Pony-Me™: Outtakes

by TheMajorTechie

Early Years #1: A family friend

Author's Note:

Have a (hopefully) short mini-prequel series neatly packaged into the main story. This section of Pony-Me will be written as multiple time-skipped chapters in chronological order, detailing how Lisa, as she is now, came to be.

I'm currently debating whether I should roll back the past few chapters and continue on with the original plans, or if I should forge on with a new idea that I recently came up with.

The former would be much more thought-out, while the latter dives straight into pseudoscience territory simply because it needs an explanation that actual science has yet to prove. Or as far as I know, even theorize.

Lisa lay idly on her bed, reading a book while her legs swayed in the air. She flipped the page, pausing for a moment to look at her sunlit window. Smiling, she turned her attention back to the colorful pages of her picture book.

"Lisa! Come down, honey! There's somebody who wants to meet you!"

She turned her head, slipping a bookmark into place as she rolled off the bed. "'Kay, mom!" Lisa answered, "I'm coming!"

Lisa rushed down the stairs, her small hands sliding over the wooden railings as she descended. She jumped at the last two steps, a beaming smile on her face.

"Oh? Hello there." A man smiled, glancing down at the young girl running around his legs. "Your dad here tells me quite a bit about you at work. You must be Lisa."

"Yep!" Lisa nodded, pointing at her mother's arms, "And that's my little brother!"

The man ruffled the baby's hair, prompting playful babble from the latter. "I know." He replied. "Your dad's been talking his mouth off about little Timothy here for the past few minutes."

A slip of paper in the man's other hand caught Lisa's attention.

The man glanced down at the girl, tracing her eyes to the paper he held. "Ah," he gasped, "nearly forgot about this." He held up the pamphlet. "My colleagues and I, your dad included, recently decided to try opening up a year-round camp of sorts for basic and advanced programming. Though, he's probably already told you about that."

"Nope."

The man looked at Lisa's father, enacting only a shrug in response.

"Anyhow," the man continued, slinging an arm around Lisa's father, "I came here to personally ask Lisa here if she'd be interested. She likes finding out how things work, doesn't she?"

Lisa nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I like to take things apart and put them back together again! Like... um... oh, a few days ago I--"

"Alright, Lisa." Her mother began, "I think he already knows that if he came here to talk to you. Y'know?"

Lisa quieted, mumbling under her breath something about the alarm clock not working anyways.

The man cleared his throat, continuing on. "Now then. Since you like learning so much, would you like to sign up for the camp your father and I are setting up?"

Lisa hesitated for a moment. "What... what kinda stuff is there going to be to learn there?"

"Lots of things, Lizzy." Her father smiled, "I brought the idea to Argall specifically because I knew that it'd be something you would like." He pulled out his phone, waving it in the air. "You see all the apps on this?" he continued, "That's what you'll be learning to make."

Lisa's eyes grew wide as a toothy grin quickly spread across her face. "I'm going to learn how to make games and stuff?" she squealed, jumping up and down, "Let me join!"

The man placed a hand on her shoulder with a chuckle. "Alright now, sport. Let's not get too hasty yet..."

Lisa stopped, staring in confusion at the man.

"...'cause that's not all there is to learn."

Lisa wrinkled her nose. "How can there possibly be more to learn?"

"Two things." Her father chimed in, "Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality."

The man snorted at his coworker's remarks, folding his arms. "Yeah, and we totally don't have enough home-assistants hooked up yet. Y'know?"

He earned a glare in return.

"Aw, geez." the man continued, waving a hand. "Can't you ever handle a joke? Of course she can learn those fields. After all, both of those technologies have practically plateaued for the past decade or so. We need new ideas from people who haven't been shaped by what they've seen yet."

Lisa looked at her mother.

"Alright," she sighed, turning to Lisa's father as she handed the baby to him, "Just as long as you can show that it won't get in the way of school in the next few months."

"Yusss..." Lisa and her father simultaneously cheered, enacting a giggle from the former.

The man shoved his hands into his pockets. "Now then," he began again, pulling out a car key, "would you like a first look at the campus?"

---

"Wow!" Lisa squealed, rushing to the doors of the building. "Is this where the camp is?"

The man nodded, the keys to the door dangling loosely between his fingers as he exited the car. "Sure is," he replied, "A whole building, just for our little corner of the world."

Lisa pressed her face against the window, ogling at the glass walls separating the rooms. She turned back around, shouting, "It looks like one of those fancy headquarters buildings that me and my mom drive past sometimes!"

"And that's exactly what it is." Her father grunted, catching up to his daughter. "This here's the centerpiece of our new company."

"...Company?"

The door unlocked with a click. "Yup." The man answered, "Your father and I started a business with our colleagues. You remember seeing Miss Daalmans before, right?"

Lisa nodded. "She was... I think the lady at the front desk, right?"

The man nodded. "She's with us, now. She's got an idea to keep the business profitable without needing anyone to pay. Think of it as school, but you earn money while you're learning instead of paying money to learn."

"Huh?" Lisa cocked her head. "I... I don't get it."

"You don't have to, Liz." Her father said, patting her on the head. "At least, not yet."

The man snorted, opening the door. "Yeah, even I still don't completely know what she means yet. Interns can be a bit weird, y'know?"

The trio stepped inside.

"Anyways," the man continued as they made their way through the short hallway, "This is the only physical building we've got. Everything else is managed over the web, so the actual buildings we own will be reserved entirely for the kids."

Lisa tugged at the man's sleeve. "Can I use those?" she asked, pointing at the computers lining the wall in a sideroom.

The man nodded, enacting the girl to run off with a cheer. Abruptly, however, she froze in place, before turning to face him again.

"Um," Lisa began feebly, "thanks, mister..."

"Argall," the man answered, walking to Lisa and extending a hand. "I'll be your professor in this course along with your father. Pleased to meet you, Lisa."

Lisa awkwardly shook Argall's hand with both of her own, and once again ran off for the computers.

As for Argall, he spun around, flashing a cocky smile and a thumbs-up at Lisa's father, who only shook his head in return.

"That's the most awkward introduction I've ever seen you do."