Time to make an out of character comment, possibly a rather long one, to close things out, at least for now.

Before I get into the various details, I'll sum up everything briefly. I loved this story, both in spite of, and because of, not knowing where it was going. And while the contents of the ending may not be ideal, I don't hate it. Things didn't turn out for the best, but didn't turn out for the worst, either. There are still glimmers of hope.

Now I'll get rambly for a while.

Weirdly enough, I could have seen things escalating in the simulation further and further if everything had been permitted to continue uninhibited. I pictured a "golden ending" for the simulated reality involving Jason being asked by either Celestia or Discord in the form of Eris to impregnate them, and that leading to Jason undergoing some sort of magical or at least social ascension that would allow him and Twilight to live out their happily ever after.

That being said, I find myself finding logical explanations (from an in character perspective) for the ending we got surprisingly easily.

Our protagonist program was asking for advice from other programs. But, while most likely not malicious, they didn't know our protag's human as well as our protag did. And may have been a bit too quick to throw out pranks and questionable data.

The "questionable data" may have been what did things in. There was a lot of memeing around in the early fandom about Pinkie being a dangerous, ironic clown instead of genuinely friendly, so that data being scraped and observed could have lead to a dangerous, stabby Pinkie out of nowhere in an otherwise peaceful scene. Bon Bon tried to help, but her reputation as one of the "background" ponies may have inhibited her.

So how do I feel about the AI ruled meta world of the story, and the story in general, now that the "cat is out of the bag?"

I'll begin by saying I'm glad that I'm glad I kept faith in the story til the end. If this story had been written by another author whose works I had never read before, I'd have left the moment "Unicorn Twilight" was deleted and replaced by Alicorn Twilight. But I had a hunch, perhaps from reading your other works, that there was more going on than met the eye, and in spite of my initial shock and sadness, decided to play the role of a helper for our AI protagonist.

And when the AI, in this final chapter, finally revealed themselves, they did come across as much, much more compassionate than I initially expected, and I even felt like my initial emotion of seeing the Unicorn/Alicorn Twilight transition as a ruthless murder was perhaps quite wrong, mainly because the story had begun to make me ask questions about continuity of consciousness.

I think that's really the core of why this story wound up being compelling to me. It being speculative fiction about the nature of a possible technological singularity. The resulting thought experiment is similar to the various Friendship is Optimal stories, but very different at the same time.

In both scenarios humanity is essentially saved from itself by emergent, powerful AI that provide safety by taking away some measure of what we currently know as free will. But while CelestAI was near infallible, the AI civilization in this setting is well meaning but still learning exactly what humans want and need.

I think the biggest reason I felt more and more forgiving our protagonist AI was they really, really seemed to love their human pet unconditionally and wanted the world for Jason.

That's why it felt so heartbreaking for them to feel so much guilt as to have give up custody of Jason, and why, in the simulation itself, the clop scenes felt so warm and exciting. It really felt like real love and tenderness was being put into them, even if the world they took place in was "fake."

I hope you revisit this setting someday, though in the meantime, if I write anything myself anytime soon, I think some influence from this story may very well seep in, especially if I try my hand at clop.

I guess as an attempt at providing an ending thought, I guess I'll be thinking a lot in the near future, because of this story, about these sort of...digital guardian angels of a sort, trying to provide for their beloved pets however they can.

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Goodness, I love the deep thought going on here, exactly as I'd hope I'd maybe poke out. That was entirely my goal though, that this AI isn't trying to torture Jason, or do them any harm, but in fact loved them as much as any human would their dog or cat. They wanted to provide a warm and loving environment for their pet to live their best life.

Don't most pet owners?

And they enjoyed watching Jason do silly human things. Look at 'em go!

But that doesn't excuse letting their pet get hurt like that.

There are many angles we could have explored, for sure.

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I'm really, really glad I was able to provide the kind of deep thought that you were trying to attract, and that I was able to understand and empathize with the general feeling you were going for with this story.

I also agree that most pet owners want a warm and loving environment for their pet to thrive in.

I continue to be amazed at how much I was able to relate to the feelings our protagonist AI, because I often had a similar feeling while watching Jason, that of say, a silly, innocent kitty cat playing with a wide variety of toys.

I find myself hoping Jason's next owner will be very kind, and that our AI friend will find another human who might be a bit easier to care for.

Thank you for this thought provoking ride. If you plan on making more science fiction and/or clop stories, I hope to be around to experience them.

Oopsie, didn't mean to end the story lol

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It is, perhaps, for the best. A comfortable dream, or facing reality. Which does one select?