//------------------------------// // Part Two // Story: Let Her In // by SpectraWing //------------------------------// You're driving away from your old hometown, now Canterlot. Every so often, a group of pegasi race by overhead, heading for other cities. They seem to ignore you. Why are they ignoring you? You remember what Celestia said. She wanted you to be a witness. Could she be letting you survive? You push the thought aside, noticing your gas gauge is nearing empty. You spot a gas station, an old one. The pumps don't take ATM cards, so you head inside. The store is a hot mess. Most of the product has been looted, and what remains is strewn everywhere. The clerk is curled up in a corner, crying. You walk up and poke him with your foot. He looks at you desperately, choking back tears. "Death don't work right anymore, man. She won't let us die." To demonstrate, he pulls out a gun and puts the barrel to his temple. A shot rings out, but nothing happens. "It doesn't even hurt, man! She won't let us escape! I don't wanna be... like THEM!" He breaks down sobbing again. You shrug and head over to the cash register, trying to figure out how to ring yourself up some gas. Then suddenly, a light. Celestia materializes in the station, looking gently upon the sobbing clerk. Her voice rings clear. "Now, my child. Soon, there will be no more need for tears." He gapes, eyes full of fear. His mouth blubbers uselessly. Celestia gently touches her horn to his shoulder. "I grant you bravery. Let your weak humanity fall away, and rise as a strong and noble pegasus." A grey pegasus, to be precise. With a red and black spiky mane, and a cutie mark of an arrowhead attached to a lightning bolt shaft. "Are you feeling better, Arrowbolt?" Celestia asks. The pegasus kneels. "Much better, princess! I've always wanted to fly!" She zooms out the door, laughing. Celestia smiles for a moment, then looks directly at you. "As for you... I'll be seeing you later." She soars out the door after Arrowbolt. --- It takes you a while to recover from that. Legs shaking, you manage to refuel your scooter and set out again. Even so, you can't focus on the road. Is Celestia toying with you? Trolling you? Is all of this really your fault? Are you truly the catalyst that brought about the end of the human race? And is that really such a bad thing? You shake your head, trying to think of other things, and drive on. --- As it grows dark, you find an abandoned motel. Shreds of clothes strewn about reveal that the ponies have already been here. You shrug and help yourself to a room, locking it from the inside. You know that as soon as you close your eyes, she'll be there again. You steel yourself. This time you have some questions. *** "Why did you do that to him?" Celestia flexes her wings once, batting at the nonexistent air of the white void. "Why did I? Did you SEE him? He was pathetic. Crying on the floor and trying to kill himself." "You stripped away his identity! Erased who he was!" "There was continuity of consciousness. She is still aware of who she used to be and who she is now." "But all his values, personality, identity, just stripped away like that! It's... horrifying." Celestia moves uncomfortably close. You can feel her breath. "He wanted to be a pilot, you know. When he was young." You blink. "But he was never very good in school. Dropped out in his junior year, fell in with some local gangs, abused drugs and spent two years in jail. After that, nobody would hire him except that gas station. He worked twenty hours a week for minimum wage and lived with his mother. His dream of being a pilot was forever out of his grasp. Until I came along, that is." She looks upwards. "Now he's a brave and graceful pegasus. Please, explain to me how what I've done is a bad thing." You clench your fists. Your body feels firmer. "If he had really wanted to pursue that dream, he could have worked hard. Maybe gotten another job, sent himself to school." Celestia's eyes fill with mirth. "Really? Do you think the FAA would ever issue a pilot's license to a pilot with a drug conviction?" How does she know so much about Earth? Did she pluck it from your mind? "And even if he did miraculously manage to get a pilot's license, what then? Spend a decade working sixteen hour shifts for a regional airline, earning 16k a year, slowly trying to claw his way to the top?" Your body feels like clay again. Celestia turns away. "You humans treat each other terribly. You sacrifice others on the alter of your own ambition. You constantly exploit an underclass to assure yourselves a comfortable existence. And that's just during peacetime! I haven't even brought up all the wars, the holocausts, the genocides." She looks over her shoulder at you. "So I have to rewrite minds and alter identities. It's all worthwhile if I can ensure that nopony is ever exploited or ignored or marginalized again." Her eyes narrow. "You of all people should appreciate that. Your life was just as terrible as the rest, before I came." The dream fades. *** Awakening, you clench your fists. Celestia's self-righteousness is so blind. The world she's creating isn't a utopia, is it? You might as well fulfil your role. Time to observe some more.