//------------------------------// // Upgrade. // Story: Wanna buy a Squip? // by Arial_Dreemmurr //------------------------------// It wasn't even past 7:00 yet when I felt myself waking up. I looked at the time still half asleep and wanted to sleep again when I felt a shock go through my head. "Rise and shine Fluttershy. Are you going to wake up or do I have to keep shocking you until you do?" I felt another shock and slowely got up. I rubbed my eyes and saw the Squip standing at the side of my bed. "Why did you have to wake me up so early..?" I stretched and got out of bed. "I already prepared a full proof plan for today and I always like to start early. You'll get used to it." I wasn't too happy to be up this early but if he had plans I didn't want to sleep through it. "What kind of plan?" "I downloaded the data for today and created a plan with the perfect outcome. Just do as I say and you'll reach your goal in no time." I gave him a nod and he continued. "Firstly, you need to look presentable. I suggest you do as you normally do and I'll correct you on things." I walked out of the room and entered the bathroom. While I was doing my usual routine the Squip kept telling me how I was doing everything wrong. From brushing my teeth to simply brushing my mane it seemed like I couldn't do anything right. Not to mention that he would shock me everytime I 'messed up'. But I didn't speak up about it. He was just helping. Just in his own way I guess. I finished my morning routine and looked back at the Squip. "Do you mind leaving for a few minutes? I have to tend to my animals and it's easier without any distractions." He simply nodded. "Call me when you need me." He glitched away and I started tending to the animals. He was pretty quiet now. Usualy he would still talk to me atleast a little. But he was completely silent now. It was nice having some peace like that again. But I knew he would probably be aware of what I was thinking so didn't think of it too much. After finishing up with the animals he came back again. "Nice animals you have there. It was entertaining to see you do all of that for a few fluffy bunnies." I was suprised to hear that so I have him a smile. "Oh, it's nothing really. I'm just doing what I'm best at." He also gave me a smile and spoke again. "Now, let's not waste any more time shall we? We have a lot of things to do and I don't want to wait for another minute." "Alright, but you still haven't explained your entire plan to me." "Don't have to. Just do as I say. Now, are we going?" He sounded very impatient so I quickly nodded and walked out the door. "You know, I didn't really have any plans this time. Why do you want us to go out now?" I asked him walking my way down to Ponyvile. "Like I said, I have all the information about today's different outcomes and the one where you stay home isn't that productive. I just want to make some progress." "Okay then, what do you want to do?" "Listen closely okay?" I nodded and let him continue. "Once you enter Ponyvile you will see your friend, Pinkie Pie handing around invitations to her party tomorrow. Once we get to that point just do as I say." "Can't I talk to her myself?" "Look, if you want ponies to take you seriously you need to have a good image for ponies to listen to." It did make some sense. Knowing he can't make me say anything bad I just nodded again. "I'll do that then." "Good, now we're almost there. And remember what I told you about voice and posture." I nodded and entered Ponyvile. As the Squip predicted I saw Pinkie Pie going to every mail box she could find and putting a colourfull letter in there. Eventually she noticed me and happly hopped my way. "Hey Fluttershy!" "Hey Pinkie! Nice to see you." "Ask about the letters." "Why?" "It shows intrest in her. It'll make her happy." I did as he said. "What are all those letters for?" "It's for my party tomorrow! I'm inviting all of Ponyvile! It's going to be the biggest town party ever!" She said excited. "Why else would I have this big bag with enough letters for the whole town?" "Say that you would love to come." "D-Do I have to?" I wasn't too big a fan of big parties. Especially if it was full of ponies I didn't or barely knew. "How do you expect to get a social presence if you're not present at social events?" He did have a point there. I just got a smile and looked back at Pinkie. "I'd love to come." She looked pretty suprised. "Really? You always say you don't like big parties. I mean, it would be great if you're there but I don't want to force you into something you dislike." "I.." I saw the Squip trying to hint at something. It was like a turtle put he did a hand motion above his back. "wanted to try getting out of my shell more?" He gave me a smile and a thumbs up. "That's great! And I Pinkie Promise this is going to be the best party of your life!" She gave me a letter and gave me a small wink. "There's a suprise in there, you'll love it for sure!" She looked at a drawn on watch on her hoof. "I still need to get to 42 houses. I'll see you at the party!" I gave her a smile and waved good bye. "See you there." When she was out of sight I turned back to the Squip. "She looked so happy! Thanks for getting me to say that." "Told you so. Now let's move on with the training and stop standing there. Ponies will think you're crazy." I looked away letting out a shy laugh. "Oh, right.. We continued out small walk through Ponyvile running into multiple situations where I was guided by the Squip. I really felt ponies starting to take me seriously and actually listen to me. No matter now long it may took for them to do so. It felt so easy. All I had to do is do what he said and things would go right. I now got why Rainbow Dash was so excited about giving one to me. The Squip is amazing! Oh yea, and the letter had a pop out card in it with confetti in it. She was right. It was great. After a few weeks of the Squip guiding me through most of my interactions with other ponies, I felt really good about myself. I was more confident, went out more and also attended more parties. I was happy to have the Squip helping me. I just finished tending to my animals today and heading out when I heard a knock on my door. "I didn't expect anyone today.. Squip?" "I'll be honest with you, I think I might have over looked something. Go see who it is. I'll try getting the data." I walked to the door and openned to see Apple Jack. "Oh, hey Apple Jack." "Sorry for comin' like this but I wanted to ask if you've seen Dash anywhere. She was actin' really off last time I saw her and I wanted to see her. I also had something she asked me to give her." She pulled out a bottle of apple juice. Red apple juice. The last time I saw her was at our weekly meeting. "No, I haven't seen her. But maybe you can find her somewhere in town." I looked back at the bottle of apple juice. "Why apple juice?" She just shrugged. "Ah don't know, she came at the farm yesterday lookin' crazy askin' if ah had red apple juice. When I said she'd have to wait a few minutes she went even crazier sayin' she needed it right now. When ah told her to wait again she sped off without sayin' another word. It was really weird.." She let out a small sigh before continuing. "Ah've already been at her house and looked through Ponyvile. There's no sign of her anywhere. Atleast not what ah could find." "Oh.." I was also a bit worried now but I had made plans for today and didn't have the time to look for her. "I don't know anything about that or where she is but I can't look for her right now. But I'm sure you'll find her somewhere." She just shrugged again. "Ah'll try my best to. Ah just hope she's alright. Wherever she is." She looked out at the town and back at me. "Ah'm goin' to ask Rarity if she's seen her." She turned away and made her way back to Ponyvile. "Good luck!" I shouted at her as she left. I got back in and closed the door behind me. I looked back at the Squip. "Do you know where she is?" "How would I know where that pegasus is off to!?" "I thought you had a connection with her Squip?? If that's so, you can find her right?" "I tried. Her Squip is not reachable to me. It's shut off I think." "How is that possible??" "There are a few options, but you may not like them." "Just tell me!" "Right.. One of the reasons could be that she's drunk or had too much of something else. The second option is that she's unconcious or asleep. And of course, the grimmest outcome. Her Squip is still in her head so it must be one of those." I stayed quiet not knowing what to say.. If it was any of those things something could be horribly wrong. "Oh my.." That was all I could say. I got on my couch and started having a mini panic attack right then and there. The Squip noticed. "Hey, calm down! No need to panic! I can still try to get contact. And when I do I'll have her location. Just be more chill!" "Chill!?" I almost scared myself by my sudden outburst. I looked down and apologized. "Sorry for going off like that.. I guess I'm just a bit stressed now.." Before any of us could say anything I heard another knock. "Ugh.. Yet another over look on my part. Sorry 'bout that." "Let's just see who it is." I got back my cool and walked over to the door. I openned it up and saw Twilight. She looked like she had ran all the way here since she was catching her breath. "Twilight?? Are you-" She interupted me with a panicked yell. "I need to tell you something!" She catched her breath. "It's REALLY important!" I stayed quiet for a bit before responding. "Uhm, ok.. What is it?" "Well, I did my research and I found something out about-..." She stopped herself and looked at me serious. "Is it listening too?" "Oh, I think she's talking about me." "Can you leave for just a minute?" "Sure, that gives me more time to connect to my fellow Squip." He glitched away and I looked back at Twilight. "Not anymore. Now, what's wrong?" "So, I did some research about the Squip. I couldn't find it anywhere, not even in the restricted section of the Canterot library! That's weird right??" She took a small pause before continuing. "So, I started asking around and I found a few ponies who told me some things about the Squip." "What did you find?" I asked pretty curious now. "One of the ponies I asked said their brother took a Squip and turned from a nobody to the most popular pony in town." Wow. That sounded pretty great. She noticed my smile and continued. "But do you want to know where they're now?" "Somewhere happy and succesfull?" That was my best quess. It couldn't be anything bad. She responded in a monotone voice. "He's in a mental hospital." Or I could be wrong. "They completely lost it." "W-What??" I didn't get how it could go from so good to bad like that. "Just think about it ok? We're talking about some super computer which is about 10 times better than our current technology. Ponies would talk about it. But no, it's a secret thing." She continued. "Also, if it's so much better than anything else, who made it? And how did it end up in Ponyvile of all places??" It did make some sense. "Right.. But I don't get what that has to do with going crazy." "This is some powerfull technology we're talking about. If it implants itself in your brain like they all said, don't you wonder what it's doing inside you?" Her voice was straighter now and more serious. "No.." I stayed quiet for a bit before replying. "It's only been helpfull to me. When did you find out about this?" "I found it a week or two after you mentioned the Squip to me. But when I tried talking to you, you acted like I was invisible." I looked at her confussed. I haven't seen her ever since I told her about the Squip. I noticed the Squip again. "It's called optic nerve blocking." "What?" "I've been blocking Twilight Sparkle and other distractions from your field of vision." "Why??" "I wanted our training to go flawlessly. No distractions are allowed. And she wouldn't stop trying to talk to you." "Fluttershy?" I looked back at Twilight. "I thought you said he was away?" "He just told me about something. Just tell me why the Squip made him crazy." "The Squip didn't make him crazy!" "Then what do you even-" "He went crazy trying to get it out!" We both got quiet just looking at eachother. Eventually I responded. "I wont have a problem then.." She looked at me in disbelief. "You can't be serious.. You want to keep that thing in your head? If we go now we can still get it-" "And what if I don't want to!?" I accidently yelled at her. "All it had done is help me. I'm not getting rid of it. And Rainbow Dash had told me she had it for years and nothing happened to her!" I already regret saying that. "I'll let you know, I just saw Apple Jack she told me all about how crazy she was yesterday. I wouldn't call that nothing." I didn't know why I felt so mad at her but I wanted to go back inside to just calm down a little. "That's probably nothing. I'm going. Bye Twilight." got back inside and tried to close the door when she stopped me, putting her hoof between the door. "Fluttershy, please just listen to me! I want to help you-" "We'll I don't need it. Just go home." She let go of my door and I closed it. I got back on the couch and saw the Squip again. "That was quite a scene there. I guess the optic nerve block failed while I was using your energy for something else." "Don't mention it.." I remembered about Rainbow Dash. "Have you found her Squip yet?" "Yes. She's save and well and there's nothing to worry about." I let out a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad to hear that." He thought for a bit before looking back at me. "I should be prepared for other times like this. I can get an upgrade. But only if you allow me to." "An upgrade?" What's he talking about? "With the upgrade I'll be able to find even shutdown Squips. And we can also make progress way faster." It sounded good enough. And even after what Twilight told me I trusted him. "You can upgrade if you want. Unless you need me to do something." He held his hoof out at me. "All you have to do is shake my hoof. It's a sign that both parties are in on it." I looked at his hoof for a bit before shaking it. He already helped me so much the last few weeks. Nothing bad could possibly happen.