Into Equestria

by TheMajorTechie


5 | Amidst sinister smirks.

“And so you use your shapeshifting abilities t’ lure in unsuspecting victims, yes?”

Chryssi nodded. Flames enveloped her character’s body yet again, leaving in its wake a rather stunning rendition of Celestia. “This one here is one that I’ve used a couple times in the past to sneak some information out of others. I have a few other disguises ready as well, but if you want me to shift into a specific character, then I need to see them first for myself so I can rig up a new model.”

She reverted to her prior form. “Though, I’ve also heard that a…certain company used this particular skin for some sort of villain character in the past. Something about ‘harvesting love’, I think. I did like the term used for the villain’s species, though.”

“So you can do infiltration and intel’gence,” Night clapped giddily. “So, what’re you gonna do then? Hop in and change into th’ first pony you see?”

“Maybe. I could always go for a safer route and sit back while I let my changelings carry out the tasks instead.”

“Your… changelings.

Chryssi took a deep breath, switching the audio in her headset over to the speakers. Garbled chatter streamed through the room for a moment before everything silenced.

“My changelings,” Chryssi repeated. “I named them after the species that my old job came up with.” she lifted her headset, typing in another command on her keyboard. This time, a single voice came through the speakers.

“…Hm. Eh? Ah, your orders, queenie? Been a while since we last chat.”

Night snorted. “So, your underlings, then.”

“They’re not necessarily underlings, per se, more… almost a sort of family, really. Anyway, all I gotta do is give an order. Though, they might not always follow, given how most tend to be lone wolves. Very occasionally I can rally most of them to act at the same time in a sort of swarm. Now, observe.”

Chryssi tapped her headset again. “Meet me at the edge of Ponyville.”

“Roger that. I’ll be there in a jiffy. Lemme just get myself connected.”

She turned back to Night. “This guy’s one of the better-behaved ones. We have mutual trust in each other, so often times he’s the one that runs things when I’m busy. For the most part, my ‘changelings’ as a whole are more or less just a collection of internet trolls and thrill-seekers, though, so if you ever need to have them do something, your mileage may va—”

“Okay, okay, enough with the chitchat!” Night grumbled. “I see what you’re doing, and it is more than enough. You may stay here with myself and Wildcat on one condition.”

Chryssi raised a brow. Until now, Night hadn’t ever mentioned anything about living here. But then again, with her own bank account rapidly draining since her parents cut her off, she’d probably be homeless soon if she didn’t find anywhere else to stay.

“What’s the condition?”

“Pay me rent.”

Oh.

~~~

It was quiet.

Most everyone at this point—even Samantha—had since left for the night, leaving Lisa alone in her office. To her, this was the one time of day that she truly had to herself. There was nobody there to nag her, or tell her that she needed to focus on other things. It… it was almost a guilty pleasure of sorts. Everyone seemed to assume that she only stayed behind to clean up and talk to Twilight about the day, but nobody ever seemed to actually check it that was true.

A headset rested in her lap. It wasn’t much, in the grand scheme of things, but it was all that she wanted—all that she needed. Even now, years after severing her permanent connection to the simulations, it often still felt like something was… missing.

She put on the headset. This wasn’t Equestria that she’d be connecting to. In fact, it wasn’t even remotely related to any existing simulation on the market. Time passed differently in this simulation, too—so long as she wasn’t connected, the world would be suspended.

She opened her eyes, a smile forming at the edge of her lips as the simulation loaded in around her. She was in a bedroom.

She was in her bedroom.

This was her once upon a time; not Equestria, but a window to a dream; a dream that she’d never lost her parents… that she could still be Lisa Garnet, a regular girl, going to a regular school, with a regular life.

“Lisa,” her little brother slammed the door open. “There you are! Mom’s been looking all over for you! Weren’t you going to go to the science camp thing with Samantha this morning?”

Lisa nodded, picking up a backpack from the ground. This world’s Timothy was only an AI, as was everyone else around her. Even then, how accurately their respective programs portrayed them was shockingly convincing at times.

“C’mon!” Timothy continued, “We’re already missing their dinosaur presentation!”

Sometimes, she wondered how her brother—her real brother was doing. He had to find a job for himself not long after they’d returned to their former lives. He still lived with her in their childhood home, but he hardly seemed to talk about his job. The fact that he never exactly finished high school was certainly going to be a burden on him. It was too hard to get him back into a public school system, so private tutoring was his best bet at this point.

A pang of regret reverberated through her body. Because of her, Timothy was now set back in life. He refused to work at the company, too—though, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given…

She shook her head. What was done was done. She couldn’t change that fact, no matter how much she wanted to. It was the most she could do to make a new rule regarding connecting that children continued their education as normal, and support her brother the best she could.

“What are you sitting there for?” the synthesized voice of this simulation’s Timothy groaned, “Sis, are you spacing out again?

“Er… sorry. Yeah, I’m coming,” Lisa sighed, wandering to the door with her backpack in tow. “Honestly, I thought you would’ve driven there by now, though. You do have your license already, y’know.”

Timothy rolled his eyes. “Mom said that she was going to drive us there. And besides, you’re the only one that lets me drive their car, since yours is already old and beat-up from when you first got it!”

Even then, she wished she could do more for him.