Chapter XXV
Chapter XXV
Princess Luna cantered through the broken door of the lab, well aware of the death that preceded its destruction. The body-count had just come in, and with the destruction of the vicinity of 4th and Starlight Lane, the alien monster had succeeded in killing twenty people and injuring fifty before he was stopped.
All around her ponies were busy; either repairing the damages caused by the two aliens (either accidentally in ~Alex’s~ case, or maliciously in the monster’s), or examining the object that had formed in the center of the room during the ~human’s~ episode.
Princess Luna eyed the golem, her gaze calculating. Currently this… ~Amilia~ seemed dead to the world; its once glowing eyes were nothing but blank sockets, and the orbs of light that served as its joints had disappeared, leaving the limbs strewn about the place. The thing seemed quite dead.
Though, with golems, that was always a suspect assumption.
“Is it malfunctioning?” Princess Luna asked, causing all the ponies nearby to jump in alarm.
“Princess Luna! I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there!” Doctor Burner said with a sweeping bow, which was quickly imitated by the rest of the ponies in the room once they realized that royalty was among them.
“Do not trouble yourselves with formalities at the moment, we have far too many things to worry about for such trivial nonsense,” the Princess said with a wave of her hoof. Grudgingly, the assembled ponies rose from their various bows and got back to work, with the exception of Doctor Burner. “Now, tell me what you have discovered about our newest friend.”
“Quite a lot, Your Highness. This… golem, is both the most primitive, and advanced, piece of living machinery I have ever seen,” Doctor Burner said as he levitated his clipboard over to the princess.
“How so?” she asked as she studied the notes with interest.
“The body was created using an Artist’s Matrix,” he said simply.
Princess looked up at the skeleton again, her gaze searching carefully over every inch of the creature’s form. Slowly, small details she had missed the first time began to reveal themselves. A series of numbers here, an odd cogwheel there, a weird crack where there shouldn’t have been: not only was it obvious that an Artist’s Matrix was used, but really, given the ~human’s~ background, it made sense that he’d used one.
An Artist’s Matrix was the most primitive method for golem creation. It involved carving or scribbling a basic description of whatever you wanted to make, and channeling your power into the drawing. The ritual had the benefits of quickly making golems, but the drawbacks far outstripped those benefits.
To start off, the process grabbed anything and everything in the immediate vicinity to construct the golem, prioritizing whatever objects were closest first, and objects of lesser mass second. This resulted in some… rather interesting golems. Once, Luna had seen one made entirely of leaves: Not even remotely threatening.
The second problem was power. Not only did this process require a huge pool of mana to begin with, but without a power matrix to syphon magic from Equis’s field, the golem would only have as much power as its creator could channel into it at the time of construction. This meant that golems created in this manner could last anywhere between a couple of seconds to a full minute, making them good for distractions, but little else.
To put it bluntly, it was a method of golem construction that was so far out of date, that only ponies with doctorates in golemancy even knew what it was. Which was why Luna found it surprising that Doctor Burner would have called it advanced.
“What do you mean, it’s advanced?” she asked him as she moved closer.
“When I speak of advanced, I of course, am referring to these… rather interesting plates located in the chest region. We’ve ran a few initial scans, and the degree of complexity that they have far outstrips anything I have ever seen.” The pony carefully picked up a probe and a magnifying glass, while motioning the Lunar Princess closer. He then held the magnifying glass over the plate for her, and pointed at one of the small, silvery studs found there. “You see these? These are tiny, tiny golems. Each are only capable of doing two things: turning on and off, and telling this wire here.” he pointed at the adjoining, tiny wire. “What its current state is. Alone, this little guy could do just about nothing.”
“...Just about?”
“Correct. But it doesn’t need to do a whole lot,” Doctor Burner said as he adjusted his glasses. “Think, for a second, about the tiny ant. A single ant cannot do much alone: It can bite, it can pick up stuff, but a single ant is hardly capable of creating an entire anthill, or eating away at a house. It is by working together, and by breaking these tasks down into smaller, easier to manage chunks, that a colony prevails.”
“So, you are saying that this isn’t so much a single golem, as a colony of golems working together?” Luna asked, somewhat stunned.
“Correct. Now, if you recall, My Princess, we have tried methods like this in the past,” Burner said, excitement dripping from his voice as he eagerly bounced up a down on the tips of his hooves. “Our problems were that we always thought that the golem needed some kind of central regulator, a sort of ‘queen golem,’ to ensure that each golem knew what it was doing. We were… both wrong, and right.”
“How can you be both wrong, and right?” Luna said, not taking her eyes off of the complex view through the magnifying glass.
“Do you see that large, squarish block near the center?” the excitable doctor asked, pointing it out with the probe.
“Large, of course, is comparative at this point. the block is still smaller than it has a right to be,” Luna answered dryly.
“True. Which is why it’s so impressive that it’s made up of billions of golems.”
…
“...Did I hear you correctly?”
“Apparently, our main problem wasn’t that we needed larger golems, but smaller ones,” the pony said, sounding as if he didn’t quite believe what was coming out of his own mouth. “The key, it appears, is to break the instructions for the golems up into such tiny bits, that these billions of golems have no problem understanding, and enacting, those instructions. I’m thinking of calling the whole process ‘Data Smashing.’”
“This seems… quite complex, something that I’m certain our friend couldn’t have possibly had time to do. The ‘Data Smashing’ of the instructions alone would have taken days, if not years, to complete,” Luna said as she took a step back.
“Again, you are correct. The instructions part we still can’t quite understand, but rest assured, he had a little help with that,” Doctor Burner said, gesturing towards a nearby table where five, nondescript arcanite rods sat.
Each were probably about the size of a normal unicorn horn, though clearly more rectangular than conical. Each also had several strange characters carved into them, which Luna instantly recognized as the ~human’s~ native tongue.
Curiously, Luna reached out and picked up one of the rods for inspection. “And what are these, then?”
“Those are where our friend embeded his fallen comrade's soul shards,” Burner said simply, causing the Princess to put the rod down respectfully. “We still don’t understand everything involved, but the machine and these soul shards work in unision. The shards create instructions, the machine breaks them down, works them over, and enact them. Then, the machine returns feedback to the soul. It is similar to how a brain and nervous system works in tandem with a living soul, though not nearly as efficient.”
Luna stared at the rods in stunned silence. Each one glittered in the light that the sun cast through the window, almost as if they didn’t contain the shattered remains of five, proud souls.
“Where is ~Robert~?” Luna asked, suddenly snapping out of her trance. “I must ask him, someone, about these.”
“Ugh,” A voice said behind the princess. Luna turned her head to see where the sound came from, only to feel her heart fall at the sight.
Behind her was Bunsen Burner’s brother, Lab Beaker. Hovering in the air in front of him was the broken, molten remains of the metallic cat that ~Alex~ had repurposed. “What… What happened to-”
“Ah, there it is. Slam it on the table, Beaker. I need to show Her Highness something,” Doctor Burner said, brightening up a bit.
His brother did as instructed, causing the table to shudder a little under the chunk of metal’s weight. At first, Luna was confused by the rough treatment, but the sound that it made immediately let her know why Burner had instructed his brother to act as he did.
“It’s been hollowed out,” The princess said, her interest picking up.
“Indeed it has, Your Highness. We believe that many of the parts, these plates in particular, were once inside the cat. Once we came to that hypothesis, we ran a number of scans on the storage rods and found that this one,” Burner said, hefting one of the rods on the table. “Is a perfect match to the magical signature that we got when we ran the same scan on… ~Robert.~”
The Princess nodded at this, somewhat relieved that ~Robert~ had survived the encounter with the invading monster. “So, what do you think you can do knowing all of this? Do you think you can replicate ~Alex’s~ feat?”
“Oh, heavens no,” Bunsen Burner said with a sigh. “I’ve only just begun to understand the basic concept. The level of fine control needed to assemble a golem of this calibre? I’d have to be an Aeon in order to even know where to get started! However, this design has given me some ideas.”
“How so?”
“This tech is very clearly designed to be modular. Not only that, but an examination of the cat has revealed that none of the outlier arcanite nodes controlling the limbs were tampered with… much.” The last part the Princess barely heard, as Burner had said it under his breath. Before she was able to call him out on it though, he plowed on through with his thought. “I believe that these plates could substitute for a more traditional arcanite core in any of our golem designs, with one of the six storage rods serving as the golem’s instructions. Our cores before were incapable of handling the information required to run an Omniscope, but with these beauties?” At this point, Bunsen Burner gave a short, somewhat disturbing giggle. “They’d probably be able to take the load easily!”
Princess Luna nodded in agreement. At the very least, they would have something to work with other than the back up plan. Maybe we'll be able- She started to think, but stopped when something that Burner had said earlier suddenly clicked. “Wait, six storage rods? I only see five here.”
“Ah, you’re forgetting the one in the golem, here,” Bunsen Burner said, pointing towards a small, arcanite rod that was attached to one of the skeleton’s metal plates.
“Of course, my apologies,” The Lunar Princess said with a nod of her head. “At any rate, continue with your research, and see if you can either build, or pull from storage, a body more suitable than this… first attempt, by our friend. As impressive as it is, I believe that he will be quite grateful if we can get one of his friends into a body that is unlikely to spontaneously shut down.”
“Right away, Your Highness.”
With that taken care of, Princess Luna turned and left, a burning ember of hope resting in her chest.
* * *
The White Queen motioned for the Priestess to take a seat. She hadn’t invited Akitesh to her castle, rather, she had instructed her subjects to put together a pavilion on the tarmac. It was a very clear message, one that said ‘you are not my friend, but my enemy.’
But at the very least, she was willing to parley for a time.
“So, as I was saying, we want nothing more than peace,” Akitesh said as she sat down on the odd, short stool, her claws folded on her lap while her tail wrapped around the stool legs. “But others are not as… pure, in their intentions as us.”
The equine cocked her head to the side at this, but otherwise did not say anything.
“To answer your earlier question, we do not care where he goes, or what he does. All we care about is that he is healed, both in mind and body, and that his tormentors are brought to justice,” Akitesh said, trying to put the white queen’s worries to rest. “To this end, I wish to talk to him, to hear his side of the story, and to collect his testimony.”
“Why, talking is, bring bug with?” The equine asked, her piercing purple eyes boring into the quzin.
“As is our tradition and law, any trespass must be apologized for,” Akitesh said, her eyes not moving from the queen’s. “Since none of the actual perpetrators are here, he is here to apologize on behalf of his race, both to the victim, and to you.”
The White Queen didn’t say anything. In fact, she barely had a change in her expression, with only the tiniest of eyebrow raises to show that she had even heard.
“...I, uh, understand that no apology could be worth the lives lost, or the pain endured, yet we must still-”
“Fine,” The White Queen said suddenly, catching Akitesh off guard as she rose to her hooves.
“...Huh?”
“I is saying fine. Want talk? Good. Want apologize? Good. Want no war? Good,” the queen said, tossing her head back a bit. She then locked the priestess with a stare that would have put even Alagria, Akitesh’s mother, to shame. “But, then leave. Not want bug here, not want you here, ally of bug. Because of bugs, lost many homes, lost many lives. You leave, not come back.”
“Uh…” Akitesh said hesitantly. “That may not be the best idea…”
The White Queen let loose another one of those withering stares, causing the priestess to unconsciously gulp again.
“You see, now that the traitor is dead, we cannot question him about his motives or allies. They will send more. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week. But they will be coming.”
The White Queen continued to stare at her, her gaze never faltering.
“We only wish to prevent further loss of life,” Akitesh said, bowing her head respectfully. “To that end, we must stay, for what can your people do to prevent an alien invasion?”
Akitesh wasn’t sure, but for the briefest of moments, she was certain that she had seen The White Queen smile. However, as quickly as it had come, it was gone. “Come, must apology. Bring ally. apology in person.”
* * *
The first thing I became aware of was how warm I was. It hadn’t reached uncomfortable levels yet, but I was at the point where that could change at any moment.
The second thing I noticed was that something close by smelled like a bakery. While this was extremely confusing to me at first, I decided to just roll with it, since the scent was one of my all-time favorites.
The third thing that I noticed was that I currently had my arms wrapped around something soft. Now, normally, this probably wouldn’t have registered in my head at all, had it not been for the fact that whatever it was that I was hugging was breathing.
“So… If I were to, say, open my eyes right now, what would I see?” I asked the room around me. I heard a soft mumble from whatever I was hugging, which immediately cause my eyes to snap open.
I was greeted with an unending view of pink, which, if I really thought about it, wasn’t the worst thing that I’ve ever woken up to. It was still quite disconcerting, though, especially since the last thing I remember was having an emotional breakdown in front of Moon.
“What in the world…?” I asked as I tried to disentangle myself from the soft, pink, pastry-smelling thing. I stopped, however, when my arm jerked against something attached to my wrist.
It took me some finagling, but I was finally able to raise my head up enough to get a clear view of what was happening. The arm that I currently had draped over The Pink One had some kind of tube sticking out of it, which in turn was hooked up to some kind of glowing machine. It wasn’t making any noise, but-
Wait a second…
“...Why the heck are you in my bed?” I asked the still sleeping pink pony.
She just mumbled incoherently, then rolled over and snuggled into my chest. As cute as the pink bundle of randomness was, this was just getting too weird for me.
Without any ceremony, I gently disentangled myself from The Pink One and reached for the needle in my arm. Before I was able to even touch it, though, a hoof suddenly entered my field of vision, letting me know that someone else was in the room other than me and The Pink One.
It was one of the nurses, and she was currently shaking her head, as if to tell me that pulling the needle was probably a bad idea. Taking my hunch as fact, I stopped trying to get at the darn thing and let myself slump back down into my previous position.
This seemed to please the nurse, who held her hoof out in a ‘wait’ gesture as she moved towards the door. I did as she instructed, watching listlessly as she opened the door and shouted something down the hall. While she was doing that, my mind slowly started to take in the room around me, and I found myself only getting more weirded out as time progressed. There were balloons and streamers everywhere, confetti was definitely not here the last time I was in my room, and… was that a three tier cake?
My mind locked up when I saw the cake, and all I could think about was how I was going to get myself the biggest piece as soon as I could get out of this infernal bed. In fact, I didn’t even notice the doctor come in, though I certainly noticed it when she pulled the needle from my arm.
“Ghah! Give a guy some warning, why don’t you!?” I said as I jerked back a bit. I would have pulled my arm back, but the doctor had been smart enough to envelop my arm with her power, keeping it still while she applied a bandage from where she removed the…
Actually, now that I was looking at it properly, I realized that the only resemblance that device had to a needle was that they were both pointy and made of metal. This thing had bands of bright glowing green spaced evenly along its length, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t feeding me anything or drawing blood.
My point is, is that the thing was weird. Not only that, but the thing was also responsible for tricking me into roughly waking The Pink One, so you can imagine that it had rightfully earned my ire.
The Pink One didn’t look too disturbed at being woken up, though, choosing to take a moment to rub the sleep out of her eyes and say something that I couldn’t understand. She immediately perked up, though, when she noticed that I was awake.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m glad to see you too,” I said awkwardly as she wrapped her hooves around me again. She then bounced out of bed and rushed out of the room without even a glance back, confusing me even further.
“Okay…?”
Before I could dwell on this any more, the doctor started making motions for me to get up, all while levitating two small cup towards me.
“Again?”
She just nodded at me, causing me to grumble a bit as I took the cups and swung myself out of bed. I knew she was just doing her job, but still…
As I made my way to the bathroom, I couldn’t help but feel… strange. I didn’t feel bad by any measure of the word, but I felt… light. It was hard to describe, kind of like I had a pressure in my skull for longer than I could remember, but only now that it was gone did I notice its presence at all. Honestly, it felt… liberating, in a way.
After I had finished my business, thanking the high heavens once again that these people had invented real toilet paper, I took a second to look myself in the mirror as I washed my hands. The changes were a lot more pronounced now. The thin beard that had started growing had already fallen out, as had my eyebrows. It’s gonna be weird, not having those again, but at least I still have my lips, I thought to myself as I took a closer look.
The pupils had almost completely expanded to fill my whole eye; if I moved my eye around I could still see the green, but as of now, it pretty much looked like I had nothing but blackness for eyes. For some strange reason, though, my sight was improving, rather than the opposite as the mutating eye let in more light than it was designed to. My teeth were becoming more pointed, but luckily that seemed to be restricted to the front ones.
Somewhat curious, I turned to the side, in hopes of seeing what my back was like. I didn’t have any spikes yet, at least none that I could see, but was it my imagination, or were the bumps of my spine getting… larger?
Probably, I thought as I looked down at my hands. The alien things still looked quite spindly, but they seemed to be building some muscle and gaining some color. Hopefully that was a good sign of things to come; that I wouldn’t lose the majority of my facial features as my genetic code was slowly rewritten.
I was so enthralled by the latest changes in my body that I almost didn’t notice the knock on the bathroom door. Almost.
With a bit of a sniffle, I quickly wiped my eyes clear and made myself presentable. I was keenly aware that that was a pretty pointless task, but I did my best despite my obvious handicap in the area. “I’m coming! Just hold your… well, I’m coming anyway…”
With a deep breath, I turned and opened the door, not really ready for what the future might have in store for me.
But then again, when have I ever been ready for something like that?
Well, I couldn't sleep until I finished editing this and publishing it. Thanks again you guys for all your wonderful support!
Anyway, I'm sorry that I haven't updated anything on this lately. A lot of stuff has been going down, Christmas happened (sucks to be in retail), and my muse told me to work on A Hiss in the Dark. I'm still holding out hope that you guys will try that one out, but I am slowly coming to the realization that I'm becoming known as 'that guy who only does that story that sounds like a Linkin Park song' to a lot of you.
I don't want to be known for just that, but what am I gonna do, eh? I can't force you to read it, and even if I could, you'd hate it because you'd associate it with whips.
Anyway, don't worry, I still intend to update and complete all of my stories. I just have to follow my muse, and my muse right now is telling me What I've Done and Hiss In The Dark.
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6843649 The wait is over.
Good chap, chap.
...and it ends wi another cliffhanger
You know I love this story anyway even if you let me suffer for it
Oh, and I also appreciate a hiss in the dark.
.....and now the wait begins again...
First, I also read & thoroughly enjoy A Hiss in the Dark.
Second, I do so look forward to Alex addressing the Captain & the Priestess in flawless Krin, WITHOUT a translation spell, via the database in his skull-computer. That will expedite matters greatly
Third, the princesses REALLY need to start teaching Alex how to control his magic, or at least how to minimize the risk inherent in his Surges, as while said Surges are invaluable, they're currently too dangerous.
Excellent work, keep it up!
Was it really so hard to just tell us who is at the door and close the chapter rather then another cliffhanger
Ah well, it is still a very good story
If this keeps going I know it's just a matter of time before I start to mentally refer to Alex as The Maker of Devices.
Thanks for the update!
Ammon doesn't seem that unpopular from where I'm sitting...
an excellent chapter with a fair amount of progress and good golem lore building. i like where this is going. thank you :D
this is the part of stories that i love, exposition! sure action is fun at times, but to really get the ball rolling for story progression it all comes down to dialogue and discovery. also Celestia is doing a good job of being calm right now, i don't think i would have the patience for those that have harmed my citizens, but i guess the quzin weren't technically assaulting the equestrians directly, but it still irks me the wrong way. perhaps its just immaturity talking.
thanks for the chapter, now i have to crawl back into bed and sleep till the next one...
25 chapters and I just now realized that the title does sound like a Linkin Park song. So, thanks guy who only does that story that sounds like a Linkin Park song. Now that's all I'm gonna be able to think of when I see a notification for this story in my email.
6865333 6865180 6865208 It's not that Hiss In The Dark is unpopular. Its just that, well, when I see how well this story does, and how it has literally thousands of people who read it regularly, I think "well, if they liked it that much, I'm sure they'll enjoy this as well!"
I'm quite grateful that a large number of you came over to A Hiss In The Dark and started reading it, and I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but it's a little disheartening when you put your heart and soul into one project, have it skyrocket in popularity, then put out something else and have it do relatively poorly.
After which I get bombarded with questions and texts asking when the next chapter for What I've Done is coming out, and a few that are angry or worried that I've abandoned it, simply because I wanted to work on something else.
Sorry, I didn't mean to drag down the mood, and again, I am extremely grateful and flattered that you guys took the time to read the silly fan-writings of a mega-geek. But I can't help it, especially since I write most of my chapters in the dead of night on my days off (I work nights).
I think the main hurdle for A Hiss In The Dark is that you have a lizard as a protagonist. Either that, or it not being sci-fi. I'm still hoping for an update to The Nautilus Protocol, incidentally.
6865412
I understand perfectly what you meant, but I think you took a bit of a risk with A Hiss in the Dark, not that I don't appreciate it.
Chessgames of the gods as a genre are not really popular anymore, and while your version of it is indeed a nice one a lot of readers, I suppose, are not so enthusiastic about it. On the other hand you will always find people starved for good SF.
Anyway carry on with the splendid work on both of your stories, I am happy whenever a chapter of either one appears
On a separate note, I was among those who didn't associate the title with Linkin Park, but now that you pointed it out I see it.
Another very enjoyable chapter. Great job.
And if it makes you feel better, I really like A Hiss in the Dark.
...Do you know what you have done to me? I will not be able to take anything these two do seriously. I'm going to forever picture this lab full of banana sharpeners, solid-state gorilla detectors, and the occasional penguin mambo.
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/236/5/b/cliffhanger_by_nimaru-d6jkgit.png
hmm...would a Golem made out of leaves, if given enough power, be good for reconnaissance?
like, its light enough to give it maneuverability?
Good chapter. Celestia is being firm, but she also seems to be fair. Our mutated Human is going to absolutely shit bricks when he sees the snake and the bug. I hope he doesn't hurt any Ponies when he goes crazy.
I find the aliens wanting to 'apologize' kind of confusing. I know it is supposed to be a gesture of diplomatic courtesy, and the aliens that are offering it haven't wronged him in any way, but that just make the whole 'gesture' seem kind of insulting. It smacks of a way to wash their collective 'hands' of any wrong doing as a whole. If they didn't have anything to do with it then they have nothing to apologize for, but the fact that they feel the need to apologize implies that they have an amount of culpability for all the shit he wen't through.
If that culpability is something like 'We're sorry we failed you in not preventing this from happening as is our job' but that would only make me wonder just how many times shit like this has happened for it to become a common protocol.
If it is just a political gesture then if smacks of being extremely arrogant, as if the mere act of acknowledging any wrong doing is a kindness (which wouldn't surprise me fro what we've seen of the aliens so far' and when I think of her giving the apology, I can't help but smile at imagining him listening to said 'apology', slowly walking up to her, jabbing a claw through her eye and saying 'sorry', before turning around and walking away.
Well I read your other story. It's good, but I I hope for some downtime and R&R for our friend. I would like some stranger Ina strange place for him, that's ways pretty entertaining.
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/e/ea/Beaker%26BunsenWithBeaker.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20120206215330
I really hope our favorite human and evil-not-evil bug thing in acts the ancient way of fisticuffs and consumption of alcohol to make up for wrongdoings.
Good to see you alive. I'll read your other story when this one is finished (or that one is finished, whichever comes first).
I hope he doesn't end up too ugly.
DAMN YOU CLIFFHANGER!
Another amazing chapter. Missed this fic.
Is your middle name cliffhanger because you sure love them otherwise great read can't wait for more and thank you
Well, it's a good thing Alex is slowly gaining his original form. I hope things will work out for him, the aliens, and the ponies in the end.
You have the uncanny ability to both satisfy my desire for this story, and at the same time leave me wanting more... Well done my good sir.
I would also like to state that I have read your other fic and find it equally as engaging as this one. I do believe that once people give it a chance they will feel likewise.
6865531
Byakuya would most certainly agree. Replace the leaves with interlockable, tiny metal blades shaped like leaves, and suddenly it isn't so harmless any more. If Katanagatari and Bleach have taught me anything, it's that you should never underestimate anything that seems simple or weak. It'll often come back to bite you in the arse in a major way if you do.
6866689
what if they make every single leaf blade into a golem?
6866726
That's implied. One would set orders with general count parameters and priorities, which decide how the blades enact them. You can have them interlock into armor mode, separate into swarm mode, or partially interlock to form larger blades. Furthermore, this prevents the "Queen is Dead" issue many such weapons have.
Good to see that Pinkie is always there for Alex when he needs a hug.
Those aliens are going to shit bricks when they get a load of her.
6865659 Yeah, pretty much. I love this Beaker grunts instead of squeeks.
Once again, great chapter, although I had to go back and read the last one to get my bearings.
6865575
The apology wasn't specified. It could be an apology for not being able to better control that individual, an apology that a member of their race and organization caused such harm, or simply a statement of sympathy. None of these would be the wrong thing to do, and in fact, they are all done quite often in real life politics.
The soul crystals are definitely interesting. Good too see more ponies are in on the "he's inventing pony computers" secret. Now all we need is one of the cores to be named Cortana.
Keep going! ;)
6867029 It just strikes me as odd that they are ‘apologizing’ at all.
If they have no culpability for what happened to him then apologizing for it seems like nothing more than hollow words- and if it is merely an official announcement of sympathy then they smack me as being extremely arrogant of them to assume said victim would even want it (Not to mention more then a little counterproductive, as their very presences on that planet, let alone the upcoming meeting, will likely cause said victim of this whole debacle unneeded stress, and they must realize that. So what real purpose would it serve?)
If they do however, have some kind of culpability to what happens to him then the very idea that a mere apology would be anything other than a brazen insult is something I honestly can’t wrap my head around...
6867119
Well, as I said, it's something that is done in real life politics. Your inability to comprehend it does not make it any less effective.
I have been reading and enjoying both stories.
6866301 Actually, you've got that wrong. He's not regaining his original form, he's slowly becoming a cross between the monster he was, and the human he was born as.
6866689 The problem with that method wasn't what you could make the golem out of, but all the other technical limitations, such as power consumption, inability to truly control what the golem was going to be made of, and inefficiency. Sure, you could technically make a blade golem with this method, but it would last three seconds at the most. And I'm talking about 'it animates, takes two steps, then keels over.' Not 'it takes two hits then keels over.'
The more advanced methods could also make a blade golem, you see. It would take longer, and more work would be involved, but the end result would be a golem that fit all your specification, and didn't die unexpectedly.
6867212 6867119 It's not that they're being prideful, and the fact that you're confused actually means I'm doing my job right. You see, I'm trying to portray a completely different culture, one with its own traditions and customs, and its own views of honor; For example, among the Quzin it is extremely bad mannered if you dig into a meal without first tugging both your earlobes.
However, that is a bit trivial compared to why they feel they need to apologize. You see, the Quzin put a lot of stock into honor, and they have several different kinds. There is honor of self, honor of family, honor of nation, honor of world, and honor of race, to name a few. When the Krin signed the little peace treaty, it did a lot more than just stop a war. The Krin agreed to not only abide by certain laws, but to also be treated as Quzin with respect to how those specific laws are obeyed.
It's... complicated, but the short version is that every Krin is treated as a Krin, and is judged as a Krin (and therefore judged by the Krin) in respect to about 90% of all laws between the Krin and Quzin. The other 10% are laws specifically stated in the treaty, and a Krin that breaks those laws are treated as Quzin for all intents and purposes.
This means that all those scientists that did the horrible genetic experiments? Yeah, they were technically Quzin citizens while they were doing them, because bio-weapon experiments are the big things covered in that treaty. The Quzin's laws for those things are a lot more strict, as is the punishment, but it also means that the Quzin government must take responsibility for any trespass of those laws. It was why Hazalk was so worried, and why a few of the crew thought it would cause a war. You see, the scientist's actions impugned upon the Quzin's honors, specifically Race, Nation, and Religion. While those are not nearly as important as honor of self, it is still a huge insult to the Quzin honor and tradition.
Basically, Akitesh is fuming mad, and ready to kill someone. She's just really good at burying her anger until it is needed. An apology, while not nearly good enough to make up for what those traitors did, is still the ritualistic start of cleansing her people of the dishonor.
The next step is wiping out every single person who was responsible for this travesty.
Please, for the love of whatever deities you hold dear, please tell me I'm not the only one who thought of the Muppets when reading that line!
6867606 Well, I hope you were, Bunsen Burner and Lab Beaker are direct references to the muppets.
6867695 OH, THANK GOD!
I miss watching the Muppets sometimes.
Though weird as fuck, they always bring a smile either from the jokes, or from nostalgia.
6867544 It's actually quite interesting to see this in action. As long as it's internally consistent, it's a fun challenge to follow the patterns and try to predict how they're going to react next.
I really wish that they would get the translator working correctly because Celestia doesn't realization the fragile position she is in. while they might be able to stop an alien invasion can they stop a planet wide extinction event?