Into Equestria (Legacy Edition)by TheMajorTechieChaptersDive in.The past still lingers.Something lurks;The fractures grow,Reaching deeper.Get started.Dive in."Twilight?" "Yes?" "What are your thoughts on taking on a student of your own?" Twilight Sparkle raised a brow, cocking her head at Lisa. Lisa gestured at the view of Equestria before her. "I mean, with Samantha and I being so busy these days, we hardly have time anymore to catch up on things! I've come a long way since we were one and the same, y'know?" "...Yeah, I suppose. Though, where would we even start? I've only been the new ruler of Equestria for so long, do you really think I can start taking students so soon?" Lisa shrugged. "Yeah, why wouldn't I? You've definitely grown quite a bit since the whole disconnection fiasco ended up splitting us apart, and with Celestia retired, I'd say that it'd be pretty neat to continue the tradition she started of taking on personal students." "You mean the tradition you made up for Celestia," Twilight snorted, faking a glare at her counterpart. Lisa chuckled. "What I'm saying is, Samantha and I have reopened the old classes we ourselves took. You know, the ones that kinda sorta maybe led to Equestria being created?" "Yeah, yeah," Twilight rolled her eyes, smiling. "Continue?" "As I was saying, we have classes of our own now. Quite a few of our students are getting pretty far into the program, too; If I remember correctly, we’ve got a few that are even studying the same curriculum Samantha and I did when we were their age! So, I was thinking, what if we offered some of our own students access to Equestria? We haven't opened up registrations in quite a while according to Professor Argall, so now would be a great time to introduce the next generation to VR! …Heck, who knows? Maybe one day one of 'em might even end up replacing both me and you! It's amazing how fast the younger kids pick up on things these days." "...Three." "Hm?" Lisa cocked her head. "Let's try things out first with only three of your students. I don't want to be overwhelmed, and I'd honestly prefer the same hands-off approach as Celestia when it comes to teaching." Lisa smiled, holding out a hand. "Deal." Elise Fairchild yawned, staring half-awake at the completed worksheet in front of her. "Ellie?" she heard her mom call from the hallway, "Ellie, I almost forgot to tell you something. You know those after-school classes you used to take with some of your friends over at the big tech building near your school?" "...Yeah?" "Did you get the email I forwarded to you about them opening registrations for their virtual reality networks to students?" The girl blinked, squinting at her computer screen. She heard her door open behind her. "You done with homework, honey?" She glanced up, watching her mom set a flyer on her desk. "I printed out the email as well just in case. You think you'd be interested in something like this? I know you look up to the young woman who runs those classes." Elise pulled the flyer closer, reading over it. The title alone certainly caught her attention, being front and center at the top of the page in bold. It seemed like the company that ran these simulations were looking to recruit new members to their team—and recruit them right out of the classroom, at that. Of course, it was only open to the top-performing students. “Are you interested?” The list of perks was also rather interesting—it was pretty well-paying for something that hired directly out of the classroom, and there was even a dedicated amount of leisure time set aside for spending time in the simulations. In fact, this wasn’t only an advertisement for the reopening of registrations, it was one for job openings! “Mom. Did you even read it over yourself before you sent it to me?” Her mom gave a half-nod, shrugging a little at the same time. “I skimmed over it, though I wanted you to take a look at it first.” “Th-this…” she stuttered, pulling the flyer closer, “They’re offering me a job.” “Really now.” Elise handed back the flyer. “Mom,” she continued, “They’re hiring new interns from the classes they held. They want people like me to come back in and work for them. Do… do you think I should try applying?” Her mom smiled, pushing her daughter’s hand away. “As long as you can manage the work, Ellie. If you think you can balance your homework with a job, then go right ahead.” She stood for a few more moments beside Elise, reading over the flyer herself before turning away. “I’ll be downstairs if you need anything. Take some time to decide whether or not you want to apply for the job.” Elise stood at the entrance of TechSIG headquarters, the flyer printout still in hand. For all intents and purposes, the name of the company seemed to stick out like a sore thumb to her. It sounded too… corporate for what they did. She stared upward at the glass-wrapped levels that towered above her. Now wasn’t the time to worry about little things like the name of a company. “Hello there!” The doors in front of her opened. Another girl around her age stepped out, waving. She was also holding a mug of some sort, but that was beside the point. “I’m Zoey Ascher, intern and front-desk girl,” she grinned, holding out her hand to Elise. “Are you here for the job application?” Elise tensed up, nodding as she clutched the flyer tighter. “Great!” Zoey cheered, grabbing Elise by the hand. “C’mon then, follow me. I think you might actually be the first person to come today, in fact. Though, that’s probably ‘cause it’s Saturday and all, but still!” What was she doing? Everything around her blurred into a rush of shapes and colors. She’d only had a passing interest in the things she learned last summer here, and here she was, applying for a job! Would this be the path she took in life? Was she really even ready yet for any of this? “Just wait here,” Zoey smiled, gesturing to a row of chairs lining the wall. She paused, staring into her mug. “Huh. Out of hot chocolate again. Anyway, either Lisa or Samantha are gonna interview you sometime soon. I gotta get back now to the front desk, so see ya!” The past still lingers.Author's Note Well, here we go. A chapter a day 'till we run out of the old chapters. Meanwhile, I'm only 700 words into a new chapter 1. The past still lingers. Lisa Garnet sat at her desk, eyes fixed to the screen. It’d been only a handful of years since she left Equestria, and another decade, give or take a year or two, on top of that since she first entered. By all accounts, those were things that were done and gone—left to the past. Even then, not everything could simply be left behind. The launcher program flashed a loading bar across the display. She looked over her shoulder, rolling her chair to the door and flipping the switch. Darkness bathed the office. Returning to her desk, she reached over, smiling as the strap of a headset came into contact with her fingers. “Five minutes,” she muttered to herself, slipping the device over her face. “Just five minutes today.” She felt her vision go dark for a moment, before fading back in with her new surroundings. Rebecca Waterman blinked, looking down at the cup in her hands. It took a moment for things to catch up and sync. “Oh, I was drinking this, wasn’t I?” she chuckled, downing the contents. Caleb ran down the stairs, stopping at the sight of his older sister. “Oh? There you are! I was wondering why you were taking so long to get a drink!” “Kinda blanked out for a bit, that’s all,” Rebecca walked past, ruffling his hair. “You need any help on your homework?” He shook his head. “’Kay then. Just ask if you do!” She climbed the stairs, stopping at the top. Today was a Saturday, she remembered; her parents would for sure be home right now. She rushed back down the stairs, nearly tripping Caleb in the process. She spotted her mom sitting on the couch, and— “Five minutes,” Lisa whispered, slowly pushing the headset back up. “That was all…” She shook her head, replacing the headset on the shelf. Even if she was mostly only taking a backseat to her new character’s AI, it was still more than nothing. She had parents. They… they weren’t necessarily real, but all that mattered to her was that it felt real. She could feel some tears welling up in her eyes, and wiped them away before any could fall. Five minutes was all she needed. Five, sometimes ten minutes in her own little reality, where all that mattered was her. Lisa turned back to her screen, greeted by the waiting eyes of Twilight Sparkle. The light on the webcam turned on. “Do you feel happier now?” “…Yes. Yes, I think I do.” Elise felt her eyelids drooping as she scrolled through yet another article. It was yet another one on the strange reappearance of Lisa Garnet after seemingly disappearing off the face of the Earth for almost a decade. The top rumor was that she’d somehow become trapped in her own invention early on, similar to what happened with her friend Samantha a few years following the disappearance. Was that the reason why Lisa acted so strange? Had her mentality somehow been warped by the amount of time she’d spent in the simulation? Sure, there was also this mysterious group of people who supposedly connected early on into the history of the simulations and never came out, but… She facepalmed. It was so obvious! Lisa was in the simulations! How else would she have returned right after a group of simulations reported a network outage? Or… maybe that was just how she acted. There were very few articles talking about Lisa’s past directly. Most of them more or less focused on her work, with some featuring the retired Professor Argall alongside some variant of a headline talking about his refusal to answer journalists’ questions. Elise sunk into her seat. How was it possible that she was the first of three to be picked by such a mysterious woman? She wasn’t anything special. Her grades, sure, were a little above average, but she had… two? Three people she really even considered friends? Surely it wasn’t popularity that’d won her the spot. And she wasn’t even all that into virtual reality, either! She just had a passive interest in science and tech, that’s all. What did Lisa and Samantha see in her that made her so special? She went back a page, scrolling down and clicking another article link. This one was probably like all the rest—theorizing about Lisa’s origins and past, talking about her ties to the company and its founders, things like that. Wait. She leaned closer to the screen, furrowing her brows as she read the headline. “Her parents are dead?” Well, that certainly explained a bit. Why wasn’t that ever mentioned in the earlier articles? Elise shook her head. She was putting too much thought into this. People kept telling her to focus on what mattered, and digging into the life of her idol didn’t particularly matter… nor did really anything else she did, she supposed. Just another face in the crowd, another name in the yearbook—that’s what she was. Maybe she should take a look at the simulation Lisa was pushing for her to make a character for. So long as she could work by herself, or at the very least only with Lisa, she’d be fine with joining in. Friendship was overrated, anyway. Something lurks;The door slammed open, rattling the room and its inhabitants. The woman glared at the pair lounging on the couches, shaking her head before walking past. "Fired again, Night? You know, you could always, y'know, go int--" "Shut up, Wildcat. I've heard enough today," she tucked a stray, electric-blue hair behind her ear. "I swear, one of these days—" Night clenched her fists— "One of these days, we'll get 'em, starting with that one blasted company." Wildcat rolled his eyes. The oversized pullover beside him shifted. "Yeah, like that's ever worked. Two hits, and the whole operation fell apart. We’re low on money, too. You'd think that with someone like you leading this whole thing, we'd actually be able to get something do—." Night whirled around, pointing at the pile of clothes. "That goes for you too, Pretty Lady. Do not question my authority. Get back to work." "Unlike you?" Night shot a death glare at her subordinate. "Git." Pretty Lady sighed, pulling back her hood to reveal a headset. "Already on it. At least somebody has been putting in their effort for the cause." Deep within the Everfree Forest, the ground began to warp. A deep indentation began to form, swallowing up nearby trees and stones as it grew. A pony flickered into existence above the hole, sparks running across her body. “Huh. Neat. That’s one more way to get in. I suppose now’s a better time than ever to actually get something done. I’ve messed around for long enough.” The hole vanished without a trace, allowing the pony to land on the ground. She glanced around for a bit, taking in their surroundings; heavy foliage, far from civilization—a perfect place to begin. Smirking, the pony stomped a hoof on the ground. A nearby tree lifted, rising up into the air without any trace of an aura holding it. But that was enough horseplay. Night wants someone to infiltrate the simulations? She could do one better than that. After all, she’d earned herself the nickname ‘Pretty Lady’ for a reason. Infiltrating was the least she could do, with what she knew. Green flames ignited at her hooves, inching their way up her body in a ring, leaving in their wake a mare whose looks could rival even best of Equestria’s own. Her pristine mane fell into perfect little curls, complementing the light curves of her body. This was what consistently caught the eyes of the nobility. She’d be the unassuming beauty; the pearl of the city; the innocent young mare—all for the sake of farming the information she sought from the clueless ponies of Equestria. And her first stop? Ponyville. She focused on a teleport. She didn’t have a horn at the moment, nor did she need one. With her target in mind, she let loose a torrent of mana, leaving a small crater in her place. The floating tree crashed to the ground without a sound. Pretty Lady landed softly in front of the Cutie Map room. Twilight didn’t appear to be home at the moment, based on the fact that no frantic alicorn had teleported in just yet. Either way, it took quite some time to learn the ins and outs of the simulations just to get here, and she wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip. She cupped a hoof to her ear, mirroring her movements in real-life. “We clear?” “Clear. Go ahead, Pretty Lady.” “Alright. I can take the job myself. The rest of you can have some time off.” She lowered her hoof, taking in her surroundings. Given the castle’s composition, a simple explosion would probably do well enough to level the place. And unlike in real life, here she had as many resources as she wanted. An explosive charge materialized before her. A smirk grew across her face. “Let’s raze this place.” “Lisa!” Samantha stuck her head into her friend’s office. “Lisa, what are you doing? Didn’t you hear what happened?” Lisa shook her head. “No, I was running through the last two students just a few minutes ago. Hopefully they’ll be good friends for Ellie, you think?” “No, no—I mean, yes! But that’s not what matters right now! Pull up a viewport for the simulations, will ya?” “O…okay?” Lisa reached over, clicking on an icon. “I don’t understand what you’re freaking out so much abo—” Smoke filled her screen. A chunk of crystal tumbled to the ground off to the side, splintering into thousands of tiny fragments. “…O-oh. That… that’s not good, is it?” The fractures grow,Lisa’s eyes remained locked to the screen. “I… how—how did this happen? I thought we made sure that environment damage was disabled on the castle!” A light buzz came from Samantha’s pocket. She pulled out her phone, reading through the message. Closing her eyes, she set the device screen-down on the table. “Another attack.” “Another?” Lisa gasped, “Where is it? Ponyville? Canterlot?” “Neither. It’s not in Equestria. Whatever it is that’s happening is being spread across multiple simulations.” Lisa hook her head, her breathing growing frantic. “Here, I’ll call in the students. They can help us in this…this—" She reached for her phone. “Are you serious, Lis? You want three kids no older than… what— Thirteen? Fourteen? —to join into the simulations with full privileges?” Lisa nodded. “They’re the top three of our classes. I mean, sure, they never exactly met, being in different sessions of the same class, but still… they’re gonna be our best bet. You, me, and them—we’ll go into Equestria and wherever else that got hit, fix things up, and come back out. Easy as that. And it’ll be a great way to get them to know each other, too!” Samantha pursed her lips, drumming her fingers on the table. “I’m still not quite sure about this, Lis. We’re talking about at least one person who has backdoor access to the simulations. It doesn’t exactly help that we aren’t able to track them, either. Heck, it could very well be someone inside this building!” “Which is why I’m calling them up. Get some techs on call to shut down the networks entirely.” “But they hardly have any experience in the simulations! Wouldn’t you be putting them at risk by doing this?” Lisa nodded again. “I know that, and yes. But what matters most right now is keeping any more damage from happening. Student or not, I’ll make sure nobody caught up in this is harmed.” Elise shifted in her seat, glancing between the two boys sat beside her. Were these really the two others that got in besides her? They… weren’t exactly the kind of people she expected to see in a place like this. Especially given how they were panic-called to the building by Lisa herself. Speaking of whom, Lisa stood at the front of the room, a nervous grin plastered across her face. She twitched, taking a deep breath. “Now, I know this isn’t quite the best way to get everyone familiar with each other, but… we kinda have an emergency on our hands. Boys, between you is Elise. Be nice to her, alright? And Elise, that is Damian and Robert to your left and right, respectively. Alright, introductions over! Let’s get on with why we’re here so soon. “Someone has been—is launching an attack on our networks. We’re still not exactly sure how or why they’re doing it, but the fact stands that even under a full lockdown on our servers, we can’t be sure whether or not any further breaches may be happening. I know you three are technically still only students, but much of the rest of the people we have in the company are caught up in keeping track of just about everything entering and leaving the company. Outside of them, you three are our best bet, and if we really have to, we…” she paused abruptly, clearing her throat. “We might have to pull in the rest of your classes.” One of the boys—Damian, raised a hand. “What about Miss Samantha? What’s she doing right now?” “She’s currently busy working with the rest of the company to keep things from spiraling out of control… if… if you couldn’t tell, we’re all a little on-edge at the moment.” Lisa drew in a breath. “Now, I know it’s a little soon to be doing this, but I’d like for the three of you to join me in the simulations. While Samantha helps patch up whatever holes she finds in our security, us four will be fixing up the damage that was done.” Damian raised his hand again. “Wouldn’t it be a better idea to just restore a backup of the locations affected?” Elise nodded. He did have a point. Though, Lisa quickly countered with her response. “I did consider doing that, but… it’d kinda sorta break the immersion of the simulation for anyone around. And… wait, admin rights to restore the thing would probably just be the same thing, and…” Lisa trailed off into a mumble. “…you know what? You’re right. I’ll… I’ll just go make sure that nobody’s gonna get trapped in a wall or anything from restoring a backup, and then I’ll… uh, restore a backup. Elise, watch over the boys for me, ‘kay? It shouldn’t take me too long.” She wandered out of the room without another word. The door clicked shut. Robert let out a loud snore. Damian elbowed Elise. “So… you like anime?” That was probably the most awkward moment in Elise’s day. Pretty Lady watched her monitor, swiveling the mic down on her headphones. “How’s the progress going? You hit the backups like I instructed? Night had absolutely no idea that they even had backups when I brought it up to her.” “Yes, yes,” a voice replied, “We poked around and managed to get into an offsite datacenter, and while you were busy, we junked their on-sites. Can you believe the on-site backups were on the same servers as the main data?” Pretty Lady smirked. “And tell me, how did you and the others get into their datacenter?” The voice chuckled heartily. “You know well what you were doing when you bought that stash of social security numbers. Beyond that, it was really just a matter of an ambush or two before we could rush the place. Of course, nobody was killed in the process, as you prefer. Would you like to hold them for ransom? It would certainly bring in some much-needed cash if it succeeds.” “Nah, no ransoms. All that’d bring is more trouble. What matters is that they don’t recognize you all. I presume you were all disguised?” “As best as we could.” “Good. Pull back and lay low for some time. Your job is done for now.” She hung up, placing her phone back on the table. Elise grumbled under her breath while Damian pestered Robert. Lisa had only been gone for some five or so minutes, and already it seemed like they’d spent hours in the same room as each other. Looking down, she picked up her backpack. There wasn’t any sense in staying if she wasn’t going to be doing anything. “For the last time, Damian, I’m not Japanese!” It certainly seemed like they were getting along. The door opened before she reached it. Lisa stepped into the room, visibly more anxious than when she left. “Our backups are gone. Both the on-site and offsite arrays were hit at some point or another. We… we can’t restore anything without the risk of importing corrupted data. The best I could find were some old flash drives in my desk drawer from several years ago.” By now, the two boys had stopped bickering. Damian raised his hand again. “So, I’m guessing we’ll be connecting after all, then?” Lisa nodded, but otherwise remained silent. It must’ve been hard for her, seeing so much of your work wiped in under a day. Even if it was only a few locations in the simulations, the fact that there weren’t any backups certainly made the possibility of another attack that much more threatening. Elise glanced back to her new classmates. If anything, they looked excited to join in. Weren’t they worried in any way about the whole ordeal? Sure, it was still more or less a game of sorts, but this was real danger they were dealing with, regardless of whether or not they could actually be physically harmed while they were connected. “L-Lisa?” she mumbled, tugging on her mentor’s sleeve, “How bad is it? Is… is there going to be a chance that it could happen again while we’re in the simulations?” “I don’t really know, Elise. I—” Lisa hung her head. “I never really expected for anything like this to happen. We planned out just about everything, from all the ethical implications down to what to serve in the cafeteria. I never imagined that we’d one day be the target of an attack as devastating as this.” “So, what do you think we should do then?” Lisa tensed up, curling her hands into fists. She turned to Elise, a determined smirk on her face. “We fight back.” Reaching deeper.Author's Note This is the final chapter of the old story. From here on out there will be no new chapters. I plan to publish the rewritten chapters in an entirely new story. In the meantime, happy reads! Reaching deeper. Rosanne Smith stood by the door, slipping into her jacket. “Goin’ already, Pretty Lady?” She nodded at Wildcat. With Night being rejected or flat-out fired so often from every job she picked up, somebody would need to step up and fill in the gaps. It wasn’t like she could rely on her parents for money anymore, either. Joining Night’s ragtag group was pretty much cut her off from the rest of her family, after all. “Bring home the leftovers.” Rosanne rolled her eyes. Sometimes, it felt more like she was the one leading the group. No matter—all the better to show up Night one day. Maybe she’d even have the opportunity to finally split with her and Wildcat… come back to the life she once had. She shook her head, reaching for the doorknob. She can’t be thinking these things, not when she was around Night or Wildcat! Rosanne shot a blank stare at the wall across from her. The dinner rush would be coming soon, and she’d have to keep herself awake until at least then. For now, though, the place was quiet. The door opened. “Do you serve burgers here?” the customer slammed the counter. “’Cause I feel like havin’ a burger right about now.” “And welcome to McNaldo’s to you too,” Rosanne deadpanned. “And no, we do not serve burgers. We are a pasta house.” The man stomped off, grumbling something about customer service under his breath. People like him were the driving force behind her frustration—could they even read? Of course this restaurant didn’t serve burgers! Sure, it was fast food still to some extent, but really? If you see a place advertising buttered noodles and a pad thai meal deal on its windows, you do not waltz in and ask if they’ve got burgers. He didn’t even look at the menu! Rosanne took a deep breath. The lengths she went to for a bit of money… and for what? Night? She couldn’t possibly spend the rest of her life working just for that idiot to splurge. And she still had her night job, too! But, they were the most stable jobs she’d had since she quit her old one. Night didn’t seem to know where to look when it came to jobs. It was almost as if she was trying to be hired into a position that’d be computerized within a month! Then again, that was probably how she proved her point. The door opened again. Another customer stepped up to the counter. “Hello,” Rosanne sighed, “What will be your order tonight?” “—and don’t forget to keep the strap tightened. We don’t use embedded transmitters anymore since they’re kinda intrusive, and we’re not using the full-body experience either, so if at any point the headset’s knocked off, your character’s gonna drop where they stand for a moment,” Lisa set her own headset over her eyes. “If at any point you feel that something’s wrong, tell me. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting for you.” Elise watched her mentor pick up a well-worn controller. Robert and Damian were already getting their own headsets strapped on, from the looks of it, so she probably should as well. In any case, it’d be the first time she’d ever encountered virtual reality. Sure, there were still the finicky phone-based options floating around the market, but that was mostly shovelware as far as anyone was concerned. She slipped the headset on. A light buzz lit up in the back of her mind for a moment before dying down. The dark screen inside faded to a viewfinder, allowing her to see her surroundings. Robert handed her a controller. “Um… thanks.” “No problem.” A light blinked on the controller, synchronizing with one in her periphery inside the headset. Black once again replaced her view. Twilight paced back and forth in front of the ruins of her castle. She paused, grumbling something under her breath before continuing. Even with the best protection spells she could cast, whoever… whatever it was that caused this was able to pulverize the structure like a sandcastle. Hay, given the revelations she had only a few years ago, it was quite likely that there was even an additional layer of protection on top of her spells… not that they actually worked, apparently. At any rate, she probably would begin rebuilding the castle herself! Something stirred under the rubble. Twilight’s ears perked at the noise. Spike she knew was safe, but… Her eyes widened. Lisa must’ve logged in! The last time she’d been in Equestria, she was in the castle! She burst into a trot, unfurling her wings and leaping into the ruins. A blinding glow emanated from among the crystalline shards, fading for a moment before the ground burst, letting loose an explosion that hurled fragments of the castle in every direction. Lisa stood at the center of the explosion, with three foals huddled behind her. “Y’know, you could’ve just teleported them out,” Twilight deadpanned, touching down in front of her counterpart. “Instead of… y’know, wrecking the place even more.” “Hey, it’s not like we’re here to fix it or anything. C’mon, Twilight. Cheer up a little!” “Mmm, about that,” Twilight hummed, “How many times has your home been blown sky-high?” “Yeah, yeah, I know about the whole thing with Tirek and stuff. You know that it never actually happened. Anyway, we’re not here to talk. Let’s rebuild!” The castle reappeared around them mere seconds later. Twilight blinked. “…Excuse me?” Lisa shrugged. “The backups might be gone for good, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some files myself.” “Then why did you bring the students with you?” “Meet and greet. Say hi, Elise!” Elise—Luster Dawn froze on hearing her name. Twilight facehoofed. “Lisa, we’ve talked about this. You’re slipping back to that old mentality again. You can’t just get whatever you want without consequences! Sure, some of those consequences were good ones—hay, I wouldn’t even exist without one of them—but still! One of these days, trying to force things to happen the way you want them to happen is going to hurt somebody.” She turned away from Lisa, disappearing down a hall. Get started.Elise fidgeted in her seat. The office space was a little cramped, to say the least; every foot of the room seemed to have some random doohickey or another laying around in it, and whatever the heck was sitting on the desk in front of her looked like it was clearly left half-finished the last time anyone touched it. A young woman poked her head into the room, a tablet in hand. “Oh, you’re here already!” she gasped, glancing down at the device. “Hold on just a moment while I get Samantha in here.” The door clicked shut, leaving Elise again to her thoughts. She still wasn’t quite sure if this would be the right choice for her. Was this really happening? Was she really about to be interviewed for a job when she didn’t even know what she wanted to do yet? The door opened again. “Good morning!” Elise looked up, locking eyes with who she presumed to be Samantha. “I’m guessing you’re trying for the job offer we pitched to you top-classers?” She nodded, lifting the printout a little higher for Samantha to see. Samantha grinned, stepping around and taking a seat behind her desk. “Great! You’re hired.” “Wait,” Elise made a face. “Wait what?” “You’re hired,” Samantha shrugged, lounging in her seat. “We know exactly what you’re prepared for already. You were in our classes, after all. Though, you did seem to space out every now and then. Most everyone else around here only joins when necessary for testing using generic test accounts.” “What about all the other people at the top of the class?” “You’re all getting jobs. Only three of you, however, will have a chance at unlimited simulation time, free of charge. ” “…Why three?” Elise frowned, glancing down at the printout. “I didn’t know that you were doing that. It wasn’t really anywhere on the flyer…” “It’s just a little extra something that Lisa threw into the mix. Didn’t really have much of a part in that idea myself.” Samantha tilted her head, seemingly focusing on something behind Elise. “In fact, there she is now! How’ve the projects been going, Lis?” “It’s been alright so far,” Lisa sighed, slumping into a seat beside Elise. She turned her head. “Here already? I wasn’t really expecting anyone to come so soon after I mailed out the flyers.” Once again, Elise held up the printout of the flyer. “…Elise. Your name’s Elise, right?” Lisa began, “You were the quiet kid in class. How would you feel if I told you to go ahead and start making yourself a character?” She glanced toward Samantha. “I think she’ll be a good pick for the task at hand. What do you think?” It felt too good to be true—how could she, a nobody teen with no idea what she wanted to do in life be selected not only for an on-the-spot job, but also handpicked by her idol to be one of the three people to have supposedly unrestricted access to their flagship technology? Maybe all of this was some dream her mind cooked up after reading the flyer last night. After all, though she wasn’t necessarily dedicated to the field, she was still interested… at least, a little more so than much anything else she’d considered going into later in life. Still, everything seemed to be falling into place just a little too perfectly. But Lisa and Samantha weren’t the kind of people to pull anything as cruel as pretending to hand her a figurative dream on a platter, were they? “C’mon, follow me,” Lisa stood up, pushing her chair in. “Let’s get you started.” Apparently, this was real. She really was about to become one of the three students handpicked by Lisa Garnet, wasn’t she? It’d only been, what, three? Four years since she heard on the news that Lisa had mysteriously reappeared after almost a decade of complete silence? Wasn’t there something about Lisa being in the simulations that entire time? What happened to all that? Was something going to happen to her? “Elise, you’ve gotta stop standing around all spaced out when you’re walking!” Lisa lightly scolded, “I keep having to turn around and find you again!” Wait, they’d been walking that entire time? “Over there, that’s my office. You can choose if you want to have a desk somewhere nearby, or you could… y’know, stick around with me.” This was getting weird. Lisa seemed almost a little eager to have her stay in the office. Did she see something in Elise that she herself didn’t? “Would you like to set up your character in the meantime, Elise? We can forget about where you’ll set up for now. You don’t have to yet if you don’t want to.” Elise shook her head. “No, it’s alright if you want me to pick somewhere to work. And with the character, I… I’ll set one up. Where do I go to do that?” “Right here,” Samantha grinned, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. She handed a tablet to Elise. “We’ve got it all working through an app now instead of a crapton of menus, so it should be pretty easy to get things up and going.” “Oh… okay.” “Alright, you’ve got your account set up now, right?” “Yes, Miss Garnet.” Lisa grinned, rolling up beside Elise in an office chair. “What name did you pick?” “L-Luster Dawn… um, is that alright, Miss Garnet? I know it’s not really a real name, b-but—" “Yup. It’s totally fine by me if you want to go by that name. You don’t need to call me Miss Garnet anymore, either. Just call me Lisa.” Elise nodded, turning back to the screen. She still couldn’t believe it. What was so special about her that made her one of the three kids to be handpicked? And she was sitting right next to the person she looked up to, at that—the very same person who was now guiding her through making a character of her own. “’Kay. Let’s get your character designed. You said your character’s gonna be called ‘Luster Dawn’, right?” “…Yeah? But… I’m still not really sure if that’s a good idea for a name or not. Do you think I should just go with my own name instead, o-or maybe the username on my email! I—" “Luster Dawn is a perfectly good name!” Lisa leaned over, spinning the tablet to herself and taking a look. “Now, do you have an idea of what you wanna look like in the simulation? Oh, I never told you which simulation! Umm… hold on a moment!” She tapped a few times on the screen, spinning it back to Elise. The image displayed was pretty simple, by CGI standards—there wasn’t too much shading going on, the colors were bright and saturated, the graphics were flat, and… ponies? Lisa placed a hand over the screen. “It’s… a bit tacky, yes, but it’s our most popular by far. I promise you—you’ll enjoy the experience.” Elise remained silent, staring down at the image between her idol’s fingers. She wasn’t much into ponies, but if it was the most popular choice, then… “Okay,” Elise sighed. “I-I’ll take your word for it. I... I'll leave you to design my character for me. I was never all that good of an artist myself. Oh... uh, by the way, i-is there any sort of schedule I have to follow?” Lisa shook her head, looking almost surprised by the question. Maybe a schedule was already printed onto the flyer? O-or maybe she was just anxious. After all, this was the first time any students were being hired into the company. “Nope. Feel free to come and go any time you’d like.” Still, something felt a little off about her. “So, how did the first interview go?” Twilight sipped her tea. “Er, application… student… thing?” Lisa made a face, shaking her head. “It went alright, I guess. Kinda screwed it up a little. Anyway, I think I’m gonna head off for a bit. You know how to reach me if you need anything.” “Lisa…” “You know I still can’t completely let go, Twilight! And besides, it’s not permanent anymore like before. It’s… it’s just my little happy place, so to say.” Twilight rolled her eyes, waving Lisa off. “Well, so long as it doesn’t get in the way of your everyday life, I won’t take any trouble with it.”
Dive in."Twilight?" "Yes?" "What are your thoughts on taking on a student of your own?" Twilight Sparkle raised a brow, cocking her head at Lisa. Lisa gestured at the view of Equestria before her. "I mean, with Samantha and I being so busy these days, we hardly have time anymore to catch up on things! I've come a long way since we were one and the same, y'know?" "...Yeah, I suppose. Though, where would we even start? I've only been the new ruler of Equestria for so long, do you really think I can start taking students so soon?" Lisa shrugged. "Yeah, why wouldn't I? You've definitely grown quite a bit since the whole disconnection fiasco ended up splitting us apart, and with Celestia retired, I'd say that it'd be pretty neat to continue the tradition she started of taking on personal students." "You mean the tradition you made up for Celestia," Twilight snorted, faking a glare at her counterpart. Lisa chuckled. "What I'm saying is, Samantha and I have reopened the old classes we ourselves took. You know, the ones that kinda sorta maybe led to Equestria being created?" "Yeah, yeah," Twilight rolled her eyes, smiling. "Continue?" "As I was saying, we have classes of our own now. Quite a few of our students are getting pretty far into the program, too; If I remember correctly, we’ve got a few that are even studying the same curriculum Samantha and I did when we were their age! So, I was thinking, what if we offered some of our own students access to Equestria? We haven't opened up registrations in quite a while according to Professor Argall, so now would be a great time to introduce the next generation to VR! …Heck, who knows? Maybe one day one of 'em might even end up replacing both me and you! It's amazing how fast the younger kids pick up on things these days." "...Three." "Hm?" Lisa cocked her head. "Let's try things out first with only three of your students. I don't want to be overwhelmed, and I'd honestly prefer the same hands-off approach as Celestia when it comes to teaching." Lisa smiled, holding out a hand. "Deal." Elise Fairchild yawned, staring half-awake at the completed worksheet in front of her. "Ellie?" she heard her mom call from the hallway, "Ellie, I almost forgot to tell you something. You know those after-school classes you used to take with some of your friends over at the big tech building near your school?" "...Yeah?" "Did you get the email I forwarded to you about them opening registrations for their virtual reality networks to students?" The girl blinked, squinting at her computer screen. She heard her door open behind her. "You done with homework, honey?" She glanced up, watching her mom set a flyer on her desk. "I printed out the email as well just in case. You think you'd be interested in something like this? I know you look up to the young woman who runs those classes." Elise pulled the flyer closer, reading over it. The title alone certainly caught her attention, being front and center at the top of the page in bold. It seemed like the company that ran these simulations were looking to recruit new members to their team—and recruit them right out of the classroom, at that. Of course, it was only open to the top-performing students. “Are you interested?” The list of perks was also rather interesting—it was pretty well-paying for something that hired directly out of the classroom, and there was even a dedicated amount of leisure time set aside for spending time in the simulations. In fact, this wasn’t only an advertisement for the reopening of registrations, it was one for job openings! “Mom. Did you even read it over yourself before you sent it to me?” Her mom gave a half-nod, shrugging a little at the same time. “I skimmed over it, though I wanted you to take a look at it first.” “Th-this…” she stuttered, pulling the flyer closer, “They’re offering me a job.” “Really now.” Elise handed back the flyer. “Mom,” she continued, “They’re hiring new interns from the classes they held. They want people like me to come back in and work for them. Do… do you think I should try applying?” Her mom smiled, pushing her daughter’s hand away. “As long as you can manage the work, Ellie. If you think you can balance your homework with a job, then go right ahead.” She stood for a few more moments beside Elise, reading over the flyer herself before turning away. “I’ll be downstairs if you need anything. Take some time to decide whether or not you want to apply for the job.” Elise stood at the entrance of TechSIG headquarters, the flyer printout still in hand. For all intents and purposes, the name of the company seemed to stick out like a sore thumb to her. It sounded too… corporate for what they did. She stared upward at the glass-wrapped levels that towered above her. Now wasn’t the time to worry about little things like the name of a company. “Hello there!” The doors in front of her opened. Another girl around her age stepped out, waving. She was also holding a mug of some sort, but that was beside the point. “I’m Zoey Ascher, intern and front-desk girl,” she grinned, holding out her hand to Elise. “Are you here for the job application?” Elise tensed up, nodding as she clutched the flyer tighter. “Great!” Zoey cheered, grabbing Elise by the hand. “C’mon then, follow me. I think you might actually be the first person to come today, in fact. Though, that’s probably ‘cause it’s Saturday and all, but still!” What was she doing? Everything around her blurred into a rush of shapes and colors. She’d only had a passing interest in the things she learned last summer here, and here she was, applying for a job! Would this be the path she took in life? Was she really even ready yet for any of this? “Just wait here,” Zoey smiled, gesturing to a row of chairs lining the wall. She paused, staring into her mug. “Huh. Out of hot chocolate again. Anyway, either Lisa or Samantha are gonna interview you sometime soon. I gotta get back now to the front desk, so see ya!”
The past still lingers.Author's Note Well, here we go. A chapter a day 'till we run out of the old chapters. Meanwhile, I'm only 700 words into a new chapter 1. The past still lingers. Lisa Garnet sat at her desk, eyes fixed to the screen. It’d been only a handful of years since she left Equestria, and another decade, give or take a year or two, on top of that since she first entered. By all accounts, those were things that were done and gone—left to the past. Even then, not everything could simply be left behind. The launcher program flashed a loading bar across the display. She looked over her shoulder, rolling her chair to the door and flipping the switch. Darkness bathed the office. Returning to her desk, she reached over, smiling as the strap of a headset came into contact with her fingers. “Five minutes,” she muttered to herself, slipping the device over her face. “Just five minutes today.” She felt her vision go dark for a moment, before fading back in with her new surroundings. Rebecca Waterman blinked, looking down at the cup in her hands. It took a moment for things to catch up and sync. “Oh, I was drinking this, wasn’t I?” she chuckled, downing the contents. Caleb ran down the stairs, stopping at the sight of his older sister. “Oh? There you are! I was wondering why you were taking so long to get a drink!” “Kinda blanked out for a bit, that’s all,” Rebecca walked past, ruffling his hair. “You need any help on your homework?” He shook his head. “’Kay then. Just ask if you do!” She climbed the stairs, stopping at the top. Today was a Saturday, she remembered; her parents would for sure be home right now. She rushed back down the stairs, nearly tripping Caleb in the process. She spotted her mom sitting on the couch, and— “Five minutes,” Lisa whispered, slowly pushing the headset back up. “That was all…” She shook her head, replacing the headset on the shelf. Even if she was mostly only taking a backseat to her new character’s AI, it was still more than nothing. She had parents. They… they weren’t necessarily real, but all that mattered to her was that it felt real. She could feel some tears welling up in her eyes, and wiped them away before any could fall. Five minutes was all she needed. Five, sometimes ten minutes in her own little reality, where all that mattered was her. Lisa turned back to her screen, greeted by the waiting eyes of Twilight Sparkle. The light on the webcam turned on. “Do you feel happier now?” “…Yes. Yes, I think I do.” Elise felt her eyelids drooping as she scrolled through yet another article. It was yet another one on the strange reappearance of Lisa Garnet after seemingly disappearing off the face of the Earth for almost a decade. The top rumor was that she’d somehow become trapped in her own invention early on, similar to what happened with her friend Samantha a few years following the disappearance. Was that the reason why Lisa acted so strange? Had her mentality somehow been warped by the amount of time she’d spent in the simulation? Sure, there was also this mysterious group of people who supposedly connected early on into the history of the simulations and never came out, but… She facepalmed. It was so obvious! Lisa was in the simulations! How else would she have returned right after a group of simulations reported a network outage? Or… maybe that was just how she acted. There were very few articles talking about Lisa’s past directly. Most of them more or less focused on her work, with some featuring the retired Professor Argall alongside some variant of a headline talking about his refusal to answer journalists’ questions. Elise sunk into her seat. How was it possible that she was the first of three to be picked by such a mysterious woman? She wasn’t anything special. Her grades, sure, were a little above average, but she had… two? Three people she really even considered friends? Surely it wasn’t popularity that’d won her the spot. And she wasn’t even all that into virtual reality, either! She just had a passive interest in science and tech, that’s all. What did Lisa and Samantha see in her that made her so special? She went back a page, scrolling down and clicking another article link. This one was probably like all the rest—theorizing about Lisa’s origins and past, talking about her ties to the company and its founders, things like that. Wait. She leaned closer to the screen, furrowing her brows as she read the headline. “Her parents are dead?” Well, that certainly explained a bit. Why wasn’t that ever mentioned in the earlier articles? Elise shook her head. She was putting too much thought into this. People kept telling her to focus on what mattered, and digging into the life of her idol didn’t particularly matter… nor did really anything else she did, she supposed. Just another face in the crowd, another name in the yearbook—that’s what she was. Maybe she should take a look at the simulation Lisa was pushing for her to make a character for. So long as she could work by herself, or at the very least only with Lisa, she’d be fine with joining in. Friendship was overrated, anyway.
Something lurks;The door slammed open, rattling the room and its inhabitants. The woman glared at the pair lounging on the couches, shaking her head before walking past. "Fired again, Night? You know, you could always, y'know, go int--" "Shut up, Wildcat. I've heard enough today," she tucked a stray, electric-blue hair behind her ear. "I swear, one of these days—" Night clenched her fists— "One of these days, we'll get 'em, starting with that one blasted company." Wildcat rolled his eyes. The oversized pullover beside him shifted. "Yeah, like that's ever worked. Two hits, and the whole operation fell apart. We’re low on money, too. You'd think that with someone like you leading this whole thing, we'd actually be able to get something do—." Night whirled around, pointing at the pile of clothes. "That goes for you too, Pretty Lady. Do not question my authority. Get back to work." "Unlike you?" Night shot a death glare at her subordinate. "Git." Pretty Lady sighed, pulling back her hood to reveal a headset. "Already on it. At least somebody has been putting in their effort for the cause." Deep within the Everfree Forest, the ground began to warp. A deep indentation began to form, swallowing up nearby trees and stones as it grew. A pony flickered into existence above the hole, sparks running across her body. “Huh. Neat. That’s one more way to get in. I suppose now’s a better time than ever to actually get something done. I’ve messed around for long enough.” The hole vanished without a trace, allowing the pony to land on the ground. She glanced around for a bit, taking in their surroundings; heavy foliage, far from civilization—a perfect place to begin. Smirking, the pony stomped a hoof on the ground. A nearby tree lifted, rising up into the air without any trace of an aura holding it. But that was enough horseplay. Night wants someone to infiltrate the simulations? She could do one better than that. After all, she’d earned herself the nickname ‘Pretty Lady’ for a reason. Infiltrating was the least she could do, with what she knew. Green flames ignited at her hooves, inching their way up her body in a ring, leaving in their wake a mare whose looks could rival even best of Equestria’s own. Her pristine mane fell into perfect little curls, complementing the light curves of her body. This was what consistently caught the eyes of the nobility. She’d be the unassuming beauty; the pearl of the city; the innocent young mare—all for the sake of farming the information she sought from the clueless ponies of Equestria. And her first stop? Ponyville. She focused on a teleport. She didn’t have a horn at the moment, nor did she need one. With her target in mind, she let loose a torrent of mana, leaving a small crater in her place. The floating tree crashed to the ground without a sound. Pretty Lady landed softly in front of the Cutie Map room. Twilight didn’t appear to be home at the moment, based on the fact that no frantic alicorn had teleported in just yet. Either way, it took quite some time to learn the ins and outs of the simulations just to get here, and she wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip. She cupped a hoof to her ear, mirroring her movements in real-life. “We clear?” “Clear. Go ahead, Pretty Lady.” “Alright. I can take the job myself. The rest of you can have some time off.” She lowered her hoof, taking in her surroundings. Given the castle’s composition, a simple explosion would probably do well enough to level the place. And unlike in real life, here she had as many resources as she wanted. An explosive charge materialized before her. A smirk grew across her face. “Let’s raze this place.” “Lisa!” Samantha stuck her head into her friend’s office. “Lisa, what are you doing? Didn’t you hear what happened?” Lisa shook her head. “No, I was running through the last two students just a few minutes ago. Hopefully they’ll be good friends for Ellie, you think?” “No, no—I mean, yes! But that’s not what matters right now! Pull up a viewport for the simulations, will ya?” “O…okay?” Lisa reached over, clicking on an icon. “I don’t understand what you’re freaking out so much abo—” Smoke filled her screen. A chunk of crystal tumbled to the ground off to the side, splintering into thousands of tiny fragments. “…O-oh. That… that’s not good, is it?”
The fractures grow,Lisa’s eyes remained locked to the screen. “I… how—how did this happen? I thought we made sure that environment damage was disabled on the castle!” A light buzz came from Samantha’s pocket. She pulled out her phone, reading through the message. Closing her eyes, she set the device screen-down on the table. “Another attack.” “Another?” Lisa gasped, “Where is it? Ponyville? Canterlot?” “Neither. It’s not in Equestria. Whatever it is that’s happening is being spread across multiple simulations.” Lisa hook her head, her breathing growing frantic. “Here, I’ll call in the students. They can help us in this…this—" She reached for her phone. “Are you serious, Lis? You want three kids no older than… what— Thirteen? Fourteen? —to join into the simulations with full privileges?” Lisa nodded. “They’re the top three of our classes. I mean, sure, they never exactly met, being in different sessions of the same class, but still… they’re gonna be our best bet. You, me, and them—we’ll go into Equestria and wherever else that got hit, fix things up, and come back out. Easy as that. And it’ll be a great way to get them to know each other, too!” Samantha pursed her lips, drumming her fingers on the table. “I’m still not quite sure about this, Lis. We’re talking about at least one person who has backdoor access to the simulations. It doesn’t exactly help that we aren’t able to track them, either. Heck, it could very well be someone inside this building!” “Which is why I’m calling them up. Get some techs on call to shut down the networks entirely.” “But they hardly have any experience in the simulations! Wouldn’t you be putting them at risk by doing this?” Lisa nodded again. “I know that, and yes. But what matters most right now is keeping any more damage from happening. Student or not, I’ll make sure nobody caught up in this is harmed.” Elise shifted in her seat, glancing between the two boys sat beside her. Were these really the two others that got in besides her? They… weren’t exactly the kind of people she expected to see in a place like this. Especially given how they were panic-called to the building by Lisa herself. Speaking of whom, Lisa stood at the front of the room, a nervous grin plastered across her face. She twitched, taking a deep breath. “Now, I know this isn’t quite the best way to get everyone familiar with each other, but… we kinda have an emergency on our hands. Boys, between you is Elise. Be nice to her, alright? And Elise, that is Damian and Robert to your left and right, respectively. Alright, introductions over! Let’s get on with why we’re here so soon. “Someone has been—is launching an attack on our networks. We’re still not exactly sure how or why they’re doing it, but the fact stands that even under a full lockdown on our servers, we can’t be sure whether or not any further breaches may be happening. I know you three are technically still only students, but much of the rest of the people we have in the company are caught up in keeping track of just about everything entering and leaving the company. Outside of them, you three are our best bet, and if we really have to, we…” she paused abruptly, clearing her throat. “We might have to pull in the rest of your classes.” One of the boys—Damian, raised a hand. “What about Miss Samantha? What’s she doing right now?” “She’s currently busy working with the rest of the company to keep things from spiraling out of control… if… if you couldn’t tell, we’re all a little on-edge at the moment.” Lisa drew in a breath. “Now, I know it’s a little soon to be doing this, but I’d like for the three of you to join me in the simulations. While Samantha helps patch up whatever holes she finds in our security, us four will be fixing up the damage that was done.” Damian raised his hand again. “Wouldn’t it be a better idea to just restore a backup of the locations affected?” Elise nodded. He did have a point. Though, Lisa quickly countered with her response. “I did consider doing that, but… it’d kinda sorta break the immersion of the simulation for anyone around. And… wait, admin rights to restore the thing would probably just be the same thing, and…” Lisa trailed off into a mumble. “…you know what? You’re right. I’ll… I’ll just go make sure that nobody’s gonna get trapped in a wall or anything from restoring a backup, and then I’ll… uh, restore a backup. Elise, watch over the boys for me, ‘kay? It shouldn’t take me too long.” She wandered out of the room without another word. The door clicked shut. Robert let out a loud snore. Damian elbowed Elise. “So… you like anime?” That was probably the most awkward moment in Elise’s day. Pretty Lady watched her monitor, swiveling the mic down on her headphones. “How’s the progress going? You hit the backups like I instructed? Night had absolutely no idea that they even had backups when I brought it up to her.” “Yes, yes,” a voice replied, “We poked around and managed to get into an offsite datacenter, and while you were busy, we junked their on-sites. Can you believe the on-site backups were on the same servers as the main data?” Pretty Lady smirked. “And tell me, how did you and the others get into their datacenter?” The voice chuckled heartily. “You know well what you were doing when you bought that stash of social security numbers. Beyond that, it was really just a matter of an ambush or two before we could rush the place. Of course, nobody was killed in the process, as you prefer. Would you like to hold them for ransom? It would certainly bring in some much-needed cash if it succeeds.” “Nah, no ransoms. All that’d bring is more trouble. What matters is that they don’t recognize you all. I presume you were all disguised?” “As best as we could.” “Good. Pull back and lay low for some time. Your job is done for now.” She hung up, placing her phone back on the table. Elise grumbled under her breath while Damian pestered Robert. Lisa had only been gone for some five or so minutes, and already it seemed like they’d spent hours in the same room as each other. Looking down, she picked up her backpack. There wasn’t any sense in staying if she wasn’t going to be doing anything. “For the last time, Damian, I’m not Japanese!” It certainly seemed like they were getting along. The door opened before she reached it. Lisa stepped into the room, visibly more anxious than when she left. “Our backups are gone. Both the on-site and offsite arrays were hit at some point or another. We… we can’t restore anything without the risk of importing corrupted data. The best I could find were some old flash drives in my desk drawer from several years ago.” By now, the two boys had stopped bickering. Damian raised his hand again. “So, I’m guessing we’ll be connecting after all, then?” Lisa nodded, but otherwise remained silent. It must’ve been hard for her, seeing so much of your work wiped in under a day. Even if it was only a few locations in the simulations, the fact that there weren’t any backups certainly made the possibility of another attack that much more threatening. Elise glanced back to her new classmates. If anything, they looked excited to join in. Weren’t they worried in any way about the whole ordeal? Sure, it was still more or less a game of sorts, but this was real danger they were dealing with, regardless of whether or not they could actually be physically harmed while they were connected. “L-Lisa?” she mumbled, tugging on her mentor’s sleeve, “How bad is it? Is… is there going to be a chance that it could happen again while we’re in the simulations?” “I don’t really know, Elise. I—” Lisa hung her head. “I never really expected for anything like this to happen. We planned out just about everything, from all the ethical implications down to what to serve in the cafeteria. I never imagined that we’d one day be the target of an attack as devastating as this.” “So, what do you think we should do then?” Lisa tensed up, curling her hands into fists. She turned to Elise, a determined smirk on her face. “We fight back.”
Reaching deeper.Author's Note This is the final chapter of the old story. From here on out there will be no new chapters. I plan to publish the rewritten chapters in an entirely new story. In the meantime, happy reads! Reaching deeper. Rosanne Smith stood by the door, slipping into her jacket. “Goin’ already, Pretty Lady?” She nodded at Wildcat. With Night being rejected or flat-out fired so often from every job she picked up, somebody would need to step up and fill in the gaps. It wasn’t like she could rely on her parents for money anymore, either. Joining Night’s ragtag group was pretty much cut her off from the rest of her family, after all. “Bring home the leftovers.” Rosanne rolled her eyes. Sometimes, it felt more like she was the one leading the group. No matter—all the better to show up Night one day. Maybe she’d even have the opportunity to finally split with her and Wildcat… come back to the life she once had. She shook her head, reaching for the doorknob. She can’t be thinking these things, not when she was around Night or Wildcat! Rosanne shot a blank stare at the wall across from her. The dinner rush would be coming soon, and she’d have to keep herself awake until at least then. For now, though, the place was quiet. The door opened. “Do you serve burgers here?” the customer slammed the counter. “’Cause I feel like havin’ a burger right about now.” “And welcome to McNaldo’s to you too,” Rosanne deadpanned. “And no, we do not serve burgers. We are a pasta house.” The man stomped off, grumbling something about customer service under his breath. People like him were the driving force behind her frustration—could they even read? Of course this restaurant didn’t serve burgers! Sure, it was fast food still to some extent, but really? If you see a place advertising buttered noodles and a pad thai meal deal on its windows, you do not waltz in and ask if they’ve got burgers. He didn’t even look at the menu! Rosanne took a deep breath. The lengths she went to for a bit of money… and for what? Night? She couldn’t possibly spend the rest of her life working just for that idiot to splurge. And she still had her night job, too! But, they were the most stable jobs she’d had since she quit her old one. Night didn’t seem to know where to look when it came to jobs. It was almost as if she was trying to be hired into a position that’d be computerized within a month! Then again, that was probably how she proved her point. The door opened again. Another customer stepped up to the counter. “Hello,” Rosanne sighed, “What will be your order tonight?” “—and don’t forget to keep the strap tightened. We don’t use embedded transmitters anymore since they’re kinda intrusive, and we’re not using the full-body experience either, so if at any point the headset’s knocked off, your character’s gonna drop where they stand for a moment,” Lisa set her own headset over her eyes. “If at any point you feel that something’s wrong, tell me. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting for you.” Elise watched her mentor pick up a well-worn controller. Robert and Damian were already getting their own headsets strapped on, from the looks of it, so she probably should as well. In any case, it’d be the first time she’d ever encountered virtual reality. Sure, there were still the finicky phone-based options floating around the market, but that was mostly shovelware as far as anyone was concerned. She slipped the headset on. A light buzz lit up in the back of her mind for a moment before dying down. The dark screen inside faded to a viewfinder, allowing her to see her surroundings. Robert handed her a controller. “Um… thanks.” “No problem.” A light blinked on the controller, synchronizing with one in her periphery inside the headset. Black once again replaced her view. Twilight paced back and forth in front of the ruins of her castle. She paused, grumbling something under her breath before continuing. Even with the best protection spells she could cast, whoever… whatever it was that caused this was able to pulverize the structure like a sandcastle. Hay, given the revelations she had only a few years ago, it was quite likely that there was even an additional layer of protection on top of her spells… not that they actually worked, apparently. At any rate, she probably would begin rebuilding the castle herself! Something stirred under the rubble. Twilight’s ears perked at the noise. Spike she knew was safe, but… Her eyes widened. Lisa must’ve logged in! The last time she’d been in Equestria, she was in the castle! She burst into a trot, unfurling her wings and leaping into the ruins. A blinding glow emanated from among the crystalline shards, fading for a moment before the ground burst, letting loose an explosion that hurled fragments of the castle in every direction. Lisa stood at the center of the explosion, with three foals huddled behind her. “Y’know, you could’ve just teleported them out,” Twilight deadpanned, touching down in front of her counterpart. “Instead of… y’know, wrecking the place even more.” “Hey, it’s not like we’re here to fix it or anything. C’mon, Twilight. Cheer up a little!” “Mmm, about that,” Twilight hummed, “How many times has your home been blown sky-high?” “Yeah, yeah, I know about the whole thing with Tirek and stuff. You know that it never actually happened. Anyway, we’re not here to talk. Let’s rebuild!” The castle reappeared around them mere seconds later. Twilight blinked. “…Excuse me?” Lisa shrugged. “The backups might be gone for good, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some files myself.” “Then why did you bring the students with you?” “Meet and greet. Say hi, Elise!” Elise—Luster Dawn froze on hearing her name. Twilight facehoofed. “Lisa, we’ve talked about this. You’re slipping back to that old mentality again. You can’t just get whatever you want without consequences! Sure, some of those consequences were good ones—hay, I wouldn’t even exist without one of them—but still! One of these days, trying to force things to happen the way you want them to happen is going to hurt somebody.” She turned away from Lisa, disappearing down a hall.
Get started.Elise fidgeted in her seat. The office space was a little cramped, to say the least; every foot of the room seemed to have some random doohickey or another laying around in it, and whatever the heck was sitting on the desk in front of her looked like it was clearly left half-finished the last time anyone touched it. A young woman poked her head into the room, a tablet in hand. “Oh, you’re here already!” she gasped, glancing down at the device. “Hold on just a moment while I get Samantha in here.” The door clicked shut, leaving Elise again to her thoughts. She still wasn’t quite sure if this would be the right choice for her. Was this really happening? Was she really about to be interviewed for a job when she didn’t even know what she wanted to do yet? The door opened again. “Good morning!” Elise looked up, locking eyes with who she presumed to be Samantha. “I’m guessing you’re trying for the job offer we pitched to you top-classers?” She nodded, lifting the printout a little higher for Samantha to see. Samantha grinned, stepping around and taking a seat behind her desk. “Great! You’re hired.” “Wait,” Elise made a face. “Wait what?” “You’re hired,” Samantha shrugged, lounging in her seat. “We know exactly what you’re prepared for already. You were in our classes, after all. Though, you did seem to space out every now and then. Most everyone else around here only joins when necessary for testing using generic test accounts.” “What about all the other people at the top of the class?” “You’re all getting jobs. Only three of you, however, will have a chance at unlimited simulation time, free of charge. ” “…Why three?” Elise frowned, glancing down at the printout. “I didn’t know that you were doing that. It wasn’t really anywhere on the flyer…” “It’s just a little extra something that Lisa threw into the mix. Didn’t really have much of a part in that idea myself.” Samantha tilted her head, seemingly focusing on something behind Elise. “In fact, there she is now! How’ve the projects been going, Lis?” “It’s been alright so far,” Lisa sighed, slumping into a seat beside Elise. She turned her head. “Here already? I wasn’t really expecting anyone to come so soon after I mailed out the flyers.” Once again, Elise held up the printout of the flyer. “…Elise. Your name’s Elise, right?” Lisa began, “You were the quiet kid in class. How would you feel if I told you to go ahead and start making yourself a character?” She glanced toward Samantha. “I think she’ll be a good pick for the task at hand. What do you think?” It felt too good to be true—how could she, a nobody teen with no idea what she wanted to do in life be selected not only for an on-the-spot job, but also handpicked by her idol to be one of the three people to have supposedly unrestricted access to their flagship technology? Maybe all of this was some dream her mind cooked up after reading the flyer last night. After all, though she wasn’t necessarily dedicated to the field, she was still interested… at least, a little more so than much anything else she’d considered going into later in life. Still, everything seemed to be falling into place just a little too perfectly. But Lisa and Samantha weren’t the kind of people to pull anything as cruel as pretending to hand her a figurative dream on a platter, were they? “C’mon, follow me,” Lisa stood up, pushing her chair in. “Let’s get you started.” Apparently, this was real. She really was about to become one of the three students handpicked by Lisa Garnet, wasn’t she? It’d only been, what, three? Four years since she heard on the news that Lisa had mysteriously reappeared after almost a decade of complete silence? Wasn’t there something about Lisa being in the simulations that entire time? What happened to all that? Was something going to happen to her? “Elise, you’ve gotta stop standing around all spaced out when you’re walking!” Lisa lightly scolded, “I keep having to turn around and find you again!” Wait, they’d been walking that entire time? “Over there, that’s my office. You can choose if you want to have a desk somewhere nearby, or you could… y’know, stick around with me.” This was getting weird. Lisa seemed almost a little eager to have her stay in the office. Did she see something in Elise that she herself didn’t? “Would you like to set up your character in the meantime, Elise? We can forget about where you’ll set up for now. You don’t have to yet if you don’t want to.” Elise shook her head. “No, it’s alright if you want me to pick somewhere to work. And with the character, I… I’ll set one up. Where do I go to do that?” “Right here,” Samantha grinned, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. She handed a tablet to Elise. “We’ve got it all working through an app now instead of a crapton of menus, so it should be pretty easy to get things up and going.” “Oh… okay.” “Alright, you’ve got your account set up now, right?” “Yes, Miss Garnet.” Lisa grinned, rolling up beside Elise in an office chair. “What name did you pick?” “L-Luster Dawn… um, is that alright, Miss Garnet? I know it’s not really a real name, b-but—" “Yup. It’s totally fine by me if you want to go by that name. You don’t need to call me Miss Garnet anymore, either. Just call me Lisa.” Elise nodded, turning back to the screen. She still couldn’t believe it. What was so special about her that made her one of the three kids to be handpicked? And she was sitting right next to the person she looked up to, at that—the very same person who was now guiding her through making a character of her own. “’Kay. Let’s get your character designed. You said your character’s gonna be called ‘Luster Dawn’, right?” “…Yeah? But… I’m still not really sure if that’s a good idea for a name or not. Do you think I should just go with my own name instead, o-or maybe the username on my email! I—" “Luster Dawn is a perfectly good name!” Lisa leaned over, spinning the tablet to herself and taking a look. “Now, do you have an idea of what you wanna look like in the simulation? Oh, I never told you which simulation! Umm… hold on a moment!” She tapped a few times on the screen, spinning it back to Elise. The image displayed was pretty simple, by CGI standards—there wasn’t too much shading going on, the colors were bright and saturated, the graphics were flat, and… ponies? Lisa placed a hand over the screen. “It’s… a bit tacky, yes, but it’s our most popular by far. I promise you—you’ll enjoy the experience.” Elise remained silent, staring down at the image between her idol’s fingers. She wasn’t much into ponies, but if it was the most popular choice, then… “Okay,” Elise sighed. “I-I’ll take your word for it. I... I'll leave you to design my character for me. I was never all that good of an artist myself. Oh... uh, by the way, i-is there any sort of schedule I have to follow?” Lisa shook her head, looking almost surprised by the question. Maybe a schedule was already printed onto the flyer? O-or maybe she was just anxious. After all, this was the first time any students were being hired into the company. “Nope. Feel free to come and go any time you’d like.” Still, something felt a little off about her. “So, how did the first interview go?” Twilight sipped her tea. “Er, application… student… thing?” Lisa made a face, shaking her head. “It went alright, I guess. Kinda screwed it up a little. Anyway, I think I’m gonna head off for a bit. You know how to reach me if you need anything.” “Lisa…” “You know I still can’t completely let go, Twilight! And besides, it’s not permanent anymore like before. It’s… it’s just my little happy place, so to say.” Twilight rolled her eyes, waving Lisa off. “Well, so long as it doesn’t get in the way of your everyday life, I won’t take any trouble with it.”
