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// Chapter Twenty (Eliza) 
// Story: Friendship Is Optimal: Third Wheel 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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Neither Eliza nor Brandon moved a muscle as they were told to sit and wait outside the car while an officer went through it. It wasn’t very long before he came back out with both of their PonyPads in hand, along with their headsets. It wasn’t like they tried very hard to hide them. They were sitting right there in the backseat when they pulled over.
He had an unreadable look on his face as she stepped toward them with the gear in hand. “You know you can’t have these in Ohio, right?” he said seriously. No anger or frustration in his voice thankfully, but it still wasn’t good. “Even if you’re just driving through. This stuff’s banned.”
“We honestly didn’t know,” Eliza explained, a clear lie. They had known, but just simply didn’t make an effort to conceal their using them since they were on the road. They figured it wouldn’t be a big deal like it seemed it now would be.
“Like I said, we were going to my parents house in Montana,” she continued. “The house is in Great Falls. You can call them if you want.”
“I think I will,” he said, “but I’m telling this to you now. I’m giving you one chance to be honest with me about what’s really happening here. If you are, I’ll just confiscate this and let you off with a warning. But if you aren’t, you can bet I’ll give you every charge I can think of.”
“Call them then,” she said, portraying a confident seriousness. “That’s where they live. I don’t know if they’re gonna pick up though, but I’m not lying.”
“What’s their number then?”
Eliza gave them one, and watched him enter it with no hesitation, putting his own cell phone to his ear. She didn’t know if this would work, especially since she thought of it on the spot, but certainly hoped it would. 
A few seconds later, she breathed a little sigh of relief when the officer started speaking after a few rings. “Good afternoon,” he said formally. “My name’s officer Sullivan, and I’m here with your daughter, Eliza Nimble, as well as one of her friends, Brandon Marshall. Who am I speaking to?”
He waited for a few seconds, both Eliza and Brandon watching anxiously when he finally continued, “No, they’re not under arrest yet. I was just calling to see if what they were telling me about heading to Montana was true. I said I’d take these devices they had, PonyPads, and let them off with a warning if you picked up and confirmed their story. They’re not allowed to have them anywhere in Ohio, you understand?”
More silence, and then he continued, “Thank you, Mrs. Nimble. I’ll let them get on their way now. They’re not going to be charged with anything, and there’s nothing you need to do on your part.” One more pause, and he finished, “Have a good afternoon,” before quickly hanging up the phone.
“I guess it’s your lucky day,” he said, stepping in front of them to head back to his police cruiser. “I appreciate the honesty you gave me, but if I see you in this state with more of these things, it won’t be a warning next time. You can get along now.”
Neither stood up until well after the cop departed, both breathing a long sigh of relief when he finally did. That could’ve been a lot worse. Eliza imagined other states might not play around with them having PonyPads. It wasn’t great that they had them taken away though.
“Was that really your parents?” Brandon asked. “I thought you didn’t like them.”
“I don’t, and it wasn’t,” she answered as she stood up to head back to the passenger seat. “I haven’t talked to them in about five years. Heck, I’ve never even been anywhere close to Montana. I just figured since Sparky told me Celestia wanted him to talk to me, she’d come up with something if I said that. She can’t upload us if we’re arrested, can she?”
“That’s some smart thinking,” Brandon smiled. “Makes sense, too. I’m glad you didn’t just decide to take a random gamble.”
“It was a little bit of one, but I figured the odds were high she’d pull through. Bad we don’t have PonyPads now though. I need to send an email.”
She typed a simple message as Brandon took the wheel again and drove them off, a quick one to update them on the situation.

Got our PonyPads confiscated. We’re fine, but we’re not gonna be able to talk at all until we get there. We’re not planning on buying new ones since we’re driving now anyway. I don’t even think anyone would sell them, and it’d be too risky for us to buy if they did. We’ll talk to you later.
-Eliza

Almost instantly, emails from Composition and Bright Sky came in, telling her to be safe and get there in one piece and that they’d see her soon. After that, the girl turned her phone off and concentrated on resting while Brandon drove and keeping him company.
Thankfully, the drive was largely uneventful after that, although it was exhausting. The two hardly stopped for anything outside of gas and the occasional bite and stretch of their legs. Eliza slept in the back while Brandon drove, and he did the same while she drove. The sun set, and then rose, and set again before rising again for them to drive through Idaho. Both looked at the news on their phones whenever they had service to make sure things hadn’t changed at all, and thankfully, nothing new had come in during the last forty eight hours of them being on the road.
Brandon wiggled in his seat once the road sign had indicated they were in the state they were looking for, and he even put on a smile. “Excited?” Eliza asked, watching his smile grow into a full on grin as the signs indicated that Spokane was just a few miles away.
“Absolutely,” he told her, almost giddy. “Honestly, I thought there’d be more trouble, but this was a breeze! And Washington hasn’t changed any of their laws yet, so getting to the Experience Center is gonna be no sweat! This is actually happening!”
Eliza was still a little nervous, but what could she do? It wasn’t like there was any other option but to upload with how bad things were getting and all of her friends gone. Besides, seeing Brandon excited made her a little excited, too. It wasn’t a feeling she could say any of her friends told her they felt when they uploaded. It was kind of nice to be excited, she guessed. It at least made her forget about the anger she had for the AI god who caused all of this for a little while. She wasn’t going to get over that quite so quickly, and would probably tell her off the second she saw her. 
But she decided to be happy and excited for now, thinking about the prospect of being a mare and seeing her friends in person again, and hyped the friend next to her up a little bit. “Yeah, it is gonna happen, isn’t it?” she smiled. “What do you think? Just a couple of hours, if that? I heard a lot of people forget about what happens right before they upload, so you’re probably gonna blink and be there.”
“Yeah, I hope so,” he said happily. “I didn’t think I’d be this excited!”
The two couldn’t help but talk back and forth as they followed the printout directions of their route to the Experience Center. It was nerve wracking to think about though, exciting as it was. She was pretty confident this was legit, but was not confident in Celestia’s intentions. That was what made her nervous.
I need to make sure I’m exact with what I want before I consent, Eliza thought. That I don’t want copies or imitations of my friends, and I don’t want them to be driven away from me for other ponies like she probably wants to do. Eliza repeated it in her head as Brandon drove the two of them, working on the exact specifics of what to say.
Then the car turned the corner of the street the Experience Center was on and both she and Brandon’s hearts dropped.
“Um, please tell me those police are there to let us get through,” Brandon said anxiously, stopping his car on the corner of the street. He didn’t have a choice about it. He wasn’t able to go further with how many people were packed into the small parking lot of the Experience Center. Hundreds– maybe thousands of protesters crowded around the building, carrying signs and shouting loudly as a large swath of shields protected the walkway up to the doors of the building. They had to hold people back, and seemed like they were barely able to restrain them from rushing in. But was this to stop them from uploading, or to let them?
The answer came when the two watched the shields part for just a second to let a couple of people through, who nodded gratefully and made their quick way inside. It was great news to both Eliza and Brandon, the former turning off the car, but not getting out yet. Eliza wondered silently if Celestia had some influence in this, if this could have been for the two of them specifically. 
“I guess there’s no time like the present to get in there, right?” Brandon offered nervously. The girl didn’t reply, and stepped out of the car silently, her friend following behind her.
It was difficult figuring out how to get close, eventually being forced to make their way all the way around the building to find an opening to step through. It was loud out here, the protesters screaming all sorts of things. Not at them– not yet anyway– but making chants against Celestia and yelling about how uploading was genocide and all sorts of other things. Most of them were old people, or people who had small children with them, but there were a few people Eliza’s age mixed in with the screams. She could understand the sentiment, at least the part about how Celestia couldn’t be trusted. She didn’t really get what screaming and yelling would do though.
It took genuine effort to push their way to the front again so they could get closer to the riot police. The men and women with shields constantly shoved people back, tripping them up multiple times. It took a while, much longer than they imagined, but after about half an hour of trying to push their way through, they made their way close enough to the riot police that they could talk to them and hear the orders they barked.
“Stay back!” one of them yelled, holding the shield in a way that was almost threatening. “You’re going to be forced back if you get any closer!”
“We’re trying to get in there to upload, sir!” Brandon explained. “We came here from North Carolina to do this!”
Automatically, all of the protesters within earshot of their conversation changed from yelling about Celestia to yelling at them. “Traitor!” “Cultist!” “Celestia will kill you!” The attention was shifted to the two of them, with people flinging spittle into their faces and a couple roughly grabbing them to try and pull them back. 
Thankfully, the officer took no further explanation, and grabbed them closer. The one next to them quickly parted so she and Brandon could get through before the protesters could get to them and stop them. Just as quickly, they put their shields back together to block the path, shoving people back who tried to get through. 
Neither wasted any time hurrying up the walkway, listening to the loud chats of boos and other things directed their way now. Eliza moved as quick as she could without running, and Brandon spedwalked beside her, both of them glancing around at the crowd as they headed up. One of them shouted something unintelligible as they got near the door, and someone else yelled that someone had to do something. 
There was a flash of a gun, and a loud *bang!* that hit Eliza’s ears. A moment later, she felt a tear of excruciating pain as the wind was knocked out of her, and fell forward before she could get to the door.