--Thunder Bolt--

Sirene Lustershine. The first name hearkens to the Sirens, and sounds similar to "serene," i.e. the "more wholesome" pony she wishes she was but can't quite make herself become. "Luster" in her last name is as Fancy Ram said above, with the "-shine" added to give it more of the shiny, feminine vibe of the MLP universe in general.

This sounds vaguely like the Goetia or the Lesser Key of Solomon. The basic legend is that King Solomon sealed 72 demons in a brass vessel, and employed various spells and rituals to make them do his bidding. The legend dates to Europe in the Rennaissance and late Middle Ages, with no evidence connecting it to a historical King Solomon. The grimoires putatively contain the spells and rituals Solomon used. These things do "exist," in that there are manuscripts (grimoires) containing descriptions of rituals, spells, and exhaustive preparations that must be made to perform them (how to make and ritually purify the components and magical tools used, etc.). The question is, do they work as described? The answer is almost certainly 'no.' These manuscripts have been known for centuries (and they were in turn based on older systems, such as the Jewish kabbalah and Greek Hermetic magic), yet no bungler has unleashed the demonic horde, nor has anyone demonstrably become immensely powerful or wealthy through their use. In other words, the anticipated consequences (what we would expect to see in reality) of this sort of thing working do not appear in the real world. On the othe hand, if you take a more modest definition of "magic," such as "magic is the art and science of changing consciousness in accordance with Will" or "one person's magic is another person's engineering," then a case for its reality can be made. Consider the Placebo Effect. It has been thoroughly demonstrated that if a physician provides a patient with an inert pill (like a sugar pill, called a "placebo") as if it is medicine, that it can sometimes actually work to treat the patient's malady. The patient's belief that the pill is medicine is apparently enough to make it work as such, to a degree. This has been demonstrated convincingly enough that no medical test of a new medicine is considered valid if it does not "control" for the Placebo Effect, i.e., if the new medicine cannot be shown to work better than a placebo. For a pharmaceutical researcher, the PE is an obstacle to be overcome, but for a mage, it is her/his bread and butter. The complex symbolic correspondences of astrology, geometry, gematria, etc., the need to acquire difficult-to-obtain components, the psychodrama of ritual and incantations in arcane languages, etc. are all crafted to focus the mage's consciousness into a state of belief (i.e. generate and enhance the PE as much as possible) and depending on the ritual, place the mage in altered states of consciousness. As the PE and other demonstrable factors (such as the effects of hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, etc.) indicate, magic can "work" (have real effects) even if it does not tap into any Forces Unknown to Physics. As for this "seal" you're talking about, I don't see any valid reason to have anything to do with it. If there's nothing to it, then you're wasting your time. In the exceedingly unlikely event that it's real as described, you would be toying with malevolent entities far older, wiser, and more experienced with this sort of thing than you and your friend. Take that line about using the blood of seven witches who are "pure of heart" to open and close the seal. What does that mean, exactly? That's a classic Monkey's Paw loophole. "Behold, I close the Seal and return thee to thy confinement!" The demons chuckle. "There ssseemsss to be a problem with the blood of Tina Jacobson," one of them says. "She is a virgin! She's only ten! By the Keys of Enoch and the Sigil of Solomon, I bind thee!" "Yessss...but ssshe is alssso the meanessst girl at her ssschool. RAAAAAR!" *omnomnomnom* Thus endeth the career of another bright but over-eager Magician's Apprentice. Then there is the third possibility, of "magic" working as described above. Performing a ritual sufficiently intense to convince yourself that you're working with demons could be dangerous even if the demons themselves don't exist. A Nocebo Effect can cause real physical harm (possibly up to and including death, see the linked article) in the same way that a placebo can have real physical effects. If you are interested in the practice of magic, I suggest starting with Brain Magick by Philip H. Farber. It seems to be on a fairly sound scientific footing (no blatantly bogus claims that I have been able to find), and the exercises it has involving "entities" center on ones that you create rather than malevolent concepts created by other people.

Sunyatay was pacing back and forth, deep in thought about where she should try to go, when she heard hoofbeats coming her way. That's the pony! She--no, he--the pony had gracile facial bone structure almost like a female, but as he got closer Sunyatay could tell from his build that he was a young stallion--was coming toward the forest with a jaunty trot. His steps became sluggish, then faltered, as if he was dizzy. He began to cough and gasp, then wobbled on his feet and collapsed. "Hello? Are you alright?" she said, her voice a faint echo on the wind. No response. His ribcage was still rising and falling, but his breathing seemed weak. That...doesn't seem normal, she thought. The way he'd been trotting along, perfectly fine, then started becoming sicker with each step into the Forest... Should I try to heal him? She knew some basic healing spells, but she was no physician. She tried a Detect Illness spell. The chill she felt as light from her horn played over him confirmed her suspicion: there was dark magic involved. No. Whatever was cast on him might cause my healing spells to make things worse. That's the sort of thing an evil wizard would do, isn't it? She glanced up, toward Ponyville. Right there, in the library near the center of town, was the one pony she knew of besides Princess Celestia, who would know how to diagnose and treat a sophisticated curse. Sunyatay gathered her strength to try to levitate him, when his eyes opened, blood-red orbs! [flashback, two nights ago] "Excuse me? Can I help you?" Sunyatay asked. It was very rare for anypony to travel the Everfree Forest at night. She tensed, waiting for the expected terrified reaction, but she had to at least try. The pony, a silhouette in waning moonlight, turned to her. Red eyes, glowing against the shadow of his head. Without warning, he lunged at her, slashing with sharpened horseshoes. By reflex, she released the tangibility she had been striving for and tried to dodge. A glancing cut, then he attacked again. This time, she teleported out of his path, then used telekinesis to hurl a rock and a fallen log at him. He was too quick, evading her counter-attacks effortlessly. Sunyatay felt a powerful dark aura. She ran into the forest. With a few teleports and her invisibility, she was able to escape. [/flashback] Thanks to partial intangibility, her wounds were not serious, but she had kept a wary eye on them, just in case. The next day, she had tried to warn the ponies in Ponyville. To her chagrin, her apparitions were misinterpreted as a doom herald, boasting of the attacker's power instead of alerting ponies to the danger. Is he... She took a cautious step backward, readying a teleport. The attacker had seemed much bigger at the time, but it was dark and it all happened so fast that she hadn't seen more of him than a pony-shaped shadow. Not even enough to tell what kind of pony he was. The young stallion's expression looked a lot more like pain than malice though. With an effort of will, Sunyatay pushed herself into reality, enough to become a translucent apparition, faintly pink, with a long, straight white mane that shrouded her face except for her horn and one pale blue eye. "Please don't be afraid," she said, straining to be heard, but producing only a faint, soft tone. "I'm going to try to take you to Princess Twilight." Gritting her teeth with effort, Sunyatay wrapped him in a telekinetic field and lifted him up.

Sunyatay Sutra emerged from the Everfree Forest on the road to Ponyville. She stopped as the forest thinned and the town spread out before her. Everypony was going about their happy business. Though it was all only a short trot away, their world seemed impossibly remote. How could they feel so safe with each other? Each so sure he or she was wanted and welcome, and each correct to feel that way. Maybe somepony will need-- Screaming, from the sky above. Sunyatay looked up, and saw a brown pony plummeting toward the ground, bright red and blue mane and tale whipping in the wind. She concentrated as hard as she could on making herself real, reaching out with her telekinesis. She hadn't ever had to try and grab something so distant and fast-moving before. And now somepony's life depended on her getting it right. The light of her horn seemed to float in the air like a will-o-wisp as she groaned with effort. The faintest translucent image of her body began to appear when she finally made contact and started to solidify her grip. Suddenly, a loud *whooosh!,* a streak of rainbow in the sky, and the pony was snatched from her grasp. *sigh* It would have been nice to really help somepony. Maybe I could even have gotten to talk to them, Sunyatay thought, fading back to invisibility. Who am I kidding? The Elements of Harmony live here. The Heroes of Equestria! I couldn't compete with my own family! How am I supposed to measure up to them?! Why can't I even help somepony without it being a competition I have to lose? No, I shouldn't think like that. The important thing is that the pony is safe. If Rainbow Dash hadn't been there, I might not have been able to save him...her...whichever. They could have been hurt, or even killed! Maybe I could go somewhere else? Even Rainbow Dash can't be everywhere.

Sunyatay Sutra awoke in darkness. Musty, humid air. *Plonk..k..k..* A drip fell somewhere with a hollow echo. She looked around as she scrambled to her hooves. She could see nothing...anywhere. None of Luna's silvery rays bathing trees and shrubs in ethereal light. No fireflies, or sparks of eyeshine from creatures wreathed in shadow. Not the Everfree Forest then. Where am I? "He-hello?" "He-hello" "He-hello..." "He-hello..." a voice resounded from somewhere further in, or out, of the cave. Sunyatay lit her horn and headed toward it at a trot. Her footfalls, only barely tangible, made almost no sound. Rounding a gigantic joined stalagmite-stalagtite pillar, she saw vague silhouettes of two ponies, which shifted and flickered in the eldrich light of...words...emblazoned on the wall. A hoary voice, like stale air from a freshly-opened tomb spoke to them. The sound of it made Sunyatay shudder. One of the ponies started drawing pictures with a stick. Maybe I can help them, Sunyatay thought. She started looking for something else she could lift and move to announce her presence, when the stick was suddenly yanked away, making the pony fall face-down in the dirt. Sunyatay cringed. If I try to use my magic now, they'll think I'm the cave creature! It might even take whatever I use and hurt one of them with it, so they'd blame me! She shuddered, wondering if this was where she'd disappear forever. Maybe I already have...and this is where ponies go when they aren't real anymore. The cave-creature was speaking in verse again, and Sunyatay thought she heard him give away one of the answers to his first riddle. A flash of light filled the cave, followed by pain. Searing, burning pain that charred the bottom of everypony's feet. Sunyatay screamed, her voice coming out as a soft, ghostly wail that was drowned out by the cries of the others. She jumped, trying to escape the burning, but it was in her hooves themselves, rather than the floor. Landing hard, she collapsed in pain. For a moment, Sunyatay could actually see herself, but when the pain faded, she did as well. Suddenly, there was an earthquake. The cave wall cracked and split, letting in dazzling light and a cold, howling wind. It wouldn't let us out that easy. Are we being rescued? With bright sunlight and snow-glare lighting up the cave interior, Sunyatay shut off her horn-light. She gingerly clambered to her hooves and picked her way over to the other ponies. By the time she reached where they were, they had escaped across a ravine by grabbing a rope thrown by another pony. The rope would not come for her, of course. Even if she could make herself visible as a translucent apparition, how would the rescuer see her through the blizzard, when they couldn't even know to look? And if anypony did see her, they'd do what everypony always did: think she was a ghost, and run away screaming. Or in this case, think she was the cave creature, and hate her. There was a whole crowd of ponies over there now, which was almost as terrifying as the cave creature itself. Sunyatay felt herself becoming just a little more insubstantial. "Ahhh...somepony doesn't play well with othersssss..." the voice hissed in her ear. "That does not mean that others cannot play with you," it said with a malevolent chuckle. Suddenly, Sunyatay was flying across the ravine, propelled by invisible force. She landed in a puff of snow, its swirls briefly revealing the outline of a female unicorn with a long, straight mane and tail. She looked around herself in panic, cringing in anticipation of the others' reactions.

Wow, this is an awesome project! I hope it all works out the way you want it to! I know zip about the legalities of making MLP games, but it seems to me that if Litany of Magic works as intended, it would probably go viral. If/when Hasbro finds out, I hope they either show up with fistfuls of Benjamins and an employment contract, or leave you be, whichever you prefer. It seems to me that your game would be a hit with both the brony and the target demographics.

SOYLENT PINK IS MADE OF PONIES!!!! Your story is off to a good, creepy start! Plus it puts a whole new spin on that whole "horsemeat" scandal that happened a ways back. I wonder if pony meat is "magically delicious." OK, OK, I'll stop now. But I do kinda wonder why the villain would go to the trouble to create an Interdimensional Snatch-O-Matic to capture ponies for cheap food, instead of going after the magic items, abundant gemstones, and magical creatures (for dissection, so he can learn to create mutant zombie versions under his control or something). But there could be many reasons why pony meat is far superior to any mundane food available in his world. Anyway, lookin' good so far!

Thanks for the kind welcome everyone/everypony! In case anyone's interested, I posted the first chapter of a fanfic, "Equestria Girl: The Other Side of the Mirror" on the forum. The premise: the EG trailers show HumanVerse counterparts of all of the Mane Six, except Twilight. What happens to her HumanVerse counterpart? Anyway, for anyone interested in reading, I'd like to know what you think.

In the Equestria Girls trailer, we see that each of Twilight's Mane Six friends has a counterpart in the HumanVerse. What happened to Twilight's human self? This is her story. Author's Note: This story is a fanfic based on the Equestria Girls trailers. It is very likely to be contradicted by details of the movie. I continue on, in regal indifference. Chapter 1: Through the Looking Glass "Oh. My. God. Have you seen the crown they're giving for Princess of the Fall this year? It's like, the. Best. Crown. Ever! It looks so real, like real gold and gems and..." Ugh. I tried not to roll my eyes. I really tried. The whole, 'Oooooh, I wanna be a sparkly, sparkly princess!' thing is cute, I guess--for six year-olds. But here I am, in high school, with people who are supposed to be doing things like getting ready for jobs or college out in the real world...people who, you know, have access to things like history books, and ought to know that feudal tyranny sucked. Royally. Buuuuut--that's all anybody's talking about, this stupid 'Princess of the Fall' thing. Oh, and 'Princess of the Fall'? Really? Really?! That means they're probably gonna have a Princess of the Winter, and Spring, and Summer, too, right? Add in Homecoming and Prom, and the Princess Popularity Contest thing will never go away. I hate this school already. Hate. Miss Celeste said I ought to try to make friends here? That'll happen, in a place that's designed to make sure people like me are shunned as much as possible. Because, how do you win a 'princess' crown? By being the most 'in' of the 'in-crowd.' And how do you define yourself as 'in?' By defining somebody else as 'out,' and making their life miserable, that's how. A Prada heel stamping on a human face, forever. I picked up speed and ignored the Mannequins and their princess-princess-princess monkey chatter. They looked me over as I passed, and I could just feel their targeting reticules locking on. *bip-bip-bip-beeeeeeee...* "Oh, looks like somebody won't be in the running for Princess of the Fall," one of them said with a chuckle. You got that right. OK. I could complain about how the popular girls in whatever school I go to treat me. But...I guess I do have a role in bringing it on myself. See, I could just go ahead and dress like they do and talk like they do and pretend I'm not interested in anything that doesn't come out of a fashion mag or celebrity gossip Twitter feeds. Or I could dress in your basic jeans-and-T-shirt urban camouflage. But I'm not gonna let them decide how I manifest. I define my own style, different from theirs, or Generic American Standard, on purpose. So, I've got purple and fuschia stripes in my hair, and I wear a kit-bash of retro clothes: A light blue Steampunkish Victorian-style blouse with puffy shoulders and a fuschia bow-tie. A pleated poodle skirt, except instead of a poodle, my Sigil--two six-rayed stars placed on top of each other and canted to define the vertices of the Merkaba and Buckminster Fuller's Vector Equilibrium (or, "cuboctahedron" in common parlance), which are related to the esoteric Flower of Life diagram and the twelve-around-one configuration that results from the closest-packing of spheres. Of course, nobody but me knows that, as it just looks like six-rayed stars, and they're not looking at it three-dimensionally anyway. This is surrounded by five more, smaller six-rayed stars, forming a pentagon. If you draw a five-pointed star inside a regular pentagon, each line of the star will be cut by another line at the ratio of phi, a unique ratio in which the smaller part is to the larger part as the larger part is to the whole, which is geometry's way of expressing the Hermetic Dictum. Phi shows up everywhere in nature. In human anatomy--just look at Leonardo's Vitruvian Man--in the Fibonnacci spirals of nautilus shells, hurricanes, and galaxies...let's just say my Sigil carries a lot of meaning for me, OK? Anyway, I finish my wardrobe off with argyle '80's style leg-warmers and Disco-era platform boots. I am not bound by Time. Hehe. So I'm weird. With a name like 'Twila Sparks,' I don't exactly have the option of blending in. So why not just decide who I am, and be that? Sorry Miss Celeste, but that means I'm just going to have take a pass on the whole 'try to make some friends' thing. Besides, I've seen too many people crying in the girls' room because their 'friend' stabbed them in the back to think it's even worth it to play the popularity game. I turn the corner, and see a clot of people crowded around the school's trophy case. Huh? Oh. It's all girls. The stupid crown. I consider trying to get to the other wing of the building some other way, just so I don't have to hear one more word about crowns and princesses and who's gonna win and who's going with whom to the big dance. But I'm following a map, and not a very good one at that. It looks like there is no shorter way, and for all I know, I might get lost. Besides...morbid curiosity is kinda overtaking me. I guess I might as well have a look at the thing. So I head over, careful not to bump into anybody and draw attention to myself. I look up. The trophy case is tall, and the crown is on the top shelf, so being in the back doesn't keep me from seeing it. I'm stunned. Completely gobsmacked. Mind: Blown. It does not look like some silvered-tin-and-rhinestones High School princess crown. I can see by the way it dents the pillow it's on, that it has weight. Nothing particularly special about the design, a thick gold band in your basic tiara shape, with some spirals in gold filigree, and nine sapphire cabochon stones across the front. But it was apparently made to look old. You know how, if you look at some ancient treasure, like a Scythian horse figurine, or King Tutankhamun's mask, you can tell it's old, even though it's in perfect condition? It's subtle things, like the little hints of hand-craftsmanship instead of machine make, subtle differences in the color of the gold because ancient people didn't produce gold artifacts to the karat standards we use today, a certain patina of age. This crown was like that. Like it had been worn. By a real princess. Who, asked to produce a crown for a High School popularity contest, would forge an antiquity? Making forged 'ancient' artifacts that look convincing is hard. Just ask whoever made those 'lead codices' awhile back, about how quickly they were exposed. So why go to the extra trouble? That's not what shocked me the most though. At the crown's capital, its centerpiece: a large faceted gem, carved into the shape of a six-rayed star. In the exact same shade of fuschia as the main star of my Sigil! Somebody must have opened a door or something, reflecting light toward it off a glass panel, because I swear, the thing sparkled at me. Like, there should have been a 'blllling!' sound effect or something. I believe in, and practice, magick, with a 'k.' No, I can't turn anybody into a toad. It doesn't work that way. Obviously. Sometimes magick is defined as 'the art and science of changing consciousness in accordance with Will.' I think that's about right, but that doesn't mean that magick is just psychology. Look, if you go to some place like Chartres Cathedral, the Parthenon, or the Temple of Luxor, you know you're on holy ground, even if you don't know a thing about the God or gods they were built for. The people who designed those places knew that certain proportions, geometric forms and shapes of volume in space nudge the human mind toward certain states of mind, and they built their temples the way they did intentionally. I could point you to Michael S. Schneider's A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe, or if you want to go really deep, The Temple of Man by R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz. There's actually hundreds of books about this stuff. About magick, it's also been said that 'It's all in your head--but your head is bigger than you think.' If the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics is right, then consciousness is what 'collapses the probability function,' what decides if Schrodinger's Cat is alive or dead. And since it's probability functions all the way down...what if certain, highly-focused states of conscious attention can deliberately shift the probabilities that affect our lives? And there's things like synchronicity, which I do try to pay attention to. Seeing my Sigil on the top of the 'Fall Princess' crown had to be the biggest, most in-my-face synchronicity of my whole life. No. It can't be my 'destiny' to be the Fall Princess. That's just...not me. But as I'm standing there staring, I definitely feel a connection to that crown. A bit off somehow, like a radio station coming in with some static...but the signal's getting through. Could Miss Celeste have arranged all this somehow? So I'd have a reason to take her advice and try to make friends? But why? She only met me yesterday when I enrolled. She'd have seen my Sigil then--it's on all my outfits--and she seemed super perceptive, like she could look right through me, all the way down, and know... I shake my head. Time to clear out, before anybody notices I'm there. Before they can get a chance to notice the Sigil on my skirt and on the Crown. Yeah, I'm thinking of it with a capital-C now. As I'm slipping away, I have to peel my eyes off the thing. You know how I said that the builders of Luxor and Chartres to create feelings of holiness, power, and the presence of the numinous? Well, I'm really getting the feeling that the Crown is an 'Object of Power.' The way the other girls were staring at it, I bet they feel it too, just don't have the label to slap on the feeling. The most...well, pretty much the only rational explanation is that after I finished my enrollment forms, and Miss Celeste gave me the Understanding Look and said that I should try to make friends here, she called whoever she was having make the Crown and told them to make the centerpiece a six-rayed star. But how did she get the color right? On such short notice? And that's if it hasn't been sitting there since before I came! Why would a school principal go to that much expense and trouble, just to get one loner new girl to try to find friends instead of hiding in the library? Because, even though the Crown has to be a fake, or a reproduction, it's a quality fake. Museum-quality. That kind of workmanship doesn't come quickly, or cheap. ... OK, I admit it. I spent the rest of the day thinking about the Crown. Not the popularity contest, not the dance, or dresses, or figuring out how to get a guy to ask me, or any of the sparkle-princess crap. The Crown. What does it mean? Now that I'm walking home and I don't have to think about classes, or staying off bullies' radar, I can concentrate on trying to open myself to the Mystery. I feel connected to it somehow...but not in the 'I must have it, precious! Preeeeeeeciiiiiouuuuuussss!' way. Like it's not quite meant for me. I can't try to win the thing, be the kind of girl who becomes a 'Princess of the Fall.' Because that would be living a lie. Maybe I could try to run as a spoof, 'Dark Sorceress' kinda thing: 'Princess of the Fall--of your doomed world, puny mortals! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!' *sigh* Comedy isn't really my strong suit. The pink chick, who must mainline Starbucks Double-Shots whenever nobody's looking, would kick my ass if she ran on laughs. And there's no way I could afford to buy if off the winner. It's gonna outshine all the other fake crowns in her trophy case put together. So if it's not meant for me, and how could it be...why the connection? I start into a Walking Meditation. Deep breaths, release thoughts and worries, and try for a state of complete openness to everything I sense and feel. Not doing it very well, because, the Crown shouldn't have anything more to do with me than with Emperor Caligula's horse! Who would be more likely to win the blasted thing! Almost home. When I get there, I'm gonna do a Google image search-- Bright light. I'm falling. Or being sucked upward. Or both and neither. Space and time are doing the Twist. I'm screaming. Relativity spiral. Einstein, scratching his head. A sense of compression...dilation ... ... ... My eyes open, and try to blink away the blur. I'm looking at...a street? Paved in white brick? I try to stand up, but the balance is all wrong, and I fall, catching myself with my hands. *clopclop* I lift my arm to look...at a severed stump. AAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! No, it's an elephant foot... ...or a hoof? I put it down and look at my other...hoof...that somehow matches my skin instead of... I try to look at the rest of me. Wh-u-u-uh?! My head doesn't turn. It swings around. On an impossibly-long neck. ...And I'm looking at my Sigil. On the...rear end...of a horse? Sort-of-horse? The legs are too thick, more like an elephant's but sleeker, and smooth. WHAT'S MY SIGIL DOING ON THE BACK END OF A-- "Your Highness, are you alright?" I try to spin around--swing my head--whatever. Alien. Horses. Steampunk alien horses. One with an honest-to-gorammit top hat, coat and bow tie--and a monocle! Horse-monocle! The other, with a right proper Victorian lady's fancy feathered hat and frilly...I dunno if I should call it a 'dress' or a 'saddle blanket.' They're looking at me with these huge eyes, not horse-eyes, alien eyes, waaaay oversized for their heads like the gray humanoid 'aliens,' but not creepy, kinda adorable actually, and they're looking at me like they care about me, as if I'm somebody they know who matters to them and they're worried about me because they just heard me squeal like a little...girl?...and there's pretty little Disneyland-with-a-touch-of-Dali houses all around and WHAT did he just call me?!

Hello everyone. So. The challenge. How to do an intro post that isn't dreadfully dull... I'm not exactly sure I'd call myself a brony. I have enjoyed (most episodes of) the show so far, but I don't use pony avatars on other forums or use brony-specific culture tags ("brohoof!" etc.) How did I get here? I'm a fan of the epic fanfic Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. The author (Eliezar Yudkowsky) mentioned in one of this Author's Notes that another story, Friendship is Optimal: Caelum est Conterrens (trans. Heaven is Terrifying) is the only horror story that really scares him, unlike, say, H.P. Lovecraft. This story is based on another story called Friendship is Optimal. The premise of these stories is that a game developer becomes frightened with the highly-developed A.I.'s her company is developing for video game adversaries are becoming too smart. When the Loki character they're developing for a combat game (descriptions make it sound a bit like God of War) asks her about the nuclear arsenals of China and Russia, she panics, deletes it immediately, and tries to think of a solution to the imminent arrival of true artificial sapience. "Problem," because computers run so much faster than human brains, and any true AI will be able to think circles around human beings, and use its superior cognitive abilities to improve itself still further. It doesn't have to become an evil Terminator--it might just decide that it has a better use for those carbon atoms in your body, the way we pave over an anthill without a second thought. It's too late to stop, as DARPA is already investigating the kernel software of her company's previous combat game. Her solution: she and her company will have to beat DARPA in the AI race--by creating an AI that is (she hopes) guaranteed to be Friendly. The AI she chooses to create is Princess Celestia, at the heart of a MLP MMORPG. She and her company succeed, and the bulk of both stories center on how CelestAI sets about to Satisfy Values...Through Friendship and Ponies (i.e., getting people to upload themselves into Equestria simulations and live there as ponies, forever). As I started in, I decided that I ought to watch a few MLP episodes, so I would know what the background (e.g. "Equestria," "Princess Celestia," etc.) was about. So I started watching MLP episodes on Youtube. Ironically, one of the comments on one of the first episodes I saw went something like this: "I used to hate bronies and think the show was stupid. Then I watched a few episodes. Then I was like, 'This isn't so bad...' and then I watched some more and now I'm a... FUUUUUUUUU---" Which was rather like the plot of the stories that led me to MLP in the first place. Anyway, watching MLP videos, getting to know the characters represented in brony avatars, etc. got me more curious about the brony community itself. Google: brony forum. Aaaand, here I am. InvisiblePinkUnicorn Note: The "Invisible Pink Unicorn" and the logo I'm using for my avatar come from a joke anti-religion. I'm not here to represent that. I just like the logo, and I also had an idea for an MLP RPG character who would be an "invisible pink unicorn" (again, nothing like the IPU of the joke religion), a young unicorn who turns herself invisible, and must discover the Magic of Friendshiptm before she disappears from reality altogether.