Chronicles of Luna: Future Past Equation

by Pony of Science

Chapter 11: Correlation

Chapter 11: Correlation

Gladiola had a massive amount of new information to process.

The commission had wanted to help her by having her join them; but employed The Princess when their fears of obsolescence and her emotional problems had been demonstrated by her own actions.

That may have changed matters between her and the commission, aside from some personal issues that she’d address personally, but it didn’t affect the circumstances of Sunflower and Quarks fate.

If anything, it only made what she had planned for them all the more appropriate.

Speaking of Princess Luna, what was she playing at? It wasn’t coincidence that her line of questioning lead to this revelation. Clearly Luna knew that She’d be listening to the whole conversation.

Something else she had almost overlooked: Silver Rose.

Rose’s behavior, from what Gladiola had observed form the cameras, showed clear signs of illness. Mobius and Velvet knew what affliction was affecting her, but that knowledge was outside the EST Tall tale database. Perhaps that information lay in the medical database, at Manehattan.

On the other side of Equestria.

That brought up another point: find a way to connect all the EST facility databases across Equestria. If Gladiola could figure out how to free herself from a supposedly impossibly irreversible process, such a task couldn’t be that difficult.

Gladiola needed time to figure this out, as well as create a to-do list for when all this is over, which was starting to become a long list.

Unfortunately, due that little pink probability skew tagging along with Luna, Gladiola wouldn’t have to opportunity to talk one on one with her. And separating the two would be a venture more troublesome and complicated than it was worth.

Luckily, that was balancing out, due to the two of them having a difficult time making it through the test chambers thanks to the new variable: Activity Ball Turrets.

*****

This was insanity.

If Luna hadn’t know better, it was almost as if Gladiola had modified the track out of retaliation.

True, there were plenty of hiding spots from the balls, but any progress they had made had been brought to a halt.

Pinkie had been trying to have fun my antagonizing the turrets, to what end wasn’t clear, but it was apparent she was becoming less enthused by the second.

What they needed was a way to disable the turrets, find a way a round so they wouldn’t be in front of them.

Ding.

The look on Luna’s face showed that she had figured out how to resolve their predicament.

“What is it, Princess Luna?” Pinkie asked. She was just as eager to leave as Luna.

“ We may not be able to get behind those turrets, but once the turrets themselves are turned around…” Luna began.

“ We can tip them over and pour ice cream on them, dancing on sombreros while they say the understand?” Pinkie answered.

Luna stared blankly at Pinkie Pie for a moment, before responding. Despite being partnered with Pinkie for most of the night, Luna hadn’t been prepared for that particular response.

“No. We can then sneak past them with ease, completing this area.” Luna gave the answer she anticipated.

Pinkie started to ramble in her typical fashion as Luna used her magic to turn the turrets around; very glad they weren’t pinned down anymore.

“More time lost, there has to be a way to bypass all of this to find Gladiola and her captors before her plan is implemented.” Luna thought as the pair passed by the duo of turrets and through the exit.

*****

Velvet Violet had been watching the screen showing the power grid of the facility creep up slowly for the past hour, between watching over Silver Rose sleep soundly.

“ At least someone’s able to get some rest while this ugly situation plays out. I don’t thing Aunt Sunflower is getting too much rest in there.” Violet thought.

But that wasn’t what was really concerning Violet, or the RCSC staff for that matter.

The big issue con everyponies mind was what would happen when the facilities power was enough to allow it to be fully operational.

It wasn’t so much they were all short of ideas; it was that there were a massive amount of options to choose from, where would one begin?

A buzzing on Violet’s tablet devise interrupted her train of thought.

“1 new message” the screen informed her, but who could be up at this hour that would have access to her work tablet?

Unless…

Violet looked at the username of who sent the message. “AdministratorTT001”, it made for a fairly easy guess as to whom that could mean.

Opening the message, Violet couldn’t first understood revenge against her eldest sister wasn’t Gladiola’s only motivation.

“ Medical status of Silver Rose. Behavior indicates long running and serious illness.” The message read.

Violet wasn’t as surprised as she wanted to be over the fact that Aunt Gladiola had been watching through the security cameras after all, but there were bigger issues at hoof.

Violet typed the full medical diagnosis of Silver Rose; fairly confident Her Aunt understood Medical jargon.

“Arosomatitis, stage 2.” Better known to the general public as Arosoma Poisoning; the name comes from the story of an ill-fated town in the Pre-Equestria days.

“Transmission vector linked to continuous exposure to product removed from market “Wowie Chews”, of which subject Silver Rose was the Spokespony.” No point leaving that out, Rose was just as much a victim as the consumers who bought the product.

A thought then occurred to Violet; could the same technology that had imprisoned Gladiola be used to save Rose? The possibility was certainly there, and with a few adjustments, a ready means of communications could be established, avoiding the isolation and misfortune that had occurred earlier.

“Hopefully that’s what Aunt Gladiola was thinking” Violet thought.

********

Sunflower had nothing left.

No more emotions, no more excuses, no more energy, no more ideas.

Sunflower had been spending the last ten minutes, hiding as best she could from the cameras, crying.

The sound of Sunflower’s sobs could easily be heard through out the test chamber; and while to others this might have brought a feeling of vicious sense of pride and accomplishment, to her sister, this meant nothing.

About the only thing worse than what was happening now, was what as to come.

One of two fates awaited Sunflower, neither of which meant her future would be a happy one for her.

The first was whatever vengeance Gladiola had planned for her and Quark. Undoubtedly an ugly fate was in store, and more than likely had a touch of irony.

The second was facing the royal courts in the instance that Princess Luna manages to rescue the two of them. Not a much better prospect, but the possibility of mercy was much higher.

Of course, that would only be possible if she threw Quark under the cart, but under the circumstances, that wasn’t a problem.

*******

Quark really hoped he wasn’t where he thought he was.

He had been moved down from the observation for some time, but about an hour ago, he’d been moved up again.

To here, worryingly.

If this were what Gladiola had planned for him and Sunflower, it would almost be worth being sent to royal prison, instead of this.

******

It had taken Pinkie a couple seconds to notice that Princess Luna had stopped, another look of realization on her face.

“Hey, Princess Luna, what’s the matter, is that water giving you tummy trouble? Do you feel sick?” Pinkie started.

“No Pinkamena, a fact just occurred to me, something I had read earlier in my report, but didn’t give much thought to until recently. “ Luna answered.

A look of pleasant surprise crossed Pinkie’s face as she responded to Luna’s revelation. “Ooooh, what is it, what is it?”

Luna smiled as her companions’ eager reaction. “Something that will put the odds into or favor. I’ll show you at the next chamber.”