Into Equestria

by TheMajorTechie

4 | Something lurks,

“You want me to… what?”

Night crossed her arms. “You told me you had the ability t’ infiltrate the simulations undetected. It’s time that you prove that.”

“…Okay.”

“Say, how is it that you can do that in th’ first place? I’ve worked at that blasted company myself for a time before, and I never had an account at all! Tell me, Chryssi.”

The woman wearing the headset smirked, turning in her seat.

“Finally, you use my name.”

~~~

“Rosanne? No, she left the company a few years ago,” Roger shook his head. “You didn’t keep in touch with her, Argall?”

The professor shrugged. “Didn’t think I’d need to until now. I just figured that since she’d been working in the place of Samantha on the simulations for a time before Lisa returned, she’d have the most experience behind those two.”

“And why do you need someone with more experience? Rosanne would still need to catch up with the rest of the development team if we brought her back, so I’d hardly call that ‘having the most’.”

“Training,” Argall explained, “Lisa and Samantha are preparing to launch a major project, and they asked if I knew anyone who could take over some of their work handling the classes.” He paused for a moment, scratching his head. “Well, I suppose I could still be of some use to them. Though, there’s no telling how rusty I might’ve gotten over the years.”

A knock on the door distracted the two.

“Hey, dad?” Zoey poked her head into the room. “Sooo… you know how you told me that I needed to make sure the coffee machine wasn’t clogged?”

Roger rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright, I’ll order another machine. You really need to be more careful though, kid,” he turned back to Argall. “So anyway, you said that those two girls are working on another project? Mind telling me what it is? They hardly ever tell me what it is that they’re messing around with in their free time.”

“You still talk like they’re teens Roger,” Argall chuckled. “We both know that they’re well into their late-twenties now.”

“You get the point. Communication is key in running a business, is it not?”

“Yes, yes, it is,” Argall adjusted his coat. “So anyway, the project; you’ve heard that our flagship simulation has been declining in popularity over the years, yes?”

“Mm-hm. Continue?”

“Well, one of the primary complaints that Lisa told me they’d received was that the simulations were beginning to feel… well, old—and limiting too, at that. So, to counter those complaints, they’ve started work on an entire new suite of products centered around the simulations.”

Roger raised a brow. “A… suite. Could you elaborate, professor?”

“I mean, to be fair, it’s still quite early into the project at the moment,” Argall adjusted his glasses. “but, they’ve been telling me that they want to bring the simulations to the real world.”

“So augmented reality then,” Roger leaned back in his seat. “Well, they’ve certainly got their work cut out for them. I’m guessing that they’re not stopping at a simple mobile app, are they?”

“Bingo.”

~~~

Elise yawned, blinking in the light of her laptop’s screen. A list of emails scrolled past her eyes: assignment notifications, ads from shopping sites, even the occasional spam… the usual, really. Sometimes she wondered what the point even was in having this particular email address, when her personal one would’ve served just fine for all intents and purposes.

A new message appeared in her inbox. A single glance at the message title was all she needed to see before deleting it; It was from Robert, and of course he was asking for notes again. How he managed to keep his grades up when he was so gosh-darn lazy was beyond her.

She glanced at the headset beside her. She’d might as well visit Equestria again for a bit tonight. It wasn’t as if she had anything else to do at the moment, and talking to Twilight always seemed to help her organize her thoughts. Heck, she didn’t even need the headset if that was all she was gonna do tonight. That thing was only needed if she wanted the full experience. For a bit of conversation, the viewfinder program was more than enough.

Though, sometimes, she wondered what it would’ve been like to live in Equestria…

~~~

Chryssi stared at the landscape in front of her. It was definitely familiar—though, that was a given. She helped build the place up years ago, after all.

“Stop smellin’ the roses and show me already!” Night barked. “You’ve been messing around all this time. When are you going to prove your worth, Chryssi?”

“Fine, fine, whatever,” she rolled her eyes, setting aside her controller and pulling up a keyboard. “You want me to show you how it’s done? I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Her fingers flew over the keys, tapping in an all-too-familiar string of commands. Back when she was working in the company, character customization was a little pet project of hers. It was exciting when she saw it being implemented into the main program.

Though… now, she was using it for… for…

Chryssi shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for hesitation. She had to prove herself to Night, or it’d be back to the same old tedious cycle of work again for her. She’d even went through the hassle of setting up a front for herself so that she’d fit in better with Night and her partner. One last string of characters rattled into the simulation’s console.

She smirked. “Now, all you need to do is watch, and learn.”

A green flash lit up both the headset’s viewport and the viewfinder program. Flames of the same color formed a ring around Chryssi’s unassuming character, working its way up from the hooves to the head, leaving behind pockmarked chitin, glistening in the sunlight—an old favorite design of hers from a time long passed. The last she heard of it was when the company repurposed the skin for some character they added. No matter; it was hers now, regardless of whatever AI was running around with that look.

Two green eyes opened once the flames subsided, followed by a sly grin. Chryssi reached up and tapped her headset to start a call. It’d hardly be an army, per say, but a ragtag group of internet trolls was enough for the time being.

“Boys, the queen is in.”