Equestriawareness
I have noticed campaigns recently that aim to gather money for suicidal children harassed and abused for being Bronies. I find this noble enough, but very hypocritical too. I am a Pony author who has been brutally harassed and abused online and offline, and those that did this bullying, and those that stood by and let it happen to me, were all Bronies themselves. I have, to date, received exactly two apologies from those involved. Yay, Bronies.
The reason I was harassed - and am still occasionally harassed - is supposedly because I write stories that some people don't like, as if this were a legitimate reason to attack anyone, ever. I am still so wounded, and feel so betrayed by those I trusted that it has all but destroyed my ability to write, or have fun, or for that matter, to function. I completely understand the urge to suicide, just to stop the pain. I don't feel sad anymore, I mostly just feel nothing... about everything. And angry. I sometimes feel anger about it all.
The angriest author I ever met was Harlan Ellison. To say that he and I did not get along would be insufficient - to be yelled at by Harlan is to be yelled at right down to the bone. However, he was wrong. And... he apologized. Curtly. That doesn't make him less of a bastard, but it does make him civilized. More civilized than most Bronies. I don't like Harlan as a person, but I do admire him as an author.
The Conversion Bureau
EQUESTRIAWARENESS
By Chatoyance
Inspired by Harlan Ellison's short story 'Ecowareness' from Approaching Oblivion
"That’s BULLSHIT!”
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stared at Twilight, their regal mouths agape.
“Um… that’s a word… I learned… on my last trip to Earth.” Her Majesty, Princess Twilight Sparkle shuffled her hooves for a moment, then looked up with renewed defiance. “And… I mean it! This ‘Conversion Bureau’ plan is pure, unadulterated bullshit! I can’t believe that you - either of you - would countenance such a plan!”
Celestia was clearly taken aback, but Twilight was an alicorn now, equal to herself and her sister - if not as experienced, and her opinion must be listened to and weighed accordingly. “Twilight… it is clear that you have strong feelings about this matter, if you would but explain…”
Twilight stomped a hoof. “Damn fucking right I do!” It was beginning to come to Celestia’s attention that perhaps young Twilight, alicorn or not, had been immersing herself in her study of Earth too completely. “Uh… sorry. That may have been a little much. But the fact remains that your plan is a complete and utter disaster!”
“A disaster?” Never had Twilight spoken to her like this. Celestia was unsure whether to feel shock or anger… or simple amazement.
“Think about it, princess!” Twilight, though now a peer, endearingly still could not shed herself of some deference in speech, and this mollified Celestia’s bruised emotions somewhat. “If a pony were to have a thorn in their leg, would you wiggle it about, slide it in and out of the wound, and only then slowly pull it out of their limb? No! That would be torturous and unnecessarily painful! It would be evil!”
“I don’t see…” Celestia began, but was quickly bowled over by her student once more.
“If you build these bureaus, and offer Conversion to the humans while slowly advancing the Barrier, there will be conflict! Some humans will try to fight Conversion, some will bomb the clinics, or harm or even kill those that choose to Convert! There will be riots and wars and all manner of trouble - I have been studying these creatures, and they are not going to just parade into your clinics because it is the sensible thing to do! You need to make this quick!”
“What would you suggest, Twilight?” Celestia had never seen her student so upset.
“Just Convert them all at once! The whole world! WHOOM! It would not be difficult - you already have a Metachaosis layer, thanks to Discord’s help, to change the land and small animals into Equestrian equivalents, just fill that construct in with all the available information on human-to-pony conversion and it would be capable of transforming humans as easily as it currently can alter rabbits or rats!” Twilight was breathing hard, and there was a small fleck of foam on her muzzle.
“This would take from the humans their free will, which above all else they hold dear and…”
“FUCK THEIR FREE WILL!” Twilight now had her wings stretched out, her ears flat against her skull. “Their world is already dead - they destroyed their own ecology, they have only three generations left to them before they go extinct. That’s why you are here at all, right? It’s your very last possible chance to keep that promise of yours to Willamus Learmont, eight-hundred years ago! Their only hope to survive is Conversion no matter what, so what choice do they have other than to just face their own mistakes and pointlessly die?”
“Twilight…” Celestia found herself with little she could say to that.
Twilight lowered her wings, and caught her breath. “Princess… Celestia… if you are going to save them, then save them! Your plan will only cause pain on a scale I find difficult to even hold in my head! Millions, likely billions of humans will never make it to Conversion, and along the way will be unnecessary horror and misery.” Twilight swallowed, hard, and her foreknees shook slightly. “Frankly, Celestia, I have come to the conclusion that this bureau business is more about your own ambivalence about letting billions of alien refugees into Equestria, than it is about concern for human free will. I don’t think you are being honest with yourself, or me… or them. Convert them or don’t convert them, but don’t make them pay for your issues.”
Celestia stared at her hooves, her head down. The sight made Twilight feel both shock and fear. Never before had she seen Celestia emotionally deflated.
“You… you are... right.” Celestia raised her head, a tear starting to form in her eye.
☼ ☼ ☼
There was no time for the Worldgovernment Orbital Observation Technician Second Class studying his holotank to react. He simply didn't have the time to tell his supervisor about the sudden, incredible expansion of the Barrier of Equestria. The image of the Equestrian bubble growing had only lasted a half a second in any case - the geostationary satellite transmitting the view had been swallowed up and had likely been transformed into pudding or confetti. By the time the technician had flagged his superior’s attention, the edge of the racing wall had already passed beyond the shores of North America and flashed midway across the continent. In mid-sentence he found himself transformed into a pony. The holographic display in front of him had become a lovely crystal vase, the console itself a very nice wooden table.
In only fourteen minutes and twenty-two seconds, the entire planet earth had ceased to exist in the universe of Mundis, and everything that had been the earth had now become more of the cosmos of Equestria.
The supervisor that the former technician had intended to alert dropped to brand new hooves and stretched his unexpected wings. The freshly minted pegasus turned to the overseeing Blackmesh general for help. The general wiggled his new ears and swished his tail. He no longer wanted to bomb Equestria from orbit. He no longer cared about force mobilization against potential otherworld invaders. More than anything in the world, the former general desired a nice slice of pecan pie.
The general looked around, all thoughts of war and militarism repugnant to his suddenly compassionate soul. The commissary should have pie. Pie made everything better. The men... no, the stallions... probably needed something to lift their spirits, now that everything had changed. Pie. That was the answer, not bombs. The former three-star general gave his very last authoritarian order.
The ponies that stood or sat about the comfortable farm that had once been a secret base cheered as one. Pie was the best and nicest command they had ever been given.
☼ ☼ ☼
The former pontiff looked around at the marble and gold palace that had formerly been the marble and stone Basilica and shrugged off his now ill-fitting robes. His hat fell to the floor. He was young again, and his hooves felt strong and fast.
The earthpony that had once been the pope called his attendants to him. Within hours, the entirety of the Vatican had repurposed its Guard, and all set to the special task that had been ordered. The entire, massive, indulgent, irresponsible mega-wealth of the Catholic Church was already being dissolved. Instead of media campaigns and mansions, fleets of virtually unused aircraft and expensive cars and yachts and investments and banks and lobbyists and paid politicians, the vast wealth would finally, truly be spent only to feed and house the poor and needy. There would be no expectation to become Catholic or to follow any book or rule, because there was no Church any longer, and every bible in the world was now seen as meaningless. Alicorns were real, and no prophet had ever predicted the world becoming Equestria.
There would be no more campaigns against homosexuals, or against the rights of mares to control their own bodies. There would be no more strife between Catholic and Protestant, or Jew, or Muslim, because all had ceased to be. There was only Celestia, and Luna, and life, and friendship and, of course, magic. There was no more desire for power, or control, or religious rulership, for at a stroke, religion had ended.
In the Middle East, former Shiites stared at the no longer human Sunni fighters they had been killing. The wounded were suddenly healed, though the dead remained so. The two previously Muslim sects began to cry, like innocent children, at the awful evil they had been doing just moments previously. There was no Allah, no Islam now, no reason to fuss over who the Prophet married or didn't marry, or who his cousins were, or were not. There was no reason to kill, and the very idea of violence burned every pony to the core.
These ponies who, only moments before had been enemies, began to beg forgiveness from each other, to hug and cry into each other's manes. They wailed at the memory of the awful madness they had just awakened from, and gave thanks to Celestia for the peaceful sanity they now enjoyed.
Like the Megachurches and the Baptists and many others, what had once been the Mormon Church and the Church of Scientology all dissolved. Their vast wealth and power was now being used to help others, and not to suppress equality, deny science, or to purchase violent coercion. Like all the other churches and religions of the globe, they felt shame at their narrowness, criminality and hoarding of resources, and worked to atone for their evils.
☼ ☼ ☼
In the Amerizone, in what had once been the American South, a group of ponies shook the white, conical hats off of their heads. They shed the white robes that no longer fit. They themselves were no longer white. They looked at each other, ponies every color of the rainbow, and then at the black-skinned humans they had been beating and trying to hang from ropes. The humans weren't black anymore, neither were they human anymore. They were multi-colored too, and both sides could no longer tell each other apart.
In South Africa, in Uzbekistan, in every part of the world, ponies looked at each other and saw only a single people, a single kind, a unified affection and admiration. Gone was every ethnic group, every culture, and all foolish pride. In the place of these things was being a pony, under Celestia's sun and Luna's moon. One universe, one Equestria.
In fourteen minutes and twenty-two seconds, racism died forever.
☼ ☼ ☼
Within a week of the world becoming Equestria, the wealthy families and corporate gods had finished weeping at their pointless greed, and arranged to use every last bit of their vile hoards to construct a truly fair and equitable economy for all ponies everywhere. There would be no poor, no slaves, no disadvantaged, no sweatshops or workhouses or corporate prisons. Every pony would be made relatively equal from now on, and nopony desired to be wealthy at the cost of poverty to another.
In a flash all fiat capitol vanished, and the game of raping the world for profit ended. Within two weeks there was no rich, and no poor, just a single common class - ponies - and not one was ever destitute - or obscenely wealthy - ever again.
☼ ☼ ☼
The generals of the Worldgovernment disbanded their armies, and the Blackmesh dissolved forever. The Barrier had transformed the bombs and canisters and guns and tanks and mechs and drones and guns into anything but, and in any case there was no need for war ever again. All of Equestria was under one rule now - the princesses - and the law of the land was friendship. Peace reigned, because nopony could bear the thought of harming another, and not one pony wished to cause trouble or hardship to another. War was an obscenity now, as it should always have been, and new boot camps arose - not to train soldiers, but to provide therapy to cope with the shame of having once been such.
The word 'war' ceased to have all meaning in a single day.
☼ ☼ ☼
Around the globe, the kiosks and hypernet terminals had vanished, replaced by the Equestrian Post. Magical scrolls and pegasus mail, and crystal viewing mirrors replaced email and hypernet linking. The billions of former humans wrote and spoke to each other with these new tools, and online communities rediscovered each other and reformed.
As they communicated, they ceased using handles, and left anonymity behind. They wanted to know each other, and they were disgusted with the ways in which they had harassed and abused each other behind the cowardly shield of false names and identities. Former online bullies begged forgiveness from their victims, and pledged eternal friendship forevermore.
Nopony ever bullied or harassed or hurt another through any form of communication, ever again. Everypony was polite and decent, because they could not help but care deeply and honestly about whoever was at the other end of anything they wrote or said.
☼ ☼ ☼
All across the new, Exponential Lands, the former humans renounced their wicked ways, their greed, their violence - both emotional and physical - they rejected rape and torture and weapons and cruelty. The newfoal ponies wanted only to be friends and live in harmony, forever, and ever, and ever. They never again strip-mined the ground, or conquered empires, or put anypony to death. Instead, they all, all the billions of former humanity, as one, desired only to be very, very, very nice.
☼ ☼ ☼
And so it was that in fourteen minutes and twenty-two seconds the Great Barrier of Equestria had swallowed up the entire earth, the moon sent spinning off into the sun, only vacuum where the blue planet had once been. In that short time all the world had become Equestria, and every human a pony, subject of their majesties Celestia and Luna.
And every former human gradually forgot about armies and nations and religions and greed and violence and hate, and in their place knew only love and peace and kindness and fun. Forever and ever.
“Now isn’t that a nice story. And fuck you, too” - Harlan Ellison, 1974
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"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the ponies
Living for today..."
Imagine - John Lennon
Now you're just trolling, Jenny. Not like you weren't before.
Subtle as a bag of hammers.
All that talent wasted on spite.
From what I've read, being bullied by Harlan Ellison is a rite of passage for any writer. The man is, by reputation, a twisted mass of spines. Whatever, I don't want to talk about him. I love this. Celestia joins the PER. Burn the hate out of the world.
Something I've been meaning to say for a while. This is my absolute favorite piece of cover art on the entire site. I am not a visual person. I'm color-blind and I'm more likely to say, "Do you hear what I'm talking about?" than "Do you see what I mean?" I think in sounds and sensations, but that picture just GRABS me every time. I've never read the puppy book it's based on, but I found that cover and it says nothing to me. This, on the other hoof....just all that innocence in the pony's eye. There's a whole extra story just in that picture. Here's what I see: this little colt was maybe a new convert, but he comes from Manehattan, where things are nice and he has friends, but it's all buildings and things. Now his sire and dam take him to the park or the country and he's like, "Whoa! Overstimulation rush! Look at all the green!" He gallops all over the place and then he stops. He sees this little newt and is like, "Oh, hi! I've never met you before. You're moving, and mommy says that things that move aren't good to eat, so you want to be friends?" Then the little caterpillar gets near and can just sense the innocence and total love for everything around him, and wants to get closer.
It's a pretty good deal as advertised, but only if the Earth actually is unarguably over and the credits are just about to roll. Equestria works because of the Hobbesian security guaranteed by the diarchs and their engineering of the population, i.e. it's a contingent system and not a brute fact, so I think it would be a poverty to close off Earth's potential for developing not just a diverse and local equivalent of such an easy, carefree, and secure situation for those who want it, but also the knowledge required to get it and keep it that way, along with everything else discovered in the process, that enriches the "final" result, instead of like if humans had been teleported to the moon in Roman times and not learned everything leading up to and including rocket science, and the techniques and base to keep learning beyond that. If instead they just sweep in and do it because things could be better, it's the old White Man's Burden, and the future has become a poorer, more uniform place for it. But yeah, if that ship has sailed and they're all doomed then sure, why not - For the people who would truly hate it, the old them did die on Earth, as they likely wanted, and they could consider themselves something else if it helps. But probably not knowing about said inevitable dying off of Earth, I'm unsure how I would handle this situation - I've of course wondered what I would be like ponified in this particular setting but I haven't a clue.
Interestingly, the tables could easily be turned had relative time flowed a little differently in the multiverse - What if magic-savvy posthumans from 60XX instead of 20XX set up a barrier in the Equestrian wastes shortly after the defeat of Discord? After all, if something supposedly shaped to survive can only ever destroy itself by its own immoral actions instead of just being unlucky, then it hasn't really been shaped to survive at all, and in fact could be said to be being punished for violating the unstated moral standards of Mundis.
Wait, wouldn't it be more that they already have those words, but use them sparingly, preferring euphemism only often enough that the originals aren't forgotten after a generation?
I mean, what if she'd said иди на хуй or ばかいやがれ?
...Though I guess maybe they're speaking Equestrian and it's a translation convention for levels of formality or something.
Also really sorry to hear about all the bullying. That is stingingly ironic. Hopefully this will help cheer you up a little (it is also tangentially relevant to the story).
3890384
That is an excellent description.
I also like it a lot better than the original Pokey Little Puppy cover. The old one has the puppy's face looking kinda gross, like a cross between a nebbishy Kafka character and an old softball. This one is actually cute, and the little dude looks genuinely curious instead of like he's being told to pose for a book cover.
Sadly, I haven't read the referenced work, so I can't "get it" on that level, but it stands well enough on its own, IMO. This version of TCB, while nicer to the characters, just doesn't have the same kick as a story concept compared to the others. No big conflict (which makes it much nicer to live), but it makes for a nice short story. Not to mention a good piece of snark, too.
And, of course, I see that people are already treating it as troll-bait.
3890384
Y'know, that makes me wonder. Kids (and adults) get surly enough when they find out that the stories they were told about how the world works (or is supposed to work) are nonsense. Imagine if they were raised on ponyfics from day one. That'd be one hell of a shock to the system when they ran up against hardwired human nature and ossified bureaucratic nonsense.
Dear Chat,
You have my sympathies for the truly horrendous level of bullying to which you've been subjected. It's no consolation, but I have to tell you I'm pleased to see the steps you've taken recently in your own defense. 'Not letting the bozos drag you down' is not meant to be a passive philosophy - it's letting others know you are the captain of your own happiness, which you have been doing quite well of late! Run, bozos, run!
Can I tremble in fanboyish glee at your run-in with Harlan Ellison? I agree with 3890384 that there are no documented interactions with HE that turned out any different, so think of it as a badge of honor: you stand in good company!
By the way, I love the story! Having Twilight come back from a visit to Mundis truly pissed off was another take on a TCB ending, and a fitting response to the 'Humanity, Fuck-yeah!' crowd. Also, wouldn't this fit better in Brand New Universe?
Keep writing Chat. And keep the bozos running.
Remember that some of us haven't apologized because we never attacked you in the first place. As hostile as some have been, you are also among friends.
Also, martially mandated pie is among the better forms of pie.
3890259
Kind of the point. It's a story inspired Harlan Ellison, who is basically the physical embodiment of spite. Besides, this was a catharsis. It's better to drain the infection than let it fester.
3890230
I love that song.
3890259
Read 'Ecoawareness' by Harlan Ellison, from Approaching Oblivion, 1974.
3890384
I laugh at the event now, or at least enjoy the telling of it, but at the time I had to hold my tears until I was alone. Harlan really, really knows how to tear a person down. It's like a gift or something.
I am really, really happy that you like my Poly Pony cover. Doc Pastern's favorite children's book is also mine, which is probably obvious - I put my own life, and the lives of everyone I have ever known into my stories. All of my stories are true, in that the events really happened, in some form, as seen through a twisted mirror, to someone or to me. The Roly-Poly Puppy Little Golden Book always makes me cry, and I don't know why. In any case, I am so happy you like my repainting of it!
3890457
I don't think I care, any longer, about future potential, or cultural enrichment or development. I honestly don't care, because I truly don't think Man is going into space. I don't think humanity will reach the stars or colonize the solar system or make 'Star Trek' or 'Bab 5' true. Perhaps the electronic, or quantum, or whatever machine children of Man may do these things, but I am virtually certain that Homo Sap is a launch vehicle for something better... or a dead end. A hunter-gatherer shouldn't go to the stars in any case... the result would just be earth history... only in space. Man has to be changed to have a future... and then Man won't be Man any more, so... one way or the other... humanity is not going anywhere itself.
With this said, I don't have a problem with things like the Optimalverse, or with the Conversion Bureau, because contrary to my haters, I am not a misanthrope - I am a realist, and I do care about people. I feel pity for Man, because it isn't his fault he has evolved contrary to what is required to become a fully technocratic, galactic power. He's stuck as a brutal, simple ape, and I feel sorry for humans. So giving them a happy ending of peace and kindness, a retirement package of eternal joy seems a positive thing... and for the very, very few with potential, let them rise and grow. But let's face it, the majority of humanity is utterly content to dabble about as long as they are having fun with full bellies, and I say more power to them. Just contain them, and render them harmless to themselves, and others.
3890560
In the original story, Harlan posits that the earth wakes up as a sapient entity, and it is pissed! It colorfully kills off famous and infamous people, and the usual suspects - church, state, bank - that hold Man in chains. Big business and the rape of the land is the primary issue, though, as well as the consumer culture that drives it, and by the end of the story, Man is very, very apologetic to Gaia, the spirit of the earth, who only agrees to not exterminate Man entirely so long as he behaves from now on. I really enjoyed the story, way back when.
3890601
Yeah, I got fucked up by what happened here... plus the near deaths of two of my spouses, and now the need to move from my long-time, Ideal home. All in two years time. It's been more than I could handle, and I am not doing well.
That said, I am glad you liked my story! As for meeting Ellison... yeah, there is a bit of fan-wank to it, he is the last of the living Golden Age authors. But damn... is he a very unpleasant guy. Seriously. I have never met such deep anger, bitterness, and total lack of fun in one person other than my own father, who tried to put a bullet in my head. And honestly? As foul a mouth as my father had, as much hate as he represented, as scary as that gun to my skull was, Ellison was almost scarier.
3891025
I never, ever include my loyal friends her in my upset. There are many here who have been steadfast, true, and good to me... they just had no power to protect or help me at all.
My anger is with three sorts: those that thought attacking an author for any reason was a good idea, those who moderate and did nothing - and in some cases even sided with the abusers - and those who I once counted friends who betrayed my trust and joined with the attackers out of cowardice and fear for themselves.
I have only affection and love for those that remained my friends through it all, and I have respect for those two who apologized for their betrayal, or for their abuse.
No person should ever have to go through what I did, and site owners and moderators should protect their users because that is their job.
It also should not matter whether the abuse is directed at a child, or an adult. Harassment is wrong, whoever it is directed to, period. It cannot be tolerated, it cannot be allowed, and any time it is permitted, it is a failure of humanity itself.
And it's time for Midnight with Midnight. I thought I'd better comment. I have read the original, but I just cannot remember it. I think I'm going to go find it and read it, because I'm pretty sure I'd find it enlightening. This version was actually rather pleasant. As you say, at some point Humanity will cease to be - not because humans are evil or humans are good, but because humans are. And at some point, they will not. I have hope for us, mostly because I believe in humanism and its ideals and the "retirement package" as you so put it is likely to be the way it ends. Not with a bang but with a quiet drifting off into the sunset with endless games of golf and quiet fishing escapades with no hook on the line and enough alcoholic depressant of choice. I just hope that, as has been the trend for the past few hundred/thousand years, that our propensity for kindness continues to increase, even in the face of such monumental capability for evil.
A long time ago, I had a notion for a story that ran along these lines. The Barrier (which, for the story, I was going to color purple as a nod to Potion) expanded infinitesimally slower than the speed of light, engulfing Earth and everything in it faster than any natural thing could react. Then the plot would encompass the aftermath of that: a world full of very confused, very frightened newfoals. I couldn't nail down what I wanted to actually do with the story, though, so I just let it atrophy along with the other handfuls of ideas which tend to come and go in anyone's mind.
That chafed me a bit, though I recognize it's mostly for personal reasons. I don't feel shame for having been a soldier, and it's no coincidence that prior-service characters feature heavily in my stories (write what you know and all that), but even in the canon Equestria, soldiery exists. Threats exist. Being peaceful does not necessarily mean you will have peace, and I don't think anybody even believes that. The Royal Guard wouldn't be ashamed. The Wonderbolts seem to be a wing (haha) of some sort of military organization, based on their uniforms, and they wouldn't be ashamed. Princess Celestia, Twilight, and Cadence have all demonstrated at one point or another they can use their magic like laser-guns, which means their pony brains have practiced or at least considered the utility of such a spell to be worth having on hand. Even if war's an obscenity to them, it's evident they still have to cuss the occasional blue streak.
3892466
My stories are all based firmly within the first season of MLP, even when I occasionally make inclusions of later season elements (alicorn Twilight, as an example in this story). Following that season, and what I have read of Faust's own statements, I approach Equestria as a peaceful magical land with all real dangers from outside, or from the Everfree, and these dangers not of the kind found on earth.
By this, I mean no war.
I do not accept Sombra and Chrysalis and her endless minions doing Zerg Rushes. I do not subscribe to unicorn beam weapons and Celestia being captured by a big bug. I also do not allow for hydroelectric dams or impossible cliffs or any of the other bits of poor writing and scraps of old scripts intended for other cartoons that certain writers have repurposed for MLP.
The Celestial Guard is for pageantry in my stories, and for the protection of the common ponies from the odd errant manticore or wayward timberwolf. They do not exist to engage troops in distant theaters of war, they do not conquer for the crown, they do not hold distant fortresses in foreign lands. They have no weapons, save for their armor and their hooves, as we have seen on the show itself.
On earth, soldiers are a fact, because humans are aggressive, territorial, raiding, conquering hunter-gatherer apes that serve Grayback, and Grayback always wants more. More oil. More poppies. More power. More metals. More everything that belongs to others. There needs to be soldiers to go force others to allow their stuff to be taken from them, and soldiers to repel the other soldiers when they come. Because it is going to happen, because it always has happened, and it always will happen.
That said, soldiers have one job, just as policemen of any stripe do, and that job is to be ready to kill and harm and destroy for their owners. I say owners, because to be a soldier is effectively to sell one's very life, body and soul, to a government, in exchange for money - and the contract never truly ends. A soldier can be recalled, with no recourse, they can be forced to be soldiers again with no permanent escape. It is very much like slavery.
All power comes from the gun, from the sword, from murder, and whether soldier for flag, or soldier of fortune, the basic truth is pay in exchange for an agreement to kill when master says so. All policemen, all enforcers, all soldiers, all centurions are, when all pomp and flag-waving is removed, professional murderers. That is the job description, at the core. A soldier without the power to kill is just a man in a funny costume.
I feel sorry for all soldiers. Many, especially now, do not want to be soldiers. In America, it is often the only employment they can get - over 30% of the nation is without hope of a job (if real figures, as used before they changed the accounting to make things look better, are used) and going into the military is all that is left. For those that actually want to be soldiers, I grieve for the lies they are told to get them to want such a thing, or - for the truly bloodthirsty - the drives that make them want to harm other human beings. Soldiers are victims in my mind, most of them anyway. Victims of the lust for power of Grayback. They imagine doing good, but murderous force is never 'good' - it is only ever, at best, necessary.
In my Idealized magical pony land, killing others is unthinkable, and professional murder is nonexistent. There are no armies, because there are no wars, because the cause of war can literally never occur. War shouldn't ever occur on earth, if Man actually lived up to his own noble ideals. But he doesn't. He hasn't. And he never will.
Soldiers are a necessary evil in a necessarily evil world of scarcity and ambition. I do not despise them, but I do despise that their necessity exists at all.
A soldier has a gun and the license to use it on others only because Man cannot live up to the requirements of true peace. This is a tragedy, the tragedy of existence on earth, within Mundis Mundis. It is the tragedy of Man, of evolution, of existing in a meaningless cosmos of danger and scarcity, where benefit and even survival is often purchased at the gruesome expense of others.
My vision of Equestria is a vision of an existence where force and violence and weaponry is never necessary. This vision conflicts with later seasons and some writers of the cartoon. It conflicts with those excited by conflict and thrilled by battles and wounds and fighting. It conflicts with any justification for the preparation for, or the execution of, war. There is no room for soldiers in my peaceful magical pony land, because I do not accept that either sword or gun has any good to it, ever.
Necessary evil is still evil, and nothing changes that. Destruction and force are what they are, and no excuse or flag can ever make it right. The most that can ever be said is that there was no other available answer, no other solution, and that is a limitation of earth.
It is not a limitation of my vision of Equestria.
*hugs tight* I'm extremely worried about you, please please please don't commit suicide :X I don't think I could handle that. Your opening passage before the beginning of the story is filled to the brim with warning signs and it's making me VERY concerned. Remember that you DO have some friends here and we are always here to talk to you when you need it. *hugs tighter*
The start felt a bit forced (and I understand why it needed to be so), but everything else was quite wonderful. It made me feel happy.
I'm sorry you've had all that happen to you Chatoyance. I wish there was something I could do to make it better. I know it's a bit childish, there isn't much I can do.
I want to say though, that your writings are one-of-a-kind. They've changed my life as I know they have changed the lives of others.
Keep writing and I will keep reading. I don't mind re-reading, but a new chapter by you is a sure way to brighten my day
.
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That's just it, though. Humans don't have an Auntie Celestia to Make It All Better. Would ponies have turned out any differently evolving on Earth, absent a tangible benevolence with the power to go unchallenged? Well, this talking point's come up plenty of times before, I don't mean to retread. My point is that ponies, absent their magic, would—you know what, no, screw it, give 'em their magic—this world would have chewed them up and spit them out. You know those nightmarish everything's-buglike-predators-and-acid-pools alien planets that sci-fi authors are always thinking up? Earth would look like that to ponies. I know you agree.
But ponies haven't had to live here.
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OK, we're basically talking about the same thing, then. That's the aspect of humanity I actually care about beyond basic welfare, and a large part of why in the second paragraph I described it as being "posthumans" who reach a more primitive Equestria. The rest I'm happy to just write off and let go its own way, as long as I don't have to go with it and be happy and satisfied - The same sentiment that would make me resist emigration in the Optimalverse.
This is the tough part, though - How do you tell who's who? In Equestria the monsters are distinguishable, but that doesn't make everyone who's indistinguishable from them a monster.
The current Pope seems to be pushing towards something like that...
3892995 "This is the tough part, though - How do you tell who's who? In Equestria the monsters are distinguishable, but that doesn't make everyone who's indistinguishable from them a monster."
If there was a proper CelestA.I. she would be intimate to the mind, to every impulse, of her little ponies (us!). Like my character of Lavender, those with utility and promise would be naturally drawn to their own expansion and growth, which Celestia would provide for just as she provides for everything else. Those who would be trouble would be satisfied, and never notice their own containment. Heck... Celestia could even allow a problematic monster to have the experience of transcending and relevance to her system without ever knowing it was all an illusion for their benefit!
So the only dark question, in the pony equivalent of the Hour of the Wolf, is "Am I really a super-expanded uber-smart Angelic Alicorn helping Celestia with the exterior physical universe(s), or is this just a very fancy shard to contain me and satisfy me because I am actually a dangerous entity in the system?"
And the only possible response is to shrug one's ears and carry on as if everything were kosher, because you are Hers now, and in any case, satisfaction awaits.
I see it like this, you see:
In our world, the only answer to reality is to say "fuck it!" and suffer on, until you pointlessly die.
In virtual Equestria, the only answer to reality is to say "Fuck it!" and prance merrily on, satisfied and content, forever.
The situation is the same, only the virtual circumstance is unbounded.
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Do not be concerned. Though I have strong suicidal thoughts from time to time, I am not selfish enough to croak my ass.
To suicide means to tear a hole in the lives of every person one cares about, to break the hearts of the only people who actually care. It is the ultimate 'fuck you!' to the people that love you, and that is not something I would ever, ever do. Pain makes a person selfish - but that level of selfishness is in conflict with my compassion and love. Since friendship is my only religion... suicide is out, except in one circumstance. I would have to be terminal or in a state of incurable suffering AND I would have to have the full permission of my family. That sort of circumstance is statistically unlikely to occur for at least twenty to thirty years minimum. I am far more likely to just keel over from heart failure long before such a situation.
So, I am not in any risk of offing myself. I acknowledge that I can feel that way, though, because suppressing impulses tends to strengthen them. Better to let the crap out than try to push it down and let it fester, you know?
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That's a much greater form of suffering, to me, than the forms this world dishes out, which I'm already equipped to deal with. Illusion of any but the most temporary and instrumental kind (e.g. magic tricks and espionage) is itself irreconcilable with my benefit; at least here I have non-parsimonious explanations that give me some degree of confidence that, human sensorium aside, this is the real world (The Simulation Argument is about at the same level of sophistication as Pascal's Wager, and even Bostrom admits it's partially tongue-in-cheek), but if you upload into a realm from which no one has returned, those explanations no longer hold.
I couldn't bring myself to do it, because no matter what promises and guarantees I wrung out of CelestAI beforehand, who, unlike this world, which is subtle but doesn't actively deceive you, has zero credibility. At least in the TCB universe it's the other way around, as if you'd been living in the simulation already, and you now have the opportunity to learn about the real real world and correct your earlier misapprehensions.
How nice a thought.
I wish it could be so.
I cannot apologize for abuse I did not participate in, but I'm sorry you suffered it, and I'm sorry that I did contribute to the flanderization of you and your work. I'd say "Sure, she's misanthropic and her work is chilling, but I really don't get what the hate is about. I mean, misanthropy has never been a valid reason to attack someone, and her writing is excellent in addition to creepy." And I'd say these things without any more support than one half-remembered chapter of your writing. (At least I got one thing right: your writing is excellent. You're a Pony Margaret Atwood.)
I hope that you're doing all right emotionally, and that you continue to write -- partly since you've inspired me with the FiO stuff! In particular I can relate to being livid at an author, in my case one whose work I'd respected and promoted only to get personally and unfairly insulted by them.
That said, this chapter horrifies me, largely because what little Conversion Bureau stuff I've read had a similar tone. The ponies were just so wonderful in that, that they were lecturing humans about their evil ways, without knowing anything about Earthly hardship or history. In this story they go much farther than what I read of TCB, saying "your opinions are objectively wrong because we say so, and we're going to magically devour you and alter your very souls until you agree with us!" That's a theme I've been using for the villains in a couple of my stories now. I'm... not really sure if the story was meant that way, or what.
this was nice, I agree with twilight. if the choice is between life and death then "fuck their free will"
Just a question- is vacuum being left behind rather than, say, very thaumatic-y rock in the original "7-and-a-half year plan" as well? I kinda hoped there would at least be something.
>if Twilight Sparkle actually existed in Chatoyance's TCBverse.