Epilogue
EPILOGUE
FOUR YEARS LATER
It had been three months since the pod’s beacon began to flash, and the signal was bounced back. Something in space was receiving, and it was responding. Captain Leonard Maxwell recognized the response; it was crude, but he had deciphered the message into a single word: CRADLE. The name of one of the other ships.
This morning, the beacon had stopped transmitting. The system had shut down, and now the computer displayed a new message, this one far clearer: ARRIVAL. Celestia had summoned Twilight and her friends, and they had journeyed to Canterlot as quickly as possible. And now, the young princess found herself standing on one of the castle’s largest and highest balconies. At the end was a set of stairs that led over the edge of the balcony. It was meant for chariots to land, but now it would hopefully be used for a ship.
Captain Maxwell stood in the center of the greeting party, which consisted of Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, Twilight, and her friends. The wind rushing over the balcony, blowing the manes of the ponies and the uniform of the human. He was once again wearing the gray Legacy jacket, though it lacked any captain badges. The human appeared nervous; every few seconds he would run a hand through his thin hair, or flatten out the wrinkles in his jacket.
“Are we sure another ship arrived?” Starlight Glimmer whispered, leaning closer to Twilight. “It’s awfully quiet…”
“Let’s be patient,” Twilight replied, looking up toward the sky. Even though she was hopeful, her student did have a point. The second message had arrived hours ago, and still no ship had made itself visible.
And then they heard it. A loud rumbling, like that of an earthquake. Twilight squinted, and soon she saw the cause of the noise. The clouds split, and a massive ship descended beneath them. Its metal plates reflected the sun, and its blue engines glowed like stars. Twilight could not see clearly due to the brightness, but she could tell one thing: the ship was identical to Legacy.
The ship stopped descending after a few moments, and came to a hover. Twilight was barely able to see a small door opening on the side, and a moment later a smaller ship launched, headed straight for Canterlot. It arrived in seconds, moving at speeds that would make even Rainbow Dash jealous. And as it came to a hover next to the stairs, Twilight finally got a good view of the ship.
It was rectangular, and roughly five meters long. On the sides were two sets of engine pods that rumbled quietly as they kept the craft hovering. The glass of the cockpit was mostly polarized, but Twilight thought she could see movement from inside. Twilight’s attention was drawn away from the cockpit as she heard a hiss, and saw a puff of steam escape the ship as a seam formed in the side. A door popped out, and lowered itself into a ramp. And inside, Twilight got her first view of more living humans.
There were three, and they were joined by two machines, a sight which made Twilight uneasy. Two of the humans wore body armor, and each carried a firearm similar to the one Maxwell owned. They were aimed downward, however, and the humans holding them wore blank expressions. The human in the center was clearly the one in charge. He wore a gray suit with gold epaulettes on the shoulders, and he wore a matching cap on his head. On the front of the hat was a golden symbol, featuring a planet with olive branches on either side. He stepped out of the ship, and was joined by the two armored humans. Captain Maxwell approached the new human, trying to contain his smile.
“Captain Maxwell, I assume,” the new human greeted. “I am Daniel Bennett, Captain of the Cradle.” He saluted, and Maxwell mirrored his actions. When they dropped the salutes, Captain Bennett began to look around, examining the castle and the ponies.
“You’ve got quite the story to tell,” he said, smiling.
“Please, come inside, Captain,” Celestia said, stepping forward. She motioned to the door with her hoof, and smiled politely. “We will gladly explain everything.” Bennett nodded, and began walking for the door. His guards joined him, while the machines stayed with the ship. They disappeared inside the castle, followed closely by Celestia, Luna, and Maxwell.
“Wow,” Rainbow Dash said. Everypony nodded, finding the pegasus’s assessment of the situation to be accurate. Twilight grinned, and took a few steps forward.
“Let’s go,” she said. “Something tells me we are not going to want to miss it.” The ponies walked inside, closing the door behind them. The small transport remained by the balcony, hovering silently next to the stairs. In the city below, ponies looked up at Cradle, wondering why yet another giant alien spaceship had entered their atmosphere.
Inside the castle, ponies could only guess what was happening. News would spread like wildfire that more aliens had arrived, and that they were talking with the princesses. And soon, the princesses would release a statement outlining a new declaration of friendship between the ponies and the humans. This declaration would eventually be copied and resigned by all species on Equus, and the future of the planet would change forever.
And the ponies would never forget the cost of this friendship. The several dozen researchers who, four years ago, had embarked on that ambitious expedition that would go entirely wrong. The twenty-odd guards who were lost on Legacy and never found. And the thousands of lives that had been taken during Machina’s rampage through the west of Equestria, toward Canterlot.
But Machina was gone. The ponies had eliminated their threat, and the humans now lived safely among the stars, free from the threats of their old world. Both species knew peace and harmony; for the ponies, the two had been tenets of their society for millennia. For the humans, peace and harmony had been won in a hard-fought victory, and they were not keen on losing them anytime soon. Theirs would be a friendship founded on peace, and as long as each species upheld it, peace would last.
The future was bright, and filled with opportunity. The ponies with their magic, and the humans with their technology, would build a better future for everyone. A future free from fear, from sadness, and from pain. A future where the legacy of each and every person was secure…
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I have one thing to say.... You have pulled off an amazing story! I'm glad I followed to the end, and as such, I salute you.
And? Now what?! This isn't an end; it's a beginning. Sequel, please!
10/10 story, hardly any mistakes. its rare that ive come across a story with little to no mistakes.
Sequel maybe?
I'd also like to see more maybe in a possible sequel with help from the humans tech and the ponies magic Equis becomes a space faring race with Equestria becomes united Equis (where all the races are one government) and start to create FTL drive ships and creating colonies on various planets meeting new civilizations creating the united principalities of equestria but some......aren't very friendly
Still has the mane 6 and the same ponies from this fix but given the ponies if we count Granny Smith who's been around since ponyvilles founding in human years its been 50 yrs since legacy but 10 yrs physically for equestrian inhababitants
I'm sad we did not get to see machina's defeat his reaction as legacy lifted off to the sun
And a wonderful ending to a glorious fiction.
My hats off to you good sir
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/f5/FANMADE_Clap._Clap._Clap.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130921060433
very well done. Thank you for sharing the story with us.
This story really should have more attention.
Sad the story's over, it was a good story.
Good story, you earned my attention and I'll be waiting for your next big story.
7685928
It's ok though. It's not fiction without incorrect usage of computer security. The real thing is just IT yelling at everyone after the fact, and occasional warnings about opening emails.
wow, this was really good. 10/10 would read again.
Well done!
7685982 However, there's plenty to justify writing fiction with lack of proper computer security--considering the lack actually makes it more "realistic"
I've been on a reading binge as of late, and found this one to be particularly pleasing, wrapping up in an enjoyable resolution. Well done, author, a like and fave for you!
This was an AWESOME epic story!!!
I salute to keeper, may his sacrifice never be forgotten.
8017814
The thing is that it's quite realistic and is not so improper... Those systems are just built without enough safety in mind... Hastily. Also here we see an impossible edge case where remote intrusion is literally done by "magic".
People often mistake firewall for a program that allows "proper" messages to come through and "wrong" ones to be blocked. No, that’s not firewall, it's a packet filter. In modern systems it may be a part of kernel and network stack, but hardware, driver and part of kernel were already exposed to the intrusion.
Actually, every OS constantly performs filtering of packets, separating those that meant for user from those that meant for network stack, those that meant for this machine from stray or to-be-ignored ones.
Firewall is something that separates system completely, maybe restricting data flow to several predefined messages. It's not a normal mode of operation in most of cases where you need real time reaction. It's an emergency feature. More of, in essential systems firewall isn't even part of computer or it is part of hardware that interfaces with external media. It's part of communication hardware or comm hub. It's named after the literal firewall, or brandmauer, a fire-resistant door that able stop fire and air flow, but also prevents people from moving through.
Erecting firewall after intrusion allows compartmentalise damage and steam-roll it with emergency protocol inside each of isolated systems without fear of repeated intrusion.
Software devs follow Ferengi rule of acquisition number 239 and mislabel their product as firewalls while they are packet filters.
Good show, good show. Just the right size and everything. Good stories don't need 6+ digit word counts.
The reactor on this ship reminds me of a Mass Effect core for some reason.
So have a credits music.
This story was a good read, but there where a few issues I had trouble getting over as I read it. Mostly huge plot holes steming from inconsistencies in characters or in rules of the world.
My first issue was with teleporting, most teleporting is short distance and many hold the idea that long range teleports, even when performed by Alicorns, are incredibly taxing, let alone teleporting a whole lot of ponys with you. I found quite a few situations where a long range teleport could have solved a problem, but they decided not to use it. Then later on their teleporting a whole bunch nearly back to back. The only time it made sense that they couldn't teleport was when Twilight and Luna had there magic blocked. In the future I would suggest being more consistent throughout the story, or even explicitly stating why it can't be done or is a bad idea.
The gas shouldn't have effected Machina because he is a being made of magic, he doesn't have a need to breathe.
This point is a little mute though given that the specifics of how the chemicals work were never explained but it's still a bit frustrating. Although I will admit that reusing a new thing (the chemical) that was brought into the story early on was refreshing and certainly a pleasant surprise. I'm glad it was used more than once, I just wish it made more sense to me.
The ships design seemed to be nothing like how an actual human vessel would be made.
Why a bunch of small corridors leading everywhere? The point of corridors is to get where you need to go quickly, if people are going to be walking a route very often, that route is widened so more can walk it. Similar to how blood moves in the body. In this fic your ship was the equivalent to a body with no arteries and no veins, just capillaries. Not only would that be harder to build, but it makes no sense from a design perspective. The Ponies should have been able to find their way around by looking for a larger hallway until they found one that connected to a familiar hallway. Even if this layout was built, there would be signs everywhere, or at least designated navigation computers in the intersections. We make our stuff so even the dumbest idiot can figure it out, especially when the people on board are not trained to know their way around, which must be the case given that at the start of things, the people boarding are revealed to be civilians.
The ship could have dropped the body of machina in the sun instead of flying into it.
Any self respecting spaceship has a 'vent cargo' button on the wall, so why didn't this one? If backup keeper can control the flight of the ship, then he should be fully capable of opening a cargo door, and even if he wasn't, it would still be safe for someone to come aboard and push it for him. They would be capable of returning from the trip after all. Besides, who closed the door in the first place after Luna and Celestia dumped Machina there?
Keeper should have fought back after Machina was knocked out.
Keeper was fully capable of ejecting the core and using a backup core to re-seat himself as the controller of the ship, if he did that while machina was asleep, he could have pushed machina out completely, meaning that when he vented machina into the sun, there wouldn't even be a smidge of his power or influence remaining on board and it would be safe to use again. In addition, keepers mission would be much more likely to succeed if he took back control when the opportunity presented itself instead of destroying the ship, having him do that seemed to break from his character.
I was honestly hoping keeper would fly the ship back after revealing he just vented the cargo rather than destroying the ship. Then he didn't and that sucked. But then it was claimed that the mission was saved because you saved samples? Those samples are useless without someone to incubate the embryos or a machine that likely was on board the ship that could do it for you. If it weren't for the help from the cradle, the mission was hopeless. There was no mention of instructions on how to build things being amongst the archives saved, just that it had art in it. Even if it did have instructions on how to build an incubator wouldn't they have at least been partially through building even the precursors to such a device when the epilogue took place? As it was they wasted four years waiting for help with a near zero probability of getting that help, you'd think that the captain would have spent that time working with the ponys to replicate some of the technology using the help of the archives.
If the archives and the embryos where the last possible option, why weren't they on there own seperate super protected compartment that could be ejected in an emergency such as total ship failure? Why were the only samples in the exact area the ponys found first, you would think there would be more samples all over the ship with backup archives to match which could each be ejected in case of emergency.
I'm sorry if I tore into this fic too hard. This fic was genuinely good, but it could have been amazing and it's hard to fix the plot holes if you don't know where they are. I hope you keep making fics and that you take what you can learn here and use it to your advantage in your future fics.
Thanks for the good read!
So private swift died? Darn, was really hoping for some epic comeback where they find him