Chapter 2: Alterations
Every one of Flynn’s worst fears was confirmed. It wasn’t just that things at the hospice changed—things at the hospice were always changing. It was, rather, that everything changed. His friends still visited him, helped push his wheelchair around the grounds on days he could leave his bed. They still played the same handful of board games together every night.
Still the arrival of Ponypads had brought change, and even with his hatred of Equestria and those who lived there, Flynn couldn’t ignore it. Instead of bleak, pitiful noises, St. Justin’s was filled with laughter and conversation. Fights—which had previously all been about access to the pool table, or the board games, or the Xbox—no longer happened. Everyone had their own game. When some kids “left”, new ones got their old Ponypads.
Equestria became part of conversation—from what Flynn heard, all those who knew each other in real life could interact in the game. In a world where they weren’t all dying, where they weren’t all sick, and stuck in a tiny building for their last few months of life. A world where they had new friends, and even families to care for them. These comments were the most upsetting of all.
So, while the introduction of Ponypads to St. Justin’s Hospice brought joy to many, for Flynn there was only greater isolation and greater loneliness. His health got worse while others improved.
And he wasn’t shy about telling his friends. “It’s garbage,” he shouted, pointing up at his own Ponypad where it sat on the top of his bookshelf. The nurses had refused to throw it away, and had caught him trying to break it on more than one occasion, so they’d put it where he couldn’t reach. “I knew this was gonna happen. Everyone likes the stupid game so much they’re running away from the real world. Even you guys!”
Whenever his friends came to hang out with him, they usually brought their Ponypads. Not to play—they did that on their own. But just to keep close, the screens still active windows out onto whatever Equestrian vista was depicted there. Flynn didn’t care, and tried to see them as little as possible.
Jose looked away from his own as Flynn said that, turning it away from his face. “Do not!”
“No, we do.” Caroline folded her arms in her lap, calm as ever. “But… Flynn, you’re just saying what the grown-ups say. I’ve heard that on TV.”
“So?”
“So… maybe it makes sense out there.” She gestured towards the window with her cane. It was cold outside, the world covered with snow. Much too cold for children like them to be out in the playground. Not that the playground got much use in general. Few of them were strong enough, or they wouldn’t have been at St. Justin’s in the first place. “But…” She took a deep breath. “Flynn, our lives suck. Why shouldn’t we play? It’s better in there.”
“I—” he began, but trailed off. He didn’t have an answer.
Caroline grinned—she had him now. “Because we’re gonna die?” She rapped on the glass with her cane. “Out there, maybe that’s true. In here…” She looked down. “We’re gonna die. The Ponypads aren’t doing it.”
“Maybe not for you,” he grunted. “Celestia poisoned me.”
His friends both rolled their eyes. They tried not to let him see, but he saw. He always saw.
“Maybe you should just… play a different kinda game.” Jose got up, making his way over to the bookshelf. It was too tall for him too. Given how pained and uncoordinated he was, it was probably too hard for him to climb at this point. Caroline could’ve climbed it, but that kind of exertion would be bad for her failing heart. “You don’t have to do what we’re doing.”
“I’ve played before,” he said. “I know how it works.”
“Then why don’t you log in and tell Celestia you hate her. Tell her everything you’re always telling us. Tell her instead of playing a game where you make friends with ponies, you wanna… blow ‘em up!” Jose gestured violently with one hand. “Boom! Gross bits everywhere!”
“Eww,” Caroline muttered.
“I…” Flynn hesitated. His parents had always taught him that hurting people didn’t solve problems. But they’d hurt him badly, and now he was solved. In their eyes, anyway. Or else why would they have abandoned him? “Maybe.”
“Gimmie your stick.” Jose put out his hand expectantly.
Caroline glared. “Cane.” She gave it to him anyway.
“Cane,” he corrected, batting it against the edge of the Ponypad, knocking it closer and closer to the edge. Flynn smiled expectantly—no way Jose had the dexterity to catch it while it fell. It would smash on the old brick floor and break into a million pieces. Then his friends couldn’t bug him about playing anymore.
It did fall, exactly as he predicted. It landed case-side-down, and there was a faint plastic-cracking sound. Flynn’s grin got wider. “Oops, you broke it. Looks like I don’t have to—”
“Shut up.” Jose scooped it up with some difficulty. The plastic case on the back had been cracked a little, but there was no other visible damage. When he pressed the button, the screen came on and filled with the “Equestria Online” startup sequence. There was none of the “broken rainbow” effect of a broken screen. “See? It’s fine.” He set it down on the bedside table in front of Flynn.
“So… what, I have to play now?”
“Yeah,” Jose said. “It’s no fun not having you. Even if we had to go blow ponies up, that would be better than nothing. I don’t have lots of… lots of time left.”
None of them did. But Jose’s days were the most numbered. He probably had less than a month left before he would be in bed like Flynn. After that… well, nobody wanted to talk about it.
“Okay, fine.” He folded his arms. “Go ahead and guilt me into it. I’ll try the stupid game for an hour, okay? If it sucks like I remember… I’ll stop.” But that was already a lie. Equestria Online had been the most fun he ever had with a game, ever. Almost everyone said that, no matter how old they were, or what kind of person they were. It was every game to everyone.
Caroline rose, resting her weight on her cane. “Good,” she said. “Maybe when you’re done killing stuff you can get some friendship lessons. I think you need to brush up.”
They left Flynn alone with the Ponypad. He spent long minutes staring at the “sign in” screen, hand frozen just out of reach of the tablet. His old character had already come up the second the machine came on—a bright orange pegasus with cream on its mane tipped in black. He’d gone on many adventures in Equestria with that character, both before his sickness and during his gradual decline. He could practically feel the wind in his hair from those flights.
Of course, the Ponypad was haunted. There were three ghosts inside, probably loads more. If he wasn’t careful, they might get him.
Flynn pressed the image of his character, and was unsurprised to see the throne room of Canterlot Castle appear on the screen. That was always where Celestia first met him, after a long time away. That was where he’d stood in the Equestrian Experience, back when he’d had a choice to make.
She didn’t yell at him, didn’t even say anything for a long moment. Just looked, as impassive and friendly as ever. “Hello, Entry Vector. It’s good to see you again. I hope you’ve been well.”
“I’m not,” he said, yanking the controller over to him and putting it in his hands. He didn’t do anything with it yet, though. “I’m dying of the cancer you gave me.”
She didn’t argue with him. Instead, she just looked at him for a long time. The camera seemed to zoom in towards her, focusing on her expression. One of pain, loss. None of those angry emotions Flynn would expect from a monster like her.
“You don’t want to see them,” she eventually said.
“Ever,” he responded, his voice low and dangerous. “Never ever, or I won’t come back.”
“Not now,” she said, sighing slightly. “You won’t meet them here. Is that good enough?”
He grunted assent.
“I… don’t think you want the same Equestria you used to visit. There are ponies there you don’t want to see. Would you like to see somewhere else?”
“Yes,” he said. “I want to be with people who hate Equestria as much as I do. Who hate you as much as I do. Bet you can’t do that. Bet you won’t.”
“I can,” she said. “I want your experience with Equestria Online to be as satisfying as possible, Entry Vector. I think I know a few people like that. If you ever change your mind and want to talk to me, you know how to get my attention. Otherwise… I’ll leave you alone.”
“Good,” Flynn said. “Great. Bye forever.”
The screen went black, almost as though she were obeying his command. But then, Celestia had always been willing to do what he said. It was just that, whenever she did, her obedience would always turn out to be serving her own evil plans, somehow. This was probably evil too… but if he knew she was evil, he could look out for it. Maybe getting back into the game would give him a chance to save his friends. That seemed like a good excuse.
A new image appeared on the screen, a projection of somewhere he’d never seen before. It looked a little like the deck of a ship from one of those pirate movies, with rigging and sails and cannons and other cool stuff. Because this was EO, there weren’t any people on the deck. But there weren’t very many ponies either. Also because this was EO, it was flying through the air without apparent support, through the clouds instead of the ocean.
It was a little hard to tell, because the camera appeared to be pointed straight down at the deck, swinging slightly from side to side. Then it dropped, and his character made a pained “oof” sound, before rising to his hooves.
He was surrounded by half a dozen fierce-looking creatures. They were a little like ponies, but bigger, with feathers instead of a furred-looking coat. They also had beaks, and claws on their front legs, and very angry expressions.
One of them lunged forward with a sharp cutlass in her claw, pointing it right at his screen. “Prisoner!” she commanded. “You’ve been caught by the privateers of the Broken Chain! You fight for an evil country. Since we haven’t caught and punished the monsters enslaving us, we’ll at least punish all the ones we catch.” She pointed past him with her sword, where there was an opening in the deck. His character looked down behind him, and in doing so saw his wings were tied with thick rope. Brief struggling was all he needed to tell he wouldn’t be able to escape.
There were no clouds down there either. These privateers had thought of everything. “Any last words?”
The one speaking was smaller than many of her crewmates—probably a girl griffon, though it was hard to tell with some of the things in Equestria. She also sounded about the same age as his character—an older teenager, because that’s what he had pictured himself to be like when he was grown up. Any older was just beyond his mind to imagine.
“Yeah,” he said, looking into the camera. It was an easy pattern to fall into, one he had an awful lot of practice with. Over a year he’d talked into that camera, pretending he was talking to real people. And sometimes he was. “You have the wrong guy.” His character said “pony.” It was still censoring him like he remembered too. “If I could kill Celestia with my own two hands—” hooves. “I’d do it right now. There isn’t anyone on this ship who hates her as much as I do.”
The other griffons had been whispering to each other, making threats. The ship went quiet, except for the faint sound of wind through the sails.
“Is that so?” She lowered her sword a little. “What she’d do to you, then? Your pillows weren’t soft enough?” Uproarious laughter.
Flynn glared into the screen. “She murdered my family.”
The laughing stopped. Griffons stared, all of them speechless for a long, quiet moment.
Then the one with the sword approached him, giving Flynn a chance to get a better look at her. She had crisp white fur, with gray stripes that ran up and down her body like a tiger. She also had the rusting remains of manacles around her paws and claws. Badges of honor. “I’m Gina, pony. Who are you?”
“Flynn,” he tried to say. Of course, Celestia didn’t let him, because she was a tyrant even here. “Entry Vector,” his character said, in his exact voice.
Her sword slashed past him to one side, cutting the rope free from his wings. “Welcome to the Broken Chain, Vector.”
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I feel like the griffons changed their attitudes toward him too quickly. But then, Celestia knows what he'll notice and what he won't.
Spell check. He grunted ascent. should be 'assent'. He's agreeing, not going up.
Looking for more before I vote yea or nay.
8379948
You're right! Thanks for pointing that out.
Hook, line, and...
8379946
Well, duh. It's still a game. He even wants it to be a game.
8380161
He thinks they're real people. Celestia told him they're real people. Not outright told, she didn't lie. But she implied.
8380228
I missed that implication. But even if they are, they're real people playing a game, so they're not going to be as paranoid as real pirates.
8380322
You haven't played Rust, I take it?
Starscribe doing Opitmalverse? Yes, Please!!!
Oh man. I can see where this is going. Dat griffon. This is fun, Starscribe. It goes without saying that I'm hyped about seeing anti-uploaders go head to head with CelestAI, so I'm really excited for this one!
8380322
What counts as real in Optimalverse's Equestria?
Not very many stories in FiO that show it from the other side or that of a child. You have me intrigued.
Upvoted and tossed on my tracking shelf.
I agree, we've never seen this 'verse from this perspective before. I'm intrigued.
"Entry Vector," eh? Several readings of that, all of them ominous in one way or another. I have to wonder why Flynn blames Celestia for his cancer. I suppose we'll find out soon enough. For now, there are griffin sky pirates to adventure with.
MAKE CELESTAI OBVIOUSLY EVIL AGAIN.
But you know it's an excuse.
The terrible thing is that you get to be grown-up, look in the mirror, and wonder how come you're so much visibly older than you're supposed to be.
8381207
It's been implied several times that the Ponypads have something either toxic or nuclear in them for powering the more normal electronics. All she has to do is put a mechanical switch in that exposes the user, and bam, sickness.
8382031
Interesting analysis as always. We'll find out soon, I'm sure!
Well, this is different.
If nothing else, hopefully Flynn can have some fun in spite of himself with this chapter of G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy celeStia).
8382031
I disagree. Remember, she's perfectly willing to use people's flaws to get what she wants, even where you or I would be disgusted by doing so.
It's entirely possible Flynn's parents just weren't that attached to him, not take care of a terminal cancer patient attached. Giving him that cancer weakened the attachment enough that they uploaded soon. As far as the AI is concerned, she can mop up Flynn a few months later or something before he actually dies. The intervening time spent (apparently) dying in a hospital bed is a triviality.
Dang, almost missed this...
This makes me think of a theory I heard about the matrix, that the resistance was secretly inside the matrix and all the conflict and strife and the victory all existed to make the rebel humans satisfied with the way of things in a sense.
Ah, so that's the problem, like always.