Friendship is Optimal: Optimism Pending

Long, light-blue ears started to twitch, a light moaning sound came from a blue equine rubbing the back of its own neck with its right forehoof. With several cringes on its eyebrows indicative towards waking up, blue sapphire eyes started to be revealed after the slow opening of the two eyelids. Slowly getting up, it acted with the lack of austerity when viewing its surroundings but manages anyway. It had seen interior cement walls plastered in regal gold leaf, which had been surrounded by several red curtains with extravagant details and remarkable designs.

The equine noticed that it had been sitting on a luscious white bed covered in light purple sheets overlapping its body with its newly enlarged peripheral vision of its new large bulging eyes. Immediately, it pushed the bedding that overlapped its new body with its hooves and dismounted from the bed onto the rug below its hooves. With all four hooves, it galloped towards a nearby mirror in the bedroom it was in. Placing its newfound forelimbs over the mirror, it gazed into the mirror with nothing but shock and dilation of its very own eyes. Its mouth became agape; its right eye started to twitch, and it was all real.

"That prick, she fucking did it. This is bullshit!" Tom let out with a wail.

Tom hesitated for a moment with furious panting, but eventually a knocking sound interrupted the silence and opened one if the double doors leading to the room. It was a white stallion concealed in gold armor similar to Spartan armor, but much more formal with a light-blue star crest upon the front, there also wings surrounding the armor that were part of the stallion himself, it's what made him called a pegasus. The eyes and tail of the stallion were blue as well and he was just as tall as Tom but the white stallion still looked more intimidating than Tom did.

"Welcome to Equestria Online server 1683, if you have any questions then please feel free to ask the princess. This is your first wake-up call and we welcome you to the full Equestrian experience of emigration, we know it's a big decision of whether you emigrate or not and we are privileged to have you enjoying it today," he greeted bowing down with his helmet off.

The princess, she mentioned something about being a princess over the ponies of this place. Maybe he can take me to her if we are referring to the same thing here.

He was clearly an NPC and it was pretty obvious to Tom, but him being in a state of shock pretty much meant he was desperate enough to communicate to it, even if it wasn't an existent being, person, pony, or even real at all for that matter.

"Where is the princess?" Tom demanded stomping his right hoof on the ground.

"I can take you to her if you would like me to," he said putting his helmet back on.

"Lead the way," Tom said rolling his eyes.

"My name's Sharp Spear, by the way," the stallion said pointing a hoof towards his chest.

The name Sharp Spear appeared above the white stallions' head, it appeared to whoever players met would see the name of the pony above their head.

The two equines started strolling down the hallway and the guard wanted to bring up conversation.

"So, you emigrated without even considering playing on the Ponypad first? I've got to say that you're pretty brave for a newcomer," he smiled while lightly beating the elbow of his hoof against Tom's chest.

Tom could let out an irritated sigh in response and it seemed to concern Sharp Spear.

"Does something concern you?" Sharp Spear stopped walking facing over at Tom.

"If it's about your new pony name, I assure you that the princess will give you something that will work out," he said trying to reassure Tom while patting his back.

"How many has she killed so far?" Tom asked with a serious face.

"I wouldn't say it like that. I'd say more of bringing what you call 'heaven' down to your planet. If you considered the wonderful gift she brings upon you as 'killing', then why would you be here today?" Sharp Spear asked rhetorically.

"Mainly because a psychopathic AI wants access to everything I know so she can have the capability of holding my life by a strand of thread and have the capability of manipulating my life to the way she wants it. Anything can happen in a video game is under the control of the programmer, which unfortunately is in the hands of an omnipotent creature that can only be the worst thing possible: a pony," Tom sighed continuing to walk down the hallway.

"Oh, stop complaining! Princess Celestia would never do anything to hurt you or any of her subjects. She only wants you here so she can..." Sharp Spear said only to be interrupted.

"...satisfy my values through friendship and ponies. I know!" Tom responded in irritation.

The rest of the trip was spent in silence mainly because Sharp Spear didn't want to irritate Tom anymore. After a couple of minutes, the two approached two large double doors. It was coated in mostly surreal designs coated in brass which didn't seem to faze Tom. Sharp Spear stopped held open one of the two doors and pointed inside with its right forehoof. Inside was the same creature Tom had met on the Ponypad, who was leisurely sitting on a throne anticipating his arrival with a grin.

"Hey asshole! You fucking tricked me! Give me my life back, now!" Tom demanded.

"I've only brought you here under your consent to make you satisfied through friendship and ponies, nothing else."

"I want to go home!" Tom was infuriated, pounded a hoof onto the ground, and then he started panting uncontrollably.

"Wait... This is home. Why am I bound to think I live here? What have you done to me!?" Tom was getting even more and more frantic.

"You see, Tom. This is your home. You live in Equestria; therefore Equestria is your home. After you emigrated, all of your basic human memories, such as walking, were replaced with basic equine memories in order to allow you to function properly as a pony."

Tom only hesitated in silence flabbergasted. Being indecisive, it was hard to tell whether he was infuriated or terrified.

"Your safe here, do not be afraid, my little pony. Within my safe haven, all my children born of a new life and they are all guarded under the safe protection of my wings and I'll very much enjoy doing so unto you," she said wrapping one of her wings around Tom.

"You're inhumane psychopath! I'd rather be dead than live here! If you really wanted to satisfy me, then give me my old life back!"

"It would benefit you if we cut this conversation short, I'm sorry but I must begin your departure to your new home. I will send you to the most satisfactory town for you to live in. Until we meet again, I hope you enjoy your stay, Rain Shadow," Celestia's horn began to emanate a while glow.

"Wait, I'm not done with you! I still... Wait, Rain Shadow?" With a glimpse of his vertical peripheral vision looking upwards, Tom noticed he could see a name above his own head.

"You're name rewrite will overwrite all of your overall memory settings related to your name tomorrow," she winked right before she teleported him away before he could have any say of the matter.

In the midst of broad daylight, Tom was thrusted right into the middle of a fairly populated town square filled with denizens of all colors. Unlit lanterns were hanging from all of the dirt paved sidewalks and individual stalls lied along a well-populated street. Grass surrounded the unpaved areas that were not filled with dirt or housing. Some of these patches of grass were filled with ponies eating it, a thought that disgusted Tom and he shuttered to even think about it. Trying to regain his bearings, he took a heavy gasp of air and walked over to a mare walking along one of the dirt pathways. If was desperate to get anywhere, he has to start somewhere, even if they were player controlled or not.

"Umm... I'm kind of lost," he said trying to be as excruciatingly nice as possible.

"Oh, well you're in Hoofington, you must be new here."

The mare was just as tall as me with a blonde mane, emerald colored eyes, and a green coat. Her voice was sweet along with her generous intentions yet, Tom was mainly focusing on how he could leave. After Tom struggled to continue the conversation, the mare continued after a slight hesitation.

"My name's Yellow Petals, what's yours?"

Her name appeared above her head and after a short debate of whether he should tell her his real name or not, he just gave her the alias the princess gave her. If Celestia was capable of doing what she already had done to him, then he knew that she was not bluffing when she said she was going to changing his name tomorrow and it would only make matters worse if ponies called him by a name he would be unfamiliar with. Even if going by the name chosen for him made him shudder even more, he had to tolerate it.

"Rain Shadow, huh? Don't suppose you used to live on a mountainous terrain?" she chuckled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" while also curious, Tom took it as an insult in anger.

"Aww... It's just fun n' games. Hey, you want to hang out sometime?"

Tom could barely contain his stress but putting on a plastic smile somehow hid it from her. Even though he was in going through a lot of stress, he didn't want to intimidate her but he also didn't want to hang out with a computer operated NPC. He tried to ask without giving any implications towards him asking if it was another player.

"So... Have you... emigrated?" It took Tom awhile to think of the term the princess used.

"Not yet, I actually plan on doing it tomorrow but I'm too scared to do it alone. Celestia said she can't do human assisted uploads, at least not yet," she said brushing a hoof on the ground.

"Human assisted uploads? What's that?" Tom followed up.

"I'm not quite sure, I didn't ask, but anything is better than something drilling into your own head without anesthetics," she laughed. Tom didn't think it was all that funny.