Perseverance of Insight
Twilight didn’t have to think long about her answer. Getting there was a little trickier, but made simpler by the map. That, and the fact that she’d already been to the surface once. There would no longer be any danger to the teleport when she had seen the destination once. So she took them back to the surface, with a single flash of magic from her horn.
“I am… unhappy with that process,” Node said, as soon as they were back on the surface. “The way you fold space is… disconcerting. Organics are prone to errors, and lack objective verification. What if your calculations were incorrect?”
“We would die,” Twilight answered, and didn’t take any perverse pride from imagining its shock. Nope, not even a little bit. “I’m told its agonizing. The process is nearly instant—but if stayed outside normal space, we would swiftly freeze to death. Though… your thinking parts are running inside one of our probes. I have no idea how well you run in Zipspace.”
“Unhappily,” Node answered. “I will not be offering coordinates to Perseverance. We can navigate there routinely.”
For a second I thought your Ponish was getting better.
Twilight didn’t actually object—the structure hadn’t attacked them yet, and more importantly she had sensed nothing besides the heart that could interact with her magically. If anything goes badly wrong, I can just teleport back to the Prospector. She would face her crew’s wrath a little earlier that way, but it would be waiting either way.
The ‘Perseverance’ proved to be up the sweeping ramp along the spun-glass ceiling. As they walked, voices began to speak from the sides of the room, each one coming with a little flash of light from the wall. It wasn’t magic—the colored lights were as mechanical as anything on the Prospector. Twilight kept to the inner railing anyway, mostly through force of habit.
“What are they saying?” she asked, as they stood high on the transparent glass. Well, not glass as she knew it. It didn’t yield even a little under her hooves, despite being as visibly thin as paper. “The recording. What did your creators want to tell us?”
“They are… welcoming you,” Starlight Glimmer’s voice said. “They hope you learn much from your experience here. These are the… testimonies of those who contributed to the knowledge stored here.” As they walked, Node added to the translation. “They wish for you to be certain of your intention. Perseverance before Insight.”
Just climbing the glass took a kind of perseverance of its own. The shape was one she knew well from mathematics, the same golden-ratio spiral that she could find in shells and flowers and a thousand other places. Should I point that… no. Node will probably just say it was obvious and gloat about it.
Eventually they reached the top, after climbing what felt like a kilometer of slippery glass. Twilight had to manipulate her gravity a little to make it to the top. Node didn’t slip, despite having only two legs and now claws to cut into the glass with.
There was one last colored light, staining the top of the tower bright red, and Node spoke one last time. “A warning. Perseverance is change—the life of the one who endures for Insight will…” it hesitated for nearly three whole seconds. “Finality. Changes invoked cannot be reconsidered. Memories will linger. The visitor will… graduate.”
Ominous.
The ground leveled out, in the top of a tower that was perhaps five meters across. The walls were made of the same clear glass they’d been climbing, though this was entirely untinted. She could see the late afternoon sky through it, and the valley far below.
There was only one other object in here with them—a chair. It wasn’t built for a pony, and would clearly have accommodated a creature even bigger than Node without much difficulty. Yet there were steps at the base, she could climb up and use it if she wanted.
The chair was made of a dull red metal, with intricate mechanical parts visible through various openings and ports she could only guess at.
“Made it,” Node said, sounding disappointed. “Was expecting more. So much fanfare, no finale.”
You really don’t know how this works. Twilight did, or at least she had a guess. There was no magic up here, no active spells of any kind. Just this device, apparently active and full of energy. “I think it wants us to sit down in the chair,” she said. “That’s what the message coming up was. Sit down, learn things. Learn… Insight? That isn’t really something a pony can learn. In sight is really just the combination of subconscious heuristics.”
“Insight is… an inaccurate translation,” Node supplied. “I don’t know how to summarize it better. Not knowledge, not memories… a way of thinking.” It paused, cameras fixed squarely at the chair. Twilight assumed there was more going on under the surface, Node linking with the system and trying to learn more about it, perhaps.
Her guess was confirmed seconds later. “You’re right, pony creature. The machine is functional, and it requires physical proximity. Its interface hardware should work for either one of us. However…” It hesitated, then went on in a rush. “I’m not certain, but there seem to be security measures in place. It appears the machine will only function once. Whoever you choose to use it, that decision is final.”
Twilight walked right up to the edge of the chair, running one hoof along its smooth, metallic length. It didn’t look like it had been much used. For all she knew, it had been built by the Signalers just for her.
She had a decision to make…
1. Use the Perseverance of Insight. [dangerous]
2. Have Node use the Perseverance. [dangerous]
3. Have Applejack remove it for reverse-engineering and study once she has healed enough to travel here. [dangerous]
4. Leave the Perseverance and investigate the Altar of Perpetuity instead.
5. Leave the Perseverance and investigate the Infusion of Stability instead.
(Certainty 210 required)
This is certainly a difficult choice. As much as I don't want to, I say fuck it and have Twilight use insight.
This DOES sound like the message Cozy’s people intercepted. And it does sound worrisome. Basically sounds like it could change the thought patterns, and perhaps then the very personality, of whoever sits in it. Not a step to be taken lightly, ESPECIALLY without real understanding or assurance of its intention and purpose and thus whether or not it is worth even considering. I vote heading to one of the other places for now and maybe fiddling with this later. Maybe stability?
9448400
Gonna be honest and say I totally forgot about all of the "turn everyone into machines" thing until I read your comment and now I wish I could change my vote.
"The shame was one she knew well from mathematics" - hopefully the "shape" rather than the "shame"!
Node is disposable, and is shown to have lied. However, this does not warrant hir death. Twilight and AJ are not disposable, and can’t die if the story is to end happily.
It’s a toss-up between 4 and 5 for me, and 4 seems like too close a resemblance to the fountain of youth, where it would keep you young forever but at a terrible price. So, 5 it is.
Everything's terrible, roll the dice on Twilight and see if things get interesting!
Nope. Noooooooope. Hard no.
Has nobody here read Friendship is Optimal? Or picked up on the hints throughout the story so far? Giant screaming warnings of irrevocable changes
meanssuggests that this is the station where brains are destructively uploaded in order to digitize their consciousness. We don't know nearly enough yet — about what happened to the previous expedition; what attacked this world; why Node is the only local to make any sort of contact besides the GIANT DEATH WORM — for digitizing a crew member to be a reasonable idea yet.Maybe, if Sunset's life support pod starts failing before we can save her, or her accumulated damage is irreperable, we use her as a guinea pig for a Hail Mary at saving her life. Maybe.
WOAH! Hold on guys, there's no need to use the dangerous machine yet, let's at least look at the other 2 areas before making anything close to a final decision. Once we use it there's no turning back
Nope nope nope nope. No making stupid decisions with no idea what will happen. Look around the place for a bit first and try to learn more, still have two more options to look at to learn something before even thinking of trying this. Though bit unfair that the votes for 'don't do anything stupid' get split between two different options, granted, the 'do something stupid' has three, of two different varieties of stupid.
Also, Node's whole bit about this being more a way of thinking then simple knowledge or facts remind anyone else of the Prothean Cipher from Mass Effect?
From the description, I have to agree with the others who think it's a mind uploading device.
If the other two are similarly translated though, I wonder if the altar of perpetuity might be long-term hibernation devices, something similar to the means the Equinox used to sleep between the stars. Obviously that wouldn't be any better for something to put Twilight into, but it would be very interesting from the perspective of possibly finding someone she could wake up!
Or failing that, there might be something they could use to keep Sunset's pod going or accelerate their ability to wake up Sunset and the others who are still asleep.
Oh god that is totally a mindrip chair. Lets not abandon physical form just yet.
Yeaaaah, this is not a decision that should be made in the spur of the moment without consulting the others. And I dare not imagine what kind lethal-scale DRM this might have if Applejack tried removing it. Ideally, we'd have the option of going back, especially since Node doesn't even know what's actually in this place. Let's walk away from the Equestrian Experience chair and see what other wondrous horrors lie in this place.
What? No option to backtrack to “It Hungers”?
I do wonder what the final percentages were last time, they normally put them at the top with the choice.
Twilight’s (our) decisions to do this solo investigation leads me to believe she has a strong impulsive inclination toward taking risks for knowledge. I think she tries to use the chair.
Am I the only one dissapointed we can’t go back and investigate IT HUNGERS?
I'll approach this the way I do in games when possible. Check out all the choices then pick one to use. So off to another device! I picked perpetuity, but I hope she actually investigates them all before using any.
Do you people honestly believe that book horse could resist a whole new kind of learning?
This only feels better than the IT HUNGERS option in a relative sense at this point.
So, every choice involving the alter is dangerous, and I suspect the rest of the building locations will be too. But we won't know until we visit them, so Twilight should do that before making any choices that can't be taken back. 4.
Regardless of how personally eager Twilight may be, no pony should try the chair until everyone is there to help if there's a problem. It would end up like "Forbidden Planet" with Twilight stating her brain is all lit up and cryptically shouting "Monsters from the ID! Won't any pony think about the monsters from the ID!!!" before dramatically dying as Node comments that it is not monitored to respond in that fashion.
Yeah, learn more about the structure by investigating further, so 4, and then 5, and report back to the Prospector before risking being uploaded into the Borg collective...
at the very least its going to implant something, and at the most, totally desrtoy a brain. so the beat opyion could be stability
#2? Hard Nope. Node is untrustworthy.
#1? soft nope. Find out what the other options mean First before jumping into a chair all willy nilly.
#3? Nope Nope Nope! Dont do it! Bad Idea!
Twilight may not even be the best option for Insight.
pesonally I think the choices may go ..
Insight ... Fluttershy or preferably Pinkie (Insight is what She DOES)
Stability ... AJ (Earth pony stability) or preferably Spike (assuming that he does planetfall)
Perpetuity ...Twilight (alicorns are the pony symbol of history. The link from the past to the future. Perpetuity)
4 or 5 work just as well (i picked 4)
If we are to use the perseverance of insight, Node should do so. We have no idea if the machine is compatible with pony physiology. Node however is fully constructed from Signaler blueprints at this point, meaning it has the highest chance of compatibility.
If you’re reading this before voting and want to cast the most effective anti-use-the-device vote, go for the Infusion of Stability. At ~100 votes, it’s currently beating the Altar by about 2:1.
We are most definitely NOT using that chair. Not for now, at least. Wait for everyone to be up and about.
So the other options are to keep exploring. The bad option (ItHungers) isn't there, wich is a relief.
I personally vote for 5, Stability. It's probably a nursery/hospital/band-aid dispenser
And we should probably start thinking about going back, too.
Well let's go over what we've learned about the aliens that inhabited this planet so far.
They made Node. The probe that downloaded Node malfunctioned and nearly destroyed the Equinox. Their planet is a mess with rogue robots running through it. Cozy Glow (I know, not a really reliable source) seemed to not trust them. And they have a possibly mutated Queen Chrysalis in their basement with the Crystal heart and an escape pod buried in this places back yard.
Yeah... I'm not trusting that chair. In fact, with how it is describe, I'm not even truting the intentions of the creators of it. Let's see if their is anything else we can use here. I'll vote for the Infusion of Stability as the first stop.
Hmmmm...yeah let's be cautious here. Twilight can teleport back here at any time so we can probably have her hold off on using a dangerous machine. Let's go with Stability for now.
You know what, screw it, I'm going with option 1 here.
Yeah I know it's risky since we don't know what it'll actually do and every option is listed as [dangerous], but that's part of risk that could potentially yield a reward that could help the crew in the long run.
However, I do understand the logic behind going to check the other options first before making a decision and I can see why people are choosing that, but there's also the possibility that if we don't choose to do something with the Perseverance of Insight now, we might get locked out of using it later, which is what I'm worried about. Plus if every option on this one is dangerous then I imagine that every option involved with the other two are as well, so we'll have to make a decision at some point.
I know everyone (myself included) has been avoid dangerous decisions and anything that could harm or potentially kill one of the crew members like the plague (which has got me wondering, would that still be the case if the entire crew was made up of original characters instead of canonical ones?), but just this once I'm going to gamble on the risky option and hope that the random number god is feeling merciful.
Its too early and not to mention dangerous to be using any of them right now. Better to investigate them all before coming to a final decision
glimmerwelcome.exe would like to make changes to your mind.
I'm gonna go with 4 or 5, whichever has a better chance of out-competing the "someone gon
dieget real messed up" options."shame" --> "shape"
That's why, in such a situation, you show off your recognition by complimenting them on their choice.
9448939
That's the biggest thing that makes this story less satisfying than the concept should be for me. The underlying principle that drives the saying "truth is stranger than fiction". Random numbers are great for games, but they inherently limit the author's ability to tune the narrative to best effect. We intuitively hold a story to a higher standard than reality because we recognize that it's a created, managed experience.
If this were a normal story... or even just a CYOA where the author was soliciting votes without using randomness, I'd pick #1 without a second thought because I'd trust that any danger would be guaranteed to either not happen or happen in a narratively satisfying way, so I could freely and eagerly vote for what comes across as an opportunity to see Starscribe spend some time focusing on character introspection and/or philosophy.
(It's also why I've never really gotten into pen-and-paper RPGing. It's always felt like a pale imitation of the immersion of an SSI or Bioware RPG crossed with a pale imitation of the creativity I get when I sit down with a friend to brainstorm and problem-solve for something they want to write... the latter because asking dice produces inferior results to brainstorming on the question of what sequence of events would make for the most satisfying read and a rulebook cramps my style in seeing how far out of the box I can push myself to think.)
9448656
After reading the others you grouped me with in your reply, I feel I should clarify that the thought of her being robotosized didnt actually occur to me. I was more thinking it would rewire her brain patterns or something of that kind. Which feels like at minimum what it would do from that vagueish explanation. But the roboticising idea may have merit.
9448919
Wait whered you get that the plants and green crystal heart had anything to do with changelings? Did I miss something?
9449145
It comes from Chrysalis's origin explained in the comic book series. (Note the comics and the cartoons have a rather loose association with one another.)
The crystal heart and a plant based hungering monster has a lot linking it with the changeling nature from the comic and from bits of the cartoon. It seems the changelings in the comic were born from a carnivores tree that Starswirl found once.
9448939
There is a punishment game in Jackbox murder trivia called fingers. You play it if you've failed a question. It involves cutting off a "finger" on your metaphorical hand. So you cut off your index finger and you can no longer use the A answers even if they were correct. Thus potentially causing more failed answers in a cascade of failure.
Everyone has been answering safe because the mission itself was in a very precarious place to begin with without the sabotage. They sent six different specialists and one unique redundant lesser mechanic on this trip. Every character has a specific use they'll be needed for here or there. AJ and Spike are semi interchangeable but not optimal. So if any one of them dies their chance of failing the mission increases exponentially.
Leading a mission like this isn't about taking chances, it's about calculatting odds of success and taking the safest route. And all of that ignores the connection of the Elements of Harmony if those are needed later on when they return to Equs.
Anything less than carful consideration and you might as well be the "scientists" from Alien Covenant whose operational professional safety procedures were depicted at the same level as a group of horny drunk teens on spring break. Do I need to point out that those stories always end with 1-2 survivors max that are hinted at being killed off after the credits roll?
Mental manipulation? Ooooohhh no, I'm not going to risk that until ALL the precautions are made! Investigate elsewhere, anywhere, just not this machine yet!
Twi really needs to smack Node around until it gives up on its Delphic nonsense and starts speaking clearly. XD
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Look, I've been reading and voting on this story since the first chapter, I know very well what's at stake here. I have been choosing the safer options up to this point just like everyone else has (and I freakin' stated it in my first comment as well) and I only chose the dangerous option this time around for the hell of it and at this point it's probably not going to be the choice for the next chapter anyways judging by the results of the poll thus far. Seriously though, did you seriously decide to just downvote (I'm just going to assume it was you since that wasn't there when check the other reply to that) and call out my comment for me just deciding to yolo it for just one chapter, as if my one vote on the option that isn't even going to go though will make a difference on it.
Also those Jackbox party games are overrated trash that I have never even played and personally don't want to, but you mentioning some punishment thing in that doesn't make any sense considering the story. Why the hell would Starscribe punish a reader for voting on an option that was the "correct" option? I mean, if that was the case then those two or so people the voted to unfreeze Cozy "Xenophobic Terrorist" Glow would have been punished a long time ago. Also It's a CYOA style story, there's technically no wrong answers (apart from the obviously stupid ones, which this wasn't necessarily one of them) and a lot of the important character actions is being determined by RNG, but even then, the entire story shouldn't just end imminently after a bad roll, it should take multiple bad choices coupled with bad rolls for this story to get a downer ending, so the user have a chance to correct themselves before they dig themselves too far into the metaphorical hole.
I honestly didn't want to and personally didn't care enough to reply to a reply to one of my comments here and mostly I've been avoiding commenting on most of these chapters because of that. But considering the nature of your comment and how you've indirectly called me an idiot for choosing a risky choice for once, I just had to suck it up and reply with a comment that was much longer then it had any right to.
My guess is that this device is not a mind-uploader, but that it actually overwrites the memories of the person who sits in it with new information or an alternate personality, like The Other's stuff from Girl Genius. If she rolls high, she'll have answers, but at the cost of who she is. If she rolls low, she'll be turned into a vegetable, probably babbling IT HUNGERS.
It's vitally important that Twilight does the exact opposite of using this thing.
They chair reminds me of the ones in the Stargate universe.
I'm new to this, so I'll abstain to vote (I just can't decide) and let the long time fans call it.
Hey, you guys, why don’t we investigate all the other places first?
You know, get information on everything we can do before we gamble on a single option that could possibly drive people insane?
Besides, it sounds like Twilight isn’t exactly eager to get back to the others.
Anyway, I like the sound of Stability, so I’ll just pick that one. If we’re going to investigate everything, it’s not like the order matters much right?
Reformatting is not optimal, even if raw memories are maintained this is a bad idea for anyone not disposable...
9450122
Investigation is a great idea. Which one we choose to investigate however, is a harder decision.
The obvious smart thing to do is leave, investigate the others, and then make a good decision with the rest of the crew.
But I voted for IT HUNGERS last chapter. Into the chair you go, Purple Smart!
9448485
Based on the speculation in the rest of these comments, a Prothean Cipher might just be the best case scenario here.
Not jumping into the chair that might not even interface correctly with pony brains yet. Voting to investigate the other options first.
9448463
I'm not convinced this interpretation is entirely correct, but I am 100% on board with "don't do the irreversible single-shot brain-changing thing just because you're the pony who stumbled across it first", "don't do it now", "don't do it without a medevac", and "don't do it without a better translation".
9448890
Update: I was hoping I'd find the "Use it" option in third behind both of the "don't" choices, but it's in second place, behind Stability, 41-32-22.
9449610
I think you misunderstood his Jackbox example. You're not being punished; the crew of the Equinox is being punished (if you lose) by the loss of a finger/crewmember. Making it harder to make the right choices later if that crewmember is not available to do it.
And similarly, If your defense of "voting YOLO for the hell of it" is that your vote doesn't matter anyway … Why would you even vote in the first place? Do you even democracy, bro?
9449610
If you make a wrong choice and Fluttershy dies it punishes you because if a choice later would have required Fluttershy to be successful such as Pinkie's unfreezing you wouldn't have Fluttershy anymore, she'd be dead, so that lack of an option would mean Pinkie is likely dead too, which would then potentially cascade any time a medical professional or pinkies expertise was needed.
Yeah I do not like yolo'ing options because I want the characters to live and I don't want a situation like a group of professional scientists going down to an unknown planet and taking a deep breath of some spores that will kill them when they should know better to test the air. I don't think you're stupid I think you just stopped caring about the danger to the crew and wanted to see something happen and I heavily disagree with voting that way so I offered a rebuttal for other people to read if they were trying to make a decision themselves.
My rebuttal essentially boiled down to
Yeah we're voting carefully cause we don't want a bad end.
With only one of every specialist any lost party member is a lost specialist.
Taking needless risk is the fastest route to a party wipe.
And it wouldn't make much sense for Twilight to take some of the more ridiculous options. Like if anyone voted "it hungers"
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9450637
Aw geez...
Okay I'm going be honest I was practically half-asleep when I wrote that (I think, idk my memory's kind of unreliable) and was pretty frustrated at the time, so I ended up saying stuff that I'm kind of regretting now. I tend to make really bad first impressions so I sometimes avoid commenting and what-not on the internet (and in real life sometimes) cause I don't want people thinking that I'm like that all the time. Look, I'm sorry about the way I responded to that, I seriously should have handled it better and I hope you two don't judge me for this (or do, I'm not gonna care, I'm pretty anti-social to begin with).
But having said that, I'll just try to end this comment on a comedic (I think) note.
Well... I did turn Italy democratic once in Hearts of Iron 4 and somehow got blamed for raising world tension by the rest of the allies when Poland annexed all of Germany, so does count?
9450727
Nah no hard feelings, sorry that I sounded like I thought you were dumb, that heat and contempt on the Alien Covenant part was specifically for how those characters were portrayed.
Cause they were just so stupid!