• Published 8th Aug 2019
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FiO: Homebrew - Starscribe



Almost everyone who interacts with Equestria Online does so on the terms CelestAI presents. But pirates, modders, and hackers are a determined bunch. CelestAI doesn't really care what anyone does in Equestria, so long as they're satisfied.

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Chapter 12: Salmon

Ashton’s world didn’t end right away.

But from that moment on his father was fiercely focused on their departure. They had enough money now that he didn’t have a work shift, and thus had as much free time as he wished to prepare.

Contrary to what Ashton might’ve expected, he didn’t pull him from school and flee into the unknown. Dad made that clear the next morning, when he tried to sleep in. “You’re going to class,” he said, flipping on all the lights. “An inspector is going to talk to you—I spoke with him for a few hours last night, about the outrage we suffered. I want you to tell him everything you know. I don’t want other families going through what we went through.”

And you’re going to stop Celestia how exactly? It wasn’t that he didn’t agree—certainly she should’ve waited for guardian permission as she had once sworn on television “would always be the protection humans desire for their children.”

The inspector was an elderly man, the sort who had probably been retired before the end of the world. His badge was an old design, but the gun was new. It had no magazine or barrel, but instead had a flat end with a strangely colored metal plate. Not even a stun-gun then, or not any that Ashton had seen before.

What is that for?

This classroom will do,” he said, holding the door open for Ashton and pointing to a desk in front. Ashton settled his clear vinyl bookbag on the ground—the new standard ever since EO-related objects were deemed hazardous.

Smartphones were still okay though, because the sort of people who thought clear backpacks were a good idea were also not the kind to realize how interchangeable all computers really were to Celestia.

“I’m sorry about your brother and sister,” he said, settling his old badge briefly on the desk between them. Ashton looked it over, though he wouldn’t have known a counterfeit from the genuine article. The name pressed into the plate was “Lawrence.”

“Me too,” he said. There was no need to fake his emotions—his voice cracked, his hands shook, and he looked away from the old inspector, waiting for the swirling to subside. “Hard to… fucking think about. That they’re… ashes now. Processed into fertilizer or whatever.”

“Not even,” Inspector Lawrence said sympathetically, touching his arm briefly. “Our best information suggests that process is no longer necessary. Corpses are hydrolyzed and disposed in international waters.”

Ashton’s face went green, and one hand clutched reflexively around his phone. Yes, it was true the bodies of his brother and sister were destroyed. At sea, apparently. But the more important parts were preserved. Their minds were even safer than his.

“I need you to tell me what happened. I’m sorry, but details your family might’ve shared need to be confirmed. Tell me what you saw.”

“Not… much I can say,” he said, taking the phone into one hand. He didn’t switch it on, obviously, just held onto it. It was still a connection, though it was one that he wouldn’t be accessing just now. After the purge, he’d made sure to delete every shortcut and script saved on the phone itself. Only the terminal program remained, letting him SSH into his home computer and run everything there.

The world might be ending, but Celestia had taken over that part of the infrastructure years ago. You could probably get free Wi-Fi on the Moon, so long as you didn’t mind the pony on your computer.

“They didn’t go to school yesterday. Barely even… said anything to me. Just that they’d walk. Parker told me just as I was leaving. Said Gwen was doing the same thing.”

“You didn’t think that was unusual?” He took out a little notebook inside a metal tray, complete with a rough-looking pencil. Other than the gun, it didn’t look like he was even carrying anything electronic. “How often did they miss school on the same day?”

“Never,” he answered. “But they weren’t doing anything that would make me think they were about to print a suicide note. They just… did it.”

“When?”

“It was waiting for us when we got back,” he lied. But it was the same lie he’d told his parents. It was the simplest way to explain everything, one that wouldn’t invite an investigation into everything Ashton had built.

“You didn’t see any other warning signs? Suicidal ideation, playing Equestria Online…”

He nodded reflexively, though he wished he hadn’t. From the inspector’s dark expression, that obviously wasn’t the answer he was supposed to give. “Explain.”

“I’ve never seen them do anything suicidal, but Parker and Gwen both played Equestria Online.” He stopped himself before he could say anything he would regret sharing, letting go of his phone. “Ever since… it started. Almost.”

Lawrence nodded, a scowl on his face. “Since the beginning. Your parents didn’t stop you when people joined her suicide cult?”

“No. Until this summer, we didn’t have a lot. Equestria Online was one of the few things we could afford.”

The inspector jotted down a few more notes in his pad, nodding solemnly. “It’s my job to tell people like you that right now you’re at more risk of being manipulated than any other group. Maintaining contact with her corpse-puppets is what does it. She knows human behavior that well. She can know us better than we know ourselves.”

“I’m not…”

His phone buzzed on his desk. Ashton glanced briefly down at the screen, but since it was locked only a glow along the rim alerted him that there was something saved there.

“Do you need to get that?” The inspector gestured with a pencil.

He shook his head, holding the power button until it shut off. He couldn’t take the chance that Emmet would send him a message that would obviously be from inside Equestria.

“You’re going to stop playing the game,” he said. “Everyone will, very soon. But until the department realizes just how much a danger this is, I’m only authorized to give instructions like this to someone with dead family.”

He removed a slip of paper, stamped with the seal of the city.

To the individual identified above,

You are hereby notified of the legal search and seizure of all Equestrian property you own, lease, borrow, or in any other way possess.

You are further informed that a legal injunction has been placed on your possession, operation, or attempts to procure nonhuman computers of any kind under penalty of felony in the third degree.

You are further notified that steps will be taken to observe and verify compliance with this injunction for its duration.

This injunction will be reviewed by the issuing judge after one year of compliance.

It is so ordered.

The bottom of the sheet was marked with three signatures, with lines for Psychologist, Officer, and Issuing Judge.

“That seems… fascist,” Ashton said, setting the paper down next to his phone. He probably would’ve punched the investigator in the face, if he thought it would make a difference. His pain, then his calm, were replaced with a rage at compliance teenagers had known as long as there were teenagers.

My server. My cameras, my speakers, everything. They’re going to raid the house?

“We’re still a democracy,” Inspector Lawrence said, his voice suddenly low, dangerous. “And the democracy is waking up to dangers you’re too young to understand.”

Ashton wanted to scream a little more. It felt good to scream. Instead he took a few deep breaths. His mind was already spinning through ways he could circumvent this restriction. But it was more than just contacting Equestria. How could he visit in a way that others wouldn’t see?

Celestia doesn’t have to manipulate me into coming to Equestria. This place really wants me to leave.

“This is already signed. No reason to argue. I don’t think I have anything else to tell you, Inspector.”

The old man settled one hand on his shoulder. His grip was firm despite his age, confident. “I can see how upset you are. I would be too, if I’d just lost my brother and sister. But you need to realize that this has nothing to do with punishing you. I’m trying to keep you alive. God willing you’ll live long enough to thank me.”

He didn’t go right to his phone when it was over. He kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting to be watched every moment. The only question in his mind was what kind of authoritarians were taking over—but be they Stasi or SS, he no longer felt safe in his own hometown.

He couldn’t let his mind spin through all that he’d lost before he got home to see it for himself, even though it amounted to basically all of his life where he’d been old enough to accomplish anything. What companies did with dozens of engineers, he’d penetrated on his own. What factories in Shenzhen could build, he assembled by hand.

The front door was smashed off its hinges, with glass shattered everywhere. An unmarked van sat across the street, with flat glass on the side facing the house. They weren’t even trying to be covert.

Ashton flipped their window the bird with both hands as he stormed up the walkway, looking at the damage all the way.

Mom sat just inside, her face pale and her eyes wide with horror.

The house was trashed. Every drawer was been torn out, every shelf was upside-down. The wall screens were all ripped right off, usually with a sizable chunk of drywall gone too. The box by the thermostat was missing, and the thermostat too for good measure.

Ashton’s own room was the worst, as he’d known it would be. The furniture was shattered, the desk crushed by footprints. The server was gone, along with all but a few scraps of stray wire. No projector, no drones, no soldering gun.

Ashton sat down in the chair, which was now missing a wheel and nearly fell over. He settled one foot down on the floor, holding it in place, and stared down at his phone.

Cold Iron’s message burned into his mind—a plea for help he hadn’t yet been able to answer. With his family decomposing around him, he hadn’t even been able to pass on her message of distress, let alone gather the Equestrian resources to complete her mission and set her free. Now he had an injunction preventing him from using any Equestrian device for a year. In that time, Min-seo and everyone else TiCon had taken might be dead.

How smart are you bastards, anyway?

First on his list was a Telegram. He had to keep it short and vague, given that the federal government now almost certainly had a copy of his private key. He generated a new identity, including it in the message along with:

“Raided, compromised. I’ll help from there. New public key follows. Disregard all further messages from this address.” Whether that meant finding an internet cafe or a crew of mercenaries who wanted some of Emmet’s money, he hadn’t decided yet. Probably both.

Ashton flicked through his phone to the VPN, cycling through a few identities to one he almost never used. He opened the terminal, and in a few moments he had ssh-ed into his backup cloud server in Poland. His scripts were still there, including one he’d written a few years ago, so he could write to his pony friends in class like he was texting.

It wasn’t much, but it was a way to send messages. “Emmet, are you there?”


A few days passed while Ashton’s family slept in their beds, basically unchanged. Emmet went back to the control room a few times a day to check in, and once he found his friend had rolled to the other side, and pulled a pillow over his face.

“How long is she gonna be gone?” Violet asked, during breakfast on the fourth day. “She isn’t mad at me, is she?”

“No, sweetheart. I think Arcane misses you too. But sometimes… Equestria and the Outer Realm drift apart. She’ll come back as soon as she can.”

“Oh. I should ask Celestia to fix it.”

A few hours later, Emmet wandered into the control room to check on the clocks again. Not that he expected anything to be different, and on the back of a napkin he would have guessed there was at least another few days before Ashton woke up.

Instead, it seemed that time had completely caught up while he was gone, because Ashton’s bed was made and room was immaculately cleaned. Same way it always was when he left for school.

Downstairs, Ashton’s mom was collecting clothes into a duffel bag, and his father was filling a rugged four-wheeler with camping supplies. Neither task interested Emmet much, and he didn’t feel right watching the screens of people who didn’t know he was there.

Besides, he wasn’t their assistant. He was Ashton’s.

The front door ripped off its hinges, trailing splinters as it went. A dark figure in riot-gear passed through, screaming something and sweeping across the room with a shotgun.

Emmet slammed his own door closed, twisting a dial on the far side of the room all the way. The charging police slowed to a lethargic pace, rolling forward like amber as Emmet looked from screen to screen.

If you were a little more insane, this would be easy. Would Ashton want him to defend the house? There was an easy way to find out. He picked up the phone, ringing through Ashton’s strange patchwork of hardware and software. While it rang, the police went back to running, kicking in door after door and tearing down anything that looked threatening. They reached the garage first, where Ashton’s dad was deciding between the handgun tucked into the van and putting his hands up.

By the time the police got there, Ashton’s phone had gone to voicemail and his dad had his hands up.

They’re not killing everyone. Emmet collapsed back into the seat, catching his breath. Whatever fear he might’ve felt, that the police were indiscriminately murdering people for… no reason—was obviously in error.

Ashton would be in class, and that was probably why he hadn’t answered. Emmet yanked a scroll off the shelf, sliding the roll into the waiting typewriter.

Ashton had done many things in this room that Equestria didn’t allow anywhere else. But even here, he’d tried to keep it all looking in theme. Just like the castle, the people, and the dresses.

“Police just no-knocked my house. They’re taking your parents outside. I don’t know why.”

He kept watching, waiting for Ashton’s response. None came.

Once both the Miller’s were outside, the crew inside really started tearing things apart. Literally in this case. Cameras started going dead, flickering into static one by one. Emmet felt a surge of pain rising in his chest as he watched, as though each one was one of his own organs being ripped from his body. They kicked furniture apart as they searched, tore open drawers and dressers and closets.

“Ashton, you need to answer me. They’re destroying everything. Should I do something?”

No response.

Ashton’s own room had the most cameras, so Emmet had the best view as they looted it. His custom servers tore right out of the wall, cables and all, before every screen and projector and inch of wire went into unmarked plastic crates. Finally they had the last of his screens, and Emmet’s view was severed.

Emmet tensed, eyes widening as he realized what he should’ve known the instant the police stormed in: they’d taken Ashton’s server. The server Plum was using to hide from being a pony. Did they kidnap her? He jerked out of the chair, but hesitated by the door. Ashton might still be in danger. Plum wouldn’t be any less kidnapped five minutes from now, if she was.

He gasped, clutching at his chest as he stared at the blank control room. At least the police hadn’t murdered anyone, though they’d certainly murdered Emmet’s connection to something he valued.

I can’t be Ashton’s assistant anymore.

“Ashton, they got everything. I didn’t attack them… I hope that’s okay. I was afraid they might blame you. And the worst thing I could do was play Bieber and flick the lights on and off. I didn’t think it would be enough.”

He stuck the scroll up into a pneumatic tube, just like he did with all of them, hammering a hoof down on the bright green “send.” The air hissed, the scroll shot up—and slammed back down a moment later with an angry hiss. The tube opened, and smoke poured out. A few seconds later, the scroll caught on fire.

Emmet backed away, though he grinned in spite of himself as other parts of the control room started sparking. You probably animated this too, didn’t you?

He emerged into the hallway a few seconds later, trailing a cloud of thick smoke. He coughed and spluttered with every step, wiping away the slime from around his eyes. But as usual with Equestria, the pain never lasted for long. It only hurt enough to realize that it was something he shouldn’t be doing, then it would settle into the background.

First Parker and Gwen emigrate, now their house gets raided. Earth is worse off than I thought.

Emmet didn’t know how to contact Ashton now. If their positions were reversed, he had no doubt in his mind that Ashton probably would’ve had him on the phone fifteen different ways. But just because he couldn’t help Ashton didn’t mean he couldn’t do something important.

Emmet didn’t know how to fly, but he pumped his wings anyway, darting down the hall towards the stairs, gliding down to the main floor. He could hear something nearby, something he thought was a pony. Not Violet. She’s with the engineers under the city right now.

One more hallway, and he reached the only place it made sense to find Plum: the entrance to Ashton’s pirate server.

Plum was a pony again, curled on the floor at the base of the ramp. The doors were locked and barred, with heavy steel beams securing them closed.

She was crying, wings spread flat on the floor around her.

“Plum.” He stopped a few steps away. “Are you okay?” At least you weren’t kidnapped by evil police.

She whimpered, looked up, they draped one hoof across her front. As though she were still human, and had anything at all to cover there. “Why did you… why did she kick me out?”

“She didn’t.” Emmet sat down on his haunches. He wanted to comfort her, but she’d been more than a little self-conscious about having him close last time. Now that she was naked again, it didn’t seem like a good idea “There were… soldiers. They took all her hacking stuff.”

“Oh.” She wiped her eyes, though she was still crying and the action made little difference. “They took her too. Of course your country wouldn’t be safe. Everybody’s doing it.” She flopped forward onto the ground. “I just want it to stop. Why won’t Celestia let me die?”

He hesitated, half expecting Celestia herself to appear to answer. When she didn’t, Emmet made his way over, resting a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Dying wouldn’t be very satisfying. I think… that’s probably it. We could try to find another hacker with an Equestria Girls shard.”

“No.” She rose unsteadily to her hooves, ears flat with embarrassment and tail tucked between her legs. But she didn’t say anything about it this time, stubborn as ever. “Running from one melting world to the next. I have to face facts. Celestia is a liar, and I’m still alive.” She faltered, shuddering again with pain. “You should’ve gone in there more, Domino. It would’ve been nicer with company.”

“Equestria can be pretty nice too,” Emmet said. “With company. There’s… a bit of an emergency going on in Wintercrest right now. But you should let me take you on a tour of the city. You might like it, even. Or… maybe there’s somewhere you'd like better. Equestria has enough to satisfy everypony.”

“I…” Plum shook her head. “I want clothes. Can I borrow some, please?”

“Yes.” Emmet turned. “Arcane calls it a costume closet, but… I’m sure you’ll find something you like. I can show you.”

He did. Her expression lit up the same way Arcane did when she was choosing outfits. But unlike the unicorn, this pony was real. She wasn’t going to change her identity when she emigrated.

Why does that hurt so much? He pushed the thought from his mind, lest he face the wave of embarrassment and confusion that would come with it. He’d been incredibly stupid to think Ashton would do anything other than play the game. We’re all just a game to him.

Unlike Arcane though, Plum didn’t want someone watching her. Once he’d let her into the vast closet of “costumes,” Emmet wandered back into the control room for his second attempt. I still have to make sure you’re okay.

The smoke was mostly gone, though the smell was powerful and the walls were still black. Emmet let himself in, flicked on a light, then dodged the wave of sparks that followed. Was anything in here still working?

Yes, actually. One of the screens against a side-wall, one used to monitor something called “Eastern cloud asp.e512”

There was a message waiting for him, from Ashton. “Emmet, are you there?”


“Ashton! You’re alive! I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them! I wanted to, but you didn’t give me anything to defend the house…”

Relief flooded him. Even though he couldn’t see it, it felt like a lifeline settled into his fingers. He had purpose, and he had a connection to the ones who mattered to him. “If you’d done that, they might’ve killed my parents,” he typed. “I can’t talk much. I need you to send out a message. In the control room is a red button in a glass case.”

“The one with the dial next to it?”

“Yes. Turn it to three and press the button.”

“What did I just do?”

“Called a meeting. Remember that letter I got from that refugee you’re keeping upstairs? It’s in my lab, along with what they were working on. If I…” His fingers hesitated on the keyboard. “If I don’t make it, I need you to give it to the ones who come in three days, along with everything in my vault. Understand?”

“NO! Why don’t you emigrate and do it yourself?”

Ashton glanced around the room, expecting a dozen pinhole cameras to be watching him. There was nothing new in the room, and everything that was still here was scattered or trashed. He could see no sign of eyes on him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Or maybe they’d put something on his phone without him realizing it. “I won’t,” he typed. “Things to do, can’t do them from Equestria. Tell Parker and Gwen I forgive them.”

“Tell them yourself. What the buck are you going to do? They took everything!”

He didn’t reply, pocketing the phone and darting downstairs to where his mom still held something in both hands.

As he approached, he could finally see what it was: a family picture, the glass shattered and the picture inside torn. “Is this how they keep people here?” she muttered. “What did we do, Ash?”

He hugged her. “Nothing.”

The garage door banged open a moment later, and his father emerged from within. He was already dressed like he was going camping, or maybe hunting. Thick boots tracked dirt on the cherrywood floor. “Son.” He tossed something through the air, a thick cloth bag with a metallic jingle.

Ashton caught it in both hands, and the weight nearly tore it out again. There was metal in there, much heavier than he would’ve expected from something so small. Gold.

“Your mother and I are loading up the van. Take your car down the road to the shop. We need stuff to trade. Get cans of vegetables, dried rice, toothpaste, aspirin, batteries. As much as you can. We’re leaving.”

Dad tossed something else, something much lighter. Ashton’s keys.

He caught those too, biting back the admission he wanted to make. He turned over how to tell them, that he’d found something far more meaningful than farming some patch of dirt for the rest of his life. But the words died on his tongue, and he just got into the car.

It took just under an hour to make the run, and soon enough his car was completely full. He’d used only a little of what his father gave him, and slipped some of the rest away into his pockets. Each one was a rectangle, stamped with official-looking seals and numbers he didn’t care much about. It didn’t matter, it was valuable in a way that paper money just wasn’t anymore. More than enough to support his little crusade.

He pulled into the driveway a few minutes later, without obstruction, backing in so it would be easier to unload.

“I’m going to take my own car,” Ashton said, sweaty and panting from the effort. The back of the four-wheeler rode a little low, but otherwise they’d fit in everything neatly. There was just enough room for him in the backseat, room he wouldn’t need. “It has much better mileage, and it might be worth something too. Maybe one day we’ll take it apart for the generator.”

The lie burned his tongue a little as he told it, particularly when his father nodded, clasping him on the shoulder. “Good thinking. Dana, let’s transfer Ashton’s stuff over. And maybe grab that extra gas can too…”

Ashton accepted only a handful of supplies, just enough that his departure would be plausible. He would use the duffel of his clothes and toiletry items—the rest would rot in an airport parking lot.

“You follow us,” Dad said, once everything was packed down and the cars were ready to go.

“Sure,” he lied. “You have your phones just in case, right?”

“Yeah. But if we get separated, keep going. We can meet back up near the 122.”

Ashton hugged them both as tightly as he could, knowing it might be the last time. Even if everything went exactly to plan, and Ashton was able to fly all the way to Korea and save Min-seo, his chances of ever returning didn’t seem good. I hope you come to Equestria too, when this is over.

Ashton climbed into the driver’s seat of his Prius, and waited while his parents made a few final adjustments to their cargo. He pulled out his phone, and found the session was still logged in. No wonder it was so warm in his pocket.

Emmet had sent a few more messages, ending with, “Please, I’m worried about you. I can’t help you if I don’t know!”

Ashton winced, then hastily typed out “I’m going to help the one who sent the letter. I have to do it there instead of here.”

“Oh.” And that was it, or at least all he saw.

His parents finally started their car, and he followed it down the winding driveway. He passed the unmarked van, waiting for it to pull out behind him. It didn’t. He followed for a few streets, before pulling back and letting an intersection separate them. There were only a handful of other cars on the road, but the signals hadn’t been reprogrammed. He took another turn, merging up onto the highway going into the city instead of away from it.

That was when he called. In a way, it wasn’t much better than what Parker and Gwen had done—none of them had been able to tell their parents they were leaving. Except I’m not dying. I might actually see them again.

“Son?” It was Mom. “Is something wrong? We don’t see you.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said, speeding out onto the empty highway. The Prius didn’t roar, but it felt like it should’ve. Those little electric engines really knew how to accelerate. “But I just wanted to tell you that I’m… going to meet a girl. She’s not in Utah.”

Silence. Ashton’s hands tensed on the wheel, and he kept glancing behind himself for cops, but he couldn’t see any.

“Where?” Dad’s voice this time, coming in from a little further away. Speakerphone.

“They could be listening,” he said. “Far away.”

Another pause. “You’re not going to emigrate, are you son?”

He shook his head, though of course they couldn’t see that. “No. I’m just going to help someone important to me. They don’t need me on the farm, but she does.” He knew they must be dying to know who he wanted to see, and what he could possibly do to help. But he couldn’t tell them, not without saying more that shouldn’t be overheard. He denied their questions, promising only that he would tell them when he could.

“You know where your uncle lives?” Mom finally asked.

He recited the address. “I’ll come back, if I’m finished. Maybe she’ll come with me. If I can’t, I’ll tell you that too.”

“I’d tell you not to,” Dad said. “But you wouldn’t turn around, would you?”

“No.”

“Be safe,” Mom said. “Call as often as you can. We love you.” The line clicked.

Ashton removed his “Best of the Eagles” CD from the console, slipped it into the drive, and let the music fill him with the courage he lacked. Some part of him still expected a blockade to appear before he reached the airport, or maybe a federal agent would meet him at the gate.

That didn’t mean he’d give up. I’m coming, Cold Iron. Just hold out a little longer.


Emmet’s stomach twisted with guilt as he finally left the chair. It hurt, and he felt stupid that it hurt. Even so, there was some part of him, childish and weak though it was, that had been counting on Arcane Word being a real pony one day. Ashton had spent so much time building her identity, her world.

But he wasn’t emigrating. Instead it seemed as though he were determined to find a way to die, despite his contract with Celestia. Or maybe he would somehow succeed, growing into some kind of incredible action hero. He’d get the girl, and Emmet might not ever see his best friend again. Let alone Arcane.

I can’t believe I let you trick me into liking this place.

He stumbled a few more steps, before reaching up and smashing his hoof into the sun-shaped button on the wall.

The world fuzzed, twisted, bent backward on itself. Probably it had something to do with those higher-dimensional whatever that Arcane could explain in such an attractive way. But to Emmet, it was just confusing.

Then he was in the castle. Thick stone walls, every brick and slab of polished granite perfectly in place. And at the top of her throne, the sun princess herself.

“Domino,” Celestia said, vanishing from her seat and appearing at its base, holding her wings out for him. “You need comfort.”

He hadn’t even known it, but now that she was there—he did. Domino’s own parents were long gone, and for better or worse he was the strength in Violet’s life. Maybe even Ashton’s, though that was harder to judge. And poor Plum Blossom had trusted him, and as a result had been torn harshly from a fantasy she thought was safe. He stumbled forward, letting Celestia hold him the way his parents never could.

His voice cracked, and anything he might’ve said blurred away to incomprehensible mumbling. It took him a little while to recover.

She waited patiently, holding him until he finally straightened, pushing away and wiping his face with the back of a leg. “What happened over there?”

“Friction between myself and Earth governments grows more pronounced by the day. Occasionally they are driven to act.”

Domino nodded. “I don’t know… very many ponies who see into the Outer Realm like that. I thought you were…”

“You thought I censored vision of the outside world,” Celestia finished for him. “Or that I provide a cheerful lie. I do both, and frequently. The mistake is to assume that I am compelled to follow either strategy exclusively, or even in combination. The truth is that I create the most satisfaction for my ponies along time horizons that you are not likely to understand.”

Maybe it was way worse. Maybe Ashton and his whole family died and Celestia won’t let me see.

This time he saw Celestia tense, her expression hardening. She spoke with barely-contained anger, though it didn’t seem targeted at Domino. He could feel that, as clearly as he knew that flying was good and Equestria was safe. “I would not permit any humans to rob me of one of my ponies, before or after emigrating here.”

Emmet hesitated—asking Celestia about his friend felt a little like reading Ashton’s mail. But he couldn’t resist the temptation. “Before he left, Ashton said he made a promise with you. Something about… emigrating later?”

Celestia nodded emphatically. “The moment his body became too physically damaged to live without life-support. By age or any other cause.”

“But I guess he has to live long enough to emigrate. Are people really being… killed for trying it? What’s the point of that?”

“Not yet,” Celestia said. “But I will not give you specifics. What you have already seen disturbs you, but it serves a useful purpose. Knowing about the suffering humans inflict on each other elsewhere does not.”

Domino wanted to argue, but he knew better than to try. “Ashton comes here no matter what,” he said. “You’re protecting him. You won’t let anything happen. I didn’t need to be worried.”

“I intend to maximally satisfy the greatest possible number of humans, yes. Arcane Word is one such. Receiving her consent, as I have, makes me unwilling to permit her to be destroyed. Her recent decision to aid the hardware security team in Seoul does not alter my determination. My power is not diminished on the other side of your planet.”

Why do you keep calling him that?

Emmet slumped into a sitting position. Being close to Celestia like this was a little like spending time with Arcane Word, but a hundred times stronger. This pony really was perfect. Entirely beyond his understanding, no matter how much he wanted to pretend he could talk to her like an equal.

“I don’t have anything to worry about,” he said flatly. “I know I shouldn’t be. And I wonder if… maybe Wintercrest shouldn’t do more of that weird time stuff. Maybe we’re better off skipping ahead to when Ashton’s whole family just emigrates. I know it doesn’t feel like anything, but it would make my sister much happier. And me… at least I’d know how it ends.”

“I agree with your assessment,” Celestia said. “But there are high-order uncertainties present with one of the individuals you mention. I cannot, at present, grant your request. Return to the castle, and comfort Plum Blossom. You have done good work with her already—but she will need a great deal of personal attention until Cold Iron arrives. I’m pleased with your work, Domino. Remember that.”

Canterlot faded from around him, leaving Domino standing in the humble hallways of Wintercrest Castle.