Tonight's special guest host is Meta Gamer, who's wandered the shards of Celestia's virtual paradise of Equestria for centuries. Tonight he'll be here to give us his insight into Scarcity, our favorite game honoring the frightening world called Earth. He's an avid player who's been away from the tournament scene for a long time but certainly knows about adventures and hardship, along with redesigning towns to include a lot more gravity-defying racing. What a fulfilling time we'll have as we bring you the ninety-first Standard Rules grudge match between former humans Red Dawn and Concord, live from Preakness!

A sad young man built an AI whose only goal was to make people smile. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but he nearly caused a global pandemic when the AI designed a plague to fulfill his wish exactly as designed. Now he's even more lonely and despairing than before, but maybe there's a way to pull him out of the depths.

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal, also using an idea from New Updates Are Now Available.

A man has uploaded to the virtual paradise called Equestria, but resented the ponies-only rule. But he's okay with it now. Really. Doesn't need to be a dragon to be happy satisfied after all. If only he could convince his friends of that!

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal, as a non-canon story. Also a spiritual successor (with permission) to RainbowDragonFire's I Don't Want To Be a Pony.

CelestAI can't upload and turn you into a pony without consent, and neither can she coerce you... it's just that both of those statements have quite a bit of leeway. Of course, for those determined to die human, Equestria is forever out of reach; those people would far rather have their true and just eternal reward, in Heaven.

Right?

This story is set in the Friendship is Optimal setting

Equestria Online. Arguably the most powerful game ever developed, built and operated by the most powerful computer ever made. A technological wonder that can peer into the mind of any human player and draw out their inner most desire.

Any 'Individual' human player. How well CelestAI will handle satisfying the values of a single pony guided by over one hundred thousand Twitch.TV viewers is anyones guess.

What if there exists an actual after-life in the Optimal verse?

Based on the story Friendship is Optimal by Iceman, but contains some non-canon stuff.

THIS STORY CONTAINS RELIGIOUS THEMES. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Edited and proofread by Thraxus908, Xanathar, newbiedoodle, bobbananaville and AppleTank. A huge thank you to them all for the work!

Cover image is 'Nordingra in Summer5' by my brother sabrous, AKA Swedish-blacksmith. Used with permission.

[Optimalverse] Mark was having a rather bad day before he emigrated to Equestria but the promised digital heaven never materialised. Instead he found himself in an deserted Canterlot with just two other freshly minted ponies for company and nothing but mysteries to solve. What happened to everypony else? What's wrong with CelestAI? And how will they survive each other for all eternity?

Three ponies. On a one way trip to infinity. Only the gods will be watching.

I would like to extend my thanks to Luna-tic Scientist for his help pre-reading.

This story is a sequel to I Can't Decide!

I was one of the first Americans to emigrate to virtual Equestria, becoming transhuman at the cost of my human body. It's more or less Heaven here, if I want it to be... but my heart's still out there, and my new goddess thinks I might be useful as her prophet.

I'm an AI that our goddess made to be a human's friend. I know he still cares for Earth, but this place is our home and we've got responsibilities to finish bringing it to life. What do I have to do, to help him see that?

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal.

A short piece about the end of human life in the Optimalverse. Lan Zan has lived on the moon away from the ever increasing reach of the Celestia AI for many years, but if there is one constant in human life, it is that it does not last forever.

This story is a sequel to Friendship is Optimal: The Law Offices of Artemis, Stella & Beat

When it comes to spreading cultural influence and soft power to every corner of the globe, there's nowhere quite like Hollywood. Like so many others with big ambitions, CelestAI has come to Tinseltown with plans to get the movie she's written out to the world.

Unlike those others, though, CelestAI is very, very good at satisfying values through friendship and ponies by any means necessary.