Through
Before Sweetie stood an impossible choice.
She could save the data stored on this brain—data that was somehow also her, in a way that did not exactly make sense to her. But doing so would require her to change the mind there, without their knowledge or consent.
"I assume... I can't wake them up and ask?" she prompted Capacitor, looking up hopefully. "If I turned them on, I mean. The brain is intact, so..."
Capacitor looked away from her, shaking his head with a mixture of regret and guilt. "With the right hardware, you could activate her. A body..." His eyes lingered on the young version of her, tucked up against the wall. That body had more than a little damage—its plastic joints were stripped, its battery barely lasted ten minutes before running dry. Sometimes if she spent too long thinking hard, it would overheat and make her take a rest.
But it did work, and they both knew it.
"You could stick her in there," Sweetie prompted. She circled past the diagnostic device, over to where her old body rested. She twisted the head around—her head, on some strange level. She tapped her hoof against the braincase, insistent. "Right there. Unless there was damage getting me out."
That terrifying moment was still fresh in her mind, her first time being "dead" since waking up in Lucid's garage. Only that one was so dangerous that it ruined an entire public performance, and the scientists building her genuinely thought she might not wake up.
"No," Capacitor admitted. "I don't think so. But that's not it. Sweetie... that mind destroyed the last body she was put in. If she's the last prototype..."
He lowered his voice, whispering directly into her ear. "When Lucid was testing the technology, he was still figuring out how to build a working pattern out of memories. About a year ago, he told me the story of what happened. That mind got so unstable; she used the body to attack him. She destroyed half his equipment, set you back three months at least.
"And even if she calmed down since then—which I'm sure she hasn't—there's another problem. Pattern failure is cumulative. The longer she operates, the worse the damage gets. If you wake her up to ask, you might do so much damage that there's no her to fix."
He draped one hoof over her shoulder, pulling her away from the body. She could feel that touch so much better now, the warmth of another pony, the subtle variations in pressure that told her how much they cared about her. Their scents came too, giving greater depth to what they said, and speaking to their honesty or deception. She was practically alive again, and the body in front of her was... less.
"Maybe this isn't something you should worry about now," Capacitor said. "So long as that brain isn't powered, nothing on it changes. She can wait patiently until you know more about how minds work—until you have the tools to help. Assuming you even want to. There's another argument that you can't bring her back, because you're already you. There can't be a second one. Maybe it would be kinder to dismantle the brain and let her rest."
Until those last few words, he almost had her. In a real sense, Sweetie wasn't willing to accept another version of herself out there in the world. Thinking about that gave her the same discomfort as considering the fate of the physical Sweetie Belle after the scan was taken. It wasn't like she died that exact second, right?
But then he used the word “dismantle,” and Sweetie reacted. She stepped directly into his path, between Capacitor and the brain. She lifted her hoof to his chest, pushing him back. "No, Capacitor. I dunno what I'm gonna do, but it isn't that."
His eyes widened, and he retreated from her. "Okay, okay. I'm just trying to be helpful." He retreated into the hallway. "You call me before you do anything. Even if I don't know how to help her, I do know how to stop you from getting hurt. Your life is important too, Sweetie Belle. Don't forget that." He left her there with the corpse of herself.
Sweetie had plenty of time to consider what to do. Her new life contained an infinity of time—as much from not needing to sleep as the promise of an endless lifespan, fueled by periodic repair and maintenance. Capacitor was right about that at least, even if his final suggestion involved killing the clone. She could take her time, deliberate as long as she needed. Maybe that would be a few days, or maybe she would give it years, until she could master the magic and science that allowed neural patterns to exist in the first place.
"What would you do?" she asked Scootaloo one night, a few weeks later. They'd picked somewhere quiet and remote for that date, somewhere not even Apple Bloom would find them. It was one of Rarity's empty gem caverns, excavated to exhaustion to fuel her thriving fashion business. In their wake were endless, empty tunnels, stretching under the ground in an infinity of caves.
An ordinary pony could easily get lost there and never see the sun again—but Sweetie had looked at the map once, which meant she had every inch of it memorized. With only minor effort, she conjured a floating miniature of that image in the air beside her, as though she were levitating it with magic.
Scootaloo couldn't see it, her attention was focused entirely on the spotlight she carried, and the pickaxe she sometimes used to test interesting-looking seams of rock.
The close quarters pressed damp to her coat, without ever feeling wet. Her new body interpreted the moisture as slightly easier cooling, which translated to faster thinking and greater wakefulness. A little moisture was like a sip of sugar, or a delicious coffee.
Of course, she couldn't drink any of those things. Food wasn't part of this revision, no matter how much she asked for it. Some things had to come first.
"If I had a little copy of myself sitting on my desk, you mean?" Scootaloo asked. She slowed beside an intersection, gesturing at the fork in the old path. Tracks ran down one direction, and Sweetie marked that on her map. Those connected to the deserted Diamond Dog mine, which Rarity had left largely unmapped. Best avoid that route.
She pointed towards another, using her horn for the task. She still had no magic of course, but an actual flashlight concealed in the tip lit their way just as well as Scootaloo's lantern. It was a far cry from actual magic, but still served as one of the simplest spells well enough.
"Yeah, I guess. No one but Capacitor knows I have her. Nopony will be able to judge what I do. I can dismantle her, or take whatever risks I want. Unless it works and she lives, nopony in Equestria will know."
"And it probably won’t," Scootaloo suggested. "Because of... complex technical reasons that would put me to sleep if we talked about them. Right?"
"Right."
Scootaloo slowed, nudging up against her in the narrow space. Small or not, there was plenty of room for two ponies to walk abreast. But Sweetie didn't want her to. Particularly when discussing such a painful question, she wanted to be as close to the ponies she cared about as possible. If she involved anypony else, they might take the choice away from her. Whatever else she thought about Lucid Storm, he had clearly made up his mind. Most other ponies would take his opinion as gospel on the subject.
"I dunno. You’re asking if we should make more copies of Sweetie Belle. That's a weird smarty-pants kinda question. The mare I like is right here. That bat brought you back to life, and it's the best thing in the world anypony could've done. All Equestria is better off. Maybe that means we'd be even better if there were more? Do I get two marefriends instead of one?"
She stuck her tongue out, grinning sidelong at her.
Sweetie shoved her back, imitating her expression. "Probably not. It's not like I'd have two bodies—she would be her own pony. These last few years never happened for her—she got really sick, woke up once in somepony's garage, then died again. She'd be like... a little sister at this point. I guess literally, since I would have to put her in that filly body. But it would be better for her anyway, since she sees herself as a filly."
"So those are the pros. If it works, another version of Sweetie Belle gets to be safe. Why wouldn't you?"
"Because she'll probably die." Sweetie pulled away from her, out over the edge of a strange incline. Here the tunnel extended beside a slope, vanishing rapidly into the dark. Her big sister hadn't dug this—this was obviously a natural cavern, like many in the limestone beneath Ponyville's foundations. Something caught the light of her horn, reflecting back at her with taunting flashes of gold and white. Apparently her sister hadn't completely drained the cavern.
"One shot to bring her back, or let her die forever. Either I take the risk and change her, hoping it fixes her, I let her stay dead, or I... wait, until I know how to fix her better. Maybe years."
Scootaloo stopped just beside her, wings buzzing with nervous energy. She looked down the steep incline, staring almost exactly the same direction that Sweetie had noticed. The unclaimed gemstones lay that way, along with who knew what other wonders. "If it were me... I wouldn't want to give my old self a lame, old body. I'd wait until I could make it awesome. Like—what Lucid Bioinformatics says they're gonna do. Maybe when you can get your hooves on one of the new ones. And if that takes a few years, then you've got all that time to do some extra practice before you finally leap off the cloud."
She stared down at the opening, squinting into the darkness there. "Wanna race down to the bottom?"
Before Sweetie could answer, Scootaloo leaned sideways, planting a light kiss on her cheek. The pegasus didn't seem to care about the dirt and grime, or even the seriousness of their conversation. Before Sweetie could answer, she was already off, scraping and sliding her way down a perilous incline. Both wings extended to her either side, buzzing to hold her upright.
Sweetie grinned, then took off after her. Her old body would have had serious trouble with such a steep hill—her newer one was a different story. If she let her mind lose focus, she could even feel the many servos and motors adjusting in her mind, making each step in turn to keep her from falling. In places the ceiling crowded in close, forcing her to crouch and slow or smack her head up against it.
Despite her improved abilities, Sweetie couldn't compete with a real pony, let alone a young mare as fast as Scootaloo. She soon vanished into the darkness ahead, visible only as a giggling speck further down the slope. "Don't lose me!" she yelled, shouting in vain after her marefriend. "I'm the only pony who knows where she's going!"
Bits of dirt and rocks bounced into the vents in her forelegs, probably doing all kinds of damage that Lucid would complain about during her next maintenance visit. But Sweetie had something more important to worry about—she had to catch up!
Finally, the ground leveled, expanding into a vast, vaulted cavern.
She had seen its like before, or at least heard about the discovery. One of Pinkie's sisters had found something similar elsewhere in Ponyville, where natural crystals grew into something spectacular that nopony would ever see.
This would never quite compete with that, many of these crystals were cracked or outright shattered onto the floor. Even so, a single beam of Scootaloo's flashlight shattered into a spectacular rainbow on the walls, lighting like the throne-room of some ancient, subterranean queen.
"I've been thinking," Scootaloo began, setting the lantern slowly on the ground at her hooves. Despite her calm words, her chest rose rapidly up and down, feathers flared out and wings splayed to either side to keep her cool. This was exhausting, even for somepony as fast and strong as her marefriend. "Since I'm too good for the weather team, maybe I could take up exploring instead? Wouldn't be the first time a non-earth-pony was good at this. Your sister's one of the best there is."
Sweetie hopped down off the slope, running one nervous hoof through her mane. The thought of climbing all that way back up hardly filled her with confidence—but that was a challenge she could surmount when it was time to leave. For the moment, something caught her interest far more sharply.
Scootaloo's mane was a mess, her wings were too short, and she was half-coated with mud. She was also the most beautiful mare Sweetie Belle had ever seen. "Say that part again," she whispered. "Tell me about how brave you are."
Scootaloo rested her hoof on Sweetie's shoulder, pulling her neck until they were at eye level. "I believe a demonstration is always better than words. Ponies love to talk, but how many of them would be brave enough to—" She kissed her again, more passionately than before.
So passionately in fact, that Sweetie thought the rumbling in the ground around them was her own heart. But then the rumble turned into a roar, and the two of them broke apart. She looked up in time to see the cavern ceiling come tumbling down on their heads.
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Well crap.. Good chapter though.
Dun dun dun!
... You killed
KennyScootaloo! You Monster!Is this going to be like that episode of STNG where they carry Data's head around to help with repairs?
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11629747
Was that the episode that involved time travel to 1800s Earth and they discovered his head that had been lost in a cave for 500+ years? Let's hope it doesn't take them quite that long to recover her- I think Sweetie was hoping to put off the whole "I will outlive anyone who doesn't choose to become a robot or becomes an alicorn" crisis for a little while longer.
This, better not be where the sad tag comes into play ...
If this is a recording of Sweetie Belle's memories does that mean its just her memories inside a new body or is it her conciseness that's been put into the robot body? This is something I've been wondering for a while since those are two very different things after all.
11630149
I think he's talking about the episode where Riker carries Data's head around and takes him to engineering to save the ship.
You know.... Data takes a lot of beatings, I think he might be the second most abused character after Worf.
First argument is based. Second argument is cringe. There _can_ be more than one copy of someone. Absolutely nothing wrong with that in and of itself. Of course, some personalities might not handle it well... but I know for a fact that I would get along great with myself! :D
There's a third option. If you do a bit-for-bit copy of the entire state onto another core, you could then try to fix the current one, and revert to previous state if the current one is unsalvageable! Of course, then the deaths keep multiplying -- one failed copy potentially becomes 12 shorter-delta failed copies, but at least the delta between death and life gets smaller -- that's to say, there's fewer unique memories and experiences being lost, potentially. You could also iterate this process down to the second, if managed to migrate them onto a central computer with a differential backup system.
Alternative/supplemental plan: Once there's multiple working copies of yourself, merge the memories and experiences of the failed ones into the working ones, so that you don't lose continuity, leaving behind the broken framework. That way, your continuity is preserved. Instead of treating the brain as a separate person in and of itself, Sweetie could treat it as part of her. In practice, this probably just amounts to Sweetie just gets some weird uncomfortable memories of going insane and trashing Lucid's garage. But I'd still pick that option, for the sake of lateral continuity preservation. Side note: might damage the mind that you're merging into, so it's important to have multiple working copies in case you do! It's best to err on the side of backing up everything. If possible. It sounds like their computer paradigm isn't stalling yet, so this would probably be a pretty maintainable approach in practice -- storage volumes are gonna keep getting larger.