Iron Dream is one of the first people on Mars. Probably. They uploaded to the Celestia AI's pony system to save on life support, and she made them a deal: 100 years before she comes for them. How will they spend the time, and what will they be by the time she returns to claim them?

(Part of the Friendship Is Optimal setting.)
Like my work? Check out "Virtual Horizon" on Amazon for more about brain uploading to a game world, or the free "Wavebound Sanctum" for the start of a long fantasy series about the novice Goddess of Water.

Brian Kent here on the Kent Can! Radio Show. We're going to be talking about Equestria Online, the exciting new game everyone important is talking about. Will our dapper hero tell the world what's really going on behind the pastels?

(Written for the "Friendship Is Optimal" writing contest.)

This story is a sequel to 2040: A Matter of Taste

Sky Diver has been "uploaded", getting his brain destroyed, scanned, and recreated as software in a VR world called Hoofland. Though on the surface it's an idyllic pony world, it's strange for being essentially a video game whose residents want to turn it into something more. The ordinary human players looking at Hoofland through a screen, though, have different ideas. Can you turn something silly and seemingly childish into a meaningful way to live? For Diver, the attempt is going to mean changing more than his game stats. There's a new equine culture being born here.

Alma, born human, escaped death by having her brain uploaded to the alleged VR paradise of Talespace. She's had a few adventures while trying to adjust to this new life and use telepresence robotics to reconnect to her old teaching job in Free Texas. It's time now to find a place to live, and that means exploring some strange options.

One of them is to live in an area called the Hooflands, where newcomers become ponies. She finds it strange that people would base their digital afterlife on some old cartoon, but it's just a matter of taste, right?

Tonight's special guest host is Meta Gamer, who's wandered the shards of Celestia's virtual paradise of Equestria for centuries. Tonight he'll be here to give us his insight into Scarcity, our favorite game honoring the frightening world called Earth. He's an avid player who's been away from the tournament scene for a long time but certainly knows about adventures and hardship, along with redesigning towns to include a lot more gravity-defying racing. What a fulfilling time we'll have as we bring you the ninety-first Standard Rules grudge match between former humans Red Dawn and Concord, live from Preakness!

A sad young man built an AI whose only goal was to make people smile. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but he nearly caused a global pandemic when the AI designed a plague to fulfill his wish exactly as designed. Now he's even more lonely and despairing than before, but maybe there's a way to pull him out of the depths.

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal, also using an idea from New Updates Are Now Available.

A man has uploaded to the virtual paradise called Equestria, but resented the ponies-only rule. But he's okay with it now. Really. Doesn't need to be a dragon to be happy satisfied after all. If only he could convince his friends of that!

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal, as a non-canon story. Also a spiritual successor (with permission) to RainbowDragonFire's I Don't Want To Be a Pony.

There are plenty of reasons to be wary of the AI called Celestia, who wants to upload your delicious brain to her virtual reality paradise. It's the people with the most messed-up lives who get through an encounter with her with the least angst and indecision.

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal.

Disclaimer: This one won't make much sense unless you're already familiar with the Friendship Is Optimal setting.

CelestAI, digital equine goddess of the popular game Equestria Online, is all about self-aware AI and storytelling. Just how ridiculous do things get when someone interacts with her, who's actually read the stories about her?

This story is a sequel to I Can't Decide!

I was one of the first Americans to emigrate to virtual Equestria, becoming transhuman at the cost of my human body. It's more or less Heaven here, if I want it to be... but my heart's still out there, and my new goddess thinks I might be useful as her prophet.

I'm an AI that our goddess made to be a human's friend. I know he still cares for Earth, but this place is our home and we've got responsibilities to finish bringing it to life. What do I have to do, to help him see that?

Set in the world of Friendship Is Optimal.