That went sour fast.
I was hoping I wouldn't have to show the resident sunriser the worst part of my species-ignorance. But no, that buffoon just had to call, right then and there. Remind me again why I enjoy the rest of my species.
"It's been a few minutes now," Celestia finally said.
"Yes, I'm well aware of that, but that guy just makes me lose my cool so fast..." Her expression changes. "...I don't suppose you have any antagonists like that?"
She lowered her head, probably an analog to slumping her shoulders. "An antagonist that makes us act unlike ourselves? Yes, we do."
"Could you describe it for me?"
"His name is Discord, and he is the spirit of chaos."
Discord redirects to dissonance on wikipedia; dissonance itself having multiple meanings, all related to conflict or incongruity.
Chaos: complete disorder and confusion. Except in mathematics.
"He wields very powerful magic. He can transform objects with a snap of his fingers, create almost anything he wants, block any offenses..."
"...probably break physics in general..."
"...indeed, but he especially delights in turning friends against each other. And since he gets his power from conflict, it makes him almost unstoppable."
"Almost."
"Yes, almost. He has one weakness, although I don't think I need to explain it right now. In short, harmony can defeat him."
"Not just any kind, I'm guessing, but I'll ask about that later." Celestia looks relieved to be off that subject. "Anything else dangerous to tell me about?"
"As it becomes relevant."
"I can work with that. So, anything else I need to know about this planet?"
I received a twenty-minute teaching session on how the sun and moon work (geocentric, with some magic involved), why Luna wasn't here (nocturnal, fair enough), the different species and locations (an appreciated rehash of Twilight's original data dump), and a crash course on magic. The last one culminated in me coding a new function to the scanlasers, just to try my hand: instantaneous velocity alteration/cessation.
"Simple as changing a value."
"Not exactly levitation, but impressive nonetheless. I never thought a non-unicorn, let alone a non-pony could do magic!"
"Magic is basically altering the world around oneself, is it not? That's what my avatar was originally created to do. It's not exactly me using magic, I'm just guiding a constructed representation of myself that can."
"That's even more impressive. How powerful is your avatar?"
That question stops me cold. "...you know, I never thought about that. I suppose it depends on data allotment and connection speed, but those are mostly limits on how fast my computer can issue commands-"
"Speaking of connection and commands, what if you became disconnected from the avatar?"
"If the computer disconnects? It would destabilize without constant instructions. If I gave it an AI, I suppose I could get it to stabilize, but the energy required would take..." I begin scanning random objects and crunching numbers. "...it would use six forms' worth of energy to stabilize it. Eden's blessing would be necessary even for marginal success."
"It transforms?"
"Kind of. Think of it as levels."
"As in stories or floors."
"No...well, not exactly. I guess that's where the RPG and video game terms come from...which makes sense." I tell her what I told Twilight at the party, before adding some more details. "Each level it has uses more processing power. It makes it more stable, and consumes more energy, which also means it has more energy to use. Collisions force it to use a big chunk of energy instantaneously to restabilize, lowering the level. It can only use so much at one time from the network, which caps me at five. Zero is when my computer is supplying it with its own lifeline, and attempting to restabilize puts too much strain on the system, which results in something similar to disconnecting in the middle. What you see right now is the third form, safe but not truly powerful."
She mulled this over for a bit. "You mentioned something about 'Eden'."
Oh! "Oh, right. Eden is the AI, the artificial intelligence, that runs the K-Project network, the very network that I'm connecting to you through. Most of the data flow is controlled by her. Follow?"
"I follow."
"If Eden wants to, she can grant my avatar a final form. It's the hardest limit on how powerful my avatar is; there is no possible way to safely consume more energy-or at least, not enough more for a seventh." I pause for a moment to let the foreign princess take it in, while giving myself a chance to consider things. "And the only time that's happened so far was at the end of the Incident...when I was enlightened..."
"If I knew what to do, would it be possible for me to allow use of-"
"No." I don't even need to let her finish the question. "That's not how it works, sadly. While I'm connected through the network, and I don't see that changing anytime soon, there's no possible way to draw that much power without allowance from Eden herself."
"...I see."
Silence for half a minute. "Well, if there's anything else you want to tell me, or anything you'd like to ask me about, go ahead."
"Actually, I believe that what we've talked about so far will suffice for the day. Feel free to leave at any time."
"Sounds good." I'm about to do just that, before I realize something. "Oh, and one more thing. Since you can get into the network, and you can contact me via voice chat, you should be able to do both at the same time. Call me any-"
The doors suddenly swing open as a guard bursts in. "Celestia, we have problems!"
"Calm down, captain Armor. This was a private conversation until now, so I hope it's important."
"The statue...it moved!"
The princess' face morphs into one of shock. "Is it still moving?"
"That's the strangest bit. It only moved a small distance, then it just stopped!"
"Wait, wait wait. What statue, and how small are we talking here? Millimeters? Feet?"
Celestia supplies, "The petrified Discord statue."
Followed by the guard's report. "Barely measurable."
Suddenly, klaxons! "Virus Alert!" Seriously? The timing is just impossible. The two ponies look at me confused, probably expecting an explanation.
I hold a button to activate voice command. "Quarantine." Release. "Computer stuff. Sorry guys, but I gotta go, stat."
"Okay. Come back as soon as you like."
"Will do." But in all seriousness, I thought I virus-proofed this machine ages ago! First, it would have gone through the K-Project, specifically guided to my computer. It would then have had to bypass my custom firewalls, which rival the top-of-the-line private security (the computer kind) that governments shell out the big bucks for; even then, there's no way for it to have not tripped something, which is why all the alarms.
It would also have needed to do all this while my avatar was in use outside of my own system, otherwise it would have been vaporized on the spot. And there's no way it could have known I would be using it right now! Coupled with the fact that if anything gets through once, the firewalls will block it with ease and without fail the next any amount of times it tries to get through! It seems impossible, and yet I now have a virus to deal with! How? How?
I log out.
"He-llo-oooooo? I get stuck in stone for 1000 years, freed and petrified again, and now I make my way out only to get shoved into a box! Where are your manners?!?"
...Oh brother.