//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Filling In the Blank Spaces // Story: Displaced into Nothing // by Rockstar_Raccoon //------------------------------// As the containment around me lifted, I let my head lol back, opening my mouth and taking it in... Being back in the ambient flow of energy, now that I was firmly anchored to the physical plane, had a liberating feeling, possibly akin to feeling a strong breeze through your hair after spending a week inside a hospital room.  In the chamber, it had been silent, alone.  Now, immersed in the free flow of energy, I experienced a feeling of connection to this world, its denizens, its environment... I was no longer a being apart, but a part of its being. Twilight was looking at me with a note of wonder: my hair was literally flowing in an invisible breeze, power rippling through my hide. I grinned at her, laughing a bit: a few moments ago, I’d experienced a tense moment of a prisoner pleading for freedom.  Now, I just wanted to hug her.  Speaking of that... I rushed at Twilight, causing her to give a little squeak of surprise as I halfway tackled her, embracing her in my forelegs and cuddling her close, nuzzling with my new muzzle.  She blushed again, ahhh, Twitwi is best pony: so adorable! <3 Ahem.  Not sure where that came from... Anyway, after a moment of realization, Twilight tentatively hugged me back, also chuckling, though a little less comfortably than I was. Ah, she’d get over it. “Thanks Twilight!  I’m so glad you let me out!”  I gave her another snuggle. “Heh, well, you made a good argument for it!  I’m just glad you’re not mad at me...” I shrugged a little, “Ah, it’s ok Twilight, I’d’ve probably done the same thing if a self-modifying entity had shown up on my world...”  Gee... I sure was enjoying this close, personal contact thing... Twilight had this really pleasant ambient field, like being close to something warm and inviting. There was something else too... This weird, innate desire to groom her mane or something...  Like... Something about the prospect of brushing her hair as a comfort action felt very normal, as if my memories insisted I had some sort of familiarity with her... Perhaps I’d known a similar person in my previous life? “So...” she asked, pulling away a little, “What are you planning on doing now?” “Isn't it obvious?” I grinned, “Science!”  I reached out with my own will, mimicking the telekinesis I'd seen Twilight use, and the whole lab was awash with papers, the test results from today lined up with those from the previous days.  Grinning up at the information, I sat down on my haunches next to Twilight. “Alright!” I said excitedly, looking at how the various graphs and sets of symbols (which I assumed to be numbers) changed with each day, “...what does any of this mean?” “I take it you don't remember numerical spell analysis?” “I'm not sure we had this on my world... We were less advanced in magic, but if those lights are modern, more advanced with things like electricity....” I gestured to her ramshackle electric lights, which were clearly a newer addition to the structure, but registered to me as obsolete technology. “Oh.” Twilight said, “That's... Not at all what we'd assumed...  It'd be really interesting to hear about that later.” I nodded, “I'll tell you what I can, eventually...” I turned my attention back to the papers, “So, what does this stuff mean?” “Oh!  Well, that first one is a spectrographic reading of your magical energy.  It detects the specific frequencies of a spellform to help figure out how it was made.  At the beginning, over here,” she pointed to the far left with her nose, “you had this entirely alien reading.  But as you can see,” she swung her head slowly to point at the far right, “it changed over time... This latest one is almost identical to the background aura of my lab.  I was actually hoping you could tell me more about that: I’d never seen that sort of behavior before.” “Well, two things, one was that I needed to rebuild the spellforms that I was made of, and your world's energy was plentiful.  The other was that having the same frequency meant I'd have a more stable, native form in your environment, though it adds to the complexity in some places.  Mostly though, I was just working with what I had to build a stable body to anchor myself to...” Twilight nodded, writing down notes.  She'd pulled over her notepad at some point while I was talking, “I see... That explains a few things.  This next one is a lattice analyzer.  It gives the size and density of a spellform.  You actually started getting the maximum reading this machine gives for a few things on the fourth day after I found you.”  She pointed to the first one, “This was the first reading, on the second day, when you were a cloud.”  She moved to the second reading, “This was the third day, when you’d turned into that blob with tendrils.” She pointed to the third day, where exclamation points had been printed around the big number, “This is the fourth day, when you started trying to look like a pony.  As you can see, your thread-count goes above what the machine gives accurate readings for, and it just keeps getting more inaccurate from there.  Same with density,” she pointed to a small graph, the middle of which had made a rough line at the top of its chart on the 2nd reading, which just kept getting bigger as the days went on, “You were too dense for it on the 3rd day.  I don't know how you managed to keep your spellwork that dense without it interfering with itself...” she looked at me questioningly. “Well...” I said, sitting back a bit and making the hide that formed my chest transparent, so that she could see the clockwork spellform inside me, “Some parts, like my memory, actually rely on that interference to function efficiently, others, like the way I'm actually storing information, utilize subspacial folding.  I believe I may even have a few ten dimensional structures in there...” Twilight's pencil slowed, “...but... There are only nine dimensions...” “Nine known dimensions, that you've discovered.” Twilight drew a blank for a moment, then flipped her page back and started scribbling more notes, “Oohhh my gosh... Are you sure?  I mean, you're sure you're not mistaken about this?  Because the discovery of a tenth dimension completely changes several models of unified theory... I mean, unicorns have only been able to sense five without enhanced perception, and we only know about the ninth because of the Hoofings Equations...” “Unicorns aren't ten-dimensional magical entities from the Void.”  I allowed myself to get a little smug, “I can pretty much sense any dimension I'm able to operate in, but I can understand why you're surprised: I think my people only discovered five or six of them...”  I thought about that, “Wow... I'm like a walking science experiment!” Twilight looked at me, “So... So wait... You're saying you can just SEE these other dimensions?” ...a slow smile spread over my face... “Twilight.  Remember the flying books from your dream last night?” She stopped, “Yeah... Kind of... Wait how did you-” I reached down into the Dream World, stretching my arm out for a few meters in that direction as I did so, and yanked out a flying book, grinning at Twilight as it flapped in my hoof. Her eyes practically bugged out of her head, “HOLY SHIT!”  She almost dropped her notepad, “How did you do that?  Even Princess Luna can’t do that!  You didn't even build a portal, you just did it!  HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?” I laughed instead of responding to her for a moment: screwing with Twilight's sense of reality was way too much fun.  I let the book go, and it started flapping about haphazardly on the floor, its tiny wings unable to support it in the gravity of the Waking World.  “Ok, ok... Let me explain... Remember how we were talking about the non-cardinal dimensions?  One of them is the dimension of thought.  It’s a bit like time, where it has this one-directional flow, but unlike time, things can and do travel against it through the application of Will.  The physical, Waking world, is sitting on top of this endless depth of concepts and thoughtstuff, part of which we know as the collective subconscious.  You go down far enough, and you start getting some really weird stuff: I don’t know what’s past the collective subconscious, and all I know about the other direction is that Platonic Concepts supposedly get pulled down from there.” “...Platoni-what now?” “That’s not important right now.  What’s important is, because I can perceive that dimension like any other, and I’m not bound by the limits of a being truly bound to the physical plane, I can interact with it.  Grabbing that book was just a matter of reaching in that direction and yanking something that was lingering there from the dream you just woke up from.” “Well, that's... Wait... are you telling me you can just move across non-cardinal directions at will??” I laughed again, “That would be impressive, but no.  I mean more in the sense that I can simply interact with non-cardinal directions without the need to bend them parallel with the cardinal directions with a portal.  The book was sitting on the top of the Dreamtide, so I could snag it without stretching my form too far in.  I don't think I can actually move myself in those directions... Yet... But I certainly seem to have developed a knack for parlor tricks... With experimentation, this could have some real application.” Twilight stood up and started pacing in earnest, “Holy shit Meta... You literally just subverted the laws of reality, and you're calling it a parlor trick!  I’m not even sure how many cutting-edge theories about the function of reality you just rendered obsolete with that, how many spells you bypassed by just... You just did it!  I don’t even know, I can’t even!  What do you-” “Uh oh...” “WHAT IS IT!?” Twilight shot over to me, looking me over. “The book.” I pointed at a spot on the floor. She looked, “I don't... Where did it go?” “Oh, it dissipated into thought stuff and subsumed back into the dream world.  But it did it while I was watching it...” I narrowed my eyes. “Is that normal?” I shook my head, “They're not supposed to be able to do that while being observed...  See, things from the Dream World lack something called ‘object permanence’.  Picture the Dream World as a body of water, and we're all sitting on the surface here in the Waking.  We can dive in, grab something, and pull it out, but it can't really keep it's form in the Waking world without an observer.  This means that things from dreams can only exist in the Waking while someone is actively watching them.  If you stop paying attention to them, even for a moment, they lose their form and vanish, like an air bubble meeting the surface of the water.  I don't think I've ever seen one of them vanish while I was watching, back when I did this on my home world.  All I know, well, think, is that the fact that it did means that I don't count as an active observer anymore...” “Wow... So... What does that imply?” “I don't know.  That I'm actually dead?  I've only ever seen this from creatures that don't have object permanence themselves...  Which... I... have...?” I stared off into space, awkwardly feeling at my not-meat body with my forehooves, as if that would tell me if I was about to dissipate. “Well... that's odd then...?” “Yeah, it is... I’ll have to look into this.  It may explain something about the nature of the dream world...” There was a moment of awkward silence, which Twilight broke, “So...” she looked around, “I found some other pieces of what I'm guessing were your memories floating around...” “Really?  Lemme see!” “Right over here...” Twilight walked over to a shelf, on which several crystal domes sat, each of which housed a shimmering spellform. I followed her over, sensing the familiar barrier of that crystal substance she’d been using to contain me before.  I made a note to ask her about the material later.  “Interesting... Would you mind if I took them back?  I mean, I’d like them back, but if it’s important to you to keep them longer...” Twilight shook her head, “No, no, I think I’ve learned all I can from them.  Besides, they’re yours, so it’s better if you just took them back. Who knows, you might even find something useful in them.” she smiled. Carefully, I wrapped my magic around one of them, reaching out with my forehooves to lift the dome, pulling the delicate lattice of spellwork and energy out and setting the dome back down.  I looked at it for a moment in front of my face, thinking about how best to bring it inside my body.  After a moment, the easiest method seemed good enough: I brought it to my face, opened my mouth, and reached out a few tendrils to grasp it and pull it inside. Twilight winced next to me, “Uh... Meta?  Could you warn me before you do creepy stuff like that?” “Creepy stuff like what?” I asked, 3 stray tendrils still floating out of the sides of my mouth. She pointed a hoof at my mouth, “The tentacles coming out of your orifices.  Normal ponies don’t do that.  Actually, I don’t think normal anything does that...” “Oh...” I said, slurping the tendrils back inside, “I don’t really have the same sense of unnaturalness as physical beings anymore, so my definition of ‘creepy’ isn’t really well developed...” “Ah... right...” she winced as I repeated the process with the second, third, and fourth.  “So... Is that it?  Do you just knows what’s in them, or is there some process to reintegrate them?” “Hmm... I was going to analyze these later, but if you want, I could demonstrate and explain the process to you as I go.” Twilight grinned, nodding vigorously, “Oh yes please!  I’d love to hear all about how you do that!” “Alright!” I nodded, turning my focus inward as I handled the new concepts.  “First step, I have to analyze the structure and find the endpoints of it, figure out where the pattern begins and ends so I can see how it’s supposed to hook in...” “That's some pretty complex spellwork, how do you manage to keep track of it?” “I had to optimize and expand how much information I can keep in my mind at once.  It was one of the things I did over the past few days when trying to rebuild myself.” “Wow... Ok... So you just rewrote yourself to be better at casting... I... Kinda wish I had that kind of power...” “Maybe I'll figure out a way to replicate the process for you then... I mean, without tearing you apart and all that.  Anyway, right now I'm going over the connection points of this mindform to see how it responds.  I can tell that it's mostly facts because it's all very referential: it's meant to be linked to other memories and used for background information.  Early on, these were hard for me to figure out: it wasn't until I realized I needed to hook them to other memories that I could actually use them for details.  Anyway, now I know how to look over the whole thing from one endpoint, and I found that on this one, so I'm doing that now...” “Oh!  What's it about?” “Oh... This one’s some basic information on... You'll like this: it's about my homeworld.” Twilight’s eyes lit up, “Really?  What’s it say?” “Well, it doesn’t really ‘say’ anything, it’s just vague concepts and definitions... It seems I was a member of a race of bipedal primates known as ‘humans’, who just about mastered electricity and were experimenting with space travel... My homeworld’s name would translate to something like ‘Terra’ or ‘Earth’, and had several landmasses, with temperatures ranging from about 40 degrees Centigrade to well below freezing... I’d have to know more about your world to tell you what’s actually different, or to have the context to really interpret most of this stuff...  I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t feel like I specialized in biology or planet science, so I don’t even know how much of this would actually impress you...” Twilight nodded, “Well, I’d definitely like to hear more about your species and planet when you can tell me...  Is there anything else you want to share?” “Hmm... Let me look over the next one... This should only take a moment...”  I got the connection and ran it through my consciousness.  “Oh... Hmm... That could be useful...” “What is it?” “...I think this is the memory of the last time I was fully self aware...” Twilight began to nod, slowly, as she pieced it together, “You mean, when you were...” “Yeah... Weird thing is, it starts out like I was at some sort of,.. event... a festival I think?  I was trying to... buy... something... and I was pulled into... a hole or something... and I was hit by someone’s spell...”  I looked it over a bit more, “Ok, yeah, someone yanked me out of a festival of some sort and into a big empty part of the Dream world, and hit me with some spell that tried to tear me apart and put me back together as something else... but I guess I countered it halfway through and came out like... this...” “So, this is the result of an attack, but not the intention?” “The intention was to send me to this world after transforming me into something new.  Maybe a monster, I don’t know.  The caster put a failsafe in the spell which tried to unmake me when I tampered with it, so I think it’s safe to say that they’re not the good guy here...” “You think it might be someone in Equestria?  Some enemy trying to use souls from beyond the Void for an invasion force?” I shook my head, “No.  Whoever it was was very far away, but very powerful... I think we’re looking at something that lives out in the Void here...” Twilight cringed at the thought, “A Void Dweller... What would it want with our worlds though?” “I don’t know...” I furrowed my brow, “I hope we don’t have to find out any time soon...”  I looked inward for a moment as Twilight gulped, “In any case, I'm not sure what the other two pieces you found are: they're not very coherent, and I just don't have enough context to fill them in...” “Sounds like we’ve got some exploring to do later then.” “Right.” “Hey Um... Meta?  Can I see your spellform again?” “Hmm?  Sure.  Just don’t poke it too much, ok?  This is basically my brain I’m exposing here...”  I subsumed the physical form I had around me, letting the matter of it melt back into energy as I just let myself turn back into that cloud, held together by my will to exist.  I unfolded a bit for her, spreading out a little more so she could see it all clearly. Twilight’s eyes bulged a little as she watched, causing her to cringe and take half a step back, “That’s... Disturbing that you can just... do that... I mean, fascinating, don’t get me wrong, but wow...” “Yeah, I found it a bit odd once my personality came back.  I actually had to manually remove my own sense of existential dread at the notion that I don’t really have a body anymore...” Twilight hesitated a little, “Wait... you can modify your own... personality?  I mean... You’re actually turning off your emotions?” “Yeah, it’s all part of this complex spellform that I can sort of stop and tweak if I need to...” She looked at me with new worry. If I had eyes at that moment, I would’ve rolled them, “Oh come on Twilight, I still have the same goals and values.  There’s no reason for me to self-modify myself to be malicious, I mean, if given the chance, would you make yourself want to be a self-replicating monster, and turn yourself into some sort of grey goo scenario?” “I guess not...” “Right.  It wouldn’t make sense for me to do something that made me malicious, and I have no reason to purposefully change my own values to something more primitive.  You don’t have to worry.” Twilight nodded slowly, “I guess that’s... comforting...”  Her eyes narrowed a bit, looking me up and down, “Come to think of it... how are you talking to me right now?  I didn’t notice it was strange when you looked like a pony, but now it occurs to me that you don’t really have the necessary organs...” “Oh, it’s simple: I’m just manifesting the sounds in a voice I remember being my own.” “Yeah, but... how are you making them audible?  Are you like... conjuring an illusion, or...?” “No illusion.  I am simply making the sound exist...  You understand how sound waves work, right?” She nodded, smiling a little, “Yes, kinetic energy vibrates the air, creating a compressional wave, which travels outwards indefinitely.” “Right.  I’m making noises by creating those compressional waves.” “Wow... Ok then... Just another world-changing power you have.” she rolled her eyes a little. “Right... Well... Would you mind looking at what you wanted to see now?  When I don’t have a form, I have to hold myself together against ambient energies.  It makes me feel very... ‘naked’...” She blushed a little again, “Oh!  Right... Let me just... get to it then!”  She leaned in a little, looking through my spellform, “...I can barely even see the spellwork now...  It’s so... Small and intricate...” “Yeah...” I admitted, “I think I’m hitting a bottleneck in my development: I’ve made most of the improvements and additions which are obvious, and I’m starting to hit some boundaries involving the laws of physics... This might be close to my limits.” Twilight nodded slowly, “Well, it’s quite an impressive limit.  I’m pretty sure we’re well beyond the world record for ‘most complex spellform’.”  She took a step away, “You can turn back now.” I reformed the pony body around myself, pulling my mass into the shape, becoming the smiling alicorn mare standing in front of Twilight again.  I stretched my limbs a little with a sigh, “Ahh... much better...” Twilight nodded again, “Right.  Thanks for showing me that!” she gave me a smile. There was a moment of pause, and she glanced around the lab a bit, as if searching for something new to do with me, seemingly at a loss for a few moments.  “Um... so...” she grasped for an idea, “Do you... wanna see my... book collection?” she grinned sheepishly. My eyes widened slightly at the prospect of seeing the library of a magical scientist on an advanced alien world.  I stared straight at her, and this time I had to temper my response to not show too much emotion... The forceful, hiss-like response I gave was pretty much appropriate... “Yes.” So one winding staircase and a couple hallways later, Twilight showed me her library.  Now, when she’d said “book collection”, I’d been thinking something like a few bookshelves of reference and light reading material.  You know, a respectable private library.  No.  Twilight, from the looks of the labels on the few dozen shelving sections she had, was talking about an actual public library collection, complete from books for foals to learn to read with, to the great literary works of her planet, to records dating back over a thousand years, to textbooks on cutting edge science and magical theory.  This was the kind of thing you’d see in the Universities of my homeworld before physical paper books became impractical for more efficient technologies... I let my jaw drop as I stared at all the bookshelves, literally vibrating with excitement at the amount I could potentially learn from such a vast collection.  I mean... She literally had whole sections dedicated to magical theory, and here I was, from a world where a single book on magic could literally cost you an arm and a leg... Granted, it wasn’t my arm and leg I gave to the six headed butterfly spider thing, but that guy sure did miss ‘em. ...uh... he had it coming.   ...And he got better.  Long story. “Well, here it is!  I just finished stocking these books.”  She glanced over at me.  The sight of me panting, wide-eyed, legs spread slightly, wings sticking straight up caused her to immediately blush.  She looked around uncomfortably, “Oh, um... Meta...? you should probably um... do something about... you know... The wings...” I tore my eyes away from the books, “The... wings?  Huh, would you look at that...” I lifted a hoof to poke at the stiffly extended left wing.  “What about ‘em?” She blushed a little more, “I mean... Well... alicorns aren't exactly common in Equestria, and if somepony sees you, you might attract the wrong kind of attention...” I nodded, glancing back at my wings.  “Oh, ok.  I'll just stop having them for a while.”  I focused on my form, temporarily removing the part with the wings, causing them lose all semblance of form and melt back into my body, leaving normal, flat fur where they’d been. Twilight shuddered slightly at the sight, “I’m never gonna get used to you just doing that...” “Sorry Twi,” I shrugged, “I’ll make a note to warn you next time I modify my form like that.” ”Right...” she said, “So... I was thinking I could get some material to cross-reference with, and maybe you have some things you’d like to read?” “Well, I don’t actually know how to read your language, so right now I’m doing what I did to understand your language in the first place.”  I said, concentrating on the bits and pieces of linguistic concept floating about. “Oh... I don’t suppose you could show me that?” “It’s not exactly clever stuff, Twi.  I’m just sifting through the concepts about reading floating in the ether, trying to piece together a coherent understanding of it all...” “I see... And how is it coming along...?” “...It’s gonna take a little while... It’s a very tedious process...” I replied. “Oh... well, um... Would you mind if I left you alone in here for a few minutes?  I have some stuff I’d like to go take care of in the lab...” “Twilight, this is the best room I could imagine on this planet.  At this point, I don’t really want to leave...” She chuckled bashfully, “Oh, yeah.... It is pretty great... isn’t it...”  She turned to start out the door, “Be back in a few minutes...” “See you soon Twilight...” I responded with a detached wave of my forehoof.  I kept concentrating on the various concepts I felt floating in the aether around the library, pulling them in and trying to build a working model of things.  I reached out and pulled over a dictionary, and then an encyclopedia, to demonstrate to myself how the language worked.  Pretty soon, the various titles and labels were all making sense, soon after, I found myself understanding the words of the encyclopedia telling me all about Prench Haute Couture, and within a few minutes, I felt like I could write a book in Equestrian. Ok, even I impressed myself at this point: I’d gone from not knowing a language, to being able to read and write in it, in a matter of days, using a brute-force approach to just add the knowledge directly to my mind.  That was a feat that I know would have been far out of my reach if it wasn’t for my odd predicament.  And I wasn’t even stopping there:  now that I knew what everything in the library was, I could tell that there was no way one pony could get through all the books in a timely manner.  Fortunately for me, I wasn’t a pony, and the “one” thing was just a matter of skill at this point. I turned my focus inward again, letting my body go mostly dormant on its hooves as I put my full attention on self-analyzing.  I isolated the parts of my mindform which dealt with reading, comprehension, and and concept analysis.  They were a bit of a jumble, but I stretched them out and began to arrange them.  I worked to find new ways to streamline the processes, quickly improving them, systematizing them, bringing out the most efficient structure I could conceive at the time for learning from books. Soon, I was able to extrapolate patterns from my work, and I began to create a copy from them, making a repeatable pattern.  It was highly complex, but easily mirrored, and would do everything I needed it to: a spellform to raise, read, comprehend, and retain knowledge from books to be stored and analyzed later. I tessellated the pattern, making 1 into 2, 2 into 4. 8... 16..... ...32. It had been a strain on my will and energy reserves at the end, but there were now 32 such shimmering spellforms floating about the library, lifting assigned books off the shelves, opening them, and slowly flipping through the pages to read them.  I grinned, just resting for a moment as I admired the outcome of my work... “Twilight?  Is that you in here?”  I’d been enjoying the feeling of the raw, unprocessed knowledge of the various texts being unloaded into my brain for a few minutes when a familiar voice came through the open door.  I turned my head to see a little purple reptilian creature walking in, slowing as he saw me.  “Oh... I heard the books and saw the magic and I thought you were Twilight...” I shook my head, “Nope.  Just a new friend of hers.” I turned to face him, giving a friendly smile, ”You’re Spike, right?  You can call me Meta.”  I held out a hoof for him. He walked up and took my hoof, hesitant as he looked at my face with a bit of concern, “Uh... right...” “Is uh... something wrong with my smile?” I asked “Um... no!  It’s just... um... wide...” “Oh, I’m sorry, I uh... don’t have a lot of experience with socializing...” I took a moment to view myself from an external perspective and adjust it’s wideness from “insane” to “friendly”.  “...Is this better?” Spike chuckled awkwardly, “Um, yeah!  Much better.” he looked around, “So... What are you doing with the books?” “Oh, Twilight said I could read any of her books, and I wanted to read them all, so I isolated the section of my consciousness that deals with learning from books, distilled it to a pattern, and tessellated it a few times so that that I could absorb the conceptual information of every book in the library through simple mechanical process of book learning, without having to physically interact with them.” Spike looked at me with a blank expression, his eyes having glazed over halfway through the explanation.  “So... What’s the end goal of this?” I sighed, giving him a sympathetic smile, “I’m using magical constructs to read the books for me, so I can learn their concepts without taking the time.” “Oh...” Spike looked around at all the spellforms floating about, eyes widening as what I was doing began to dawn on him, “Oh!”  He put his hand to his jaw, “Does... Does Twilight know this spell?” I shook my head, “Probably not.  I mean, I made it up just now, using raw conceptual thoughtforms...” “Huh...” Spike said in that way people talk when they really don’t have any response.  “Oh!  That’s what that alien thing was made of!  You must be the expert Princess Luna said she would bring to look at that thing Twilight’s keeping in the basement, right?” “Um... Well, I suppose I’d be considered an expert on the subject at this point, but I’ve never met Luna... as for the thing in the basement...”  I wasn’t sure how to field this one.  Twilight had told me that Spike had been adamant about not letting me out, and she’d been breaking the promise to him that she wouldn’t let me out a few hours ago, so while I didn’t want to lie, I didn’t want to tell him that I was the thing he was terrified of without Twilight there to calm him down. ...Which was why it was lucky that I heard Twilight’s hoofsteps echoing around the corner again.  “Alright Meta,” she said as she rounded the corner, “Now that that’s done, we can... um...” she trailed off as she saw me talking to Spike, surrounded by books floating in and out of her shelves.  “Oh... Hi Spike!  I... see you’ve met Meta!” she chuckled uncomfortably. Spike smiled and nodded, “Yeah, Twilight, you’ve gotta see this spell she made to read the books: she says she made it up on the spot!” Twilight looked around, “The books?  Wait... Is this some sort of mass-analysis spell?” “I isolated my mind’s ability to read, comprehend, and store knowledge from books, created a hyper-simplified version, making it into a semi-symmetrical pattern, and tessellating it several times.  So... now I can read your whole library in a few hours AND hang out with my new friends!”  I pulled the sides of my mouth back and up to give her a grin. Twilight’s eyes practically sparkled, “That’s amazing!” she rushed over to me, getting in my face in her excitement, “You have to teach me!” I leaned my head back so she didn’t bump her nose against mine, “Um... Yeah... But later: we’ve got something else to deal with right now...” I pointed a hoof at Spike, cringing slightly. Twilight looked over, blinking at Spike, “Oh, um... Right, Spike!  You’ve met Meta!” Spike nodded, “Yeah!  Is she gonna help you study that alien blob thing?” Twilight cringed, fidgeting, “Um... Not exactly... She’s um...” “Spike.”  I said calmly, before Twilight could start digging a deeper hole, “You know how, when the entity in the chamber started to act strange, you made Twilight promise not to let it out?  Because it seemed like some sort of monster?” “Yeah... Did we figure something else out?” “Well, I think we owe you an apology.  See... While you were gone, it started talking to Twilight and that changed the nature of the situation.  Spike... I’m a spellcaster from another world, and after I took a solid form and was able to understand what was going on, I asked Twilight to let me out.  I’m sorry that I made her break her promise to you, but I was afraid of being trapped...” Spike’s eyes widened, looking over me with increasing amounts of agitation as he realized what I was saying, “Wait.... You're that thing from the basement!?  I was just in there 2 days ago and it was just a pony-shaped blob!” “Yes.” I nodded, “I have regained many of my senses in the past few days.  I hope to be back to my old self soon...  And,” I added, trying to give a reassuring smile, “I hope that we can be... um... friends?” Spike blinked for a moment, moving a bit closer to Twilight, leaning into her a bit, “Uh... Twilight?  Can I talk to you about something in the next room?” he eyed me shiftily, “...Alone.” Twilight gave me an awkward wince as she turned and walked out, Spike casting glances back at me as they walked through the doors... I just sort of took the moment to check in on my spells... make some improvements... A little ways down the hall, Twilight spoke in a hushed, apologetic tone, “Spike... You're mad at me, I know...” “You just let that thing out?  Alone?”  He hissed, “What the hell Twilight?  Containment procedures!  We had clearly agreed on containment procedures!” “She was talking to me, there didn't seem to be any evidence that she was actually dangerous, I couldn't just keep her locked away indefinitely...” “That's not your decision to make!  Twilight, we have no idea what her goals are or what she's capable of!  You could’ve endangered all of Equestria just now!” “Oh come on Spike, what so far has happened that makes you think she's willing or able to do something to hurt us?” “She literally just told us she self-modified to read all the books in your library.  What if she decides she wants to read everything in Equestria?” “Oh come on, is that such a bad thing?  I mean, it’s not like reading a book destroys it...” “Says a pony who’s never collected mint-condition comic books... But no, Twilight, think about it, defense plans are written down, ancient spells are written down.  If Meta’s part of some invasion, she could just be gathering information for an attack!  That’s not even considering what she might do to get information when she runs out of books!” Twilight rolled her eyes, “Spike, you keep operating from these assumptions that Meta chose to come here and be this way.  There’s no evidence that she’s malicious or even that she’s lying.” “There’s no evidence that she’s not, Twilight: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!  You even told me that a self-modifying entity like that could do all sorts of things to potentially kill or enslave the entire planet!” “When we talk about that, the risk is often poorly explained.  A self modifying artificial intelligence could have any number of goals, most of which aren’t so much malicious as different from what organic beings would want.  An AI is more likely to become obsessed with the number Four than it is to decide that all life on the planet must be eradicated.” “How can you prove that?  Didn't you tell me that nothing like this has ever existed?” “Well... No... But that doesn’t mean we can’t model this sort of thing.  I mean, we’re predictable as organic life forms because we’ve evolved over the millennia to act in accordance with satisfying our biological needs in our environment.  A self-modifying entity doesn’t have those constraints, but it still operates based on an existing set of constraints: it has the values it starts with, the needs and wants it has, and the environment it has to adapt to to satisfy these.  From that, we can extrapolate the constraints in which it will purposefully self-modify itself, and the actions it will then take.  Following so far?” “I guess... But I’m not sure what we can assume about Meta...” “Well, first off, she has a strong self-preservation instinct.  That’s pretty clear from the fact that she even survived this far, and is usually something you can assume about any entity that isn’t being reckless.  Now, with something as powerful as Meta, I’m not sure how much self-preservation is a reason not to provoke us, but I still think she’d see us as a potential threat if she did become malicious.” “Right, but that’s all the more reason for her to deceive us about her intentions if they are something which would cause us to fight her.” “Right, but that brings me to my next point: putting aside the fact that Meta seems to hold Friendship, or must at least some form of social cooperation as a value, because she seeks socialization with other intelligent beings, what reason would such an entity have to be outright malicious?  I mean, her values and thought processes are definitely alien, but there are an infinite number of goals she could have, and a finite number of them directly involve killing.  For all we know, she could want to become the greatest wildlife painter in the world, and that’s why she wants to be let outside.” “But Twilight, just because a goal doesn’t directly involve killing ponies doesn’t mean killing ponies won’t come up: we have no reason to believe she would have any reservations about killing in order to achieve her goals, because she’d have no reason to put those in.  If she decided to paint every house in Equestria red, for example, she cold decide that blood is a good source of pigment and start killing for that reason alone.” “That’s a good point, but as of yet, the only interests we’ve seen from her are Socialization, Self-Improvement, and Gathering Information.” “Right, gathering information like what our insides look like on a dissection table.” “I’m aware.  Any goal can go to dark places, but that’s true even for ponies: some of the most intricate knowledge we have on pony anatomy was gathered by mad scientists and dark wizards doing highly unethical experiments.  Meta has no reason to use those sorts of methods other than perhaps convenience, and her interests in Socialization and Self Preservation would make them problematic.  Even then, you have to remember that she’s clearly a living, thinking being.  We don’t lock up powerful wizards like Sunset Shimmer simply because of their ability to hurt ponies, and the fact that she’s not a life-form we’ve encountered before doesn’t mean we should treat her differently.” Spike sighed, “I know, I know... Tolerance and all that, but seriously Twilight, are you at least aware of the risk you’re taking here?” “Of course,” Twilight stated, “just because I’m willing to show her Friendship, doesn’t mean I’ve lost sight of the fact that I barely know her, and that she’s capable of things I can’t even predict. It just means I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt: until she starts showing interest in defection, I’m going to continue cooperating.  That’s just how game-theory works when two strangers are in a scenario like this...” “Right, but...” he paused, struggling a little, “It’s like... I just feel like you’re really missing something here, like there’s some flaw in your reasoning as to how all this justifies trusting something like her...” “Well, if you think you know anything I’m overlooking, you’re welcome to tell me.” “Well...” Spike struggled, “I dunno... She’s scary?”  He sighed, “I don’t know how to argue this... It’s like you have more words than me, and I just don’t know enough to really argue this...” “So... You’re admitting I have a better point... but not conceding?” “It's not that I think you have a better point, it's that you're just so much better at arguing stuff like this.  But just because you can make a claim well doesn't mean that claim is sound.” “But Spike, is there anything I’ve said that you think is incorrect?” “Well, not of the top of my head, no.  But... just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right!” Twilight stopped to think about this, “Well... Yeah... I guess that’s true...” “Look...  At this point, I think all we can do is agree to disagree.  All I’m asking is that you don’t forget what she is and what she’s capable of, and I’ll try to be nicer to her.  Deal?” “Well...” Twilight thought, “In the absence of any better conclusion to the matter, I suppose that’s fair enough.” “Right... Now, I think we should contact Princess Celestia to tell her what’s been happening.  I mean, I’m pretty sure she’d like to know about this, and I’d kind of like to know myself...” he straightened a piece of parchment and readied to write. “Alright... Let me think about this... Started talking, had a conversation, went to bed, had another conversation, let her out, potentially dangerous...  Ok, I think I know what I want to say.”  She cleared her throat. Dear Princess Celestia, I apologise for not informing you of this sooner, but there has been a major development in the study of the extraEquestrial spellform which I discovered several days ago.  At approximately Nine AM yesterday, the entity took a form that looked like mine, and began speaking to me, claiming to be a female from another world who studied magic and lost her body in some sort of Magical attack.  She did not have access to most of her memories or personality at this point, and told me she would be unable to provide answers to my questions until the next day. Over the night, she created a body with a unique look, and this morning, she asked to be referred to as “Meta”.  She then asked me to release her, claiming she wanted to learn about our world, as this may help her regain more of her memories. After a thorough discussion of whether she was dangerous enough to be contained without evidence of malice, at approximately Ten AM today, I released the entity from containment.  I am aware that this action was a breach of safety protocols, and take full responsibility for it, however, I believe Meta is a friendly, sapient being, and that allowing her to be free was the only ethical course of action. Spike does not believe that Meta is safe, citing her ability to self modify with seemingly no limit, her clearly alien values and viewpoint, and her willingness to do so, especially when gathering knowledge.  I on the other hoof, believe I have befriended Meta, and plan to continue learning about her. We will send more detailed notes in the next few hours.  Until then, take any action you deem appropriate.  As of yet, however, I believe the situation is handled and we can proceed as normal. Your fellow Princess and Friend, Twilight Sparkle. “Anything else?” Spike asked “No... I compiled the notes that I wanted to send her while you were taking to Meta.  They’re sitting in the usual spot in the lab.  I guess you can send them when you get a moment...” “Uh huh...” Spike said, rolling up the letter, tying it off, and sending it in a rush of magical flames.  “Alright... there it goes.” “Thank you Spike.  Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?” Spike sighed, “No.  Let’s just get back to see what Meta’s been up to while we were gone.  Hopefully she didn’t turn the furniture into an army of robots...” Twilight chuckled weakly, and they both walked back down the hall. I was still messing with my spells when they got back.  I found that the information was coming out in raw form, and that I’d need to process it later, perhaps while sleeping, before it worked as actual knowledge.  As they came through the doors, I finished up what I was tweaking and turned to face them, “Welcome back.  Still just reading the books...” “Hello again Meta.” Twilight smiled, “Sorry to keep you waiting, we were just talking about... Um...” “Me.” I stated. Spike stopped in his tracks. “Uhh...”  Twilight’s smile faltered. “You were talking about how Spike doesn't trust me because I am clearly capable of being a threat, and he has not seen enough evidence to overcome his fear of me, while Twilight does not feel this way because she has seen no evidence.” Spike unconsciously took a step away from me, eyes widening. “Meta...” Twilight said, also a bit unnerved, “Were you spying on us?” “Not entirely by intent.” I spoke a bit slowly, ”I have a far stronger awareness of my surroundings than a typical organic being and I haven't gained full control over what I tune out.  On top of that, all verbal communication carries concepts, which I’m learning to interpret, so I didn’t even need to parse the words to understand the intent.  I heard you through the door, and once I realized it was a matter which concerned my wellbeing I gave it some attention.” Spike looked at Twilight, even more perturbed now, “So... You’re telling us that there’s no way for us to hide information from you...” I gave him a sympathetic look, “I guess I’m telling you that, if you want to keep things private from me, you’re going to have to be more careful about them.”  I thought for a second, raising my forehooves disarmingly, “That’s not a threat or anything, I’m just trying to be honest with you about what I’m capable of.  If I lied, then you wouldn’t have any ability to trust me.” Spike relaxed a bit, still grimacing a little, “I guess that adds up, but even still, you’re an alien with unknowable goals and powers beyond our comprehension.  Surely you understand how reckless we would be if we didn’t assume that you were being deceptive...” “If I wanted to deceive you, I would have lied about overhearing you.  If I was interested in subverting your will, I would have fled or attacked by now.  Friendship is not built on deception, but on cooperation.  Someone who attempts to subvert your will is not trustworthy as a friend, because they aren't supportive of your goals.” “Is that how you see Friendship?  A means to an end?” Spike asked, more inquiring than accusing. “Would you want to be friends with someone who was comfortable with hurting or betraying you?  Friendship requires mutual support in order to be worth something.  A friendship where one side clearly takes from the other without giving is not a good friendship.  That is a simple fact of social interaction.  Right now, I am giving you the honesty you need to give me the trust I need.” “Riight... Well, thanks for that, I guess...” he glanced over at Twilight, “I’m gonna go send some reports now, if it’s all the same to you...” Twilight sighed, “Right... Fine... Go do that...” “I’ll see you later Twilight.  Meta...” He kept glancing back at us as he left the room... Twilight sighed, “Sorry about Spike,” she said, “He’s really protective of me, and I’ve been getting him to read a lot of hard sci-fi lately.  I guess the stories about rogue artificial intelligences, alien invaders, and killer robots have all gotten to him more than the exploration...” “It’s understandable,” I said, “I’m sure I’d be a bit more cautious if I were in your position.  If Friendship wasn’t such a terminal value for you, you may not have even let me out.  A friend who’s willing to second guess you like that makes a far better advisor than one who agrees with you.  His relatively strong sense of caution is part of what made me so eager to get you to let me out before he came back...  Sorry that I was a bit manipulative, by the way.  You kind of had me trapped in a vulnerable situation...” Twilight nodded, slowly, “I guess I understand... You’re very threat oriented, I’ve noticed.  Like a pony who’s used to being in danger.” I nodded, “Humans are a dangerous species.  Humans who study magic live on the edge of society, under constant threat from other magic users and supernatural beings... Besides, if I’d been more defensive, I wouldn’t be in this situation now...” “Right,” Twilight nodded with a bit more force, “I suppose you’ve been put in a very precarious situation...” I nodded slowly, adding after a few moments, “Hey, look on the bright side: if I hadn’t been sent here, I’d have never met you!”  I gave her a smile. “Aww...” Twilight smiled, blushing slightly. I responded with a sideways hug, letting go after a moment, “So, you think it would help if I go talk to Spike?” Twilight shook her head, “Give him some time.  He’s probably still a bit on edge after everything that’s happened...” I nodded.  I didn’t entirely remember how people worked, but I’d realized that Twilight was a bit more analytical than usual.  I probably couldn’t just use a wall of logic on Spike, so I’d have to just let things work out naturally...  “Well, if we’re giving Spike his space... Do you want to go outside?” Twilight sighed, “I suppose I’ve already let you out of the box, so what’s the harm of letting you out of the castle?  Come on, the door’s this way...” she gestured with her head and started walking out of the library and down the hall. I grinned, following her out, speeding up a moment to keep pace beside her.  “I can’t wait to see more of your world, Twilight.  Oh, maybe there’s somepony you want me to meet?” “Yeah... about that... We shouldn’t tell my friends what you are.” “What am I?” “Um... That’s... a good point... I guess I mean that you’re from another world and all that... Do you... want to make up a backstory?  Like, you’re my cousin from out of town or something?” I shook my head firmly, “Deception is not a sustainable method of making friends, or even existing in society.  If they ask, I would prefer to tell them the truth.  ...What we know of it at least.” Twilight grit her teeth for a second, “Alright... Well... I can’t guarantee they won’t react with pitchforks, but you never know...” Her horn lit up, and one of the massive doors swung inward a bit. A breeze pushed through the open door as we approached, and I felt Equestria’s open air for the first time.  Excited at the notion of finally getting to explore the world I'd found myself in, I trotted next to Twilight, out into the town of Ponyville...