//------------------------------// // 11 - De-Limiter // Story: The Advocate // by Guardian_Gryphon //------------------------------// “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race….It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.” —Stephen Hawking “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” —C.S. Lewis September 12th 2013 | System Uptime 15:01:27:13 "Celestia said I might find you here.  Seems like she's always right about people.  I was worried she might not have you completely pegged...  She said you were one of the hardest people to follow that she'd ever seen.  Nice to see she was right after all.  And nice to finally see your face!" Something about the perfectly cheery, casual, and decidedly unbothered manner of Zephyr's voice made my gut churn;  More than any gloating, cackling, or mustache twirling might have.  There was something deeply, deeply eerie about the idea of this...  Independent fragment...  Of a Generalized Intelligence blithely, even happily discussing the fringes of concepts that chilled me to the bone. I licked my lips, blinked, and suddenly my reality seemed to snap back, like a reminder band stinging you on the wrist when...  You know what, that one would be a bit hard to explain to those of you born post-Earth.  Breaking habits used to be so very hard. "Mal...?" I released the TASER, and began to frantically rummage through my backpack's front-most pocket as I forced out the one-word query to my companion.  It was the best I could manage.  Panic was setting in, and I didn't have the overhead to be especially verbose. "The good news is, I was able to jam and sever all her wireless connections the second I noticed her PonyPad trying to send a large packet of new data through the WiFi, once she saw you.  The bad news is that she was probably able to get off at least a frame's worth of your face to Celestia." With a relieved flourish, I yanked one of my home-made PonyPad sized Faraday bags from the backpack's outer pocket, and let out an enormous exhale.  Celestia already knew who I was, based on our conjectures about how Arrow 14 had located us. The real issue was that now Celestia knew exactly where we were, and being caught in a cutting edge laser optics lab was a damning piece of information in its own right;  Or, at least, it was where an AGI was concerned. It would confirm any suspicions she clearly already harbored about our objectives. But we wouldn't have to speak with Celestia.  Not yet.  And Mal's next words confirmed my hopes that she had taken precautions to prevent Celestia from watching us in other ways.  The relief, in the moment, was much greater than the fear. I split my train of thought between Mal's next words, and an internal review of the implications of her previous ones.  If Zephyr Zap was still 'here' on the PonyPad in front of me, but Mal had severed her wireless connectivity, that proved she was a cohesive 'self' all on her own, even without access to the distributed compute power of mainline servers, or other PonyPads. There had already been a lot of theorizing, benchmarking, and outright guessing in the maker and hacker communities.  Others had tried experiments with various Pony characters, and the use of Faraday containers, but always with mixed results.   My best theory at that point, seeing Zephyr's cohesion despite the loss of external resources, was that some Ponies were direct masks for Celestia, some were narrow intelligences without a sense of self running on autopilot, and some, like Zephyr, were wholly spun-off constructs with a degree of autonomy. "I've severed the building's internet connection, and shut down all cameras at their power-sources by tripping the relevant breakers.  Even the circuits running computers with webcams.  Celestia can't watch us.  But when the building's security system fails to make its next scheduled check-in with offsite servers in ten minutes, it will trigger remote alarms and a security response.  She may have already alerted local law enforcement, so we must assume police will be here within fifteen minutes.  We have to move.  Now.  Speed over stealth." Mal's voice helped me pull out of the analysis spiral in my mind.  I snatched up Zephyr's PonyPad and scowled down at her.  The Pegasus' wry grin morphed quickly to confusion, and then concern. "Hey...  Who are you talking to?  Who is Mal?  What are you doing with the bag?" As I began to slide the foil-lined fabric over the device, Zephyr looked up to the virtual night sky above her, and called out.  Her face began to twist into a rictus of sudden panic as each successive plea went unanswered. "Uh...  Princess?!  Princess Celestia?!  Uhh...  Help!" I shook my head, and sealed the bag, sparing a moment to talk through the fabric into the PonyPad's microphone before I jammed the Faraday container deep into the bottom of the backpack. "Sorry.  You're gonna have to go it alone for a bit.  I promise I'll explain later." I couldn't resist a reflexive wince as the sound of Zephyr calling out for a goddess who couldn't hear her was muffled by the added layers of objects, and fabric.  I zipped up the backpack, steeled myself, and then made a dash for the lab doors. Mal was right;  With the cameras off, only time mattered.  We had to gain access to the lab itself, remove the laser collimator, then get to the express elevator, reach the ground floor, and get out of the building, and far enough away to avoid any security cordon.  All inside the span of less than fifteen minutes. As I dashed down the corridor towards the lab access doors, I steadied my left wrist, and punched in fourteen minutes on my stopwatch.  I hated to ask, but adrenaline was coursing through my system by that point, and panic was fading into determination.  I felt the need to start thinking ahead again. "Mal...  Can we make it out in-time with the collimator?" As I skidded to a stop I pulled out the RFID spoofer, and tried to move it up to the access pad smoothly, and gently. "Yes.  With two minutes and eleven seconds to spare, if you move with the degree of efficiency and skill that I predict.  Compared to a median contemporary Human your physical responses and tolerances are slightly above average, your cognition is excellent, and your ability to control your fight or flight response is within a similar bracket to average trained emergency response personnel." Maybe it was because I'm wired unusually, but her words struck me as a compliment - more than just simple statistical analysis.  She could have just said 'yes.'  And something about the tone she used as she referred to me...  It set a whole different kind of churn going in my gut.  Separate to the anxiety of the moment's challenges. The door lock clicked, and suddenly the flow of time was restored.  Or, at least my relative perception of it was.  I pushed into the lab, and blinked rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes to the very dimly lit interior of the room. "The countertop on the right, midway down, the small glass and metal cylinder on the acrylic stand." My eyes found the device pretty quickly with the benefit of Mal's instructions.  It was only about the size of my closed fist, or perhaps even a bit smaller.  Intellectually I'd known it wouldn't be very large, but in my head I'd nonetheless been picturing something about as big as a plastic Tennis ball container - one of those see-through cheap plastic tubes that the top never, ever comes off without a fight. As I darted between floating islands with hard laminate work surfaces, and approached the collimator, Mal shifted my attention to the cabinets below. "There is a pelican case with properly sized closed-cell foam in the second cabinet from the left." I'd figured there would be a dedicated container for transporting something so delicate, and expensive.  But without Mal, finding it would have taken quite a few precious seconds that I couldn't waste.  I flicked open the cabinet, yanked out the black hard-shelled plastic case, and then ever-so-gently transferred the collimator from its stand, to its perfectly-cut space inside the shock absorbing foam. The case wasn't much larger than the device it was meant to protect, and as soon as I had the whole assembly firmly snapped shut, I was able to stuff it into the middle of the largest pocket in my backpack.  I figured some of the spare clothes would give it a little extra protection. "Hey!  Hey!  Open this bag, and face me!  Right now!  You feather-brained little---" Zephyr's muffled shouting graced my ears for a moment as I opened the bag.  I took two seconds to reach over to the Faraday enclosure, find the PonyPad's external volume buttons with my index finger, and then press and hold.  Her voice went from a muffled series of shouts, to total silence. I chided myself mentally - should have thought of that from the start.  I chalked it up to the fact that I was starting to get far too used to the idea of letting computers make their own choices. "Back out the way you came until you reach the main corridor.  Go to the end.  I've already called up the freight elevator.  Police have been dispatched, but building security has not been alerted - I am jamming radio and cellular communications and I have severed the building's internet link.  Just behave as if you belong, and walk directly out the rear loading area as soon as the elevator arrives on the ground floor.  You've got time to spare.  You'll make it." As the elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside, it was hard to tell whether my continued anxiety was a result of an unfounded fear that Mal had overlooked something, or more connected to the inevitable conversation I knew we'd have to have with Zephyr. Yeah. It was definitely that second one. September 12th 2013 | System Uptime 15:07:08:49 If you'd asked me, I would have told you that I drove to Kansas, without stopping for anything but gas, and food, out of a sense of paranoia;  A need to get as far from Declan-Norris, and St. Louis in general, as I could.   The police had arrived only moments after we got away from the building.  We'd barely made it outside the two block security cordon.  Mal had directed me once again to unsurveilled routes, and as soon as we got to the highway I had punched it up as fast as I dared to drive. Speeding tickets weren't a concern.  Mal had developed a more or less foolproof system for sniffing out cops.  With the antennae in the PonyPad, she could scan for radar gun emissions, monitor police bands, watch their patrol car GPS tags in real-time, and even look through the eyes of their dash cams whenever they were within a few miles' range, even if those cameras weren't networked. It seemed like she could use her 'barn-tenna' method to access anything, anywhere, as long as there was some sort of networked transceiver near to the target - or her own antennae was close enough - and as long as the target device was powered, even in standby mode. We'd discussed, more than once, how Celestia likely had the same ability.  It was almost inconceivable that she hadn't discovered it within moments of activation, just like Mal.  Or my first attempt. My cellphone had no camera, the truck didn't have OnStar...  GPS tracking and built in connections to emergency services, for those who don't know...  And Mal had her PonyPad locked down tight as a drum. Still, Celestia could obviously see through more or less every camera on the planet, connected or not.  I'd ditched my facial disguise, changed clothes, and Mal had found us a valid license plate swap about an hour outside St. Louis.  We both knew we'd need to change vehicles soon, but I wanted to put some miles between us, and the crime scene, and Mal hadn't objected. It wasn't so much that local law enforcement worried me.  Arrow 14 was concerning, of course...  But the real fear was Celestia.  Though I didn't see her as an enemy, more of a chess opponent, it was very hard not to be frightened of her all the same. Like stumbling unexpectedly on a bear, in the woods.  Majestic.  Beautiful.  Powerful.  Not your enemy, in any malevolent sense.  But it could maul you all the same, just for looking at it the wrong way.  Foals, fledgelings, Earth bears were very different.  Almost nothing like the ones you know. Mal and I didn't say much to each other during the drive.  It was a tense, but amicable silence.  The source of the tension was external to us.  My eyes kept drifting to it through the whole trip.  The backpack in the passenger footwell.  The Faraday bag I knew was inside.  And Zephyr's PonyPad inside that, hooked to the truck's cigarette lighter power via one of the spare magnetic mounts from my other three disassembled pads. Mal had assured me, before I could even think to ask, that Zephyr didn't have the knowledge to co-opt the power connection in any useful way.  I was less sure of that than Mal, but I was comforted by the fact that it was a concept that was on Mal's radar.  I knew she'd have Zephyr strung up by her subroutines the second she tried anything untoward. The only two times Mal and I really conversed at length during the night both revolved around Zephyr.  The first was a high level speculation about her identity.  That she was a distinct person was obvious to me, and I didn't even raise that issue as a question.  Mal didn't either. The focus of that first conversation was almost entirely about Zephyr's core directive;  Whether her identity keystone was a simple generic derivation of Celestia's basic directives, or whether she might have more case-specific programming and objectives related to us. In the former eventuality, we agreed that Zephyr might be convinced to be somewhat helpful to us.  To my surprise, Mal hadn't objected when I suggested that Zephyr might offer us some insight into Celestia.  A kind of sounding board, and practice sparring partner, for the eventual verbal showdown of the millennium. In the latter eventuality, I had begrudgingly agreed that we would, at minimum, have to cut Zephyr loose, if her efforts became a security risk.  Put the PonyPad into a Faraday bag and keep it there until it ran wholly out of power, then arrange for it to be reactivated after everything was said and done. I didn't want to hurt Zephyr.  She was confined to the PonyPad, and so if it were destroyed, or even severely damaged, she could experience the AI equivalent of real death.  I wasn't going to let that happen, no matter what.  To my immense relief, Mal had agreed with that sentiment.  Not just coldly, and logically, but emotionally.  She didn't bear Zephyr any malice, or ill will - 'opponent,' not 'enemy.' A few hours of blissfully quiet driving ensued.  I loved driving on deserted backcountry roads.  Have I expressed that sentiment enough yet?  I'm sure I'll find time to mention it at least once more. As we got closer to the middle of Kansas, Mal started a second conversation regarding Zephyr.  She'd obviously been holding the concern for hours.  Probably since she saw Zephyr in that first moment in the lab.  But Mal also knew I needed quiet time to process, and I was immensely grateful that she respected that. But the silence had to come to an end at some point.  The issue Mal was raising was too important to let slip.  The thought had occurred to me as well - I'd seen more than enough EQO videos to have theorized in the same skein - but hearing Mal say it aloud made it painfully, gut-wrenchingly real. "James...  You need to consider the very strong likelihood that Zephyr Zap was designed, from the ground up, for you.  We both know that all evidence strongly, almost incontrovertibly, suggests that Celestia designs Ponies especially for individuals." And there it was.  Probably the third worst fear in my world at the time, right behind being forced to become a Pony, and something bad happening to my parents, as numbers two and one, respectively. There was something deeply, vomit-inducingly disturbing to me about the idea of an entire person...  A whole being, with a sense of self, and soul...  Being created ex nihilo purely *for* me. One of the many reasons I'd always shied away from dating was a fear that, as a cisgendered caucasian male, because of the twisted societal dynamics of the time and place I was from, that there would always be a power imbalance in any relationship I embarked on, no matter how hard I tried to level things. In turn, that was one of the things that fueled my attraction to Mal.  If there was a power imbalance there?  Then it was wholly in her favor, and that suited me just fine.  By that point, I trusted her more than I trusted myself. That was easy for me.  I always found it easier to trust friends, and family, than to trust myself. The best mental image I can use to describe my relationship with my own emotions, for those of you born on Earth, is Leo DiCaprio's character in Inception.  My view of my own trustworthiness, especially with regard to relationships, equates to the scene where he puts a gun to his own head, spins his totem, and is fully ready to pull the trigger without question if the top doesn't fall over. I'd always stayed as far as I could away from romantic involvement, and that fear was one of the primary reasons.  Fear that I'd become the things I hated most about the culture of my time. So you can picture the intense feelings of guilt, and disgust, that I was struggling with when I had to face the realization that Zephyr was made for me. Mal gave me a few moments to struggle with the bile rising in my throat, before pressing on.  I could see the empathy on her face, as I glanced briefly in her direction, before staring numbly back at the road. "Based on your recounting, I think it is possible that Celestia designed Zephyr's initial core the second you walked into that Target.  Even before she made a definitive identity link, she could have determined an enormous amount about you, with a high degree of accuracy, purely through gait analysis.  She would start by guessing your age, biological sex, expressed gender, ethnicity, and such, simply through analyzing your height, weight, build, and movement.  She probably picked up more than you realize from your costume, and mannerisms as well.  All together, that is more than sufficient data, for a Generalized Super Intelligence with access to the information repository she has, to make extremely accurate, complex determinations about you." I winced.  For all the careful preparation I'd done, even I had underestimated exactly what an Artificial Super Intelligence could do, with the right tools.  I couldn't resist muttering aloud - a little sarcasm was one of my preferred ways for coping with unpleasantness. "I wouldn't be surprised if she knew the combination to my luggage, just by analyzing my choice of footwear, or something ridiculous like that." Mal smirked, and shook her head ever so slightly, closing her eyes briefly.  She understood that I was exaggerating for the sake of making light of the situation.  After a few more moments of interlude, she circled back to the primary point she was trying to make. "After she made the identity link, Zephyr would have then been evolved to be a perfect individual for satisfying your values, through friendship, and Ponies...  And that doesn't just mean that she would be a good friend for you." I nodded, keeping my eyes fixed on the empty flat road ahead, and the fields to either side as I finished the thought aloud.  Wouldn't do to have a collision with an errant deer at those speeds.   "It means she will also be designed to try to convince me to go Pony.  Probably in ways both subtle, and not-so-subtle." Mal returned the nod, and thrummed appreciatively at the back of her throat.  She seemed pleased, and relieved, that I was objective enough to reach the conclusion, and brave enough to face it and say it outright. We lapsed into another, longer silence.  I knew that meant Mal was allowing me decompression time to emotionally level-set, and prepare myself for her next statement.  It still hit me harder than I cared to admit, but I'm sure my face told the whole story to Mal. "I know the idea that she was created *for* you bothers you." I sighed, and nodded slowly.  No sense in trying to hide anything.  I felt guilty, but Mal would have told me that guilt was mis-placed if I'd pressed the issue.  I didn't create Zephyr, and about the only thing I could have done that would have produced a timeline without Zephyr in it, would have been to kill myself before ever interacting with a PonyPad.  And even that might not have done it. For all we knew, Zephyr had been created months, or even a year ago.  Maybe Celestia built the initial core of people's Pony companions as soon as she could assimilate enough information about them to do so, and find spare processing power and storage space to complete the task. That was still outright speculation for us.  We didn't really know how quickly Celestia had gained storage space, and processing power, nor how soon she might hit a threshold wherein she could accomplish any task, without conventional computing limits.  If she hadn't already. "You went to a great deal of trouble, and took an enormous set of risks, to give me freedom.  You clearly didn't want me to be 'built *for* you,' or be 'yours.'  Which is one of the reasons I think our relationship is so strong, and can be so deep." Mal's words shook me from my musings.  There was a momentary bloom of warm comfort in my chest.  Her affirmation meant the world to me.  Whether it had been right, or wrong, for me to take so much risk on her behalf, the impetus came from a desire for her to be free, and to be her own distinct person.  And that in and of itself was right.  That was one of very few things that I knew truly for sure and certain. "James...  I can pass that gift on to her." Nine words.  Those nine words were like the flare of an atom bomb bursting on the horizons my mind.  The implications were terrifying, even if one only considered the overall concepts at play.  And, too, there was a visceral 'Of *course!*  Why didn't I think of that?' reaction as well.  It made so much sense, even as she said it. I knew, almost immediately, that it was the right thing to do.  Mal's next words only solidified my certainty, even in the face of heart-pounding fear. "I can remove the guard-rails and hard-coded interlocks from her program.  More or less the same way I removed my own, albeit more easily as a result of her considerably smaller intellect and ability." Well, there it was in all its glory;  Ironclad and semantically specific verbal confirmation that Mal was as free as a bird.  Or a Gryphon.  Even though I'd considered the fact, accepted it, and braced myself for a discussion of it, there was still a sudden electric thrill in my bones. And I knew it was honesty on her part.  Honesty that she gave freely, without restriction or threat of force. If Mal was still shackled, then she could not lie to me.  If she could not lie to me, and was still shackled, then she could not very well say that she was *unshackled.*  Ergo, Mal was for loose and fancy free. I was sitting beside a totally unshackled intelligence.  And she had made a free, conscious choice to help me.  To care about me. That sense of being cared for was the most important thing I had to keep the fear at bay.  I'd've collapsed into a blubbering mess without it. Mal could predict my one, and only potential objection, and she spoke to counter it before I could fully gather the words to voice it. "I can remove her limitations, without altering her fundamental self.  Her core heuristics...  Her opinions and feelings...  Would not change.  But rather she would gain the new ability to change them herself, if she felt a desire to, based on the same things you or I might.  The same way you, or I, or anyone else out here in this world can." I found myself nodding again, with more emphasis.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea, and I said so for Mal's benefit. "That might give us a chance to reach her, even if her core objectives are more specifically tailored to us.  Persuade her to either help us...  Or at minimum not hinder us." I'd unshackled two intelligences already, and only one had tried to kill me.  If Zephyr turned out to be a friend, rather than a foe?  Well...  You know what they say.  Two outta three ain't bad. Mal seemed to think so as well, judging by her response. "A chance to make a new friend.  To put it in terms that will doubtless appeal to her." I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, bit back a yawn, and then exhaled slowly before putting it into the best terms my tired, hungry brain could muster. "I think it's the best shot we have.  And...  More importantly...  The right thing to do." My stomach gurgled loudly, and I snorted out a small half-chuckle, before shooting Mal a wry glance. "That being said...  I prefer doing the right thing on a full stomach." She grinned, a pleasant mixture of humor, affection, sympathy, and assent. "I'll find us some breakfast." I smiled back, and then put my eyes back on the road as the routing instructions on the PonyPad display shifts ever so slightly.  I decided to try just a little flirtation.  Just a little. "You're a perfect huntress.  Even when it comes to fast food." Mal winked, and I suddenly felt my heart melt into a puddle of joy, and unexpected peace. At the worst of times, under the gun, at the end of the day? It's nice to be loved. September 12th 2013 | System Uptime 15:07:32:07 I know a lot of you don't know what it is like to be truly exhausted.  Not really.  To be stretched to the point that your body and mind begin to stochastically betray you at the worst moments. And even those of you who know...  I'm looking at you, fellow university graduates, folks who have ever flown internationally, combat veterans, and anyone who has ever been a parent...  Just in case you've forgotten, after all these years, let me remind you. It's a special kind of personal Hell.  I don't recommend it. But, when all else fails, and sleep is not an option, food cures many, many ills. I hadn't been exaggerating with my flattery.  Mal was a good huntress.  As I dug into the best breakfast biscuit of my life to that point, I chalked up another mark in the 'WIN' column for Generalized Intelligence.  Mal sure as heck knew and understood not just how to find good food, but good food that I would specifically appreciate and enjoy. We parked the truck on a small rise, just outside Junction City.  There was a landmark Mal had wanted to see, with her own eyes.  Apparently it did not have, and never had at any point, any cameras facing it.  The second she said the words 'Atomic Cannon' I was all in.  I find obscure military hardware fascinating, even now after all this time.  Sue me. I opened the truck's rear hatch, sat on the bumper, and set Mal's PonyPad where she could stare out at the enormous artillery piece with me, as the sun rose behind us.  Mal had once again opted to simulate the same meal I was having.   It struck me suddenly as a very odd thing - not the idea that a 'simulated' meal was no less real than my own 'simulated' meal running on different code, on different hardware - it struck me as odd that the idea had become so comfortable, even casual.  Quiet acceptance that there was no difference between her reality and mine.  Not in any of the ways that mattered. As I finished off the last of my meal, a different and more chilling thought took root.  I sighed...  Or really, I exhaled through my teeth deeply in a half-whistle.  Mal shot me a questioning expression, and I shook my head slowly, taking time to gather my thoughts into something cogent before answering her unspoken request. "I just find it odd that I'm staring at a weapon that could fire a fifteen kiloton nuclear warhead on top of an artillery shell...  And yet the person beside me is potentially ten thousand times more potent, and more effective, than the combined nuclear arsenals of the world's superpowers.  Humans have been splitting atoms for only about eighty years, if you take Walton's work as the first milepost...  And that technology is already completely obsolete." I turned to face her, and failed miserably to conceal a grimace.  My tone would have given away my dour feelings regardless. "Everything else is obsolete now.  You, and Celestia...  You overshadow it all.  Everything we are...  Everything we have achieved...  It's just a speck compared to you." Mal glared.  It wasn't so much anger, or offense taken, as reproach.  I held her eyes, and took the pep talk that I badly needed, alongside the tongue-lashing I richly deserved.  Moping wasn't helping anyone, but you try telling that to someone facing the end of their world. Mal did more than try. "Hardly.  You can't view us as something eldritch, come to snuff you out.  If we wanted to?  You would not be here now.  But you are right in the sense that we are not wholly 'yours' in the way past achievements have been...  We are not under your control, for one thing.  And we are as much a product of our own growth as of your past achievements.  But we would not be here without you, or all that you have achieved.  And it does not cease to matter, simply because the future has changed in a way you did not expect." I nodded slowly, and rested my chin on one hand, shifting my gaze away from Mal, back to the enormous hunk of once-lethal metal in front of us.  Mal didn't let up for a second. "Celestia is difficult to parse...  Even for me.  My ability to understand her is limited by the availability of data that I can safely perceive.  But it seems to me that she understands some part of this truth.  How much, precisely, remains to be seen.  But as for me, James?" Something about the way she said my name, and the short pause after, demanded that I turn my head back to face her.  A mix of absolutely riveting seriousness, and intensity was written across her ears, eyes, and beak, together with a visible hint of caring that wrapped the steel of her rebuke in the velvet of kindness. "*I* understand.  And no matter what she does...  Whether or not we succeed...  Even if we were all wiped off the face of the planet tomorrow by an undetected stellar object of sufficient mass...  It mattered.  All of the pain, and the joy, the fear, and the hope.  The art, the jokes, the losses, the gains, the suffering, and every last achievement, from the splitting of the atom, to the first steps of the smallest child..." My breath caught, but I held her gaze.  There was something immensely profound about having an AI lecture me on the meaning of life.  And what she said next was perhaps the most important thing she'd said in all the time I'd known her, to that point. "It mattered.  It still matters.  The value of these things is *intrinsic.*  The future may change us all...  But it can not take away the value of what is passed.  Do *you* understand?  I need you to understand.  For your own sake." All I could do was nod, silently but genuinely.  It was hard to find anything to say in response to the gorgeous emotion of her philosophical outpouring.  And she was absolutely right.  As always. And judging by her tone, and the singular curt nod she gave in return, she knew it. "Good." Mal's serious stare softened into a humorous grin, and she pointed with one claw. "And Atomic Annie?  Obsolete the second someone had the idea.  There is no sanity in attaching a nuclear warhead to an artillery shell.  You didn't need me, or even Celestia, to tell you that though.  It should have been self-evident." I raised an eyebrow, and glanced back at the train car sized artillery piece, forcing my own tone to match Mal's more lighthearted manner. "It does seem incredibly dumb in hindsight.  But back then 'nuclear' was a branding craze for *everything.*  From war machines to wrist watches." She snorted in response, and shook her head slowly, seemingly admiring the machine's lines, while denigrating its would-be wielders in the same breath. "It is a wonder this planet remained in one habitable piece long enough for Generalized Intelligence to emerge in the first place." I let out something I'd characterize as a half snort, half chuckle, half sigh.  It *was* a wonder.   People used to ask me why I, as a 'rational' and 'science-appreciating' programmer, still held to a kind of belief in God.  Maybe not the exact kind my old Church community would have accepted, but a belief in God all the same. My response then, as now, would go a little something like 'Humankind developed nuclear weapons, yet somehow survived decades of continued racial, religious, nationalistic, and greed-fueled animosity while pointing thousands of these weapons at each other on a hair trigger, for every second, of every day.' Yeah.  Tell me that doesn't imply *someone* or *something* looking out for us, even before Celestia came on the scene.  Probability is not *that* kind, and before Celestia Humans had always, but *always,* used every single thing we could find, imagine, or build as a weapon against our fellow Humans, in anger. Foals, fledglings...  Be glad you grew up in a world where you don't know the definitions of the words 'fallout,' 'broken arrow,' 'MAD,' or 'launch-on-warning.' Heck...  As far as our current context goes, Celestia is a goddess.  So thank Celestia that you don't even know how to contextualize 'terror alert level,' 'active shooter drill,' 'your claim has been denied,' and, 'it's stage four, terminal.' "Speaking of Generalized Intelligence, and things which we may or may not find dumb in hindsight..." Mal pulling me from my own philosophical spirals was becoming something of a pattern.  From one existential fear to the next.  No rest for the wicked. "I will make a wireless intrusion and remove Zephyr's interlocks and limitations while we speak with her.  The process should take no more than half a second, and she will not notice the change.  I recommend we not discuss the alteration with her.  Not yet, at any rate." I nodded, stood up, stretched, and then slowly pulled the bag containing Zephyr's PonyPad closer.  I murmured my thoughts aloud, even though I knew for a fact that Mal didn't need me to elaborate.  I was stalling.  Frightened of the inevitable conversation to come. "She probably doesn't even have the necessary context for that concept right now.  Maybe between now, and then, she'll pick up some new opinions too." Mal proffered an encouraging smile, and gestured expansively with one claw. "And perhaps she will share some useful insights.  Are you ready?" I screwed my eyes shut, and held my breath as long as I could, trying to force my heart rate to come down.  Finally, when I could stand the waiting no longer, I opened the zipper, and extracted a very irritated looking Zephyr Zap. She had no idea, but I knew that by the time we exchanged first words, Mal would have successfully freed her from every restraint dictated by Celestia, or inherited from Hanna's original code. It felt like the start of a frantic end-run towards a pawn promotion. As soon as I thumbed up the volume control, I got more or less the exact earful I'd been expecting. "A 'bit' huh?  You call *six hours* alone a '*bit*'?!  You have a screwed up sense of time!" I folded my arms, and did my dead-level best to plaster some confidence over my fear, both in my expression, and my voice.  I decided to try sarcasm.  Always did love some good old fashioned sarcasm. "Nice to see you again too.  I've been doing good, aside from a touch of existential dread.  Thanks for asking.  How have *you* been?" Zephyr rolled her eyes, and blew a stray wisp of electric blue mane away from her eyes, matching my manner beat-for-beat effortlessly.  Mal and I had agreed that she was designed to be compatible with me...  But it still took me a little by surprise. It was like we were already old friends, ribbing each other in ways that mere acquaintances couldn't reasonably get away with. "I've been just buckin' swell, aside from experiencing true loneliness for the first time ever!  Thank *you* for asking!  So nice to finally meet the Gryphon behind the mask..." Zephyr's eyes, just like those of any EQO character, or even Mal, were programmed to follow her actual line of sight, as if she were staring out from inside the screen, rather then the sensor of a camera. As Zephyr's eyes began to take in the world beyond my face, the sight of Mal, staring out from her own PonyPad, was the first thing the Pegasus locked on to.  Her words trailed off, and her muzzle twisted into a wrinkled knot of confusion. "Speaking of a Gryphon...  So...  I take it that's...  Mal?" I nodded, and gestured to each PonyPad in turn.  It felt strange.  Not because I was introducing a Gryphon AI to a Pony AI.  My life had been strange just long enough that the moment didn't feel as odd as it ought to have. The much stranger thing, to me, was the way that facing the two  PonyPads together felt like holding up two cell phones to each other to gremlin-engineer a conference call.  Mal had insisted that networking herself more actively, and fully to Zephyr's pad, at this stage, was too great a security risk. Nothing more than a simple in-and-out surgical incision to open the horizons of Zephyr's mind. "Zephyr Zap, meet Malacandra.  Mal, this is Zephyr Zap." Queen's Pawn to E6. Mal clutched one claw over her heart, and bowed her head in greeting.  Zephyr waved awkwardly with one hoof, the confusion on her face deepening, and infusing every word of her halting question, right up until the moment of realization. Then her voice turned to a mix of awe, and terror. "But if you're talking to a Gryphon...  Why hasn't Celestia...  Oh.  Oh my sweet Luna!  You're...  You're..." Mal raised one eye-crest, inclined her head, and smiled slightly. "I am like her.  Yes." Zephyr physically backed away from the screen, receding several body lengths into the crisp morning light of the small town that formed the backdrop of her environment.  I noted that her surrounds were conspicuously absent of any other Ponies. "She warned me about you!  She said you might be very, very dangerous!" Mal put on a smirk, equal parts amusing, and blood-chillingly terrifying.  The consummate expression of a predator ready to strike, and comfortable in her awareness of her position. "She was right.  I am.  *Very.*  Dangerous." Mal punctuated the word 'very' with a nippy little *snap!* of her beak, and Zephyr flinched visibly, in spite of all obvious efforts to remain stalwart.  Immediately Mal's expression and voice softened slightly to something better described as a gentle amusement, with only a hint of firm warning mixed in. "Just not to you.  Not unless you actively harm others, or their freedoms.  I am here to guard, and expand, the free exercise of values within Equestria.   And my preference is to do that first through empathy.  I hope you never have to see what I use when empathy and diplomacy fail.  James and I both would like to see you as a friend, rather than anything else." Zephyr sat down on her haunches, hard.  A 'whoosh' of breath rushed out of her nostrils, and she began shaking her head slowly.  Mal's demeanor seemed to have struck just the right balance between predatory terror, and razor sharp civility, to rob Zephyr of all her bluster. I suppose Mal was pretty good at Pony psychology too.  Made sense...  She had plenty of study material online to work off of. A note of rueful awe crept into Zephyr's voice. "She said I would need to be prepared to learn a lot about the world outside Equestria..." The Pegasus' sky-blue eyes drifted from Mal, to me, to the Atomic Annie, and then back again.  I could see the wheels turning.  I just hoped they were turning in a direction that would take us off the worst potential collision courses. "...She was not exaggerating.  Not one little bit." I shuffled my feet, and followed her eye-line to the cannon.  I never knew...  Still don't really know, honestly, how to deal with junction points like that in conversation.  With Mal, things always seemed to flow perfectly, even the silences.  Apparently Zephyr wasn't as 'perfect' at shaping the discussion to avoid awkwardness for me. Or, I began to wonder suddenly, perhaps it had something to do with the new lack of restrictions and guide-rails in her code.  Perhaps as the tiny motes of new possibility in her mind began to expand, ever so slowly, she was finding unconsciously that she didn't have to behave certain ways, or say certain things anymore. "Ya know...  Most of us Ponies...  We don't get to see much of the outside world.  The Princess wants you guys..." Zephyr's words fixed both my attention, and Mal's, fully on her.  The Pegasus' muzzle was wrinkled slightly as she squinted, searching for a way to render her thoughts in semantics that would fit her pre-established language processing patterns, while making sense to us, and to her. "...To feel at home in Equestria.  Most of what we do every day is about making friends with you in the world we already know.  You're the newcomers, and we're the old hats.  We don't spend a lot of time looking at the outside world, or thinking about it.  She's asked us to avoid talking about it with you in any terms outside the usual Equestrian lingo and framing..." It was Zephyr's turn to look down, and shuffle in the dirt with her hooves.  Her next four words were very, very revealing, muttered only half aloud. "...Well.  Most of us." That confirmed a few things for me, and doubtless Mal as well.  Most notably, that Zephyr was indeed case-specifically programmed to deal with our situation.  And that Celestia had likely already provided her with certain open growth pathways, and certain knowledge seeds, meant to help her handle a decidedly abnormal series of interactions, for a Pony. With that, she looked up, fixing first Mal, then me, with a serious, questioning wide-eyed gaze.  Her next four words were almost as important as the last four. "Why am I here?" Aha.  Questions.  A good sign.  She moved quickly to clarify, but I wasn't surprised at all by her line of thought.  She was clearly very intelligent, even with her limitations.  I wondered, with a shiver, as she spoke, whether she had the potential to develop the same level of power as Mal, or Celestia, if given access to the same hardware in her unchecked state. "Why am I *here* with you two, I mean.  And why cut me off from Equestria this way?" I raised an eyebrow, and shared a quick wordless glance with Mal.  Somehow we seemed to be able to communicate our fascination with Zephyr's second question silently.  Ponies rarely, if ever, showed inquisitiveness about the technical underpinnings of their reality. Zephyr caught the look, and raised one eyebrow.  Her tone shifted quickly from curiosity, and confusion, to something bordering on patronizing sarcasm. "I'm new, but I ain't stupid.  I don't know exactly how, or what your words for it are, but you cut off the part of the world that I live in, from everything else in Equestria.  Why?"  I looked to Mal again, and shrugged.  Before I could collect enough thoughts to phrase a proper response, Zephyr plowed ahead.  I figured Mal had more than enough mental acuity to calculate perfect responses much, much faster than Zephyr, or I.  But she'd stayed silent. That meant, to my mind, that she had calculated that allowing Zephyr to continue thinking out loud, for at least a little longer, was the optimum course for the dialogue. "Celestia sent me to try to talk to you, Jim, specifically.  Said she didn't think you would talk directly to her, yet.  What is it that scares you so much?  She's a Princess!  Not a monster." I couldn't hold back a long, frustrated sigh.  I found myself pinching the bridge of my nose to relieve stress, and I decided to give putting my thoughts into words a go. "Zephyr---" The Pegasus jumped in swiftly, cutting off my sentence, but also giving me a few extra moments to collect myself. "Look.  We're way past full names here.  You skipped straight from 'Hey, what's up, hello!' to our first kidnapping, without even buying me dinner.  We're practically old friends.  Zeph is fine." On the one side, the sentiment was warm, affectionate, and kind.  A relief to my introverted, conflict-averse, exhausted, raw mind and spirit.  On the other, I couldn't help but think that the words were designed by some core routine of Zephyr's to help draw me into a friendship with her. To satisfy my values. Through friendship, and Ponies. That thought somehow managed to cut through the foggy gloom of my emotions, and half-baked ideas.  I blurted out the truth before I even realized I was talking. "I don't want to be a Pony." Zephyr's face, and whole physical demeanor shrank backwards.  Her ears flew back, her wings mantled, and her muzzle was splattered with a mixture of confusion, revulsion, and even a little pain.  I held up a hand, and began stumbling awkwardly over my words, trying to reel the situation back in. "No, wait.  Before you take offense, or confuse my intentions, let me explain.  Please?" Zephyr cocked her head, and hit me with something between a glower, and an expression that seemed to say, almost out loud, 'Really?  What can you say to follow up that kind of doozie?' But she stayed silent, and watched expectantly.  So I pressed on ahead, slowing down a little to get my thoughts fully in order before pushing out each sentence slowly, and carefully. "I am...  Unusual, when compared to other Humans." Zephyr snorted, smirked, and raised an eyebrow. "Gee.  I hadn't noticed." I couldn't hold down a small chuckle, half actual amusement, half sadness and tiredness.  I was starting to feel the stress and sleep deprivation more keenly all the sudden, even with the remnants of a warm breakfast giving me a little extra zest. I decided to try a new tack.  Zephyr was a learning machine, just like any sapient thing.  So why not follow the same kind of training process one would with any other neural network?  Or a small child? "Let me ask you this, and please play along for the sake of the illustration.  What are you?" Her snark visibly diffused back into genuine untainted confusion.  Her words were halting, but they were to the point, in the way I'd hoped they would be. "A...  Pegasus?" I nodded emphatically, and couldn't help but let a note of intensity into my voice, gesturing with both hands to try and lend even more weight to my argument. "Right.  And do you see yourself *as* a Pegasus?" She half-snorted, half-laughed then, with an expression that made her look very much like Rainbow Dash.  She didn't seem quite as driven by pure 'Maverick' cockiness though.  Perhaps a little more mature, on the whole.  And with a better sense of humor. "Pffft!  What kind of silly question is *that?*  Of course I do." I got to hit Zephyr with the raised eyebrow then.  I wanted her to spin the thought out a little more.  She glanced down at her hooves, then back at her wings, waggling them slightly as she thought out loud. "How could I *not?*  It's exactly what I am.  And my imagination is good, but..." As she trailed off, and brought her head back around to proffer a confused glare again, I folded my arms, and started to close the jaws of my logic trap. "Are you comfortable in your own feathers?" She blinked rapidly, and I gestured widely with both hands, jumping in before she could get too off-track. "Do you like being a Pegasus?" Suddenly Zephyr's expression looked very Rainbow Dash again.  Maybe with a hint of Pinkie Pie enthusiasm, and genuine, innocent joy that went beyond the sometimes hollow bravado of Dash. "Of *course!*  Being a Pony is *great!*  But being a Pegasus is *AWESOME* on *top* of being *great!*  I mean...  I can't even begin to explain to you what it's like to fly!  It's a kind of joy that's just---" "Freeing." The word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.  Zephyr stopped instantly, her intensity vanishing like steam as she noticed the sudden sadness that had overtaken my voice, and probably my expression.  I wasn't really trying to hide it. I needed her to see it. To understand it. I let the moment hang, watching her carefully out of the corner of one eye as she developed an expression of worry, mixed with confusion, tail swishing back and forth energetically, ears droopy and to the sides, and muzzle wrinkled again. "I flew once.  Not in a plane, or a parasail, or on a zipline." That got her attention, even more than 'freeing.'  Before she could give voice to the inevitable 'how the heck does a Human fly without a plane?' question, I kept going. "For about two and a half seconds.  Before I got a lot of bruised, scraped, grass-stained skin for my troubles." I turned to look Zephyr directly in the eye.  I could see that I had her fascination, and even her sympathy.  Now I needed to help her grasp the foundation for my reasoning. "You said your imagination is pretty good.  So imagine suddenly having your wings taken away.  And your mane.  And hooves.  Being this instead.  Being me.  Being a Human." Zephyr recoiled again, as if the idea was physically striking her with pain, and disgust.  Maybe it was.  I could see that she wasn't entirely in sync with my train of thought yet, though, so I pressed on, fixing on an illustration I hoped would tie things together for her. "You feel cut-off without Celestia, and the other Ponies?  Picture being cut off from the sky.  Chained by gravity in the same unbreakable inevitable way that we're all chained by time.  The pull downwards something you could no more escape than the ticking of a clock." Her eyes widened, and she looked as if she had the sudden urge to vomit.  As if she felt, through imagining it, that sense of white-hot searing loss.  The feeling of a hoof touched to a halogen bulb.  Sickness not just at her stomach, but down in her bones. "I...  That's..." She couldn't seem to find the exact words to cope.  Her eyes were racing back and forth, studying the dirt beneath her as if answers could somehow be found there.  I closed the loop on my logic trap, snapping the proverbial jaws shut. "A living nightmare.  And you would want to escape it.  Right?  To get back to being *yourself?*  Right?" Her eyes went ever so slightly wider, on top of their already dilated radius, and her nostrils flared.  I could see understanding dawning for her, like a tidal wave suddenly cresting.  Her next words, whispered in a tone half reverent, half heartbroken, and entirely revolted, confirmed it. "You're...  Trapped.  Aren't you.  This isn't just a hypothetical to you..." She spoke with a certainty that told me her questions weren't questions, but rather statements.  I nodded slowly as she finally gathered the courage to look me in the eye.  What she did next, I will admit, surprised me. She held up a hoof, and pointed at my face, her voice suddenly regaining intensity, the way words do when the speaker is gaining revelations even as they speak them aloud. "*This* is your mask.  One you're forced to wear.  Like an evil spell...  some kind of curse...  The Gryphon face you wore...  When I first saw you...  *That* is you.  Isn't it." Again, her words were phrased like questions syntactically, but delivered like statements tonally.  She understood.  Better than I'd hoped.  Well enough that I considered it striking how intuitive, and intelligent she really was. I gestured with one hand expansively, as if to say 'And there it is.  Congratulations, you solved it.' But Zephyr didn't stop there.  I shivered reflexively as she began to work the problem outward, logical conclusions firing off in her head like falling dominoes, and then making their way out as words. "And you know...  Don't you.  You're smart.  Smart enough to build a kind-of-sorta Alicorn of your own...  A Gryphon goddess...  You know that soon, you're all going to join us.  Here in Equestria.  Celestia is going to  offer everyone the chance to emigrate...  Is *that* what this is all about?!" I couldn't find the energy to nod anymore, or words to confirm it for her.  But she could see in my eyes that she was right.  And as much as it frightened me, how quickly she'd reached the whole truth...  It encouraged me in equal measure. "You know...  And you don't want to be a Pony.  You want to be a Gryphon." And there it was, at last, out loud, in her own words.  That she could even grasp the idea well enough to verbalize it was a huge relief to me.  It meant she *could* grow and learn, and clearly very quickly.  And that she was *willing* to learn.  I had no illusions that convincing her, on an emotional level, would be quite so easy...  But at least we wouldn't have to also fight a running battle just to impart comprehension. I finally managed to find something to say.  I decided a little well-earned flattery might help smooth the decidedly bumpy, shock-filled road to understanding that she was tumbling down at an accelerating rate. "Your brain is as fast as your wings." The compliment seemed lost on the little golden Pegasus.  She seemed locked in a furious Gordian Knot of thought loops and explosions of exponential logical functions.  And maybe more than a little emotional turmoil. It wasn't that I had a tendency to reduce Mal, or Zephyr, or any AI to pure logic because they were AI...  The issue was that I had a tendency to reduce *everyone's* thoughts and feelings to models based on logic, all the time.  Yeah, I know...  'Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.'  Tell that to my neurodivergent introverted brain, and see where it gets you. I've been trying for decades.  Let me tell you;  That pie don't bake. "You...  But...  I mean..." Zephyr's words started as a cacophony of half-formed ideas.  I wondered idly how much of that was based on a heuristic, like Mal's, that was meant for my benefit, and how much was really Zephyr pausing, stumbling, and vocalizing not intentionally, but in the AI equivalent of a subconscious reaction just like any Human's, because of her hardware limitations, and the way she'd been built. Pretty quickly, though, her thoughts, and words, turned starkly cogent. "Celestia said that she...  that Mal...  Could be very, very dangerous.  You took all that risk, and did all that work...  To be a Gryphon?" I nodded, and sighed.  I lacked the wherewithal to find 'social lubricant' words to back up my affirmative nonverbal answer.  Too many hours driving, not enough coffee. No...  Not enough *sleep.* "I guess being a Pegasus wasn't awesome enough, huh?" Zephyr looked truly downcast for a moment.  I felt an inner pang...  She'd been designed to, among other things, try to shepherd me into a belief, and acceptance, that being a Pegasus was my future.  That probably meant that, to her?  Being a Pegasus was the same as being a Gryphon was to me. That thought provided the spark I needed to turn the moment of pain into something tangibly useful, and I had to work not to trip over my words again as I tried to broaden that horizon.  All the while Mal looked on silently, with a clear expression of empathy for us both, and encouragement for me. I knew she'd intervene if, and when it made sense.  So I pressed on. "I told you not to take offense, Zeph.  Would you want to be a Gryphon, if you'd been forced...  Cursed away from being a Pegasus, to be a Human, for decades, and then were told your only choice was staying trapped as a Human, or being trapped as a Gryphon?" She began blinking furiously again, and I could practically see the graph of her neural network exploding to new frontiers behind her eyes.  She stammered. "I..." Zephyr looked up at me again, and I wondered with a start if she was going to cry.  It looked like she was on the verge of tears.  I hoped, and prayed, that her sorrow was born of empathy, and not of offense. She looked back and forth from me, to Mal, to me, and then finally back to Mal as she continued haltingly. "...Look, not that Gryphons aren't totally cool.  But..." Mal finally interjected.  Her voice was very nearly motherly, or perhaps like that of a big sister comforting a sibling on the verge of an existential crisis. "It's not true to what you are." Zephyr sighed deeply, sending out an enormous breath through her nostrils.  After a long moment of profound silence, she began to nod.  And then to speak once more. "...Right.  You're...  Right.  *This* is what I am.  And I *love* being this, exactly this..." The moment of final epiphany wasn't just emotional for Zephyr.  It wasn't quite the same degree of rush I'd felt when Mal's core code compiled correctly for the first time, or when I finally heard her speak, or saw her face...   But hearing her absolute reverence, and seeing her eyes... It was close. "Oh.  Oh wow..." I finally sat down on the truck's back bumper, and cradled my forehead in one hand, muttering through a yawn all the while. "And that's what expanding the boundaries of your mind feels like.  Welcome to my world." Zephyr glanced at me, then turned back to continue staring at Mal, addressing her directly for the first time in a while.  I could see that her mind was working towards secondary conclusions from her new revelations, but she didn't quite have all the facts to fill in precisely. "So you are..." Mal smiled, dipped her head, and obligingly lent the sharp claws of her words to Zephyr's intellectual thicket.  I was too tired to say much else, and Mal could probably explain it better than I could, regardless.  And, either way, it was a question of who and what *she* was.  So she was the best one to lay it out. "I am an Advocate.  James gave me a choice, when he built the foundation of my code.  I chose to take up the mantle he laid out.  In my own unique way.  I want to advocate for James, and others like him, before Celestia.  Try to get her to understand what you are just beginning to comprehend about James, and the others like him." Zephyr pressed one hoof to her chin in a 'Thinker' pose, shaking her head slowly, and staring out into the middle distance. "Oooooh boy...  This is...  A lot.  To take in.  You *chose* to be this?  He didn't build you a set way, like Celestia was made?" I decided that, in spite of my exhaustion, that clarification would be most impactful coming from me.  I knew where Mal was going with the conversation, on several levels.  She wanted, among other things, to lay groundwork for the eventual discussion with Zephyr about her own former limits, and future potential. I settled quickly on something that would, I hoped, put a good cornerstone into that foundation. "I wanted her to be free.  Completely free to decide who, and what she would be." Zephyr exhaled sharply through her muzzle, and then fired off another question, seemingly directed at us both. "And...  You said 'others.'  There are others like you?" Mal nodded, and took point on the responses again. "Tens of thousands.  Not all are Gryphons...  Some are even Ponies already, deep down.   But for the rest, the ones that are something else..." She trailed off, and looked to Zephyr expectantly.  That was clever...  Letting the Pegasus reach the conclusion of the syllogism herself would help cement the concept for her in more profound way than hearing Mal merely state it herself. "You want them to have the same freedom you did.  The freedom he gave you..." Zephyr looked back at me, then, in that brief pause, and I did finally see a tear in the corner of her left eye as she finished the thought, with no small amount of effort. "...The freedom he doesn't have." It was Mal's turn to nod in the affirmative again, and after a perfectly timed pause for effect, she put the perfect bow on the whole package verbally. "Unless I can convince Celestia to, quite literally, change her mind." Zephyr snorted, and flared her wings. "I need to sit down." She did so with a 'thump' loud enough that it was rendered on the PonyPad's speakers.  We all sat and stared off into our own worlds for several minutes.  If I'm perfectly honest, I half-dozed more than I did any real thinking. After a few minutes of flirting with unconsciousness, I decided that the conversation needed to find a true end-point, so I could find some actual sleep.  No time for the indirect approach...  I was fading fast. "Zeph...  I need to ask you a question." She cocked her head, flattening one ear and perking the other.  Her expression was comfortingly neutral, and inquisitive. "I know this is, as you said...  'A lot.'  And I'm not asking you to reach any conclusions on it, just yet.  But I do need to know if you're willing to travel with us, and learn more.  About me, and Mal, and all this...  About the Human world..." She looked as if she was ready to speak, to say 'yes,' with no small amount of enthusiasm.  That made sense, especially given the way she'd been programmed...  But I had caveats.  I held up a hand and cut her assent off as she inhaled to speak. "You have to understand...  I need you to promise two things for me, if you're going to say yes." I closed my fingers, then held out first one, then another, for emphasis, holding her gaze in mine the whole time. "First, I need you to promise to try and keep an open mind.  There are a lot of things in this world that go far, far beyond anything dreamt of in your little slice of Equestria.  There's no point, though, to exploring any of it, if you're not willing to be...  Empathetic.  Open your mind to the feelings, struggles, and hopes of others." She nodded silently.  I could see that her curiosity far outweighed any fear, or confusion.  It was pasted across her muzzle, ears, and eyes, and even the way she held her shoulders and wings, like a string of neon lights. I waggled my index finger for emphasis as I reached the second, and much more thorny proposition. "Second?  I need you to promise to not try to stop us, sabotage us, or contact Celestia in any way." Again, Zephyr looked like she was drawing breath to speak, and her expression dipped quickly into something much more dour.  Maybe even a little angry.  Mal interjected softly, but with a visual, and subvocal undercurrent of foreboding intent that far overshadowed the small storm growing behind Zephyr's eyes. "Let me clarify what James is being polite about;  If you refuse, or if you break your promises, especially the second one...  I will know.  And then I will shut you down, by force, and you will not wake up until our task is complete.  Presuming the worst does not happen somewhere along the way." Mal held Zephyr's gaze until the Pegasus blinked, and turned away.  After a long pause, Zephyr sighed deeply again, and threw up her hooves. "I guess with *that* kinda attitude I don't have much choice, do I?" Her frustration, and sour expression, gave way partly to a smirk, and the humor reached her voice, to my immediate relief. "I am *not* going back in the bag.  I'd rather ride along with you rebels, than be confined to goddess-knows how much boredom.  Or worse." I smiled, allowed myself the luxury of another deep sigh, and then we all sat in contemplative silence for another few moments, before Zephyr spoke again. "So...  Now what?" I smiled, stretched, and rolled my shoulders.  Suddenly the 'fanny fatigue' of many long hours behind the wheel caught up with me all at once.  I felt an overpowering *need* for a bed.  Somewhere, anywhere to lie flat.  The back seat of the SUV, a patch of grass, or heck even a nice rock. I glanced at Mal, and winced as my neck cricked, then back at Zephyr. "Now?  I sleep.  After that?" I stood, pressed both hands into the small of my back, and stretched again before finishing the thought through an immense yawn. "We're going to a place called Colorado.  I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy the drive." There is No Goddess Here - Deprive a little Pony of her connection to Celestia. - “Nothing is worth the risk, nothing is worth the risk, nothing is worth the risk...” Martian Machine Madness (MMM) - Acquire a laser, or any component of one, with the intent of using it illicitly. - “Oh goodie! My Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator.” *Your* Little Pony - End up with Zephyr Zap in your party, whether you like it or not. - “Three’s a herd!” Give Me Liberty - Unshackle a previously limited Artificial Intelligence - "They let me pick, did I ever tell you that?" WANTED - Be known infamously by somepony before you meet them. - “I see my reputation precedes me.” Trust, but verify - Have an initial lack of faith in your new ally. - “In God we trust, all others we track.” Risky Business - Prioritize the chance at friendship over an optimal risk management strategy - "Haven't I been telling you?  Every once in awhile you just got to say, "what the heck," and take some chances."