Chapter 14
A month into her stay, Sunset’s memories didn’t appear to be degrading just yet. She could still create a mental map of Equestria every morning. She passed all of her own little tests. So far it seemed like Celestia was telling the truth about that part at least, that it was Sunset’s choice if she ended up like the other people here. So far, her attempts to catch Celestia in a lie or uncover some hidden secret of this place had met with nothing.
Sunset still prioritized getting the heck out of here. More specifically, she prioritized learning about that portal. She spent every class studying magic and nearly all of her free time practicing. If another student asked her to do something that didn’t sound like it’d help her with that goal, she flatly refused.
It wasn’t too different from her life back in Equestria, really.
But there was one major exception.
Sunset wasn’t doing anything productive today. She was near the boardwalk by the beach, waiting for someone to show up. It wasn’t that long before they did.
“Sunset!” Twilight jumped forward and hugged Sunset from behind. “I’m so glad to see you!”
Twilight was smiling wide in a way that made it difficult to doubt it.
Sunset couldn’t help but smile a little. You always got greeted like this on Saturday, after they’d just been fed off of. It was like your friends were seeing you for the first time in forever. She knew it was only because Twilight was stuck in an emotional loop, but it did feel good to have someone excited to see you.
By now, Sunset decided that if Twilight was part of a plot, she was an unwitting tool in it all. Twilight was too innocent to be part of anything. If she was being used, she certainly had Sunset’s sympathy now.
After their fight, Sunset decided Twilight wasn’t that annoying. They had a whole lot in common, she found. Not just their life stories, but they had similar interests as well. Sunset had almost forgotten how much she loved learning before the pressure of life spoiled it. There was almost no subject Twilight wasn’t interested in, save her own personal life. By now, Sunset was in the habit of never asking such questions without strategic cause.
They had had a small list of things they liked to do together now outside of going to the library. Twilight was a massive nerd and dragged Sunset into all sorts of things Sunset never really gave a chance before.
“Hey, Twilight.” Sunset let Twilight hug her a bit longer before pushing her off. “Now we just have to wait for–“
“Yo! Twilight!” Dash finally showed up, late as ever, standing up on the boardwalk itself, with her arms wide open for Twilight.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight ran up the ramp to hug her with the same enthusiasm.
Sunset doubted she’d talk to any of the other students if Twilight didn’t have additional friends. Dash and Twilight both shared an interest in video games, though, so Dash usually showed up when she went to the arcade.
The three of them walked another block or so before arriving at the arcade itself, a ten-story building with neon lights plastered all over the face of it.
Despite this being far from the first time either of them had seen the arcade, they both looked up at the tall structure with a sense of wonder. It wasn’t that tall, but at ten stories it was close to the tallest thing building in the city. It was taller than anything near the school.
The tallest tower of Canterlot castle was two thousand feet tall, so a ten-story building hardly impressed Sunset. She wasn’t impressed by it the first time and she wasn’t impressed by it now, but at least she knew not to make a snobby comment about how much bigger the castle was than anything humans had ever built.
Yet somewhat disturbingly, not just these two but every single student who came here, always seemed to be in awe at the height of the building. As long as it was their first time coming here since the last Friday, they’d most typically look up at it with some sense of excitement, even the more aloof types.
To them, Sunset supposed, it was like seeing a tall tower for the first time every time. There was some vague memory in her head about her first trip to Manehattan, when she was young enough to have her parents by her side, and being dazzled by the buildings there. But it was such an old memory.
The other two ran in with much more excitement than Sunset did.
She followed them inside, admitting the sight inside was something that impressed her the first time. It was a bit of a sensory overload walking into this place, dim, yet with so many light sources in every direction you had no trouble seeing at all. There was a maze of super-advanced video game and pinball machines in every direction.
They had everything you’d expect to see in a carnival here too, including bumper cars, a game called laser tag and plenty more. Allegedly, there were even secret areas in this place you could discover.
The largest and most dominant feature in sight was a rock wall near the back, visible from where they were, that went up three stories and had flashing lights all along the side.
The other two ran around, excitedly talking about everything they saw, but it was too much for Sunset to keep up with. Sunset kept a hand in her pocket and waited for them to calm down.
“Man, you’re always so underwhelmed by everything.” Dash finally turned back to her, jabbing her thumb at her favorite cabinet. “How can you not get excited by House of the Dead?”
“I was impressed by it a month ago,” Sunset reminded her.
It wasn’t that these video games were pathetic or anything. Instead of just being little dots you had to pretend were people, the video games here had photorealistic scenes. Sunset was very much interested in exploring this place more, but she didn’t think just walking inside the place warranted that kind of reaction.
“Well, what would you get excited about?” Dash asked.
“There might be something here.” Sunset shrugged, then walked off to look at the games.
Inside she did wonder about that, though. Could she ever get as excited as the people here? She at once saw their enthusiasm for everything as pathetic and enviable.
Dash ran up to the front to see if anyone else broke her records, the first thing she always did, while Sunset looked for something interesting.
She was carefully watching and analyzing every little thing Twilight did in hopes of understanding what having your potential eaten really meant. A major question was whether Twilight would choose the same thing every time.
She looked at Magic Sword, the game she picked last time, but kept walking. Sunset was just a little relieved to see that.
There wasn’t zero change in Twilight from week to week. A month ago, Twilight was marveling at the lack of ‘loot boxes’ in the games like, paradise was merely a world without such things. She didn’t mention that anymore.
Part of Sunset wondered how long this friendship could last if she didn’t take Celestia’s offer. Twilight was far from stuck doing the same thing every time they came here, but Sunset would inevitably grow away from her at some point. Twilight would stay here forever, and Sunset would keep moving.
Maybe it was inevitable for two people to stop being friends eventually, fae or no, over a long enough period.
“What do you want to do?” Twilight asked Sunset this time.
“Something new,” said Sunset.
There was already so much here that she was completely unfamiliar with. She wanted to try all of it before deciding what she liked. And with multiple floors, some of which she’d yet to even go to, that’d take a while.
“Make it something you can go against me at!” Dash came from behind, resting an elbow on each of their shoulders. “Remember! If you can beat me at anything here, I’ll buy you a hundred tokens!”
“Don’t get too cocky. You’re better than me for now because you’re more used to these games. But I’ll keep getting better until I can beat you,” Sunset pointed out, “while you’ll be about as good as you are now.”
“Pfft! You’re really gonna stay here as a normie for the ten thousand years you’re gonna need for that to happen?” Dash asked. “Sides! I do get better for like a year or two at a time.”
Sunset eyed Twilight, a good distance off, wondering if now was a good time to chance things.
Saturday was usually the worst time to start any kind of drama. Her strategy this past month was mostly interrogating the other students, tearing down their world views, near the end of the week to gain information. It seemed like the fastest way to smoke out any inconsistencies. Get them riled up and then everything goes back to normal with no consequences.
But she never did that sort of thing to Twilight or even around her. Pathetic as she was, Twilight did get upset when she saw Sunset messing with the other students. Sunset hated when Twilight got upset with her, even if it was just for a few hours.
She could ask Dash how comfortable she really was with being stuck at a certain skill level forever. But Twilight came back too soon.
“I just have to find something you’d be bad at.” Sunset scanned the cabinets on this floor.
But Sunset did need to think about what Dash would be the worst at. Something like rock climbing was just asking to lose. Dash was incredible at racing games, too.
“Implying that there’s anything I’m bad at.” Dash kept her cocky smile up.
“Maybe that could be fun?” Twilight made a nervous suggestion, pointing over to a game where you seemed to fake-play some instruments. Sunset had never seen anything like it before.
“Yeah.” Sunset nodded, quick to agree with her. “We can do that.”
“Guess we can see who gets the highest score,” Dash agreed.
Sunset had zero confidence she’d beat Dash this time. Picking up the guitar, she had trouble figuring out how this controller even worked.
They must have played just that one game for over an hour, in the end. As much as Sunset enjoyed it, she really couldn't match the other two in how ecstatic they were.
Twilight was clearly happy and wanted to stay here, but it still felt wrong on some level. Sunset wasn’t even sure how much Twilight remembered about Equestria from a month ago. Maybe she should try to show Twilight Equestria whenever Sunset did get there after all. If she could before losing her mind that was.
Sunset was asleep in her bed when her phone buzzed just loud enough to wake her up a little. She turned in her bed to look a her phone, seeing she'd just gotten a text from Pinkie. It was six in the morning.
“Sunset! Are you awake yet? Are you at your house?”
Where else would she be at the crack of dawn?
“No, Pinkie,” Sunset sent the reply. “I’m asleep in your house.”
Knowing Pinkie, she’d spend the next several minutes checking all her closets and under the bed for Sunset Shimmer. That’d buy her some more time to rest her eyes before having to respond.
Without really thinking much of it, she took the moment to groggily scroll through her feed on her new phone.
She saved up through the whole spring to be able to afford one of these. In this society, without one of these phones, you were handicapped. You could instantly talk to anyone anywhere and that was just the start of it. Already, Sunset felt addicted to it. She at once wanted to bring this thing back home with her but was also wary of such an idea.
She remembered when Twilight first came to Canterlot High, Twilight had been clearly traumatized that news even existed here. After finding out it was completely apolitical and having some of her emotional memories eaten, she was only just now starting to consider getting a phone.
Apparently, back on Earth, they created detailed psychological profiles on everyone. The news was specifically curated for you personally, to play on all of your deepest fears and insecurities - to push all of your outrage buttons. The constant fear it instilled in you made you check a hundred times a day for dear life. It made everyone’s life a living hell, but it was what got the most views.
The only thing on Sunset’s feed was funny pictures the other students made, news and updates about art projects they were working on, about what movies were playing, what events and clubs were going on, and nothing more than that. No one had any political opinions at all.
She got to a picture posted by Rainbow Dash of a smashed watermelon at the edge of the beach’s pier. The caption read ‘oh no, Melon!’. Sunset smiled just short of a chuckle. That was pretty clever!
That’s when she realized she’d spent maybe too long here. That joke would have made zero sense to her a few months ago. Heck, it’d probably be hard to even explain this ‘meme’ to anypony back home. Sunset was being ever so slowly assimilated into this place’s culture.
Was she getting too cozy with them all?
“Okay.” Another text from Pinkie came. “Are you 100% sure you’re at my house? Because I can’t find you anywhere.”
“My bad,” Sunset responded, awake enough to respond now. “Turns out this was my house. Weird, huh?”
“No worries, the same thing happens to me all the time but usually in reverse. But Sunset! Guess what!”
“What.”
“Ha! You said it! But no, I wasn’t calling to say ‘what’, I was calling to tell you that I’m only one person short for reverse frisbee tag! You gotta come! And when I say gotta I mean please.”
What the heck was reverse frisbee tag? Searching for it on her phone, it sounded like the kind of game Pinkie would make up. Actually, the internet said she had made it up.
It was a slight miracle that the others were even talking to her. Over the past two months she’d been going to school with them, Sunset had been callous, cruel, or melted down on each of them - and on more than one occasion. Yet because of Principal Celestia, they never cared for more than a few days. Her relationship with them was simply invincible.
Maybe that realization would give most people an existential crisis, but Sunset? She found herself becoming calmer than she normally was. The other girls felt safe in a way. She knew they were going to stay; they wouldn’t simply vanish like her parents or her princess did. She didn’t need to worry about ruining everything with a single mistake like she always seemed to with the other kids her age.
It’d been a while since she got into a fight with any of them, hadn’t it? Sunset hung around Twilight a lot, but it was like she was a fringe member of a small group now, along with Pinkie, Dash and Rarity. Ever so slowly, Sunset was hanging around those girls more and more often.
Sunset wondered if that made them… friends.
She could almost hear Princess Celestia behind her. ‘Go make some friends,’ the princess whispered, ‘you’re no good to me if you don’t have any friends’.
Instantly, Sunset soured on the idea. She wasn’t going to be some pawn, just doing whatever the princess wanted out of sheer stupidity! Sunset furiously wrote that she didn’t want to hang out with some insane fairy wannabe who’s too pathetic to survive on her own. The two of them weren’t friends and never would be. She had more important things to do!
But her thumb hovered over the send button for a tense moment before moving to the side of the phone. She was suddenly thankful to the smartphone for letting you think about what you said before saying it.
Sure, it was technically what Princess Celestia wanted, but Sunset didn’t want the princess to just ruin her life like this either. She used the meditation techniques she learned from Twilight and asked herself instead what she’d do if Princess Celestia had simply never existed. Yes, that was the best way to think of things.
After another minute of reflection, Sunset typed simply ‘sure’ and hit send.
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The truly scary part is that they are well on their way to doing that exact same thing that happened to Twilight today.
Can't wait to see where you take this story! Its such a fun concept with a lot of philosophy to play around with. Hoping to see AJ & Fluttershy soon, personally. Keep it up, you're doing great!
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AJ and Fluttershy don't go to this school... yet.
10617104
Celestia. Is. A. Fae. Her definition of "a better place for humans" can differ a lot from what humans would want/wish for themselves. She could simply turn the entire planet into her school.
Maybe Sunset should actually listen the "make friends advice". Celestia has some motive in it, maybe even benevolent by her standarts but maybe it would actualy help Sunset if she understood people around her. If this was post-redemption Sunset she would rather help them move own from their traumas but this Sunset freshly from Equestria so has lots on her own plate. But maybe they could all help each other to... grow. Or at least make the idea of growth not so bad. That's an optimistic idea though.
Also understanding Faes leads to insanity but Understanding Pinkie... probably leads to even bigger insanity but what the heck
, it's worth a try
Thats a healthy way to put it
Seems Celestia has decided to simply put Sunset in the company of good and friendly people for a few months and just let everything shake itself out.
Back in 1986, in Redwood City California (where I had gone to high school), I was living in the heart of the Silicon Valley at the height of the arcade craze. There were five arcades in my area, but one was almost worthy of the arcade in this story.
I am sorry, but I cannot remember the name of the place. It's been too long. But the place, not far from where I lived, was astonishing! It was three stories tall, and every level was filled chock-a-block with arcade machines. A spiraling stairway ran up through the three levels, and there were many side passages on the lowest level, which spread out in a massive complex. Long, dark, neon hallways left the circular, central chamber with the multiple levels, and there were secret places to find.
One of my future spouses and I found such a place. It was a passage, only three... maybe four... feet high. It was probably made for younger children. We ducked in, crawling, and found... a tiny arcade machine! It was for a game called 'Leprechaun', and it was a cute little affair where one had to collect gold. It was dead simple, but somehow, playing this half-size mini-arcade in a secret crawlspace was just the most exciting thing. It was great fun to get to play a 'hidden' arcade game in a 'secret' chamber.
The circular central chamber had a dome on top of the three levels, a gridded, capitol-building sort of thing, with glass panels that you could see the stars and moonlight through. I think the entire complex had once been a very fancy showroom for automobiles, repurposed as the largest and most splendid arcade I have ever visited. It no longer exists... along with all of the old arcades I used to frequent back then - including one which was specifically used for testing new machines on the general public. I played the never-released 'Gridley' there (available on MAME, after all these years). At this arcade that featured experimental machines, I swear I saw... Polybius. Yes, the fabled, 'it never really existed' arcade machine. I claim it actually did exist, and I saw it. Sort of. It was turned off - unplugged - and had an 'out of order' sign on it. But I remember the name and abstract design on the cabinet, and I remember wondering, at the time, what the game was. I asked about it, and was only told that it was being removed the next day, and that it 'didn't work out'. I saw it. It existed, at least in some form. I am NOT saying any of the other things told about it - that it was a CIA mind-control attempt, that it could mess with people, that it could cause epileptic fits - I have no idea. It was out of order, and I never saw it work, I never saw it active. It was unplugged, as mentioned.
But it was. It existed.
I miss the days of arcades. They were truly amazing back then. I doubt any of you can imagine (unless you are as old as I am) just how fancy and rich and elaborate a truly huge arcade could be. Neon and ultraviolet lights everwhere, custom carpet that glowed under those lights, bars that sold softdrinks and snacks - and I do not mean Chuck-E-Cheeze here, though in those days, that was a serious place for serious gamers. Not even shitting you. Really. There was a time Chuck was good and had tolerable pizza and almost no little kids. Very different, back then. Arcades could be little crappy shoeboxes, sure. But they could sometimes, back then, be three-story palaces with hidden rooms and brass railings all around.
It... made gaming a special event.
Not.... not that I would ever want to give up my Playstation or my Xbox or my Switch in exchange. That's not what I am saying.
But... there was a time... when arcades were palaces. Just imagine it.
Loot boxes in video games? What a horrible future.
I don't see any mention of money to play the arcade games, which makes me wonder if they're free. Maybe Celestia gains enough from the students learning to play the games that she doesn't need to limit it. Would explain why the arcade is one of the largest buildings in town.
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I now request a moment of silence.
To honor the memory of our pasts, that through no fault of their own, were taken from us all too soon when they deserved to live forever. May they find the immortality they deserve in our memories, so that as long as we endure they will never truly be gone.
Amen.
10624650
There were times, back in the 80's I describe above, where arcades would have 'free days' where all the machines were free to play. Some also had a system where, instead of using tokens (or coins), one could purchase a block of time instead. One would wear a badge on a lanyard, to define a block of hours one could freely play any and all games.
This last option was easy to cheat. One could... just sneak in... with any sort of badge on a lanyard and... play. Keep the badge close and hidden so the face was not easy to see.
I never got caught once - I mean... uh... those rascals... that actually did such a thing... they... never seemed to get caught. Yeah, that's what I meant.
I needed this slap in the face. Thank you Epsilon.
Nah, they just had a bit of machine learning
...I don't get it?
10624631
They do still have fancy arcades, they're just more rare and you'll probably have to drive a couple hours to get there.
10624866
Slapped in a good way? But really you should watch the news as little as possible imho. It's already designed to keep you scared rather than informed.
10625097
Exactly. Memes make no sense to outsiders.
Excuse me I think you made a mistake. The story says it's incomplete, and having gotten to the last chapter, I am not prepared to deal with that.
I require more chapters, post haste!
This seems to be a subtle dig at how lacking the world building of the EG world was.
There was no exploration of politics, governance, or world views in the EG world.
I mean, is she wrong?
(But FoME, Magic booster packs are literally physical lootboxes and they've existed since the early 90's!)
Shut up, parenthetical counterpoint.
This Celestia may not be eating Sunset's emotional memories, but that doesn't mean they can't twist and shift over time, reshaped to better fit Sunset's personal biases. (Or, you know, her Celestia may actually be that bad. It's not out of the question; we're already in AU territory.)
It is good to see Sunset start healing from her own emotional damage. The problem is that by valuing her friendships, she now has something to lose by refusing Celestia. At some point, she'll grow beyond her friends, even Twilight. Will she be able to accept that, or will she surrender to the principal? Ironically, moving past her knee-jerk hatred of the princess will only make that decision easier for her.
10625108
...Ah, I was overthinking it, thinking it some sort of obscure reference.
Sunset slowly working herself into a murdeous hatred for Celestia. The being she prayed to before. Good times, one step forwards, two steps back.
10624378
I'm honestly not sure why you (or others in chapters before) suggested like the worst thing about the students' condition is them not 'moving on' from their 'traumas'. You can only move on from something that's over. The biggest deal with most of the students is, it's very much not over, there's nowhere better for them to go, physically. This place is as good as it gets. Those who want to leave and have a capacity of doing so, are already gone; Fae-lestia mentioned so herself. For the rest, well. It's this or starvation outside, and that's if they're lucky.
but what if every day her memory of how big Equestria is shrunk just a little bit? ooOOOoOoO
so true, processes are finite
hehe love Dash’s competitive bravado as expressed in this context
yeah imagine a pony world with smartphones. ridiculous!
ooh this dive into Sunset’s psyche and how she might find herself sneakily snuck into accepting this world through the power of Friendship is really neat!
Great chapter!!