5th New Dream

[its_decided]

[Written]

Everypony...

...how would you feel if you got to know what your future would be like and you realized that it'll never come true?

[Action]

[And long after the question, Nozomi's busy just being so melancholy. A teacher. She was a teacher. She had her friends, she knew more friends, other girls who bore the name "Pretty Cure" and the worst of all was that she fell in love.

But, that wasn't her. She was like the other Twilight Sparkle, just a program from Mayfield. She'd never experience that at all. And that's what is hurting her right now.]

...I miss everyone...

Comments

Re: [written]

[its_decided]

Well... there's the part that I'm not really me... It's hard to explain. Kinda like Twilight's problem, only except with the turning evil bit and turning people away.

[written]

[morganknight]

I'm not familiar with Twilight's problem... or any of the history here, actually, so can you start me off fresh before I say something stupid because of missing context?

Re: [written]

[its_decided]

Oh! Sorry!

I came from a place called "Mayfield". It was a town controlled by a man who lost touch with reality and tried to force other people to live in his idealistic place. But, we're not really us - we're copies of the people he wanted to bring in.

[written]

[morganknight]

Ah. So you're a clone. And so is this Twilight, I take it. And you're having problems with that...

But why can't the dream come true?

Re: [written]

[its_decided]

Because, technically? I'm not real. I'm just a computer program. Something made up because the real me couldn't be brought in. I'm not even sure I can return to my world if it comes to it.

[written]

[morganknight]

...Why does being a computer program make you less real?

Re: [written]

[its_decided]

I... honestly don't know.

[written]

[morganknight]

Did you know right away you were a computer program, when you were brought online?

Re: [written]

[its_decided]

Nuh-uh. I was there almost a year before I found that out. I know many others were there longer than me, so we all went thinking we were just trapped in the town.

[written]

[morganknight]

So who says we aren't all virtual clones right now, and nobody has told us? Or who says you and everyone else you know wasn't a program before you got copied, and you're just a copy of a copy?

[written] Threadjacking

[magicalrealist]

That's a possibility that has already been considered, discussed and put to the side until it can be proven or disproven. Now please stop giving existential crises multiple layers; one layer is bad enough on its own.

[written] Threadjacking

[morganknight]

[Huh. He had not known that was possible up until this moment.]

Well, you interrupted before I could get to my next point, which was: what does it matter? As interesting as the search for ultimate philosophical truth is on an intellectual level... what does it really matter? Everything could be true. Everything probably is true.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

It matters when your beliefs and memories are directly ripped from someone else's, when you want to go in that same direction, but it's impossible to do so when you're not that person. It's wanting to go one way and having to go another.

[written]

[morganknight]

The only difference between you and everybody else is that you've thought very seriously about the possibility that you're just a copy... that you believe it. If you didn't believe it, it wouldn't be impossible, would it?

[written]

[magicalrealist]

I don't have to believe I'm just a copy; I know I'm just a copy. Whether or not I believe it doesn't matter.

[written]

[morganknight]

Belief defines reality.

That's why it matters to ask, what if everyone is a copy? It doesn't change anything for anyone if that's true, because they don't know it's true. They go on with their lives. You believe it, and you believe it matters, so it does.

Look at it this way: Say you believe, with all your heart, that you can never go one mile down the road that leads out of town or you'll drop over dead. It doesn't matter whether that's true or not, because you'll never try.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

So you're saying I'll never get anywhere as long as I believe I'm a clone?

[written]

[morganknight]

Oh no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that if you believe being a clone limits you, then you are limited by being a clone.

[written]

[its_decided]

Oh, Twilight, I'm sorry...!

[written]

[magicalrealist]

Don't apologize; it's not your fault. You're just...going through the same problem I did when I first arrived.

[written]

[its_decided]

I am? I... mmm, I... guess I am.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

I know it's a difficult situation with no easy way out, but with patience and the right support, I know you can make it through this.

[written]

[its_decided]

Thanks, Twilight. Really.

I do want to find a way out, though. Not just from our problems now, but from everything.

[written]

[magicalrealist]

With patience and the right support, I think you can.

[written]

[its_decided]

Then, it's decided! That's what I'm gonna do!

Not just you, not just me, not just Ako or any singular person. I'm gonna help everyone! No matter what, I'll do my best and go beyond who I am, one way or another!

[Oh, Twilight, you should see the determination on Nozomi's face now!]