"
It was like time had slowed to a crawl.
First came the screech of tires. Then came the groaning crunch of metal-on-metal. In a matter of seconds Lisa’s life was turned on its head… literally.
Lisa jolted awake as the car heaved upward, striking head-on with a wrong-way driver. Bits and pieces of glass and metallic shards flew past the girl as she grabbed her seatbelt in one hand, and her little brother’s seat with the other.
The car slid on its roof for a few more seconds, careening into the busy highway lanes to the right and ricocheting off another car before grinding to a halt, bumping against the car that originally struck it.
Lisa coughed in the cloud of debris and dust, brushing her tangled hair from her face. From her peripheral vision, she caught sight of her parents.
Baby Timothy wailed in his overturned baby seat as the smell of ozone began to fill the frigid air.
“Mom?”
“Dad?”
Silence. Though, a flickering yellow-orange had begun to catch beyond the windshield. Lisa’s eyes widened as she yelled again.
“Hello?”
The pounding of heavy boots thumped on the ground just beyond Lisa’s window as she caught sight of the other car’s driver. He took a few more wobbly steps before collapsing on the road face-first, a pockmarked beer can still in his grasp.
A bead of sweat rolled up her face as she felt the heat of the fire grow closer.
“Mom!” she could hear herself scream, “Mom! Are you okay?!”
Nothing but the growing crackle of flames.
Lisa grunted, struggling to unfasten her seatbelt as her booster seat began to slip out, held in place only by Lisa herself. She winced as a trickle of warm red began to run down her arm as her hand slipped against the edge of her seat.
Timothy continued his crying, choking and spitting up over himself from dangling upside-down like his sister.
The clatter of footsteps echoed into the overturned car. One by one, unfamiliar faces and hands began to enter the girl’s vision.
Lisa squirmed some more, tears flowing from her eyes. “HELP!” she yelled, still bound to her seat as the flames inched closer, “I… I don’t want to die…”
One of the faces vanished from view.
“We’ve got a survivor!” somebody shouted from beyond, “Anyone got a way to pry the door open?”
Flashes of blue and red rapidly filled Lisa’s vision as sirens wailed from all around.
“Hand me that jack!” the same voice from earlier shouted.
The other driver’s legs began to lift as he was dragged away.
“Leave the drunk dude to the police.” Another voice scolded.
The dragging stopped as a whump sounded from the man’s legs dropping again to the ground.
Another face appeared, shining a flashlight into the shattered remains of Lisa’s window, peering first at Lisa, then to her brother. It disappeared moments later.
“We’ve got two!” they shouted, pushing themselves off the ground with a grunt, “One’s already passed out from the smoke, focus on him first!”
Lisa felt her heart racing in her chest as she turned to Timothy. No more crying, no more flailing of his little arms and legs.
“TIMMY!” Lisa’s voice echoed into the flames, “Tim, hang in there!”
Wide-eyed, she returned to her struggle against her seatbelt. An audible click rung out as she came loose, falling onto the ceiling of the car. She turned her back to the crackling fire growing closer to them. Another tear rolled down her face as she hurriedly fumbled with Timothy’s seatbelt. She shot a wary glance behind her shoulder at her parents as they began to be enveloped by flame.
No.
No, her mind screamed again.
NO.
“NO!” Lisa screamed, turning back and clawing at her brother’s seatbelt. “NO NO NO NO!”
She didn’t sense the door beside her being hacked off. She screamed again as she was pulled away by the hood of her jacket.
The chilly winter air hit her with all its might, the wind accented by the crackling fire and groaning metal as she watched her limp brother being pulled from the other side of the car, a cut seatbelt still dangling around his torso.
She felt the blood rushing away from her head as she was set on a waiting medical cot. From her darkening vision, she could see the plume of jet-black smoke drifting high into the sky.
“Twilight?”
“Twi-light?”
The filly groaned, pushing herself up from her plush bed. She stared at the empty doorway.
“Twiiii-liiiight…” the voice began again.
Sitting up, Twilight peered around the room. Nothing. She turned back to the doorway, squinting as she focused on a strange darkened spot in the hardwood floor.
The dark spot on the floor spontaneously combusted, leading to the filly yelping in surprise as she charged her horn.
The flames only grew bigger as it consumed every magical defense Twilight could erect. It grew bigger and bigger by the second, consuming first the doorway, then the walls, then her desk.
Soon, Twilight found herself clinging to her bedsheets, surrounded by the raging inferno around her.
“Help!” she cried out, “Celestia, help!”
The golden aura of her mentor’s magic enveloped the fire as Celestia stepped into the room, seemingly unharmed by the flames as they fizzled out around her.
“Celestia!” Twilight sniffed, lunging at the alicorn and burying her face in Celestia’s chest as she held back her tears to speak, “I… it was horrible… there was a big fire and a crash and me and my little brother were upside down an-and—”
“Shh,” the Princess soothed, brushing Twilight’s back with a hoof, “It’s over now, Twilight. You’re safe here. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
The filly sniffed again, backing away from Celestia to get a good look at her mentor and friend.
A flicker of light ran before her eyes with a shrill beep, and everything went black.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Lisa groaned, rubbing her eyes with her hand. She winced as she felt an abrasive cast around her left hand rather than her soft fingers. Pausing, she opened her eyes, staring at the cast, then to the IV tube running from her arm.
Beep.
She turned her head, staring at the machines monitoring her vitals.
Beep.
She closed her eyes again.
Beep.
Open.
Beep.
Mom. Lisa’s thoughts screamed, Dad. Timothy… did you make it?
She flinched as a bright light flashed past her room’s window, a glaring blue-white as an airlifted patient arrived in the next building over.
Beep.
“MOM!” she shouted, arching her back as she strained against the padded cot, “MOM! DAD! I’M HERE! MOOOM! DAAAD!”
She felt her eyes moisten as glistening tears began to spill onto her pillow.
“…Timmy…” she whispered, surrendering herself back to the cot. “I hope you’re okay…”
Beep.
An orange-yellow light lit up her room, emanating from the lonely monitor Lisa sat in front of. She let out a small huff, resting her chin on her hand as she scrolled through the seemingly endless list of files.
Outside, something rattled as a gust of wind whipped past her house.
Lisa glanced up, staring at the window beside her bed. With a sad smile, she stood up from her chair, reaching a finger out as she walked around her bed, pressing it to the foggy window. A few seconds passed as she wiped her finger around the oily window.
The girl sat back down with a whump on her bed, staring silently at the starlit unicorn she’d drawn on her window.
“Twilight Sparkle,” she mouthed, turning and climbing back over her bed to her office chair. It creaked as she pulled it over, sitting back down in it and spinning to the screen.
She paused, her hand hovering over the mouse as she stared at the dusty image of her family.
Just me… she sighed, shaking her head. Mom and dad are gone, and Timmy’s with the neighbors now… has it really already been five years?
Lisa lowered her head back to the glowing screen, pulling the grid of files aside as she clicked on a program.
Starting Pony-Me simulation framework, alpha build 4.21a. Please connect your headset and controller.
The words lingered on the screen as the girl fumbled under her desk for the aforementioned items.
A knock sounded at her door, startling her.
“Lisa?” A man’s voice yawned from behind the closed door, “Are you still awake?”
“Yeah,” Lisa answered, sitting back up with a game controller and a folding headset, “I am. Why’d you ask?”
A man – Professor Argall, opened the door, stepping into the room as he squinted in the bright light of Lisa’s screen.
“I just got back from work, Lisa. You know how late it is.”
“I…” Lisa took a wavering breath. “I know. I just wanted to—”
Argall’s eyes turned to the headset as his face softened.
“I understand,” he nodded, turning away. “If you need me, I’ll be downstairs.”
The door shut with a click as her father’s old friend – and now her adoptive parent – shut the door.
She turned her attention back to the headset on her desk, then to the message on the screen.
Please connect your headset and controller.
She readily complied, flicking a switch on first the headset, then her controller. A pair of tiny blue lights flickered in the dark as they paired with her computer. Soon enough, the message faded away, replaced a splash screen. Lisa smiled as she spot her own name in the corner.
Copyright © Lisa Garnet, Samantha Hayes, Yazhu Argall. TechSIG, LLC.
“My own reality.” She whispered to herself, slipping the headset over her eyes.
Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, gasping silently as her vision was filled with the bright morning light of day.
“Welcome back, Twilight,” Celestia smiled warmly, “how was your day?”
