Normally I would approached a situation with some rational thinking, but this is one situation where I just tossed it all aside. All the mares on the table gasped at the sight of a chair flying through the air as it tried to reach its destination, which was Celestia's face. Sadly a golden aura engulf the chair, stopping it from succeeding in its objective.
"Aether!" all the ponies around me exclaimed in shock.
However, before anypony could get a word in, I slammed my forehooves onto the table as I yelled, "How dare you do something so stupid, so reckless! You just broke through the barriers between dimensions cause you were lonely and smitten with some stallion? How are you even fit to rule this kingdom?"
"How dare thou ac—" Luna began to say before Celestia raised a hoof to her sister’s face in effort to silence her.
Looking at me with shame, Celestia replied, "Aether. I understand that my actions have endangered my... our world, in more ways than I thought. I am indeed ashamed for the... recklessness of my actions, but I assure you that I have learned from my mistakes and I have resolved myself to undo the harm my actions have caused."
"Then you resolved yourself to a goal that you will never achieve," I dryly replied before indicating with my hoof that I wanted my chair back.
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked as her face took on a nervous look as she returned my chair.
"Even if we fixed this world's barriers, I highly doubt it wouldn't be noticed by both the Venanites or whoever sent the probes. You even have so many damn Maralus shards all over the world, I bet some other nations have their hooves on them and toying with them as we speak. Face it Princess, the damage has been done, all we can really do is damage control."
"Wait, Maralus shards?" Twilight asked, unable to keep her curiosity in check. "Are you talking about those crystals?"
Sighing, I looked at Twilight as I stated, "Can you ask me when the world isn't in danger? Because preventing the end of the world takes priority over curiosity." I returned my attention to the other princesses, and away from Twilight’s unintentional pout. "Moving on, while I can help in the repairs of the world's barriers, the matter is that eventually some species will find this world. It could be in days, years, or even centuries, but this event has been noticed."
With those words, everypony in the room has gone silent until Celestia took a deep breath before she said, "I understand that this is a matter that we may need to address to in the near future, but how will you be able to help us repair our world's barriers."
"That... is easier said than done. Since it seems that you have some understanding about the nature of different dimensions, do you have some ways to find the damage?"
"Sadly, there is no spell that would be able to identify nor locate such damage," Celestia answered.
"That... would be a problem then," I said as I rubbed a hoof against my chin. "Guess we can only try to make efforts to find a way to fix the damage... which means we have to discuss the Maralus shards now."
Before Twilight was able to continue her query though, Celestia raised a hoof to keep her quiet as she asked, "By these... 'Maralus' shards, I take it that you're talking about those crystals found from the explosions?"
Nodding, I replied, "Yes, those crystals are indeed Maralus shards, though I am calling them shards cause when put together they form a Maralus core. These cores are one of the many ways interdimensional species travel between the dimensions. Due to the mysterious effects magic has on the shards, along with the origin of the dimensional damage being magical in nature, there may be a way to use them to fix the 'cracks' in the barriers."
"Wait, would that mean that you would need of enough shards to form a 'core'?" Twilight asked, her quill scribbling any information I revealed.
"Perhaps, this would take some experimentation at first. Though for now, having all the shards from one explosion available should we need it would be the best approach," I replied.
Nodding, Celestia said, "Thankfully due to the abundance of these explosions, we were able to secure all the shards of a few sites together. I will send for one collection to be retrieved."
"I could also bring my notes and my own samples from my lab. Hopefully once I info—" Twilight started to say before I cut her off.
"Um... you don't have to tell me about your notes..." I said with a sheepish smile.
"What do you mean? The experiments I have conducted... you already got your hooves on them, haven't you," Twilight said as she narrowed her eyes at me.
Rubbing a hoof against the back of my head, I replied, "...Yeah... I needed to know more about how the shards reacted to magic... so, when I learned to read your language... I, sort of, snuck into your lab and copied your notes."
As Twilight's face started to darken at my little reveal, Rainbow said, "Wait a moment, you snuck into Twilight's lab?" Looking at Twilight, Rainbow questioned, "Don't you keep your lab locked?"
Blinking, Twilight said, "Of course I do... wait... did you steal my key too? Or did you made a copy of that as well?"
"Er... no, I just used telekinesis on your lock... I practiced that on other locks..." I said as I felt my face getting warm from an embarrassed blush.
Just as Twilight was about to open her mouth to scold me, Luna raised her hoof to silence her as she asked, "’Tis an interesting use of thine magic. Judging by thy age and knowledge, thou seem quite the skilled pony."
"Yes, since it will take some time for the shards to be retrieved, I do believe that it is time that you enlighten us about yourself?" Celestia asked before calling over a guard to make the request for the core’s shards, including Twilight's own.
Moaning, I slumped my head to my hooves as I whined, "Do I have to? Can't we focus on something else?"
"My dear, while there are important manners we have to attend to, you did mention that these 'Maralus' shards could be the key to fixing the barrier. But since we don't have access to them yet, might we pass the time by listening to you regale us with your history?" Rarity replied.
As I looked up to make a retort, I saw Pinkie's face in front of me as she said, "Yeah, I could be a better foster parent if you tell me more about yourself! So please tell us?" before she gave me a watery eyed look that normally foals give when they want something.
"...Augh, fine... just stop with the look," I said as I tried to push Pinkie's face away, all the while I heard some of the mares snickering at the scene before them. "So what do you want to hear first then?"
"Well, since you were of a different species, how about you tell us about them first?" Celestia asked.
"Good point! You're practically like an alien ambassador for your species!" Twilight exclaimed as the other ponies lean their heads in closer.
Cocking an eyebrow, I looked at all of them before I said, "Okay, this is all you need to know about my species. There is absolutely nothing you need to know about them."
My unexpected answered caused all the ponies to tilt their heads as they all said 'huh?' before Twilight broke first. "What do you mean there is nothing we need to know about them‽ They're an alien species! They could have technological advancements and cultural achievements! I mean, your kind can travel dimensions! How can they be nothing!" Twilight took a deep breath before she continued, but stopped as I let out a cold laugh.
"You assume too much Twilight. Way too much..." I said, causing Twilight's anger to fade away into surprise. "The reason they are nothing... is cause my species is dying out."
This caused everypony to gasp in shock, Rarity even going as far as to put a hoof to her mouth. This time though, Fluttershy was the first to speak as she asked, "Why is your species dying out?"
Letting out a hollow chuckle, I answered, "As glorious as being able to safely travel dimensions can be to you, there are also great... problems linked to it too. My species was one of the many unfortunate species to be discovered by a interdimensional nation, and we were more unfortunate to have… very underdeveloped technology. From what I heard from my parents, I believe that we are even behind what this world has now."
"Which means your species, and their world... could be taken advantaged of..." Celestia stated when I paused for breath.
Nodding, I replied, "Correct, and this led to my species becoming one of the many species that ended up in the bottom of the social order. Due to our status of being highly uneducated, we were forced to either take on menial labor or dangerous jobs... or just starve to death. And since we have to compete with so many other downtrodden races, we had to scatter through other worlds just to make a living. This took its toll on us... as we died off from disease, starvation, or violence." My last word caused everypony to gasp and whiten at it.
"Eventually, after many generations, either a species somehow able to uplifts itself from the bottom of the social caste... or it just begins to die off, like mine has. This is the cold reality of dimensional society."
"Wait a minute, hold up," Rainbow said before she pointed a hoof at me. "You said your species have to do dangerous or menial jobs... but you travel dimensions, that doesn't sound like it would fit either."
This cause me to let out another cold laugh as I replied, "Assumptions once more. The cold hard fact is that it's also a low pay high risk job. With a large pool of labor to draw from, various organizations and nations just send ponies like me to a world, where they just give us the amount of time before the return gate opens. If we return and we give them results, or we don't return and they just send a larger group or a professional. In all honesty, most folk end up dying from their first few trips."
Leaning back into my chair in the way that would suit a biped, I watch as the mares stared at me with mortified looks. Even the princesses were disturbed, which I would have found amusing until I was engulfed in Pinkie's embrace as she said, "You poor... pony. Nopony should have such unhappy times." As she rubbed a hoof against my back, I could hear all the ponies let out an 'aw' at the sight.
"Um... Pinkie... remember that I'm mentally an adult?" I said as my face reddened from embarrassment.
"You may be mentally an adult, but you are in the body of a foal. Which unless it's a disguise, I'll be going under the assumption that you are physically your age. Hence, you still need to be nurtured like any foal your age," Celestia said with a small smile.
"Princess Celestia did bring up a good point, if you were a different species, why did you appear as a foal if you were an adult?" Twilight asked.
"In all honestly, I wasn't suppose to come to this world. I just appeared here instead of where I was suppose to go, and in this form as well. Though, judging by how the probes exploded when they came to this world, I guess it's due to the presence of magic," I replied with a shrug.
"Wait... based on what you said about the Maralus shards and magic doing to this... are you saying that there wasn't magic in the dimension you came from?" Twilight asked.
Sighing, I answered, "Yes, there was no presence or even the concept of magic from where I came from. Hence my physical change and the explosions, it was simply an issue no... species ever had to deal with before."
"Astounding, maybe the magic of our world converted your body into one that is compatible with it. It makes it more likely to happen since your entrance to our world was caused by magical reasons as well," Twilight said as she scribbled down some more notes.
"Okay... though there is one question I have in regards to that. Now before I say it, you all might want to brace yourselves... it's almost as shocking as my announcement of my alien origins."
"Pfft, unless you were a stallion before you came to this world, I doubt anything is as freaky as an alien," Rainbow said with a wave of her hoof. However, my deadpanned stare that I leveled at her caused her to scrunch her face in confusion before it fell into an expression of shock matched by all her friends, even the princesses matched it. "Don't tell me..."
After letting the silence go on for a moment longer, I took a deep breath and said, "Unfortunately... you're right Rainbow." This caused nearly all the mare's jaws to drop, the only exception being Rarity, who instead fainted. "Yeah... I know... this is going to get awkward fast..."
Amazing and Perfect. I love this story, so just keep on going.
Really wish the chair hit the face.
Really do.
Although it has little bearing on this story (because I am of the opinion sci-fi can be whatever the author imagines it to be) I doubt that an inter-dimensional society would need cheap labour.
We, as humans, are barely able to fly into space and yet we already are at the point, technology-wise, to create artificial intelligence and great feats of robotics. Combine that with the near infinite resources multiple dimensions would offer and rapid prototyping (3d printing) and you have a recipe for a post-scarcity society. In such a society, there would be no need for anybody to work (especially the uneducated) because computers could build upon themselves and do all the work needed for the race that built them.
As I said though, I am of the opinion that sci-fi doesn't need hard science. Many stories would be pretty boring if they did (including this one).
Bring on more comedy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6113987
You know how sometimes the big people in charge tend not to give a damn about the little people? That's practically what Aether's race and other like it are going through. They're most likely using the bottom of the bottom for scouting to save on their "resources" because it efficient for them. They don't really care what happens to the little guys, they're just cannon fodder to them.
besides Rarity fainting I'd say this meeting was a rousing success,
6113979 have you read No I Am Not A Brony? the main guy, TD, punches Celestia twice!
6113987 I might agree with you, but you have to account for social science as well. Just because you can have a post scarcity society doesn't mean everything falls into place for it. Especially with various societies at different tech levels interacting.
Awww, I was kind of hoping elestia would've been floored...
Damn it.
Awesome job! Nice to learn a bit more about our alien friend.
hehehehe, next chapter will be interesting~
Maybe we'll find out why he's a female.
Fantastic chapter. I feel a little conflicted though I kinda wanted Celestia to be hit by the chair but at the same time I don't, can't decide which is better. Anyway can't wait for more
YAY INFO DUMPS! MOAR!
Is this about sex or rape again? I had to think about it, because he talked to Rainbow at the end, and Rarity was well like the last time.
Hey congrats on hitting the front page again! It's nice to see this story getting some love. It's definitely one of my favorites.
It's awesome to finally find out more about Aether's origins. Backstory FTW.
6113987
New tech can be be expensive. You are forgeting that not everyjob can be done with machines, most textile production plants are in third world countries and ise child child labor just to save money. So yes i can see an ultra advance society use cheap labor because its cheap and saves money.
The rich hate the idea of post scaresity, because wheras tehy by divine righ have been born into power and comfort, the plebs have had the audacity over the millenium to work themselves to death incrementally improving their childrens lives, until teh point where their tools take over the effort and do the work themselves.
Meaning the plebs are now rich and comfortable, without the bloodlines of nobility to prove it.
Poor Aether. the more they explain whats occuring, the weirder their life gets, even compare to Ponyville.
Awesome. I think this approach is much better than making him a cross-dimensional mercenary or what not. With all the combinations for dimensional travel (presumably unlimited), it would make sense that it would be considered a menial job.
Blast it all, I was hoping celestia would get hit by the chair.... all well. Good chapter btw. And yes aether it is going to be akward, very very very (two hours later) very very awkward, which is going all the more hilarious.
6114013
Again though, why? It costs resources to have these races exist in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this inter-dimensional society are the "good guys," rather that they would probably just annihilate and use these "lesser societies" for study and let unmanned drones do the scouting. Those drones wouldn't betray your civilization to others like Aether is doing and the energy and resource demand would be a lot less (assuming the society is as advanced as the author says they are). Biological organisms are squishy and if one dies in an expedition, you don't even have the luxury of extracting data from the wreckage.
6114022
I get that; post-scarcity has far more social hurdles than technological ones. That being said, if the inter-dimensional society still exists, they found a solution; either they got their act together and created a paradise or they killed anyone who stood in their way and created a paradise. In this case, they incorporated every new society with open arms or they assimilated/annihilated them. As with above, having "lesser races" do your dirty work seems like a waste of resources. Cheap labor can be done without wasting precious (and no doubt expensive) food.
6114200
But that is because of the asymmetric manufacturing model, not because of technology. It is true that textile work can be done on the cheap in the third world, but that is because the start-up cost of certain technologies (like diverse automated textile fabrication) is high, not because it is a cheaper alternative. I guarantee that within 100 or 200 years, every job on the planet will be done by machines. Either the cost of production will go up, or the cost of the technology will go down. All a machine needs is energy and the meager resources to construct them; far cheaper then us inefficient humans which needs decade(s) of learning and food before we are useful. I know because I'm a Computer Engineer; everything I make is designing myself more and more out of a job (although I'll probably keep it until I die)
Don't mean to sound confrontational, this is just my opinion. I may be a little biased because I build the non-deterministic heuristics for machine learning algorithms.
6114020 Three if you count one of the alternate timelines. Technically four if you count one(/the only one?) of the alternate-alternate timelines of the previously mentioned alternate timeline.
great as always
stayclassy
I wonder what her question will be...
IS MAGIC MORE GIRL?
DO MAGIC INTO VAGINA?
PMS IS MAGIC?
HOW IS GIRL FORMED
HOW MAGIC GET GIRL
6114855
There is something you are forgetting, abundance of those below. Even though the cost and use of tech for labor might be lower there is also probably a way overabundance of people where relaying purely on tech might be more expensive. Think about this, China. They have a lot of tech but also fuck tons of people. They experience alot of poverty and labor issues. People will sell themselves to be cheaper than machine maintenance out of desperation. Now since this is multi-dimensional travel here then there is a huge potential for there to be an even more vast population of all types of beings looking for employment that is easily exploitable if you do your consumerism right, which they probably have. The beings that are strong would work together to keep their power and for other races to flourish when introduced. With a probable vast pool to choose from it would definitely be cheaper to throw someone to die than for you to use the resources for machines that could get broken when traveling between dimensions. Plus you get a better idea on how various organic beings would be affected, because they can tell you how they feel.
You are assuming too much with the ideas that some of the other sapient would have the same moral or ethical Guage that we have.
6116463
But you also forget about another limiter: efficiency. An inefficient society dies (which might be why the "Venanites" keep winning ).
I'm not saying that impoverished portions of this inter-dimensional empire wouldn't exist, rather they just wouldn't have any use; they would be ignored. The reason cheap labour exists on Earth is because it is a pre-existing industry, not because there is some sort of "intrinsic worth" to it.
To give an example, imagine that you are a wealthy inter-dimensional Octillionaire. You open inter-dimensional portals and survey planets for resources. Finally you find one, rich in resources and teaming with sentient life. You can either:
A) Spend 20 Trillion Credits
- Enslave the race, create cheap 20th century industrial plants that the stupid lifeforms can operate
- Get 200 Quadrillion Credits annually for 80 years before the planet is mined out
- You cannot move anything off-planet because the cost far outweighs the benefit
B) Spend 200 Quadrillion Credits
- Annihilate the indigenous life, install the most advanced, AI-run, completely automated, resource-gathering operation
- Get 4 Septillion Credits annually for 4 years before the planet is mined out
- Dismantle the equipment and use it for future operations (it's worth shipping the expensive equipment)
If you know anything about economics, B has a much higher internal rate of return and is the better investment. Obviously the numbers are all made up, but it is a similar scale of what it would really be like and I hope it illustrates my point: slave labour is inefficient. Ignoring the ethics, if you are starting from scratch anyway, why use the inferior way?
Even ignoring all that, though, they would never reach a point of "overabundance" of labour like you say. The only reason that places like China have such an abundance of cheap labour is because of decades of government mismanagement and a millennia of subsistence farming. If this inter-dimensional society had technology similar to ours for more than a hundred years, any overpopulation problem would have been solved by the declining birth-rates due to the lack of affordability of having children in such a system. It's comparing apples to oranges.
6115385 MAGIC IS MORE GIRL, MARE TO STALLION RATIO PROVES THIS.
6116662
Scenario B as presented relies on one additional assumption: The existence of Artificial Intelligence. However, that's not really here nor there when you get down to it, because there are simply too many things that we don't know.
From the description that Aether provides, it seems to be the case that scouts are more or less "shot" to whatever location they are going to, and told when and where the return portal is opened, and that's it. Once they are on that world, they are no longer the Company's problem: Food shelter, etc.? They have to find that themselves, so right away, it's not an inefficient use of social resources, because it's not using social resources at all.
There still then exists the question of why send meat instead of metal? Well, we don't know what the requirements of interdimensional travel are. Maybe sending an automated probe is extremely inefficient because of the amount of energy required to send it, versus sending meat. Maybe the energy requirements are equal or better than sending meat, but the probe needs to be constructed of exotic (and therefore, rare and expensive) materials. Maybe there's a bunch of environmental requirements to engineering probes to avoid contaminating destinations with radiation and super toxic chemicals, but those requirements don't exist when sending meatbags.
Again, these are assumptions, but they are assumptions based on a pre-existing social truth that anyone who lives in the United States knows very well: We make everything out of corn. Alcohols? Corn? Sweeteners? Corn. Preservatives? Corn. Caking agents? Corn. Thickening agents and emulsifiers? Corn. Fuels? Corn. Lubricants? Corn. Adhesives? Corn. Drying agents? Corn. Moisturizers? Corn (probably). Potato chips? Not corn, but only because we haven't figured out how to turn corn into potatoes yet. Yet.
Do we use corn to make all of these things? Yes. Is corn the best thing to use to make all of these things? Of course not. Is corn the least efficient thing to use to make some of these? Absolutely. So why do we keep using corn?
Because it's cheap. Because the tax subsidies in place mean that the business concerns that produce all of these things can purchase corn by the ton at a price that is below market value. There was a time when no one in Mexico was growing corn for commercial use because it was cheaper to import American corn than it was to buy Mexican corn.
Based on the evidence, you argue that the society Aether comes from would have to be an efficient one. Based on the evidence, I am arguing that the society Aether comes from would have to be a greedy one. And in the fight between efficiency and greed, greed always wins. If they have a constant influx of cheap labor from other dimensions — which is implied — then it doesn't matter what their technology level is, because the people who invariably end up in charge are the greediest ones.
Always bet on greed.
6116662
Wikipedia disagrees with your analysis.
6116861
I said in my original post "I am of the opinion that sci-fi doesn't need hard science." I was making the assumption that this story uses hard science, but that doesn't need to be the case and that is fine. One thing that would be necessary in a hard-science story would have is that any society more advanced than ours would have AI or at least some limited form of it. We already have AI here on Earth: self-driving cars, neural-nets etc. the algorithms are there, it is just a matter of scraping the money together to build it.
Anyway, people seem to be taking my argument for more than it is; it was less a comment about this story and more about sci-fi in general. This is what would happen if Earth right now suddenly got this inter-dimensional technology, not some hyper-advanced alien race. We exploit cheap labour because of a lack of progress and our specific social situation. It is fine, I guess, but when you read a lot of sci-fi like me, it gets frustrating that most authors will just supplant Earth values and Earth problems onto alien species with little-to-no thought on what changes in technology would have on those values and problems.
Still, it says a lot about a society if they are willing to use their most impoverished and pathetic to make first contact with any other species, and most of what it says screams "stupid" to me. For the chance to exploit Quadrillions of dollars in resources, they could use a little more investment than "the absolute bare minimum." Hell, even we would at least send twenty-or-so soldiers in hazmat/spacesuits, armed to the teeth, but trained in diplomacy to deal with any situation; not because we aren't greedy, but because we actually would want the job done right.
6116937
Notice how they say "could." It is not the case here. Having more money more quickly means that you can invest it more quickly resulting in more money. The start-up costs in both cases are negligible compared to the profit so the second option is clearly the better alternative.
6117367
Self-driving cars aren't really an example of artificial intelligence. They can react to changing situations, yes, but they can't adapt to information that is not part of their programming, or grow beyond their initial function without outside intervention.
As to the rest of your response, you have much more faith in humanity than I do. The 2009 bank bailouts that happened in almost every industrialized country in the world didn't happen because we wanted to do the job right; they happened because we were greedy. If we wanted to do the job right, we would've let the biggest banks fail.
As to long-term wealth extraction, yes, doing things the way we have projected is stupid, but that's how it works. The society is basically a world superpower during the age of empires; they are the biggest, baddest kid on the block and are far ahead of everyone else in technology. Anyone they encounter that is similarly-capable technologically is made an ally, and anyone that is inferior is subjugated and made into a colony, the inhabitants kept impoverished because then they won't ever have the means to rise up, and the wealth rapidly extracted. Yes, perhaps doing it another way would allow for a greater amounts — perhaps even much greater — to be extracted, but by doing things the way they are, they extract the resources and make them available for use immediately. This does mean that they can start using those resources immediately, yes, but much more importantly, it denies anyone else from using them at all.
It's an infantile mindset, yes, but it's exactly the sort of mindset that empires tend to breed in their ruling classes. The reason we don't see this in, for example, Princesses Celestia and Luna is because they are functionally immortal. If they use up all their resources, it's not going to be someone else's problem at some point in the future; it's going to be their problem. Even with empire, having to think 300, 400, or 1,000 years ahead breeds a completely different mindset than only having to think as far as the next balance sheet.
YOU WERE ASKING FOR IT!
6116662
To be fair, poverty and population growth have always been negatively corellated. If you use simple inference, it's obvious that there will always be a surplus of workers in an impoverished society, because what happened in the past is parents had more and more children, to try and have at least one of them survive the harsh conditions of their environment. Obviously inference is not always correct though, and there may be other factors involved. For one thing, impoverished societies in history have always been ruled by wealthy elites who universally brainwashed them into to keeping children ignorant, denying any forms of birth control, and encouraging rape and other forms of sexual brutality that end up with unwanted children. There's no example in history where people weren't poor because of a wealthy caste, or the wealthy caste didn't do that, so it's impossible to say (by inference) whether removing that would have a huge effect.
Once you remove the incentive for the wealthy to trick the lower class into producing babies, i.e. through automation and robots being cheaper than people, it's reasonable to assume that an inequitable society's birth control rate will decline until they cease to exist.
So pretty much Malthus's ideas have been treated as an instruction manual, not dire warnings to avoid.
This is one of my favorite storys on this site!
And the truth finally comes out.
6116861
Although, we do have Doritos. They're almost there.
And the Apples' farm grows corn, too (& if we could just do away with Filthy Rich and the mortgage he has on the farm....)
The truth is the best, isn't it?
7526204
The truth will set you fre.
...it will also set off anybody around you that cat handle the cold cruelty of rule 63.
8462782
"the truth will make you fret"...that's from the Diskworld novel "The Truth".