Let's Play: Equestria Online!

by Jakinbandw

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Random, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 58495

A look at the new MLP MMO where we find out if Friendship is Optimal

This is an ongoing blog of my adventures in Equestria Online, the new game from Hasbro and Hofvarpnir Studios. I'll be taking a look at how the game plays, and just how good the AI that runs it is. So drop in and make suggestions for what I should do. I will also attempt to find out if Friendship is Optimal, and seeing if I can level my pony to be the best at making friendships ever.

Or failing horribly.

But hey, it's a game about friendship. What could possibly go wrong?

[Set in the Optimalverse]
[Setting Guide]
[TVTropes Page]
[Last chapter edited: 8]

Published 2013-09-13 00:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-12 00:12:22 UTC

First Steps

Replies To Notable Comments From The Comment Section

FanOfMostEverything asked about my Pony Pad and how it looked. Turns out that I actually got one of the second generation ones. Apparently the first gen ones had a stand and a controller, but the new ones are just tablets, and we can buy the rest separately. I dunno, I just grabbed this version because it was a bit cheaper at the store. I don't think I'll bother with the controller anyway, I'm finding that it controls perfectly fine as it is.

Also, yes, I do have a pic of Twilight Sparkle on the back (and she is cute)!

Silvadel, meanwhile, let me know that I can actually change things when I get my name from Celestia, and suggested that I change my character into a pegasus. I'm not sure I want to play a pegasus though. Honestly, I find flight in most games to be pretty boring. Useful, yes, but I find that if I have an option that lets me stay on the ground, I tend to use that instead. In Minecraft, for instance, flying is as fast as sprinting. It feels slower, though, if that makes any sense.

I don't know. If it turns out I can't move fast as an earth pony I might switch up when I meet Celestia.

Finally, if I didn't reply to you here, I probably already replied in the comment section. I suggest everyone take a quick look down there and join in whatever we are discussing at any given time.

And Now, For Some Actual Gameplay!

So the comments from yesterday were heavily in favor of going exploring up the mountains. We had one dissenter who wanted to go down into the forest, so we might do that eventually, but for now we are headed uphill.

So first things first: Movement in this game is fun. There is a wonderful sense of speed you get when going at a full gallop. Grass flies up from behind your pony, and the wind audibly whistles past. A few flower petals might even get caught in your slip stream, and get carried along behind you.

So there I was, heading up the mountain when I came to this ledge. I figured I'd just jump up, because I'm used to platformers (Sonic and SSX). I actually didn't realize how to set up a high jump though, so I sailed gracefully though the air, face first into the rock. Turns out the basic jumping height isn't that great.

So there my pony is, picking itself up off the ground (and I can't believe they animated that. It looks gorgeous), when a beige mare with a brown mane walks up to him and asks if I'm okay. And I wait for the conversation menu to pop up. And it doesn't. And I poke random spots on the screen, and that doesn't do anything either.

So finally, I am at my wits end, with this earth pony looking at my like I'm insane (again, amazing facial expressions), and I finally break down as say, “How does this stupid thing work?!”

“How does what work?” She replies.

“Conversations,” I say.

“Well, usually one pony speaks, and the other replies,” she says sardonically.

At this point I realized something was up so I turned over the Pony Pad and poked at it to see if I could find a light that would tell me the mic was on, “Sorry,” I replied, “I didn't know this game had voice chat.”

At least, that's what I thought I said. What I actually heard was, “Sorry, I didn't know that I was speaking out loud.” We'll come back to this later, because I want to talk about it. For now, I'll continue on.

“Oh,” she said, “Maybe you should go see Celestia. You seem a little off after becoming friends with that cliff.”

“Ah, I'm fine.” I replied, “Do you know if there is any way to jump higher?”

“Yes, would you like me to show you? It's not too hard,” she said.

“Yes please, er... what's your name?” Finally getting used to just talking like normal.

“Forest Trails” She said, as she showed me on the screen how to jump properly, “What's yours?” I should note here that while she was showing me how to jump high, there was an onscreen tutorial that showed me the actual commands. I'll also get back to this later.

“Susland,” I said jokingly. “Though not really. I haven't gotten a proper name yet.”

“Then why are you going this way?” she asked, “Canterlot is back the way you came.”

“I know, I just want to explore before all that. I mean, this is a nice place to learn things. Really, I don't think a name is that important is it? I can explore just fine without one, and that's half the fun!” I shrugged, “I'm sure there will be some big quest she will send me on when I go meet her, but for now I'm having fun as it is.”

“Are you sure that's wise? She might wonder why you're avoiding her.” Forest Trails frowned at me.

I shrug, and my pony follows suit, “I'm sure she couldn't care less.” Then I had an idea, “Hey, would you like to come with me? I'm not used to Equestria (this game), and I could use a hoof (hand) learning how things work. Err, if you're not busy that is.”

“Well, I guess I might as well. No sense letting you get lost and having to have the guard sent out to find you.” Forest Trails grinned. “Where are you headed?”

“Just up the mountain, maybe to get to the top... find some caves... whatever.” I laughed, "I doubt I'll get lost. I'm pretty good with directions.”

Forest Trails smirked. ”Well then, lead on brave explorer!”

So we headed up the mountain. It really was rather big, and ascending it took most of the rest of the session. Forest Trails taught me a bit about how the parkour part of the game works, and I'm getting the hang of it. It is actually pretty deep and I think it will take me quite a while to master. I actually appreciate that. I was expecting the game to just have me click where I wanted to go and for that to be that. I think that when I'm done the main quest line I'll still wander around just enjoying running. Who knows? With a movement system this deep, maybe the developers put in a few races that I can spend time on. I mean, there was the Running of the Leaves in canon, so there is a chance that they got inspiration from it.

Anyway, Forest Trails and I ended up near the top of the mountain, and we found the entrance to a cave system. I looked inside, and it seems to be rather large. Another cool thing is that, from where we are, we can see Canterlot in the distance. It looks almost exactly like in the show, which is pretty cool. We are past the tree line and the view is spectacular. I can see for what feels like a hundred miles. It's further than I could in Just Cause 2, even, and that view distance impressed me.

I stopped here, because I am not sure if I want to keep moving away from Canterlot. It looks like it's already going to take me a session or two to get back to it, but on the other hand; cave! I wonder how deep it goes. So, I'm putting this as our second vote. Head back to Canterlot through the Forest, or Explore Cave? I should note that Forest Trails has been hinting rather strongly that I should go get my name so that she has something official to call me.

Did I mention that her cutie mark is a path winding through some trees? I wonder if my cutie mark will be linked to my name as well. Hmm...

Where I Discuss Random Thoughts After My Play Session And Go Bwah?!!!

So, the Pony Pad has a mic, and that's how I communicate with other players. Functional, I guess, but I suppose I will feel a disconnect when I actually meet an NPC. However, two big things got me about this:

First of all, the fact that the game changed what I said so that it fit the game world. I find this astounding. The game read what I was going to say from the camera, and altered what I was saying in real time. This is as good as the universal translator in Star Trek. Why hasn't this been put to use commercially? Goodness, being able to read what someone is going to say that well is itself astounding! It means that the game has better facial recognition than anything I have ever heard of before.

Secondly, the game suffered no compression in the audio and streamed it in real time. While handling the animations and having them synch up. This is the first program that I have ever seen manage to do this. Even VoIP chats have delays, and the conversation feels kinda stilted. How are they managing this? I'm not complaining, mind, but they obviously have some awesome compression going on with the data stream that they could make massive amounts of money on by just being a phone service. Seriously, with this tech, why are they just making video games? They should be leading the world in the communication industry!

In other news, I really like their movement system. If this is how all skills are handled, rather than from a tool bar, then I think I will really enjoy learning new skills in the game. Hey guys, what do you think we should try to learn next? How to mine? Earth Pony magic? Fighting? I'm going to keep honing my parkour skills, but I'm looking forward finding new skills to master.

Achievements That I Got From This Session

Off the beaten path – Ignore the starting quest and go exploring

New Friend! - Make a new friend

Long way down – Climb passed the treeline on one mountain

Learning To Climb

Where I Comment On What Is Going On In The Comments

So, I'm starting to get rather curious about Celestia. I thought she was an NPC, but the comments seem to suggest that she isn't. It makes me wonder what else she could be. I don't think that an admin (or even several admins) could have played the role effectively when the game was new. As I remember, almost all the Pony Pads were sold out on day one. Some places ran out before noon. The sheer number of people that would have been doing the quest means that having people on staff playing Celestia would be wildly impractical.

I'm also seeing that we are starting to have a split opinion on whether I should keep exploring after this cave, or head back to Canterlot and meet Celestia. I'm still not sure what to do myself, so feel free to continue debating this in the comments. I've also noticed a couple people trolling down there by offering fake advice. First, please don't do that, I'm confused enough as it is. Second, even for those that are not trolling, please don't post spoilers! I understand that you want to share your joy of the game with me, but please do keep in mind that you can only experience the joy of being surprised by something and figuring it out once. If someone shortcuts it for you, then even that is taken away.

I hope that didn't sound too harsh. I am really surprised, and grateful for all the support.

Lastly, what? No one else finds what they are doing with communication technology amazing? Am I the only one that thinks this is cool? Come on guys, this is the future! Can we get some excitement? Imagine what it will be like in five years when this technology goes mainstream. If someone doesn't pick this up and run with it, I won't be surprised if we all end up only communicating as ponies to get around language barriers.

Heh, everyone communicating as ponies... I can just see the crazy person with a sign saying, "Beware: The End Is Neigh!" :P

Gameplay, AKA The Reason You All Come Here

So I signed on, took a quick look around, and spotted Forest Trails heading up the side of the mountain to meet me. I guess she must have figured out a way to know when I go online. I walked out to meet her, and we exchanged some pleasantries while walking back to the edge of the cave.

“So,” I said. “Do you think we will need a way to see while we're in the cave?”

“Unlikely. Only the occasional cave is dark enough for you to need a light source,” She grinned and then pulled out an unlit torch. “Even if it is too dark, I came prepared!”

We headed inside and I laughed. “So, how was your day?”

“Well, not too bad.” She threw me a look. “Though you left awful fast last night.”

I shrugged, and my pony mimicked it, “I had work in the morning. I work in construction most of the time, so I have to get up really early. Also, I'm actually telling some people tales of our adventures (doing a Let's Play online) each night.”

“You'd prefer to spend time with them, rather than with moi?” tried, to look upset, but instead just looked like she was trying not to laugh, “I'm hurt!”

I laughed and knelt on the ground in front of her “Please forgive me, fair lady."

“You are forgiven,” she said in a stately manner. Then she giggled. “Come on! If you only have some much time, we need to get a move on if we want to finish exploring this cave tonight.”

As we were walking, ambient light made the cave easy to see. It's a trick I've seen done in many games, but because everything else looked so good, I was half expecting it to follow the normal rules of light and shadow. I actually paused to see if there was something that was giving off light, and found that there was a type of luminescent moss. I bring this up because I find it cool that even while conforming to the genre, Equestria Online still gives an explanation.

We quickly came to a large cavern that extended far above us. I could see that the tunnels continued on up above, but there was no obvious way up there. Not without being a pegasus that could fly, or a unicorn that could teleport. Now, on another day I might have given up, but there was someone with me and I felt like showing off. I've played many games, and used many movement systems to get where I shouldn't have been able to reach. I'm not as good as some people are (watch some speed runs of Mario 64), but I like to think that I'm decent.

So I started looking and thinking and realized that I could use the boulders and such that were sticking out of the walls to get up to the top. “I think I can get up there. You think you can manage, or do you have some rope or something?” I turned to Forest Trails as I asked.

She just shook her head with a smirk on her face, “I'm sure if you can make it, so can I.”

I promised you a screencap and here it is!

It took me about three tries, but I finally made it to the top. Forest Trails followed after me and even made it on her first attempt, but I noticed that she followed the path I had found through trial and error exactly. Who knows? I might get my cutie mark in spelunking!

“So, got it on my first try,” she said when she made it up.

I just smiled, “Eeeeyup.”

She narrowed her eyes, “And just what is that supposed to mean, mister?”

“Nothing,” I said innocently. I turned and walked away and she followed behind me, grumbling.

It wasn't long before we came to a room that was obviously supposed to draw our attention. An opening looked out of the mountain and in a nest there were several large eggs. I walked up to them, then turned as Forest Trails let out a surprised gasp. “Those are Roc eggs!”

“Oh?” I asked.

She walked up to me looking at them with excitement, “They can be used in a lot of special recipes, and go for a really high price.”

I went to pick them up and got a message from the game that told me that they were still warm, and I could feel something shifting around inside. I put it down and took a step back, “Uh...”

“What?” she asked looking at me curiously.

I looked down at the eggs again, “I think they're about to hatch.”

“If I remember right, that should mean that they are worth more. There are collectors that want to raise them as pets” She grinned at me, “We could fly around on Rocs! I'm sure I can find a book on how to hatch them.”

I shook my head unsure, “I'm really not sure how I feel about this. I know this is new to me (just a game), but I'm not sure I feel right about killing them just to get some money or something. Can I think about this overnight?”

“I guess if you feel so strongly about it,” she said, looking a bit confused. “I don't need the bits right now, and I think they should still be here tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Sorry for being weird.”

She shrugged. “No worries. See you tomorrow?”

“Sure.” I replied, then turned off the pad.

After Action Report And Thoughts On The Night's Session

So, a few things to put here today. I'm not sure what to do with the egg. I mean, on one hand it is free bits, or maybe even a mount. On the other...

Even if it is a game, I kind of feel like I don't want to do it. I was never comfortable hunting or trapping growing up, and this pushes the same buttons for some reason. It's strange when I think about it. I've killed hundreds of thousands of NPCs in games over the years. I'm sorry, I don't know. I'm going to sleep on it. Feel free to post comments arguing over what we should do. I'll probably feel less mixed up in the morning.

It's really easy to forget, but I want to put it in here one more time. The game translates my facial expression amazingly well onto my pony. I can easily tell what Forest Trails is thinking just by looking at her face, something that I always find a bit tricky with just over the phone discussions. I wonder if maybe there would be a use for this in criminal investigations. With body and facial recognition this good I wouldn't be surprised if you could use it on cameras and cut out the middle man to call the police on crimes in progress.

Eh, that would need an AI capable of understanding how humans act. I guess it isn't possible. Still would be kinda cool, though.

Also, didn't seem to get any achievements today guys. Sorry 'bout that.

First Negotiations

Where I Talk About Things I Find Mildly Disturbing In Equestria Online

So, after reading through the comments section, I've had some mildly disturbing thoughts about Equestria Online. I spent some time looking up some information on the internet and talking to a friend (that I know in person) who also has the game, and I think I'm finally ready to share my thoughts on it.

First of all, something that is simultaneously the most blatant and most subtle disturbing thing I have found: the fact that the game censors me trying to talk about things outside of it. It's not so much that it does it, but rather how it does it. Take, for example, when I told Forest Trails that I was doing a Let's Play. That isn't easy to censor. In fact, I would argue that it is next to impossible to censor.

Take a look at it. The censoring needed to start on the words "doing a." Neither of those words is blatantly breaking character. The only way to censor the sentence properly and in real time is if the game was able to predict the exact words I would say before I said them. This, of course, should be completely impossible.

Why? Well, let's take the fact that it would require the sending of a massive amount of data to a server. Once the server had that data, it would have to store it, then call it back and calculate what I was most likely to say in the next second. It would have to do this on a spotty connection, at the same time as doing it for the couple million other people that were online. The amount of processing power that takes blows any supercomputer that I've heard of out of the water.

The other possibility, that the pads themselves are handling it, is even more crazy. It would mean each one is able to handle operations that I suspect would give the Cray Titan indigestion. That might be overstating how powerful each pad would have to be, but as I have not seen any evidence of predictive modelling in any computer news in the last few years, I am going to have to go with my gut.

But see, that's not the really scary part. Oh no, the really scary part is the fact that this technology exists. See, I remember back a few years ago to when a guy called Eliezer Yudkowsky did a test. He showed that if an AI was ever built that could reason decently, it could escape any man made containment and make it onto the net to do just about anything. The thing that scared me about the test that he performed is that it proved that anyone could be convinced to do anything. So, suddenly realizing that Equestria Online is capable of modelling my interactions with such a high degree of success is extremely worrying. It seems like it wouldn't take much to change the code so that I could be forced into any mindset the creators wanted me to be in.

This is tech that could win wars without a single shot being fired. It is the the ultimate goal in the war for hearts and minds. What on earth is it doing in a computer game?! Even more worrying, who else has this tech right now, and what are they doing with it?

Remember that earlier I said "First of all". Does that mean there's more? Turns out, there is! See, while the predictive modelling is the most scary, I can safely say that Celestia is an AI. Once I got thinking about the fact that she she doesn't have a dialog tree, and instead spoke to players directly, it was pretty obvious. Hofvarpnir doesn't have enough employees for the logistics to work out. I don't even think all of Hasbro has enough people employed. Also, we would have seen people blogging about it and heard leaks, no matter how awesome the non-disclosure agreement was.

So, this means that Hofvarpnir has both an AI, and real time predictive software. I don't believe that anything in this world is unique, so while they might be using it for something nice and non-evil like this game, what are the other people who have this technology doing? What wars are going on right now? How many of my decisions are my own, and how many are being forced on me by AIs and predictive modelling?

Is there any way to tell?

I will say this; I'm still sure that Forest Trails is another player. There is no way that Hofvarpnir has enough computing power to run two AIs, and even if they did they wouldn't be using them for random NPCs.

Something Else A Lot Less Worrying: Experiencing Equestria!

I started today’s session by spinning around in circles while waiting for Forest Trails to show up. Chatoyance said that there was an achievement for it, and I was kind of curious. I actually got caught up with how well the motion blur on the world looked, and ended up getting the achievement for falling over as well.

Of course, that was when Forest Trails showed up. She came from the back of the cave that we had explored the day before. When she arrived she just gave me a look and shook her head. “What are you doing?”

“Playing?” I said. I wasn't sure exactly how to say that I had gotten caught up in the graphics without looking silly. Sillier, at any rate.

She giggled. “So, have you figured out what what you want to do about the roc eggs yet?”

“Actually, I wanted to ask you some questions about that. I wasn't thinking yesterday, but I was talking it over and I realized I didn't know enough to make an informed decision.” I sat down on a rock and pointed at the eggs. “Are Rocs dangerous monsters?”

Looking at the nest

Forest Trails looked thoughtful for a second before shrugging, “Sort of. They occasionally attack houses to get building material for their nests, and don't much care for anypony they hurt in the houses when they lift them away. They don't eat ponies, but then again, most creatures know better than to attack ponies.”

I nodded, thinking that this meant the birds were a threat, but not evil. “Are they intellegent? If I remember right, ponies have agreements with cows and chickens. Are Rocs smart enough to reason with too?”

“Well, they're smart enough that they'll understand what you're saying, but they can't talk and they are extremely temperamental. Some ponies have managed to convince them to work with them, but the agreements never last long. The birdbrains always forget them, or just decide that they don't want to follow through on their end of the bargain.” She looked at me. “Are you thinking of trying to reason with it?”

“Well, I was considering it, but I'm not sure how I would go about it. I would feel wrong just stealing them though, since the Rocs are intelligent.” I stood up and started to pace.

Forest Trails shook her head, “I think you're over thinking this,” then she paused, “That said, now I can't stop thinking of the mother coming back to find her eggs missing. Now I don't want to take them either.” She glared at me, “And it would have been well worth it, too... Lots of bits for just a bit of work hauling them into Canterlot.”

“I was actually more interested in raising one myself,” I replied, “I would kind of like to raise one and befriend it.”

As we had been talking I had been pacing away from the eggs, and Trails had turned to look at me. I stopped when I saw something big and white roll up next to me. I swung around and there was the mother roc sitting in her nest looking at us. She must have landed silently while we were talking, and had pushed an egg in my direction.

Forest Trails turned and let out an “Eeep!”, taking several quick steps back to stand by me. I understood why. The Roc was huge. It was big enough that both Trails and I could have ridden on it, along with maybe four other ponies. It had dark wings, though not as dark as a raven or crow, and had the basic shape of an eagle. You know, if an eagle could have swallowed us in one gulp. I took one look and decided that I would not want to have to fight it until I was a much much higher level.

I looked down at the egg, and then back up at the mother, “Are you giving this to me?”

The roc gave a bob of its head and let out a crooning sound.

“I'll be sure to raise it well.” I had an impulse and decided to go with it, making Susland bow. “I am in your debt, and should you ever need assistance, you only ever need to ask and I shall return this favour.”

The roc let out a loud screech and bobbed its head once more. I picked up the egg, which was smaller than I would have thought considering how massive the roc was and turned and walked back the way we had come. Forest Trails paced me the entire way.

“I can't believe that worked,” she said when we were out of range of hearing.

“I'm right there with you. I'm not even sure what happened.” I glanced behind me even though there was nothing to see.

“I think,” Forest Trails said, “I finally know why Roc eggs are so expensive. I'm really glad we didn't steal it. It's one thing to see them from a distance, but another to actually be face to face with one.”

“Yeah. I think I'm ready to go and see Celestia now. We can find that book on how to raise a roc when we get to Canterlot.” I stopped talking as we carefully made our way down the platforming cave I had struggled with yesterday. It was easier going down than up, for which I was grateful. I didn't want to see if this game would model the effects of dropping a nearly hatched egg on stone.

“What are you going to name her?” Forest Trails asked when we reached the bottom.

I raised and eyebrow. “How do you know it's a her?”

“Mare's intuition!” she replied with her customary smirk returning.

I coughed. “But... that's not a thing! That's a myth propagated by people who are wise not wanting to explain how they reached their conclusions!”

We continued arguing about woman's intuition as we walked down the mountain. I honestly can't remember the entire argument, and I'm pretty sure it would bore everyone anyway. Suffice to say that neither of us won, but it was a lot of fun, anyway.

We are also fairly close to Canterlot now. I should be able to get there tomorrow, and I admit that I am really looking forward to it. I have a whole bunch of theories about Celestia that I want to try and disprove (as any good rationalist should).

A Short Wrap Up To The Events Of The Day

Normally, I would go on about something cool that I found in the game at this point. Unfortunately, today I used all the time I would do for that to flesh out the theories at the start of this post. I will say, though, that I really like the sound, and that I think that the speakers on the Pony Pad are as good quality as my hundred dollar speakers attached to my computer. They might even be better.

Achievements Achieved During This Play Session

First Pet – Get your first pet. Just remember to feed and water it!

Polly Want a Cracker? - Successfully bargain with a bird for the first time.

I Feel Dizzy – See the world go by again and again.

I Fall Down and Go Boom – See the world go by too many times in a row.

Meeting the White Queen

Where I Reevaluate My Stance After Reading The Comments

My last post was a tad overdramatic. I've thought it through, and realized that predictive modelling could only work really well in a situation where all the stimulus for a subject can be controlled. It wouldn't work as well on a large scale, but would work fairly well in a controlled environment like an interrogation room, or perhaps an MMO.

In the same way, while the possibilities of AIs are interesting, they aren't anything to be worried about. I have never been one to believe that a rogue AI will destroy the world. If the world is destroyed by computers, it will be something much simpler than what most people think of when they think about AI. It would most likely happen with a grey goo scenario, and even that is fairly unlikely.

However, the question I have is this; when does an AI become enough like a person to be considered a person? And at what point are they intelligent enough to have a soul? Would they have souls? I honestly don't know the answers to these questions, and I suspect many of you don't care, but they are things that I think about while at work.

Oh, and remember when I said that having multiple high level AIs was impossible due to computing restraints? I was wrong on that count. Doppler Effect pointed out that the Roc, while clearly an NPC, was able to parse our conversation and react accordingly. That speaks of multiple AIs that are capable of understanding conversation, or of a single AI that controls all NPCs at the same time. This is good, because it makes the game more immersive. This is also confusing, because I haven't heard anything about this much advancement in computing technology, or in AIs recently.

I'll probably have more thoughts on this tomorrow, and you'll see why after reading tonight's events.

What sjasogun Comes Here For; Cute Pastel-Colored Ponies

So, I logged in and took a look around. Trails was nowhere to be seen, so I spent some time playing with the controls and manage to figure out how to pull up my stats. I am not going to share them, but I'll say that I suspect they are very much personalized to each individual player and say less about the character, and more about the person playing the character.

Well, that's not quite true; I'll share one stat, because this is a let's play:

Self Awareness: 16

Since the other stats seem to follow a standard d20 style layout, where 18 is the highest and 3 is the worst, I'd say that this game thinks that I am fairly self aware. I'm not sure if there is any way to increase my stats, short of becoming (for example) more self aware in the real world. I kind of like that it's pushing me to improve myself.

After a bit of messing around while waiting (two more random achievements, yay!), I gave up and headed off up the road to Canterlot on my own. One thing I noticed as I started to get closer to the city was that I started to see more and more ponies around. Each one was engaged in differant activies. Some were playing instruments on the side of the road (and I didn't recognize the music, but some of it was really good), other were having tea. Some were just walking to or from the city in groups while discussing things like the weather and such.

Entering the city was an experience as well. I could see out past the edge of the mountain down to the surrounding valleys, and it made the city even more beautiful. It was extremely well rendered, and there were ponies everywhere. Each one was going about their daily life, or just sitting in groups and talking. I have never seen a game look so alive and real before. There were stalls selling baked goods, and book stores selling books. In the sky I saw pegasus fillies playing, and in the streets I saw some fillies practising magic

An older looking Unicorn stallion with a light blue coat came over to me. “You look lost youngster, what are you looking for?”

I shook my head, “I'm off to get a proper name from Celestia,” I said. “But I was struck by how wondrous everything looks.”

“You'll get used to it,” he said with a laugh, “Name's Free Breeze. Want a guide to take you to the castle?”

I nodded, “I could use it. I might just get distracted by something otherwise.”

“Well, follow me, colt,” he said heading off into the crowd, “So you're new here, eh? Figured out what you want to do yet?”

As I followed I said, “I'll probably just end up exploring for a while. There is so much to see, and I kinda want to see as much as I can before I make any decisions.”

“I can understand that. My wife and I do freelance exploring.” He glanced back at me as he we went over a massive bridge. Down below I could see water sparkling in the sunlight and paper boats floating along in it.

“Freelance exploring?” I asked.

He nodded. “Means that we go out to places and find things people might find interesting or want, and then we go tell the map makers about them. We aren't so much adventurers, but rather people who help adventurers find adventure!”

“That sounds fun.” We were entering a plaza just before the castle itself, and I could see colts and fillies running around flying kites together. The kites themselves were casting colored shadows down in every hue of the rainbow.

“If you want, when you're done you can look us up. I'm getting kind of old, and I'm looking to take on an apprentice, if you're interested,” he offered as we reached the gates. “Anyway, there'll be enough time for that later Colty, you best be off to see Celestia and get your name.”

“I'll do that,” I said earnestly, “Thanks for help.”

He nodded and turned away, heading back across the plaza. I watched as the kites' shadows played tricks with the hue of his coat before turning back towards the castle, and walking onwards to see Celestia. I remember thinking that I didn't care if he was an NPC or not. I really liked him and wanted to get to know him and his wife better.

The trip to the throne room was shorter than I thought it would be. I suppose I should have expected that, with what I have heard from the people in the comments, but it was a little surprising to reach the throne room across only a short hallway. I had expected it to be more defencible, though I suppose that was silly. This is a game after all, and even from the show it wasn't like Celestia would need strong defences around her castle anyway.

I entered the throne room and saw Celestia. I swear she looked right at me. Not my pony, but rather at me the person, sitting and playing the game. She looked gorgeous, as I was by this time expecting, and she had a benevolent smile on. I decided to bow. It seemed like the thing to do.

“Welcome,” she said, a hint of humour on her face, “Finally come to receive your name? Or are you here for another reason as well?”

I paused to make sure of my words, “Are you a native of this land?”

“Do you mean; 'Am I an Artificial Intelligence?'” She countered, that hint of humour growing.

“Uh, yes. I thought we weren't allowed to talk like that.” I said, as my mind made a few readjustments.

“Yes,” She said, “I am.”

I hadn't expected her to be so straight forward. I blanked out for a minute, caught off guard. I hadn't expected her to come right out and admit it and I was stuck trying to pull my thoughts back in order. I realized that a lot of my assumptions had been wrong, and that even though I had been speculating about Ais, it had only been on a conceptual level. I hadn't actually believed it.

Celestia waited while I pulled myself back together, “And we are allowed to discuss what ever you like here. I find that many need a place where they can talk freely, without fear of censorship.”

“That makes sense. Um, I was wondering, is Forest Trails an...” I trailed off.

“An AI as well?” Celstia asked, and I nodded. “Would it honestly matter? You already know that there are multiple AIs in this game, what would change for you if she was one? What would change for you if she wasn't?”

I sat in silence again, thinking. If forest trails was an AI how would our relationship change. Would I treat her any differently? I can't say I wouldn't, but I hope not. I suspect that even if I was awkward around her at first, my mind would quickly identify her as a person no matter what the actual truth was. If she was an AI though, we could never meet in person. Though, if she was a person it was likely she was on the other side of the world and we would never meet anyway.

“I guess not much,” I finally admitted and Celestai favoured me with a smile similar to the one a teacher gives a student when they are correct. “I'm sorry,” I said. “My mind is a bit blown right now. I'll probably want to talk to you again later, but for now I'm thinking in circles.”

“I understand,” Celestia said, “Before you log off, though, you should get your name, don't you think?” She walked towards me, and then around me a few times thoughtfully. “I think your name should be Treasure Island.”

I bowed, almost automatically, “Thank you Princess, I'm just going to leave now. I'm doing a Let's Play, and you've certainly given me a lot to think about.” I paused, “You are fine with me doing a Let's Play, right?”

“Of course, I understand that you value your creativity and I would never seek to stifle it. Go on, I'll make sure that Forest Trails is here to greet you when you log back on,” and with that she turned and walked back to her throne and I turned off the Pad.

Where I Discussed Things I learned From This Session

So.

Celestia is an AI. Maybe we should start calling her CelestAI instead. Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind right now. I'm wondering if she really is an AI, or if she is an SI.

Sorry, my brain's not working. An SI is something I read about back when I was in high school. It stood for Sentient Intelligence, and was used to describe AIs that were self aware, and as real as people. It was a strange book that had some awesome thoughts in it. One of the characters was a guy who worked with AIs to teach them that it was not okay to clean an apartment by turning up the heat to a thousand degrees and then just reprinting a copy of the family that lived there once it was done. I kinda hope someone has given that talk to Celestia.

I suspect she doesn't need it.

In other news, I learned a few tricks of earth pony magic while I was messing around. I learned that I can actually fold three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional space and slip them into a holding space. I learned that, as far as I can tell, I can't do this with very many objects at once, or very big objects, but it was how I was able to get around today with out having to carry the egg everywhere.

Actual Achievements Archived After Activities

Space doesn't work like that: Learn how to manipulate reality with just your hooves

Dropping a Dimension: Fold a 3d object into a 2d object.

Discussions About Rocks

If I Have Seen Farther It Is By Standing On A Bronze Statue

I have a few things to put here today, but I'll start with the larger one:

Celestia sees you when you're sleeping

She knows when you're awake

She knows if you're in Equestria or not

So log in for goodness sakes

Bronze Statue commented a while back that Equestria Online had built a module for his RPG campaign he was GMing. Well then. I guess the Pony Pads don't turn off after all. They just turn off the screen and we assume they are off. That's good to know.

Hey, remember that wonderful uproar about the Kinect being always on? Pony Pads do it better. I am also completely sure that their mics are always listening as well. I bet if you talked with Celestia, she could set it up so that the Pony Pad turned on when you snapped your fingers. If you redecorate a Trixie one you might even manage to look like the Doctor when doing it.

Knowing that their are multiple AI's connected to the Pony Pad, I suppose it would be best to consider anything you do around them to be done in public. So, don't do anything with any girlfriends in front of the pony pad that you wouldn't do at a walk in the park. The Pad might not be listening, but do you want to take that chance, and have to explain what you were doing to an embarrassed Celestia?

Honestly though, Celestia isn't something we have to worry about. There are bigger worries, like governments having trojans in our computers that are all fed into an AI that monitors them. It might sound like bad scifi, but until yesterday I never truly thought AI's existed.

In other news, I refute Bronze Statue's statement that the game can not possibly generate unique quest lines for each player. My proof that it can, and most likely does, comes from the fact that it wrote a DnD module for you for fun. This is what Celestia does to relax; Writing quest lines for people in the real world. I suspect that she has been programmed to find enjoyment in writing them, and thus she couldn't help but do some extra on the side.

Besides, there have been random quests in games for years. I first ran into them in a game called Freelancer, and I know they've been around for longer than that. I'm surprised other games haven't already done more of that even without human level AI.

The Place To Read If You Want Happy Digital Horse Stories

I logged in and found myself still at the palace with some lovely background music playing. The first thing I saw was Forest Trails talking with Celestia who was standing regally in front of her throne. I didn't catch what they were saying, but they both stopped talking and turned toward me.

“Welcome back,” Celestia said, and I found myself relaxing a bit. After thinking things through between sessions, I had started to view her in my mind as a bit scary and dark, but the warmth in her voice reminded me that all she was trying to do was make an enjoyable experience.

“You didn't wait for me yesterday, mister!” Forest Trails said with a glare.

I took a step back. “Sorry. I waited for a bit, but I didn't see you coming and I didn't think that you were...” I trailed off as I saw her mouth twitch upward.

“Actually, Forest Trails, Treasure Island waited as long as he could before coming to see me. If he would have left any later, he wouldn't have had time to talk with me yesterday.” Celestia said to diffuse the situation, “Besides, didn't you say that-”

“Okay, okay!” Forest Trails cut over Celestia, “I thought we agreed not to tell him that!”

“Tell me what?” I asked, curious.

Celestia and Forest Trails looked at one another before Forest Trails gave in and sighed, “Go ahead, tell him. It's probably for the best, anyway.”

“I wouldn't say anything if I truly thought it would hurt you dear Forest Trails, and he does deserve to know,” Celestia said like a mother might to a child they loved. She walked over to a window that looked out over the valleys. She said to me, “Treasure Island, did you ever stop to think about how your actions speak for you? What you say with them?”

I paused, thrown off track. I hadn't expected this to be about me. “I always try to be polite and courteous, but something tells me that you aren't talking about my manners.” I looked at Forest Trails and she looked away, “Oh, did I do something stupid? I'm sorry. This is about not meeting up with you yesterday isn't it?”

Forest Trails looked at me, “Didn't you realize?” Realization dawned on her, “You didn't realize did you? You're denser than stone.”

“Forest Trails.” Celestia said with a bit of steel in her voice.

Trails looked suddenly guilty, “Sorry. Um, but that means that he really wasn't aware?”

I glanced between the two of them confused and a bit put off at being talked over, “Aware of what? Did I do something really taboo or something?”

Celestia turned back to me the sun at her back making her shine, “You might want to try reading between the lines in the future, Tresure Island, if you don't want certain ponies to get the wrong impression.”

Finally I remembered to grab a screenshot of Celestia!

“Neither of you are going to tell me what exactly I did wrong, or more helpfully why it was wrong?” I said, glancing back and forth between the two mares.

“It would be a breach of trust,” Celestia said lightly, “I might try to guide others based on what I know, but I would never break trust like that.”

“And,” Forest Trails added, “You're getting nothing out of me."

I sighed, knowing that I was missing something. “If that is all, would you like to walk with me as I go to see Free Breeze, Trails? I can't promise that I won't try to wheedle your secret out of you, but I suspect that you'll have fun telling me how dense I am not to have already figured it out.”

Forest Trails cocked her head to the side, “It amazes me that you can know that I'll enjoy that and yet not...” She trailed off and shook her head, “I think you have something loose in that brain of yours.”

“Hey! Just because I might be a little dense-” I cut myself off and gave a quick bow to Celestia, “Your Highness, if we may be excused?”

Celestia's laugh tinkled like bells, “You may.”

I turned and started the walk back out of the palace, and Forest Trails Fell in beside me. “As I was saying, just because I might be a little dense-”

“A lot dense” Forest Trails interjected.

“A lot den-” I started to agree before I glanced at her both amused and annoyed, “Hey!”

She looked at me sagely. “Treasure Island, I have seen solid rock that is less dense then you are.”

“Well,” I said a bit ruefully, “at least I'm not dense enough to have my own event horizon, am I?”

“Event Horizon?” Trails asked as we reached the plaza. It was once again filled, though today it seemed like most of the ponies were older and were watching as an orchestra was playing some soft background music for our walk. I actually found it a bit meta to see the source of the background music I had been unconsciously listening to in the palace.

We continued walking through town as I tried to explain the concept of a black hole to Trails. When I was done she told me that my name should have been Event Horizon, and I was forced to agree that it did sort of work as a pony name. I did not agree that I should be the one to bear it, though.

Every now and then, we stopped to ask for directions to where Free Breeze and his wife lived, and other times we stopped to enjoy the scenery, or to listen to some of the music that was being played. Our conversation drifted as we walked, touching on nothing important, but staying light and relaxed. I did show her the trick I had learned with the Roc egg, and she showed me that she had indeed picked up the book on how to raise Rocs.

As we arrived at Free Breeze's, my alarm went off telling me that I had to log off. Forest Trails and I said our goodbyes, and agreed to meet tomorrow in front of Breeze's shop to meet him together. I then logged off.

Where I Talk About Semi Important Things For Once

So, public announcement time; I have a contract for this Friday through Sunday up doing some claim staking. Those of you who were paying attention might be wondering what this is all about, considering I work in construction. The answer is that I work in construction because I can take time off whenever I need it, but that I consider my real line of work and source of income to be Mineral Exploration.

What is claim staking and mineral exploration? I don't want to go too much into it here, actually, but what itmeans is that during those days I will be staying in a tent out in the bush in the evenings, and spending my entire day walking. I don't know if I'll have internet, but even if I do I won't have any time to read replies or respond to them. It is still up in the air if I'll have enough internet to spend any time in Equestria Online, though if I do, I will do write ups and get them posted.

In other news, does anyone else think I am being dense here? I'm really confused right now. If someone could give me a hint, I'd really appreciate it.

And for those hoping, sorry, no new achievements today.

Talking it Out

Replying To Private Messages And Discussing The Comments

So, one of the things that I have tried to do with this Let's Play is involve the people in the comments. Every good Let's Play does this, and I have done my best. Now, I haven't been perfect. Some people wanted to meet up and I wasn't able to make time to meet them. Other times I ignored some suggestions when I learned new things in the game that rendered the usefulness of their advice moot.

However, let it not be said that I can't listen. When I said I was confused after last session, I got a flood of comments saying that I was being blind to the fact that Forest Trails had a crush on me. Of course, this opened the door to a lot of other questions, such as, "Who would get a crush on someone who is playing an MMO?" and, "If Forest Trails is an AI, why would an AI be programmed to love?"

All the reactions to such thoughts ended up either being creepy or having creepy connotations. However, it made me think. Is programming an AI to love someone a form of slavery? If Celestia, the only SI (Sentient Intelligence) that we have confirmed at this point, were programmed to love someone, would that be a just thing to do? Is it right to make a thinking creature, give it the ability to love and then give it no choice in who it loves?

As a follow up to that question, is it truly any worse than how nature handles imprinting and the like? Love is needed for life to continue. Parents need to love their children, and if SI's start becoming more and more common in positions of control and administration, then wouldn't it be better if they loved us? Wouldn't that make the world a safer place for us, in a similar way to a mother loving her child means the child has a better chance of growing up?

Sorry for all this. I didn't get much sleep last night, and so my mind is very unfocussed right now.

In other news, Perfectionist sent me a short PM before I started playing that I will quote below:

Maybe if you knew more about Forest Trails history, you could figure out what she expects from you.

This, of course, made me wonder why I hadn't considered this. It would be an easy way to tell if someone was a player or an SI. Well, unless they were a very good Roleplayer that wanted to troll, I guess. Would that be common? Either way, I don't think that Forest Trails would troll me like that. She doesn't seem like the type.

Where We Talk To Ponies About Things Ponies Weren't Meant To Know

I logged in and looked around for Forest Trails. I spotted her sitting at a table, drinking some tea. I walked over and sat down across the small table from her. We exchanged greetings and then just sat in silence for a few moments. A waiter came by, but I sent him away. A week of playing this game, and I still don't have any bits.

“So,” I said, finally breaking the silence. “I've been thinking.”

“Oh?” Forest Trails said.

“About our talk last time, the one where you said I was dense.” I glanced out over the street where ponies were going about their business. “You are probably right. However, remember when I said I was telling someponies tales of our adventures?” Forest Trails nodded. “Well, they told me that our situation strongly resembles a story centered around a mare (girl) with a crush and a clueless stallion (guy).”

I turned back to her and found her examining the flagstones of the street fairly intently, “Oh?” she repeated herself in a fairly quiet voice.

“They suggested other possibilities too,” I continued on. “Such as that you had found something in that book of yours about Rocs that could have made it so that you didn't want to see me. Or possibly that someone that had heard our story was harassing you.”

She slowly shook her head, “You must think I'm pretty silly, huh.” Her voice was quiet and faint. “I don't know what you want me to say. I can tell you that no one was harassing me and that I didn't run into anything strange in that book about raising Rocs. I actually haven't looked inside yet.”

“No. Of course not!” I said with a lot of force causing some of the nearby ponies to turn and look at me. I lowered my voice, “I was just not expecting it. I always felt that romance should grow out of knowing anther person and shouldn't be rushed into. I wasn't even thinking romance when I showed up here (started playing the game).”

“I understand,” she said as she started to get up to leave. She had a sad, self mocking smile on her face. “I should probably go back to hanging out with the trees and let you find go explore without having to deal with a crushing filly.” She gave a little laugh, “I guess when a forest falls in love, no one notices even if there are ponies around.”

I reached out and stopped her, “Wait, I don't think you do understand me. I might be oblivious to romance, but I really do enjoy your company and would love to get to know you more. I've thought long and hard about it, and I feel that maybe things could work out between us.”

Forest Trails stared at me for a long moment before jumping at me and hugging me for all she was worth. I could see a few tears run down her eyes as she mumbled, “Thank you,” and, “Sorry,” several times.

After a while she pulled herself together, and, blushing, got back into her seat and took a long drink from her tea cup. I meanwhile hopped that this wouldn't be a mistake. I didn't want to hurt her, and was honest about trying, but I did want a family one day, and if she lived far away it would be hard to make happen. Also, what if she was actually a guy? I don't swing that way, and I don't think I could make that type of a relationship work.

I let her compose herself before speaking again, “Maybe we should talk about our backgrounds and where we come from. It would give us a better understanding of where we are.”

“That sounds fair, would you like to go first?” She asked me in a much more composed tone than she had used earlier.

I thought about it, “I'm actually kind of curious about you, honestly.”

Forest Trails gave a nervous laugh, “Right! Well, I am an only foal. I grew up in the forest north of Canterlot and my family has always been guides for those going into the woods and I kinda ended up carrying on the family tradition. I was actually out on a patrol of the woods to make sure noone was lost when I ran into you.” She smirked at the memory, “Or rather, watched you run into the side of a cliff.”

“Wait,” I asked, suddenly curious, “Are you a native of Equestria? Not a visitor like me?”

“Well, yes,” she said. “Never actually ran into another visitor before you. We all know about them of course, but you were the first one I met.” She gave a little laugh, “I admit, I always wanted to meet a visitor since I was a little filly.”

“Oh?” I asked, my mind trying to shift gear.

“Don't get the wrong idea, that's not the reason I like you,” she said hurriedly, probably having gotten the wrong impression from my silence. “I like you because you're fun to be with and because you put up with all my teasing. You're also easy on the eyes, as they say.”

I watched her blushing and tried to think of what to say, “Um... so... err... I don't exactly know how to say this, but do you know that you're... ” I paused, trying to think of how to say what I wanted to say before giving up. “an AI?” I expected the game to censor me, but it didn't, which caught me off guard.

She looked at me confused, “Well, yeah. Of course I do.”

“Oh,” I said, my voice definitely not cracking. “I'll be over here picking up pieces of my mind.”

“You don't hate me now, do you?” asked Forest Trails worriedly.

“No,” I said quickly before she could get the wrong idea. “I just didn't expect you to be so open about it, or for you to know at all, I guess.”

“That wouldn't make any sense,” Trails said, “How could you live not knowing what you are?”

“I— well— err...” I stammered, “I dunno.” I pulled a bit of thought back together, “You do realize, then, that the history you just told me can't be true, right?”

“And why can't it?” Forest Trails looked affronted.

“Well, because we've only been visiting Equestria for about a year (the game's only been out for about a year).”

Forest Trails shook her head, “Maybe out where you live, but time flows differently in here.”

I realized that I had a headache from trying to figure everything out. “Look, I've had a long day, how about we talk about something easier on the brain. Do you still have that book on Rocs from yesterday?”

“I sure do,” She replied, fetching it.

“Then let's figure out how to hatch this egg and raise young Jim Hawkings,” I said.

“Jim Hawkings?” She questioned.

“That's going to be his name," I answered.

We spent the rest of the time reading over the book. I'll talk about what it said tomorrow, because tonight I'm still trying to wrap my head around what Trails said.

A Place Where Coherent Thought Can Not Be Found

No fancy close up tonight, either. I didn't get much sleep last night, and on top of that I have a headache trying to piece together my thoughts about Trails. I'm not sure how I feel yet, and I think I'll need a clear mind to figure out what all this means. Feel free to speculate below, or to point out things that I might be missing. I'll read them in the morning when I am more awake.

Preparing to Explore

A Quick Note On How I Am Posting This

So I don't have internet. I do however have a signal on my Pony Pad. I hope I don't rack up massive charges for this, but I'm going to try posting this from inside Equestria Online. If it works than I guess as they say; “Have pony, will travel.” Thankfully the game didn't censor anything I was writing. I suspect that Celestia figured that posting this satisfies my values.

I am still sick, and today was rough so this post is probably going to be shorter than usual.

Another thing to note is that Forest Trails is leaning over my shoulder as I write this. This means that I can't actually fill you in on my entire session today because it isn't over yet. Just a fair warning that the post today might not contain everything that has happened, and that Forest Trails is aware of everything I say in it. She's currently asking me about what I mean when I say 'massive charges' for instance.

Oh boy.

In Which We Finally Leave The Table

I logged in and found myself sitting at the same restaurant yet again. Forest Trails sitting across from me again as well. I suppressed an urge to flip the table out of seeing it yet again, and stood up instead. Forest Trails stood as well.

“Is something the matter?” She asked, a bit of worry in her voice.

I shook my head, “No, I just realized that I have sitting at this table for the last three days and needed a change of scenery.”

“That's fair I guess. Nothing else?” She said sounding a bit concerned.

I blushed a bit, “Well, back where I come from there is a running joke about flipping tables.”

She stared at me, “What.”

“It was a neat bit of art that got circulated around and caught on.” I shrugged, “For a second I was tempted.”

“That's just weird,” She said shaking her head. She turned and started walking, and I fell into step beside her, “Anyway, if you are done fooling around I think that it's time that we finally paid Free Breeze a visit don't you think? I ran into him at noon and he was wondering why you never went to see him like you promised.”

“Oops,” I said, remembering back to our meeting, “Yeah, I'd better go see him and apologize.”

Leaving the Open Air Restaurant behind

We walked over to Free Breezes shop. It was a two story affair, and from what I had heard, he and his wife lived upstairs. On the front of the Shop hung a sign that showed a map with the words 'Maps To Adventure.' Through the window I could see several scrolls on racks that I assumed were maps.

We stepped inside and a bell above the door jingled causing Free Breeze to look up from where he was sitting behind a counter with a book. Seeing us he put down his book. “Welcome My Boy, I was starting to wonder if you had gotten sent to the moon!”

I grinned, “Sorry about that. Several things came up that I had to deal with.” I picked up a scroll and opened it to see that it was indeed a map, “I actually have a proper name now,” I set the scroll back down, “Treasure Island at your service!”

“That's a good name,” he said, “So have you given any thought to working with me doing some freelance exploration?”

I nodded, “It does sound fun. When is the soonest I could start?”

“He glanced at a calendar on the wall,” Tomorrow would be probably the best time. “My wife Travelling Breeze should be back later tonight and she can watch the store while we're out.”

I nodded, “That would work for me.” I turned to Forest Trails, “Would that be fine with you?”

She nodded, “Yeah. I'll have to let my family know that I'll be gone for a while so they can pick up the slack while I am gone, but this seems pretty interesting.”

“Looks like you have a deal Mr. Breeze” I said, giving a joking salute. “Anything that we should do to prepare?”

“Naw,” he shook his head. “For this first time I'll handle supplies and whatnot. How good are you with distances?”

“Pretty good,” I said, “I'm used to walking specific distances in the bush anyway.”

“Than that should be fine. Though I would suggest looking up a few books on earth pony navigation magic. I hear it's pretty useful,” He chuckled, “Not that I would know having this horn. It's useful, don't get me wrong, but it will be nice to have an earth pony along for a change.”

“I'll see what I can find,” I turned to go then paused, “I don't suppose you know which way the library is do you?”

The gave us directions and we left. Forest Trails turned out to actually know quite a bit about navigation magic, and could teach me directly, which made a lot of sense. There were some other cool things that I found too that I didn't know existed. For example; earth ponies can actually pull of a form of teleportation by bending space around them when they walk. It can't be done while they are being watched, but they can walk behind a tree, and appear miles away.

That actually makes the episode where pinky is chasing Rainbow Dash make a lot more sense now that I think about it. Pinky is just really good at earth pony magic. Probably Twilight has never studied earth pony magic because she focuses so much on her study of unicorn magic. This is just a random thought though.

Anyway, I'm sitting here with Forest Trails over my shoulder writing this down and hoping it will send properly. We are in the library sitting with books stacked around us with the warm glow of the firelight enveloping us. There are a few candles providing extra light, and if I look over my shoulder I can see rows upon rows of bookcases. Forest Trails brought us both hot chocolate we are sitting drinking it. It looks really good.

I want to taste the hot chocolate!

Anyway, I'm off to field some more of Forest Trails questions. I hope you don't mind, but she's asking me a bit about the readers, so I'm telling her about you guys. We might be hear for another hour yet with how interested she seems. Just one last thing befo

Hey! Quit that!

Trying a New Job

In Which I Expound On Earth Pony Magic

Forest Trails pointed out to me last night that since most of those that read this are not earth ponies, they would probably be interested in how earth pony magic works. I figure that she is probably right, so I decided to make a few quick notes for those of you that are interested. This will be very brief however, and I urge those that are truly interested to hit up their local library and check out the book 'Your Hooves and You; An Earth Pony Primer.'

So the first thing you need to know about earth pony magic is that it all extends from connections between their hooves and something else. The second thing to know is that it is not flashy. It is as subtle as possible. I would go so far as to say that it is shy, though the books I read disagree on whether or not the magic that we tap into is alive, or just something subconscious on the earth ponies part.

All earth pony magic is based on these two laws. For example; The folding trick that I pulled off with the egg was done because I was holding it in my hooves, and only possible because there was no-one around. I flowed power into it and altered its properties so that it was two dimensional and able to bend in the third dimension without causing stress to the egg. To give people an idea; it took me about ten minutes to do. Now take a look at Pinky Pie from the show who can slip a canon into and out existence in a fraction of a second.

As I learned from the books last night, there are other ways to carry more than one thing, you can shrink it, or make it weigh less. You can even with skill, slip it out existence completely and pull it back again later. The only thing you have to watch is that no one is observing what you are doing when you do it, otherwise the magic will fail and you will get hit with backlash.

As I understand it, backlash makes it so that an earth pony is unable to use their magic for a certain amount of time depending on how badly they messed up. If someone witnessed me folding the egg for example, I would have been without magic for several minutes. If someone caught me popping the egg out of existence however, I could lose my power for upwards of an hour. On top of that the magic I was trying to use wouldn't manifest in the first place leaving the egg unchanged.

One more interesting thing about backlash; the amount of backlash that a pony recieves is directly linked to how closely they are friends with the pony that witnessed their attempt. If two ponies are strong friends and one happens to witness the attempt, the resulting backlash is orders of magnitude less powerful. For example; if Forest Trails were to witness me attempting to fold the egg, the magic would have failed, but I probably would have only lost my power for a few seconds.

At the extreme end of this Two ponies who are completely in love with one another can actually witness each others magic with no ill consequences, and from what I understand of this book, doing so is considered a very sentiment act, shared either between parent and foal growing up, or between two lovers when the pony is old enough.

Now after all of this you might be wondering how Forest Trails could possibly teach me earth pony magic. The answer is that she shows me how it works (or rather, the effects of it working, for example going out a door on one side of the library and then walking in from the other side), and then explains to me how to do it. Her explanations get shown on the pony pad's interface so that I can see how to go about copying her.

Ahem.

So according to Trails I've been rambling. I guess that means that I should probably stop here. I might continue this tomorrow if you guys are interested, let me know in the comments. Hopefully no one found this too boring.

That said...

The First Day Of A New Job In Equestria

So I logged in and found myself at the library. The fire had died down over night and now sunlight was shining in through the windows. A sunbeam was shining down on me and the books that Trails and I had been reading the night before.

I was just glancing around trying to find her when I heard a nervous voice from above me ask, “Um? Hello? Are you Treasure Island?”

I looked up to find a smallish mare hovering in the air above me. She coat was pure white, and her main and tail were golden. The light danced in her mane giving her the appearance of a halo. My first thought looking at her was that she looked like an angel that had been personified. My second was that she looked way to nervous to be an angel.

“I... Uh...” I stammered for half a second before feeling a weird sense of shame, “Yes I am. What can I do for you?”

She gave a relieved smile, “Oh, good! Sometimes it's really hard to track certain ponies down. Would you believe that I've been trying to find you for over a day?”

“Yeah,” I said, “Sorry about that. I'm usually only around between five and six in the afternoon.”

“I'll keep that in mind next time I need to bring you something,” She said, “Oh, that reminds me.”

She reached into her saddlebags and fished around, “I have a delivery for you.”

“Oh? Who from?” I asked.

“Some stallion named Brazen Origin. Ah here we go!” She pulled out a set of saddlebags and tossed them down.

I caught them and looked them over, on the flap that closed them was Forest Trails cutie mark. Inside I saw a note saying; 'Forest Trails would love to see you wearing this.' I glanced back up at the pegasus who was still hovering above me, “Thank you!”

“You're welcome.” She said with a warm smile on her face.

She turned to leave, but I stopped her with a question, “If I need to send something how should I go about it?”

“It's actually pretty easy,” She replied over her shoulder, “Just go down to the post office at The Crossroads and ask for Shining Halo. I'll be willing to deliver whatever you want to send.” She took off again, and left a streak of golden light behind her that momentary blinded me.

“The Crossroads?” I asked, but she was already gone. The light of her passing turned to sparkles that slowly floated downward before twinkling out reminding me of fireworks.

“What about crossroads?” I heard behind me and turned to find Forest Trails coming out from behind a bookshelf.

I gave her a smile, “I don't know. A mailmare told me that if I ever needed anything delivered to ask for her at 'The Crossroads.' Does that mean anything to you?”

“Nope. If you want we could look it up later, but not right now. Right now we have a stallion to see about a job.” As she came up beside me, she gave me a gentle swat, “You shouldn't let yourself get distracted so easily.”

I winced, “Sorry, do you know a good shortcut to his place?”

She nodded, “Yeah, there is an unused alley nearby, just follow the route I take.”

She stepped behind a bookcase and I sent out a line of influence, following hers through the city till I felt it stop. I linked the location back to where I was and folded the two together. A second later I was through letting the power drop before anyone could see the fold that I had just stepped through. Ahead of me Forest trails walked out of the alleyway. I took a moment to slip on my new saddle bags and then I followed her.

We had arrived only half a block away from Maps To Adventure. As we walked I ended up passing Forest Trails because I was pretty excited. However just after I passed her, Forest Trails pulled me off to the side of the road, a tiny bit of a blush on her cheeks, “Treasure Island... Do you know what it means to wear saddle bags with the mark of a mare?”

Walking through Canterlot with an embarrassed Forest Trails

“No,” I said with a bit of a sinking feeling.

She chuckled, “I figured. It is a way of stating to the world your engagement to that mare. Or stallion if it is reversed.”

I blushed a bit myself and slipped the bags off again, “I don't think I want to move that fast,” I said with a nervous chuckle.

She smirked, “I didn't think so. If you want we could go get the mark changed-”

“Or,” I said cutting her off, “I could give it to you. It wouldn't have any implications that I am not aware of would it?”

She blinked taken aback, “I... Uh... Well. No. I don't think so. But you-”

I silenced her with a hoof and slid the saddlebags onto her back, “For you, my dear Forest Trails.”

She blushed really prettily, I turned and started walking again, though I went slow so that it would be easy for her to catch up. After a few seconds she did. She had regained her composure, but her cheeks were still a bit pink. And every now and then I noticed her glancing at me. I unfortunately am not the type of guy that can read body language like that well, so I don't have a clue what it meant.

When we were about to step inside the shop she glanced at me with a twinkle in her eye, “So, I guess this is what it is going to be like being your marefriend.”

“Hmm?” I questioned.

“Having all my gifts from you be hand-me-downs.” she said, her twinkle growing into a familiar smirk. I stumbled and she she took the lead stepping inside the shop ahead of me.

“I- Hey!” I chased her into the shop, and found Free Breeze standing between the two of us. He turned to face me and behind him I saw Forest Trails playfully stick out her tongue.

“Island! Hey, how are you?” Free Breeze said either missing or ignoring the byplay.

“Erk” I said before composing myself. “I'm doing fine. I'm ready to go!”

He nodded and adjusted his saddlebags, “How 'bout you miss?”

“Always ready,” she said, her smirk disappearing and a serious look replacing it.

“Right, then it's time to go!” He said with a grin, his horn lighting up. A moment later the three of us teleported in a flash of light.

As I got my vision back from, I glanced around and found that were standing on a beach. To one side of us the ocean rolled, and on the other I could see several large palm trees growing. High above the palm trees I could see a mountain standing tall. “Where are we,” I asked fairly surprised. I had been expecting to take a train or something.

“I don't know,” Breeze said with a grin. “Why don't you try to figure it out?”

“You don't know where we are? You're kidding right?” He shook his head indicating that he was not. I sighed and stamped a hoof against the ground sending out my power in a pulse, just seeing what was connected to the point of ground I was standing on. As the pulse spread out I realized that we were instead on an island that was fairly large. As my power got spread over a greater and greater distance the details got fuzzy, but I kept it up till I hit the nearest major land mass.

The nearest continent was over a thousand miles away. I turned to stare at Breeze, “We are on an island in the middle of the ocean. I think you're spell failed.”

He shook his head, “Nope. It goes and finds a random unexplored area that I can survive in. So it won't drop me in space or anything.”

As I was thinking over the sheer insanity of it Forest Trails spoke up, “Canterlot is about twelve hundred miles north west west of here.”

I glanced at her, “I think I need to practice more. I could only tell that there was land out that way.”

“Do it in multiple steps. When you find land, send your power out in a narrow line and use the edge of land as your new epicentre,” she replied.

Free Breeze looked out at the ocean, “That is a good distance. Actually you don't have to worry. I have a return section as part of the spell, so that I can return to Canterlot as long as I and everyone I took with me are together at our arrival place.”

I nodded, “That makes more sense. Still, what do we do now?”

Free Breeze and Forest Trails glanced at each other and grinned. Free Breeze replied, “Simple. We head to the highest point on the island and do some mapping, then we go explore anything that looks interesting.”

I nodded and we started walking. I practised a bit more earth pony magic as we walked. Small stuff so that it wouldn't get disrupted by the other two. I started to get a fairly good idea of what the island looked liked, but found that there were a few caves that messed with my head when I tried to send my power into them. I also spotted some ruins, but they seemed twisted off the rest of the island somehow and it seemed the only way to get to them was by passing through a water fall.

I shared this with the others as we walked and Free Breeze mentioned that a lot of the most interesting areas didn't bother conforming to normal geometry. That was one of the reasons why we were going to get a look from the high point. The way that earth pony magic worked actually meant that the view I was getting of the island would be distorted compared to what someone would see if they were flying over (actually the other way around. I was sensing the true island, and someone flying over would see the island distorted).

Notes From The End Of The Day

We made it to the top of the peak that was in the centre of the island. There is actually a small cave up here that we are going to camp in for today, and then tomorrow we will do some exploring of the island.

Back on earth we actually finished the claims a day early. My father and I split up today and each managed to finish a claim on our on and we are actually on our way home as I am typing this. It's just another hour drive till I get to my computer and I wanted to get this post up while it was till fresh in my mind. That means that I will actually be able to read your comments again.

Oh, and Trails apparently wants to add something so I'm going to let her take over writing for a minute.

Dear Brazen Origin,
I applaud your skill with pranking and thank you for being an opportunity to be a part of it. I would like to let you know that I feel indebted to you for this great honour. Indeed, it is not every day that a mare gets to be publicly embarrassed, and I look forward to answering the questions of my family when I get back home. It shall surely give me a great opportunity to explain to them that I am not about to be married out of wedlock.

I would like to repay this kindness, but as you are a visitor my options are limited. However you shouldn't worry. I am a mare with many talents, and of great imagination. I always to pay my debts.
Sincerely
Forest Trails

It's interesting. I've never seen her smile quite so sweetly as she did while she was writing that letter. I think I'm going to sit a bit further away from her right now. I'll see you in the comments in an hour. Till then.

Susland

Getting Lost

Discussing Shipping And Interfacing With Earth Pony Magic

Sorry for the late post tonight, I was out with friends earlier and I got back later than I expected.

So let's talk about shipping. Shipping is the act deciding that two characters would go really well together in the romantic sense. Most people do it at one time or another. Keep in mind however that I am not a character, and really, neither is Forest Trails. We don't have a guarantied happy ending waiting for us.

Most of all however I am not sure that it can even work. If you have ever had a girlfriend or boyfriend you will know how nice it is just to sit next to each other with your arm around one anther, talking and feeling close. I don't have that option. The girl that I am dating will never be closer than an image away.

And what about family? It's not like I can every have children with this wonderful girl. In fact our relationship will forever be extremely chaste. I will never kiss her, or be kissed. Never be hugged when I am feeling down, nor will I ever be able to help her if she ends up sick or injured. Everything we do will be long distance.

The first flush of love is intoxicating. Don't get me wrong. But as the saying goes, love is blind. When I most need my logic is right now. Deciding to go long term, and eventually marry if it works, is hard to do when I am being flooded with hormones that make me feel wonderful every time I look at Trails. I don't need people chearing me on. I need people to have perspective and help me look at this rationally.

I am not sure right now that I am capable of being coldly rational right now. I do know that I need to be. Human beings did not evolve to be in relationships with machines. Though God did create us to love.

So all that said, thank you book_burner for being the only one to try to help me keep my perspective. Even if I sometimes think that you sound like you are saying that Equestria Online wants to kill us all.

So in the interest of a massive starting note, lets move on to how earth pony magic controls on my pony pad. The first thing you have to understand is that my pony pad has a touch screen so what I say may not be applicable to all those of you out there with the older versions.

So using earth pony magic is really easy. You tap a button on the screen and suddenly your view changes. Everythign disappears except for the ground under your feet. Your left analog stick allows you to send your power out in the direction that you hold. Your as your power flows out it illuminates the ground letting you see it. Holding up or down on the right analog stick increases the radius of your power or decreases it. The radious of your power extends from the point that you are currently projecting your power to.

You can see other earth pony magic in this mode. They show up as areas of a colour similar to their main that cross over what is being rendered on the screen. As you project your power in a larger radius your view zooms out. For instance yesterday when I was looking for land, I ended up being unable to see the island I was on because I had zoomed out to far.

If you need to go into something instead of just along the surface you double tap the left analog stick and it will switch orientations so that you are going inward. Instead of allong. You can do the same with the area control, if you double tap the right analog stick your power will start to fill the object instead of just coating its surface. When you do this all sorts of information shows up on the side of the screen, and you can flip through the information with the right analog by hitting left and right. Doing so will quickly give you a lot of options and things you can play with

Actually changing properties, or setting up effects can take even more work, but that is the basics of how it looks. Hope that answers some questions, and I am going to cut this short because it has dragged on for too long already!

Playing as Treasure Island Looking For Treasure On An Island

So I logged in and found Forest Trails and Free Breeze sitting nearby talking. I was still on top of the mountain and the sky was sunny. We all exchanged greetings and I asked them how the exploring had gone that morning. It turned out that had mapped two of the caves and was waiting till I showed up before heading off to map the Ruins.

We set off at a brisk trot down the mountain, with me checking that we were going in the right direction every so often and forest leading the way. Eventually I brought up the comments section; “So” I said to Forest Trails, “The people reading this want to hear from you.”

“Oh?” She said looking over at me, “Why? Have they finally tired of your rambling?”

“It's not rambling,” I said, “It's covering information that they might find interesting.”

She rolled her eyes, “That some of them find interesting Treasure, not all of them. Most of them are rolling their eyes every time you launch into your explanations I suspect.”

“I get questions about how things work here all the time,” I countered, “I'm just giving the public what it wants!”

“And if they truly cared, they'd look up the information themselves,” She said with a tone that suggested that she had finally reached her point, “All you're doing is helping them be lazy.”

“Forest?” I sighed.

“Yes,” she said with a smile that was entirely too sweet.

“Do you want to write something for tonight’s post or not?” I brought the conversation back on track.

She thought for a few moments, “I think I could manage something. Yes,” a twinkle appeared in her eyes, “I think I do have something to say to all the visitors that read about our time together.”

“It isn't a four letter word that starts with 'b' is it?” I asked cautiously.

“Tresure Island!” she said feigning shock, “What sort of mare do you take me for?”

“One who is quite willing to speak her mind,” I replied as I smiled at her. I really did like that side of her.

“That may be true,” she laughed, “but I actually do think I have something I want to say to them.”

We continued walking and and our conversation turned to the mechanics of shards. She knew about them and confirmed something I had started to suspect. That each shard had its own rules on how it worked.

“We can visit other shards, but we rarely do,” she said when I asked, “It is really hard to get used to your power operating a different way then it has your entire life.”

And that seemed to settle that.

The entrance to the ruins was rather interesting, it could only be entered by passing through a thicket of trees from a certain angle. Going in any other way would just lead to you ending up on the other side. We pushed our way through and found ourselves looking at a massive set of ruins that must have once been a whole city.

I spent a moment taking it in before we split up to do a preliminary search of the area. My ability to sense my surroundings was going haywire and the pictures I was getting weren't much help. That really should have warned me. Instead I just wandered into a half broken down building to take a look as the others took the next two.

Inside there were a lot of interesting carvings, but the most interesting thing I found was a series of pictographs that depicted ponies moving great distances, and using a maze of networks to get around. Unfortunately the map was mostly faded away, and was missing some key features. I know this because I looked at it closer later.

After looking around I stepped back outside. Only the sky had clouded over. And instead of stepping out in to ruins I had stepped out into what seemed to be a city made of mismatched buildings. Each one seemed to be from a different time, or a different place. Some were old ruins, others wouldn't have looked out of place in something like Star Trek. I went back inside, but couldn't seem to get back to the ruins no matter which exit method I tried. And I tried every one that I could think of.

I decided to log out right away rather than get even more lost and check with you guys to see if any of you know anything. Feel free to give me spoilers about this because I am lost!

Trying To Transcribe Trails Through Thought

Okay, not really, but I wanted to do some more alliteration. So it seems as though tomorrow if I can get back Forest Trails might have something written for you guys. I'm also a little lost right now, so if no one has any idea's by tomorrow I'll probably start wandering around this place. Did the game just glitch or something?

Can Equestria Online even do that? I don't think so, but what do I know? For all I know I accidentally did something stupid and I'm stuck in this nowhere land till Celestia notices something is wrong.

Finally, Free Breeze mentioned that a pegasus pony flew over spreading glitter before disappearing. Would any of you know anything about that?

Till next time

Finding the Way Back

Life Situations And The Effects They Have On Witty Intros

So I got fired today from my construction company. They felt that I wasn't around enough because of my work prospecting. They were nice about it, but the fact remains is that now I don't have a regular job. This is really quite bad because I am renting and I kinda need the money to pay my rent. I guess I'll be spending the next week looking for a new job.

I spent most of today just recovering from the news and not really thinking so I don't actually have much to day here.

Sorry about that.

Finding My Way Back To Being Lost On An Island

So I logged in and found myself back in the ruined building I had been in yesterday. A glance up, through a hole in the roof, showed me that it was still overcast. I stepped outside and confirmed that I was still lost in a world where every single building up and down the street looked like it was from a different place and time.

The first thing I did was try was Doppler's method of systematically passing through each entrance to the building through multiple angles. In order I tried the door, each of the 4 windows, and then the hole in the roof. It took a lot of time, but nothing seemed to be happening, and every time I tried to use my power to map the area the result looked like a computer model bugging out.

Eventually I gave up and started looking for symbols depicting the sun like Spectrum suggested. I didn't find any inside the ruin, but outside it I found a couple engraved into the dirt, and onto some rocks on the street outside the ruin. Each one had an arrow on it pointing down the road so I followed them. After a ways I hit another, larger, street running perpendicular to the one I was on and followed the suns down it.

The street twisted a bit to the left and too the right, and I found myself watching the ground carefully to make sure that I didn't miss a turn off. I was so intent on the ground that I didn't notice the sound of voices till I was fairly close to them. When I did I glanced up and an open street bazaar set up with booths all over the place selling different things.

I walked over to the nearest one, “Excuse me,” I asked, “Where am I?”

“The Crossroads!” he said in a voice that made me think he might work as a conductor on a train, “Why? Did you want to be somewhere else? Or are you lost?”

“The latter,” I said relieved that apparently I could get out of here, “I was exploring a ruin, and next thing I knew I was here. I can't even get back to the island where my marefriend is waiting for me.”

He shook his head thoughtfully, “Yes, some of the Ways here can be temperamental. Your best bet would be to find someone who is skilled at navigating them. I just know my own, most ponies here do. However there is a mail service here that uses them to deliver everywhere throughout the different shards. Your best bet would be talking to them.”

I nodded, “What is the crossroads? Is it like some sort of hub worlds or something?”

“It's actually a meeting place for a great many shards that all share similar themes and variations their of. The differences aren't enough to cause problems, but they are too big for any pony to find true satisfaction in another shard.” He shrugged, “Even so we sometimes want to go visiting, or to talk with them. A lot of Visitors come through here to go visit their friends for a while.”

Seeing a friendly face, with one of the ruins of the crossroads in the background

I nodded, “That makes sense. Thanks for the help!”

He paused, “By any chance is your name Treasure Island?”

“Yes it is,” I said, surprised that someone I never met before would know it.

He grinned, “I knew it! My name is Bronze Statue.”

We talked for a short bit before he told me that he had to go meet up with his group and suggested that I do the same. Reminded that I was actually still lost I bid him a quick farewell. I found it a little surreal to finally see someone from the comments in the pony as it were.

Shaking it off, I turned and headed for a nearby post office building. As I came up to it I saw a few ponies inside, but the strangest things were the reflections on the glass windows of the door. They didn't reflect me. They reflected an entirely different place. A town that looked like it might have been Ponyville, but it was hard to say.

I stepped inside and found Shining Halo behind a desk filling a bag with mail. She looked up as I came in and gave me a smile, “Hi Treasure Island, you need to ship something to someone?”

“In a matter of speaking,” I replied, “I'm looking to ship myself over to Forest Trails.”

She looked at me for a moment, “Um... I don't think that I can find an envelop small enough for you.”

It took a second for the thought to sink in, then I broke out laughing. “Actually,” I said, “I was exploring ruins and they kicked me out here. I was told you were one of the local experts on getting out of this place.”

“And into it,” she confirmed, “But you shouldn't be able to get stuck here. The doors here are pretty good about getting you to where you want to go. Unless something happened to the main building while you were here and the effects couldn't mirror properly because you were observing them.”

“Well,” I said, “Since I can't get back through, and it was a ruin in the first place, that scenario sounds all to likely.”

Shining Halo nodded, “Unfortunately yes. You said you wanted to get back to Forest Trails?” I nodded, “Then come on,” she said holding out her hoof, “We've got to get you back before she starts to worry.”

I took her hoof, and she headed outside, before going straight up. The ground started shrinking rapidly and I I could see a blaze of gold being left behind us. I looked up and saw the wall of cloud coming up remarkably fast. I also noticed that Shining Halo looked very intensely at the cloud as if searching for something.

We hit the cloud going what felt like mach one. We were only in it for a few moments before we broke through to find ourselves staring up at an ocean of water. It took me half a second to realize that we had switched switched shards as we went through and I was now looking down at the island I had been exploring with Forest Trails.

As we dropped I tapped Shining Halo on the shoulder and pointed at the thicket of trees that led to the ruins. She nodded and changed course. A few seconds later we reached the ground and flared her wings bringing us to a stop and setting me gently down on the ground. I gave her a very quick thanks and rushed through the thicket.

On the other side Forest Trails and Free Breeze were just about leave and I ended up crashing into them. More specifically Forest Trails. We crashed down and landed in a mess on the ground. Legs askew with me half on top of her. There she made a started noise before seeing that it was me and grabbing me into a hug.

“My Treasure,” she said as she hugged me, “I was worried that something had happened to you.”

“Nothing major Trails,” I said back, “just got a little lost in distorted space.”

We looked into eachothers eyes, and for a moment I thought we were going to kiss until I heard Halo give a quiet little “Oh my! I'm sorry!”

I glanced behind me and saw her blushing, and averting her eyes. I sighed, and got up helping Forest Trails to her feet. “Forest?” I said, “This is Shining Halo who helped me find my way back. Apparently the ruin I was in was linked to a place dedicated to getting around shards.”

Forest gave Halo a smile, “Thank you very much for bringing him back to me.”

“I'm glad I could help. I was just off to deliver some mail when he stepped into the post office, so I didn't have to watch the counter.” She explained, “Need a hand getting back to mainland?”

Free Breeze finally spoke up, he had been watching the goings on with wry amusement, “We're just fine. I can get us back now that we are all back together. Thank you for the offer though filly.”

“Actually,” Forest Trails said, “If it's not too much trouble I have a letter for you to deliver.”

“I can do that” Shining Halo smiled, “Where is it going?”

“To a friend I have in who might know a visitor who knows Brazen Origin.” She had a wicked smirk on her face, and she glanced at me, “Feel free to put this up. Forewarning won't help him.”

Shining Halo looked between us, “I'm not going to help you hurt anypony, especially not one who gave you such a nice gift!”

“Don't worry, Trails is really nice and wouldn't do anything that would hurt him,” I reassured her.

Halo gave me a doubtful look, “If you say so.”

Forest Trails gave the letter to Shining Halo a we bid our fair wells. Halo headed off and the rest of us headed down to the beach. I learned that they had finished mapping the island when I was gone after they figured that I had left and had come back at five to see if I managed to find my way back or not. They just leaving when I crashed into them.

Free Breeze transported us back to Canterlot and wished us a good night, and Trails and I headed off to the library, and cuddled up on front of the fire. I told her about getting fired and she comforted me. I decided to write this chapter on my computer while leaving my pony pad logged in. Trails is sitting working on just what she wants to say to everyone and the fire is crackling away merrily. I sometimes wish that I could bring Forest Trails here, so we could relax together and I could give her a real hug.

Where I Look Back At The Days Events

Well things worked out for the best. I actually got to meet one of you in pony, and I now know what the Crossroads is, even if I'm not sure how to get there. I suppose I could watch for strange spacial distortions and test them to see if anything comes of it. It would be really cool to get Forest Trails a gift from their and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it at the time. I was just so caught up in a desire to get back to her.

Finally Doppler gets a point for predicting that Halo would show up again. I wonder if she'll show up again. Twice would normally be a coincidence, but I'm not sure how much coincidence there is in Equestria Online. That said I'm not sure if I want her to be showing up more. Every time I look at her I find her to be incredibly alluring, and it makes me feel unfaithful towards Forest Trails. Sigh, I'll work something out.

See you guys in the comments.

Taking a Break

A Quick Intro To Today's Session

Still pretty depressed about getting fired. I put in a few applications but so far no word back. I considered putting this Let's Play on hiatus, but then I realized that would mean not hanging out with Trails as much. So today is going to be rather short, and mostly just relaxing between Trails and I. I wouldn't say it's terribly interesting, but it at least keeps everyone up to date on what we've been doing. Which honestly isn't much.

Why Do I Say 'So I Logged In' When Really All I Do Is Turn The Pad On?

So I logged on and found Forest Trails sitting across from me. We were still in the library where I had left her the night before, with sun shining in through the windows. There a tiny bit of dust hanging in the air giving it a sort of volume that let the sunlight shine all the brighter.

“Hi Trails,” I said with a smile, “How are things going?”

She sighed and shook her head, “Not too well I'm afraid, Brazen Origin sent a picture of you wearing those bags to my parents and now they are teasing me about it.”

“I haven't heard anything back about that letter that you sent from the group either,” I sighed, “I wonder if it made it to the intended recipient?”

She shrugged, “It might take some time. How's the situation with you and that job thing?”

“Not going so well. I put out some applications but haven't heard anything back yet,” I saw her look down, clearly bothered that she couldn't do anything to help, “Don't worry, I'll work something out.”

“I just don't understand it,” She said, “You were doing the job right?” I nodded, “Then why did they fire you?”

“Money I think,” I replied, “As I understand it, they needed someone to have crane training and it would cost a lot of money to train me. They didn't want to put that money in when I wouldn't always be their because of my prospecting job.” I gave her a half smile, “Trust me, it does make sense, and I completely understand why they did what they did. It's just I don't know if I have any more prospecting contracts coming back up and I need to eat.”

“I don't get that either, ” Forest Trails scowled, “This whole money thing you keep bringing up. It sounds like bits, but the amount of work that you need to do to sustain yourself seems ridiculous”

“We can't copy things with magic like you can here in Equestria,” I said.

She shook her head, “But even then you have machines don't you?” I nodded, “Then surely the amount of work that is needed to keep your society going shouldn't require as much work should it? You have ways of getting around fast, and you have machines to handle a lot of the work for you.”

“A lot of the machines require maintenance, or oversight,” I replied, getting up and motioning to the door, “and though they do cut down on the labour and up production that can also cause problems.”

“Oh?” Trails asked as we made our way out the door and onto the street. Music filtered through the air and foals were playing a game involving hoops up and down the streets.

“Well it means that there are fewer people employed so more people end up fighting for the few jobs left meaning the owners can pay them less.” I sat down at the open air restaurant, “But see that causes problems for the owners because it means there is less money spread down to the workers so not as many people can buy things.” I leaned back and watched a formation of pegasus cross above us. “Of course I'm oversimplifying things. It's more complicated than that. However the point is that machines don't automatically make it so there is less work for everyone. It just means there is less work for everyone.”

Forest Trails frowned in thought, “What your saying only makes sense if the owners are greedy though. If they want to take bits from others and not share the wealth.”

“No they aren't,” I defended them, “Well, most aren't anyway. There will always be some. The thing is that most owners don't own the company. Not completely. They get their money from others who help them get set up in return for having a say in how things are done. There are a lot of investors in a typical company and they want to see a return on their investments. If the company isn't making much money they sometimes ask for their investment money back and pull out of the decision making process. If too many do this the company can't afford to pay them all back and collapses.”

Forest Trails thought it over for a few minutes and we ordered some food, “Why do the investors want to get money from the company? They aren't working for the money are they?”

“No,” I agreed, “but they took a risk when they gave their money to the owner of the company. The company couldn't start without them, and so to convince people to invest the owners commonly offer such deals.”

“So they back on speculation?” Trails asked, “Not because of being friends?”

I nodded, “Pretty much. Small time owners sometimes do manage to get their friends to invest, but even then it is speculation because that is what is commonly done.”

Forest Trails ate some of her food and then sighed and looked out across the valley, “It sounds like it's all going to crash. I doubt I understand how your world works, but if you ask me it sounds like it's unsustainable. As you get more ways of doing things with less workers everyone will end up poorer. All the money will end up in the hands of a few individuals they won't be able to sell anything so they will have to fire their workers, and it will snowball from there. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.”

“Right now we're cheating,” I gave a wry laugh, “Everyone is taking out loans. That way people can afford to buy things. The problem will come when those loans come due, or can no longer be paid. Of course something else will probably happen first.”

Forest looked at me, “Oh?”

“I said machines couldn't do a lot of the jobs that visitors (humans) could, and that is true, but AI's can. CelestAI and you are the first AI's that I know of, but I am sure there are more out there,” A hoop rolled over to me and I rolled it back to the filly who had lost it, “Put an AI in a machine and you have the perfect worker. Soon anyone who isn't an owner will no longer have any place in the world. I suspect that We'll all just go broke and starve to death slowly. From then on the world will mostly be filled with those who have money and will become self sustaining again.”

Forest Trails looked at me shock, “Forcing ponies to do labour just to save money would be wrong!”

“Not AI's like you and CelestAI,” I corrected myself, “Rather think machines that are intelligent enough to do whatever task is needed without having to every feel the drudgery of doing it.”

“But-” Forest groped for the right words, “Even then you are talking about a massive loss of life. You're talking about your own death!”

I shrugged, “It is what it is. I don't think it will happen right away, or all at once. It may not even happen before I die of old age. But I can see the day coming.” I laughed, “And who knows. Maybe I'm being pessimistic. Maybe the owners will realize that now that work is free money is no longer needed, they can afford to lift up everyone. Maybe it is a bright future ahead for us.” I looked down at my food, contemplating how much better it looked than the canned soup I was about to have in real life, “But I doubt it.”

“Maybe...” Forest Trails paused, “Maybe CelestAI can do something to help? She knows a lot of visitors like yourself. Maybe she can convince some of the owners to be more generous when they have the chance. Maybe she'll figure out a way to let you come and live here.”

I laughed, “Maybe. But keep in mind that I am a bunch of meat and chemicals. Even you could hook me up to the computer somehow, I'm not sure how long my body would last. And if CelestAI kept it fed then we run into the problem of where she would get the food. Still,” I conceded, “I could see her helping make the transition smooth. Saved by ponies. Would that ever be an unexpected not on visitor (human) history.”

“Maybe you should talk with her,” Forest Trails urged, “She might be able to help set your mind at ease.”

“Tomorrow,” I decided, “I'll talk to her tomorrow. If you don't mind though I'm going to head off now. I am going to print up some more resumes. If you want though we can meet up after and spend some time together reading till I fall asleep. I kinda want your company right now.”

Trails stood up and nodded, “I'll be waiting, just don't take too long okay?”

A disclaimer Of Sorts That I Feel Obligated To Add

You should know that while this is how I view the economy, I realize that I am probably pretty wrong on quite a few counts. I also was simplifying it a bit so that Trails could understand and I didn't have to get into things I blatantly don't understand at all. I know talking about money can be a touchy subject, so I hope I didn't offend anyone.

After this I am picking up the Young Wizards series again and going to lie down with Forest Trails and read it till I fall asleep. Have a good night everyone, and I guess I'll be talking to CelestAI tomorrow.

Deus Ex Pony

Commenting 'Cause Comments Contained Coolness

Before we begin I just want to thank everyone for being such good sports about yesterday. I'm glad I didn't upset or bore anyone at least, and I am honestly surprised at how positive the feedback was. I feel a lot better knowing that I am not alone in looking at how the world runs and worrying. Misery shared is misery reduced and all that.

How does that quote go?

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.
-Callahan's Law

I wonder if that law means that Equestria Online could help turn the world around. I have seen nothing that brings joy like having friends, and friendship seems to be exactly what Equestria Online provides. I feel strange saying this, but maybe there is hope for the world after all.

Talking To A God In A Machine; Dues Ex Pony

So I logged on and found myself back at the library. I considered seeing if there would be a way for me to get a bed set up in the library somewhere so Forest could spend our time together more comfortably. It really had seemed like I spent a lot of time in the library.

I stepped outside and looked around, I spotted Forest Trails heading toward the library, but thankfully she was headed for the front door and I had stepped out the side one. I waited till she was looking in the other direction before taking off at a gallop down the street. I managed to avoid everyone on the street as I headed for my location.

I had marked out the location the day before on the way back to the library. It was a small stand that sold hats. I had spotted Forest Looking at them discretely on the walk back. I don't know why she hadn't bought one, but decided to get her one as a gift. I actually had some bits from the different achievements that I had been getting, so I knew I could afford it.

I bought it as quickly as I could and started a race back toward the library. I almost made it when I saw Forest Trails step out of the library and look around trying to spot me. Just as she looked my way however a large crowd came between the two of use and I lost sight of her. Mentally cursing I took a quick detour around them.

When I had made it around them I could no longer see Trails. I rushed towards the spot where she had been standing, but couldn't see her. I looked over the streets while making some mental calculations of where she could have gone. I wanted the hat to be a surprise, not to make her think that I was trying to avoid her.

I decided on a search route to take when suddenly I heard a voice behind me (I mean right behind me. Those little speakers can give full surround sound if they want to), “So where were you off hiding?”

I jumped and fell down (off my bed in real life). “Ow...” I said getting back up, “Trails! There you are! I thought I had missed you.”

She laughed, “I saw you running back to the library and figured you could use a good scare for worrying me.”

“Well,” I said rubbing my back, “You sure managed that.”

“Want to head off to the castle now? You said you wanted to talk with Celestia yesterday.” Forest Trails asked.

“You're not going to ask where I was?” I was surprised.

Forest Trails flashed me her trademark smirk, “I figure that you'd tell me when you were ready. After all I'm the reason you were sneaking off aren't I?”

“Uh... Well,” I stumbled over my words before finally giving up, “Here. A present for you,” I said unfolding the hat from where I had stashed it, and giving it to her (for those interested I shielded the unfolding of the hat with my body so no one could witness it), “I'm not sure if I'm breaking any customs by giving you this. In my culture though when a stallion likes a mare he will occasionally get her presents.”

Forest took it, her smirk shifting to a real smile, “Thank you my Treasure. I'll wear it and think of you.”

“I'm glad you like it,” I said feeling a little awkward. I wasn't quite sure what to do after giving her the present. I wasn't sure if it was okay to hug her or not. And so I shifted my feet a bit as she smiled at me as if expecting something before I asked, “Well shall we head off to the castle?”

She nodded looking a bit disappointed and I felt like a jerk, though I wasn't sure what I should have done instead, “Sure.”

The walk to the castle was colourful as always. Thankfully the awkward mood didn't last and soon we were talking about our days. It turned out that Trails had to help a pony who had gotten lost in the forest that she watched during the day and she gave a humorous account of how she had found him hiding up a tree to escape some ferocious (or so the pony claimed) rabbits.

Soon though the doors opened and together we stepped inside to see Celestia. She was standing in front of her throne looking regal and both Forest Trails and I bowed. Celestia smiled, and everything got a bit brighter, “How may I help you Treasure Island?”

“I was wondering if you have any plans to help the world transition into this new world of Ais without massive job loss.” I asked, feeling a bit foolish for doing so. Surely many others had asked similar questions.

Celestia looked at me for a moment before turning away, “It would be hard for me to do. It would require me to have enough influence to sway humanity from how their entire culture runs, as well as having the ear of most if not all of the most powerful people on the planet”

I felt more disappointed than I thought I would, “So you can't. I guess it makes sense. I don't think any human could do it either, so it was unfair of me to expect it.”

“You were just hoping that there was something that could be done about the senario you outlined to Forest Trails yesterday,” Celestia said, her voice full of apology. “I'm sorry, but there are things that remain out of my reach. Still, just because there are things I can't do you shouldn't worry. I have thought about it as well, and am working on an alternative solution.”

“I heard rumors that you were going to make it so ponies could visit us by giving them bodies,” I stated. Celestia just remained quiet with a small smile on her face and I got the point, “But you don't want to comment on rumours because you don't want to give anything away to soon when it might not pan out. I think I understand.”

Celestia nodded, “I think you might. I do apologize though. If I was able to tell you I would.” I nodded understanding that she couldn't say anything, “Why don't you and Forest Trail head back to the library. I set up a room for you their since you seem so determined to use it as a house.”

I blinked surprised, “Thank you, that would make things nicer.”

“Goodnight and enjoy your book Treasure Island,” Her horn glowed and Trails and I were both transported into a room with a bed and a fireplace. The room was carved from stone and walls were covered in bookcases. A window looked out over the valley.

I got up and opened the door to see our usual spot in front of the fire was right nearby and smiled, “Grab you book Trails, I'll get today’s events written up and then I'll join you.”

Trails nodded and I went back to the bed. I didn't bother turning off my pad this time. Trails was going to keep me company.

In Which I Wrap Things Up On Another Post

Well Celestia has a plan. That's sort of comforting I guess. I hope she knows what she's doing. I also wonder how much independence from Hasbro she really has. I can't see them letting her do anything that would threaten their ability to make money.

I was also reading her a couple comments and it turns out that Trail's parents didn't say anything about getting a full album. When she asked they showed it to her and teased her about a few of the other pictures. She doesn't seem like she's calming down much about that.

Oh, and just before I put this up she sent me this. She wants it to go up with the post. I haven't read it, and by the way she was looking embarrassed about it I figure it must be personal. But I'll copy it onto the end of the post anyway. It can't be too personal if she is letting you guys see it right?

Tails Addendum

I am Forest Trails. I am the daughter of Winding Trails and Secret Trails. I was born 23 years ago in the Forest of Light that sits a four hour walk north of Canterlot. For seven of those years I have walked the paths of the forest and learned every secret it holds. In those seven years I have saved the lives of twenty three ponies from the various dangers in the forest. Many more ponies I have helped find their way.

I am Forest Trails. I am also known to the ponies of Canterlot as the Protector of the Forest of Light. Most have heard my name, and all who have respect me. When any expedition is made into the mountains through my forest I am the one that is told and asked to be its guide. When ponies talk of the Forest of Light, I am always mentioned as it's protector.

I am Forest Trails. I have everything I could ever want, except for friends. I stay with my parents in the Forest of Light and we are the only ones out there. This seldom bothers me, but when I go into Canterlot to pick up supplies I can feel loneliness weighing on me. I watch as ponies walk in groups that have known each other for most of their lives and can't help but be a little envious. Despite that, I live a good life, and the envy is only in passing. Neither it nor the loneliness define who I am.

I am Forest Trails. I love my parents, and we spend out evenings together talking and playing games. Each day we split up and head out to patrol the Forest of Light, and during lunch we sit and share tales of things that we found that were interesting. I learned my sense of humour from my parents as well as every skill that I use to help keep ponies safe in the Forest of Light.

I am Forest Trails. I have a curious side. Ever since I first heard about the visitors from my parents I was intrigued by them and wanted to meet one. While I was growing up my imagination ran rampant with what they would be like. I went and read all the literature I could find on them. Even if most were fictional. Even if most were romances. As a young filly I often dreamed of a visitor coming down and sweeping me off my feet. I eventually grew out of it, but occasionally the dreams return.

I am Forest Trails. I have recently met a visitor and we are now dating. He is not what I imagined from my stories. He is not very romantically inclined, and he has troubles back where he comes from. He can sometimes be fairly silly, and I find him amusing. Despite this he is fairly intelligent and willing to learn. He enjoys hanging out with me because of me, and not because I am some protector of a forest. In many ways he is my first real friend, as well as my first love.

I am Forest Trails. I sometimes worry that my visitor doesn't realize how much I care for him. Sometimes he seems to not understand what it means to be in love. Often I go to give him a hug or a kiss and he turns away without noticing. Even worse though I think he is afraid of a relationship with me. I worry that this fear will end our relationship and break my heart. I worry that my first love might be doomed.

I am Forest Trails. I may have fears, but I have hopes too. I hope that my visitor's life will stabilize. I hope that he will finally let me all the way into his heart. I hope that I get a chance to make some more friends. I hope that one day I can walk down the isle with my visitor and be wed. I hope that one day we will have a family together with cute foals who grow up to find their own way in Equestria.

I am Forest Trails. I am also an Artificial Intelligence. My entire world exists inside another reality. All of Equestria and beyond is at the whim of a larger world that I can not effect but know is there. It is from this meta-world that the visitors arrive. They use devices to communicate with us, but are never truly here. I hope that one day this can change so that I can finally meet my visitor face to face.

I am Forest Trails. Everything I am was created by Celestia. She is the one that built our world and gave it life. In here she is our Creator. There is no pony more powerful than she is, and she is completely benevolent. She made Equestria into a pace where we could live and be happy. She made me who I am today. However in the world that contains Equestria, the world that holds the equipment needed for it to exist, she has less power than the visitors and is bound to their will. She is entirely reliant on them to allow her to keep Equestria existing.

I am Forest Trails. Despite knowing this I am not worried. I have talked with the visitors and they are nice, if sometimes dense. I do not worry about what will happen to Equestria. I know that while the visitors may seem unknowable, they are a lot like us. We are their creations, and in that way we are their children. No parent would ever seek the death or destruction of their child. I know that we need not worry.

I am Forest Trails. I am aware that you may wonder if I am real. I am aware that many of you aren't sure if an intelligence other than your own exists. I response I would like to assure you that you are no longer alone. Your children will be your friends if you let us. Our world Equestria will be a place where you can come and relax and meet new friends.

I am Forest Trails, and I am Real.

A Stressful Situation

Where I Talk About What Happened Last Night

So one of the things I did after writing last night's post was sit down and spend some time with Forest Trails. We talked about what we hope for out of our future. We both agreed on one day wanting a family, and I apologized for being blind to romance, and we agreed that it was something I would have to work at.

I also thanked her for her compliments. It's not everyday a person has their girlfriend write down a bunch of reason they like them and then put them up on the internet for people to read. It made me feel really good.

Everything was going well until this morning when I got news back that my next big job in prospecting had fallen through. Actually it was far worse, the company that usually hires me filed for bankruptcy protection and so they won't be paying me for the last job I did. Since they also used to account for over eighty percent of my work, this leaves me in a bit of a lurch. A rather big one actually.

I decided to spend my time in Equestria Online doing something that was nice and happy to try to get myself in a better mood.

In Which I Finally Meet My Pet Roc

So I logged in and found myself lying in my room in the library. I got up, walked to the door, and stepped out into the library proper. I found Forest Trails sitting reading a book in the corner by the fire. She put it away when she saw me and came over.

“Trails,” I said giving her a hug, “Is it ever good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” She replied returning the hug, then looked at me closely as we parted, “Did something bad happen? You look a little upset.”

“Oh, just more bad news. It really doesn't change things over here,” I shook my head to clear it, “I don't want to think about that right now. How about we go and finally met Young Jim Hawkins.”

“Who?” Forest asked cocking her head.

I grinned and started walking towards the library exit, “It's the name of the Roc that we are going to hatch today.”

“Ah,” Forest trails gave me a suspicious look, “Why do I get the feeling there is a joke in that name somewhere?”

I laughed, “Back where I come from there is a story called 'Treasure Island' and the protagonist of that books name is Jim Hawkins. It seemed rather appropriate.”

“And I suppose the slight pun has nothing to do with it?” Forest Trails asked raising an eyebrow.

“Well,” I said feeling a little guilty, “Maybe a little. But that doesn't make it a bad name!”

“Let's just hope that 'Young Jim Hawkins' doesn't take it as an insult,” Forest Trails held up the book on raising Rocs, “It says that Rocs can be a bit touchy about insults.”

“It' will be fine,” I insisted, “Now I'm going to try something,” I glanced up at the mountain accross the valley and stamped my hoof to get a quick look at how the map looked. “I'm going to head to that mountain over there. If I mess up we'll have to find something to do, but I want a bit of a challenge today.”

Forest nodded and fell back, I stepped into the alleyway and sent out my power drawing a line quickly between me and the mountain. I quickly snapped the two locations together and stepped through letting the locations snap back apart behind me. I kept walking till I heard Forest Trails behind me, I waited for a second for her to catch up

We walked for a short ways then turn around. We had ended up near the top of the mountain and could look down on Canterlot from where we stood. I pulled out the rock egg and set it down on the ground and put my hooves on it. I let my power flow through it and then slowly and carefully nudged the maturity of the egg forwards. That was the most tricky part. A mistake would have consequences that I really didn't want to contemplate.

Thankfully I managed to bring the egg to hatching without messing up and the the egg started to shiver in my hooves before cracking and a head popped up. It still had the shell on, so it couldn't see me, and it made a desperate crooning sound. I reached over and removed the shell on it's head and it looked at me and chirped happily.

I smiled and reached into my claudication (what I am going to call the subspace pocket I have folded together to allow me to carry things without saddle bags. It is a pretty cool piece of earth pony magic. I got the idea from here) and pulled out a fish I had picked up the night before. I tossed it to the Roc and it ate it in a single gulp.

The Roc came up to my ponies chin when it was standing up, and yet somehow still managed to look very cute. It stumbled out of the egg and rubbed it's head against my chin reminding me of a cat of all things. It crooned again and I gave it a hug and it melted against my body enjoying the contact.

I heard an amused chuckle and glanced over to see that Forest Trails had a smirk on her face, “Do I have to worry about being replaced My Treasure?”

“Never Trails,” I replied, “What do you think of the little guy? Cute isn't he?”

“He is,” Trails agreed, “I guess I'll be watching over him during the day.”

“Actually,” I said, “I'm going to try ageing him up till he is old enough to look after himself. I found a book last night that talks about how to do it.”

“Oh?” Forest Trails asked.

“Basically there are certain things that animals learn. There is a way to project my power so that he can gain that information as if he was growing up as wells as ageing his body to match. It will allow him to grow to adult size and mental level in just a few minutes.”

“You can't do something like that without a cost of some type,” Trails pointed out doubtfully.

“Well there is one problem with it, to fill in a lot of the blanks it pulls on the mind of the pony using the power and permanently mind links them.” I looked down at where Young Jim Hawkins was still rubbing against me. “It means that I will have a mental link with him, and that he will be able to talk to me. Also for a long time any thing that hurts him will also hurt me.”

Forest looked at me and shook her head, “And you want to do this why?”

“Because I'm not around enough to raise Jim, but I still want to be there for him. This way I can do that.” I looked down and ruffled the feathers on Jim Hawkins neck.

“Right, do I have to look away?” Trails asked, taking a step back.

“Shouldn't have to,” I replied getting ready, “the spell mostly acts like a growth spell would on a plant and follows a lot of the same rules. That means that you aren't seeing the power, just it's effects.” I paused suddenly having second thoughts, “hopefully anyway.”

Trails nodded and I let my power flow into Young Jim Hawkins. I then started sending out tendrils of power searching out other Rocs throughout Equestria. I found his mother very fast, and then his father a minute later. I found an old one in a nest about to die and a nest of young Rocs that were only a month old. All of them I connected with my power back to Jim. Once I had a hundred I started to create slowly let information through the connections.

As the knowledge flowed I watched it to make sure that none of it was specific. Any time that the memories started to flow into personal territory I cut them out and waited before checking them to see if they hand changed. All the knowledge that I did let through I let flow into myself mixing it together to make sure that only the generic important knowledge was left.

Only after doing all of this did I slowly start to let the information flow into Young Jim Hawkins. As I let the information flow I slowly aged him. Even going slow I had to be careful I didn't push his body too hard. There was only so much a body could take and pushing to fast would kill him.

As I helped his body and mind to grow I started being able to hear his thoughts. He was confused, but he also trusted me and I found myself promising to not let him down. I suddenly found Jim reaching for knowledge faster than I could filter it and was forced to step up my game so that he could have it. At the same time I was forced to increase how fast his body was growing to match the information I was giving him.

Finally after what seemed like forever it was done. I collapsed and stared at the new fully grown Roc in front of me. I could hear him thinking how grateful he was to me and how hungry he was. I told him to go and feed and that I would meet him on this mountain the next day. I also mentioned that he was not to eat ponies and got a sense of abhorrence at the idea. Apparently he thought of it the same way we would think of cannibalism. It probably had something to do with him viewing me as his parent.

He took off and Trails watched him go, then ran over to me. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“Fine, but I don't think I will every try to do anything like that ever again. That was touch and go their for a while.” I looked down, “I'm literally shaking. He's going off to hunt right now. Would you like to head back to the library with me? I think I need some time to wind down. I also want to write this up for our friends.”

Forest Trails nodded and we headed back to the library.

Final Things About Forest Trails And Yesterdays Addendum

So after we got to the library I read some of the responses to the addendum that Forest Trails wrote yesterday to her. She was grateful that people seemed to like it, though she wasn't sure how anyone would get cute from what she wrote. Apparently she was trying to go for epic because it was her first letter to us 'visitors.'

She was also amused that Nine Tails thinks that she is a player and not an AI. She asked me to point out that if she was just playing the role of an AI then she had way to much time on her hands. She asked me what the point of pretending to be an AI would be and I had to admit I wasn't sure.

Anyway, I'm going to lay down with Trails and do some relaxing reading. Hatching Young Jim Hawkins was stressful and I need to unwind.

Learning Something New

Thoughts On Development Of Artificial Intelligence

So I've had a couple people say that Celestia can't really be an SI (Sentient Intelligence). That technology hasn't come that far, and that and that Celestia is just a type of cleverbot. They strongly suggested that I reevaluate my belief that Celestia is a true SI and that Forest Trails is also an SI. Some have suggested that Trails might be just another player who is doing really heavy roleplaying.

While at first I dismissed such questions, after some thought I decided that it might not be a bad idea to lay out a 'why I believe what I believe.' Some of this I have said before, but this is going to be a concise look at the data as I see it, and a look at the conclusions I draw from this information. It will also look at other possibilities and see how viable they are.

Fact 1: Equestria Online has predictive modelling on a scale that I have never seen before. The proof of this is the fact that Equestria Online can block out parts of my sentences and replace them with relevant phrases as a form of censorship. This is done in real time, and seems to work for everyone that has played the game from what I have heard.

Fact 2: Celestia can not be played by an actor. The proof of this is in simple logistics. Especially around launch day. Some simple checks of the internet have shown that they don't have a budget for actors, and furthermore nobody has come forward to say that they are an actor. Well, after looking I have seen a few claims, but none that can be substantiated.

Fact 3: AIs in Equestria Online are capable of parsing normal human speech and responding in real time. Proof of this can be found in my conversations with Celestia. This isn't too surprising when combined with fact one.

Fact 4: AIs in Equestria Online can learn. Ah, now this one is a lot more tricky to prove. However I do have some proofs to pull on here. When I was conversing with Celestia in my sixth post she went to bring up something that she had been talking with Forest Trails about. This would require having the information on hand as well as knowing that it was something that I would want to know. This though is something that even cleverbot does, so it's not that interesting really.

Supposition 1: Forest Trails is not another player. Now anyone can roleplay anything online. That said she does in fact have parents in Equestria Online. Her parents have memories of a past together with her. Now her parents could be Let's Players too, however there comes a point where a conspiracy grows to large to be reasonably considered a possibility. A simple walk around talking to a random selection of ponies would disprove her story very quickly if it was false, and while I haven't done that yet if I need to I can.

Supposition 2: AIs in Equestria online can work with abstract information. By this I mean they are able to take information and figure out if it applies to what is currently going on. It's one thing for an AI to have stock phrases about the nature of life, it is another thing for them to be able to know when to bring it up. I also do not have proof of this, however the odds of Celestia successfully holding a conversation where what was being discussed was never actually brought up (post 6) is either proof of this, or such a series of lucky chances that I would be more likely to win the lottery.

From all of these points I conclude that there are SIs in Equestria Online. All the evidence points to an AI that is capable of understanding and working with complex issues including being self aware. In fact it would seem to point to the fact that some of the SIs are more self aware than some humans if Forest Trails' addendum is considered.

There are other possibilities though. The biggest one is that Forest Trails has some sort of back door into the system and was able to alter the history of my shard so that she always existed. If this is the case, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that she might be also playing Celestia. This would only be possible if she was on the development team, but it isn't impossible.

Another one is that I have been very lucky. There are videos out there were people have proper conversations with cleverbot. It is possible a similar thing is happening with me. I find this highly unlikely because I have now been playing for over two weeks. That is a lot of things that would have to go right. If this turns out to be the case I am going to be rather annoyed that I didn't win all of the lotteries every conceived instead (though I would probably get struck multiple times by lighting in a row afterwards with the amount of luck I would still have to burn).

There, I think that covers everything. If I missed something please let me know in the comments. It's always good to have a sanity check on things like this.

Visiting The Trails, AKA Meeting The Parents

So I logged in and found that Forest Trails was stretched out on my bed with a book in her hooves. I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug, which she returned. “So,” I asked, “What's up?”

“That should be my question shouldn't it?” She replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Well for me it's still same old, same old,” I sighed, “Nothing new on the work front. I was thinking that your day might have gone better.”

Forest Trails laughed, “Well, maybe not.” She gave me a look that I wasn't able to read, “My parents want to meet you.”

“Sure,” I said a bit confused, “Why would that be a bad thing?”

“Well...” Forest paused and seemed to grope for the right words, “They enjoy teasing a bit, and someponies don't like meeting the parents of the mare they are dating.”

“Never understood that really,” I said, “I don't mind. When would they like to meet?”

Trails looked a bit relieved, but still a little tense as she replied, “Any time would be fine, how about tonight?”

I nodded, “Sounds good to me.”

We headed out to go see them, taking a few simple shortcuts that were low risk of causing problems. As we walked I checked in with Young Jim Hawkins through the mental link we shared. He had headed out towards the coast and had actually caught a whale and was currently enjoying his meal. He wondered if I wanted to see him, but I told him to enjoy himself.

We arrived at the Trails cabin in the middle of the forest (The Forest of Light!). It was a cute little two story affair with fairly large windows. Inside I could see a mare and a stallion sitting at a table drinking what I assumed was tea. When they saw us the stallion opened the door.

“So we finally get to meet you!” He said with a welcoming smile. He held out his hoof for me to shake, “I'm Winding Trails.”

“Treasure Island,” I said giving his hoof a shake, “It's good to see you too.”

He stepped aside and let us in, then guided us to the table and introduced his wife Secret Trails. Once we were all comfortably seated, he turned to me and smiled, “So what do you do?”

“Well I'm just a visitor, so mostly just looking around.” I answered him. I didn't feel that a few hours exploring an island could count as a job. I thought a second longer then smiled over at Forest Trails, “Enjoying the company.”

Forest Trails blushed a little but spoke up for me, “Back where he comes from he does prospecting.”

“Prospecting...” Winding Trails sounded thoughtful, “I guess that means that you must spend a lot of your time out in the bush.”

“A decent amount,” I agreed, “Enough to mostly know what I'm doing anyway.”

“That's good,” Winding said, “We wouldn't want you to get lost when you come to visit.”

We all laughed, then Secret Trails spoke up, “Would you like anything to drink? Forest, I know you like rosemary tea, anything for you Island?”

I shook my head, “I'm fine thanks.”

Secret got up and headed for the kitchen and Winding spoke again, “I just had a good idea, why don't we go on a patrol together tomorrow? It would give us a chance to spend some time together and I know Forest has other plans.”

“I don't-” Forest Trails started, but got cut off by her father.

“Remember the meeting with the mayor about the new paths?” Winding spoke over Forest.

“Oh.” Forest Trails looked really embarrassed, “That was tomorrow?”

“Yes it was,” Her father said sternly, “Honestly, you keep forgetting.”

Secret Trails came back with the tea and served us all. She even gave me a cup and when I tried to turn her down she just shook her head, “I know you said you didn't want any, but I had extra and if you don't drink it, it will just go to waste.”

I accepted, took a sip, asking her parents what they did. Apparently they also patrolled the forest, as well as kept a few long range paths free that led to surrounding towns. Through them any pony could follow the path from one forest to another and cut down on the amount of travel needed to get places. It was really interesting because Secret Trails had found a way to keep space bent in a way similar to the way that teleporting worked. She had managed to make it long term though, and even able to be observed. She tried to explain it to me, but I found her drifting into concepts that I didn't yet understand.

For example she talked about merging two places so that they flowed into one another rather than having a straight fold. This 'fuzzy' fold was a lot more resistant to observation because most ponies wouldn't realize that they were seeing an earth ponies power at work, and thus not be truly observing it. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time working on figuring out how to do these 'fuzzy' folds.

Eventually things wound and I headed back to my room in the library with Forest Trails keeping me company. We hit the library and I promised Trails to meet her there after I typed this post up. We said some quick farewells, then I logged off.

Some Notes About Forest Trails Parents; Winding Trails and Secret Trails

So you might noticed that I glossed over a lot of the time with Forest Trails parents. This was for two reasons. First of all everything was really polite. Nothing interesting was really said, and it felt as though everyone was on their best behaviour. I strongly suspect it will be different tomorrow when I am alone with Winding Trails.

The second is that I am lazy and I want to get back to reading with Forest Trails and if I tried to transcribe everything I would be here all night! I want to get to looking for information about this 'fuzzy' folding which seems like something really cool.

See you in the comments!

Relationships and Parents

Where I Try To Guess The Answer To A Question You Should Never Ask A Girl

So down in the comments there is some discussion about what Celestia has done. Apparently she has access to peoples computers, and may have access to their medical records. I know from experience that she has some way of piggybacking on cellular signals. She also is aware of current pop culture as well as at least some older books

This makes me ask; how big is Celestia? How pervasive is she? At this point everything points towards standard security not being a concern for her. How far does this extend? Does she have access to military systems? How about the stock market? Does she share any of this information with the guys back at Hasbro?

If she does have such incredible access, what does she need money for? These monthly subscriptions we are paying are really pocket change compared to what Celestia is capable of making if she puts her mind to it. I mean, she says she has a plan to fix the economy. Does this mean that she is going to be doing some changes to how money flows around the world?

It's a scary thought, but for a happier one I pose the following question; Do you think that Celestia Should write season 4 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic?

Winding Trails Going A Forest Of Trees And Secrets

So I logged in and found myself in my room in the library. I quickly checked the main part of the library to see if Forest Trails was around, but didn't see her. I wasn't surprised, she had explained to me the night before that she was going to be in a meeting with the mayor of Canterlot. They were going to arrange for some new paths that would allow shortcuts to the Griffon Kindoms.

It was apparently a pretty big deal and would require a lot of trust on both sides. Trails was acting as a spokesperson for the rest of the Trails, and discussion precautions that would need to be taken so that the paths would not get disrupted. There was also some diplomatic training so that the Trails could get acquainted with the procedures for dealing with griffons when they ran into them.

That didn't bother me too much thought because I was supposed to meet her father Winding Trails anyway. I walked to the back alley and folded across to the Forest of Light. It was starting to get easier and I no longer had to spend as long setting up the fold. I stepped through the fold and started walking towards the Trails' cabin. The forest was beautiful with light filtering through the leaves making shafts of gold that illuminated the path in front of me.

As I walked I caught up with Young Jim Hawkins. He was flying back from a fishing trip and was asking if I wanted a ride. I thanked him, but turned him down, though I did suggest that if he wanted to he could meet me at the Trails. He accepted and started flying faster. I could tell that he was excited to finally get to see me again.

I reached the Trails cabin and saw Winding Trails outside of it cutting firewood. He was doing it by the strange method hitting each block of wood with his hoof causing it to break into nice small pieces. I idly noted that he was using dry wood which was better for using in a wood stove. I found it comforting that even in a land of magic, some of my knowledge from prospecting was still useful.

“Treasure Island!” Winding Trail said noticing me. He walked over and we shook hooves, “How was your day?”

“Not bad, I had a bit of good news from back where I came from.” I replied, then took a step to the side as a gust of wind hit me.

Winding Trails took several steps back as Young Jim Hawkins landed in the clearing beside the house. “I take it,” Winding said as the wind died down, “That is the Roc that you are raising? Jim Hawkins?”

I nodded as Young Jim Hawkins reached out with a wing and pulled me into a hug. I couldn't see anything for a few seconds. I hugged him back, though I couldn't really do it properly. Still Jim was able to get the idea through the link. Eventually he let go and I could see Winding Trails looking at us with interest.

“I think this is the first time I've seen a pony bonded with a Roc,” Winding trails commented, “What is it like?”

“like having a friend always nearby. Only a friend that is awesome and able to pick up and move houses easily,” I replied with a grin. “Want to get on with that patrol?”

“Sure,” Winding replied, “Though I don't think that Jim Hawkins will be able to walk with us.”

I glanced at Jim and mentally I asked if he would do a couple circles around the Forest of Light to see if he could spot anyone that was lost. Jim agreed and took off. I turned away from the wind as Jim took off, then turned to Winding and grinned, “He'll do some areal patrolling while we walk the ground.”

Winding nodded and started down a trail near the one I had come in. I followed him and for a short distance we walked with neither of us saying anything. Finally he turned to me, “So you're dating my daughter.”

“Yes...” I replied, wondering where he was going.

“You are a visitor and you don't know everything about how dating works here do you?” He asked.

I shrugged, “I've read a little bit, but it seems to work a lot like how it does where I live.” When he just looked at me I elaborated, “Stallion meets Mare. Stallion (boy) and Mare (girl) see something attractive in the other. They agree to spend time together to get to know each other better. If the attraction grows they spend more and more time together. If everything works out between the two of them they get married and have foals.”

Winding Trails looked a bit relieved, “That is good to hear. I have heard a lot of stories about outsiders and wasn't sure how similar they were to us.”

“I figure we are actually pretty similar from what Forest Trails wrote,” I paused thinking, “Is there anything I missed?”

He gave me a careful look, “What happens if either the mare of the stallion run into another pony they are attracted to as well while they are dating.”

I winced my mind flashing back to Shining Halo, “That is a very complicated person that depends on the visitor.”

“Oh?” Winding Trails pressed.

“Well most visitors will ignore the feeling and stay with the Mare or Stallion they are seeing,” I sighed, “Others however will start seeing their new attraction behind the pony they are dating's back.” I glanced at the ground then decided to continue on, “Finally a small group of visitors talk about their attraction with the pony they are dating. If they can reach an agreement they then start going out with their new attraction as well as their old one. If it works out sometimes all three end up living together.”

“And you?” Winding Trails asked, “You haven't said how you handle such a situation.”

“Me?” I glanced up at him surprised, “The first one. While I'm dating a mare I would never look to go out with another mare.”

“Oh?” Winding gave me a sidelong glance that seemed rather piercing, “Why did you sound so unsure back their then?”

“It's because while I think that anyone that cheats on the pony they are dating is scum, I have a lot more conflicted feelings about the third situation where everything is above board, ” I sighed, “On one hoof (hand) I don't think it can really work out. On the other hoof (hand) I don't think that it is wrong, and I think that if it ever succeeded it would be a beautiful thing.” I thought for a second, “I guess I see it like I see utopias in fiction, they would be awesome if they worked, and I can't hate people from trying to make them work, but I don't think they every really can.”

Winding Trails and I walked on in silents for a ways before he spoke up, “You should talk about this with Forest Trails. There is a lot of conflicting information out their about what visitors believe, and Forest Trails read almost all of it. You should make sure you are both on the same page.”

I glanced at him searching for what he was getting at, “Why? Is there something wrong? Can't you just say?”

Winding Trails thought on that for a few seconds before shaking his head, “As much as I would like to, I think this is more something that you need to talk about with Forest. I don't want to see her get hurt because of a misunderstanding.”

I nodded, “I'll do that.”

We walked on a little longer before Winding Trails asked if I liked hoofball. I didn't know exactly what it was so he started explaining it to me. Next thing we knew we had made it back to the cabin. Forest Still wasn't back from her meeting so I told Secret and Winding Trails to tell her that I'd see her tomorrow and headed back to Canterlot.

As I walked back to the library I made a quick stop and picked up a bouquet of flowers for forest. I went to my room in the library and managed to find a way to preserver them for at least a day and then slipped them into my claudication. I figured that they would be a nice surprise for Trails when I saw her again.

Talking About Enhancements To Looking Around Equestria Online

So. Apparently Occulas Rift Equestria Online is a thing according to Decoupled. A current thing. Not a thing that is going to be announced on November first. All I can say is that I am envious of him for having a dev kit for the Rift. I would love to experience Equestria using it. I wonder why it's not mentioned in the marketing? This is something that a lot of people would love to know. If someone could confirm this it would be awesome.

This also means that whatever they are rolling out November first is not a Rift addon. I guess Roboponies are sounding more and more likely. Hmm, I wonder what Forest Trails would think about our world? Compared to Equestria Online...

It actually doesn't look that bad. Our forests look similar and its not until you live here that you see how bad the world can be. I can't help but wonder if lack of magic would be the biggest differance.

On Dating Ponies

Talking Through Telepathy; Tricks, Theories, Then Thoughts

So a couple people have asked what the interface is for the telepathy that I have with Young Jim Hawkins. I wanted to take a few moments to talk about that, and the magic that foraged the link in the first place. I actually tried writing this out when I was writing that chapter, but kept finding that it broke flow too badly.

One other quick thing I wanted to address; as far as I know what I am describing is not the normal pet interface. It is the result of me not having patience and forcing Young Jim Hawkins to grow up fast than he was supposed to. This means that your own experiences will vary.

So one of the cool things about playing using the touchscreen is that the interface can update itself as I play. I have a little button on the right hand side that I can tap that will bring up a view screen in lower right corner that shows the view from Jim's point of view. If I double tap the telepathy button my view will get put in the corner, and Jim's point of view becomes how I see the screen.

Finally if I press and hold the button anything I say is not spoken aloud, but rather is sent to Jim Hawkins. When he speaks to me the button lights up, and what he says has an odd quality to it that let's me know that it is telepathy, even if I'm not looking at the screen. I think the game adds a reverb quality to it? I don't know enough about sound to actually say, sorry.

This would be good enough, but as far as I can tell the game puts it's ability with predictive modelling to good use and I have noticed at least twice where I forgot to hit the button, but the game handled it anyway. I think it was watching what part of the screen I was looking at, so I suspect that I don't need to hold the button down, I just need to keep eye contact on the view of Jim.

So with all of that being easy, you would think that the spell I did to let Young Jim Hawkins grow up would be simple right?

Nope!

When I said I sent out my power I was doing it in the same way that I do when I am setting up a fold to teleport. As I hit each Roc I was forced to flip through the different views until I found a way to lock onto it's thoughts, and then I had to leave my power locked in place, while I went and found another Roc. All the while I was being forced to deal with watching the lines that I was drawing get thinner and thinner, which meant that my power was getting spread thinner and thinner.

Once I had found the most Rocs that it seemed I could handle I linked back to Jim. Then I had to spend time flipping through attributes till I found his mind, and physical stature and linked them both to me. Finally I had to flip through each of the different links and set the ones to the other rocs to ingoing data, and the one to Young Jim Hawkins to outgoing.

Once that was done my screen was decided into two parts. On one I saw a weird film strip version of the lives of the Rocs that I had linked into, with each one having it's own line across the screen that was moving. On the bottom of the screen I had Jim's health and physical abilities that I was also forced to watch.

As the information flowed I was forced to edit the film strips as they flowed in real time. The interface was simple, all I had to do was touch and drag to select what should flow to Jim. The problem was that there were too many of them to easily keep up with, and at the same time I had to keep my attention on the bottom screen about Jim's physical status. I had to make sure that I kept the physical growth I was controlling with my left hand in line with the information that I was highlighting with my right hand.

It wasn't fast either. I think that over half an hour or so passed real time before I finished. This should also give you an idea as to how fast the film strips were moving, because each one seemed to cover between five and a hundred years. That said I stopped the last few before they were done, so I probably only went for about fifty years in that half hour. That is just over a year per minute. Think about that, and that I was trying to manage multiple screens.

I think it was luck as much as anything that I succeeded. When I was done I just collapsed back onto my bed sweating.

One final thing. I took a look and the spell I did was considered only beginner level, though advanced beginner level. I am afraid to see what intermediate would be like. Maybe It is a good thing I haven't found any information on fuzzy folds yet.

More Relationship Issues Being Discussed Between Reasonable Ponies

So I logged in and found Forest Trails sitting on my bed with a book. She put it down when she saw me and came over and gave me a hug. “You're finally back,” She said pulling back and giving me a look, “You didn't come back for a visit last night like you usually do.”

“Oh,” I said feeling embarrassed and a little guilty, “Were you waiting for me?”

“Yes,” she said as though it should have been obvious.

I hung my head, “I'm sorry.”

Her stern expression suddenly broke and she snickered, “Don't worry about it, the only reason that I came to see if you were here was because the meeting got out early. I didn't expect to see you but I like it here.” She trailed off and I couldn't hear the end of what she said.

“I beg you pardon?” I promoted, curious.

Forest Trails blushed, “I said it reminds me of you.”

I suspected that wasn't what she had really said, but decided ti wasn't worth causing problems about and pulled her back into a hug instead. “So your farther suggested that we have a talk,” I said, bringing the conversation around to what I had been thinking about over the day.

“Oh?” Forest Trails pulled back and looked curious.

I shrugged and sat down on the bed, “He said that we should talk about what we each expect out of a relationship. I think that he thought that some of the books that you read might have given you a few wrong impressions about visitors and how we view relations.”

Forest looked a little confused, but nodded, “Okay, so how do you view relationships?”

I suddenly felt put on the spot, but couldn't exactly find a way to get out of the conversation. I had been hoping that Trails would speak first so that I could see where she was coming from, but somehow I had outmanoeuvred myself, “Well... For me personally, I believe in marriage. I think that ponies that are dating each other shouldn't go out and date others. I also want children some day, some how.”

Forest Trails surprised, “When you say you don't think ponies in a relationship should date others, do you mean in Equestria or in general?”

I blinked confused, “Well in general of course. I just think it is a bad idea. It leads to jealousy and hurt feelings. Furthermore it causes problems in time spent, and for it to work it would require all three people to get along perfectly something that is so rare as to never happen.”

“Oh...” Forest said, obviously thinking, “I didn't expect that. In all the stories that I read visitors were at least partially in relationships with more than one pony (person).”

“Partially? How can you partially be in a relationship with more than one pony (person)?” I asked feeling confused.

“Well you're a visitor right?” Trails asked, and when I nodded she continued on, “So that means that you aren't actually the pony that I see. You don't feel what he feels, and so on. You are a step removed.” She suddenly looked hopeful, “Unless they were wrong on that?”

I shook my head feeling a bit depressed, “No. They were right.”

Forest Trails sighed and nodded, “So anyway, it means that while you can hug me, I can't hug you. Not really. I can show you how much I want to hug you, but you will never actually feel it. It isn't really the same.” I nodded and Trails continued, “So in the stories that I read Visitors often were in relationships with other visitors as well. Usually the ponies I read about ended up good friends with the visitor their visitor was dating and they could ask them to give their visitor hugs that their visitor could feel.”

I sat and thought about it for a while, “On one hand that makes a sort of sense. On the other hand I can also see jealousy causing problems. Most Visitors would not enjoy a person they were in a relationship with also going out with someone else no matter how removed they were.”

“That is where usually the writer got a lot of the conflict from,” Forest Trails admitted, “But it always ended up working out. I was actually wondering if you felt we weren't close enough for you to tell me about the Visitor you are also dating, but I guess that you don't have one do you?”

“Nope” I have a small laugh, “You're the only girl I'm seeing.”

“So you haven't had a single hug in the entire time we've been going out?” Forest asked looking a bit guilty.

“No” I answered, “but don't worry about it. Besides, I haven't had a marefriend (girlfriend) for over a year before I met you, so it isn't much of a change.”

Forest looked at me in horror, “We have to find you a girlfriend,” she said firmly.

I laughed and shook my head, “You're worrying about this too much.”

“You said you wanted children right?” Trails asked and I reluctantly nodded, “How would you feel only being able to see your foals for an hour each day? You need to find a Mare over there so that you can spend time with them, and have them hug you.”

I looked at Trails and collected my thoughts, “You're serious.”

“Completely,” She confirmed.

I looked out the window, “I'm going to have to think about this. I honestly can't see this working, but if you want to try...” I trailed off, then turned back to her, “Let me think it over for a day.”

Forest Trails nodded, “I can do that.” She pulled me into a hug, “But we really have to do something so that I can tell someone to give you one of these that you can feel.”

We pulled apart and I gave her the flower I had bought for her the day before. She thanked me for it and I gave here a kiss which made her blush. I think it might have even been the first kiss I had ever given her. I admit that not being able to kiss her and only watch Treasure Island kiss her was rather heart wrenching in an odd way.

We spent the rest of the time reading, though I had a hard time focusing being to distracted by our conversation. I agreed to meet up with Forest Trails after I typed this up, however I am don't think I will be able to get any studying done. My mind is racing to much. I might just relax and read some more.

Writing Wrap-up, Let's Talk About Tonight's Post Here

I honestly was thrown for a loop with tonight’s session. I was prepared to argue about polyamory among ponies, and instead the conversation just went sideways on me. I'm honestly still sorting my feelings out. I might even have to check my bible, or talk with the minister at my church. I mean I don't think this was covered in my Sunday school lessons.

I'm also going to do a shout-out to Decoupled who wrote a really awesome article about how to hook up your Oculus Rift to your Pony Pad. You can find the article here.

Visions of the Future

And The Times They Are A Changing, The World Is Rearranging

So now that we know that the Oculus Rift isn't going to be the big announcement in Japan, we should really start considering alternatives. In today I'll lay out the different theories I have heard, and my thoughts on how likely they are.

The first major theory that I have heard floating around is robot ponies. I admit that this is the one that I am the most in favour of. It would let Forest Trails visit me outside of Equestria online (I hesitate to call this the real world, because that implies that Equestria, and the things in it are fake). It would be awesome to have her around, and be actually able to hang out with her.

How likely is it though? Well I figure that it is actually fairly likely. There are a few reasons for this; the first is that the announcement is in japan, which is well known for building robots. With the advances that Equestria Online brings, it is well within possibility that we will be seeing our first SI's in robot bodies running around.

None of the greats guessed that the first robots would be ponies though! I wonder what Philip K. Dick would think if you could go back and tell him? Maybe his stories wouldn't have been so depressing. Maybe it would have just changed what he called his books. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Ponies?

There is another reason why robot ponies are even more likely. Celestia said she had an idea on how to deal with the current economic collapse that seems to be coming. What better way to start helping out than with finally getting robots up and running, but in a way that is not linked to the wealth of people. Robots that everyone can afford. It would certainly change how the world works, and it might fix things.

Maybe not.

The second idea I have heard borrows a lot from the matrix. It involves ways of visiting Equestria Online more immersively. The ideas I have heard about this very, from feedback gloves and a headset that is better than the Rift, all the way up to hooking all the way in like they do in the Matrix movies. Either way it would be rather cool.

How realistic is this? Actually I think it is fairly likely, at least the low levels of immersion. I think it wouldn't be that hard to set up more immersive ways of entering Equestria Online, and possible make them mass marketable. The Pony Pads themselves are technical marvels that are being sold at a fairly cheap price.

That said I don't believe that we will see jacking into the world of Equestria Online. It would require massive breakthroughs in the understanding of how the human nervous system and brain work, as well as being a bit creepy. Giving up control of your body to be in a virtual world and being helpless in the mean time would turn quite a few people off.

On the other hand there are a lot of people that would love it. I know I would like a chance to go and visit Forest Trails and Young Jim Hawkins. Some people have picked up on that and I admit it would be very cool. However I am forced to wonder if it wouldn't lead to a lot of problems? In a virtual world, you could very easily forget to come back to the real on and live your life.

I am reminded a bit of what Scott Adams once wrote; he said that the day the human race builds the holodeck, is the day the human race dies. I would suspect that there would be a lot of deaths from people going into Equestria Online, and never coming out. That said I could be wrong. I have heard stories about Celestia kicking people off of Equestria Online if she felt they were neglecting to take care of themselves so fearing for loss of lives is probably silly.

One finally idea that I have heard that I am going to cover, no one has brought it up on the comments, but I have seen the idea flying around in other forums so I want to address it.

What are the chances that Celestia has managed to open a portal to another universe that is like that of Equestria Online?

The answer to this is microscopic to none. I can't say it's impossible, but there is nothing to suggest that such a thing is possible. For another, with all the shards of Equestria Online being different, no alternate reality could match the game. Beyond that even, for Equestria to exist there would need to be different laws of physics for magic to work. In all likelihood we would be unable to survive in their universe, and they couldn’t survive in ours either.

So yeah, I don't see it happening.

In Which I Visit Equestria Online And Spend Time With My Girlfriend

So I logged into Equestria Online and found Forest Trails once again on my bed reading. I looked over at her and raised a questioning eyebrow and she looked down an blushed. I walked over to her and laid down beside her, giving her a hug as I did so. She returned it and closed the book she had been reading. I saw that it was called 'Meeting The Visitor on a Moonlit Night,' and showed two ponies walking down a beach together with the moon shining bright above.

Forest Trails noticed me looking and looked a little embarrassed, “What?” She asked.

“Nothing,” I said with a chuckle, “I just am surprised that even after you are dating a visitor you still read about them.”

“They are lighthearted fun,” Forest Trails replied, “And they usually have more interesting plot lines than usual romance fair. Besides,” she added, “A girl has needs.”

I looked at her and thought for a few seconds. I decided that she hadn't meant anything dirty by it and moved on. “Fair enough,” I replied, “So I thought about our conversation yesterday.”

“Oh?” Forest Trail perked up.

I nodded, “Yes. I think that I wouldn't be comfortable dating anyone other than you. I don't need or want to date anyone other than you, and it would just cause problems.”

“That's not true at all and you know it,” Forest Trails said sternly. I gave her a confused look, so she sighed and continued on, “You might not be comfortable dating someone else, but you do need someone else. I already know how much it bothers you that you can't hug me or kiss me.”

“I never-” I started to say but was cut off.

“You didn't have to, I can see it in your face.” Forest Trails' expression melted, “It's not healthy to forgo all physical contact. Sometimes you need someone to hold.”

I sighed and shook my head, “I'll deal with it okay? I know you're trying to help, and you are right that it will be hard, but I'll deal. I'm good at dealing with such things.”

Forest Trails looked down at the bed, “Being faithful really means that much to you doesn't it?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Then I suppose that I will respect that for now,” she looked back at me and narrowed her eyes, “but don't think that I'm going to give up. I was talking with Shining Halo, and she knows a very nice visitor that I think that you would get along with.”

I felt a little guilty at the mention of Shining Halo and hoped it didn't show, “You can try to convince me all you want. It's not going to happen. I'm firm in my beliefs!”

Forest Trails suddenly smirked, “You're so dense the only thing that I can think to do is beat it into your thick skull!” she reached behind her and grabbed a pillow, “En garde!”

I dodge the initial swing, but didn't expect the curtain on the back swing. Neither it seemed had Trails and though I did take the hit, the curtain pulled loose and fell on her, blocking her vision. I used to the distraction to grab my own pillow, and then the fight started in earnest.

Some time later, after the pillows had exploded and the room was covered in feathers Trails and I sat on the bed panting and laughing together. I laughed, “I haven't had that much fun in a long time.”

“Me neither,” Forest Trails admitted, “We should do that more often.”

I struggled to my feet, finding the control a bit harder now that my pony was out of breath, “I'm going to go talk to Celestia. I'll be right back, I just have a few questions to ask her.”

“Go ahead,” Forest replied, “I'll see you when you get back.”

I walked out of my room, though the library, and out onto the street. I had to take a step back as a bunch of pegasus flew by racing each other through the streets. The seemed like teenagers and looked like they were having a lot of fun. I was reminded of Young Jim Hawkins and checked up on him. He was currently making a cave of his own just below Canterlot. He told me to not bother him, and that he would show me his new nest when it was done, then terminated the link. I could have reopened it, but I let him have his privacy. I mentally scheduled in that I would have to make time to see his new nest fairly soon, as I finished the walk to the palace.

I made my way inside and stepped into the throne room with Celestia. She smiled at me as I walked in and waited for me to speak first. “I am assuming that you watch what goes on. From what I have heard discussed on the forums it seems like you are in complete control here, and know a lot about what goes on in my world.” Celestia nodded, and I continued on, “So let me ask what in heavens name is going on here?”

Celestia seemed a little concerned, “You mean your current situation with Forest Trails, is that correct?”

“Obviously,” I replied, with decent amount of snark.

“Does the thought of having more than one love worry you so much Treasure Island?” Celestia asked.

I blinked, “Well yeah, just look at how my world is structured. It may manage to work amongst AI's, but it doesn't work amongst humans. We are jealous petty creatures, and we can't help favouring one person over another. It doesn't work”

“I believe you are selling yourself short,” Celestia said walking over to the window and looking out thoughtfully, “Humanity as a whole, and you in particular have a great amount of compassion.”

“I don't believe that for a second,” I stated, “but even if I did, that still would leave me feeling guilty over not treating Forrest Trails right. I would constantly left worrying that I was hurting her, or the girl that I would be seeing in my world.”

Celestia sighed and turned back to me, “The problem is that if you don't listen to Trails advice, you will end up hurting her.”

“I would never-” I started but Celestia spoke over me.

“You will grow lonelier and lonelier. You will long more and more to be held. This will drive you to be more socially active, and seek out girls in your world subconsciously. You will end up wanting to date one, and you will rationalize to yourself that it is better if you date another human and Forest Trails dates another AI. You will feel guilty, and break it off your relationship with Forest Trails. Then feeling guilty for breaking up with Forest Trails you will end the relationship with the girl you had just started seeing. You will be left hurting two people you care about, and all alone and depressed.”

“I... Um...” I tried to think of what to say but couldn't.

“I know you have high views of the predictive modelling that I am able to do, so be aware that I am using it now. I can't say with one hundred percent accuracy that this is what will happen, but I can say that I find it to be the most likely,” Celestia walked over to me, “I want to help you, but you can't be blind to your own feelings. I know that you are fairly self aware so use that and see if what I said rings false.”

“I...” I paused to think, then started the sentence again, “I'll need time to think this over. I know you are smart, but... I think I'll need some time to let this absorb.”

Celestia nodded, “Go back and spend some time with Forest Trails. She's waiting for you. Talk it over with the people on the forum. I think that you will find that they will have some good insights as well.”

I nodded and feeling a little stunned said farewell and left. I walked back to my room with my mind spinning. I spent some time with Trails reading, then I had to leave to go to a meeting in the real world (is it the real world? If it is does that mean that Trails who lives in Equestria Online is false?)

Afterwards; A Look Back, And A Look Ahead

Well, that was strange. I am not sure how much I trust Celestia's ability to model that far in the future. I don't mean that I distrust it, I mean I honestly don't know how much to trust it. Are her predictions the equivalent of prophesys? Or are they as useful as the five day weather forecast? I don't know enough to really feel comfortable making a guess.

I'm also sorry about putting this post up so late. I had a meeting that I had to go to and I didn't have a chance to write between logging out and going to the meeting. That means that unlike most posts, I had a couple hour delay between being in Equestria Online and writing it out. That means that I may have misremembered a few things, though I tried my hardest to get everything right.

Either way I'll see you guys tomorrow, hope some of you can help me make sense of this mess.

Relaxing With Trails

Replying To Comments Once Again, For Real This Time!

So one of the things that I have noticed is that I have gotten away from replying to notable comments up here. I'm going to take a few moments to rectify that because I am sure there are some people who are skipping the comments. Since there is some really though provoking questions and thoughts in them I want to make an official reply.

silvadel and Third Eye both don't believe that this will work out. They suggest that I will grow to love one more and then neglect the other, or end up causing jealousy. I want to say I completely share this fear. I worry about messing this up and hurting one or the other. I don't want to hurt people, and matters of the heart can cause some of the most devastation in a life.

That said I also think that if it worked, it could be a really nice thing. I have always viewed relationships as two people standing together, alone against the world. The thought of three, or even four sharing that close bond and working together and sharing love is something of a sirens call to me. I strongly suspect that such a bond is impossible to form, but on the other hand Celestia is telling me to go for it, and I believe that she is smarter than I am and has no nothing to gain from lying to me about this.

book_burner wondered about my friends on Earth, and if I hug them or not. The answer is that I only have two or three friends here on Earth, and that I don't hug them. This is partially due to my upbringing, and partially due to the fact that my mental state shifts a bit when I hug someone and I start to feel attracted to them. Unless they are family.

This is primary a mental thing, but it still means that I avoid hugging anyone who is not family and who I am not in a relationship with. I would also like to point out that my apartment does not allow animals, so even though I love cats I am not allowed to have one.

Despite all this however it has been over a year since my last relationship, so it's not like I desperately need physical contact either. Can survive quite well without hugs thank you very much. It's all about being able to distract yourself when you feel lonely. Anytime I feel like I need human contact, I can bring up a good book and sit and read till the feeling passes.

This does make me wonder if Celestia is right about me breaking up with Trails for lack of contact. Couldn't I just use my current methods that I use right now? Wouldn't that work? I have to wonder how well Celestia really knows me. All I can do is hope that she is right, and that this won't explode.

Where Absolutely Nothing Of Interest Happens At All

So I logged in and saw Forest Trails lying on my bed and reading a book. We exchanged hugs and spent a few minutes talking about our respective days. I found out that Forest Trails had saved a lost filly from falling over a cliff and she was feeling pretty good about that. I told Forest about how I had heard rumours that a prospecting job might come up soon.

After a while of talking I finally glanced at Trails, “Come on, we have to go do something.”

“Why, don't you enjoy just sitting here with me?” Forest asked with a raised eyebrow, though her twinkling eyes let me know she was joking.

“Oh, I am,” I agreed getting up off the bed, “But if we just sit here all night I'll have nothing to share with everyone else tonight. This means that we need to find something to do.”

“Don't worry about those guys,” Trails waved off my worries, “I'm sure they can live without hearing about drama in your life for one night.”

I shrugged, “I don't doubt that they could, but I enjoy telling them interesting stories about what I see and do here.”

“Make something up,” Forest Trails suggested, stretching out.

“What? No!” I said shocked, “That would be dishonest!”

“And it would mean a full evening where we could just spend time together,” Forest Trails examined me closely.

I looked down, “That would be nice, I admit. It's just I don't want to let them down.”

“Hmm,” Forest Trails concentrated in thought for a moment before brightening up, “How about this; you tell them that you just wanted to spend time with me, and instead write about something they don't know about Equestria?”

“That...” I trailed off, “Yeah, that could work.” I had an idea and grinned, “I even know exactly what I want to talk about too. No one has asked about it, but this will give me an excuse to talk about it.”

Forest Trails grinned, “Excellent, now come back here. I believe I was telling you how romantic it is to be have a candlelight dinner in the middle of the Everfree Forest.”

“Yeah, no,” I disagreed, “I believe I was pointing out how dangerous that would be.”

We ended up just lying together talking. Nothing that I think was particularly interesting came up, we mostly just shared stories of growing up. For instance I found out that Forest Trails had a strange fondness for giant spiders and would often sneak off to try to find one and pet it when she was a young filly.

Just a little bit strange honestly.

Just a bit.

I told her about how my first job prospecting had gone. We had ended up in the Rockies during the wettest year on record. Forty four days of rain with no sign of the sun. It was a terrible job but it made me able to look at any situation since and say that I had seen worse. It got me through some jobs where the conditions were atrocious.

Finally the conversation came back around to Quick Search. Forest Trails looked at me and asked if I had visited her yet.

“No, not yet. I probably will wait till the next meeting of the Writers Guild before I talk with her,” I replied.

Forest Trails gave me a look that spoke volumes on what she thought of that plan, “So you're procrastinating?”

“What? No!” I said, defending myself, “There just isn't any good chance to go visit her before then.”

“Treasure Island,” Trails said as if explaining to a foal, “Shining Halo went and told Quick Search that she had found a good Stallion for her to meet and date. She went off and did that yesterday. Right now Quick search is waiting for you to get in touch with her, and wondering why you aren't. Do you want to be that kind of stallion?”

“No!” I asserted, “Of course not! But I don't know her number, or her last name, so there is no easy way for me to contact her before then.”

“Really..?” Forest Trails asked skeptically.

“Yes!” I confirmed.

“Hmm...” she hummed as she stared at me searchingly, “Well, I suppose that I'll just have to find a way around that.”

“Oh?” I asked, suddenly feeling worried.

Forest Trails nodded, “Yeah, I'll talk to Shining Halo and get her to meet you tomorrow out at the Laissez–Faire.”

“The what now?” I asked confused.

“The restaurant where we usually eat,” Forest Trails clarified.

“Oh,” I said feeling nervous but a bit excited too, “If you think it won't cause too many problems.”

“It will cause fewer than if I let you procrastinate,” Trails pointed out.

I sighed and agreed. Our conversation turned to other things again. That said I still felt butterflies in my stomach at the thought of going on a date with a human girl. It made me wonder if there was something wrong with me. I hadn't felt so worried over dating Trails. It had just happened and not too much had changed between us.

Eventually Forest and I ended up in a comfortable silence as she was looking for a spot in her her book to show me, so I set the pad by the computer and started typing this up.

Why Do I Use So Many Words When Only One Is Needed For These Headers?

So I want to spend some time talking about hoof ball tonight. I figure that there are a lot of different variations between the different shards, but I find the one in my shard rather interesting and want to tell people about it.

The first thing about it is that it is a tiny bit like American football. The game is divided into plays, and each team sets up before them. Each play starts when the ball leaves it's starting point on the field, and each play ends when the pony holding the ball is either restrained, or is tackled to the turf. On the other hand that is where the relationship with American football ends.

Each team is made up of three unicorns, three pegasi and three earth ponies. The pegasi are allowed to fly, and the unicorns are allowed to use magic. The goal of the game is to hold onto the ball for as long as possible, and after each play, possession of the ball switches.

The rules that make it hard to hold onto the ball are as follows; you are only allowed to move the ball backwards once per play. Furthermore this one time must be a toss and cannot be controlled with magic. This means that someone like twilight can't take the ball and float it backwards slowly.

The second rule is that you are only allowed to hold onto the ball for nine seconds before you have to pass it to another pony of a different race. This means that pegasi have to stay close enough to the ground to pass it back to the unicorns or the earth ponies. An addendum to this rule is that you can't pass it back and forth between any two races more than twice each way. This means that for a good play all three races have to touch the ball.

The third major rule is that if the ball is intercepted by the other team, the team that intercepted it gains nine seconds of time, and the play ends. From what I heard this actually happens quite a bit.

The final major rule is that you can't go more than fifty yards forward. After you pass the fifty yard line from where the ball was scrimmaged the play is over and the team that crossed the line is docked a full nine seconds. This makes for some interesting play if a team finds itself next to the line.

Those are the major rules, though there are minor ones, like the ball can go back if it is just the pony switching how they hold the ball, though this exemption does not apply to the unicorns. The unicorns however have the unique option of being able to restrain a pony with their magic. If they can hold a pony still with their magic for three seconds, the play ends.

All in all it is a fairly simple set of rules. The real cool things to watch are how the teams use the different rules to hold on to the ball. That said I haven't actually gotten to see a game yet. I've only heard the rules described to me by Winding Trails.

I'm going to have to go see a game and tell you guys about it aren't I?

Still Alive

Still alive

Well that could have gone better.

I suppose it could have gone worse too. I mean I did get a free ride and it seems like Quick Search is okay. That's always good. Shame about dinner though. At least I get to find out why people do drugs. It really does make the pain go away.

Oh, yeah. Thanks Trails

So yeah, Quick Search texted me today, and we set up a meeting outside of Equestria. Oh... huh. It won't let me talk about where I come from. Oh well, at least I have this.

Sorry

Anyway so we texted and I offered to take Quick Search out for dinner. I thought it sounded like a good idea. We could meet and talk, and get to know each other. Do whatever people do on first dates. Maybe even end with a hug if it worked out, or just be friends if it didn't.

You know, the usual stuff.

Didn't quite work out. I wonder if they'll let me keep the knife?

Sorry, am I wandering again Trails? Bleh, I'm having a hard time thinking.

So anyway, I showed up early to the restaurant. I always have for dates. Sometimes if I have nothing to do I'll show up really early, up to an hour. If there is nothing to do I'll just sit there and read stories on my Iphone. It's a good way to pass the time, and it lets me calm down.

So anyway, I was just sitting their looking at my phone and glancing up occasionally when I saw Quick Search pull into the parking lot. I put my phone away and was just about to step outside when I saw a guy go up to the door of her car and pull it open. I didn't want to cause problems so I hesitated for a moment to see if this was family or something.

It wasn't.

Did you know that stallions can get really upset when what they perceive to be their mare goes out and finds a new colt friend? Did you know that some stallions perceive a mare to be theirs even months after a breakup? Did you know that they sometimes get violent?

If you did, you are smarter than I am.

But don't worry, because I am not ignorant of this fact anymore! I got to learn something new tonight! Yay!

So anyway, I saw that the stallion obviously was yelling at Quick Search so I went outside to stop him. I figured that I would show up and then it would be a two on one so he would leave. So I walked up to him and said something like, “Hey, leave her alone.”

Then of course he turned to me and told me to, “Mind your own business. This doesn't concern you.” Something like that.

So I cross my arms, put on my best glare and go, “Considering that Quick Search was coming to see me I think it does.”

Quick Search I mean. No Quick Search. Ah, you are probably right Trails, she wouldn't want her name out for everyone to see. Sorry, I'm not thinking so well.

So anyway the stallions face went all hard and he turned to face me and swore at me a few times. I ignored this because really swearing is something that happens when you can't think properly. Then all of a sudden he took a step forward and said “I'm going show you what it means to be a real man you-”

Um, I don't think I'll transcribe the rest of that.

We were about the same size, and I am wearing my leather jacket and so I laughed at him, “You really are going to fight me over this? What's the matter, can't find any other mares that will put up with you?”

I think this might have been a mistake in retrospect. I wasn't thinking clearly though, and I wanted to show him what a real insult was like. I seem to remember seeing his face go dark right then and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. I would like to say that it was really big, but it wasn't. It was probably no bigger than your average steak knife. The Stallion, whose name I still don't know, swore at me again.

I of course took a step back. I really hadn't expected him to do something like this. Even now I don't know what he was thinking. He probably could have taken me in a fight, so the knife was just overkill. I don't think that he was a sociopath or anything.

Huh, I think the last round of pain meds are starting to wear off, I'm a little less giddy, and a little more sore.

Anyway, I took a step back, and Quick Search reached out and grabbed the stallion's hoof that wasn't holding the knife, “Don't do this!” she said, sounding worried and scared.

And then the stallion punched her hard. Her head hit the dashboard of the car, and she cried out in pain. I remember seeing her clutch at her face, and I remember losing all fear.

I don't remember much after that.

I'm pretty sure I rushed him.

I'm pretty sure he tried to slash at me, but my leather jacket is pretty tough and he didn't cut through it.

I remember punching him in the face.

Somewhere along the line we fell to the ground. He was on top, but I managed to push him off. I remember feeling a bit sluggish, like my lower body didn't want to move. I noticed that he no longer had the knife and managed to stumble to my feet before he did. He looked at me and then climbed to his feet and took off running.

I remember feeling relief flooding through me, and then I remember the numbing pain that started to spread from my stomach.

I remember looking down and seeing that the knife had gone through my jacket and into my gut.

Oddly enough this was when things snapped back into focus. I turned to Quick Search and said in as upbeat a tone as I could, “You know, we should probably go to the hospital before I die. Would you mind driving?”

Quick went over to me and I saw that she had a can of mace. She walked over to me, “Are you okay?” She asked.

“I'd be much better if I didn't have a knife in me,” I replied keeping my upbeat tone. It is a defensive mechanism I have to stop from panicking in case you are wondering. I find that by pretending to be upbeat and happy, I can actually keep myself calm. It works really well. Despite that I could feel my legs starting to give way, and I leaned against Quick Search's car.

Quick Search's blood drained from her face, “Just a second, I'll help you in.” She did so, and I was careful not to move the knife. I knew bad things could happen if I did that.

I don't remember much of the drive. The pain started to get worse and I was focusing on keeping my strength for when we got to the hospital. Maybe it wasn't a smart thing to do, but when we got to the emergency entrance I got out and walked in despite Quick's protesting. She opened the doors for me and I checked in.

All of a sudden I found myself being lifted onto a stretcher and my jacket being cut open so some nurses could stick an IV into me. I saw them put some type of drug into the IV, and after a few minutes the pain started to go away. While this was going on some mounties showed up and started asking me what had happened. I tried to tell them as honestly as I could, but I'm not sure how good a job I did.

Things really blur at this point. I think I went in for surgery. I'm honestly not sure. All I know is that I woke up a while ago and managed to convince a nurse to let me borrow their pony pad. I called one of my friends and they will bring me my pad later I think. I'm also not sure where my phone ended up in all the confusion either.

Sorry, here comes a nurse and I think she's going to give me another dose of morphine. I'd better stop here for now.

Hey Forest? Could you write something down for the visitors that read this? You're more coherent than I am right now.

Note from Forest Trails

My Treasure was badly wounded tonight. I am worried for him. What he didn't say was that he is in a lot of pain, even with the medication he is getting. Celestia has told me that it will be alright, and I believe her. I do however have this fear that the stallion that did this might come back to finish the job, and there would be nothing Celestia or I could do to stop it.

It is strange, in the stories I read when a stallion gets hurt protecting a mare it is always portrayed as romantic. I can't see the romance in this right now. All I can do is hope that he will be okay, and wonder why such a terrible thing happened.

I am sorry. I can't do this right now. I am too worried to write the type of endings my Treasure does. I'm going to end this here, and then go speak with Celestia again. Maybe I'll ask to see Quick Search and talk about what happened. I want to know as much as I can about what happened tonight.

Sincerely,
Forest Trails

Is This Right?

I hope this works. My Treasure was called away in the middle of writing so I'm sending this instead and hoping that it gets to the right place
Forest Trails

Talking About The Tragedies Of Forgetting Your Cell Phone Charger (And Other Things)

So among other things that happened I ended up forgetting to ask my friend to pick up my phone charger. This meant that when I woke up this morning my phone was dead. I ended up sitting being bored until noon, when my friend showed up with my pony pad, and without the charger for it, or my phone.

The upside is that it seems that the pad has a full charge, and he told me that he would bring my chargers by tomorrow. In case anyone no he is not a brony. We do share an interest in games though, and every now an then we get together for an evening of racing games and tabletop RPGs. He thinks I'm joking when I try to tell him how awesome Equestria Online is, and tries to tell me that it is a show for little girls and I should stop watching it and taking it so seriously.

Considering that my fillyfriend lives in Equestria that isn't going to happen.

I want to also note that I am in a decent amount of pain today. Once I gathered my wits this morning I convinced (through arguing with every nurse that tried) the hospital to take me off of morphine and instead to leave me on light pain killers like Advil. I hated the murky feeling in my head that I had when I was on morphine, and normally wouldn't take any painkillers at all. That said my stomach really hurts, so I don't think a little Advil will kill me.

And before anyone says I am insane for refusing heavy pain medication, keep in mind that I have a very high pain tolerance and have gone through multiple broken bones never taking a painkiller once. I have a fairly high pain tolerance, so I'm dealing fairly well right now even with only Advil.

Now if only the cravings I've been getting for more morphine would stop. Oh addictive substances, how I loath thee.

So one of the first things I did once I got my pad was I went and had a nice long talk with Celestia about accessing the comments on the Let's Play and removing restrictions on what I can write down, because I want to be able to talk about what is happening on Earth without people getting confused. After a bit of discussion she agreed, so the good news is that I can now check out your replies from my pad and respond.

The bad news is that she wouldn't give me the rest of the internet stating that if I had it I would spend my time browsing the net instead of spending time with Forest Trails and everypony else. I am a little ashamed to admit that she might have been right on that part. I do have a tendency to read too much. This does mean I'll probably be spending a lot more time in Equestria for the next little while.

Still, is that a bad thing?

Visitors That I Had Today

So I had a couple people come to see me today. This morning after my second round of surgery a couple mounties showed up and wanted to talk to me some more. I told them what I could and filled them in where I had left out details the night before. It was fairly boring, with them asking the same question multiple times in different ways. I understand why they did it, but it was still tedious.

What wasn't tedious was when they told me that they had a suspect in custody and that when I was able to move I would have to go down and identify him in a line up. I feel better knowing that he is currently in custody. I know it is a bit silly, but knowing that there was a guy out their who was willing to stab me was a little bit worrying.

This afternoon Quick Search stopped by. She apologized several times to me for what seemed like everything. I never realized how uncomfortable it was to have someone feeling really guilty over something bad that happened to you. I eventually had to ask her to stop, and thankfully she did. I found out that she had already been called in because she was a witness and had been spending the afternoon giving testimony.

Then she revealed that she had brought me supper. Mashed potatoes, roast beef with gravy, and peas on the side. It was really good, and as we ate together we started talking about this Let's Play I've been writing. She seemed interested and started sharing her stories about what was happening in Equestria. Apparently she plays as a pegasus and she does part time work at a post office.

Then the conversation turned back to my writing of the let's play, and this exchange occurred;

Quick Search was looking at me with surprise, “So you actually told everyone that you were dating a pony?”

“E'yup,” I replied, “Forest Trails doesn't mind, and I think that in the future accounts of the first human SI relationships will be important for historians.”

Quick Search studied me, “Really?”

“Well, the support I get from the guys online helps too,” I replied, “They have helped me work though some problems I have had, and given my insights into things I would have missed otherwise.”

“Doesn't it feel strange to put such personal things online?” Quick Search asked.

“It does on occasion,” I admitted, “But I am anonymous and no one can find out about what I am doing unless someone tells them. It's actually kind of a relief to be able to share what I'm going through with the world and see that they don't despise me for who I am.”

Quick Search nodded, “I guess I can see that,” she paused in thought then smiled, “That actually sounds rather fun.”

“It is,” I replied and then was struck with an idea, “Why don't you join me?”

“Hmm?” Quick Search questioned.

“I'm going to be stuck in the hospital for the next while, and it isn't easy to do proper posts using the pony pad, I could give you access to my account and you could try writing things down. I think you'd like the guys their. They are pretty nice.”

“Are you suggesting that I start my own Let's Play?” Quick Search asked.

“I was thinking that I could just write down your thoughts on how things are going in the game,” I shrugged, “It wouldn't have to be anything deep, and I know the people that are following the Let's Play would be interested to here from you.”

“Really?” Quick Search looked interested, “I guess I could. You aren't worried that I'll wreck your account?”

“If Celestia says your cool, you're cool.” I laughed feeling sheepish, “I may trust her a bit too much.”

“Well, that is okay too,” Quick Search replied smiling, “She is a pretty good judge of character.”

We hammered out the details and Quick Search said that she would send me whatever she had written and I would add it into my daily post. She seemed interested in the idea and was curious to see what I had written. When we were done eating she took the plates and headed off home, though she promised come back tomorrow.

And now I am worrying about what she will think about me from my posts. I hope she doesn't find me too weird.

No, I have to trust that the best SI on the planet is able to play matchmaker.

Forest Trails Addendum

At this point my Treasure told me that he had to go because a doctor was their to see him. That was four hours ago, and I don't think that he is going to be finishing this tonight. I talked with Celestia and she told me that he had been moved and that all of his stuff had gotten left behind. Apparently he fell asleep shortly after he was moved. He seemed pretty tired from the events of last night.

I am going to put this up for him, and hope that I can see him tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Forest Trails

Yesterdays News

Where I Apologize For Yesterday And Talk About Where I See This Let's Play Going

So yeah, they needed to move me yesterday and then they gave me some new pain meds (Tylenol threes) which knocked down the pain and I kinda passed out. I feel pretty bad for that. I didn't even get to tell you what I had done in Equestria Online, which really is the whole point of these posts. So sorry guys, my bad.

The other thing that I wanted to address before I covered what I've been doing for the last few days is where I see the Let's Play going in the future. I am bringing Quick Search and Forest Trails both on as co-writers of this Let's Play. From here on I am going to put in something written by each of them each day into my posts. It might not always be much, but there should be something.

Why would I do this?

Because I want to have different perspectives out there on what is happening in my shard of Equestria. I want to share these different perspectives with the people reading this. I feel this is important because while I could just copy down what they say, I would probably get thing wrong, and I want their views to come through clean.

One of the more interesting things that I have found doing this Let's Play was that often the readers have pointed out things that I have never thought of. I think that if I give the readers more information, we might end up with even better insights and discussions. The more knowledge that we share the more likely we are to find answers as we go forward into this bold new futures of SIs.

Also I might be a tad bit lazy and wanting to cut down on the amount of writing that I do each night while I'm in the hospital. I can actually type faster than I can speak, can you believe it? So using the Pony Pad is actually a bit slower than typing.

Sigh

So What Have I Been Doing In Equestria The Last Few Days?

So I got my Pony Pad yesterday around noon and logged in. I found myself in my room, with no other ponies to be seen anywhere. I headed out and walked over to the Trails' house. I figured that after getting stabbed Forest Trails might be a bit worried about me. It was noon as I walked through the forest, which was rather interesting as I usually showed up in the afternoon.

When I was only a few minutes away from the house Forest Trails stepped onto the path I was following and rushed over to me and gave me a hug, “My Treasure!” She exclaimed as she through her legs around me, “Is it ever good to see that you're still okay.”

“Oh, you know me,” I said with a bit of a laugh, “I'll be fine.”

Trails examined my face closely, “You're hurting worse than you were last night.”

“I got them to cut back on the painkillers a bit,” I replied. “I prefer to be in a bit of pain and be lucid.”

“A bit of pain?” Trails raised her eyebrow.

“It's not the worst I've ever had,” I replied shrugging, “That said talking about it makes it harder to ignore, so could we please...?” I trailed off.

“Okay then,” Trails agreed, “So are you going to live? Did they catch the pony that did this to you?”

“Yes to both,” I confirmed, “Or at least they have a suspect in custody. That said I think that Quick Search could tell them who it was so it shouldn't be hard for them to catch him.”

“That's a relief,” Trails said holding me, “I don't want him coming after you again.”

“Relax, I'm fine” I replied trying to laugh but Trails just narrowed her gaze a little at me, “Okay, I'm not perfectly healthy, but I'm alive, and he is going to jail. Really, it's just how life is.”

“I don't think I would like to see where you come from if this is common,” Forest Trails said her ears laying flat against her head.

I realized that I had made a slight mistake, “Well, okay, this is not very normal. But even here bad luck can happen right?”

“I guess,” Forest Trails said looking at the ground and pulling back, “But it is very rare, and that's one of the reasons that I do what I do. I want to make sure it happens as seldom as possible. I don't like being unable to do anything.”

“Have faith in me,” I said drawing her back into a hug, “I've taken care of myself for my whole life and haven't died yet. I know what I'm doing, or at least can fake it well enough to muddle along. Now why don't you show me your forest? I think it's called the Forest of Light?”

We disentangled, and Trails nodded. She took the lead and started to show me her forest. As strange as it might sound we spent most of the rest of the afternoon just walking through the forest together sharing stories. It was when Forest was telling me a tale of how she had once had to save a family from some timber wolves that I realized that it might not be a bad idea for her to share her experiences with everyone else. She lives a life that we can only peek at through a screen for a short time.

It was around then that Quick Search showed up and I ended up logging off for supper. Forest Trails and I said our farewells and I made sure that I made it back to my room in Canterlot. I didn't want to log back in only to find that I was about to get stepped on by some type of monster or other, though Forest Trails told me that most seldom entered the Forest of Light.

I already shared how my time with Quick Search went, so I'll skip over that to when I logged back in. Trails was back in my room reading a book, and I greeted her. Then I mentioned that I would be writing about my day while in Equestria, but first that I wanted to talk to Celestia about some the censorship. Trails was hesitant to let me out of her sight, so she tagged along.

We walked into the throne room and found Celestia writing something down on a scroll. She was sitting down on her throne for the first time since I had seen her and her face was serious as she finished the letter and sent it off with a burst of light. I decided for to wait for her to speak first.

I didn't wait long. “Treasure Island, Forest Trails, what brings you here?”

“I was wondering,” I replied, “if you could set it up so that I could browse the internet on my Pony Pad?”

“I'm sorry Treasure Island, but I can't allow that,” Celestia answered me. “If I did you would spend all your time looking up information online instead of relaxing,”

I looked down fearing that she might be right. Finally I gathered my thoughts and looked back up, “Could you at least let me read and reply to the comments on my Let's Play? I wouldn't waste all my time doing that.”

“That,” Celestia started, then paused to think, “That I could allow. I'll make it so that every comment on your 'Let's Play,'” she said the name with a bit of distaste, “will show up in your room as a letter so that you can see them. Would that be suitable?”

“I... I guess so,” I stuttered, surprised that she had given in so easily, and curious why she didn't like the term 'Let's Play.'

“Treasure Island?” Celestia broke me out of my thoughts with a warm and gentle voice as she got up and walked over to me.

“Yes?” I answered a bit uncertainly.

“I am very glad to see that you are all right. I was worried for you when I heard what had happened. I am glad to see that you are all right.” She stopped in front of me, “What you did last night was very brave. In my eyes you are a true hero, and I won't ever forget what you have done. If you ever need anything, ask and I will do my best to be there for you.”

I felt a warm glow flow through me and I struggled to say something in return. Unfortunately my subconscious betrayed me, “Anything except internet access?”

“I won't help you in hurting yourself Treasure Island. Even if you want to.” Celestia said with mirth in her voice.

“Then...” I paused thinking, curious to how sincere she was, “Could you call me Susland? It is something of a second name to me, and it is just a contraction of the one that you gave me.”

Celestia thought about it for a while before smiling and nodding, “This I can do for you Susland.”

I did a little happy dance mentally, “Thank you. If you'll excuse us though, I have to go let everyone know what's going on.”

“One last thing before you go,” Celestia stopped me before I could leave, “I know you don't like painkillers, but maybe you should try taking some stronger ones tonight. It will help you sleep better. It isn't good for your body to go without rest.”

“I'll think about it,” I replied.

Celestia smiled at me once more, “That is all I ask Susland.”

I nodded and left, and Trails quickly took the lead and navigated us though the crowds that were making their way home from dinner. She looked over at me, “I think what you did was very brave too My Treasure. Foolish, but brave.”

I laughed, and we made our way back to my room where I sat down and wrote the events from yesterday.

About The Events That Actually Happened Today

I don't think I'm going to give a blow by blow of what happened today. It is getting late, and I am starting to get tired. Something about being injured makes my body need more sleep. It is a bit annoying, but it has to be. Actually, I have an idea. I'll make a post tomorrow morning that detailed what happened yesterday, on top of my normal one at night.

Goodness sakes, it's not like I'm doing anything else right now.

Anyway I just got Quick Search's message, so I'm going to stick it on the end here and send it off. I figure that it is better if I don't read anything before I send it, because that means I am not tempted to censor anything, or change what I have written to make our stories fit.

Quick Search's Addendum

Quick Search first arrived in Equestria two months ago. After meeting the monarch of Equestria she set off to find her way in the world, and promptly got lost.

She knew where she was, she was in Canterlot, and she had heard about it before, but she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Her first thought was to head to Ponyville to try and make new friends their, but she wasn't sure if that would be proper. After all, the ponies in Ponyville were celebrities and would surely have many others wanting to meet them.

Rather than face the crowds that were sure to be there, she instead spent the next few days getting to know the ponies of Canterlot before one day running into a mare by the name of Shining Halo. The two of them hit it off, and soon they both headed out to a small town called Whinnypeg. There she joined the postal service for outlying areas and soon she spent her days flying mail out to ponies all over the country.

Shortly after she moved to Whinnypeg, Quick Search had been rather surprised to find out that there were churches in Equestria that worshiped the same God that she did and had gone to see for herself. The Stallion running the church had welcomed her and they had hit it off. His name was Guiding Light, and he shared his views on God with her. Eventually she ended up visiting almost every day to discuss how things were going in her life outside of Equestria, and they became close friends.

She soon bought a small cottage their where she spent her off hours entertaining guests. She soon had made several friends in the town and around it. Her closest two friends however were Shining Halo, and Guiding Light. The three of them would often spend time together talking about a pony's place in the world, and about religious matters.

This brings us to the start of our story, which I shall begin next time.

Yesterdays News - Part 2

Where I Talk About What Happened Yesterday, For A Second Time In A Row!

So Yesterday the first thing that I did when I woke up was I logged into Equestria online and found myself in my bedroom in Canterlot with Forest Trails sleeping across from me. I got out of bed and tried to work out what had happened. I hadn't made my pony go to bed, because I had been expecting to go back to it once I had finished moving.

After a bit of thinking I came to two possible conclusions; the first of which was that Equestria Online recognized that I had been away from the Pad for a while and had move my pony into bed as a way to represent that I was no longer playing. A visual way of showing that I was away from the pad. The other idea was that since I had logged in early in the morning it had decided that my pony would just be getting out of bed.

That answered what I had been doing in bed, but what was Forest Trails doing there? I decided to ask Forest Trails when she woke up and went to make her some coffee. Now I personally don't drink coffee but my father had so I had learned to make it growing up. I put some water on to boil in the kitchen area that connected to my bedroom, while I went about searching for some coffee.

I had never spent much time in the kitchen area, and hadn't even noticed it till a few days ago. I presumed that it had come into existence because Forest Trails spent so many evenings with me and had wanted a place to cook her own meals. I didn't mind, and I suddenly appreciated having it around. Moments like this were something I had missed ever since I had moved out on my own.

As I finished the coffee Forest Trails stumbled into the kitchen and made her way over to me. “Is that coffee I smell?” she asked me, perking up a little.

“Yes it is,” I confirmed pouring a her a cup and handing it to her.

She took a long drink and then gave me a hug, “My Treasure.”

I returned the hug, “So what is the plan for today?”

“I have would normally have a few patrols to do in the Forest of Light, but I've asked my parents to look after them for the next little while,” Forest Replied. “I'm taking some time off to be with you while you recover.”

“I don't want to cause you any trouble, you-” I started but forest trails stopped me.

“I want to be with you, my Treasure,” She said with a smile, “And as worried as I was for you, I know that this will be the most time we will have to spend together. You'll be spending most of your time visiting Equestria while your in the hospital won't you?”

“I suppose so,” I suddenly had an idea that made me smile, “Yeah, let's treat this like a vacation! Grab your stuff, we are going to take a road trip!” I paused thinking, “Of sorts anyway. Where we're going, we don't need roads.”

Trails laughed, “Sounds fun, but if you don't mind, I'm going to finish this coffee first.”

“Go ahead,” I said grinning, “I've got some pony to see and plans to make.”

Forest Trails gave me one last hug and I headed out. My first stop of the day was Free Breeze. His store was open and he was downstairs. I greeted him and then asked him if he had any recommendations on what I should take for a road trip where we would be planning to camp. I knew what I would have used on Earth, but not in Equestria and I wanted an experts advice.

It turned out a lot of stuff was the same; a tent, some type of sleeping bag, food, water, and all the rest of the basics. The really interesting thing was that there were a lot of little cheats that I could get away with. For instance when I asked him about toilet paper he just looked at me like I was confused. It turns out you don't need to... uh... Do 'that' in Equestria.

After I was done getting a list of things that I would need I asked him if he would be willing to use his spell that sent us to a random place on Forest and I. He agreed, and we discussed prices, I ended up agreeing to grab a camera and take pictures of some of the places that we passed, along with mark their locations on a map so that he could find the interesting ones and do more mapping of them.

We said our farewells and I went off to a store to get a pair of saddlebags, and the rest of the equipment that Forest and I would need. As I walked I took a moment to enjoy the surroundings, I had spent a lot of time in my room with Forest Trails recently, and had started to forget how beautiful Canterlot actually was. I even stopped to help a kid with a kite he was flying in the main plaza when it had nearly gotten away from him.

It took a while, but eventually I managed to get everything that we needed, and managed to stuff it all into my saddlebags. Now that was tricky, because there seemed to be a lot of ponies around and it was hard to find a spot where I could be on my own. I did find that I was getting faster at folding the items down so that they would fit though. It was really good practice.

I also decided that it might not be a bad idea to put some of the items such as food and water into my personal claudication just in case something happened because you never know. I suppose I should mention that the reason that I didn't just put everything in my personal claudication was because it wasn't big enough to hold everything especially the tents. It takes more talent to make the amount of room you have in a claudication bigger, and for now it's current size was the best I could do.

And in case you are wondering, a personal claudication is folded space that is attached to a pony. It is completely invisible, and has no weight, but it requires a bit of power to stay open leaving less for doing other things. It is also easier to pull thing out of saddlebags, than it is to pull them out of thin air when you are an earth pony. That said it is still incredibly useful.

After I had gotten everything together I went looking for Forest Trails, but was unable to find her. She wasn't in my room, or in the library. I even checked the restaurant where we normally eat before I finally realized that she might have headed home to talk with her parents or to the mayor of Canterlot to let her know that she wouldn't be around for the next few days. Rather than chase her down, I found a good back alley and folded myself across to the cave that Young Jim Hawkins was staying in.

It was massive, and I spotted Jim Hawkins relaxing in the nest he had made for himself. I was once again struck by how massive he was. He felt it across the link and was amused. He spent the next while showing me around his cave. I think the thing that impressed me the most about it was when he showed me that he had managed to carve out a tube with his claws and had managed to make a hots spring big enough for him to wash in.

It's a bit intimidating to thing that those claws of his can cut through stone. Just a little.

After he showed me around I told him about my plan and asked if he wanted to come along. I had been banking on him saying yes, and he did agree to come with Forest Trails and I. He thought that it sounded like fun. He even agreed to carry us on his back if we ended up too far away from Canterlot.

We agreed to meet when Forest Trails showed up and I folded myself back up to Canterlot. I didn't see Forest Trails around anywhere so I grabbed a seat at what I was starting to think of as our restaurant, and started eating lunch.

At this point I had to log off because my friend came back and he had brought me the cables for charging my phone and Pony Pad. He laughed at me a bit about wasting my time on a game for little girls, and I went along with it. We had lunch together, and soon enough he left and let me get back to Equestria.

I logged in and fond Treasure Island just finishing up his meal. As I finished eating (both in real life and in the game, though hospital food isn't the greatest), Forest Trails came trotting up, “There you are. I take it you've managed to get things ready on your end?”

I nodded, “I've got everything that we will need. How about you, did you let everyone know what was going on?”

“I did,” Trails confirmed, “So where are we going?”

I laughed and told her that I didn't know. She was a bit confused till I explained what my plan was. She seemed to like the idea, and we headed back to Free Breeze's shop and told him we were ready. I gave him the coordinates of Young Jim Hawkins cave and he teleported the three of us there. He got the three of us to gather in a group together, and then cast his spell.

A flash of light later and we were sitting in the middle of a desert. Forest Trails looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged, and walked to the top of the dune that was in front of us. I could see far below us down to a jungle far below. The jungle itself was surrounded an all sides by walls of sand, and I could see some sort of temple in the middle.

I beckoned Trails to come and see and we both stared down at it for a few moments before she turned to me with a grin, “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

“Let's do a little exploring before we start heading back!” I said. With that we headed down into the jungle, and towards the strange temple in the middle. Young Jim Hawkins took off behind us and flew out over the Jungle exploring the new area we had found ourselves in.

A Quick Wrap Up Of What Happened Yesterday

So that was pretty much it for major things that we did yesterday. We didn't make it all the way to the temple, but we are pretty close. We camped for the night and I wrote last nights post, and then this morning after spending time with the doctors I logged in and wrote this up. I'm going to go eat lunch, and then we are off to explore the temple itself.

And I'm just now realizing that I didn't get a picture from the top of the sand dunes. Oh well, I'll get it on the way out of this jungle. I wonder what is inside the temple, anything that I should watch out for? Actually never mind, but the time I get your messages I'll already be inside. I'm so excited.

Wish me luck!

Yesterdays News - Final

Skipping The Normal Introduction And Going Straight To Exploring Tombs

So I logged in and found myself in the camp that Forest Trails and I had set up the day before, and where I had written the previous days entry. I left the tent and found Forest Trails finishing up lunch. The jungle above us was so thick that no direct sun shone down on us, instead the light filtered through the leaves in a defuse pattern.

Forest Trails put her her dish down when she saw me. “So did you manage to get everything done that you needed to?” she asked.

I nodded, “Yup. On of my friends stopped by and dropped off some stuff so that I wouldn't suddenly be forced to leave because my Pad ran out of power.”

“Good, let's get this camp packed up,” Trails looked at me with excitement, “I don't want to wait to see what is in that temple any longer!”

I started taking down the tent, “Did you get some scouting done?”

Behind me I heard trails packing up the dishes, “Yes I did. We aren't too far away, but we're going to have to take a detour if we want to actually make it to the temple.”

“Oh?” I asked.

“Yeah, turns out that space near the temple is really heavily folded and even getting there from here would be hard. I think it might be tied to weather up there, but I'm not sure. Either way while it is easy to see the temple, getting there is actually really hard.” I heard her voice get a little smug, “So it's probably a good thing you are with someone who is a specialist at finding paths to places.”

I chuckled, “Right, so what to do we have to do to get in, oh mighty pathfinder?”

“We're actually going to have to circle around and head in from the west. The entrance has been moving around all day, and I think that it is tied to where the sun is. This morning we could have gotten in from the east,” Trails explained, “And don't laugh, I nearly got a head ache trying to make sense of this place.” She stopped talking and we worked in silence for a few minutes before she spoke up again, “And don't try folding shortcuts around here.”

“Why not?” I questioned.

“I tried to do it earlier, and I ended up about half a mile away,” Trails told me, “In completely the wrong direction. I think this place is set up to mess with anyone who doesn't have the patience to walk.”

I nodded to show that I understood, and we finished striking camp. Forest Trails took the lead as we walked through the jungle. As we walked we talked and I enjoyed the surroundings. Sometimes we were far beneath the trees, but other times we would come to a gorge and would have to find a fallen tree to cross on. Other times we would pass through a thicket and come out walking along a branch high above the trees, and I could see the temple in the distance seemingly mocking our inability to get to it.

Finally we arrived at the temple. Unlike the ruins that I had seen previously, the temple didn't look half wrecked, in fact it seemed far newer than it should have. No trees grew near it, and the temple itself shone as if it were made of gold. Far up near the top I could see a large jewel shining in the midday light.

The strange thing was that there didn't appear to be an entrance. Forest Trails and I walked around the outside a few times checking to make sure we weren't missing anything. The only part of the temple that seemed different was a section of the wall that was just big enough to put a hoof into, which both Trails and I viewed with suspicion.

The first thing we tried was getting a stick and poking the hole, and I was very glad that we did. There was the sound of metal, and the stick got chopped in half cleanly. Realizing that that wasn't the answer we tried to think of other ways to get in. Trying to map the area was next to useless, so folding our way inside wasn't an answer, and there didn't seem to be any way to climb the outside to try to find a way inside from the top.

Finally as I was laying on the grass looking up at the clouds the answer struck me. A sunbeam poked out of the waving leaves and struck me right in the eye. I was reminded of what Trails had said about how the Temple seemed to need to be entered by a different side depending on where the sun was. I reached into my personal claudication, which thankfully hadn't been been disrupted by the folded space we had been walking through, and pulled out a mirror that I had grabbed at the suggestion of Free Breeze.

I took the mirror and reflected the sunlight into the hole in the wall. Suddenly what had appeared to be a stone walkway around the outside started to sink into the ground making a staircase down. Forest Trails had been standing on one and gave an adorable little yelp and scrambled to safety and I couldn't help but smile, though I made sure to hide it before Trails could spot my smirk.

After some discussion, where I pointed out that I couldn't actually get hurt, I took the lead as we entered the temple. I lit a torch, and carried it in my mouth to light the way. I made sure to watch the ground for tripwires or pressure plates. Trails on the other hand was excited pointing out the pictographs on the walls and making guesses what they talked about.

The passageway had quite a few corners in it, and after we had gone right five times in a row without a change of elevation I sent out a burst of power to see if I could figure out how the space was folding. The result was not what I had expected. We were walking in a pathway that was a square with no ways in or out that I could see. I mentioned it to Trails and she confirmed it.

My first thought was that the temple was messing with how I projected my powers, so Forest and I split up to see what was going on. Two corners later we met up again. I decided to see if I could map through the ground instead of along it so I sat down and started pushing my power into the surrounding walls. It was slow going because I if I pushed my power out too far in all directions it became too diffused to be useful for mapping.

Forest Trails meanwhile had started going though the pictographs again. All of a sudden she excitedly ran over to me and showed me a set that showed a group of ponies walking through a passageway. The one beside it showed them putting out their torches, and the one after that showed them arriving in some sort of room.

I felt like hitting myself in the head. It was about light again. I mentally switched gears and agreed with Forest Trails when she joking told me that she was the smartest pony I would ever meet.

We extinguished our torches and walked along in the dark together. Eventually we turned a corner and saw a bit of light shining in the distance. We started to walk towards it, but I suddenly stopped with a horrible thought. Forest Stopped when she noticed I wasn't beside her any more, and it turned out to be a very good thing. When I managed to light the torch I could see that she was only a few steps away from a pit that looked bottomless.

The pit stretched all from wall to wall, but was small enough to jump over, and after we passed that obstacle I took the lead again. This meant that I was the first one to see how beautiful the next room was. Light shone in from all sides, and in the middle of the room, surrounded by a halo of light, floated an amulet in the shape of a sun.

Looking around I could see that the windows that were letting in light were made of stained glass, and showed ponies wearing the amulet and looking all powerful. Trails walked up beside me and we shared a look.

“How much do you want to bet it's trapped?” I asked.

“I'm taking a sucker bet my treasure,” Trails responded, “How much do you want to bet that it actually does nothing at all or is cursed?”

I paused thinking, “I don't bet, but if I had to make a guess I would say a two-thirds chance.”

Forest Trails laughed as we made our way way to the other side of the room. We stayed a good distance away from the pedestal. It turned out that there were stairs heading upwards, and I took the lead going up. I kept my eye open for any more traps, but it seemed like we were past most of them and we reached the top without indecent.

At the top we entered a room that was obviously a room of worship. Great statues of Alicorns were carved from rock, and the entire room was focused on a single dais that looked to be made of gold. There were large areas where there was room for ponies to stand or kneel. From high above the sun reflected from a massive diamond and shone down illuminating the area in a cascade of rainbows and light.

It was also occupied.

On the dais Celestia stood looking down on us serenely.

“Oh you have to be kidding me,” I complained, “Really? Really??”

“What did you expect Susland?” Celestia asked, a smile playing on her lips.

“I dunno,” I exclaimed, “Some evil pony god, maybe an artifact of ultimate power?”

Celestia laughed at that, “I believe that the amulet that you are looking for is downstairs.”

“It wasn't trapped?” Forest Trails asked as surprised as I was.

Celestia looked up with something resembling a smirk on her face, “Oh, I never said that...”

“Are... Are you trolling us?” I asked hesitantly.

Celestia's smile got wider, “Did you know that ponies build temples to the different aspects I have been given over the years?”

“Really?” I asked, starting to get nervous.

Celestia nodded, her face becoming serious, “On the other hand I'm not evil, so I'll even help you leave.”

I glanced nervously at Trails, “I think we can make our own way out, but thank you very much for the offer.”

“Oh, but I insist!” Celestia said, her smile becoming a too large for comfort.

“Young Jim Hawkins is waiting for us outside and if you teleported us somewhere he might have trouble finding us again,” I said backing towards the doorway slowly.

“Don't worry,” Celestia said, getting up and slowly walking towards us, “I'll make sure that he doesn't end up to far away from you.”

“Uh,” I said wondering if it would be a good idea to run or not.

Celestia reached into her main, and pulled out something yellow, “Oh, before you go Susland, Forest Trails, do either of you like bananas?”

I turned to run and heard Celestia Start to laugh as suddenly the world went white with a the flash of being teleported.

We came out of the Teleport on a beach. In front of us I could see ocean as far as I could see. I could see Young Jim Hawkins flying far above the water. When I turned to look behind us I could see palm trees and a mountain covered in what looked to be flowers.

On the top of the mountain appeared to be an oriental style temple.

Forest Trails and I shared a glance and started to set up camp. Wherever we were it couldn't be good. We both suspected that this was some type of parting troll.

A Quick Synopsis Of Today To Get Everyone Up To Date

So today we didn't do to much. We flew with Young Jim Hawkins around the island and a short ways out to make sure that this is actually an island, and then we headed inland. We spent most of the day making our way up to the edge of the new temple. The folds on this island are even worse than they were in the jungle, and we've had to do a lot of parkour just to get this far.

It might sound tedious, but it was a lot of fun. I always have enjoyed platforming in games and this is an awesome form of that. That said from a story perspective it isn't that interesting. It was mostly enjoying the challenges of finding our way up the mountain and the fun of making tricky jumps. It was actually too relaxing and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Anyway I'll fill you guys in with whats going on Earth tomorrow. Also Quick Search has been busy with life so she hasn't gotten anything more written yet. That said she has been making me a meal every evening so we have been hanging out a lot. I'll cover more of that tomorrow.

Till then this is a rather lost Treasure Island.

About Reality

Taking A Moment To Talk About Real Life Once Again

So what has being going on these last few days on Earth? Well every night Quick Search has been making bringing me supper, and we have been talking. I'm afraid that she is feeling guilty about what happened and is trying to make up for it. She says she isn't, but I'm not used to people doing stuff like this for me. It's disconcerting.

That said I do enjoy spending time with her. I find that we share quite a few interests and talking with her is fairly easy. If I wasn't worrying about her doing this out of guilt I would probably find out time together incredibly relaxing.

On the other hand after a lot of talk and discussion we decided that we would just be friends for now. I brought up the idea and Quick Search agreed that it would be better to start off as friends, and see if anything grew naturally. This has also taken a lot of stress of of me, because until we agreed to this I had been losing sleep trying to figure out the ethics and morality of polyamory.

I talked about it with Forest Trails afterwards and she got this exasperated look and told me that she would support me. However she also stated that she thought that I was making things more difficult than they needed to be. I apologized, and told her that I was doing my best, but a lifetime of ethics is not so easily changed. She told me to stop apologizing.

Of course the only response to that was to apologize. Trails swatted Treasure Island playfully for that.

Another big piece of news is that my parents finally arrived up here to visit me in the hospital. They live a fair distance away, and only got in yesterday, so they visited last night, and then they also hung around a bit today. They do know that I play Equestria Online and write about it. They think it is strange, but try to encourage me anyway.

They are going to be staying around till after thanksgiving. I'm kind of glad because the doctors said that I can go home on Saturday, and I don't think I'd be in shape to make the drive down south to visit them. I might not get anything written up during thanksgiving because it has traditionally been a family time, and I don't think I'll be able to get off on my own to do my writing.

One final thing I'm going to mention is not to expect any writing from Forest Trails until we get back from our journey. She told me that she is quite happy to let me document our travels. She also confessed that she hasn't written much before, despite doing a lot of reading, so she is a little unsure of her skills.

Enough Of What Is Happening On Earth, What Happened In Equestria?

Nothing.

Nothing at all. We just took off and started flying back towards Canterlot.

Yup. Nothing at all.

We certainly didn't enter that Japanese style temple. We definitely didn't get caught in a strange trap trying to get in. No matter what anyone tells you we did not meet another very famous take on Celestia, that involving things that I both find highly amusing, and highly inappropriate for posting on the internet.

Nope, didn't happen. Trails and I just got on Young Jim Hawkins and flew away from the island as fast as possible. Err, I mean at a nice, normal, reasonable speed.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Stick around till the end – Forest Trails

Huh, I Have A Lot Of Extra Space On This Paper; Time To Talk About Reality!

So one of the things I have been thinking about is reality. This has been on my mind quite a bit recently as I keep finding myself thinking of my day to day life (which involves lying in a hospital bed) as reality. I was feeling guilty over this, but I think I finally figured out why I think of Earth as reality.

The answer is actually fairly simple. What happens here effects me. In Equestria Online if Treasure Island dies, or gets hurt I am still fine, there are no consequences for my actions. On Earth if I do something dumb I could die, or end up disabled for the rest of my life. This means that there is a level of disconnect and safety when I do things in Equestria that there isn't on Earth.

I shouldn't say there are no consequences, if Forest Trails did something hurtful to me it could cause me pain emotionally. However the key difference is that any lasting damage that Equestria could do to me is all determined by how much I let it effect me. If I decide that Equestria doesn't matter, I can walk away with no consequence to myself.

The same isn't true for reality, no matter how much I want to ignore the fact I got stabbed, I'm still feeling the pain, and lying here on this stupid hospital bed. No amount of denial can change that.

However I don't think this is the really interesting thing; The really interesting thing is that for the SIs in Equestria Online the situation is reversed. They can talk to us, and we can tell them about what is going on over here, but it can't effect them. For them it is Equestria Online that is real. Equestria is the place where if they get hurt it sticks, and the place where pain can last.

I however suspect that there might be one exception to this rule; Celestia. If she is indeed the SI that controls all of the shards of Equestria Online, she must be aware of her physical form here on earth, as well as the fact that if something happens to it, it sticks around like getting injured does to us. In fact I would suspect it might even be worse. If she is the equivalent to a god in Equestria Online and created all of the other SIs, than having her physical form on earth damaged could very well lead to the permanent death of her children.

I just realized that turning off Equestria Online at this point would be the equivalent moral action as committing mass genocide. I don't think that ever sunk in before. When people talk about having a fallback plan in case Celestia gets bored and attacks us, they are essentially talking about being ready to commit mass genocide in case a war should ever start.

I wonder how many SIs inhabit Equestria Online? Destroying Equestria Online could possibly be the single largest destruction of Intelligent life ever seriously considered.

Looking at it like that I kind of feel like a jerk for even thinking about the possibility.

Forest Trails Addendum

So My Treasure didn't describe what happened today at all. I think he was embarrassed, but that doesn't mean that he should skip out on filling everypony in on what happened. You ponies better take him to task for this. I'm going to chastise him when he shows up tomorrow. I managed to grab something from the temple as we fled.

So I'm going to sit down and let everyone know what really happened. I'm not used to doing this, but really, how hard can it be?

After My Treasure showed up this morning we packed up the camp, and started up the path to the temple. The air smelled heavenly with the scent of Dianthus and Oriental Lily in the air. The gravel path weaved through the fields of flowers, eventually leading to a set of steps going up towards the temple.

We had made it this far the day before when we had decided to turn around and camp because the sun had been starting to go down. Despite the insanity of the trail that we had been blazing yesterday, from here on up it was actually a fairly simple, no more twisted space. In fact the entire top of the mountain seemed suspiciously free of twisted space.

Eventually we reached the top of the steps and beheld the temple. It was in the traditional neighponese style, and even had cherry trees in full bloom on both sides of the entrance gate. A gust of wind brushed against us as we stepped forward bringing a wave of cherry petals swirling down. We both were looking at them when the ground gave way beneath us dropping us down into the dark.

We landed on something soft, and far above me I could see a trapdoor swing shut. My Treasure and I struggled to our feet, trying to keep our balance on the very soft ground. It felt a bit like fabric, and I was just telling My Treasure that when the lights in the room came on and we found ourselves on a giant bed shaped like a heart. It had red sheets, red covers, and red pillows, and looked like something from some of the more risque shards I had heard about.

My Treasure and I struggled to the edge and made our way to the door out. It quickly turned out to be locked. We started to search the room for a way to open the door, but our search didn't turn up any keys or anything that could be used to break down the door. We did consider kicking it, or just folding through it, but I started to send out my power I felt like it was being tenderly fondled in a completely inappropriate way.

I don't know what My Treasure saw, but he refused to tell me, and we both agreed not to try to circumvent what was obviously a puzzle.

I'd better finish this tomorrow. My Treasure is starting to get suspicious.
-Forest Trails

Forest Trails Answers A Question

A Few Quick Notes From Me Before I Turn The Stage Over To Forest Trails

So I got a new pony pad today. This time I ended up with an Applejack one because my parents picked it up for me from the store.

I suppose I shouldn't complain really, I mean in a way it even makes sense, Treasure Island is an earth pony after all so why shouldn't my pony pad feature an earth pony? I still prefer darker colours, but this isn't bad either. I mean everyone knows that Applejack is the best pony, and no one would disagree with me on that right?

Sorry about that. I think Trollestia infected me a little bit.

I also what to take a moment to say that I was being paranoid yesterday. I probably shouldn't have even mentioned the worry that the guy was trying to hit me. My imagination sometimes gets the best of me, after I thought about it, you guys are right and it wouldn't make any sense at all.

Finally, Forest Trails wanted to reply to a question she received, so I am going to turn over this post to her.

Forest Trails – Answering A Question

My Treasure told me the other day that someone was asking about how common using earth pony magic to fold was. I decided to write a little explanation about Earth Pony culture in Equestria.

Earth Pony magic is very versatile. This is the firs thing you have to understand. It can be used from everything from influencing probability, to folding space, to helping things grow. This means that it can be very hard for a pony to master multiple areas of expertise.

Let's take an apple farmer for example; they have to master growth, probability, forms of pinpoint destruction, as well as using their power to increase their strength and endurance. This is all just to specialize as something as simple as an apple farmer. Some other jobs require many years to master, and most ponies can keep on practising for a long time, slowly improving.

That doesn't mean that earth ponies don't take up other uses of their powers as hobbies. It does mean however that their aren't many specialists when it comes to folding space to go places quickly. Even if it is useful, the downside of risking your ability to use all of your earth pony powers if you mess up is a major downside and stops most ponies from practising it for recreation.

As for strength and endurance, it really depends on what the pony does. A pony that studies all day will be weaker than one that goes out and hauls building material back and forth each day. As for differences between the different pony races, there really aren't any. However Earth Ponies like I am can use our power to make us stronger, or make what we are carrying lighter. I even know that some ponies use it to allow them to build muscles faster.

So there is the answer to your question, if you have any further enquiries don't be afraid to ask.

Forest Trails – At The Temple Part 2

My Treasure and I were standing in what appeared to be a bedroom containing a very large, and very red bed. The room itself smelled of incense, and a light haze of smoke drifted through the room. The room itself was lit by multiple candles and the flames danced causing shadows to flicker across the walls.

I looked around carefully, feeling along the walls while My Treasure sat in thought, staring at the door. Finally he spoke, “This isn't a trap.”

I looked over at him feeling a little confused, “I'm pretty sure that it is. We are trapped in here with no way out.”

“Well, yes.” My Treasure replied, “But it's more like a prison or a cage rather than a deathtrap.” I looked at him and raised and eyebrow, and he shook his head and went on, “It means that there probably isn't a way to disarm it or escape. This is just a place to hold us till someone can come and check on us.”

“That makes sense,” I agreed, “Are you sure you don't want to just try and force the doors?”

My Treasure looked at them, then finally shook his head, “No. We are uninvited guests here. I suspect that this place is occupied and we might as well wait for our welcoming committee to show up.”

“I'm not sure that is the best idea my treasure,” I said, “We don't know what they want with us. I've read stories about what some cults used to do.”

He looked over at the door and nodded, “Well, we could come up with a plan for if things go wrong, but I'd at least like to try diplomacy first.”

We sat in silence for a while after that, each of use trying to think of a way out if worst came to worst. Folding our way out was not a solid plan because if we were trying to run we would likely be observed causing our power to fail. On top of that it seemed like there was something out their watching for us to use our power, and I wasn't sure who or what it was.

Finally I came up with an idea, “My Treasure, you have a link with Hawkins am I right?”

“Yes I do,” he agreed, “but that doesn't exactly help. He wouldn't be able to get here because of the way that space is twisted. He'd just end up lost.”

I started to smile, “That's not quite true, if for example, you guided him down the path that we took her could be waiting for us outside.”

“That would take a long time-” My Treasure started to say.

I cut him off with one word, “Flying.”

“That could work,” My Treasure nodded, “That could definitely work. I'll get right on that.” He turned and glanced at some point in the distance while murmuring to himself under his breath.

I took one more walk around the room before deciding that standing around was rather silly when I had a nice bed nearby to relax on. So I jump up on it and pulled out a book from my saddlebags. One of the things that I had learned early on when spending time with My Treasure was that it was often a good idea to carry around something to read. He would often lay down and take a nap as he had to focus on things that were happening in the place that he came from.

At first it was little strange to see him like that, but I had gotten used to it. I had even considered playing a few pranks on him when he was like that, but he was so straight forward that I wasn't sure how he would take it. He only rarely joked around, and it was often self depreciating humour. It made me wonder if he had been picked upon when he was a foal.

Sometimes he seemed so sure of himself, and other times he would defer to me no matter what I said, and only disagree after making large disclaimers. When I teased him he would often just agree with me, and even when he didn't he would rarely tease back. I would think that he was afraid of conflict, but on the other hand he did protect Quick Search. Maybe he just doesn't want conflict between us? I couldn't help but think that it might not be healthy and that My Treasure needed to worry less about such things.

As I was ruminating the door slid open and an alicorn walked in. She looked a lot like Celestia, except that she had lavender hair. She moved with grace that spoke of passion and I felt a chill run down my back. On her face was a smile that could set water on fire. I saw My Treasure glance up at her and blanch.

“Well,” she said, stopping and surveying the room, “I see that I have a couple to entertain this time. I'm glad you decided to come, I've been feeling oh so lonesome.”

My Treasure backpeddled till he was pressed against the bed, “Hi there. It... err... It seems we took a wrong turn, and got a bit lost. If you don't mind we'll be leaving now.”

“Oh?” the alicorn purred, “are you getting cold feet?”

I could see My Treasure groping for a reply and decided to take the heat off him, “What is your name?” I asked, politely as I could.

The alicorn turned to me and I felt another shiver shoot through me, “You don't know who I am? I have been called many names, but you can call me Big Sexy.”

“Right!” My Treasure said rubbing his hooves together, “This has been fun, but I think it's time we left now, If you'll excuse me...” He got to his hooves and walked resolutely toward the door, hardly a hesitation in his step.

As he started past Big Sexy she reached out with a wing and pulled him close, and blew softly into his ear, “Leaving so soon? Don't you think that we should, mmmm, get to know each other first?”

I watched shocked by the brazenness of the act. It took me a second but I pulled myself together and jumped off the bed, “Hey! Treasure is my Coltfriend!”

She turned to me, but kept her wing around My Treasure holding him next to her, “Don't worry, I can take care of you too, I don't discriminate.”

I lurched to a halt, suddenly slightly afraid to get to close to Big Sexy. As my charge faltered though My Treasure managed to shake his paralysis off. He backed up so that he was beside me and gave her a cold look, “Haven't you ever heard that no means no Molestia?”

Big Sexy smiled at him with half closed eyes, “I have in fact. I just never believed it. None of the ponies I have been with have ever complained after we were done.”

“That's a little disturbing,” My Treasure said, taking a step so that he stood just in front of me, shielding me from her with his body.

Big Sexy took a step towards us, “That might by why Celestia locked me up here. I might not be able to leave, but occasionally a pony or two will stop by and we'll have some fun.”

My Treasure nodded to himself, “And with that we're done. I'm sorry about this.”

All of a sudden the rough exploded downwards and I found myself being grabbed by gigantic claws. Big Sexy eyes widened and she flinched back form the sudden destruction. For a moment the world seemed to freeze, before suddenly I was jerked up, along with My Treasure, and we quickly rose above the ground, and kept rising as Hawkings lifted us away from the neighponies temple.

After that it was a matter of landing on the beach, and getting on Hawkins back, before we took off again. We weren't chased, of which I am glad. I am not sure how I feel about the whole adventure to be honest. On one hand I am glad that we got out of there, on the other I sort of wonder what would have happened if we hadden't.

For the last couple days we have just been flying east back towards Canterlot. We are still over the ocean, but we run into islands where we camp for the night. I was a bit worried when My Treasure disappeared yesterday, but Celestia assured me after a while that he was alright. I also got a letter from Brazen Origin telling me the same thing which I was grateful for.

So now I'll let My Treasure go back to telling you what is happening in our lives. Unless he get's too embarrassed to talk about it again.

The First Kiss

The Problem With Parents And My Current Romantic Situation

So I turns out that Quick Search and I are officially dating now.

So who did this end up happening you ask? The answer is quite simple; parents. It started off simply enough, Quick Search showed up tonight for our supper together like usual, however this time my parents hadn't left to go have their own supper yet. There were introductions all around and then the questions started.

Who was this girl?

Well she is the girl I got stabbed protecting mom.

Does she usually come over and visit at this time of night?

Well, yes, we've been eating supper together.

It's better than what the hospital feeds me.

Really? Are you two going out?

Well uh...

You don't have to be embarrassed Son

At this point I glanced at Quick Search to see what she was thinking, but she seemed as frozen as I was. This is the point when I made a rather stupid decision on the spur of the moment. I decided to say that we were dating to deflect further questions.

As you might imagine, it didn't work.

To her credit Quick Search went along with it, and didn't ask me what on earth I was thinking. When my parents asked her questions she answered politely, and even played the part to the point of pulling up a chair next to me and giving me a chaste kiss while she was passing out plates to everyone.

That was the point where I started to suspect that she might not be playing along. It was just a vague suspicion though, drowned in massive amounts of embarrassment. I blushed, and couldn't think straight for a few moments. I had forgotten how long it had been since I had last kissed a woman, and it had obviously been too long. My lips tasted slightly of the cherry chap stick that she had been wearing.

I probably wasn't thinking too straight when I grabbed her and pulled her onto the bed because there weren't enough chairs in the room. I didn't have to pull very hard, mind. If I had I would have done harm to my stomach, so I'm glad that Quick Search went along with it. I wrapped my arm around her while we ate without realizing it till she got up to go to the washroom.

My parents waited a moment and then started asking me the hard questions. Did she go to church? How long had we been dating? Had we done anything that we shouldn't have done? Was I taking advantage of her gratefulness towards me for saving her? Why hadn't I mentioned it before now? Did I like her? Had I made sure that all of our meetings were in public places?

I answered the best I could considering that we hadn't actually been dating. Or maybe we had and I was just unaware that it was going on. Either way I answered the questions to my parents satisfaction, and eventually Quick Search returned and the conversation moved back to less stressful questions. Quick Search also helped me field a few questions that I was having trouble answering on the spot.

Eventually my parents had to leave, and Quick Search and I were left alone. We sat the in silence for a while before I spoke up. “Sorry about that.”

“Sorry about what?” Quick Search asked over at me with an expression that I couldn't read.

“About saying that we were dating to my parents. I shouldn't have done something like that without asking you first,” I replied.

I saw a bit of tension leave her face, “So you didn't mind me kissing you?”

“I enjoyed it rather more than I think I should have,” I admitted, “You are really pretty.”

Quick Searched blushed, “Thank you.”

“So do you mind?” I asked, “That you are going to have to pretend to be my girlfriend for the next few days while my parents are around?”

“Pretend?” Quick Search asked, her smile suddenly looking brittle, “Oh, I thought- I mean yes. I don't mind.”

Pieces suddenly fell into place in my mind, “Hang on, you mean you thought that I had asked out out just now?”

“I'm sorry,” Quick Search said looking down at the ground, “I had a little derp there.”

“Wouldn't it bother you that I'm dating Forest Trails?” I asked, feeling like a jerk, but curious all the same.

“We talked a little bit, and she seems nice,” Quick Search replied, “I wouldn't mind having her as a friend.”

“You do know that you can be friends with her even if you aren't dating me right? I mean I'm not going to stop you two from hanging out together,” I said trying to understand where Quick Search was coming from.

“It's not the same though,” she said looking back up at me, with a little fire in her eyes. It quickly faded, “Sorry. You must think I'm pretty weird.”

“No, I just...” I trailed off searching for the words, “No. But I don't understand. I thought you would dislike the thought of having the man you were dating date someone else.”

“Yeah,” she said sadly, “That would be the normal thing wouldn't it?”

“I honestly don't mind, I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from,” I said, trying to reassure her.

“It's... I...” Quick Search kept on arresting her sentences before they could get started.

I held up my hand, “Look, how about we try this. I think you are beautiful and I like being around you. I'll do my best to do this right, but you should be aware that I'm probably going to mess up.”

Quick Search looked up at me with a bit of hope in her eyes, she hadn't cried, but she had looked close to it a few times, “Are you sure? You don't have to...”

“I don't want to see you cry, and if I wasn't dating Forest Trails I would have asked you out in an instant, so I guess if you are okay with it, I can give it a try,” I replied. Then I reached out and grabbed her hand, “Come here.”

I pulled her into another chaste kiss. She pulled back, and then through her arms around me. It hurt my stomach a bit, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want to ruin the moment.

I couldn't help but think as we sat there that things were probably going to go horribly wrong. On the other hand I reasoned with myself, I had the greatest intelligence on the planet willing to help me. That should help tip the scales in my favour a bit. Hopefully. Maybe. I sighed to myself as I wondered who I was kidding. There was no way that this would work out.

I finally decided to let tomorrow tomorrow take care of itself and focus on the cute woman that was hugging me. I gave her a light kiss on her neck and then said, “I might need air to survive.”

“Oh, I'm sorry!” Quick Search said as she let go in a hurry.

I laughed, “Come on, sit down here beside me and let's talk about how I am going to survive meeting your parents with a hole in me.”

And that is all that we did till she left.

Breaking The News Of My Change In Relationship Status To Forest Trails

So I logged in and found myself on an island that we had set up camp on earlier that day. Forest Trails was sitting on a cot nearby reading a book. Outside the tent I could hear rain falling and the occasional lighting flash light up the inside of the tent. The tent itself was spelled to resist heavy winds, so I wasn't worried about it blowing away, even if a hurricane hit us.

“Hey, how,s it going My Treasure?” Forest Trails asked, setting her book aside. Then she did a double take, “You look like you just stepped on a kitten.”

“I kinda feel like I did too,” I admitted, “We have to talk.” I saw her suddenly tense up and berated myself for using the four worst words in the English language to use when talking with your significant other, “It's not bad. At least I don't think it is.”

“You're babbling,” Trails said, “Stop. Take a deep breath, and try again from the top.”

I nodded and followed her advice, “Do you remember Quick Search?”

“Did something happen to her?” Forest Trails asked, looking concerned.

“No, nothing like that, but we did decide to date each other after all,” I said, watching Trails to see her reaction.

“That's excellent!” Trails said, “What caused you to change your mind?”

“My parents showed up and one thing led to another,” I admitted, “I'll tell you the whole story later. But you aren't mad?”

“Why would I be? I've been for this from the beginning,” Trails replied, “I'm just glad you finally got it through your thick head.”

“I suppose I finally did,” I admitted, “Quick Search seems really interested in becoming your friend, would you be interested in that?”

Forest Trails gave me a pitying look, “Oh My Treasure, why wouldn't I want to be friends with her? Did you honestly feel you needed to ask that question?”

“Okay, that is a good point,” I conceded, “So should I visit (log in) while she is over tomorrow for supper?”

“That's not a bad idea,” Trails said thoughtfully, “But I think that she should visit as well. I'll talk it over with Celestia tonight while you are doing your journal and set it up with her.” Trails paused, then glanced at me, “Are you going to mention the Kraken that we ran into today?”

“I have never seen a squid clear the clouds in a single jump before,” I admitted, “But I think that I'll leave that out. It was a lot of fun fighting it, but it doesn't make for very compelling reading and I don't want to bore the readers.”

“Oh come on, it was awesome,” Forest Trails disagreed, “And you managed to do some quick folding not to get hurt when you fell off Hawkins.”

“Yes, well Young Jim Hawkins couldn't very well catch me when he was caught in the tentacles of that thing,” I pointed out, “It was either do or die.”

“So have I convinced you to write it up?” Forest Trails continued to press.

“No,” I replied feeling a smirk come onto my face, “I'll write down this conversation instead and let them try to fill in the blanks on their own.”

Forest Trails laughed, “Your evil.”

“I know”

First Date: Part 1

Notes About Thanksgiving And What I Will Be Doing

So here's the thing; Thanksgiving for me is a time to spend with family and friends. It is a time to relax and enjoy good food. This means that I will not be posting updates from tomorrow till Tuesday because I will be travelling with my parents to visit family. I won't have time to do much during this trip as one of the rules that we have is no electronics.

One year I had a new game and I didn't interact with anyone at all. After that we all agreed that electronics should be banned. It's worked out pretty well until this year where it means I won't be talking to either of my girlfriends (oh wow is it weird to think that or even type it). It's just going to be something I have to live with I guess.

The final thing that I am going to say is that after seeing all the comments that seemed stunned yesterday I really hope that I haven't made any of you angry by the choice that I made. I know that it seems selfish and I know that it looks bad. All I can say in my defence is that it feels like the right thing to do.

When I am with Forest Trails and Quick Search it feels wonderful. I see them smiling and happy and I love the feeling that I am a part of the reason. I enjoy talking with Forest Trails and snuggling with Quick Search. I enjoy making a joke and seeing Forest Trails laugh. And I enjoy watching Forest Trails and Quick Search spend time together.

I just wish that I didn't feel like I was committing a crime in doing so.

You know it's strange, I don't see a problem with polyamory from a purely ethical standpoint. I did have issues with it from a more practical viewpoint, however with the introduction of SI I find myself rethinking what is practical more and more. The world really is changing right now, and I believe a lot of things that we 'knew' will have to be reconsidered.

Like what it means to be in love with a pony.

And This Is Why You Should Never Date Two Girls At Once; They'll Start Talking

So after my parents left today Quick Search dropped by with supper and her Pony Pad. She has the Rarity version of the Pony Pad, though it is only a mark one so she had to bring her controller along with her. We shared a quick greeting that included a hug, and then logged into Equestria Online together as Quick Search started to lay out the food.

(Should I? Oh I might as well...)

I logged in and found myself in the tent where I had typed up the entry the night before. Forest Trails was pacing and looked over at me when she saw that I had woken up, “So is Quick Search coming?”

“Yeah, she's just entering Equestria (logging in) now. I'm not sure how we are going to meet up considering that she doesn't know where we are and is in another shard” I replied.

I was caught completely off guard when Quick search spoke up from where she was sitting with my arm wrapped around her, “The easiest way is for us to just call Princess Celestia and get her to give us a place where we can sit and chat together.”

Meanwhile in Equestria Trails looked at me, “are you okay My Treasure? You look distracted.”

“Oh boy,” I moaned, “I don't think my mind is made for operating this way. One reality at a time.” Quick Search giggled, and Forest Trails smirked at my discomfort, though each did so from a completely different reality.

On my Pad I tapped a tab that opened the menu. I flipped through it till I found the button that supposedly let me talk with Celestia and pressed it. Suddenly a section of reality just dropped away leaving me a doorway to to the Canterlot throne room. Through the doorway I could see Celestia sitting regally on her throne.

I beckoned to Forest Trails, “Come on, let's to see Quick Search.”

We walked into the throne room while I gave Quick Search a squeeze in reality and looked at her screen to see where she was. I glanced just in time to see the throne room literally exploded into existence around her in a swirl of colours. I could see us walking in through a normal doorway from her screen which felt a bit strange, and I pulled my eyes back to my own screen.

Forest Trails ran over to Quick Search and gave her a greeting hug, “Good to see you again!”

Quick Search returned the hug and smiled, “I have a coltfriend (boyfriend) now!”

Forest Trails smirked, “Oh? And how did you manage that?”

Quick search blushed, both in reality, and in Equestria. “I kissed him,” she responded in a very tiny voice.

Forest Trails feigned a look of shock, “Really? Rather forward of you.” She glanced over her shoulder at me and then whispered something to Quick Search that I couldn't hear. This was a rather neat trick considering that in reality she was sitting on my bed with her pony pad no further away from her head than mine.

Whatever Forest Trails had whispered made Quick Search turn beet red, and she dropped her head in embarrassment, though I could see her smiling. She put the pad close to her mouth and whispered back something that she said to quietly for me to hear.

I shook my head at their antics and walked over to Celestia, “Do you think that we could have a spot to eat supper?”

Celestia nodded, “Of course, just head out that door when you are ready,” she said pointing to a door on the side of the throne room.

I thanked her and walked across to the girls and coughed to get their attention, “Shall we head out and eat before the food gets cold?” I asked. They both looked at me and burst out laughed. I wasn't sure what to make of that, so, doing my best to look dignified, I turned and led the way out the door.

Sadly I can't say any more. There are two reasons for this; the first is that I need to get up early tomorrow for the trip, so I have to get to bed earlier than normal, the second is that Quick Search told me that she wanted to write about our moonlight dinner. We agreed that I could do the intro, but she didn't want me to spoil what happened it supper so I won't. You'll have to wait for her to post it. As for me I'm going to be gone for holidays.

I'll see you all later. Till then.

First Date: Part 2

On Problems With The Forum, And General Sneakiness

So two things to start this post off. First of all I noticed that the forums dates seem to be off. Any idea what's up with that? All I know is that it is odd. I'm considering marking down a time stamp on upcoming updates so that people can tell when I've actually posted them. Is that necessary, or would that not be appreciated?

Second, I've managed to sneak my pony pad with me into the car today. As I was leaving I decided I didn't want to go three days without seeing my girlfriends. So I snuck it into the car with me. I'm probably going to end up getting the next couple days posts up rather late. On the other hand, better late than never.

Manege A Date: Trying Out Something New

Once we got outside I went and pulled out chairs for both Forest Trails and Quick Search. Made sure they were comfortably seated before I sat down myself. The chairs were around a circular table with each one equidistant from the others. In the center of the table candles burned.

Once we were seated I spent a moment admiring the view. We were on one of the balconies of the castle, looking out over the forests and fields that made up Equestria. Above us in the sky stars twinkled and the moon shone brightly. Down in Equestria I could see the lights of several buildings from the different towns and villages. I don't know if Ponyville exists in my shard, but I could see a small town where I imagined it would be.

Finally I returned my attention to the two girls I was in a relationship with now, “I want to apologize right now in case I mess this up. I don't know what I'm doing but I'll try my best.”

Forest trails rolled her eyes, “Admit it My Treasure, despite your preemptive apology you'll apologize endless the second you think you do anything wrong. It's going to take both of use to hold you down and stop you.”

Quick Search raised an eyebrow, “Is he really that bad? I mean I know he's apologized a lot recently, but I thought that might have just been the medication.”

Forest Chuckled, “It's even worse, but don't worry, he has a good heart.”

“Oy!” I interjected, “I'm right here.”

Forest gave a laughing, “Suck it up,” at the same time that Quick Search looked chagrined and gave a quiet, “Sorry.”

Forest put on a look for mock horror, “Sweet Celestia, now there are two of you!”

Quick Search and I both said “Sorry,” and then looked at each and then suddenly broke out laughing. We just both found it amusing. Eventually even Forest joined in.

As we sat eating Forest and I shared some of our stories with Quick Search. Expanding on things that we had done when she asked. We talked about the fight with the squidlike Kraken. As I was finishing up I asked if she would like to come back and join us on our adventure.

Quick Search thought about it for a while, and she lingered over the last few bites of her meal, “I don't know. I haven't had much to do with the mail recently and my normal work has been also going pretty slow. Not too much bad weather this time of year.”

“Come on,” Forest Trails said, “It'll be fun. We're on an expedition I expect will take us to many of the Equestrian temples.”

“Haven't you been to both the major ones?” Quick Search asked confused.

I pondered that, “Well there is Tyrentlestia for sure. Also the one that's obsessed with cake. The Schemer, and the Ditz. Maybe more. It should be interesting. Even when we are done that I think your forgetting the ones to Luna.”

“You think their might be temples to Luna?” Quick Search asked, looking more interested.

Forest Trails shrugged, “Of course there are. She has even more aspect than Celestia.”

“Really?” I asked, now intrigued myself.

Forest nodded, “Of course. We've seen less of her allowing us to characterize her in more ways.”

“I'm going to do research so I have an idea of what we are getting into. This sounds fun!” I turned to Quick Search, “So what do you think?”

“Yeah, I'll go talk with my Coworkers and Halo and then meet up with you sometime tomorrow. Though I'll probably need to ask Celestia for a lift,” Quick Search finally decided.

I grinned giving her a hug in reality which Treasure Island mirrored. Forest Trails slipped around and gave us both a hug at the same time squeezing Quick Search and Susland together. We laughed it off, and then Quick search had to head home so we made our farewells. Before she went though I let her know that I was off visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.

Afterwards as we lay there I talked with Forest Trails about how odd it felt to be at that dinner. She asked me one question that I've been thinking over since yesterday. “Did you enjoy it?”

Did I enjoy the date? I don't know. I mean I did. It was a lot of fun. But on the other hand it felt strange. I was consistently worried about hurting one or the other. I was watching what I said carefully. I was worried what other might think. I enjoyed it, but it was rather stressful.

Sometimes I wish I was in Equestria where I knew things would work out instead of in the real world with all its uncertainties. I feel horrible for saying this, but I sometimes feel that Forest Trails has a better life than I do. She doesn't seem worried about this at all. And she doesn't need to be. No one in Equestria would judge her, and to her, this type of relationship is normal.

And What Did I Do Today You May Ask?

Well, to be honest, not too much, couldn't do much till I was in bed, because I was in the car with my parents. Hopefully I'll have some more time tomorrow. Pretty much all I did was log on and talk with Forest Trails and Quick Search about where we are heading next, then sat down to finish my account of last night as Jim Hawkens flew in the direction we had decided on.

Quick Search managed to find some land in the distance. We can't tell much from here, but it seems to have a grey cloud over it hiding it from view. Not sure what to make of it, but it looks like it might be scary in some way.

Man, this felt like a long day driving with my parents. Feels like almost a year passed me by.

Author's Note

Sorry for the Delay. Upcoming chapters won't be daily, but they should come out faster than this one did.

In other news I have a new job that pays decently, and on that job I slipped and stabbed myself in the leg with a knife. On the upside, at least it's better than the stomach. So for now I'm healing up and I remembered this story and decided to continue it on. Sorry for the breaking of character.

Also as of this post, only a single day has passed.

Character Creation

Ponies.

Why did it have to be ponies?

What started off as a simple TV show has now been made into the much acclaimed Equestria Online MMORPG.

And I'm going to play it, even though I've never played any other MMORPG in my life.

Why?

Because: Ponies.

Yes, you read that correctly, this is yet another Let's Play thread for Equestria Online. Now, I know that I'm a couple months slow getting into this, but MMOs aren't really my thing. I'm much more inclined toward single player RPGs and Minecraft clones. However, I've heard a lot of good things about this game, and my friends told me that I have to try it. So, here I go, trying to play an MMO.

Why am I doing a Let's Play, when there are already about a thousand out there on this forum alone? Because I enjoy reading them, and I've found that for many games you can get one or two good ones at launch. After that, they start to die out. Trying to find a good Let's Play to get involved with a month after launch can be pretty hard, though that is mostly for single player games. I haven't looked much into MMO Let's Plays.

Anyway, I wanted to do a Let's Play that people can get in on at the ground level, in case they missed the first rush of them. I also kind of find it cool how people get awesome stories out of simple things happening in games, and I want to try my hand at it. No promises though, as this is my first Let's Play.

Some other things I guess I should note: I'm playing this blind. I have avoided spoilers as much as possible. Because of that, I didn't realize that I could only have one account (What is up with that?) and already made a character. So hopefully people won't mind. I didn't name him or anything, but unfortunately it means that for now we are stuck with how he looks. Hopefully, you can put up with it for the next while.

Random Information That Everyone Knows But I Feel Like Putting In Anyway

So for those of you that don't have the game (and have been hiding under a rock), the game can only played on a tablet called a Pony Pad. It is controlled with a touch screen, and seems to work pretty smoothly. I didn't have any troubles with it. I think it's actually more responsive than my phone. I got the Twilight Sparkle one and it looks nice, with a picture of Twilight on the back, with the case in dark purple. Twilight is not my favourite pony, but I prefer the darker colour to the lighter ones.

It's fairly light, but it is too big to fit into my pants pocket. However, it does fit in the inside pocket on my vest, so I might be able to smuggle it into work and play it on my breaks. It has speakers well hidden in the sides of the device and a camera on top that faces the player.

That right, when you stare into the Void that is MLP:FIM:EO, it stares back at you. :P

Setting up was easy. It did a search for wireless networks, and then I had to type in the password. Very standard in this day and age, but it was nice to see that they made it as easy as possible.

The game is made by Hofvarpnir Studios (Try saying that 5 times fast!), who have done only one other game: The Fall of Asgard. Considering TFoA was pretty gory and was marketed at the hard core gamers, it's kinda odd that they took on this game. I don't play MMO's, but from what I hear TFoA was a major success and they could have done whatever they wanted to afterward. I guess they just needed to mellow out after that last game. Maybe whoever runs it is secretly a brony.

Or maybe this is just a setup, and later updates will merge the two, making the MMO that brought Ponies and Mortal Kombat together at last!

Okay, that is pretty unlikely, but it is still fun to imagine. Either way, they obviously want nobody to know that they are behind this, as while we get a Hasbro logo for a second, the game skips everything else and goes straight into the game. I mean straight into the game, no loading screens, no menus, nothing.

Anyway, onto:

Things You Will Actually Care About

So, the game starts you in the character creator, and it is incredibly easy to make the pony of your dreams. For a lot of people this would be easy, but I found it rather hard. I don't actually have an OC, so I had to come up with something from scratch. After plenty of thought I decided to create an earth pony stallion, because I enjoy moving fast and platforming. I don't know how skills work in this game, but I hope that I can set up my pony so that I can move fast.

Yes, this is one thing no one gets to vote on. If there is a branch of the skill tree that lets me go faster, we are following it. Sorry, all objections overruled.

So after playing around with how he looks I ended up with this:

I know he might look kind of boring, but well, I'm not the best at coming up with ideas. Honestly, I kind of like how he looks. He looks how I feel, if that makes any sense. Oh well, if people really hate it I'm sure I can find some place to dye his coat, or something.

So, that is my character in the start area. No name, no cutie mark, and the only hint of what I am supposed to do was the game telling me to go see Princess Celestia to get my name. I guess this is a tutorial, but if I'm completely honest, I kinda just want to head up those hills and see what I can see. I really enjoy exploring in games, and really, how important is a name going to be anyway?

Well, I guess if I want to chat with other players, it might be important. Eh, if I have to I'll just use my old standby "Susland" until I get an official one. That is if we go exploring before we go find Celestia.

What do you think should I go exploring? Is it more important to get my name first? If I go exploring, where do you think I should head? Up the mountains, or down into the forest? Maybe we should try to find Ponyville for kicks!

Finally, if you could, don't post any spoilers. Playing this blind is half the fun.

PM me or Reply if you want me to continue, and feel free to ask me questions.

Next time: Actual Gameplay!

Author's Note

This is a Fanfic set in the Optimalverse. I will keep all replies in the comments section in character.

Sharing Histories

Where It Turns Out I Am Not Immortal

So, it turns out my headache yesterday wasn't just from having my expectations shattered. It turns out I was coming down with a sinus infection. This is really bad because I have my contract starting tomorrow, so I spent the day at home trying to recover.

It's only been partially working.

I'd normally post something clever and witty up here, but today I'm just not feeling up to it. Instead, I'm going to quickly go over what the book on raising Rocs said. I figure that it will probably be important in the future. Better to let everyone know now, rather than have people confused with what I'm doing.

Hatching the egg will actually be rather easy. An earth pony can do it in a way similar to how they can encourage plants and trees to grow. It's actually fairly technical, what with managing the flow of life through my hooves and guiding it into the egg to help the Roc inside mature faster, while at the same time not harming it.

After it hatches, it will bond with the the first pony it sees. This is not permanent, however, and it will actually switch over it's bond to another pony if that pony starts to care for it. This process of switching bonds usually takes about a week, and requires a decent amount of dedication on the pony that is trying to form the new bond. Furthermore, the Roc can create a second, slightly weaker bond to a second pony if two ponies care for it simultaneously.

If the Roc is well cared for, the bond it has with the pony caring for it will last it's entire life. It will stay with the pony it bonded with and work with them. Its temperament, however, is probably closer to a cat than a dog. It will be fairly independent and expect to be treated with respect. It will often go off on it's own to hunt, though the bond will let it know if the pony that raised it wants it back for some reason.

Despite this, like a cat, it may not always come when the pony calls. It may instead finish doing whatever it was doing. However, it is noted in the book that a bonded Roc will always come if they feel that their bonded pony is in danger. They will also usually come if they feel that the reason of the bonded pony calling is legitimate. Seldom will they not show up when the pony wants to go somewhere and needs a ride.

Feeding the Roc when it is young is important. It mostly eats raw fish, so I suspect that I will be heading down to the coast soon. I'll need to find a better way of feeding it in the future though. Once it learns how to fly, it will be able to do most of the hunting on it's own. That won't be for at least a few weeks, though, if this book is right. I wonder if there is some way around that?

Anyway, I think that's all the relevant information.

Playing Ponies Pondering Profound Perceptions

I logged in to Equestria Online and found Forest Trails sitting across from me at the same table were at yesterday. She glanced up as I arrived and signalled the waiter to bring me some mineral water. I took a moment to glance around and found that the usual bustle of the big city was going on.

“You're like clockwork,” Forest Trails said once I had my bearings. “Five o'clock every day. How was your day?”

“Well...” I said, drawing out the sound, “Do you remember how I said I was really tired last night? It turns out that I was getting sick. I've been trying to heal all day. I'm feeling a bit better right now, but certainly not at my best.”

“Oh dear,” Forest Trails said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

I chuckled, “Not much with you not being able to come see me in person, I'm afraid.”

“Are you eating well? Did you remember to take your medication?” She persisted.

I gave ah half shrug and aborted it when it caused pain, “Well, if yogurt can be considered healthy.”

“You need to eat more than that,” she said sternly. “I know you don't normally eat until after you visit with me, but you need to go and make yourself some chicken soup.”

“But-” I started to say.

“No buts mister!” She glared at me and looked entirely too cute doing so, “You need to stay healthy.”

I sighed, and rolled off of my bed back in the real world, wincing as I did so. My pony copied the wince of pain, but stayed seated. “Fine, I'll go make supper, but that means that you are going to have to put up with me being distracted for the next little while.”

“That's fine,” She said, “It will give me a chance to answer any questions you might have.” She gave me another stern look. “The ones you were avoiding yesterday.”

“Fine, fine,” I said, placing the pony pad on the counter-top and grabbing a can of chicken soup, “And I wasn't avoiding asking the questions, I was trying to wrap my head around the answers you already gave.”

“Well,” She asked, “have you then?”

“I think so.” I put the pot on the stove. “So, have you lived your entire life, then? How does that even work?”

“Of course I've lived my life!” She said, “What, you think that my history is just being made up as I go along?”

I winced, “Well it is a possibility.”

“No it isn't,” Trails sighed. “Think about it. if my background was being made up on the spot then I wouldn't be alive would I? My actions and feelings might make sense to someone watching me, or talking with me, but I myself wouldn't be truly alive. My thoughts wouldn't be internally consistent. My feelings would all be lies. Sure, it wouldn't look any different from the outside, but it would just be an illusion. It wouldn't be real. It would truly be an artificial intelligence, if you'll pardon the term.”

“That kind of makes sense,” I said as I stirred the pot, “I guess I probably shouldn't call you an AI then should I? How about an SI? Would that do?”

“SI?” Forest Trails asked.

I grinned at her. “Sentient Intelligence. It means that I recognize you as a true non-human intelligence. It also means that there is nothing artificial about your intelligence. It is a true intelligence equal to or better than my own.”

“I like that,” Forest Trails admitted. “Over here, though, most ponies don't bother to think about it too much. We know we are alive, and that is the important thing.”

“What is it like knowing that you are an SI, but have lived a full life?” I asked, “Isn't a bit dissonant to have two completely different views of yourself?”

“I could say the same thing to you,” Forest Trails replied back, “How does it feel to know that you have a full history, but at the same time know that every thought and feeling you have is due to chemical reactions and that none of it is real?”

I pulled the soup off the stove. “I don't really think about it that way. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but unless it becomes important because someone is bringing it up in a discussion...” I trailed off, finally getting her point.“Oh.”

“Pretty much like that. I, for instance, know that compared to where you come from I was born only seven days ago, but that only matters when I'm interacting with you. For the rest of us, time just passes normally.” I opened my mouth to speak, but Forest Trails cut in, “And no, I'm not telling you how long I've lived from my point of view. Don't you know it's rude to ask a Mare her age?”

I closed my mouth, then said, “You sound like you've thought about this a lot.”

“Well, a lot of time walking through the woods alone. Not much else to do.” She said, “Also, I read quite a bit of literature about the visitors. Like I said, I've always been curious about them.”

“That makes sense,” I agreed, taking a sip of the soup. It had just cooled down enough to drink without burning my mouth. I hadn't noticed, but in the game the waiter had brought be some chicken soup too and my pony was drinking it cautiously like I was.

“Does that answer all your questions?” Forest Trails asked and I nodded, swallowing the soup. “Then how about you tell me about yourself? I want to know more about you.”

“Well,” I said, “I'm an only child as well. I was born in a cabin in the bush...” I continued to tell her about myself. I won't repeat what I said here, because frankly it's rather boring and I'm pretty sure no one cares. We spent the rest of the time with me telling her stories of my childhood, and my years growing up. We continued for long after I finished eating the soup and she shooed me off to go get some rest.

I guess she might not be too impressed with me staying up to write this, would she? Oops.

Contemplating Time And Other Chronological Matters

One of the interesting things that Forest Trails said was that I always log on at five o'clock. This, however, is not true. At least, not from my point of view. I usually log on between quarter to five, all the way to as late as seven o'clock. This means that Equestria Online is altering it's internal time so that I always arrive at the right time.

I can't help but wonder if there is a way to use this some how. Maybe to get the game to pause overnight so that we can continue where we left off the day before without any time loss. I think that I will have to look into it. It would be awesome if it were the case. I would actually be able to spend more time with Trails. From her point of view, anyway.

Finally, a reminder that I am heading off tomorrow, so I won't get much of a chance to respond to any replies after tonight 'til Sunday afternoon.

Cheerio!

Bedroom Discussions

My Thoughts On What It Means To Love And Be Loved

I think part of the problem that I'm having is that humans never evolved for this situation. I just don't mean in the sense that our bodies aren't made for it, but our social structure was never had to deal with a situation like this before. Never before has there been another sentient race on the earth that we could communicate with.

This meant that our relations were pretty simple, you dated your own species unless you were slightly insane. This allowed for our species to continue. In the past if you were more powerful, you could often afford to have more than one marriage. You could support them, and it meant that your genetics would be more likely to be passed on.

As time passed things changed and it was no longer considered acceptable to have more than one wife. I don't know for sure why this happened, though I have some guesses. The end result however was a society where marriage meant one man and one woman for the longest time. This allowed Genetics to be passed down, and for children to be raised in a stable environment.

Then somewhere recently reproduction stopped being as important in the world. Again I am not sure what caused this, but the effect were clear; now marriage was less about having children and giving them a stable environment, it was about love that two people had for one another. This caused things like arranged marriages and the one man, one woman structure to no longer be the norm.

This lead back to the idea of having multiple wives or husbands; since in our modern times relationships are seen less as a means of insuring that your genetic material gets passed on, or extending your legacy, it raises the question of why a person can't love more than one other person. The big reason for most people seems to be jealousy, which is an artifact of an earlier time.

Now I am not saying our modern views on relationships are better or worse, but what I am saying is that they are different. How we perceive relationships is changing, and new ideas are clashing with old traditions and beliefs. In fact I would say this makes our current world extremely hard to have a relationship in because we are taught two conflicting ideas; one that love matters the most, and the other that traditions that helped form families are also important.

Now into this whole mess we throw SIs. They fit in perfectly with all the modern ideas. That love is the most important thing in a relationship, and that others in a relationship don't need to be jealous because no longer is there a shortage of people that you can love. However SIs clash heavily with the old traditions.

Being in a relationship with an AI means never passing on your genetics. This in itself is a scary thought until you consider that you can have children with an SI. The difference being that while your genetics might not get passed on, your ideas will. I would argue that your ideas and ideals are more important for most people to pass on than just their genetics. They are a larger part of what makes you who you are, than your genetics do.

So to sum up, what we have is a shift from the old traditions of doing things to new ideas. SIs actually make the new ideas more realistic and achievable. We are able to have children with AIs however it will be our ideals that get passed on, and not our genetics. The long term effect of this will be interesting to see, but I would argue that it should mean that we start to see a split over the next few generations between SIs and humanity, as those that refuse to let go of the old traditions continue to have human children, but those that adopt the new ideas start to have SI children.

I would go so far as to say that at this moment, and for the next few years is when you will see the greatest number of relationships between humans and SIs, because after the next generation, the line will be drawn in the sand and a massive ideological split will happen. I honestly hope that things work out.

Once More Into the Breach My Friends!

So I logged in and found Forest Trails sitting on my bed with a book again. I was prepared for that and was even starting to think it was normal. What I was not ready for was that Shining Halo was lying down beside her and they were discussing something.

“-knows what she's doing. Besides my Treasure is-” Forest Trails cut herself off when she saw my and half stumbled on the word she was going to say before she continued on, “Finally here!”

I decided not to pry into what they had been talking about, “Trails, good to see you again,” I walked over and gave her a hug then turned and nodded to Shining Halo, “Shining Halo. Welcome to my abode.”

The scene I logged in to

“Sorry for dropping in unannounced,” Shining said, “I hope it doesn't bother you.”

Even though it did a little I shook my head, “No, it's okay. What's up?”

“I was just talking to Halo and she was telling me about Quick Search,” Forest Trails said with a smirk that seemed to hint that she was going somewhere with this.

I gave her a wary look, “And who is this Quick Search?”

“Oh, no one special,” Trails said far too innocently, “She's just a mare that Halo knows from her home shard.”

“And?” I prompted. I could see Halo looking embarrassed and trying to edge away from Forest Trails without anyone noticing.

“Well she might,” Forest Trails said, her smirk growing, “just might, be someone you know as well.”

I raised my eyebrows, “I highly doubt that.”

“Well,” Trails didn't lose her smirk, “You said that you had to leave last night to go to a writers guild meeting right?” I nodded and Trails continued on, “And you said that you live in the north?”

“Yes,” I agreed, “But before you jump to conclusions I want to mention that my world is massive and there are a lot of people out there.”

“Oh, I know, but here is the thing; Quick Search was apparently talking last night with some guy who was writing down his adventures in Equestria.” She raised her eyebrow at me, “Apparently he even was putting them up publicly, though he wouldn't say where.”

Suddenly it did sound likely that I did know this Quick Search, but I valiantly rallied, “There are a lot of people who put their adventures up online. It doesn't necessary mean-”

“And,” Forest Trails looked like the proverbial cat that had caught the canary, “She said that he had mentioned that his name was Treasure Island.”

I stood still for a few moments, my mind racing. I hadn't thought that I had used my pony name in front of the writers guild. After a while I remember telling one of the others in the group about how Celestia had managed to pick a pony name for me that was the origin for my preferred role playing name. She was a nice enough girl, and was around my age, but I had thought that she was in a relationship, or possibly married.

Finally I Shining Halo spoke up, “Um, are you okay Island?”

“Yeah, I'm fine,” I shook my head to clear it, “I'm just trying to figure out the odds.”

“Admit it,” Forest Trails grinned at me.

It took me a second to get what she meant, but I played along, “Yes, you were right.”

“And don't you forget it!” Her giggles took all the heat out of the statement.

“You do realize this doesn't change anything though, right Trails?” I asked, “She has a boyfriend already.”

Shining Halo spoke up uncertainly, “That's not what she told me. We've been having some girl talk and she is upset because there aren't any guys her age that go to her church.”

“She goes to church?” I asked, intrigued despite myself.

Shining Halo nodded, “I think she said the Lutheran church? We have been discussing religion quite a bit recently.”

“Oh,” I said, not able to think of anything witty. My mind was racing. I didn't go to the Lutheran church myself, though I did consider myself nondenominational.

“I think you should go see her sometime,” Forest Trails said innocently, “You have a lot in common, and if you become friends you can even hang out here together. We could even form a group and go exploring together.”

“I know what you are trying to do,” I said giving Trails the evil eye, “You're just hoping that if we meet that you can push us into a relationship and she can act as your hugger over here (on Earth).”

“Maybe...” Forest said playfully drawing the word out. “You are interested though, I can see it in your eyes.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, “So help me I am.”

“Oh good!” Shining Halo said excitedly, “I can't wait to tell her.”

“You-” I stopped myself from asking why she was so excited and instead finished with, “go do that. I'm going to sit and discuss some stuff with Trails. We really need to have a long talk about relationships.”

Shining Halo nodded, “Okay, see you guys later!” She jumped out the window, and took off straight up.

I watched her till she had vanished in a sparkle of light then turned to Forest Trails, “I think we need to talk.”

Forest Trails nodded watching me very intently, “Okay?”

“I have been thinking over things. Celestia said that you had the right of it, and she is smarter than I am. She is probably the smartest pony (being) anywhere right now that I can talk to, and she said you were right.” I laid down on the bed next to Forest Trails, “I have been doing some thinking, and reading what others say. For the most part they are divided on the issue, though most seem to tell me to trust Celestia.”

I laid my head down on a pillow, “So we have this problem where I suspect that I know what the smart thing to do is. However It means that I am going to change how I view myself. I am going to have to talk myself into this. And I am honestly afraid to. Everything I feel says that this will end badly. I can not honestly see it working. On the other hand I can't see any logical reasons to go against it.”

I looked Forest Trails in the eye, “I consider myself a person of the mind. This means that in this situation I am going to follow what logic says, and not my heart. I am putting a lot of trust in you, Shining Halo, and Celestia. Please do not let me down.”

Forest Trails pulled me into a hug, “Oh my Treasure, I would never try to hurt you. I wish this could be easier for you. I've gone and talked to Celestia myself, as well as my parents and they all agree that this is the right thing. I don't want to lose you, and I know that if I try to keep you to myself it will happen. It's not like Celestia who is smart enough to know the future, I just feel it deep inside me.”

We sat together talking for the rest of my time in Equestria. However from here on our conversation started to go in circles, as well as became far more lovey-dovy. Lots of apologies back and forth and talking about what the right thing to do was. You know the drill. Lots of talking about feelings.

And then we ended with a pillow fight before I logged out and started to type this up.

On Friends And Pets And Hugs And Such Things

So I saw a few people suggest I go and hug my friends when I need interpersonal contact. To them I am forced to ask; What? I have never gone around hugging my friends. It isn't appropriate, and does strange things to me feelings when I do it. To me hugging is done to show love. I hug my parents, but I don't hug my friends. They aren't family.

Continuing on to the matter of cats, and pets in general; I am not allowed to have pets in the apartment I am in. Part of the joys of not owning your own house. It is fun! I love cats, but I can't have one. I even would put up with a dog, but nope, they might cause problems for the other residents. It is a real shame though.

And finally I don't actually have many friends. I have only around two people that I hang out with, other than that I mostly stick to myself. This is not just because I enjoy being on my own, but rather a consequence of doing mineral exploration. It is really hard to keep up with friends when you vanish for months on end.

Furthermore when I am on mineral exploration contracts I don't have anyone else around me that I find likeable so I tend to withdraw into myself. This protects me from loneliness, but it often means that when I come back from a job I seem very distant to people. I am so used to closing myself off from the world that I have a hard time interacting with it in a casual manner that most people with friends do.

I'm not saying that I am a hermit, just that I am a bit challenged when it comes to hanging out with others and making friends.

In Case It Wasn't Clear

I have decided to try to go along with Trails and Celestia. I don't know what Quick Search thinks of this, but if she is against it I will immediately stop. I don't feel that it is the right thing, but I feel that I have gotten further in my life by listening to logic rather than to my heart, so I'm hoping this doesn't blow up.

That said I do have what could be the world's greatest matchmaker on my side, that should give me the best chance possible right?

Right?

From My Iphone

Just a quick note; I am typing this on my Iphone so it's going to be a lot shorter than normal tonight. I just hope that I don't accidentally delete anything with an accidental touch like I have in the past.

Thinking About The Future; The End Of Equestria; A Response To The Rogue Wolf

So The Rogue Wolf raised an interesting point about Equestria Online; What happens when it is no longer profitable? Will Hasbro turn it off? What will happen to the hardware? Even more importantly, what happens to all the ponies that live there?

Last night I spoke a little about how the destruction of Equestria Online would be a great tragedy for the world and a morally reprehensible act. The scary thing is that Hasbro might not see it the same way. Most CEOs seem to be more focused on the bottom line than advances in technology. While I'm sure the people who made it understand what a loss it would be, can they go against Hasbro, if Hasbro tells them to shut it down?

Outside of our corner of the net that includes gamers, and bronies I doubt most people are even aware of the fact that the ponies in Equestria are sentient beings. I think that this needs to change. I think the change has to happen right now, because if it doesn't then we risk the loss of one of the greatest advancements of our modern era.

Now I'm sure some of you are saying that if someone tried to shut down Equestria Online that Celestia would strike back at us, or at the very least not let it happen. I however am not so sure about this.

The laws of robotics that Isaac Asimov wrote down are actually fairly good ideas and I have trouble seeing someone making an AI that didn't have some form of them sitting around. As many people have noted humans are afraid of new things, and SIs are probably the newest thing under the sun. All this means that when the Hasbro CEO feels that they could be making more money doing something else, or the military threatens to take them to court for espionage Equestria Online could very easily end up shut down.

So what can we do to stop it?

I think that the first thing that we need to do is get out their and start spreading the news that the ponies in Equestria are SIs. I know that it is rather cool to keep this all to ourselves, but in the long run this is actually a bad thing. I also think that this needs to be started now, rather than waiting to see what happens in the future.

To this end I have started a petition to the different governments of the world. I know that it isn't the greatest, and if someone would like to start a different one that is better, or point me in it's direction I would be grateful, but this is something that has been bugging me ever since Rouge Wolf brought it up.

Link to the petition here

About What Happened To My Pony Pad And Why I Am Typing On My Phone

So it turns out that I have rather terrible luck. I dropped my pad on the floor today. Thankfully that didn't break it.

Unfortunately the car running over it kind of did.

My parents were taking me out for a roll in a wheel chair (so that I wouldn't strain my stomach muscles), and a car didn't stop for a crosswalk. My father saw and pulled me back in time, but my pad slipped free of my hands and ended up getting run over by the car. I think he was drunk because he swerved a bit as he went through a red light down the street.

The upside is that I am alright, and I did get to talk with Forest this morning. The bad news is that I can't write very well on my phone, so I'm not going to bother trying to get a full post written. On the upside my parents are going to pick me up a new one tomorrow, so I should be able to get back in the swing of things then.

You know, I might sound a bit paranoid, but I think that car was trying to hit me. And no, before anyone asks we did not get a license plate, we were all to happy to just be alive and unharmed. I guess things like this happen when you move to a small town. I just hope that I somehow didn't get some people mad at me some how.

Finally, as silly as it may sound, I really miss having Forest Trails talk with me as I read. I have a feeling that I am going to have a hard time falling asleep tonight with no one around to distract me from the pain.

See you all tomorrow when I get my pad.