Risky Grace
You know what was awesome? Canterlot High. Yeah sure it was a boring, kinda crappy school, only sometimes, dimensional rifts opened up and extraplanar creatures fought each other with magic lasers! Ok, that only happened twice, but it set pretty damn high standards for college in my sister and I.
After all, college is supposed to be the best time of your life, right? If it wanted to beat out High School for awesome it had to top a massive ghostly energy pony summoned forth by the power of terrabad music to smite the demonic singers with rainbow lasers.
So far the most interesting thing was swapping friends with my twin sister to see who noticed. Since no one ever noticed, it was actually pretty damn lame. Friends not noticing slightly less fluffy ears and a few scars in my wing membranes was the highlight of college life. I seriously wish the president hadn’t ordered the portal to Equestria quarantined.
My name’s Risky Grace, I’m a twenty three year old batpony girl, and I look exactly like my sister except for less fluffy ears and a few scars in my wings from that time I tried to fly. You know what’s stupid? Having wings that don't work, then realizing while a spectral horse is shooting lasers that the reason you can't fly is your world lacks magical energy.
My wings hang on my back like a cape, make shopping for clothes hard because regardless of what manufacturers think pegasi tops don't fit the same on a thestral (or a batpony if you wanna be informal about species names). The wing slits are too small and too far from the spine, so all my shirts get stretched out. Upside, I look metal as fuck. Until you count in the fluffy ears and tiny fangs. Then I look adorable. Stupid bipolar cool/cute continuum.
To summarize: I’m a blueish gray four foot two, one thirty pound, leathery winged, bipedal, purple hair and tailed, orange eyed, hooved thestral; and so is my sister.
We’re twins, as I’ve mentioned. What I haven’t mentioned is we're not just the identical kind, we were also conjoined. You could never tell it by looking at us, at least not if we were dressed. We were born joined at the hip by skin and muscle only.
According to mom the doctors simply cut us apart at birth and patched up the muscles over time. This means you can tell which of us is which because her scars are on her right hip and mine are on the left. Fur eventually grew in over the area, but you can still see the surgical scars without trying. It’s the one marred feature on our pretty hot bodies.
Yeah, I think my sister’s hot, which means I also think I’m hot since we look the same. In a lot of siblings this would be a problem, but not for us. I’m pretty sure it’s the whole twins thing but we’re inseparable, as in we do almost everything together. This includes sleeping, and showers, and that kinda stuff.
We realised in highschool we couldn’t handle moving away from each other if one of us got married or something and decided fuck it, we would just date each other and if someone else wanted in that would be cool. I know that pisses off a lot of religious people, but they can suck a fat one.
We’re basically one person anyways, besides I think the internet’s consensus is ‘twincest is wincest’. I have that on a shirt somewhere. I wear it when mom makes us to to church to go with her. Lucky goes in her ‘I’m with her →’ shirt.
For the last six years that had been an awesome decision! Especially since Lucky feels obligated to cook. I can’t cook for shit, I’ve lit instant ramen on fire while boiling it. I swear she got all the cooking genes mom had available.
Whatever she was cooking tonight smelled awesome. Our crappy studio apartment smelled like pineapple upside down cake, bacon, dandelions, and blood pudding. That probably doesn't sound appetizing to you but you probably only need to eat one kind of thing. We have a recessive gene which makes us need blood, fruit, and nectar.
Fortunately this means we can eat just about anything, even meat like Dogs do. But in the name of good nutrition we need all three, which rocks because our friends don't steal our food. What sucks is blood plasma freaking expensive!
How expensive? Well, expensive enough that our dad is doing forty or so years for stealing it from the hospital he worked at because he couldn’t afford to feed us. That was when we were nine. Which sucked ass in the not fun way.
There are barely any vampire bats out there anymore, so there is almost no industry to supply hemovores with food. Sure we can live on flowers, fruits, and breads and stuff, but were pretty sure that our vampire sides are dominant because any day we can afford to eat some delicious plasma is a day when everything feels awesome.
So the smell of whatever Lucky was cooking, which definitely had beef blood in it, was driving me almost as nuts as her cooking it in just an apron. Needless to say, I couldn’t focus on writing an essay at the moment.
So I had started to play an old adventure game on my laptop. How old? Well if I wanted Roger Wilco to pick up the shiny thing on the floor I would have to type ‘look floor’ then ‘pick up thing’. Primitive as all hell, but still pretty fun.
“So whatcha cooking?” I finally asked.
“I made a blood pudding into a pie crust shape and am making a pineapple cake in it using dandelion juice as a sauce.” She replied.
“Awesome!” I briefly wondered if most people would be creeped out by their own voice answering them.
“Should be ready at like, midnight, maybe one.” Lucky said before walking over and plopping down on the couch next to me so ur scars lined up, just like we always sat. “More Space Quest?”
“Yeah, GoG had the whole series for five bucks.” I answered. I gave her a little kiss on the cheek then turned back to my game.
A few minutes later something compelled me to look out the window. It must have compelled Lucky too because we both turned in time to see smoky wisps of cloud begin to form in the otherwise totally clear sky.
It looked like someone had ran reality through windows movie maker and added a fade transition from the full moon just hanging out, to the full moon covered by thin string like clouds. Then more thin clouds, and even more thin clouds, until the moon’s light was blocked out entirely.
“You’re seeing this too right?” I asked excitedly.
Lucky nodded. “Yuhhuh! I’m thinking it’s magic space laser time, what about you?”
I nodded back with a grin. “Totally magic space laser time! I’ll get the camera.”
Suddenly our apartment was lit by a soft blue light. The light grew slowly brighter until everything was some shade of blue, totally washing out the three lamps we had on. Confused but thrilled, I turned my head to try and see the source of the light.
Suspended in the air in the middle of our kitchen was a circle containing a pattern which looked like the triforce, with three circles filling the middle triangle and three smaller triangles connecting the triforce to the circle by its outer points.
That was totally the crest found on the cover of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from Ultima! Few people have heard a batpony squee, because it’s out of the range of normal hearing. I’m pretty sure everyone in our building heard ours anyway.
“Oh-” Lucky started.
“-my-” I continued
“-god!” we finished together.
I jumped up, knocking my laptop over onto the couch and bolted into our bedroom. “Keep an eye on it! Don’t even blink!”
“Already on it!” Lucky called back.
I ripped our closet open and threw the clothes aside. On the back wall of the closet hung two backpacks, I grabbed them bolted back into the kitchen and dropped the packs onto the floor. “Where are the swords?” I asked.
“I’ll get them.” Lucky nodded towards the glowing symbol. I fixed my attention on it completely. It wouldn’t vanish before we could use it!
You see, learning that a magical world exists and is as easily accessed as running into a statue in a schoolyard changes your average bored girl. Sure the military had that portal cordoned off and were doing diplomacy things using it, but that didn't mean there weren't others, or new portals didn’t form from time to time. So sis and I made bug out bags, because we were not going to pass on an opportunity to be world hopping adventurers.
Lucky handed me my blades, both functional, both a cool modern tactical design. One was based on a gladius, the other based on an English longsword. I strapped them on quickly, helped Lucky buckle on her rapier and daggers, then turned back to the glowing magic circle and waited.
A few seconds later the light faded and the circle fell to the floor with a clink. Laying on our kitchen floor was a three inch across glowing coin that appeared to be made of flowing ribbons of energy.
“Either someone is trolling us, or magic laser pony was from Britannia.” Lucky sighed.
I bent down and picked up the coin, or medallion, or whatever you call a big circular magic glowy thing. “I don’t know... this would be hard to fake.”
Lucky hummed and shrugged her wings. “Well if it does work like Ultima, now we need to get an Ankh then go to the woods to find a circular clearing with a ring of rocks in it and-”
“Oh screw that!” A man’s voice exclaimed suddenly, seemingly from everywhere at once, “I don’t have enough time for this joke to take you on a quest to find a spot that looks like a hill from a videogame. Here, have a portal!”
Instantly a shimmering blue doorway of light erupted from the floor. I squeed a little, so did Lucky.
“Sis,” Lucky squeed, “there’s a moongate in our kitchen!”
“I know!” I replied equally thrilled, “Ignore the probably an evil villain's voice and dive headfirst into the portal?”
Lucky nodded then paused, “Wait! Diner! Mr. Magic-Portal-Man, can you wait until dinner’s done so-”
“Yes yes, whatever makes you hurry up. I haven't got all night.” The oven was lit with a white flash of light, the pineapple dandelion cake appeared on the counter. It looked completely cooked.
“Sweet!” We exclaimed together.
Lucky grabbed the cake. I picked up the backpacks. We grabbed each others hand tightly to avoid the ‘separated by the portal’ trope, then ran through the blue gateway with a joyful “Wooo!”
Kaily
You know how when you die they say you see a white light? Totally true. Everything is a way to bright white light. It’s as if you had a white halogen flood lamp taped to your face, but could make out vague, non-thing-shapes in the distance. Oh, and you can’t close your eyes.
Just in case that seems like I’m saying it was peaceful, no no it was not. It’s like some dick is blinding you with a maglite and laughing. The whole time you keep falling in random directions, you can feel the direction change like someone's stabbed a hook in your gut and is pulling you a new direction every few minutes.
Your sense of time basically vanishes too. I had no idea how long I was pin-balling around the vague-non-thing-shapes concealed within the white. I was hoping it wasn’t some sort of cliche, like three days or something. I mean I died on a really advanced starship, surely I could be revived right? It would suck to be a cultural hero who came back to life after three days.
The white turned to black like someone had flipped off the lights. The entirety of the non-space I was in slowly began to light up with a literally countless number of stars. It was like being in space with no planets, only points of light in the distance.
“Sorry about that,” a pleasant female voice apologized, “it’s been awhile since someone came through here with their soul literally in tatters. Had to piece you back together, you looked like someone had chewed your soul like bubble gum. Because well, that’s kinda what happened. You managed to get the shit killed out of you really hard didn’t ya?”
I looked around for the source of the voice. I managed to change my position for the first time since I had arrived, and saw sitting atop a pink and blue nebula a short, white furred, pale nearly white maned pony. She had black eyes, not like the entire eyes was black, just the pupil and iris. She had no horn or wings, but none the less seemed to be very powerful. On her flank was a mark shaped like a scythe and a sword resting atop an hour glass.
Despite the lack of a horn, and a place for them to come from, the mare levitated a package of cigarettes and a zippo up, lit a cigarette, placed it in her mouth then sneaked another out of the package. “Smoke? Take your time. We'll move on when you're ready."
“N-no thanks.” I stammered, afraid, confused, and curious.
“You’re scared. Don’t be, it’s not like there’s a hell. Unless you made it for yourself.” The mare said as she kicked back on her nebula and blew a smoke ring.
I decided to ask a question I found burning in my head. “So… there is an afterlife? Which relig-”
“None of them are right.” she interrupted. “How could they be? No one who's ever come back to life has been to their after life. It’s a hard rule of reality. If you go all the way to the other side, you can't ever come back. Also the truth doesn't sound too believable so no one believes anyone I've let go back.”
“But what about prophets? Messages from heaven?” I asked.
“Nope, the big man doesn't do any of that shit. That’s not the point.” She chuckled. “Look I do this every time, want the truth? It won't matter if you know it.”
“Oh thank god!” I sighed in relief. “I was this close to panicking thinking Yahweh was in charge of this thing!”
The white mare flinched, “Oh, yeah that would suck. The rules of that religion are completely unfair to mortals.”
She rolled over, then sat like a cat with her forehooves supporting her upright. “Here’s how it really works. Everything you have ever known, or ever would have known if you hadn't died, everything that ever is, was, or will be, is a computer simulation. No it’s not like that movie you humans made. What was it? The matrix?”
I nodded.
“Yeah it’s not like that. You don’t have a body outside the sim somewhere. The you that died is the real you, that was your real body. Reality is still real. At least it is from the inside. From the outside it’s an incredibly complex simulation of reality. Physics are what they are because that’s what they were programed to be. Ever wonder why matter is just an arrangement of energy? Because everything’s energy in this world.
“It’s all artificial. At least, from outside the sim it is. From within it, where we are, and will always remain, it’s real. This is our reality. I hope that bring you a bit of comfort, knowing that the reality of our multiverse is subjective to weather or not you are inside or outside of it.”
It did actually, more then I was pretty sure the person who I assumed was the grim reaper imagined. “So the Simulated Universe Hypothesis is right? We figured it out back in the 21st century?”
“Yep.” she answered. “None of you believed it though. It’s just something most species can’t except. They don't get that what is real and what is fake is subjective. Hell, take me for instance, who ever assumed that their really, truly, actually is a Grim Reaper? Pretty damn few people. Now who would believe that not only is there a Reaper, but she’s a four foot tall pony named Dusk who isn’t a vindictive harvester of souls, but a guide to your final and just reward?”
There was only one answer to that. “No one. I get it.”
“Actually the answer is one, but I’m glad you got it.” Dusk answered.
If I had a face it would have been confused. “Wait, one?”
“Yeah she’s a friend of mine. Popped in one day assuming my job title meant I was depressed to cheer me up. Made my millennia.” she replied with a laugh. “Don’t tell her, but I think she’s totally adorable.”
“Popped in?” I asked hopefully. “You mean I could go back?”
“You? No. People who had a body to go back to, yeah sometimes. If I feel like they deserve it.”
“Oh.” I said sadly. Well since there was no going back, I might as well get the answers to whatever questions I could. “Since this is a simulated universe, is that how I can exist without my body?” I asked curiously.
She made an odd gesture with her hooves as if she was weighing something. “Sort of… See, the notion of a soul is actually true. Everything living instinctively knows they have an existence, regardless of their senses, organs, or knowledge. This is your soul. In more complex life, sapient life as you call it, the soul is basically a backup file. Your memories, thoughts, feelings. You are an immaterial copy of the you who died.
“Hell even machines have one. Though they are a little different from organic creatures. Poor things are often not aware enough to understand what’s happening to them when they come here.”
I nodded. I guess that made sense. “So what exactly is here?”
“Your entire universe's existence has been a part of the bigman’s study of morality. I don't know much, he only spoke to me once, and even the he only told me what I needed to know to do my job. All I can tell you is there are a million billion sets of multiverses, each containing 1764 universes.
“They exist simply so the real creatures who live in the simulated universes can simply live their lives and be what they will. When they die, for this universe at least, I take their soul, the perfect record of who they were and what they are, and take it to a place which it is stored. Which are miniature universes made using the soul’s information to give the individual exactly what they have earned.
“These smaller universes are analyzed by the bigman. I think he’s looking for an answer to what the best moral code is. But that’s just me.” Dusk finished. With one last puff of smoke she tossed her cigarette away. I watched as it simply faded from existence.
“Then the universe is one big science experiment?” I mused. That would explain a lot. Where the big bang came from, why a loving god would allow evil to exist.
I had only one question left, “Which universe is the control group?”
Dusk laughed and flashed me a smile. “It sure as hell isn’t this one!”
I laughed with her. It was a really good dark joke after all. “So what happens now? How do we get to whatever my mini-universe is?” I asked nervously.
“You sound nervous. Don’t be, you seem nice, I’m sure yours will be fine!” Dusk said.
She stamped her hoof and a doorway appeared in the distance. “We go through there, I walk you to your room, you spend eternity there. Everyone you loved and hated will be there, they will exist as you remember them, not as they were or are. You are not god of your room, it is what is is and you experience it until the experiment is over and everything ends.”
“That's not so bad.” I said. I meant it too, there were a billion worse afterlives humans alone had dreamed up.
“Wait!” A new voice shouted. It was high pitched, female, and sounded pretty bubbly.
Dust turned her head and smiled a smile only appropriate for seeing a close friend of lover coming home. “Pinkie! Just a minute, I’m on the clock. I’ll be just a-”
“Is that what my name was?” a bright pink mare with a frizzy mane and tail asked in confusion.
Dusk frowned instantly, “Oh. You’re future Pinkie. Is the conduit spell I gave you guys breaking down? I’m sorry, I did my best.”
“Nonono! It’s working fine, but that person is like really super huge mega important to us. We need her alive again.” Pinkie said in a fascinatingly rapid fire babbling.
“I can’t do anything. She doesn't have a body to go back to, nor can her friends make a new body for her to go to. I had to patch her soul up, it wouldn't be compatible with a body cloned from her DNA. Based on what I know it would take Phoenix a month to calculate how to arrange the new body’s brain to not reject her soul as it is now, which is longer than I can allow a soul to remain in the universe.” Dusk said sadly. I could tell she really did want to help.
Pinkie nodded twice, “I know! We know. Discord and I… arranged something.” Her ears dropped sheepishly.
Dust gave her an irritable glare, “What did you do?”
“Hey! Do you want to have to have the busiest workday ever in like a year or so?” Pinkie asked. She bit her lip as if thinking hard for a split second before blurting, “We got her a new body by taking advantage of the link between our world and the parallel one where everyone’s humanoid. We just need you to put her into it. It should be fine.”
“That’s not how it works Pinkie. There are rules to-”
“Yeah, and you broke them before by letting me come and go as much as I want.” Pinkie objected.
“That’s because you make awesome cookies. Not everyone can just win me over like that.” Dusk wined shuffling her hooves adorably.
Pinkie grinned feebly. “The body we got doesn't have a person in it. It’s um what did he say to say? Oh right! We couldn’t give it a soul. It is her body, only not because you know, humanized pony body. But it’s still hers still her DNA. the mirror thingy means-”
Dusk nodded, impressed. “Huh, no yeah, that actually would work. It’s still against the rules, and I don't want to draw the bigman’s attention anymore than I have already with you. ”
“Hi Dusk!” A second copy of Pinkie announced popping into existence. A split second later she gasped in happy shock and announced “Hi other me! How’s stuff?”
Dusk turned to look at the new Pinkie and shook her head, “Only you could violate the laws of time like this. Hi Pinkie, I’m arguing with future you over whether or not I should revive this woman.”
“I wouldn’t mind going back.” I informed. “I sort of promised to help some bug people make a home. I don't like breaking promises.”
“Didja Pinkie promise them?” the new Pinkie asked.
“Say yes!” future Pinkie whispered.
“Uh-yes?” I answered.
“Well then you have to Dusky! She Pinkie promised them. You can’t break a Pinkie promise.” the new Pinkie said as she produced a tray of brownies from her mane. Somehow. I didn’t want to think about it.
Dusk sighed and rubbed her forehead, “Ok, fine. She gets to go back in the new body future you and Discord got for her that’s also her body, but not really. Migraines! You give me migraines Pinkie. You’re lucky I like you. But I still wont wont revive people on demand for you. Just her, just this once.”
Future Pinkie vanished with a happy, “Thanks!”
“Wait you like like me?” Pinkie asked tilting her head before glomping the Reaper. “Oh my gosh! Me too! We should go on a date!”
“I what? I di- … You know what, screw it, sure. Why not? No one else gets to come over when they want to.” Dusk shook her head and smiled softly.
Dust waved her hoof in my direction. “All right Kaily. You’re going home… sort of. Kinda. I have no idea what you will be when you arrive exactly, but whatever it is, it will be the you, you would have been if you were born in the reality parallel to the one you died in. Good luck, try not to visit again. I won’t give you another respawn.”
A sloppy wet kiss was the last thing I heard as everything blazed back to white.
Then I was falling downwards through air at a large snow bank forty feet below me. “Ahhhh! Death is a total dick!”
what an interesting afterlife......
I like it
nice grim reaper!
she's not dead!
she can now officially be called a zombie!
Oh my bucking god. Two more champions are due to arrive. The Thestral(s) count as one! And now we get Kaily 2.0! In hindsight, it seems so obvious. That was a very clever loophole.
Too true!
===
Dinner
Matrix, capitalize the M
Dusk
5977971
Zompony?
fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/123/f/3/zompony_by_skaramanger-d63xb0k.jpg
only pinkie could convince death to let someone respawn...
5977978 oh my dear fucking gawd....
upnorthgeorgia.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Feast-for-Crows-1.jpg
what happened to fluttershy?
Oh yeah, zombies happened
5977975 I'm glad ya see what I did there!
5978005
5977978
Actually that is kinda sorta a part of exactly what the DMs are trying to prevent from having happened.
5978038 Oh, I know. But when Crimson mentioned zombies, I couldn't resist. My GoogleFoo was calling me.
5978044 Also the proper term is "Nomponies." THey are summoned via the Neighcronomicon.
5978038 I can see why
5978056
jamesparsons.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/implied-facepalm.jpg
5978056
fucking puns...
5978056 "Readers, its a pony, NOMBIE!!!!" *DUN DUN*
. . .
"I can't think of a non cliche way to react to this..."
5978314 As I mentioned before, if you're fighting someone with D20 powers and it's dramatic enough, even if you DON'T have D20 powers it will work like you did have them. As for Grogar... Dude's like a freaking level 45 Necromancer with at least 10 Divine Ranks. In the canon of G1 even. So yes he has D20 powers.
I need a good name for D20 powers.
Ahhh, so the two EQG characters are another set of OCs, that makes sense. So, the theory is that the mane six transformations from the two movies weren't so much a transformation as an activation of mostly dormant body features? That's a fascinating idea and potentially a completely unique one, too, or at least it is in my reading on the site.
I suppose if you're opening a portal to bring in a set of world jumping adventurers, grabbing a pair that preemptively volunteered is only polite.
Kaily, yay!
Multiple universes that allow for soul compatible replacement bodies, makes sense.
5978456 See? It all worked out in the end!
I needed a way to bring the new character's in without them feeling stapled on. So you guys get an epic adventure with the newbies and the respawned Kaily making their way back "home".
I do not like writing canon characters outside of their canon roles. It feels disrespectful to me, like I am saying "Hey other author, this is way better then your work!" Not to say people who write canons in different roles are jerks, just that I personally feel bad when I do. So I only use canons when/if I should. Also the EQG movie implies that something bad might happen if the alts meet each other so even though bringing in alt Twilight would have been cool, it could have led to total protonic reversal, and the DM's are trying to AVOID disasters... Yes more then one disaster. It was/could be a really bad year and a half.
Yes. My stance on canon character respect aside... sometimes there are things which I HATE in canon, like the wasted potential of the EQG verse. Technicolor humans? Is that really the best they could do? So for my AU, it's an anthro setting, wings, horns, and the like are present on the alts and they are type 3 anthros by this chart.
derpicdn.net/img/2013/5/11/322138/full.jpeg
Since there is no magic in that world, none of the wings, horns, or the like actually work, they are just decorative features. However, they are actually the same species. The only difference is one world has magic, one world dose not. So when traveling between the worlds, unless shielded from magical effects, the biped unicorn becomes a quadruped and gains spellcasting, and the quadruped unicorn becomes a biped and looses spellcasting. Additionally if magic is introduced into the EQG world, magic temporarily allows wings, horns and the like to function, and if enough of it was sent to the world, people would become quadrupeds.
So basically the key difference is ponies have genetic structures which react to magic and make them what they are. Without ambient environmental magic, they are bipeds as normal evolution would have led any race of their intellect to become. But with magic, they remain quadrupeds, with special abilities to make up for that disadvantage.
Take that DHX!
Well fork me sideways.
Didnt see that coming
5978604 That is an interesting theory of why equestrians are quadrupeds. Also i am glad that kaily is back. Might i add that if your ideas on sexuality are the same as supported by this story that you are very unbiased and prejudice free. :D
5978766 They are actually. I want to use this story to share my ideas with people without the awkwardness most people feel if I simply propose we discuss sex and romance.
5978773 Very good way of going about it and a very advanced view in my humble opinion.
5978753 Lol yeah. The "reincarnate as yourself using the body of a alternate self from another world which happens to be brain dead" is a REALY rare thing. I think it was used in the X-Men once, in Greek myth once, and in Egyption myth twice.
5979249 No problem, my bad! Shouldanta wrote 3 chapters in one day.
Well at least Kaily wasn't turned into a hermaphrodite because of this incident..... yet..
Of course meep is going to contrive a way to turn Kaily into one,,, I bet two bits that it will happen in the next five chapters.
5979450 You are saying that to make me spite you arnt you?
5979450
No bet.
Hm, wonder where she ended up.
Well, she did just get a new body...
Make it five bits?
5979532
Of course not. Just a little bet that you can't go five chapters with out changing anyone's gender :P
5981493 You really are not going to like part 8 pf Phee's plan...
Sorry, I screwed up yesterday, kept reading to 6 am and started going hazy.
Noone points out the obvious? This is an Adams creation. Guide, Whole General sort Of Mish Mash, 42.
Then you have the Pratchett. Dusk with sword, scythe and hourglass, The Reamer Mare, and Pinkie is her freind and possible assistance, Binkie.
Want to have a headache? When the elevstor ride started off, with all th talking, it took me a while, but after a page or so I thought, this reminds me of HalfLife.
I have Never seen, read, played, or watched any video of Halflife being played.
Im staying out of the Star Trek stuff, because of what Ive seen, heard of, and personally worked on out of curiosity over the decades.
You use the description of the universe being a computer simulation.
Ive been working on creating that computer.
I never said I didn't like Gender bender stories.. My favorite Anime is Ranma 1/2
5982194 I take it you like this crazy ride I've thrown together! Strap in, that was the short part of the coaster.
5981493 You probably should have started a betting pool on which chapter would the next gender change happen.
5982346 Oh I think you all know.
5978604
Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. Just . . . wait.
Let me see if I can piece together what happened here.
Despite the fact that the three humans don't naturally exist in this world, therefore they can't have a counterpart in Atler-Equestria, Discord bent the rules by making such a thing happen for Kaily. That is the new body, a counterpart for a being that shouldn't have a counterpart, thus 'soulless'.
Kaily will be joining Risky Grace and Lucky Grace (I assume that's Lucky's full name?) in Equestria. But here is the thing I need confirmed.
You claim that the pony body is an anthro form without magic, and in the presence of magic becomes a full pony.
So, Kaily using the false counterpart body if she were born in Alter-Equestria (which would be a pony body? 'Same DNA' my butt), as well as Risky Grace and Lucky Grace, will be inundated with magic, and thus become full ponies, all three of them.
Am I understanding that right?
I assume if that's the case, by the time they get to Phoenix, they'll each ask to be restored to an anthro form (since, really, who wants to be a full pony if you lived your entire life with hands?!), just ones that could actually use magic.
The only thing I dislike about the Kaily twist is that the ambiguity of her death didn't matter. She could have been fully dead and the same thing happened as far as I could see.
5982957 You are very very close! Let me explain he DNA thing.
The Alternate Equestria and Equestria species are in fact the same exact species. The reason they have a difference is due to their genomes which contain magicaly reactive segments. Because the world of Equis has ambient environmental magic, the genetic structures within the species which react to magic activated and granted those ponies thei powers, which mean they did not need to evolve means of manipulating their environment.
However the alternate Equestria is a fissioned universe from the original. Aka the universe sorta reproduced via mitosis. The Alternate Equestrian no no longer had ambient magic, the genes deactivated, and the species was forced to evolve. As any exobiologist can tel you, an earth like planet will likely yield humanoid life. Our frame has many advantages.
Howaver, creatures dont really loose genetic structures, they just switch off and on for the most part. Due to a quirk of magic and biology if a creature from Alternate Equestria comes to Equestria, it is exposed to ambient magic, it's genes switch on, and BAMN quadruped as magic reworks them so the magic can function properly. If a creature goes from Equestria to Alternate Equestria, magic leaves them, but in the last few moments the spell which allows the portal to work adjusts their biology to humanoid status.
However, they species are still roughtly 92% identacle. It's basically just a change in phenotype, most of the biology remains the same, it's jsut reshaped. So pony meds work on anthros, and so on.
5982606 So... put my bits on chapter 20?
5983308 19.1
the whole the universe is a computer simulation can only be proven by finding an end to numbers and\or finding an end to pi
5986168 Pi is an expression of a physical distance, meaning it ends because there IS a smallest size available to the universe called the Plank Limit. Pi ends when the ratio it's expressing reaches the Plank Limit. At which point any smaller amount of distance cant exist, so digits of Pie thereafter are purely theoretical aka not real aka don't exist, aka Pi ends.
5986230 well you still have numbers and blame vsause for any misinformation
5986302 I'm not picking on you or anything. I just like science, and believe it or not the Simulation Hypothesis is one of the better ones for exactly what the orgion of everything we can observe is. Though my use of it in this story is simply to justify how more then one set of physics can apply at the same time to the same thing.
5986312 i have nothing against the world being a simulation i just choose not to believe that until the main thing that disproves it has been disproven
5986353 Which will likely be disproven by something else down the line as science improves. Ah science, you ever improving marvel you!
5986312
Honestly it strikes me as topical, in that our current understanding is computer simulations, therefore all of reality must be a simulation of some kind. Like how the brain is oft compared to computers, with hardware and software, because we can understand that comparison. In the past, before computers, there existed other models of the brain and how it could function.
Not to say I think it's untrue, it may be (think of all the brain in a vat, what is reality arguments), but rather the more philosophical question of is there a point to making that distinction? It's like someone who refers to their life as a (video) game, and is being absolutely serious about it. And while many parallels could be drawn, in the end why bother stretching metaphors when you could just use new terminology in talking about reality as it exists now, instead of reusing simulation terminology and confusing the metaphor?
5986925 There's a real thing that could be done though. If we prove that reality is a sim, that' means there is code which makes it run. That means we could figure out how it works. that means we could make reality whatever we wanted. SO it has real world applications, unlike philosophy.
5986928
There's quite a few jumps in logic there.
But it makes one big assumption, and that is what is simulated can effect whatever is running the simulation. It makes a lesser, but still important assumption in that the logic involved will be in any way, shape, or form understandable beyond the lesser mechanics of it. The difference in reverse engineering assembly instructions and understanding what the program logic is from that. It relies on a common thread of logic to all programmers to do so.
We don't even know what the hell the simulation is actually doing here, since it's entirely, 100% focused on particle interaction, and anything more complex is emergent complexity, not planned.
5986937 A program on your PC can shut down the cooling system and make your system run at full capacity until the processor ignites, destroying the hardware. Same idea.
5986942
Actually that specific example, using today's hardware, is not possible since the days of the Pentium 4, where a big deal was made of pulling heat sinks off the CPU while the computer was on and watching the results, vs the AMD equivalent systems. The AMD one immediately crashed while smoking, the Pentium 4 underclocked itself instantly when it's temperature sensor was tripped and kept functioning, abet much slower.
If such a thing happened, from our perspective, being the thing being run, we would notice nothing, as even if the simulation was run slower, if everything ran slower there'd be no way to objectively tell.
That also runs on the assumption that there is an equivalence of hardware (need for cooling, etc), and that we are running on the same hardware that controls the hardware's own functionality like cooling. It's quite possible that everything is dedicated to the simulation, and everything that controls other things is separate.
Hulk no understand physics. Hulk eat physics.
(Ten minutes of hulk futily trying to eat the air later.)
Hulk think physics tasty, but need more breadsticks. Too much roughage in quantum soup.