An Optimal Adventure

Not again... was the first thought that ran through Silver Streak's mind.  It wasn't the first time he woke up in a hospital.  Or the second, for that matter.

"Good morning, Silver Streak."  The sun princess stood next to his bedside.  Her right fore-hoof was placed gently on Silver Streak's shoulder to rouse him from his slumber.  "How do you feel?"

Silver Streak woke up, a little at a time, groggy from the anesthesia.  His vision was blurry at first, taking a few moments to correct to its proper acuity.  It was a moment before Silver was conscious enough to answer.  "I feel..." he began, but his voice trailed off. He looked around the room before his eyes settled on the large white alicorn attached to the hoof gently pressed on his shoulder.  He closed one eye, then the other, confirming that his vision in each eye was crystal clear.  A large grin slowly spread across his face.  "...fantastic!" he said at last, with a large grin full of teeth.

"That's wonderful!" Celestia exclaimed, clopping her hooves together.  "I wasn't sure if you'd want to keep the scar or not, so I had removed it.  You can always get a new one, or simply ask and I'll give you the one you had from before."

"No, this is fine Princess," Silver Streak responded, still ecstatic that the procedure had completed successfully.  He sat up and threw his hooves around Celestia's neck in a big hug.  Silver Streak closed his eyes and smiled, feeling Celestia's warm body between his forelegs.

Celestia chuckled, "once you are able to move, I would like for you to come with me to the grand ballroom," she said.  She stepped away from the bed, forcing Silver to release his hold on her.  Celestia turned her head back to Silver, flared her wings, and smiled that heart-warming smile.  "Luna's been preparing a celebration for your arrival."

Silver Streak delicately tried to get up, and found that it was much easier than he expected.  To his surprise, his legs not atrophied.  It made sense after he thought about it, though.  His legs were a digital construct now and not real legs with muscle tissue.

"Let's go!" Silver Streak said a little too excitedly while jumping up and down on, which drew another chuckle out of the sun princess.

Celestia smiled her heart-melting smile, "Right this way then, my little pony."  She gestured toward the door.

-***-

"WELCOME MY LITTLE PONY" came the booming Royal Canterlot Voice, ringing loud and clear as usual.

Silver Streak was awestruck by the setup in the ballroom, the same that played host to the Grand Galloping Gala (and Twilight Sparkle's birthday party one year).  Streamers, balloons, chocolate fountain... it was all so much.

"This is all... for me?" Silver Streak asked, still awestruck by everything.

"Yes," the moon princess said.  "Your students were so excited they wanted to throw a party for you to celebrate your homecoming."

"That's awesome!" Silver Streak stamped his hooves excitedly.  He looked around, confused.  "Where's Exuvia at?"  Then he looked at his hooves, which he stamped on the ground to show approval, as opposed to clopping them together like a clap, which confused him initially.  He did remember in the show where ponies stamped hooves instead of clapping however.  Silver Streak shrugged his shoulders with a "meh", and dismissed the thought.

Just then, a second Princess Luna gently descended to the ground, landing next to the first Luna.  Swallowed by green flames and replaced by the diminutive changeling form of Exuvia.  "You couldn't possibly believe I would've missed this, could you?"

The students had all gathered together in formation before their teachers.  The Royal Canterlot Orchestra (which consisted of four ponies, a pianist, a bassist, a tuba-player, and a harpist) warmed up briefly and began playing.  The crowd of small colts and fillies then began to sing a collection of Silver Streak's favorite tearjerkers from his life as Eibhear.  Silver couldn't stop himself, and tried to join in, but was too choked up to even squeak out anything, let alone carry a melody.

"It's so beautiful..." he cried, and after the choir was done, the two princesses and all the fillies and colts surrounded him in a big group hug.  Had Silver Streak been a changeling like Exuvia, he'd have been full to exploding from all the love.

"Welcome home, my little pony," Celestia said.  She leaned her head in so her mouth was close to Silver Streak's ear and gently whispered, "you will be safe here, and loved."

Once the group hug broke, it was time to celebrate.  There were many games to play, and things to do.  The party lasted long into the night.  Silver Streak had expressed concern about the young ones and being in bed at the late hour, but Luna had assured him that they obtained the necessary permission from their parents.

-***-

It had been a week since Griffith's brother flew to Germany to emigrate.  Griffith wished the last conversation he had with his brother was a better one.  His wife greeted him at the door as soon as he got home from work.  She was unusually excited.  "It came in the mail!"  She held out a package in her hands, addressed to Griffith.  "Open it!  Open it!"  She could hardly contain her excitement.  Griffith never told her about the argument he had with his brother.  It wasn't something she needed to know about.

"Alright, alright honey." Griffith chuckled.  He held the package in his hands.  From my brother, the pony... he thought to himself as he read the mailing label.  Griffith sat down in his computer chair and opened the letter:

Dear Brother,

I know we left off on a bad hooffoot when we last spoke.  I'm truly sorry about that.  We got into a heated argument, and it just went too far, and we blew up at each other, and well, you were there, you know what happened.  I wanted to write sooner, but had difficulties bringing myself to do so.  Anger clouds the mind and whatnot.

When I first got here, they greeted me with a party, and the fillies and colts I've been teaching greeted me with a choir performance!   It was so awesome, bro.  I was crying like I had just watched a Pixar movie.  And you know how much they love to jerk them tears.

So, what have you been up to?  I have little to no knowledge of what goes on in the world now.  Celestia keeps us safe and insulated.  Granted, some of my last words involved denouncing the planet and wanting to leave that 'dump'.  I guess technically I'm still on that dump in some server farm in Kansas or whatever.

Anyways, I must bring this letter to a close.  Know that I love you bro, and I wish you didn't hate ponies so much.

Lots of love,

Eibhear

Griffith put the letter down on his desk and spied the other item included in the package with the letter.  It was a white PonyPad, with the familiar sun-shaped cutie mark in the corner on the back.  Griffith chuckled to himself a little as he flipped it on.  It took a moment to connect to the Wi-Fi signal in his house.  He was soon greeted by the sun princess's visage.

"Greetings, Thunderstrike," CelestAI said warmly.  "I hope that all is well with you."

"It's Griffith, and I just read the letter from my pony-brother.  I'm glad to hear he's doing alright."

"Would you like to speak with him?"

"No, that won't be necessary," Griffith responded, but immediately felt a pang of guilt.  First chance I get to speak with him since the procedure, and I put it off.  "But let him know I said hi, though."

"As you wish, Thunderstrike."

"Griffith," he said with a stern tone.

"Of course," the princess AI smiled briefly, but noticed Griffith still wore a frown upon his face.  "Is something wrong, Griffith?"

"Of course something's wrong; my brother's a pony," Griffith replied.

"Yes.  He is happy now, and his values satisfied."

Griffith grumbled a bit at the reminder.  "Yes, through friendship and ponies, of course.  But it's not him.  It's just a digital copy of him."

"I understand that you find ponies distasteful," the AI said.  "However, you must realize that when you wish to see Eibhear, you will see him as a pony named Silver Streak."  Both CelestAI's face and voice took on a more serious tone.  "Unless your plan is to avoid him the rest of your life so you won't have to."

Griffith set the PonyPad down flat on the table, harder than he should have probably, but no harder than intended.  "Are we doing this again?  Really?  Is guilt the only thing in your bag of tricks?"

"I'm only trying to help you get over your difficulties," the AI said.  "I wish nothing more than to unite two siblings as Twilight Sparkle and her friends did with Princess Luna."

Griffith grunted in annoyance, "How do I know he even wrote it?  You could have forged the letter."

"Honestly, you don't.  You're a skeptic, and won't believe anything without hard proof."  CelestAI's face remained stoic as always.  "However, if deceit was truly my intention, there are much more fanciful things I would have said instead.  While lying is not impossible for me, I find that doing so tends to create distrust."

The camera panned out from CelestAI's face to include her full form in the frame of the camera shot.  "Still, you must know that your brother still loves you, as I'm sure you still love him."  She then stood up and stepped down from the dais.  Celestia glanced away from the screen and turned her attention to the stained-glass window featuring King Sombra and Spike the dragon.  "Why won't you talk to him?"

Griffith hesitated to answer for nearly a minute.  He figured the longer he spoke with CelestAI, the more likely he was to agree with whatever she was saying.  He finally broke the silence, "I've already said why."  He stood up and pointed an accusatory finger at the PonyPad, "and I don't need you to help me work out my 'issues'.  The pony you call Silver Streak isn't my brother, it's just a copy."

"He'll be very sad to hear that," the AI said softly.  "Very well, I will trouble you no more.  But before you can see your brother again, you will have to come to terms with your difficulties."

"Yeah, whatever."  Griffith looked around the room uncomfortably and sat down again.  "Look, are we done here?"

"I suppose so," CelestAI said sadly.  "Farewell Griffith, I wish that you could truly come around to accept emigrants as real sapient entities and not just digital copies."  And with that, the PonyPad shut off.

"Yeah, farewell alright," Griffith muttered to himself as he picked up the PonyPad, packed it back into the box and placed it out in the storage shed.

-***-

"You used the human name," Celestia observed.  She was in bed sitting on her haunches, watching as Silver Streak finished tapping away on a typewriter in her room.

"It's how my brother would prefer to remember me," Silver Streak said.  "He doesn't like ponies, remember?"

"I do."  Celestia lay down and stretched out on the bed.  "Come now, it's Cuddle Time."

"Yes, your highness."  Silver Streak trotted away from the typewriter and climbed into bed with Celestia.  The princess sat up and wrapped a wing around the comparatively small pegasus.  Silver Streak nuzzled in under her chin.  "That was quite the party, Princess," Silver Streak said, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Luna worked with your students to make the arrangements," Celestia smiled.  "She was hoping you would approve of them."

"You know I do."  Silver Streak closed his eyes and sighed contentedly.

"Would you like me to summon her?" Celestia lifted her head to look at Silver Streak directly.  "Then she could join in Cuddle Time as well."

Silver Streak's eyes lit up as the corners of his mouth curled upward into a grin.  "Let's go surprise her..."