11. The Compass Of Flesh
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The
800 Year
Promise
A Story From The Conversion Bureau Universe
By Chatoyance
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11. The Compass Of Flesh
The use of locations from The Ambassador's Son by Midnight Shadow is done with permission.
They did not wake until late in the day, well past noon. A knock on the door frightened them, but it was the maid, come to change the towels and make the room. They asked her to come back in an hour, for they needed time to gather their things and prepare to leave.
"I figure we can catch the 4:00, if we go now, and eat on the train." Wildfire laid out a few bits for the maid on the pillow; tipping was always a good idea. "We should be in Canterlot by the day after tomorrow."
"Marketplace. Dog-creatures..." Perspicacity seemed lost in thought, half-laying on the bed. "Early Equestrian history. Mrs. Ephemeris always told me I'd need that stuff someday. I wish I'd believed her then. Marketplace.... Marketplace..."
"Pers? Come on, I think we're all packed up, but I need your help to levitate the Luggage out the door. It's kind of big, and, well, while I could buck the thing through there, It would be better for everypony if we had a unicorn's magic here." Wildfire came over to his wife and gave her a kiss on the nose. She started, as if in a dream.
"Wild! Excellent. We need to pack... Oh.." Perspicacity saw the Luggage nicely closed and ready for travel. "Don't just wait there, Wildfire, we need to get the luggage out the door!"
Wildfire shook his head slightly as his wife's horn glowed. The great steamer trunk rotated and slid through the opened door, then righted itself on its wheels on the other side. Wildfire trotted on out of the room and began to harness himself to the over-sized traveling kit.
Perspicacity hopped onto the Luggage, and lay down on it, once again the queen of steamer-trunks. "To the train station, Wildfire, we need to buy tickets to the Southern Border, somewhere near the Diamond Expanse. There's a town there. Tiny town. But once... once.... I'll remember once I see the train route."
This was all news to Wildfire. "Perspicacity! Now hold on a minute! I thought our plan was to high-tail it straight to the princesses and tell them all about the existence of the HLF here in Equestria, and to beg their protection! That's the plan, remember the plan? I do, it was a good plan!"
"Train station, now." Wildfire began plodding without even thinking. Perspicacity had him well trained, for a stallion. And after only ten years, too.
"Pers, I'm serious here. We need to tell the princesses, that's our first priority, our duty to the crown, right? That's what you said!" Wildfire had a strange feeling looking back over his flank at his wife, perched up on the huge Luggage. There was something familiar...
"Wildfire - that page last night gave us the clue we needed. Willelmus talked about having gone to a marketplace, some time after he was remade by Celestia as a pony. There he bought the original blank manuscript from a dog-creature. That could only be a Diamond Dog. You haven't seen one, but they're a bipedal race, for the most part, and they're... well they're a little like Ralph, actually. They covet gemstones, they're greedy, and they don't exactly understand right from wrong. They're also not from Equestria originally. Come to think of it, they ARE Ralph." Perspicacity laughed at her jest.
"What do you mean they're not from Equestria?" This was new. Wildfire didn't know what to make of this.
"Earth hasn't been the only world that has briefly touched Equestria, dear." Perspicacity really did seem like she was feeling superior up on the Luggage like that. "Occasionally other worlds have grazed us, and sometimes we've gotten immigrants who managed to survive. How do you think Celestia even knew to look for your Earth? It's big out there, or so my old magic teacher used to say."
It made sense. It was kind of weird to think that Earth and its universe would have been the only alien cosmos that Equestria ever bumped into. There were probably as many universes as there were stars, maybe more. Wildfire shuddered at the vastness of it all. Poor old Stephen would have loved learning all of this, Wildfire thought, if he hadn't died trying to fight Equestria.
"Pers, what does any of this have to do with..."
"Wild! It's all in that page, from last night! Willelmus must have bought his manuscript from Diamond Dogs. The first sign of the dogs ever existing happened about 900 years ago, during... what was it called... the Rainbow Nights. There was this period where the entire sky had rings in it, multicolored rings. It wasn't Celestia; it was the bruises made by other universes bumping into Equestria. Supposedly, Celestia had her hooves full dealing with it all." Perspicacity struggled to remember the ancient history. It hadn't mattered to her in her fillyhood. Now it was suddenly very important.
"That was when the Diamond Dogs first showed up. The story is that they came from somewhere else, some other world. But their world was normal, like Equestria, so they could live here. Not like Earth's universe. Zero-magic is just unheard of. It wasn't considered even possible. Nothing could live in a zero-magic universe, or so the unicorn mages thought. Life was magic." Perspicacity sighed. "At least, it normally is."
"Anyway, the Diamond Dogs caused a lot of trouble back then, because they weren't... polite. Their customs and notions of right and wrong are just, well, they're not Equestrian. They were known for being disreputable traders and even thieves. They did... the crime you spoke of. And back then, Celestia's guards had to act like your... Merc Police. Eventually the Diamond Dogs were more or less chased away. It's said they still live in little colonies out in desert lands."
Wildfire turned the corner to the main street, which led directly to the train station. They had to go there in any case, whatever their destination. "Fine Pers, Diamond Dogs, whatever. We still need to get to the princesses, remember?"
"There's another page out there! Or two! Maybe even three! It's right there, don't you see!?"
Wildfire stopped in the middle of the street. Perspicacity was almost hysterical. This was not merely new, it was scary. She'd always been obsessive, most times this was not a problem. Sometimes it was even good; her eye for detail and her obsessive nature made sure every telescope or pair of glasses or spyglass or any other thing she created was nothing less than a masterpiece.
And she was exacting in remembering dates and times and things that needed to get done. She was Wildfire's backup memory and day calender. He relied on her because he often couldn't keep track of his own tail, much less whose birthday it was or whether the appointment was at two o'clock or thirteen o'clock.
But this was new. There was a coldness now, a strange, eerie quality to her current obsession. It didn't feel entirely Equestrian to Wildfire. He began to worry about just how much damage her exposure to Ralph's mindset had caused. It wasn't so terrible for him; he had grown up around humans. But Perspicacity... she had no natural defenses born of years of having to deal with a place like Earth.
"Pers." Wildfire tried to be as calm as possible, as gentle as possible. "Don't you think our duty to the crown is more important than whether or not we hear the end of the story?"
"The end of the story IS our duty! We have to find those pages before anypony else does! It's the only way to save Celestia! It's the only way to save Equestria! Don't you understand?" Perspicacity was shouting now. Maybe the loss of her aunt had hurt her even more than Wildfire had imagined.
"Perspicacity.... No! I don't see!" Wildfire began to unbuckle himself from the harness that allowed him to pull the heavy luggage with his wife on top.
"DRAGON SKIN!" Perspicacity's shout made other ponies on the street turn to stare. She slammed her body low to the Luggage and gave out a slight whimper of embarrassment.
Wildfire came around the side of the luggage and rested his head on the top, close to where Perspicacity had laid hers, as if she were trying to melt into it and vanish. "Alright, what am I missing here?"
"Ralph mentioned it, when he talked about having looked at our manuscript, but I didn't believe him. But the new page confirms it. That manuscript is made out of dragon. The binding is dragon hide, with the scales scraped off. The pages are dragon vellum, they're made from unborn dragon, Wild, from dragon still in the egg." Perspicacity looked like she was telling him something beyond horrible.
"I don't understand. I'm sorry, but... I wasn't born in Equestria, and I don't know the stuff you know. What's the deal here?" Wildfire felt stupid, even though he honestly couldn't help not knowing any of what his wife was talking about.
Perspicacity was somehow shocked. "Wild... it's bad enough that the manuscript is made out of... skin. From a formerly living creature. But this manuscript is made out of the skin of a dragon. Dragons are intelligent, Wild, they are... sapient. They have a culture, and traditions and their own magic and arts and even their own government. They're like griffons, Wildfire. They're equals, they're... I don't know how else to explain this to you. They're no different than ponies, except that they have wings and claws." Perspicacity tried to explain the obvious, but... it was too obvious. How could her husband not get this?
"Wildfire; if it is horrible to... kill... an innocent creature just to get some skin to make a book, it's even more horrible to kill a sapient equal. That book might as well have been made of pony skin. Only this is worse, far worse." Perspicacity looked frightened.
"Why is it worse?" Wildfire was feeling a little lost. Hopefully this would all make sense soon.
"Equestria isn't just ponies, Wild. Other nations live here too. Celestia may control the day and Luna the night, they may be the ultimate power in our universe, but that doesn't mean that all creatures instinctively bow to the princesses. The dragon and griffon empires may know they can never lay a claw on the princesses, but they don't have to. She loves us, Wild, she loves her ponies, us, and through us the other nations have a say in the running of the universe." Perspicacity looked around; fortunately Wild had half-parked them near the side of the street.
"The other nations can make demands of living goddesses because they are a potential threat to... us. To the mortal creatures that Celestia and Luna care about. OK, I get that, but why is the manuscript being made out of dragon skin such a big deal? That was 800 years ago!" Surely that long ago was no big deal, Wildfire thought. How could it be? Who'd even remember?
"Wildfire. Dragons are ancient. They can live over a thousand years. It's actually been said that they may have existed during the time of Discord, and maybe even before. There are dragons alive, right now, that probably lost relatives to make the book in our luggage!" Perspicacity was speaking in a controlled whisper. This was not something to say out loud.
"The only thing between peaceful co-existence and all-out war with the other empires is a pact that was made centuries ago. About 800 years, actually, about the time of Willelmus. He lived during the time when the peace we enjoy now was forged. There are stories that griffons - and dragons too - once ate ponies. They are meat-eaters, at least griffons are, and dragons can be if they want. The peace is based on neither side harming the other, ever. And ponies are supposed to be the example for all of this!" Perspicacity was so close to Wild's muzzle now that he could feel the warmth from her nostrils.
"If it were found out that Celestia allowed a pony - even a newfoal pony - to keep a book made out of unborn dragon, and that she permitted this right at the time that the whole peace pact was being created... and there are dragons alive right now who probably watched as their brothers and sisters were carved up to make that same book... do I have to spell it out for you?" Perspicacity's eyes were very frightened.
"I... see." And finally, Wildfire did see. Ralph and his associates were after the manuscript. The whole manuscript. They already felt confident they could get the bulk of it. As far as they were concerned, Pers and he were just a convenient storage system that could be counted on to protect the manuscript for them. They'd just come and collect it whenever it was needed. That's why Ralph had spared them, and why he wanted them to go home. So then the manuscript would be in a convenient location for later retrieval.
All while the HLF went and collected the missing pages. Pages that already damned Celestia in the eyes of the dragon empire. Who knows what other dangers to the peace lay in the remaining pages? That would truly be revenge for the loss of Earth and Humanity - the total destruction of the peace that permitted ponies and dragons and griffons and who knew what else to live together.
The carnage would be unimaginable. World War Equestria. The princesses could never be hurt, they were deities. But their world, their ponies, their Equestria could be drowned in blood, and they would be all but helpless to stop it. doubtless they could kill any problematic being within their universe with nothing more than a thought. Probably they could fold the very mountains over and crush any recalcitrant civilization with but a whim.
But they wouldn't. They couldn't, because the result would be exactly the same: mass slaughter and the destruction of all they held dear.
And if they just took control of the minds of every creature, and erased their anger and their memories and their selves and remade them to fit some goal or plan of peace - how would that be different from just destroying everything and starting from scratch?
It suddenly hit Wildfire that being able to do anything didn't matter if what you had already made, and wanted to keep, was being held for ransom. For the princesses, it must be like playing a simulation game. Sure, they could just exit the current game and restart a new game, but everything they had spent a thousand years making would be forever lost.
On earth, Wild had lost a save for a sim game that he had played for almost a year. The file was unrecoverable. All of his custom buildings, all the lands, all the effort, his favorite sim families, all the modifications to the graphics... all were just... gone. He had actually cried. He had cried at that loss. It was a lot of stuff. That must be what it was like to be a deity, like Celestia.
Ralph and his associates had come up with a truly incredible, truly painful revenge. In a way, Wildfire was almost in a sort of sickened awe; the HLF had found a way to deeply hurt a god! Two gods. Two goddesses.
And they didn't care if the entirety of Equestria was destroyed. Indeed, that was likely the plan. To force Celestia and Luna to lose all of their thousand-year progress and have to start over. From scratch. Or as nearly as possible.
"We have to get those pages, before anypony - or especially dragon, or anything else - finds them first!" Wildfire finally understood completely.
"And..." Her voice was only a whisper as Wildfire harnessed himself up again. "...I have to hear the end of my story."
The main street was not overly crowded. The desert town had a strong tourist industry, but at this time in the afternoon, there was not much traffic. They made good time to the station house, and shortly had tickets for the far Southern Desert.
A look at the map that covered the inside wall of the station allowed Perspicacity to find her destination. At the very border between pony-Equestria and the lands that the dragon empire held, was a small town called Tacksworn. Tacksworn was the result of a very ancient pioneer exploration, to find the very edge of Equestria itself. Back then, the ponies had no idea that Equestria was a paraboloid cosmos curving in a higher space, Equestria set at the vertex, just above the focus. Now, the Exponential Lands extended the paraboloid perhaps to infinity.
It was at Tacksworn that the pioneers had stopped, their equipment wrecked, their teams exhausted, and thus a town was born. It was here that the Marketplace Of The Three Nations had once stood, the very same marketplace described by Willelmus in his manuscript, the market that was the very foundation of the current Equestrian Peace.
For it was there, eventually, that the great pact was signed, and the three nations of dragon, griffon and pony found common cause. The success of the market showed that the three species had more to gain from cooperation than from mastication: ponies might taste good, but the things they could make and build and do, and what they represented in terms of culture and long term survival, were far more important.
800 years later, Tacksworn was a small, insignificant community at the farthest reaches of pony-held Equestria. If there was any monument to what had once happened there, it would likely be some sand-buried plaque, covered by time, and forgotten by most. The original Marketplace did not even remain for long, but moved on as well. Tacksworn was a town forgotten by time, but once the most crucial spot in the history of the Peace Of Equestria.
If the remainder of the manuscript was anywhere, it was almost certainly at the place where the pages had originally been cut out; and considering their content, considering what they almost certainly must say, that place was Tacksworn.
Wildfire tried to imagine what Celestia would have been like, finding out that her prize pony's private journal, which she had asked him to write, had been written on dragon flesh. The little Willelmus-pony couldn't have understood. Yet there, for however long it had taken him to write his book, he was carrying an artifact that could destroy the peace of the world, and she would inevitably be blamed for it.
The damning pages would be removed, and quickly. But why were they not destroyed? Why was not the entire manuscript destroyed? That would have been simpler. Maybe Celestia hadn't found out, or maybe she had relied on somepony that had not carried out her wishes to the letter?
Whatever the case, the situation was politically delicate. The dragons would likely be very, very upset.
And on the way to the station, Perspicacity had said something else to Wildfire: Dragons never forget, and they never forgive.
The dragon-leather pointed them south, so south they went, following the lead the manuscript itself provided. South, to where it all began. South to the very place where Celestia passed through a tiny pinprick in reality and first entered the world of Men, and brought back the soul of one, and gave him a freshly minted body.
As they boarded the train, as they saw to their luggage and went to their seats, Perspicacity and Wildfire searched constantly for any sign of Ralph. It was ridiculous - he would have taken the earlier train, or even the train from the day before. But both of the Starshines were on edge, and it was on a train that they had first met Not-Pony Ralph.
Wildfire settled into his bench, his forelegs hanging over the end of the padding, his hindquarters once again pressed close to Perspicacity. She liked to sit by the window, and look out at the passing scenery. This was fine with Wildfire, because he still felt nervous, and from his position next to the aisle, he could scan both fore and aft of the car they sat in, just in case. Just in case of Ralph.
A freshly minted body. The thought intrigued him. Willelmus Learmount of Eslaforde was the very first ponified human. But he wasn't Converted. There was no nanotech involved, and his own DNA hadn't been rewritten. His mind had been somehow given... magic, Wildfire supposed, given... eternality, for lack of a better word, and taken back to Equestria as a disembodied thing.
Celestia had created a body from scratch, using her supreme powers. But even if she could create pony bodies with her power, Willelmus had indicated that he felt that her efforts had taken time and not been easy. Why? Maybe... maybe there was a fundamental incompatibility between her capture of a human mind and the pony brain. This was before the human genome had been completely mapped and understood. She might have had to do a best-fit to make things work.
Maybe Willelmus had been a little like the HLF ponies, a little more human than he should have been. Maybe that is why he wasn't immediately repelled by the very scent of a book made of dead flesh. That was quite a thought. Maybe Willelmus was a bit human and a bit pony. Not quite right. It was Celestia's first attempt, after all.
A deity can do anything, but she can't know everything. That was what Pers had said the unicorns debated in their hallowed halls of magic. They had both seen it to be true; Ralph and his associates were loose and undiscovered.
"What are you doing, love?" Wildfire had just noticed that Perspicacity was busy with several sheets of paper and a quill pen. They were caught in her magic, and hovered in front of her. The quill scratched rapidly on the paper.
"I'm... giving us a little insurance." Perspicacity paused while she considered the spelling of a word. "I'm writing a letter to the princess, Celestia, specifically. This is her problem, Luna wasn't even around at the time. Don't want to cause trouble between the two by accident or anything." The quill scribbled for a bit then paused again.
"I'm telling Celestia about what we found out, about the HLF being in Equestria, and I'm alluding to the Big Issue at stake. I'm sure she'll know what 'Eslaforde Manuscript' means, and those words probably won't mean anything to anypony beyond her. Or the HLF, I suppose, if the letter is intercepted. I hadn't thought about that possibility. Humph."
Wildfire rubbed his tail across Perspicacity's rump. In the moment, he could not help but to reflect on how fun and nice that was. Having a tail was wonderful. He could caress his wife with his tail. Wildfire loved moments of realization like that, but had a mixed feeling about them overall. On one hoof, feeling joy and awe at simple things was great fun. On the other hoof, the only reason he could feel that way was because he had experienced another life, a non-Equestrian life, to compare things to. His moments of joy also underscored his difference.
But that was alright now. The experience on the cliff, and Perspicacity's words to him had answered once and forever any questions that remained about his identity and existence. He had even promised Pers that he would never doubt himself again. Maybe he had memories of the human world to compare to, but that was fine. It didn't make him any less Equestrian for it. Instead, his moments of simple joy should just be that; simple joy. It was a nice compensation for his lost pony years before Conversion. His recompense was the ability to really, really appreciate things other ponies took for granted, like having a tail.
"Pers, is there any way to make sure that Celestia alone sees that letter, to prevent it from being taken by some HLF Frontsman in her court, disguised as a pony?"
Perspicacity thought for a moment. "I have it!" She began scribbling on the front of the envelope that would carry her letter. "Last Minute Orgy Changes, Celestia's Eyes Only!" Perspicacity laughed then grinned at her husband. "You would NOT believe some of the rumors you can hear at magic school in Canterlot. I don't know if they are true, but even if they are not, this is not something anypony would dare to open. The loss of a letter like this, were it real, would be noticed, and whoever took it would be found. Nopony would even think of messing with it, not even the HLF. It will go straight to Celestia without fail."
Wildfire was stunned, both at the idea of the princess... and of his wife's daring solution. "Do... you think the rumors... are true?" That would certainly be a revelation about Equestria!
"Why, do you think I should include a request for an invitation?" Perspicacity looked at him with a detached, utterly serious air.
"G-guh.... wha?" Wild stammered.
Perspicacity's loud laughter at her husband's reaction filled the train car.
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Oh, crap. This is exactly why the HLF needs to be stopped and fast.
Hahahahahahha! Part of me REALLY wants to see the look on Celestia's face when she sees that letter.
Thanks for the update. Truth be told a lot of your stuff has been somewhat gloomy lately. Nothing wrong with it, but I think a good laugh was much needed.
182978
"I don't really agree with how you keep pressing that humans are wretched creatures that take pleasure in others' suffering. I do hope that this is not your belief. "
Not my belief. It is my observation, and it is accurate. There are humans you can even ask, right to their face, and they will confirm that they take pleasure in other's suffering. It even has a name - one of many, in many languages. Schadenfreude. But there is also sadism and sociopathy, and even more horrible things. There are categories of sexual deviancy that are entirely bonerized by suffering, death, gore, and cruelty.
And that's just the BEGINNING of how much humans are wretched creatures that take pleasure in the suffering of others. Japanese Cruel Grill, where it's fun to laugh and point as living sea animals are deliberately scalded alive, leaping and squirming until they die... and become tasty. The fact that rape and torture are always part of war; so much so that women in the US army suffer almost universally from kidney stones - why? Because they don't dare go to the latrine or get water at night or in the morning, because of the risk of rape by men in their own outfit.
Just look at history, the present, or... the world. The obviousness of human cruelty is so vast that...
The only explanation for your comment is that you are young. You just haven't noticed yet, or you are still living in young dreams. I can almost tell the age of a person by how dearly they fight for the 'goodness' of human beings. You're around 20-ish, right? Not older than 30, I guarantee.
By 52, you learn. You see. You can no longer deny - unless you do so deliberately, of course. Some people deliberately deny. They have to. It's hard to face.
Yes, I actually stand by every seemingly 'misanthropic' statement I have made in my stories. I don't consider any of it misanthropic. I consider it factual. It's just what humans are.
Not ALL humans, just MANY. By nature. Look up Dr. Stanley Milgram. Among vast, vast others. They still keep proving him right.
Humans have to work to be better than they are. So when you find a human that does work hard at being more than a killer ape with pretensions of sainthood, then recognize. That's rare and special.
That wasn't the last they will see of Ralph and the HLF, and not just because this is a story: They found Perspicacity, Wildfire and the manuscript in the first place, didn't they? There's probably a tracking spell and maybe other spells too keeping tabs on them and the manuscript and where they are.
Or it could just be Ralph. There's no concrete evidence that the 'associates' Ralph claims to have even exist, though it's very unlikely that he's the only unrestrained pony. So he's very probably not lying.
183335
.......Graugh, it's too late at night for me to say my thoughts, but while lots of what you're saying is true it's not the entire picture. Like, how uh, alot of humankind lives in shit conditions and just plain don't have the opportunity to do much harm or good, or how the 'environment' creates many more monsters than the ones who are born monsters, or.....
I really don't like your last sentence. "Humans have to work to be better than they are. So when you find a human that does work hard at being more than a killer ape with pretensions of sainthood, then recognize. That's rare and special." First off while I understand what you mean by sainthood, I kinda feel like the word doesn't fit, but that doesn't really matter. (Dammit when I'm sleepy I feel stupid/am stupider. Sorry.) Like, well, there are lots of people who just live those average lives of not being able to do much great good but still like raising a good family and helping a bit in volunteer activities and stuff.
Yeah, I'm not arguing anything right now, am I? I just kinda want to say that while i think you're right, you're still kinda taking a limited look at stuff when you should know better. Humankind is not only capable, but has repeatedly done the most monstrous acts, but the opposite is also true: Humankind is not only capable, but has repeatedly done the most, uh, crap. There isn't a good word for it.
It's not that there's any kind of balance between 'good' and 'evil,' far from it obviously, but there is the strongest contrast possible and it's very, very visible. Compare FiM to <insert your most disliked tv shows here> and that's just freaking mostly-harmless tv shows. For all how horrible this world is right now, I refuse to believe that a better world is impossible, since to not believe in that possibility is not only cynicism but small-minded and stupid. Uh, maybe. I can't think of if those insults are appropriate or not right now, kinda stupid, sorry.
Damnit, where am I going with this? Yeah, whell, I'm getting the urge to say more so I'm still saying it: I really like your stories not only because they're wonderful stories but the world you've created is very unique (cop-out on a description here) but for all the cool stuff you've done with your fantasy-Equestria world-thingy, you've also given up something. And that something is the whatever my point should have been if I could think right now.
183338
And of course it's not edited or even been givene a second look. I just wrote that whatever it is straight through. I'm so smart and wise and stupid and silly and I bet someone's going to think I'm high instead of really, really sleepy. Derp! 
Heh, I spend half an hour writing that. Whoops!
I love being Deprmind, I get to be so silly! Oh, wait, I do the same thing IRL. I guess I just described alot of myself when I chose this name. Does Derpmind work as a pony name? No? Well, it's my internet name, and I'm more of a Derpmind than anyone else on the planet! .....I regret nothing.
Been thinking about the paraboloid spacetime and OWW. Conceptually understanding n+x space and trying to think in it... two different animals.
Chat's said in her other works to compare the bubble as a hole in a sheet of paper and how the 2-dees on either side will perceive it. Right now I'm thinking that TCB!Earth was say a "plane" of space-time, dimpled here and there by gravity like in some of Einstein's theories, roughly equivalent to the x-axis on a sheet of graph paper...
Badly said, but... TCB!Earth was the "graph" of the "equation" y = 0x and Equestria would have been y = x^2+n, with n being some multidimensional variable.
The time of "Willie's" brute-force ponification was a period when n was fluctuating around zero and Equestria's equation intersected Earth's at the origin. The TCB stories take place at a time when, instead of n being some numerical variable, it was a function/equation that made the (temporary) graph of Equestria overwrite/overlap the graph of earth.
Hm. Was it ever said that Equestria only overtook that one "small blue dot" or is it still swallowing the universe where earth used to be? I can definitely see "excess space-time" as something Celly might decide to play with, like trying out the Lisa Frank-meets- Lovecraft world of the ponifalloons...
Anyhoo, ramble over, still enjoying this.
A Comparison Of Worlds: The classic Milgram Experiment In Equestria
Want to know the difference between Ponies and Humans as I see it?
Stanley Milgram set up an experiment where people were told by an authority figure to press a series of ten buttons in series. Each button delivered a shock to another person who was, just like them, somebody picked off the street. (In actuality, the person being 'shocked' was just pretending, he was in on the gag)
Each shock was supposed to be painful, each shock worse than the last, with the final button being potentially fatal. This was explained.
The authority figure - dressed as a cop, or a scientist or even just as an ordinary person, told the subject to press the next button. If a button was pressed, the other subject, inside a glass both, would scream and thrash in pain, and even pretend to die, if the last button was pushed.
The subject was in front of the buttons only because they volunteered to be part of the test, sometimes because of an offer of money, sometimes just to be helpful. They are told they can leave, freely, at any time. No penalty at all
Humans always deliver the death button 64% (or higher, never lower) of the time. This test has been repeated hundreds of time, with tens of thousands of subjects, in virtually every nation in the world, by the way. Only 3% of humans look at the test, and the pain, and the risk of hurting another, and say no, and walk out.
What do you think would happen in Equestria, if a Royal Guard Pony told a typical Equestrian to cause pain (magical zap, maybe?) and possible death to another pony? Just told them gently to push the button, and there is no penalty, remember, for just walking away. The subject is perfectly free to leave at any time.
How many ponies would 'kill' the test subject? How many buttons would Fluttershy push, or Applejack, or even Twilight, with all of her love of SCIENCE! How many ponies would Bon-bon and Lyra kill?
None. That's how many. The question is absurd. Twilight might do one or two buttons before she just started freaking out at the evil. Applejack wouldn't push even one: "Beg 'pardon, you want me ta' do what now?"
Fluttershy? "The... the button hurts the pony in the window? how DARE YOU! NO ONE HURTS INNOCENT PONIES!!!"
Typical pony off the street? "I... really don't feel very good hurting anypony. Please, just let that poor pony out of that room. Here, I'll help you get the wires off, this is absurd!"
THAT is the difference I see between humans and ponies, right there. That is what Conversion changes, that is what Conversion takes away. The ability to even consider hitting that tenth button, much less even the third.
Okay, Pers is a terrible, wonderful, awesome mare. Whoda thunk?
And Chat? if you don't mind my saying so, your introspection on ponies vis a vis the human condition when I began reading your work was that it drew me in. It fascinated me, as somepony so eager to learn.
Now, though? Now it sends chills down my spine, because I HAVE learned. I'm not comfortable with the knowledge of what humanity can do. Maybe that's why I cling to ponies, and so love your work. It's a tiny glimmer of hope that humanity has some sort of redemption down the line, whether it's ponification or something else.
I'm sorry, I ramble and it's midnight, and I have to be up in 5 hours... short and sweet: Thank you for everything you do. Even if it does scare readers like me on a base level. It's nice to read something and be made to think about the world around you.
183402
Humankind is not only capable, but has repeatedly done the most monstrous acts, but the opposite is also true: Humankind is not only capable, but has repeatedly done the most, uh, crap. There isn't a good word for it. It's not that there's any kind of balance between 'good' and 'evil,' far from it obviously, but there is the strongest contrast possible and it's very, very visible.
You're learning, young grasshopper.
Humanity is not some fallen angel, neither are we damned monsters. What we are is nature, red in tooth and claw. We are merciless in our pursuit of betterment for those within our monkey-sphere. Sometimes that monkey-sphere comes down to "me", and then bad things like rape happen.
After all, the monkey feels better, right? It doesn't matter that there's another monkey right there bleeding and crying with fear - that's not in the monkey-sphere, it can be discounted.
Humans, as Chatoyance says, have to work to be better than a naked ape. There is no shame in this, it is no put-down, I'm pulling no punches. We're animals, pretty vicious animals at that. What I find people dislike about Chatoyance's stuff is that the interesting characters there are both good and bad, as oft seen through the filter of an ex-human with a now-different mindset.
The unintelligent say "this isn't so", the intelligent say "but why do you have to remind me". The rest understand, or maybe they just enjoy the story.
183448
Sweet Celestia, you rock.
183468
Anything I could reply to that would make me sound smarmy.
...damn
I can answer "but why do you have to remind me", if you would care to know.
I am using these stories, I think, to work out issues within myself - issues of how I feel about the human species, what I consider myself to be, my own past as a gender outlaw, and more.
For example, Wildfire dealing with Pony Vs. Human is me dealing with my own past. His experiences are my own, translated into the terms relevant to the story. His introspections are taken directly from my own.
With regard to human cruelty and nature, I have always felt afraid of my own species from the first time I was beaten to a pulp just because some child wanted to see me cry to the time my own father put a gun to my head - and not counting all the other threats to my life, or the horrors I have seen in places like Los Angeles, or the time I was homeless in San Francisco, or Pocatello, of which I have written already. I have never in my life felt part of the human race. Humanity has always been this alien species I have been forced to live with, wearing their flesh. I have felt this way since Kindergarten, and it has only grown stronger over time.
I don't get humans. I don't think I ever will. But I know this body I wear is human, because it has dark feelings and dark thoughts and anger and basically a dark side, and I don't like it, and I have to watch it and keep it in chain, and I hate that this is so. If I could drink a potion and rid myself of that human side, I would do it in an instant, whatever the cost.
When I was eleven or so, already well acquainted with being beaten for being different, I got on the school bus. Sitting there, I saw another delicate child suddenly attacked by two beefy bullies twice his size and mass. The reason? He was apparently, in their eyes, a fag. He was weird. He was small. He was weak. That was the reason.
As they beat the kid, and the busdriver did nothing, and the teacher nearby did nothing but point and laugh, something in me broke. I started crying at the cruelty and unfairness. In that moment I made a vow. I have never been religious, as such, so I made my vow to the 'universe and whatever might be watching out there'. My vow?
That I would never, ever, ever act like those bullies, I would never hurt any living being, and I would always treat all people with kindness, forever, as best as I possibly could.
That is the vow I lead my life by, and I take it as seriously as life and death.
Do I always succeed at my vow? Honestly, mostly. I've come pretty close to breaking it a few times, but those I made up for. The vow matters.
So the question I ask myself is, looking around at the world, why did I do that, and why doesn't everyone? Why isn't it just so built-in that nobody even has to make a vow like that? Why aren't humans in reality the way they like to depict themselves in fiction? Why is the world so damn, unnecessarily cruel and mean?
And most of all, what would it look like, what would it be like, to live in a world that was better, that wasn't like Planet Human?
In order to examine these notions, I have to look at both sides and compare them. So I remind us of humanity as it actually is, while I try to construct something better, so that I can see what that would truly look like. I want to feel what it would be like to live in a kind world. I want to know what it would be. And, truth be told, I want to run away to that better world, even if it is only in my own head, for a little while.
And that's the answer.
The implications involved with this manuscript are getting crazy. It's now basically a bomb that's somehow been tailor made to harm Celestia if only because it would kill a vast majority of the ponies in Equestria due to the war it would cause.
I think Willy wasn't as taken back by the dragon book as much probably cause he still had some of his human memories which basically told him that a 'leather' bound book with pages like these inside would be made from animals. The possibilities mentioned in the story could also be true.
The note to Celestia was hilarious. I would love to see the face of the pony who would find that and have to take it to Celestia. I wonder what Celestia would think about that as well.
183428
^ This stuff right here. That is one of the reasons I absolutely love Chatoyance's stories. These stories are made not only to tell the story that Chatoyance has in mind but it also makes you think. I admit that schadenfreude is something that I can't help but to have grown up with. America's Funniest Home Videos saw to that. Now I personally limit my schadenfreude to AFV. I don't like the idea of torture, rape and what not. The info about this grill in japan is news to me and only serves to remind me that there is a lot of weird stuff in japan.
183539
My past wasn't nearly as rough as your sounds but I can understand where you are coming from in a way. As I've been overweight pretty much my entire life I know what it's like to be bullied. To make matters worse I was always the "new kid" in school cause my parents got divorced when I was 6 and I spent every summer going back and forth between them. In my early years I was very withdrawn cause I learned that the bullies wanted a reaction so I basically shut off my emotions from showing outside while in public. Of course that lead me to being a total emotional wreck once in private.
Middle school and High school was the worst since at that time bullies didn't stop at words and tend to beat on their targets. I was popular in high school with the bullies cause of that. They never seemed to understand that beating up a fat kid didn't do a whole lot since all that fat absorbed most of the blows anyway. Unfortunately all these beatings eventually wore me down and my emotions finally burst through one day and I ended up really hurting the kids who were attacking me simply cause I was fat and would get in the way.
Since that day I've kept a bit of a tighter control on my emotions but also started trying to find positive outlets to try and avoid outbursts like that again which lead to video games and roleplaying. Guess what race I never pick if possible in a role playing game?
This is also one of the reasons I like Conversion Bureau fics so much. The idea that I could go to a place and drink a little potion and rid myself of this world which is filled with so much hate and anger...It's very appealing. Even if the choice was limited to the R63 version of the potion I would still be more than willing to take it.
183550
The thing is, Chatoyance got Willy's way of acting completely correct. Way back then (and even today in some places, with some less-enlightened folks, though they'd disagree with you there), everything in creation belonged to Man, to do with as he pleased. Seeing animals and even other humans - providing they were the right (or the wrong) sort - in pain and agony was just, true and right sport of the most perfect kind.
Today we still have useless whale hunts, for meat which is inedible because it is "tradition". We have cock fights and dog fights, and boxing matches (true, boxing today isn't the same as the gladiatorial arena, but that is the heritage). We even still have the ritualized murder and blood-letting called "bull fighting", and in the UK some still tirelessly campaign for the right to hunt foxes and bait badgers.
Back in Willy's day, God had given everything in Creation to Man, and animals were nothing but meat puppets. To them, the green viewpoint wouldn't just be foreign, it would be subversive and wrong. We're still arguing over whether animals understand pain and fear!
Ponies are different, we see that, but similarly (even in canon) diamond dogs think nothing of slavery. Getting away with (literal) murder would be the way things simply are for them. Should the HLF find out about such a ticking time-bomb, they would very likely persue the policy of scorched earth as retribution, just like most bullies. If I can't have it, you won't either.
183550
As for the grills in Japan, they do exist. There is one delicacy where a species of fish is essentially gutted, live, and brought to you still gasping for breath even as you're supposed to start eating it. It's been sliced up in just the right way that it's dying yet hasn't quite expired. You're sitting there, pulling chunks of flesh off its body as it feebly opens its mouth and wriggles, trying to escape. That's how you know it's fresh. Then there's the dancing squid who's tentacles will dance when you pour soy sauce on it. Creepy.
Don't get me started on the chilled monkey brains (really? Indiana Jones was pretty correct with it, only it's worse in reality), the way you're supposed to fry live eels, or boil live lobsters.
Lobsters, however, also serve to remind us how strange life really is. They've done experiments on lobsters were legs have been pulled off so it cannot escape, and then food has been placed in front of it. Surprisingly, it will eat perfectly happily.
183335
Heheh... Actually I'm 16.
Humans are humans. Not all of us are cruel, and we suffer from killing one of our own. That shows that we are not meant to kill and torture others.
The clean part of humanity is one of colour, intelligence and caring. It is very unfortunate to have to live alongside scum and in many cases under them, but all you can do is hope for the best and do your best. Think of the future not the past. And I don't know about you but where I live sustaining our environment is one of the highest priorities.
All we need is wormhole technology and everything will suddenly become a lot better. Just read Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga.
((ramble alert))
I can draw a few 'real world' 'right now' parallels if anyone is interested - Chatoyance's stories are steeped, quite deeply in my humble opinion, in completely real world analysis of human 'rules of engagement'.
One thing I don't think people realize is that the social mores of the world around them are a mere candy shell - so very easily broken and letting the really nasty stuff out. Right now, the world around you is safe and sane; cars, buildings, schools, people out walking their dog... But just about anything can break that down in a frighteningly quick fashion. An economic collapse, food shortage, natural disaster and that guy walking his dog past your house today might be knifing you for food tomorrow: That self-preserving ape, the biological weapon honed by a million years of reaching the top of the food chain, simply won't rationalize 'right' and 'wrong', it just 'does'.
I'm not joking... Here, let me show you the future...
As some of you know, I run a large multi-sim estate in SecondLife that is all about the ponies. There also exists in SL a couple other folks running single-sim pony properties. For the most part these other sims were built by 'friends of 4chan' and as such are built around that demographic of no-holds-bared 'grief back, grief harder' Y U NO rage-comic mindset. My sims are far more structured and regulated, and designed to appeal to the more 'pony' pony in that there is an actual town and community based around the ideals expressed in the TV show.
Back in December, we (the other sim owners and I) brought the two camps together to attempt to create a unification: Trotsdale to the west and the others to the east - separated by a body of impassable water that the groups can see each other across, but have to expend effort to get to the other side of by way of a land bridge on the north end.
I'll admit it was a bit naive on my part to assume that the basic fact everyone was a pony, as well as the tenants of 'love and tolerate,' would bring these two dissimilar groups together. It turns out that this naivete was tantamount to assuming that because everyone on Earth is a naked ape and looks basically the same, that we will all just 'get along'.
I don't want to get into a psychology lecture as to 'why', but Trotsdale ponies, by and large, are that shockingly small percentage of humanity who would not press a button in the Milgram Experiment. They tend to be very 'show like'; helping each other build things, working on community projects, looking out for one another and actively seeking to aid each other. A four hundred person 'herd' in most respects - and if the herd is successful, all the members are as well.
The east-side is another story. It tends to be a lot more chaotic and a lot more 'self serving'. A statistically significant percentage of the folks over yonder would press '10' and hold out their hand for the money without a second thought. There is a lot of power structure building and dominance ploys over there as well, leading to 'gangs' of aligned folks doing the bidding of an alpha.
This has created the perfect 'predator / prey' relationship. The fact that Trotsdale folks are, in general, pacifistic emboldens those who, well, aren't, and we get targeted quite a bit.
In an east-side social circle, refusing to 'put one over on your fellow human' is seen as weakness and diminishes personal standing. So, they like to come over to Trotsdale quite often to essentially hunt. They are typically looking for someone to upset or hurt to increase social standing in their east-side tribe.
The Trotsdale folks virtually never go over to the east-side - to go there is to incite a feeding frenzy of snide comments and angry slurs. But, these same Trotsdale ponies are amazingly accepting of the east-side folks when they come visit - trying unceasingly to show the 'bad element' their 'love and tolerance' - even though they know they are in effect being hunted.
This east-side element is the human hi-lighted in Chatoyance's stories - they are real, and there are a lot of them... In my little social experiment there are roughly ten times the people on the east side of the pond... Ten apes for every pony.
This is the 'singularity future' we read about in these stories; where social mores have broken down and 'might makes right'. Roving bands of empowered thugs actively hunt anyone perceived as weaker than them.
Overall though, in SL you get to truly see what lurks under that thin facade of 'society' due to the the absence of any physical or even lasting punishment. It is a form of anarchy - everyone is relying on their own moral compass to guide interactions because there is no 'social mores' to give people lines to color between. And as such you can really watch the predator ape go about its business of territorial control, dominance play, social manipulation, and even procreation very easily.
SL is at once pure fascination - and pure scary.
And it is these 'right now' things I see, every day, that lends a lot of depth to Chatoyance's stories. HLF, PER, even pudgy little Ralph have real analogues in SL right now. And I mentally fence with them in my position as the token 'royal' in order to protect my ponies. I impose my will on the chaos to shape a happy reality for about four hundred people every day, and it's a rather immense undertaking that has taken about a year to get to this point.
So Chatoyance's observation of Celestia certainly being able to simply 'reboot' it all to fix the issue, but not wanting to because she's attached to it - I can only nod in understanding.
Much the same as I can do anything in my realm - really, there are practically no limits to what I can do or create on a whim, but I don't know everything and my version of the story's 'subversive element' uses this against me incessantly - this is another powerful parallel that I am shocked by.
Again - this is fan fiction!?
184031
Wow, that is at once both scary and awesome! It's almost like the TCB, when I think about it, which is... kinda... fun to think about. I'm glad I'm not a royal pony...
184094
It sounds a lot more dire than it really is. I have a staff of twelve ponies who help me: The equivalents of captains of the royal guard, accountant ponies who oversee rent and taxation duties, event coordinators, my master builder, my trusted adviser, and a personal librarian. Yes, there is even an economy where the ponies make and sell things to one another based on RL money conversions. I have to carefully tax things and 'rent' parts of the empire to cover the monthly costs of running the empire (about $700/month that I need to offset via in-world economics).
If you ever need a viewpoint on the machinations it takes to run something like Equestria, simply ask.
And yes, the parallels between TCB and this crazy SL thing are mind blowing - if I wasn't completely enamored with Chatoyance's views on the human condition in the TCB milieu, I'd be here simply for the camaraderie of someone who 'gets' how all the pieces really do move around the board.
184031 There's the quote from the show Red Dwarf: "They say that every society is three meals away from revolution." Deprive humans of their comforts, make them feel threatened, and you've got a pack of frighteningly intelligent animals who can and will rationalize any action they take in order to survive.
Not that we're alone in the matter, of course. Just about any species on Earth that could make its way to our position probably would have at least a similar mindset.
183419ow ow ow owowowowowowowowow WHY DID YOU DO THAT! OW!
angercensor. you claim that just because people are capable of doing bad things, and that some do these bad thins that HUMANITY is cruel or evil.
humanity is nothing but dynamic. it represents the nicest of the nice, to the most corupt and evil dictators on this planet.
some people are cuel and evil. id accept that most people can be cruel, but humanity is nothing. you cant attach any single discription to 7 billion people.
remember for a moment. YOU ARE A HUMAN, DEAL WITH IT
if i saw a letter with that writter on it, id like to think i would open it but... curiosity would get the better of me
183428
The Milgram experiment wasn't an experiment in sadism or cruelty but rather to test conformity or submission to authority figures to the point of acting against their own morality. Most of the participants showed signed of being mentally distressed by the ordeal, which is not the actions of someone who is a sociopath. However, it is a sign of the conditioning society has placed upon the individual to follow orders from our societal authority figures. Another example to drive the point is the strip search prank phone call.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam
To make your hypothetical question more interesting, how about having Celestia give the order to shock the 'test subject'. Now, at that point, you're getting into the heart of the Milgram experiment. From what I've seen of the show, even discarding the episodes produced after Faust stepped down as producer, it's not out the question that at least Twilight would be hard-pressed not to disobey Celestia in a Milgram experiment.
Yay~ Orgies! XD
The sim analogy was brilliant. I've been there before many a time. Also, that's an... interesting suggestion about Celestia. Perhaps it should be explored more fully someday *hehe*
183428 Dear chatoyance that is a wonderful example of the difference between humans and ponies. As a psych major I had to learn about the stanley milgram and the stanford prison experiment, so I can say with absolute certainty that you are 100% correct.
p.s. this story is good by the way, I can't stop reading.
183428 I would not do that test, I may do these sorts of things in games, but real life, no. I would say partially the reason is because someone in my family that I was very close to died, of cancer. Therefore I could not stand to purposely kill someone in real life, the only possible exception being a zombie apocalypse. Your version of Equestria in the conversion bureau universe truly would be the best choice. I remember after reading the original story, I asked my friends, 'would you convert?' and, even though they hate my obsession with fanfiction, they said, 'hell yes!' (or atleast one did). At first, I wasn't sure, my main reasoning being the internet. But then I realised a lot of people would be converting so there wouldn't be much more things on the internet anyway. And after I starting reading your ones, it strengthened my opinion even more. As soon as the conversion bureaus open, get my friends on Skype or whatever they use in the future, and straight down to the Sydney Conversion Bureau together.
And another very comforting title.
Hm, I was imagining the Luggage as taller.
...Aaaaaand despite Perspicacity being established as persistent to the point of stubbornness, and the fact that she could just be being affected by the death of Aspherica and other recent events, I'm wondering if the book is influencing her to reassemble it... I mean, we still don't know how it came to be split up to begin with, do we?
"There was a coldness now, a strange, eerie quality to her current obsession. It didn't feel entirely Equestrian to Wildfire. "
Yes. Yes, definitely worrying about that now. And it would provide the HLF a good motive... if they could turn the book into an apple of discord, they could try and ruin Celestia's peace as revenge. And if they turned it into an apple of Discord...
Ah. Or that. Though I'm sure Celestia didn't knowingly allow such a thing, the dragons might not see it that way...
And I'm still not ruling out that it also influences the mind.
...Oh. Dear. But if that's really their primary plan... then they don't even need the whole book. Want, yes, need, no. If they have any of it, they could spring at least a weakened version of the plan at any time.
I wonder why Perspicacity thinks that the next page/pages is/are in Tacksworn specifically, though? Possibly it's just the only lead they have.
"at the farthest reaches of pony-held Equestria"
Hm. Was newfoal settlement in the Exponential Lands not radially symmetric, then?
Ah, and here's an addressing of my previous question. A bit thin, I think, but then, it's all they have.
...
Well. That is... certainly a creative solution to the problem of letter security! :D
Hm. And... Hm. I'd... probably better be going now, I'm afraid. Another enjoyable session of reading your work, though. :)
184031
Wow.
So the material the book was made out of is the treasure here, and the words are completely unrelated...
I'm sorry, Pers honey, but comparing Ralph to Diamond Dogs is a blatant insult to Diamond Dogs.
Wildfire is right. You need to get your flanks to canterlot right now and tell the princesses right now. Are you listening?
Evidently not. Sigh.
...oh. Oh. Yes, I think I get it
And I'm the one who said that the material of the book was a Big Deal.
So I was right all those chapters ago. Ralph and company are trying to destroy Equestria.
Crap.