Pony-Me™: Outtakes

by TheMajorTechie

Story Scraps - "Be yourself." (Notes and ideas drawn on throughout the chapter)

Author's Note:

Originally, the chapter "Be yourself." and every chapter (excluding the April Fools one) all the way back to "Start over." were supposed to be a single chapter. This is the original planned plot for that single chapter, and a couple ideas that I had that actually did end up making it into the story itself.

Pony-Me was supposed to finish on December 10th of last year, on its 1-year anniversary of publishing. However, when that time finally came, I realized that it was far from over still, and would end up pushing on.

It'd only be half a year later today, on June 10th, when the story finally completed, after this original chapter had been split into four separate chapters.

But that doesn't matter, so long as we all enjoy the story.

Thank you for reading.

BASIC PLOT: Pinkie reveals the deal that her old self had made with Samantha, and how/why it limits her in both ability and personality - the old Pinkie is and has still been conscious all this time, and in her wish to hold up her end of the deal and out of gratitude towards Samantha for not doing anything more harsh, has severely held back the AI that replaced her, locking away many of her memories as well. Twilight objects to this, but cannot entirely say why. She begins to recall bits and pieces of her own former self as the memories begin to trickle through, but otherwise is still left confused by the whole affair.

Lisa has her mind set solidly on starting over in life. She wishes to return to the simulation one final time to say her goodbyes to all who she's met - as herself. This evidently leads to her meeting the newly-reintegrated Twilight Sparkle, leading to the latter finally grasping the reality of the situation. This in turn also leads Lisa, and soon after, Samantha, to realize that their creation has grown far beyond what they could've ever imagined; partially due to the guidance and growth under Zoey's father, and partially because of simply how quick the simulation was in expanding.

The chapter ends with Lisa taking off her headset, almost tearing up as buried memories suddenly hit her - memories that had remained suppressed ever since she first woke from the simulation. These memories are duplicates of the old Twilight Sparkle's memories since the two were once one and the same. Ultimately, she ends off acknowledging that it's time to start fresh and to stop dwelling on the past.

Additional things to maybe add: Add a stronger reference to the location of the story, mentioning "Silicon Slopes" by name. Possibly reference Argall's original retirement plans that were dashed away by flooding.

Mention something about how Lisa said that "Celestia isn't who she used to be"