//------------------------------//
// 1 ◈ There's so much to see, 
// Story: Pony-Me™: Rebooted 
// by TheMajorTechie 
//------------------------------//

Twilight fidgeted with the wristband. How long had it been since she woke up in here? Two, almost three hours now? It was hard to tell for sure. She glanced back at the headset. If... she really was living in a simulation that entire time, then what would this world be like? Surely, a society advanced enough to simulate an entire second world would be on a level of technology unfathomable to her, right?

She scratched her head. Come to think of it, wasn't it already possible to an extent to do such a thing? Virtual reality already existed on the other side of the mirror portal, after all, but... if Equestria was part of a simulation, did that mean they were simulations inside of a simulation?

Somebody knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

The door opened with a puff of dust. A man poked his head in. "Ah," he exclaimed. "Good, you're awake." He pushed the door open, stepping inside, and set his briefcase beside the machine. He unclasped it, looking over his shoulder. "Excuse me for not introducing myself. The name's Harold. I'm one of those traveling technicians you might've seen going from door to door. We're here to watch over folks like you while we figure out what the heck's gone wrong with the network."

There were more like her? Twilight craned her neck, peering over the short windowsill above the cot. Sure enough, there were more people outside, all with identical briefcases. Some were going door to door like Harold said, while others seemed to be... she furrowed her brows. It looked almost as if they were taking notes on something.

"How many others are there?"

Harold looked up from the clipboard he'd pulled from his briefcase. "Hm?"

"People like me. The ones that were... well..." She gestured vaguely. "Y'know, in the same predicament as me."

"Ah, I'd say that this town's got a population of at most a few hundred residents. Most are like you--being hooked into the network and all--but there's a handful of permanent residents that are paid to stick around and keep the rest of you safe. People like me, I'd assume... though, I'm not from around here myself."

Fair enough. It didn't look like there were all too many places for people to live here, anyway.

"Anyhow--" Harold slid the clipboard onto her lap. "I'd like for you to write your name in the box at the top, please. I've got a long list of people that I still have to visit after you."

"My... name?" Twilight looked at the form, then to her wristband. 'Twilight', for all this paper cared, probably didn't exist outside of the simulation.

"Yes, the one printed on your wristband."

Twilight nodded, taking the pen from Harold's other hand. Stroke-by-stroke, Twilight Sparkle faded away, leaving Lisa Garnet in her place.

Harold smiled, turning the clipboard back around and reading it. "Oh? You're Lisa Garnet?" He looked up, staring for a moment at Lisa's face, then back to the clipboard. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise."

He leaned over, pulling his briefcase closer. "Anyway, the main reason why I'm here is to unhook you from the big hunk of metal behind you. Just about everybody's opted to be discharged from automated care so far, and given how boring these rooms are, I wouldn't blame them. It's going to take a while for things to be brought fully online again, anyway. Just as confirmation, you do want to follow through and be disconnected completely, yes?"

Lisa nodded.

"Alrighty then!" Harold set his clipboard on the floor and began to rummage in his briefcase. "The procedure shouldn't take too long thanks to the modular tubing, so I'll go ahead and administer anesthesia. You'll wake up in a couple hours' time as if nothing ever happened."





Sunlight.

It was still daytime.

Lisa yawned. For someone who apparently hadn't left her cot for who knows how long, that was some of the best sleep she'd had in ages.

Then again, the anesthesia probably had something to do with it as well. Though... it was a pleasant surprise that she wasn't woozy like she'd been that one time when she had to be brought to Canterlot general hospital. She shuddered at the memory. That was the last time she ever worked with enchanted cacti.

She sat up and looked around. Harold was nowhere to be seen, though there was a small bottle sitting beside her on the cot. She picked it up, her brow raised. It didn't look much like anything she'd seen before. At least, not on the pony side of the portal...

Lisa shook her head. Like there were going to be any parallels between Equestria and this world. She'd be better off using the little experience she had of the human world beyond the mirror.

She tore off the foil lid and took a whiff. It was yogurt. Why would he leave behind a bottle of yogurt, of all things? It wasn't like...

Oh yeah. She hadn't actually eaten anything for ages.

Fair enough. She downed the bottle.

Now then, onto the next task--leaving the room. Lisa stood up, swaying precariously on her feet. She kept a hand out, bracing herself on whatever she could as she made her way to the door. This was going to take some getting used to.

Set hand on the doorknob. Turn doorknob. Step outside. Don't fall on your face. Easy enough, right? Lisa slowly took her hand off the facade of the building. She'd done it. She stepped outside! 

She kept her hand on the facade of the building. It seemed that for the most part, quite a few others were also having some trouble walking after so long. She squinted. In the distance, some had even doubled-up, supporting each other by the shoulders as they navigated the blocky buildings. A couple of those people subsequently tripped and brought their partners down with them. She chuckled.

Well, this was the outside. The surrounding town seemed pretty quaint in comparison to the sprawling cities back in Equestria. Even Ponyville seemed bigger than this place, and that way saying something. Nearly all of the buildings were the same; single-story slabs of concrete, joined together in long rows of apartments. There were still a few more roaming technicians out and about, though Harold was nowhere to be seen. By now, most folks probably were already unhooked from their machines.

Lisa frowned. This really was happening, wasn't it? All of this was real. Not a dream. Dreams took prior experiences and put a new spin on them, didn't they? This... this was nothing like anything she'd seen in her life.

No matter. All it'd take was a bit of waiting, and then she could reconnect. Rejoin Equestria as Twilight Sparkle and forget that any of this ever happened.