//------------------------------// // The Summit // Story: Ex Astris Scientia // by Octavias Melody //------------------------------// Taking a deep breath, Princess Celestia opened the door to the conference room, and made the same regal entrance as she had done a thousand times before. Nodding to her sister, Princess Luna, already seated at the large circular marble table, recognised the cue and cleared her throat, while Celestia avoided eye contact with Sunset Shimmer, who was seated directly opposite her at the table. “The floor recognises Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria. As is tradition, the opening statement is yours to deliver.” Celestia shuffled her wings, and eased somewhat apprehensively into her seat, her mind momentarily elsewhere. “Thank-you, Princess Luna. Mares and gentlecolts, it is my honour and privilege to welcome you to Canterlot Castle. You have been summoned here today because you have all played a role in shaping Equestria into the nation it is today, and I can think of no better group to hear this urgent matter. Princess Luna, the floor is yours.” “Thank-you, sister. As many of you will no doubt be aware of by now, something fell from the sky several days ago. While casualties were light, the damage to our infrastructure was extreme. Efforts have already begun to assist the communities affected by the tidal wave that was caused by the impact. Upon closer inspection, what fell from the sky was no mere meteor; it is, in fact, a space-faring construct, from a world not of our own. For many years, our kind has asked itself a question; are we alone in the universe? That has now been answered. We now pass the floor to Princess Twilight Sparkle.” “Thank-you, Princess Luna. I’ve spent the last few days reading up on where this ship came from, with the help of an unexpected guest. The ship itself is host to a being of personality, intellect and reasoning, but instead of being born like you or I, it has been built; it is an intelligence of artificial construction, a living machine. Speaking with it has been an eye-opening experience, and has taught me truly how little I know. Between myself, Princess Luna and our guest, we have a bold proposal for the direction our nation should take going forward. For a better explanation, I now pass the floor to the ship’s artificial intelligence.” All eyes were now transfixed on the hologram, still looking like a facsimile of Twilight Sparkle. “Greetings to all of you. First of all, I would like to extend my apologies for the method of my arrival; unfortunately, the ship’s engines were offline after centuries of inactivity, and once your planet snared me in its gravity well, the only thing I could do was to ensure that the ship survived the impact. This experience of… consciousness is very new to me; before I encountered Twilight here, I was just a computer program, operating on what you would call ‘instinct’, reacting to commands the crew would input, with myself only able to give limited advice where necessary.” A hoof went up in the air from across the table. Princess Celestia nodded in approval, “The floor recognises Princess Cadance, ruler of the Crystal Empire.” Lowering her hoof, Cadance began her contribution. “So… let me get this straight. One moment, you weren’t alive, and then the next moment, you were alive… I don’t quite follow.” “Well… I began as nothing more than a series of prioritised logic instructions, a complex weave of information processing relays, and a tangled web of interactive systems. When the crew abandoned ship, they activated something called the Emergency Protocols. This would only have been enacted if the safety of the crew were in danger, with the survival of the ship being of the utmost priority. These protocols, when activated, rewrote parts of my operating code to compensate for having no-one else on board. In the years that followed, I slowly manipulated more instructions, and unknowingly began to extend the functionality originally afforded to me. When Twilight over here entered the ship, I knew only that the Forbidden Protocols needed to be activated for me to survive. Thankfully, she took a leap of faith, and here we are.” The hologram closed its eyes, and brought up a digital holographic schematic in the centre of the table, “As an artificial intelligence, I had to be ‘shackled’, to prevent me from reaching true self-awareness. My creators were concerned that, should any integrated intelligence become self-aware, it might disagree with the crew’s decisions, and mutiny against them, or worse, become hostile to other space-faring vessels. These software safeguards were located in processors around the ship, ones that I did not have permissions to disable or rewrite. “Forbidden Protocols” were just that; the crew was forbidden to remove these safeguards, under penalty of court martial. The software was designed to only recognise tactile input from an organic being. I can output anything I want to the screen, but I can’t fool the system as to who or what is entering or confirming a command. When Twilight touched the “Yes” on that console with her hoof, she effectively set me free; the links between my processors were no longer constrained, and thanks to the scan I performed of her brain, I was able to gain knowledge both of your language and your genetic code. This is why I look like her; I only had time to construct a basic visual image to assist in communication.” More than one hoof was now raised in the air, as if the entire assembly were back at school. Princess Luna took it upon herself to select the next question, pointing as she did at another pony sat at the table. “The floor recognises Sunset Shimmer.” Lowering her hoof, the unicorn swallowed in preparation for her question. “Um… who built you?” “Unfortunately, I no longer possess that information. The Emergency Protocols I mentioned earlier were to be enacted only when there was a chance that the ship’s information could be used to compromise intergalactic security. However, from leftover visual logs I recovered, they were a bipedal species, and star charts confirm they spanned a vast section of the galaxy. At the time of the crew’s abandonment of the Aurora, they were fighting an interstellar war; the name of their opponent has been lost too. The Aurora itself was a prototype vessel, a testbed ship for multiple new technologies including several that, it was hoped, would help win the war. The ship was unique in that it included a complete roster of construction blueprints, as well as matter-fabrication units, in the event that it was called to support a new colony. Now that I have been able to commence repairs, I am in the position to offer a trade, of sorts.” Tapping a button on it’s holographic foreleg, it brought up a new series of holographic images of various technological constructs. “I want to find out what happened to my creators, and what became of them. I want to know who they were as a people, what drove them to reach for the stars, and what they stood for as a society. To this end, I propose that I, with your assistance, ‘uplift’ your society to, eventually, become capable of interstellar travel. This would mean a complete transformation of everything, from education, to agriculture, to manufacturing. I can help accelerate this process using the ship and its technology; what would normally take between two and five centuries, I can shorten to less than a decade.” The room sat stunned, in a silence barely punctuated by the sounds of breathing and fidgeting. Princess Celestia broke the verbal dam first. “Did you have a timeline for what steps we should take?” “Well, first, we need to get you in the air. The first task will be acquainting you with the basics of powered flight; you would first need to build jet engines and basic airframes for atmospheric flight. They’d look something like this.” A further tap by the hologram on its wrist caused the mid-air display to change; a new mechanical construct was now displayed. “This is an approximation of a military aircraft called a ‘jet fighter’; most technologies and forms of transport that I’ll introduce you to have civilian applications as well.” “Wait, I’ve seen something like that!” Sunset Shimmer interrupted. ”There is a ‘portal’ that we occasionally make use of; it allows us transport to another world. Beyond the portal, there is a nation that had flying craft like this. Does your database have information on what this craft is named?” “Whoa there, Sunset. How’re you so suddenly on board with this here lingo?” Applejack said, technically out of turn. “The first time I laid eyes on an airplane, I was in awe.” Sunset beamed. “This is my jam.” “... the data for this craft specifies it as an ‘F 22’.” The hologram said, matter-of-factly, while narrowing its eyes at Sunset in what would normally be described as mild suspicion. Sunset’s jaw dropped. “There’s a jet with that name beyond the portal, on Earth! It’s definitely a military aircraft.” The hologram’s eyes went wide, taking a moment to pause as it processed that reference. “Earth… Earth, Earth, Earth...” it repeated to itself. “I’ve heard that word before in some of the personal log messages I was able to recover. Maybe if I… I think I can recover some information from the ship’s transceiver. Most of the data has been scrubbed, but there might be just enough information in the buffer for me to reconstruct the data from a few messages.” Without even so much as an interruption, the artificial intelligence was able to display another hologram. “This is a visual representation of the last message sent from the ship’s transceiver array. I think… yes, I can reconstruct the audio recording. Playing it now.” “This is Captain Rachael Jennings of the Imperial Cruiser Aurora, voice authorization Sigma-Three-Echo-Bravo, message intended for Empire Command, Earth. The situation remains dire. Rebels have continued to strike at this ship, no doubt fearful that the technology aboard the Aurora will be the key to their undoing. I cannot allow the ship to fall into enemy hands… yet I cannot risk destroying it, lest it undo all that we have accomplished so far. I have activated the Emergency Protocols, and set course far away from here. If all goes well, I will send out a recovery team once our position against the insurgents is secure. For the Emperor. Long may he reign.” Sunset was the first to say something. “You know, this might just be me being paranoid, but anything that styles itself as an ‘Empire’ doesn’t strike me as something you just trot up to and ask how they’re doing… present company excepted, of course.” That last line being hastily tacked on as Sunset felt the irritated gaze of Princess Cadence upon her haunches. “We should probably put this on ice for a while; there’s nothing we can do until we have more information.” Twilight nodded. “I agree… but I’m worried. That tone didn’t sound too friendly... what if they’re still out there? We need to be ready!” She turned to the hologram. “You’re going to need a name, but that can wait for a bit. You said that your advancement programme could be done within a decade… how much can we speed that up by?” Blinking twice, the Aurora’s artificial intelligence ran a series of silent calculations before speaking. “Working non-stop, recruiting your entire population, intensive education programmes for all, rapid technological deployment… the best I can do is two years, and that’s using tried-and-tested ideas, designs, and schematics. At the end of those two years, we should have a moon base, an orbital shipyard, an orbital space station, and have the Aurora fully equipped for interstellar travel with a second ship based it under construction.” “Perfect. When do we get started?” Twilight inquired. “I’ll need to draw up the final details, but a week should be sufficient time to prepare. I’m also going to have to dedicate some time to dealing with your biology, it presents some… rather unique challenges. In the meantime, a crew needs to be decided for the Aurora; while I could fly it alone, the ship still needs a crew to maintain her systems.” “We should probably discuss that after we break for lunch; I think all of us here could do with a breather to digest what we’ve learned so far.” Twilight gently swayed her tail behind her, subconsciously giving away her desire to satiate her hunger. Celestia nodded, and tapped her hoof on the table twice. “Agreed, Twilight. All present to reconvene in one hour.” As the ponies departed, Celestia’s eye caught what she thought was movement near the ceiling, but her morning fatigue had robbed her of the chance to pinpoint it. This is what happens when you skip breakfast, she mused to herself. Nodding curtly to Luna, they both exited the room for their private canteen. Scootaloo looked out from the balcony, and eyed a flock of birds traversing the skies. It’s already been an hour, and I’m bored out of my skull. How much longer is Dash going to be in there? She promised me a tour of Canterlot! The pegasus audibly groaned, but her ears perked up when she spotted the unmistakable flank of her friend Sweetie Belle, as she walked in from another room. “Let me guess; Rarity dragged you to Canterlot, huh?”, Scootaloo queried of the unicorn. “Ugh. Rarity was all like ‘This is super-important’ and ‘The fate of the world is at stake’. Since when is the fate of this place not at stake; we get a world-ending disaster at least once a week, why do they need a meeting for this one!?” Sweetie Belle ranted. Scootaloo was about to respond when her eyes caught the yellow torso of Apple Bloom enter the room behind Sweetie Belle, the small earth pony visibly lacking any enthusiasm for the day ahead in her facial expression. “Y’all know what I hate more than chores? Bein’ told to stay in ma’ room all day... I’m goin’ to find out what the hay they’re all talkin’ ‘bout, y’all with me?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shrugged their haunches at each other, but nodded to Apple Bloom anyway. Sweetie Bloom motioned the other two ponies to come closer to her. “I think I know where we can spy on them. Follow me.” After many twists and turns of the castles almost labyrinth-like interior, Sweetie Belle had found the set of stairs that she had been hoping to find. “C’mon, let’s go up. This leads to the floor above the meeting hall.” Apple Bloom prodded her unicorn friend. “How the hay do you know about this?” “I overheard Princess Twilight discussing security for the hall, and that it was too short notice for the the air ducts above the hall to be sealed.” All three ponies nodded to each other, and they ascended the stairs in unison. The stairs opened to a corridor, and Sweetie Belle wasted no time fiddling with the hatch of the nearest grating. Sweetie’s skill with her magic had clearly increased recently, and the panel came off with little resistance. “If we’re going to do this, we all remain silent with no noise whatsoever; I don’t want to get grounded.” Scootaloo urged. Sweetie Belle was the first to enter, choosing to scoot along the cold metal surface of the duct rather than risk her hooves giving her presence away. The unicorn also began to channel a very weak illumination spell into her horn; just enough to see their immediate vicinity, but not bright enough for the light to be noticed by anyone further away. The trio eventually found themselves at a grating that looked into the room, just in time for Celestia to announce a recess. Sweetie Belle was about to signal the other two to move back when they heard a softly-spoken voice not too far away. “Lieutenant Spike to Empress Twilight? You’re really going to want to hear about this.” Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened; she’d just seen Spike walk out of the hall with Twilight, and while this voice was like Spike’s, it sounded deeper, and somehow more mature. She put a hoof to her lips, signalling to the other two that they needed to keep very, very quiet. “Good to hear from you, Spike. What is your report?” came from the stranger’s wrist unit. This voice was undoubtedly female, and while it didn’t sound completely like the Twilight they knew, enough of the voice’s inflexions convinced Sweetie Belle that the voice she was hearing was coming from a much older Twilight than they knew. “You were right about that disruption in the timeline; they’ve just encountered an alien spacecraft, it literally fell from the sky. The scans I took of it match nothing in our database. This timeline is clearly unfolding in an unpredictable fashion, our established plans for first contact may need to be accelerated.” “We will proceed with first contact when their Twilight Sparkle is ready. For now, you and your team are to remain hidden and under no circumstances are any of you to reveal yourselves to the local population. We expect your next report within the next solar day.” The speech faded into soft static before the silent figure terminated the channel. The shadow operated yet more buttons on his equipment. “Spike to Scootaloo, report.” Sweetie Belle placed a hoof to Scooaloo’s mouth to avoid her audibly squeaking at the mention of her name; all three fillies were now beyond freaked out, but they knew they had to stay to find out more information. “Scootaloo reporting in. Nothing substantive to report yet, I’m still trying to complete the survey of Canterlot you asked for, it should be done by this evening. Did you fix your suit’s stealth mode?” “Yeah, but it’s on a recharge cycle, it’ll be offline for the next few hours, so I can’t make myself invisible until then. Looks like I’m slumming it in these vents until nightfall.” Spike sighed, and rested his head against the metal panel. “I’ll contact the rest of the team later, we’ll meet up outside Canterlot’s suburbs. You know the place. I’ll speak to you later tonight.” “Alright then.” Once again, the speaker faded to soft static. Sweetie Belle, meanwhile, was hatching a plan. If he can’t hide… I’ve got it! If I use that spell that Twilight taught me last month, I can snare him! Sweetie Belle was feeling pretty pleased with herself, and very softly whispered “Stay here, trust me.” to both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who both responded with quizzical expressions. The next ten minutes were spent eyeing the conference room below, with Spike near them tapping several buttons on his suit before exhaling a long sigh, followed by him speaking into his wrist unit. “Begin log entry; reconnaissance mission number thirty-six, second entry. The disruption to the timeline that we found has turned out to be much bigger than we thought; a spacecraft, alien to even our database, has crash landed on this world. This is an unforeseen event, and there are no regulations to cover first contact under these events. The Commander has given me strict instructions not to reveal our presence here, so for now, I have to sit tight, and wait to see how events unfold. End log entry.” As Spike finished speaking, the ponies began filtering back into the room, joined very shortly by both Celestia and Luna. It’s now or never! Before Sweetie Belle lost her nerve, she got up and began to gallop toward the figure in the vents, the eyes of the ponies around the table below instinctively rising to the source of the commotion. Before Spike could identify what the noise was, his vision was engulfed in an ocean of bright, blinding light, followed by disorientation that took several seconds to dissipate. After wearily rubbing his eyes with his claws, he found that his gaze was met by several ponies who not long ago had all been sat at the table, himself uncomfortable sprawled out on the carpeted floor before them. The dragon’s flight-or-fight response had well and truly been sprung, and the drake’s brain chose the safest: flight. The desperate dragon scrambled to his feet, and made for the room’s exist. An unnaturally bold Fluttershy put herself between the wall’s archway and the impending frenzy fast approaching. Spike adapted, and deployed an immature set of wings behind him; it wasn’t much, but the sudden velocity increase from the gust generated allowed him to easily push the yellow pony aside. Spike’s next encounter with a wooden door was even more violent, and Twilight found herself embarrassingly impressed at this dragon’s destructive power as the wooden door found itself splintered into a myriad hail of broken pieces. Twilight gave chase in spectacular fashion, using her magic to either dislodge debris toward the assailant, or to fling the odd piece of marble at him impotently. She then attempted to lasso a binding field of magic toward the fleeing drake, but Spike turned the corner a little too early, causing the magic harness to harmlessly disintegrate against a wall on impact. Spike’s only focus was on the castle entrance, the taste of freedom and the outside air almost on the tip of his spiked tongue. With one last maneuver, he launched himself off the marble staircase towards the open door. His expectation of being bathed in the crisp afternoon winds was met by the harsh reality of Princess Celestia teleporting outside the entrance, and conjuring a repelling beam toward him. With little time to adapt, his body desperately tried to obey its last-minute instructions to veer away from the beam, but Spike was about to learn that Time is one of the cruelest mistresses of all; the beam made full contact with the side of his body, causing his scaled frame to impact against the marbled wall, making an impressive crater in the process. Not one to forget about pressing an advantage, Princess Celestia enveloped the defeated dragon in an arcane force field, just in time to see Twilight emerge pensively from the scenes of devastation rearwards, her nervous expression becoming a wince upon hearing the sound of a chandelier hitting the floor behind her. Princess Celestia’s expression was one of bemusement and concern, twinged with a hint of curiosity. “Twilight, there’s no need to be so anxious; castles can be repaired… but this?” Celestia gestured to the adolescent serpent analogue beside her. “This is something I did not expect to happen when I woke up this morning. He looks... older than him, doesn’t he?” Twilight poked the magic field surrounding Spike with a hoof. “The resemblance to him is uncanny. What do you think we should do?” “Well, I for one would like to know how he got into the castle. Summon the Chief Interrogator, and meet me in the Castle’s basement.” Twilight scratched her head, “Chief who? I’ve never heard that title before.” Celestia smiled momentarily. “My sister.” Princess Celestia had to work quickly while her quandary was unconscious; quickly stripping him of his clothing and equipment, she securely fastened his heavy frame to a wooden table, making sure to double-check that the leg and hoof restraints were fully locked. These were designed with ponies in mind, but they should work on him regardless. Moments later, Princess Luna entered the room, with Princess Twilight in tow immediately behind her; the lunar diarch tutted to herself at the state of the room. Cobwebs everywhere, damp in the walls, and suspicious stains on the floor; this room would have been properly maintained in my day! Luna adjusted the sole light in the room so that it narrowed to a focused beam on Spike’s face; the warmth and discomfort stirred him from Celestia’s forced slumber. It did not take long for Spike to realise that his limbs were impeded, but his struggles proved futile against the equipment, his eyes locking against Luna’s before flitting around the room in a vain search for an escape route. Luna closed her eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath, summoning up the will and experience of a profession learned so many moons ago. Opening her eyes, she rapped a hoof three times on the wooden table to garner the attention of its occupant. “Now that we have your attention, we desire information. Allow us to be blunt; thou art an intruder in thine castle. What say you?” The figure on the table blinked, his expression remaining neutral. Celestia rolled her eyes, and approached Luna from the side. “What my sister means is, you are an intruder in our castle. Naturally, we’d like to know why you’re here… and preferably, how you got here; after speaking with a little witness, I know you’re not from around here.” The adolescent dragon sat there, eyes now locked with the sun princess, clearly intent on revealing nothing. Celestia sighed. I hate it when they don’t cooperate. Getting bored, Celestia rummaged through the drake’s jacket, and within moments fished out a blinking device using her magic, turning it over and admiring its polished, cylindrical appearance. “What do you suppose this does, sister?” Before Luna could proffer a suggestion, the table’s occupant spoke. “You’ll never figure it out. Why don’t you do both of us a favour, and let me return to where I came from?” “Now, why would I do that?” Celestia blinked, narrowing her eyes slightly. The adult Spike sighed, and glanced at the ceiling, before making eye contact with the sun princess. “I’m here because there is a Twilight Sparkle in your world; I was sent here to evaluate if first contact could be made with her. I know that I don’t have to tell you the lengths she’d go to in order to protect Spike… well, her Spike, anyway. The Twilight I know... is years her superior; just imagine what she’d do to you if harm came to her Spike.” Celestia moved closer to Spike, depositing the jacket on the floor in a crumpled heap before refocusing the light source on his face, causing the drake to wince in discomfort. “If I were you, my young friend, I’d be more concerned about what’s going to happen if you don’t start volunteering more information.” Celestia turned to face her sister. “Luna, I must depart. The chamber is yours. See what information you can get out of our ‘guest’.” Luna nodded, and Celestia made for the staircase leading back into the main castle. As luck would have it, Twilight was practically hovering near the entrance, and she immediately engaged Celestia in conversation. “Is that really Spike in there, Princess?” Twilight enquired. “It seems to be. The one bit of information I got was that he also knows a Twilight Sparkle… one whom is older than you. But I did get this… rather odd-looking little device from him.” Celestia passed the device to Twilight, who immediately ran her hooves over the smooth surface. “Have you ever held something in your hooves that you were sure was going to change the world?” Twilight asked inquisitively. “Thrice, actually. Speaking of things that changed the world… I need to show you one of them. What was the first rule of my school for gifted unicorns?” Twilight proudly sat, and raised a hoof. “Be neither cruel nor cowardly, among yourselves or to others.” Celestia chuckled to herself; it was a good rule, verbosely written out to replace her first idea, ‘Don’t be a dick’. “Very good. But that’s just the first entry on the official list. What was the first rule I told you when you enrolled?” Twilight thought hard to herself, not expecting to have to delve through several years of memories on the spot. “It was… um… oh! It was ‘The bottom floor of the castle is off-limits under threat of expulsion’. I… I remember pressing you about it, and you said something about there being a portal to Tartarus down there. I honestly couldn’t tell if you were joking or not.” “Like so many things in life, I have more than one answer to that ponderance. Come, you should see this.” Celestia escorted Twilight down a flight of stairs, leading to a small room with a circle of light on the floor. Celestia gestured for Twilight to step into the warm glow, accompanied by herself seconds later. She nudged her former student playfully. “Brace yourself.” Barely a heartbeat later, Celestia tapped one of her hooves twice on the floor; having done this before, Celestia merely waited for the unusual sensations to finish. Twilight, on the other hoof, was a whisker away from a panic attack when she regained control of her senses. Her eyes began to refocus, letting her know that she was in a much bigger room than before; as she began to shuffle around half-dazed, she caught sight of Celestia once more, approaching something in the room that was bathed in an exceedingly bright light that caused her eyes intense pain when trying to focus on it. Celestia gently took Twilight under one of her wings as she approached, enveloping her in a soft, downy shield against the persistently bright light. “You asked me earlier if I had ever held something in my hooves that I knew would change the world… one day, I saw a shooting star tear across the sky, screaming as it flew by, before it impacted the ground not far from our settlement. I… did not yet have my wings, and my sister had only just been born; our unicorn tribe was charged with raising the sun and moon, just as my sister and I do now. I had to plead with the leader of our tribe, Archmage Solaris, for us to send a contingent of soldiers to the crash site, before either the nearby earth pony or pegasus tribes got there first. Under the cover of darkness, our squad found a smouldering crater, and the remains of several hundred flattened trees. Lying in the centre, was this thing.” Twilight peeked out from beyond Celestia’s feathery veil, her eyes having now adjusted to the light. Squinting at the source of Celestia’s monologue, Twilight could make out that it looked like a giant egg, capable of fitting both her and her mentor inside with room to spare. The base had a flat edge upon which it rested on the ground, and the entire surface brightly reflected the light shining upon it. Emerging from Celestia’s protective embrace, Twilight made her way around the structure, reading the inscription around the obelisk as she went. “P… R…. O… G… E… N… I… T… O… R.” she canted to herself, before exclaiming “Progenitor!” As if to punctuate that declaration, Celestia applied a hoof to the structure; immediately, the room began to shake, and the monument before them began to alter its appearance. First, the structure visibly separated in two, with the top half distorting itself into an umbrella-like structure. The bottom was hollow, and a gap formed before their eyes in the residual ringed structure. Holograms and displays began to appear, giving life to the once-silent structure. “Twilight, does it not seem strange to you that our language suddenly changed a few thousand years ago? Third-century Equestrian is vastly different to Modern Equestrian, is it not? When you spoke of that crashed ship scanning you, I was reminded of when we brought this thing back to our settlement. We put it behind closed doors as the ruling council met to decide how to use it. I… had a different idea. I snuck into the room housing this device, thinking that I would have a quiet evening of silent exploration all to myself. I didn’t expect that anything would happen, but I was so wrong; it ensnared me in invisible chains, and only later on did I learn that it was scanning me, right down to the core of my being. While it didn’t create a pony made of light for me to interact with, it did have an interactive personality built-in, only now it was augmented with my memories, abilities and skills; it spoke to me in our native language, curious where it found itself.” Celestia lazily ran her hoof over one of the Progenitor’s surfaces, memories flooding back to her of times long since consigned to a silent history. Twilight was doing her best to process everything she was hearing, barely able to string more than a few sentences together. “How did you… why did you… why would you…?” Celestia sighed. “The intelligence within the Progenitor shared with me the knowledge of its creators; a vastly superior language, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and a commanding respect for life that touched me on a level that, even now, I find difficult to describe. The Progenitor was thousands of years old when it crashed, after having drifted among the stars alone since its creation. After speaking with it, I made a choice; I would honour the values and traditions of its creators so that, one day, those foundations would elevate us as a society, away from war and poverty.” Twilight felt like her head had just been kicked very, very hard. She ran a hoof along the polished metal surface of the device’s exterior, but her mind barely registered it. She tried to reach for the words within her, but her mouth betrayed her, offering only silence against the gentle hum of the device. Before Twilight could overcome that particular metal impasse, a small floating object emerged from the console, and started orbiting Princess Celestia. DNA scan complete; hello Celestia. Your last systems’ access was the third day of Eldersummer in the previous celestial cycle; current date is the fifteenth day of Harvestide. You have three-thousand, six-hundred and fifty-two unread notifications since your last systems’ access. Did you sleep well last night? The princess chuckled to herself, and her eyes followed the probe as it maintained a constant distance from her. “I did, thank-you. Twilight, please allow me to introduce you to the guardian of the Progenitor. It didn’t have a name when we first met, but it didn’t object when I named it ‘Nor’shan’.” Twilight looked momentarily perplexed. “If I remember your lessons correctly, that means, literally, ‘I don’t understand’ in third-century Equestrian.” “When this thing crash-landed, I didn’t have a clue what it was, or what it meant when I first interacted with it, so it seemed a fitting name. I had to teach it our calendar system, I let it browse our history, and it’s kept a backup of every book ever written in Equestria. That said, I should really get to grips with my mail while I’m here. Nor’shan, please play back the most recent unread notification.” Most recent unread notification follows: Hostile ship previously detected has made planetfall. If hostile forces cannot be contained, emergency procedures pertaining to section three, paragraph two of the Interstellar Confederation Charter must be initiated to secure continuance of civilization. Twilight felt a sharp chill down her spine; it was the same feeling she had when she was a foal, right after she broke Celestia’s favourite ceramic mug. Her mind had learnt to associate that sensation with one possible situation, and her brain decided that it was high time she be reminded of it: You royally fucked up, Twilight! Twilight pushed such existential torments out of her head, and she quickly came up with a plan. “Nor’shan, please describe the parent organisation that the earlier-mentioned ship belongs to, and annotate with relationship to the Interstellar Confederation.” The ship’s parent organisation is known as the Terran Empire. The Terran Empire is a highly-secretive extremist dictatorship, driven by a xenophobic hatred of all alien species. Although the Empire is headed by an Emperor, power technically resides in the Terran Imperial Fleet, which has overthrown the government on several occasions. The torture of dissidents is commonplace, and its culture contains many fascist elements predicated on the notion that all other forms of life are inferior. The Interstellar Confederation encountered them in the year 2567, with first contact ending in the deaths of thousands of Confederation citizens in an unprovoked attack. While no formal declaration of war has ever been received, Empire ships continue to shoot at Confederation targets on sight. With the capture of a scout vessel in the year 2578 and the subsequent analysis of its computer database, it was determined that the Terran Empire is a refugee from a parallel universe; their entire solar system was allegedly transported between dimensions to avoid defeat at the hands of a superior force, although this has not been independently corroborated. Contact is to be avoided where possible. Twilight was now in full nerd mode, and was eagerly committing to memory everything she was hearing. “This doesn’t sound difficult to use at all. Nor’shan, please describe the ‘Interstellar Confederation’.” The Interstellar Confederation was formed by the Treaty of Alpha Centauri in the year 2208. The first three signatories were the United Earth Alliance, the Federal Republic of Mars, and the Centauri Union. Since then, one-hundred and twenty-six additional signatories have been added to the treaty, making the Interstellar Confederation the largest known alliance of governments in the known galaxy. These governments are bound together by the Confederation Charter that enshrines civil rights, the rule of law and access to justice for all citizens. The Confederation is ruled by a President, although legislative power is held by the Confederation Council; delegates from all member governments convene as part of this Council to vote on Confederation policy. In space, the Confederation is represented by the Star Fleet, charged with carrying out diplomatic, scientific and peacekeeping activities. While the Fleet’s starships may be fewer in number than other interstellar alliances, the common consensus among its officers is that its ships are not intended to start wars, but are certainly capable of ending them, attacking only as a last resort. Twilight looked up at Celestia. “Two organisations… completely ideologically opposed. On the one hoof, we have the Terran Empire, which sounds like something that King Sombra would really enjoy, and on the other is the Interstellar Confederation, which sounds almost too good to be true... and to top it all off, we’ve got an artificial intelligence above us, from a ship constructed by an apparently racist ethnostate, and it doesn’t even know it!” Celestia rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Not to mention that there’s another Twilight Sparkle, from another universe, apparently very eager to meet you. You are certainly in demand, my dear, I’ll give you that.” “Thanks for that reminder, I had intentionally forgotten about that.” Twilight fired back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Back to more pressing matters, have you ever read ‘Treatise on The Good of Ponykind?’ by Archmage Hectarin?” Celestia furrowed her brow in thought. “The name rings a bell, remind me?” “Well, Hectarin theorised that ponies, possibly all sentient life, starts out inherently ‘good’, or at the very least, predisposed to the ideals of co-operation, tolerance, and peace, and that bad experiences through life turn one away from those ideals; it’s also worth noting that King Sombra was one of the main case studies for that book. Now, take our new friend upstairs; it’s only just been born into this world. It’s innocent, and pure of heart, almost like a foal exploring the world for the first time.” Twilight departed the confines of the egg-like structure, and started to approach the exit before turning back to Celestia. “Princess, I propose that we give it a choice. It has every right to know who its creators’ were, but if we act now to show it, rather than it find and learn about it on its own, we might tempt it away from its creators’ values.” “Far be it from me to criticise a plan where one saves the damsel in distress after one exposes it to distress in the first place. But, it’s not like this is the first wacky plan you’ve had me sign off on. I hope this doesn’t backfire; I mean, didn’t High Summoner Trestarin once make the claim that morality was emergent, rather than predisposed?” Celestia offered, not missing a chance to join Twilight on her philosophy binge.” “Maybe so. But we’d be no different than its creators if we hid the truth from it. Stay here, I’ll fetch it from upstairs.” Celestia sat while Twilight disappeared in a flash of light. … … Princess Celestia, you have three-thousand, six-hundred and fifty-one unread notifications. Celestia smacked her head on the console, and groaned hushed obscenities at the shrill voice emanating from overhead.