4 - ...The Harder the Cleanup
Twilight stared in open-mouthed horror at the descending bulge that used to be the mechanical wolf as it travelled down the hydra’s neck and into the bulk of its body. Her legs were frozen in fear and her eyes were shrunk to pinpricks as she tried to formulate what had just happened and why. The wolf had seemed to be far too agile to get caught by the hydra’s clumsy attacks, and yet for some improbable reason, it had simply stopped and let the monster gulp in down in a single bite without putting up any kind of resistance. A glance to either side showed that Rarity was in a similar state while Rainbow and Applejack were fit to burst from a combination of fear and fury, their bodies coiled like springs in preparation to attack. Fluttershy was sobbing into Pinkie’s chest as the normally peppy pony’s hooves stroked the distraught pegasus between her wings, her usually springy mane hanging limp over her shoulders as tears threatened to break free from her own eyes.
Yet, as the hydra turned to face them, it seemed to pause, a look of confusion coming over its faces as it looked down at its midsection. Twilight’s shock and fear swiftly followed the large reptile’s example as a deep rumbling began to emanate from the hydra’s stomach, the flesh between its legs roiling and shifting as a pained expression overcame the hydra’s faces.
At first it looked like nothing was really happening except for some stomach problems, given the hydra had eaten a creature entirely made up of metal, but as the rumbling got louder, Twilight’s eyes expanded in awe as a single beam of bright blue energy exploded out of the hydra’s hide and began to burn a larger hole through the reptile’s flesh. The monster roared in agony as more and more beams joined the first, pointing in every direction from within the creature’s belly as the great beast lifted its heads to the sky and thrashed its tail across the ground. Finally, as the beams reached numbers exceeding two dozen, the unthinkable happened. The hydra’s body began to expand from the inside out, ballooning outward as the beams grew thicker and thicker. Twilight shielded herself and the others as the heat from the energy beams reached uncomfortable levels and covered her face with a hoof as the light became too much for her eyes to take.
Then, with a mighty discharge of light and heat, the hydra exploded into hundreds of pieces, the chunks of flesh flying far and wide as smaller pieces splattered against the pink dome that protected the cowering ponies. Pools of sizzling green blood followed the hunks of meat as the clearing and every plant in sight was covered in the super-heated goo, leaving all but the most resilient of flora withered and black from the intense temperatures.
Twilight lowered the shield as the pieces of hydra that had collected on the dome’s surface dropped to the ground with a cascade of sickening plops, her eyes taking in the spectacle before her with disbelieving wonder. None of the hunks of flesh that remained were any larger than a pony’s leg, the shear force and power of the explosion tearing its massive body apart like tissue paper as the energy discharge ripped bone and muscle apart with equal prejudice. And through it all, the only thing that remained, was a small, blackened blob that had been in the epicenter of the explosion.
With careful steps, Twilight moved towards the center of the blackened grass and steaming hunks of meat, doing her best not to vomit as the smell of cooked flesh met her nose in a solid wave of nauseating proportions. One hoof was held over her nose as she walked up to the black mass that remained in the epicenter of the energy discharge, and her eyes widened as a gasp escaped her mouth when she made out what it was.
Lying on one side, its metal plating scorched and blackened by the power of the attack, was the mechanical wolf, its once bright red eyes now flickering as its body twitched and jerked like it was having a seizure. Unable to do anything to help, or even possessing the capability to form coherent thoughts, Twilight was left to stare in both wonder and a great measure of fear as the wolf’s eyes stabilized, its head slowly lifting up to look at her as its body stopped spasming and rolled onto its stomach. Her body acting on instinct, she backed away and tucked her tail between her hind legs as the mechanized hound slowly stood up, its head swiveling around to take in the destruction it had caused before returning to her shaking form.
Twilight could hear the other girls behind her as they raced into the debris field towards the duo, but Twilight knew it wasn’t going to be of any help if their companion decided to do anything threatening. She had seen the raw power of its weapons, and the most terrifying thing of all, it had all been done without a trace of magic. A hydra, one of the deadliest and nearly unstoppable creatures known to pony kind, had been completely obliterated by the machine before her without any magical assistance at all. The very thought scared her to no end, and she felt herself backing up several more steps as the other girls fell in at either of her sides. The sextuplet of mares watched as the wolf slowly turned towards them and waited on baited breath to see what it would do next. After what they had just seen, none of them were very confident on its peaceful intentions, although none of them had the clarity of thought to try and formulate a plan of escape or defense. They prepared to do whatever it took to defend themselves and the rest of Equestria if this machine turned out to be a threat, even though none of them were very hopeful of coming out of the encounter alive after what they had just seen.
The wolf looked to each of the mares in turn, its head tilted to one side as if confused, before turning to take in the destruction around them once again. It seemed to come to some kind of conclusion as its head nodded ever so slightly, before it returned its attention to the quivering ponies before it. Then, just as it had done back in the castle, it laid down on the ground and placed it head on its forepaws, doing everything in its capabilities to make itself seem small and unthreatening.
Twilight shared a confused look with her friends before turning her attention back to the machine, her expression hopeful as she took a hesitant step forward, “You’re not going to hurt us?”
Shadow could tell that the equines were scared of him, terrified even if the quivering limbs and quickened breathing were any indication. Then again, he had just blasted a creature a hundred times their size into small and smoking pieces. He made no move to appear threatening as the purple one stepped forward again, its moves hesitant and its body guarded against possible attack. He simply kept still as the equine glanced over its shoulder at the others before taking another step, bringing it within almost touching distance if they both reached out. Shadow lifted his head slowly, the equine freezing in place for a moment before taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Its fear seemed to dissipate to a certain degree as it took the final step and came to a stop directly in front of Shadow, its eyes locked with his optics as it looked down at him with a slightly tilted head. It said something in its native tongue, which was recorded dutifully by his processors, although he was yet unable to understand what was being said. The being seemed to realize this, placing a hoof against its forehead in a very human-like manner as it closed its ears and muttered under its breath.
After a moment of what appeared to be contemplation, the being opened its eyes and turned its full attention to Shadow, pointing first to itself and then to him, putting both forehooves together and then pointing towards the direction they had previously been travelling. Shadow took a moment to decipher the motions the equine had made, then realized that the being wanted them to continue on their way as a group. He nodded, noting the way the equines all sighed in what could have been relief, although they quickly snapped to attention as the falcon drone came down from its circling flight pattern to land on his back. The purple equine backed up for a moment before pausing, its eyes widening as it slowly walked around his side and inspected the drone in much closer detail. The blue winged equine took to the air and hovered over to his other side, chattering in fast sentences as the purple one replied in a much calmer manner, all recorded by Shadow as the others gathered around him and gazed at the drone with varied levels of interest.
Feeling that they would be more at ease if they moved on from the rather macabre setting he had created, Shadow slowly stood up and began following the trail that the group had originally been following, the others stepping into file on either side and behind him as the drone spread its wings and took to the air in a roar of jet thrust. The blue equine watched the drone disappear above the treetops and narrowed its eyes for a moment before following along, although Shadow noted that the being’s ears were constantly swiveling to follow the drone’s movements above them as its sensors scanned the forest for other possible threats.
They followed the trail for another thirty-seven minutes, according to Shadow’s internal chronometer, before they suddenly reached the edge of the forest and came out into a wide open plain. Shadow’s processors were flooded with new information as the falcon’s sensors picked up a large settlement in the near vicinity, its optics sending Shadow numerous images of small thatch and wood buildings that were arranged in a haphazard way on the south-eastern side of a huge orchard. Life scans picked up at least two hundred beings of similar size and body shape to the six equines accompanying him, and he surmised that this was a settlement belonging to the beings that had discovered him in the castle ruins. Whether or not they were able to provide further data concerning their culture and infrastructure once they got into the small village, he could not say. Yet the equines did seem to be a great deal more relaxed upon leaving the forest, perhaps because of the reduced threat of attack now that they were getting closer to civilization.
Shadow stayed within the center of the group as they journeyed up to the edge of the village, the falcon’s scanners picking up increased activity and movement in their direction as the other equines took note of the approaching band. Calculating that the equines wouldn’t be much of a threat compared to the giant reptile he had just obliterated, he retracted his cannons and allowed the plating of his chassis to cover the weapons once again as they entered the edge of the town. The purple equine took note of his actions as gave what seemed to be an encouraging smile his direction before turning its attention back towards the town. As they made their way into the village itself, many other equines, all in the same dazzling spectrum of colors, approached the group only to stop and stare as their eyes fell upon Shadow in the center of the group. Muttered words were shared between the inhabitants of the village as they made their way further into the town, their eyes locked on his larger form with trepidation and fear as they made a wide-open path for the group to travel through. The purple equine called out to the others and seemed to be attempting to calm the masses, although it did little to change the overall atmosphere that had descended upon the inhabitants as they watched the group make their way down the main road.
Shadow instructed the falcon to remain in overwatch status in case any of the equines became hostile, although he could tell from the scans he had gotten of the local life that the threat to him was minimal at best. The strength it would take to damage his body would far exceed the force these small creatures would be able to produce, and without any adaptations like claws or sharp teeth, the biggest threat they could provide against him would be if they somehow possessed weapons or some other form of attack that could increase their destructive capabilities.
Taking his attention off of the locals for a moment, Shadow allowed his optics to roam over the infrastructure of the buildings surrounding him and was able to determine that the majority of them were indeed made of wooden and thatch construction. There were a few that were sturdier in make, such as the large building that they passed that seemed to be some form of central government, if the official flags and seals upon the door were anything to go by. Although, even that was little more than stone and wood, making Shadow come to the conclusion that these equines hadn’t progressed to the level of metal-based construction, although given his limited data he left the final assessment of the civilization’s tech tier undetermined until he could get a more reliable sample of their capabilities.
The septuplet made their way towards the south side of the village and came to a stop just in front of the most improbable piece of construction Shadow had ever seen. The building before them was literally carved out of a living oak tree, with windows and a door allowing for natural light to enter the interior while a balcony separated some of the branches near the top of the tree. A sign was posted in the ground to the right of the front door with a picture of an open book painted onto its surface. Taking a moment to instruct the falcon to land on the balcony above them, Shadow followed the equines into the seemingly impossible creation as his optics took in the interior of the building in pinpoint detail. A single staircase wound up the far side of the room while the majority of the walls were covered in floor to ceiling bookcases, filled to the brim with books and scrolls of paper. Another door led out the back of the main room and into what Shadow presumed to be living quarters, although he was distracted as the purple equine called out into the interior.
Much to Shadow’s surprise, a second voice replied from above them, causing him to turn his attention to the staircase as a small purple and green reptile waddled down the steps and into the room. It couldn’t have been more then three feet tall, barely coming up to Shadow’s belly in height, although the sharp teeth and claws marked it as a much greater threat then the equines around him, yet his assessment quickly changed when the small being ran up and embraced the purple equine. Clearly, they knew each other and were comfortable being in the same environment, although that still left the question of what the relationship between this reptile and the equines was. It clearly possessed the attributes of a predator but was accepted into the center of a prey-based society with seemingly no problems. Shadow filed away further study of the races of this world into his processors as the purple duo turned to face him, noting that the reptile seemed well aware that he was the more dangerous of the two, if the sudden jerky breath and stiffened movements were any indication.
The equines spoke several comforting words to the reptile, all recorded, and they seemed to have the intended affect on the small being, although it still kept a respectable distance from Shadow as the equines gathered in the center of the room. Shadow watched as the purple equine’s horn began to glow, and his sensors began going haywire as several books on the shelves were enveloped in a similar glow and began floating across the room towards the seated beings.
…Warning....Energy Field Detected...
…Energy Type: Unable to Compute…
…Recommended Action: Evacuation from Affected Area…
Shadow was just beginning to move when the purple equine gasped, the glow around its horn halting as the books lost their glow, falling to the floor in a heap as they were once again subject to the force of gravity. Not a single being moved as Shadow processed what had just happened, his processers working overtime trying and failing to decipher what his sensors had been telling him. Yet nothing was adding up. The energy produced by the equine hadn’t been all that strong, yet it had been enough to move almost a dozen pounds of literature through the air in complete ignorance of gravity. His logic circuits were working overtime trying to come up with a reason how and why the equine had been able to do what he had just witnessed, but it just kept looping back to the same non-answers that the data was providing. Somehow, the books had been moved through a gravitational field without being subjected to an outside force, such as a thruster or some such, and had been under the complete control of the purple equine as indicated by the glow present on both the books and the being’s horn. Finally, Shadow’s processors couldn’t take it anymore, and his hypercore activated, compartmentalizing the data and breaking the logic loop his processors had been locked into. He took a step backwards and locked his optics on the purple equine, its eyes narrowing in fear as he slowly moved towards the group. The others got up and stepped into his way, their movements guarded and their eyes wide with fear, but Shadow did nothing other than walk up and inspect the books the equine had selected.
At first it looked like they were basic picture books, but as Shadow flipped the pages with one of his paws, he noticed that there were symbols on each page corresponding with the image. The problem of the unknown energy set aside for now, Shadow diverted all of is processing power to cataloging and organizing the data his optics were providing him. As he moved further through the book, he saw that the symbols were now being put together into what looked like words, and in an instant Shadow realized what it was the equines had planned to do. This was a book intended to teach the basics of their written language, and as he scanned over the rest of the books, he saw that they progressed into higher levels of complexity before breaking off into what seemed to be different subjects. Shadow turned to face the purple equine and indicated the book with a jerk of his head, its eyes widening in understanding as he tapped the word with a claw.
The equine walked up and sat down next to him, Shadow following its example as it tapped the word with a hoof, speaking a single word that Shadow filed and linked with the letters that created the word. He repeated the word back at the equine and it nodded with a brilliant smile. It flipped the page with a hoof and tapped the next word, speaking it aloud once again for him as he filed away the information. Already his processors were linking the sounds to the written letters and translating what little he could of the conversations he had recorded. Given what he already knew, it looked like the equines operated on a phonetic alphabet the same way the humans did, at least compared to the American written system. This allowed him to make some extrapolations on what information he already had and created a possible translation of the word on the following page. Before the equine was able to speak, he tapped the word with a paw and spoke his calculated response, looking at the equine for confirmation as its head jerked up to look at him.
If the wide eyes and slack jaw were anything to go by, he had probably been correct with his calculations.
Twilight stared in starstruck wonder at the machine sitting next to her. Her brain ran at a million miles a minute as she tried to fathom the speed at which this machine, this hunk of metal and circuitry, had already begun to learn their language. It was unbelievable. Barely five minutes with a foal’s learning book and it had already begun to expand on the basic knowledge it had been given, and it seemed that it would only progress faster once it got more data.
Feeling a giddy smile crossing her face, she turned back to the book and flipped the page, tapping the word under the picture with a hoof but remaining silent, hopeful that the machine could make the right translation again.
The mechanical hound looked down at the page for a moment, its eyes flickering slightly before it turned to look back at her. Twilight’s face fell as the wolf shook its head once, and she realized that the word before them hadn’t included any of the letters that the previous words had. Thus, if it was operating off of a translation, it wouldn’t have anything to work with.
Twilight sighed as she flipped back to the beginning of the book, presenting the first letter in the Equestrian alphabet underneath a picture of a large red apple. She tapped it with a hoof and looked up at the wolf once again, its focus leveled on her as the others began filing out through the front door. Twilight paid them no mind as her friends left to their own business, barely taking any note of their departure as Spike returned to whatever it was he had been doing upstairs. Her brain was entirely centered on teaching this machine how to speak their language, and with Celestia as her witness she wasn’t going to stop until it could talk just like any other pony.
“A is for apple.” She said with patience, knowing this might be a lot more difficult than she had first expected. Highly advanced or not, this was still a machine before her, and all machines needed information in order to expand on what they were capable of. No number of shortcuts would allow for any reliable results if she wanted to get anywhere with this new experiment.
“A is for apple.” The machine repeated, tapping the letter with a paw and then tapping the picture above it.
Its eyes flickered once again, and Twilight flipped the page to the next image, hoping against hope that this wouldn’t turn into another three-day sleepless project. Spike had already warned her about doing that again, although at this point and time she was very tempted to do exactly that. The thought of a machine that could think and act on its own was simply too much to resist, and she felt her lips curling into a smile once again as she tapped the next letter.
“B is for banana.” She intoned, settling in for the long haul as the machine repeated what she had just said.
She glanced out of the library’s window and saw that that Celestia’s sun was already sinking towards the horizon and realized that there were only a few hours left until nightfall. She contemplated pausing their lesson until the following morning but pushed that thought aside as she flipped the page once again.
“We’ll stop once we finish learning the alphabet.” She promised to herself, “Then I’ll get some sleep.”
If only the purple mare had known what was going to happen the following day, she would have probably tried to get some sleep. Needless to say, as the local star rose above the horizon the following morning, Shadow heard movement coming from upstairs, and glanced over his shoulder as he spied the small reptile, now classified as an adolescent dragon, travelled down the stairs into the main room of the library. Shadow turned his attention back to the book before him, tracked the drake’s movement with his ears without taking his optics off of the hand, or rather, hoof-written pages, scanning through the next chapter at a rapid pace as his processors added more and more words to his exponentially expanding vocabulary.
Finally, as he finished the current chapter on pegasus wing characteristics, he turned his attention to the small dragon. He noticed that the drake was trying to remain stealthy in his movements, although the click of his claws against the wooden floor did little to aid his endeavor, although he paused in his careful steps when he noticed that Shadow was looking at him instead of the book.
“Good morning young drake.” Shadow said in what he hoped was correct Equish, “My designation is CW04, but you can refer to me by my nickname, Shadow, if you so prefer.” He tilted its head to one side as the dragon gaped at the him, “Did I say something wrong? I am certain I programed the translation matrix properly.”
The baby dragon’s eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he fell over onto his back in what looked like a faint, so Shadow performed a quick scan to verify the small dragon was unharmed. Satisfied that the drake had not come to any harm other than losing consciousness, Shadow glanced over his shoulder at the slumbering equine, now classified by the local terminology as a unicorn mare and tilted his head in slight confusion.
“Was it something I said?” He asked the room, not expecting an answer but vocalizing his question anyway as his processors tried to compute the last few minutes and why the small dragon had reacted that way.
Receiving no reply from the two unconscious natives, he returned to the book on pony anatomy and flipped through the rest of the volume as the local star began to rise into the sky. He wasn’t really sure how the natives, or ponies, as they called themselves, would react to his mission and purpose for coming to this world, but he found a small part of his processors looping over and over around the hypothetical event of their being outwardly hostile against him and the human race.
Had Shadow been an organic being, he might have realized that the loop in his processors would have been easily translated as worry, although he wouldn’t come to understand this until much later. By that point, things would have gone in a very different direction from what Shadow could have ever imagined, and as the days drew closer to when the portal would open once again, Shadow would be faced with a choice. One that could very well define the rest of his existence.
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Nice update. Looking forward to more.
Very good balance on Shadow's AI.
Awesome update! Can’t wait to see what Shadow will do around to study this world and cause a bit of chaos
Great chapter. Loved poor Spike experiencing his own processor overload there at the end.
I don’t think the lack of dialogue hurt at all. You were great in describing things.
Hey this is really good I like the way you are taking the story. I also like Shadows development is an AI. The Story So Good I give you a cookie. you receive a cookie in your inventory
Ever heard of Story Thieves? It 's a series about a guy who meets a girl that can jump into books. Literally.
Yeahhh...
I wanna jump in there and face-palm myself for him.
Awesome chapter!!! Cannot wait till the next one! Lol
OOF
Ah... perhaps I missed a line somewhere, but it seems like he just walked through town and into the library while still covered in Hydra gore.
9054862
Not really. Shadow was in the center of the explosion so all of the stuff around him either got blasted away or got vaporized by the plasma. All he really had going against him was the scorch marks from the heat, although a little spit and polish should fix that right up.
Thank you for being so attentive when it comes to the details. It’s readers like you who help me improve as an author. Keep up the good work and let me know if you spot anything else out of place.
See you next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.
You've got two althoughs in short order. You might want to change the first to a but for contrast.
Was it something I said, indeed.
I wonder how much power is left in his cores after detonating a hydra?
For that matter, how did Shadow produce so many beams with only two cannons? The chapter makes them sound more or less simultaneous, or at least that multiple were firing at the same time.
And how does he get recharged, especially if he decides to stay?
P.S. Please let it be something reasonable, like a generator attached to a torque spell, and not Discord suddenly going, "This needs some deus ex machina. *snap*"
9055533
Thank you for spotting that. I've gone back and edited the sentence so now it flows better. Keep your eyes open for more such grammar issues and I shall exterminate them with extreme prejudice. Hope you are enjoying the book so far and I look forward to hearing from you again.
See you next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.
Cannot wait for the next chapter.
MORE!!
You gave Hydra's massive magic resistance, seemingly just to have Shadow look more impressive. Okay but I still doubt he could actually take all of the Mane 6 as was implied in this chapter. Twilight's magic has a massive effective range, being able to hold multi story tall Ursa Minors while simultaneously grabbing a water tower on the outskirts of what, by all appearances, is a large town. She also more powerful than her brother who can create a barrier that even Changeling Queen Chrysalis (who overpowered Cadence, an alicorn) couldn't simply smash through. Twilight is also more powerful than Rarity, who's manipulation of the weather over Ponyville and two mountain ranges in Magical Mystery Cure, shows a bat shit insane level of raw power for what amounts to an average unicorn.
Then you have Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom, the one she did as a foal that made everything Shadow's done look like nothing in comparison. Mind you Rainbow is durable enough to be at the epicenter of her Rainboom explosions and come out without a scratch. She can also collapse a rock cliff simply by flying into it backwards (not even at full speed). Fluttershy when serious is stronger (physically) than the rest of the mane 6 combined, has knocked the breath out of Rainbow with a single punch and is almost as fast as Rainbow.
Which takes us to speed, pretty much every pony seems to move at various degrees of "faster than the human eye can see" when they're actually serious. Rainbow can easily break the sound barrier and (this is the important part) even FOALS have the reaction speed to keep track of Wonderbolt/Rainbow level movements. Not to mention Rainbow dodging lightning, TWICE in the show, at point blank range.
I know he hasn't shown all his tricks but I'm still not fully convinced he's beyond Mane 6/Top tier regular Ponies level, much less comparable to Alicorns and certainly not Princesses Celestia or Luna.
Still a good story but Shadow is getting more and more dangerously close to ridiculously OP levels for my liking. I hope the Mane 6 were just overreacting due to not realising just how hilariously strong they actually are (which seems to be a running problem, even in the show) rather than Shadow being that far above them.
9072358
You are very much correct when you say the ponies are much more than they appear. Yet this is exactly why none of them seem to realize just how powerful they are. They are a peaceful race that almost never has to resort to using their full power, so the idea of a machine that can scramble a hydra is something that would naturally make them wary, as is their nature as a prey species. I have also provided no direct evidence, either in Shadow's presence or not, that the ponies are truly weaker than the scout. There simply exists a rift between the power of technology and the power of magic that is very hard to describe, let alone comprehend.
Take the hydra for example. I stated that it was one of the most magically resistant species on the planet, not plasma resistant. Given how saturated magic is in the world the ponies live, even attacks that would normally be considered plasma, like pegasi lightning, are so charged with magical energy that it overrides the effectiveness something like that could have against a creature such as a hydra. Shadow's cannons, on the other hoof, are purely based in scientific advancement and have no connection to the magic field of the pony world. This means that when he shoots a hydra with plasma, it's magic-free plasma that is able to completely bypass the hydra's natural defenses. Not more powerful, just different types of energy.
Hope this clears things up a bit, and I look forward to hearing more from you. It's readers like you who make the difference when it comes to helping me to improve my writing. I'm putting my reply in spoiler block so that way it doesn't tip off new readers, but I can promise that these arguments will be addressed further down the line as the book progresses.
See you next chapter, and thank you for the constructive feedback,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.
Spike: "Warning, Twilight Sparkle! Does not compute!
"
They totally forgot to wash him off. Eww stinky!
Shouldn't it be sheer?
mmm, nop
ep 1-3✅
ep 4❌〽🚾↘
Does it have the "way tail protocol"
9072358
Shadow did mention being impressed at the damage done to the walls of the castle
This story reminds me of another one that depicts a robot becoming emotionally sentient the character's name was Turing test if I can find the story I'll edit this comment to put the link for it here
9938947
I know the story. It's called The Iron Horse: Everything's Better With Robots, by The Hat Man. An amazing story that has been given a place in my Masterworks Library because it is one of the best books I have ever read in the Sci-Fi genre. Nice to see that I'm not the only one who's read it.
Hope my own work holds up to your apparently high standards, given your favorite reading material,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.
I have a feeling that Shadow will tell the humans that there is no way humans will be able to survive where he is.