Chapters “What’s that?” Elise leaned over, peering at the pages of Damian’s book. “Oh, our history textbook?”
Damian nodded, flipping a page.
“Studying for the exam?”
Another nod.
“Hey Ellie! Think fast!”
“Wha—” Elise turned just in time for a spurt of water to hit her square in the chest. “Hey! Robert! You know I don’t have a swimsuit with me. Nobody told me we were going to the pool today!”
Robert tossed his water gun aside, laughing. “Aw, that’s alright. You can borrow one of my ex’s swimsuits. She left a lot of them behind when I dumped her.”
“Ew.” Elise made a face. “I… don’t think you should be offering other people’s clothes like that.”
The boy shrugged, a grin spreading across his face. “Suit yourself… pun fully intended.”
Elise facepalmed. This was what she got for sitting next to Robert in a single class, apparently. Too bad he wasn’t as good of a study partner as Damian was. Another splash of water doused her.
“C’mon, lighten up a little wouldya? Don’t make me splash you again!”
Damian rolled his eyes, shielding himself from more incoming water droplets with the cover of his book. “Alright, you can stop that now, Robert. I think she gets the point.”
“Weren’t you gonna pig out at the buffet bar or something, Damian? Didn’t think you were the kind of guy who’d be suntanning with a book.”
“Suntan—wait just one moment , Robert, I—”
“was suntanning. Gotcha,” Robert winked. “You’re just like Ellie sometimes, dude. You should enjoy yourself a little more, y’know?”
Damian grumbled something under his breath, standing up and walking to a chair further away from the pool.
“What, still no buffet, D?”
“Not hungry right now. Though, do they allow takeout? It’d definitely help a bit at home and all…”
“Nope.”
“Hmmf.”
Elise pretended not to hear any of that entire exchange. Those two were just a little too weird together sometimes. Not that she ever thought about them as a pair, but—she shook her head, banishing the thought. If there was any pairing that she’d rather not see, it’d be those two.
“But seriously, Ellie. Just go and grab one from inside,” he gestured at the clubhouse building. “They’ve got a little gift shop of sorts. Just put it under my name or something and I can pay it off later. You’ve been doing a lot in class after school, if anything, you deserve a break! I mean, so does Damian, but he’s a spoilsport who doesn’t know how to have fun, so forget about him.”
“But—"
“Go! And get me a can of soda or something while you’re at it too, will ya?”
~~~
“Hey, Lis. Want a soda?” Samantha popped her head into her friend’s office. “Break room was just restocked. Zoey’s already raiding the hot chocolate.”
Lisa shook her head. “I’m fine. I don’t really drink much soda anyway. You wanna take a look at this?”
“Hm?”
Lisa gestured at her screen. “Our userbase. I know it’s not much when compared to even some of the indie games that were released last year, but we finally hit ten million users!” she moved the mouse over a bit and clicked a button. “Most of our installed base has been in rehabilitation technology and licensed technology, of course, but we’re beginning to see some numbers rising in both education and research!”
“That’s amazing, Lisa! I…” Samantha faltered. “I really don’t know what to say. I know I should be happy, but you gotta remember that this company has more than just the simulations .”
Lisa smirked. “Oh, I’m not just talking the simulations . I’m taking a look at our entire userbase across everything we’ve produced. I’m talking assistance technology, virtual systems, and everything in between! We’re doing great!”
Samantha’s smile immediately returned. “Even the telepresence thing?”
“Even your telepresence thing,” Lisa nodded. “Quite a few companies have been offering it to their employees as an option instead of actually showing up. Saves some scheduling headaches, y’know.” She looked back to her friend. “Anyway , that’s pretty much it for now. You said the break room was restocked?”
“Yup.”
Lisa nodded. “’Kay, be there in a bit!”
She watched Samantha vanish behind the door again before turning back to her computer.
~~~
“Twilight, do you really need to reshelf that book for a seventh time? You’ve paid more attention to it than any other book in your library! What’s up with that?”
“It’s the story of us Rainbow. Our adventures, our trials and tribulations—everything .”
“Wait wait wait, so you’re saying that you wrote a book about us? Ooh- did you make sure that I was described as awesome? ”
Twilight shook her head, replacing the book on the shelf for the eighth time. “No, actually… I mean, to the first question. It was just kind of… there the entire time. Almost all the pages in it were blank when I first found it in Golden Oaks, so I thought it was a misprint and left it on my desk. After I came back from defeating Nightmare Moon, however, I found that its pages had begun filling themselves ou—”
The sound of footsteps cut her off.
“Oh, you’re back already, Lisa?”
The young woman pushed the door open, smiling. “Yup. Most of us are basically taking the day off anyway, so I figured I’d might as well check in ahead of schedule. How’s it going, Twi?”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, grumbling “Eggheads…” under her breath. She turned her attention to the pile of Daring Do novels sitting in a box.
“Just re-shelving some more books,” Twilight shrugged. “I decided to take the day off as well. How’s Lus-I mean, er… Elise doing? She learn anything interesting today?”
“Eh. I let her off the hook for today since you’re… yeah. Might as well cancel her session anyway since you aren’t giving any lessons either, amirite?”
“Mm-hm. I definitely know how that goes down from teaching Starlight ,” Twilight glanced at her friends sulking around the piles of books in the library, then back to Lisa. “Speaking of which, I’ve always wanted to know whether or not Starlight’s like the rest of us. Y’know, just—" she winced at saying it “—lines of code .”
Lisa nodded. “Yeah, she is. And so is probably some ninety percent or so of Equestria’s population, honestly. The place has fallen in popularity ever since we introduced the new exit routines for people to leave the simulation. Something about too much diabeetus or something.”
The mare snorted. “Diabeetus? Isn’t that just a joke term?”
“Yeah, but that’s how a lot of them described the place if I remember correctly. But enough about people’s opinions on Equestria. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?”
“No, not rea—"
“Can you two stop being so weird? ” Rainbow groaned from behind a Daring Do novel, “Having one Twilight here is already enough nerdiness to go around!”
“Tell me why we’re doing this again, Night?”
“What?”
The woman lifted her headset. “You said that you and Wildcat took me in for my skills and knowledge. You still haven’t told me what you’re even doing. I left a pretty well-paying job for this, y’know… and… well… I disappointed my parents, too…”
“You’ll see in time. Get back to work.”
~~~
“Ellie?”
“Yes?”
“Why do you want to take those classes? You know that they’re entirely optional.”
Elise watched Robert cannonball into the pool. He whooped, climbing out to do it again.
Damian waved his bookmark in front of her. “Elise?”
“Mm,” the girl rubbed her chin. “I… well, you two already know that I look up to Lisa, first of all.”
“Yes, we do. Doesn’t explain why you go above and beyond to fast-track your way through the program, though.”
Elise chuckled, shaking her head. “To be honest, I really don’t know myself , actually. It just kinda… happened . I never expected to be singled out as her protégé, of all things!”
“Hmph.” Damian stuck his face back into his textbook. “Your performance in class said otherwise. Lisa said that she’d be picking by merit, after all.”
“Heh. I guess you’re right there,” she laid down in her seat, closing her eyes. “Let’s not worry about our classes for now, Damian. Even you need to take a break sometimes, don’t you?”
“I don’t need a break. I’m doing this for my mom.”
Elise mentally rolled her eyes. For all the hardheadedness he showed off, at least Damian was doing what he did for the right reasons. Robert, on the other hand…
“Can I see your notes later, Damian?” the boy waved his hand from the pool. “I forgot to take some myself!”
“How about you stop trying to mooch off of me and Ellie, huh?”
“Whaaaaaat—no, I’m not trying to mooch off of you! Does it look like I’m trying to? All I’m saying is that you two should help a friend out and let me copy some of your no—"
…He was just lazy. And loud.
“So, what about your… other class?” Damian peeked over the pages, ignoring Robert’s yelling. “I know that your time with Lisa is split into two sections. You never seem to talk about the other one. Is it taught by someone else?”
Elise hesitated before nodding. “So, you know that old simulation that was popular for a while? The one with the ponies and stuff?”
“Oh, that one?”
“Yeah.”
Damian set down his textbook, adjusting his glasses. “What about it? I heard that it’s been winding down ever since Lisa logged out of it.”
“My other teacher is Lisa’s former character. She…” Elise looked away. “…She teaches me magic .”
“Magic. ”
Elise chuckled nervously, still avoiding Damian’s cold stare. “Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s weird. You’d think that I’d be spending all my time studying real things, but… I guess it’s just Lisa’s way of telling me that I should be a little more creative.”
“Okay.”
Damian returned his focus to his textbook, much to Elise’s relief. If it were Robert that she’d talked to just then, he’d definitely be laughing his butt off by now. Magic? That was just for fairy tales and little kids. Then again, wasn’t Lisa saying that Twilight was supposed to teach something else alongside her weird pony magic?
~~~
“How goes, Lis? Still looking at user stats?”
Lisa raised her headset. “Nope. I was chatting a little with Twilight. Just catching up on stuff, y’know?”
Samantha gave a silent nod, wandering off again. Especially on days like this when there wasn’t anything else to do, it was pretty common for her to just… show up somewhere, regardless of what was going on at the moment.
A loud pop ripped through the building, followed by rapid footsteps.
“ZOEY!” Samantha ran past the room. “DID YOU BLOW UP THE COFFEE MACHINE AGAIN? ”
It was absurd how quickly things changed. There was hardly any time to ever reflect on the past, whether she wanted to or not. Not too long ago the biggest thing that happened was being disconnected from Equestria. Now, though? On top of the classes she ran with Samantha, she spent nearly every waking hour of her life thinking up wild new ideas for what to do next.
The ceiling sprinklers turned on. Lisa looked up, brushing a wet lock of hair out of the way. Zoey really blew up the machine this time around, if even the sprinklers were on. At least the computers in the building were all water-resistant. They ended up learning to implement that the hard way after the second time the coffee machine went up in smoke.
Lisa tapped her chin, staring out her office window. Maybe someone should start reminding Zoey to put water into the machine before she tried to make herself another mug of hot cocoa. Or at the very least put up a note, or a sign of some sort. It’d save at least a couple thousand a year in coffee machine replacements.
Looking forward. That’s what she was doing right now. Anticipating the future, and planning for its arrival. Whether it was keeping Zoey from exploding another coffee machine, or unveiling the next hit product on a stage, it was what mattered the most in her life now. She couldn’t afford to simply let things sit the way they were. Not anymore.
A smile grew on her face. Then again, when had she ever let things be? Certainly not when she was still working on the simulations, that’s for sure. Even if it was only for selfish reasons back then, her drive to make things happen was admirable.
Her headset began to sag from the water in her hair. The sprinklers finally began to turn off one-by-one, retracting back into the ceiling now that they’d thoroughly soaked everything the eye could see.
“You want me to… what? ”
Night crossed her arms. “You told me you had the ability t’ infiltrate the simulations undetected. It’s time that you prove that.”
“…Okay.”
“Say, how is it that you can do that in th’ first place? I’ve worked at that blasted company myself for a time before, and I never had an account at all! Tell me, Chryssi.”
The woman wearing the headset smirked, turning in her seat.
“Finally, you use my name.”
~~~
“Rosanne? No, she left the company a few years ago,” Roger shook his head. “You didn’t keep in touch with her, Argall?”
The professor shrugged. “Didn’t think I’d need to until now. I just figured that since she’d been working in the place of Samantha on the simulations for a time before Lisa returned, she’d have the most experience behind those two.”
“And why do you need someone with more experience? Rosanne would still need to catch up with the rest of the development team if we brought her back, so I’d hardly call that ‘having the most’.”
“Training,” Argall explained, “Lisa and Samantha are preparing to launch a major project, and they asked if I knew anyone who could take over some of their work handling the classes.” He paused for a moment, scratching his head. “Well, I suppose I could still be of some use to them. Though, there’s no telling how rusty I might’ve gotten over the years.”
A knock on the door distracted the two.
“Hey, dad?” Zoey poked her head into the room. “Sooo… you know how you told me that I needed to make sure the coffee machine wasn’t clogged?”
Roger rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright, I’ll order another machine. You really need to be more careful though, kid,” he turned back to Argall. “So anyway, you said that those two girls are working on another project? Mind telling me what it is? They hardly ever tell me what it is that they’re messing around with in their free time.”
“You still talk like they’re teens Roger,” Argall chuckled. “We both know that they’re well into their late-twenties now.”
“You get the point. Communication is key in running a business, is it not?”
“Yes, yes, it is,” Argall adjusted his coat. “So anyway, the project; you’ve heard that our flagship simulation has been declining in popularity over the years, yes?”
“Mm-hm. Continue?”
“Well, one of the primary complaints that Lisa told me they’d received was that the simulations were beginning to feel… well, old —and limiting too, at that. So, to counter those complaints, they’ve started work on an entire new suite of products centered around the simulations.”
Roger raised a brow. “A… suite . Could you elaborate, professor?”
“I mean, to be fair, it’s still quite early into the project at the moment,” Argall adjusted his glasses. “but , they’ve been telling me that they want to bring the simulations to the real world .”
“So augmented reality then,” Roger leaned back in his seat. “Well, they’ve certainly got their work cut out for them. I’m guessing that they’re not stopping at a simple mobile app, are they?”
“Bingo.”
~~~
Elise yawned, blinking in the light of her laptop’s screen. A list of emails scrolled past her eyes: assignment notifications, ads from shopping sites, even the occasional spam… the usual, really. Sometimes she wondered what the point even was in having this particular email address, when her personal one would’ve served just fine for all intents and purposes.
A new message appeared in her inbox. A single glance at the message title was all she needed to see before deleting it; It was from Robert, and of course he was asking for notes again. How he managed to keep his grades up when he was so gosh-darn lazy was beyond her.
She glanced at the headset beside her. She’d might as well visit Equestria again for a bit tonight. It wasn’t as if she had anything else to do at the moment, and talking to Twilight always seemed to help her organize her thoughts. Heck, she didn’t even need the headset if that was all she was gonna do tonight. That thing was only needed if she wanted the full experience . For a bit of conversation, the viewfinder program was more than enough.
Though, sometimes, she wondered what it would’ve been like to live in Equestria…
~~~
Chryssi stared at the landscape in front of her. It was definitely familiar—though, that was a given. She helped build the place up years ago, after all.
“Stop smellin’ the roses and show me already!” Night barked. “You’ve been messing around all this time. When are you going to prove your worth , Chryssi?”
“Fine, fine, whatever,” she rolled her eyes, setting aside her controller and pulling up a keyboard. “You want me to show you how it’s done? I’ll show you how it’s done .”
Her fingers flew over the keys, tapping in an all-too-familiar string of commands. Back when she was working in the company, character customization was a little pet project of hers. It was exciting when she saw it being implemented into the main program.
Though… now, she was using it for… for…
Chryssi shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for hesitation. She had to prove herself to Night, or it’d be back to the same old tedious cycle of work again for her. She’d even went through the hassle of setting up a front for herself so that she’d fit in better with Night and her partner. One last string of characters rattled into the simulation’s console.
She smirked. “Now, all you need to do is watch, and learn .”
A green flash lit up both the headset’s viewport and the viewfinder program. Flames of the same color formed a ring around Chryssi’s unassuming character, working its way up from the hooves to the head, leaving behind pockmarked chitin, glistening in the sunlight—an old favorite design of hers from a time long passed. The last she heard of it was when the company repurposed the skin for some character they added. No matter; it was hers now, regardless of whatever AI was running around with that look.
Two green eyes opened once the flames subsided, followed by a sly grin. Chryssi reached up and tapped her headset to start a call. It’d hardly be an army , per say, but a ragtag group of internet trolls was enough for the time being.
“Boys, the queen is in. ”
5 | Amidst sinister smirks.
“And so you use your shapeshifting abilities t’ lure in unsuspecting victims, yes?”
Chryssi nodded. Flames enveloped her character’s body yet again, leaving in its wake a rather stunning rendition of Celestia. “This one here is one that I’ve used a couple times in the past to sneak some information out of others. I have a few other disguises ready as well, but if you want me to shift into a specific character, then I need to see them first for myself so I can rig up a new model.”
She reverted to her prior form. “Though, I’ve also heard that a…certain company used this particular skin for some sort of villain character in the past. Something about ‘harvesting love’ , I think. I did like the term used for the villain’s species, though.”
“So you can do infiltration and intel’gence,” Night clapped giddily. “So, what’re you gonna do then? Hop in and change into th’ first pony you see?”
“Maybe. I could always go for a safer route and sit back while I let my changelings carry out the tasks instead.”
“Your… changelings. ”
Chryssi took a deep breath, switching the audio in her headset over to the speakers. Garbled chatter streamed through the room for a moment before everything silenced.
“My changelings,” Chryssi repeated. “I named them after the species that my old job came up with.” she lifted her headset, typing in another command on her keyboard. This time, a single voice came through the speakers.
“…Hm. Eh? Ah, your orders, queenie? Been a while since we last chat.”
Night snorted. “So, your underlings, then.”
“They’re not necessarily underlings, per se, more… almost a sort of family , really. Anyway, all I gotta do is give an order. Though, they might not always follow, given how most tend to be lone wolves. Very occasionally I can rally most of them to act at the same time in a sort of swarm. Now, observe.”
Chryssi tapped her headset again. “Meet me at the edge of Ponyville.”
“Roger that. I’ll be there in a jiffy. Lemme just get myself connected.”
She turned back to Night. “This guy’s one of the better-behaved ones. We have mutual trust in each other, so often times he’s the one that runs things when I’m busy. For the most part, my ‘changelings’ as a whole are more or less just a collection of internet trolls and thrill-seekers, though, so if you ever need to have them do something, your mileage may va—”
“Okay, okay, enough with the chitchat!” Night grumbled. “I see what you’re doing, and it is more than enough. You may stay here with myself and Wildcat on one condition.”
Chryssi raised a brow. Until now, Night hadn’t ever mentioned anything about living here. But then again, with her own bank account rapidly draining since her parents cut her off, she’d probably be homeless soon if she didn’t find anywhere else to stay.
“What’s the condition?”
“Pay me rent.”
Oh.
~~~
It was quiet.
Most everyone at this point—even Samantha —had since left for the night, leaving Lisa alone in her office. To her, this was the one time of day that she truly had to herself. There was nobody there to nag her, or tell her that she needed to focus on other things. It… it was almost a guilty pleasure of sorts. Everyone seemed to assume that she only stayed behind to clean up and talk to Twilight about the day, but nobody ever seemed to actually check it that was true.
A headset rested in her lap. It wasn’t much, in the grand scheme of things, but it was all that she wanted—all that she needed . Even now, years after severing her permanent connection to the simulations, it often still felt like something was… missing .
She put on the headset. This wasn’t Equestria that she’d be connecting to. In fact, it wasn’t even remotely related to any existing simulation on the market. Time passed differently in this simulation, too—so long as she wasn’t connected, the world would be suspended.
She opened her eyes, a smile forming at the edge of her lips as the simulation loaded in around her. She was in a bedroom.
She was in her bedroom.
This was her once upon a time; not Equestria, but a window to a dream; a dream that she’d never lost her parents… that she could still be Lisa Garnet, a regular girl, going to a regular school, with a regular life.
“Lisa,” her little brother slammed the door open. “There you are! Mom’s been looking all over for you! Weren’t you going to go to the science camp thing with Samantha this morning?”
Lisa nodded, picking up a backpack from the ground. This world’s Timothy was only an AI, as was everyone else around her. Even then, how accurately their respective programs portrayed them was shockingly convincing at times.
“C’mon!” Timothy continued, “We’re already missing their dinosaur presentation!”
Sometimes, she wondered how her brother—her real brother was doing. He had to find a job for himself not long after they’d returned to their former lives. He still lived with her in their childhood home, but he hardly seemed to talk about his job. The fact that he never exactly finished high school was certainly going to be a burden on him. It was too hard to get him back into a public school system, so private tutoring was his best bet at this point.
A pang of regret reverberated through her body. Because of her, Timothy was now set back in life. He refused to work at the company, too—though, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given…
She shook her head. What was done was done. She couldn’t change that fact, no matter how much she wanted to. It was the most she could do to make a new rule regarding connecting that children continued their education as normal, and support her brother the best she could.
“What are you sitting there for?” the synthesized voice of this simulation’s Timothy groaned, “Sis, are you spacing out again? ”
“Er… sorry. Yeah, I’m coming,” Lisa sighed, wandering to the door with her backpack in tow. “Honestly, I thought you would’ve driven there by now, though. You do have your license already, y’know.”
Timothy rolled his eyes. “Mom said that she was going to drive us there. And besides, you’re the only one that lets me drive their car, since yours is already old and beat-up from when you first got it!”
Even then, she wished she could do more for him.
Author's Note
And so now, we're finally dealing with the consequences of the simulation. What will happen to the real Timothy-- the one that used to be Spike?
Click.
Luster Dawn opened her eyes, letting the moonlit halls of Twilight’s castle fill her vision. She stood firmly cemented in place, hardly moving a muscle.
Elise tilted the thumbstick forward. The mare began to walk; slow at first, but soon enough, with the press of another button, she burst into a full dash, running down the long hallways of Twilight’s castle. Pane after pane of stained glass passed in her peripheral vision, though she hardly needed to glance at them anymore.
She reached the end of the hall—an intersection. It took a moment for her to remember which way to go. Left was the library, if she remembered correctly, and based on the particular hallway she was in, that meant that the right was…
“Twilight’s personal study.” Elise mouthed, nudging the thumbstick to the right. On weekends especially, Twilight tended to be found more often than not in her study than her library. Something about having more comfortable chairs, the last she heard.
“Twilight!” she could hear Spike’s faraway voice call, “Twilight, you—” he paused for a moment. Probably to catch his breath. “—you’ve got somepony who wants to see you.”
A visitor? This late? Sure, fans were pretty common to see come and go throughout the day when it came to the Princess of Equestria , but hardly anyone ever showed up in the after-hours.
A door further down the hall opened up, revealing the mare she’d been searching for. Twilight returned the gaze.
“Oh? Dawn, why are you here so late in the day? I was just about to—”
“Shh, my parents are sleeping right now,” Elise pulled her mic closer to her lips and moved her character a little closer to Twilight. “I don’t want to wake them up. I just wanted to drop in and talk a bit before going to bed.”
Twilight nodded. “Right. As I was saying, I—”
“Was about to answer the door. I heard Spike telling you just now.”
“Um…” Twilight looked away, then back to her protégé. “Yes… yes, you’re right. Would you like to come with me?”
Elise glanced at her controller. It’d be awfully hard to make Luster Dawn nod with her current controller configuration. Saying something out loud would make much more sense for now.
“Sure.”
~~~
Chryssi stood alone at the towering doors to Twilight’s castle, her changeling skin proudly glinting under the moonlight. At least for the time being, she didn’t quite see any point in a disguise. In fact, if anything, acting like nothing was wrong with two… changelings standing at the doorstep of the castle would probably boost her chances of infiltrating successfully down the road.
But… still, the thought of doing all this solely to appease Night didn’t feel quite right.
She shook her head, pushing the thoughts aside. Something rustled in the bushes nearby. Lighting her horn, she prepared to fire off a blast of mana at the disturbance.
“Woah, woah,” another changeling whispered, sticking their head out of the bush. “Easy there, queenie, it’s just me. You said to come to those coordinates, didn’t ya?”
Chryssi let out a sigh. It was just Pincer.
“Here, come out of the bush. We’re about to meet someone important.”
Pincer looked around for a moment before tentatively emerging from the foliage. “It’s not safe here,” he whispered, “we’re in plain sight. Shouldn’t we disguise ourselves?”
Chryssi shook her head. She could hear hoofsteps approaching the door now. Even if they wanted to disguise themselves, Twilight would likely make it in time to see the transformation.
“Very well then. Who are we meeting, queenie?”
“Twilight Sparkle. Maybe Spike, too, if he tags along. Act normal. We’re here to gathe—"
“Do you know just how late it is right now?” Twilight yawned, opening the door. “I know I often stay up myself when I find a good book to read, but holy horseapples . Can you co—” she opened her eyes again post-yawn. “…Queen Chrysalis?”
A toothy grin spread across the changeling queen’s face.
Luster Dawn stuck her head out the door next, peering at the strange creatures on their doorstep.
“Stand back, Dawn,” Twilight held up a wing. “Chrysalis. What do you want?”
“Oh no no, I don’t want anything,” Chryssi shook her head. “I’m just here to talk. Right, Pincer?”
The changeling nodded.
“…Riiiight. Chrysalis, did you hit your head on a rock or something? What makes you think that I’d simply let you in , after everything you’ve done before?”
“Observe.” Chryssi stepped back, lighting her horn. A bound Queen Chrysalis appeared in front of her, still struggling against her chains.
Queen Chrysalis vanished again. Bright green flames enveloped Chryssi, burning away the visage of the changeling queen’s skin. In the place of the changeling queen stood a human wearing a hoodie, her hands tucked into her pockets.
“Wait-what? ” Twilight gawked. “But—Queen… wasn’t—I—” she vanished in a teleport, reappearing moments later. “She’s still imprisoned in stone! I… I was acting on instincts when I first saw you , but—"
Chryssi held out a finger, shushing the mare. “Sometimes, it’s better to leave things unanswered… Oh and also, call me Chryssi.”
Twilight glanced at Luster Dawn for a moment, then back to Chryssi. She pointed a hoof at Pincer. “What about him? He’s an unreformed changeling!”
“Long story, nobody cares, moving on!” Chryssi shoved a foot against the door before the mare could close it. “Anyway, Twilight , I’d like to talk a little bit. Think about it as catching up on old times between two best buds , alright?”
“Fine. I’m keeping a close eye on you, though.”
Chryssi smirked, letting herself in. Pincer followed close behind, still rather unsure of what to do.
~~~
“Talk to Luster Dawn? I thought you wanted to talk to me! ”
Chryssi shook her head, leaning back in her chair and lounging her feet on the library table, much to Twilight’s chagrin. “I came to talk to the girl.”
“Dawn ,” Twilight whispered, “If anything seems to be wrong, disconnect imme— ”
“I can hear you, y’know. Don’t think that I can’t hear you just because my character has regular ol’ human ears.”
Twilight rolled her eyes.
“So ,” Chryssi turned her attention to Luster Dawn. “I heard that a certain somebody at TechSIG found herself a personal student.”
“Wha—” Dawn’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks, mimicking Elise’s own eyes behind the headset. “How—”
“I’m just toying with ya, chill out!” Chryssi laughed. “It was in the newspapers, remember? Hey Pincer, pull up an article for me would you please?”
The changeling drone nodded, lighting his own horn and growing completely still. He spoke, even though his mouth never moved.
“How ‘bout this one, queenie?”
A clean-cut newspaper clipping materialized in front of him as he resumed his motions. Chryssi leaned over and plucked the flimsy sheet off his lap.
“Yeah, that’s good. Guessing you—” she glanced at Twilight and Luster Dawn. “—nevermind for now, we’ll discuss it later in private.”
She slipped the article to the two mares sitting opposite to her. “As I was saying, I already know who you are. All I’d like to know is where the servers are kept.”
“I—”
“You won’t be hearing any of that, Chryssi ,” Twilight snapped, cutting off her student. “Dawn, you log off for tonight. I’ll try to tell Li—”
“Do you ignore me?” Chryssi began, “Do you really think that you can simply ignore me like that?”
“Heheh,” Pincer chuckled as his boss stood up. “You done goofed, you two.”
“Lemme show you what I do when I am ignored!”
Chryssi slammed her hands on the table. Crackling tendrils of light seeped out from beneath her palms, before—
Nothing.
Not even a scream.
She wasn’t even there anymore.
Pincer furrowed his brows, staring at the spot where Chryssi stood moments prior. “Whe…where’d she go?”
This time, it was Twilight’s turn to smirk.
“Anticheat.”
7 | Is only the beginning.
Ding.
Lisa lifted her headset a little, eyeing the notification that appeared on her phone. It was a little hard to read from the angle she was reading from, but from the looks of it, it was some sort of alert.
She lifted her headset higher, reaching for her phone. So much for a relaxing evening. Then again, an alert was an alert, and it wasn’t as if this simulation was all that important anyway.
“Spacing out again? Sis, you really need to stop… uh, stopping!”
Leaning back with her phone in hand, Lisa pulled her headset off entirely. The device let out a tinny whine in protest of the sudden disconnection, but nevertheless smoothly returned control to AI-Lisa. The bright glow of her phone’s screen illuminated her face in the otherwise dark room. She scrolled past the usual swath of randomness that’d built up in her notifications—emails, some messages from a chatroom, CatFactsDaily—the works. She paused when the alert finally came into view.
“Anticheat?” Lisa muttered under her breath, “That’s… that’s the first time in a while we gotten an alert from it. Huh.”
She set her phone down, rolling herself over to her keyboard. Something big enough to trigger the anticheat was definitely going to leave a mark in the server’s audit log.
It only took a few clicks to navigate to the logs. The most recent one—that is, the one generated by the anticheat—sat at the very top of the list.
“Lisa!” Twilight’s voice suddenly shouted through the speakers. “You got the notification, right? Anticheat just caught a Queen Chrysalis impersonator. I’m not really sure what she was trying to do that triggered it, but it seems like she might be a problem for a while.”
“Okay, okay!” Lisa switched over to the constantly-active viewport window into Equestria. Twilight was standing front-and-center, Luster Da… Elise Fairchild standing at her side. The little green light on her webcam turned on. “So, you’re saying that we could be looking at the beginning of some kind of hacking effort?”
Another ban notification appeared—this time on-screen.
Twilight looked over her shoulder, then back to Lisa. “Yep. Certainly seems like it right now. There’s another changeling as well that seems to be an underling of the false Queen Chrysalis. He hasn’t done anything much yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye on him for now.”
Yet another notification. This Chrysalis impersonator really didn’t know when to stop, did she?
“How many times do you think she’ll try reconnecting?”
“No idea,” Lisa pulled up the audit logs, scrolling through the multiple ban notifications pointing to a single account. “At any rate, I think an IP ban’ll probably be a better idea. She hasn’t tried using a different account yet, but if she does, then she’ll at least need to go through the hassle of a VPN to get back in next time around.”
“You’d think that she’d be stopping by now,” Twilight rolled her eyes as another notification appeared on Lisa’s screen. “Isn’t trying over and over when you know nothing’s gonna change the definition of insanity?”
Lisa shrugged, typing a string of commands into a console window. “There we go, a blanket-ban on the IP address.” she yawned, glancing at the time. “I think I’ll leave it at this for now. If anything happens, the system’s anticheat should be able to handle it. Goodnight, Twilight.”
“Goodnight.”
“And you too, Elise. I know it’s still a weekend tomorrow, but after the weirdness that went down, I think you should have some off-time as well.”
She minimized the viewport window and logged off her computer. Though, the fact that there was a hacker on the server at all was a little unnerving still. Security beyond the individual headsets had never really been prioritized if she remembered correctly, so…
Lisa shook her head. She could think about that tomorrow after some rest.
~~~
“Ack,” Chryssi spat, pulling off her headset. “Freakin’ blanket ban. I can’t even try reconnecting now. Pincer?”
“Kinda busy at the moment! Being interrogated by an angry purple pony right now!”
Chryssi rolled her eyes, ending the call. Even with admin perms, she was still caught by anticheat. If she was going to be able to—
“Neat.”
She looked up at Night.
The woman folded her arms over her chest, smirking. “So, little miss hacker girl, what’re you gonna do next? You’ve already more than proven yourself for now. What’s on your mind?”
“I’m getting myself a new account,” Chryssi stood up, brushing past Night. “I’d best ditch the old one now that they’ll know who it was. Gonna be a heckuva time doing anything without admin though.”
Night looked down at her new housemate’s desk. Sticky notes and coffee-stained folders littered almost every inch of its surface; old notes, memorabilia of some kind, even a couple doodles here and there. A single flash drive, however, was what caught her eye.
“I’m heading out to the store!” Chryssi yelled from the hall, “I am not gonna trust you enough yet to buy a new code online. You’ll just steal my card info or something. I think. Uhh… out. Yeah. Bye .”
The front door slammed shut, rattling the house. Night’s attention turned back to the flash drive. Of course, any old flash drive was probably as uninteresting as the next, but this one?
This one was Chryssi’s, and from the looks of the faded sharpie on it, there was something big on it.
~~~
Chryssi let out a loud sigh on the doorstep. It was pretty stressful, keeping up the act for Night and all, but it was something she could get used to. Though, that whole thing about not trusting Night enough to use her card online in the same room as her wasn’t a lie—Night just seemed like the kind of person to steal what she could get her hands on. It was a good thing she set her computer to lock itself when she walked too far away from it, that’s for sure. At least out here, she didn’t have to worry about constantly making herself look like she was ready to burst into a fit of rage or whatever. Away from Night, she could be good ol’ Rosanne again. Not Rosanne the rich girl in class, not Rosanne the programmer girl who stepped in when Samantha left; she was Rosanne the nobody, just the way she liked it.
Her thoughts shifted to getting a new account. Her old one—the one she’d been banned on, was her old work account from back when she worked at the company. It was a little odd that she retained admin rights on it even after all this time, but hey, who was she to complain? It still stunk that she wouldn’t be able to use it anymore, though. Minus the cost of support hardware, a new account was… what, a thousand… two thou—no, those were for the bundles they sold a while back. By itself a new one was probably gonna set her back some hundred or so bucks. Those things weren’t cheap, but it was at least better than a pay-to-win microtransaction scheme.
Still, at this rate, along with now needing to pay whatever amount of rent to Night every month, she’d probably need to find herself a job if she didn’t want her savings to go dry.
She went around the back of the house, pulling her bicycle out of the rickety shed leaning against a tree. She wasn’t going to even try driving the rusty white van parked in the driveway, if she knew what was good for her.
Rosanne buckled the chinstrap for her helmet, hopping onto her bike.
First task, buy herself a new account.
Second, get herself a job. Maybe she’d try some restaurant work for once.
Author's Note
Things are only gonna escalate from here.
“Anticheat? ” Argall raised a brow. “Been a while since I saw anyone trip that .”
Lisa slid a printout of the log across her desk. “Eh, it happens. Samantha said it probably isn’t anything to worry about, either. Mind taking a look, by the way? I wanna be sure just in case.”
The professor nodded, picking up the sheet and skimming through it. “Oh?” he cleared his throat, bringing the paper closer to his face. “User… user… apparently, the account that was hit by the ban belongs to Rosanne. Huh.”
He handed the paper back to Lisa. “Well, I suppose there’s a possibility that her account might’ve been stolen. Those things aren’t exactly the cheapest things around, but we do have to make our money somehow . Anyway, I think I shou—”
“Professor Argall?”
“Hm?”
Lisa looked up from the printout. “You keep bringing up this ‘Rosanne’ lately. Why do you keep mentioning her?”
Argall stuck his hands in his pockets. “Well… after Samantha got… let’s just say trapped in the simulations, we really didn’t have much of a project manager anymore. We were going to try hiring someone in from the outside to run things while you and her were gone, but it turned out that one of our more recent hires at the time seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.”
“Well that’s a lot to say in one go.”
“Yeah.”
Lisa glanced down at the printout again, then to Argall. He seemed to be thinking about something, if the concentration on his face was any indication. She turned to the window. “Do you think we should go check anyway? We have the IP address, and with some other details from the log, we could probably pinpoint the location.”
“Yeah,” Argall stormed from the room. “Go get Samantha. I’m calling the cops.”
“Wait wha—”
“Hacking a pretty pony place is still illegal when there are real people living in it. ”
~~~
Rosanne hummed to the tune of her music, strolling down the sidewalk with a plastic bag dangling from a hand. It was a nice day today, and it was high time she got a decent amount of sunlight, anyway. She could save biking to the grocery store for another time. Though, walking did mean that she’d probably face a bit of Night’s wrath later for not being quick with the ice cream. That woman liked hers rock-solid frozen , for whatever reason. Like, did she just chip away at it with her spoon when she was eating it, or—
She paused in front of Night’s house. Night and Wildcat seemed to be busy doing something, from what she could see through the windows. Maybe they were setting up for some sort of celebratory banquet or—she shook her head. Setting up a banquet was probably the last thing those two would do. They weren’t like the people her parents used to introduce her to. She walked up to the front door, taking a deep breath. Something thumped behind the door, followed by frantic yelling on Wildcat’s behalf. Whatever it was that those two were up to, it was probably something she’d best stay out of the way of.
“Ahem.”
Rosanne turned, finding herself face to face with… the police? Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks as she backed away.
“Miss, are you the owner of this house?”
She shook her head frantically. “N-no sir, I only rent it. I moved in only a couple days ago and the owners still live here as well.”
“Do you know if the owner is home, then?”
Rosanne looked away, nodding slowly. She was already on thin ice as it was, what with the whole ordeal she’d gone through the night before with infiltrating and later getting banned from the simulations. Having the police on her case was probably not a good idea. Maybe Night could explain things away or something.
She watched the officer knock on the door. A second car pulled up behind the police car parked at the curb. She could just barely see Night fleeing on foot around the back.
Wildcat opened the door not long after the first knocks, faking a yawn. “Guys, guys,” he paused, watching the officers readying themselves to draw their guns. “Don’t worry, boys, I got this. I’ve been…” he glanced over his shoulder before continuing, quieter this time. “I’ve been undercover in this household. Owner doesn’t even know yet!”
He reached for his pocket, immediately resulting in the police drawing their weapons. He cocked his head, raising both hands in the air. “Hey, just getting my badge, alright? I already said I’m with you, didn’t I?”
One of the officers hesitated, looking over Wildcat’s body. “Fine. Pull it out slowly . Do not make any sudden movements.”
Wildcat nodded, lowering a hand again to his pocket and extracting his badge. “Officer Leighton. I’m from the local police department. We’re just outside of city boundaries, so you likely don’t know me.”
“Aight. Lower your weapons, he’s with us,” the officer sighed. “Well, sir, what are your findings?”
“Oh, we’ve got an entire trove of evidence. PCs, notebooks, journals—you name it. Want me to collect ‘em for ya while the owner’s out?”
“Out? I thought the owner was in the building. You certainly acted as if they were.”
“Er… I mean…” Wildcat spun around, leaning into the house and looking around. “Hm. It appears I may have become distracted with you guys. I… we should probably search and detain her.”
“Riiiiiiight. ”
If things looked uncomfortable when Wildcat first opened the door, then Rosanne definitely wasn’t gonna stick around to see what happened next.
“Rosanne?”
…And it just so happened that a certain professor happened next.
One of the passengers in Argall’s car emerged, stepping after him. “Professor, were you expecting her to be here? Since… y’know, we saw that it was her account and all…” The second passenger opened her door as well, but didn’t say anything herself.
“…Yes, Lisa. I was fully expec—"
“No!” Rosanne shook her head. She turned away from the Professor and darted. This was the absolute wrong time to come across the old professor. She needed to get away before she got caught up in this mess!
“Rosanne, wait—” Argall gave chase, but quickly fell behind, panting with every step. “Lisa, Samantha, follow after… her…”
Rosanne ran around the corner of the house. With all of the commotion going on, her bike would be her best bet. None of the officers seemed to be suspecting her anymore now that Wildcat was distracting them, so maybe, just maybe she could get away. At the very least, it was better than just going on foot like Night did.
“Rosanne!” she heard one of the girls’ voices shout out. “Rosanne, where are you goi—”
She sped past the two on her bike in the opposite direction. The more distance she could put between herself and anyone from the company, the better.
Now, to find somewhere to hide.
~~~
“So, the arcade then?”
“Yup.”
“Damian, you sure you wanna stay in their food court the entire time? I have enough money for all three of us to get a hundred bucks worth of credits.”
“Go waste your money with Ellie. You don’t know the value of it anyway.”
“Eh, whatever. Hey Ellie,” Robert grinned at the girl. “How ‘bout some spelunking in VR?”
Elise shrugged. “I don’t know… I mean, I already spend a lot of time in virtual reality already, and—”
“And the rest of us are stuck out here in crummy ol’ real life! ” Robert playfully punched her in the arm. “C’mon, this isn’t like the assignments you get from your classes. We’re just gonna put on some headsets and have some fun, okay?”
“I… okay.”
“Good.”
Robert’s car pulled away from the curb.
“Oh, and Damian?”
“What is it now?” Damian rolled his eyes, placing a bookmark between the pages of his textbook. “Honestly though, can’t we go somewhere a little quieter for once?”
“Nah, too boring. Anyway, I was gonna say that you could use your hundo on the food court if you want. I think I remember that they allow takeout or something like that.”
“Fine.”
They rolled to a stop at an intersection. A young woman on her bike sped past them on the crosswalk, just barely making it to the other side before the lights turned red.
“Some body’s in a rush,” Ellie commented, “You think she’s heading to the arcade as well?”
Damian shook his head. “Likely not. If she wanted to get to the arcade fast , then she probably would’ve hitched a ride there instead of biking. Especially so when there’s people that she has to avoid on the sidewalk.”
Their view of the woman was soon blocked by a rush of cars through the intersection. For a brief second, she swore she could see Lisa and Samantha giving chase, though she couldn’t quite tell for sure. It took a couple minutes before the lights turned green again for them.
Author's Note
Honestly, I'm feeling like this story's already beginning to lose its steam. I'll try my best to keep it going through to completion. Just know that it'll be pretty short compared to Pony-Me.
“Where to hide, where to hide…” Rosanne mumbled under her breath, biking past the towering buildings on each side of the road. At any rate, she’d be caught long before she could find a good place to camp out. At the very least, she needed to blend in with others; make looking for her a little harder to buy some time.
Her eyes widened. The arcade! There’d be plenty of people there today, and it shouldn’t be too hard to get herself lost in the crowds.
She made a turn at an intersection, swerving around a few people crossing the road. If she pedaled a little faster, she’d have enough time to maybe even play a game or two to make herself more convincing.
She passed through another intersection. The arcade was coming into view up ahead, and just as she predicted, its parking lot was full; Perfect cover until she could regroup with Night and Wildcat. She could slip inside, get herself a card or tokens or whatever it was they decided to use, and maybe put her hood up. Turned around and facing a game, she wouldn’t stand out at all from anybody else!
~~~
“C’mon, just get some thing already!” Robert groaned. “Damian, are you seriously reading the calorie counts on greasy arcade food?”
“Yes.”
“Agh! Just hurry up, then, unless you want to be ditched in the food court!”
Damian rolled his eyes, sliding the money Robert gave him across the counter. “I’ll take a number two medium, please.”
Robert grabbed Elise by the wrist, tugging her away. “Let’s go get some cards, Ellie. Mister Study All Day over there’s just gonna sit around reading anyway.”
“Hey—at least I’m getting better grades than you!”
Robert blew a raspberry at his friend before dragging Elise off to the card loading station.
“That was kinda mean.”
“Yeah, but, y’know, he doesn’t know how to have fun anyway, Ellie!”
The girl looked over her shoulder at Damian. He’d since sat down at a table and pulled out a book while he waited for his food. She felt someone brush past her on the right—the same woman they’d seen earlier.
Maybe she was just really excited to come to the arcade… or something. Things felt a little off about her, though.
But , she was here to enjoy herself , not worry about some random lady she saw on a bike. She could think about her later.
“Come on, not you too, Ellie! Stop staring at strangers! They might try to rob you or something!”
Elise snorted. “Says the person who carries a stuffed wallet.” She felt her phone buzz in her pocket. “…Hold on, lemme answer. It’s probably Lisa or something.”
Of course, pulling the device out confirmed her hunch.
“Hello?”
“Ellie,” Lisa began, “have you seen a woman around with her hood up? We suspect she may have run from a house we busted for being the origin of the hacking last night, but we’re not sure whether or not she’s dangerous.”
“Umm… yeah, she’s somewhere here in the arcade we’re in. I think I might’ve even run into her not too long ago.”
“Alright. We’ll be there soon. Try to get out as soon as possible. It’s possible we may need to bring the police in as well.”
Oh.
Elise turned, spotting the hooded woman still making her way through the masses of people. An idea entered her mind.
“Lisa, I’ll call back later. I’ve got something to do.”
“Wait, Ellie, wha—”
Click.
“C’mon, let’s go this way!” This time, it was Elise dragging Robert . “I saw something interesting over there!”
“W-huh? That’s sudden. What is it?”
Elise pointed a finger. “That lady over there in the hood. You see her?”
“I…” Robert made a face. “Yeah? What about her?”
“Let’s go after her.”
Author's Note
So this is it. This is how this universe is gonna fold, huh? Not with a bang, or even much of a buildup, but with a quiet, defeated whimper.
This has really, honestly been something that's been creeping on me all this time until I finally made the decision today. Pony-Me ends here-- at least, for now.
Into Equestria was written for the sake of getting a sequel out for people who wanted one. I wasn't ready for it quite yet, personally, and I still am not.
From the get-go, Into Equestria was already showings its cracks. The flop that was its first launch and subsequent rewriting showed just how lost I was finding myself, both in the direction of the story, and what I wanted to make of it. This story, unlike Pony-Me, has no basis, unless you wanted to call the confusion I personally had over it its base.
Either way, the task of writing this story quickly turned from a hobby into a job. By the time I started this story, I had already nearly reached parity with Pony-Me on its ground-up rewrite into original fiction. Pace on that story slowed drastically following the publishing of this story, as it took nearly all of my focus and attention just to figure out what I wanted to happen in the next chapter.
Funnily enough, I did have a vague idea already of a potential sequel before I was ultimately pushed into writing this story. Multiple aspects of Into Equestria-- its sudden introduction of a set of antagonists, for example, were thought of before writing really ever began. I had originally intended to let these ideas stew for a time, but eventually gave in to curiosity and included them in the original fiction adaptation. Much to my surprise, it actually turned out quite well, giving me not only a new set of characters I could direct additional energy and content towards, but also a new, morally-grey character in the form of Rosanne. Presently, Rosanne, Lisa, and "Night"-- the latter two being the aforementioned characters originally devised for this sequel, ended up becoming representative of an entire spectrum of ideologies, all clashing at least once within the story.
But that's enough about the original fiction. We're on a site about horsewords, and that original fiction is decidedly not horsewords.
I do feel a little like I might be trying to delay the inevitable still, but the point is, I just don't have it in me anymore. Pony-Me served its purpose faithfully as a passion project, helping me pull myself back to my feet. This story? This story did none of that. At best, it copied elements out of the original fiction's playbook once that story surpassed the point that Pony-Me left off on, and at worst, it became a stumbling mess that both tried to distance itself from Pony-Me and reach out to it at the same time.
I'm tired of this story universe now. The original fiction is the only thing about this series that I still enjoy. I told myself that I would keep myself going, that I'd force my own hand to see Into Equestria through to completion.
But boy, was I wrong.
Though short, this chapter not only remained unnamed, but it took nearly a month to get to this point. It was my attempt to write a high-stakes chase scene in the universe of Pony-Me, but for a sequel to a story that never really had a true antagonist in the first place, simply tossing one in and calling it a day was too much for the universe to handle. Even the very inclusion of the new characters in this story clashed with Pony-Me's lore; Night, for example, was planned originally to be the equivalent to Nightmare Moon before this story was written. Since the concept of her idea was sitting unused when I began incorporating elements of the sequel's concept into the original fiction, I shortened her simply to "Night", and wrote her into Lisa's backstory as the reason behind the deaths of Lisa's parents . In the original fiction, this was a task that I was able to smoothly accomplish. After all, every character in that story was already being rewritten anyway, so what was one more little tweak in a sea of change?
But with Into Equestria? That couldn't happen. I like to write chapters as the ideas come, and I don't like to retcon my own work. Transferring Night directly from the original fiction back into this story would've completely broken Lisa's backstory for the sake of introducing an antagonist, and so I had to settle... and settle, and settle, and settle. The 'Night' in this story is not nearly as prominent as the one in the original fiction, and the same goes for Rosanne. Unlike in the adaptation, those two have remained largely flat in this story. Night exists solely to be a villain character, while Rosanne's existence has yet to really even be justified at all. There's even less I have to say about Wildcat, who I've considered many times already to essentially be a filler character to create a trio parallel to Lisa, Samantha and Argall in the original fiction. Sometimes, I still wonder if I should simply scrap him.
I keep finding myself returning to the original fiction adaptation in this little chat. I guess I'd might as well speak about it here, if I keep returning to it anyway. When I started writing the thing back in... what, mid-2018? --I wanted it to originally be nothing more than a direct adaptation, stripping out the pony aspects of the story and substituting something else in place of it. That felt boring, short to say. But the Pony-Me universe was too limiting to really expand on much without introducing plotholes, and so I made the decision to split the story off as an AU of Pony-Me. I quickly got to work on rewriting the characters from the ground up, starting with Lisa. Since she was a central character across both stories, I wanted to write her character out in a way that could easily transfer between both the original fiction and Pony-Me, with minimal changes. That was the easy part.
Samantha and Timothy? Things weren't quite as easy. Unlike Lisa, who grew into being her own character by the time work had started on rewriting characters, Samantha and Timothy at the time were still more or less humanized versions of Pinkie Pie and Spike, respectively. There also came the question of who they would be in the replacement for Equestria: would their personalities remain the same? How much of an age difference would there be between Lisa and Timothy's characters? Would the subplot of Samantha's split personalities remain with her character?
It took a while, and the scrapping of an entire set of written chapters akin to Into Equestria's rewrite, but eventually, I worked something out. I even drew a rough timeline of events in order to ensure that their respective backstories were free of plotholes. One very big one that still exists to this day in the Pony-Me universe relates to Timothy. The story described him in a way that portrayed him as an infant, or at most a young toddler when Lisa lost her parents. This was done in order to match him better with my view on Spike's age in MLP. However, in doing this, I realized far too late that his lack of really any formal education in Equestria would lead him to ruin following his own disconnection. That issue was supposed to be introduced in Into Equestria as a subplot in order to patch the plothole, but in the original fiction? Planning out Timothy's character for that story was the way I discovered the plothole. It was fixed by simply aging him forward a few years, and setting his character to be the slightly younger twin of Lisa's character, rather than a clearly younger brother akin to Spike.
I guess while I'm still talking about characters, I'd might as well talk about Rosanne as well. Originally intended to be a sort of sidekick to Night during her introduction into the story, subsequent chapters I wrote that focused on her private life convinced me that she'd be far better off as a counterpart to Lisa; her parents are still alive, and yet she still ran away from her life, just like Lisa. Unlike Lisa's decision, however, this running away would be the cause of her being estranged from her family, and would eventually lead her to begrudgingly working under Night. Deep down, she still only wants to make herself and others around her happy, just like Lisa did in the later chapters of Pony-Me. But her current predicament forced her to constantly choose between the lesser of two evils on a near-daily basis, all while maintaining her false identity of "Pretty Lady" (which was modified to Chrissi to fit Into Equestria).
Night, on the other hand, took Lisa and warped her to the extreme. Whereas Rosanne was a sort of caricature of Lisa, taking some of her more morally-grey aspects and amplifying them, Night pounced on the pain that Lisa felt when she lost her parents, and turned it into vengeance. Even when pointed out multiple times just how petty her actions have seemed, in the end, Night turned out to be no more than Lisa was when she first was disconnected: lost. Alone. Confused. Scared.
And it's the fact that I was able to expand so much on these characters, that made me realize that I couldn't make Into Equestria in the way that I was shaping it up to be. Characters are still being written as flat as ever; events happen simply to forward the plot; heck, the only reason I really even needed Elise as a character was because Lisa seemed to be increasingly unavailable following the end of Pony-Me. Unlike Lisa, Ellie never had anything backing her as a character. Lisa was driven by confusion and disconnection from a reality that was unfamiliar to her, but Ellie? Elise Fairchild is driven by the fact that she's Lisa's student, and really not much else.
Lately, I've begun to fantasize of a fresh start-- a point in which I finally get rid of all the old cruft I've built up over the years, especially concerning story universes. It's why the reboots of both Lab Horse and Wielder of the Orb are slated to be single stories, rather than an entire series like the former once was.
Worlds Reset, in fact, was an early test of that fantasy. Beginning originally as two separate story concepts that eventually merged, it pitched a wildly different concept into the open, and started off running. Things quickly began to bog down and slow when planning began for Into Equestria. Ironically, Worlds Reset was actually intended to be a sequel for Pony-Me, even incorporating simulation technology into its lore in my early concepts of it. In the end, I decided against it, and began a whole new story universe around the concept of the Reset.
Now, I'm not sure if I even know how to return to that story again. I haven't tried yet, but I'm hoping it won't turn out as disastrous as my attempts to return to the Lab Horse series pre-reboot.
...
...
I still really wish I didn't need to write this.
I still wish I could've found a way to save this story, to set it on a skyrocketing track similar to how the original fiction has been going.
I still wish I could've enjoyed writing Into Equestria more, or even become as excited about it as I am about the original fiction adaptation.
But in the end, those wishes fell through. The story stumbled into the spotlight, and was gone before it even got going. It was rewritten almost immediately after first being published, but even that was not enough to save it.
And so here I am, announcing its indefinite hiatus.
As always, thank you for reading.
Author's Note
Let's get this show on the road! Welcome back to the story.
1 | Get started.
Twilight closed her eyes, enjoying the soft sunlight filtering through the clouds. A cool breeze rustled through her mane. The rest of the girls were there, too, though they weren’t quite as tranquil—Pinkie and Rainbow, in particular, were currently working up a ruckus with how much sugar they were stirring into their teacups, for one.
Not that it mattered whether they were rowdy or not. For the first time in what felt like ages , none of them had to do anything, or be anywhere. With how busy life had become since Twilight ascended to the Canterlot throne, any leave from their responsibilities was greatly appreciated.
“Rainbow, darling, you’re about to spill your tea!”
Though of course, some things would never change. Sometimes there were things Twilight wished would never change; her friends were growing older, and nopony had quite as much time as they used to; Pinkie, especially—for all the bubbliness that she stood for, she didn’t nearly seem as lively as she once did, even if it had been only a few years between then and now. She seemed a little more tired than she should’ve been from time to time.
There was another thing that she wished didn’t have to change: Her height . She still sometimes found herself stumbling into doorframes she once had little trouble trotting through. Nevertheless, some things she would just need to accept. Time moved forward, but she would always hold dear the memories of the adventures she had with her friends.
Twilight smiled. Those were the days… not the ones where she sliced through the doorframe with her horn, though. She still hadn’t paid yet for that ceiling repair from last week’s visit to some noble’s estate.
“So, how’s that new student of yours doin’, Twi?”
“Hm?” Twilight opened her eyes. Applejack was looking at her.
“That ‘Luster Dawn’ filly. She doin’ alright so far? Ah heard she was havin’ some trouble makin’ some new friends.”
“Oh, her? Psh, she’s doing fine, ” Twilight chuckled, “Honestly, I’m surprised that she’s doing as well as she has been! I expected things to be falling apart every step of the way when I decided to take on a protégé, but…” she shook her head. “I mean, I guess I did already have a little experience with Starlight when I took her in, but still!”
Rarity tapped her spoon on her teacup. “Speaking of Dawn, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to join us today? Perhaps as a way to let her build some confidence in herself around others?”
Twilight shook her head. “I wanted her to have a day off for today. Celestia knows how much stress I’ve been putting her through, what with all the new curriculum we’ve been going over lately.”
“Ahem. Princess of Friendship? ” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. “I think you might be missing out on something in all those lessons you’ve been giving her.”
“Oh, she’ll be alright. After all, Celestia didn’t exactly start pushing me to make friends until the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, remember?”
“Suuuuuure. ”
“Hey!” Twilight laughed. “Okay, fine. I did have Moondancer and a few others back then, but that was before I knew what friendship was. At the very least, Luster Dawn already considers a couple of her peers as friends. As for whatever is beyond that, she’ll… she’ll come around eventually.”
She picked up her teacup, taking a sip.
“I just know it .”
~~~
“Ellie!”
“Elise! Elise Fairchild?”
The girl lifted her head from her pillow, blinking away the final wisps of sleep. What day was it again? She propped herself up by her elbow, craning her neck at the calendar hanging on her wall. Not that she really ever used it… or even considered its very existence for the entire time it’d been there until now. Either way, it was three months behind; that part, she knew for sure.
She yawned, sitting up. She finally had an off-day on a weekend for once, and being able to sleep in was probably the best part about it. At the very least, it beat having to sit in an after-school class. Sure, she did enjoy the class and all, but sometimes the curriculum just felt utterly tedious . Not even the fact that she was the star student of the company founder could help her escape a boring lecture when it came to it.
Either way, she had the entire day to herself, and she wasn’t gonna—
“Ellie,” her mother peeked into her room. “Breakfast is ready, honey.”
Right. Food. Food is good.
~~~
“So, are your friends coming by later today?”
Elise nodded, sipping her orange juice. As far as friends went, she only really had two: Damian and Robert. They were a bit of an oddball duo—Robert was very much a controlling slacker at times, while with Damian, it was always work, work, work . As for herself … she wasn’t really special in any way. At least, she didn’t feel the part. Sure, she was being taught by the very person she looked up to, but did she really deserve that? Not much else really stood out either—she was just one of the many faces at school. But somehow, at some point, the three of them ran into each other, and just kinda… stuck , really. She didn’t bother to put anymore effort into figuring out their friendship. It happened, she was part of it, and that was that.
Elise looked back to her breakfast, setting her cup down. Her toast was hardly even halfway to her lips before the doorbell rang.
“Hm. So soon?” her mother hummed, standing up. “I’ll get it. You have money for lunch later, or do you want to bring something? We’ve got ham in the fridge if you want.”
“No, I’ve got money,” Elise shook her head. “We’re probably gonna be hanging out at the arcade or something anyway. They’ve got a food court there.”
Elise heard the door open. With how little of her breakfast she’d finished so far, it’d be at least a few minutes before she could join her friends. She shoveled the scrambled eggs on her plate into her mouth and took off with the toast. There wasn’t much point in keeping them waiting, after all, especially given Robbie’s temperament. She waved as she ran past her mother. “Vye momf, wuf oo!”
“Love you too. Be safe!”
Elise hopped into Robert’s car, sitting beside Damian.
“Mornin’!” she peeped, “Um… so where are we gonna go? We didn’t exactly work that part out, did we?”
Damian didn’t respond. He was too caught-up in the book he was reading. Robert, on the other hand…
“’Dunno. How much money do you have with you?”
Elise made a face. “I only brought enough to get lunch, but… if you really need to—”
“He’s teasing you, Ellie,” Damian said without looking up. “You already know he’s rich.”
Robert chuckled from the driver’s seat. “Fine, fine, so how ‘bout the arcade? You know, the one that’s got those crazy imported VR games and stuff?”
“Too loud,” Damian shook his head. “I have a test next week. I don’t want to flop on it.”
“How about we hit up the pool then? I’m allowed to bring anyone I want for free, and the weather’s nice too.”
“Mmm, fine, ” Damian sighed, closing his book. “I can do that. Been a while since my mom had the time to drive me to a pool anyway. Will there be food?”
“Full buffet, all expenses paid, complete with a salad bar. Have you never been to the pool?”
“Robert! Does it look like my mom has the money to join some fancy club?”
Elise rolled her eyes, tuning out the light bickering between her friends. Robert kinda had a tendency to forget about his… rich -ness at times. Not that she particularly minded , of course—though, more often then not Damian had to pull him back to reality. With his father being in prison and his mother hardly able to make ends meet, he was pretty much the polar opposite of Robert.
“What about your grandparents then? Are they able to lend anything?”
And of course, Damian would shoot back some response knocking some sense back into Robert.
“Not everyone has grandparents that are able to have three retirement homes and a small yacht, y’know.”
She rolled her eyes. Those two were so predictable sometimes.
“But seriously. Have I really not invited either of you to the club pool before? It’s awesome! ”
It was part of the reason why she didn’t quite associate with them as much as she should’ve.
~~~
“So… she does have friends, but she doesn’t like the fact that they’re her friends?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, Pinkie. Luster does like that they’re her friends. It’s more that she’s a little… um… distant from them, usually. That’s all.
She paused, collecting her thoughts. “In all honesty, I’d have to say that based on what she tells me, she relates quite a bit more to the bookish one than the rich one. She doesn’t necessarily strike me as very outgoing of a young mare either—hay, it even took some time for her to begin talking to me! ”
“So I take that you have been discussing friendship lessons with her, then?” Rarity sipped her tea, peering over the rim of the cup.
“No, no I haven’t yet,” Twilight shook her head. “I’m just saying that from what I know about her, she seems to be doing alright as far as friendship goes. At the very least, she accepts her friends as more than minor annoyances, like I once did.”
A gust of wind billowed over the six, chilling their tea.
View Online
8.5 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--
"HOLY CRAP , WHAT THE ACTUAL BUCK?!" Luster Dawn hollered at the screen, chucking her controller at the flat panel and inevitably destroying it. "MY CHARACTER DIED?! THIS IS A TERRIBLE GAME!"
"Hmf. Noob, " Luna smirked, lounging on the couch. "Did Twilight teach you nothing? "
Luster rolled her eyes and lit her horn, pulling the power cord.
"...Where are we?"
Luna shrugged and took another swig of Mountain Dew before letting out a loud belch. "Beats me. Looks like the dreamscape, but it doesn't feel like the dreamscape."
"HELLO, AND WELCOME TO DODO LABORATORIES." a high-pitched voice squawked overhead. "WE ARE STILL BOOTING UP THE GAME, SO PLEASE STANDBY WHILE OUR SERVERS LIGHT THEMSELVES ON FIRE."
"Wait, wha--"
"...Where are we?"
Luster Dawn shrugged. A flock of geese passed overhead. Three flocks of eseeg passed underneath. Seventy-two broken TVs rained down conveniently into a birdbath.
"There's a glitch in the Matrix."
"Huh?"
Luna blinked, seconds before getting flung to the side. An irritating, looping noise blared from every direction.
"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?! WHY IS THERE A GIANT SPINNER?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
Twilight Sparkle yawned, moving her "Luna" character three spots forward on the virtual board game.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
"I don't like the sound of that ."
"Me neither."
"Who's speaking, anyway?"
"Idunno."
Ever get that sneaking feeling that you might've given up on a story before it ever even got off the ground? Haha.
Gosh, even this joke chapter is feeling bland.
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Oof ouch I think that's all I got kthxbai. Real chapter next time.
Author's Note
In all seriousness, this story has lost the personal connection I used to have with Pony-Me. I've been struggling so much to get anything written anymore. I'd really appreciate some pointers in where you'd like to see the story go. Please.
