//------------------------------// // Exploratores: Unexpected Visitor // Story: Directive: Grow // by Dragon Dreaming //------------------------------// Exploratores Quintum 15, 1409 AN 9:32 Twilight frowned, staring at the book in front of her, which was resisting all her attempts to translate it. Her personal database of languages had failed her, but it wasn’t the first time. She hadn’t been born with knowledge of every language, and frankly, that was fine by her. Learning new ones was a tantalizing possibility, an endeavor that was sure to be as rewarding as it would be difficult. Maybe. This book, however, was proving to be a problem. Not only was it titled in this unknown language, it was recorded in Semper’s catalogue with no translation. There seemed to be no other example of this language anywhere in the catalogue, nor was there any record of the language itself. “This doesn’t make any sense!” she cried, her horn flaring as the book slammed shut. “Why is this book here? How did it even get recorded without a reference to what language it is! I suppose someone could have simply taken a visual scan, but why? And why not document where it was found, who it was found by, who recorded it, and all the other stuff that comes in really handy for someone like me!” Silence answered, and she sighed, flicking the book back into its erstwhile location in the “Uncategorized” section. She needed a distraction. Perhaps a good fantasy. There was that series by Erstwhile Dalliance which had looked interesting. And she did need to categorize it. She nodded, her mind set. An afternoon of reading it would be, safely away from troublesome languages and the poor documentation thereof. “You have a visitor, Bibliothecaria.” She hung her head. Or not. “Who is it, Semper?” “Voluntaria Fluttershy, and several of her charges.” Twilight frowned, puzzled. “Fluttershy? Now why would she be here? And why didn’t she send a note?” Semper, of course, said nothing; the Library never answered a question it didn’t have the exact answer to. “It must be important,” she mused, as she headed down the stairs. “Let her in.” The front door swung open, and Fluttershy stepped in, her hooves barely making a sound as they touched the wood. Twilight would have put that up to her being pegasus, save for that Rainbow Dash made a racket whenever she had her hooves on the ground. Overall, Fluttershy was just a very quiet pony. “Hello, Fluttershy! What’s going on?” “Oh, hello Twilight. I’m terribly sorry to intrude. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Very quiet indeed. Her voice never seemed to rise above a low murmur, when she spoke at all. Twilight shook her head. “I’d just finished, actually,” she said, and frowned. “Well, for now. But I wasn’t making any headway anyway, so no matter.” The pegasus nodded, a relieved expression on her face. “Oh, good. I’d hate to be a bother. It’s just that, well, um …” She kicked at the ground, nervously, and reached into the pack on her bag, retrieving what looked to be a scroll. Twilight blinked. That was a little odd. She used the scroll model, sure, but that was in keeping with the theme of the library itself. She had yet to see anyone else use it, anywhere. “I was given this yesterday,” Fluttershy said, having placed the scroll carefully on the floor in front of her. “It’s an official, um … well, maybe you’d better just read it.” Twilight raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question, instead grasping the scroll with her glow and rolling it out. “Official Notice: Attention FShy.ai, AKA Fluttershy, Caretaker General of Everfree Environs biosphere simulation and Semper Liberi Voluntaria,” she read, and paused. Caretaker General? She’d known Fluttershy was largely in charge of the Everfree Forest, but that title seemed very official. With a lot of weight. Making a mental note, she continued. “Per the Clan Accord of 320 AT, a connection will be made within your Environs. The Sisters recommend TSparkle.ai, currently in residence at Semper Liberi in the Everfree Environs, be present to finalize handshake protocols. Proceed with all haste to secure the connection and ensure full synchronization. Signed by the Department of New User Services, Everfree Division.” Twilight blinked. Handshake? Why would they need a full-fledged AI to perform a simple handshake? Even the simplest of devices with any kind of networking capability could perform a handshake, and she knew for a fact that those procedures were built into every aspect of The World. “Fluttershy? What’s this about?” The pegasus fidgeted. “It’s, well, it’s new to me too. I’ve never heard of this before, and I haven’t been able to devote the processing time to go through the Accord it mentions. And also, I thought since the Sisters recommended you, it might be better to find out together.” Twilight nodded, rolling the scroll back up and turning toward the center of the room. It had grown since The Incident; Theatrum’s horse head still held pride of place on the central pedestal, but now stood at the center of low circular table. “Activate central terminal, please,” she said, and sat at the table, a screen popping up in front of her. “Search records of legal documents, specifically treaties and international agreements, for the Clan Accord of 320 AT.” Ordering the search was really more of a formality; the advantage of Counselor systems was their proactive approach to things. Semper, she knew, had run the search and prepped the document for viewing the moment she’d read the name out loud. She narrowed her eyes as the text scrolled by, searching for anything relevant. It was an interesting document, typical of the organic proclivity for increasingly sesquipedalian contortions of language in an attempt to preclude any possibility of the abuse of loopholes; already she’d run across a number of new terms that had required a dictionary reference. Still, she had the general thrust of it. “It appears to be a contract,” she said, “between the inhabitants of Uasal and the stewards of the Network. The Network?” “An outmoded name for The World,” Semper provided, “though still relevant for legal documents.” “Ah,” Twilight said. “It appears to have been originally drafted at the time when true virtual reality connections were transplanting more traditional methods of user access. It seems the Uasalans wanted access. There are a number of special provisions here, though. I wonder why.” “Um, that might be because of what Uasalans are,” Fluttershy said. “Semper, do you have any visual records on file?” “Multiple entries are on file within library systems. Everfree database records are more extensive and can be referenced if need be.” The pegasus nodded. “Do you have the final transmission from the Yangtze 7 expedition?” “Affirmative. Please note that this file is flagged as hostile, and Theatrum use is inadvisable.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. That did not bode well. “Proceed with screen projection, please,” she said. “Proceeding. Estimated relevant portion begins approximately 15 minutes before end of file,” the library said, and the back wall of the common room was taken up by a massive screen, showing the image of a lush landscape, heavily forested. Twilight blinked. Those were definitely trees, but she couldn’t place the species, but then she didn’t have an exhaustive database on the subject, either. Movement on the screen caught her eye, and, apparently the eye of whoever was recording, as the camera shifted to track the flying blob. Low voices began speaking from off-screen. Their language was unintelligible, but the general tone of excitement was plain. Fluttershy had said it was from an expedition, and those were generally scientific in nature, with the eye towards the suitability of colonization or resource exploitation, so it would make sense for them to be excited about the local wildlife. Frustrating that none of them were on screen, though. She frowned. The blob was getting bigger. Significantly bigger. At a disturbingly fast rate. She could see that it had wings, now, though the details were still unclear, and the thing was still getting bigger. How far away had it been to begin with? And just how big was it? The limitations of the recording notwithstanding, she could make a reasonable estimation … She blinked, and double-checked her results. A shiver ran up her spine. That didn’t make sense. Well, no, it did make sense, but the implications were unnerving. No, not just unnerving; they were downright scary. To make matters worse, you could hear it in the tone of the voices; clearly, some of them had come to similar conclusions. And the thing was still getting bigger. There was a flash from the creature, and the video ended with a roar and a bang. Twilight shook her head, and played back the last fractions of a second. There was no mistaking it. That had been what could only be described as a fireball. More than likely something on the order of a contained sphere of plasma fired at supersonic speeds. And the source of it … she shook her head, looking over at Fluttershy. “Was that—“ She took a breath, trying to steady herself. “That was a—“ “Dragon,” the pegasus said, her voice even softer than usual. “Uasalans are dragons.”