Twilight stared across the hospital bed at Starlight Glimmer, wincing at the obvious signs of cryosickness. Even Earth Ponies woken always looked a little worse for wear, but the effect seemed even more pronounced on Unicorns. Her mane was a faint fuzz, and where her coat no longer covered, her body was covered angry red patches. There was no winning against the necrosis, only holding it back. But Twilight was most interested in her eyes--even if her body looked perfect from the outside, there was no telling what condition her mind might be in.
When it came to the usefulness of a computer engineer and a unicorn, the mind was everything. I don’t know what I’m going to do if you’re a Popsicle, Starlight.
“Is something wrong Princess, or are you just going to keep staring at me like that?”
Twilight grinned weakly at her, settling back on her haunches. “Just like that? No terrified questions about how you’re awake or the state of the Canterlot, or…”
Starlight’s head twitched slightly, the best shake she could manage. “You’re standing in front of me, that’s says a lot. The Equinox wasn’t lost after all. Judging by the smell of stellar fungus in the air, I’m guessing you found her dialect for… well, it would have to be centuries now.”
Her voice was thin and raspy, probably a symptom of her transplanted lung. But she was still speaking.
I wish half my crew had come out as good as you did. But the caskets weren’t the same as the ones in the Equinox. Probably the design was newer. A few hundred years of innovation could go a long way. “I see your deduction skills are as good as ever.” And there isn’t nearly as much gray in your coat as I was expecting.
She could catch up about those questions later. “Do you feel well enough to talk? I’ve got a project I want you to think about while you’re recovering from the freezer.”
Starlight nodded, shifting in the hospital bed. “Whatever you want to say, princess. Can’t really go anywhere for… how long?”
“A week or two,” Fluttershy answered, emerging from the door behind Twilight in her jacket. She pushed a diagnostic tray in front of her with a hoof, expression even. “If your visitor is bothering you, just say so. Everypony deserves a chance to recover.”
“You’re still alive,” Starlight said, surprised. “After all these years. Wait… you’re younger than me. You were frozen for most of it, weren’t you?”
Fluttershy nodded. “The captain can fill you in on all the details, when you’re ready to hear them. For now, I’m going to take some measurements. Just tell me if this hurts…”
She was ready right then and wouldn’t let Twilight leave until she’d explained everything. Twilight could sense Fluttershy’s frustration with her, putting so much strain on the newly wakened pony.
It took hours, but eventually she was up to speed, and she was explaining what Starlight’s role would be. “I need your help installing a new central computer for the Canterlot. We have an… intelligent system, formerly my dragon Spike. He’s going to give the city a mind, instead of just some automatic responses.”
Starlight had seemed so alive when Twilight first entered, but now the weight of weariness seemed to crush her into the bed. She stared down at the paper-thin blanket covered most of her body, expression bleak.
“I hoped they wouldn’t wake me until we… until all the fires were put out, you know? Getting out here was hard enough. They weren’t supposed to wake me unless your ship or Sunset’s came home. This wasn’t… what I thought would be waiting for me.”
Twilight patted her shoulder gently. “They honored your wishes. We’re both home.”
Starlight chuckled. “I take it you’ve already thought about all the ways this Spike thing could go disastrously wrong. And you want me to go ahead with it anyway?”
“Yep. I’ll have a terminal moved here for you to get started with the technical details while you heal. The Signalers have these portable computers, thin enough to lift like a book… you’ll love them.”
“I’m sure.” Starlight gestured, waving her off. “Now if you don’t mind, I think I will get some sleep. I need some time to process… everything.”
Twilight let her rest, seeing herself out. Sharing her story had felt a little like reliving the whole adventure herself—from her hopeful awakening to discovering the stowaway, the death of her second, and everything in-between.
For the crew of the Canterlot, there was no time to rest. There was work to do, and a vanishing window of time to do it in.
Twilight was reduced to a supervisory role, watching from the palace as reports came in. The Canterlot was so badly damaged that she kept a list of which systems worked, rather than a manifest of damage.
There was no telling exactly how long the Hunger’s influence would take to reach them, or how fast they would have to be going along the highway in order to escape. When she asked Node, the robot only said they “weren’t going fast enough”
But even if she was correct in her assertion, they couldn’t possibly speed the process any further. They were essentially expanding the Canterlot’s total area by a fifth, adding a thaumically-entangled section for their new population. That meant every manufacturing facility on the station had to be brought up and running, and many more had to be constructed.
They cut corners where they could, melting down the oldest and least valuable ships docked with the Canterlot for scrap.
In the end, the new section took the shape of a sphere, held in place with massive tethers near the palace section and bridged to the Canterlot with umbilicals thicker than the Equinox.
Does the section finish on time? Yes. Does it work? Yes.
Twilight was there the day the Shiprats began moving in. Instead of hobbles packed into whatever corners of the ship didn’t have stasis cells, these Shiprats had their own quarters, with working services and communal areas and gigantic gardens ready for planting.
Even stern Flywheel wept as he clutched her hoof. “I can’t believe you did it, Princess. All this time we’ve lived in the shadow of the past. Now we have a place.”
“Just remember, I still need you,” she said. “We’re not sending you to an island. Your Shiprats still know Canterlot better than anypony. And the work has just begun.”
They’d be switching Spike back on in just a few hours. And after that, she’d have to make new orders for the next month or so of work.
1. Node suggests constructing the Canterlot’s sails. The highway won’t work without them, and they might need to leave at any time.
2. Applejack suggests concentrating on bulk mining. There’s no telling how long the Canterlot will be in transit, but once she is they’ll have to make do with whatever they have. If they’re started first, they can keep mining while the Canterlot moves on to other tasks.
3. Twilight’s instincts are to fully repair as much of the Canterlot as possible. They shouldn’t be looking anywhere else until their house is fully in order.
4. Rarity thinks that their focus should be on research. They need to know how much time they have.
PHEW..... thank goodness that worked. That's a big boost to morale.
I'm voting for the sails to stay on the side of caution. Getting supplies is important, but it's all for nothing if they have to leave in a hurry and... can't.
Of course, if they do have to leave in a hurry and don't have the supplies they need, that's a danger, too. But I think they could at least make it, especially now that they have a proper facility for life-essential things.
Success! Also a reminder that we don't have nearly as much time as some of us thought, myself included. With that in mind, getting the sails up and running is a major priority. If they can't leave when they need to, it doesn't matter how functional the station is or how many supplies they have in reserve. Research could help, but not if the answer to "When should we leave?" turns out to be "A month ago."
I voted Against rarity here. It does not matter if we know how much time we have. We still have the same amount of time and the same build priority.
As the wise man said:
Mining should be the first priority, followed by complete repairs to Canterlot, then the sails, and finally figuring out the eta on the hunger. My reasoning for this decision is based on a few pearls of wisdom.
"Better to have it and not need it" is something all space agencies have been practicing since the 60s, and ensures critical equipment can either be repaired or replaced with on hand materials. Just using what's on hand will not be enough to do everything, so we should get what resources we can as fast and as soon as possible. This extends to repairing the Canterlot, as ANY un-repaired damage under sudden acceleration could prove catastrophic.
Additionally, "Don't build your house on a sand foundation." Basically, don't do anything without a good foundation to base it on. If we build the sails first, will we end up attaching them to a part of the station that can't handel going from 0 to near lightspeed in a few seconds? Better to get the resources, repair and strengthen the station, then build the sails and research the hunger. If we don't , we're just setting ourselves up for a critical disaster.
First bulk mining, then the sails. We've spent so much time limping along without the materials, information or people that we need. The repairs and research can all happen in transit, and even new sails can be built on the way but the mining can only happen here and now. Skip this step and it will dog us with impossible repairs and complications for a long time to come.
10038790
Not without raw materials. How do you thnk the sail is going to be built? It may well use up a majority of the stockpile we have, and what then? There's a reason securing supply lines is often the top priority in ANY military campaign (and make no mistake, we are at war with the Hunger).
Good idea to deploy mining infrastructure then.
Dig ore, build a bunch of drones (hoping Spike thing goes well). Use them for quick repairs and even faster bulding later (sails, shields, weapons, detectors, etc)
In my experience in games and life in general, an escape plan is always the most important. Voting sails.
I am quite good at running away. And anyone that thinks me a coward is someone I'll probably outlive.
Think the word you were going for was derelict.
Our supplies are wearing thin if we're already scrounging ships which we could eventually repurpose for other tasks in the future.
Mining, followed by repairs and sail construction.
I would say research and mining. The experts that would do it are not necessarily or even likely to be the same people.
10038913
That's a fair point. I suppose it would make sense to get mining going then.
Research is tempting, but time spent researching is time not spent on our primary goal: getting the buck out of here. It's be horrible to finish all the research and find that there's only, for instance, a month left--or worse, to be interrupted by the very thing they're researching.
Going to have to vote for the sails or mining, whichever has a higher chance. Sorry to my man Sun Tzu. There's a time to flee and a time to study. This is not the latter.
Sails. Without a doubt, being able to run is the most important thing we can do.
These last two chapters have been my favorites so far. I'm glad to see things looking a tad better :)
I say build the sails. I get wanting to get raw materials, but I think being able to leave takes priority. Fully repairing the Canterlot would take WAY too much time, and what answers could we even get from Rarity's research? All they have is Node.
This is a rare case where I think that starting the resource gathering FIRST trumps the immediate escape potential.
We have to repair the sails anyway, no reason to NOT be mining while doing so.
Rarity makes a good point.
Some of the most important living quarters have been set up. Spike is almost online, and our Intrepid crew needs to stop grasping in the dark.
With a rough timeline, you can determine just how much of a Panic you need to be in.
Knowing is half the battle. And as I've learned from master Sun Tzu's "Art of War" you need to know both yourself and your opponent to have the opportunity for the best outcome. They already "know themselves", now they need to better "know thyne enemy". A small investment in letting rarity and starlight spy on the enemy and get more info will be worth more than anything else. And while they're doing that, it would be easy to follow nodes suggestion at the same time
It's too bad only one thing can be done at a time.
You've been on the beach for centuries, Starlight, wake up it's time to program.
Fantastic. That ended up being a good gamble.
1, the sails. Now that we have quarters for the shiprats we should move on to being able to leave at a moment's notice.
Mining looks like it's winning. To be honest that looks like the worst choice out of the four to me.
The sails are mandatory for escape no matter what.
Rarity's research could tell us if we're too late to make the sails or if we have time to repair more.
Twilight's instincts are good, the last thing we need when taking off on the highway is some overlooked part of the ship breaking under the stress of acceleration.
AJ's plan only has any use if they actually take off on the highway. If they're attacked too soon or ship breaks down while taking off they won't have time to use that stockpile. It doesn't matter how well you stocked up for the trip if the car's wheels are gone and the engine is ready to break down before you get out of the driveway.
Also I swear AJ in this story is either cursed to always offer bad decisions or she's an outright traitor. Suspecting Spike was a traitor, the spell that nearly fried Twilight's brain to catch Cozy Glow, the whole mess with Applebloom, having to be dragged out of the fantasy orb. 90% of her decisions end up bad while most of her background work ends up going well like getting critical repairs or project work.
10038828
Won't matter if you can survive the journey at a moment's notice if you still can't take off at a moment's notice.
With sails then repair
Sails complete > nothing shows > repairs complete> something shows > can escape
Sails complete > something shows > can escape at risk
With repair then sails
Repairs complete > nothing shows > sails complete > can escape
Repairs complete > something shows > can't escape
Sails -- every moment you can't get away is a moment they can catch up to you. We are already "behind" doing the 0G quarters for the shiprats. This will catch up to us if we keep diverting resources away from being able to leave. For all we know they are already there and watching right now, and the minute canterlot tries to get away an attack will come, stronger the longer we wait.
10039955
AJ could have been influenced EARLY in the story. What you have hinted at is possible.
I say build the sails then do the mining. I really wanted to pick research but with how low on resources they are its better to play it safe than take too many risk.
I would like to avoid another Spike if possible.
Also they can repair Cantorlot mid-flight like they did with the Equinox.
Truth is the first casualty of war, or in this case of survival. Option 4, research
If Starlight is still alive it couldn't have been more than a few decades, right?
I mean, Twilight and Starlight were about the same age. When they had met last time.
Or am I missing something?
If you have to do something like that you know you are in a tight spot...
Very good! The rolls are with us!
At least for now.
Far too often we have to decide what is the least bad decision.
This time all of them are good.
...
I would say research how much time we would have.
If we would only have time for one project we would build the sails.
If we have time for two projects we would first research and the build the sails.
If we have time more than two projects we can fit some of the others into the schedule.
OMG HOW R U PEOPLE JUSTIFY THIS. Without the sails up and running we will fucking lose. That's it! done! we. Can. Not. Win. Stop trying to engage. Please stop this makes no sense. We have already done mining we DONT have time please rechoode for sails or atleast research so we can be on the same page please god just rechoose sails. Please
10038900
What?????? What??? You do realise that actual Engineers are doing these jobs. Were not rolling for progress or quality were rolling JUST to find out what we work on first. Please rechoose the sails so that when we get attacked immediately after this project we dont fucking lose ok?
10038905
We went mining before we landed at canterlot and we have additional shuttle scrap we will be fine please prioritize the sails first.