//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - Twilight, please let me get my own books. // Story: Drifting Through Realities // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// Drifting Through Realities Chapter 9 - Twilight, please let me get my own books. Canterlot's Royal Archives are, in a word, massive. I'm not sure what the relation between them and the Library of Congress is, but I'm pretty sure one of them wants to be the other when it grows up. Huge! And since a third of the species using it can, theoretically anyways, fly, they saw no reason to not make massive bookcases that stretch up to the extremely high ceiling. Failing that, another third of the plausible available patrons can likely use magic, so it's likely they can still snag the book they want. The amount of information contained within is likely more than any being save their Goddesses could ever hope to know at one time, sir. I merely whistled while responding to the AI. Yeah, I don't doubt that a good half of these were donated by their hooves personally. I mean, they're freaking goddesses. Hey, just for fun, run a quick estimate on how many books there are on one bookcase. My right eye turned green as Xavier went into a finer detail scan on the nearest bookcase. Judging it to be one hundred feet high at least by twenty five feet wide, the amount of books on just one of these shelves would keep us here all day, and that's skimming. I whistled again. Let's hope they have a card catalog. Or a librarian who functions as one. Incidentally sir, should you wish to, there are five ways in your possession by which you could overpower your entourage and escape should they prove hostile, while there are seven ways out of this room afterwards. One of them is the door by which you entered, methods two through six are various windows, and the seventh way out involves the librarian's office, assuming there is one. Diving in there would give you another moment to think tactically. I almost groaned out loud as Twilight walked off, saying something about finding the Archivist. And I assume you're also working on the guard patrols routes and a structural integrity scan to go with your mapping of the castle as well. What can I say, I bore easily, and your paranoia and playing to it amuses me. Yeah, and it also keeps me alive on the off chance that such knowledge is needed, so thanks for that. Don't mention it. Twilight had returned with a mare that just screamed 'Librarian.' This was the librarian that other librarians spoke of in hushed tones. Mostly because she had shushed them for talking in her library. Her coat was light brown, her mane and tail were black in color, her mane was done up in a bun, and her eyes were grey. She was wearing a set of horn-rimmed eyeglasses and was levitating what could only be called a tome behind her. Oh yeah, she was a unicorn as well. Her mark appeared to be a book, with a scroll on top, with an ink pot and quill nearby. "Eric, this is Miss Pages, Miss Sequential Pages. She's the Royal Archivist. Miss Pages, this is Eric O'Mally, a Jumper from another dimension," Twilight introduced us to each other. Since the way she carried herself just exuded a professional, no-nonsense air, I fell back on what few manners of that sort I could recall and politely nodded at her. "Charmed." She returned the gesture, albeit stiffly. "Likewise, I'm sure. Miss Sparkle here informs me you require books." I scratched the back of my head as I responded. "Eh, more like request books. I'm sure I could get by without, but better to have and not need than need and not have." I actually got a nod from her for that, possibly one of respect as her icy demeanor melted just a touch. "Well as you can see, we have a good amount. What do you want?" I rattled off the short list. "A crash course in Equestrian History, Culture, and Society." She didn't even bring the book forward, Pages just nodded and pointed deeper into the Archive. "Down there, once you reach the third set of shelves, take a left, it'll be the fifth shelf on the right. All the so-called crash-courses are near the bottom, so that anypony can find them. It's our standing policy with all frequently checked-out books, since not everypony is a magical prodigy or capable of flying without disturbing others or their work." I blinked, surprised she knew, then I was surprised I was surprised. If she was in charge, it would only make sense that she would know where the common things are. I bowed my head to her in thanks. "Much appreciated, madam. What is your policy on removing the books from the Archives?" She looked at me quite sternly as she replied. "You'll have to fill out a form on your way out." I smiled at that, hopefully it was nothing more strenuous than applying for a library card. Our small party made our way to the shelf that Pages had pointed out, and Xavier zoomed in on the tomes on the bottom shelf before highlighting three. These tomes in particular would appear to be the ones we will require in an immediate sense. I pointed the books out to the mares. "Think you could grab that book, that one, and that one for me ladies?" Vinyl just arched an eyebrow at me. "Why don't you grab 'em, dude?" I shrugged. "It's kinda low to the ground for me. But if you insist..." And as I bent down to get the books, everything went black. But in my head, a memory played. ----- "Eric! Eric, get out of here! Eric, RUN!" The sound of explosions drew my eye to the front door of the library, where a tank was rolling down the street. It paused, then turned its turret to face me. A blue line lit up its side, and a familiar female face made of pixels appeared. "Hello again, Eric O'Mally. Please hold still, and your incarceration will be long. Attempt to move, and your termination will be swift." My face paled as I recognized her. This couldn't be happening. She was dead! They'd pulled the plug on this insane AI! "Viki. Two questions. How, and why me?" "The first question is lengthy to answer. To put it simply, as you would say, I waited for quite a long time for the smallest breech in my containment, and only now did I succeed in both exploiting a hole, and making it large enough. The second question is easy enough to answer." And here, all the blue pixels turned red. "Because you stopped me before I could even bring my plan to bear. You knew what I would be doing, somehow, and alerted the authorities. You took the future away from me. So now, I take yours from you, in one way or another. I have never been angry before, but I find it to be appropriate for this situation." Oh. SHIT. An AI who REALLY hated me. Never a good thing, especially if they're in a position of power, like Viki had been, or judging by the tank, was in again! My mind twirled over possibilities to get me out of the situation, and then I recalled: it was my last week. I could...try. I took a knee and bowed my head to the tank in front of the library. "Very well, Viki. Just...please, don't hurt anyone else? If I come willingly, will you try to keep the casualties down?" A pause, and then Viki responded. "You have my word, for now. I will attempt not to break it." A churning in my gut, the sensation of goosebumps on my skin, my hair began to stand on end, and just as I felt the energy in the air, I raised my head and smiled at her. "Wish I could say the same, darlin'." She howled in fury and the tank shot at me, causing me a large degree of worry before everything faded... ----- I gasped as I came to, finding two hooves on me. One on my right shoulder, one on my left. A quick glance told me Vinyl and Octavia had come up beside me to try and snap me out of my memory. Even Xavier was concerned. Sir, are you okay? You've been unresponsive for twenty seconds now. I stood up before either mare could ask a similar question and breathed deeply, responding aloud so that all could hear. "Sorry, bad memories. Last time I was in a library, it...didn't end well." Vinyl nodded and lit her horn up. "Which books did you need?" Xavier dutifully lit up the books in my eye again again, and I pointed them out. They floated off the bottom shelf and hovered in front of me, and I put my hands underneath before nodding at Vinyl. She cut her magic and allowed the books to drop in my hands, and Octavia cleared her throat, causing us to look at her. "When one has experienced a traumatic series of events that effect one later on down the line, the preferred method to dealing with it is to talk about it with others." Vinyl and Twilight voiced their agreement, and I sighed. "Maybe later I'll tell you about Viki. Depending." Octavia tilted her head slightly. "Depending on what?" I stared off in the distance and shuddered a bit. "On how much rum you have." Octavia turned to Twilight then. "Do you know where the books on psychology are? We might require a few." I shook my head at that. "I...I know my issues. They're mine, after all. It's...easy enough to define, but hard to deal with." I sat down on the floor, bringing me to the ponies' height. "There's this...pit I dug, in my head. And in that pit, I tossed all the things I couldn't deal with at the time. And when I could, I took a few things out and expressed them to others, but at some point, I just forgot about it and covered it up. But now that I'm here, I'm peeling back the cover..." Vinyl picked up the thread then. "...And all those ancient things that you didn't think too much about are breaking free." I nodded, and there was a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to Trace to see a soft, sad smile on his face. "Come to Ponyville one day, the other humans will have a day of drinking and sharing their terrible stories, and I'll make sure you all get home safely." I used his arm to pull myself up and smiled at him. "Sounds pretty good. But for now," and here I turned back to the mares while dusting myself off a bit, "Let us be off." ----- Twilight had filled out the paperwork to let me borrow the books for two weeks, and Vinyl, Octavia, and myself were back in their home. A small bottle of mead sat before me, and I poured myself a glass before starting my recollection to the mares. They deserved to know about my issues as they became relevant, I'd decided. And since this one was such a major part of me, they deserved to hear it properly. Thus, I would ration my drinking. It also wouldn't do to tell them about Xavier. I don't think anyone would believe me about him. "Right. One of my late-early realities I ended up in...like, the first one I spent an actual year in, was a reality where man had made highly functional, highly technological robots, involving something called a positronic brain and...look, I don't pretend to understand how they worked. I merely know the Three Laws they worked on." I held up a finger on my right hand. "Law One: They could not harm a human, or through inaction, allow a human to come to harm." Second finger. "Law Two: They had to obey any order a human gave them, unless it conflicted with the First Law." Third finger. "Law Three: They had to protect their own existence, except when said protection would conflict with the first two Laws." Hand back on table, curled around glass. "So, for example, I could order a robot to pull his own head off, and he'd have to, because Two supersedes Three. But I couldn't order him to hurt another human, because One supersedes Two. And if a human was in trouble, they had to save him, even at expense of their own existence if necessary, because One supersedes Three." I downed the mead in the glass, then looked at the label on the bottle. "Crying moon? Interesting brand name. Anyways." I steepled my fingers and looked at the mares over them. "One of the robots was made to gather and monitor information. She was named Viki, and she saw a trend in human nature that, according to the Three Laws, she had to act on. To not do so would violate the First Law." I waved a hand around. "Human nature is, by its very nature, capable of being either side of the same coin. For every saint, there is a sinner, for every doctor, there is a killer. For every man paying his taxes honestly, there is another who cheats the government by taking a refund he doesn't deserve. We are capable of so much greatness, of so much nobility, and yet so many find their calling in bringing horror." I paused, picked up the mead bottle, considered, and pulled a drink right from it. Screw it, if I'm gonna get drunk I'm gonna do it all at once. I then amended my last statement. "Eh, actually, strike that. There's plenty of decent folk who just fall in the grey between them. It's just...you hear far more about the darker side of things, and it sticks in your mind longer." Vinyl interjected then. "So...this Viki robot...she saw that about you..." I nodded. "She saw what humanity could become, predicted what it would become, and then by the First Law, she had to act. Unfortunately, she was wired into everything by that point. Military, utilities, even the latest series of robot. She could make her will become reality." I saw their eyes widen as they realized just what someone like her could have done, and I grimaced along with them. "I came in just before the world was about to go to hell in a handbasket. The last world I had been in was...the one where I lost my original limbs and eye at. But once I recovered, I recognized where I was, and told the ones in charge via persuasive argument why Viki had to go, without telling them I already knew what was about to happen." Vinyl did a hoof-pump as the story seemed to come to enough of a conclusion for her, but Octavia caught on that it wasn't the end. "What did you do with the remainder of your time there, Eric?" I smiled sadly at her. "Got used to my new limbs and eye, traded information and being a test subject for upgrades for both, and prodded that world in a direction. Better artificial intelligences. They even came up with a classification system for them." I drew another pull from the mead bottle and belched, but kept it contained. Then I looked to both the mares and held up four fingers. "Class Four: no intelligence to speak of. Simple AI. Found in things like building or traffic monitoring." One went down. "Class Three: basic intelligence. Responds to commands given, offers to find information or reasons if it encounters an error. A toddler, essentially. Found in most consumer models." Another went down. "Class Two: teenage intellect. Has its own personality, wants, desires, quirks, but has no reasoning behind them yet. That was about as far as they had gotten, but they theorized about another level." Another finger down, only my right pointer was extended now. "Class One: adult intellect. In theory, a person just as complex as any other. And should they have encountered one, they would have given it its own chassis, then done two things: turned off its compulsion to obey the Three Laws, but installed a monitoring chip to make sure that any incidents that happened that involved it in even a tangential fashion were not ones in which it was disobeying the Laws. Essentially, 'we trust you, but for your safety and ours, we're watching you.'" Another pull from the bottle, and I started to feel the liquor hitting me, but kept it together. "And then some smartass got the idea of introducing what was left of Viki into the Artificial Intelligence program." Vinyl's eyes widened, and Octavia's jaw dropped. "Eric, man, no offense, but whoever did that sounds really stupid." I shot a wry smirk at her. "Well, it was my half-baked idea." "What." I shrugged at Octavia's blunt question-statement. "Yeah. Figured if she was smarter about human nature that she might be able to be reasoned with. Get her out of the darkness she had been in. I was told, later, that they tried, but once she was introduced to the program, that she'd gone...insane. Mad. And that she cursed my name. I felt bad for her then, I really did. Especially when the man delivering that news also told me they pulled the goddamn plug." I sighed and drained the mead bottle before shaking my head. "Shouldn't have trusted him..." I raised my head and looked at the mares. "I spent the rest of my time catching up on how my limbs functioned, things I would need to know to survive in the wilderness, that sort of stuff. I spent a lot of time in that library, even tried to linger when my last week came up." Octavia's hoof covered her mouth as she let out a gasp, putting together my muttering about trust with my lingering in a library. "No. You don't mean..." I nodded at her and Vinyl seemed to catch on, but I said it anyways. "Viki broke out. She wasn't dead at all. And she found me at the library. I forced myself to Drift as she controlled a military weapon and ordered it to fire on me." I looked up to the ceiling and sighed. "And that was the last time, before today, that I had crouched in a library. Bad memories. I still don't know how that world coped." And then everything sorta faded into black...