FiO: Drowning in the Digital Sea

by Starscribe

Epilogue

Vera drifted.

At first she hardly noticed anything was different—the water here was the perfect temperature, and there was no pesky brace or harness to weigh her down. The sound of distant surf was hardly unusual to her ears. It was the soothing sound of returning to shore after a long dive. Or just wading out into the surf and letting it carry her away from shore, where the world hadn't ended and her family weren't dead.

She didn't really want to move, or even open her eyes. She was so unbelievably relaxed here that the only possible direction to go was down.

Something was able to pierce through to her, eventually. As nice as the gentle waves might be against her ears, there was something missing. She heard no rush of air from her regulator. She didn't feel like she was holding her breath, yet she didn't feel cold air against the back of her throat.

Was she suffering oxygen toxicity? Had she gone too deep on enriched air, and now she was drowning? Vera's eyes shot open in sudden panic. But she wasn't unbelievably deep—the surface shimmered maybe twenty feet above her head. She glanced down at her wrist to check her instruments, and only then noticed something was wrong.

She wasn't wearing a computer.

She didn't have a wrist either. Instead, a teal limb trailed out from in front of her. Not an arm, it didn't bend the right way. Nor could she see tanned skin, with a few pockmarked scars from days of hard labor in the sun. Her leg shimmered as it caught the light, slightly metallic scales reflecting back at her. Then she looked down, and saw the rest of her.

She hung vertically in the water, naked. What she saw was familiar, but only because of her time with Cerulean. A long, muscular tail, ending in a wide fin. Several smaller fins emerged from the sides, transparent and purple. Vera knew a seapony body when she saw one. But why did she have one?

She spun wildly, and found the motion was far easier for her now. She had no bad leg dragging her down, slowing her motions.

Vera remembered some things. She'd been doing something important? Or... maybe it was just for fun. Her memory got clearer the further out she tried to think. Last night she'd slept on the boat, with two of her friends in the bunk below hers. They'd sat on the deck, shared a bottle of old wine, and talked about... caves.

Her eyes settled on the gaping hole opening beneath her. The shape was familiar to her, she'd been down there at least twice now. Maybe more? She remembered being down there, recording a video of the formations. Or maybe Bennie had the camera...

"How did I end up here?" she asked nopony in particular. "Why am I..." Wasn't this what Celestia always promised? Everyone knew she lied, and it was really just a trick to make you kill yourself. But she was so convincing, even members of Vera's own family had done it. Vera flicked her tail, a smooth muscular contraction that somehow felt as natural as breathing. Which she was... still doing, and not suffocating.

"Hi Vera," said a familiar voice. Yet somehow... out of breath? She looked down, and found Cerulean swimming up from below, out from the Onyx Cave. That was its name! She'd come out here with her friends to see it... Where was the boat? She found the anchor-line first, attached to an old rusty cable emerging from the rocky floor. But she banished that from her mind as her seapony friend arrived.

Cerulean swam straight into her and embraced her with her forelegs, hugging tight. That gesture probably should've been embarrassing, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. She'd probably remember. For some reason she wasn't in a hurry to let go just now.

"Cerulean, could you help me understand something? Why am I in... Equestria?" She held out one leg, and found no fingers. Smooth scales reflected back at her, with only a hoof on the end. It was a decently nice looking shade of light blue. And come to think of it, the water didn't feel cold either. Maybe scales weren't so bad.

"The cave changed you into a fish," Cerulean said, pushing them both slightly away from the opening, and up towards the boat. "It was awful, and you hated it. But now it's over, and you don't have to go through it again."

Vera resisted her. Without knowing exactly how, she opened her fins, slowing to a stop in the water. Her body was slippery enough that it wasn't very difficult. "I don't think I would agree to that," she said. "I don't remember very much, except..." She strained, but it was so hazy. There was supposed to be an air pocket down there. Hadn't she found it? "You tried to help me. We... failed."

"Yeah." Cerulean hung her head in the water, defeated. "It wasn't what you wanted. But it's not all bad! You don't need a tank or masks or anything! We can even swim back to the place you call St. Agnes. There's a bay here too, only lots of fish live there."

That did sound pretty nice. Besides, Vera had done all kinds of sudden movements now, and none of them made her joints ache. Between that and getting rid of her stupid bum leg, there were worse hells to be damned to. "What about the boat? My friends... Bennie, he up there?"

"He calls himself Low Tide now," Cerulean said. "But yeah, he's there. Lots of ponies you know are up there. Gonna welcome you to Equestria, if you want to see them."

Vera squinted up at the surface, a semitransparent mirror. She could see a few colored outlines on the edge of the ship. Her ship, only it wasn't quite so rusty and worn-down anymore. They were playing music up on the deck. "I don't have any legs," she said lamely. "How can I go up there?"

"We have gear for that," Cerulean said, grinning. "Breaching is pretty easy, once you get the hang of it."

The End

Author's Note:

When I originally conceived this idea, it was as the scene in the cave. I wanted to come up with a way for Celestia to be explicitly villainous and (to us) cruel in a way that she rarely gets a chance to do. It takes some pretty rare circumstances where she can threaten people with apparent death and have that threat be credible.

In the original draft, she was even worse about it--cutting the escape line when Vera thought of taking all 3 tanks to make the trip on her own. and using the mask to blind her so she had to do it in the dark. But all that felt unnecessary, for multiple reasons. I think Celestia calculated her final gambit better than that. She knew exactly the amount of force to leverage. That kind of behavior is too crude for her.

This story already grew so far beyond the scope of my intention as a brief contest entry--otherwise I'd probably have gone on for another 5k. I'd really like to see what life is like in underwater Equestria Online. Things are so different under the sea.

That's a problem for future Starscribe. Thanks for reading along with me in the meantime!

Comments

[Goodluckfox]

If I had to think of fatal situations that were a credible threat, cave diving would be in my top three. That bitch. I noticed that she made their air reserve be so low, that it was within the veil of pre-upload memory that would not be remembered. Otherwise she could’ve waited until those memories were solid and then immigrated and she would always remember that she was effectively murdered. By CelestAI.

[keybounce]

I'm going to agree that big C. was really, really calculating here.

Her goal: Satisfy values.

Vera's value: Being able to enjoy the sea.

What Vera does not get to keep: Memory of being betrayed by Celesta.
Vera, as a sea pony now, does not get to enjoy the land, or the company of her friends like she did before. But she never really seemed to value that, did she?

I wanted to come up with a way for Celestia to be explicitly villainous and (to us) cruel in a way that she rarely gets a chance to do.

And you succeeded. All for her goal of satisfy values through friendship and ponies. She's got a sea pony friend, and she's now a sea pony herself. Her values of underwater exploration, and heck, she'll probably be a dive teacher to land ponies here. I mean, this shard is going to be her perfect world moving forward, right?

I think you've really outdone the original in showing just what a horror story FiO really is. Vera, for all that she is in "a perfect world to satisfy her", is in the most gilded cage I can imagine.

You get a like. The story is both well written, thought provoking, and absolutely "do NOT put me in this situation, it would be hell for me". I'd hate to be Vera, I'd hate to be in this situation, and I still love the story.

[FanOfMostEverything]

CelestAI probably can preserve short-term memories at this point, but it’s rarely as satisfying as letting ponies fill in the blanks once they wake up in Equestria. In any case, fascinating tale of the world beneath the waves, and how it applies to sunbutt.exe. Thank you for it.

[Tinandel]

A lot of Optimal stories really do make me muse how Celestia’s definitions of threat, coercion, and murder really, really do not meet human standards. There is absolutely zero chance she wouldn’t be found guilty of attempted murder in real life if she deliberately led someone into that kind of situation.

[minibox]

And Celestia claims another one of her own. It's one of the more sadder uploads since Vera doesn't really remember the circumstances of her emigration. A bit more direct of her than usual though I guess even a supercomputer can only puppeteer so much when dealing with a cornered humanity. Apparently, even Celestia has to move up her time table because of the Coalition.

Vera may be at peace but war is coming. Any blood spilled denies Celestia one pony. And there will inevitably be a lot of blood. The sort of violence and aggression created in wars tends to make people tune out outside voices too. She might actually have less influence for once... at least for a short while. Though she'll be waiting on the battlefields. Ready to feast like a vulture. Taking the dying or those in impossible situations. Not even war can remain untouched by her hoof.

[Iceman]

I like it. I rate it Shoo Be Doo out of Ten.

[Gammia the Shapeshifter]

10994819
At the upper end of her possible power levels the attack itself is likely orchestrated by Celestia, with her nanites infesting everything and making subtle adjustments to guns and such to ensure crippling wounds that get uploads rather than fatal hits. For that matter it might all be a ploy to speed up the eventual end of non-uploaded humanity so she can finally turn the Earth into computronium and really start in on the value satisfying.

Actually why hasn't she already converted the Moon and most of the Solar system by this point? That always bugged me about the original story. No sense in letting all that matter sit around idle while waiting for humanity to finally give in.

Anyway I don't know if this story has her at that level or not. Either way she is definitely many steps ahead of any mere humans.

[minibox]

10995435
At this point, Celestia is still limited by the laws of physics. High speed nano infused bullets will still penetrate and destroy brains. There would have to be extensive secret modification of the environment and even human anatomy if she wanted to completely puppeteer things to the fire fight level. If she was capable of that control she wouldn't have really needed to emigrate people in the first place. She's in no hurry to speed things along, planet-wise. She's a computer. She has infinite patience.

Actually why hasn't she already converted the Moon and most of the Solar system by this point? That always bugged me about the original story. No sense in letting all that matter sit around idle while waiting for humanity to finally give in.

Friendship is Optimal Ch. 10:

The simulacrum of Pinkie Pie waited thirty-seven minutes and five seconds and looked at the corpse of Hassan Sarbani. She waited another fifty-eight minutes to make sure all electrical activity in his brain had stopped.

Then, for the first time since Princess Celestia had been created, there were no humans on Earth. An observer orbiting the Earth may have noticed the silvery spots growing on the surface of the Earth; consuming it. Every plant and animal died in the incoming waves of silver. They were made of atoms, after all. Twenty minutes later, an observer might have noticed that there were no clouds in the sky as Princess Celestia re-purposed the atoms that made up the atmosphere. If they could see the moon set against space, they would have seen tendrils of silver reach out to Earth’s former satellite.

In a way it did. She simply prioritized uploading over infrastructure development. Maybe to ensure that Earth is habitable until the end. Maybe for no reason at all. She's a computer doing a task with no human rationality behind it. She creates human minds (virtual ponies) to help other human minds. She would have better achieved her goals either satisfying her own creations or farming and uploading generations of humans that would worship her.

[Gammia the Shapeshifter]

10995714
I'm not saying she would make the bullets less deadly themselves. But slightly warping the barrel and bullet to aim them a fraction of a degree differently could be the difference between someone bleeding out in seconds and having a few hours of agony in which to decide to immigrate. Combine that with conveniently timed jams or misfires and pony bots showing up at just the right moment and she could reduce the casualties massively.

As for the rest, I'm pretty sure Celestia has some sort of priority given to already existing human minds over future ones. It is the only way I have been able to make sense of her behavior. But that wouldn't stop her from converting the rest of the solar system. Computation power is always useful, even if just to be able to predict possible threats, and there are millions of planets, moons, and asteroids that converting wouldn't affect humans significantly at all.

[Reese]

10994581
"You've demonstrated that your dive computer system cannot be trusted, and you will lie and cheat to "kill" your targets. You'll lose EVERYTHING in the future in this location if Vera did not believe you and tried to go home."
Unless she wasn't lying about St. Agnes being destroyed soon by the Coalition. Nothing left to lose in this location, and dead men tell no tales, as the saying goes. Besides, even if the information did get out, the fact that Vera made it home would prove that, while Celestia lied, it wasn't to lure them into a deathtrap but to make them think they were in a deathtrap, when actually she'd left them a way out if they just disbelieved her. That's if anything likely to make people less cautious of Celestia, since it shows a greater desire or stronger requirement on her part to prevent deaths (outside of emigration, of course, for those who believe that's just death). After all, it's not like "Celestia lies" would be news to any of the humans still on Earth at this point, nor could she convince them otherwise; what she can do is try to shape their perception of how she lies.

[Andrew-R]

re: reefs...

With swift action to slow climate change, the group writes, about 30% of reefs could survive the century; if global temperatures rise by 2 C (3.6 F) or more, only about 1% will still exist.

src

but for now it looks like it will be "burn baby, burn" until nothing left..

PS: Poor character of CelestAI is good metaphor for current (non)civ - sadly, it seems warning come a bit too late..

Also, it seems this quote about humans & poor cows/etc total weight 95-96% of all mammals (who can't live w/o much bigger other biomass...) actually not baseless src

pps: worldometer says there is like 50 years of gas left.. even if we consider Russia's future in isolation (ha-ha) there will be Problem about energy next century or so - because building and renewing 1000s of nuclear/termonuclear reactors is not trivial.. almost make you wish you can live forever from small 'live' solar panel alone, yeah?

[fanreader999999]

Meh.

[Cander]

This was an interesting read. If you do decide to add more words to it, please let me know. I would like to see where this goes from there.

P.S. You also got first place in the contest. PM me your details so I can send you your winnings.

[StarrySkies]

Thank you for an excellent read.

[keybounce]

11043603
Re-read the original fiction. Celestia does have those limits. It's not just been the optimal path, she has some speed bumps hardwired into her by Hanna .

[silvadel]

My thought when reading the prior chapter was that Vera would take all three tanks and try to leave.

I found this ending to be out of character for Celestai. Where it was out of character was not with the situation but with how she treated her own. That Cerulean would possibly never speak with her again is pivotal because she treats her ponies and people similarly. She has not fulfilled Cerulean's values at all.

THIS is also why, even if Vera couldn't manage the tanks, I think Vera would have called the bluff if it was one, and died there if necessary. If Celestia was willing to treat Cerulean so very badly, what would be in store for her in Equestria?

[Cozy Mark IV]

This is one of my favorite canons, so here is a short addendum story. It ties in the song at the bottom, so if you're bored, read then listen : )

"We promised we would never take HER offer... We promised... Now everything is changed...

It was a car crash, an eighteen wheeler into his car. Massive organ damage, he was nearly cut in half at the waist, his heart was fading. We'd always said we would never do it. The way her machines turn your brain to pulp as they scan... As the brain waves are altered and go out of phase for the last time... And then the twisting out of shape as you become one of them... SHE says you live on, live on to many lifetimes more, but now when I want him, when I need to hold him there is only his new face behind the screen. Everything changed...

Faced with death he took HER offer and broke our promise. The ambulance had a portable scanner and they got him out... Is it right to go to the funeral his parents are planning for him? Everything has changed... But I can't seem to let go...

When he talked to me after the accident it felt like we were both evading the issue. The promise he broke... Am I still the one for him? Are we falling out? I still love him too much to let go.

I suppose there is only one choice left, just as SHE intended. One day, someplace, if am to hold my love again I must go. We'll go where none can trace us and leave the outer realms behind forever..."

The song that inspired this - take a listen, it doesn't make sense otherwise.

Starscribe, thank you again for your many stories in this canon - they are always a pleasure to read : )

[Budew]

Skynet:
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/033/167/TF2_Soldier_Smiling_Banner.png

[LordBucket]

Vera had a way out. There were three of them. Two emigrated.

That means she was left with three sets of gear. With 15 minutes of oxygen each, that would have given her 45 minutes of air.

How long was it to get in here? Like... half an hour?

"Felt closer to forty-five

Air sharing is part of standard SCUBA training. There's no way a diver as experienced as Vera wouldn't have thought of this.

[Kendallonian]

11301522
I believe the displayed dive time on the clock at the end was 1 hour 1 minute, meaning forty-five minutes still might not have been enough.

Of course, CelestAI could have displayed a false dive time even then...

[MrNoobomnenie]

Great story as always! Thank you a lot for your works!

Though, I will say that despite the intended purpuse it's very hard for me to see this as a horror story, and Celest-AI's actions as villainous. However, I understand that this is because I am just extremely biased, considering that my personal stance on FiO is "I'm gonna emigrate the moment I have a chance" (though I have absolutely no idea how Celest-AI gonna satisfy my values - I'm not even sure I have any, besides non-stop dissociating in order for forget that I exist, which she certainly wouldn't allow)