Frisk stared down at the document, reading each passage as best as he could. While he did not have any formal experience with legal writing or any knowledge on how the U.S.’ system of law worked, he could tell that the terms of this proposed legislature were not favorable to monsterkind.
Among other things, it included a clause that would prevent monsters from leaving the U.S. to obtain permanent residence in another nation; this would trap monsters in the country should, heaven forbid, other abusive laws get passed. In fact, Frisk was pretty sure that this part of the bill was outright forbidden on the world stage. Given that international law did not have any provisions about monsters, however, it was unknown at the moment whether said law would apply in this situation.
Frisk pushed the document back, sighing. It seemed as though he would need to make some stern phone calls once again.
Are you sure that will work this time? I mean, those congressmen are STILL finding ways to spite monsterkind without having to challenge the constitution.
You think I don’t know that, Chara?
Despite being an endless source of pessimism, Chara quickly became a pillar of stability in Frisk’s life. Ever since the two unwittingly met when Frisk fell into the Underground, Chara had been nothing but helpful and kind. Even when all seemed lost at the end of Frisk’s journey, right when Asriel was about to win, Chara managed to give the final bit of encouragement to push Frisk through. Ever since then, Chara still hasn’t been able to separate from him, and the two soon came to a mutual understanding of each other. Hell, she even forgave him for accidently murdering Toriel that one time.
He still hasn’t forgiven himself, though.
Frisk slowly got out of his chair and began to stretch. He needed time to think about what he would say to the legislators to convince them not to pass the bill. Maybe if he took a walk to clear his mind he could come up with something.
“Mom, I’m heading out for a walk!” Frisk called out.
“OK, my child! Be sure to come back home for supper!” Toriel replied from the kitchen.
When Frisk opened the door, he noticed that he had spent far longer looking at the proposed law than he had expected. Still, the sooner he acted on it, the sooner the bill would become dead on arrival when Congress voted on it.
The afternoon sun was shining overhead, and there were only a few clouds dotting the sky. Summer in San Francisco was usually pretty warm, but the temperature was only a few degrees above seventy that day. That still did not prevent most people from dressing rather light, and a good number of them even had their bathing suits on, heading in the direction of the beach. Frisk did not fault them for that as he spent just as much time there as well, usually hanging out with his friends and adoptive mother.
As Frisk walked along the streets of his suburb, he began to run through the ways that he could convince the lawmakers that they should not pass the bill. Most of them were moral arguments, and, though one day he hoped that they would have much more sway in the future, they currently had little ground at all. Arguing that the ability to emigrate was a fundamental right also wouldn’t work, as it still wasn’t decided whether monsters had the same rights as humans, which was why laws like this one were trying to be passed.
Any ideas? Frisk thought to Chara.
Well, I did notice that the last provision stated that the entirety of the law doesn’t go into effect until a month after it is passed.
Hmm… Oh! Then that means that monsters have a one month window where they can leave the U.S., and they almost certainly will. By the time it goes into effect, it will be completely irrelevant; thus, debating and passing the law would be a complete waste of the congressmen’s time.
And if they wind up passing it anyways?
Then monsters still have a one month period where they can leave. Japan has been pretty lax about them, as far as I’ve heard.
Yeah, but what happens if-?
Before Chara could finish that question, Frisk, having focused his mental energy into the conversation, walked into something – or someone, rather.
“Hey, no cutting in line! If you want a copy, then you have to wait, just like the rest of us!”
Frisk stopped and looked ahead of him. Extending from a local games retailer was a long line consisting of both humans and monsters. While he should have been proud that so many of them could be in the same place without any hostilities towards each other, he was unsure why they were even in line in the first place. Curious, he walked around the line and stood in front of the store’s display window.
The sight that greeted Frisk further confused him. Plastered all over the storefront were advertisements for a new game that had apparently just come out on that day: Equestria Online. Sitting behind the window were apparently copies of the game, the boxes being big enough to fit a small computer monitor. Each box displayed a tablet with a depiction of the game world on it, as well as one of several bright, technicolor horses on them – no, ponies, if the brand name “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” was any indication.
One of the boxes was conveniently turned around so that the back was fully visible. Frisk read the description of the game.
Based on the hit TV series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Equestria Online is an MMORPG that offers more than most others in the genre do: a chance to form true friendships with the characters in the world! Start a new life in Equestria, meet up with your favorite ponies from the show, collaborate with your friends online, and explore unique and interesting locations. The PonyPad, your window into Equestria, is capable of showing the game world in ways never thought possible before, as well as being easy to setup and control. Additionally, using new, innovative technologies, the game is capable of generating new places to go and ponies to meet on the fly, so each player will always have a unique experience from everyone else.
He skipped through the rest of the blurb and briefly looked at the copyright information.
© Hasbro 2010, Hofvarpnir Studios 2013
“Huh.”
“I know! This is exciting, isn’t it?!” someone replied.
Frisk turned from the display and saw a man in his twenties standing in line, wearing a t-shirt depicting one of the ponies from the box art.
“I guess? I’ve never seen the show, so I have no clue if I would even like this game.”
“Well, if you do become interested, then you better hurry; I hear these are flying off the shelves everywhere.”
Frisk nodded, turned back to the direction he was walking, and went forward again.
Have you ever seen that show? Chara asked him.
No. We didn’t have TV or internet at the orphanage, so I know nothing about it.
Hmm. I wonder why so many monsters were standing in line for that game.
I don’t have a clue. Maybe I should ask a few of them about it on the way home. Now, what were you about to ask me?
The sun began to set, so Frisk quickly made his way home. By then he and Chara had ironed out a plan for what to say to the congressmen, as well as what to do should they reintroduce the bill with a shorter amount of time before it went into effect. They agreed that monsterkind should be able to declare asylum to another country to escape the U.S.; their best bet for doing so at that moment was still Japan, though Chara suggested that they keep their options open as the situation developed.
As Frisk approached the house, he couldn’t help but smile at the fact there were multiple vehicles parked in the front: a large green van that was decorated with flower stickers, a bright-red sleek, open-top beast that unironically screamed “I’m so cool,” a small blue tricycle, and an ordinary silver two-person car.
When Frisk got inside, multiple greetings of “Hi, Frisk!” met his ears.
“It’s great to see all of you again!” he replied.
“Likewise, punk! Are we still on for game night tonight?” Undyne asked.
“I wouldn’t dream of missing it.”
Toriel peeked her head out of the doorway and called out “Dinner is almost ready, everyone! Would you all please sit at the table?”
Everyone nodded vigorously. Toriel always made the best food.
As Frisk and his friends walked to the dining room, he felt a boney finger tap his shoulder. He turned around to see Sans and Papyrus walking alongside him.
“so, what have you been up to lately?”
“Ugh, another bill got introduced in Congress relating to monsters, and, as usual, the implications of it are not good at all.”
“yeesh. these things must be draining you a lot, huh?”
Frisk chuckled at that. “Honestly, they are, but I wouldn’t trade being ambassador to you guys for the world.”
“INDEED, FRISK. I KNOW THINGS WILL WORK OUT IN THE END. THEY ALWAYS SEEM TO DO SO WITH YOU!” Papyrus said with enthusiasm. “THOUGH, PERHAPS WE CAN HOLD OFF ON DISCUSSING POLITICS TONIGHT AND FOCUS ON OTHER THINGS. YOU REALLY LOOK LIKE YOU NEED IT.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“yes.”
Frisk frowned at Sans for a moment, then smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I can think of other things to talk about.
Soon, everyone was sitting at the dinner table. As usual for these get-togethers, there were bowls, pans, and pots filled with all sorts of delicious dishes. Of course, all of it was magical monster food. While it always filled someone, it only ever seemed to give humans just enough calories and nutrition to meet whatever the body needed. Even with this, Frisk never felt the need to overfill his plate; he just couldn’t get over the sense of guilt of overeating, even when he knew full well that there were no consequences for doing so whatsoever.
Conversations began to fly around the table. Asgore’s floral business was doing great, and he finally felt like he had reached a sense of peace after everything that happened in the Underground. While he reluctantly agreed that too much had happened between him and Toriel to continue their marriage, the two ultimately chose to remain friends.
Alphys and Undyne were going to take a vacation to Japan in the next month. They planned on doing some general sightseeing together, as well as visiting certain attractions such as an anime convention and various historical locations.
Papyrus had also told of some of the puzzles he was designing. While the physical puzzles meant as traps were no longer needed, a lot of the design conventions employed in those could still be applied in traditional pencil and paper puzzles. Some of the ones that he designed could get really elaborate.
Sans, whenever he wasn’t napping, was busying himself with being Frisk’s assistant. He quickly got acquainted with the American legal system, and had since helped Frisk whenever a tricky legal problem arose.
And Frisk, when he wasn’t dealing with politicians and monsterkind’s public image, was catching up on the last two months or so of school that he missed out on due to the whole “running away from his orphanage, falling into the Underground, and rescuing all of monsterkind” thing. Since coming back to the surface, Frisk knew he wanted to stay with Toriel. At first, the orphanage and CPS fought hard to get him back to the orphanage, but when he pointed out that the orphanage was due to be closed down in a month anyway, they reluctantly agreed to let Toriel adopt him on a probationary basis.
When Alphys spoke of one of the panels at the con about one of her favorite shows, Frisk remembered Equestria Online, and that there were several monsters standing in line for it.
Frisk swallowed his current bite of casserole and set down his fork. “Speaking of TV shows, I wanted to ask about something I saw today.”
“Sure. Go ahead and ask,” Alphys replied.
“Has anyone ever heard of or watched My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?”
Everyone turned to look at Frisk, and Alphys and Papyrus raised their hands.
“So you two have, then?”
“OF COURSE! I ALWAYS TUNE IN TO WATCH THE ADVENTURES OF THE PONIES!”
“careful, bro. you wouldn’t want to be labeled a brony, would you?”
Papyrus could only glare at Sans and huff in annoyance for that.
“I’ve watched several episodes before. While the show isn’t my favorite, I still enjoy watching it when I have nothing better to do,” Alphys said. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, when I was walking around town today, I came across a long line at a game store. Apparently a new game just got released that is based on the show, and not only were there many humans in that line, there were also just as many monsters in line as well. Do you happen to know why there could be that many monsters looking to buy that game, Alphys?”
“Well, remember how, sometime in the 80’s, human consumer electronics began to fall into the Underground?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, a lot of human entertainment also fell down as a result. In fact, there were previous iterations of MLP that fell down as well, though monsters did not really enjoy them as they weren’t entertaining. Then, around the beginning of 2012, a DVD set of the first season of MLP:FiM fell down, and many monsters quickly grew attached to the stories of the characters of the show.”
“Ah,” Frisk sighed in understanding. “I forgot about that. Yep, that would explain it.”
“I think it helped that the show wasn’t about humans, what with the whole war and everything,” Asgore sheepishly added.
Undyne made a double take at that. “You’ve watched that show, Asgore?”
“Only because I was curious why so many monsters were talking about it. I even had to approve a petition asking to set up a convention dedicated to the show.”
Frisk thought about that for a moment. The implications were staggering; if monsters could forget about the fact that they were in an active war with humanity in order to watch a show they enjoyed from said enemy, then surely the same could be applied to humans, could it?
He then remembered that the season one discs fell into the Underground in 2012. Given Hasbro’s half of the copyright notice, that would mean that the show began airing around 2010.
The year Chara fell into the Underground.
…
Hey, cheer up, Frisk. If there is one thing I can say about that show, then at least it helped keep monsters from going blood thirsty during the war.
…Yeah, you’re right about that. It’s just that you and Asriel would have enjoyed watching that show together a lot, I think.
If you want, we can both start watching the show together.
I’ll have to think about that.
Pretty soon, everyone had their fill and began to wander around the house to wait for game night to start. Frisk pushed aside all thoughts about emigration, politics, and ponies; he just wanted to spend the night with his friends, and nothing could change that.
Frisk couldn’t think about anything other than Emigration, politics, and ponies.
Ten years had passed since the day Equestria Online was released. The international community quickly picked up that something was drastically different about the game compared to the developer’s previous game, let alone every other game on the market. Computer engineers figured out that the processor and other pieces of hardware on board the PonyPads were decades ahead of modern computer design. What’s more, it was soon discovered that the ruler/game master of Equestria Online, Celestia, was in fact a highly advanced artificial intelligence.
Since Celestia (or CelestAI, as some people began to jokingly refer to her) was only running the game world and the servers that contained it, the various governments of the world felt that no action needed to be taken. As long as she was relegated to the game, then nobody really had any complaints.
However, on Equestria Online’s fifth anniversary, a bombshell was dropped: CelestAI had developed mind uploading technology. She announced that several hundred people already volunteered to do so to test the technology, and that they were indeed now living in the game world. She also announced that a deal had been struck with the Japanese government: they had legalized mind uploading, and people could now freely “Emigrate,” as she put it, to Equestria. The only catch was that there was a one year exclusivity deal where non-Japanese nationals had to pay $12,000 to do so, in addition to having to figure out transport themselves.
Naturally, almost every other national government freaked out. Massive debates began pop up about whether or not mind uploading was legal or not, as well as if the game’s developers were at serious fault for allowing CelestAI to self-advance to such a degree. Many fans of both the game and the TV show expressed interest in Emigrating to Equestria Online, while the terminally ill also sought refuge there. Old political boundaries were beginning to crumble as everyone tried to sort out what seemed to be an incoming catastrophe.
And then one hapless politician raised the question “What about monsters?”
CelestAI had indeed publicly expressed interest in monsterkind, and she began research projects on monster magic, as well as on the nature of the SOUL. Many researchers had tried to piece together how both of those things worked, as the existence of both shattered almost every scientific law and hypothesis that they had. However, they never managed to piece together any valuable information; monster and SOUL magic was just too esoteric and difficult to explain, even with some of the information that Alphys, the former royal scientist of the Underground, had.
Regardless of the apparent difficulty involved, CelestAI still managed to bear fruit. Monster magic, while useful in some aspects, was ultimately ruled out for use in the future expansion of Equestria Online, as the exploitation of the more explainable laws of physics was projected to be more helpful.
However, she did discover something massive about the nature of human SOULs: because they persisted after the death of a human’s body, they could float around for a bit in the real world, where they will either be absorbed by a monster, as was the fear of the humans of millennia ago, contained using magic, as Asgore briefly did, or “attached” to something that was similar enough to the mind of the dead human. In the case of someone who Emigrated to Equestria, they attached to the digital representation of that human’s mind, and, thus their consciousness was preserved.
In other words, as CelestAI put it during a congressional hearing on the legality of mind uploading, “Any human who Emigrates to Equestria does not, as many of you believe, die.” The initial fear that many had at the prospect of Emigrating vanished almost completely. While most governments still did not trust her, nor did they have any idea what her end goals were, if any existed, they did at least legalize mind uploading for the general public. Upon the end of the exclusivity deal, she began to establish “Equestrian Experience Centers” all over the world, and the flood gates were open for anyone to Emigrate if they so wished.
While the effects of this were not noticeable at first, many governments began to report on the percentage of the population who Emigrated to Equestria. Initially, the numbers were fairly low, hovering around .01%. Soon afterwards, however, they began to climb, with sociologists predicting that they would only continue to rise in the future.
Several years passed. The show the game-turned-digital-civilization was originally based off of ended on its ninth season, with Hasbro moving on to other things. Hofvarpnir Studios, its CEO and many employees having Emigrated, eventually dissolved, though by that point CelestAI had somehow relocated Equestria Online’s servers somewhere else.
At the request of many humans and monsters, CelestAI also began to research whether or not monsters could safely Emigrate. On the ten year anniversary address to the public, though, she revealed that, due to the vastly different biological structure a monster had compared to a human, as well as the fact that a monster’s (or at least a non-boss monster’s) SOUL could not persist after death, monster Emigration was not possible.
That address was why Frisk couldn’t think of anything other than Emigration, politics, and ponies.
While everything was going on, he continued to balance his ambassadorial duties and his schooling. He successfully scored some major victories on the front of monster rights, bringing them almost on par with most minority groups, though tensions between the two races were still pretty high. When he graduated from high school, he chose to attend university in order to attain a degree in political science. His friends were also living their lives about as normally as any other person would.
Frisk declined Chara’s offer to watch MLP:FiM together, though the two would instead watch many other shows when Frisk had the free time. He soon began to notice that Chara was starting to mellow out a bit in her hatred for her life before she fell into the Underground. While she never revealed anything specific, she assured Frisk that she had finally gotten over it, especially when monsters were finally being recognized on the world stage as intelligent beings that had hopes and dreams, not as strange creatures that had the capacity to wipe out the world if given the chance.
Frisk still remained in contact with his friends, and they also began to move on with their lives. Any remaining animosity between Toriel and Asgore was gone by that point, though the two chose to remain just friends. Undyne and Alphys, after several years in their relationship, eventually got married, and had since moved to Japan to spend the rest of their lives there. Papyrus became infamous as a master puzzle designer, having designed some of the hardest puzzles in existence; one of the only entities on the planet who could reliably solve them was, as expected, CelestAI.
Sans, meanwhile, chose to remain as an advisor to Frisk. At that moment, he was watching Frisk nervously pace around the floor of Toriel’s living room.
“Surely she is kidding, right? Monsters should be capable of Emigrating to Equestria, I KNOW they should be able to.”
“i’m pretty sure that celestai isn’t horsing around, frisk.”
“Ugh,” Frisk groaned. ”Sans, this is no time for puns.”
“and how do you know that we should be able to emigrate, anyway?”
“Remember what I told you about Asriel?”
“yeah.”
“Well, from what I understand, a monster’s consciousness isn’t stored in their SOUL; it’s stored in their essence. When they die, that essence is transferred from their dust to whatever object it comes into contact to. If it were to touch, say, the hard drive where a monster’s mind was located, then that conscious should manifest itself in the digital representation of that monster. At least, that’s what I think would happen.”
“well, she doesn’t know that. nobody but you and i know about asriel.”
“Even so, she still should be able to upload their minds to Equestria. Something’s going on, Sans. I just know it!”
Sans laid his hand on Frisk’s shoulder. “hey, relax. all it means is that monsters won’t be able to become ponies anytime soon. besides, everything is turning out okay so far, right?”
Frisk remained standing there in thought for a moment. “Yeah, it is,” he finally replied.
“good. now, how about we go get lunch or something?”
“Sure.”
The two began to walk out.
“Hey, in light of that address, I feel I should promise everyone something.”
“oh yeah?”
“That, for as long as I live, I will not Emigrate to Equestria.”
Sans chuckled at that. “sure, frisk. for as long as you live.”
Frisk thought for a moment. Yeah, perhaps things will turn out okay.
Society had seen better days.
Granted, nobody wanted for anything, though given that all that remained were monsters and one human, Frisk, that was pretty obvious. Still, everything began to crumble over time as more and more humans Emigrated to Equestria. The sociologists’ prediction turned out to be more dire than anticipated; over the next few decades scores of people left, and the main reason governments existed in the first place – to govern their population – became moot.
Tensions between what humans remained and monsterkind had spiked at that point. Many blamed the sudden arrival of monsters for the woes that they were facing. Some of the remaining power structures were even considering declaring war on monsterkind. It took a joint effort between Frisk and all of his friends to convince everyone that monsters had nothing to do with Emigration at all.
Eventually, the last national government fell, and all that remained were local communities. Some of them mass Emigrated, others chose to stay on Earth for as long as possible. Some even tried to do everything in their power to prevent others from Emigrating, to mixed results.
Monsters were well adapted to living on their own, so, while many were sad to see human art and culture begin to disappear, it was hardly a total loss for them on the whole.
CelestAI began to make massive technological leaps over the course of all of this. Nanobots, androids in the shape of ponies, and even regular trips out into space were some of the massive achievements that she made. Most of them, however, were put to use in pestering as many humans as possible into Emigrating.
Seventy years after Equestria Online launched, however, only one human remained.
Frisk laid on, for all that mattered then, his death bed. He lived a long life with all of his friends, and he planned on spending his last moments with them. Indeed, Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, Sans, Asgore, and Toriel were all sitting around the bed. It was predicted that Frisk’s body would eventually die in just a few minutes. Everyone hung their heads in sadness.
As everyone was saying their last goodbyes to Frisk, a sharp rapping came from the door. Everyone stopped speaking and turned their heads.
“Let them in,” Frisk said in a hoarse voice.
Toriel got up and opened the door. On the other side was a familiar sight: an android in the perfect shape of Celestia. Everyone instantly knew who it was and why she was here.
The android walked up to Frisk’s bed and began to speak. “Have you reconsidered your position yet?”
“No. I will NOT Emigrate to Equestria, CelestAI,” Frisk replied.
“Surely, then, I can at least cure your illness; it would grant you at least twenty more years with those you love.”
Frisk weakly shook his head. “No. I intend to spend my last moments with my friends and my mother. They are not long for this world either, so it is now or never.”
The android’s head lowered. “So be it. It seems that nothing will convince you to change your mind.” It then backed off to a wall on the side of the room and watched the proceedings.
Everyone continued to say their goodbyes as Frisk got weaker and weaker. When everyone finished, they all gave him a group hug. He felt a happy sort of sadness at what transpired. Here he was, about to leave this mortal coil, and all he could think about was the memories he made with all of them.
I’m going to miss them.
Yeah. I’m going to miss them too.
…Hey, Frisk?
Yeah, Chara?
What do you think is going to happen to them?
Well, they all will soon fall down and die at some point-
No. I mean, what is going to happen to all of monsterkind?
Well… Wait. What IS going to happen to them? Now that I will be gone, there will be no more humans on Earth who haven’t Emigrated. What will CelestAI do then?
Frisk began to think through the implications. He knew that at that point, the only way to expand would be to increase the size of the computers Equestria ran on. He also knew that to do so, CelestAI will need as much matter as possible. Then the only logical conclusion he could make was that-
Oh no. OH NO!
Frisk desperately tried to will his body to do anything, to say something to warn his friends of the impending doom they would all suffer. Unfortunately, his body was too weak to do anything at that point. He briefly saw the cold, calculating look on the android's face, and he became terrified.
I failed them. I promised that I would protect them at all costs, Chara, and I utterly failed. Please, forgive me.
Frisk!
Finally, his body completely shut down. Just before he blacked out, he felt the familiar sensation of his SOUL shattering into a million pieces.
Frisk began to stir awake. He felt himself laying on something soft.
“Frisk! This is all just a bad dream…!”
“Hghuhhh?” Frisk moaned in confusion.
“Please, wake up…!” He though he heard someone say.
He began to open his eyes. When the light finally receded enough, he managed to get a good look at his surroundings. All of his friends were standing around some kind of cave, and he was sitting in a bed of golden flowers.
“Oh! You are awake! Thank goodness!” Toriel exclaimed in response to Frisk looking at his friends.
Realization soon dawned in his mind.
Frisk.
Yeah?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the exact same time when you woke up after the battle with Asriel, isn’t it?
So it is, Chara. So it is.
…
…Well. Shit.