//------------------------------// // 2 | Find your footing. // Story: Into Equestria // by TheMajorTechie //------------------------------// “What’s that?” Elise leaned over, peering at the pages of Damian’s book. “Oh, our history textbook?” Damian nodded, flipping a page. “Studying for the exam?” Another nod. “Hey Ellie! Think fast!” “Wha—” Elise turned just in time for a spurt of water to hit her square in the chest. “Hey! Robert! You know I don’t have a swimsuit with me. Nobody told me we were going to the pool today!” Robert tossed his water gun aside, laughing. “Aw, that’s alright. You can borrow one of my ex’s swimsuits. She left a lot of them behind when I dumped her.” “Ew.” Elise made a face. “I… don’t think you should be offering other people’s clothes like that.” The boy shrugged, a grin spreading across his face. “Suit yourself… pun fully intended.” Elise facepalmed. This was what she got for sitting next to Robert in a single class, apparently. Too bad he wasn’t as good of a study partner as Damian was. Another splash of water doused her. “C’mon, lighten up a little wouldya? Don’t make me splash you again!” Damian rolled his eyes, shielding himself from more incoming water droplets with the cover of his book. “Alright, you can stop that now, Robert. I think she gets the point.” “Weren’t you gonna pig out at the buffet bar or something, Damian? Didn’t think you were the kind of guy who’d be suntanning with a book.” “Suntan—wait just one moment, Robert, I—” “was suntanning. Gotcha,” Robert winked. “You’re just like Ellie sometimes, dude. You should enjoy yourself a little more, y’know?” Damian grumbled something under his breath, standing up and walking to a chair further away from the pool. “What, still no buffet, D?” “Not hungry right now. Though, do they allow takeout? It’d definitely help a bit at home and all…” “Nope.” “Hmmf.” Elise pretended not to hear any of that entire exchange. Those two were just a little too weird together sometimes. Not that she ever thought about them as a pair, but—she shook her head, banishing the thought. If there was any pairing that she’d rather not see, it’d be those two. “But seriously, Ellie. Just go and grab one from inside,” he gestured at the clubhouse building. “They’ve got a little gift shop of sorts. Just put it under my name or something and I can pay it off later. You’ve been doing a lot in class after school, if anything, you deserve a break! I mean, so does Damian, but he’s a spoilsport who doesn’t know how to have fun, so forget about him.” “But—" “Go! And get me a can of soda or something while you’re at it too, will ya?” ~~~ “Hey, Lis. Want a soda?” Samantha popped her head into her friend’s office. “Break room was just restocked. Zoey’s already raiding the hot chocolate.” Lisa shook her head. “I’m fine. I don’t really drink much soda anyway. You wanna take a look at this?” “Hm?” Lisa gestured at her screen. “Our userbase. I know it’s not much when compared to even some of the indie games that were released last year, but we finally hit ten million users!” she moved the mouse over a bit and clicked a button. “Most of our installed base has been in rehabilitation technology and licensed technology, of course, but we’re beginning to see some numbers rising in both education and research!” “That’s amazing, Lisa! I…” Samantha faltered. “I really don’t know what to say. I know I should be happy, but you gotta remember that this company has more than just the simulations.” Lisa smirked. “Oh, I’m not just talking the simulations. I’m taking a look at our entire userbase across everything we’ve produced. I’m talking assistance technology, virtual systems, and everything in between! We’re doing great!” Samantha’s smile immediately returned. “Even the telepresence thing?” “Even your telepresence thing,” Lisa nodded. “Quite a few companies have been offering it to their employees as an option instead of actually showing up. Saves some scheduling headaches, y’know.” She looked back to her friend. “Anyway, that’s pretty much it for now. You said the break room was restocked?” “Yup.” Lisa nodded. “’Kay, be there in a bit!” She watched Samantha vanish behind the door again before turning back to her computer. ~~~ “Twilight, do you really need to reshelf that book for a seventh time? You’ve paid more attention to it than any other book in your library! What’s up with that?” “It’s the story of us Rainbow. Our adventures, our trials and tribulations—everything.” “Wait wait wait, so you’re saying that you wrote a book about us? Ooh- did you make sure that I was described as awesome?” Twilight shook her head, replacing the book on the shelf for the eighth time. “No, actually… I mean, to the first question. It was just kind of… there the entire time. Almost all the pages in it were blank when I first found it in Golden Oaks, so I thought it was a misprint and left it on my desk. After I came back from defeating Nightmare Moon, however, I found that its pages had begun filling themselves ou—” The sound of footsteps cut her off. “Oh, you’re back already, Lisa?” The young woman pushed the door open, smiling. “Yup. Most of us are basically taking the day off anyway, so I figured I’d might as well check in ahead of schedule. How’s it going, Twi?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, grumbling “Eggheads…” under her breath. She turned her attention to the pile of Daring Do novels sitting in a box. “Just re-shelving some more books,” Twilight shrugged. “I decided to take the day off as well. How’s Lus-I mean, er… Elise doing? She learn anything interesting today?” “Eh. I let her off the hook for today since you’re… yeah. Might as well cancel her session anyway since you aren’t giving any lessons either, amirite?” “Mm-hm. I definitely know how that goes down from teaching Starlight,” Twilight glanced at her friends sulking around the piles of books in the library, then back to Lisa. “Speaking of which, I’ve always wanted to know whether or not Starlight’s like the rest of us. Y’know, just—" she winced at saying it “—lines of code.” Lisa nodded. “Yeah, she is. And so is probably some ninety percent or so of Equestria’s population, honestly. The place has fallen in popularity ever since we introduced the new exit routines for people to leave the simulation. Something about too much diabeetus or something.” The mare snorted. “Diabeetus? Isn’t that just a joke term?” “Yeah, but that’s how a lot of them described the place if I remember correctly. But enough about people’s opinions on Equestria. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?” “No, not rea—" “Can you two stop being so weird?” Rainbow groaned from behind a Daring Do novel, “Having one Twilight here is already enough nerdiness to go around!”