Chapters
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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…-
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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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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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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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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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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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,…
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20.2 K •
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At long last, Captain Vector Beacon had reached the moment that every leader dreaded.He made the slow procession through Remote Observation Station Horseshoe-Gamma, his hooves muffled against worn composite. Here on the very edge of Equestrian space, where Celestia's light was as distant as the memory of home, he felt the weight of all they had lost.He passed windows along his right, curving with the gentle rotation of their artificial gravity. Through them was a gulf, far fewer stars visible to the naked…-
26.8 K •
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SMILE agent Sweetie Drops looked over the mission file resting in front of her, next to the pastry and coffee delivered a few minutes ago by the Canterlot Express brunch service. She held it slightly behind the newspaper, so her girlfriend wouldn't see what she was reading.It sometimes worked. Now that the truth of her identity was revealed, Lyra sometimes realized when their vacation trips served some greater purpose. Blessedly, she still played along with Bon Bon's role, never asking questions unless…
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26.8 K •
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Blair knew she was on the right track.She'd known it for weeks, maybe months. But this time, she was certain. Three times she had propped the 14th District, located deep under Nova Canterlot's incredible concrete pylons. Three times her drones had reported massive cavities filled with organic material, arranged in orderly rows, before vanishing from the grid.Now at long last she had learned all she could from the electronic eyes of disposable drones, and it was time to go down for real.She dressed the part…
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