Pony-Me™

by TheMajorTechie

You'll never know what's in store,

"So... Lisa's your real name." Timothy muttered to himself, "Huh."

Lisa turned to face the boy with a confused face.

"Nothing," Timothy dismissed, "it's... it's all just setting in on me. I'll get used to it..."

The girl smiled lightheartedly, and turned her focus to the sky.

"You know, now that there's a whole new plane of existence that we know of..." She began with a grin, still looking towards the bright daytime sky, "We could surely afford some time to--"

Lisa was interrupted by the sound of her former assistant's annoyed groaning. "You really are Twilight." he grumbled in exasperation, "The proof's right there in the way you speak."

Frowning, Lisa put a hand on Timothy's shoulder. "I know, Spike." She said calmly, "But I really do mean it, y'know. There's a whole lot more to see out there than what's in this city."

"Yeah, yeah." Timothy answered passively as he turned to face Lisa again, "But seriously. Just please don't overdo things again. And don't overthink either. I don't want you to freak out like all those other times."

"But--"

Timothy frantically scrambled to cut off the girl. "No buts!" he exclaimed, "You already put an entire town under a spell once, and... and--"

Lisa raised a brow inquisitively as her former assistant began to idly mutter to himself. He had a point, however. It was already hard enough to keep calm when she first woke. Not physically, but mentally.

Nevertheless, there was still much to see beyond the city the two now called home. And it wasn't as if they had a choice to begin with on whether or not they could wake. Not that they'd know even if they did, anyways.

"C'mon," Lisa began with a light pat on her friend's shoulder, "we should take a look around this place."

Timothy paused, glancing up towards the girl. "Wait. What?" He finally asked after a few moments, "There's hardly anything around here to see, y'know."

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Lisa deadpanned in return, staring down at the boy before glancing at his cobblestone pile.

---

The two-- Lisa and Timothy, strolled along the worn, little-used asphalt roads that made up the gridlike design of the city. Every so often the girl would wave or kindly greet a passerby, but otherwise little had yet to occur. The afternoon sun shone bright in the sky, eventually convincing the two to seek shelter indoors.

"So." Lisa began quietly to her friend, "It all leads back to City Hall."

The looming building sat silent before the two. As did the streets, laying dormant in the waning daylight. A select few, including Lisa and Timothy, still wandered the streets here and there, and even fewer still were silently taken off the streets by the strange men and women with briefcases, swept off to some unknown place. Even then, the streets remained eerily calm, the only noises created by the occasional scurrying rodent or tweeting bird.

After another few minutes or so of the creeping silence that blanketed the city, the two quietly made their way back into the sprawling network of streets cris-crossing the place.

"Hey," Timothy remarked offhandedly, finally breaking the long-standing silence, "Twilight, you wanna see my place?"

The girl shrugged. "Sure, why not. There's not much else to see around here." she said with a friendly smirk.

---

"And so we enter the domain of the fierce dragon, Spike!" Lisa jokingly chided as the two opened the door leading into the boy's room.

As was typical for the rest of the populace, Timothy's room consisted of no more than a lone cot, the behemoth of machinery accompanying said cot, and the occasional lonely piece of furniture.

The boy let out a deep sigh, dropping onto the cot, which let out a metallic groan that echoed through the small corridor. Lisa idly sat on the floor beside her former assistant, returning to her former habit of silently gazing through the dusty window.

Timothy flipped in his cot to face the girl. "So, uh, Twi, you haven't really said anything about your own place. Is it close by? I mean, I'm totally in for hanging out with you here, but I kinda want to see what--"

"It's the same." Lisa quietly mused, "It's all the same. Our rooms, our clothes, the cots we sleep on, everything."

The boy hesitated to continue talking after his friend had cut him off so abruptly. "O-oh." he stammered to himself, "Oh."

"And besides," Lisa continued playfully, "I don't think that you'd enjoy several hours of walking to some far-off cabin in the hills."

Timothy groaned. "Y'know," he began, "You seem to have a thing for mood swings, Twilight."

"CITIZENS OF SNOWBUSH." the voice of the heavy-coated man emanated once more throughout the streets, "A mandatory meeting will be held in the City Hall concerning food rations. All attendees will be logged to ensure that nobody receives another's rations."

Comments

[terrycloth]

ALL WILL BE EQUAL

[The REAL Mister Pkmn]

I can almost imagine "Spike" trying to munch on a rock when he woke up.

[mastermenthe]

Huh, did the city get built before or after VR?
Is the city actually more like a small town, with a grid built around a central government admin district zoning?

So little furniture, but furniture nonetheless.

I am beginning to wonder, is this one of many small towns that got "left behind" when VR-society adoption swept across their nation to such a degree that they got federal assistance to upgrade to "Economy 2.0" under the same logic of providing broadband internet to rural communities?

[mastermenthe]

"So... Lisa's your real name." Timothy muttered to himself, "Huh."

Lisa turned to face the boy with a confused face.

This reads as if Spike remembers more of this world than Twilight does, because Twilight is confused by Spike designating her human name as her "real" name, while Twilight herself sees both as valid, with Spike noticing that and deciding not to deal with starting up an existential definition debate.

[TheMajorTechie]

8636719
Nope. It's not gonna end there.

Well, technically, it is, but considering how this was originally a one-shot that built on top of a chapter from my "What If?" comedy anthology, I've tweaked this story to the point of which I now have three planned endings that take place in chronological order. Soooooo....
yeah.

8636754
City was built before VR and was originally a farming community before the VR society, and yes, Timothy somewhat remembers a bit more of his past life.

[Undead Equestrian Writer]

8636719
I'm confused as to what this has to do with my comment? I'm stating that if the network gets turned back on then she can go back into the Virtual Equestria but she would leave her friends and family behind, but if she doesn't go back the Equestria then she would leave the only life she knew behind.

[TheMajorTechie]

8637419
Which is exactly why I have plans for 3 separate endings...

[Undead Equestrian Writer]

8637576
Depression, the choose your own adventure sadness novel.

[Undead Equestrian Writer]

That's a good question? Has anyone made a Choose your own adventure fanfiction? Cause that would be cool and fun and interesting.

[TheMajorTechie]

8637738
I've seen one or two around here before. They're generally hard to write since the author has to manage multiple timelines at once instead of writing chronologically like most stories.

On the side note: I'm surprised that nobody seems to have noticed a minor detail within the most recent chapter. Something about people being taken away by the people with briefcases...

[Undead Equestrian Writer]

8637777
I'll try my hand at one this summer, sounds fun.

[AyanamiRei]

8637738
THe closest thing I can think of, is when Authors will take polls or whatever, and then write up the next chapter using the results or suggestions from the Readers.

[Soaring Symphony]

8637732
Eh, Black Mirror Bandersnatch did it better.