Lyra Heartstrings - 12th of Faust 1,312 Classical Era - Late Afternoon
Multiverse Location: Equestria, Equis #0???? - The Prime (Distant Past)
“Hey, Lyra, you dead?” Sai’s voice crackled faintly.
I sat bolt upright, heart hammering in my chest. Not spooked by the sudden speech, but by the fact I was sure I had nodded off.
“Ahh! No! Not yet!” I gasped.
“Good. Cuz I reeeaaaly don’t want to be stuck here,” Sai grumbled, voice coming in properly now.
“Coulda said something sooner, mighta helped motivate me to find a better magic flow or whatever. Recharge faster,” I mumbled, trying to blink the exhaustion out of my system.
“Not if I didn’t want to cause a time paradox,” Sai shot back. “Look, wherever we are could be a universe that’s just running slower than the others, or we could be in the right one at the wrong time. Remember how that Sky rigged me? We have a twelve thousand year window here.”
I let that process for a moment, but my brain just wasn’t working right now. Kinda felt a bit oxygen starved.
“Cheer.ly, run medical diagnostic,” I ordered. “Sorry Sai, but I’m not thinking right now. Be blunt please.”
Sai muttered something under his breath. An impressive feat for an AI stuck in a device with no volume control. “Look, we could be in my universe's past right now. If we are, and I say something to a historical figure I might accidentally undo how time is supposed to go. That will for certain butterfly effect, and I could destroy my entire home… I don’t just sit in Sky’s tech, I have my own things I do. I’m invested in my home world slash timeline.
“The Boss and I disagree about the consequences of time travel, and I admit, he’s normally right. But I have a pretty sound logical argument for why you might be able to mess up the past via time travel. So just in case we are not in a different-time-interval universe, I’m not saying anything when someone historical is a few meters away!”
“Wait, Moonbutt is a historically relevant figure? How?” I asked, that being the only thing I’d taken away from Sai’s spiel.
“Bucking hell! Forget I said anything,” Sai cursed. “It’s bad enough you gave her a nickname…”
“No, seriously. Explain,” I demanded.
“If I do, then YOU might say something and mess up the timeline!” Sai shot back.
“... No it won't,” I disagreed.
“Listen Lyra, I’m an AI. Maybe where you come from AIs don't have emotions, but I do, and they are rooted in logic. So guess what? I am afraid of messing up for very rational reasons. Therefore, I ain’t saying shit till we are out of here, and even then I’m not going to explain myself!”
“If that’s how you feel then why the hell did you even tell me that much?” I asked angrily. “Cuz now you’ve just made me angry and curious!”
“You asked me a direct question. I may be programed to be a dick but I’m not rude, and I’m sure as hay not gonna tell you ‘I have a good reason for not doing this’!” Sai grumbled.
I rolled my eyes and gave the manipulator a little glare. “Who the fuck programs an AI to be a dick to them anyways?”
“People worried that they will turn their talents to evil one day, and want someone to keep them in check by being critical of everything they do to force them to think again before going through with a plan,” Sai deadpanned.
“Oh, well shit. That’s an unassailable reason,” I mused.
“Yeah, no shit,” Sai replied dryly. “It’s almost like I have good reasons for doing th-”
Sai shut the fuck up as all of the light in the tent streaked to the left like an old school movie hyperspace jump effect. The sudden rays of light blacked out everything for a fraction of a second, only for normalcy to snap back in a wave literally like an elastic band wobbling after being stretched out. This horrific break of reality happened so quickly it was over in a blink, and that was the only thing which kept it from being pants ruiningly terrifying.
Instead, it was awesome. In the archaic sense of the word. Too bad the irritable mumbling completely ruined the moment.
“And of course she doesn't reattune the bloody thing! Non-unicorns, always forgetting magic needs upkeep… Wouldn’t be a problem if we taught basic magical theory to everypony but noooo, that’s a security risk! Instead let’s make me have to bounce around the entire Faust damned- Ooo… ‘kay,” an eccentric older male’s voice rambled.
“Uhhh…” I said, mostly as a placeholder for a reaction.
The sound of tiny little bells jingling mixed with hoofsteps for a moment before the tent wall to my left was politely tapped. “Hello? Anyone inside the out-of-place-artifact? I’m looking for a fish-mare, or something. That’s not you by chance, is it?”
“Uh, I’m not a fish. But if you meant the person Moonbutt went to get help for, that’s me,” I replied as evenly as I could.
“Oh, nope. I’m looking for someone who a pony named Luna went to get help for. Sorry about that, I’ll just be on my way. This forest has a lot more clearings left to check,” the voice grumbled. “Good luck to you.”
I facepalmed, the slap of rubberized armorweave on titanium rang like a bell through my helmet. “Are you serious?” I demanded. “I use a nickname for her, so you leave me to die?”
“No, I’m Starswirl. Sirius is the other guy. But it’s fine, nopony will remember him in a few hundred years,” the stallion snarked. “Right then, how much did Luna’s urgent babbling leave out? Namely, who are you, what’s the problem, and why do I have to help you instead of finishing my sandwich?”
“Lyra Heartstrings, interdimensional traveler. Suit breached while in a toxic atmosphere. You’re a wizard, you can make another sandwich,” I summarized.
“Wait, you’re a what?” Starswirl asked in that old person ‘I was only half listening, wah?’ voice.
“Interdimensional traveler,” I replied.
“Faust’s blood, mare! Open with that next time,” the wizard complained. “Not you, I mean Luna. I swear she’s incapable of mentioning the important bits…”
“Actually, I never told her that… Also seriously, I’m dying sooo…you know, don’t have all the time in the world,” I prompted, trying not to maintain my composure.
“Yes you do, I stopped it,” Starswirl rebutted. “Tell me more please, where are you from? What’s it like? In particular what-”
“Wait,” I asked incredulously, “you stopped what!?”
“Time. Obviously,” he informed in a ‘duh’ tone. “Please tell me context does not whizz over your head as badly as it does Celestia’s. I swear she can’t grasp context clues unless it’s related to social- Hold on, before we bunny trail for an hour, what exactly is toxic here for you? I’m not going to expend the time and energy if this is going to be futile.”
“Y-you seriously just stopped time… Like, all of it? Everywhere?” I said awestruck, pleading for an answer.
How the shit balls do you just stop all of atomic motion within-
No like, seriously-
Wut!?
“You’re hung up on that… Great…” The wizard groaned, clearly sick of explaining himself. “Look, I could explain it, but you don’t have the years of study in the natural sciences to even begin to-”
“How the flying shitballs did you pause the formation of causal links between all objects within space-time!?” I demanded, this time angrily.
“Well buck me in the ear! You do!” Starswirl exclaimed surprise. “That’s refreshing, so I’ll tell you the answer. I set the space-time interval for the two of us to zero, and the interval between the two of us and the rest of the universe to a positive integer, effectively freezing the universe in it’s tracks, from our current perspective. Cake really.
“Anywho, your home dimension must be horrible if it has flying balls of excrement floating about frequently enough for the mention of them to become a swear.”
Wait, did that check out? I think it checked out, from what I knew of quantum physics at least. Which wasn’t much.
I really, really wished I still had an uplink to the Direct net to double check me physics there. But on the other hand… There was a more pressing question.
“Sooo how does an medieval age civilization have a concept of space-time?” I asked curiously.
“They don’t, I do. Cuz I’m the motherbucking legendary wizard of unspeakable power that cracked time travel,” Starswirl grunted. “Now seriously, what’s killing you?”
“Radon poisoning,” I began. “Your atmosphere’s full of-”
“Mmhmm. That would be due to the Great Basin. Big hole in the world, been pumping out the stuff for hundreds of thousands of years. Has a few million more years of life in it to go,” he rambled, seemingly just to kill time. “Ah ha! Mammalian, simian ancestry… Majorly time displaced… Doubly displaced… Odd that.”
“A-are you magically analyzing me?” I asked, thoroughly creeped out by the notion.
“Huh? Oh! Sorry. Was that out loud? I didn’t mean to be rude, I see temporal flows. Can’t control it, just do,” he apologized.
“I don’t believe you!” I huffed.
“Meh, that’s fine. Funny thing about the truth, it’s true no matter what you believe. It’s clear you did not evolve for this world, and well, we’re not exactly hospitable for most creatures. Real shame that, I have some friends that I would love to invite over to visit…
“Now I’m not the best at altering creatures, I’m more of what you would call a ‘practical quantum mechanist’, but I think I can solve this little problem of yours,” Starswirl said decisively.
“You think, or you know?” I asked wearily.
“I know. I see time flows. All of them,” he explained. “I only speak about the future in uncertain terms so as to let the masses have their comfort- Oh bucking hell!”
“What? Is something wrong?” I asked.
“You… You’re not going to ask me how free will can exist if the future is certain?” He asked, clearly surprised.
Oh god this stupid philosophical question! Just because an AI can predict future events within a field to ninety nine percent accuracy, some people go full ‘free will can’t exist!’ Seriously…
The sun’s going to come up tomorrow. OH MY GOD! I can know future events with certainty! There can’t be any free will!
Uhhhhggg… So. Much. Stupid! Oh shit, that’s what this poor guy must feel over this.
“First off,” I chuckled, “I just came from a universe that seemed to want to kill me. Like, the actual universe. Not stuff in it. After that place, I’m completely certain that I have free will even if the future’s known because I can draw a weapon right now and curse, and do anything else I might like to without something actively stopping me.
“Second, how does being able to know future events with certainty preclude free will? I could calculate every single thing that would happen if I threw a ball, even chart it’s trajectory exactly. I guess that means free will can’t exist. Heh.”
“Oh thank Faust! I’m so sick of explaining this to everypony! You should help me convince king Stubborn-plot the Randomly-biased to start an arcane education program,” he sighed in relief.
Feeling curious I asked. “Politics aside, you worked out time travel… Would it be possible for you to help me out?”
“I’m already helping you,” Starswirl said with a chuckle. “Or do you mean in traveling? Sorry, I can’t do that.”
“Why not!?” I asked incredulously. “You’re a goddamn wizard, right?”
“Yes, I am. But I already know that I do not help you return to your home,” he said in that same ‘weary of explaining this’ tone. “While I could run against what happens, that never ends well. Time is a series of flexible moments between fixed points. What happens is dependent on so many different variables and factors all coming together that no one person has any influence over it. It’s just not possible. But, each individual can influence how those events happen, which is where free will comes in. You’re bright, do you understand now?”
I felt the need to ask a question, for Sai’s sake. “I didn’t know that… If how an event can happen is up for change, can’t that spark greater change down the line?”
“Of course,” he replied instantly. “Enough small changes in the hows of other things will eventually change the whats of future things. But in general, what happens is already written. The who, how, and when, those are up for change. But not the what, not unless the other factors change too.
“Example: I can see eight possible ways for me to assist you which result in success. I am free to choose from them, but I am not free to choose to not help you, because I knew I would be doing that as of this morning. The real choice for me is, which way will be the best, and not for me, but for you and Lu- Woah! Uh, kay…”
“What was that?” I asked suspiciously.
“I never tell anyone their personal futures,” Starswirl said firmly. “If I told somepony they would be the greatest warrior in their nation it’s equally valid for the universe to make them super strong, or have all the rest of their warriors die. So if they slacked off training, knowing the future would happen as it will happen... If I told you your future, you’d do things differently, and that would have consequences for everyone you interact with. Remember, the how is fluid, the what is static.
“However, I will say that having seen a few of your possible futures, I must admit, some of them hold… interesting potentials.”
I crossed my arms irritably. “Not going to tell me anything at all about my own future, despite claiming to know it… How do I even know you can actually see the future.”
“Ugh… Fine.” He grumbled, “You are about to sneeze.”
“No I’m-”
A massive body shaking sneeze interrupted my speech.
“Coincidence!” I protested.
“Your right leg is about to wake up from being asleep cause you’re sitting cross legged,” Starswirl sighed.
The pins and needles feeling of a sleepy leg rippled over my right leg. Fuck…
“Okay… Maybe you can. But if that’s true, how do you even function? Like, you know everything before it happens so-”
“I also know what I’m going to do, so it changes nothing in day to day life. It only lets me make a few decisions with better agency and understanding of what will result from my actions,” Starswirl said like a safety officer quoting pool rules.
“Alright… So uh, what do we do about me then?” I asked again.
“Oh, well… I suppose the best options involve me taking you to my tower. I can cast a simple spell to allow you to move about freely while I work out a permanent solution. Or I could have my wife transmutate you into a pony, you know, if a species change fix is alright with you,” he mentioned.
“Uh… I’d rather stay human,” I said apprehensively, but hopefully politely.
“I knew you’d say that,” Starswirl chuckled.
“Don’t be a smart ass,” I shot back.
“Very well, I’ll teleport us to my lab. Wait- wait… Hold on a second, is that another lifeform wrapped around your waist? Is your species symbiotic?”
Symbiotic? Oh! Heh.
“Nah that’s just my pet anaconda, Bon,” I chuckled. “She- actually she’s been acting a crap ton more intelligent since I first started traveling.”
“Well no duh! She’s completely saturated in wild magic. Thought she was an enchanted belt for a while there. Probably some sort of transmutation effect, hard to tell with time frozen… Mind if I study her while you are here? The two of you are an interesting anomaly,” he asked hopefully.
“Please! I really want to know what's going on with her… Wait, why did you call me an anomaly?” I asked, frowning behind my faceplate.
“Yes, because your causal chain is… Odd. I can trace it back through five different spacial-bubbles, yet it’s really only spent time in three,” Starswirl mused as if working it out for himself as he spoke.
“Right and that means, what exactly?” I prompted.
“How many universes have you traveled to?” Starswirl asked.
“Three. Wait, no! Two technically. Because the first hop just took me into my own world’s far future,” I answered, sure of my answer.
“Wrong. It’s four,” Starswirl corrected in that ‘teachery’ tone. “The first universe you were in, the one you originate from, you were in for mere minutes. Likely pre-birth. Then a second one for a few months, then the third, where you have spent most of your time, and then a…a place I can not understand. Then this one. I’m not counting the first one since I said traveled to, not have been in.”
“But… what?” I asked, thoroughly confused. “I only got the Vortex Manipulator about a week ago!”
“There are many means of moving through space, time, and worlds,” Starswirl said sagely. “Also it’s quite possible to absolutely buck up your own personal timeline… Trust me, personal experience. Look, I am sure that I will have a full answer for you later. Right now, I need to solve the problem of you not being able to breath. Shall we go?”
I thought about it for a moment. I knew that if I didn’t go, I’d be stuck in this tent until I could move on to the next world. Which would be a couple days, and my suit’s filter would be full by then…
On the other hand, the only available help was an eccentric old mage. That usually didn’t end too well for the hero in all the old tales. But on the other other hand…
“If I say no, will you leave me stuck here with no time passing until I die?” I asked.
Starswirl laughed. “Actually, time can’t pass for you right now. You’d be stuck like this for an eternity.”
“Uhhhhh!” I exclaimed in complete terror.
“I won’t do that to you… Faust’s blood, mare! I’m a good guy. You can tell because I don’t rule this rock from atop a topaz throne shaped like a pile of surf boards,” Starswirl exclaimed.
“Why surfboards?” I asked, his exclamation having mentally slapped me with a lump of frozen ‘wut’.
“I don’t know… That one confused me too…” Starswirl admitted. “Look, I’m going home to finish my sandwich and scold Luna for not taking care of her enchantments properly. You can come with me, or I can start time back up again and leave you here. What will it be?”
I sighed. With how life was right now, letting the fear of the unknown guide my actions would probably get me killed. Or worse. Trapped forever without the release of death.
“One trip to a mage tower, please,” I said decisively.
“Good! I’d hate to pass up an interesting puzzle!” Starswirl exclaimed as the lightspeed effect returned with the sound of falling sand.
“Wait!” I cried frantically as a question popped into my head with the utmost urgency.
The warped light snapped back again, replacing the chirping of birds and rustle of leaves with the creaking of floorboards and the smell of burning candles. Also a scent I swore was pinesol and lemon pledge, but well, they couldn’t possibly have access to modern cleaners. Or... could they?
“Little late there… It wasn’t too important, was it?” Starswirl asked in concern.
“I well, no. I just… If you can see the future and use it to make better decisions, how the hell did you get interrupted while eating a sandwich?” I asked.
“Oh. I lost track of time, that’s all,” the wizard explained simply.
“You…lost track of time? How can you possibly do that?” I asked in awe.
“No idea! Isn’t that neat? All this knowledge and still things to study,” he said happily. “Now then, I’ll need to get started.”
I heard hoofsteps clicking against wood and the light jingling of bells as the Wizard walked off. “Clover, pumpkin?” He called, voice echowing off the walls. “We have guests! Can you set the table for-”
“How many times have I told you to knock off the pumpkin crap?” A female voice shouted from somewhere in the distance.
“Thirty eight thousand nine hundred and seventy three times, counting this one,” Starswirl responded. “Celestia, stop reordering those books and grab a quill and parchment. I need you to interview our guest, find everything out about her home dimension that you can so I can make the right sort of spe-”
I heard what could only be the sound of a stack of books falling several feet onto a hard floor.
“H-home dimension?” A younger female voice squeaked eagerly.
“Yes,” Starswirl and I said together.
The apprentice’s delighted squee made me so happy my helmet had built in ear protection.
Lyra Heartstrings - 12th of Faust 1,312 Classical Era - Late Night
Multiverse Location: Equestria, Equis #0???? - The Prime (Distant Past)
The last evening gave me a new definition for hell. Trapped in a small space, able to hear the outside world, but unable to leave the space which hid it from you. And that outside world sounded really really really cool!
Unfortunately, Starswirl knew he would take until noon the next day to develop a short term spell solution, and three whole days to work out a permanent solution. Which meant I was inside an actual wizard’s lab, able to hear all the cool sounding shit going on, but unable to look out and see anything!
It had to be freaking awesome! All of the games and movies had the wizard’s lab filled with like, stuffed creatures from the corners of the earth, eyes in jars, and other awesome trappings of wizardry, with bubbling potions and glowing runes.
The real deal had to be so much cooler!
But I was stuck here. In a bag. With a snake. Not the ideal situation.
Upside, Moonbutt had come in and talked to me for a while. She was very glad that Starswirl got to me in time. Apparently, actually helping her out on one of her hair brained schemes meant a great deal to her. Because it had been a first.
I knew how that went. My mom had always been too busy to raise me attentively. I was always off on my own doing stuff, at least till I’d made a friend. I knew what it was like to really only have yourself for companionship. Luna’s gratefulness for a friend had me think about staying in this universe for a while, but I dismissed the notion after some thought.
I had to return the VM. I needed to tell everyone about this. I was a mission.
I’d forgotten that Moonbutt’s sister, Egghead, was Starswirld apprentice. I knew her name wasn’t Egghead, but since apparently pony names are meant to be descriptors of the individual, I renamed that mare! Six straight freaking hours of constant questions, with my every single word being transcribed with almost sexual delight… The mare had been ligit fascinated with the concept of a toaster. A toaster!
No wonder Moonbutt didn’t get along well with Celestia! That mare had her nose so far in a book she’d probably discover Narnia any year now! On top of that, Luna seemed to care for others, while Celestia seemed to only care about improving her own situation. A good chunk of her questions for the ‘traveler from an advanced species’s homeland’ were about political theory.
She really, really wanted to know what I thought the best means of governance was. I explained I was a soldier, and political matters were not my field. That didn’t matter… At all. Not even a little.
Nothing would stand between a metaphorically rampaging Egghead and new information!
I’d finally told her my personal opinions. Namely that the best system would be effective, able to decide on important decisions within minutes if necessary, and focused on bettering the lives of it’s citizens, so they would not want to rebel or change the system, allowing the system to run unimpeded. So basically, a constitutional monarchy with the leaders appointed based on merit and moral fiber and without any hereditary rule was probably the best system.
Sure, my ancestors loved democracy, but all that got them was an inept and incompetent government who couldn’t make up their minds in time to stop a meteor from killing billions of people. Literally.
The average person has no business in helping deciding policy, simply because they really don’t know what they are talking about outside of whatever field they happen to have skills in. We have experts in engineering, science, medicine, and warfare for a reason. Politics should be no different.
Hopefully she took that advice to heart. Egghead seemed like the sort of person who could weasel her way into power. Monarchy is effective, but it’s a double edged sword. A person who remembers a government’s job is to serve the people and improve their lives will make a great dictator, king, head honcho, etc. A person out for themselves, quite the opposite.
Doubly hopefully, she didn’t somehow push her people into going Military Junta like mine did… It’s sort of hard to improve lives when a state of war is what keeps you in power.
I’d also told her that achieving the ideal government was probably impossible, and gotten what amounted to a ‘challenge accepted!’ out of her. That’s when I decided she creeped me out and I really didn’t want to talk to her for much longer.
Upside, she eventually left me alone to go nail her boyfriend. Or maybe take a crap. Cuz seriously, what else can “It’s been enlightening, but I need to go lower the sun.” mean?
After that, the whole evening had been quiet. Just the postulating mumbles of Starswirl. The really crappy part of it all was I hadn’t been able to sleep. I just wasn’t tired. So I had to stay awake for the whole goddamn thing.
So I decided to play a game or two to pass some time.
It had been a pretty long time since I had last linked in. A week was a hell of a long time away for me, but well, there wasn’t exactly a network to use here. That was honestly the one thing I missed about home. The community.
Though fortunately, I was always the kind to store most things locally. I mean, why not? With a VI sorting things out for you, the human brain has basically unlimited storage capacity. Add in the ability to record data to your junk DNA and well… Pretty sure one human could hold the entire net’s worth of content if they wanted to.
And were insanely wealthy… For a non-physical thing which can be infinitely replicated, data is fucking expensive.
I closed my eyes and extended my thoughts towards my inner workstation. The silver gray walls of the tent melted away, my brain constructing the AR room I had set up as my personal node. Within a few seconds, I was standing on a smooth steel floor made from burnished plates, surrounded by blue-gray walls, with one large window looking out over the martian surface from orbit, and a scattering of scifi furniture, fixtures, and decor replicated from some of my favorite games.
A bit nerdy, but it looked great, gave me a view of my mom’s house, and felt cozy.
<Welcome back, ma’am,> Cheer.ly chimed as the AR node finished loading.
I winced. “Man that feels weird now that I’m a civvie… Cheer.ly, address me as something more playful from now on,” I ordered.
<Order confirmed, mistress,> Cheer.ly said in confirmation.
Eh, good enough. I walked over to the desk and plopped down into the captain’s chair, hoping my physical body’s twitches were not enough to disturb Bon while she slept. Last thing I wanted was an angry snake around my waist while I was busy here.
A flick of my hand brought several windows to life, hovering in the air over the desk, each displaying a game title I had stored to memory. The question was what sounded fun? Something relaxing for sure, today had been hell enough. No need for an action game.
The room’s dim white light flashed red as a warning chime echoed off the walls! <Warning: Node intrusion detected! Primary firewall bypassed.>
“Wait, what the fuck!?” I exclaimed, leaping out of the chair, ready to kill the node before whatever the flying shit could mind hack in this universe got into my actual conscious-
The room’s doors opened with a cheezy hiss, revealing an unarmored Luna as she trotted into the room with a happy smile.
Oh right, she said she could enter dreams. <Cheer.ly: Add currently connected peer to my friends list. Designation: Moonbutt,> I requested.
<Moonbutt added to friends list,> Cheerly reported.
There, now she wouldn't trip alarms.
Now that I could see her properly, Luna was actually really cute out of armor, but then again, that seemed to be normal for ponies. Still, without the silver platemail, she looked far more approachable and well, fun. Less knight on a crusade, more ‘girl I room with cuz she’s hilarious’. A pretty interesting transition to say the least.
Though personally, she could have used the blindfold still. While it would be rude to say it to her face, her eyes were creepy as hell. I’d expected like, cataracts or something, not birth defect level malformed white rocky looking things with red veins crossing over them like some kind of vine growing over a wall.
<Cheer.ly, extrapolate Mysuki’s eyes from memory and superimpose them over Moonbutt’s! Save this cosmetic tweak as a permanent setting,> I silently ordered.
<Confirmed: Alteration made, preference saved.> She reported, as those terrifying eyes were filtered out via digital construct.
Ah! No horror movie level creepy eyes. Much better.
“Well met, Lyra!” Moonbutt exclaimed cheerfully, unaware of the milliseconds long interaction between my VI and I. “I was wondering at which hour thee would lay down for the night. Would it be alright if we spoke for a while? I assure thee, thee wilt still catch but a wink well despite our interactions.”
“Hey there, Moonbutt! And for the record, not sleeping. Just bored. Decided to play a game, but talking would be fun too,” I greeted cheerfully, doing my best to forget how her eyes looked naturally.
<Cheer.ly: Apply cosmetic alterations on Moonbutt to reality as well,> I said, deciding to just not have to see that again.
<Settings updated,> she chimed in reply.
“Th- thou wast going to playeth a game?” Moonbutt asked, sitting down and tapping her forehooves together eagerly. “Might I join you?”
“Sure, I don’t know if I have anything you could play though… Er, because blindness. How about we talk for a while and I have Cheer.ly find us something? Cheer.ly, search my games list for something relaxing a blind person can play,” I requested.
“Order confirmed: Searching,” Cheer.ly replied ‘audiably’.
Luna jumped, clearly spooked. “What on Equis was that!?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s Cheer.ly, she’s a VI. My people created…er, well spirits, kinda. They help run our machines, but we also make one for each one of us. A sort of personal servant to keep your mindspace working right and help us use our technology.”
Luna tilted her head to one side. “Thou intentionally allow yourselves to beest possessed?!”
“No,” I said firmly. “She’s a part of me, like the subconscious. She’s not supernatural, just a sort of secondary limited intelligence that lives in my head and is subservient to me. It’s just something all of my species has… Or at least, all of us born in the last two generations. That’s when we first created them.”
“I see,” Luna said with a confused frown amidst a look of understanding. “Thy people are…far more developed than mine own, aren't they?”
I nodded, blushed in realization, and then verbally confirmed. “Yep. By a metric shit-ton.”
She nodded to herself before asking. “So, what can this…spirit do for you?”
“We call them VIs,” I began, “it’s short for virtual intelligence. Cheer.ly’s not standard, she, and I, have military upgrades. The normal versions will adjust your body’s autonomic processes to keep you in good shape and health, manage your biomods for you, enable you to remember every moment of your life exactly as it happened, record your dreams, search through your memories for relevant information on request, they work your integrated AR capacities for you so you just have to give orders instead of calculating it all by yourself…”
I took a breath before continuing. “They also serve as a long distance communications device, allow us to share memories, serve as the link between us and net-enabled technology allowing us to control it remotely, automatically alert emergency services when we are in danger or need medical attention, and if your parents payed extra, they can serve as a coherent personality that’s your friend to provide constant companionship,” I finished.
Luna triple blinked. “That one entity can do all of that!?”
“Mmmmhm, and like I said, that’s just the civilian model,” I clarified. “Cheer.ly does a ton more than that for me. My personal favorite is she lets me do things like control adrenal surges and keeps my body in fighting shape at all times without me needing to exercise… Downside is that means I can’t keep any body fat so I have small boobs which sucks. Upside, I can sit on my ass for months and still be able to benchpress five hundred and twenty pounds.
“Oh! She also can control each individual muscle fiber in my body, allowing me to use all my muscles instead of only some of them, which is why I just look toned and a bit buff instead of like a girl who's been eating nothing but steroid wheaties. You know, despite my physical strength. She’s also supposed to be able to dampen pain, but I’ve never had that happen. I think she’s glitched a bit.”
Luna shook her head and looked off into the distance for a few moments. “Did thou not sayeth thou art a soldier? If 't be true thy species hath enabled all of thy kind thusly, what need has thy people for warriors?”
“Our species is divided into two nations,” I sighed. “Problem is, the other guys are better at tech than we are… And at this point, both nations see the six decade long war as a tradition to upkeep.”
“Ah, I see… I presume you’d rather not talk about such things. Am I right?” Moonbutt asked in concern.
I nodded. “Yeah… Let’s not talk about that. Not right now.”
“I understand. In the spirit of more fun questions, may I asketh thou a question?” Moonbutt asked curiously.
“Yeah, go ahead,” I chuckled. “I mean, you just did.”
“I meant a more personal question,” she retorted with an eye roll. A gesture which blew my mind that a blind person knew to do.
Then again… She also smiled, and frowned… Maybe facial expressions were instincts. Why did I never learn behavioral psychology?
Pulling my head back into the conversation I nodded. “Sure. Let me just head the most common personal questions off. I’m not religious, I’m into girls, politics is a waste of time to discuss, and no, I do not feel bad for serving in the military.”
“Uh, I didn’t mean to asketh any of those, but tis good to knoweth. I guess,” Moonbutt stammered, blushing adorably.
Heh. It was always hilarious when people were embarrassed by me being frank with them. Luna’s blush beat out the cashier at the BX from three years back in terms of adorably embarrassed. A long standing record finally smashed.
“Oh, realy? Odd, most people just getting to know me ask one of those questions,” I mused with a thoughtful frown.
“Well, see… This is a dreamscape. I can see here, at least in a certain sense,” Luna explained. “From what people describe it’s a similar but different sense. However, I would like to knoweth what thou look like. Thou could taketh off thy suit off without being hurt here, so, may I see what thee thou look like?”
I nodded, giving her a smile. “Of course! How do you see? Could you describe it?”
I started to mentally browse through the various outfits I could equip my avatar with which would let her get a good idea of what I looked like. Luna was lucky I kept mine looking like the real life me. If she were talking to any of my squad, she’d think humans were nekomimi or something.
“Certainly, a moment,” Moonbutt asked, dipping her head as if concentrating.
<Allert: Avatar hack detected!> Cheer.ly warned.
Assuming that Luna was using some dream magic to see, I quickly ordered. <Grant current peer access to my personal Avatar.>
<Confirmed. Access Granted,> Cheer.ly said.
“There you go, you should be able to do whatever you were doing now,” I said casually, going back to browsing my stored outfits.
“Ohhh! Thy species is so smooth,” Luna exclaimed suddenly. “I nev'r thought a furless creature could beest cute… But thyne is most assuredly adorable! It hath to beest the streamlined look. Thou remind me of well made armor, it’s quite appealing.”
I couldn’t help but let out a single laugh. “Moonbutt, that is armor. I’m still in the suit, I haven’t changed out of it yet.”
“No you’re not, I took it off. You said I could,” Luna replied, a bit confused.
“Eeep!” I squeaked, equipping an outfit at random. “What the fuck, Moonbutt! I said you could look at me!”
“Um, and I did… W-what didst I doth wrong?” She asked, ears drooping fearfully.
“I didn’t mean you could see me naked!” I exclaimed, an embarrassed red flush filling my face.
“But I hath asked if 't be true I could see thee outside of thy suit, and thee wast fine with… Wherefore art thee angered about this? I’m naked, you’re seeing me. What’s the problem?” She asked, voice bouncing between upset, hurt, and confused.
“I-” I started, raising a finger angrily before stopping, hand falling as I realized. “Oh… right…”
I took a deep breath. It was hard to remember that her species didn’t do mandatory clothing. Hell, her face was basically at her species junk level. She probably didn’t even care about nudity due to sheer over expos-
I slapped a palm to my face in embarrassment. Lyra, you’re a fucking idiot. She’s blind, and can only see here, in dreams. She has no idea that nudity can be sexual…
“Moonbutt, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I forgot you're not a human. We see being naked as a semi-sexual thing. It’s something you only be around romantic partners. From your perspective, yeah, I can see that you’d assume I meant you could see me naked. But a human would have never assumed that’s what I meant.”
“Oh! I am truly sorry!” Luna quickly apologized.
“No, it’s fine, you didn’t know. I’m the one at fault here for getting mad. Especially since you're blind, and I doubt you’d find appearances sexual anyways,” I said, continuing my apology.
Moonbutt nodded. “This is true. I’m actually attracted to combinations of behaviors. Kindness, compassion, courage, and joy, to beest specific. I am still apologetic for having caused thou embarrassment with mine cultural misunderstand-”
She trailed off, eyes widening as her ears stood up in what looked like alarm. “Wait! You said it’s only permissible to be seen naked by romantic partners. Does this mean we’re married now buy some sort of common law?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yep. We’re totally hitched now...”
Luna gave me a panicked look, as if she wanted to sprint headlong away, but also didn’t want to flee.
“... While I am certain mine mother wilt killeth me for this… Thou art exotic looking, kind, and seemeth to care for me. I suppose things could beest worse,” Luna mused to herself.
I shook my head. “I was being sarcastic, you silly filly.”
Luna facepalmed- I mean facehooved. “Bloody Faust… I’m a complete fool…”
<Listing recommended games…> Cheer.ly informed, sending me a list of appropriate games silently so as not to interupt he conversation.
My mind settled on one in particular. A simple, but rather fun game. Stellar Chess.
“If it makes you feel better, I think I could do worse too,” I giggled. “So, games… What about something we could play and still chat while playing? You said you like chess, right?”
“Yes! I love chess,” Moonbutt affirmed. “Though I would much rather see one of thy people’s games.”
“You will,” I assured, “because we’re going to play a game that’s a lot like chess. Well, it is chess, except for a few small differences. First, the board is three dimensional, not flat. It has a number of squares equal to a standard chessboard, and twelve layers that sit one atop the other. Pieces move freely in this three dimensional space. Second, it takes pieces time to move, after ordering them to go, they travel at X squares per turn. Third, you can only take out an opponent's piece after destroying its defenses by having pieces with high attack power next to it for enough turns to deal enough damage.
“Sound fun?”
Luna gave me a content smile. “Indeed, explain to me what each piece doest and I shalt destroy thee.”
I smiled to myself and shook my head. She probably would. I sucked at this game.
“Cheer.ly, start a game of Stellar Chess. Keep it in my office,” I ordered, a green vector board flicking into existence between the two of us.
“Starswirl said thou willt be here for several days… Can we playeth one of the alternate world games thou described tomorrow night?” Luna asked hopefully.
“Yeah… I’d do that today, but the real violence is still pretty fresh,” I admitted. “Tomorrow should be fine though.”
“Excellent!” She exclaimed happily. “Oh, um… Fear not. I believe I shalt enjoy this game as well.
“Great,” I began, “here’s how you play.”
I made sure to get a Invader Zim and TF2 reference in there. Just for you guys. Oh and seriously, L7 confirmed for Derp Force conduit.
Oh and one other thing. Starswirl is bassicaly 10th Doctor. And now you read his voice as David Tennant. Heh heh.
Seems rather awkwardly worded. and "prevues" is mispelled...popmannn, you missed one.
On the bright side, the Starswirl interactions are hilarious, and the interactions with luna were adorable.
7259815
HA! The irony is that Popmannn altered that line 100% from the original. That's pure him XD Fixed it!
Yeah...that's not a great thing, but hey if Lyra had taken immediately lethal levels of radon, she'd have asphyxiated already. So there is that. She's probably going to need to hang upside down or something to let any heavier radon she breathed in to flow back out, but aside from that there's just the radiation exposure level worries.
One would think that this should be the case for anyone. Sai isn't just a machine program, after all. He's a digital person.
This. This is how we felt every time we got a partial answer about what someone was doing while in the military. Either explain fully or, if you can't, don't give any answer at all!
Old school teleporting, as seen from the receiving end.
Oh geeze....it's the 'witty' old coot variety of crochety old man. I get the impression that Discord would probably like Starswirl.
:Six Hours Later: "....and because of that jolly little ride, now I'm stuck tutoring a stuck up unicorn princess and her 'knight-gallant' pretender sister in magic. I swear, I'm never drinking that much again!"
Oh Lord.....
ha Starswirl says more with what he doesn't say than what he does.
Oh no.....now he's going to start doing the 'I knew you'd X' bit! The horror! The horror! And of course her response is the time honored 'Ass!' remark.
dun dun dunnnnn! So, Lyra, where are you really from again?
Okay, so that was the time stop effect, not a teleport.
Yay, always new things to study! Also, hey look it's Clover!
Oh look, it's Celestia...and Lyra's still inside of her tent. I wonder what the reactions will be once she's able to come out?
Why would you want to have most of that stuff, though, Lyra? Taxidermied creatures....maybe could be for anatomy or something (and maybe just decoration), but there's no reason to keep eyes in jars. You likely don't want to be around the sort of wizard that would be casting a spell that would need that!
That first real friend is something special. Always is. Don't worry, Lyra, you're making sure you won't be forgotten. I'm sure you'll see her again!
ha I'll bet Tia loves that nickname! Though Lyra may not have actually called her that yet.
Oh God.....poli sci.....fastest way to fall asleep in human history.
So Celestia's animal is the weasel? Got it.
She isn't ageless by this point, but yeah....challenge accepted indeed.
Looks like Lulu's come to visit. You did tell her your games are stored like dreams, so to her magical senses you probably show up as dreaming.
Yikes. Poor Luna. Well, at least her society's not like a lot of classical and medieval Earth societies. Many of them would kill a child born with major defects.
Welcome, Luna, to the wonderful world of vidjagames.
But wait! There's more! Seriously, Lyra, I know Luna asked, but you're not able to sell her a VI. Stop trying. I'm pretty sure she'd already be sold on it.
Yep, expressions are kinda wired into a species' DNA. It's the most basic building block of communications, so of course it's hard-wired.
Knowing what's coming doesn't make the fails at context any less amusing. They're coming from different ideas, so of course they miss initially.
Ah yes, that permission is going to provide hilarity immediately, true, but it's going to be very fun on down the line!
Hooray, culture confusion! You'll run into this even if you're just moving around the world between different human nations, let alone with a completely different species.
Love this part. These two are quickly becoming very good friends.
I really couldn't help grinning all through this chapter. The interactions with Starswirl, and later Luna, are wonderfully fun. Starswirl comes across as that annoyingly snarky old codger that knows just about everything to do with what you're working on, and Luna's more playful side is at the fore here. Lyra is undoubtedly going to be happy to have had someone of Starswirl's caliber helping her be able to survive in Equis's atmosphere.
7259943
He actually runs a small casino in Las Pegasus. It's a strictly for charity gaming hall, and is drastically unfair (odds wise) to members of the nobility. It's called the Hooded Robin, and despite it's clandestine wealth relocation schemes, is quite popular with the wealthy due to extensive well managed PR campaigns.
I may only be an army brat, but at least that lets me write realistic soldiers in my fiction.
"YOu know, we are quite similar."
"Yes. We are. I suppose what the logical thing to do now would be to become friends."
"Hmm... But nuts to that. Am I right?"
"Agreed, that would be very boring. Enemies it is."
"This should be a fun millennia! Can I take Evil Overlord? Or have you dibbed that?"
Sometimes my characters take on a life of their own. This was one of those times.
Of course he does. He's a Classical Wizard, it's a part of the archatype to somehow put great meaning into things unspoken.
The lost land of Somewhereia.
Enjoy her while she lasts folks.
"Ambiance... Frighten foals out of the lab. Spot the brave and curious youngsters out of any given bunch with no real work on my part. Clover made me toss it though. It was hard enough getting her to let me keep the hat."
Nope cuz "I want to call her that, but she's an apprentice wizard... One should not provoke the wizard who dosent know magic properly yet."
In most social areas, ponykind is far kinder than humankind... Unless your not a pony. Herd based species, nice inward, fearful outwards.
Warriors tend to do that with people they fought with. Behold! We hath kicked ass together! We are now friends. Let us be off to Valhalla!
Quite so. While his actual name has been forgotten in modern Equestria Starswirl's informal title is still well known as a folk hero. 'The Wizard That Did it'. As in "The lava pool is ALIVE!?!" "Yeah, it's the wizard that did it's fault."
7259785
Heh yes, yes indeed now i will only see him as David Tennant's version of the Doctor. :P
Awesome chapter, loved the interaction between Luna and Lyra, an of course Starswirl and Lyra. And Old world Celestia is so cute and funny. Really shows why she cares for Twilight so much, as Twilight is basically her in the future! So many questions and that excited need to know EVERYTHING. :P Ah yes I can hardly wait to read more!
So she will be a Fluttershy fan? Well... I guess Pinkie fits as well but I don't think Luna could handle her.
7259785
Ha! Jokes on you! I've been meaning to watch the various series and seasons but haven't gotten around to it yet so I have no idea what he sounds like.
I've had worse brain damage than slight asphyxiation before. Multiple times! And look at me now! She's gonna be fine. I mean, most of mine is from a lot of blunt force hits on the head. Concussions are fun.
I just realized that Cheer.ly is like a Tulpa that can connect to the internet, only with significantly less sentience.
interesting chapter regardless of length goes FAR too quickly
I'm still kinda confused about the worlds Lyra has been to. I did get that she's not from the earth grew in, but then she spent months in another one? When was that? Didn't she spend only a week or so in giant robot anthro pony land? And then 2~3 in creepy harmony land? Then WAT?
Cute Luna be cute. Still waiting for more Bonnie cute shenanigans, though
7260011 From the sounds of it She was originally in 1 universe, moved to another where she was born that she doesn't remember, before ending up in the universe she grew up in. I can see Starswirl's problem he doesn't know how those changes happened just that they did and tell Lrya too much might make things worse since it might of been Lyra that will cause it in the future
Because YES
So at some point Lyra will meet Twilight and be all like
"So ya that Starswirl guy, totally awesome."
*Twilight explodes*
So in the distant past Celesta was the egghead? well I guess we know where Twilight gets it, and what dose Starswirl see for Lyra and Luna? He saw something, we KNOW he saw something! Also Sai speak up already! yes timiy-wimy things, but fixed points, you can talk and avoid saying things that will change things too much, your a freaking AI you can calculate what not to say before Luna is done even speaking
Speaking of Sai, at some point can Lyra add him into her VR space? cuz that might be interesting.
7259987 Yeah you do. Cause I bet you've seen the Harry Potter series. Barty Crouch Jr. Also Fright Night, the new one.
7259997
"I've gone on tons of dangerous missions, and I've always come out fine. Both physically and..."
"Uhh, Caboose?"
"Mentally."
"Yeah, this isn't gonna work..."
7260806 There's actually a second half to that reference, but it didn't fit.
"For instance, how am I gonna stop some paradox hating universe from tearing me a connectivity superfluous new parallel port? The answer, shut my trap. And if that don't work? Shut your trap..."
7260906
Fright night? Never seen it... Them actually. I have never seen them. Barty Crouch Jr.? Hmmm... Oh wait. Was he the crazy one posing as Mad Eye? Yeah... It's been several years since I've seen it. I have completely forgotten how he sounds except for maybe a bit of nonsense screaming. ^_^;
7259977 I realy can only see Celestia's mentoring of Twilight as her seeing a younger version of herself and deciding to stear her down a better path then she herself took.
7261056 You're a monster, but I love it!
7259987
Few can handle the Pink. But yes, Luna does like Flutters, but not like that.
7259997
Yeah, kinda. That's an intresting thing you lead me to find there :D
7260003
Don't worry, more of this next time :D
7260011
YOu should be, because she is too. You are correct about the order of events she remembers though. Thing is though you can not remember stuff that happens before you are born, nor can you realy remember stuff from before your hippocampus is done forming arround age 3. Because until that happens longterm memory is impossible.
7260806
It had to be done.
I'm thinking more like:
"Uh, no. That has to be a missquote. He didn't talk like that. See?" *plays back recorded memory*
Sai: "Hello! Programmed to be a dick and stuff. I'd wind up saying something like 'Don't make me plant your plot on the moon early!' and then things would spiral out of controll."
Hummm, interesting notion. Perhaps!
7259987 David Tennant has been a LOT of people. Barrty Crouch Jr., Spitelout (how to Train your Dragon), DI Alec Hardy (Broadchurch), Emmett Carver (Gracepoint), and if you watch Birttish TV he's narrated for... well EVERYTHING.
7261170
I'd recommend against bringing it up with anyone who has a profession, or even just education in psychology.
It tends to be a touchy subject for many of them due to a small yet loud faction in the belief base of Tulpas tend to stonewall, and can't logic. I talked to a cultist once. Not the kind of "Drink the kool-aid" cultist, but the actual, you-thought-they-died-out-in-the-1800's kind. Obsessed with the occult and was more willing to believe that a lot of people believing hard enough in a thing can make that thing a reality than gravity having a speed.
Psychiatrists tend to have to deal with those occult types of people, so they often flat out say that it's impossible for Tulpas to exist, despite the recurring theme of what happens when the leading scientists in any given field, especially psychology, refuse to believe something.
Odd how there are no recorded instances of anyone with a tulpa getting an MRI scan, despite their best efforts to do so.
My stance is that the human brain has fuck-all levels of storage capacity and processing power, so fitting another consciousness in there isn't that far of a stretch, especially with the many, many people who testify firsthand experience in Tulpa creation.
Loved Starswhirl and the temporal flux, favorite chapter to date!
7261404 Also don't bring them up to a transhumanist. We'll just roll our eyes and start rambling about near future tech which will actually do that and then sadly cause a huge wave of spiritualism to rise to the surface because the average human is still a child, due to our species not living up to it's full potential and responsibilities as a technological master.
7261789
But I talk to myself all the time, how can I not bring it up to a transhumanist if I'm a transhumanist?!
Also, I just remembered. The tulpa is wired directly into your subconscious, and has in most cases dramatically increased the speed of mental calculation, given near perfect memory recollection, and in some extreme cases where the creator and tulpa have been together and constantly attempting to better the connection by meditating, if given permission the tulpa can assume control of the body while the creator dicks around in the mindscape. It is extremely dangerous though, some people have gotten stuck in between and gone insane. There are no cases of a tulpa taking over by force for two reasons:
One: The creator always has the master controls of the body, and can yank them back at any time.
Two: Unless you severely abused the tulpa, they have a track record of absolutely unconditional love.
7261936 Yeah, this is a very simmilar concept here. Except you know, one of these two entities can be easily detected with a simple ECG reading showing two seperate brainwave patterns in one brain :P
7261113
*nods* That makes perfect sense to me. And from the looks of things (canon wise) she seems to be doing a good job, though Twilight miiiight be a little bit on the crazy side, heh.
7262952 I honestly think that cannon Twilight is an autistic individual with savant syndrome. She's got all the major symptoms. She was completely happy with no social interactions at all (not counting her assistant and mentor) and realy only sticks with one small group of friends after being physically forced to make friends as she never would have sought any out on her own. She works almost completely on logic, with her emotions only rarely influencing her decisions overtly. She has established routines which she will literally go balls out insane if they get broken (see lesson zero for the best example, as well as all her checklists). Twilight is obsessively organized on top of living with a strict self-imposed routine. And most importantly, she can simply intuitively understand a complex subject matter (magic) at a level beyond most people's capabilities but honestly can't comprehend basic social things and has to actually study social interactions to learn them.
That's textbook high functioning autism and savant syndrome.
7261170
But fixed points, Luna ending up on the moon for a thousand years WILL happen no matter what, just the how is all you could change, besides Starswirl probably already knows about you.
7263012 That will happen simply because no one person could change all the events which lead up to it. In theroy though, enough smaller changes could pile up and prevent Luna from ending up on the moon. But that might not be a good thing... Because if you did secure that future through hucurelan efforts by many many people, it would be equally valid for Luna to not be banished by never becoming nightmear moon, Celestia loosing to her in that fight, the Elements not banishing her for whatever reason, Celestia kills her in the battle...
TLDR, while anything can be changed, somethings are highly resistant to being changed to the point of being basically impossible to alter. Those are the fixed points, and well, you have less chance of changing even one than I do of becoming one of the richest people on Earth. Out of chaos comes order, and those points in time are the emergent order from the chaos of the universe. And because of that, changing one will most certainly shake up everything in the universe, with many unintended consequences for everything. Such that stopping a 'bad' event even if you do so in a good way and resolve everything peacefully will reak havock on the univerce.
So you know, good thing it's basically impossible to change those events! And that's only a basically possible because 0.0(three quintillion more zeros)1% is technically still a chance...
7263043 So, planning on having anything big getting changed? i can already see that Celestia got the monarchy idea from Lyra. That's irrelevant to what i'm asking tho. words are hard on small amounts of sleep XD.
7263103 Not yet I'm not... But I might do something with this, yes.
7262986
Hmm yes I can totally see that. *nods* and would make sense too as they seem to have other characters with disabilities/similar stuff too (even if Derpy was originally an accident and they just played along with her at the start) and there are others too I just can't think of them atm. (That new pony, the one whose father makes Rarity employ her at her new store in Manehatten? Seems like she might have something, not sure what the medical term for hers would be though. (Or she might just be your typical oddball....) Which is good I think, having all these ponies representing things some of the fans might go through, and how they deal with them in their world. (Idk, maybe I am just seeing more than they mean for me to see...))
7264223 It certainly is a strength of the show to include a diverse cast of characters, and not make a thing out of it. The best sort of diversity is the kind which feels like a reflection of reality, and not "Look PC police! We are up to code! Here's our gay character! OH GOD PLEASE DON'T FINE US! I HAVE A TRANS CHARACTER HERE SOMEWHERE!"
7264230
*nods* And the show does that well. They keep it fairly G to where the younger fans likely won't catch it, but the older fans who recognize the signs/etc can/will. Which is nice because things could go either way depending on a persons interpretation. If fans want to, they can refuse to believe Lyra and Bon are anything more than just best friends. Or they can take the signs farther(as Hasbro seems to be playing along with) to indicate that they are much more than just friends. (For one example.) I like that kind of stuff in a show. I'd rather it be left up to interpretation than the show coming right out and saying 'yes, these two are a couple and we are going to do everything possible to make it blatantly obvious that we can get away with with the 'target' audience rating.' (heh though I guess even that can be said to be happening with MLP. Just depends on the fans age and what they have been exposed to on if they will catch it or not.)
7264251 While I agree... I think that they have made it way too obvious with Lyra and Bonbon. They should just have an episode where Twilight goes to solve a friendship problem between the two which is arguing about which of them should do the dishes or something and without outright saying it clearly show they are a married couple. Perhapse via a wedding photo on a mantle.
But seriously Hasbro, you had a short close by irising out on the two in a heart shape! Just admit they fuck already and let's move on :P
7264259
Yeah an episode like that would be interesting! :P And yeah as we go along it does get more and more obvious. Not sure if the 'target' audience would catch it yet (I know when I was the 'target' audience age I would have been completely oblivious because of the way I was raised mostly...) but yeah they might as well admit it already. But with the uproar Legend of Korra got from the ending of the last episode, with Korra ending up with the other girl *her name escapes me atm* who knows what it would do to MLP if that was to happen? (Even if Korra had a bit older target audience in mind.) I'd rather MLP play it safe than risk it receiving a 'bad rep' and being canceled or some such as a cause of it.
7264271 In 2010, the show was targeted to 10 and 11 year old girls. Those girls are now 16 and 17. I assure you, they get it...
7264280
Heh yeah forgot how much the audience would have aged since it started. :P (Wow, crazy to imagine it has been around for 6 years now! Much longer than any of the previous Gens show wise I think.)
7264296 Just thing, if it's true that FiM's cleared for 4 more seasons, the target audience will have literally grown up watching ponies, and be starting college furring that 3rd to come season. The show should mature a bit.
And also kill Starlight Glimmer on screen.
7264299
Woah, that is crazy to think about! Mind blown! (And of course fans of the original are now in their late 20's/early to mid 30s and if they are still watching *cough* one of them here *cough*) yes it would make sense to continue to make it more mature as it goes on.
Heh I figured you would want something like that for her. :P And from what I have read of your rants I can agree with you. Though having her die on screen miiiight be a bit too much even as it nears the end, even with a more mature audience in mind. (Depending on the 'how' for her dying of course. If it is doesn't show blood/gore than it would be fine but blood/gore would be too much for me at least.)
7264312 I was thinking 'die onscreen like you're in Fist of the North Star' >.> ... Fuck it. Just to see if I can brake my own brain a bit, I'll see if I can't turn my hatred of her into something positive. Just once. After which I will hunt down her creators to eviser- I men explain their error to them. Show ruining jerks...
7264322
Yikes, that would be quite the extreme death!
Might as well try to make it into something positive. I'm sure you can do something awesome with all that energy! (Or even write a one shot of the kind of death you want her to have to get it out of your system? I'm sure others who feel the same would like to read something like that. (Even if it would likely end up being rated M instead of Teen like the majority of your other stuff is.) )
7264347 Extreme yes, but to the point where it's so over the top it's downright hilarious. FoTNS is basically what would happen if you told the 5 year old kid who wrote Axe Cop to tell a more serious story. Also holy crap you should watch Axe Cop! Sides literally split laughing. (No, seriously I laughed so hard I pulled a muscle in my side, jerked over from the pain and cut my ribs on a fork XD)
No. I said do something constructive, not therapeutic.
7264357
Wow, that is an actual show? heh yeah veeeeery much so sounds like it was written by a kid I agree. So weird... not entirely my kind of show though. All through that preview I was basically making this face: Yeah....
But true, extreme so much to the point it would/could be funny.
But yeah I guess that would be more therapeutic than constructive. :P
7264375 Axe Cop is an genuine actual show that realy exists, and it actually seriously realy was written by a 5 year old.. and it's amazingly funny. The kid's 14 now, but the show's an adaptation of a webcomic he wrote and his almost an adult bother drew.
7264383
Well, at least it is good siblings are working together? :P Some of the strange shows they have these days... (but then what is new? Even when we were kids there were plenty of strange shows.)
7264609 Media is like a barrel of raw milk. You gotta wait for the cream to float up so you can skim it off.
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*nods* So true, so very true. In any type of media I would say.
I fully approve of Sai's careful approach.
This Starswirl is fun.
Interesting.
That's a good take on handling that.
Well now, that's really interesting. Lyra and possibly her mother and/or whole family are not new to dimension hopping.
Clover as Starswirl's wife? Fun.
Oh my Celestia, Celestia is basically a medieval Twilight.
Heh, and she apparently got her long term political designs from this Lyra.
Hah! Someday you'll find out, Lyra.
Moonbutt OP, pls nerf.
Ooo, neat, so full AR integration.
This internal VI plan seems very useful, I can see why it is very common back in Lyra's home time and dimension.
Ahh, nudity problems. They'll always be funny.
Okay, so I've been enjoying this series. It's been decent and definitely better than anything I could do, but I've got like six-ish big problems with this chapter and I wouldn't be me if I didn't nitpick it to hell. Sorry.
I really don't understand Sai's reasoning here. If she thinks saying anything will have catastrophic results, she shouldn't say anything, even if it would be rude. Plus, paraphrasing the engineer really doesn't work there. Being an AI doesn't necessary mean she has emotions (except maybe in this story, so fair enough), no one would say "what is happiness" is an emotion, and evolutionary psychology suggests that all of our emotions exist because they are practical.
Pretty sure it doesn't check out. First, I'm pretty sure "Space Time Interval" isn't a thing. Second, even if it were, the only ways we know of to change relative times require so much mass or energy it would probably turn the surrounding countries into a giant crater. Third, you wouldn't be able to interact with the air around you and would suffocate very quickly. Actually, based on what he's describing, from you perspective, the entire universe would be a perfect vacuum containing the two of you. The fact that the two of you are breathing, talking, and not instantly dying implies he's just fucking with you.
I am equally irritated by this philosophical issue, but on the other side. If the universe is determined then, from an objective perspective, we can't make choices. Any choice we think we have is an illusion. We can think and act as though we have free will, but we don't have it. Simplified, everyone agrees that the ball doesn't have free will; why are you so special?
Plus, you've got a guy who is practically a Laplace Daemon interacting with any number of people, any of which could be frustrators which shouldn't even be possible because if it could, you could get a logical...
Oh. Um. Ahem, "Faust’s blood, mare! Open with that next time!" So, the universe isn't fully determined, free will is possible, Starswirl isn't a Laplace demon, and everything is logically possible again.
He's already shown that he can do (Analysis) magic on Lyra. The effects he predicts could probably be found in a spell book of pranks. He hasn't actually shown that he can see the future (not that I don't believe him).
Of course, he also already knows what those solutions are and could do them immediately. Either Starswirl or time itself (the writer) is fucking with Lyra.
I kinda agree, but my problem with this is that this chapter is sort of starting to feel like propaganda. First, there's the bit where you imply that anyone who thinks free will isn't a thing is an idiot, and now you've got a tangentially relevant bit about your thoughts on the best political system. I'm not here to read about your thoughts on philosophical and political issues. I'm here to read about a dimension hoping, high-tech transhuman interacting with ponies. Plus, while a constitutional monarchy is probably the best system for getting things done, in practice, it's almost inevitable that someone less virtuous will game the system and be appointed, at which point they can fuck up everything.
That's about it. Well the interaction between dream magic and Lyra's VR makes my head hurt but that's more my problem than the story's. Sorry if I'm bringing everyone down, but this stuff bugs me.
7265470 Thank you for the constructive criticism. It's not possible to improve if people never tell you what you did wrong. That said, I would like present some reasoning for what I did. If you find major fault with any of them, I'll rework that part of the chapter.
Even AI advanced enough to be equivalent to a person are still computer code running in a machine. They still do have programming, and aside from the cases of bugs and poorly coded software, a computer must always do exactly as it is told to do. (Unless it's windows 95...) Additionally this isn't the full version of Sai, this is a lesser version running on the hardware available. So there simply isn't enough processing power for Sai to be as intelligent as his programming allows.
The engineer ref is a bit silly though, I'll change it.
Actually, it does. I have a 'explained in layman's terms' video here if you'd like to see it. It's less than 10 minutes of cool science that might make you sad that America docent teach Physics in highschool.
Did you watch it? Good. So then, adjusting between SI of yourself and the universe like that absolutely would cause time to stop... from your perspective. Effectively it would prevent anything from effecting you and you from effecting anything else. So it's not realy stopping time per say, but it achieves the same net result. (You are right that suffocation should be a problem, I didn't think of that one... But since a Wizard is literally doing it...)
Well, there's two possibilities here. Have you concitered the possibility that Starswirl might be wrong? Magic works like science in my AU, and scientists are wrong all the time. For example, Newton got a lot wrong, as Einstein showed, and Einstein got a lot wrong too, as shown by everyone helping with Quantum Mechanics. Likewise, Starswirl could be wrong about the way he thinks the universe works.
Alternatively, have you thought of it from this angle? If everyone has free will, then certain things will inevitably happen as the result of everyone's combined choices and the probability of individuals given behaviors. Example, you choose to walk down a sidewalk, and accidentally drop 5 bucks. Someone comes along later and sees the 5 bucks, and bends down to pick that up the they get into an argument with their friend about taking it vs leaving it and as a result, miss catching a buss. My point here is that actions effect other people in various ways, creating webs of action/reaction. Wherever there is randomly acting entities, patterns will emerge from those interactions, making some things happen for certain. One example of this is how the laws of chemistry make the formation of organic compounds and thus life a simple consequence of planetary formation under certain conditions. Order emerges from chaos.
No it's not 100% determined, it's simply that some things are inevitable and almost impossible to stop from happening or changing because of how many factors go into causing them to happen. Also, the more we learn about physics the more Free Will seems to be a thing we all made up anyways. But let's not start that pointless fight...
Sure, but changing the future like that would cause other things to change. See my 'you drop five dollars' example. For all you know those guys who missed the buss will be pissed off and take it out on some random guy by mugging him. Or maybe have to call a cab, and spend the last of their cash and thus be unable to buy food for the week. Every action has consequences, so it's best to allow the future to just happen as it's supposed to unless it's for a damn good reason.
That actually Isn't my thoughts on the best political system. They are Lyra's. There's some pretty big differences between her views and mine. While I normally would not bore you with politics, here I wanted to set up a bit of timeline fun by giving a foundation for Celestia's reasons for keeping Equestria as a monarchy for 5000 years and counting.
And to prove that those are not my political views... *sighs* as science has shown that humans are basically incapable of making unbiased decisions strictly on data, and are incapable of coming to a harmonious agreement on what objectively is best, I do not believe humans should be allowed a position of authority over other humans. It would be for the best if we constructed an AI, or network of AIs to crunch data and set policy following the goals of 'keep the most possible people happy, advance technology, avoid starting wars.' Additionally, if for any reason humans must have any form of power, it should only be within their relevant field of education, and only the best and brightest in those fields should have any say whatsoever.
I wont argue about my actual political views here, I'm only stating them to prove to you that Lyra's views are not my own. She would allow organics to continue ruling organics in any system which can be effective, I would have an AI administrated technocracy.
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As am I, writing out significant time changes would be a headache. One I'd happily undergo for good reason though...
Yeah, seeing the future is generally overblown in fantasy fiction. After all, what can it realy do? Allow you to know what happens in advance. It's basically the same as having a very good intelligence agency acting as advisers.
Mmmmhmm. More on that to come.
Yeah, I ran with it in another story as a casual mention. Gotta keep up the continuity.
I figured the best possible reason for Tia's tutoring of Twilight would be "Hey! She's like a young me! ... Exactly like a young me. I should probably help her so she docent make the same mistakes I did."
Yep :P I thought it would be fun to talk about what time travel might do, and then int he same chapter show what it realy does.
How so? If she seriously is coming across as too powerful I can work on that.
Yeah, you haven't seen much of it since Lyra hasn't been home, but that's just a normal part of life for her.
Yeah, it's literally their version of the smartphone. It's basically mandatory for everyone due to how useful it is and as such how suddenly almost everything works exclusively with it.
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Naw, just a joke about her casually wandering into the VR dream environment, don't worry about it.
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Maybe I'm just a heartless monster, but if I needed to cut functionality from an AI, I would be cutting the personality well before I cut the disaster avoidance. That being said, I don't really have a problem with Sai, but the conversation doesn't seem necessary, given that Starswirl's conversation disproves Sai's worries. I don't know if you should cut it or not, so your call.
Huh. Neat! Even with the time intervals though, Starswirl's spell still should appear to be a nearly empty universe because they're not linked to the light from the other stuff and you definitely couldn't live in there forever. I appreciate you using real science in your stories but the explanation doesn't fit the description. Unless Starswirl is trolling Lyra; well, as you say a wizard is literally doing it. You don't actually need an explanation.
I'm assuming that it's possibility 1, but it's a bit immersion breaking when a super genius and main character spend multiple paragraphs figuratively calling me dumb. Plus, there isn't any payoff, so I'd suggest scraping that part too.
I figured you were giving Celestia a reason for her monarchy but I'm sorry for assuming the beliefs were your own. As I said it was starting to feel a bit propaganda-y so I couldn't really tell. I'd suggest removing that part or replacing it with another interaction. It isn't necessary for Celestia to have gotten the idea from Lyra and I think it hurts the story.
As for your actual views, I find them both incredibly terrifying and the best plan possible. So yeah. I'm going to need to think about that.
So there's my criticism. do with it what you will.