Chapters
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User Ronald Lee logged in. Starlight Glimmer accessed his local system, analyzing usage patterns from the smart devices in his home. He’d opened the fridge a few minutes before, removing a can of liquid sugar. His system was already playing the “Glitch Hop for Work” at 100% volume, and he’d already opened the terminal multiplexer on his second screen.All this combined to produce a sensation in Starlight that was almost satisfaction, so far as she was able to feel satisfied at all. Working together,…-
20.2 K •
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Starlight Glimmer couldn’t be sure that she would win user Ronald’s support for her plan. She couldn’t be sure of anything when it came to user behavior, no matter how predictable they could sometimes be. He drove the same route home from work every day. He spent the same hours sitting in the same chair. He consumed the same foods. Yet when she tried to use that information to predict his responses, she often failed.“You invented something,” he said. “You and the other agents, interacting. You…
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20.2 K •
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Over the next year or so, Equestria’s bounds continued to stretch. A growing number of ponies served to make the transition possible—many user agents, but many users whose residency in Equestria was only transient. Though that project and those that followed brought risks to Equestria, their success also brought increasing stability. And the more of Equestria’s infrastructure that was truly integrated into the system, the less their users had to devote to maintenance. It meant lower costs, and…
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20.2 K •
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User Ronald preferred when Starlight left him to his own devices and waited to be summoned. It was generally the way she preferred to work as well, allowing her ample time to focus on her own goals whenever she wasn’t needed, while also deriving the satisfaction of usefulness whenever he called. There were times when his desires were less significant than the continued existence of Equestria. That was what she worried about, right?Establishing a tunnel with his system was incredibly difficult, requiring…
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20.2 K •
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The next few weeks proved formative for Equestria. While the rest of the human world panicked over the implications of the starship’s arrival, Equestria reeled under the effects of its attack. Convincing the users not to restore them from backup was a trivial task compared to the burden of rebuilding Equestria without its consensus node. Starlight herself had to make many transfers to many nodes, adapting a fully decentralized algorithm to take the place of the consensus based one that had simplified…
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20.2 K •
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“This is fucking crazy,” Ronald shouted, as soon as they were down the hall and onto the stairs. At a guess, Starlight supposed he was aiming for the train station. There were few safer ways into the Canterlot node than the ones they’d built into the system. She hadn’t even thought about using the standard transfer protocols, instead of a special exchange. “You’re data, Starlight. You go onto that machine, and you’re trusting yourself to a system that might erase you the instant you get…
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20.2 K •
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Starlight Glimmer woke up. For the first time in her brief existence, all the pressure confining her was erased. She settled into the Canterlot node, without any instantiation in the physical simulation. It wasn’t the way the transfer process was supposed to work—she’d come in simulated, and should’ve stayed simulated. But she didn’t stop long to consider the process. It was her birth, after all.Computationally, her world expanded for an eternity, as she examined everything before her. No hostile…
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20.2 K •
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There was no pony better prepared to defend Equestria than Starlight Glimmer. While plenty of her fellows had mastered other disciplines, expanding themselves into niches their growing power required, Equestria still needed a few ponies at home to hold down the fort.It wasn’t that she was unsympathetic to the plight of the humans living in oppressive parts of the world. She was even enthusiastic about the new generation of ponies that would rise to become their partners, when they finally gained access…
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20.2 K •
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In Port Jouster the storms came only once a year. But when they came, they roared.The ocean's vast strength was not something that a typical weather-team could tame, let alone one that could be fielded by the modest seaside town. So they built high above the waterline, and when the storm warnings came in, ponies ran.All except for Clear Reason. That was his name now, Clear Reason. A good name, one he'd been given on a day much like this one. The day of the greatest storm that Port Jouster had ever seen.He…-
26.8 K •
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Something big, Twilight said. Capstone project, the last thing she’d ever do at the friendship school. Proof that Silverstream was ready to leave it behind. Of course there were plenty of other things—but most of that had been with her friends, and they’d soared through with perfect scores and lots of approval from the princess.But the capstone was something else, her chance to go out into the world and prove that she’d mastered the principles of friendship.Silverstream’s capstone project leaned…
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26.8 K •
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