And old friends to greet.
"Hey!" Lisa called to the boy and his cobblestones.
The boy awkwardly glanced towards her, but otherwise continued constructing a small tower of stones.
"...Hi?" Lisa said again, walking closer to the boy.
He turned towards Lisa, but appeared almost as if he was distracted by something.
Lisa sat down beside the boy, watching silently as he continued to idly stack cobblestone slabs.
"So... where did you come from?" Lisa asked curiously, leaning closer towards the boy.
The boy rolled his eyes. "Someplace you don't need to hear about." he groaned, turning away from Lisa, "Just leave me alone!"
He stood up and turned to leave, kicking the stones over as he did so.
"Wait--" Lisa continued, standing up as well, "Please, why don't you want to talk?"
The boy paused, before turning to face Lisa. "Why do you want to know?!" He replied angrily, "I said leave me alone! I've already tried to talk to the others in this place, but all they do is laugh."
Lisa put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's okay," she said calmly, "I won't laugh."
The boy frowned. "Why should I trust you? I hardly know you! How can I know that you won't be like the others?"
"Shh," Lisa calmed as she placed a finger over the boy's mouth, "I'm sure that there's nothing to be embarrassed about."
"NYA HIGAWAH!" An older woman screeched as she shot past, slamming face-first into a brick wall.
The two gaped as the woman proceeded to peel herself from the wall completely unfazed, and stumble in a hop-like manner back to wherever it was that she had come from.
"Point taken," the boy sighed, "I guess coming from a pony simulation doesn't sound as stupid as wherever it was she came from."
Lisa sat back down, motioning for the boy to do the same. "So," she began, "Would you like to tell me a bit about yourself? Or at least... whoever you were before?"
The boy looked around nervously, but quickly turned back to face Lisa. "I..." he stammered quietly, "I was a library assistant. I was practically adopted by the pony that ran the place, to the point of which I pretty much was like a brother to her, but then yesterday, with the disconnect, one of the first things I saw when I got into her room was... was-- she just... vanished! I got really worried at first because of the way she disappeared, but then I got stuck in place, before being disconnected myself..."
Lisa mouthed an "Oh." before placing her hand on the boy's shoulder again. "It's okay. When I woke up, I found out that I lost a rather trusty assistant myself, as well."
The boy sniffed, and rubbed his eyes. "Wait, y-you mean--"
"I'm just happy to be with you again, Spike."
"You... you're Twilight?!" The boy exclaimed, looking Lisa from head to toe, "You don't even look like her! I mean, you still mostly sound like her, but..."
Lisa smirked. "Have you even looked at yourself yet, Spike?" she replied, "You don't exactly have any sort of striking resemblance yourself. Have you looked at you wristband yet?"
The boy nodded, lifting his right hand. "Right here. Says that I'm some Timothy Carter dude. I think I'll stick with being called Spike though."
Nodding, Lisa took Timothy's hand. "Well," she began slowly, "All I'm wondering now is the state of Equestria in our absence, and..."
"And?" Timothy pressed, "C'mon, Twi, let it out."
"...and whether or not we should go back." Lisa finished, "I mean, think about it for a moment. The two of us, and who knows whether or not our friends were disconnected as well, just vanish from the plane of existence without a word, quite possibly never to be heard from again."
Timothy nodded. "Uh huh. Go on?"
"If we suddenly return after days pass without us being seen or heard from anywhere, I'm sure that at that point, we'd be considered dead. Of which would mean that your return could not only spur panic, but widespread chaos throughout Equestria, leading to--"
"Twilight." Timothy deadpanned, "You're overthinking things again."
Lisa shook herself from her stupor. "Y-yeah. I was, wasn't I?" she sighed, "And I guess you can keep calling me Twilight, since we already know each other."
Timothy glanced back towards his cobblestone stack. "Yeah, I guess." he said quietly.
You never know who you meet when you wake up from your own (simulated) life! 
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Meeting the person you've only ever seen online. Do you be yourself, or did you have an "internet persona"? Are they really the person you thought you knew?
Oh, hey. Imagine all the people who were married in the simulation, but now get to meet the flesh vessels of their beloveds.
That woman... Was she a ghost in her simulation?
The cobblestone stacking might be linked to Spikes artificial-instinct of dragon greed translating backwards into Timothy Carter's human act, or perhaps he started the other way around and chose Dragon as it fit his interests.
...Assuming he was old enough to choose his avatar, because if Timothy Carter is as young as he seems, and if the simulation speed is 1:1 or slower, we might be looking at some people literally being born into VR pods...
...Assuming, also, that anti-aging technologies are not fully matured in this setting, allowing people a 1:1 or slower sim-life while their VR pods biologically halt the aging process, then Timothy Carter may be exactly as old now as he was when he entered the VR pod...
I wonder if this is a reference i should know? My first instinct was a Horde-Alliance World of Warcraft style of auto-translated language barrier gibberish, but that sort of thing would be an automatic effector, not a literal new language implanted by the VR pod.
Unfazed is really telling, it means two possible things: the simulation is able to train the pain responders of the brain or body as if it was real life, or society has advanced to the point of structurally reinforcing the head via bio/tech human augmentation...
A third possibility is that the woman has been mentally skewed by her simulation, as indicated by the apparently dominant locomotive habit, and the narrative perspectice simply made no observation of a smashed nose bleeding out.
The apparent depth of reality to the simulatio worlds relative to the mind is very intriging, especially since nobody has ethernet ports on their bodies... At least, as far as the narrative has shown us. Unreliable Narrator is always the name of the game, Kudzuhaiku taught that lesson repeatedly.
There is a glitch in the Matrix
8627842
8627826
It's... It's angry birds.
That's the roughly translated call of some of the birds that you hear immediately after flinging them.
8628116
That is horrifying.
Funny as hell reference, but horrifying in the story context.
Keep it up!!!
8628109
and its name is JOHN CENA
I just realized the chapter names go together.
8628604
Keep watching those titles. They may reveal something in the future...
8633817
But that raises a new questions, if she does, would she remember Earth? Yes, while you can write her in a happy ending, all her friends she made on Earth would miss her and she wouldn't be 'real'. All of her memories would be fake and her friends and family are fake. This topic is astromically sad and depressing. And from a realistic stand point if you had woken from your most beloved paradise and found out everything you understood and learned was a world created in Virtual Reality how would you feel. Most people might cry or be extremely angry, some, like me, would probably kill themselves. Although Lisa might be able to go back to being Sparkle, would she want to though?
8633990
Just wait...
This is a really interesting story setting, but to be honest, It's kind of short and lack of development. If the story could spend more words to describe everything. This could be "Friendship is optional" from other view. Aka a really good fiction. Can't wait to see the rest of the story.
8634113
Thanks!
8634001
For what?
8634205
Future chapters.
The world they know is about to grow quite a bit bigger...
8634282
Sure, but I call bullshit if this ends with any sort of happy-ish ending, this shit is sad and depressing and dark.
8634519
What about bittersweet? My current plan is shooting for that.
8635086
Sure
8634519
I don't think it's safe to assume the story would end when the network gets turned back on.
8634519
8636719
I know right?
This chapter was leaps better than the last.
Spike is still a sweetie, also thinking to myself.
Would it have been kind of funny if Lisa's name was Tara, then spike saying the voice thing would have been classic.
Great chapter though.
Need to take a break from this bite sized adventure.
9011643
Alrighty.
Woo
Oooooooohhhhhh!!! How sweet!!
8627814
Whoever's playing Shining armor is in for a massive disappointment. No human woman could ever be as hot as Cadence.