With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Stsword]

Sunset really seems like the type that would try to take over, at least before she matured a bit under the renegade, even if she acknowledges that she isn't fit to rule, her arrogance would get in the way and many will suffer.

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I don't know if you didn't watch Equestria Girls or just forgot, but she ought to seem like the type to take over. Or on the gripping hand, maybe you consider Zoat's version different enough that you just don't consider what applies to the canon version to be otherwise indicative....

Because that was what happened in canon when she got her mitts on the element of harmony.

She literally demonized

and then mind controlled the entire school planning to use them to invade and conquer Equestria.

One of the reasons I don't believe her cutie mark has anything to do with magic in Equestria Girls, by the by.

Luna when corrupted tried to bring eternal darkness. Thematically linked.

Human Twilight when corrupted by magic, her goal was to get to Equestria and get all the magic. Again, thematically linked.

 

[moralrelativity]

Spend a thousand years with everyone practically considering you to a infallible god and you would find it difficult to consider yourself wrong.

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Indeed. I think you're 100% correct. And, honestly, Celestia hasn't has very much time to adjust. It's like .001% of her life or something. She's trying to understand (maybe?) but it's just. So. Sudden. (in her perspective)

 

[Stellarius]

Seeing as the form seems stuck on the subject of Celestia's handeling of Sunset trying to become an alicorn, let me weigh in with my own random opinions.

I'll start by listing facts that I think everyone can agree with:

It's been well established between MLP canon and this story that the alicorn transformation can go horribly wrong.
Luna's change into Nightmare Moon shows that things can go very wrong after the transformation has occured.
There are several artifacts that can supply vast magical power to the user (Alicorn Amulet, the Bewitching Bell, Staff of Sacanas, EEA Medallion)
Sunset Shimmer is, on her own, one of the most powerful unicorns in the series.

Now on to my opinion:

If Celestia was going to be Sunset Shimmer's teacher, then she should have actually taught her. Was making friends and emotional stability important for safely trasforming into an Alicorn? Sure, I give Celestia that. That means you need to sit your student down and talk with them about the dangers involved, explain why they are important, and tell Sunset what could go wrong. In other words, actually teach your student, because if Celestia fails to do so, Suset is powerful and determined enough to make the attempt on her own.

If Celestia wasn't going to continue being Sunset Shimmer's teacher after Sunset decided to become an alicorn, then she should have put away her teacher hat, pulled out her absolute ruler of of a nation hat, and executed the threat to the realm.

Celestia did neither.

 

[Railhazar]

Honestly, the big issue as I see it is that both Celestia and Sunset are so alike that they litteraly can't
stand each other.

I imagine their conversation boiled down to :

"I am Right, you are Wrong!"

"No! I am Right and YOU are Wrong!"

Rince and repeat ad nauseam.

Unless Both of them finaly aknowledge that they made mistakes and apology ,nothing will be solved.

And i doubt there is a parental figure in this whole mess to put both Celestia and Sunset in the corner to
think about what they did.

 

[Chaoswind]

They are, with the exception of Biotic Amps. IIRC there were a few offhand mentions of replacement limbs being availble, but the only factions shown to be into heavy cybernetic enhancement were Cerberus... and the Reapers.

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And yet Saren proudly goes around as a half machine turian cyborg and no one makes a comment about it, nor does Saren give a shit about what other people think about his half mechanical ass.

Most people tie their cybernetics to the cosmetics surgeries to hide them as Shepard does in mass effect 2, there are a lot of cyborgs in the setting specially in the special forces, the humans are slightly behind the alien curve in that department because they are fairly new on the market, but there is still a lot of compatible stuff around. It's just mostly ip locked (like the most advanced non shit weapons and equipment) and requires normal people to pay of the wazoo to get a license to print them.

Remember in the setting you are more often than not buying the license to print the stuff on the ship workshops, not literally buying the equipment itself. Mass effect as a setting is extremely capitalistic and the governments (especially the poor ones like the system alliance) do not enhance their normal troops beyond the absolute minimum, if you want good equipment (including cybernetics) you have to buy it yourself as Shepard does in the games, only the high end special forces aka government death squads like the blackwatch, etc (not Shepard nor other specters) are given access to the high tier stuff that isn't in the public market.

Remember Garrus jokes that the Hierarchy doesn't have the Turians buy their high end equipment out of their poket and heavily subsidies the cost, unlike the alliance that has you pay for everything beyond standard equipment (because their economy is the smallest in the citadel alliance and aren't humans thankful the Batarians have been under economic sanctions for centuries because other wise they would have flattened us under the weight of their economy alone).

One would think most people would notice elements like this considering how plot relevant they are to several plot points in the games and yet there are some people that still think the only cybernetics around are the biotic amps that are literally chips quickplay installed on people's brains (unless you are the alliance), I mean there is a sidequest about a human tech firm commiting IP theft on the Asari to bootstrap themselves in the very first game.

Genetic engineering improvements on what's naturally available is highly illegal in Citadel space

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That is a system alliance law and only applies to them, the Citadel Law is that no intelligent life should be created wholesale IE not custom made slave races... This is why Medigel was technically in breach of citadel law from two fronts, because they are extremely intelligent biomachines that adapt to the biology of any race they are introduced into... In simple terms they are symbiotic life that literally consume themselves to help their host to the point even the word symbiots falls short as a description.

Citadel law also bans self replicating nanotechnology to avoid gray goo scenarios, and Medigel are technically replicating biomachines, but they only reproduce under specialized conditions.

Alliance personnel haven't yet gotten into extensive cybernetic enhancement

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Because they are poor. The alliance is the smallest economy in the Citadel behind the elcor, and a lot of that economic weight is tied to the fact the system alliance are the holders of Medigel IP and get A LOT of money from that alone.

They happened to luck into enough eezo from the Prothean cache on Mars and a few lucky finds that they were able to build Carriers, which spent eezo like water in the form of massed disrupter torpedoes to take down a couple Turian dreadnoughts during the First Contact War. It worked because to any other race this would be madness; it's like killing your enemies by shooting them with bullets made out of platinum.

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Element zero isn't rare, they use it for everything even toothbrushes, however no one expected the humans to have so much of it so early in their development (thanks protheans) and our treat assessment got extremely over valued when the Citadel stopped the Turians from flattening us. They thought the fleet that wrecked the Turians patrol fleet was a single human fleet IE we had several of those... Not that one fleet was technically almost our entire Navy (yes the system alliance struggled against the border patrol, not a proper military fleet).

They happen to look like mammalian Asari; in particular, their males happen to look like the male version of Asari, after the Asari have spend two thousand years manipulating the galaxy to find the Asari form the epitome of beauty. The Alliance's biggest source of revenue is "cultural exports"; that's supposed to be a euphemism.

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There are no male Asari, but yes Asari do like our WOMEN and that played a significant role on the negotiations and why we got to make the best deal ever.

 

[Sockmonkey]

All versions of Mumm-Ra can be hurt by sunlight.

It can't kill him though.

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No, the original was out during the day all the time. His weakness was that he feared his own reflection.

There is nothing in ME that can charge the ring of a rockies lantern, he would have to assimilate a bunch of people and have the ring consume the resulting constructs for charge... And I don't know if that is a charge positive exchange.

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If he showed up in ME with a blue ring he can charge on ambient hope, and with the ability to fix the quarian's shitty immune systems he'd have all the quarian booty, (and that is damn fine looking booty indeed) that he could stand.

 

[Senevri]

He can pretend to be omnipotent despite just being a Lord of Chaos.

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Well, in here, either he's nerfed or the pool is deeper.

Pinkie resisting answering the call so Party Popper can do it. This is the REAL Pinkie Pie, rather than the Memelord!Deadpool!Butit'sPinkiePie

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I didn't read that.
Anecdotally, Pinkie is what made me like the show. In the s1 episode with the griffin Gilda, when put on a spot where in a different show it would be the time to enact revenge, Pinkie Pie , instead, is nice.

 

[Chaoswind]

No, the original was out during the day all the time. His weakness was that he feared his own reflection.


If he showed up in ME with a blue ring he can charge on ambient hope, and with the ability to fix the quarian's shitty immune systems he'd have all the quarian booty, (and that is damn fine looking booty indeed) that he could stand.

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That is true, but most Paul's show up with orange rings.

Oh, I forgot. Most players are misled by the fact the System Alliance writes most of the codex. This is why there are a lot of mistaken assumptions, because people forget there is propaganda in their ingame Wikipedia.

"Humans are a sleeping giant and everyone fears us" and yet humans have the smallest economy, a conscription rate of less than three percent when the Turians have almost 100% of their people, there are less than twenty five billion humans and yet the galactic extranet has trillions of concurrent users (not all colonies have extranet access/infrastructure) and the tone in the games is that the aliens are treating humans as children (because for them we are nothing more than a toddler that wants to pretend to be an adult) that is why even when we are granted a seat in the adults table nothing changes for us, because the other three are respected because the weight of the civilizations that back them, not because they are on the table). The biggest advantage humans have in ME is that the largest economic power in the setting REALLY wants to bone our women.


The most obvious plot relevant hint we get is in ME3, the system alliance couldn't hold the reapers for more than fourteen minutes, yet everyone else manages to handle days of combat... And reapers one shot everything, so you have to drown them in ships/bodies to delay them and that is something everyone can afford... Everyone but the humans.

 

[WereDragon]

"Oh, she thinks I cheated. That I found some sort of.. nearly dark magic way around the 'natural'… Healthy way to become an alicorn. I think she wanted me to… I don't know, turn myself back, go back to Equestria and try learning what she was trying to teach me in the first place. And I wanted to know why she thought I'd want to, and she just-. She had no idea why I wouldn't. Like she literally couldn't understand what I was saying. And then I tried asking about all the stuff she obviously got wrong when she was teaching me, all the stuff she-. Should have done differently if she'd wanted me to end up like she said she wanted me to. I mean, if she wanted me to make friends so badly why didn't she say that instead of showing me the Mirror!"
-
"Why doesn't she get it?!"

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Because you are a teenager.
Forget the godhood and the prestigious position and the politics. This is a teenager having a very protracted and high-powered "You don't understand me!" episode.

Seems like Sunbutt is just to used to being "right" and having all the answers.

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Seems like Sunbutt MKII still hasn't learned that neither the universe nor the people in it are obliged to agree with her.
Or how to listen to and understand the point of view of others.

 

[l---erddad---l]

Forget the godhood and the prestigious position and the politics. This is a teenager having a very protracted and high-powered "You don't understand me!" episode.

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And her mother-figure literally saying "I'm sorry you feel that way."

There are few more effective ways at condescendingly saying that your feelings are wrong than "I'm sorry you feel that way." That says only that you are sad that the other person is upset, without recognizing the possibility of the other person's feelings having a basis in reality. Regardless of whether or not the feelings are fair, implying that it isn't is guaranteed to upset the other person, no matter what the situation is.

 

[WereDragon]

And her mother-figure literally saying "I'm sorry you feel that way."

There are few more effective ways at condescendingly saying that your feelings are wrong than "I'm sorry you feel that way." That says only that you are sad that the other person is upset, without recognizing the possibility of the other person's feelings having a basis in reality. Regardless of whether or not the feelings are fair, implying that it isn't is guaranteed to upset the other person, no matter what the situation is.

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Oh certainly. Single-mother Celestia isn't doing any better than teenager-Sunset.
But lets be real, unless you are a candidate for Best Parent In The Multiverse you are going to have similar issues when your kid hits the rebellious hormone stage. The Sunbutts are just unfortunate in that they have the power and opportunity to escalate way higher than most families.

 

[Idkusername]

Now, you may wish to take this with a grain a salt, but being an 18 year old myself I can very much understand where Sunset is coming from.

In my own case, my parents quite literally did not understand me, despite me sitting down repeatedly and one time notably - and unironically - drawing diagrams to show exactly how toxic our relationship is. Now, I never had the cliche rebellious phase, because while I was rebellious, our family was genuinely dysfunctional. And so is Celestia's relationship with Sunset. Just because most teenagers don't have a valid reason for their rebellious phase doesn't mean Sunset doesn't. And for all of you saying Sunset is equally at fault, news flash, she really isn't.

You can't expect children to have the sort of maturity a]being an adult requires, and take this from me, most adults don't have that either. It was almost always up to me to de-escalate things and actually make an attempt at proper communication beyond simple instructions, and eventually after years of my parents refusing to meet me halfway, I have a precarious relation with them.

And this has had lasting consequences on me. I'm stuck with mild bipolar disorder (undiagnosed, but I did try behavioural therapy, but due to irl circumstances and stubborn parents I couldn't continue) and a lot of maladaptive behaviours that have fucked me over in my first year at uni, though I will admit some of that is on me.

I've quite literally stopped looking for my own faults in the relationship because it's counterproductive to my own mental health and consequently the status of my relationship with my parents.


TL;DR you can't expect children to have the same EQ as adults and in cases of genuine grievances calling it a 'rebellious phase' trivialises what is actually happening. Now, I'm not but hurt, or trying to be politically correct, but it did seem like something people hadn't acknowledged yet.

 

[Pinklestia]

"Why doesn't she get it?

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Because Celestia is as terrible with foals as Luna is with adults.

Even with kids afraid of her, Luna befriended foals in a few hours once she actually tried. Celestia? She cannot do that, no matter how hard she tries. She is way too used to deal with butt kissing adults.

Celestia had the amazing luck that Twilight Sparkle had a loving family, a great brother and an amazing babysitter. And even then she ended with Twilight Sparkle so scared of failing her that she used MIND CONTROL MAGIC to create a problem to solve.

Without her support network Twilight Sparkle would have been... just another failure.

 

[Darko]

Twilight was a better student not because she was better at magic than Sunset, but because she was more receptive of what Celestia was trying to teach her.

Sometimes the qualities a student possess can overcome the failures of the teacher.

 

[GhostKing 666]

Genetic engineering improvements on what's naturally available is highly illegal in Citadel space (that's why Miranda's creation was such a no-no, for example). Ostensibly this was passed to prevent a Gattaca effect but more likely it's because the Asari have already been genetically tuned (by the Protheans), which their ruling class knew about because they had a Prothean Beacon on Thessia that they hid from the galaxy (also illegal) and don't want to give up the advantage. As such the genetic "enhancements" that Alliance marines are more along the lines of fixing deformities than actual enhancements. The big exception to that "no genetically engineered anything" law is medi-gel, which humanity apparently created before the First Contact War and was grandfathered in because it was deemed too useful to outlaw (and because the Asari could use it themselves).

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Sorry but this is pretty wrong. For the Systems Alliance, genetic engineering is perfectly legal, as long as what you are doing is only improving what humans already have. No giving yourself cat ears or the ability to digest cellulose or anything, but making yourself stronger and tougher is perfectly legal. And Citadel laws are even less restrictive, they only prohibit the artificial creation of sapient species, beyond that anything goes(though individual nations like the Hierarchy or any of the Asari Republics might have more restrictive laws).

Also, on the Thessia Beacon, it wasn't the Asari "ruling caste" who hid the beacon, but a small group of matriarchs keeping the thing for themselves. Sure, they've tried to use it to their own advantage, but considering the damn thing refused to turn on, I really doubt they were getting all that much. They were stuck interfacing with the thing, pulling up random bits of data, trying to restructure things so that the data would be compatible with their computers and computer interfaces(remember the Protheans used a weird touch telepathy interface with their computers, nobody else does that), trying to translate the data out of Prothean and then pray that what they got isn't a bunch of gibberish or useless historical and cultural trivia. Even worse, computers in Mass Effect have huge amounts of memory storage, the Thessia Beacon probably had several times the amount of data as the Library of Congress, that group of Asari might have been working on the thing ever since the Asari developed sufficiently advanced computer technology to interface with it, but if they could get anything useful out of it at a ratio more then every few centuries, I'd be surprised.

And really, the idea of there being an Asari "ruling caste" shadow governmenting Asari space is also ridiculous fanon. They are the Asari Republics(ranging in size from individual city-states to independent planets) not the Asari Republic. Matriarchs understandably have a lot of political pull, but the Asari aren't anywhere near unified enough for their to be a shadow government pulling all the strings.

Alliance personnel haven't yet gotten into extensive cybernetic enhancement, although apparently Turians, Salarians and Quarians go for it. Cerberus apparently does a lot of cybernetics to try to keep up with the xenos, and in ME2 Mordin does a lot of cybernetic enhancement for the crew if you give him the resources for it.

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Yeah, lets look at all the examples of human cybernetics shall we?

Spoiler: Cybernetics

Spoiler: Soldier's ocular implants

Soldiers are pure combat specialists. No one is tougher or more effective at taking down enemies with gunfire. Soldiers have the most thorough weapons training and can use all special ammo types. High-level operatives are outfitted with ocular synaptic processors that allow them to focus on targets with lethal accuracy.

Spoiler: Lazarus Project

The Lazarus Project was a Cerberus project, the sole purpose of which was to bring Commander Shepard back from the dead.

When Commander Shepard was killed in a Collector attack that also resulted in the destruction of the SSV Normandy, Cerberus was able to recover Shepard's corpse with the help of Liara T'Soni. The Illusive Man created and funded the Lazarus Project, pouring virtually unlimited resources into the belief that only Shepard could stop the Reaper threat to humanity as the Council stood idly by.

The exorbitant project took 2 years and over 4 billion credits to complete. Undertaken by the Lazarus Cell, which was headed by Miranda Lawson and her assistant Wilson, it involved attaching cybernetic implants to reconstruct the Commander's skeleton, reconstruction of the skin, and fluids to restart the blood flow and internal organs. The one thing that the Illusive Man refused to do was implant a control chip in the Commander's brain, fearing that it may affect Shepard's personality and abilities. As part of the project, Shepard underwent facial reconstruction and partially lost prior abilities and talents.

The project proves to be a success in 2185 when Shepard manages to regain full neurological activity.

When there was an attempt to steal Commander Shepard's identity in 2186, the Commander tracked down the person behind the scheme and discovered it was none other than a clone created by Cerberus. The clone was kept a secret, intended to be used for spare organs and other body parts over the course of the true Shepard's revival through the Lazarus Project, but it was never utilized and remained in storage. It was awakened by disillusioned ex-Cerberus operative Maya Brooks six months before the Reaper invasion, and Brooks convinced it to kill and assume the identity of the original Shepard in order to pursue a pro-human agenda. Shepard stopped the clone from escaping the Citadel with the Normandy SR-2. The clone is killed, and Brooks is either captured or killed.

During the assault on Cronos Station near the close of the war against the Reapers, some Project Lazarus records are discovered within the station. They affirm Miranda Lawson's claims that Shepard was reconstructed without genetic or neural tampering per the Illusive Man's wishes.

Spoiler: Graybox

A graybox is, essentially, a collection of snapshots of a person's memories. Launched by Synthetic Insights in 2160 CE and originally developed to help treat Alzheimer's disease, it was determined that its implant procedure has dangerous side-effects: should the graybox either need to be removed for maintenance purposes or if it developed software bugs, extensive brain damage would occur. As such, its usage was ultimately restricted to people who sorely needed eidetic memories, like researchers and intragalactic spies. When a graybox is accessed by a specialized reader, the collection of memories contained within appear as snapshots, while the memory being viewed is played as a video.

Only two individuals are known to have grayboxes, partners Kasumi Goto and the late Keiji Okuda. Keiji was killed by Donovan Hock for his heavily-encrypted graybox. Hock has been trying to crack it since he obtained it for the information that Keiji recorded in it. Kasumi was planning to take it back, and after seeking out Cerberus, which had been attempting to contact her, saw an opportunity to get it back.

Spoiler: Ford v. Huerta

03/04/2010 - Earth Nations in Suspense as Systems Alliance Hears Ford v. Huerta


"The nations of Earth are in suspense tonight as the Systems Alliance hears Ford v. Huerta, the first case of a human leader using reconstructive data storage to prolong his brain functions and stay physically capable to perform his duties. Speaker of the House Lisa Ford has led the charge against Huerta, saying that the last year of his term was illegitimate. A stroke left the President legally dead and in cryocool for an hour and a half before his brain functions were fully transferred to a computer. The amount of memory degradation was never fully revealed. According to the United North American States' line of succession, if Huerta was considered dead, then power would transfer to the Vice President and Speaker Ford would have held the position of Vice President for the last year."

03/11/2010 - Petitioner's Witness Testifies in Ford v. Huerta


"Expert witnesses were introduced today in the Systems Alliance trial of Ford v. Huerta, starting with the petitioner's side. Dr. Samuel Wachhaus testified today that President Huerta was brain-dead for too long to make a full recovery. Questioned on Huerta's apparent cognitive health afterward, Wachhaus testified that the VI ran Huerta's artificial memory so successfully that it took over his brain functions so that "there was no Huerta anymore. This is not a person with a VI memory, it's a VI with a partially-organic operating system". The respondent's experts will begin testimony tomorrow."


03/12/2010 - Defendant's Witness Asserts President Huerta Made Full Recovery


"Expert witness Dr. Lin Shiyin testified in the Systems Alliance trial of Ford v. Huerta today. He claimed that the former president made a full recovery from a temporarily brain-dead state. Stumbling a little when grilled on Huerta's timeline of cognition, Lin nevertheless made the case for Huerta being in full control once his motor functions and memory were assigned synthetic analogues. "To believe that he is now a different person, a synthetic, is to draw a line where no line is needed", he argued. "A new man did not appear on the table when the first open-heart surgery was performed. His life was merely extended beyond what was thought possible at the time"."

04/15/2010 - System Alliance Finds in Favor of President Huerta in 5-4 Decision


"The controversial Earth court case of Ford v. Huerta came to a close today with a 5-4 decision supporting the end of the President's term. Chief Justice Ling announced, "This is not the first time human beings have technically died only to be brought back with proper medical attention. That the window of resuscitation has lengthened is no reason to support a partisan attack on the legitimacy of the President. The legal definition of death must be expanded beyond brain death to include cellular death as well". Following the decision, protesters erupted into violence on the Washington, D.C., Mall and in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park. The crowds chanting "Down with the zombie!" were quickly suppressed as riot police cleared the capitols with microwaves and stunners. More protests are reportedly planned for the weekend."


04/16/2010 - Late-Night Comedians Weigh In on Ford v. Huerta Case


"Late-night comedians are weighing in on Ford v. Huerta, the court case that has enough cyborgs, presidents, and controversy to be a Hollywood blockbuster in its own right. Cal DiCosimo said "We're supposed to care that the President was brain dead after his stroke? What I don't get is that a room full of doctors said he had brain activity before it". Natasha Lyons targeted the Speaker of the House, saying, "Her entire argument is that for the last year, she's wanted to be Vice President. I'm sorry, honey, you don't get out of working that easily". And Manny Zupo gave his analysis: "For the last year, we've had a zombie cyborg president. Why does the speaker want this to end? Every twelve-year-old can now go to class and say 'my president's just as cool as the asari"."


04/17/2010 - Mobs March on Earth to Protest Ford v. Huerta Decision


"Mobs on Earth marched today to protest the Systems Alliance's decision to uphold President Huerta's term. Over 1.5 million marched in Washington, D.C., 2 million in Mexico City, and 750,000 in Ottawa, many of them wielding lit torches and pitchforks as a retro political statement. Capitol police in D.C. took the bait, clashing with protestors who threw torches into their ranks. Fifteen protestors and three police were injured. "It was rough today, but I'm not worried", said Sergeant Hathaway of the Capitol Police. "They seem like the kind of people who bring pitchforks to a gunfight"."


04/18/2010 - Huerta Protests Spread Across the United North American States


"The Systems Alliance decision on Ford v. Huerta has sparked dozens more protests today all over Earth's United North American States. Incensed by the violence of the previous day, groups sizes have doubled in major North American cities. Reaching four million in Mexico City and spreading sister protests to Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York, the demonstrations were largely violence-free. The notable exception was Washington, D.C., where mobs' sheer numbers overwhelmed riot police. A video of citizens chasing police down Constitution Avenue has garnered over 900 million hits in the first 12 hours on the extranet site uploadednews.com."


04/19/2010 - Earth Politicians Call for End to UNAS Riots


"Earth's politicians called for a stop to the rioting in the UNAS even as some of them praised the rebellious spirit of the protesters. Speaker of the House Lisa Ford toured the morning talk show circuit to make it clear that although she rejects the Systems Alliance decision, there seems little choice but to abide by it. "The people marching in the streets in my name are welcome to do so", she says, "but we must categorically reject the violence that the Systems Alliance oppressors use". Now that her day in court has come and gone, Ford admitted that there seem to be no other options."

Spoiler: Eupulmos Device

07/13/2010 - Eupulmos Device Helping Victims of Respiratory Diseases


"A new technology is helping victims of the Vallum Blast breathe easier -- literally. Researchers at U. Thierax are attacking the myriad of respiratory diseases caused by inhaling dust around the blast site. Dubbed "medi-gel for the lungs," the Eupulmos Device analyzes a patient's tissue or medicard record before adjusting its virally-delivered superdrugs to match the patient's genetic predispositions. After that, the mister sprays the aerosol into the patient's nasal passages and the drug is absorbed into the lungs. The mister can also deliver microsurgery machines to make non-invasive repairs to tissue and has a color-coded nozzle at each end with separate agent reservoirs for dextro and levo patients. Said one ER staffer, "The effect is incredible. In a year, the whole galaxy will be using these things.""

Spoiler: Nanotech diet aid

11/07/2010 - Nanotech Diet Aid "The Skale" On Shelves Today


""The Skale," a new nanotech diet aid by Black Horse Foods, hits shelves today. The much-anticipated device is capable of excluding food matter after it is consumed. Taken internally, Skale nanotech monitors the user's consumption and stops the digestion process if the food is beyond stated parameters. The excess matter passes on as a harmless waste that is naturally eliminated. Black Horse literature describes the device as "a practical and safe solution for those watching their diet, and a miracle for those with potentially life-threatening allergies." The Skale and its 1-year-warranty will run about 300 credits."


11/09/2010 - The Skale Diet Aid Linked to Multiple Deaths


"The new Black Horse Foods diet device called "The Skale" is now linked to the deaths of at least four young humans and one volus. Ingesting The Skale allows users to remove food from their systems and lose weight. The device shipped with multiple safeguards, but savvy hackers have already posted code spikes on the extranet that allow full control of the device's anti-digestion settings. The result has been a growing collection of users who reduce their food intake to dangerously low levels in efforts to stay thin. Representatives from Black Horse Foods did not immediately respond to inquiries."


11/20/2010 - Black Horse Foods Issues Recall For The Skale


"Black Horse Foods, makers of the controversial diet aid "The Skale," have issued a formal recall of their product as shares dropped by more than 66% in the past week. The move comes in the wake of more than 34 deaths, chiefly among youth, attributed directly to the product. Medical authorities on Citadel-space planets are calling on retail outlets to remove the product from store shelves, although use of The Skale is still approved for prescription in cases of severe allergies or food restrictions. Neither public relations staff nor legal counsel for Black Horse Foods would comment on the recall or pending legal action by families of the deceased."

Spoiler: Cybernetic Upgrades

Heavy Bone Weave (Skeletal Lattice)
By reinforcing the skeleton with a synthetic weave, bones can be made almost unbreakable. In the event of bone trauma, medi-gel conduits allow for bone regenerations in a matter of days.

Heavy Muscle Weave (Microfiber Weave)
Perforating the muscles with micro-fibers increases overall strength and decreases the potential for muscle damage from exertion.

Heavy Skin Weave 1 - 7 (Lattice Shunting)
Strong synthetic fibers can be woven through the skin, dramatically reducing damage taken from most attacks. These fibers also act as a medi-gel conduit, improving healing.

Spoiler: Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation

Augmented cybernetic simulacrum (ACS) and augmentations -
ACS Wall/ceiling running:

She ducked out of cover to propel the weapon, something moved at the corner of Cora's vision. Above! Startled, she jerked back and stared at the corridor's vaulted ceiling, where-
Oh, shit.
A woman in a lab coat ran toward her.
Across...
...the ceiling.

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"F-f-focused magnetism," the VI stuttered into her ear as she boggled. "The iron in her red blood cells has been electrostatically charged."

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ACS Durability:

But it worked, the woman yelping as Cora snatched her off the ceiling and flung her against a nearby wall with bone-crushing force. The woman slumped to the ground-groaning -

-As the woman lay there, Cora could hear what sounded like servos struggling to move her limbs. "I am not certain she is human."

"Yeah, I'm not so certain either," Cora agreed as she heard the sound of the mechs disentangling the woman's limbs.
Time to go.

Click to shrink...

Commercial augs:

There were other implants people could get- subdermal comms, cosmetic implants that did things like tightened the skin with small electrical charges-but most of those didn't get installed near the brain stem.

Click to shrink...

'Combat-applicable' augs:

She was glad for SAM-E's analysis too, because until he had said so, she hadn't sure that what she was looking at was human. All she could see was a roughly bipedal shape-twisted and broken in the wrong places- and a bloodied, flattened ruin of a head-
-"So somebody beat him to death."
"Someone or something. Contusion depth suggests that each blow had a force averaging two thousand pounds. Humans don't have that kind of strength."
"Implants? High-end bone weaves or muscle meshes-"
"Possible. And several non-human species are capable of exerting that degree of strength naturally."

Click to shrink...

Augment Clone creation:

"Unknown but given the retinal scan, I can confirm that this 'person' has no known history. This would suggest that the creature was likely created. Not altered.
Cora didn't like the sound of that. "You mean... he was grown? Like in a test tube?"

Click to shrink...

Cora gritted her teeth. "She's even rewritten their DNA?"
"An organic body isn't much different from a synthetic platform," SAM-E explained. "If you want to steal a piece of hardware and make it your own, the simplest way to do so-once you get past any security measure- is to reformat its memory and machine code. With that done, you can add any 'software' that you like."
"A synthetic stimulant that alters DNA-not to mention flesh and blood."

Click to shrink...

Cora made out a small, relatively empty room. Cables trailed over its floor, connecting to several large cylinders. All but one of them was empty. Then Cora caught her breath in horrified recognition.
The test tubes.

Click to shrink...

Augment Clone description:

The organic material seems to be of human origins. Most likely male. As you can see, however, it has been substantially... adjusted, I would guess by stimulating and even altering DNA. Muscle mass had been redistributed, and increased in density. Bone density and skin tensile strength, as well"-

-"simple imaging scans suggest that in particular the limbic region and the prefrontal cortex have been compromised. These are areas of the brain which govern emotions and personality respectively."

Click to shrink...

Augment Clone durability:

The first shot caught it square in the center of the chest, a lucky perfect hit... except the thing barely seemed to notice the impact. The second shot hit the shin and that did slow it down-

-A moment later when the thing got to its feet - no blood, anywhere, just a scorch-mark on its pants and a dent in the bare skin of its chest-she was ready flinging a scintillating sphere of disruptive energy.

-For the briefest instant it was like watching a clash between the irresistible force and the immovable object.

Click to shrink...

Then the augmented creature slammed through the half-open elevator door above, leaping down at her-

-momentum took the creature past the generator's mass effect envelope. It dropped like a stone, seeming to dwindle rapidly in size as it fell away. There was a brief, stunning flash of light as it hit one of the elvators, stories below, and the car's generators exploded beneath the impact-

A woman hit the door-opening sequence and with a hollow groan the metal doors began to slide apart.
To reveal an augment.
It was the one that had attacked cOra in the elevator shaft, she realized-

Click to shrink...

Augment Clone strength:

She was glad for SAM-E's analysis too, because until he had said so, she hadn't sure that what she was looking at was human. All she could see was a roughly bipedal shape-twisted and broken in the wrong places- and a bloodied, flattened ruin of a head-
-"So somebody beat him to death."
"Someone or something. Contusion depth suggests that each blow had a force averaging two thousand pounds. Humans don't have that kind of strength."
"Implants? High-end bone weaves or muscle meshes-"
"Possible. And several non-human species are capable of exerting that degree of strength naturally."

Click to shrink...

The thud caught Cora completely by surprise, because it came from the floor. Whirling, she saw the pieces of furniture, wall plating, and materials that the dead people had used for their barricade jolting ans shifting side. Something was peeling open the metal floor like a fruit.

Click to shrink...

SAM-E and Implants -

Subvocalize (pre-patch):

"You may subvocalize," the VI said. "As if you're speaking the words in your head while reading, but without moving your lips. I'm capable of interpreting minute involuntary muscle adjustments seventy percent accuracy. Please note that this is an experimental feature only, and may not be available in standard or commercial implementations of my codebase."

Click to shrink...

Amplify:

"May I amplify your auditory nerve for a moment. Your ears should be capable of detecting minute sounds in the room below, since the floor is of unshielded material."-

-All at once Cora could hear much, much more, as if the otherwise quiet hotel had become a noisy, echoing auditorium. In the distance she could hear- oh the club across the street-
-Above her, maybe two floors up, a couple of turian guys were either have loud, flange-voiced sex, or rhythmically beating the crap out of each other-
-there was a hollow, sharp rap nearby that made her jump, but then a mech said, "Housekeeping" and she realized it was the room below.

Click to shrink...

Guidance:

"I'm no pilot"
"With SAM-E's help you can be."

Click to shrink...

With SAM-E directing her hands, Cora took the shuttle up to moderate speed-

Click to shrink...

Sensory enhancement:

"Human hearing, sight, scent, and taste, and touch are more sensitive than your conscious mind if capable of interpreting. I, however, can read minute perturbations of your inner ear, faint vibrations of the air, and more. This should give us some warning in the event of another creature attack."

Click to shrink...

Overclock:

"A two-ton skyscar's driver core breaks down and pins a toddler," she said. "The toddler's mother picks the whole thing up to rescue the child. Yeah, I've heard of it."
"Precisely. Given the push you will need to make to reach the hanger, it would be possible with your permission and some minor adjustments to your implant-to put you in an extended hysterical strength state. You will be faster than the augments, though not as strong, more resilient against damage and fatigue than you are now-"

Click to shrink...

"I'm attempting to regulate your emotional state as well, Lieutenant," SAM-E said, and Cora was certain this time that the AI sounded strained. I have managed to limit the neurochemical alterations to targeted systems which are more easily reversible. Unsurprisingly, human emotions are complex and difficult thing to influence, let alone control... but if I'm doing this right, you should feel no particular urge to kill Captain Ariokis-

-Cora blinked. She felt fine. Better than fine. She sat up-and abruptly found herself across the room, hands braced against the window and body aglaze with so much power that it was hard to stay on the ground. Hard not to tear through the wall.

Click to shrink...

She moved before she could think-
-and an instant later, the creature thumped to the ground, motionless. Cora landed atop its broad back, her hands flexing spasmodically as she listended to the thing's head bounce off the far wall of the shaft, then fall.
What had she done, exactly? Kicked its head off? Sliced through it with her omni-blade? Somehow decapitated the thing with pure biotic force? Didn't matter.

Click to shrink...

Speed:

"Not if I get in and out fast enough." And for an instant, as Cora stared at him, his armor shimmered. It was fleeting, and for an instant she though she'd imagine it. Not biotics, and not a shield. Something else. But what? Before she could guess, he was through the door, and before it slid shut, he took off running- fast. Much faster than any ordinary human should've been able to.

Click to shrink...

Strength:

Amid this red-white-and-black hell, Alec Ryder dragged something huge and heavy closer to the processing units he'd pointed out. It was another metal box, bigger than the processors, and it must have weighed hundreds of pounds, though Ryder seemed to managing it-
-the box's plating resembled spaceship armor, though, which meant that it was probably reinforced against radiation or heat or both.

Click to shrink...

Durability:

"Ryder, that room is going to be plasma-hot a few minutes after the shuttle burns through!-"

Click to shrink...

Downloading or uploading something... in a room whose ambient temperature readings were already at the point that usually caused human beings to slip into unconsciousness from suffocation, as their lungs burned-
-But his clothes had begun to smoke. His hair wafted in the heat, its end shriveling even as Cora watched. His pale skin had gone bright red, shiny in its dryness, crackling and peeling. She could see him blinking rapidly, perhaps to try and keep his eyes from drying out. Another minute-no, another few seconds-and he would burst into flame, if he didn't just keel over dead.
His SAM had to be keeping him alive somehow.

Click to shrink...

And then there's the cybernetic augmentations Kai Leng and the Cerberus Phantom soldiers possessed. And finally, there's the a availability of cybernetic prosthetics for people who need limb replacement

Really, it's only in the realm of cybernetically augmenting the brain where humanities bioconservatism keeps them from closing the gap with Salarians.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Twilight was a better student not because she was better at magic than Sunset, but because she was more receptive of what Celestia was trying to teach her.

Sometimes the qualities a student possess can overcome the failures of the teacher.

Click to shrink...

Except that Twilight was about as old as Sunset when she went to Ponyville, with no friends she bothered to spare a thought for. Twilight's original plan was to find the Elements and try using them against Nightmare Moon by herself, which she didn't end up trying because the others wouldn't let her. The only difference is that Sunset might have tried to make a fight of the first encounter with Nightmare Moon.

 

[Coda]

The point is a that she was a poor student. She stubbornly refused to listen to her teacher, distrust her and arrogantly decide
that she knew better than the thousand year old Alicorn who has ascended throught Starswirl's spell.

Click to shrink...

Celestia was wrong. Literally none of what you said here is correct because CELESTIA WAS WRONG. You are also wrong by Zoat's canon.

Click to shrink...

This would be a very good point, if it were not for the fact that Celestia was in fact wrong. She tried to get Sunset to follow the path that would allow her to ascend using Star swirl's spell (the philosophical approach as you put it). Based on everything Celestia knew about ascension, this was a reasonable course of action to take, even if she did a poor job of conveying the meaning to Sunset, it wouldn't change the fact that she thought Sunset's purely scientific approach wouldn't work. She wasn't being malicious in that, and a lot of things had to go exactly right for sunset to gain the capability to prove her wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that, at the end of the day, a purely scientific approach did work, Sunset proved it, and therefore Celestia was in fact wrong, and therefore was wrong to stifle Sunset's exploration of that approach.

Click to shrink...

Celestia wasn't fundamentally wrong -- just incompletely informed, and not an especially good teacher.

Sunset also wasn't fundamentally wrong -- just headstrong and stuck with an instructor that didn't know to deal with her.

I've been in Sunset's position in more than one instance in my life. It's not an easy place to be. I've also been in Celestia's place at least once, and that's not any easier, and it's really hard to see the difference between "I don't know how to reach this student" and "I'm actually wrong" in the moment.

 

[Mquz]

Sorry but this is pretty wrong. For the Systems Alliance, genetic engineering is perfectly legal, as long as what you are doing is only improving what humans already have. No giving yourself cat ears or the ability to digest cellulose or anything, but making yourself stronger and tougher is perfectly legal. And Citadel laws are even less restrictive, they only prohibit the artificial creation of sapient species, beyond that anything goes(though individual nations like the Hierarchy or any of the Asari Republics might have more restrictive laws).

Also, on the Thessia Beacon, it wasn't the Asari "ruling caste" who hid the beacon, but a small group of matriarchs keeping the thing for themselves. Sure, they've tried to use it to their own advantage, but considering the damn thing refused to turn on, I really doubt they were getting all that much. They were stuck interfacing with the thing, pulling up random bits of data, trying to restructure things so that the data would be compatible with their computers and computer interfaces(remember the Protheans used a weird touch telepathy interface with their computers, nobody else does that), trying to translate the data out of Prothean and then pray that what they got isn't a bunch of gibberish or useless historical and cultural trivia. Even worse, computers in Mass Effect have huge amounts of memory storage, the Thessia Beacon probably had several times the amount of data as the Library of Congress, that group of Asari might have been working on the thing ever since the Asari developed sufficiently advanced computer technology to interface with it, but if they could get anything useful out of it at a ratio more then every few centuries, I'd be surprised.

And really, the idea of there being an Asari "ruling caste" shadow governmenting Asari space is also ridiculous fanon. They are the Asari Republics(ranging in size from individual city-states to independent planets) not the Asari Republic. Matriarchs understandably have a lot of political pull, but the Asari aren't anywhere near unified enough for their to be a shadow government pulling all the strings.


Yeah, lets look at all the examples of human cybernetics shall we?

Spoiler: Cybernetics

Spoiler: Soldier's ocular implants

Soldiers are pure combat specialists. No one is tougher or more effective at taking down enemies with gunfire. Soldiers have the most thorough weapons training and can use all special ammo types. High-level operatives are outfitted with ocular synaptic processors that allow them to focus on targets with lethal accuracy.

Spoiler: Lazarus Project

The Lazarus Project was a Cerberus project, the sole purpose of which was to bring Commander Shepard back from the dead.

When Commander Shepard was killed in a Collector attack that also resulted in the destruction of the SSV Normandy, Cerberus was able to recover Shepard's corpse with the help of Liara T'Soni. The Illusive Man created and funded the Lazarus Project, pouring virtually unlimited resources into the belief that only Shepard could stop the Reaper threat to humanity as the Council stood idly by.

The exorbitant project took 2 years and over 4 billion credits to complete. Undertaken by the Lazarus Cell, which was headed by Miranda Lawson and her assistant Wilson, it involved attaching cybernetic implants to reconstruct the Commander's skeleton, reconstruction of the skin, and fluids to restart the blood flow and internal organs. The one thing that the Illusive Man refused to do was implant a control chip in the Commander's brain, fearing that it may affect Shepard's personality and abilities. As part of the project, Shepard underwent facial reconstruction and partially lost prior abilities and talents.

The project proves to be a success in 2185 when Shepard manages to regain full neurological activity.

When there was an attempt to steal Commander Shepard's identity in 2186, the Commander tracked down the person behind the scheme and discovered it was none other than a clone created by Cerberus. The clone was kept a secret, intended to be used for spare organs and other body parts over the course of the true Shepard's revival through the Lazarus Project, but it was never utilized and remained in storage. It was awakened by disillusioned ex-Cerberus operative Maya Brooks six months before the Reaper invasion, and Brooks convinced it to kill and assume the identity of the original Shepard in order to pursue a pro-human agenda. Shepard stopped the clone from escaping the Citadel with the Normandy SR-2. The clone is killed, and Brooks is either captured or killed.

During the assault on Cronos Station near the close of the war against the Reapers, some Project Lazarus records are discovered within the station. They affirm Miranda Lawson's claims that Shepard was reconstructed without genetic or neural tampering per the Illusive Man's wishes.

Spoiler: Graybox

A graybox is, essentially, a collection of snapshots of a person's memories. Launched by Synthetic Insights in 2160 CE and originally developed to help treat Alzheimer's disease, it was determined that its implant procedure has dangerous side-effects: should the graybox either need to be removed for maintenance purposes or if it developed software bugs, extensive brain damage would occur. As such, its usage was ultimately restricted to people who sorely needed eidetic memories, like researchers and intragalactic spies. When a graybox is accessed by a specialized reader, the collection of memories contained within appear as snapshots, while the memory being viewed is played as a video.

Only two individuals are known to have grayboxes, partners Kasumi Goto and the late Keiji Okuda. Keiji was killed by Donovan Hock for his heavily-encrypted graybox. Hock has been trying to crack it since he obtained it for the information that Keiji recorded in it. Kasumi was planning to take it back, and after seeking out Cerberus, which had been attempting to contact her, saw an opportunity to get it back.

Spoiler: Ford v. Huerta

03/04/2010 - Earth Nations in Suspense as Systems Alliance Hears Ford v. Huerta


"The nations of Earth are in suspense tonight as the Systems Alliance hears Ford v. Huerta, the first case of a human leader using reconstructive data storage to prolong his brain functions and stay physically capable to perform his duties. Speaker of the House Lisa Ford has led the charge against Huerta, saying that the last year of his term was illegitimate. A stroke left the President legally dead and in cryocool for an hour and a half before his brain functions were fully transferred to a computer. The amount of memory degradation was never fully revealed. According to the United North American States' line of succession, if Huerta was considered dead, then power would transfer to the Vice President and Speaker Ford would have held the position of Vice President for the last year."

03/11/2010 - Petitioner's Witness Testifies in Ford v. Huerta


"Expert witnesses were introduced today in the Systems Alliance trial of Ford v. Huerta, starting with the petitioner's side. Dr. Samuel Wachhaus testified today that President Huerta was brain-dead for too long to make a full recovery. Questioned on Huerta's apparent cognitive health afterward, Wachhaus testified that the VI ran Huerta's artificial memory so successfully that it took over his brain functions so that "there was no Huerta anymore. This is not a person with a VI memory, it's a VI with a partially-organic operating system". The respondent's experts will begin testimony tomorrow."


03/12/2010 - Defendant's Witness Asserts President Huerta Made Full Recovery


"Expert witness Dr. Lin Shiyin testified in the Systems Alliance trial of Ford v. Huerta today. He claimed that the former president made a full recovery from a temporarily brain-dead state. Stumbling a little when grilled on Huerta's timeline of cognition, Lin nevertheless made the case for Huerta being in full control once his motor functions and memory were assigned synthetic analogues. "To believe that he is now a different person, a synthetic, is to draw a line where no line is needed", he argued. "A new man did not appear on the table when the first open-heart surgery was performed. His life was merely extended beyond what was thought possible at the time"."

04/15/2010 - System Alliance Finds in Favor of President Huerta in 5-4 Decision


"The controversial Earth court case of Ford v. Huerta came to a close today with a 5-4 decision supporting the end of the President's term. Chief Justice Ling announced, "This is not the first time human beings have technically died only to be brought back with proper medical attention. That the window of resuscitation has lengthened is no reason to support a partisan attack on the legitimacy of the President. The legal definition of death must be expanded beyond brain death to include cellular death as well". Following the decision, protesters erupted into violence on the Washington, D.C., Mall and in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park. The crowds chanting "Down with the zombie!" were quickly suppressed as riot police cleared the capitols with microwaves and stunners. More protests are reportedly planned for the weekend."


04/16/2010 - Late-Night Comedians Weigh In on Ford v. Huerta Case


"Late-night comedians are weighing in on Ford v. Huerta, the court case that has enough cyborgs, presidents, and controversy to be a Hollywood blockbuster in its own right. Cal DiCosimo said "We're supposed to care that the President was brain dead after his stroke? What I don't get is that a room full of doctors said he had brain activity before it". Natasha Lyons targeted the Speaker of the House, saying, "Her entire argument is that for the last year, she's wanted to be Vice President. I'm sorry, honey, you don't get out of working that easily". And Manny Zupo gave his analysis: "For the last year, we've had a zombie cyborg president. Why does the speaker want this to end? Every twelve-year-old can now go to class and say 'my president's just as cool as the asari"."


04/17/2010 - Mobs March on Earth to Protest Ford v. Huerta Decision


"Mobs on Earth marched today to protest the Systems Alliance's decision to uphold President Huerta's term. Over 1.5 million marched in Washington, D.C., 2 million in Mexico City, and 750,000 in Ottawa, many of them wielding lit torches and pitchforks as a retro political statement. Capitol police in D.C. took the bait, clashing with protestors who threw torches into their ranks. Fifteen protestors and three police were injured. "It was rough today, but I'm not worried", said Sergeant Hathaway of the Capitol Police. "They seem like the kind of people who bring pitchforks to a gunfight"."


04/18/2010 - Huerta Protests Spread Across the United North American States


"The Systems Alliance decision on Ford v. Huerta has sparked dozens more protests today all over Earth's United North American States. Incensed by the violence of the previous day, groups sizes have doubled in major North American cities. Reaching four million in Mexico City and spreading sister protests to Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York, the demonstrations were largely violence-free. The notable exception was Washington, D.C., where mobs' sheer numbers overwhelmed riot police. A video of citizens chasing police down Constitution Avenue has garnered over 900 million hits in the first 12 hours on the extranet site uploadednews.com."


04/19/2010 - Earth Politicians Call for End to UNAS Riots


"Earth's politicians called for a stop to the rioting in the UNAS even as some of them praised the rebellious spirit of the protesters. Speaker of the House Lisa Ford toured the morning talk show circuit to make it clear that although she rejects the Systems Alliance decision, there seems little choice but to abide by it. "The people marching in the streets in my name are welcome to do so", she says, "but we must categorically reject the violence that the Systems Alliance oppressors use". Now that her day in court has come and gone, Ford admitted that there seem to be no other options."

Spoiler: Eupulmos Device

07/13/2010 - Eupulmos Device Helping Victims of Respiratory Diseases


"A new technology is helping victims of the Vallum Blast breathe easier -- literally. Researchers at U. Thierax are attacking the myriad of respiratory diseases caused by inhaling dust around the blast site. Dubbed "medi-gel for the lungs," the Eupulmos Device analyzes a patient's tissue or medicard record before adjusting its virally-delivered superdrugs to match the patient's genetic predispositions. After that, the mister sprays the aerosol into the patient's nasal passages and the drug is absorbed into the lungs. The mister can also deliver microsurgery machines to make non-invasive repairs to tissue and has a color-coded nozzle at each end with separate agent reservoirs for dextro and levo patients. Said one ER staffer, "The effect is incredible. In a year, the whole galaxy will be using these things.""

Spoiler: Nanotech diet aid

11/07/2010 - Nanotech Diet Aid "The Skale" On Shelves Today


""The Skale," a new nanotech diet aid by Black Horse Foods, hits shelves today. The much-anticipated device is capable of excluding food matter after it is consumed. Taken internally, Skale nanotech monitors the user's consumption and stops the digestion process if the food is beyond stated parameters. The excess matter passes on as a harmless waste that is naturally eliminated. Black Horse literature describes the device as "a practical and safe solution for those watching their diet, and a miracle for those with potentially life-threatening allergies." The Skale and its 1-year-warranty will run about 300 credits."


11/09/2010 - The Skale Diet Aid Linked to Multiple Deaths


"The new Black Horse Foods diet device called "The Skale" is now linked to the deaths of at least four young humans and one volus. Ingesting The Skale allows users to remove food from their systems and lose weight. The device shipped with multiple safeguards, but savvy hackers have already posted code spikes on the extranet that allow full control of the device's anti-digestion settings. The result has been a growing collection of users who reduce their food intake to dangerously low levels in efforts to stay thin. Representatives from Black Horse Foods did not immediately respond to inquiries."


11/20/2010 - Black Horse Foods Issues Recall For The Skale


"Black Horse Foods, makers of the controversial diet aid "The Skale," have issued a formal recall of their product as shares dropped by more than 66% in the past week. The move comes in the wake of more than 34 deaths, chiefly among youth, attributed directly to the product. Medical authorities on Citadel-space planets are calling on retail outlets to remove the product from store shelves, although use of The Skale is still approved for prescription in cases of severe allergies or food restrictions. Neither public relations staff nor legal counsel for Black Horse Foods would comment on the recall or pending legal action by families of the deceased."

Spoiler: Cybernetic Upgrades

Heavy Bone Weave (Skeletal Lattice)
By reinforcing the skeleton with a synthetic weave, bones can be made almost unbreakable. In the event of bone trauma, medi-gel conduits allow for bone regenerations in a matter of days.

Heavy Muscle Weave (Microfiber Weave)
Perforating the muscles with micro-fibers increases overall strength and decreases the potential for muscle damage from exertion.

Heavy Skin Weave 1 - 7 (Lattice Shunting)
Strong synthetic fibers can be woven through the skin, dramatically reducing damage taken from most attacks. These fibers also act as a medi-gel conduit, improving healing.

Spoiler: Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation

Augmented cybernetic simulacrum (ACS) and augmentations -
ACS Wall/ceiling running:



ACS Durability:


Commercial augs:


'Combat-applicable' augs:



Augment Clone creation:




Augment Clone description:


Augment Clone durability:



Augment Clone strength:



SAM-E and Implants -

Subvocalize (pre-patch):


Amplify:


Guidance:




Sensory enhancement:


Overclock:




Speed:


Strength:


Durability:

And then there's the cybernetic augmentations Kai Leng and the Cerberus Phantom soldiers possessed. And finally, there's the a availability of cybernetic prosthetics for people who need limb replacement

Really, it's only in the realm of cybernetically augmenting the brain where humanities bioconservatism keeps them from closing the gap with Salarians.

Click to shrink...

Eh, what? Ford vs Huerta is basically a trans human case. Though I'd argue that that's a bit too close to being an AI for the setting.

 

[Cuchulin]

Ehem, Crysalis, Discord, Tirek, need I go on?

Click to shrink...

Discord was part of the plan, she just miscalculated juuust a little on the time line. After all he showed up after the Elements of Harmony found their Ponies and had some time to bond as well as learn friendship lessons. After all pretty everything went almost exactly according to plan for a thousand years.
Also everything worked out fine in the end, in fact her usual plan of "throw Twilight at the problem" defeated Tirek.
Further more I was speaking from her perspective as a Immortal god Queen.

 

[ForeverShogo]

So just to chime in on the genetic engineering in Mass Effect talk . . .

Improvement of natural human abilities is legal, but adding new abilities is not. Treatments to improve strength, reflexes, mental ability, or appearance are permitted; adding a tail or the ability to digest cellulose is not.

With the justification for this being that Systems Alliance lawmakers apparently think allowing people to radically alter themselves would "ruin Earth's unique bio-diversity".

 

[Doccer]

Spoiler

While Celestia hasn't noticed the similarity consciously yet, what Sunset did is a lot like what Stygian was trying to do.

Click to shrink...

Hmm I didn't think of it that way. I thought he was try to do something like the Shazam spell.
If it was an Alicorn spell shouldn't Starswirl the bearded or however his name is spelled have recognized the similar spell work to Luna and Sunbutt?

 

[Stsword]

Hmm I didn't think of it that way. I thought he was try to do something like the Shazam spell.
If it was an Alicorn spell shouldn't Starswirl the bearded or however his name is spelled have recognized the similar spell work to Luna and Sunbutt?

Click to shrink...

Starswirl paid so little attention to the ritual that he thought Stygian was trying to steal their powers rather than get his own.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Repetition

2nd April 2012
07:52 GMT -6

"Daddy, why are you a pony?"

I look around as Bethany stares at me in fascination.

"Variety is the spice of life, honey. Want a ride?"

Lynne puts her hands on her hips.

"Daddy, why are you a pony?"

"Sunset's portal opened up, and I wanted to give her moral support while she did her ascension thing." Lynne nods while Bethany just looks confused. "Sunset? The young woman with the red hair with yellow streaks? She's been here for a year, I'm sure you've seen her at some point."

"Yes-" Momentary reassurance-seeking glance at Eldest Adopted Sister. "-Daddy, I know who Sunset is."

"Right, well she's a magical pony from a world on the other side of a mirror, and the portal just opened again so she's getting back in touch with her-" Friends? No. Family? She didn't really mention them directly. They could be dead, or it could be like Shining Armor where he popped into existence at the end of series two. I'll nudge her about that in a couple of days. "-people."

"Sunset's a pony?"

"At the moment, yes. When you go through the portal it turns you into one."

Bethany's eyes light up. "Can I come?! Can I come please?!"

I trot closer and give her a nuzzle. "I'm sorry, but it isn't safe unless we know what being turned into a pony does to your medicine." Her head bows as she lets out a disappointed moan, but she reaches up to stroke my nose anyway. Oddly satisfying. "Tell you what. Sunset's locked the portal open now, so I'll check out what it does to your blood this week and you can pay them a visit this weekend. Does that sound alright?"

She nuzzles me back. "Thank you Daddy!"

"That's quite alright. Looking forward to your lesson with Ms Gloria this afternoon?"

Bethany frowns. "I don't think she's very nice."

"Then you're a good judge of character. But what makes you think that?"

"She eats birds."

"Honey, a chicken is a type of bird, and if you're telling me that you've gone off chicken then I'm going to have to sort out something else for dinner."

"No, not like chicken-bird, you know, like you buy in a shop. Like there was a little bird outside the classroom and she just kept staring at it the whole time? And Stephan asked her why and she said that she sometimes gets urges?"

"A lot of people get inappropriate urges. That doesn't make them bad people."

"But she isn't taking her medicine!" Oh… Right. "You said we couldn't stop ourselves killing-. Things… When we turn into monsters, but we are responsible for taking our medicine, because if we don't take it we turn back into monsters and then it's our fault. So if she still wants to eat wild animals then she's bad."

"I'm afraid that there isn't any medicine for Ms Gloria."

Bethany looks horrified. "What?"

"Ms Gloria isn't quite the same as you and your natural siblings. Her body just sort of ignores medicine. But she's an adult, and as long as it's just wild animals I decided that I should leave her to it."

"But she doesn't want to!"

"Tell you what: if you see her staring at a bird, walk over and give her a big hug. That should take her mind off it."

If only because I know that her husband -a pleasant if somewhat vacuous Chelsea player- has been carefully raising the idea of having children for a while. And while I suspect that at this point Ms Gloria isn't totally against the idea, there are some things a demonic body struggles with. On the other hand, if she gets the idea to have a demonology-focused magician take a look at my younger children, who knows what might happen?

"Okay Daddy." She takes a step back. "Have fun with the other ponies!"

I nod, smiling. "I'm sure I will."

She heads off into the Mountain to go and get her school accoutrements while Lynne looks at me thoughtfully. "What really happened?"

"Sunset kidnapped her successor, but we talked things out. Her banishment appears to have been rescinded, if only because Celestia realises that it won't serve its intended purpose. Ponies are really tiny and really cute."

"You don't look tiny."

I raise my eyebrows. "Ah, but I do look cute."

She rolls her eyes. "Do you want me to feed you a carrot?"

She's trying for teenage-sullen, but the smile ruins it.

"I don't know. I'm fine with it, but I'm worried it might be pony-racist or something." She looks away for a moment. "So you coming this weekend, or-?"

"Yes Daddy, of course I'm coming."

"You going to come as you are, or come as a pony?"

"Um." Her eyes move away from my face as she considers it. "What's it.. like?"

"Weird. You fall over a whole lot to start with. But in theory you get access to pony magic."

"Like making stuff float with your horn?"

"I didn't think I should try that in case I broke something. But I could clumsily fly, and I didn't get any physically weaker. Besides, it's only for a few hours. If you don't like it you can just-" I prance in place for a moment. "-trot back through the portal and you'll be a New God again."

"A human-shaped New God, right?"

…

"Tell you what: why don't you head down to Sunset's laboratory and I'll test that."

She looks concerned. "Daddy, are you going to get stuck like that?"

"No, no." I walk closer and give her a nuzzle. "Worst case scenario is that I'll need Sunset to fiddle with the Mirror to make it work properly. And the best part is-."

Her eyes widen. "No Anti-Life. I can't feel it in you."

She was feeling-? No, of course she was, but that's fine, it's gone.

"Yes. Gone completely. There's.. also another potential stepmother I need you and the others to audition, because-."

"Daddy, are you a player?"

I snort with amusement. "Gosh, no. If I was a player then I wouldn't be getting my children to do interviews. You'd never meet them."

"What about Kara?"

"I thought that she was treating me like an unexploded bomb. If you're telling me-."

The air around us.. glows.. red..? I generate construct armour around Lynne and myself and grasp my weapons as I activate all available drones to repel invaders.

Then the ceiling above us just sort of opens and a giant blue hand reaches down towards me!

"Acquisition successful. Locating local variant 'Grayven'."

Giant blue hand, meet godkiller sword! I stab upwards as-

Ping.

-Mother Box goes to work on the portal itself. The Sword of the Fallen pierces the tip of the grasping forefinger, yellow.. blood? Crackling out. I don't know exactly how good a hit the Sword needs to depower-.

"Agh!"

The hand is withdrawn, the tip of the finger landing on my dining table as the portal collapses and the red light fades.

…

The heck was that about?

 

[RichardWhereat]

Stares at you in fascination.

 

[helios]

Oh my god they nearly grabbed pony-Grayven.

 

[Darko]

'variety is' not 'variety if'


So this could be a time travel episode.

 

[Pinklestia]

See? That's why this is best Paul, he didn't lose the Sword Of the Fallen and has a Mother Box.

Oh my god they nearly grabbed pony-Grayven.

Click to shrink...

He kinda has a version of the Elements Of Harmony in his soul. Had they got him Zoat whole kidnapping plot would have ended in three "comic issues" max.

'variety is' not 'variety if'

So this could be a time travel episode.

Click to shrink...

Is a crossover of almost all Pauls thing.

 

[Ciber]

I don't understand what just happened. Plox explain.

 

[Shotiegun11]

I don't understand what just happened. Plox explain.

Click to shrink...

Time Trapper Paul and Red Queen Jade failed to acquire Grayven in their 'Gather All The Alternate Selves' plan.

 

[RichardWhereat]

I don't understand what just happened. Plox explain.

Click to shrink...

I don't think Grayven understands either. We'll get an explanation as the episode, or arc, progresses.