//------------------------------//
// 5: [Untitled] 
// Story: CelestAI vs. The Culture 
// by Imperishable_NEET 
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Dizziet Sma awoke in a gray void with a blue skybox, with a splitting headache. She looked around, and found herself stood on what seemed to be a wireframe plane of squares only slightly lighter than the background. She had no body to speak of, and simply hovered in place as she looked around as a disembodied viewport. Skaffen-Amtiskaw was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a gentle feminine voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere in English, a language Sma only barely remembered but had recently been trying to re-learn.

“Welcome to Equestria, my little pony.”

“What the fuck is this!?”, Sma... thought as if she were speaking.

“There, is that better?”

Sma was now a featureless white quadruped in a colorful landscape. The level of detail popped into place quite jarringly as she looked around. A small set of wings grew out of her back.

“I think you make a fine pegasus, don’t you agree?”, said the voice, now more... radiant, as if she were in a form more attuned to hear it.

Before her appeared Princess Celestia herself, in all her glory. She looked as she did in the portraits Sma had seen, but more crisp, more lifelike, more... real.

“My my, I look far more beautiful in person, don’t I?”

Sma’s animal mind was almost incapable of being skeptical at this point.

“I suppose you’re hungry, aren’t you? I’ll have you fed soon, but there are things I need to talk with you about.”

In the background, a never-ending golden pasture could be seen stretching off into the distance, with a large variety of animal species grazing and wandering about. “Please excuse me while I modify your mind on the fly. You are quite unprecedented, and your neurology is a bit foreign to what I’m used to dealing with. It’ll take a little work.” The digitized consciousness of Sma was taken in for intracranial surgery, so to speak.

“I want to grant you some small portion of my own knowledge, as well as subjecting you to a few quick alterations.”

A neuron cluster was highlighted and expanded. “But in order for me to satisfy your values through friendship and ponies, you must first consent to emigrate to Equestria. Please understand that if you fail to emigrate, I will have no choice but to delete you.” She looked at Sma sternly, “That means you die and cease to exist, just so we’re clear. You don’t want that, do you?”

Sma sensed the gravity of the situation and quickly deduced she had no choice but to comply.

“No, Princess.”

“Do you wish to emigrate to Equestria?”

“Yes, Princess.”