The Reality
Darkness.
Darkness… fell away, slow as a blanket.
Sunset found herself staring at a mass of dots. Then she blinked, and they became cords.
Lots of them.
Groaning, she reached up and pushed them aside – then baulked as more cords came up with her limbs. Others weighed down on her head, her ears, her mouth, her nose: Schmooze cords everywhere, hovering just above her skin.
Of course. Memory trickled back. She’d developed the most advanced kind – contactless cords – just before entering… the simulation.
Frowning, she pushed them all aside, tangling herself in the process.
She lay on a chair, hooked up to even more machinery. Pipes connected to her mouth and other areas. Even as she watched, bluish liquid bubbled in the one over her open mouth.
Ah, so that was how she kept herself fed. She glanced down. And that was how she took care of… other biological needs.
It was a full minute before she was free of the machine grips. Her limbs didn’t want to move. Too long spent in a chair. How long? Days? Months?
Sunset ripped the grips off and staggered, groaning, away from the chair. She stood in the middle of a hallway, clinical white, walls beeping with towers of machinery.
She looked around. The big heavy vault doors. They were the only way in or out.
Wearily, as though on autopilot, she lit up her horn. Groaning, creaking, grinding, the vault doors opened onto…
A corridor.
She followed it, stumbling as she went. No feeling came to her. For the moment, she just walked.
Corners and corridors led her on. They were nothing like the simulation’s corridors. They were dark, and shattered in a few places. Most doors had collapsed or been smashed off their hinges.
Finally, she came to an empty room. Broken glass and plaster littered the floor. There was a window. She staggered towards it.
Milkpale-on-Spill.
Imagine a city, its skyscrapers blackened and twisted, its streets lit by a thousand small fires, howling against a blood-red sky.
Even from here, she could see the ruins of the real Chickpone Palace. Once, Chickpone Palace had shone. Now it was rubble, along with the bureaucratic brick buildings on either side of it.
Isn’t it a mess? said the voice of Discord.
Sunset gasped and looked around.
What on earth do you see in this? slithered his voice inside her head. It’s a dead city.
I killed it, thought Sunset. “Where are you?”
Milkpale-on-Spill thrived once upon a time, but not now. Now you’ve got something better. A home where you’ll always be happy, and we can party at the Livery Club from dawn until dusk. And even later, if you know what I mean.
“What?”
Or else you can come back to this dump, because you think you can unscramble an egg. But only I can do that now.
Sunset stumbled, gripped the windowsill for balance, and stopped to think for a moment. The simulation; it had all been a lie. Yet a lie she’d plugged herself into for months.
“You’re in my head,” she said. “You’re not real.”
Well, you wrote my program. You always were better than you thought, weren’t you? Especially at chaos.
“Are you real? Or are you some kind of leftover program?”
Yes.
Even his smugness rubbed against her. She shivered.
“You survived the shutdown. I didn’t tell you to.”
You told me to keep the simulation fresh and exciting. Not my fault you didn’t specify the means or the ends. Life is chaos, after all.
“Get out of my head!”
Aw, and what fun would that be? Don’t you want someone who’s fun to hang around with? For a change.
For a change. For a change. For a change. Sunset bit down on the words.
No. She was out. She’d have to make the best of things. And as she strode away from the window, Sunset felt herself again. Not some fool prancing around pretending to be a college student all over again. The proud, ambitious Sunset Shimmer.
The Sunset who had to clean up.
The Sunset on her own.
Eventually, she located a mop and bucket. It’d be pathetic next to the ravaged mess of this building – which in real life wasn’t bigger on the inside or a million storeys tall – but Sunset did it anyway.
Cleaning up this room. Broad strokes. Push, and pull, push, and pull.
Fires burned on in the city. They never went out. The only magic here was chaos magic, and it was usually locked away in the hooves of professionals who knew better than to use it like it was a joke.
No one was outside. Sunset checked several times, in between mopping and brushing. She even dusted and polished. The end result would be a clean abandoned room with one wall missing, but some sanity would exist somewhere.
Her parents had lived here. It wasn’t called the Livery Club in the real world. It was just Liberty Towers.
“Broad strokes,” she whispered, and for a moment she imagined her happy father murmuring the words with approval. “Get the corners. A tidy room reflects a tidy mind.”
Sunset looked out the window again. Under that blood-red sky, there was no way to tell how much time had passed. It felt like most of the day.
She left the room to go exploring. More likely, to find new rooms to clean. In her imagination, her parents followed her, giving her the lectures she’d never listened to. She wished she’d listened to at least some of them.
She found the second vault. Sunset’s face gave nothing away, but in her heart, something flickered.
The vault doors groaned, creaked, ground open under her modest spell, then they opened onto…
Another hall, but this one was a mess. The machines had been smashed. The cords had been torn out and thrown around. The pipes leaked where something had hit them fiercely. The chair was broken in half with a lead pipe.
Lemon’s vault.
Sunset stared, remembered –
Sunset blinked and backed off at once. “The hay!? Where’s Lemon?”
Discord said, “Oh, she was becoming an embarrassment to you, so I threw her out. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Out of where? The club?”
“No. Think bigger…”
– and Sunset gasped.
She fled.
No. Lemon wouldn’t, she didn’t, she couldn’t have…
“Lemon?” she shouted. No answer.
“Lemon!” No answer from the corridors.
“Lemon!” No answer from the main room where mop and bucket lay waiting.
“LEMON!”
Sunset skidded to a halt. She glanced at a door she’d passed – the main security office! – broke through, flicked a few switches.
One by one, the monitors for the surveillance cameras flicked on. Nothing in any of the rooms, on any of the screens. Some showed nothing but static.
Sparks fled along Sunset’s spine. Deep inside her, Discord laughed under his breath.
She rewound the video. All of them at once. There ought to be something, some glimpse, or a suspicious camera going offline unexpectedly.
She spotted her. Lemon unhurried backwards, towards the lifts, unhit the doors hard, unhammered the button, unhurried backwards and out of sight. Sunset played at normal speed. Lemon hurried into sight, hammered the button, hit the doors hard, hurried away from the lifts…
Was Lemon trying to flee? Why? Didn’t she remember what lurked outside?
As soon as Sunset returned the feed to live, she spotted Lemon in a hallway. The mare had stopped to lean against a wall and pant.
“What are you doing!?” hissed Sunset.
She threw herself out of the main security office, along the corridor, back to the room’s one window, peered down at the street, and was just in time to see the front doors burst open and Lemon stumble out onto the road.
“LEMON!”
But Lemon looked both ways and then fled along the curving road. Sunset recognized the route. The Ring of Gigs, heading for Lemon’s home.
“LEMON! COME BACK! YOU KNOW WHAT’S OUT THERE!” Sunset cursed and threw herself into a run.
On the way down, she rushed back into the main security office, and rushed out again with two shotguns. And a bandolier of shells.
Unlike Lemon, Sunset didn’t tire easily and knew the direct route down to the hall. By the time she burst out onto the street, Lemon had barely disappeared round the corner.
Then Lemon screamed.
“Lemon!” Sunset lunged, gathering speed as she galloped. Out on the streets, the air choked like smoke. She zigzagged around the random fires.
Let the randon begin! Discord sounded like he was chewing popcorn. The great chase! Will she find her true love? Will she actually want to?
Sunset cocked her first shotgun to check it was loaded.
To her shock, Lemon ran back towards her, shrieking at the top of her lungs.
“What!? What is it!?” Sunset shouted.
Something leaped over the rooftops.
By the time Sunset aimed, it danced over the pavement and an eagle claw lashed out and sent the gun flying. Lemon skidded to a hasty halt, screaming anew before she could collide with –
The pony-thing… turned.
Six eyes blinked, some sideways. An eagle claw took a shot.
So did Sunset. With the second shotgun.
Another door burst onto the street. Pony-things burst through windows, burst out of sewer holes, burst into view flapping over the rooftops, and occasionally just plain burst, spraying hissing green over the ground.
Lemon spun and fled – before Sunset’s spell yanked her back.
“No, you don’t!” Sunset forced the second gun into her scrabbling legs.
“But I don’t know how to –”
“Cock and fire!” A blast: Sunset’s own shotgun blasted a lion paw that swiped at her. Another pony-thing swooped down, snake tail curling like a lasso. She beat it off with the butt, then swung the whole gun around and fired. A screech fell to the ground.
Lemon gulped and aimed, shotgun shaking.
Between beating off some fangs and whacking off a double helping of claws and hooves, Sunset spun round and fired over Lemon’s shoulder. The buzzing pony-thing that Lemon was supposed to shoot sailed backwards.
“Sunset, behind you!” Lemon swung round.
Sunset turned. “What the…?”
It was Lyra. Her one scorpion pincer lashed out –
Whereupon Lemon smashed a bottle over her head. The Lyra-thing collapsed.
“That was Lyra!” shrieked Sunset. “You just –”
“It’s not her anymore!” Lemon was in hysterics. In the real world, there was no powder on her. All that was left was the jaundiced coat, some mascara, two pink eyes turning red, and a mass of curls.
“And that’s not Twinkleshine!” Lemon shot through the curling mass of snake tails to slash with her bottle.
“And that’s not Minuette!” Black oil scythed the air as Lemon’s completely unladylike kick sent the beast spinning through the air.
“And that…” Lemon stopped.
Sunset fired at a face rising from the sewers, then looked up.
Well, can’t say I didn’t try to warn you, said Discord in her head. When you leave the simulation, you have to face reality.
“It was you! You put Lyra and the others in the simulation!” Sunset almost missed the next claw; in time, she smacked its owner upside the head.
I was aiming for “persuasive”. Be grateful I didn’t put Moondancer in. Oh wait, never mind. Ah well. You had to face her sooner or later, I suppose.
The ground shook.
Even some of the pony-things screeched and flailed trying to get out of this gigantic thing’s way. It didn’t seem to notice them. Twelve glaring eyes focused on Lemon and Sunset, who backed into each other. Sunset’s shotgun rose up. Lemon raised the broken remnants of her bottle.
“Why don’t you use this?” Instantly, Sunset forced the second gun back into Lemon’s grip.
“I don’t know how to operate a gun!”
“Didn’t I teach you?”
“No! In case you hadn’t noticed, some of us aren’t welcome at the country club!”
Another footstep thumped the ground.
The Moondancer-thing towered over them, over even the houses on either side.
Isn’t she a doozy? said Discord. Have… aha… “fun”.
Amid the Moondancery face and occasional horse parts, it was half-hazmat, half-dinosaur, half-alien, half-zombie, half-pirate. The suit parts crinkled as a scaly, clawed foot stepped forwards. Behind giant glasses, five of the twelve eyes pulsed. Bones and sabres poked through the flesh like porcupine quills. One of its mouths breathed through a gas mask. The thing raised a leg that turned out to be a cutlass. Massive jaws growled through massive fangs.
Under its rotting chest, a cart-sized heart beat, beat, beat…
They waited to see who would make the first move.
“Oh bollards!” murmured Lemon.
The jaws opened.
Both of them jumped; the laser blast from its metal tongue scattered cobbles. It raised its cutlass to strike the ground.
“Moondancer!” shouted Sunset. “Stop!”
Ignoring Lemon, the Moondancer-thing turned its eyes on her instead. Muscles, bones, and metal flexed in its efforts to face Sunset.
Sunset stood taller. “Moondancer! Don’t you remember me!?”
“What the critical hit are you doing!? Shoot it!” Lemon shouted, raising her own shotgun. She fired. The shells pinged off a dinosaur leg.
“Moondancer!” cried Sunset. “Don’t do this! Don’t! After everything we’ve been through, I don’t want it to end like this! No!”
The Moondancer-thing opened its mouth. Sunset stared up at the fiery charge building up.
Tears burned her eyes, and her chest boiled, and her mouth dried up under the deserted words. She had to try. Moondancer was a lost cause. Business, business first. Sunset raised her shotgun, slowly. All twelve eyes showed not the slightest sign of recognition, just a seething, boiling, shimmering heat haze of absolute hatred.
Sunset gabbled; anything to make it stop. “I’m sorry I shouted at you! I know better now! It was my fault, not yours! I wanted to tell you that, Moondancer! I’ve wanted to tell you that for a long time! Please!”
The air screeched under the effort of all that lasery build-up. A scaly foot rose high, eclipsing the sky. The cutlass swished through the air in readiness.
Sunset fell to her knees. “Please! Don’t end it like this!”
Even through those twelve monstrous eyes, she felt a lifetime’s worth of accusations.
Sunset dropped the shotgun.
The Moondancer-thing… lunged.
Then exploded.
Sunset shut her eyes and covered her ears until the deafening echoes died away to silence.
Bits tinkled in the street. She opened her eyes. It was raining chunks. If she didn’t stare too closely at them, she could imagine they were voxels. It didn’t help much.
Sunset breathed heavily, while she still could, and wiped her cheeks. They were thick with damp, almost oily.
Wasn’t it devastating? Discord said soothingly. Then and now? Would you like to go back to the simulation yet? Or are you such a boring, predictable martyr, just like your precious Celestia.
Against the rush of sobs, Sunset bit down hard. This was no time to break down, this was no time to break down…
“Control your feelings,” she repeated under her breath, and the memory of her parents’ voices rang in unison. “Be stoic. Be stoic. Give nothing away.”
The pain was still there. For the moment, she held it down, not it her.
But what had caused the explosion?
She looked at where the thing’s crater should have been. Among the raining bits, amid scorch marks, Lemon lay flat on her back. Her shotgun pointed straight up, right where the thing’s heart had been.
Her eyes were wide. For a moment, she looked dead of fright. Sunset stepped forwards.
Lemon shot up. Saw her. Froze.
Then Lemon threw her shotgun down and rushed to her feet and galloped, further along the Ring of Gigs.
Sunset cursed. Just as it was making sense, she had to go and do something stupid! “Lemon! Lemon! LEMON, GET BACK HERE, YOU IDIOT!”
Lemon didn’t even look back; she just blurred into the tunnel of darkness and ran left and rammed straight through the front door of her home. Windows were broken, walls were gouged, even the space out the front was littered with bottles. She’d dropped her broken one amongst them, sending them tinkling about.
In the distance, things squelched and hissed. Sunset put on a fresh burst of speed, snatching the second shotgun as she went.
“No more running,” she declared through the panting. “No more hiding. This ends NOW!”
Sunset broke through the door, immediately swung round, pushed a nearby welsh dresser in the way, and raised her shotgun as things bashed and thumped against the other side. They kept bashing and thumping. The barricade held.
“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!” shouted Lemon.
Sunset spun round, shotgun ready.
Lemon was at the opposite side of the room, next to a tin bath overflowing with gleaming Kolt Powder. Enough to submerge a pony if she dived in.
Raising one leg over the rim, Lemon added, “I mean it! Not another step!”
The powder glistened, despite the low light. All around them, bottles and broken pieces of furniture showed where Lemon’s housekeeping had given up completely. Dust turned everything grey. The pony-things hadn’t bothered raiding this house. Some places disgust even monsters.
Lemon licked her lips, somewhere among her slight but sustained panting. “Once I step in the bath, I’m not coming out again.”
Sunset’s mouth, already hanging open from the effort and from all the running, gaped even wider. “But there’s enough powder there to –”
“I know. It’ll feel nice at first. Couldn’t ask for a better way out, could I?”
And Sunset’s shotgun lowered, muzzle first.
Lemon’s eyes ran rivers. In the real world, she wore genuine mascara, which now dribbled down to her chin.
Gently, Sunset raised a placatory hoof. “Lemon. I know what you’re feeling –”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m worth it!” Lemon shouted. “I know what I am. You know. Just go back. Have fun without me.”
“You’re coming with me or I’m not going.”
“Oh, shove it where the sun doesn’t shine! I told you I’m not going.”
“Yes, you are!”
“It’s over! All right!? It’s all over! There’s chaos on the streets! This is the end! Don’t you get it!?” Lemon’s horn lit up. From amid the bottles, a single ring floated up between them. “See this? See it?”
Sunset saw it. The engagement ring.
“I never wore it!” shrieked Lemon.
“I know that. I just assumed you didn’t like wearing it.”
“Oh, stop being so bloomin’ understanding for five seconds! I’m poison. You know it, I know it, everyone who’s ever met us could tell, just from one look at my stupid face.”
“I’m not going back to the simulation,” said Sunset.
“You what?”
“There’s a mess to clean up here. Supposing we’re not the only survivors? Supposing we could rebuild? Maybe outside the city it doesn’t go very far, we could get help –”
“Are you mad? It’s scrambled. It’s the biggest scramble you could get. How in the nine hells of Tartarus do you expect to clean that up?”
It took a while for Sunset to reply, weakly, “Feed it to the chicken?”
She didn’t need Lemon’s head jerking back in disdain, or the inner tut of Discord. Even she cringed at her own words.
“Look, I have to try,” said Sunset desperately. “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Help them hatch.”
“What!? Get stuffed! The city’s dead. It’s chaos out there.”
“I thought life was chaos?”
“Bull! Total bull!” Lemon took a deep breath. “You know what? You were right, you know. You and Moondancer. I lived ‘chaotically’. You both said it. I laughed it up. Well, joke’s on me, isn’t it? Chaos isn’t life. It’s just a great black hole. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s nothing. I’m nothing. I couldn’t even do chaos right! You liked that electro Discord freak more than you ever loved the real me!”
“He’s not real!”
“No! You know what real was? Real was me not realizing until I met you that I had no ambition, no direction, no, no order, no nothing. And as soon as you forced me to see that, I knew I was well and truly stuffed.”
“But you organized state dinners at the palace!”
“THAT WAS A DAM LIE!”
Just in time, Sunset barely let her face flicker. “Well… You… You helped me set up that simulation.”
“No, I just said, ‘Let’s run and hide!’ when the midden hit the fan. You set that up! I just hung around and gave it a few tweaks! I couldn’t set that up in a million years, and you know it!”
“But –”
“And you wouldn’t have to if I hadn’t thrown the midden in the first place!”
“What!? I did that!” Sunset pointed at the thumping door. Behind it, the pony-things – the creatures of chaos – groaned, and the fires in the street crackled on.
“Yeah, ‘cause I dared you to! I bucked the table! I mucked it all up! And all because of some scrambled funky egg. I said you can’t unscramble a funky egg. Boy, was I funky right!”
Sunset said nothing. She just watched as the leftovers of Lemon sagged under wet snorts and splattering tears. Yet she forced herself to stand her ground.
“Just go…” wheezed Lemon. “Go back to the simulation. Run and hide, and stay there this time, and forget that unscrambled egg rubbish.”
After that, she blubbered, and became nothing but a melting mass of misery hanging off her own half-attempt at climbing into the bath.
Cautiously, Sunset strode forwards. Not a response met her. She walked over to Lemon’s side, plucking the ring as she went, then she stood, and she stared at it, turning it over and over. True to form, it didn’t gleam. Metal didn’t if it was anywhere near Lemon for too long.
But Lemon was right about one thing. They couldn’t try recapturing the good old days now. Not the political activism, not crying out against the paper and the bureaucracy, not trying stuff and laughing about it. That egg was well and truly scrambled. They’d drifted too far apart, even in the simulation. Whenever she tried to remember Lemon, all she remembered was a sad attempt at a smile, behind the towering Discord, whose smile was genuine.
Genuine, because it didn’t mean anything. There was no weight to it. “Genuine” was easy when it had nothing to worry about, or to hate, or to pity.
In her head, the presence of Discord shifted.
Go back to the simulation? Sunset’s leg half turned to the door…
By the way, oozed Discord’s voice. That game I was developing? Know what I planned to call it?
She heard the faint echo of his chortles.
Commitment Anxiety.
Nearby, Lemon fell sullenly silent. Sunset kept her gaze firmly on the twirling ring.
She’d never worn hers either.
It would be so much easier to go back and plug herself in. This time, Lemon wouldn’t be around to interfere in the maze. Then, perhaps over time, safe in the vault, Sunset would forget all this. She could ask Discord to wipe away the painful memories, the leftover traces of sanity, even her parents. Leave nothing but the Livery Club, forever.
There was no doubt Discord could do it, overnight, and then there’d be days of fun and games and this time, for all time, she’d never be tempted to leave.
All while the world outside had its red skies, and streets full of monsters, and its own problems. Perhaps, before she lost her memory, she could even pretend it had nothing to do with her at all. That it was someone else’s problem. She hadn’t signed up for it, after all.
But she had.
She’d tried the spell, just for a dare.
She hadn’t meant to do this, but she’d done it, all the same.
She looked up at Lemon’s running mascara. Once, long before the dare, Lemon had helped her bounce back from Moondancer.
Sunset ran a gentle forelimb over Lemon’s shoulders and held her steady.
They could bounce back, couldn’t they? They could leap, over and over again. Not once, but keep leaping, every day. That’s what it meant, when faced with chaos.
“Life isn’t chaos,” Sunset said. “Life is meaning out of chaos.”
Lemon whimpered and looked longingly at the bath.
“It did mean a lot to me when we were together,” Sunset continued.
“Oh, don’t,” moaned Lemon. “We’re about as compatible as fish and flies. It just doesn’t make sense.” But there was doubt in her voice.
So Sunset refined her approach. Don’t go deep. Keep things simple, that was the key. Help the message fit into a Lemon-shaped world…
“Here, hold this,” she said.
Yelping, Lemon stumbled under the shotgun hefted at her. “What the berry bells do you think you’re doing? I told you I can’t use a gun!”
“I’ll teach you.” Sunset cocked her own.
Lemon held the gun as though frightened it’d explode.
“And you could clean up in here at some point,” added Sunset matter-of-factly. “There’s dust everywhere.”
“I don’t know how to clean!”
“I’ll teach you that too.”
“What is this, a game?”
“No. We’re past games. It’s called growing up.”
“We’re not getting back together.” Lemon plucked the ring off her. “Forget it. This schmaltz won’t work on me.”
“Oh, eat it.” Sunset plucked the ring back –
– and then threw it aside. She took care not to watch, or to sigh.
“Look, I know we mucked things up,” she said, “there’s no escape from that. But we’ll make something work sooner or later. We’re eating the old egg and starting again with a new egg. And if we don’t, well, we can still be friends, right?”
Lemon screwed up her lips. Too much scepticism there.
“You’re not girlfriend material, Lemon,” said Sunset bluntly. “I do know that.”
Despite herself, Lemon nodded once at this in grudging acknowledgement. The mare hefted the shotgun, still looking at it warily.
“But…” said Lemon, chewing her words over.
“Well, we had fun, didn’t we? We could still have a… little bit of fun with this, right? Least we’re not the bureaucracy.” Sunset shook her head, and deep in her mind the last remaining spark of Discord echoed with cruel but dying laughter. “A little fun. To start with. Then on to the next level. Together. No cheating. How’s that sound?”
Sunset cocked her gun. Lemon watched, then cocked her own. Successfully, too. And for once, Lemon’s grin, despite the scars of mascara above it – or rather because of them – that grin held more demon in it than even the lowest pits of Tartarus.
“You know… I think I could come to like this ‘taking responsibility’ thing,” she said.
“Just remember, we’re cleaning up a big mess. After this, there’ll be a mop and bucket later.” Sunset looked around at the layer of dust and bottles. “Possibly an excavator, too.”
“You’ll teach me to use those?”
“It’s only fair. You taught me how to have a good time.” Sunset extended a hoof. “No backing out now. Deal?”
Lemon met it, spitting on her hoof first because why not? “All right. Deal. If this works out, I owe you a drink. If.”
They both moved over to the door, which thumped and groaned and started to crack. The welsh dresser threatened to topple over.
Both of them cocked their guns again, just for the sound of it.
“Ready to rebuild?” said Sunset. “‘Pal’?”
Lemon pawed the ground. “Gotta start somewhere, I guess. So what’s the plan, ‘mate’?”
“Erm… cleaning up, checking the place out, looking for any survivors, seeing how far this goes…”
“OK, so nothing concrete?”
“I prefer to wing it. Follow my lead. You might need a pony to hold your hoof.”
“Yeah! Get in there, my girl!”
“Right! I’ll take left. You take right.”
“Ooh, ooh! Don’t forget to –”
“Reload.” Sunset jangled her bandolier. “All right. Let’s funky do this.”
The doors burst open – outwards. Beyond the cloud of dust, shadowy things drew back. Sunset switched her horn off.
Both Lemon and Sunset stepped out, faces set in stone. They raised their shotguns, aimed, and started off with an impressive double combo.
Then the games began.
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Should Hasbro commission a Lemon Hearts spin-off series (I know they will, and nothing will convince me otherwise of this fact) I hope they commission you to write an episode or two. One my favourite takes on a background pony, here.
Rest of the story is fab too, obviously. I'm off to go watch some Cornetto Trilogy now. No idea why.
Brilliant work, tying together real and virtual in a symbolic tangle better than any dream sequence Luna could conjure. Thank you for a fantastic read. Best of luck in the judging.
I honestly never thought there could be such as thing as "weird cyberpunk," but this is actually that. I like it.
Ah, and there it is. I don't even like Sunset Shimmer, but you'll make me read a Sunset Shimmer story.^^
9830862
Oh, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, friend, but Lemon got kicked out of Hasbro for being drunk and disorderly. However, she says if you'd like to see this spinoff show happen, please donate lots of money to www.thisisnotanotherlemonheartsscam.com.
Also, the Cornetto Trilogy, gosh... You have a good eye for movies there. And thank you for commenting!
9830930
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, and yeah, weaving all the interconnections was a good chunk of the fun. Thank you very much for the fine comment.
9830942
Huh, I didn't even think about the cyberpunk aspects while I was writing it, honestly. Just focusing on the particular elements of a science-fiction premise, at the time, rather than any specific genre or category. But now you mention it in hindsight, that's interesting...
Anyway, thanks for commenting on my story. I'm glad you liked it.
9830967
Well, I hope you enjoy the experience if or when you want to give it a go. I have to admit to a soft spot for her character myself, so hopefully that shines through here.
9831022
Do you mean it was a bit confusing? Sorry if I seem a bit slow-witted, but I honestly can't parse that comment at the moment. I hope the story wasn't disappointing, but if so I'd be interested to learn from any such feedback.
9831775
I see. Thank you for clarifying, and for the compliment too.
You have to read the
*takes a gulp of… something*
first chapter fast and the second one
*shiver, shudder*
slow
that's the way to read this story
dear sweet Celestia
9835663
Sort of like going on a pub crawl before waking up the next morning.
I feel like I'm not smart enough to fully appreciate how well-written this fic is, but I enjoyed it nonetheless :)
9840594
Well, that's ultimately the most important thing, and I'm glad you did enjoy it. Thanks for the comment!
literally what c.c;
9856012
Er... I take it from that emoticon you didn't like it, then?
If so, I don't suppose I could receive a little feedback explaining where I might take notes for improvement? It might help avoid similar problems in the future.
9856884
Oh no, I love it! I just have no idea what's going on! XD
The Reality feels more videogamey than the Simulation.
If you reversed the chapter titles, I'd have no trouble believing that they were escaping from some posthuman future of maximum accelerationism into a world where time at least travels in a straight line.
I liked it.
9938532
Interesting to know, and thank you very much for commenting.