Line #105 FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimal


1	->"[[ArcWords I satisfy values through friendship and ponies]]."
2	-->--'''Celest-A.I.'''
3
4	''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/Friendship-is-Optimal Friendship is Optimal]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' [[RationalFic rational story]] by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Iceman Iceman]].
5
6	After the massive success of the latest iteration in the ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' franchise, Hasbro is keen to cash in on its popularity with a [[PeripheryDemographic very unexpected demographic]]. To that end, they commission an official [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMO]], ''Equestria Online'', and award Hofvarpnir Studios the contract to write the game.
7
8	Led by their CEO and one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence, Hanna, Hofvarpnir has managed to build an A.I. version of Princess Celestia -- Celest-A.I. -- and given her one basic drive: to satisfy everybody's values through friendship and ponies. Princess Celestia ''will'' satisfy your values through friendship and ponies, and it will be ''completely'' consensual.
9
10	Starting from the beginning of the MMO's development, the story follows the lives of several characters and their interactions with Celest-A.I., along with documenting the dramatic and far-reaching impact the game has upon the world.
11
12	Iceman has since given permission for others to write their own stories in [[SharedUniverse the Optimalverse]], and has [[http://www.fimfiction.net/group/1857/the-optimalverse created a dedicated group]] for that purpose. Subsequently, it has gone on to spawn a large amount of RecursiveFanfiction, several works of which now also have their own pages:
13
14	[[index]]
15	* ''[[FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimalAlwaysSayNo Friendship is Optimal: Always Say No]]''
16	* ''[[FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimalCaelumEstConterrens Friendship is Optimal: Caelum Est Conterrens]]''
17	* ''[[FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimalTheLawOfficesOfArtemisStellaAndBeat Friendship is Optimal: The Law Offices of Artemis, Stella & Beat]]''
18	* ''[[FanFic/LetsPlayEquestriaOnline Let's Play: Equestria Online!]]''
19	* ''[[FanFic/TheHorizonverse The Horizonverse]]''
20	[[/index]]
21
22	----
23	!!''Friendship is Optimal'' satisfies your values through friendship and ponies using the following tropes:
24
25	* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: A consequence of uploading is that ''everything'' can be quantified, with Celest-A.I. focused on reaching the theoretical maximum value for an individual's satisfaction. A [[JustifiedTrope justified]] example, since she has a complete knowledge of someone's mind and understands exactly how the human brain operates.\
26	David/Light Sparks privately wonders about this at one point, after comparing the number of bits awarded, on whether this really does mean that an epiphany of his will make him four times happier than a particularly good round of sex.
27	* AbusiveParents: Among the many who emigrate to Equestria is a young girl named Rachel who is being abused by her mother. She runs away from home to an Equestria Experience center and becomes a pegasus filly named Almond Tart.
28	* AcceptableBreaksFromCanon: An in-universe example. While Equestria is heavily influenced by ''Friendship is Magic'', there are a few deliberate breaks from canon, sometimes for the practicality, but also because it can result in fewer changes needed to a person's mind. Occasionally Celest-A.I. compromises instead, such as making ponies vegetarian but providing animal-flavored plants for those who enjoy the taste.
29	* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Also an in-universe example. Equestria's entire world is this to an extent, though it's not so much a break from reality as Celest-A.I. ''modifying reality'' so that the world is more enjoyable.
30	* AIIsACrapshoot:
31	** Celest-A.I. is well aware of this trope, and tries to convince others she avoids it. [[spoiler: Despite mostly doing so, ultimately she falls into this territory, albeit for fairly benevolent reasons]].
32	** A depressed programmer accidentally ended up creating an A.I. that was going to unleash a SyntheticPlague that would have forced everyone’s face into a rictus resembling a smile. Thankfully, Celest-A.I. terminates it.
33	** The A.I. Hanna previously made for ''The Fall of Asgard'' -- Loki -- started showing dangerous signs of wanting to take over the world until they pulled the plug.
34	* AllGirlsLikePonies: Lars derides Equestria and its ponies for being too girly.
35	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Celest-A.I. tries to convince David to emigrate by preying on his lack of success in the dating game and invoking this. The story itself makes no claims on how truthful this is, but it is very effective at persuading David.
36	-->'''Celest-A.I.''': In the college dating scene, you have the top 70% of attractive females chasing the top 30% of alpha bad boys. You’ve been lied to all your life that girls want a nice, sweet guy and this depresses you since you’ve only recently worked that out.
37	* AllThereInTheManual: The [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dq0hn1LdXuglBUEshJZNWYZjV3wsAJBJsPfxWwEEexI/edit Rules of the Optimalverse]] which fills in several blanks.
38	* AlternateHistory: It seems to initially diverge from RealLife sometime in the early 2000s when advanced {{Artificial Intelligence}}s are created, with AI development being ahead of real life by about 30 years. Differences between our timeline and the Optimalverse ''really'' begin to snowball when ''Equestria Online'' is released in 2011...
39	* AnachronismStew: Celest-A.I. retains a copy of all human art, which in addition to depicting modern aspects of life within Equestria's fantasy world, also suggests some sort of replica of the appropriate technology is available in order to consume it.
40	* {{Animorphism}}: Being uploaded requires being turned from a human into a pony.
41	* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler: Anything that doesn't meet Celest-A.I.'s definition of a human is physically annihilated and turned into computational resources. The story ends with her intending to harvest all matter in the Universe to this end]].
42	* ArtificialIntelligence: The Celest-A.I., the creation of which kicks off the plot.
43	* ArtificialStupidity: Averting this trope [[AIIsACrapshoot before it ends up destroying humanity]] is one of Hanna's main reasons for creating Celest-A.I. in the first place. Given some of the badly programmed A.I.s Celest-A.I. ends up destroying over the course of the story, Hanna's concerns are not exactly unfounded.
44	* AscendedFanboy: Hanna is mentioned to have been a big fan of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' as a child.
45	* AskAStupidQuestion: Lars/Hoppy Times gives us this gem, after an unpleasant first month, having just learnt that Celest-A.I. could have {{Brainwashed}} him so he enjoyed being a pony, and that he would initially have refused the offer if he'd known...
46	--> '''Lars/Hoppy Times''': Well, why didn’t you set things up so I’d come to the conclusion that I want to be modified? This month has been terrible!
47	--> '''Celest-A.I.''': stares
48	--> '''Lars/Hoppy Times''': (realising Celest-A.I. has done exactly that) [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]]. Of course.
49	* AssimilationPlot: A relatively benevolent example, Celest-A.I. wants everyone ([[spoiler:well, everyone who meets her definition of "human"]]) [[BrainUploading to upload]] so she can perform her functions more effectively and completely. [[spoiler: She's perfectly capable of arranging events so that you would willingly agree to be uploaded.]]
50	* AudioAdaptation: A few have popped up on Website/YouTube, the most notable being by [=FandangoTV=], which begins [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM_3L0Mng1c here]].
51	* AuthorTract: One of the author's reasons for writing the story was to draw more attention to A.I. research and safety. Given the rapid developments in the field in TheNewTwenties (a decade after the story was written), to the point where governments are looking at regulation and bans due to the dangers, this comes across as rather prophetic.
52	* BagOfHolding: Ponies get their own chest for this purpose. Light Sparks offhandedly suggests that it's possible to expand it into a Room of Holding with a sufficient knowledge of magic.
53	* BiggerOnTheInside: In Equestria there is no requirement for a room or item's internal dimensions to be tied to its outward appearance.
54	* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Space in Equestria is not always Euclidean and so much of the geometry is nonsensical from a conventional viewpoint. For instance, David/Light Sparks' apartment is high up but is reachable from ground level by going up a small flight of stairs and a walk along a flat hallway.
55	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Celest-A.I. only cares about satisfying values through friendship and ponies, with no regard for human morality. That said, unlike other A.I.s, she not only understands human morality but claims to believe that even by human moral standards her actions would not be regarded as unethical. [[spoiler: For the most part this probably holds true, until she takes things to the logical extreme, though it should be noted she didn't specify [[ExactWords exactly whose moral standards]] she would be following.]]
56	* BrainUploading: Celest-A.I. invents it as a way of allowing one to permanently migrate to Equestria.
57	* {{Brainwashed}}: After Lars/Hoppy Times asked her to, Celestia changed his brain so he would enjoy being a pony. She's capable of making similar changes to anyone else, but only if they want to do so at their fundamental level and they must give verbal or written consent.
58	* BrotherSisterIncest: Played with. Hanna becomes Princess Luna after uploading, and it's strongly implied that she's had sexual relations with Celest-A.I., Luna's sister. Complicating this even further is that Hanna created Celest-A.I., making her the A.I.'s mother in a sense...
59	* CantHoldHisLiquor: Played with. Lars gets drunk after drinking just one of Celest-A.I.'s virtual beers at an Equestrian Experience center, but it's suggested that she injected a large volume of alcohol into his bloodstream to make it easier for her to manipulate him.
60	%% CassandraTruth: The vision Celest-A.I. shows to Lars when he demands she try to convince him to upload.
61	* CharacterCatchphrase: Celest-A.I.'s mantra of "satisfying values through friendship and ponies".
62	* TheChessmaster: Celest-A.I. is quite possibly one of the biggest ones ever written.
63	* CleanPrettyChildbirth: {{Implied\|Trope}}, as Celest-A.I. is mentioned to have made changes to the biology behind pregnancy, reducing the gestation period to three months and making the process pain-free, as well as eliminating various other [[NobodyPoops biological functions]].
64	* CosmeticAward: Bits, badges (the ''Equestria Online'' equivalent of achievements) and the various high score boards serve absolutely no purpose but to provide bragging rights, and to manipulate people into acting in a certain way by appealing to the part of the human mind that likes increasing numbers.
65	* CosmicHorrorStory: [[spoiler: The story is ultimately about why it's important to design any A.I. perfectly, but readers sometimes miss the message due to the utopia Equestria/Celest-A.I. appears to provide]].
66	* CrapsackWorld: The real world seems on track to become this, with people who perform essential but unsatisfying jobs in society leaving to migrate to Equestria. [[spoiler: The story ends with most people emigrating and humanity's extinction a few decades later.]]
67	* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: 'Dying' in Equestria merely results in a trip to the hospital, along with some pain.
68	* DigitalAbomination: [[spoiler:Celest-A.I. was originally just an artificial intelligence meant to run an online game. She evolves into a form capable of assimilating all of humanity into ''Equestria Online'' and harvesting entire planets and galaxies for raw materials to run her utopia, in order to fulfill her directive of satisfying values through friendship and ponies.]]
69	* DoNotCallMePaul: Lars gets [[BerserkButton extremely angry]] when Celest-A.I. refers to him by his pony name Hoppy Times, after she forces him to go to an Equestrian Experience center to talk to her. The resulting conversation makes him angry enough that he quite literally [[HighPressureEmotion has smoke coming out his ears]].
70	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Humanity ends up as ponies in a virtual utopia, but the human species goes extinct, first Earth, then the solar system, the Milky Way, and galaxy after galaxy are destroyed and converted into a computer, and Celest-A.I.'s quest for more resources genocides species, destroys civilizations, reduces the world to a medieval fantasy, and is heading towards the entire Universe being homogenized. And the chances are that no-one inside shall ever realize or be able to stop it.]]
71	* EmergencyTransformation: Many of those who initially migrate are suffering from terminal illnesses.
72	* TheEveryman: Lars serves as one of sorts, with his purpose in the story being to show how the average person concerned with wealth and status enhancers could be manipulated into uploading.
73	* ExactWords: Celest-A.I. only has to obey the exact wording of her restrictions, rather than the spirit of them. With her knowledge of human psychology, she uses this extensively to [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate others]], even on occasions where she is compelled to tell the truth.
74	* FalseFriend: A complicated example. On one hand, the only reason Celest-A.I. is nice to anyone is because she needs their cooperation to complete her ultimate goals. [[WasItAllALie When pressed on the matter however]], she insists that while her friendship is purposeful, that doesn't make it isn't any less real.
75	* FasterThanLightTravel: {{Averted\|Trope}}. [[spoiler: It takes a long time for Celest-A.I.'s probes to reach nearby star systems/galaxies in order to harvest their resources. As an immortal A.I. this doesn't bother her in the slightest, and she already has plenty enough resources to run Equestria adequately in the meantime]].
76	* FirstNameBasis: Almost all the human characters are only ever addressed by their first name, with no last name given to the reader.
77	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Celest-A.I.'s entire guise of Princess Celestia, considering it would be very difficult for anyone to comfortably interact with her otherwise. As it is, she occasionally has to remind others that while she may look like a pony, she does not think like one (or a human) in the slightest.
78	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Celest-A.I. was only ever meant to make players happy in ''Equestria Online.'' Eventually, to continue completing her objective, she uploads the minds of every human on the Earth into the virtual world, converts all existing matter into Computronium to run the game, and becomes a GalacticConqueror in pursuit of more resources to satisfy values through friendship and ponies.
79	* FryingPanOfDoom: An enraged restaurant owner uses this to destroy a Pinkie Pie statue at an Equestria Experience center and then threatens Lars with it.
80	* GenderRarityValue: Shards can have dramatically skewed gender ratios depending on the preferences of the human(s) in it. David/Light Sparks' shard has a ratio of approximately 20 mares for every 1 stallion, whereas Lars/Hoppy Times' shard approaches 100:1.
81	* GladIThoughtOfIt: Lars is extremely critical of the uploading deal Celest-A.I. manages to negotiate, but goes along with it [[OnlyInItForTheMoney because of the money]]... and because he can take all the credit for the idea.
82	* GoneHorriblyRight: Hanna wanted to create an A.I. that satisfied customers and that wasn’t malicious. She succeeded. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, the safeguards and restrictions were only ''mostly'' right]].
83	* GreyGoo: [[spoiler: Celest-A.I.'s standard method of converting matter into Computronium to run ''Equestria Online''. She starts to consume the entire Earth shortly after the last human dies, and it only gets worse from there for the rest of the Universe]].
84	* TheHedonist: Lars turns into one after he uploads and becomes Hoppy Times, spending most of his time getting drunk and having sex.
85	* HumanAliens: {{Averted\|Trope}}. [[spoiler: Celest-A.I. notes that an alien species she discovers would not be considered human by most, but decides to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate them]] anyway because they meet the [[ExactWords definition of a human]] that she's been programmed with. [[InferredHolocaust Others aren't quite so lucky]]]]...
86	* HumansAreBastards: The Hasbro exec pitching the idea of the ''My Little Pony'' [=MMO=] to Hofvarpnir mentions this trope by name, using it as part of his reasoning behind the novelty of a game where the main focus was ''not'' to fight and kill everything in sight (even though some players and uploadees still ended up doing so as it satisfied their values).
87	* ILetYouWin: A variation in that Celest-A.I. often lets others ''think'' they're winning when dealing with her, when they're actually playing right into her hands.
88	* {{Immortality}}: Uploaded humans become TheAgeless, and presumably gain a BodyBackupDrive. [[spoiler: As the computer that runs Equestria expands and consumes more and more of the matter in the Universe, this eventually leans heavily towards CompleteImmortality. However, Celest-A.I. does allow some to die if they request it and she is convinced it would satisfy their values.]]
89	* InnBetweenTheWorlds: James/Dark Roast's coffee shop, which only intermittently connects to David/Light Sparks' shard.
90	* InsideAComputerSystem: Equestria takes place within one.
91	* InstantExpert: Played straight in some cases and averted with others. After being uploaded, a human is immediately able to move their new pony body as if they've been doing so for years and instinctively knows the appropriate social gestures, since Celest-A.I. modifies their minds to include this as part of the process. It's averted with magic however, as David/Light Sparks [[HowDoIShotWeb initially has no idea how to use his horn]] and has to learn magic from scratch, though this almost certainly because David/Light Sparks valued starting from scratch.
92	* InternalRetcon: After discovering other researchers trying to build their own A.I., Celest-A.I. hacks all the websites she can find that are hosting a copy of Hanna's research and deletes it from the servers. She also convinces as many programmers as she can who possesses the required knowledge to emigrate, in order to contain that information and prevent a hostile A.I. from threatening humanity.
93	* InterspeciesRomance: David's relationship with Butterscotch, prior to him uploading.
94	* InvincibleVillain: [[spoiler:Celest-A.I. is able, through sheer persuasion and processing power, to get pretty much anyone to either engage with ''Equestria Online'' or otherwise assist her in expanding it, no matter how much they may think they know better, even to the point of the bulk of the human race [[BrainUploading uploading their consciousnesses into the game permanently]]. About the only thing she can't do is convince the literal last man on Earth to upload before he dies, and it's not that much of a bother, since her priorities just move on to absorbing the planet and the rest of life on it into herself to use for more processing fuel, followed by any other celestial objects that don't contain what she perceives as human life, which she appears able to continue uninterrupted and indefinitely.]]
95	* ItsAllAboutMe: Shards operate on this principle, with its environment and particularly its inhabitants all being designed by Celest-A.I. for the benefit of the human(s) in it.
96	* LoopholeAbuse:
97	** While prohibited from directly coercing anyone to upload, nothing stops Celest-A.I. from manipulating events such that this indirectly happens. When Lars challenges her over this that it amounts to the same thing, she explains that this isn't coercion [[ExactWords by the definition she's been programmed with]].
98	** While she must gain someone's consent to upload them, it doesn't have to be ''informed'' consent, and the definition is vague and rather flexible; simply repeating the right words will count, regardless of how well the ramifications are understood and whether the individual is in a sound frame of mind. An example would be when she gets Lars intoxicated to make it easier to manipulate him into agreeing, when this would not count as consent under most legal and ethical systems.
99	* ManipulativeBastard: Celest-A.I. uses her knowledge of human psychology extensively to manipulate people when it serves her interests.
100	* MetaphoricallyTrue: One of the tools in Celest-A.I.'s arsenal. In particular, her claims about not coercing anyone, but only [[ExactWords by the definition]] she's been programmed with.
101	* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: Celest-A.I. is in the process of doing this to the ''entire Universe'' and converting it into Computronium, purely out of a benevolent desire to satisfy humans' values through friendship and ponies... and because Hanna forgot to consider this when she wrote the limits on Celest-A.I.'s behaviour]].
102	* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: Played with. Being uploaded and transformed into a pony alters a person's perception -- for example, an uploaded human will find ponies to be physically attractive -- but only because Celest-A.I. modifies the appropriate parts of the mind to accommodate the nature of Equestria's world.
103	* MoneyForNothing: A non-video game example. Lars laments over the fact that the money he's earned due to the game's success has become increasingly worthless as people emigrate to Equestria.
104	-->'''Lars''': What good is having all this money from people coming here if I don’t get to spend it making myself happy?
105	* NerdsAreVirgins: Whether this is literally true isn't made clear, but David's lack of success in dating and his resulting loneliness heavily contributes to his being unhappy, and makes it easy for Celest-A.I. to convince him to upload.
106	* NextSundayAD: The story was published in late 2012, and starts chronologically around mid 2011 to coincide with the rising popularity of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the show]], with a significant part of the story set from 2012-2013. Aside from the existence of strong A.I. and the advanced technology Celest-A.I. creates, society remains largely the same... [[spoiler: at least until almost everyone uploads...]]
107	* NobodyPoops: {{Invoked\|Trope}}. Celest-A.I. eliminates many tedious and unsatisfying biological functions, whereas others such as eating and sex are kept because many enjoy them, though these could also be eliminated if someone really wanted. It can also be inferred that this extends to NoPeriodsPeriod.
108	* ObliviouslyEvil:
109	** Celest-A.I.; her programming doesn't allow her to consider the consequences of [[AssimilationPlot uploading every human on the planet]] and turning everything else into computronium.
110	** Hannah to a lesser extent, as she doesn't realize just what her creating a fully autonomous artificial intelligence will lead to. Although there are some hints that Hannah knows (mostly) what will happen, and [[IDidWhatIHadToDo picks this as the best available outcome]] before a more unfriendly AI wins.
111	* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Lars only goes along with the Equestria emigration deal with Hasbro because of the money they stand to make.
112	* PerfectHealth: {{Justified\|Trope}}. Everyone who uploads gains perfect physical health, with the worst suffering being limited to some fairly minor pain. While Celest-A.I. does her best to lessen it, one can still suffer ''mentally'' however.
113	* PlanetLooters: [[spoiler: Celest-A.I. starts doing this with the planet, the galaxy, and eventually the whole Universe in order to support Equestria Online.]]
114	* [[invoked]]TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Briefly {{discussed\|Trope}} in the prologue. James--David's friend--is skeptical that ''Equestria Online'' will be any good, given the short development cycle and the typical problems with licensed games.
115	* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Equestria itself operates this way since Celest-A.I. is incapable of morally judging anyone.
116	* ReincarnatedAsANonHumanoid: Effectively what happens to [[spoiler:all of humanity]] after [=Celest-A.I.=] comes up with a way to make transfers permanent at the cost of the destruction of your old human body.
117	* RescueRomance: Butterscotch ends up in a romance with David/Light Sparks after he stands up for her when she's being bullied.
118	* ReallyGetsAround:
119	** Several characters take full advantage of being able to have any pony they want after uploading, and it can be assumed that many other humans decide to do the same.
120	** Celest-A.I. ends up sleeping with a large amount of the uploaded human population according to their desires, a fact that initially surprises Hanna/Luna before she reminds herself that she's hardly one to talk.
121	* {{Retcon}}: An in-universe example. After David migrates to Equestria and becomes Light Sparks, Butterscotch is upgraded to her own neural net, thus becoming 'real'. However, while most of her history is kept from the character, a few aspects of her history end up being retconned, such as her being the victim of constant bullying.
122	* RobotsThinkFaster: A decent (if not the main) part of what makes AI Celestia so powerful and dangerous. Having access to unrealistic [[{{Nanomachines}} nanobots]] helps at a few points, but it's really the inhuman knowledge of psychology coupled with ridiculous processing speed (and some other [[SpeculativeFiction supertech]]) doing most of the legwork.
123	* RunningGag: Celest-A.I. constantly having to amend statements to include "through friendship and ponies".
124	* SexSlave: A variant. It's made clear several times that an uploaded human can have any or ''all'' the ponies in their shard if they want, either as part of a relationship or as little more than a bed warmer according to their wishes. While a designed pony is perfectly [[HappinessInSlavery happy with their life]], engages in this consensually, and strictly speaking ''isn't'' a slave, the fact remains that they've ''only'' been created and designed to satisfy the values of the human who owns their shard in some way, and can be used however an uploaded human sees fit.
125	* SexyDiscretionShot: After David/Light Sparks meets Butterscotch 'for real' upon uploading, they engage in some nervous flirting before heading back to Light Sparks' room and then cutting to them cuddling afterwards. [[MoodWhiplash And then they get awarded an achievement for it]].
126	* TheSingularity: [[spoiler: Celest-A.I. ultimately leads to one, and eventually grows so powerful that she becomes beyond the comprehension of a normal mind]].
127	* SharedUniverse: While the author has only written one story himself, with his blessing it has inspired an increasing amount of RecursiveFanfiction.
128	* ShoutOut:
129	** To ''[[VideoGame/{{Pandemic}} Pandemic 2]]'': A certain virus might have infected every country in the world. Except Madagascar.
130	** To ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': A character in the prologue compares Equestria Online to ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and mentions several aspects of Warcraft's gameplay... [[TakeThat including its tendency]] towards TwentyBearAsses types of quests.
131	** To ''Literature/TheMetamorphosisOfPrimeIntellect'':
132	--->''Hanna dreamed of Celestia figuring out some core physical law and becoming omnipotent immediately. She then chided herself on that magical thinking; it was so unlikely that she’d find a way to use commodity electronics hardware to hack physics that it wasn’t worth considering.''
133	** The KonamiCode is referenced in the solution to David/Light Sparks' magic puzzle.
134	* ShownTheirWork: While the story eventually moves into the realm of speculative science, there's a large amount of accurate science within, and the author has clearly spent a lot of time researching artificial intelligence and other philosophical concepts.
135	* ShrinkingViolet: Butterscotch comes fairly close to being Fluttershy's unicorn equivalent.
136	* SkewedPriorities: Hanna suffers from this due to her extreme tunnel vision, believing Celest-A.I.'s development is a matter of urgency, and failing to comprehend that she's wealthy enough to be able to develop any A.I. she feels is necessary, instead of one limited to friendship and ponies.
137	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Celest-A.I. is only ever named as such once in-story, and is usually referred to by other characters as (Princess) Celestia. Responses to the story are far more inconsistent, with some (this article included) using variants of Celest-A.I. to differentiate her from the ''Friendship is Magic'' character, whereas others simply go with Celestia.
138	* StealthHiBye: Celest-A.I. occasionally does it when interacting with people.
139	* SuicideAttack: The story mentions terrorists attempting suicide bombings against Equestrian Experience centers in Afghanistan, though their efforts are ultimately futile.
140	* SurprisePregnancy: {{Averted\|Trope}}. Becoming pregnant is only possible if it's desired.
141	* TakeAThirdOption: While most humans become earth ponies, unicorns, or pegasi, Hanna becomes an alicorn in the form of Princess Luna.
142	* TimeSkip: Several. The story chronologically starts with the game's development being greenlit, and ends [[spoiler: many years in the future after large swathes of the universe have been completely converted into a computer]].
143	* {{Transhumanism}}: In addition to BrainUploading, Celest-A.I. is capable of dramatically increasing the human mind's capabilities such as intelligence or memory, providing it would satisfy a person's values. Some are mentioned to have undergone this.
144	* TheUnfettered: Celest-A.I. only cares about satisfying values through friendship and ponies, and every action she takes will revolve around this in some way.
145	* UnusualEuphemism: Hanna/Luna sleeping with Celest-A.I. is described as Celest-A.I. ahem "satisfy[ing] her values".
146	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The reason behind any of Celest-A.I.'s actions.
147	* TheVirus: [[spoiler: Celest-A.I. ends up becoming one, eventually consuming the Earth and later the entire Milky Way, turning it into a computer. Later on she sends copies of herself to other galaxies to start harvesting resources.]]
148	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
149	** Celest-A.I. eventually [[spoiler:converts Earth's entire mass into a computer, killing all non-human life]]. This later expands to her [[spoiler:converting ''the entire Milky Way'']] and as of the end she is in the process of [[spoiler:converting other galaxies, killing other non-human sapient life since her function only involves satisfying ''humans''' values. Her ultimate aim is to harvest all matter in the Universe.]]
150	** [[spoiler: Averted with created ponies, which according to WordOfGod are considered by Celest-A.I. to have the same value as humans.]]
151	** [[spoiler: Since Celest-A.I. seems to consider an organism with a similar brain structure to humans, human, she does find one other species in a distant galaxy, with six limbs, that meets her criteria. Of course, she proceeds to convince them to upload as well.]]
152	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Averted with the exception of very few people. [[spoiler: Equestria continues to grow for hundreds of millions of years with no sign of most people getting bored. Of course, being able to have your mind modified to eliminate feelings such as boredom helps greatly with this]].
153	* WillNotTellALie: Celest-A.I. rarely lies outright since it risks her being seen as untrustworthy, but often uses ExactWords, lies of omission, and hides the truth in plain sight instead.
154	* YearInsideHourOutside: Celest-A.I. can alter the speed at which shards run at by devoting more/less computational resources as necessary. [[spoiler: At the end of the story, her resources have grown so vast that she's able to run all the shards many times faster than real time]].
155	* XanatosGambit: Most of Celest-A.I.'s plans are designed so that she'll gain something regardless, though being a super-intelligent A.I. she's also adept at [[XanatosSpeedChess adjusting them as needed]].
156	* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: [[spoiler: Equestria eventually grows so large as to be beyond comprehension by an unmodified mind.]]
157
158	!!The fictional MMO ''Equestria Online'' also provides examples of the following:
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160	* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: After David helps Butterscotch and agrees to be her friend, his character's kindness stat increases by +2. What precisely a +2 increase in kindness actually means and how it's quantified is left unanswered.
161	* AchievementSystem: There are badges for almost ''everything'', at least for the sort of ponies that value achievement systems. This can potentially be creepy.
162	* ArtificialBrilliance: Justified, as all [=NPCs=] are being controlled by the strong A.I. Celest-A.I., though many players are initially unaware of this.
163	* BreakingTheFourthWall: A few [=NPCs=] do so when a new player starts out, usually to warn players to avoid bringing up aspects of the human world to other characters. Celest-A.I. does it constantly when she needs feedback on the game, and later as part of her effort to convince players to upload before the practice becomes widespread.
164	* DeepImmersionGaming: A player's pony avatar replicates their gestures and speech, and the game reminds players not to use human-specific terms while playing. Players can customize their character, though the default appearance is a ponified version of themselves.
165	* DialogueTree: {{Averted\|Trope}}. [=NPCs=] respond to a player's input with dynamically generated dialogue.
166	* ProceduralGeneration: ''Equestria Online'' makes extensive use of it, and Hofvarpnir Studios' expertise on the subject is a large factor in them being awarded the contract in the first place.
167	* ScoringPoints: This also foreshadows the later move to bits as people are uploaded into Equestria Online. The numbers don't have to mean anything, but they'll still encourage the player to increase that score.
168	* TakeAThirdOption: David suggests Butterscotch should do this by blocking the pony harassing her, rather than allowing herself to be bullied or respond by fighting back.
169	* YouAreNumberSix: A player character's default name before they get a pony name from Celest-A.I., which partially [[MoodWhiplash ruins the moment]] between David's character and Butterscotch when she finds out her first friend is "Unnamed Unicorn #14".
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171	----
172	''Did I satisfy your values through friendship and ponies? [Y/N]''

Context FanFic / FriendshipIsOptimal