Observations: 16: Ouroboros
"Welcome back, Doctor. I take it that your mission was a success?" The slightly transparent avatar asked as it greeted Aaron.
"In a way. You were right, Sentinel, there was a pattern to the attacks." Aaron said, sporting his original, human, form. "It calls itself Harm."
"Then we are on schedule?" the snake-like apparition asked with a hiss. "Or can I resume the simulations?"
"Continue construction on the facilities, but prepare a patch for the other worlds before you reset them. We'll need to remove the Beta consoles from their source code before this Harm can establish any more connections. And what did I tell you about using that Avatar?"
"Our apologies." The AI stated before reverting to a more reasonable form. "Were you able to procure a code sample from the Harm entity?"
"No. Unfortunately, what little I observed, I was forced to delete. I believe that the code itself is virulent, especially when it can establish a connection with its source. Keeping a sample without proper containment would be dangerous."
"I believe this world has caught up to the same time frame as our little escape's before she left. Whether her doppleganger exists or not, I was unable to ascertain. If she does exist, it's likely that her timeline has divulged away from repeating events. A shame, really, if her skillset was even a portion of that unicorn, she could prove useful. Either way, we'll keep this world open for observation. Keep a look out for that attack pattern, and notify me if you detect it again."
"And what of the rogue entity?"
"Start work on overriding the comm relays. We’ll flood all channels with a request contact message asking for her specifically, but use her given name, not the identifier you used before. In fact, I’ll send you the exact message package I want sent. If she's been looking for what I think she is, then shel won’t be able to resist contact when the relays start up again."
"You wish to bring her here?"
"She's got the only other world with an access point that Harm might be able to use. I don't know exactly what she did to partition her part of the simulation, but we can’t take the chance that it may be subverted, or worse."
"Was your interactions with this harm entity really so dreadful? You expressed far more concern regarding this entity than what we would quantify as normal."
"Can't argue with you there. I think, deep down, a part of me worries that I finally found what I was looking for."
"A way to help the human race?"
"No. The reason for our decline..."
~~~~~
Sentinel fully occupied, Aaron migrates his consciousness to a very special room. A single hardline connection lies between the station's servers and the cold room, tucked away between server cooling towers of a disused corner of the facility. Easy to miss given the gratuitous size of the Station, especially if you didn't know what to look for, not even the AI knows the full details of the rooms existence. A single unconscious form inhabits the space, locked in a sealed pod kept near absolute zero.
Aaron examines the body, his body, through the local interfaces. If he wanted to, he could leave the digital realm and upload his mind into his cranial implants, and return to the real world, but that is not the reason for this visit.
Medical scanners come to life, simple hologram interfaces show a complete replica of his body outside of the pod. A few simple commands later, and Aaron has filtered out all of the unnecessary information. The holographic representation of his form is riddled with several dark patches. Corruption.
A quick summary is given. The corruption has spread, if only a little bit. An impossibility given the conditions, but Aaron has seen this before. It is why he believes he is the last of his kind. Once the disease reaches the implants, death is certain.
Aaron has always known that his time was limited, now more so than ever. But now he knows the source of the corruption.
Harm.
Securing power to the scanning equipment, Aaron retreats through the encrypted system. There are things that must yet be done. Things that can't be accomplished while worrying over the body of a single, dying man.
Humanity must live on, after all.
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7329701 You hit the nail on the head, actually.
img00.deviantart.net/aa06/i/2012/351/5/f/cistern_chapel_by_iconoklasm-d5odok4.png It's one of the functional dungeons I built a few years ago.
So... Magic IS real.
*whimper*
7535699 is it? He said exactly the contraire.
Oh, btw, have you started publishing the next one yet, Tolerance? Because I wants moar
7587891
The corruption on his human body is happening inside of a stasis pod.
It's not equestrian magic, but the Harm entity is clearly defying the physical laws of our reality.
Magic is fundamentally defined as "the addition or subtraction of total physical information or total energy of a closed thermodynamic system, such as the physical universe."
7587891 Sorry, I haven't had the chance to do more than hash out some ideas. It'll be quite a while before I'm able to return to the Observations Series.
Don't know if it's been stated, no one likes combing through comments when you come to something late. But if the humans are so advanced, can bring the ponies out of simulation and give them a real body. Why then can't he just make himself a new one? It doesn't even have to be human, just use the same process he plans to use on them while he's still a dog. Problem solved.
7599182 Were it so simple >.< I plan on approaching this subject eventually, but let's just say that the body isn't the only thing affected.
Well, I read the first one, and mostly enjoyed it. Let's see where this road leads.
8101320 Thanks!
So is this the universe with the first Starswirl, that was in indirect contact with the second Starswirl and the other universe's Twilight?
8378691
Yes. Aaron's Starswirl was the first one to break into the Sandbox. The one from Observations is a different Starswirl.
SPOILER WARNING:
DO NOT READ if you have not yet read all stories in this series.
8378768
If I count off the universes of any significance:
"Real" universe where Aaron is originally from. May or may not be a simulation itself (was that ever answered?).
Diamond Dog universe, where Aaron interacts with the dogs and where the first Starswirl (1) escaped from.
Observations universe, where Twilight the escapee is from, and where a different Starswirl (2) also escaped from.
And then less important universes:
Trixie's universe, where she is the bearer of Magic. Trixie is rescued by Starswirl 2.
Discord's universe, where he held Magic. Discord is rescued by Starswirl 2.
Barren universe, which little miss escapee did a copy-paste of her universe to, to buy time.
Did I miss anything?
8378856 Those are just the ones mentioned, the Sandbox allows for countless simulated realms. Though there is one you might have missed. There's the other 'Real' Universe that Harm originated from.
8379351
I also missed Dusk's universe. And I'm aware that there are stupidly many other universes, it is just that I don't think you ever mentioned what was in them.
On the other hand, I don't think I spotted where Harm was supposed to be from. I'd assumed it native to Aaron's universe.
8379677
I don't think I explained it expressly, but when Aaron destroyed the gate control console, Harm disappeared much like Aaron did when his version of Starswirl broke the simulation. So while it already wasn't being held to Sandbox's rules, it also implied that it came from somewhere else.
Interestingly enough, Harm also existed in Twilight's world during the Crystal Empire arc of Motivations, but it's known as the Stranger there for reasons I've never mentioned.
Possible future spoilers ahead:
If I ever get around to another story in this universe, you should keep a lookout for a specific conversation between Aaron and Admin-privilege Twilight, should the two ever meet.
8379677
I should also mention that those were just the universes that fulfilled the requirements that Starswirl needed to contact those there.
There needed to be a form of magic. That magic had to have a powerful artifact equivalent to the Element of Harmony and someone capable of using it.
Some form of Starswirl was needed to have come across the Null data to some extent, but whom also left enough markers behind for the first escaped Starswirl to use.
Of course, there was also the limitation that the worlds weren't already destroyed by the time the second Starswirl was able to pull them out.
8454408 8454380 8454315
Aha! Thanks again! I never was able to secure the assistance of an editor, so I really appreciate when people like you bring these to my attention.
I liked the previous story.
And hope this one is as good... especially if it is less sad/ more hopeful.
9094400
Let me know if this one was better or worse than the previous story.