Pessimism and Sarcasm
Chapter 11.5
Unwelcome Discoveries
It's been two days since the adventure with Daring Do. I just got through a day of work and now I’m back at the library, surprisingly enjoying a hamburger. As it turns out, the ponies are omnivorous. They don't eat meat very often, though. Now, I have some theories on that. The first theory is that when a cow dies naturally, they just take its meat, but that sounds rather morbid. The other is that the beef cows here aren't sentient like dairy cows, some of which I’ve even seen in town.
In any case, I’m enjoying my burger and then Twilight comes in, looking a little more than perturbed. She has my laptop with her, which is no surprise to me as I let her study some of its contents. I made a separate account for her use and put a password on mine so she couldn't snoop through anything personal.
She trots right up to me, takes a seat in a chair and places my laptop on the table. She flips it around so I can see the screen: it’s black and the media player is open, though paused.
"Care to explain this?" Before I can even ask what she’s going on about, she presses the play button. Immediately, I hear a very familiar voice, and I know exactly what’s going on. I set down my burger.
“How the heck did that get on my laptop!?" I really am shocked - I never put the show on my computer. I didn’t want it there! This show is for little girls and bronies, and even though I do watch it, I am neither! "Hold on, let me see this for a second."
"No, tell me first,” Twilight’s brow is furrowed and her eyes are fiery. “How much of my life is in your laptop? Why would you know about it? Why didn't you tell me about this?!"
With that last question, she slammed her hoof onto the table, shaking my laptop. The thing is, I have been keeping my previous knowledge of this place hidden from them, but not intentionally. It really just didn’t occur to me to tell them.
“All right,” I take a deep breath. “I have no idea how much is on there - I didn't put it there. Probably more than you'd like and at the same time less than you'd think. Your last question is best answered by your reaction to this predicament. Now then, I'll have my laptop back so I can figure out how the heck this show got on here in the first place!"
I grab the laptop and exit the playing movie - luckily our little discussion drowned out the volume for the most part so I didn't have to hear that annoying intro.
Upon investigating, I quickly find an unfamiliar video folder. I scroll through it, and find that every episode is downloaded up to the season four premier. I’m prepared to delete the folder completely, but then I spot a Microsoft Word file titled: BeforeYouDeleteThis.docx. I roll my eyes and open the file to discover a short letter from a pegasister friend of mine. I had allowed her to borrow my laptop for a school project a couple months ago. She must have downloaded the show and placed it in a folder where I would find it, with one of my favorite T.V shows. Unfortunately, it was one of the shows I had allowed Twilight to watch.
The folder containing the document was labeled A Gift From Kathy. This is how her note read:
I felt I had to thank you for the help and even though I know you don't like the show that much, I thought that maybe sometime you'd like to rejoin Twilight and her friends on their adventures.
Kathy, you've no idea. I bet you'd love to switch places with me if you did. I sit rubbing my temples for a while after I close the document. Then I turn back to Twilight.
"Okay, I've got the answer now, but first I have a question to ask you. So, did you think that Daring Do was a real pony before meeting her, or did you think she was just a fictional character?"
"I thought she was a storybook character, but why is that relevant?" She was still fuming, and clearly not in the mood for my questions.
"In my world, you and your friends are in the show you found. Just as you had thought Daring Do was fictional, I thought you and everyone else here was fictional. But then I arrived here, and...well…” Can I say that they’re real? “If you want, I can go ahead and delete these-"
"No, don't!” She stood up and looked at the screen. “I want to watch through these and see just what you know about us, and I'll definitely need to tell Celestia about this." Twilight left taking the laptop with her. Before she left the room, I could hear the first episode playing again.
Oh, this could come back to bite me later, I do believe. I pick up my burger once more, and take a consoling bite.