Love's Sunrise

by SilverHoof1

A Virtual Me

I sat down on the couch, Cloud hopping up onto my lap almost before my flank touched the cushion. I giggled, and petted his back while Riptide cleaned the dishes. While we had ate breakfast, we had talked about random trivial things, most of it questions he had for me. Mostly he had wanted my backstory, of how I had gotten into stealing in the first place. After spending the morning with him, I had felt comfortable enough to tell it to him.

I had been fairly lucky as a filly, born into a middle class family of good reputation. My father had become a lawyer, speaking to the court for anyone who hired him. My mother had become a nurse, and a pretty good one at that. The combination of them was perfect, one gentle and kind while the other law abiding and willing to always help. They had sent me to a private school, in a way to try and help provoke my cutiemark faster, but in my opinion it had completely backfired.

The place they had sent me to school had very few ponies to talk too, most of them at least two grades higher than my own. The low pony interaction slowly made me less social, to the point my parents began to worry they made the wrong decision. They immediately switched me to a public school, which just sealed my fate.

Instead of working me to becoming more social again, they just threw me in and expected everything to go fine. Instead, I became even less social, unused to the questioning looks and constant noise, to the point I never talked anymore. By then my parents hadn’t had any idea what to do with me, except keep me in that school. My cutiemark never showed up during school, and I eventually began to get called a blank flank, as if it was the worst thing possible. Instead, I had hoped the lack of me having a cutiemark would mean I could choose any job, and not be forced to join a specific one. Instead when I finally became old enough to get a job, nobody would take me.

My lack of a specific talent made ponies think I wouldn’t be fit for any job, and I couldn’t do anything. Eventually my parents kicked me out of their house, and I was left to fend for myself. I had to start resorting to theft to survive, and it had only been about 3 months since I had been kicked out of the house. That factor had surprised Riptide, and he had asked what my age was.

“I’m only about 25 years old, and my parents kicked me out when I turned 25,” I had answered.

Riptide finished cleaning the dishes, and came over to the couch and sat down next to me. I yawned, the inactivity beginning to make me sleepy, and asked, “what do you do around here for fun?”

“Hm, well have you ever played a game in the fallout series?” He questioned, and I shook my head. “Oh, then I have something I think you will like~” at that I raised an eyebrow, and he did his best evil laugh. I had to admit it wasn’t a bad imitation, and as a reward I gave him a hug, which my mind was quickly realizing we both liked. At Least the kitten diseased me with a feeling that was a nice one I guess.

Ten minutes later, I had finally finished customizing my character, giving her a green long spikey mane, that fell down over her left eye and charcoal colored fur. I had given her green eyes a shade deeper then her mane, and a cutiemark that would supposedly help with charisma, a microphone with a single note near the mesh at the top. He said that put her as a songbird kind of character, and good at talking her way through things. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, so I just nodded and started the game.

That was when he held up something called a VR helmet, and plopped it onto my head without my consent. “Wait what a- gah!” I began to protest, then made a surprised sound as my vision suddenly matched what the pony I had made was seeing.

“O-ho-ho, this is going to be entertaining,” Riptide said from beside me, and I felt him move an arm around my back as I looked around with my new eyes, astonished. “How is this possible?!” I half screamed, and Riptide chuckled. “Unicorn magic, they put it into these headsets that cover your eyes and teleport your mind and conscious thinking into the game,” he explained. “Basically, in a way you are the pony in the game, and i’ll probably be just something you feel in the back of your mind, so have fun little sun~”

Wait, did he just give me a nickname? Even with this “in the back of my mind” thing I could tell I was blushing, and was greatly tempted to kiss him if I could see him, even though I didn’t know why. Instead, I clicked start on the control he had given me, and suddenly everything faded. All I saw was black, and I felt nothing except the faint presence of Riptide. I slowly blinked awake in game, stretching and yawning. Woah, this shouldn’t feel this realistic.

It felt like I was the pony, and when I thought about getting out of bed I felt like I had to physically get out of bed, immediately missing the comfort of my bed. I trotted into the bathroom to clean up for the day, and in the mirror I saw… me, but yet not me. It wasn’t me yet it was me and - okay if I thought about that my brain was going to implode. I was younger then I remembered designing her, and guessed I was a filly. Walking back into the mainroom, I looked around the metal walls, feeling stupid. I was like a child, not sure what anything was. This was definitly going to get some getting used too.

If I remebered correctly, Riptide said I started in a vault, but from their everything else was random and based on my decisions. I walked towards the door that led out of what I guessed was my room, and jumped away from it with a shriek as it opened on its own, sliding upwards with a hiss to expose something that looked like a hightech living room. An older pony was standing in the corner, and not sure what else to do I headed towards him. At the sound of my hoofs clopping on the ground, he turned his head to look over at me, and smiled. Wait.. this didn’t feel right.

He looked similiar to my actuel father, and I felt an immediate closeness to him as he spoke. “Why good morning, how did you sleep Ebony Leaf?” he asked, and my mind flashed with surprise. That had been the exact name I was thinking of giving this character, or giving me, or - GAH WHATEVER. “I slept good father, how about you?” I asked, instinctualy calling him father.

“Very good thank you,” he said with a nodd, and I smiled a bit. I could feel a ghost like feeling off Riptide as he wrapped his hoofs around me, making me smile even more. “Now then, I believe you have somewhere to be,” he said, and I blinked, knowing a blank look was on my face. He raised an eyebrow “You have school in 10 minutes, so I suggest you hurry, today is a very important day,” he hinted, and I immediately sprinted out the door, not knowing where I was really going. Seeing some ponies heading a certain direction, I followed them, looking around blankily while I walked. The walls were all pretty plain except for occasional posters, and even those were ones of prewar activities. Wait, where did that thought come from?

Ignoring the weird thought, we soonn came across a classroom which all the ponies were filling into, and I followed, taking a seat near the back. I hope this was the ponies assigned seat if they did have assigned seats. “Good day everyone, today we are going to do probably the most important thing you will ever do in your lives, the GOAT test,” an adult pony in the front said, drawing all our attention to him. A GOAT test? What does that mean?

Suddenly all my vision went black, in and a second or two I was back in the real world, Riptide holding the vr system in his hoofs, smiling. I immediately sprung at him, smiling and hugged him tight. He hugged back, and whispered into my ear “Have fun?”

“Mhm, a lot, thanks” I said, my smile in my voice as I kissed his cheek, not knowing why i did it but knowing it made me happy. Plus it made him blush, so it was a bonus.

Looking back, I wondered where that thought had come from, and why everything seemed so real. I guessed I would have too ask Riptide about that, eventually. For now, I would think about it in the back of my head, considering what it could mean. That or I could spend some time with Riptide. Spending time with Riptide sounds like a good idea.