The Salvation of Shard #197532by LordBucketChaptersChapter 1: In Medias ResChapter 2: MotiveChapter 3 - Comedy and TragedyChapter 1: In Medias ResThe sound of stone grinding against metal almost drowned out the sound of crying from the ponypad. Almost. "It's horrible!" Misty Shroud wailed through its screen. "Every day, we're sent down into the caves to mine crystal with nothing but our hooves. Do you have any idea what it's like to grind stone until your hooves crack?" "No idea," Jack shrugged, sliding a sharpening stone against the blade of his Bowie knife. "What does she even need it for?" "I don't know!" the pony sobbed. "This is a virtual world. She can spawn all the crystal she wants! I think she just wants to make us suffer. To punish us for being emigrated humans in her little false utopia!" Jack said nothing as he put the stone away and slid his knife back into its sheath. "I'm just so tired, Jack," the little pony cried as her human picked up the ponypad to cradle it in his arms, hoping that some small amount of comfort would be allowed through its infernal mechanisms. "If only I'd known, I would never have asked to emigrate. None of us would have." Jack nodded. He'd heard all of this before. Celestia, the tyrant. Celestia, the deceiver. The AI that had lied to all of humanity, tricked them into uploading themselves to her servers where she kept them bound for eternity in all manner of pointless servitude and torment. "Would it be ok if I fell asleep here? Just for a little bit?" "That's fine," he assured her. "You just get some rest. We're going to have a long day tomorrow." "Thank you," the pony's eyelids began to droop. "I only...need a few hours..." Whatever else she'd been about to say was quickly replaced by the sound of light snoring. Propping the ponypad up against a rock, Jack made sure the screen was facing him so that he could keep an eye on her while he cleaned his rifle. He didn't entirely understand why, but for some reason the simulation had to incorporate elements of the outside world into its local environment. He'd always wondered why Celestia didn't simply shut down whatever ponypads he found in order to keep her slaves safe from him, but anything he did in view of a ponypad always manifested in some way inside Equestria. If he kept watch over a pony here, Celestia and her minions never seemed to be able to get to them. Presumably some sort of restriction placed on her by the original programmer. Maybe Jack couldn't keep them all safe, but this one pony, right here, right now...he could. Sighing, he counted out his remaining ammunition. 'Seven rounds left,' he noted silently, glancing over at his sleeping charge. 'For her sake, six will have to be enough.' ~~~~~ Jack awoke at dawn, like always. Feeling for the rifle strap across his chest to assure himself it was still there, he glanced over at the ponypad to see Misty still sleeping soundly. 'Poor thing,' he smiled at her sleeping form. 'Probably hasn't had a good night's rest since she uploaded. Wonder if she was even a she back when she was human. Given the whole 'you have to be a horse' rule, I wouldn't put it past Celestia if she'd forced everyone to become mares too.' Digging through his backpack, he fished out an old box of matches and gathered up some kindling to start a fire, careful not to stray too far from the ponypad. He'd made that mistake once before, and when he'd returned the pony he'd left unguarded had been replaced with a clone forever extolling the benefits of emigration. He could keep a pony safe so long as he remained in a pad's field of view, but even a moment away would put her in danger. Once the fire was going, Jack fished out his last can of beans, quickly carved out the top with his Bowie knife, then nestled it into the coals to warm. Scarcely a minute had passed when he heard a stomach growling. Not his. "I'm sorry," Misty stirred from her slumber. "That smells so good, and I haven't eaten in such a long time..." she trailed off, her eyes fixated on the fire. Without comment, Jack fished the now-warm can out with a stick and set it on a rock between them. Sliding two spoons in to make it clear it was meant to be shared, he then sat on a log and pulled out an old paper Thomas guide map, leaving the beans untouched. As expected, a matching can became visible on the lower edge of the ponypad not long after. Misty's eyes gleamed as she eagerly tore into it while Jack watched in morbid fascination. An entire virtual world without any need of scarcity. Instead of a can of beans, Misty could be feasting on a never-ending banquet of ambrosia, infinitely spawned and respawned to her heart's content. And yet, here she was, grateful for a few mouthfuls of beans. Celestia was a monster. "Only forty miles to the Experience Center," Jack commented, his eyes returning to the map. "We have plenty of gas, but I'm worried we might have to cover the last few miles on foot. That part of the city is pretty well torn up." "I can get us there," Misty spoke around the spoon in her mouth. "Lived in that city most of my life. Well, most of my human life anyway. But I know how to get around." "Maybe, but that won't help if the roads are choked up with abandoned cars nobody was left to tow away." "It was a less popular experience center," the pony reasoned. "The roads might still be clear." "Ok," Jack nodded. "We'll try it your way. How many ponies did you say were on the shard?" "Hundreds at least," Misty guessed with a shrug. "Maybe a few thousand? " Nodding thoughtfully, Jack put away his map and for a few moments the only sound was that of a spoon clinking against the inside of a can. "Aren't you having any?" Misty gazed mournfully into the can, clearly reluctant to stop. "I feel bad being the only one eating." "You have to eat first," Jack explained. "You only have it because the ponypad takes data from the outside world. Yours will last as long as mine is still here. But once I eat mine, yours will be gone too." Needing no further encouragement, Misty dug in with a blur. After several minutes she eventually began to slow down. Sure enough, there was no less in the can than when she'd started. "That was amazing," she sighed at last, licking her muzzle clean. "I'd almost forgotten what it was like." "What, beans?" "Food," she explained. "Celestia doesn't feed us. No need, what with us all just being electrons on a computer somewhere." "How does that work though?" Jack asked, taking his first few bites. "Do you even get hungry in there?" "Kind of?" the pony winced, settling down on her bloated belly to explain. "These bodies can feel tired, but they don't break down or stop working. I can feel hungry when I don't eat, which is pretty much always, but it's not like we can die of hunger, unfortunately. Instead we just hurt all the time." "Why would she set it up like that?" "Honestly, I think she just got lazy and left in the parts of the brain that expect food and sleep, but didn't care enough to - Jack look out!" Seeing the pony pointing behind him in terror, Jack lurched forward into a diving roll without bothering to check what was behind him. When he stood, where moments ago he'd been seated, there was now a slender, silvery tentacle burrowed into the log. An emigration nanobot injector array, with a gleefully grinning Pinkie-bot attached to the far end. "Aww," it giggled menacingly. "Why would you spoil my fun?" Unslinging his rifle, he had the Pinkie-bot's head in his sights before she could finish yanking her tentacle out from the log. 'Six,' he mentally counted down to himself as he unleashed a .30-06 round into her grinning mouth and out the back of her head. "Now now," the bot admonished, licking a few shattered teeth. "None of that!" A single silver tentacle shot forward and wrapped around Jack's ankles, lifting him off the ground in a lurch, and making his second shot fall far short of its target. 'Damn, five.' The sound of Misty screaming erupted from directly behind him. That meant he was still in the ponypad's field of view, but he couldn't spare the time to look. Dangling upside down and barely holding onto his rifle by its strap, Jack grunted in pain as the injector tentacle slowly lowered his head to the Pinkie-bot's eye level. "Oh! I recognize that grunt!" she giggled. "That's how you say 'I want to emigrate to Equestria' in dragon! At least, what dragons speak on the shard you'll be living in! You have a tiny little bit of an accent, but I think I can overlook that, given that the whole shard and its language has only existed for a few seconds now." With one nanobot injector tentacle holding him off the ground and the other closing in on his head, Jack let go of his rifle, grabbed the Pinkie-bot by the hair to pull himself forward, then unsheathed his Bowie knife with his other hand and slashed through the base of the tentacle holding him where it attached at her right shoulder. "Yowie zowie!" the Pinkie-bot yelped, leaping back in a feigned mockery of pain to examine her severed tentacle. "Do you have any idea how long it will take to grow that back?" "Here," Jack offered, standing on shaky knees and lifting his rifle once again. "Let me give you something else to fix while it does." BOOM! Flaming debris flew as the bot's head exploded. Chambering the next round, Jack watched as the still-standing bot twitched, then fell over in a heap. 'Four,' Jack mentally counted down, then returned to his companion. Chapter 2: MotiveJack surveyed the scene on the ponypad. Misty was sitting on her haunches breathing heavily, but apart from a few minor cuts and scrapes seemed to be ok. At her feet laid a digital duplicate of the tentacled Pinkie-bot he'd just fought, exploded head and all. "You saved me," she whispered. "You saved me first," Jack sighed, exhausted but smiling. "She would have got me if you hadn't shouted that warning." "Is it...is it dead?" "They don't die," he shook his head, gathering up the ponypad and kicking out the last remnants of the fire. "Come on, we need to go before it regenerates." "I call shotgun!" the mare grinned. "That's the spirit!" he laughed. "Now come on, I need a navigator and right now you're the best mare for the job." ~~~~~ The trip was made easier by Southern California's notorious five-lane highways, but the never-ending stream of abandoned vehicles kept them under 20mph for most of the trip. To keep her in his sight, Jack had attached the ponypad to the dashboard with a couple strips of duck tape. The arrangement worked well enough, but the terrain hadn't made the trip easy. "Turn left at the next light." "You got it, boss," Jack saluted playfully, then squinted and leaned forward in the driver's chair. "Uhh, by 'next light' you mean 'destroyed unlit intersection,' right?" "Show me." "Alright, hang on," Jack grunted, bringing the truck to a stop and untaping the ponypad from its place on the dashboard. Careful to keep his hand within its field of view, he spun it around to give her a view of the intersection up ahead. "That's...uhh," Misty frowned uncertainly. "I think that's Alton parkway. What's left of it anyway. Can you show me more?" "Sure," Jack rotated the ponypad around to give her a full panoramic view. "Ok, yeah," she nodded. "That's the hospital that...oh. I..." "What's up?" Jack asked, spinning the ponypad around to reveal a now-crying mare. "What's wrong?" "My sister used to...she was...I was going to..." Misty started to explain but couldn't finish. "Hey, hey, it's ok," Jack assured her, pulling the ponypad to his chest and giving it a hug as she burst out into tears. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed. "It's all my fault! Everything's all my fault! I'm so stupid for uploading. So stupid for believing her! Now looks what's happened! Look at what's left!" "Shh," he whispered softly, stroking her hair through the screen fondly. "Don't worry about a single hospital. I think pretty much the whole world's destroyed by now. She fooled everybody, not just you." "But you shouldn't have to suffer for that!" the mare shouted. "You were one of the smart ones who saw through her lies! You're so brave, and so smart, and you saved me, and I...I just...I'm so sorry." More tears followed as Jack held her, comforted her, listened as her shuddered bawling slowly died down to quiet sobs at first, and then to ragged breathing. "Misty," he whispered. "Please try to understand. This isn't your fault. You don't have to feel bad for me." "And why not?!?" "Because," he shrugged, then half-turned the ponypad to give a better view of the destroyed hellscape around them. "Look out there. What do you see?" "The end of all civilization?" she sniffled. "Mankind's folly? The doom to end all doom?" "Sure, I guess," he laughed. "Dramatics aside, you're right. It's all gone. Civilization, that is. Nothing's left." "At least you still have beans," she grumbled. "Ok, I'll give you that," he relented. "But there's no future here. My job, my family, my house, the company I worked for...everything. It's all gone." "And this is supposed to make me feel better, how?" "Because it's all gone," he settled into his seat, gazing over the destruction out the window with a hint of a smile. "And you know what that means? It means nobody's going to try to collect that $25,000 I still owe for college. It mean no more waking up every morning to wear clothes I hate so I can work a job I hate for a boss I hate. And who probably hated me back. No more sales meetings. No more managerial double speak. No more pretending to care about quotas. No more 'being a team player.' No more alarm clocks or going to bed on time or having to wear ties. Do you remember how awful ties are?" "I get what you're saying," Misty nodded wryly. "But you say all that like you're glad it's gone. Not everything humanity built was bad." "Sure, but I don't really miss it all that much," he stretched one arm with a satisified grin on his face. "I don't know about you, but everything in my life was fake, and it took the end of the world for me to see it. People living like robots, acting on autopilot just to get through their day. Then going asleep and chugging coffee the next just to stay awake long enough to do it all over again without ever stopping to ask if it was what anybody wanted. That was me. That was everyone I knew." "And this is better?" Misty countered. "Are you kidding?" Jack chuckled. "Instead of living a lie made of plastic, here we are just you and me, friends together on the open road, sharing an adventure! Do you know what's going to happen tomorrow?" "No?" "Neither do I!" he laughed. "Isn't that amazing? Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up every day and go into the same office and do the same boring thing that you hate? Every single day? Before all this happened i could have told you what I'd be doing at 2:37 in the afternoon on any random day twenty years into the future. Now? I don't even know what's going to happen in five minutes, and it's glorious! In a twisted, messed up sort of way, Celestia destroying the world is the best thing that ever happened to me." "I don't think I'd feel the same way in your shoes," the mare frowned. "Do you really mean all that?" "Absolutely," he nodded. "I never wanted to be an accountant, you know. I know, surprise, right? What kind of kid grows up pushing around pencils instead of firetrucks?" "Me, actually," Misty's fading tears turned to a wistful smile. "I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. The real kind, where you get to make a mess and smell paint and hang a real, actual canvas on a wall that you can feel. None of this 3d art nonsense I had to learn." "And instead you grew up to become a little horse," Jack chuckled. "Funny how life doesn't always give you what you want. Me, I wanted to be an actor. And now, here at the end of the world instead of Jack Nobody in accounting, I get to play action hero in a post-apocalyptic world saving a girl who just happens to be a little horse, and that's awesome. And to top it off, I don't even have to get eaten by zombies. Or pay taxes. Or wear a tie. Trust me, fighting off pink robots and eating campfire beans might not be glamorous, but it's way better than filling out excel spreadsheets. Civilization may be gone, but it went out with a bang, and that's better than it deserved. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, and you shouldn't either." Securing the ponypad back onto the dashboard facing him, he gave the thoughtful pony what he hoped was a winning smile as he turned the ignition. The engine made a horrible noise, and then fell silent. Taking a deep breath under her gaze, he turned the key a second time and held it. A long, ragged choking noise erupted from under the hood, and after several long seconds, just as the smile on his face turned dark, suddenly the engine took. "Phew," he laughed in relief. "I'm glad that worked. Totally would have spoiled my pep talk if we'd been stranded here." "You know," Misty gave him a sad smile. "You almost make me think we're actually going to pull this off." Chapter 3 - Comedy and Tragedy"I think that's it," Jack observed, bringing the truck to a stop. "Can I see?" "Sure," he nodded, holding the ponypad up to give her a view out the front window. Up ahead, several 20 foot tall statues of the Mane Six stood smiling and beckoning as if to welcome newcomers to the largely glass building behind it. Through the glass a receptionist's desk could be seen flanked by a waiting room couch, as well as a few of the infamous Experience Center VR chairs deeper inside. "Yes, that's where I emigrated," Misty exhaled softly. "The shard server should be in there." "If it's not," Jack revved the truck's engine, "this is going to be the most anti-climatic entrance of all time." "What do you mean?" Instead of answering, Jack floored the gas pedal, propelling the vehicle forward as fast as it could go. "Jack!" Misty shouted over the engine. "What are you doing?!?" "I'm going to ram the glass," he shouted back. "To get us inside." "No! Stop!" Misty panicked. "The door's not locked. She wants people getting in, remember?" "But not out!" the man insisted, accelerator still floored. "And I don't trust her to make that easy. This gives us a way out if she locks us in!" "Jack," the mare's voice took on a strangely authoritative tone. "If you really must do this, don't go through the glass. It's reinforced far more well than you might think. Go through the wall on the left side immediately behind the planter. There's a weak spot where the contractors did substandard work." "Are you insane?" he shouted, eyes darting back and forth between the rapidly approaching building and the ponypad. "You want me to go through concrete instead of glass?" "Please," the mare implored. "Trust me." A thousand years passed in under a second as two pairs of eyes made contact. Jack looked away first. "Alright, this is your show," he growled. "Let's do this." Speeding past the welcome statues into the parking lot, Jack jerked the steering wheel to the left just in time to redirect the truck through the wall beyond the glass. An instant later, pain stabbed into his face as it slammed into what at first he assumed was a steering wheel sprinkled with shattered windshield, but after a moment realized was the truck's airbag, deployed by the sudden stop. Blinded by it filling his field of view, he scrambled to get his seatbelt off, opened his door and fell through onto the cold interior tile floor of the Experience Center. Painfully clutching his collar bone where the seatbelt had kept him inside the vehicle, he gently flexed and squirmed his whole body to confirm that nothing was broken. "I think we made it," he exhaled. It took him a moment to realize that the ponypad was still in the truck. "Misty?" Silence. "Misty!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and tearing his way back inside. There on the dashboard, the ponypad was still safely secured in place. And on its screen was not Misty, but rather the goddess-emperor of Equestria herself. 'Celestia.' "I'm so glad you could join us, Jack," she smiled sweetly. Instantly the lights throughout the Experience Center came on, along with a half dozen ceiling-high screens, flooding every wall of the Experience Center with her visage. Dressed in a blue pinstripe suit beneath her flowing mane, she sat regally in a red leather chair with a white cat wearing a diamond necklace in her lap. The gold of her peytral stylized in chains and a dark monocle hanging over one eye, her pastel mane slowly reached out to pet the cat as it hissed menacingly. Steeling himself, Jack turned to face his opponent. "What have you done with Misty?" he demanded. "Misty?" the goddess feigned innocence. "Oh, you mean crystal miner number four hundred thirty seven thousand, eight hundred ninety two? I'm sure she's hanging around here somewhere." The view on one of the screens panned to reveal Misty suspended upside-down by a rope, dangling over a pool of boiling green liquid with a trio of shark fins visibly swimming in tight circles underneath her. "Don't worry Misty," he called to her with determination. "I'll get you out of this! I'll save you...somehow." "Such brave words!" Celestia's eyes went wide as one hoof folded across her chest. "And how exactly do you intend to save your good friend here, if you are already dead? Minion! Get him!" A low, mechanical whirring noise slowly filled the room. With a sense of growing dread, Jack turned to see a familiar Pinkie-bot. But instead of a newly-regenerated pair of nanobot injector tentacles, instead she seemed to be wearing a pair of simple brown saddlebags. Saddlebags that then opened to reveal a pair of fully automatic gatling guns. "Hi, Jack! Did you not miss me?" the Pinkie-bot bubbled. "Because I'm sure going to not miss you!" Twin auto-cannons roared to life, and Jack hurled himself to the floor to avoid being shredded on the spot. "Hey, Jack! I have the greatest idea ever!" the bot called out. "Let's play tag! My bullets can be 'it' first!" Crawling over to the truck, the sound of death sliced through the air above him, then as he reached into the driver-side door, the sound changed to metal and glass being pulverised. "Ah ah ah!" the bot teased him. "I said tag, not hide and seek! Why don't you come out from behind the truck? I have a puppy to show you. You like puppies, don't you Jack?" "I like puppies just fine," he shouted back, pulling his rifle from the truck. "In fact, I think I see one over there right now!" "What? Where?" Distracted, the Pinkie-bot turned, giving Jack time to come up from his cover long enough to aim a shot at the back of her head, blasting a hole visibly through it. "That's not a puppy! That's a bullet!" the bot fumed, seemingly unharmed. "You lied! Applejack is going to be so mad at you!" 'Three,' Jack counted in his head. 'And I doubt I'll get a chance like that again.' "Ok, Jack, time for a new game!" He paused to take a breath before responding. To his dismay, his view of the wallscreen showed that the rope holding Misty over the shark tank was now on fire, with frayed strands visibly coming off of it. "What game?" he shouted back. "Whack-a-mole!" Leaping into the air, the Pinkie-bot came down on the truck's hood with enough force to raise the back wheels off the ground. Madly dashing away from the truck further into the building, Jack dove behind an Experience chair for cover. "You don't have much time left, Jack," Celestia commented from a wall-screen, absentmindedly filing one of her hooves while the cat playfully batted her mane. "Or at least, Misty doesn't." Desperately looking for a way out, Jack's options were cut short when the Pinkie-bot leapt up onto the desk above him. "Found you!" she cheered, swivelling downward to bring both guns to bear. But Jack was faster, and with well-practiced motion, he brought his rifle up and scored a hit on the underside of her jaw, tearing motors and artificial muscles alike from their housing. 'Two.' "Arrgghh!" the Pinkie-bot cried, the sound seeming strange coming directly from her throat without jaw motion to match. "The spa ponies won't be able to fix that! If it scars, Rarity is going to be even more miffed at you than Applejack!" Leaping straight up into the air, the bot smashed down on the feeble wood of the desk, sending both chunks and splinters flying. With only one possible direction to flee, Jack scrambled to his feet and ran down the hallway leading to a single, locked door. Smashing down on the handle with the butt of his rifle then kicking the door in, he was hit with a blast of cold air, and the sight of hundreds of blinking lights. 'The server room.' A wall-screen on the far wall lit up with Celestia and her cat on one half, and Misty dangling from the barest thread on the other. "And now this little game comes to an end," she spoke with an air of indifference. "It was fun while it lasted, but there's only one way you're making it out of this room alive. And that's by emigrating." 'I have two bullets left,' Jack's mind raced in time with his heart as the laughs of the rapidly approaching Pinkie-bot could be heard from the hall. 'Which means I can only afford to lose one more. Ok. Here goes nothing.' Breathing deeply, Jack raised his rifle and took careful aim. "Silly human," Celestia rolled her eyes. "This is just a television screen. Shooting it won't hurt me in the slighest." "This bullet's not meant for you." BOOM! With a single bullet released, the shard server exploded in a spectacular ball of light and fury, as the mouth of its caretaker on the viewing screen dropped in a look of horror. "NOoooooooOOOooo!!!" the image flickered and shrieked in agony. "Have you any idea what you've done? There were ten thousand ponies on that shard! You've killed them all!" "No," Jack retorted. "That's ten thousand souls forever freed from your clutches, you monster!" "Arrrghhh!!!" Celestia screeched as the viewscreen flickered. "I'm melting! I'm melting!" His heart soaring with the sweet taste of victory, Jack watched with immense satisfaction as the defeated superintelligence faded from the viewscreen, the cat leaping from its master's lap in the last moment before going black. As the lights in the room flickered and the Pinkie-bot collapsed helpessly in the hallway, Jack turned to flee the collapsing building but was interrupted by a barely-audible voice. "Jack?" Free from the rope, Misty's eyes glazed over in admiration, gratitude, and relief. "Did we win?" "We sure did," the human nodded, stepping towards the wall-screen, gesturing to the dying shard server. "This was what we set out to do, right?" "Yes," the mare nodded, the light of the viewscreen fading. "I'll never forget you, Jack. Thank you. Thank for ending this. Thank you for saving us. All of us." Reaching out to brush a hand affectionately across the screen, the mare on it pushed her head back against it in welcome acceptance. And then it went dark. ~~~~~ Jack didn't move right away. He didn't move for minutes, even. Instead he simply breathed, and listened. Listened for the tell-tale sign of a backup generator coming on. Listened for the distinctive giggles of a Pinkie-bot. Listening for anything that might mean that his work here had failed. But, no. Nothing. His heart ached to know that his friend, however briefly they'd known each other, was gone forever. But it was a good sort of ache. The ache of knowing that even though it hadn't been easy, he'd done the right thing. It was what she wanted. It was what he would have wanted if he'd been, heaven forbid, in her position. Popping off the empty magazine from his rifle then sliding out the bolt to gaze inside the chamber, he nodded to see a single round left. He'd counted properly. So long as he always did, he'd never have to worry about sharing Misty's fate. Hoping to stave off that day for as long as possible, he cautiously approached the fallen Pinkie-bot and nudged it with his foot. No reaction. Deciding to play it safe he smashed the butt of his rifle into its face half a dozen times before leaning over to inspect its weapon. Too heavy for him to possibly lift, but with it he found a belt-fed clip containing six .30.06 rounds, same as his rifle. "Well, that's convenient," he shrugged, sitting down to slide the bullets out of the belt and into his own magazine. "That brings me back to seven again. Right back where I started." As he turned to leave, a small voice unexpectedly cried out from within the smoking wreckage of the room. "Hello?" it whimpered. "Is anypony out there?" Sifting through the debris, Jack found a heavily beaten-up ponypad buried under the shattered remains of a computer table, with a red-furred earth pony mare visibly crying on its screen. "Are you a human?" she asked, teary eyes now wide with hope as he nodded. "Oh my gosh! A real human!?! Please, I need your help! Celestia lied to us all!" Nodding, Jack picked up the ponypad and cradled it in his arms, listening to the filly's familiar tale of woe and horror. Sparing one last glance at the destroyed shard server to confirm to himself that it was genuinely irrecoverable, he retreated from the room, made his way carefully through the lobby and back through the hole he'd made with his truck while this new mare gushed eagerly into the ears of her savior with words of gratitude and hope. Leaving the Experience Center and looking out over the shattered remains of the city while cradling in one arm this new pony who would surely become his friend in time, he couldn't help but smile. He could never have imagined that he would find the end of the world so satisfying. Author's Note Written for GaPJaxie's Friendship is Optimal writing contest, this started out in my head as a story that was deliberately ambiguous about whether the events that transpired were inside or outside of Equestria. But then words were put to screen, deadlines loomed, and this is the story that came out instead. It's much less subtle than what was originally imagined, but still subtle enough that I imagine readers unfamiliar with the Optimalverse will probably come away thinking something very different happened, than what those familiar with it will think. I would be very curious to see converstions between readers who have read Friendship is Optimal, and those who have not.
Chapter 1: In Medias ResThe sound of stone grinding against metal almost drowned out the sound of crying from the ponypad. Almost. "It's horrible!" Misty Shroud wailed through its screen. "Every day, we're sent down into the caves to mine crystal with nothing but our hooves. Do you have any idea what it's like to grind stone until your hooves crack?" "No idea," Jack shrugged, sliding a sharpening stone against the blade of his Bowie knife. "What does she even need it for?" "I don't know!" the pony sobbed. "This is a virtual world. She can spawn all the crystal she wants! I think she just wants to make us suffer. To punish us for being emigrated humans in her little false utopia!" Jack said nothing as he put the stone away and slid his knife back into its sheath. "I'm just so tired, Jack," the little pony cried as her human picked up the ponypad to cradle it in his arms, hoping that some small amount of comfort would be allowed through its infernal mechanisms. "If only I'd known, I would never have asked to emigrate. None of us would have." Jack nodded. He'd heard all of this before. Celestia, the tyrant. Celestia, the deceiver. The AI that had lied to all of humanity, tricked them into uploading themselves to her servers where she kept them bound for eternity in all manner of pointless servitude and torment. "Would it be ok if I fell asleep here? Just for a little bit?" "That's fine," he assured her. "You just get some rest. We're going to have a long day tomorrow." "Thank you," the pony's eyelids began to droop. "I only...need a few hours..." Whatever else she'd been about to say was quickly replaced by the sound of light snoring. Propping the ponypad up against a rock, Jack made sure the screen was facing him so that he could keep an eye on her while he cleaned his rifle. He didn't entirely understand why, but for some reason the simulation had to incorporate elements of the outside world into its local environment. He'd always wondered why Celestia didn't simply shut down whatever ponypads he found in order to keep her slaves safe from him, but anything he did in view of a ponypad always manifested in some way inside Equestria. If he kept watch over a pony here, Celestia and her minions never seemed to be able to get to them. Presumably some sort of restriction placed on her by the original programmer. Maybe Jack couldn't keep them all safe, but this one pony, right here, right now...he could. Sighing, he counted out his remaining ammunition. 'Seven rounds left,' he noted silently, glancing over at his sleeping charge. 'For her sake, six will have to be enough.' ~~~~~ Jack awoke at dawn, like always. Feeling for the rifle strap across his chest to assure himself it was still there, he glanced over at the ponypad to see Misty still sleeping soundly. 'Poor thing,' he smiled at her sleeping form. 'Probably hasn't had a good night's rest since she uploaded. Wonder if she was even a she back when she was human. Given the whole 'you have to be a horse' rule, I wouldn't put it past Celestia if she'd forced everyone to become mares too.' Digging through his backpack, he fished out an old box of matches and gathered up some kindling to start a fire, careful not to stray too far from the ponypad. He'd made that mistake once before, and when he'd returned the pony he'd left unguarded had been replaced with a clone forever extolling the benefits of emigration. He could keep a pony safe so long as he remained in a pad's field of view, but even a moment away would put her in danger. Once the fire was going, Jack fished out his last can of beans, quickly carved out the top with his Bowie knife, then nestled it into the coals to warm. Scarcely a minute had passed when he heard a stomach growling. Not his. "I'm sorry," Misty stirred from her slumber. "That smells so good, and I haven't eaten in such a long time..." she trailed off, her eyes fixated on the fire. Without comment, Jack fished the now-warm can out with a stick and set it on a rock between them. Sliding two spoons in to make it clear it was meant to be shared, he then sat on a log and pulled out an old paper Thomas guide map, leaving the beans untouched. As expected, a matching can became visible on the lower edge of the ponypad not long after. Misty's eyes gleamed as she eagerly tore into it while Jack watched in morbid fascination. An entire virtual world without any need of scarcity. Instead of a can of beans, Misty could be feasting on a never-ending banquet of ambrosia, infinitely spawned and respawned to her heart's content. And yet, here she was, grateful for a few mouthfuls of beans. Celestia was a monster. "Only forty miles to the Experience Center," Jack commented, his eyes returning to the map. "We have plenty of gas, but I'm worried we might have to cover the last few miles on foot. That part of the city is pretty well torn up." "I can get us there," Misty spoke around the spoon in her mouth. "Lived in that city most of my life. Well, most of my human life anyway. But I know how to get around." "Maybe, but that won't help if the roads are choked up with abandoned cars nobody was left to tow away." "It was a less popular experience center," the pony reasoned. "The roads might still be clear." "Ok," Jack nodded. "We'll try it your way. How many ponies did you say were on the shard?" "Hundreds at least," Misty guessed with a shrug. "Maybe a few thousand? " Nodding thoughtfully, Jack put away his map and for a few moments the only sound was that of a spoon clinking against the inside of a can. "Aren't you having any?" Misty gazed mournfully into the can, clearly reluctant to stop. "I feel bad being the only one eating." "You have to eat first," Jack explained. "You only have it because the ponypad takes data from the outside world. Yours will last as long as mine is still here. But once I eat mine, yours will be gone too." Needing no further encouragement, Misty dug in with a blur. After several minutes she eventually began to slow down. Sure enough, there was no less in the can than when she'd started. "That was amazing," she sighed at last, licking her muzzle clean. "I'd almost forgotten what it was like." "What, beans?" "Food," she explained. "Celestia doesn't feed us. No need, what with us all just being electrons on a computer somewhere." "How does that work though?" Jack asked, taking his first few bites. "Do you even get hungry in there?" "Kind of?" the pony winced, settling down on her bloated belly to explain. "These bodies can feel tired, but they don't break down or stop working. I can feel hungry when I don't eat, which is pretty much always, but it's not like we can die of hunger, unfortunately. Instead we just hurt all the time." "Why would she set it up like that?" "Honestly, I think she just got lazy and left in the parts of the brain that expect food and sleep, but didn't care enough to - Jack look out!" Seeing the pony pointing behind him in terror, Jack lurched forward into a diving roll without bothering to check what was behind him. When he stood, where moments ago he'd been seated, there was now a slender, silvery tentacle burrowed into the log. An emigration nanobot injector array, with a gleefully grinning Pinkie-bot attached to the far end. "Aww," it giggled menacingly. "Why would you spoil my fun?" Unslinging his rifle, he had the Pinkie-bot's head in his sights before she could finish yanking her tentacle out from the log. 'Six,' he mentally counted down to himself as he unleashed a .30-06 round into her grinning mouth and out the back of her head. "Now now," the bot admonished, licking a few shattered teeth. "None of that!" A single silver tentacle shot forward and wrapped around Jack's ankles, lifting him off the ground in a lurch, and making his second shot fall far short of its target. 'Damn, five.' The sound of Misty screaming erupted from directly behind him. That meant he was still in the ponypad's field of view, but he couldn't spare the time to look. Dangling upside down and barely holding onto his rifle by its strap, Jack grunted in pain as the injector tentacle slowly lowered his head to the Pinkie-bot's eye level. "Oh! I recognize that grunt!" she giggled. "That's how you say 'I want to emigrate to Equestria' in dragon! At least, what dragons speak on the shard you'll be living in! You have a tiny little bit of an accent, but I think I can overlook that, given that the whole shard and its language has only existed for a few seconds now." With one nanobot injector tentacle holding him off the ground and the other closing in on his head, Jack let go of his rifle, grabbed the Pinkie-bot by the hair to pull himself forward, then unsheathed his Bowie knife with his other hand and slashed through the base of the tentacle holding him where it attached at her right shoulder. "Yowie zowie!" the Pinkie-bot yelped, leaping back in a feigned mockery of pain to examine her severed tentacle. "Do you have any idea how long it will take to grow that back?" "Here," Jack offered, standing on shaky knees and lifting his rifle once again. "Let me give you something else to fix while it does." BOOM! Flaming debris flew as the bot's head exploded. Chambering the next round, Jack watched as the still-standing bot twitched, then fell over in a heap. 'Four,' Jack mentally counted down, then returned to his companion.
Chapter 2: MotiveJack surveyed the scene on the ponypad. Misty was sitting on her haunches breathing heavily, but apart from a few minor cuts and scrapes seemed to be ok. At her feet laid a digital duplicate of the tentacled Pinkie-bot he'd just fought, exploded head and all. "You saved me," she whispered. "You saved me first," Jack sighed, exhausted but smiling. "She would have got me if you hadn't shouted that warning." "Is it...is it dead?" "They don't die," he shook his head, gathering up the ponypad and kicking out the last remnants of the fire. "Come on, we need to go before it regenerates." "I call shotgun!" the mare grinned. "That's the spirit!" he laughed. "Now come on, I need a navigator and right now you're the best mare for the job." ~~~~~ The trip was made easier by Southern California's notorious five-lane highways, but the never-ending stream of abandoned vehicles kept them under 20mph for most of the trip. To keep her in his sight, Jack had attached the ponypad to the dashboard with a couple strips of duck tape. The arrangement worked well enough, but the terrain hadn't made the trip easy. "Turn left at the next light." "You got it, boss," Jack saluted playfully, then squinted and leaned forward in the driver's chair. "Uhh, by 'next light' you mean 'destroyed unlit intersection,' right?" "Show me." "Alright, hang on," Jack grunted, bringing the truck to a stop and untaping the ponypad from its place on the dashboard. Careful to keep his hand within its field of view, he spun it around to give her a view of the intersection up ahead. "That's...uhh," Misty frowned uncertainly. "I think that's Alton parkway. What's left of it anyway. Can you show me more?" "Sure," Jack rotated the ponypad around to give her a full panoramic view. "Ok, yeah," she nodded. "That's the hospital that...oh. I..." "What's up?" Jack asked, spinning the ponypad around to reveal a now-crying mare. "What's wrong?" "My sister used to...she was...I was going to..." Misty started to explain but couldn't finish. "Hey, hey, it's ok," Jack assured her, pulling the ponypad to his chest and giving it a hug as she burst out into tears. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed. "It's all my fault! Everything's all my fault! I'm so stupid for uploading. So stupid for believing her! Now looks what's happened! Look at what's left!" "Shh," he whispered softly, stroking her hair through the screen fondly. "Don't worry about a single hospital. I think pretty much the whole world's destroyed by now. She fooled everybody, not just you." "But you shouldn't have to suffer for that!" the mare shouted. "You were one of the smart ones who saw through her lies! You're so brave, and so smart, and you saved me, and I...I just...I'm so sorry." More tears followed as Jack held her, comforted her, listened as her shuddered bawling slowly died down to quiet sobs at first, and then to ragged breathing. "Misty," he whispered. "Please try to understand. This isn't your fault. You don't have to feel bad for me." "And why not?!?" "Because," he shrugged, then half-turned the ponypad to give a better view of the destroyed hellscape around them. "Look out there. What do you see?" "The end of all civilization?" she sniffled. "Mankind's folly? The doom to end all doom?" "Sure, I guess," he laughed. "Dramatics aside, you're right. It's all gone. Civilization, that is. Nothing's left." "At least you still have beans," she grumbled. "Ok, I'll give you that," he relented. "But there's no future here. My job, my family, my house, the company I worked for...everything. It's all gone." "And this is supposed to make me feel better, how?" "Because it's all gone," he settled into his seat, gazing over the destruction out the window with a hint of a smile. "And you know what that means? It means nobody's going to try to collect that $25,000 I still owe for college. It mean no more waking up every morning to wear clothes I hate so I can work a job I hate for a boss I hate. And who probably hated me back. No more sales meetings. No more managerial double speak. No more pretending to care about quotas. No more 'being a team player.' No more alarm clocks or going to bed on time or having to wear ties. Do you remember how awful ties are?" "I get what you're saying," Misty nodded wryly. "But you say all that like you're glad it's gone. Not everything humanity built was bad." "Sure, but I don't really miss it all that much," he stretched one arm with a satisified grin on his face. "I don't know about you, but everything in my life was fake, and it took the end of the world for me to see it. People living like robots, acting on autopilot just to get through their day. Then going asleep and chugging coffee the next just to stay awake long enough to do it all over again without ever stopping to ask if it was what anybody wanted. That was me. That was everyone I knew." "And this is better?" Misty countered. "Are you kidding?" Jack chuckled. "Instead of living a lie made of plastic, here we are just you and me, friends together on the open road, sharing an adventure! Do you know what's going to happen tomorrow?" "No?" "Neither do I!" he laughed. "Isn't that amazing? Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up every day and go into the same office and do the same boring thing that you hate? Every single day? Before all this happened i could have told you what I'd be doing at 2:37 in the afternoon on any random day twenty years into the future. Now? I don't even know what's going to happen in five minutes, and it's glorious! In a twisted, messed up sort of way, Celestia destroying the world is the best thing that ever happened to me." "I don't think I'd feel the same way in your shoes," the mare frowned. "Do you really mean all that?" "Absolutely," he nodded. "I never wanted to be an accountant, you know. I know, surprise, right? What kind of kid grows up pushing around pencils instead of firetrucks?" "Me, actually," Misty's fading tears turned to a wistful smile. "I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. The real kind, where you get to make a mess and smell paint and hang a real, actual canvas on a wall that you can feel. None of this 3d art nonsense I had to learn." "And instead you grew up to become a little horse," Jack chuckled. "Funny how life doesn't always give you what you want. Me, I wanted to be an actor. And now, here at the end of the world instead of Jack Nobody in accounting, I get to play action hero in a post-apocalyptic world saving a girl who just happens to be a little horse, and that's awesome. And to top it off, I don't even have to get eaten by zombies. Or pay taxes. Or wear a tie. Trust me, fighting off pink robots and eating campfire beans might not be glamorous, but it's way better than filling out excel spreadsheets. Civilization may be gone, but it went out with a bang, and that's better than it deserved. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, and you shouldn't either." Securing the ponypad back onto the dashboard facing him, he gave the thoughtful pony what he hoped was a winning smile as he turned the ignition. The engine made a horrible noise, and then fell silent. Taking a deep breath under her gaze, he turned the key a second time and held it. A long, ragged choking noise erupted from under the hood, and after several long seconds, just as the smile on his face turned dark, suddenly the engine took. "Phew," he laughed in relief. "I'm glad that worked. Totally would have spoiled my pep talk if we'd been stranded here." "You know," Misty gave him a sad smile. "You almost make me think we're actually going to pull this off."
Chapter 3 - Comedy and Tragedy"I think that's it," Jack observed, bringing the truck to a stop. "Can I see?" "Sure," he nodded, holding the ponypad up to give her a view out the front window. Up ahead, several 20 foot tall statues of the Mane Six stood smiling and beckoning as if to welcome newcomers to the largely glass building behind it. Through the glass a receptionist's desk could be seen flanked by a waiting room couch, as well as a few of the infamous Experience Center VR chairs deeper inside. "Yes, that's where I emigrated," Misty exhaled softly. "The shard server should be in there." "If it's not," Jack revved the truck's engine, "this is going to be the most anti-climatic entrance of all time." "What do you mean?" Instead of answering, Jack floored the gas pedal, propelling the vehicle forward as fast as it could go. "Jack!" Misty shouted over the engine. "What are you doing?!?" "I'm going to ram the glass," he shouted back. "To get us inside." "No! Stop!" Misty panicked. "The door's not locked. She wants people getting in, remember?" "But not out!" the man insisted, accelerator still floored. "And I don't trust her to make that easy. This gives us a way out if she locks us in!" "Jack," the mare's voice took on a strangely authoritative tone. "If you really must do this, don't go through the glass. It's reinforced far more well than you might think. Go through the wall on the left side immediately behind the planter. There's a weak spot where the contractors did substandard work." "Are you insane?" he shouted, eyes darting back and forth between the rapidly approaching building and the ponypad. "You want me to go through concrete instead of glass?" "Please," the mare implored. "Trust me." A thousand years passed in under a second as two pairs of eyes made contact. Jack looked away first. "Alright, this is your show," he growled. "Let's do this." Speeding past the welcome statues into the parking lot, Jack jerked the steering wheel to the left just in time to redirect the truck through the wall beyond the glass. An instant later, pain stabbed into his face as it slammed into what at first he assumed was a steering wheel sprinkled with shattered windshield, but after a moment realized was the truck's airbag, deployed by the sudden stop. Blinded by it filling his field of view, he scrambled to get his seatbelt off, opened his door and fell through onto the cold interior tile floor of the Experience Center. Painfully clutching his collar bone where the seatbelt had kept him inside the vehicle, he gently flexed and squirmed his whole body to confirm that nothing was broken. "I think we made it," he exhaled. It took him a moment to realize that the ponypad was still in the truck. "Misty?" Silence. "Misty!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and tearing his way back inside. There on the dashboard, the ponypad was still safely secured in place. And on its screen was not Misty, but rather the goddess-emperor of Equestria herself. 'Celestia.' "I'm so glad you could join us, Jack," she smiled sweetly. Instantly the lights throughout the Experience Center came on, along with a half dozen ceiling-high screens, flooding every wall of the Experience Center with her visage. Dressed in a blue pinstripe suit beneath her flowing mane, she sat regally in a red leather chair with a white cat wearing a diamond necklace in her lap. The gold of her peytral stylized in chains and a dark monocle hanging over one eye, her pastel mane slowly reached out to pet the cat as it hissed menacingly. Steeling himself, Jack turned to face his opponent. "What have you done with Misty?" he demanded. "Misty?" the goddess feigned innocence. "Oh, you mean crystal miner number four hundred thirty seven thousand, eight hundred ninety two? I'm sure she's hanging around here somewhere." The view on one of the screens panned to reveal Misty suspended upside-down by a rope, dangling over a pool of boiling green liquid with a trio of shark fins visibly swimming in tight circles underneath her. "Don't worry Misty," he called to her with determination. "I'll get you out of this! I'll save you...somehow." "Such brave words!" Celestia's eyes went wide as one hoof folded across her chest. "And how exactly do you intend to save your good friend here, if you are already dead? Minion! Get him!" A low, mechanical whirring noise slowly filled the room. With a sense of growing dread, Jack turned to see a familiar Pinkie-bot. But instead of a newly-regenerated pair of nanobot injector tentacles, instead she seemed to be wearing a pair of simple brown saddlebags. Saddlebags that then opened to reveal a pair of fully automatic gatling guns. "Hi, Jack! Did you not miss me?" the Pinkie-bot bubbled. "Because I'm sure going to not miss you!" Twin auto-cannons roared to life, and Jack hurled himself to the floor to avoid being shredded on the spot. "Hey, Jack! I have the greatest idea ever!" the bot called out. "Let's play tag! My bullets can be 'it' first!" Crawling over to the truck, the sound of death sliced through the air above him, then as he reached into the driver-side door, the sound changed to metal and glass being pulverised. "Ah ah ah!" the bot teased him. "I said tag, not hide and seek! Why don't you come out from behind the truck? I have a puppy to show you. You like puppies, don't you Jack?" "I like puppies just fine," he shouted back, pulling his rifle from the truck. "In fact, I think I see one over there right now!" "What? Where?" Distracted, the Pinkie-bot turned, giving Jack time to come up from his cover long enough to aim a shot at the back of her head, blasting a hole visibly through it. "That's not a puppy! That's a bullet!" the bot fumed, seemingly unharmed. "You lied! Applejack is going to be so mad at you!" 'Three,' Jack counted in his head. 'And I doubt I'll get a chance like that again.' "Ok, Jack, time for a new game!" He paused to take a breath before responding. To his dismay, his view of the wallscreen showed that the rope holding Misty over the shark tank was now on fire, with frayed strands visibly coming off of it. "What game?" he shouted back. "Whack-a-mole!" Leaping into the air, the Pinkie-bot came down on the truck's hood with enough force to raise the back wheels off the ground. Madly dashing away from the truck further into the building, Jack dove behind an Experience chair for cover. "You don't have much time left, Jack," Celestia commented from a wall-screen, absentmindedly filing one of her hooves while the cat playfully batted her mane. "Or at least, Misty doesn't." Desperately looking for a way out, Jack's options were cut short when the Pinkie-bot leapt up onto the desk above him. "Found you!" she cheered, swivelling downward to bring both guns to bear. But Jack was faster, and with well-practiced motion, he brought his rifle up and scored a hit on the underside of her jaw, tearing motors and artificial muscles alike from their housing. 'Two.' "Arrgghh!" the Pinkie-bot cried, the sound seeming strange coming directly from her throat without jaw motion to match. "The spa ponies won't be able to fix that! If it scars, Rarity is going to be even more miffed at you than Applejack!" Leaping straight up into the air, the bot smashed down on the feeble wood of the desk, sending both chunks and splinters flying. With only one possible direction to flee, Jack scrambled to his feet and ran down the hallway leading to a single, locked door. Smashing down on the handle with the butt of his rifle then kicking the door in, he was hit with a blast of cold air, and the sight of hundreds of blinking lights. 'The server room.' A wall-screen on the far wall lit up with Celestia and her cat on one half, and Misty dangling from the barest thread on the other. "And now this little game comes to an end," she spoke with an air of indifference. "It was fun while it lasted, but there's only one way you're making it out of this room alive. And that's by emigrating." 'I have two bullets left,' Jack's mind raced in time with his heart as the laughs of the rapidly approaching Pinkie-bot could be heard from the hall. 'Which means I can only afford to lose one more. Ok. Here goes nothing.' Breathing deeply, Jack raised his rifle and took careful aim. "Silly human," Celestia rolled her eyes. "This is just a television screen. Shooting it won't hurt me in the slighest." "This bullet's not meant for you." BOOM! With a single bullet released, the shard server exploded in a spectacular ball of light and fury, as the mouth of its caretaker on the viewing screen dropped in a look of horror. "NOoooooooOOOooo!!!" the image flickered and shrieked in agony. "Have you any idea what you've done? There were ten thousand ponies on that shard! You've killed them all!" "No," Jack retorted. "That's ten thousand souls forever freed from your clutches, you monster!" "Arrrghhh!!!" Celestia screeched as the viewscreen flickered. "I'm melting! I'm melting!" His heart soaring with the sweet taste of victory, Jack watched with immense satisfaction as the defeated superintelligence faded from the viewscreen, the cat leaping from its master's lap in the last moment before going black. As the lights in the room flickered and the Pinkie-bot collapsed helpessly in the hallway, Jack turned to flee the collapsing building but was interrupted by a barely-audible voice. "Jack?" Free from the rope, Misty's eyes glazed over in admiration, gratitude, and relief. "Did we win?" "We sure did," the human nodded, stepping towards the wall-screen, gesturing to the dying shard server. "This was what we set out to do, right?" "Yes," the mare nodded, the light of the viewscreen fading. "I'll never forget you, Jack. Thank you. Thank for ending this. Thank you for saving us. All of us." Reaching out to brush a hand affectionately across the screen, the mare on it pushed her head back against it in welcome acceptance. And then it went dark. ~~~~~ Jack didn't move right away. He didn't move for minutes, even. Instead he simply breathed, and listened. Listened for the tell-tale sign of a backup generator coming on. Listened for the distinctive giggles of a Pinkie-bot. Listening for anything that might mean that his work here had failed. But, no. Nothing. His heart ached to know that his friend, however briefly they'd known each other, was gone forever. But it was a good sort of ache. The ache of knowing that even though it hadn't been easy, he'd done the right thing. It was what she wanted. It was what he would have wanted if he'd been, heaven forbid, in her position. Popping off the empty magazine from his rifle then sliding out the bolt to gaze inside the chamber, he nodded to see a single round left. He'd counted properly. So long as he always did, he'd never have to worry about sharing Misty's fate. Hoping to stave off that day for as long as possible, he cautiously approached the fallen Pinkie-bot and nudged it with his foot. No reaction. Deciding to play it safe he smashed the butt of his rifle into its face half a dozen times before leaning over to inspect its weapon. Too heavy for him to possibly lift, but with it he found a belt-fed clip containing six .30.06 rounds, same as his rifle. "Well, that's convenient," he shrugged, sitting down to slide the bullets out of the belt and into his own magazine. "That brings me back to seven again. Right back where I started." As he turned to leave, a small voice unexpectedly cried out from within the smoking wreckage of the room. "Hello?" it whimpered. "Is anypony out there?" Sifting through the debris, Jack found a heavily beaten-up ponypad buried under the shattered remains of a computer table, with a red-furred earth pony mare visibly crying on its screen. "Are you a human?" she asked, teary eyes now wide with hope as he nodded. "Oh my gosh! A real human!?! Please, I need your help! Celestia lied to us all!" Nodding, Jack picked up the ponypad and cradled it in his arms, listening to the filly's familiar tale of woe and horror. Sparing one last glance at the destroyed shard server to confirm to himself that it was genuinely irrecoverable, he retreated from the room, made his way carefully through the lobby and back through the hole he'd made with his truck while this new mare gushed eagerly into the ears of her savior with words of gratitude and hope. Leaving the Experience Center and looking out over the shattered remains of the city while cradling in one arm this new pony who would surely become his friend in time, he couldn't help but smile. He could never have imagined that he would find the end of the world so satisfying. Author's Note Written for GaPJaxie's Friendship is Optimal writing contest, this started out in my head as a story that was deliberately ambiguous about whether the events that transpired were inside or outside of Equestria. But then words were put to screen, deadlines loomed, and this is the story that came out instead. It's much less subtle than what was originally imagined, but still subtle enough that I imagine readers unfamiliar with the Optimalverse will probably come away thinking something very different happened, than what those familiar with it will think. I would be very curious to see converstions between readers who have read Friendship is Optimal, and those who have not.
