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.”
Useful note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handshaking
And yes, the wording is deliberate.
Its been a while good sir. Ive been waiting.
An AI, just to perform the digital equivalent of the "Hello" before a conversation? I wonder what they really want her there for.
1346724
Incoming ?
It updated?
Directive: Grow updated!?
Yesyesyesyesyes! So much win!
1346724 "And yes, the wording is deliberate."
I caught that. Curiouser and curiouser....
Why take so long?! It's been like... 5 months or something?!
1346724
if it weren't for the protocol computers wouldn't work the way they do nowadays. They also wouldn't be as secure either.
1346827
You saw nothing.
1347010
Life. Work. School. Other stories. Lack of motivation to write. Lack of new pony episodes to inspire juices. Etc.
Actually had, like, three chapters worth of something for this written, then lost the thread. Wrote this to start a new thread.
Dude...
Y U NO UPDATE IN FOREVAR
Seriously. Welcome back. Thank you for this, definitely needed.
Woah! this fic is still alive! Most excellent, this is one of my favorite takes on an AU Equestria!
1347115
well hey, at least the last of those reasons will be resolved in another couple of month, right?
HUZZAH! I've been on a big cleanup binge of my saved fanfics lately, and just yesterday I was thinking wistfully about this one and feeling disappointed that it seemed to have fallen off of regular updates. So glad to see that it's not abandoned! And it looks like a new story arc is gearing up, perhaps with some information to be had about the history of this noosphere. :)
You updated?!
fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/318/5/8/oh_no_you_didn__t__by_lightstrong-d4g7153.jpg
Now time to read.
Just discovered this when it updated. AI Twilight! Interesting....
...Does this mean Parasprites are a DDoS attack?
I see you finally heeded my warning. very wise of you to do so.
Oh god, one of my favorite fanfics has updated!
Dragons, on the internet? Interdasting... And more tidbits about non-digital reality! I've been really curious what exactly The World is to physical Equestria (assuming there is an Equestria). So far, it seems like Second Life, if Second Life contained the entirety of the internet, had a Matrix-level of immersion, and was largely inhabited by true AIs. Makes me think of Ready Player One's Oasis OS, actually.
//This hardware-level stuff is deep, man.
//And it makes me wonder if Twilight is running on an Intel or AMD server?
//Have they made the cloud so ubiquitous that it's irrelevant?
//Can I get root access?
Holy crap, YES! Update! :D
And is it just me, or does anyone else think Spike is about to make an appearance?
AWESOME!
Update of an awesome story, with the introduction of the most awesome creature alive! DRAGONS!
CANNOT WAIT FOR MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh god yes, an update!
Hmn, interesting. I'm guessing Spike as well.
I'm not really sure how dragons would nearly as intimidating when they enter the virtual reality setting, but it's a neat twist.
Hmm, let's see:
a connection with a new user is to be made
the heads of the system specifically request Twilight's presence when the connection is made
the user is in the form of an Uasalan aka dragon
Sounds to me like our bibliothecaria is about to get her number one "auxiliator".
Yay! the (multi-chapter) fic that inspired "Magi-Tech" LIVES!!!!!!
1349251
That Inspired what? What did I miss?
I spontaneously exploded. You finally updated!
Well, it certainly is great to see this isn't dead. I really do like the story, although I do end up finding myself totally lost when it comes to the "lore" I guess you'd call it. It was great back in the first couple chapters when Twilight knew about as much about what was going on as the readers, but after a couple timeskips I'm a bit confused. Maybe it's just that it's been a while since I read the chapters leading up to the latest one, and I'm not super tech-savvy, so maybe that has something to do with it. I find myself getting lost with how the virtual world connects with the real world; things like how the revelations of who was a user and who was an AI seemed kinda sudden, and I found myself wondering if the users were entities that were fully controlled by a person or were just a representation of the actions the actual person were making, but this chapter seems to imply the former with the whole "true virtual reality connections" thing. Then there's the thing with the Yangtze 7 expedition; I'm assuming right now that Yangtze 7 is either some other planet or something virtual world-related, but it's not really explained beyond the fact that there are jungles there, the people from the expedition speak a language that Twilight doesn't know, and that there are dragons there (who from what I can gather are quite intelligent and now want to get access to... the magic internet I guess?)
Rambling walls of text aside, I'll assume for now that I'm just forgetting, not getting, or overlooking things. It's wonderful that this story is still going, and hopefully there won't be as big a gap between chapters this time!
1349331 Just a fic I'm doing in my spare time, nothing important...
OOOH
So much shiny!
Also I like the kind of implied level that this might actually just be an internet section BASED on a fan of MLP
1346724
>Linked to wikipedia
>Read article
>XOR Gate (Logic gates? I never learned much about them!)
>Binary?
Do you know what time it is for me? 100:10 in the morning. Freaking christ. I learned how to count in binary. And I ALMOST started to learn how to do math in binary. (Arithmetic at least) You're a cruel person! I liked the chapter as well. Dragons? Dragons. Spike? Only time shall tell... Maybe it will tell me in binary. If that happens this will have been a good thing!
What does the 'scroll' mean by "a connection will be made within your Environs"? What kind of connection? Draconian diplomacy activated!
new update?
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/206/302/1322067866304.gif
NEW UPDATE?!
praise Celestia.ai!
Just for the record: You said the relevant part of the recording started 15 minutes before the end of the file. If I read that right, the dragon fireball WAS the end of the fireball. So they sat there and watched it for 15 minutes? Or was it part of a "documentary" type thing, so the end of that video just started another in the file?
Other than that, story's looking good. I know it has to have been a long time since this one updated because I HADN'T felt like it had been a long time for "A Different Kind of Magic", and the last update on this was well before that one...
Now for TSparkle.ai to meet the Tau'ri and JSheppard.ai, RMckay.aai (ancient ai), and RDex.ai
What I'm saying is ADD IN SOMETHING ALONG THE LINE OF SGA NOW!
it would make sense
1359401
That would be difficult, given I never followed the Stargate series all that closely. I don't really watch TV that much.
1359624 well it's available on Amazon Prime for free, and it's a very good show. 5 seasons, near the middle of season 3 for me, start at the first episode and work your way up to know about Rodney Mckay, Major John Sheppard and Ronon Dex
Hell yeah, more Directive: Grow.
A new creature appearing soon in the Everfree? Interesting! It's a dragon, isn't it... yep. Dragon.
Of course, that still leaves a number of possibilities... are we heading into Dragonshy, or just chronicling the arrival of Spike? If it's Spike... ooh, he's going to be a user, isn't he? Heh. That would explain Twilight's low tolerance for his basic animal needs like food and sleep... and if he's a user, then he has two appearances- his physical self and his avatar. I wonder which one will be the baby dragon, and what the other might be?
...
And it would legitimize his romantic interest in Rarity. Holy crap, did you have that planned the whole time?
Must thumb up for the use of the word sesquipedalian.
^ look, you're inspiring people to make accounts.
You know, Ruby could also be the thing running this system.
If you don't know what it is, go look at Why's §can't spell§ Guide to Ruby.
Well, question awnsered :D
1347907
Cyrix 5x86.