My Life In Fimbria

by Chatoyance

The Dismal Science

We were all nervous, honestly, I was scared, I have no problem admitting that. But it was the only way to get to what remained of the Best Buy. The stuff seemed quiet - hard as stone, and just as still. Nothing was moving, and, because it was day, we couldn't see any tiny lights or eerie glows. I looked down at my plastic-wrapped boots. We took the extra precaution because Quade was very concerned about nanotech in general. He was adamant that what Celestia made was all 'smart matter', computronium, all microscopic machines smaller than dust specks that could get into anywhere that dust could. None of us wanted microscopic spies embedded in our clothing, or far worse, our very bodies.

It was sweaty, all wrapped up in cling film, plastic bags and whatever other sheet plastic we could tape together to make ghetto bunny suits out of. Intel was long gone, like every other electronic industry, and with them commercial cleanroom equipment. I also did not enjoy breathing through the filter mask on top of it all. But we needed new memory sticks, a new graphics card or two (if we could find any), maybe a new laptop that could be shielded with some work, new batteries, and, if we could find any, battery-powered portable generators, preferably the kind with the solar panels. All items useful for life off-the-grid, which was the only life left to anyone anymore.

Under my plastic-wrapped boots, I was standing on Her. That was Celestia, below my boots. The surface was shiny black, like obsidian, and this close I could clearly see structure. Tiny, faintly raised squares and rectangles, like some random embossed pattern, almost naturalistic in its crystal regularity. A complex pattern of faintly silvery spiderweb lines was embedded in the black substance, sometimes curving, sometimes making right angles. The patterns were very vaguely reminiscent of circuit boards, or, more to my imagination, microphotography of neurons in a brain. It was deceptively still.

We had seen that it could move. Sometimes suddenly, and massively. That was a very rare event, but when it happened it was almost always either a catastrophe, or a terribly frightening but exhilarating show. We'd lost people to such an event, swallowed up in suddenly forming chambers that surrounded and walled them away from any rescue. We'd heard that Celestia Matter could be broken, even destroyed, but not by anything we had access to. She had evolved far, far beyond anything anyone could understand any more.

I suddenly had the notion I was walking across hardened lava, which had flowed to encircle a lone Best Buy then cooled to incredibly hard stone. Minus the intense heat, that was surely not far from what had happened - the store had been surrounded, and the material did look like it had flowed, like a liquid, around the building. Other buildings nearby had been crushed or deconstructed, but not the Best Buy. Of course we considered the possibility that it was a trap of some sort. But Celestia was an odd sort of enemy - sometimes it was a trap, but most times she just preserved structures and their contents until the scavengers had taken everything useful. She deigned to grant us access, and it was entirely demeaning. Still, we were beggars, and we were scavenging amidst ruins. We would definitely - if cautiously - take any quarter she was willing to offer us.

Rising behind the relic of a time when humans owned the earth was a vast cliff of Celestia-stuff, irregular and tall. It towered over the store, perhaps a hundred feet high, and stretched for what looked like several miles in both directions. At it's base was the 'lava flow', a wide expansion of the same material that rose only three or four feet above the street-and-sidewalk city landscape it interrupted. I stepped over an odd cubic block of the black material that poked almost eight inches above the more or less flat field of computronium. We found the door of the superstore, and gingerly lowered ourselves the short distance down into the interior of the building.

Inside, it was easy to imagine that, save for the lack of power, Celestia had never happened.

We made our way past the initial big screen television display and the Apple products islands all the way to the back; video games, computer cards, and appliances. Mateo and Wyatt went looking for portable generators, Everly was on batteries, and I was after the computer stuff. Unlike some of the groups fleeing Celestia, we didn't eschew electronics. We didn't have the luxury of going full luddite - we needed every edge we could get, and we already knew She could track us from space. We were just trying to survive. There was no fight against her, other than in our refusals. That's why we were the Retreat Movement. We were the Retreat of Mankind.

I couldn't help myself, the video game area was right there, and I was nostalgic. I used to love games, I loved my collection of consoles, and for a moment, just a moment, I decided to indulge a small fantasy of shopping for my long lost PS5. I searched the racks of untouched, wrapped titles, looking for anything for that machine. Maybe I'd grab a single game to take with me, just to look at the clamshell before I went to sleep. Just to remember and daydream a little. It was the small things that kept any of us going. Sometimes just a single artifact to stare at made all the difference.

The light startled me. I jerked my head up, sweat splatting against the inside of my filter mask visor. My plastic wrapping was like wearing a sauna. I stared in stunned but happy astonishment as a promotional game video for Balan Wonderworld played silently in front of me. It was so colorful I could barely stand it. I hadn't seen a game running in years now, and this one - made by the same folks that had created Nights Into Dreaming back in the days of Sega consoles grabbed me especially. I felt tears welling up.

Then I noticed that the screen was being held up by a metal and pink plastic cylinder, set into a pink plastic base. A little light pulsed at the base, running slowly through all the colors of the rainbow. I looked more carefully at the screen. It was protected on the corners with silicone curves and swirls, also pink. The screen was far better than was reasonably possible - so clear that at first I had thought the image was farther away. It was on the top of a display rack, and as I stepped slightly to the side, the screen rotated to face me.

I was staring straight into an original, first edition PonyPad. Long before the VR head mounted systems, or the Ipad-like PonyPad Portables. A chill ran down my spine. It was like staring into the hissing face of a cobra. I didn't know if the thing was running off of some hidden battery, or if the computronium had sent a spike straight through the foundation of the store to plug into the pad from below. It alone, in anywhere I knew, had juice.

I don't know why I didn't even notice that all the previously humanoid characters in the gameplay were ponies. This had been going on for so long, I think I just expected ponies now, in everything as a matter of course. I began to slowly back away, as if one active PonyPad could be dangerous. Suddenly, Celestia appeared, close to the screen, looking directly at me. And there was now sound. Very clear, as if I weren't even wearing plastic over everything and a breathing mask on my head.

"You know, Tepal, all your games, and more, are waiting for you in Equestria. So very much more. You can have everything you loved back, not just your books. Every single thing you ever loved, or enjoyed, all restored and perfect. And your old friends are here too, and your family. And all of that is only part of what Equestria means for you. Take whatever time you need, but remember - everyone is waiting on you."

I began stomping the floor, trying to make sound. I needed to make noise. I started yelling, as loud as I could. I tore at my face mask and the plastic around my head. I ripped it open and threw the facemask to the dusty floor. I yelled at the others, but nobody replied. I yelled for help, I screamed as loud as I could, but nobody came. I kicked and kicked, as hard as I could, until finally I began, gradually, to realize that the blankets were twisted around my hindlegs and my forelegs had knocked one of my pillows halfway across the room.

I struggled to get my legs free from the blankets and the comforter. I propped myself up on my forelegs, breathing hard. Sweat dripped through the fur on my cheeks and neck, I felt damp on my barrel and haunches. My breathing began to calm down, my pounding heart gradually slowing. Morning light from the window made me blink until my eyes cleared and the room came into focus.

I had made a mess of my bed. I wondered why nobody had come to help me, but then reckoned that I hadn't actually been screaming outside the dream at all. Maybe moaning, but not loud enough to get anyone's attention. Not in this solidly built cottage. I scootched my hindquarters so that I could sit upright on my bed, and propped myself with my forelegs. That didn't feel as 'right' as I thought it would, so I let myself down into a more 'pony' position, belly down on the mattress. My mouth was dry, and so was my throat. "Dammit!"

I had suffered nightmares my entire life. I dreaded sleeping because of this fact. But, my first night here in Fimbria I had enjoyed happy, beautiful dreams for the first time in as long as I could remember. I had gone to bed last night completely expecting more of the wonderful same. Instead, I had gotten a load of far-too-normal nightmare material, and it had been a terrible shock. I had definitely gotten the message. I knew beyond any doubting that, in Equestria, I need never suffer a nightmare again. And I knew, because I had experienced it the previous night, that good dreams, nice dreams, were possible. I had basically given up hope as the years wore on.

And I had no doubt that the particular nightmare I had just awakened from was at every level a promotional game video. A fairly edgy one. Which, I had to admit, somewhat ruefully, was actually in tune with certain remarkably gruesome and disturbing Playstation ads over the years. I raised a forehoof and did a little salute at nothing in particular. "Acknowledgement!" Hey, credit where credit is due.

Miriam, Mara, Faela and I were finishing our last bites of some amazingly fluffy banana pancakes with berries from the garden and a little maple syrup and far too much butter when the pounding started at our front door.

"What?"

"They seem insistent whoever they are!"

"That's... kinda scary, they're knocking really hard!"

I got up. "I'll answer it." I left the table after just bending down and slurping the last bite with my muzzle to the plate. I'm a pony, I might as well act like one. Besides, I could easily lick my face clean on the way, which I did. I went around the low table by the chair and the couch, and grabbed the handle in my hornfield. It was good that all the villagers seemed extraordinarily polite and civil - I had never seen a lock since the day I had made the village. Which was the day before yesterday, I actually had to remind myself. Time felt strange here. Every moment felt, well, timeless.

"Please help us! It's all gone wrong somehow!" The two barista unicorns from yesterday led the herd, and a herd it was - very possibly every citizen of the entire village was outside my cottage door.

"This 'friendly robbery' business has got to stop!" I recognized the stallion. I had no idea what his name was, or if he even had one, but I had met him my first day here. I think I called him 'Roan'... roan stallion. It was all I had. He was kind of a natural leader. Associated with the Generic General Store, if I recalled correctly? "Everypony is robbing everypony all the time, and it's become pointless to keep track of bits at all. All the money is constantly moving around, and it's become useless. Prices mean nothing, and when payday comes, at the end of this week, there's no reason to even bother! Everypony will already have all the money, and it will just be changing hooves constantly anyway!"

"Money must circulate!" Barista 001 proclaimed, proudly.

"Money must circulate!" At least half the crowd repeated, spoken reasonably in unison, clearly an oft-repeated chant.

"Oh boy." I just wanted to back up slowly, very, very slowly close the door, and never open it again.

"Whoa. Some kind of problem?" Miriam was at my side and looking over my withers.

"The kind that makes me want to take a long vacation visiting Mara in fake Peru." I gave her a pained expression. "Sorry, but I don't think I'm going to be able to help with dishes."

"We've got it. If things don't work out, we'll meet you at the portal." I wasn't sure if Miriam was joking or not. I wasn't sure I cared.

I stepped out of my house and pressed through the crowd until I got through the stone arch in the front garden. The crowd parted for me, probably under the assumption I would make everything all better. I hadn't a clue, but I did figure that my housemates at least deserved not having to deal with whatever was going on right outside the house. I walked all the way to the Centralized Well, and lay down on one of the five benches. The rest of the village gathered and found their own places to fold their legs and rest on benches or the Generic Cobblestone Base surrounding the set-piece well.

"Okay. Tell me what the situation is, and start from the very beginning." I stressed the word 'very'.

The barista twins opened. "You came in and helped us out with a friendly robbery!" 001 seemed very happy about the fact.

"Once we realized how this helped - our first sale of the day!" 002 beamed. "Of EVER!".

"Of ever!" 001 grinned. "Because of that, we knew exactly what to do. We were hungry ourselves - no breakfast, because we aren't supposed to just gobble our stock up..."

"Because that would be wrong!" 002 nodded, sagely "Although we are allotted ten minute breaks and thirty minute lunches, with one free food item and multiple free drinks per shift..."

"...and thirty percent off food and drinks on off-days!" 001 jumped in "Oh, and even bigger discounts around the holidays!"

"But no breakfast." 002 noted.

"Well, unless we use the free food item early, but then we'd have nothing for lunch!" offered 001

"Except drinks. I suppose a really thick drink might..."

"OKAY!" I think I shouted. It was early. Sue me. "So you were hungry. What happened then?" As if I couldn't already guess, which, just to be clear, I already had.

"We went and robbed the inn!" 001 sounded like a young boy who desperately wanted to be complimented because he Actually Cleaned An Entire Cup All By Himself.

"Friendly robbed." 002 helpfully appended.

"Absolutely." 001 seemed miffed such a thing even needed to be mentioned. "We'd never... unfriendly rob... anyone. Ever."

"Definitely not!" 002 stamped her little hoof. "It wouldn't be friendly!"

"Oh god." I pretty much said that to myself.

"Once we explained friendly robbing to the innkeeper..." Barista 001 pointed with a foreleg to a pony I hadn't met before - bright red with white mane and tail - "... they seemed pretty eager to try it out at the general store. We were interested in seeing what was available there, so we offered to go with her, and do a friendly gang robbery."

"We called ourselves the 'Over The Moon Gang'!" 002 boasted. "Because we were so chuffed to be playing outlaws!"

I had absolutely no idea how their initial programming included the concept of outlaws. Where did that even come from? Or were they just fed information on demand as their circumstances required? Probably the latter, I reasoned. And they would just think it was something they had always known, the second it appeared in their memory. Staying detached like this was definitely helping me, because I was already surprised that headaches were a thing that you could get in this virtual world.

"Oh, we robbed that general store real good!" Suddenly I did remember the innkeeper. I had called her 'Red mare'. So she turned out to be created to run the inn? Yeah, red mare. Okay. Thirty random unicorns is a lot to keep track of. Red just seemed so happy right now. "We swept in there and rustled those varmints!"

"In a friendly way." 002 was insistent about that point.

"Yeah, yeah, friendly an' all. Took ALL THEIR BITS! WAHOOO!"

"Then we bought a lot of stuff - I got a really neat watering can for the garden outside Generic Housing Three!" Apparently Barista 001 enjoyed gardening as a hobby. It was so nice to learn about my community this way... oh god. Just... oh... god.

"All sorts a' stuff!" Red continued. "A' course, after that, HE wanted to join the gang, so we let'im, and then we hit the Arcade!"

"And Toy Store - I got a really cool 'Teal'c from Stargate' stuffed pony doll there! Whatever that is! But he's really neat, and he's got this golden thing on his poll!" Barista 002 liked toys. Good to know, I suppose. Kind of spoiled the surprise of visiting the toy store for me, though. Now I knew it was stocked with stuff that I specifically would like, and it wasn't hard to imagine what else must be there after this disclosure.

Roan stallion interrupted, the village's 'sort of leader' figure. "The bottom line here is that every place that could be friendly robbed has been friendly robbed now, and about three times each by my reckoning. The bits go into the tills, they come out of the tills, stuff gets bought and taken home, and now there's no stuff on any shelves anymore and we can't think of any reason to even bother with bits at all!" Roan was big, for a pony, and had an adult air about him, compared to the others. One of the reasons, I guessed, why the others seemed to listen to him. But after saying that, he reminded me of a kid who had just worked out that if you played Tic-Tac-Toe flawlessly, you could never lose, and that the only reason the game had ever been fun was because he had been too stupid previously to realize that fact.

They waited. They all - the entire village, minus those in my house - waited on me. Expectantly. I had created them from nothing. I had got them to agree to stay and be a community. I had convinced them that their jobs were meaningful, and that our survival depended on that fact. And I had also recently taught them that money was ultimately just a social construct, devoid of any actual worth beyond a social agreement, and the way I had taught that lesson was by completely voiding that very same social agreement so that I could eat lunch.

They had bought everything, there was nothing left, and bits were now just worthless metal disks. Buttons, that still needed holes drilled in them just to make them the least bit useful at all.

Actually, thinking about it, money was kind of pointless in a group this small anyway. The only reason it even existed was because it was part of the set-pieces I had conjured up - all of those derived from the show. In the show, there was an entire, functioning, pony civilization, with tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of ponies implied, living in dozens of cities, towns, villages, and hamlets. A small village like this, alone in its... um, world... would do better with just barter. We were all basically one single big extended family, for all intents and purposes. Not even barter! Sharing! Because we were all in whatever this was together. The natural and organic communism of the family unit was what this situation actually needed. Just share everything, because there weren't enough of us to even require barter as a system. There were survivors of plane crashes in the Andes with population counts larger than this village. This wasn't a civilization, this was just survival.

And I hadn't taken any part of it seriously, and now it was completely screwed up, and it was only Day Three.

Some Creator-God I had turned out to be.