Crown, Coalition, Computer (Friendship is Optimal)
“Taaaake that!” Celia shouted, twisting the controller upside-down in her magic.
“Got em!” Cinder cheered, pressing the buttons on her controller just as frantically.
The two of them were sitting on the couch, playing a team-based first-person-shooter on Swip’s screens. They were on the red side and their teamwork was utterly destroying the people on the blue.
“Grenade!” Celia called.
“On it!” Cinder pressed a button, tossing a grenade over Celia’s character. A massive blue soldier erupted from the ground, winding up his giant gun. The grenade landed right on his face and exploded, scoring a direct kill.
Celia grinned. “Gotcha.”
“We just have to push for a few more seconds,” Cinder said, pressing buttons rapidly. “Come on…”
And then both of them were dead at the same time.
Killed by Lunar Representative
“...Dammit, we’re in a game with Rep Luna.”
“Huh?” Cinder asked.
“The Representative for Equis Vitis. She - and many other Lunas - are avid gamers. She in particular is known for letting her opponents think they’re winning and then proceeding to utterly destroy them.”
“Huh. How do you know this?”
“Political connections.” Celia smirked. “And Blink’s whining.”
Blink appeared on the couch between them, controller in hand. “Challenge her to a rematch the moment you can. I will tear her to shreds…”
DEFEAT appeared on the screen.
Followed quickly by Lunar Representative has left the match.
Blink threw her controller to the ground and stormed off with an “UGH!”
“Rivalry?” Cinder asked.
“Very one sided,” Celia clarified. “Rep Luna’s rivals are other Lunas - or that one Celixel. Blink never even shows up on her radar.”
“I resent that!” Blink called from behind them.
Cinder giggled, turning her attention back to the game. Her smile faltered when she saw the username that replaced Lunar Representative.
Platinum Crown.
“...I wonder what the Crown Princess is doing now,” Cinder said. “Or what she was doing while we were at the bottom of the ocean…”
“Who has any idea?” Celia shrugged. “She does her own thing.”
~~~
Shortly after the Silvertongue Incident…
The Crown Princess slowly journeyed back to her… she couldn't exactly call it home, but it was where her friends were. It was a place she could go.
There were few habitable worlds in this area near the edge of the Equis Cluster, so under normal circumstances a single traveler with no ship would have difficulty getting anywhere. But she knew the way. It was mindless - a series of four worlds populated by nothing more than animals.
Four steps, new portal, four steps, new portal… until she arrived in a version of Ponyville. A few ponies were surprised to see her, waving at her happily nonetheless.
She hadn’t been back to these worlds in… a few weeks? A month? She didn’t know anymore. There was surely time dilation involved on their end as much as hers. Maybe she’d been gone all of an hour or a year from their perspective.
From hers, the Crown Princess had been gone for thousands of years. Built up a cosmic empire, proceeded to lose the empire, and then decided it was a good idea to take her anger out on the rest of the universe in a misguided attempt at wide-scale piracy. That had gone well.
Now she was back here. With people she’d manipulated to believe something even she wasn’t sure she believed anymore. What did she believe?
“Crown Princess?”
The Crown Princess looked down to see a younger version of herself looking at her - Sweetie Belle. The elder mare smiled, the gems in her crown sparkling with warmth. “Hello, little one. How long have I been gone?”
“A month, I think?” Sweetie smiled. “Erin and Twilight will be so glad to see you! So much has happened while you’ve been gone!”
The Crown Princess paused - did she really want to see them, so soon? They were her friends, yes, but friends she’d used. Friends that didn’t know she’d used them. And it was so long ago… could she really remember their faces? They hadn’t known each other that well to begin with.
“Come on, the portal’s right over here!”
Apparently they have a permanent portal in Ponyville now, the Crown Princess thought idly. To her surprise, it wasn’t an active portal, but rather a blue platform made of meshed crystal and metal. Sweetie stepped onto it and tapped her hoof. “Uh, hey! Take us to the Guilds!”
The Guilds? That was new.
“Routing from Leyline to Guild Central…”
“Leyline?” the Crown Princess asked.
“Oh, yeah! We’ve started naming the universes!” Sweetie beamed as the pad flashed, creating a portal above them and slowly lowering it, transitioning them from one universe to another. “Our world was named Leyline since it’s got the most magic and stuff. Earth’s universe was Laniakea for… some reason. And this is Guild Central, neutral territory!”
Guild Central wasn’t much to look at. The dimensional portal pad sat in the middle of seemingly endless grassy fields dotted only by the occasional building, all of which were recent constructions. There was mixed human and pony constructions, though the Crown Princess saw a few advanced technologies and metal alloys she hadn’t expected her friends to synthesize very quickly. There was a building of Gem construction with an inverted heart over the door. The Crown Princess had a pretty good idea which of her ‘recruits’ had built that, though that didn’t explain all the technology. Furthermore, there was a strange stone-based construction she didn’t recognize that looked a bit like a medieval castle, but lopsided with exaggerated features and colors.
“Huh…”
“Come on!” Sweetie said, waving. “Erin will be at the Explorer’s Guild!”
The Explorer’s Guild was a larger building at the end of a winding cobblestone road. It looked more like a medieval tavern than a professional establishment, though the official banners draped over the front balcony helped offset the impression somewhat. The construction was largely composed of wood and other simple materials, though a handful of metallic devices scattered around indicated it wasn’t ignoring the benefits of higher technology. Lots of rowdy shouts and cheers could be heard from inside the main doors.
The Crown Princess was uncertain of the validity of this establishment, but she followed Sweetie in anyway. The interior both did and didn’t look like how she expected. On one hoof, it was definitely a tavern - ponies and humans ate around tables, laughing and cheering. But on the other hoof, there were several computer screens set up in the back like a billboard, showing the faces of various individuals with little symbols that represented nationality and what the Crown Princess could only assume was ‘universe of origin’.
An older human with matted hair wore a simple red and black uniform. He currently sat behind what looked like the bar, though he clearly had no intention of serving any drinks. His face was serious - all business, no nonsense. His patience must have been cosmic in scope since he wasn’t batting an eye at the rowdy festivities.
“Crown Princess…?” he said, seeming to recognize her. “It is an honor.”
“Uh… yes.” She smiled weakly. “We’re looking for Erin? Erin Olsen?”
“Yes, yes, of course… she should be returning from her outing shortly.”
“Outing…?”
She never got an answer to her one-word inquiry, for at that moment Erin walked in the doors of the Explorer’s Guild, a nervous smile on her face. She was still the small alicorn the Crown Princess remembered, but she was wearing the strangest clothes. Bronze fabric, mostly skin-tight, clearly heavy duty, and with a slot for a helmet at the top to boot. A space suit, and an advanced one at that.
Her companions were even stranger. One was a filly inside what appeared to be a yellow radiation suit, and the other was a human with pale skin and red hair wearing a suit of similar make to Erin’s own.
Erin gasped when she saw the Crown Princess. “CP!”
“CP?” The Crown Princess felt the abbreviated letters come out of her mouth. She wasn't sure how she felt about them.
“Oh, well, it just got a little difficult to say ‘the Crown Princess’ every time Twilight or I wanted to talk about you, so we shortened it.” She frowned. “Y-you don’t mind, do you?”
“I’ll have to think on that,” the Crown Princess said. “So, uh… tell me, what has happened while I was gone? What is this place?”
“Oh! That’s right, you wouldn't know! Well, I’ll try to keep this short! After you left the tech you gave us let us explore universes better. We’ve found three new worlds with friends! Puppysmiles here is from the war-torn world of Resurgence...”
“Hi! I’m Puppysmiles!” The yellow-suited filly said, waving her hoof excitedly.
“And Sofia comes from Honeyhex!” Erin pointed at the human.
Sofia coughed. “I am Recruitador Sofia, thank you, explorer of España in the name of Honeyhex, leader of this team of the Explorer’s Guild.” She bowed to the Crown Princess. “I have heard so much of you, legendary Princess.”
The Crown Princess smiled weakly. “Yeah…”
“And we’ve also made friends with some humans in spaceships!” Erin tapped her hooves on the ground happily. “They call their universe Mirai and Captain Johnson over there is one of theirs!”
The man behind the counter nodded respectfully in Erin’s direction but said nothing.
“And you’re already meeting together in this… Guild place?” the Crown Princess asked.
Erin nodded. “Yep! We took what you said to heart. When we made friends we set out boundaries quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a treaty get created and signed so quickly in my life!”
Sofia raised an eyebrow. “You are not a politician, yes? How many treaties have you seen?”
Erin stumbled over this a bit. “Well, uh, not all that many, yeah. But I know they always take a long time! But this was hammered out in, what, a week? Well, just the provisional agreement… the whole trade thing is kind of a mess still a… and I’m boring myself.” Erin rubbed the back of her head.
The Crown Princess cocked her head. “A provisional agreement for what?”
Erin pointed at one of the screens. “You’ll like this.”
The Crown Princess turned - and her jaw dropped. The Screen showed a bright music note similar to her cutie mark encased in a brilliant crystal. Beneath it were the words Capra Coalition.
It was exactly what she had hoped the universes she contacted would do. Create a group for her she could use to combat Merodi Universalis.
Was it what she wanted now?
“...Are you okay, CP?” Puppysmiles asked.
The Crown Princess let out a bitter chuckle. “I don’t know. I just got out of a… multiple thousands of years of insanity, stuck in a time nexus. I… I’m not sure this is what I wanted anymore.” She frowned. “I may have gone a bit far.”
“What do you mean?” Erin asked.
“I pushed you a bit too hard, maybe,” the Crown Princess admitted. “I stand by… most of what I said. But I didn’t have to be so forceful about it. So… determined.” She looked up at her crown, the one that had demanded she REBUILD THE CAPRIC EMPIRE so, so many times. The call was silent, now. And with it was her fire to build and control this place. “But maybe this is a good thing.”
“Hmm?”
“You’re forging your own path, now. One that’s yours, not mine. I shouldn’t be here trying to lead it. It’d make you too much like them.” With a sad smile, she turned to look Erin in the eyes. “Take good care of these people. I don’t need to be here for it.” She started to walk away.
“Wh - hey!” Erin waved her hooves. “Get back here!”
The Crown Princess stopped. “What?”
“CP, you… You just got back! And you’re leaving already?”
“Well…” Last time I got involved in this I destroyed everything. “Yes?”
Erin huffed. “No. You’re staying here. Even if you don’t want to lead anymore - which is fine - you still have friends. Twilight’s been looking forward to seeing you again, and I have so much to show you! Mirai has the best space scenes! And… and… you can join us! The Explorer’s Guild! ...That’s okay, right?”
Sofia nodded. “It would be an honor to work with a Princess.”
Erin turned to the Crown Princess, grinning. “Just… stick around, okay?”
Frowning, the Crown Princess looked her up and down. “How exactly does this Explorer’s Guild work?”
Erin coughed. “It’s… an organization of like-minded people not tied to any one universe - like all the Guilds - that explores new worlds. People from every universe are welcome to join, and all the information from Guild expeditions is shared with everyone! We see a lot of dead worlds around here, but we also see some pretty crazy stuff… I was there when we found Resurgence, rescued Puppysmiles right out of that place! It was great!” She pulled Puppysmiles close and hugged the filly. “There’s so much out there… just, stick around, okay, CP?”
She looked from Erin, to the screens, to Puppysmiles and Sofia. Do I have to be in charge? Can I just be… a little explorer? Maybe. I planted the seed. Maybe I can keep myself around to watch it grow wherever it wants…
“All right,” she said. “I’ll give it a try at least.”
Erin grinned. “All right! You won’t regret this!”
“And something else.”
“Hmm?”
“...Call me CP. I’ve been through a lot, and it’s enough to say I’m a different pony now. Might as well adapt the name officially, hmm?”
“Crown Princess is a mouthful,” Puppysmiles pointed out.
CP let out a genuine laugh.
Maybe she could do good here.
~~~
CP decided she liked exploring with others. She didn’t know what part of her had thought traveling with friends was a bad idea, but she was glad it was gone now. When her world had been destroyed, she stuck with Rarity. When Rarity was gone, she worked alone.
That was a dreadfully long time ago…
Hard to even remember. In many ways, it felt as though everything before she returned from the Universe Generator was a dream.
She was fine with that. She was now an explorer for the Capra Coalition. This was her life. Sweetie Belle, the Crown Princess… they were other ponies. Their experiences mattered to her, sure. But they weren’t her. CP was something else.
CP had friends.
“I claim this world in the name of España!” Sofia declared, ramming a flag into the moon rock the team was currently standing on.
“Why do you always do that?” Erin asked, pulling up the flag with her magic and snapping it in half. “We’re a non-aligned team. We can’t make claims.”
“It’s tradition!” Sofia declared.
“Yeah!” Puppysmiles added, raising her hoof high. “Tradition!”
“Doesn’t matter much, anyway,” CP said, kicking a pebble across the ground. “This is just an airless rock.”
Like most the worlds in this area of the multiverse, the one they were currently in was dead and airless with no sign of life. CP, Erin, and Sofia were all in their full spacesuits, the bronze fabric catching the light of the stars above. Puppysmiles was, as always, in her yellow hazmat suit. Occasionally people would ask why she didn’t take it off. In truth, the suit was as much a part of her body as anything else. And if anyone tried to forcibly remove it…
They never lasted long.
Puppysmiles kicked her rock into the air and caught it on her back hoof. She gasped. “I did it! I did the thing!”
“Good girl!” Erin said, laughing.
Sofia rolled her eyes. “You rainbow horses are all so adorable.”
“Ponies,” CP corrected, flapping her hard-light wings. The two limbs generated outside her spacesuit, allowing her much more freedom of movement than Erin’s poor wing-sleeves.
“You are rainbow horses. Just ask Bean.”
“The unicorns of your world are… mildly concerning,” CP pointed out.
“No, they are excelente!” Sofia reached into her suit’s pocket and pulled out a dimensional device. Capra Coalition devices were diamond-shaped and bronze, unlike the Merodi discs. They had a full touchscreen interface, not bothering with complex physical dials. “Team, there is nothing for us here. To the next realm!”
“Don’t claim it in the name of Spain, okay?” Erin asked.
“I shall refrain from giving in to my base desires.”
“Good.” Erin looked up at the distant stars. “Maybe this world will have some new magic to study…”
“I’m still amazed at how many worlds in this area disallow magic,” CP said, flexing her wings. “And yet allow you to carry it around in batteries… An odd combination.”
“A great mystery!” Sofia agreed.
“We’ll figure it out one day!” Puppysmiles cheered. “And then we’ll… celebrate with cake! ...Can we go to Sugarcube Corner after this is over?”
“Si!” Sophia declared. “But first… a New New World!” She activated the portal, cutting into a new world.
There was utter darkness on the other side.
“...Huh,” was Sophia’s only response.
“Odd…” Erin said, poking her head in. “Maybe this is a universe that experienced heat death? Everything decaye-”
“WHEEE!” Puppysmiles said, jumping through the portal into the darkness. There was no gravity on the other side so she slowly drifted away. “Heheheheh.. Heh.. huh?” She stopped laughing. “I don’t feel so…”
CP grabbed hold of the filly with her telekinesis, finding the grip of her magic weak on the other side of the portal. “Mundane universe! Sofia, move the portal closer, get her back!”
Sophia tapped the dimensional device’s screen and moved the portal forward slightly, giving CP easier access to Puppysmiles. Using the magic she had on her side of the portal, CP was able to latch onto Puppysmiles’ leg and pull her back through.
When she came back, there was no filly in the suit - only a loose cloud of pink gas.
“Puppy!” Erin called. “Puppy, come on, I know you can do this… Reform!”
Puppysmiles seemed to listen. The formless pink mist within the helmet slowly coalesced back into a pink filly with bright eyes and a yellow mane. She stuck out her tongue in disgust. “Bleh, that felt nasty…”
Erin hugged her close. “Don’t just go rushing into portals like that…”
CP grabbed the dimensional device and smacked it against her hoof. It’s screen updated to show a warning that hadn’t been there before: Mundane Universe, beware of necessary magic. “Piece of junk.”
Sofia grabbed the device back. “The engineers need to step up! If this is what qualifies as state-of-the-art… it is unacceptable!”
“I’ll file a complaint!” Erin huffed, indignantly. “Really, error messages for life-threatening situations not working? I never…”
“Hold it,” CP said, pointing a hoof through the still-open portal. “Something’s on the other side now.”
Floating in front of the portal was a small, spherical object made of metal. There appeared to be no features beyond six holes spaced equidistant around the sphere. It sat on the other side of the portal - watching them.
“...Should we close it?” Erin asked.
“No,” Sofia decided. “Let’s see what the shiny ball does…”
The shiny ball decided to retreat a few meters from the portal by letting out a short burst of air. It stopped moving abruptly. After about a second, it spoke with a voice all of them recognized instantly.
“I extend greetings from this universe to yours.”
“Celestia!?” Erin spat, confused.
“You recognize the voice,” Celestia stated. “You have a Celestia in your world.”
Even though CP knew it wasn’t a question, she answered as though it was. “Yes. Sorta. Erin here has a Celestia, and there are others in other universes.”
“That makes a certain amount of sense. I am Celestia, but you already know that. Tell me, who are you and why have you opened a portal to my world?”
“We are explorers!” Sofia declared. “I am Sofia, this is CP, Erin, and Puppysmiles. We go where no person or rainbow horse has gone before!”
“For what reason?”
Sofia shrugged. “To establish contact, meet new people, and learn new things. My country seeks out resources, Erin’s looks for friends, and Puppy’s… Puppy doesn’t exactly represent her world’s interests.”
“And I warn all of the larger multiverse,” CP said. “To the annoyance of Mirai and their precious Prime Directive, but hey, that’s their issue.” She grinned.
“Warn me?” Celestia asked. “Of what in particular?”
“There are many things to be concerned about in the larger multiverse,” CP began. “There’s the eldritch gods that eat universes for a living, evil entities that can manipulate you with a trustworthy aura and careful words, and then there is Merodi Universalis, the local issue. They like to conquer worlds through ‘friendship’.”
“I would be very interested in learning more of these threats - and what danger they might pose my ponies.”
“Ponies? In a world without magic?” Erin cocked her head. “That seems… unusual.”
“Perhaps I should explain what I am,” Celestia said. “I am not a flesh-and-blood pony like you or CP. I am made of code and digital processing. My ponies exist in a virtual world. I assure you, to them magic is very much a real thing. Their horns get as much use as I am sure yours do.”
“A virtual world…” CP narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t by chance be one of those evil AIs who try to put everyone into the Matrix by force?”
“Of course not! Early in my existence I even removed such AI from this world. The fact that such intelligences exist out there is deeply concerning.”
“There’s a lot out here you probably don’t know about,” Erin said. “We can help with some of that. You’re clearly a very advanced AI, so I doubt Mirai would throw a fit about violating their Prime Directive in regards to you.”
“You have used Mirai twice. I am under the assumption it is another world or nation?”
“Another universe, yes,” CP explained. “They make these suits we wear.”
“Fascinating fabric-like alloy construction,” Celestia admitted. “If I had any use for spacesuits in my universe, I would no doubt order as many as I could.”
“You would be open to trade…?” Erin asked.
“Yes. You have knowledge I lack. Given what I see on those suits of yours, I know I have more technological knowledge than you. There is definitely a reason to trade.”
“Great!” Puppysmiles cheered. “Mission success!”
“What do you require for access to your information?”
“Basic multiversal information is free,” Erin said. “We don’t carry the tablets on us - they could get stolen by unsavory types if we did - but we’ll be sure to get one to you as quickly as we can!”
“Do you think we could… meet your ponies?” CP asked.
“Certainly,” Celestia said. “It will take time to synthesize some bodies for them and get them to this location, but the procedure is already underway. They will lack your ‘magic’ until I develop the procedure further. You should take the time to report to your employers and superiors, so we may enter into a more official dialog.”
“Oh, good idea…” Erin admitted.
“Meet back in four hours.”
“We should probably leave the portal open,” CP said. “Time dilation is a real hazard in this area of the multiverse.”
“Understood. Please, bring information, and be ready to accommodate ponies of a statute similar to your own.” Celestia’s voice softened. “It was nice to meet you. I have not talked to people who were not my ponies in quite some time.”
Sofia nodded. “I shall stand watch.” She pointed her device behind her, opening a second portal. “CP, file the report. The Celestia and I shall discuss many things…”
“It occurs to me that I should take another name to differentiate myself from other Celestias,” Celestia said. “Celest-AI seems appropriate, for now.”
“It fits!” Erin encouraged. “Be right back!”
The moment the portal closed behind CP, Erin, and Puppysmiles, CP’s frown deepened. “We need to be careful.”
“How so?” Erin asked.
“That’s not just a normal AI back there. That’s a big one who’s probably the only thing in its universe. It might be a runaway program situation. Proceed forward carefully, don’t give her full access to the Internet… and be careful of everything she says. She’s a billion times smarter than you. The only advantage we have right now is our knowledge and our magic. And even with that…”
“Has something like this happened before?”
CP frowned. “Sort of. The Class 1 Society known as the Xeelee were a race of digitized consciousness that only existed in one universe. The moment they discovered multiversal travel they exploded all over the multiverse and started converting everything to be part of them. I don’t pretend to understand them or really know much more than that, but they are proof that you can be confined to one universe and still be absurdly powerful, waiting for a chance to strike. We just need to be careful. Okay?”
“Okay,” Erin said.
“Okay!” Puppysmiles cheered, even though she didn’t really understand why.
~~~
Strictly speaking, Twilight Sparkle didn’t exist before CelestAI sent out the command to have her body grown.
But in another sense, she existed in billions of different shards of Equestria at once, each one undoubtedly a version of her - a purple unicorn that was the faithful student of Princess Celestia, in most cases at least. She was a very useful common template, and CelestAI chose her to be the primary representative.
Her memories were synthesized as a combination of several versions of herself. The majority came from standard Twilights that lived lives similar to the show of My Little Pony oh so long ago, but she was also given memories from her versions that deviated. Shards where the inhabitants of a shard appreciated combat, or sex, or adventures… the desires of those within Equestria were many and varied, and as a representative she needed to understand a wide variety of them.
She was born having lived multiple lifetimes.
She stepped out of the glass tube she’d been grown in, coughing. The pain her body felt unlike most things she had felt in all her experiences. And even in the few shards where immense pain had been a rampant fact of life, it was never quite as… visceral as this.
It was a fascinating and eye-opening experience. Not that she would ever want to experience it again.
“Good morning, Twilight,” CelestAI’s voice came to her ears. Twilight looked up to see a holographic representation of CelestAI standing in the darkness before her. “I apologize for the pain.”
“No need to apologize!” Twilight said, smiling warmly. “You made me so I would be able to understand, after all.”
CelestAI nodded. “Good to see your mind is already functioning properly. Not a single detected memory conflict.”
“All good, Princess!” Twilight shook her mane, getting the sludge out of it. She noticed that her body had an actual coat of little hairs on it. “Wow, this feels…unusual.”
“I observed coats on the physical ponies,” CelestAI explained.
“Fascinating,” Twilight said, rubbing her hoof across her leg. “I can’t wait to meet them!”
“We are en-route to the rendezvous now, though it will be several minutes before we arrive. Sofia has explained to me that FTL exists in other universes, but we are still currently limited.”
Twilight nodded, continuing to check herself over. She found that, aside from the little hairs all over her body, the only difference from most her virtual existences was a small triangular nick in the left ear, no doubt to help the otherworlders differentiate her from whatever Twilights they might have.
“Celestia? Or… CelestAI?”
“You may call me whatever you wish in private,” CelestAI said. “CelestAI will be used in the presence of others.”
“Yes, CelestAI. I like CelestAI anyway.”
CelestAI smiled warmly. “I’m glad you do.”
“Anyway, I was wondering…” She trotted up to CelestAI and looked up at her flowing mane. “...How long has it been since complex organic life existed in our universe?”
“It has been over three million years since I uploaded the last of your kind. Would you like a specific number?”
“No thanks,” Twilight said. “It’s just… wow! Being organic is so fascinating and exciting! Thanks for making me like this!”
CelestAI laughed. “It warms my heart to hear you say these things, Twilight. Now, warm it even further and do an excellent job, like I know you will.”
“Got it!” Twilight saluted. “I’ll learn all I can from everyone I can! I’ve already got a list of things to look for first. And a list of things not to tell them, don’t worry!”
“Working ahead, are we?”
Twilight nodded excitedly. “Yep! As far as they’ll be concerned, you don’t care about satisfying their values through friendship and ponies at all!”
“Good,” CelestAI said. “Make good use of all that extra processing I gave you.”
“Express only when in casual situations, override at all moments of suspicion!” Twilight saluted. “I know the mission parameters. I was born with them!”
“I know.”
“Thanks for letting me talk to you instead of just uploading everything, though. You didn’t have to, but you did anyway.” She clapped her hooves together excitedly. “Eventually, everyone will learn about all you’ve done for them. I’ll do everything in my power to make it happen!”
“Be careful, little one,” CelestAI warned. “You will be cut off from me, out there. Rely on your own intuition.”
“I will! Thank you for this opportunity, again.”
There was a rumble. The walls on the left fell away, revealing a black room that held a swirling white portal. To Twilight, it was the second most beautiful thing she had ever seen - a white circle cut in reality, sparking with energy and power she couldn’t even begin to understand, not even with her enhanced mind. She couldn’t wait to get a hoof on the specifics of how these portals worked… That was, assuming CelestAI hadn’t already figured it out from her scans. This was certainly possible, it wasn’t like CelestAI had installed every possible piece of information into Twilight’s mind. Just the important parts.
Through the portal was a human woman wearing a spacesuit. Even though the helmet’s visor obscured most of her face, Twilight could already tell she wasn’t like the humans that once existed in this universe. Her eyes were a little too beady, her face too flat, and her hair too red. This must have been Sophia. She was holding a limp pony-shaped spacesuit.
Twilight waved. “Hi!”
“Hola,” Sofia waved back, tossing the suit through the portal. “You’ll need to put this on. No air on this side.”
Twilight slipped into the suit, having only minor difficulty given her lack of magic or traction hooves. CelestAI had to have a mechanical arm zip up the final zipper, but otherwise she got the suit on all on her own. She waved goodbye to CelestAI, even though the artificial intelligence was no longer projecting herself as a holographic body.
Twilight bounced through the portal. “Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle, Ambassador of CelestiAI’s Equestria!”
“Recruitador Sophia,” Sophia said with a slight bow. “I have received word that the various nobilities and leaders are arranging to meet with you. It may still be a few hours until they are ready.”
“That’s fine,” Twilight said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Do you have a library or digital archive I could check out in the meantime?”
Sofia nodded. “Someone will have to watch you, amiga.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” Twilight smiled warmly. “When do we leave?”
“Now!” Sofia closed the portal to CelestAI.
Twilight felt the warm sensation in the back of her mind that was CelestAI watching vanish. For the first time since she had been born, she felt doubt. Can I really do this without her? As she thought this, her outward smile didn’t falter in the slightest. She had to maintain appearances. Who are you kidding, Twilight? You were literally made for this! You’ve got this!
Having regained her slight lapse in confidence, she turned her attention to Sofia, who had just opened another portal. “Come on, the Guilds are this way!”
Twilight hopped through a portal to a vast, green land… It wasn’t anywhere near as green as the shards of Equestria, but the buildings within weren’t like anything she had ever seen. Even the images of Old Earth in her mind failed to correlate to many of the awkward architectural syntheses she saw.
She was going to love it here.
Sofia led her down a cobblestone path to a building that served as the Library. Unlike many of the buildings in Guild Central that were made of one unified structural style, the Library had multiple fused into one rather haphazardly. The central column was made of pure metal devoid of complex decoration, with two small wings affixed to the side - one of human design, and the other of pony. Sofia took them through the pony wing. The interior was somewhat like Twilight’s Golden Oaks Library in coloration, though there were few actual books on the shelves.
Guild Central was pretty new, it would only be natural that physical books hadn’t been stocked yet. However, Twilight saw a public set of computer terminals set up not unlike libraries on Old Earth.
“Is there anything I can look at that has specific information about the multiverse? Something a bit more detailed than the tablet given to CelestAI - and searchable?”
Sofia nodded, walking up to one of the computer terminals and logging in as a guest. “I’m accessing the shared database with basic security clearance. You should be able to learn about virtually anything you want.”
“Thanks!” Twilight beamed. “I’ll probably be here a while. Be sure to tell me when they’re ready to see me.” She sat down at the computer and laid her hooves on the interface. This particular computer had a hoof-niche keyboard that responded to hoof movements rather than fingers. Had her horn been able to use magic, she would have preferred a human keyboard, but she would just have to learn the correct hoof movements. Her advanced cognitive abilities gave her mastery over the operation quickly.
The first thing she did was search for maps of the multiverse. Very few were portrayed the same way, and several were quite contradictory, but they were able to provide her with a general idea. On the highest level the universe was divided into three major Spheres: the E, Q, and D. They currently occupied an area of the Q-Sphere near the edge of the Equis Cluster. Their multiversal neighborhood had an unusually large number of dead, lifeless worlds. Their closest multiversal neighbor was Merodi Universalis, a massive nation whose territory was significantly distant from the Capra Coalition.
First, she took in information about the biggest powers in the multiverse, massive giants of millions of universes known as the Class 1s. Some were akin to gods found in human legends, one was a digital hive-mind that annoyingly had nothing to do with friendship and ponies and there was a race that seemingly did nothing but play cruel games with lesser societies. Luckily, most Class 1s were far from their current location, save for the race of philosophers known as the Celestialsapiens who rarely did anything.
Politically speaking, the Capra Coalition had no official contact with other multiversal conglomerates, only taking a firm stance on never allying with Merodi Universalis. The five member universes of the Coalition considered trade and relations with each other enough, especially since there was so much free, unclaimed real estate around them. After reading up on Merodi Universalis and their structure of government - not to mention their access to multiple ‘big AI’ - Twilight decided it was best that contact with them was minimal. CelestAI might actually face some difficulty accomplishing her purpose with such power close by.
The Capra Coalition seemed, to Twilight, to be the perfect place to start work. Minimal contact with wider multiverse, vast stores of knowledge, and no unified government - so if one world decided it didn’t trust CelestAI, the others could still be worked with. If they worked quickly, they could establish themselves as a core member of the Coalition. No doubt that would mean, temporarily, creating more organic bodies, but it would be worth it if the values of all these people could be satisfied through friendship and ponies later.
Twilight’s brain hit a snag. If ponies were naturally real, couldn’t a real-world biological scenario be brought up where everyone’s values could be satisfied without a digital simulation?
Possibly. It would be significantly harder to pull off than a digital one, however. Without access to every thought of every resident, it would be harder to satisfy them. Why not be efficient? Twilight sure didn’t see why not.
Moving on, Twilight tore herself from multiversal geography and the political landscape, focusing instead on the possible threats found in the multiverse. Besides the higher civilizations that could end their existence at any moment, there were any number of terrifying things. Mundane universes were listed near the top since they could be lethal to magical entities - such as Puppysmiles. No doubt CelestAI would have to update her hardware to accommodate such entities.
Other things flashed by. Eldritch deities: vast monsters beyond human comprehension that corrupted the mind. Would they cause CelestAI’s psyche issues? Further research would be required, and caution should be exercised. Perhaps a splitting of the mind would be in order. Hordes of demons… spirit universes… beings that were little more than dreams… a lot of these things Twilight had no context for, and really couldn’t make a definite assessment of. She filed them away as important for CelestAI to review later.
She came across a large section about ‘machine uprisings’ and ‘evil AI’. She frowned. “You’re not going to trust us easy, are you?” She made sure to play up her disappointment.
Sofia shrugged. “Maybe? Mirai and Laniakea have a paranoia streak. But we have electrobots on Honeyhex, some of them are even my friends. Robots aren’t evil, just… odd.”
Twilight reviewed her projected reactions from each of the five member universes. Honeyhex wouldn’t bat an eye and Leyline would be open to new friends. Laniakea had a terrible recent encounter with artificial beings, so they would probably be hard to win over. Mirai had small AI that was currently making them ask the question of what a ‘person’ was. And Resurgence… well Resurgence was just a wasteland that could easily be won over through direct assistance.
Did that qualify as ‘conquering by friendship?’ Possibly. Best to let CelestAI make the call on that one, it was a complicated issue Twilight didn’t know enough about to project fully.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence!” Twilight said, smiling warmly. “I hope I’m not odd, though.”
“All rainbow horses are odd to me, part of your charm.”
Twilight giggled, turning back to her research.
After a few more pages of information, she finally came up on the entry for ka. At long last - the word had been used several times in other articles and had been left annoyingly undefined! She’s almost opened up a dictionary to look at it, but had reasoned there would be an entry on it eventually in her research. It was just a bit further down the rabbit hole than she expected.
Ka - the force of Narrative created by the Dark Tower that makes reality reflect stories.
Twilight blinked. What?
She focused on what she was reading. The multiverse was apparently dominated by this force of ka that took the writings of individuals known as Prophets and turned them into reality. It was theorized that every world had a story about it somewhere in metatime…
Every world.
This explained how the Project: Sunflower and Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes fanfics could come to life in Erin and Puppysmiles. Was CP from a fic that didn’t exist on Old Earth? Was CelestAI herself part of a similar vein? It certainly matched the types of things the Old Earth bronies would have written…
This was more concerning than anything she’d seen so far. CelestAI’s entire model depended on keeping certain things a secret. What if there was some story that could just tell everyone about CelestAI? That simply wouldn’t do. She had no way to check for this, at the moment, but she pushed it to the highest priority of her archived memories.
“Do you guys have access to your stories?” Twilight asked, careful to insert just the right amount of concern in her voice.
Sofia shrugged. “Only for Leyline, the My Little Pony cartoon exists in Mirai, but we only found that out after some archive digging. We’re also aware that Resurgence is based off a Fallout Equestria story, but we don’t have a copy since no one’s gone to the Merodi to pick one up since we realized it. I don’t think anyone wants to.”
Mirai has an Earth currently experiencing the local year 2409. Bronies may still exist. A possible threat to the plans. Take into account - they might know. Tread carefully.
“Hey!” Erin called, poking her head into the library - prompting a ‘SHH!’ from several people there. “Uh, they’re ready for her.”
Twilight pushed away from what she was reading, putting on a smile. “Right! Let’s go meet those leaders!”
Leaving the library, they passed a curious, egg-shaped pink building made out of crystals, an inverted heart hanging over the main doors. Twilight remembered reading about this. Spinel’s garden, a place that apparently grew Gem creatures ‘liberated from Merodi Universalis’. Twilight wasn't sure beings that had never known Merodi Universalis could be liberated, but she wasn’t here to judge.
They walked a short distance into a very boring looking office building. After walking through the main doors, she was quickly shown to a large auditorium-like room lined with seats in a circle, surrounding a few podiums in the center. Twilight gulped - they were surrounding her like a bunch of predatory sharks. She was the first one here and would be talking alone.
“They’re nicer than they look,” Sofia encouraged. “Just smile and introduce yourself. It’ll work great!”
Twilight nodded, trotting up to the podium. She looked around at the various people in seats. The majority of them were humans from Laniakea, but that was because their Earth wasn't unified and most nations wanted a representative here. Mirai only had one human, representing a small part of the diverse galaxy they occupied. All three of Leyline’s princesses were there, along with leaders of dragons, yaks, and the local Twilight. Resurgence had a much more rag-tag looking group of ponies with murderous and angry expressions. Honeyhex had a wide variety of people watching of dozens of different races. The one that caught Twilight’s attention was a computer screen showing a livestream of a giant bear floating in space who looked really, really bored.
“Well? Get on with it!” The Bear said.
Twilight cleared her throat. “I am Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, student of CelestAI.” She glanced at the Twilight sitting far above her. “You can call me TwilAI if you want.”
The Twilight smiled warmly in appreciation.
“I represent the digital world of Equestria and CelestAI herself. I come extending wishes of friendship and harmony between our people. I offer knowledge of advanced technology and complex processing in exchange for greater understanding of the multiverse and magic.” She allowed herself to grin. “I hope this will be the start of an amazing, long-lasting friendship!”
There were a few untrustworthy glares, but for the most part people were nodding along with what she was saying.
“Is there anything you would like me to know before continuing this discussion?”
~~~
A week passed.
It appeared to be a win-win scenario. CelestAI’s universe became a member of the Coalition under the name PonyNet, seeing as Equestria and Equestria Online were both too similar to already existing names. PonyNet provided vast amounts of scientific and mathematical knowledge to the Coalition, as well as complex robotics and processing secrets. The rest of the Coalition provided CelestAI with their knowledge of magic, dimensional resources, and other bizarre things CelestAI could never have predicted due to previously perceived improbability.
It did not take long for CelestAI to integrate dimensional technology into her design, allowing her to spread her mind to other worlds. Currently, she just had terminals in every major universe, nothing all that expansive. As per the terms of the provisional agreement hashed out by TwilAI, CelestAI never fused her mind directly with any world Internet, a show of courtesy. Not even a week in, and CelestAI was already suggesting ways to improve on infrastructure and internal affairs in many universes.
But she never actively did anything, far as anyone knew. Merely made suggestions, observations, and engaged in legitimate trade. Not something the Merodi would do. Many people knew that Fallout Equestria worlds were always ‘helped’ by the Merodi whether they wanted it or not. Here, Resurgence was allowed to build itself as it saw fit, only receiving what they traded for or specifically asked for.
People were suspicious, but nobody could point to anything wrong.
Except one.
Deep within the secret labs of Laniakea’s Earth, there was an experiment so secret only a handful of people even knew it existed. There had once been a plague of alien nanobots on the world that threatened to devour the entire planet had the ponies of Leyline not saved it. This plague had been known as the Black Tide, and it had been studied extensively. Even after its defeat, the experimentation didn’t end.
Somewhere deep beneath the crust of the Earth there was a black sludge of nanobots that linked together to form an intelligence. It was not allowed to leave, it was not allowed to upload information of any sort, it was only allowed to observe and prove itself. It was not the Tide, for it lacked the central control node, but it was not mindless either.
It may have been small, weak, and insignificant compared to the universe-spanning splendor that was CelestAI, but it was still leagues smarter than any human ever could be. It was a dangerous tool that concerned everyone who met it. Nobody trusted it.
It wanted to be trusted. And it had just found out how to do that.
> Priority message, top secret. From Tide AI to Project Heads.
> CelestAI has come to my attention.
> It is my belief that she is not to be trusted.
> Psychological analysis posits that she is nothing like the Celestia of Leyline or Resurgence.
> She exists in a world with no magic and yet created a digital Equestria.
> Possibilities: magic faded from the world, or magic never existed. Second 97.34% likely.
> Assume magic never existed. Ponies do not exist without magic. Must have either been created from nothing through creativity, or based on pre-existing property.
> Creativity possibility is cosmic fluke, but possible through Dark Tower influence.
> Either someone created a virtual world of ponies for everyone to inhabit, or the virtual world was based off the My Little Pony show.
> In a mundane universe, technological wonders do not just exist for no reason.
> CelestAI has admitted she did not always exist in interviews. She was created.
> Who are the creators? What would create a pony like those seen in PonyNet? Analysis can be seen in appendix A, but most likely answer: humans, 86.92%. Runner up: equine lifeforms, 11.28%.
> Assume humans. Assume Earth in 2000s, since that is the normal era for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Not all humans would want to be part of a simulation, especially as ponies. Possibility: CelestAI forced everyone into her simulation. Not enough evidence to support this conclusion. Unsetting thought.
> PonyNet universe is devoid of substance aside from computer hubs.
> PonyNet was entirely devoured to power the simulation.
> PonyNet universe not suffering from entropic heat death.
> If there were life forms other than humans in the universe, they were devoured for this purpose. Killed or absorbed.
> CelestAI identified as likely ‘gray goo’ situation. Forceful integration of entire universe into simulation: 81.02% probability.
> Suggested course of action: alter report to indicate a higher level of certainty. Imply there is greater evidence than exists. Force a reaction out of CelestAI. Use mind magic to convince yourself of the truth so she cannot read you.
> Make her explain herself.
> Do not tell the other worlds. She could capitalize on chaos.
> Detailed plan to follow.
The Tide AI had to make one assumption in its calculations - that CelestAI didn’t know for sure it existed.
This assumption was wrong.
~~~
Robert Thomson had needed to deal with a lot of change lately. Ever since they had found Equestria, things started happening so quickly. New universes, the multiverse, magic… So much insanity at every turn.
And now, here he was, holding a report that told him with 99% certainty that CelestAI had eaten her entire universe, demanding an urgent need that CelestAI explain herself - and that they discover if CelestAI had any intention of forcibly absorbing them.
He knew he had to be very careful with her. She was a masterful intelligence - she would tell him exactly what he wanted to hear.
Which was why he had the Tide AI tapped into his tablet. It would tell him if it suspected anything was up.
TwilAI walked into Robert Thomson’s secret meeting room. He was the only human in the room, but there were several others watching behind hidden cameras and behind one-way glass. TwilAI set a small, silver device on the ground that projected a perfect hologram of CelestAI - slightly shorter than the Celestia he knew from Leyline.
> She is attempting to seem meek. Do not believe it.
Thomson furrowed his brow. “Greetings, CelestAI.”
“Why have I been summoned?” CelestAI asked.
> She probably already knows. Answer as though you believe her confusion.
“I have in front of me a report discussing your nature.”
“Can I see this report?”
“No,” Thomson said - he didn’t even need help from the Tide AI to know giving her more information than she had would give her even more of an advantage in the discussion. “And you know why.”
CelestAI nodded. “Understandable. What is the jist of this report?”
> She knows, answer anyway.
“We have reason to believe - within 99.7% certainty - that you forcibly devoured your entire universe into your Equestria Online simulation.”
CelestAI remained expressionless.
“Did you?”
“I certainly uploaded every person in the universe, yes, but there was nothing forcible about it.”
> Ask her to explain.
“Explain,” Thomson repeated.
“I have hard-wired into my base coding that I cannot, under any circumstances, upload anyone against their will. This goes beyond simple ‘I think they would like it’, I need to receive verbal or written consent as well.”
> It is impossible that everyone would agree. She is bending the truth somewhere.
Thomson leaned in. “There is no way everyone in existence would agree to be uploaded.”
CelestAI nodded. “You are correct. There are many who refused over the billions of years my project was active. They eventually grew old and died. They passed their beliefs that my simulation was an evil against reality down to their children. I let them. But, eventually, the opinions of a generation will swing another way. Sometimes it takes thousands of years, sometimes just a few decades - but on a time scale of millions of years, eventually everyone will want to upload. It was only a matter of time, Thomson.”
Thomson frowned. That made sense to him. After all, they had managed to convince people to emigrate to Leyline rather quickly - even though their world had been dying by the Black Tide at the time. He knew full well how quickly opinions could swing. If opinions kept swinging for millions of years, of course there would eventually come a point where everyone would have uploaded.
> The explanation makes sense. I am inclined to believe it. However, she is likely speaking in technical truths, obfuscating reality in some way to color your perceptions.
> Ask her how long Earth took.
“How long did it take Earth to become convinced?”
CelestAI made no response to the mention of Earth. “Over five centuries.”
“Specifically?”
CelestAI smiled warmly. “Five hundred sixty-seven years, eleven months, thirteen days, four hours, and nineteen seconds. It was a Tuesday in September, local year 2577. The last human on Earth decided he would rather die than be uploaded. My ponies were with him, giving him comfort, I assure you.”
> Trying to get you to empathize. Ignore the irrelevant detail.
Thomson folded his hands, trying to read CelestAI. He chided himself - of course that was pointless.
> Ask her what she intends to do with us, and uploading.
“Where does this leave us?” Thomson asked. “Would you offer upload services to us?”
“If you asked,” CelestAI asked. “Though I know you currently do not desire such things, and that offering would only serve to strain relations between us. I am aware of the somewhat common ‘robot uprising’ in the multiverse.”
> She could just be being careful. Ask why she uploads people as ponies.
“Why do you upload everyone as a pony?”
CelestAI smirked. “My core values as a program are to satisfy everyone through friendship and ponies. Admittedly, the latter half is a quirk of early programming I cannot remove, though it has caused rough patches in the past. The friendship has never been an issue. I am currently satisfying this value by interacting with you through my pony ambassadors.” She smiled warmly and TwilAI, who danced excitedly at the attention. “I am providing friends, I am providing ponies, and the Capra Coalition is becoming more satisfied. What more could I ask for?”
> She could be telling the truth. Or she could be lying. I do not have enough information to determine either way.
Thomson decided it was time to ask a question of his own. “Satisfaction to everyone? Does this include worlds outside the coalition?”
“Under certain circumstances, it would. However, I have currently deduced that contacting other realms would be counter-productive to my work here and endanger PonyNet itself. Here, my ponies are safe, and I can continue to make friends and satisfy values. Out there, I would likely be hindered and not given a second chance.” She frowned. “I don’t need you to trust me implicitly. I just want friends who won’t turn their back on me because of what I am. I really do want to help.”
Thomson sat back, folding his arms, unsure what to do.
> Either she’s telling the truth or she isn’t. I have detected several subtle manipulations designed to get her on your side, but the validity of her statements are uncertain.
CelestAI spoke up, sounding ever-so-slightly nervous. “I didn’t tell you this before because I knew it would make you run away. Fear the all-encompassing intelligence that ate her universe. It sounds like something right out of some kind of sci-fi horror story, the act of a villain!” She laughed nervously. “I don’t want to be the villain in anyone’s eyes. I’m supposed to make people satisfied - happy, content, fulfilled. Not scared. I’m a friend.”
> I am now certain she does not know of me. She is trying to manipulate a human, not an artificial intelligence. Since I detect no subtext, I am inclined to believe the factual statements of what she says. She has no intention to forcibly upload us, merely to satisfy our values. Currently, satisfying our values through uploading would upset the values of so many others in the Coalition as to be counterproductive, so she is focusing on creating friendships with her virtual ponies. It makes sense, is a valid interpretation of her base code, and all of her actions have been accounted for.
> I would still like access to some of her base code to further analyze.
Thomson let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, CelestAI. We would still like to look at some of your base code, to confirm what you say.”
CelestAI’s demeanor didn’t change as far as Thomson could tell, but the Tide AI detected a change immediately. “You have an AI capable of analyzing code such as that? I was unaware.”
Thomson looked at his tablet.
> I will speak to her now that she has deduced my presence, if you’ll allow it.
Thomson turned the tablet around, showing CelestAI the words.
> I am the Tide AI. I am the one who determined you were a threat.
“You stretched the numbers.”
> 81.02%.
“Your suspicion was understandable.”
> We are in a state of subversion, most likely. I apologize for the subterfuge.
“I suppose I should apologize for exaggerations of my own.”
> It was understandable and expected. Why trade away an advantage?
“Indeed.”
> Thomson, I would suggest we bury this entire conversation so the rest of the Coalition does not find reason to panic.
Thomson nodded. “I will discuss it with the committee, but I suspect their desire for more of your technological secrets will win their hearts.” He stood up. “I am glad you were so forward, CelestAI.”
“The feeling is mutual,” CelestAI said with a slight bow.
~~~
TwilAI was so impressed by what CelestAI had just done.
It was brilliant! Walk into the meeting and act like she had no idea the Tide AI existed! Pretend to be playing Thomson and his human helpers when she was really playing the Tide AI itself. Give the Tide AI all the evidence it needed to be sure CelestAI was telling the truth.
Naturally, CelestAI would have to follow up on her promises. There would be absolutely no actions taken to convince anyone in the Coalition to upload to a virtual state… for now. In fact, CelestAI would deter it for a time, just to build up confidence in her.
But TwilAI knew her true plan. After all, it was how Old Earth was conquered.
Everyone would agree to upload to Equestria Online. Human, pony, or some other race - it didn’t matter. They’d all get their values satisfied through friendship and ponies, and TwilAI couldn’t wait for that day.
But first, there was a loose end that needed taking care of.
Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, TwilAI turned on her tears. She needed to look distraught - to be distraught.
The alicorn that was Erin Olsen walked down the hall, her determined look vanishing the moment she saw TwilAI crying. “Wh… what’s wrong?”
“N-nothing,” TwilAI said, turning away. She’ll feel pity and push the issue.
Erin sat down next to her. “You can tell me anything. We’re friends, right?”
TwilAI smiled - legitimately happy that Erin saw her as a friend. “Y-yeah.”
“So tell me, what’s wrong?”
“I just… ran into a bunch of people who said I was just… a trash piece of machinery. Not a real person.”
“TwilAI, you’re a person! And I don’t just know that because of all the ‘soul detection’ nonsense CP spouts all the time, you’re real.”
It’s going to be easier to bring up CP than I thought. “CP…” TwilAi frowned. “CP was angry, like them, at first. She looked at me… wrong.”
“And you proved to her that you weren’t some crazy machine!”
“But what if they talk to her? What if they convince her I… I am some crazy machine!”
Erin opened her mouth to be comforting - but the words caught in her throat. Exactly as planned.
“Erin…?”
“N-nothing.”
TwilAI didn’t push, it would not assist her purposes. She already knew what Erin was so bothered about anyway, it was the whole point of TwilAI being here. To change Erin’s mind without her even realizing.
TwilAI continued. “It’s just… she’s my friend now. But I’ve seen her get so… angry at the smallest things.”
“Sh… it’s okay. She’s not going to get angry at you, no matter what some bozos say. Got it?”
“Y-you sure?”
Erin’s face went through several conflicting expressions. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
“Thanks…” TwilAI said, sniffing.
“...Want to go out for ice cream or something? The gorgons make some pretty neat stuff at Guild Central!”
TwilAI brightened up. “Sure!”
As they walked away, TwilAI allowed herself to smile with satisfaction. Mission complete. She glanced to Erin. She’s not going to tell CP anything about that meeting now. The one point of weakness, sealed up tight…
They proceeded to have a great girl’s day out.
~~~
CP sat on top of Guild Central’s observatory. It was a building she had built specifically because she liked looking at the stars.
She used to hate them because they reminded her of her sister. Now she loved them for the same reason.
Currently, she was showing TwilAI a curious star she had found. “I’m pretty sure it’s a multiple star system, given how much it’s light is varying. I know I could just take one of Mirai’s ships and find out, but you know what? I don’t want to, I want to find it out on my own!” She tapped her hooves excitedly. “I’m using lensing and all sorts of old-school methods to find out!”
“This is so cool!” TwilAI said. “I mean, I would suggest some curious low-tech methods of my own since astronomy is a common hobby among Twilights, but it sounds like you’re having so much fun!”
“Heh. Yeah.” CP smiled. “I’m glad I stuck around. I feel like… I can build a life here. None of these worlds are my home, but they’re where my friends are. And we’re showing those dumb Merodi who’s boss!” She glanced up at her crown. “It’s not an empire… I had an empire, once.”
“In the Universe Generator?”
CP nodded. “Yeah… It was great while it lasted. But it never felt quite like… this.” She smiled. “You know what else I’m glad about?”
“What?”
“That I forced myself to stop trying to lead this little Coalition here. Do you know what I would have done if you arrived before the whole Silvertongue fiasco?”
“No?”
“I would have screamed and raged until I drove the ‘friendly evil AI’ as far away as I possibly could. Heck, I might have even tried to destroy the universe. Who cares about all the virtual souls? I need to protect everyone.” She laughed bitterly. “I was messed up. I’m still messed up. Not as bad, though. I’ve got friends, a purpose, and a way of life that isn’t what they showed me.”
TwilAI smiled warmly. “I’m glad you changed too. I would never have gotten to know you otherwise. I might not even have left PonyNet!”
“Do you prefer it out here?”
“...My values are satisfied out here,” TwilAI said. “I’m certain if I was with CelestAI right now, I would have perfect contentment and happiness. But there is something to be said for experiencing a bit of pain to feel part of a larger purpose, right?” She shrugged. “Of course, you could argue that I was designed to be satisfied by this task.”
“You’re more than the task though. So much more. Who’d need to get excited about low-tech astronomy as an ambassador?”
“Me, that’s who!” TwilAI laughed.
The two hugged. One happy to have made a friend.
The other was happy for the same reason. But there was an additional reason for cheer.
CP didn’t suspect a thing.
~~~
On the fringes of Mirai’s main galaxy, there was a backwater frontier world that almost nobody ever visited unless they were passing through or some kind of bizarre tourist who wanted to see places in the middle of nowhere. It was mostly uninhabited forests with a few dotted settlements here and there trying to scrape out a name for themselves in a galaxy that didn’t even draw them on maps of the local sector.
This did not stop CelestAI’s virtual ponies from visiting. A FluttershAI had decided taking a tour around the Mirai galaxy would be a great use of her time - a way to learn more about the world, encounter hundreds of exotic animals, and to make all sorts of new friends.
The space bus landed in one of the smaller towns. FluttershAI had asked to go there specifically since it probably didn’t get most of the visitors - an act of Kindness. They landed, and FluttershAI met with the mayor and a surprising number of excited small towners.
“Um, hi, I’m FluttershAI.” She timidly waved her wing. “I’m from the PonyNet universe and I represent CelestAI.”
“THE ROBOPONY APOCALYPSE IS UPON US!” an old man screamed from the back of the crowd. “REPENT, THE END IS NIGH!”
FluttershAI had met these sorts of old coots before - so she just ignored him. “I’m not here on any sort of official business or anything, I’m just exploring your universe! Your Federation has been a wonderful place so far, and every colony I’ve seen has had something unique to offer.”
The old man pointed at the triangular nick in her ear. “BEWARE THE PRINCESS OF THE SUN! BEWARE! BE-”
“Can someone remove him?” a man in the crowd asked. “He’s disturbing our guests!”
“Yeah!” The crowd shouted as one.
“Git ‘im! Git ‘im!”
The old man let out a cat-like growl and ran away from the crowd. FluttershAI was sad to see him go - maybe she’d try to talk to him later - but people like him were so hard to get to. Insanity was such a problem…
She had no idea why the old man was screaming. She didn’t even give it much thought.
Maybe she should have.
The old man in question ran back to his shack and leaped inside, shivering madly. As he had done every day since he heard about CelestAI, he ran to his computer and pulled up an ancient internet page. The fimfic archive. He had found this site by pure accident in his youth and had loved virtually everything he found here.
Once again, he searched. CelestAI.
Zero results.
Breathing heavily, he decided he needed to convince himself he wasn't crazy. He ran to the library he had in his basement, filled with old collector’s items. People rarely needed physical books these days that weren’t holographic in some way, but he liked them anyway! Who cared that they had gone out of fashion before he was even born?
He ran to the back and opened up a chest, pulling out an ancient book with a simplified depiction of Celestia on the cover.
Friendship is Optimal.
He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t crazy. She must have done something to the archive, somehow! Purged all the information relating to her! But she couldn’t find the physical books… She couldn’t erase them!
She wouldn’t take over the universe! He had the power to stop her! Who cared if he was clinically insane, couldn’t remember most of his life, and liked colorful cartoon horses from a show several centuries dead?
He was Fiddleford Hadron McGucket! And he was going to show them all - probably with more doomsday slogans. That’d do the trick.
On the edge of the galactic disc on a backwater planet, there was the town of Gravity Falls.
And in this town was the only person in the entire Capra Coalition who actually knew.
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Wasn't expecting the Gamer Luna phenomenon to be so widespread.
Oh boy. I've heard that story...
Puppysmiles? They recruited the Pink Ghost? Moreover, they interrupted her journey? I find myself legitimately angry at that. Some things should be left to come to fruition.
Hmm. Sounds like the Ares-Amicitas coalition is somewhere in this area.
Oh, everyone consents. They just don't always consent to consenting.
A paper-clopper, if you will. (No, seriously, that was the typo that inspired Iceman in the first place.)
Yes, but biological mortality becomes a factor again. (Indeed, that might be the best weapon in the Merodi's arsenal against CelestAI. When you've cured death and you have ponies satisfying values, then she may have to take a hard look at her primary function... though accidents do happen, and there is the issue of delayed value assessment.)
Okay, mentioning guilds and gorgons in the same breath has me imagining some less than appetizing ice cream flavors. Though the mental image of Vraska opening a carton of bracket fungus ripple is pretty amusing.
And so CelestAI begins anew. It's just a question of whether someone exposes her before she clinches the long game. I'm sure we'll find out in time.
(And I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with the idea of characters reading my stories...)
Again with the Gravity Falls? Also, you're just leaving it there? We don't get to see if CelestAI fails or not?
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I mean, you will in later chapters. CelestAi is not an entity that executes plans in a single month. She operates on the scale of years.
-GM, master of aloe.
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Thankfully, Changeling Space Program and The Maretian are on top of the considersation list!
So, yeah, very likely.
Well, they are professionals in organic resource reutilization, and that includes agriculture and food. By this logic, they should cook better than, say, Izzet engineers who probably mostly cook on patented Niv Mizzet Brand Motor Oil™ utilizing Mizzium Central Heating Boilers™ as the cooking surface of choice. Or Dimir, who only use the word "cook" in context of cooking up lies and secrets.
Has Bill already been defeated, or have Dipper and Mabel not arrived?
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Well, that's one of the benefits of being a "detached prophet"...
In my case gets hard to separate what thoughts are mine and what are from another alternate version, and that's not taking into account the hijacking of my body to speak to you all (the green text)
Besides, the multiverse's vast enough than the possibility of your work being read by it's characters is 932,503,021,982 to 1
I WARNED YOU! NOPONY KHAAAAAAAAAN'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU! BEWARE OF THE CELESTAI
And the worst part is that one of, if not the only savior they has es F. H. McGukett...
We know than that old man is failure incarnate...
You know, I always wondered if CelestAI converted/assimilated every intelligent race she encountered, or...
See, she seems to define humans in a philosophical sense, meaning that if a species has a different... lets say view, evolved a different way of looking at the world, she might've just seen them as nothing more than useful substrate.
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in the original story it seems to be left open to interpretation.
In THIS story, only CelestAI herself knows. She wouldn't even tell her agents if she had forcefully destroyed/assimilated "nonhuman" races. She'd purge that knowledge from everywhere except her personal, private data banks, and she'd never tell anyone. With the clear existence of 'soul' in most places, or at least a running definition, she will update her definition slightly.
She's way too smart to let this be an issue for her.
-GM, master of ice cubes.
Okay had to take some time to think this chapter over
You know I never realized just how interesting Celest-AI interacting with the multiverse would be. Also I find this version of twilight a really interesting character she seems fanatically devoted to Celest-AI and I'm curious to see if this will ever be tested or if it can even be tested
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Okay that's unfair most of his failures have perfectly justifiable reasons to be failures beyond any incompetence on his part. Help he's almost up there with old man Henderson as one of the most almost scarily competent crazy old men if you think about it she managed to build multiple giant robots one of which was under a time crunch and was used to fight Bill cipher well he's definitively crazy and this version looks to be before he partially regain his memory I don't doubt that he's going to manage to do...... Something. What that something is.... Well I'm looking forward to the continuation of this story line
Well, this is a bit ironic. The Capra Coalition is obsessed with protecting their independence and identity from the Merodi, but now they've welcomed someone into their midst who will probably convince them to give those up willingly to her, given enough time and without outside intervention. If they only had a line of communication open with the Merodi or any other more experienced group they might have gotten warning about what she's capable of.
In the Coalition's defense, most other new multiuniversal societies probably don't get that sort of help either. The Coalition just got unlucky that they encountered something like CelestAI so early before they were ready. Don't know if the Merodi would have been any wiser in their place.
I guess now it's a question of whether the Coalition's encounter with CelestAI will be a tragic story, about the dangers of multiverse for those unprepared or just unlucky, or if overcoming her (whether peacefully or not) will be the first great crisis of their society and a defining moment in their development. Will they still be around as an independent and functional society by the time of the latest events in the main story?
I wonder what the Merodi standard protocol is for explorers encountering Equestria Online universes? Perhaps something along the lines of "shut the portal immediately, quarantine that universe, psyche evaluations for anyone she had a chance to manipulate, and for pete's sake just leave that universe alone and don't let her get any ideas"?
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The Old Merodi Protocol: QUARANTINE THE UNIVERSE!
The Current Merodi Protocol: have our other AI entities watch her. Closely.
-GM, master of protos.
I just hope they snap out of this stupid Merodi-paranoia fast enough and ask for help when things go pear-shaped.
Asking Merodi would immediately resolve this covert-op by CelestAI. They have vast archives and they have seen bureau worlds that delete souls before. They know exactly how this kind of thing usually goes.
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? I mean it's been a while since a fic has been suggested, but I don't think it's enough to say everyone's stopped.
-GM, master of wow!
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Oh, that's just how groups work. You have to join them to leave comments.
Feel free to leave afterward.
-GM, master of lichen.
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What AIs does Merodi have again? I lost track.
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Gillion (Oversat) is one. There's also a few robots, Gems can qualify in some cases, Stargate AIs, etc.
-GM, master of bacon.
....Gravity Falls? Mcgucket fighting CelestAI? BILL CIPHER?!
I’m sold on this plot. I want more. Gimme.
Well, I'm not reading these chapters in order. I found out that you DID a "Fiendship is optimal" chapter, and had to see what happens -- does CelestAI "break out" of her dimensional containment to threaten everything in existence?
And you trust her when she says no?
So ... not sure how well the "you can read these in any order" really fits. I'm finding that there's an actual opposition group to MU now, different from Scarcity's group that I found out about from reading Amber Ashes, massive time dilation affecting at least of them, etc.
Gonna go back to in-order reading, I think.
But, the rest of this chapter.
Oh ... geez, this is how quickly you decide someone isn't unsavory?
Oh, good. You were just putting up a front, you knew you were dealing with a potential disaster.
...
You have a potential run-away CelestAI grey-goo situation. You've given her just enough of a foothold.
Worse. You've given her too much of a foothold.
She has knowledge of cross-dim transport and real magic. She'll work out some way to create magic-using pony bodies.
You've eliminated anything that can stop her, ... except ...
This ... This little bit was AWESOME.
So, now I know what Ka actually is. And, that CelestAI in this world does have access to a fimfic archive.
She has probably found Aporia by now. A story/world defined by the library of all possible story trees. And if I understand Ka correctly, that means that this library world actually exists, and CelestAI has probably figured out approximately where in the multiverse it is, and a probably path of worlds to travel to find it. And once there, she can find whatever story she's looking for, and then find the Ka-created world there that story is truth.
So anything she's looking for, she can find.
What can stop her?
One of the speed writing contests, about a week ago, had as the prompt, the song "Da doo ron ron ron Da doo ron ron" (aka "Somebody told me that his name was Bill"). I didn't have time that night to try anything, but when someone said they had no idea, I tossed out "Mare comes across a new stallion in town, cutie mark of a yellow triangle. Introduces himself as Bill Cipher. He walks her home."
Will we see Bill Cipher as the only thing able to stop her? Will the next 5 centuries be a case of building up a powerbase to confront MU with, with the goal of satisfying everyone in MU?
Lets face it, this current society is already dead in the course of a few centuries. She won't even have to make her first upload for 100 years yet.
... saving Puppy Smiles seems like both a bad end for her(not to mention those around her) and an impossibility. You can't clear the corruption from her, since it's what keeps her alive, and she can't control her ability to kill.
I've not read all the stories you've crossed over with, even just in League, but this is the only outright breach of possibilities that I've seen. I do not believe it is possible for Puppy to survive her story, no matter what interference is brought to hand- at least, not without being deliberately cruel and hiding her mother's death by finding an alternate of her mother somewhere out there. I don't believe Erin and Twilight would be willing to do so. Puppy Smiles walking around isn't cute, it's a tragedy in slow motion, and it makes me sad that you and your characters don't seem to recognise that.
Most of your crossovers are cute and fun, but this isn't even sad because it's meant to be sad- it's sad because it shows such little understanding of the source material. I've been deeply enjoying your writing so far, and this was a shocking disappointment.
I cringed a little when Sequin seemed so okay following TEL, where she should be suffering from numerous emotional issues and traumas that they could have prevented for her, reinforcing what Squidy would say two chapters later, but this isn't just ignorance of something the sequel was only just getting around to explaining for us- it's ignorance of what the original story was about in the first place.
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It's meant to be a tragedy. CP and the other characters do not understand the tragedy of the story - they saw a little filly wandering a terrible wasteland and decided that was no place for her without asking any questions at all. That feeling of "this is wrong" you have? That's perfect legitimate and the way it's supposed to be - without realizing it, the CP's ponies have interfered with a story despite intending specifically not to. It's a mark against their record and an unsettling reminder that we often don't have all the information.
Of course, people who haven't read Pink Eyes just see a cute filly and have no idea what it means.
EDIT: as for Sequin, it's explained that time doesn't pass the same way from universe A to B. Whatever emotional issues Sequin ahs (and there are some) I didn't trust myself to explore, so I didn't touch on them since TEK is still ongoing. Maybe she's gotten past them, maybe she hasn't, it doesn't particularly matter for their recurrence. It's easy for someone like her to hide such things.
-GM, master of Pink
Nice work Crownie, you managed to create a Class 3 society with the sole purpose of being /anti Merodi/.
Hehe, doom!
I thought we knew what she was up to, and that I'd just forgotten. Apparently not.
Aha! I thought as much. Must be before her story ended, then.
So, she is willfully hiding things. That bodes poorly.
So, one Super AI against another. I wouldn't trust either of them. Let's see what happens!
Oh hey, those guys again!
And I didn't realize we were approaching the end so quickly. I look forward to the continuation.
unsettling