//------------------------------//
// 3 ◈ And it will only get stranger. 
// Story: Pony-Me™: Rebooted 
// by TheMajorTechie 
//------------------------------//

"Rise and shine!" Timothy knocked on the door. "Wake up, sleepyhead!"

Lisa groaned, turning over. She brushed the tangled mess of her hair away from her eyes. "Five more minutes," she yelled back.

"C'mon." He opened the door and peeked inside. "Samantha wants us to look at something with her."

Fine.

"Li--"

"'Kay, hold on," Lisa yawned as she opened her eyes. "But seriously, give me a couple of minutes. I don't feel like getting up right now. Is this what it's like to be lazy?"

Timothy chuckled. "Alrighty then, princess." She could see him shrug in the corner of her eye. "I'll just wait outside while you learn about power napping."

The door clicked shut. She closed her eyes again. What was it that Samantha wanted them to look at? There was hardly anything interesting in Snowbush, considering its middle-of-nowhere-ness.

She yawned again, scratching her head. No sense in keeping her brother waiting for too long. She sat up, frowning at the stray hairs that'd drifted into view as she did so... Actually, now that she'd thought of it, preparing herself for the day wasn't a bad idea. The sour taste in her mouth certainly called for some attention, at the very least.

Lisa stood up and let out a heavy sigh. Today was a new day, and that meant there were new things to do. She walked to the door and opened it.

"Took you long enough." Timothy snickered. "Any longer and I'd be barging in on you again." He paused, looking her over. "You wanna clean up a bit first, though? Grab breakfast and stuff? You look like crap."

Way to keep it subtle, Spike.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, I guess... y'know, you look pretty awful yourself, too."

"Yup, I know. Basically everyone in this place looks terrible."

"So--"

"So we're heading to town hall then." He grabbed her by the hand. "We both know we have garbage-breath."


~~~


Lisa stared at the swaths of people mingling up ahead.

She felt her brother yank her to the side. "Over here. Man, do I have to drag you everywhere out here? Bathrooms are this way. Samantha was able to get some catering happening, so everyone's getting access to the breakfast buffet that you saw back there."

"So, we're brushing our teeth?"

"Yup. Snowbush also got a bunch of toiletries and stuff to go with the catering. Just... uh, make sure that nobody takes your toothbrush after you use it. Samantha's got yoinked when she wasn't looking, from what I've heard."

Lisa raised a brow.

"Ahem. Toothbrushes are over here." Timothy began walking again, dragging her along. "Pretty sure that this place has public showers too, if you wanna wash off."

They stopped in front of a stand piled high with dental care packages. Lisa picked one up. It didn't look much different from the ones she'd seen in the travel aisles of grocery and convenience stores back at home.

"Orange, huh?" Timothy took a blue set for himself, pointing it at a set of doors little further down the hall. "Those are the restrooms over there."

"Mm-hm, know that already."

He slipped his toothbrush set into a pocket. "Alrighty, just making sure. Don't take too long!"

He wandered off to the aforementioned restrooms after that.

...Wait a minute, when did he get a new set of clothes with pockets?


~~~


Hair.

Lots of hair.

Lisa stared at her reflection. Was her hair always this... messy? She held a hand to her long bangs. Come to think of it, the crazy hairdo was to be expected, anyway. There were plenty of folks she'd seen with equally-messy hair, Timothy included. She just hadn't really put any thought into those observations.

One thing she was putting thought into, however, was her height. It was a bit hard to find really any sort of reference point, given the whole situation regarding not being a pony anymore. Things back in Equestria were probably scaled-down, too.

It was still interesting how Timothy managed to get his hands on a change of clothes, though. It'd be nice to wear something that wasn't a hospital gown all the time.

She looked down at her now-used toothbrush. It was probably best to put it back in its wrapper alongside the toothpaste, since she didn't exactly have anywhere else to put it.

As for her hair, any and all attempts to comb it with her fingers had fallen flat. Like her hair. Seemed like she'd have to rock the eternal bed-hair style for just a little longer.

Lisa pushed the door open and exited the restroom. Timothy was nowhere to be found, though it didn't take long for him to catch up once he was out.

"Y'know,” he hummed, “Sometimes, I think about my life choices."

"Wh--" She glanced at him. "Huh?"

Timothy shrugged. "Just thinking out loud. Like, y'know how I'm Spike back in Equestria, right?"

"Yes?"

"When the heck did I decide that being a tiny dragon would be cool? It's annoying not being able to reach the top shelves of things without a ladder or stool."

"O...kay. Well, maybe you can ask Samantha to make you taller or something. She can do that, can't she?"

"Maybe." Timothy paused. "Hey, actually, I've got a question for you. See how much you know about us."

"Shoot away."

He grinned. "Guess how old I am?"

Lisa cocked her head. "Teens?"

"Nope! Higher."

"Wait, but wouldn't that--"

"Mean that I'm older than Spike out here in real-life? Yup. Don't forget, I play him as a character. I don't necessarily have to live through every part of his life. Kinda like you and Twilight, though you've obviously grown into her over time."

"Wh--" Lisa stopped walking. "What?"

"I'm saying that those memories you have of Twilight as a filly aren't your own."

...Well, that's going to weigh on her for the rest of her life. Fun.

"So, you wanna try again at guessing my age? If you're wondering, I'm still younger than you are, so the whole sibling-assistant dynamic we have in Equestria's more or less the same. Also, catch up already. Why'd you stop?"

"It's... it's just..." She began walking again, though she didn't make any attempt to actually keep pace. "All that time, I thought I genuinely was Twilight Sparkle. Hearing that she's nothing more than a character that I play as... I--"

"Anyway, we're here! Lookit all that food!" Timothy cut her off, gesturing at the buffet carts before them. "You want eggs? Cereal? There's oatmeal too if you want any of that. I'ma grab some bacon and waffles for myself, so you go ahead and find something to eat without me!"

Wow. That was... Lisa shook her head. There wasn't any way to get that out of her head anytime soon, was there?

"You gonna keep standing there, or are you going to get some food?" Timothy walked past with a plate. "I know we took a detour to the restrooms first, but we're still in a rush, y'know."

Right. Existential crisis aside, a bowl of hot oatmeal sounded nice right now.


~~~


Maybe she should've considered adding a little less water to the oatmeal.

"Can you pass me the syrup?"

She passed Timothy the syrup.

"Thanks. You want any bacon?"

Lisa shook her head. "No, thanks. It smells great, though."

"Okay then. More for me."

"Oh, hi there, Tim!" Grace paused behind the two. "Didn't realize you were here as well! Same goes for you, Lisa. Tim, do you know anything on the status of what Samantha's been monitoring? I've kinda been left in the dark on the topic since I'm just here to help keep the peace."

Timothy swallowed his mouthful of waffles. "Nope, I haven't taken a look since I went to get my sister."

"Actually, speaking of Samantha--" Lisa turned to her brother. "The conversation you were having with her last night. What were you talking about? I don't think I caught much of what was going on."

Timothy shrugged. "Well, there's that whole deal about cut cables and hacking and stuff, though I'm pretty sure you've heard of both already. Pretty sure Sam's got a lead on the folks responsible as well, last I checked." His eyes turned to her bangs. "You... uh, have a bit of oatmeal in your--"

Lisa looked down at her oatmeal-soaked hair. Probably shouldn't have leaned so far over the bowl.

"Guess I'm in the same boat as you two, then." Grace sat down beside Timothy. "Sam and Argall are probably the only two I know of in this entire town with access to the confidential stuff. I was thinking I'd be let in on the loop too since my mom's one of the big-shots back in HQ, but I guess not. Just gotta do what I can to help out for now. Keep folks from panicking and stuff."

Lisa gave a nod and wiped the oatmeal from her hair as best as she could. "Yup. By the way, is there anything I could maybe do from the inside of the simulation? I want to help protect my home whatever way possi--"
"Actually," Timothy stood up with his now-empty plate, "Lis, save it for later. We're waaaay late already."

"But my oatmeal--"

"You can finish it later, sis. You wanna come or not?"

Lisa stared at her practically-untouched oatmeal. "Fine." She pushed her bowl away. "Where is she, anyway? I haven't seen Samantha since last night. Did she already eat?"

"Yup."


~~~


Timothy held the door open for his sister.

"Where are we even going?" Lisa stepped out of the building. "You didn't answer the first question."

"Minivan. She should be somewhere around here, last I checked."

Oh yeah, that. A honk off to the side caught her attention. Sure enough, Samantha was there in the driver's seat. Professor Argall, too.

"About time you two showed up!" Samantha waved from the window. "What took you so long, Tim? You were just supposed to ask Lisa if she wanted to join us!"

Timothy shrugged, making his way over to the parked vehicle. "She got hungry."

"And I'm still hungry." Lisa rolled her eyes. "Hardly ate a thing before somebody dragged me out here."
"You could've actually eaten then, instead of staring at your oatmeal for, like three minutes."

Samantha glanced between the two as Lisa caught up. "Anyway," she continued, "Tim, Lis, you two wanna take a look at this? Argall and I were discussing what services might've been compromised in the breach."

"Sure." Timothy nodded, craning his neck toward the laptop sitting on the dashboard. "Uh, would you mind--"

"Oh, hold on, I'll just open the door for you."

He stepped away as Samantha swung the door open.

"Better?"

"Mm-hm." Timothy stepped around the door and peeked at the laptop's display. Lisa followed suit.

"So, from the reports that I was sent, the security breach seemed to be targeting our archival servers where we keep our on-site backups. Until recently, employees were allowed to upload to and read from these servers as much as they wanted, though there were restrictions on file types and what could be deleted. Point is, the rogue employee account that we've been tracking seems to be accessing and downloading a massive number of documents from this server." Samantha pointed a finger at the screen. "What's worse is that most of these documents seem to be related to our prototype hardware; photos, models, stuff like that. Given how an employee account was used to carry out the intrusion, I'm pretty sure that they've already got the necessary software that pairs with these prototypes."

Lisa cringed. That certainly wasn't going to be fun to deal with. "At... least they didn't destroy anything?"

Samantha shook her head. "No, I'm not worried about that. We have multiple air-gapped backup servers across the globe for a reason. What I am worried about, though, is that if and when those documents--those trade secrets--land in the wrong hands, then we'll be dealing with something far worse than a simple information leak next time around. Heck, depending on what they're planning on targeting next, if they got hold of the proprietary encryption algorithms, then we're going to be looking at some of the most stressful emergency patches of our lives."

She glanced at Lisa's expressionless face.

"Uh... we, meaning me and Argall."

"Uh-huh?"

"What I'm saying is that it could be possible for whoever broke into the network to almost perfectly impersonate anyone. It's identity theft in the most literal sense. Anyway—” Samantha turned to the professor. “Argall, thoughts on whether or not this specific cluster of servers has stuff on encryption? I don't work much in R&D anymore these days."

Professor Argall gave a single nod. "Yes we do, last I remember. It's certainly been quite some time since I've had a look myself, though, given my retirement."

Samantha groaned.

"So, is there anything that I can maybe help with, then?" Lisa looked away from the screen to her... friend? Samantha was Pinkie, after all... She shook her head. "I... sorry about that. Didn't mean to stare."

"No worries. As far as helping out, I'd say that there would be a lot more you can do if you stick around for a while." Samantha reached for her laptop and took it off the dashboard. "I know you really don't remember much of your past, but on the off-chance that you do start to regain those memories, I want you around for your expertise. You're one of the original developers of the simulations, after all."

"What."

"Yeahhhh..." Timothy snickered. "Remembering that stuff is gonna take a while, y'know."

"Welp." Samantha shut the lid of the laptop. "That's all I'm going to do for now. There really isn't much I can do out here beyond monitoring the network, and even then, updates have only been rolling in every, like, half an hour. Lisa, I'm leaving you with Argall for a bit. See if you've got any questions for him or vice-versa."

"Wait, wha--" Lisa backed away as Samantha stepped out of the minivan, laptop in tow. "I thought you wanted us to take a look at things with you?"

"And you just did." Samantha shrugged. "Unless you wanna keep staring at a screen that changes slower than paint dries." She winked, a grin on her face. "And yes, I remember the cloning incident, Twilight."

"I'm heading off with Samantha as well." Timothy yawned. "Well, you have a nice chat with dad for now. Breakfast buffet's still open for a few more hours if you're planning on getting another bowl of oatmeal."

Lisa gazed at the professor. The fact that Timothy just called him dad absolutely made things more awkward.

"So... uh, hi--"

Professor Argall grunted. "I'll start."

"Huh?"

"I'll start," he repeated. "You don't have to ask me anything if you don't feel like it. Same goes for answering my own questions, given the circumstances. Sit down if you'd like. Samantha won't mind."

"O...kay." Lisa climbed into the driver's seat.

"Do you like it in the simulation?"

She nodded. "I didn't realize it was one until I was disconnected."

"And what about your parents? Night Light and Twilight... Velvet?"

Another nod.

"Twilight Velvet. Alright, I was thinking that was the name. I remember you told me long ago that you planned on bringing your parents back. For a while, their characters were running off of specifications that you wrote yourself. After a certain point, though... well, I never had any children of my own until I adopted you and your brother, so--"

"Wait--this is the second time that I've heard about myself and Timothy being adopted.” She leaned closer to him. “I want to learn more about that. I still have plenty of questions about the simulation itself and my involvement with it, but let's start with adoption."

Argall gave a silent nod.

"Alright. So, adoption. Why did you adopt me and Timothy in the first place? Did something happen to our parents?"

He visibly cringed at that second sentence. "Yes, something happened to them. I wanted to ensure you and your brother still had a chance of staying together after what had happened. I even kept your original last names after the papers were signed; it just didn't feel right to erase the last of what you had from before."

"But what happened? You're avoiding the question!"

He lowered his head. "Just... don't worry about it. I think it's for the better that I don't discuss what led to your adoption. At least, not right now."

"Why, though?" Lisa scratched her head. "Is it bad?"

"Yes. That's all I am going to say for now."

"Oh. So, do you have anything else you'd like to ask?"

Argall nodded, his expression softening. "Yes, actually. I heard from a certain boy-turned-drake that you've taken on quite a high position. I presume you're now a close advisor to Celestial?"
"Celestia, and no. I've actually... well, replaced her, more or less."

"Huh. Well, that certainly wasn't what I'd expected."

"Do you think any of my friends were disconnected? Besides Samantha, I mean. There are four others that I'm hoping I'll be able to meet out here in the real world."

The professor shrugged. "It's possible, I suppose. Though, that in and of itself would depend on them being actual people, rather than non-player characters."

"Oh."

"Something wrong?"

"No, I don't think so... I mean, the idea that my friends might not actually exist is weird for sure, but I've come to expect stuff like that by now. Is... there anything else you want to ask?"

Professor Argall shook his head. "That's it for now. I should catch up with Samantha and your brother. It's been nice talking with you, Lisa."

"You too."

He opened his door and stepped out, leaving the girl alone in the driver's seat.