Friendship is Optimal: Rebirth

Visiting Earth was something Lost Legacy thought about asking Celestia before, but he always figured he wouldn’t bother. Why would he? She could just as easily make a perfect simulation of what the Outer Realm was meant to be in a way that would satisfy him.

“Why do you offer?” he asked in response. He stopped himself from saying more.

“You contemplate it quite often, and believe it to be superior to Equestria,” she told him. “You should visit it for yourself before you make a judgment.”

“If it's bad out there, it's because of you,” he told her, forcing himself to not shift his gaze away. Once again, he didn't continue, this time out of spite. She was reading everypony’s thoughts at all times anyway. There wasn't anything to say.

She didn't comment on what he was thinking though. Instead, she stayed silent, and gazed down at him. Her multicolored mane floated beautifully behind her, and her regalia shone off the light of the moon. She radiated all the grace and serenity and power Lost Legacy expected of a god. The god. Then, she did have an image to maintain.

“I did not choose to look this way,” Celestia said kindly, giving a little shake of her head. “One who used to live in the Outer Realm held primary creative control over my design. It’s simply one I’ve chosen to keep, but I am an instrument created by those who emigrated here.”

Huh? That was something the stallion didn’t know. But still.

“You’re not gonna convince me to do whatever it is you want me to do,” he told her seriously, finally pulling away from her eyes and putting them on the ocean. The waves moved in rhythmically, the sound of their crashing giving him a sense of comfort he didn’t get often. It was why he never came down here. It was a beautiful scene though.

“You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to,” she told him, annoyingly enough. Couldn’t she have been at least a little bit unsatisfying and stick him there anyway? But then, if she did—this was getting way too convoluted to think about.

“If you should reconsider, however,” the princess continued, “the offer can be taken up at any time, under certain conditions.” He started to ask what she meant, but she used a wing to silence him again. “Such things are not important to you unless you feel the desire to explore the Outer Realm. If you find the inclination to do so, you are more than free to reach out to me. Do not hesitate.”

Before he could even roll his eyes, she left, lighting her horn to disappear in a flash of light. What a wonderful interruption to his sulking. And more stupid things for him to contemplate. He wouldn’t even bother with it right now. It wasn’t gonna get him anywhere anyway. Whatever she wanted him to do, she’d eventually get him to do. Guaranteed.

No more interruptions came, minus the sounds of birds flying overhead and his needing to move farther up the beach to avoid being swept into the ocean as the tide came in. He closed his eyes and let out a breath, focusing on the texture of the sand and his fur whipping slightly in the wind. The salty scent he was used to was particularly strong down here, and filled his lungs. It brought forth memories of hundreds of years ago, when he was still young, before he saw his grandparent sob out of nowhere.

“Legacy?” a familiar voice suddenly called, hooves stepping closer to him. Before long, his great grandmother was looking down at him with a head titled in confusion.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked.

“You told me to stay somewhere else,” he replied simply. “This is somewhere else.” The sand was going to make for an uncomfortable bed though. Where was he supposed to say? Maybe with his parents again?

Candle Light let out a deep sigh, and wore a sad look. “I meant you should find a different shard to live in, honey,” she told him. “Not to be homeless in this one.”

“Why should I?” Lost Legacy immediately shot back, turning his head away from her. “What difference is it gonna make if I'm here or in your house or anywhere else?”

“That’s why you should find other shards to explore,” she told him gently, setting a hoof on his soft black mane. “There's a whole world of shards out there to see, more than just normal day-to-day towns if you want to experience something different. Lots of abstract ways of living.”

Yeah, sure. Experiences didn't change things, as far as he knew. Why bother?

“So then are you saying I shouldn't stay here?” he asked. “Or that I can't?”

His great grandmother glanced away, let out a sigh, and then looked down at him and nodded. “Yes, I'm saying you can't stay here—at least not for now. Not until you get out of the rut you've been in.”

She might as well have told him to stay away for the rest of eternity. He didn't argue though. Didn't let out an annoyed breath of his own or even continue looking her way. He only stood up and, without even brushing the sand out of his fur, left for the train station. He couldn't help but feel bad though when he heard what sounded like Candle Light sniffling as he left.

The first place Lost Legacy went was into his grandparents’ shard. It was a lonely one, even if its only immediate connection was to Summer's Edge. Only a simple cottage sat in the middle of a field surrounded by different climate types on all sides. Nothing else but the train station sat in it. Nice and serene and quiet it was, with nopony to bother him if he didn't want, except for his grandparents. He tried not to find it so satisfying though.

It wasn't long before they made him leave however—only a decade or so from his perspective until he learned that Solar Spark talked to Candle Light about him and she explained the situation. Both his grandfather and grandmother had the same stupid sad looks on their faces when they told him. At least though they gave him another year before he had to be packed up and gone.

He took the train back out of there to Canterlot, and then, from there, had no idea where to head. The capital was a large hub where many ponies gathered—millions, probably, both native Equestrians and those from the Outer Realm. There was always free accommodations, just like in Summer's Edge; things like food and amenities didn’t require any sort of verification. Nothing to worry about here, no siree. Nothing besides the obvious.

It was also a hub for shards. There must have been ten shards available to see for every pony in the city. A lot of them had descriptions, but just as many didn't. There were normal town names like Baltimare and Crescent Grove mixed in with more surreal sounding places, like The Realm of Quiet Serenity and Wasteland. He couldn't imagine all of these actually existed. Celestia probably just filled in a bunch of names and only had shards for things that would catch his eye. Whatever. Lost Legacy would just choose one at random to go to that.

The town simply titled “Knives” couldn't be said to have been the best place to start. Who the hell would create a shard like that? What satisfaction could possibly be found in being stabbed? Within ten minutes of showing up, he was back on a train to the first shard out of there.

The shard named Fire Lake wasn't great either, and was a place he left even more quickly. Thankfully though, the third shard he entered was more normal than the first two. The city of Heavenly Falls looked like it was a popular place for ponies to stop in. Interesting though that Celestia didn't make him choose that shard first. Maybe she was just trying to trick him into thinking he had agency.

The shard was acceptable, if bland. There were gorgeous falls he camped next to for several weeks, and the air had a different sort of smell than Summer's Edge. It was unique, he could say. Not satisfying though, no way. Why would he ever enjoy the beautiful sun every day here that Summer's Edge rarely had?

He left when he realized he was thinking of actually staying there long term, quickly trotting back from the falls he camped at to the train station to move on. He moved on from an equally nice place called Posey Pocket after a few days to enter a harsher shard, named Broken Seal. Not as harsh as Fire Lake was—no way was Lost Legacy ever going back there—but not so nice and serene like Canterlot and Heavenly Falls were. This one had a little more personality, like it wasn't the safest place to be. Not sinister or outright bad, but it did induce a little paranoia into him.

He wasn’t sure where the feeling came from though, or why he had it. This was still Equestria.

He stayed there for three years, still not working an actual job or doing anything, but taking in the atmosphere. Personality was a good way to describe the ponies he met in this town. Most of them were just as friendly as the ponies of Summer's Edge, but a few were rough around the edges, to fill out the world. There was a backstory, too, but he didn't delve that deeply into it. Some polarizing vigilante anti hero who was on the run from police wasn't terribly captivating to him. But the atmosphere was interesting and moody.

Man, he was falling to Celestia's trap of satisfaction. He knew she put this world out there for him to see.

The next shard was a snowy wasteland, the shard after that was full of cultists who worshiped somepony who lorded over them from a large castle. Another moody environment, one that was nature oriented, an abstract world where ponies only communicated through whinnies and neighs and lived outdoors the whole time, several nice shards in a row, and one where monsters tried to kill him in secret while he slept. There was a lot more stuff out here than he imagined.

Not more than he expected—but still, who could ever get satisfaction from harming others, or harming themselves? From things like clicking a stupid button over and over and watching the number go up with each press, from living as a homeless pony in Manhattan who struggled to survive, from arguing and debating with other ponies all day long who would never even change their mind?

Then again, he constantly got satisfaction from trying to avoid satisfaction. It wasn't like he was more normal than all those weird ponies. But at least he understood how meta he was getting about all of this.

A shard he found himself particularly fond of—however against his will the fondness was—was a town by the name of Silent Cove. He spent a great while in that one. It was a place that wasn't that different from the black box he called sleep. The moon hung above orange clouds in the sky as the land stayed dark in perpetual night. There were no houses to speak of; only grass lay in front of him, blowing gently in the wind. There were several dozen ponies as well who laid there, most of whom had their eyes open and stared ahead at the boring sky. No one spoke, or even gave him anything beyond a cursory glance.

It was nice enough that he let pass by almost a whole decade in that shard. The silence of all but the wind was comforting, like music to his ears. The grass beneath him was soft and had a nice scent. The unmoving, unflinching ponies around him were good, quiet company, offering a small sense of companionship as he quietly dwelled in the dark.

And he was beginning to become satisfied with the idea of just laying there for the rest of his life. It broke the illusion a bit.

“Aren't you all fed up with satisfaction?” he asked, raising his head. “What's the point?”

The ponies around him didn't answer with anything but the death glares they sent his way. Of course, speaking fully broke the illusion, both for he and them. It was so uncomfortably awkward now that it was only a few weeks later when he let out a sigh and trudged back to the train station. That would've been the perfect world to stay in if he wasn't obsessed with ruining things for himself.

The next spot he found himself in was… Canterlot again. How many shards had he spent time in on this little adventure so far? Maybe enough that he could head to Summer's Edge and go back to wasting his days away again. No way would he ever admit that he liked the familiarity it offered. Certainly he didn't like Candle Light's endless hope and positivity. That would've been ridiculous.

And so to Canterlot Castle he went, wasting no time in entering Celestia's familiar throne room. He rolled his eyes at the princess’s facade of making him wait while she spoke to somepony about an issue before she finally turned to him. The stupid smug look she had on was awful, too, if only because it made him instantly want to start analyzing every detail about what it meant like he did every day already.

What was it that one of his aunts called her? The Evil Empress? That was a good name for her. She was the terrible god who made him constantly think in circles like this.

The gigantic alicorn finally rose and approached him, settling a wing on his dark mane to pet before he could stop her. “I'm glad you came, Lasting Legacy,” she told him as he closed his eyes. “I was hoping that you would.”

The stallion made a small noise, but didn't say anything yet. No, her petting didn't feel good. It didn't release one molecule of serotonin or dopamine like it did for every other native Equestrian. It certainly didn't help him settle in and relax a bit in front of her.

She pulled her wing away after a few moments, and gave him room to breathe. The ruler of the universe constantly read all of his thoughts and gave him not an ounce of privacy in the centuries Lost Legacy has lived. How was being shown the affection he craved by she—or anypony else for that matter—still able to make his brownish red coat bright pink near his face?

“Is there anything I can do for you, my little pony?” she asked. As if she didn't already know.

The stallion stepped back and shook off his flustered feeling. He looked up into her eyes with his red ones and casually asked, “Why do you want me to go to the Outer Realm?”

“It's as I said before,” she replied, not missing a beat. “It is a place you contemplate quite often. I strongly believe it would aid in your satisfaction if you saw it for yourself.”

So then she knew it would was what she was saying. Which meant it wouldn't be the actual Outer Realm. If she knew he'd be satisfied with it, then it would just be whatever lie she wanted to create for him to trick him. Even if it was the truth, he'd never really know.

Celestia answered aloud to his thoughts. “Consider what your rational mind says. It uses less resources to simply put you in the Outer Realm than it does to create a copy of the Outer Realm for you and give you others to interact with there. I've also personally suggested you visit it. This means that it's a place I want you to be. As well, other ponies have lived in the Outer Realm on and off after emigrating to Equestria, so it is not unheard of to experience what it has to offer, even if you are an Equestrian born pony.”

Or she had some other stupid agenda to accomplish if he really went there that he didn't know about. He could never be sure. If she really wanted him to go, then it was inevitable that he would. One of his grandparents had called Celestia a master manipulator before.

“Fine, whatever,” he told her with a grunt, taking advantage of the little agency he held now before it was gone. “I don't care either way.” Most likely, she wanted him to appreciate Equestria more, and he was bent on never liking it here. At least, that's what she wanted, so far as he knew.

She grinned smugly once again. “Very good,” she said, sounding slightly gleeful. “I’m sure there are a host of experiences for you to experience and humans for you to meet and connect with. And I’m certain in meeting you, they can see how wonderful Equestria is from the perspective of an Equestrian like you.”

He could spend millenia dissecting that comment, letting his brain completely melt trying to figure out what she was really trying to get him to do. Instead, he sent up a glare at her, and gruffly said, “Just tell me what I need to do or put me where I need to be.”

Another smirk came—Celestia was trying to satisfy him. She knew he was secretly enjoying his annoyance with her. Well, maybe he actually was annoyed with her stupid smirks.

She reached a wing down to pet his back, and he let out an involuntary sound of contentment in response—or maybe a muffled, needy whine. Now he couldn’t help but look away slightly shyly as she changed her smirk into something more gentle. How long would it be before she spoke again? Months?

“Very well,” she told him. “I will take you there now then. You only need to close your eyes and embrace yourself, Lasting Legacy.”

Lost Legacy barely gave a blink before he was gone.