Login, Make a Friend, Stay Alive

by Michael Hudson

Cranky

Matilda hummed to herself as she carried her groceries to the front door. She had stepped out for a few hours to do the grocery shopping, leaving Cranky to do as he wanted, though she had suggested he get onto the computer and try some of the new chat sites everyone’s been using. Get his roots to grow back, especially since it had been almost a week since he had dipped below a hundred points. She knew he could do it though.

Looking to her door, she felt her heart skip a beat. A piece of parchment had been left, and she now began reading it, expecting the worst. The handwriting was really fancy, and the language even more so. Fortunately, her years with Rarity and travelling the world had expanded her language enough to get the gist of it.

Cranky had accepted an invitation to Canterlot where he would spend two weeks under the tutelage of the princesses, before returning to Ponyville. All done in a hope that he would be able to make friends then, and live a happy, fulfilling life.

Matilda felt a little uneasy about the formality of the document, but there was no way for her to be certain, and if this had to do with his score, she couldn’t even entirely blame them for having acted upon it. Cranky had gotten so many ponies to come and try to get him to make more friends, or more positive posts, but nothing they said could have made him budge.

Matilda breathed in, a smile splitting over her face. “If anyone is going to make my sourpuss be willing to come to bridge with me at the end of the month, I guess I should have known it would need to be the princesses.” A small chuckle escaped her lips as she came into the house and began unloading the groceries, willing to wait, and trust in harmony.

Two weeks later, Cranky did indeed come back, and it was easier to make him smile. He also agreed to come to her bridge club, or spend time online talking to strangers just so they wouldn’t be so strange to him anymore. In fact, if Matilda had really paid attention, she may have noticed he didn’t really say no to much of anything.

But hey, at least his score kept going up. That’s all that matters, right?

Author's Note:

As promised, the video, showing why I claim this to be a real world thing going on, not just fictional.

Comments

[pottedllama]

This is...legitimately creepy.

I think that "easy smile" of Cranky's got painted on his soul, so to speak. And I have the strangest feeling that, whatever happened when he met with the princesses, the Cranky Doodle that walked out of that "tutoring session" had a whole lot of what had made him Cranky washed away like mud in front of a firehose.

I think I want to see where this goes. Did Big Brother get a makeover as the Solar Tyrant?

[nioniosbbbb]

Is the video for fucking real? Wtf is this bs... %@#$$#%^@$##!$#@~#~!~@%~~$!#~!#~@~!@!@$%!@#!@@ I'm going to read but I'm already PISSED.

[Thunder Quill]

This is legitimately scary...

[Outa-here]

Yeah, China's system is truly terrifying but we in America have been living under and subject to a system for almost the last hundred years re social manipulation and control and it isn't any different from China's for it's intent, only the approach is different. Rather than using blatantly obvious and clearly visible "scores" the system under which we live is far more subtle and insidious. Wear the wrong brand of shoes or a cheap knock-off, play the wrong video game or console, own the wrong phone brand and you're a "loser". how'd it get to be that way? Simple! Corporate manipulation of Americans through a commercial brainwashing agency called "The Department Of Public Relations" which is really nothing more than a group of people who sit around thinking up effective ways of emotionally and mentally manipulating you into buying things you don't need, using some serious and subtle psychology to make you think that if you don't have or buy or own certain things then there must be "something wrong with you." Just look at old TV commercials from the 50s and you'll get a real good idea of what I'm talking about. New? No, there's nothing new about this kind of manipulation and social control but then, if you hadn't grown up being totally saturated in it, you would have noticed. That's how insideous it is.

[FrostVortex]

I... barely managed to get this.

It was a good story nonetheless, though.

[Adeire]

I always thought that patriotism was a good mechanic for nations to keep the population in line, but this is going too far...
Thanks for spreading the news.
Also, the fic is good. And pretty scary because if Pinkie deletes you from her friend list you know something is rotten in the system.

[Who needs sleep]

the story is terrifying, the video is terrifying and i want to know what happens in the tutoring but i know it will be terrifying and sometimes the imagination can do more to show how terrifying that something is than to explain it.

on a totally unrelated note, please enjoy the thumbs up

[JetstreamGW]

6739911 Yeeeeah no, hoss. There's not really any sane equivalency there. Marketing -- even shysty marketing -- is not the same as a government mandated system that gives people incentive to fall in line.

[PhycoKrusk]

6739804
Unfortunately, yes, this is very much a real thing. It's possible that there is some context we haven't been given, or some other factor that is resulting in us misunderstanding exactly what this is and will be used for. After all, nothing is impossible.

But it is not very likely.

[Outa-here]

6740673

Well, it is when the government becomes intimately tied to corporations as has been the case over that last hundred years, especially in the period after world war two ended. That, alone, is a fascinating part of history. Still, the more you know about something the less influence it has over you.

[DraconixSongnote]

Scary. Really scary; you did really well at writing this out.

[JackRipper]

Disturbing to say the least. China is making this system mandatory in 2020 for those of you who didn't know.

Why govern those who are willing to govern each other over social media? It's the perfect tool to keep people in line, without any form of intervention.

Also, nice touch with the tag. You could never tell it was a horror story like this.

[NFire]

I read this and got a chill down my back, seriously and legitimately. This is a horror story like the old Gothics, Lovecraft and such, it doesn't use gore to get the horror across, the setting and what YOU think is going on make it truly horrifying. The implied and not so implied threats lying so deep underneath that it takes a moment to register.

Good job, and I mean really good job on this one. I'm calling this a classic, honestly.

[QueenMoriarty]

2020...

Four years and a few days, people. If you ever wanted to go to China, go now, while it's still safe.

[shinigamisparda]

Perhaps this is my ego speaking, I but I'd like to think I may have helped inspire this by posting a blog with that exact video.

[Chicago Ted]

Good. God. I write a blog post on that very video, and you come out with a story?

[Raistlin]

Where is the Dark tag?

[Luna Aeterna Solutae]

I also saw this video. Fucking horrifying.

[Kage no Brony]

6747442
6742908
6739789

I want to believe canon Celestia and Luna wouldn't stoop to something as low as mind magic. Or any other easy mind control. Or even the hard ways. Perhaps they just put Cranky through psychological counseling and got to the root of his problems?

That said, with how quickly he changed and became "normal", I fear this isn't the case. This universe would warrant a 4 out of 10 on my "kill it at all costs" scale because there's the possibility but no evidence. ("I'm watching you very carefully!"). An eight would be the equivilent of burning their whole planet to glass, and a ten is "No life, even down to microbial life, is allowed to remain in this cluster of galaxies; Or the infinity of this universe, in the event of an alternate reality".

Be glad that a superpragmatist (some might say sociopath) like me is not in charge. Thievery? Permanent disfigurement. Murder? Execution after thirty years and three appeals (one appeal every ten years), no exceptions. If technological advances and forensics can't find enough faulty evidence to prove your innocence in thirty years, chances are you're guilty.

-Post turned into a rather long rant, so I've ended it here. New Blog post may appear with the full text.-

[nothingtoseehere]

I wonder, was the reconditioning surgical or emotional in nature.