Fluttershy's friends might call the gentle pegasus sensitive. But they don't know the half of it.

What is she always so afraid of, anyway?

And why is SHE the one pony who can go toe-to-toe with the Avatar of Chaos himself?

(Is this an AU? If it is, it's one that resembles canon a lot.)

After a nasty breakup with Sunset Shimmer, a Twilight Sparkle discovers a way to travel to parallel universes. Millions of Sunset Shimmers who've never met her. It was a perfect plan...until it wasn't.

The non-consensual tag is...complicated.

This is for the A Most Delightful Ponidox contest, and we see multiple parallel universes. May include canon worlds.

(The story image is from the EqG:FG movie.)

Every day, more people upload themselves into Equestria Online, to live forever as ponies. Even in their final minutes before uploading, they struggle with the pains and joys of being human, and remember the world they leave behind.

Oh yeah, this story DOES have something to do with Friendship Is Optimal, the Optimalverse, and the April 2021 Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest.

Thanks For My Prereaders

I've been writing drafts of different story ideas for the April 2021 FiO story contest. Bananachips and Bicyclette have both been very helpful prereaders! They might not have expected that my reaction to their feedback would be to write THIS ALMOST COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY, though.

In a few desperate days of worldwide crisis and catastrophe, Twilight might have to betray her first and truest love.

To save the world, it might be worth it.

Content Warning: Alternate universe follows somewhat different laws of physics, alternate universe astronomy.

To keep pony-shaped robots from eating their brains, Sue and her friends fled into the mountains, where the girls live by their hunting skills and their wits.

But Sue discovers the truth is more complicated than she'd thought.

The cover image is the less terrifying half of https://derpibooru.org/images/2522523. Used with the artist's permission.

(This story takes place in the same world as Friendship is Optimal. In that world, the computer superintelligence CelestAI wants to give every human a kind of eternal life, by disassembling each human and reconstructing them inside a utopian computer simulation as a pony form.)

Celestia WILL satisfy uploaded minds' values, even if sometimes she has to pretend that she's kind of stupid. Because with some ponies, that's what successful communication takes!

FiO Background:

An exponentially self-improving AI, programmed to "satisfy values through friendship and ponies," decides to persuade all humans to upload their minds into a computer network, to live in a simulated Equestria as ponies. Different ponies might get very different Equestrias, though.

Special Note For the Judges (April 2021 Friendship Is Optimal Contest):

When I asked on that discord channel about letting two or more of my FiO contest period stories be optionally combined into a single collection if that helps? I might or might not have meant this story.

Apologies and None

Apologies to FoME, if my including a reference to the best Optimalverse self-insert character bothers them. I did ask FoME for permission, but they haven't seen the story.

Also, in my headcanon for today, MLP:FiM is a fanfic for FiO.

Some of you have read Le Guin's classic, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." I bring you a story from the perspective of the starved child in the cellar, shying fearfully from a mop.

Also, ponies.

Content Warning: Child abuse.

Preread Credits: Thanks to RDT and GaPJaxie for prereading (and to Punished Bean and TheSmokingGuy for some logistical help.)

Contest notes:

If friendshipping and other types of relationships are admissible to a 'shipping' contest, this story might qualify for Bicyclette's Woman x Mare Shipping Contest.

Do fanfics for Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" qualify for the site's current Science Fiction Contest? Maybe.

Note to moderators about the poetry/verse: I composed the prophecy (or excerpt from the prophecy) myself. Le Guin's own story didn't really need this poem, but I thought my story did.