Is friendship REALLY the optimal technology? What if everypony could be happier by giving up some of our yucky, old-fashioned contact with reality?

A gentle satire of some science fictional ideas about "uploading" everyone's mind into a giant computer network.

Thanks go to Bananachips, who provided thoughtful preread comments that I probably misapplied.

(As usual, I made the cover image by editing MLP screen captures. Who knew that Alicorn Twilight even HAD a black catsuit? Now she does!)

_{(Does not require reading "Friendship is Optimal.")}

Exactly what it says on the label, I'm sure.

It wasn't the ultimate sacrifice, but it was pretty close.

After four years in prison, human Sunset Shimmer comes back to reclaim her identity. For the pony who's been impersonating her, this might get complicated.

Also, we learn the secret TRUTH about Angry Gamer Sunset, and why so much computer software is buggy and annoying.

This is an authorized AU fanfic for C-L-Strife's story "Two Sunsets." Strife described his story as

Sunset's other self from the People Dimension is released from Jail but, The Criminal Life-Style is too hard for her to get past.

(I wanted my story to be at least partly original. That's why I carefully avoided reading most of Strife's story before composing my own fanfic of it! I only read Strife's story AFTER writing my fanfic, and I enjoyed Strife's tale even more than I had expected!)

Mildly AU.

I'm very lucky that Samey90 (fimfiction.net link) preread even part of this story. Thank you! As so often happens, I might not work out how to apply some of the more interesting and profound feedback until later stories, after this contest's deadline.

Thank you to Mykola (offprint, fimfiction.net) for advice on an obscure topic relating to science fairs! (Specifically, Mykola checked a Google translation of a Russian language line of dialog by Twilight Sparkle.)

This story might be an entry in a Sunset x Sunset story contest, idk.

_{#sunsetxsunsetshipcontest2021}

Weeks ago, Flash Sentry disappeared. Sunset searches for him, and discovers the horrifying answer to the mystery that no one else seems to care about.

This story was inspired by eemoo1o's "A Flash In The Pan," and can optionally be read as an unofficial and NON-canon (but authorized!) sequel to that story.

Thank you, eemoo1o!

I guess you don't HAVE to read the prequel, but it does provide some very relevant backstory, especially about the general apathy, and most importantly the ballpoint pens. Do you really want to miss out on all that foreshadowing? I don't think so!

For prereading, I thank: eemoo1o, "CarlosSainz55 (no, not THAT CarlosSainz55, a different one.)"