Albert slowly awoke the following morning after getting dead drunk with Mikhail to 'celebrate his liberty and legal victory' rather than deal with the awkward conversation of explaining the differences between humans and ponies, males and females to Vinyl after the...revelation from Secret. He'd left Protoman in charge of the kids before they'd started drinking. Unfortunately, he felt he hadn't drunk enough, since he could still remember the previous night's unpleasant events.
Groaning, he pushed himself out of bed and went to the window, looking forward to staring out at the snowy landscape to relax himself. Unfortunately, he found himself witness to a different fluffy white landscape against the far too brightly blue sky. Reaching out, he discovered that yes, that was a cloud right outside his window. Cumulus, if he wasn't mistaken, but he never did make a study of clouds so he couldn't be sure. One thing was certain, though. It didn't belong outside his window when his bedroom was at ground level...or at least it was last he checked. "VINYL!" he roared out before clutching at his head, having forgotten briefly about hangovers.
Vinyl entered shortly, dressed in an adorable blue fuzzy bathrobe decorated with music notes and pink bunny slippers on each of her four hooves. She let out an adorable yawn as she lifted one forehoof out of her slipper to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "Yeah Dad?" she asked tiredly.
"Can you explain this?" Albert demanded with a groan, gesturing out the window.
Vinyl glanced over sleepily. "That's a window," she grumbled. "It opens to let in a fresh breeze, or closes to keep out rain and stuff-"
"Outside the window," Albert groaned.
Shaking her head, Vinyl placed her forehooves on the windowsill and glanced outside. "It's a cloud," Vinyl explained. "Altocumulus, to be exact."
"Why is there a cloud outside my window, I mean?" Albert growled out.
"Oh...why didn't you say so in the first place?" Vinyl settled back down on the floor, scratching at one ear with a hind leg for better leverage. "Cause our fortress is flying now. Ours and the Cossack's."
"...and if I ask why we're flying, am I going to get another frustrating half answer?" Albert asked morosely.
"Because Mutilus' castle was the prototype for this all along," Vinyl explained logically. "I like living here with the Cossack's as our neighbors, but if we stay in one place too long - even if we use different fortresses for any future world takeover attempts - Mega Man will eventually know where to look for us when he decides its time to arrest us again. When I explained this to Kalinka, she suggested making the location move instead of us. So I decided to make a self-sustaining flying island, complete with the cloaking field Snake Man was building for his planetoid, so we're completely invisible to any detection equipment, even the naked eye unless you're within the field. So now we've got our own independent country!"
Albert stared at her. "It's not much of a country if its just us and the Cossacks," he pointed out, deciding not to start questioning the science or logic of 'make a flying country' just yet.
"It is if robots are citizens," Vinyl countered readily. "I've already sent out invitations to various roboticists who are dissatisfied with the way the International Robotics Committee handles these things and are firmly in the camp of letting robots be equals with humans, along with several families who treat their robotic companions as family members instead of servants or appliances. Once they've cleared background checks and the like, we'll have several thousand human and robotic citizens."
"And what about an economy?" Wily demanded. "Agriculture? The other infrastructure?"
"Hydroponics Man."
"...what?"
"Kalinka built a Robot Master to handle all the food growing," Vinyl explained more clearly. "And she also built Weather Man to provide us with clean air up here, as well as harvesting airborne pollutants to be recycled into resources we'll sell to other countries at premium prices. And with all the robots being brought up here, we'll be able to start colonizing and mining the Moon before too much longer."
Wily shook his head. "And the high level of robotics tech in use means that the rest of it is all automated?"
"Yup!" Vinyl proclaimed proudly. "Impressive, isn't it?"
"Very," Albert agreed. "But don't you think you should have asked us first before setting something like this up?"
"We did!" Vinyl insisted. "You and Dr. Cossack said it was a great idea, and that we should install death lasers and nukes and a...Molecular Destabilizer Device for defensive weapons. Then you both laughed and chugged from your bottles again." She shrugged. "Death rays and nukes were easy enough, but I had to look up the MD Device, and that was only in science fiction. Sounds fascinating, though!" Her eyes shone at the idea.
Albert stared down at her. He couldn't really fault her logic. She apparently did ask for - and get - permission. And it was certainly an impressive accomplishment. He just wished he had a bit more warning about it when he was sober. "And you built all this last night?" he asked, amazed.
"Oh, no!" Vinyl countered. "I built it all before making the effort to break you out of prison! Last night I just asked for permission to switch it all on!"
Albert stared at her in disbelief, then shook his head ruefully. "At least I don't need coffee this morning anymore..." he grumbled. "At least tell me you've accounted for atmospheric differentials."
"Weather Man surrounded the whole place with an atmosphere bubble," Vinyl replied. "Once we have a full population, he'll gradually adjust it so everyone can adapt."
Wily nodded helplessly. "So...how long is this place going to stay afloat?" he asked worriedly.
"Unless someone damages the power core...about 1000 years or so without need for maintenance," Vinyl replied. "I call it the Sky Lagoon!"
What a tangled web she weaves.
The best of all is Vinyl and Willy became a copy of Dr. Doom. They have diplomatic inmunity and Mega Man can't put them in jail anymore
I get the reference. Nice.
Wow. Okay, so Vinyl has apparently built a flying fortress that is theoretically unassailable. Mostly because of the WMD deterrent and cloaking field. Granted, I don't see too many countries being at all happy about the fact that Sky Lagoon is cloaking capable, mobile, and WMD armed. It'd be like the Cuban Missile Crisis times 500.
Vinyl Scratch, Alicorn of Robotics, WMD's and WUB's
Wub the Vinyl.
Sky Lagooon...now why does that sound so familiar.
*Googles*
Oh~ Heh, wonder if she leaves some 'surprises' for the future.
SOMEONE!!! DRAW VINYL IN THAT ROBE WITH SLIPPERS!!!
6936519 Man, now I can't shake the feeling that that's going to happen, she's already technically a princess, all she needs is a matching set of wings.
6936571 true true!
Is MegaMan going to break down and invest in the moon?
Darn I was hoping for Cloudsdale.
But Smart Vinyl, a mobile base for future endeavors.
6936619 if anyone knew of what Vinyl's capable of, they'd invest in moon colonization too once they find out she has actually made a working flying country...
*begins investing in Moon Colonization*
don't hate the player, hate the game
6936703 But what happens if she finds out she broke Megaman?
... No we don't, it just draws a parallel between two related points in history with two interrelated characters. However, the relationship between these two characters hasn't been elaborated on yet, so in the point of view of the audience, it hasn't been confirmed how Octavia knows this. So far, all we know is that Light, Wily, and Vinyl had a hand in Octavia going into hypersleep for whatever reason they did (Don't spoil why), and that Octavia's been getting intel from an outside source, possibly from the character I thought was supposed to have only a bit part in this, but what do you know, it seems like she could be an essential character to the plot after all. Sure, there might be a HINT that she knows about a deeper extent of the Light-Wily-Vinyl conundrum as seen in Repairs, but this chapter doesn't make a direct confirmation unless you took that into considera-... Oh... whoops... nevermind, this IS a confirmation. My bad, Tatsurou knows what he's doing, nothing to see here, folks!
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6936722
The Author's Note was more of a joke to say yes, this is the same Sky Lagoon from the events of X4, and yes it's been around since now. You weren't supposed to take it seriously.
That explains everything~!
If Vinyl's making a gradually growing country in the sky made up of what Wily had sought for years, then what would be the point of global conquest?
Sky Lagoon!?
The flag should be Wily's face wearing Vinyl's shades, Bordered by Massive speaker things, kind of like the cover art.
Tatsypoo, if you find this post I just had the most evil possible thing that Vinyl could do to Megaman(aside from what she's done already):
Could totally pull off the Dr. Device with the resonant frequencies of a sufficiently powerful bass cannon.
6936503 True to a point but they have to find out about it first.
6936493 Dr. Doom regular combines Technology an Sorcerery so does Vinyl...
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw1986-ponyoverlords.jpg
if you dded some dragons you could call it Bahamut Lagoon.
HOLY SHIT that thing is deadly. Why would anyone even consider building one? The Little Doctor is no joke.
Huh... You know, this actually makes sense of that chapter. Assuming Vinyl goes back to before Octavia vanishes from Equestria. Or other way around, and Pinkie gets involved.
This may be the most effective plan yet at changing the world.
Nice.
6938169 I know that reference, and I agree with your sentiment, if not your phrasing.
"flying island"
Great now I want to see Sonic 1-4 crossed over with ponies.
Real One: When I try to go away from Metal Gear Solid, someone does does this.
Hells Fire: Real, not all stories which contain a independent country are related to MGS;PW or TPP, the author just did it.
6941446
Sky Sanctuary is what comes to mind for me, considering the scale of it and the robots.
6937826 It will once Tats makes the joke about Magma Dragoon being made there...
Enders Game reference?
Vinyl... Please do not arm the Dr. Device. It is not a Good Doctor.
The Robot Country idea is very old, it even waa in an Astroboy cartoon.
6936571 and the strength of the earth ponies, which everyone forgets. the alicorn is all three races combined, not just a pegacorn
7187449 Quite true.
7187449 not just strength. Earth Ponies are like the Captain America's of ponies. Superior strength speed, metabolism, stamina, durability, endurance, muscle density, bone density. Perfect physical specimens if properly trained. derpicdn.net/img/2012/11/27/164830/full.png
Someone's been reading Ender's Game
sky lagoon... the connections form to 2 different time periods... but how will their tales end...