Pony-Me™

by TheMajorTechie

Guest Chapter: A Chance Encounter (DragonGeek)

Author's Note:

Guest chapter made by DragonGeek. Very slightly grammar tweaked for a bit of punctuation by me.

A quick thanks to the guest-writers as well. Coincidentally, I had hit 150 followers a day before my robotics competition began, so I've hardly got any time for writing myself at the moment. It shouldn't take too long before the 3-day long regional competition is over, however, so expect to see normal updates returning shortly.

Unlike the previous guest chapter, this chapter is largely canon to the rest of the story, save for OCs that likely wouldn't appear later on. Happy reading!

Lisa barely noticed where she was going as she walked home from meeting Samantha. Her mind was running over the details, over and over, searching for something she’d missed. She still had more questions than answers--even worse than when she’d begun!

Finally, she looked up at her surroundings, only to realize that she was lost. She’d been paying so little attention, she’d forgotten to even navigate. The town had only a basic layout; it shouldn’t have been that difficult to find her way back to the center if she could just get an idea of the direction it was in.

Sighing, she approached a woman standing by the side. Her brown hair was done in a long braid, almost to her waist. Lisa found herself wondering if anyone received haircuts while plugged into the simulations.

“Excuse me,” she began, “can you point me in the direction of the Town Center?”

The woman’s eyes opened wide. “I’d recognize that voice anywhere! Twilight Sparkle?”

“...yes?” Lisa answered uncertainly. “Do I know you?”

She moved back a bit, awkwardly. “Well, no, I guess you wouldn’t. I’d recognize you anywhere, though. Twilight Sparkle, the mare who invented three different library organizing systems, each more efficient than the last! I attended talks you gave on each one. I’d never forget that voice. So rational, so organized!”

“Are you… drooling?”

She straightened self-consciously. “No.”

Lisa decided not to press the matter. “What’s your name?” she asked with interest.

“Minty Clear.”

“Your real name.”

“It is.” Minty replied determinedly. “As far as I’m concerned, that world was real. The ponies I interacted with on a daily basis were real. The books they wrote for each other, the books they checked out from my library that they read time and time again that they dog-eared the pages of... and everything else, those were real.”

Lisa paused. She had forced the question down to the bottom of her mind, determined to focus on the here and now, but Minty’s words made it bubble up again with full force. When the power comes back on, will I re-enter the simulation? If Minty was to be believed, she’d made an impact on more than just her five friends--six, counting Spike.

Minty pointed to her left. “Also, the Town Center is that way.” she added.

“Thanks,” Lisa said, turning to head back. She tried to push the turmoil of thoughts within her back down, and focus on the here and now, but it wasn’t as easy as it had been before. Even when she tried to focus on making a checklist of what things she needed to do that day, the question bubbled up again:

Will I stay here, or go back to Equestria?

Comments

[The REAL Mister Pkmn]

Ah, the question comes back with a vengeance!

[Zaten the Changeling]

8769919
Yus!

[AyanamiRei]

I mean....on one hand it's like...why stay in this shithole of a reality?

On the other she IS doing some great work helping people, though how much of that would really be needed if things weren't so fucked?

[ferret]

9152281
The problem is if "this shithole of a reality" really is a shithole, you really can't go back. Who's going to grow the food that creates the sugars that go into whatever those nutrient tubes are? Who's going to maintain the equipment, to keep network failures from happening? Equestria is doomed, purely because its actual reality is falling apart. If your actual reality is a solar powered ball of computronium that's one thing, but they've still got... stomachs and stuff. And even the solar powered computronium, you're forced to awaken from if your sun gets too old and starts to go out.

Ultimately if the outermost reality is bound by thermodynamics, any simulation within it is just as bound by thermodynamics, and has to end, shut down, and be destroyed. The only hope is if the outermost reality is not bound by thermodynamics. Simulations within it can still be simulating thermodynamics, but if they end, then you can start up a new simulation, which might continue indefinitely. Trouble is to prove thermodynamics is only simulated, you have to hack the system and create a glitch that violates thermodynamics.