Use the Robotic Virus on Spike 45%
“Are you sure you don’t need my help?” Fluttershy asked. Her voice was gentle and kind, as kind as Twilight ever remembered it. The others would have offered their own condolences, if they were awake to do it. But as it was, only she and her doctor would be witnesses at Spike’s vigil.
But not even that. Fluttershy had her work cut out for her just getting everypony Twilight had brought back from the surface hooked into life support proper. Her own job had been poor at best, and if left to their own devices, they would not have remained alive for much longer.
Twilight levitated the red biohazard container behind her every second, where Fluttershy couldn’t see. “I’m sure,” she said. “You worry about the living, d-doctor. I’ll prepare him for burial. And cremate the stowaway while I’m at it.”
She backed through the airlock rather than turning away, and risking even a second’s glance at the stolen sample container.
As soon as she was around the bend, Twilight took off galloping as quickly as she could, using her magic to keep up the illusion of gravity. No matter how powerful this technology, no matter how remote the chances of its success, she couldn’t let it wait any longer than necessary. Spike might be a dragon, but he was now a dead dragon.
This is such a bad idea, she thought, clambering into the elevator and smashing the button for central computer. This is the kind of thing horror stories are made of.
But at the same time, she found she didn’t care. The chance, even a remote chance, that this could work, was more important than any risk. It should bring Spike back to life once the dead neurons have been replaced. Bring. Him. Back.
It was like a chant in her head, a perverse funeral dirge that overwrote all other concerns.
Does Twilight move Spike out of central computer first? No.
Twilight hadn’t even moved him from where he’d fallen, for fear that even a slight perturbation would lower her chances of success.
Is Twilight prepared for failure? Critical yes.
She had done pushed Cozy’s corpse up into the air, where it wouldn’t accidentally be exposed to the virus. Spike’s sacrifice would not be undone, even if she did fail today.
Bring. Him. Back.
Twilight had done everything she could to prepare for a perspective failure, anything that wouldn’t slow her down too much. She had brought one of the energy rifles over from the Prospector, along with reloading the gun she thought Cozy had used.
Firing that one would be a true gamble, since even a hit might fly right through her target and puncture the hull. But unlike the movies, such a breach wouldn’t be instantly fatal. She could seal the breach if it came to that.
Twilight walked up to the emergency console near the corner of the room, shutting off atmospheric circulation to the room. Immediate amber lights began flashing, and a plastic box with a little oxygen bottle attached flipped out. She took it in her magic, pulling it on over her muzzle.
“Emergency atmospheric isolation protocol is in effect for mainframe level. Please evacuate the area immediately.” Starlight Glimmer’s voice said. “Please evacuate immediately.”
Twilight’s radio buzzed from her belt. “Captain, did something happen down there? I’m getting contamination warnings in medical.”
Twilight inhaled through the mask, feeling the stale, dry air on her tongue. Her throat ached with it, but it was a good pain. The pain of mistakes undone. “It was me,” she said. “Just a precaution.”
Fluttershy’s voice came back, low and sympathetic. “Captain, the dead aren’t… that dangerous. You can transport them a deck down for cremation without needing emergency air. The Equinox’s biofilters are fine for low-level contamination.”
Twilight ignored her. She stopped beside Spike, shutting his eyes with her magic. “I’m sorry about this, Spike. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
She opened the sample container. A hiss of compressed air emerged from the seal, then a little dusting of white powder. Twilight corralled all of it easily, pushing it towards Spike. She dusted his face with it, his chest, and the open wound that no longer bled.
He must’ve been dead over an hour by now. She saw the impact instantly as it struck his flesh—scales seemed immune, but the exposed parts of his eyes, mouth, and chest were not. Twilight backed away, capping the sample container and pressing the “reseal” button. There would be no accidental exposures today.
It was like watching ice spread across the surface of a chilled lake. Tendrils of strange fibers bridged across the wound, and down into his guts like a spear. They reached out, grabbing bits of metal debris out of the air and changing color to match the silvery aluminum. One tendril reached into a shattered console, and started soaking up the coper shades from within.
Twilight backed away; eyes wide as it seemed spears of the growing viral structure had been aimed at her. But no—that was just paranoia. Once the touched the deck-plating, they stopped, anchoring him in place and spinning a cocoon just as the virus had done several times before.
So the virus was… if not working, then it was certainly doing something.
“Captain, do you need me to come down there? If you can’t handle this… I’m sure the others will be fine for a few hours.”
“I’m sure,” she said through the mask. “Please, I need to do this. He’s my brother.” Bring. Him. Back.
“If you say so,” Fluttershy said. “When you’re, uh… when you’re done, I can provide counseling. Or medication, as required.”
“Yeah,” she said, turning off the radio. “But I won’t need it, because I’m getting him back.”
For now, Twilight would have to wait. She sat back, watching the cocoon for any sign of what might be happening inside. She would be here all night if she had to.
“I guess my vigil isn’t the way we intended,” Twilight said. “I hope you’ll forgive me one day.”
She had done pushed Cozy’s corpse up into the air – Typo
Here’s hoping this doesn’t go horribly, horribly wrong.
Why do I get the feeling that this is going to go horribly wrong?
Horribly wrong
Well then, we went for it. Time to face the music.
My literal reaction: “Oh Christ. Oh Christ.”
I hope his brain cells haven’t died yet, or they’re just gonna have an angry robot dragon rampage.
Unstoppable robot dragon brought back from the other side who could rip through Equinox’s hull like butter... cool cool cool, this was a good idea.
Hoooo boy.... this seems like a bad idea on every level.
Petcemetery anyone?
What is it with us and going for horrible ideas?
You know, doing this in the airlock might have been a better idea.
9611259 Yeah but Spike's been dead for over an hour. Even best case scenario, we're just getting back a copy.
I was kinda hoping for an inadvertent Robo-Cozy bit that critical yes for preparedness seems to have killed that idea. It should be interesting to see how this goes.
‘Sometimes, dead is better.’
Yeah, I don't see the dice gods being merciful on this one. At least Twilight crit-yessed her preparations. We'll just have to see if that's worth a damn against a robodragon.
Are we just voting for bad decisions intentionally now?
After that epic fail train from the previous chapter, I expect some good rolls coming up
In any other story, this would be a bad thing. But because it's dice deciding, it could literally go any way.
I think that's what's fascinated me about this story the most. Nobody, not even the author, knows where this is going.
Here's hoping for a good Cyborg Spike :)
9611259
Yes but Applebloom wasn't dead for an hour, so it was easier to justify that this was still somehow HER. It feels a biiiit more suspect now, especially since brain cells start dying without oxygen after about four minutes, so it's unlikely Spike would still be totally Spike. There's also the moral question of if it's right to 'resurrect' Spike to a potentially eternal life as a robot. Yeah I dunno, it's sad that he passed but this doesn't feel like the best call, as Twilight herself admits despite going ahead with it.
9611247
well... I had this idea and Star put it in the vote, I think
I doubt we're getting Spike back. Hopefully what we do get back is at least friendly.
I hope Twilight gets her little brother back. The dice were cruel, really cruel, in the last chapter. Maybe they'll be merciful now.
On it not being Spike himself, well... Applebloom is not affected by Twilight's Insight either.
Is this the first time the hidden option won the vote?
I hope this doesn't backfire terribly....I think we should have prioritized the living, but not enough people agreed with me on that. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Here we go!
Let's see how the dice betray us this time!
No matter how this goes, you guys who voted for this are dumbasses... watching with bated breath to see if this just ends up leading to a higher body-count.
I hope we get some bad rolls and Robozombie Spike mauls Twilight, tears ass through the hull, and causes some severe atmosphere loss. At this point, Twilight deserves it for being this stupid.
9611466 Twilight's only as stupid as the voters.
Not respecting the natural order of life and death never goes well.
9611494
Indeed, and the past 25 chapters or so have been a literal comedy of errors.
"Hey Fluttershy!" Twilight stumbled out of the mysterious structure in the middle of the zone, her mane frizzled and smoking. "I sat down in an electric chair and fried my own brain, but I'm still in charge of this mission, just so you know! Also, I hear voices!"
Meanwhile...
"Ah don't care if she's a robot now! She's mah sister and ah'm huggin' her! Ah, shit, my leg!"
Then, right after they got attacked by the smoke monster from Lost, the building at the center of the zone exploded in a shower of goddamn bats, I mean robot drones. But not to worry, we have a soul jar where everyone can conveniently hide from death!
Twilight got on the Prospector and went down to investigate, only to have the Equinox, which she just left, taken over by someone who was, for all intents and purposes, secured and shouldn't have been able to do anything. And then, Twilight's First Officer died trying to save the ship, and now, she's trying to revive him with an alien nanotech pathogen that would make Robotnik cream his pants, but which probably shouldn't be used on dead people unless you're trying for some SCP-level shenanigans.
i.imgur.com/vQUAIcC.jpg
We literally Prometheus now.
For the record, I voted to check if Cozy did anything else, so IF Spike comes back, and then the ship blows up because of something Cozy left, I reserve the right to say I told you so
A cliffhanger? Well buck.
I love how Twilight is all "Dark Magic is evil and we shouldn't dabble in necromancy" one minute but she does a complete 180 into "Lemmie bring back someone from the dead with tech we barely understand which I just stole from the ship's medic" in a matter of like, two chapters.
And yet she does it... just like in any horror story.
Hopefully "soaking up the coper shades" was the only thing it did; not inserting or extracting any code.
No need for cremation for Crazy Glue. . .
???
Could of used some Horse Radish .
He's half metallic
Just a little heavy metal and a little Crazy Glue "burp"
9611194
It might also go Horribly Right if this consoles you...
"perspective failure" looks like a typo for "prospective failure".
Should "copper shades" be "copper shards"?
9611444
"you guys who voted for this are dumbasses". Just wow. For the record: I too feel that using the virus is extremely dangerous, bordering on terminally reckless and that this probably was not the right choice (though I do consider it a valid-if-terrible choice from an in-character perspective that Twilight - struck by grief - would try **anything** to get Spike back)
But why do go from disagreeing with their choices to directly insulting people? What do you expect to archive by being disrespectful and incivil?
9611607
Sorry, I’m already in a pissy mood, and this did nothing at all to help it. It just felt like such an obviously stupid decision that “Dumbass” is the only way I can currently think to describe anyone and everyone who went with it.
9611520
The most important human right.
Ok Spike's been dead for an hour. That was a bit longer than I expected dispensing the virus to take.
Let's just hope it goes right. Not horribly right, just right.
Heh. You used my comment.
Bring. Him. Back.
I'm glad I could contribute in my small way to this awesome story :)
9611332
Well... he is a dragon... so he is something that does live multiple centuries naturally, that does go into sleep for decades... that is also HIGHLY resistant to radiation and damage in general... so it's not that unfeasible that he is still going...
9611634
It was a secret option. Twilight was listening.
NNNRGH. This is such a bad idea.
Hmmm it's good that it didn't attempt to enter the mainframe proper.
:l
Would this be where we find out that Fluttershy has an Alicorn Grade Tranq gun? One that looks like a light recoilless rifle?
The Darts have to deliver enough to get past an Alicorns Regeneration.
9606106
Literally everyone knew I was joking thanks
9611535
The writer has to take his cliffs where he can.