//------------------------------// // Mind or Matter // Story: Iron Mountain // by computerneek //------------------------------// Fluttershy had located and trotted into the closer tunnel to her house when she arrived.  Zeus had, as she had expected, let him in.  She had not expected him to offer her some invisible jewelry that let her talk to him.  Of course, she’d been more than a little shy about receiving it, but she did eventually put them on.  He had mentioned that, aside from the single- and double- tap functions, hers has a triple-tap function, allowing her to control it more completely. So, of course, she had triple-tapped it, wholly unprepared for what happened. It was like magic, she had decided.  Time hadn’t slowed down; instead, her mind had accelerated.  Interesting how that works.  But, acceleration isn’t the only thing it had done.  No, for what had truly happened was that her mind had joined with that of the comset.  She can turn it off with a single command, of that she is certain- but she can take advantage of its extremely fast processing speed, and its ability to talk to Zeus without sound. Now that had been a headbanger:  She got the distinct impression Zeus is even faster.  However, she had been able to exchange wordless thoughts and feelings with him- and, after a quarter of a second, had realized she could now feel her own health, as if she were watching it.  Another- what’s a millisecond, anyways?- later, and she had realized that’s because the headset is connected to a whole bunch of tiny somethings- nanites, Zeus had called them- in her body, doing that watching.  Oh, that’s what a millisecond is. She now realizes exactly what those crash couches are and asks him the Big Question- the answer to which makes her drop her jaw.  So that is what kind of machine she befriended.  She shudders at the thought of what might have happened had she not done that- and, the moment she sends that thought to Zeus, he comes back with a stack of predictions- most of which simply having somepony else befriend him.  However, he does specifically note a 0.79% chance that friendly relations would break down, leaving him at war with Equestria.  No matter how low the chances that it might have happened, Equestria’s subsequent 0.14% chance of long-term survival cannot fail to send a shiver down to her hooves. She is amused by the precision with which he calculates his chances, but decides to ask what the rumble was. The answer astounds her.  The thunder of fire, doing nothing but generating power?  He also informs her of his experiment with the thing, along with what had happened on his aft plating while she was walking in.  Now, he informs her, they’ve reached the medbay, and Twilight is climbing into Medical Nanovat Two.  She tilts her head, curious- and gets a tidbit of Twilight’s medical data.  Zeus has to confirm that she is alive, even without breathing or a heartbeat, several times before she calms down.  Apparently, as long as her brain, horn, and that weird gland in her heart remain intact and alive, he can rebuild the rest.  On a side note, Zeus mentions Rarity is also present- and calms her worry with another tidbit of her perfectly healthy data. As she starts her trot towards the medbay, Rarity’s comset under her wing, Zeus streams her the video feeds from the said medbay.  It’s somewhat confusing; much like she suddenly has six more eyes, hidden in the walls of another room, but she can manage.  Then, without Zeus’ help, she realizes she can ‘hear’ another signal. It’s Rainbow Dash.  Her comset doesn’t seem to have the same, um, Zeus calls it ‘neural link’ capability as hers- but it does carry audio to Rainbow and back.  She considers saying something to her friend, but decides against; she’ll be walking into the room in a minute anyways. A thought.  What about Medical Nanovat One?  Zeus’ response indicates it contains Rarity, about thirty three point four one seconds to awakening.  Zeus does inform her that Rarity had expressed a desire for her prior medical situation to be kept confidential; Fluttershy nods, agreeing with Zeus’ decision to honor the nonverbal request, and does not press for details. For some reason, as she approaches the door to the medbay, she gets the feeling that Zeus is being more open to her than to anypony else.  When she asks him about it, he explains that he would hardly hide anything from his commander. ‘What commander?’ ‘Yourself, of course.’ ‘Since when?’ ‘Since you gave me your name.’ She pauses for a few seconds.  ‘What’s it mean?’ ‘It means I will obey any order you give to the best of my ability.’ Now, she looks at the medbay door, standing closed in front if her, and takes a deep breath.  It’s amazingly difficult to be shy on the neural link thing, but she knows she still is in person.  She knows who she’ll find on the other side; she can still see them through Zeus’ cameras.  Some numbers flash across from Zeus- and she pauses to wait a few more seconds, for Rarity’s nanovat to open.  Finally, steeling her nerves, she opens the door without fanfare- rather relieved that Rarity still has everypony’s attention. Rainbow finishes her ogling.  “Wait, you were in here?” Rarity raises an eyebrow.  “Why yes, my dear.  He explained these are so much faster.” “Don’t forget the part about how these can make the effect last for months,” Zeus reminds. “Uh, yes, that too.” Fluttershy smirks as Zeus confirms for her that Rarity hadn’t known about that part.  She walks forwards to meet her friends- and Rainbow takes notice first. “Fluttershy?” she asks.  “What did Zeus mean when he said he was more your, um...” “Bolo?”  Zeus asks. “Yea, that.” “She was simply the first to meet me,” Zeus answers, while fluttershy smiles at her friend. “What’s a Bolo?” Princess Celestia asks. “What I am:  An impregnable but mobile fortress, from another world.” Fluttershy raises an eyebrow slightly- but drops it back down as Zeus responds to her unvoiced inquiry.  Yes, he is concealing much of his true power; however, his tactical cores- whatever those are- are offering him a 93.47% chance that a full revelation would result in undesired enmity.  He even mentions that he’s only told her of a very small portion of his abilities, so far.  She declines to ask about the rest, and instead switches off the ‘neural link’ thing.  She blinks a couple of times as her mind returns to normal speed. Fluttershy seems worried as she disconnects her neural link.  She did not share the reason for her worry with me, but I suspect it relates to either my power or the link itself.  I chose to make her comset neural link capability a standalone system for a reason; this way, though it will likely be unsetting at each stage, she can build up to handle her command chair’s neural link capability without going crazy.  This first stage limits the link to her comset; I used a couple of communication bands to deliver information to her, so she can build an understanding of the capabilities of this system.  I suspect it is this she is afraid of.  When- well, if and when- she gets used to this, the next step is a TSDS link through her comset.  She will still be operating at the slower speeds provided by the comset, but such will allow her to familiarize herself with what I am, and build an appreciation for my systems.  The third step is a link through the midrange-output neural sets in the troop compartments; I expect that to go quickly.  Those links do not go direct to my main system, and cannot; however, I can still communicate through them, up to and including by TSDS.  Step four is the command chair. I choose my words carefully as she delivers Rarity’s comset.  I have not told her that hers is the only one with full neural link capability; for the others, I am installing extremely limited versions of the neural hardware, capable only of a telepathic control link- also activated by a triple-tap.  This I will use to allow one pony to contact another directly.  A nanosecond of consideration later, I update the software in Fluttershy’s unit; now, whenever she triple-taps, her more powerful unit will engage only the telepathic control link, falling through to the full neural link 0.1 seconds after, if she wishes.  The nanites I left in Rainbow’s comset finish installing the weaker telepathy unit, and I update the software. Rarity seems disappointed that it disappears into her coat so thoroughly- but finds the thought of being able to talk to her friends from a distance amusing.  She does mention that it ought to be useful ‘when the next monster attacks Ponyville’.  This comment produces a giggle from Rainbow, and smiles from Fluttershy and the Princesses. Speaking of which, when I finish my explanation on how to use it (and confirm through the Pegasi’s links that theirs will work the same way), Princess Luna- if I caught her name right- starts asking questions. “They should be able to reach anywhere in Equestria before that becomes an issue; in about two months time, they should be able to reach anywhere on Equis with no issue.” “Why two months?” “I’m still setting up the relay network that will make such range possible.” “How fast are they?” “If one were to call here from Canterlot, the delay would be small enough for ponies not to notice.” She tilts her head.  “What about you?” “Three centimeters is more than enough to produce a delay that I can measure- but I am a machine, I can measure many things ponies cannot.” Princess Celestia’s eyebrow goes up.  “How far is it between Ponyville and Canterlot?”  This an issue that has caused much strife in the railway teams; the various surveyors have reported distances between thirty five kilometers and almost two hundred. “Which one is Canterlot?” “Even I know more about Equestria than he does,” Rainbow states. Zeus’ voice gains a competitive edge.  “Oh?  What percentage of the local atmosphere is oxygen gas?” Rainbow pauses.  Even Celestia tilts her head.  “Uh, three?” “Nice try; you’d die of oxygen starvation.  It’s 21.03%.  How much longer did it take you to reach Passenger Seven the first time than the most recent time, starting from the moment your right foreleg touched the inside of the cave?” “Uh, five minutes?” “Your right foreleg never touched the cave the first time through.  How long did it take for Twilight’s latest batch of injuries to occur, from the moment she cast her spell to the moment the power finished stabilizing?” Rainbow shrugs, looking at the Princesses. “It’s instantaneous,” she replies. “Close, but wrong.  It took 3.49 nanoseconds- or billionths of a second.  Most ponies miss three hundred million nanoseconds every time they blink.  Like I said, I’m designed to measure things ponies cannot.  How many times have the Cutie Mark Crusaders ventured inside the ponderous weapon now fully exposed outside?” Rarity sucks in a breath.  “What?” Rainbow only facehooves. Luna raises her eyebrows.  “How many?” “Two; the first time, it served as shelter from a timberwolf.  The second, they hid in the back of it during the initial creation of the digsite- which was, in fact, the elimination of an army of timberwolves.  The Crusaders have not come any closer than my hillside since.” Rainbow dash thinks for a second.  “How long does it take to make a rain cloud?” “0.139 seconds per cubic meter of volume, on average.  How many kilometers of track are connected to the Ponyville railway station, not counting tunnels?” Rainbow facehooves.  “Why the hard questions?” “Approximately 38,492.39 kilometers.  How much of this is in bridges, large and small?” “A bunch?” “Almost 3.49 kilometers.  What’s the score so far?” Rainbow shrugs.  “Five to one?” “Out of seven questions, seven to one, in my favor.  Care to repeat your claim?” “I bet Twilight could beat that.” “On some topics, yes.  In absolute knowledge, I have more data stored in my databanks than would fit in her brain.” An eyebrow.  “Oh?  How many books?” “Let’s say you were to write all of my knowledge on identical pages exactly 0.23 millimeters thick, as is the locally observed average, and place them in books.  Each held exactly thirty lines, with eighty characters per line.  Each book held exactly four hundred pages, and each cover was exactly six millimeters thick.  Each book was exactly fifteen centimeters high by ten wide.  You took these books and stack them in Ponyville’s central square until you reached the moon, where you started a new stack at the lowest point you could find to point back to Ponyville- and repeat, until you ran out of books.  Finally, you looked at the stacks, and realized your solid wall of book has a footprint thrice the size of Ponyville, with a matching footprint on the moon, with eight hundred new books every second, on a slow day.” Rarity blinks a couple times.  “I don’t think even Twilight can beat that,” she notes. “This is but one of my many functions.” Fluttershy speaks up suddenly, an evil glint in her eyes.  “How many friends do you have?” “Bolos do not make friends.” Silence reigns for several seconds. “WRONG!” Rainbow yells triumphantly.  “You’ve made at least three!” “That was not a fact about Equestria.  As a matter of fact, many Bolos have made friends in the past; I have made one hundred eighteen myself, over the ages.” Princess Celestia uses a hoof to hide a smile, but Princess Luna is less controlled- her snicker is audible to all present. “It would be more true to say that nothing makes friends with a Bolo.” The snickering and smiling stops instantly. “What?” Rarity asks, while the Princesses raise their eyebrows. “We’re simply too scary, too powerful, for anything to reach out a hand in friendship.  Of my 118 friendships, 114 of them never saw me, and didn’t know what I truly was.  The other four didn’t last long.”