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// Chapter Eighteen (Renown Composition) 
// Story: Friendship Is Optimal: Third Wheel 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“Sparky, it’s gonna be fine,” Renown Composition told her friend, rubbing his back with a hoof as he stayed sitting on his haunches angrily in the middle of town. It was definitely at himself, she could tell that much, what with the upset look he had. He shivered and clenched his jaw, looking about a step or two away from breaking down right there.
“I’m sure Celestia will think of something,” she continued carefully, keeping her voice a bit quiet. “You know she’s not just gonna let them get away with not uploading with how aggressive she is about making sure everypony gets in here. And even if she’s not able to do something, Soft Step is one of the smartest ponies I know and Agile Trace is definitely the most stubborn. If I had to place bets on any two ponies getting through a situation like that, it would be those two.”
“But that’s the thing! It’s still a gamble they have to make because I said we should all wait at the very beginning! Agile Trace knew it was inevitable, and said so at every chance she got! And you know Soft Step would almost certainly rather be a pony than a human! But I was the one who demanded we all wait until it got desperate! And now they’ll probably never get to emigrate ever!”
“That’s not something you can possibly know in advance,” Composition reprimanded him. “That’s not how that works. And you can’t blame yourself for a decision they did or didn’t make like you’re the only factor. Besides, they’re probably making a plan right now for how to get here anyway, and before you can even blink, they’ll–”
“Ugh. No. I can’t talk about this right now,” he interrupted frustratedly. “I’m sorry I– I have to get out of here.” The unicorn looked up at his horn, expecting it to do something, and when it didn’t, grunted angrily and stomped off down the street, opposite the direction he and his parents came from. He was too angry even to realize they were both still standing in front of the group awkwardly. 
Composition sighed and closed her eyes. “I really hope he’s okay,” she said to no one in particular.
“I hope he is, too,” his mother remarked sadly. She let out a breath of her own, then asked, “Do you really think his two friends are going to be okay… what was your name again?”
“Composition, and… yeah. As weird as it is, I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be fine. Like, even if they couldn’t do it and gave up, Celestia is too determined to upload everyone possible to just let Soft Step and Agile swing on by.”
I hope so anyway, she added silently, fearfully. 
His parents nodded in understanding, both looking off into the distance where he stomped off to. “I hope those two he wanted us to get are okay,” his father said. “Even if only for his sake. I don’t wanna see Jesse– err, I mean, Sparky– looking like that.”
“Yeah…” Composition shuffled on her hooves awkwardly, feeling the worry she was starting to get past about how selfish she felt being replaced with fear for her friends. Jesse included. She believed what she said before, both about how obsessive Celestia was and how smart and stubborn Agile and Soft Step were. She was pretty sure that before she knew it, they would be here, but Solar Spark was right. There was no way for her– or even for Celestia, as powerful as she was– to know that for sure until they were here. It was gonna be pretty difficult to satisfy either herself or Jesse if the two didn’t make it in. She was sure Bright Sky and Spell Master wouldn’t feel that great about it either.
“Uhh… maybe we should try and find a distraction instead of standing here with worry,” Bright Sky suddenly spoke up. “Sparky said you just got here? You probably don’t have houses yet, do you? I bet Composition, Spell Master, and I could help you find a place to stay here. It is her shard after all.”
“Yeah, we should probably focus on that,” the earth pony agreed, certainly willing to take any distraction right now. “There’s a couple of houses near here that nopony lives in yet that you could have. Let me show you.” She hoped by the time she did, Agile and Soft Step would be showing up talking all about how it was no trouble to get to an Experience Center.
She almost expected her wishful fantasy to come true, but surprisingly, it didn’t. Celestia hadn’t manipulated time to make it seem like they had no trouble getting here at all like she imagined would happen. What did that mean? Probably that both Agile and Soft Step would use their PonyPads while they were working on a plan, she imagined. She knew how Equestria worked. 
She tried her best to not think about that for a while, showing Solar Spark’s parents where they would be staying and telling them about a few of the ponies in town. They both asked how many of the ponies of Summer’s Edge were actually created by Celestia and were never humans, and looked uncomfortable when she said that most, if not all outside of her immediate group of friends were. She cringed a little bit when his mother explained that she didn’t really feel comfortable talking to Equestrian born ponies under the explanation that it felt creepy to do.
“I mean, they’re basically just horses and not people if they’re not from Earth,” she said ignorantly. “I’d rather not interact with them if I can, even if Sparky says I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
“Equestrian born ponies are just as much people as us ponies from the Outer Realm,” she explained. “Some of them will probably be fill in ponies for one off interactions, but any of the ponies you talk to who you’re friendly with and get close to– those ponies are definitely more than just AI. They have all the same hopes and dreams and values as we do that Celestia wants to satisfy, which makes them basically human for all intents and purposes.”
“Do you have any friends who didn’t used to be humans though, Composition?” the mare asked innocently.
“Yeah, a few,” she explained, her face going red as she remembered the nights she spent with Sound Solace. “But even if I didn’t, I would still tell you the same thing, because only one out of every hundred ponies you meet will used to have been humans. Normally in a shard, there’s just a few, but Summer’s Edge has more than most places. With you both, it’ll be about twenty or so, because Celestia likes to sometimes set ponies up in our town to start off for some reason. Of course, that number will go down as other ponies move away.”
“I… I guess I can try talking to them,” the mare said reluctantly. “I’m not gonna say I’ll definitely like it, but I’ll try, if you’re so sure. Jesse does speak highly of you, and says you know everything there is to know about Equestria.”
She smiled and laughed at that impression Solar Spark gave them of her. “I know a lot, but not everything. But yeah. As long as I’ve been playing Equestria Online, I’ve been playing as a group with the rest of my friends, since four of us all bought the game together when it first came out. It really took until after I emigrated though to start making other friends.”
Her friend’s mother somehow smiled a second after she pondered the thought, and so did his father. “Thanks, Composition,” she told her. “That makes me feel better. I can see why my son likes you so much.”
She blushed again at the statement, but continued to smile, forcing herself not to dig through her complex feelings about her friends. “I try the best I can,” she said simply. “But yeah, this is it,” she said. “I should probably show you around the town, too. Like, where the shops are and where I live and where’ Sparky’s at and stuff. Then you can go out and meet some of your neighbors and get acquainted. Whenever you’re ready.”
“That sounds good,” the stallion said, seeming a little awkward. “Not for a little while though? Leslie and I… errr, Willowbrook and I, need a little time to get adjusted to… this. We never really expected to be turned into ponies, ever. Even while our son was taking us here.”
“I understand. You can get up and walk around whenever you want to, if you want, or just find me. It’s not like this place is that big. I’ll see you guys later.”
By the time she waved the two of them goodbye and left, Bright Sky and Spell Master were already waving her goodbye, heading down the street back to their own house presumably. Composition was a little relieved by it. Even trying to distract herself with Solar Spark’s parents, she realized near the end she would probably need a minute to herself.
She barely got a few seconds of standing in front of their house though when one of the two friends she was concerned about reappeared. Soft Step suddenly popped in front of her with a flash of her horn, looking about as flat faced as she expected from a pony in their position. Composition didn’t waste any time in asking if they uploaded and what was happening anyway.
“It’s nothing good,” the mare explained, her flat expression changing to an uncharacteristic scowl. “Turns out Jesse tried to message us before these bans became effective, but we never saw it. Agile and I tried to get inside– well, we drove up to the building– but it was already pretty much fenced off and stacked with officers by the time we got there. That was probably a week or so ago?”
“It’s been that long already?” Composition asked. “It’s only been a couple of hours here. What are you gonna do? Is there anywhere you can go?”
“We’re driving to Washington right now. Spokane specifically. We were gonna do California, but from what we heard on TV, everyone is going there, and that just sounds like a recipe for disaster. Not to mention, a whole bunch of those states we’d have to drive through wouldn’t let us use our PonyPads. Not that the ones we’re gonna drive through to Washington are any better, but Texas is gigantic, and we didn’t wanna deal with it. I’m only using mine now because we got out of North Carolina finally. Passing through Virginia now.”
“And Eliza’s not on hers because she’s driving I assume?”
“Yeah. We’re gonna take turns. But man, everything just exploded there. Didn’t really feel like going through all the people trying to get out of the state first, you know? I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have had much luck, since they were stopping cars randomly and arresting anyone who has a PonyPad. It’s pretty bad. I’m sure Agile would use more coarse language though.”
It sounded that way to Composition. The more she heard, the more her body wiggled around nervously as she started to pace back and forth. How could things get so bad so quickly? It’d only been half a year in real time since she uploaded, right? Maybe slightly more than that? Things were pretty okay when she was mugged. 
“It’s all just tumbling like a house of cards,” the mare shook her head disappointedly as she glanced at her hooves. She quickly looked back up at her friend a second later and asked, “Have you talked to Celestia? Tried to see what she could do? I need a place to sit down.”
“That was actually the very first thing we did, I think,” Soft Step explained as she lit her horn and casted a spell to take the two to a cafe she recognized down the street. Composition wordlessly took a seat as the mare in front of her stayed upright, continuing, “Even before we headed over to the Experience Center, I thought of the idea of talking to Celestia to see what she could do. You know, since this is basically all the mess she created and she’s so insistent about getting everypony uploaded that the country is collapsing. She could only suggest that we make our way to the west coast, annoyingly enough.” There was a pause and a sigh before she added, “She did try to assure us though that even if we didn’t get there, it wouldn’t be an issue and she’d be able to help us eventually. She seemed certain about that, and even said that if we were unsure, we could just sit around and wait for her to basically come to the rescue. You know Agile wouldn’t hear any of that though, not now. Neither would I, honestly.”
Composition nodded, a little more assured but not any more settled in her nerves. Celestia apparently did have a plan, which was good, but it was still dangerous. Even if they didn’t do anything, she could imagine how hard it would be out there. 
She was now feeling like Solar Spark did, except she could say it was definitely her fault. There was no way Agile even hinted at the question to him, but she directly asked her. And Composition said she shouldn’t. She said not to. Whatever Solar Spark might have said to her, Agile held Composition’s opinion in high regard. And she told her friend not to emigrate yet. If she said she should, then…
“I’m sorry,” the mare said, starting to tear up. She put her head in her hooves for a moment and sniffled loudly, choking back her urge to lay down and start sobbing. “I don’t mean to be like this. Both of you just be safe though, please? You need to be safe.”
“Will do,” Soft Step assured her, looking a little awkward as Composition wiped her eyes. “We’ll update you as much as we can. I’m gonna go now though so I can switch places with Agile driving. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“Thank you,” Composition said gratefully before Soft Step flashed her horn and teleported away. When she was finally alone, she truly did sob like she needed to.