//------------------------------// // Augmented Information Gathering // Story: Virtual Mischief, Augmented Darkness // by chaoticevl //------------------------------// Augmented Information Gathering “This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder. How does a world need a disc change to continue its existence?” Reaching for the disc drive he pops out the original disc and puts it back into its case. He looks at the next disc before he puts it into the drive and he notices that while still dark in color it has a slight orangish hue to it. Deciding he’s had enough weirdness today to question it he sticks the disc into the drive and closes it. The VAR program starts reading the disc and replaces the INSERT DISC 2 message with a new one. A timer, with a six hour count down on it. “Oh we’re doing this again are we? I will gladly put these glasses back on and jump back in. I really don’t want to wait!” Thomas grunts at his PC. He tries to close the window to stop the timer but is stopped when another window pops up. It reads: Currently Processing. Cannot continue playback till processing finishes. Stopping this process will cause irreparable harm to your data. Do you wish to continue. A yes or no prompt displays at the bottom of the window. Sighing Thomas clicks no and the window closes leaving the six hour timer still visible. “Okay so I can’t get back for six hours. The sun is slowly being consumed by shadow. Not that I can physically do anything about that. The world so far hasn’t devolved into panic and looting, yet.” Thomas looks at the time on his PC its 9:30am. “I was only in there for half an hour? It felt longer than that. Well it looks like I have time to kill, I might as well go see if I can meet Mr. Scions and see how he managed to get his application to show Equestria.” With Time to spare Thomas takes a shower and has a bowl of cereal before he has to leave. Looking at the clock one last time Thomas grabs everything he thinks he’ll need and walks out the door locking it behind him. The sky outside still looks like the sun had just set, but the sun’s flickering light could still be seen in the sky. Surprisingly there weren’t that many people around. The few that were around stared up at the sky, some in fear and some in wonder. Thomas not wanting to get too caught up in the group of gawkers began to walk towards the nearest subway terminal. “Hey Thomas!” A large well dressed man shouted at him as he walked by. While Thomas new this man was a neighbor a few doors down from him he couldn’t remember his name. “H-hey.” Thomas replied while waving in an sloppy acknowledgment of the man. “This is nuts, isn’t it?” The man smiled warmly. “I don’t think something like this has ever happened before.” “You’re probably right, I don’t think I’ve ever read about anything like this happening in our history before. Hopefully it’s just a passing cloud of some deep space dust and this will get cleared up quickly.” Smiling back Thomas replies trying to keep the worry from his voice. “Well last I heard the ship they sent to go look should reach a better visual range in twelve hours or so. I’m with you though I think it’s just some space dust blowing in the cosmic winds.” The man looks back towards the sky as he says this. Putting his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Hey man gotta go I’ll see ya around.” Thomas begins moving again and waves towards the man. “Later Thomas!” The man shouts at the receding Thomas. A few minutes later Thomas reaches the subway terminal. Buying a ticket he sits down to wait for the next train. Bored and anxious he pulls out his pocket pc to take his mind off of the wait. Looking at the screen he notices that the icon for Anymapwiki has a exclamation point attached to it signifying a notification. Not sure what to expect Thomas opens the app. The map still shows Equestria, but it appears to be moving slightly to the left. Not exactly sure what is happening Thomas taps a button to center on the current target. The map zooms in but a bit to far as all it’s showing is a pink dot. “What the…” Thomas utters to himself as he zooms the map out a bit to get a better idea of what he’s seeing. Now seeing six dots moving at a pretty good speed on what appears to be train tracks on the map he realizes the dot he’s locked onto must be Pinkie Pie. “If this is showing that the girls are moving towards Tall Tale then they at least decided to stay together. Though I have a feeling Pinkies going to be mad at me if I make it back to them.” Not sure exactly what to make of this new situation, Thomas closes the application. “I can only hope that when the processing finishes it puts me with them and not back in Ponyville.” Sighing to himself Thomas stands and heads for the arriving train. *** Standing once again in front of Disco Riders Media, Thomas almost couldn’t see the door. The Disco balls were actually almost blinding in the darker light. Being partially blind Thomas had to feel around for the door. Finally getting inside his eyes were still seeing spots when he decided to voice his displeasure at the display. “I know it’s your company name but do you really need those flashing so brightly outside?” His eye sight finally returning to normal. Thomas expected to find Lilacs at the desk as she was yesterday, but to his surprise it was someone new. Standing behind the desk waiting for him with another strange smile on her face, was a woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She was wearing a dress suit but none of the pieces really matched with each other. The jacket consisted of dark red and purple splotches of varying shapes and size. The skirt was of similar design but differing shades of blue and green.  Next to the woman was a small TV in place of where Lilacs fan had been. It looked to be on the Science and Technology channel. Thomas could just faintly make out that they were discussing the current sun issue. “Hello!” stated the woman with mischievous sparkle to her eyes. “ You must be Mr. Crewe. Dean has been saying nothing but good things about you. Lilacs seemed to think you were pretty interesting as well. My name’s Iris Deputes, but you can just call me Iris.” “Hello, yeah I’m Thomas.” he was quite surprised that she knew who he was. While there has been contact between him and their company, he hadn’t expected a random employee to know about it. “Actually speaking of Mr. Scions, I was hoping that I could actually talk to him today. Is that at all possible?” “I’m sorry but my father is actually busy today dealing with one of our subsidiaries.” Iris states, her smile never wavering. “Father.” Thomas stutters out. “Subsidiaries?” he was even more surprised to hear they were that big of a company. “Yep. This office was the first for us so it’s daily operation is a bit of a family affair. Lilacs being my daughter and all.” Iris was quite happy to explain her family’s business. “While Disco Riders Media is a decent sized company, we actually own quite a few companies in adjacent technologies. A couple of examples you might know? Ah, we have one factory that created the special plastics used in making holodiscs. And the location my father is currently at is the one who designed the VAR program that everyone seems to be using.” “Wait you made VAR!?” Thomas’s eyes go wide at this knowledge. Waving her hands in a dismissive manner “Oh no, we didn’t make it. My father may have given them some suggestions on which way they should go with it in marketing it. But we had no real hand in programing it.” Looking thoughtful. “I wish we could take credit for the creation of VAR but that wouldn’t be very truthful.” “That’s still impressive either way. I guess I can tell you why I’m here. Earlier today Mr. Scions sent me a program to try out and I was wondering how it knew what I was doing?.” Thomas became a bit anxious as he ask as he really didn’t want to look like a complete idiot. “Oh you must mean the Anymapwiki. Yes Dean mentioned he’d be sending that on to a few beta testers. With the way he gushed about you I was pretty sure you’d end up being one. As for how it works? I can’t really tell you everything about it, company secrets and all that.” at the last comment she winked at Thomas. “I can understand that, but certain things about it just seem kinda strange.” Thomas says pulling out his pocket pc. The look on her face changed for just a moment. He wasn’t quite sure exactly what it meant but it was quickly replaced with the smile once more. “In general if your device is connected to a system running VAR it can connect to it and use it’s data to extrapolate a map of your surrounding area and any characters it deems important are tagged as points of interest.” Turning her head suddenly towards the TV, she quickly begins to turn it up a bit. “Sorry to interrupt our conversation but I’ve been waiting for this announcement all week.” “Um sure no problem I can come back if you want me too?” Thomas was surprised and put off at this turn of events but decided to be polite. “No you don’t need to leave it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes and you might find this interesting.” She hadn’t even taken her eyes off the screen as she says this but her voice give Thomas the feeling she might be right, so he says put. On the screen a man in a three piece suit stood at a podium. Behind him was a logo for Elysian Laboratories, and Vox Industries. In front seemed to be a large group of press agents. “Welcome, This will be a pretty short announcement, but we will be taking some questions from the associated press.” The man shuffled some papers on the podium. “At 8:00pm last night the United Nations turned over the global ban on AI development. This ban had been put in place about one hundred  years ago. A toy company, of all things, created an AI controlled toy line that caused quite a bit of property damage and the loss of 5 innocent lives. At the time, fear of such sophisticated AI’s caused the governments of the world to ban any AI more sophisticated than a self driving car. Due to recent studies they now believe we have the necessary tech and knowledge to keep any future AI’s from running amuck. This will hopefully allow us to create AI’s powerful enough to send on longer space missions and finally allow us to leave our own solar system. I will now open the forum to questions from the press.” The man behind the podium pointed towards a gangly young man with a press badge on his hat and a tablet in his hands. Said young man stood up and taking one last look at his tablet spoke up. ”Does this mean we will soon have AI driven sex bots?” Half the reporters burst out laughing, the other half just glared at the sheer audacity of the young man. The man on stage face palmed so hard it could be heard over the microphone. “Really the first thing you want to ask is that…” Iris burst into laughter so loud it drowned out anything else the man on screen could have been saying to rebuke the reporter. Taking a good minute to calm down she finally shut off the TV and turned back to Thomas. “That reporter is a genius!” “What!? How is asking about sex bots a genius move by anyone?” Thomas ask completely dumbfounded on how that made any bit of sense. “There’s still plenty of fear over truly sophisticated AIs. By asking such a ridiculous question he’s tempered their fear with humor and will probably lead to more direct logistical questions, then emotional fear mongering ones.” Iris looked quite amused that Thomas didn’t realize this. Looking thoughtful Thomas said “I really hadn’t thought of that possibility. Nor would I have thought a reporter capable of being unbiased enough to try making his fellow reporters unbiased as well.” “Now let’s get back your strangeness issue. As a curiosity after starting the app up what helper did you end up with?” Iris’s smile had returned again but with a small tinge of mania to it, like she hoped for some specific outcome from Thomas. “I got Screwball, a small pinkish purple pony. Which is really coincidental with the show I happen to be using the app for.” Said Thomas as he looked back at his pocket pc. Iris’s smile faltered for just a moment but quickly came back. “She should be an interesting helper for you.” Laughing a bit. "Each helper has a slightly different style in how they offer help. Now if you’ll let me see your device I’ll run a quick diagnostic on the program and make sure it’s running the way it’s supposed to.” “Oh, sure. Here you go.” He said as he passed the pocket pc over to Iris. Taking the device she placed it on the desk and made some extra room. “I’ll be right back” She claims as she walked towards the back room. She wasn’t gone for too long and came back with a laptop. Setting up said laptop she began hooking up the pocket pc to it. “This shouldn’t take but a minute or two.” Thomas watched as her fingers began dancing around the keyboard as she hummed to herself. “Well so far it looks as though everything is working exactly as intended. There does appear to be an update for it though. If you want I can update it real quick while I have it connected?” Looking up at Thomas as she asked, he noticed the mischievous glint had returned to her eyes. “Sure I don’t mind if you do that.” Thomas wasn’t sure he should trust her but he knew his device well enough to check for anything extraneously installed later. She just nodded and went back to looking at the screen. Thomas decided to keep his interactions with the girls to himself for now. He was worried that since Disco Riders had a hand in the VAR program they might decide to take over his machine. His guilt and his promise to Pinkie that he’d help them, wouldn't allow anyone else to touch his machine. Thomas’s thoughts were interrupted as Iris stood back up. “Here you go all done.” Unplugging the device and handing it to Thomas she looked pleased with her work. “I don’t have all the information on the update, but knowing her she’s added a few extra functions to it. So don’t be too surprised if something new pops up.” “She? So you know the programmer personally?” Thomas asked. “Of course I do. It’s my daughter. Lilacs made this one. I know she doesn’t look it but she’s quite the programmer. She does a lot of back end stuff for our site.” Iris practically beamed with pride as she talked about her daughter. “Well if there’s anything else you need from us don’t hesitate to contact us. I’m sure my father will be glad to hear from you.” “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind, and thanks for putting my mind somewhat at ease given the current state of events.” Waving back at Iris as he began to leave the store. She waved back and sat down at her desk and turned the TV on. The last thing Thomas heard as he stepped back outside into the blinding disco balls was her laughing. ***     Thomas arrives home laden with bags from a nearby grocery store. Full with some extra water and canned foods just in case. He wasn’t expecting things to get bad but he wanted to be prepared anyway. Putting away the excess food he looks towards a clock, it read 2:30pm. “Those damn trains sure made killing time boring with their delays but I’ve only got about an hour to go before I can try to go back.” With the extra time Thomas made himself an early dinner of macaroni, bacon, and cheese. Sitting down to watch the news for the time being. He was surprised to see how little news seems to be about the sky. “You’d think with the sun being covered in darkness and the moon not moving in the sky that someone would be constantly reporting about them. Or reporting the problems they’re causing. But no just normal news.” Finishing with dinner and cleaning up the dishes Thomas heads for his entertainment room to check on the processing. Seeing it just about done with a minute and a half left on the timer Thomas gets ready by grabbing his glasses and remotes. He stands on the usual place and places the dark glasses on his face and waits for his vision to change. As the timer ends its countdown Thomas once again feels his vision get pulled. This time it's a forward motion instead of a backwards one like last time. Looking around to get his bearing he find himself on a train. A rather colorful train with low benches. Turning around he finds what he hoped to see. The ponies he was supposed to be helping sitting in two groups on each side of the train. Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity were on one side. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were on the other. Walking towards them, Pinkie was the first one to notice he was back. Waving sheepishly at her “Hey Pinkie, I’m back.” Hopping off the bench she was sitting on and landing in from of him Pinkie look relieved to see him. “Where did you go Thomas?” Pinkie asked. “One moment you were there and the next it looked like you were squeezed into a balloon and popped.” “Sorry Pinkie. It seems I was pulled back to where I came from. But I think I’ll be here for a while. Where exactly are we anyway?” Standing up Twilight came and stood next to Pinkie. “We’re about to reach Tall Tale any minute actually. I wasn’t expecting to see you again, Thomas.” Twilight stated with an accusing hoof point. ”Pinkie was quite adamant that you would come back though. It seems she was right.” “I’m really sorry about that but I think I get what’s letting me visit here for now so I should be here till we find the current element. Then I’m pretty sure I’ll be yanked back again.” Before Thomas could say anything else the train whistle blew. “Now arriving in Tall Tale. Last stop every pony must disembark here!” Shouts a nearby conductor. Smiling her happiest smile Pinkie bounces in place and shouts “Let's go find us an Element of Harmony!”