I assist Rainbow Dash in standing up from the couch. I remain silent the entire time that she leans against me, smiling and humming to herself, her head resting on my shoulder and her hooves resting on my chest and shoulder. Apparently, we're in a relationship now.
I've got to find a way out of this.
Out of this relationship I now find myself stuck in.
I don't want to be in one, especially not with a pony.
Jesus fucking Christ, I'm only an hour in and already I'm regretting making this decision.
The cyan Pegasus smiles at me as I hand her her crutches, and we both walk out to greet Celestia on the balcony.
"Ready?" She asks, her horn already glowing.
I nod, and, with a flash of light, my surroundings immediately change from that of a coliseum, to the interior of a throne room.
"Here we are," Celestia says with a sly smile. "Now, don't you two go running off. I honestly had no idea that you two were...together."
I see an opportunity, and I seize it.
"We're not actually together," I reply. "Rainbow Dash just forgot to mention that massaging her wings would have that, ah, effect. There's nothing more between us than a really weird friendship."
Rainbow Dash frowns at me, and Celestia nods.
"Duly noted," the Princess replies. "Now, Rainbow, could you please wait here while I bring Peter into my private study?"
The cyan Pegasus nods, and I follow Celestia to a door next to the throne. We enter, and I find myself in an extravagant study, with a golden stand upon which a magnificent bird is perched, an ornate desk, an ink pot and a quill, and several portraits.
However, what truly catches my attention is the syringe on the writing table.
"I doubt that you remember how you got here," Celestia begins. "Please, sit."
I nod, and sit down in a wooden chair. I'm unable to keep my eyes off of the syringe, and a million different deadly chemicals fly through my mind at the speed of light.
"So, I will have to remind you.
"You are strapped into a chair. Your mind is interpreting data points, and a machine is generating variables based upon different biases: emotional attachment, anger, laziness, devotion, hunger, etcetera, etcetera. All this comes from a single code, which you made. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
I take a deep breath, running this information through my mind. It sounds familiar, but I can't quite place my finger on-
"The Deus ex Machina," I breathe. It feels as though a flood gate has been opened. Memories fill my mind, and the syringe suddenly has new meaning.
It's Celestia.
Celestia is the Executive Override.
"Now that I remember, I can finally get out of here," I sigh. "And away from Rainbow Dash..."
"Wait."
My hand hovers just above the syringe, and my eyes glare right at Celestia.
"If you leave, then this existence will end. All will be destroyed within the reality that the simulation has created."
I lean back, and clasp my hands together. "So...I'm assuming that this is where you give me a choice. Between staying, and going."
She nods, and I take a deep breath. "Well, you are programmed to keep the simulation working, so I must take your word for it. Would you mind explaining why my departure would mean the destruction of this Equestria?"
"There's a bug," she replies immediately. "A...Virus of sorts. It rose from your incorporation into the system due to your failure to install the program that sits in a syringe before me.
"It is composed of pure malice. And it has already attacked Rainbow Dash."
I raise an eyebrow in mild surprise. "So those claw marks were made by a virus?"
She nods. "The only way to stop it is to fully plunge your mind into the simulation, and to execute the Assimilation function."
I blink. "Excuse me?"
"The Assimilation function. It is a function I created to deal with this threat. It allows me to end your life processes outside of this reality, and store your mind within the system."
I shake my head. "Can't I just reboot the system?"
"It wouldn't work. The virus has penetrated the Singularity code. No matter how many times you reboot it, it would still be there."
I sigh, and nod towards the syringe. "Screw it, then. If the simulation is destroyed, I'll just start over from scratch."
"But it will not be destroyed."
I groan. "Can't anything just be in black and white when it comes to this?"
"Let me show you what would happen," she says, ignoring my question, "if you leave, and this virus takes over."
Her horn begins to glow, and the study melts around us.
And then, Canterlot materializes into existence.
"So...We're in Canterlot?"
"No. This is Canterlot as it is now. However, if we speed up time..."
The sun and moon chased each other through the sky at a break-neck pace, and I begin to notice changes in the city.
When time is normal once more, it has all been coated in black sludge.
"The inhabitants of the world will still be alive," she states. "But they will only feel the utmost pain. Physical and emotional, and every negative emotion possible."
I shake my head in disbelief. "So, it will destroy the code that allows them to feel positive emotions? And physical pleasure?"
"Yes. Forever. Never ending."
I shudder at the thought. To think, I created these beings in a simulation, and now, they would be subject to eternal torture...
"And you may feel for them," she continues. "Yet the only way to truly pity them is to experience it for yourself."
Her horn glows black, and I suddenly feel an onset of nausea.
And then...
I feel pain.
Pain.
So much pain, everywhere, it is beyond description, oh GOD make it stop!
"Kill me!!" I moan. "Kill me; let it stop!!!" I fall to the ground, and begin to sob and retch.
"Oh, God, make it stop!!!"
"That is only the physical."
Depression. Loneliness. Anger. Heartbreak. Misery.
Every negative emotion floods my mind, combining with the physical pain to reduce me to a heap; crying, moaning, and retching, constantly pleading to be killed, oh please, just KILL ME ALREADY! FUCKING KILL ME, DO IT, KILL ME, I CANNOT TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!!
As the pain, physical and otherwise, subsides, I know now that I have truly experienced Hell.
"No...No, I can't let that happen," I sob. "I can't let innocent beings, beings that I created, feel that...I can't. I won't..."
"Do you care for Rainbow Dash?"
I look up to Celestia, and I see that her jaw is set tight. She's fighting hard not to break down in utter pity.
"Yes," I stammer, struggling to find my voice. "Yes, I care for her. Even if she's a program, I still care for her."
"Then this will truly shock you."
The world melts around us.
And Rainbow Dash materializes.
She's old, and decrepit. Her wings have turned to bone, and her mane has dulled to the point that in certain areas, it has turned completely grey.
And she's laying on the floor, moaning.
"She feels no physical pain in this future," Celestia says softly. "All she feels is worthlessness. She believes that she is a complete failure. And she never ceases to think of you. In a future in which you depart, she will always think of you when the virus settles in here. She will not know happiness. She will not know peace. All she will know is misery and pain, and the knowledge that the one man she ever truly loved abandoned her. And that pain is too much for her to bear. It is so great, that it outweighs physical pain, as I said before. All because you left her."
"No," I whisper, my heart in my throat. I hurry over to her side, and drop to the floor. I scoop her up in my arms, and force her to look at me.
"Rainbow, look at me," I whisper. "Look at me. Let me see your eyes, Rainbow Dash..."
The mare turns her head to face me, and those once beautiful eyes contain nothing but a blind, milky, depression.
"Rainbow Dash, I will never leave your side," I say through tears. "I won't. I promise, Rainbow, I promise..."
With that, I hug her close, not caring that her skin is flaky and her fur is falling off in patches.
"I am so sorry," I whisper into her ear. "I always wanted to tell you...how I felt..."
I whisper three words into the dead mare's deaf ear. She pulls back, and looks into my eyes.
Slowly, but surely, something appears deep in those dead, dead eyes of hers.
A small bit of light.
And as that light spreads, the color and life is restored to her eyes, and then to her skin, and her wings, and her entire body.
And, once she has been returned to her former glory, she smiles, and disappears in a flash of light. As I am bathed in the heavenly shower of light, I feel absolute euphoria, a euphoria that would never die. The euphoria...of peace.
As I let the light wash over me, I notice that the black sludge is receding from the house I'm kneeling in. Within minutes, it has returned to the bright, happy home of the daredevil Pegasus.
"Do you see why we need you now?" Celestia asks. "You can stop it, because it came from you.
"So long as you battle its darkness with your light, and its pain with your healing, it can never survive. So long as you stay here, it can not win."
With that, we return to the Princess' study, and to a loud knocking at the door.
"Peter! Celestia, open up!"
I glance at the allicorn, and hurry over to the door.
Immediately after I undo the lock and open the door, a cyan Pegasus launches herself at me with a crazed grin.
"I heard screaming, and I got worried," she frantically explains. I smile up at the cyan Pegasus, and hug her. "Thank goodness you're okay," I sigh.
"Rainbow, please, wait outside!" Celestia barks. Both Rainbow and I are taken aback at the sudden outburst, and the cyan Pegasus runs out without a second word. I glare at Celestia incredulously.
"I had to. I knew you would say what you said to the phantom Dash, and I couldn't have you do that." She explains. I nod. Seems reasonable.
"So. You have a choice. What will you do?"
My mind returns to the pain I experienced, and the pain I saw in the aged Rainbow Dash. And I make my decision, without any hesitation. I must do this, and to carry through with it, I cannot dawdle.
"You will forget about the pain you experienced, and you will forget about the phantom Rainbow Dash," Celestia explains when I tell her my choice. "All you will remember is this meeting, and you will think it was to discuss your technology.
"You will construct a reality for yourself. You will create false memories, and they will seem real. And when you awake, you will remember everything that's occurred here, except without one or two factors."
I nod. "Understood."
"You will forget all about the Deus Ex Machina. You will never be able to return, and you will spend the rest of your days in a machine, a your body rots away. In essence, you will be the only living AI. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
I lean out of the room slightly, and glance at Rainbow Dash. I smile as I watch her twiddle her hooves in anticipation. She happens to glance in my direction, and she smiles back at me.
I nod to myself, and turn to Celestia.
"Yes. I want to go through with it. For the ponies that will have to suffer. For the salvation of a reality I created. And for the mare that I have come to regard as more than just an equal."
Celestia nods, and her horn glows a pure gold, a gold that I feel drawn to.
As I let myself get carried away into the light, I feel my body back on Earth...simply stop. It stops supporting my brain, and is no longer host to my mind.
And, at the same time, I feel my mind getting sucked into this reality, and as it all comes together in one, whole, man...
Everything goes black.