Try to win them over. 38%
The stakes were so incredibly high. But in the end, Twilight couldn't fight her nature. It was tempting to banish the problem completely, considering the absurdity of attacking the princess, the only Alicorn these ponies had left. The one whose crew had just saved them. But she resisted. She couldn't leave them in prison forever, when they were the ones who knew the Canterlot as it was better than any of her own ponies. That kind of expertise couldn't be easily replaced.
But Twilight wouldn't have any part of that herself, not anytime soon. Once she'd given the instruction, it was back into oblivion for her, and the darkness that hungered for the end of all ponies.
Eventually she satisfied Fluttershy that she wasn't about to keel over and die, and her crew was finally gathered. Still in her stupid medical room, but Twilight would have to take what she could get. At least Fluttershy wasn't keeping her asleep, and she wasn't seeing more strange visions from the personifications of forces bent on destroying all life.
Even Node and Apple Bloom had made a return, lurking near the back of the private hospital room. Easy to justify when an attempt had already been made on Twilight's life.
"It's stupid not to be harsh with them," Rainbow said, as soon as the meeting had begun. "They sabotaged our new..." she flicked a wing. "The big fabricator, whatever it is. Canterlot is already barely holding together as it is. How long before they do something that sends the rest of us to Tartarus? How long before we lose structure?"
"I'm not going to let them out," Twilight said, exasperation heavy in her voice. "Listen, everypony. I need to tell you what I saw. I wasn't just unconscious--the weapon they hit me with let me... see things. It was so incredibly clear, I know it was more than just a hallucination."
She told them. Even with the days or maybe weeks since she'd seen the little vision, she could remember everything in perfect detail. The empty state of Equestria, the offer she'd refused. She could still describe the flowers and the trash on the floor, if she had to.
Eventually she finished, and she settled back against the hospital bed, letting the weight of everything she'd said settle on the room. Even without mind-reading, she could sense the worry. At least some of her crew probably thought she was losing her mind. Maybe they were right to fear.
"I'm not sure what difference this all makes, dear," Rarity said. "Even assuming... for the sake of this discussion, that everything you just said truly happened in some abstract sense. What changes for Canterlot as a result? We still make the same repairs, the same plans. We still try to survive in the same way."
There was only one set of eyes that wasn't overflowing with incredulity. Node cleared her throat, moving forward with oversized steps. She was easily the tallest creature in the room, and would probably be bigger than everything but a minotaur. Not that Twilight had seen any of those aboard the Canterlot. "There are stories of offers like that. The first one came to a king who flew deep into dead space, protected by shields you can't imagine. Others have come to other great figures over the years, whose nature and species you wouldn't understand. It makes sense one would eventually come to you. I am... grateful that you refused it."
"Of anyone who could accept this story, you weren't the one I'd expect," Sunset muttered. "You're always so... materialistic, Node. I thought your culture was more advanced in every way."
"We were," she said, shrugging absently. "That's why I know. Apparently the force behind all this is afraid you might actually survive on your own. It doesn't like letting go of anything. It was trying to back you into a corner. If you had accepted... well, it's a good thing you didn't. I'm sure it could do terrible things with an agent of authority like you to control. You might very well have destroyed this ship, or... at least subjugated your entire civilization to a darkness worse than death."
There was a long, awkward silence. Twilight wasn't sure if the other members of her crew were convinced by Node's words. At least Fluttershy had stopped glancing at her drug cabinet, that had to be a good sign.
"So we're winning," Rainbow said. "That's great. That means whatever we're doing, we need to keep doing it."
"Repairs to life support are basically complete," Spike said. Twilight found his artificial body standing near the back of the room, but his face remained entirely unreadable. The nearly-furless aliens didn't express emotion along the same range. "I suggest turning towards the long-term."
"To do what?" Applejack asked. "This is all that's left. You've heard it, same as we all have. No more Equestria. No more star, even. The sleepin' folks on this here rock are the only ponies in the whole universe."
"I can think of at least one possibility," Node said. "We're already in orbit of the... Highway. So why not modify this capital ship of yours, and join the Flotilla? You'll be a primitive fish in a very large sea--but all species on that journey are fighting the same war. They'll welcome you, I know they will."
Applejack shoved her way forward, tapping an impatient plastic hoof on the hospital floor. "There's no need for us to fight. The ones who helped make Equestria knew this might happen. They left us the Contingency, remember? It's peaceful in there, Twi. And ask Node, she'll tell you. It's safe from... from the thing that wants everypony dead. Ain't that what yer people did?"
Node nodded. "They were cowards. But some part of me wishes I'd been a cowards too."
"Or we could stop running," Sunset finished. "This system already had an advanced civilization. Maybe we're not as far from a cure to this thing as every creature thinks. Maybe we should wake everypony up and start colonizing."
Twilight felt instantly like the decision was too big for her. But she was the only waking Alicorn left. Celestia would've trusted her to make the right choice.
1. Try to join the Flotilla.
2. Migrate everyone to the contingency, and conceal it to never be found.
3. Stay and fight the Hunger at any cost.
Doesn't exactly tell us how winning over the locals will go, but this is a much more important decision. Using the Contingency is basically waiting for something to go wrong with the hardware. It's not like that virtual reality's going to consume all the matter in the universe to propagate itself. The Flotilla could certainly work if they find it... and the Void can't track them. Who's to say it didn't make other offers aboard the Canterlot?
I'm in favor of casting magic missile at the darkness. If it fears them getting away, it knows they can do something. My take on the situation may he hopelessly optimistic—especially when we're at the mercy of the dice—but I like the idea of going out swinging.
(Granted, for all I know, their joining the Flotilla will provide data on magic to those who can best use it, leading to the miracle they've all hoped for. But countless generations of running don't exactly make for the most confrontational mindset.)
Friendship is magic. Let's go find us some new friends.
The Flotilla awaits.
Wow. Another tough decision.
I think the best option is to try to join the flotilla.
Staying in the contingency simply means waiting. Waiting for an hardware failure, death of the star or the end of forever, with no ther option ever available. It's an death end.
Trying to fight is probably pointless at this point. Stronger civilizations had tried and failed (and what they have barely counts as an civilization...).
By joining the flotilla they have a chance to stay alive, stay away from the hunger, and keep open the possibility to discover a way to beat the darkness in the future; especially if they manage to work with the others of the flotilla.
Good chapter!
Also, congratulation to 500 likes!
You have earned them!
Shoulda spaced the traitors. That will bite them later, to be sure. #TeamCozy
For this, I say we colonize and fight. Joining the floatilla means keeping our entire civilization on ice. That’s not living. Might as well put them in the Contingency if you’re going to do that, it would at least let them dream.
The only way you get to go out on your hooves as the beings you are is to dig in your heels and say ‘No Farther!’ You light lose, you might win.
It’s also narratively the lose interesting choice.
To me it looks like the contingency is basically an ‘end the story’ button. Of course whether it ends in tragedy or eternal happiness is up to RNGesus.
Fighting the hunger also seems like it’ll push the story into a final arc. They’ll either beat the hunger, in which case they live, or they’ll all die trying.
Ending the story isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I mean it does need to finish at some point.
Flotilla seems like it'd extend the story considerably, and you know what they say about friendship and magic.
It would be fascinating to see what the flotilla is actually like. And it might give them more time to figure out exactly WHY the Hunger is afraid of them. They could stand and fight, but without knowing what their weapons actually are, it's even more risky.
I really really wanted to say they should fight. Take the thing down. But....I think the Flotilla would be the best bet. For now.
That's not saying they can't go after the Hunger in the future. Hell, joining the Flotilla might mean we get more information and workarounds that could help us.
For right now, that seems like the best option. (Although I wonder how badly this is going to go over with the set of buttheads who almost KOed Twilight.)
Join the flotilla. Seems like the best options we have here.
I had a hard time choosing here until I heard the Equestrian trigger word. Friendship.
Everything is possible with friends according to the Equestrian mind. The more friends the better, therefore we simply must make more friends, our biology demands it.
Oh the Flotilla is the best option. Because if there gonna beat the problem there gonna need help.
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And time, too. Option B is a straight-up dead end, option C is pretty much suicidal considering that the darkness might be very, very big. I'd say option A would be the best because if their magic can indeed work against the darkness then it's best to try to join up with the flotilla which undoubtedly has loads of fresh minds that can figure out new approaches to making things work, not to mention take the pressure off the ponies so they can build up a small population at least.
The Rubicon lies before us ladies and gentlemen. What shall we decide?
I choose stand and fight.
It would be nice to join the flotilla. Getting aditional friends could be nice and advantages. But there are several things that make that sub-optimal.
One is that they only have the Equinox and the Canterlot. And the bigger ship is packed full of frozen colonists. With being on the move, that means they'll have little chance of expanding their own fleet to allow the other colonists the room to leave those pods.
o
Second is we have no way of knowing the condition of those in the Flotilla. The ships could be simply empty now and running on auto pilot. Or maybe the darkness got them anyway and uses the fleet as a way of capturing those who take flight. Though there is even the possibility that the Flotilla might have gone through something similar to what the Canterlot skeleton crew went through, but worst because of how much time has passed since then.
Thirdly we can't really rely on Nodes opinion on how welcome they will be. She was part of a stand alone group that tried to find a way to defeat the Hunger. And a lot of time has passed since then. With how Twilight and Pinkie are reacting to the Hunger and some of the mutinous crew of the Canterlot, the Flotilla might not take a chance of letting a possibly contaminated species close to them.
I say stay and work towards fighting the Hunger. At the very least, it might give them time to acquire new technology and make a bigger ship in case their forced to leave anyway. Right now fleeing doesn't give much hope to those who are frozen and might not even give the unfrozen safe harbor to work things out.
The Contingency, in my opinion, is a bad end waiting to happen especially with Applejack's obsession with it.
So no to that choice.
Fighting the hunger is also a no-go. Despite having the power to defeat monsters like the one locked-up in the Sanctuary, ponies still seems to be affected by the hungers power. Which might explain why the Signaler deemed them a failure like the rest of their creations.
Now trying to join Flotilla could be both good and bad. From what Node told us most if not all of the denizens are like Applebloom and Spike. No organics, since the hunger has a easier time finding them. So this could prove problem if they mange to find the Flotilla. One, the Flotilla might not let them be apart of them until they discard their old bodies. Or two, they do find the Flotilla and join them but as a result the Hunger will have a easier time finding the Flotilla in the long term.
Curious about something. So the two conditions for this story ending were the crew returning home successfully or all dying. The former is off the table now since there is no home for them to go back to. So we keep going until everyone dies?
The contingency is effectively the same end result as the offer. Hard no.
The other two options don't seem to match narrative, wouldn't joining the flotilla be fighting?
In any case, just because the hunger has passed this area doesn't mean it won't come again, and there's still no good answer to fight it. Joining the flotilla seems the most logical course.
Assuming that there is no some hidden trap, the most logical choise would be joining the flotilia, since it's not like we have anything better to do here. If we decide to take no step back, we can only hope for deus ex macina to help us. Of cource, considering source material, it's not unlikely, but i'm afraid that this fanfic isn't going to follow the show in that regard. Also, how are we going to leave this system? Last time they had to blow up the sun, wich killed Celestia. Is something simmilar going to happen if we chose this variant of events?
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Or until they find/make a replacement planetary system for themselves. Should be comparatively easy after defeating Hunger.
Also, it's been a while since an easy question for me: Join the Flotilla. Turtling up in the Contingency is no guarantee to me, and standing ground to fight makes no sense when everything important that's left is portable. We need all the allies we can get, and that's what the Flotilla IS!
That's how she knows that it was a real offer.
Hmn. I'm torn between what is probably the safest idea and the thematically appropriate idea. Safest, go to the flotilla. It's a vast collection of advanced civilization remnants that are successfully surviving out in deep space and there's room for more. But thematically...I want to fight. So, let's fight.
Joining the flotilla seems the best bet. It may not give them acess to material resources like staying put would, but it WOULD give them acess to new tech and how to use it without trial and error, plus a fight is always easier with greater numbers on your side. To go into the contengency is counter productive
if it was only our crew, I'd say stay and fight. if the canterlot was up to the challenge we might pull it off. but the Canterlot and her crew are in no shape to fight, so getting the last of pony civilisation to some semblance of safety and stability takes priority.
Contingency is out to me other than as a...well, contingency of last resort.
I want to vote for standing and fighting in an "it's better to die on your feet" kind of way. But I don't think it's the correct choice. Last Stands may be grand, heroic, and admirable...but they very rarely succeed at anything other than buying time. Time which is almost certainly not on their side against the Ȟ̶͇̰̫̂̕ụ̵̯͐̽͠n̵̲̳̚g̸͉̋̈́͌ě̷̥̦̕r̵̭͆̒̋.
And so that leaves joining the Flotilla and either living to spite the Ȟ̶͇̰̫̂̕ụ̵̯͐̽͠n̵̲̳̚g̸͉̋̈́͌ě̷̥̦̕r̵̭͆̒̋, or finding some other way with their greater resources and knowledge.
The Contingency is a dead end, it looks to me like a 'game over' button.
We do not have the means to fight on our own for very long either, apart from maybe a glorious last stand. That leaves joining the Flotilla as the best bet imo.
Stand and fight. The hunger fears the Equestrians, they just need a little more time to research it and figure out how to resist it...
I say join the flotilla. Friendship is Magic, we're stronger together than apart, the more the merrier, and all that jazz.
Ok, Node. I trust you. You haven't led us astray yet. Signal ahead to the Flotilla. Tell them to expect one more.
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They'll get more time and perspective if they can join the floatilla.
If they stand and fight at this point the only thing they have over Celestia and Equestria's retreating stand is the bearers of harmony and Twilight after using that Ascension machine.
For the first we don't even know if they have the elements on the Canterlot station and the author has outright said they refuse to use the idea of the bearers being able to summon the elements from nothing like they did I the first season so they either have them or they can't be used.
For the second an Alicorn having used that device is an unknowable difference to the creatures that created it having used it but I doubt it's a big enough boon to already give them a win.
On a side note the system they are currently in has been a giant mine field so far and given the giant mech worm, the Borg assimilation ring surrounding that planet, and the evil shadow monsters locked in containment chambers, I'd say trying to put down roots is an even deadlier prospect than risking the ship breaking apart trying to get into the hyperlane.
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They are some valid points, I just worry that starscribe will interpret the floatilla as "endgame: flee and survive"... Maybe not though.
The main advantage the equestrians have by staying in system: The precursors left some captured Hunger in the system. That Hunger could be researched to perfect anti-Hunger magic. Really, the question is how long until the hunger hits.
I have no idea. Joining the Flotilla and staying to fight both sound good. I'm only against using the Contingency.
A friend of mine's writing a SF story in which the survivors of humanity are in a space flotilla. It's not a pleasant situation at all; it starts with the news that a horribly overcrowded, juryrigged ship has finally run out of a critical air-filter part nobody can fix. So I don't see joining a space fleet that is fleeing as fast as it can being in good shape either! Building and maintaining things requires the resources of at least serious asteroid mining, preferably planets.
Serioy. Didn't we learn anything from cozy glow. Space the bad guys before they do more bad