Chapter 4: Free
Maybe it was wrong of Richard to expect Celestia to react the way he would have, had his commands been disobeyed. She landed beside him, body tense as she watched the opening for the return of their enemy. But she did not repeat herself or chastise. Perhaps she understood as he did that one ruler need respect another. "That is a very fine sword," she said, with one gentle inclination of her head. How she could be so fierce one moment and so calm the next baffled Richard. Despite all his focus, all his practice being calm in the face of difficulty, he couldn't imagine the level of discipline this pony possessed. "I hope you wield it well."
Richard nodded in reply. "As do I," he said, before springing to one side with all the speed his body possessed. So what if this monster didn't give him the respect he deserved? He would teach it a harsh lesson, a lesson taught with a blade forged of the strongest and sharpest material humanity had ever invented. 'Prepare for recovery protocol,' he passed silently along the network to his men waiting in Ponyville. 'This body may be destroyed.'
There was no time for further communication, because that was when the dragon slammed its way into the opening it had made, jaw snapping at Celestia with murderous intent and fire already glowing ready for use. Again his armor lit up with warnings, though this time she dodged to one side rather than shield herself from the brunt of the incredible attack. It was obvious what she was doing: drawing the dragon's attention away from him. It had turned away, and didn't see him coming.
The beast had massive limbs, easily as thick as a large tree-trunk. Up close, the scales glinted like precious stones, each at least an inch thick. They looked stronger than steel.
His sword was much stronger than steel. Even possessing the weapon was a largely ceremonial function, but that did not mean the sovereign of the Steel Tower would carry a cheap sword, or something made from pretty but fragile metal. It would also never be said that the sovereign could not wield a sword, though it was an ancient and impractical weapon. With a deft two-handed stroke, Richard directed the strength of a hydraulic pile-driver into his sword and parted the dragon from one of his claws.
The beast reacted immediately, the flames that melted rock and irradiated the chamber ceasing as swiftly as they had begun. The creature collapsed with his blow, but not before striking out with what was left of that limb with enough force to send Richard spinning through the air. There was no wind to knock from his lungs, but the shock sensors in his armor screamed in protest.
The bureaucrats and senators of the United Earth Federation followed the new, "enlightened" order of governance, and would have been torn to pieces by the angry dragon that had turned its attention to him at last. But Richard followed an older order, in which the King was someone who fought alongside his armies and could perform any task in his kingdom with a level of skill to rival the masters. So while the dragon had knocked him into the air, intending to be upon him with teeth and claw by the time he landed, Richard had no intention of being thus dispatched. His recovery crew might have difficulty getting his cortical recorder out of a dragon's belly.
Without moving any of his limbs, King Richard activated the short-range rockets embedded in the armor, propelling himself fifty feet or so in the opposite direction and landing on his feet with sword lifted in both arms. Though limping, the great dragon ignored the pulsing blood as it bore down on him, its rage conquering pain.
"The human creature has forgotten its place! Dress in pony armor and wield a pony sword, it cannot make you less fodder! You are only what we made of you, animals of a magicless wasteland!" The roar came with another echo of light, and this time the dragon was focused on him directly. He was in the open, there was no way to dodge this strike. The beast was too fast.
There was only time for the internal command. 'All power to magnetic shielding!' He screamed internally, slamming his sword down into the stone and gripping the hilt with both arms. Unlike a steel blade, it did not shatter on impact, but sunk as easily as it had cleaved aside the flesh of the dragon. Much easier, actually.
The circuits in his armor reacted much faster than an operator could control them, faster than the sickly black flames as they leapt at him. He felt capacitors building a charge, felt the plates in the armor begin to hum. As the flames approached, the magnetic charge was released, forming a bubble of energy meant to disrupt human plasma weapons.
As it turned out, dragonfire was not all that dissimilar to plasma weapons. The air around him was superheated by the impressive blast, enough that he would've been cooked alive if he were organic. But Richard's body was the most durable, expensive type just as his armor was the very best technology could produce. Perhaps one of his footmen would not have survived, but Richard was no footman.
Besides, the attack did not continue as long as it had probably been intended. For just as Celestia had distracted the beast while he struck, this rage-filled creature had completely forgotten it was fighting two and not just one. The flames ceased to lick at Richard right about the time the power supply in his armor was nearing depletion and his own systems began to warn him that his body would soon shut down to prevent damage, to say nothing of the ungodly levels of radiation glowing around him. Because dragonfire was apparently radioactive.
Celestia, the Equestrian monarch of the sun, did not wield a weapon he could see. Her weapon was apparently magic itself, focused force and energy that glowed with the warmth of sunrise. And unlike Richard, she did not merely strike a serious but non lethal wound.
The dragonfire had stopped because the dragon no longer had a head. Richard's armor sparked and protested a little as he tried to move, climbing free of the crater the flames had blasted in the floor and removing his sword from its place. The intricate hilt had been melted away and only the plain hilt beneath remained, its metal not even glowing in the heat that had made orange patches in his armor that only now began to cool. His body was damaged too, though not seriously. He would not appear weak before Celestia, who had struck down a terrible monster in one blow.
She landed again on four hooves, her eyes sweeping across the room and the damage the dragon had done to the ground where Richard had stood. Her horn glowed briefly again, and a shimmer played across his body. 'Radiation levels nominal,' it said, even as the advanced plates of his armor popped and sprung back into shape under the focus of Celestia's magic. The errors and heat-melted circuits in his body remained, and for this Richard was glad. Had Celestia been able to fix him as easily as the shape of his armor, he would have been genuinely frightened. He couldn't even imagine any being able to understand such advanced technology so quickly.
"That is... all I can manage right now," she said, her voice drained. And to look at her, she seemed suddenly weary and bedraggled. She might not have received a scratch from the adventure, but it had clearly cost her strength all the same. "And I am sorry for your guard." She gestured at the fallen wall, which began to slide away. The pony and human guard beneath were in equally poor condition. Even Richard, though not a squeamish man, had no desire to look closely. "It is a stain of shame we could not protect our guests." Even as she said this, the faint sparks from her horn brought magic to the body of the fallen Equestrian guard. His body began to knit together, until the sparks faded and Celestia released him, lowering him with the compassion of a tender parent.
For one awful moment Richard feared the guard would sit up and return to life before his eyes. Were that to happen, Richard might have feared this operation had been even more of a mistake than he had already known. It was one thing to speak to another ruler, and quite another to speak to a god.
But the guard remained quite dead, and the king realized what Celestia had done had been a gesture of respect, to allow one who had served her die with dignity. He could understand that, even if the power he had seen just now made him feel very humble. "And my deepest regret that your kingdom faces such enemies." Richard inclined his head towards the fallen dragon, collapsed as it was in the midst of rubble and its scales still glowing with strange runes. That light was fading now though, however slowly. "We knew from Clover that Equestria had its wars just as we have, yet we did not know you had enemies like this."
Celestia made her way toward the rather large window the dragon had made, looking out over her city. The explosions were gone now, along with the shouts of fear and terror. A few fires remained, though most of the smoke Richard saw rising now was white and not black. There was great damage here, but most of the city he saw was intact. At some point during their fight with the dragon, a shimmering field of purple energy had formed above the city, protecting it from any future attacks.
"We rarely do," Celestia admitted, sitting on her haunches to collect her breath. She managed to make the posture look as elegant as anything else she did, yet it was still weakness most rulers would not dare show to an enemy. Perhaps she no longer considered him one. "That dragon used old, forbidden magic. The runes carved into his body allowed him to use his life force to fuel his magic. Dragons are dangerous enemies, but not usually that dangerous. He would have died on his own in an hour or two. Otherwise, they are nearly invincible." She gestured back, and he followed the flick of her hoof with his eyes. The limb he had severed had... regrown! He hadn't even noticed in the flames. Yet the severed claw was there, and the foreleg he had cut it from had a fresh, new claw. "The slightest thought can repair any injury. Had all its magic not been directed towards killing you, my strike would have done nothing. I had aimed to decapitate with my first blow, not to ruin half the garden." Then another nod of respect. "I have never seen a mortal creature survive soulfire before."
Richard's respect for this pony grew. Not only was she showing weakness to him, but she was being honest. It was what he had done when his audience with her had began, yet the gesture hadn't been returned until now. "Executive privilege." He chuckled. "Only three sets of armor with plasma shielding have ever been made to my knowledge. The cost of manufacturing it is equivalent to the GDP of a small nation. But being assassinated is worse than a little short-term fiscal irresponsibility."
This elicited a small smile in return. Slowly, the Alicorn rose to her hooves. "If you don't mind, I must depart to ensure no further harm comes to Canterlot tonight. Ask anypony to direct you to the eastern tower; you will be safe there until my return." Celestia did not wait for a reply. Rather, she spread her great wings and took off into the night, in the direction of the brightest remaining fires.
Richard looked on a moment before turning away, giving the fallen monster a wide berth as he left the room. Yet as he walked, he couldn't get the creature's words from his mind. What had the monster meant?
* * *
Chance poked her head up from belowdecks, looking around. "Why have we stopped, Captain?" It was pretty silly to call Scootaloo anything different, but the pegasus seemed to like it when they did. So they usually indulged her. Just now, doing something so silly made Chance feel a little less like she had just watched an important city burning in the fires of an apparent invasion.
Nor did Scootaloo get a proper chance to answer, since Chance could see immediately what had stopped them. Specifically, the magical shield that had come into being around the city like a bubble. All three of them knew what that bubble meant: the city's defenses were in full effect now. Of course all four of this ship's passengers could pass through that barrier without difficulty, since the standard spell would recognize them as friendly natives.
The problem, as they had learned through previous experience, was that the Nanophage machines that swam in their blood and interfaced with their brains and bodies would not pass through the barrier, not before being registered as a threat and being magically short-circuited. Without the Nanophage, controlling any of the human-designed sections of this ship would be much more difficult. What was worse, there was no telling just how damaged Truth really was. If he could not be repaired, then new injections could not be procured. There would be no way to clean out the microscopic contaminants in their blood. They might all die painful deaths.
Scootaloo probably hadn't put any of that last part together, but she seemed to remember their last adventure with a magical barrier. Cutie Mark Crusaders, thauma-technological pioneers of Equestria. "We're holding position outside the barrier. At least the friend-foe thing seems to work; the guns aren't shooting at us."
"I could bring up the castle on satellite," Chance offered. "See if they still need-" But she didn't finish, because at that moment Scootaloo gasped and twisted hard to starboard on the wheel, causing Second Chance to lose her balance and tumble down a few of the steps. By the time she had made her way back to the surface Apple Bloom was beside her.
"Warn us when you're about to do something like that, Scoot! Sweetie Belle's still recovering down here!"
Scootaloo ignored her anger. "Yeah," she replied, before gesturing energetically ahead of them. "Looks like that ship is getting away!" Both of the other ponies followed the gesture, and indeed there was a ship on the horizon, moving away with great speed. Much faster than any ordinary vessel in the Equestrian Air Service could've caught up with it. Maybe a swift pegasus could close a distance like that, but none of the clumsy propeller-driven ships.
"Is that an Equestrian ship?" Apple Bloom asked, moving to the railing and squinting after its retreating form.
The answer did not come from any organic creature. Rather, it came from the ship itself. Its computer core was up and running again. Though not a General Artificial Intelligence, it was fairly powerful in its own right and responsible for all the Fury's human systems. "Communicating with Celestia 1," came a bland voice over the ship's speakers, before, "Observation link confirmed. Vessel is of Griffon construction, Dreadnaught-class." To the eyes of the three young mares, a gridwork of lines appeared briefly superimposed over their vision, sent over the ship's little mesh network. Highlighted on it were its twenty guns and thick deck-plating, along with the thaumaturgical components that gave the ship lift.
The image was superimposed with the picture from the satellite, which included several figures moving about the ship's surface. They clearly weren't griffons, and if anything they resembled the monsters they had fought in Canterlot. "We can't let them escape!" Scootaloo said, angling the ship directly at the retreating vessel. Their propellers began to spin, and they gradually started building speed. It wasn't enough to catch up, of course. But at least the other ship wouldn't get any further away.
"Shouldn't we let the Air Ponies handle them?" Apple Bloom asked, dodging a box of screws that had begun to slide along the deck toward her as they accelerated. "We're not fighters, Scootaloo." She glanced over her shoulder then, obviously indicating Sweetie Belle. While Chance could hear nothing from her friend, she knew she was still in an unfit state to render them any assistance right now. Spike had been an able assistant, even if he didn't know half as much about the technology as Sweetie Belle.
"We don't have to fight them!" Scootaloo argued, leaning hard on the accelerator. "Just follow them. Maybe they're just gonna run away. If we follow them all the way to the ocean and they leave, then that's fine. If they try to hurt anypony..." She narrowed her eyes, then looked to Chance. "You did say you had some of the weapons running, right? Just because we can't help at the castle doesn't mean we can't help somewhere else."
Chance shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. Yes, they did have some of their weapons working. But she wasn't sure how she would feel about using them on anyone. She hadn't been able to take the lives of the monsters that had been trying to kill them. Her friend had done it instead, and was suffering the consequences. Until now, they had never killed before. They were engineers, tinkerers, explorers, performers, scientists. But not soldiers.
"They dropped bombs on Canterlot!" Scootaloo continued. "Hurt ponies, lit the city on fire! They'll do it again somewhere else unless we stop them."
Chance sighed. It wasn't as though she hadn't known this moment would come. The moment where peace gave way to war. Ships battling in the skies above Equestria could not be isolated. Whoever had attacked would know Celestia and Luna wouldn't tolerate this unprovoked assault on their territory. Could Chance shelter her friends from the reality of war?
She looked to Apple Bloom. "What do you think?"
The mare seemed to contemplate that question for several moments before eventually answering. "Ah reckon... if they wanted tah drop them things on my farm... hurt Granny Smith and mah big brother, I'd do everythin' I could tah stop 'em. If they wanted tah up 'an hurt me, I'd hope there was somepony around teh' help me. We wouldn't do nothin' to 'em if they'd let us be... so I say we go." Her eyes grew steely for a second, almost as much as Scootaloo's. "What's the point of all the fancy machines you gave us if we don't use 'em tah help ponies who need help?"
She thought about that for a few seconds, and then nodded. After all, the weapon systems installed on this airship were more advanced than any in Equestria, more advanced than any in the world. Fully operational, the Prismatic Fury could probably take on a squadron of Tower Fighter Drones. Even a massive Dreadnaught would only take a few direct shots from the main gun. "Okay." She looked around. "Let's get back to work. I don't want to bring the drive online until we have the deck clear enough that the acceleration won't throw saws and nails and things at us. It's a miracle we haven't been impaled or something." She turned. "Spike, you wanna help me get this crap down into storage? Apple Bloom?"
"Sure thing!" Came the familiar dragon's voice, ever helpful. Chance was a little surprised he had stayed out of the argument, but less surprised about how helpful he was afterwards. There wasn't a pony in Equestria more helpful than Spike. Besides, his claws gave him a decisive advantage in many situations where human devices were involved.
It didn't take long for the two ponies and one dragon to clear most of the detritus from the ship and drop it haphazardly into one of the storage lockers they usually used for long-term supplies like food. This left loose wires and missing deck planking on the main level, to say nothing of the paintings and other decorations that had been removed in order to labor on the ship's inner mechanisms. By the end Sweetie Belle had recovered enough to offer some assistance below, sorting out what they found in her magical grasp and removing those objects from the pile that they might actually need. Perhaps the four of them weren't nearly as good as a proper Air Service crew, but they made do as best they could.
When that was done, Sweetie and Chance went to work connecting the remainder of the cables and the interfaces to the pair of point-to-point batteries on deck while Apple Bloom busied herself on the deck of the ship closing down all the openings and hatches and hastily running cable around. It was impressive to see her friends working so confidently with human technology. Even with the computer supplying directions directly through the Nanophage, it was still remarkable. There were no other ponies in Equestria who could do work like this, not even Twilight.
There were days of work left to be done before the upgrades would be complete, but they weren't trying to finish the upgrades.
"Don't worry about it," Spike said, standing confidently at the forward gun. It was the only one of their weapons that could be manually fired, and even then it hadn't been customized past the human configuration it had been manufactured with. That meant it took hands or unicorn magic to operate. "I got the idea. Look in the glass, point it so the light goes green and squeeze. But are you sure it will make a difference? This is way smaller than the cannons I've seen. Twilight said Griffon ships use a metal we don't have in Equestria to make their armor, and cannonballs just bounce off. You need magic to bring them down, and we don't have any."
There really wasn't enough time to explain the intricacies of the technology Spike had at his claw tips, not with so many repairs to make. If they couldn't get the jet engines running, they would never close the distance and the ship that was escaping into Equestria would be able to attack with impunity. Yet there was already grease on her coat and she was sick of looking at wires. Just how long had they been working, an hour? Two? "This doesn't fire cannonballs." She knocked the side of the steel mount with one hoof. "It's a plasma weapon. Their metal armor plates will conduct the current great, trust me. You'll be the first Equestrian to take down an airship with one shot."
"But only if they're hurting someone," he said, though his tone was questioning. As though he wasn't sure about what he said, but he wanted to be.
She nodded. "If they shoot at us or we see them hurting ponies, we shoot. Otherwise we'll just follow them until they leave Equestria."
"Good." Spike's grip tightened on the handles. He didn't have to stand on tiptoe to use the gun, but very nearly.
Chance returned to her work. There were the real engines to tend to, the ones that could actually get them anywhere. When that was done, maybe there would be time to get the automated defense turrets ready before they closed within firing distance of the strange vessel. She certainly hoped so.
Spike might hope that this was all some enormous misunderstanding and the ship was just flying out of Equestria, but Chance knew better. They would have their share of the fighting to do soon enough.
* * *
"Will you walk with me?" The question surprised him, though Richard showed none of his surprise. Perhaps fleshy bodies could be ruled by their instincts and desires, but being fully synthetic meant he could restrict an emotional reaction from reflecting in his face. All the extra effort to imitate all the muscles in the face and he could still switch them off and act the mask. Yet he doubted the princess was fooled.
"Of course." That was the only proper response. She had, after all, left her work in the city to speak with him. The sound of distant explosions was gone completely, along with the protests of metal on metal that indicated distant combat. Celestia's manner made it clear her people had won. As though he had any doubt. Even with the one dragon, the attack had been incompetently led and poorly planned. So much about their enemies had been revealed, and the population would no doubt be roused to a violent frenzy. The sleeping giant would wake now, and had anything been accomplished? The city was too sturdy to be affected much by the small bombs. Perhaps a few dozen had been killed, tops.
Richard gave a nod to his captain and followed Celestia from the room. Celestia did not speak to him, nor to any of the ponies they passed in the castle as they walked. The number of guards had increased dramatically since his arrival, and Richard counted no less than three hundred with his electronic eyes as he followed her from one of the upper rooms in the tower to the ruined gardens. Amidst perfect flower-beds and beautifully sculpted water features were great gaps and gouges torn by claws or crushed by scaly limbs.
There were no ponies here. The city was fully awake, but repairing the castle gardens were clearly not a priority. Richard hadn't asked what Celestia had ordered and he had no intention of doing so. After fighting beside her, any doubt of her competence had vanished. "I have received disturbing news," Celestia said as they traveled, once they were far from any who might overhear. "Urgent action is required, and bureaucracy is not fast enough. The unique advantage of a monarchy is the ability to make rapid decisions. I have a feeling both of us are about to make some tonight."
How she managed to smile in the face of everything that had happened tonight bewildered Richard, but he did not dwell on his confusion. "What news?" He asked, as blandly as possible.
"Not yet." Celestia stopped suddenly, and Richard realized he had not figured where she had been leading him. Now he looked around himself, and saw they were standing in the center of a nearly circular reflecting pool of some kind. Only a slice was removed to allow access on dry land, though there was a circle of moderate size in the center that would have permitted perhaps two other ponies to join them. The pool itself was still, and mirrored the stars above them almost perfectly. In the faint starlight, Richard could make out the shape of continents and land-masses carved into the pool and beneath his feet. It was this planet, he was sure, and the map was positioned in such a way that Equestria was at the center of the circle. His powerful eyes seemed to indicate that the green used as dry land came from actual emeralds, and the blue of oceans and seas from aquamarines or similar gems. Each stone was small, perhaps the size of his pinky-nail. They had all been set into perfectly flat flooring. It was work fine enough to put the Romans to shame.
"I have another question to ask first, and my decision depends on your answer." She tilted her head very slightly toward him, and powerful eyes looked down on him. "I expect an honest and complete answer of your feelings, no matter how irrelevant it might seem. Do you understand?" He nodded, and Celestia asked the question that would change Equestria forever.
As Richard had expected from her explanation, it seemed to have no direct correlation to the situation at hand or the relationship between the Steel Tower and Equestria. It seemed to have no relation to much of anything, yet it caught him so much by surprise that he was silenced for several minutes afterwards. During his entire life he had only ever heard such sincerity from another living being once before. Celestia had the power of the largest nuclear reactors, yet her voice seemed almost like a child. The years were stripped away, the wisdom and the confidence, and she spoke the words.
"Is there such thing as free will?"
Silence was her only answer, silence and the faint ripples of the wind on the reflecting pool. The moon was on its way down now, gliding toward the edge of the pool. Its builders seemed to have intended it to perfectly capture the rising and setting of the sun and moon, because it looked as though the moon would pass from the reflective surface from their perspective exactly as it set beyond the horizon.
Richard opened his mouth, and was silenced by an imperious flick of Celestia's ears. "I don't want philosophy," she said firmly. "I don't want explanations or what others have decided. I want to hear what you think and nothing else."
He closed his mouth again, and stood still long enough to see the moon begin to slip across the pond. Celestia did not waver, though she did sit in that dignified way ponies sometimes did. Even so, she never averted her gaze from him, not even for an instant. Richard could not meet those eyes, and while they were on him any pleasing explanation he might've spun withered and died. Eventually it was all he could do to explain the truth, as best he understood it.
"I do not know," he began, turning away from her to look out over the reflecting pool. Anything not to have to look into those eyes. "Though the evidence weighs heavily against it, I persist in an irrational faith that it must, even when we have robbed ourselves of any possible vehicle for its existence."
"Consider first if a living creature is body alone. If every decision we make is dictated by the combination of genetic predisposition and the influence of environmental factors, then what was considered an intelligent being's ability to choose is merely blind obedience to the combination of inheritance and external pressure. It's true the uncertainties of quantum behavior make the exact chemistry of low-level brain behavior somewhat elusive even to our science, but even quantum uncertainty in the behavior of neurons does not mean a being has free will, only that the universe applies inconsistent pressures."
Richard had no idea if Celestia could understand what he was telling her. He didn't dare turn to look at her. He was not a man afraid of his actions, but for the first time in his life he had encountered a force strong enough to make him feel a twinge of fear. So he went on. "The proof of free will is in the soul, some argue. Our science has failed to detect such a thing if it exists, however. And even if it does, the nature of the soul is important."
He looked, and found only a look of contemplation. Not anger, frustration, or fear. So maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. "Where does the soul come from? How did it originate? Many of my citizens once believed that a being called God was the creator of souls and had given them to humans chiefly of all his creations.”
This elicited a slight smile from Celestia “There are ponies who believe my sister and I created them in much the same way. Or that we gave ponies souls and therefore intelligence.”
“Did you?”
Celestia chuckled. “The evidence seems to suggest we didn’t. Our reign did not begin until recently in the history of ponies. There is no mention of us before the unification of the tribes, even though ponies had been building civilizations for thousands of years. The device you tampered with to get here has records of twenty-six thousand years of time and those ponies are functionally identical to the modern species.”
Richard did not have to force himself to smile. “I suppose if you could create life like that, you wouldn’t ask a question like this. I would ask you. Yet even if a godlike being did create souls for us, it would not prove we have free will. If God created our souls with our personalities and drives and instincts, if they and not our brains guide our actions, then how is this different from being slaves to our DNA? A soul like this does not prove that we have free will."
"As I understand it, there is only one way free will might exist, and I have never seen evidence to suggest it might be true. We must be more than genetic instructions, and this essence that is ourselves must have no creator. Yet this is impossible. Even the universe has a beginning, which we can calculate and even observe by recording its conditions today. The old faiths also seem to clearly indicate that the only being without creator is God himself. If so, I suppose that means that free will is an illusion and our universe is entirely mechanistic."
"That is not what I believe, Princess Celestia. There is one piece of evidence to support a belief in will, and I doubt your species will have experienced it. The first experiments conducted with the cyberization process — converting humans from biological to technological life — involved "copying" the individual memories and brain patterns into a computer simulation. This left the original intact, and so far as we understand there is no reason this strategy should not have worked to simulate a perfect copy of the individual within a powerful computer. Yet to our great surprise, the results were... lifeless. Even a perfect simulation of the brain in all of its connections resulted in repetitious recordings. These individuals repeated behaviors of the original beings, yet they were completely unable to act in unexpected ways. Not reduced in intelligence, yet without intuition or real emotion. Not alive."
"Our present cyber-conversion process destroys the original, replacing cells individually until the entire brain is cybernetic. As you have observed, my people are as vibrant and alive as any physical beings. Something has remained that cannot be explained by organic parts we no longer have. A conversion like this even allows the person to be "uploaded" into computer simulation without losing whatever intangible is responsible for creativity and genuine emotion."
"It even seems to be able to survive death in some situations. Our bodies keep a constantly updating backup of our brains in a small device called a Cortical Recorder. So long as this device survives, a fallen cybernetic individual can be revived as alive as when he died. We observe nothing unusual in the body with any of our instruments, which are significantly more advanced than any in this world. There is nothing there to explain this phenomenon, and few of my people even know it exists. If there is a soul, that is where it is."
"I don't know if there is free will. But I hope there is. I believe there is, because without it I can't rule my kingdom. I can't hold my subjects responsible for their actions if they only do what God or their DNA or their upbringing is telling them to do. I can't punish those who do evil and reward those who do good in a world without free will. There is no way to operate as a civilized society without a belief in will, even if that belief is not supported by evidence."
There was silence, though not for nearly as long as Richard had taken to put his answer into something approaching succinct. When she did speak, Celestia's tone had returned to her normal confidence, without giving a hint about what she might really be thinking either way. "This attack was not meant to do serious damage," she said, as though this had been a conversation about tonight all along. Did that mean he had satisfied her? "It was meant to distract and divert attention away from the true target. While my sister and I were occupied here in Canterlot, their main force captured the city of Los Pegasus. Sources indicate that ships are unloading thousands of soldiers an hour. It's possible the Guard of that city might have protected the city if Luna or I had been there."
"They're entrenching themselves as we speak," Richard offered. "Reinforcing their position with troops and preparing to expand rapidly to other territory. Blitzkrieg is a historically effective technique. They will be reluctant to return your city to you." Realization filled his face, and he understood what this was about. She wanted allies, she wanted help. He could do far better than that. "Do you have any allies who will help you?" The game had resumed, the game of careful maneuvering and measured words. Yet for all of it, neither was quite so reserved as they had been. Celestia's question had softened Richard a little, and his answer seemed to have had a similar effect. He didn't understand why, but he would not question good fortune.
Celestia shook her head. "Equestria hasn't had a war in over a century. Yet the last decade hasn't been what I would describe as peaceful. The Zebra tribes have been embroiled in tribal disputes lately that make them unable to offer any unified response. Representatives from the Griffon Empire have visited rarely and are evasive about new treaties and agreements. Despite our pleas for assistance, they have done nothing about the piracy along eastern trade routes and our airships must travel under escort when near their territory. As for the dragons, there is no formal government at all but a complex system of relationships and favors owed and exchanged between clans and individuals. The present basis of Draconic cooperation with Equestria is based on such debts incurred on their behalf during a previous era. There has never been an Oathbreaker until tonight, and no recourse other than a declaration of war. Relations with minotaurs are and always have been... extremely complex."
"Our intelligence suggests that enemies of Equestria have risen to power in Draconic lands and have been tolerated by them. After tonight it seems the dragons were more than tolerating our enemy. We also have evidence of significant trade taking place between griffons and this enemy, and I suspect the chaos and petty warfare between Zebra tribes is the result of political sabotage."
"No, King Richard. Equestria is presently without support in our world. Our few remaining friends are either too frightened of reprisals to help us, or small enough that their help is ultimately insignificant." She looked at him again, her expression pleading. "We desperately need your help to end this conflict before more ponies are killed. Yet we cannot ask without terms, because the consequences of accepting help without them might even be worse. Will you hear our terms?"
Richard smiled, and nodded slowly. "Of course, Princess. The Steel Tower came to your world as friends. We are not weak-spined creatures who balk at danger and retreat from difficulty. Yet our lives are hard, and in order to spare the power to help you we must be helped in return."
Celestia nodded in turn. "The hour is late. If you would consent to delay a moment while I raise the sun, I can explain."
In spite of everything, these words elicited a chuckle from Good King Richard. It was true that when Clover the Clever visited Earth fifty years ago she had spoke of Celestia raising and lowering the sun, but none who had heard her took those words very seriously. To hear them repeated by Celestia herself, a person who had seemed reasonable and logical to him at every moment, was almost beyond belief. He just stared blankly, wishing he had biological ears to blame for hearing her wrong. Maybe the plasma had damaged his body worse than he had thought. "U-uh... yes." He tried not to sound skeptical. "Of course. I'll wait."
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Again, I love seeing Celestia show that you do not mess with a Princess.
And Richard is awesome too.
) I just think about it as little as possible and enjoy the ride, since all of the deterministic factors are too much to actually allow for prediction.
As it happens, that free will question has been rattling around in my head ever since my college philosophy course, and I'm afraid I never got past the arguments against, if only because we in real life haven't witnessed uploading of the sort Richard describes- i.e. if you take a slice of chocolate cake instead of a peach, how and why could you have possibly chosen the peach instead? (This despite both I and the college being quite Christian.
Since he wants land.. Trollestia would give him a chunk of the Everfree and then watch as it drove them mad.
What would Poison Joke do to robots, I wonder?
Though I suppose the Badlands would likely be a more strategically sound choice.
Ohhh the philosophy in robots and the unfortunate past of the human race, how you make me ponder so! Incredibly interesting, I just can't get over how you put these things together, it's so incredible what you're making!
This story... I want to call "moar! I want moar now!" but that would be wrong, quality over quantity...
...and I didn't really see any errors, so I'll just go for nit-picks (this will have no impact on the grade, its so other nit-pickers won't have any nit to pick
)
A missing '
I think its only a period missing... I really hope its only a period missing.
all in all, great chapter!
A+
Keep up the good work
Celestia:1 Richard:1 Dragon: 0. Question: can dragon claws be made into effective weapons ala Dungeons and Dragons???? And will Celestia mount that giant dragon skull behind her throne as an intimidation tactic? "Oh, the dragon head on the wall? He interrupted me during negotiations with a fellow monarch and suffered the consequences."
I can't wait to see the further adventures of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike vs the Griffon Dreadnaught. GO CAPTAIN SCOOTALOO!!!!
4682450 Obviously the blue plant would give them a Blue Screen of Death.
I don't think there's even a single person who read this without reading MLA first
Richard opened his mouth, and was silenced by an impervious flick of Celestia's ears.
Are you sure you didn't mean "imperious"?
4671897
Very true. As I said, I never learned about this stuff, so don't hesitate to point out any violations I make if I don't get the particulars quite right.
4682405
I think that questions that are actually relevant to us here in the real world are the most interesting to explore in fiction. My own views are pretty similar to what Richard says, at least in one respect. If we don't /act/ as though Free Will exists, then we can't exist in civilized society. Exploring it sure does seem to be an interesting question, though.
4682450
I suppose it would depend. It could be it doesn't consider them "alive" and does nothing, the same way it doesn't effect inanimate objects. If it does effect them, I suppose it might make one temporarily alive again, if being a cyborg was important enough to them. I expect the effects would be as hard to predict as for ponies, though.
4683092
Well thanks! I'm glad the story is interesting at any rate. That's what it's always been about for me, and if I fail at everything else I hope it can at least be said that I succeed in keeping things interesting. Not too much of any one thing, but... whose to say classical literature and philosophy can't be thrown in with cartoon ponies? I see no reason why not.
4684576
Nitpicks fixpicked! Alpha readers are making things great now, yay!
4684724
I expect that we'll be seeing more of Captain Scootaloo shortly. I dunno if mounting a head is very much Celestia's style, but I doubt she would just dispose of the body. I suspect it does have some sort of supernatural properties. Granted some of those might've been ruined by whatever evil ritual thing it did to enhance its magic, but... who's to say. Maybe she'll hold onto the remains and return them as an intimidation tactic of her own. "Yeah, here's this big dragon. We return him for a proper burial." While what she doesn't say is "even catching me almost alone with the soul-destroying ritual wasn't enough for him to beat me. Think about that jerks."
4685376
Maybe not, but some of the most frequent commenter from MLA have dropped off and some new commenter have started commenting, people who I never saw on MLA (but who probably read it). So the audiences do change.
4686678
Yep! Fixed it. Strange it slipped past, but that's worlds better than the stuff that used to happen.
4691508 as an add-on to returning the dragon's body back " as far as where his claws are well I've got 12 new daggers"
I had this exact idea a few months ago, actually. It's been bouncing around in my head and I've been thinking on exactly how to do it. I kinda want to go into nanotechnology solely for that reason.
Well, minds of equal intelligence think alike, right? Which pretty much proves that free will doesn't exist, since if all it takes to determine how you think is your intelligence then we're all slaves to a certain set of conditions which happen to also produce that level of apparent intelligence.
Oh, philosophy, how I love thee.
Oh yeah, nice fight scene.
Don't Mess With Celestia.
I'm gonna be honest, if the CMC are able to catch up with that ship, letting it escape would be a mistake. Force it to surrender or blow it out of the sky.
Great explanation on the existence of free will from Richard, I continue to really like him.
The part about free will was surprisingly well thought out. Well done.
I've got to commend you on the debate on free will in this chapter. It doesn't really break any new ground even in in-story terms, but it does break the existing salient points down to a nicety. You don't see that often - or ever - here.
Bullshit. A lack of free will does not absolve you of consequences for your actions. Even if will is an entirely mechanical, deterministic process, then so are the reactions of others to your actions (including any punishment you receive).
Mechanistic metaphysical predestination seems to me so utterly reliant on statistical thinking that I don't understand how it persists in a universe so permeated with and dominated by chaotic mechanisms. If God exists, even She could not perfectly predict the arc of you without copying the clock entire and setting every neigh-infinite weight and tumbler to their exact position, and allowing the simulacra to advance to this exact point. He could only know you through observation, never through analysis.
Alternatively, if there is a God, She is not constrained within the arrow of time, and knows you at a glance, holistically, as a single temporal string from birth to death. She has observed every choice at once, as if they were a single wave. From man's point of view, that looks like predestination, but it is merely an illusion of position. If there is a God, free will is the only reason we exist.
King Richard watch carefully you will be a believer and start to under stand the kind of power that the princess truly have.
It was true that when Clover the Clever visited Earth fifty years ago she had spoke of Celestia raising and lowering the sun, but none who had heard her took those words very seriously.
After everything you just witnessed with the Dragon & Celestia...you think that her raising the sun is mere SUPERSTITION or an error in your hearing? really guy? I mean honestly! Some humans *Rolls eyes*
6921760
Other than the undetermined nature of God (which should be obvious given my avatar image), I'd say the latter theory is at least pretty close to reality.
Celestia said she didn't want philosophy, but what came out of his mouth was nothing but.
9157444
well, she asked what he thinks, not what he heard. Philosophy is a study, what he voiced is an opinion.