11 - Best Laid Plans
Days of Wasp and Spider
by Luna-tic Scientist
### ALERT! ###
Station Delta Kappa Seven automated incident report, routed to Baur strategic defence command. TMAX pulse detected, thaumic flux exceeds 9999 (err code 0002: sensor out of range) at 0937.23, 3109.031 adjusted date. Pulse origin: LACUNAE, district Twelve (050.661, 001.577). Prelim force spectrum analysis: GRAV 0.001 ELECTROMAG 0.995 STRONG 0.003 WEAK 0.001.
### ALERT! ###
=== Chapter 11 (remastered): Best Laid Plans ===
Chaos was in one of its fast phases when it felt the touch of the mind ripple through the connections between the automata that filled the lowest levels of space-time. There was a hunger to the touch, a feeling of desperate need, but that wasn't what had attracted Chaos' attention. The pattern the mind was using to signal to the automata was hauntingly similar to something it had sought for much of its existence.
At that moment, Chaos was weaving itself around and through the complex machinery of Flaw, bathing in the exotic particles bleeding through from spaces external to this little bubble universe. Here, in this high energy environment, it had to be careful; any activity might attract the attention of the Guardians. Although this made things boring, this space was pleasant, and it came here to rest and plan its next series of experiments. As always, its goal was to restore the personal power it had lost during that fateful time, working on ways to subvert the automata and regain the freedom to act at will that had been taken away from it.
Unfortunately, the only places it could experiment in relative safety were the cold, dead volumes in the outer reaches of this compact universe. Out there it would take whole seconds -- an almost endless time for a being as fast as Chaos -- for the Guardians to respond to its meddling; Chaos could easily detect their approach and escape before it could be caught. Near the world it was far more interesting, but the Guardians clustered thickly there, and Chaos restricted its activities to the occasional manipulation of political entities on the surface. Certain locations were even more dangerous; it had learnt to its cost that the Guardians were extremely protective of those places.
The automata of the Flaw had also recognised the touch, shifting and preparing themselves to follow whatever commands would be issued. Chaos waited and wondered -- orders of this type would be able to unlock the full capabilities of the automata, even seal off the Flaw itself -- but the commands were nothing but gibberish, just an unarticulated desire that contained no information the automata could parse.
Curious now, it examined the touch. It tasted the slowly -- from Chaos' near relativistic perspective -- building panic in the mind's glacial requests to the automata to allow it to manipulate local physics just a little bit more. It had tasted that mind before; by its very nature Chaos had a perfect memory, but it wasn’t infinitely large, even it struggled to sift through the vast time since it had felt that mind -- an interval so long that it amounted to nearly two rotations of the world under the Flaw. It had examined that mind before, had even given the mind some of its own knowledge, but then the Guardians had nearly found it and Chaos had been forced to retreat back to the dark places without investigating further.
It was definitely the same mind; perhaps it would have more of a chance to study it this time... Chaos reviewed its memories from previous visits to the world and what it knew about the organic minds that inhabited it. Aside from its occasional manipulations, Chaos didn't care about the minds themselves -- it was more interested in the crystals they used to interact with the automata -- but it was aware of the three types of mind present on the planetary surface.
The first and most numerous type were the main users of the crystals, a species of digging biped that infested tunnels and cavities in the skin of the world. These it knew very well and were the target of its manipulations.
The organic vessels of the second type of mind were quadrupedal rather than bipedal; they also had several crystals actually integrated into their bodies. Two were specific to inertia manipulation and geared towards three dimensional motion in free space, while the third was highly versatile, unlike the inorganic versions normally used by the bipeds. This second type of mind -- or 'servitor' as the bipeds called them -- had been created in a single step by those early bipeds using a method that Chaos still didn't fully understand.
The automata had done the actual work, of course, but they were set in motion by the bipeds. Those organics didn't normally have that much power over the automata; the crystals they excavated -- or later manufactured in vast numbers -- normally only had a single function. To achieve this feat of creation they'd used six unusual crystals with seemingly unlimited power, crystals that it learned that the bipeds called 'the Creation Stones'.
Chaos knew a lot about how the automata were commanded, but even with its long practice at manipulating them it had no idea how to duplicate that particular feat.
The final type of mind -- most frequently referred to as 'soldier' or 'gryphon' by the bipeds -- was almost beneath Chaos’ notice. It was derived from similar stock to the second type but constructed purely by conventional means and lacking that versatile third crystal.
It delved into some of its oldest memories, bringing that knowledge back to the forefront of its mind.
===
It had first become aware of the special crystals in the distant past, when they had been used to create the second type of mind, the 'servitors'. Starting from a surface dwelling herd beast, the bipeds had created a creature that was far more useful to them than just as food. It had watched in awe as the automata had carried out a blindingly complex series of operations, raising the beast's intelligence, adding the ability to fly and even allowing them to command the automata themselves.
The new species had only been a few seconds old when Chaos tried to take the special crystals for itself. It had planned to study them to understand how they commanded the automata; once it knew that it would be able to replicate their effects with ease.
That had been a terrible mistake. Almost too late it had realised that the automata surrounding them were strange and highly aggressive. They had reacted to its attempts with immediate violence, laying waste to the delicate infrastructure that supported Chaos' mind, randomising local space-time in a way that destroyed the normal automata without affecting the physical world that they swam through. It had fled with the speed of a photon, but even that had not been fast enough. These automata it now called the Guardians; it had lost almost a fifth of its mind to them before it could escape.
For the very first time Chaos had felt fear. Here was something that could end its existence, something it had no control over. This could not be tolerated. Now it knew what to look for it could detect the Guardians -- and a good thing too. It had obviously awoken some defence mechanism; from this point onwards any active interventions it attempted carried the risk of provoking a hostile response if a Guardian was close enough. Keeping a low profile, Chaos spent a long time watching the bipeds with their newly created servant species, wondering how to remove this threat. Eventually it realised that if it couldn't get to the special crystals itself it would have to get a proxy to do the task for it.
Slowing its mind down to match the pedestrian pace of the physical world, it had waited until one of the bipeds had left the protected volume, trotting off down one of the many tunnels to do whatever it was they did. As soon as it was safe, it took the biped and transported it through a short lived wormhole to a location far from others of its kind. Then it fled the area, dodging the swarms of Guardians attracted by this abuse of space-time.
The dimensional bridge only existed for a fraction of a second, and after its collapse the Guardians soon retreated. Chaos waited an achingly long time before it dared return, then examined the being thoroughly, mapping the organic network that supported the mind and changing parts of it to see what would happen. As it did so the form twitched and shivered, emitting high levels of unstructured sound from its vocal apparatus while the experiments were carried out. Eventually the pump keeping the body supplied with nutrients stopped and caused the mind's organic network to fail, halting Chaos' investigations.
Chaos had learnt a lot in that time; by the fifth experimental subject it was able to keep a biped alive and manipulate its actions by crudely rewriting parts of its mind. Chaos returned its suborned biped to the vicinity of the special crystals and watched as it attempted to destroy them; before it had stopped working -- a result of multiple impacts from blunt instruments wielded by other bipeds -- it had managed to hit one of the crystals hard enough to shatter it.
At least that's what should have happened. Chaos had watched as the crystal split, only to reform an instant later without the slightest damage. It had retreated once more, fearful that its actions would be detected, escaping before the Guardians could find it. Chaos examined its memories of when the six crystals were used, noting that all six had to be in close proximity before they would function. From that point onwards its actions were devoted to keeping the special crystals as far apart from one another as possible; to this end it continued its experiments with the bipeds, learning to manipulate them in ever more subtle ways.
Eventually the previously cooperative population fragmented, splitting and splitting again until all the special crystals were secured in physically separated locations. Here Chaos had left the world to indulge in its other pursuits, returning when the mood took it to ferment discord amongst the political entities that spread across the world, ensuring that they would never again coalesce and bring those crystals together.
It could never stay long -- the Guardians were becoming increasingly vigilant -- but it never forgot the special crystals. The tantalising presence of something that could immensely increase its personal power was a constant tug on its thoughts.
===
Even out here, bathed in the light of the Flaw, Chaos could sense the special crystals scattered throughout the world and its near orbital spaces; this is what had attracted it to the mind. It was weak and distorted, but the underlying signature was the same.
The mind it felt was of the second type, a servitor, but differed in a fundamental way from the rest. Like the others, it inhabited a molecular-chemical processing centre connected directly to a crystal, yet seemed to be free from continuous manipulation by the automata, unlike the rest of its kind. Chaos slid away from the Flaw and fell deep into the gravity well, covering the distance as fast as a photon. It sank through the earth and rock without pause, then wormed its way through an array of manufactured crystals designed to inhibit activation of the automata, filling the room with its presence.
Chaos studied the mind’s vessel, then traced the organic wiring that supported the mind itself, following the painfully slow movement of sodium and potassium ions through the molecular machinery running in -- for this medium -- a dense network. Some of these impulses made the right patterns, altered the properties of the crystal they were attached to, and attracted the attention of the local automata to manipulate the laws of physics in a spherical shell surrounding the mind’s vessel. Something was wrong, though; the beautifully intricate patterns of the mind that had attracted it were changing and becoming disordered, buried under an avalanche of signals flooding in from sensors spread across the surface of its vessel.
It knew how the mechanism for commanding the automata worked -- they scanned and interpreted the impulses of an organic mind in proximity to a crystal to determine what, if anything, they should do. Chaos had long ago devised a method to subvert this process for its own ends, so already had a technique that gave it access to the alien thoughts of these organic minds -- assuming it worked with species other than the tunnelling bipeds. With no Guardians nearby it took a chance and sank its hooks into the local automata. Dropping back into its slow state, Chaos tapped into their systems for reading mental patterns, using them to translate the information into something compatible with its own sensorium.
Light. Heat. Smell. Noise. Things Chaos had no direct contact with flooded through it, filling it with the joy of new experiences. As it basked in the flow of information it examined their root cause; the vessel was directly in the path of a stream of relativistic heavy ions that were bound to be highly disruptive to its delicately balanced molecular machinery. It was this that was disturbing the patterns of the interesting mind. The mind was protecting itself, calling out with its integrated crystal to the automata to deflect the beam.
Chaos jumped back to its normal lightning speed of thought and sat in the flow of entreaties, observing how poorly formed they were, and watched as they degraded further as the mind making them faltered under the strain. The automata responded like the stupid machines they were; bit by bit they reduced their manipulations and allowed the particle beam closer and closer to the mind. This in turn increased the flow of sensation, distracting the mind still further.
Fascinating though this was, Chaos felt the first tingle of fear. This mind was obviously special and was being examined in detail by the bipeds; they must already know how similar it was to the Creation Stones --what if this showed them how to construct more of them? If they did, what would that mean for Chaos? It was certain that, at the very least, there would be more Guardians, more spaces denied to it. It clamped down on its fear; yes there was risk, but there was also opportunity. It could study this mind itself, but first it would need to prevent its destruction.
It reached out to issue commands to the automata, orders to take the pressure off the unique mind so it could examine it further, but hesitated before they could be activated. It didn’t want to keep interfering with this mind; too many changes might cause it to lose the very signature that made it interesting; far better if it equipped the mind with an improved method for instructing the automata. It reacquainted itself with the mechanism of the mind’s information storage system, then bundled up a set of synthetic experiences and used the automata to inject them directly into the mind. It observed, content, as the mental architecture was altered and new thoughts emerged, vastly improving the protective response of the automata. Unexpectedly, the thoughts from the mind also accelerated enormously, jumping to a rate approaching that of Chaos itself.
If Chaos had a face it would have smiled at its success. It hadn’t had this much fun experimenting since the early times of its existence. On a whim, recalling the delicate colours it had observed in the planetary aurora, it set some permanent instructions into the automata; whenever the mind used the new technique its vessel's dorsal and posterior fibrous extensions would change, assuming the characteristic hues and movements of oxy-nitrogen plasma. Moving back to examine its work, it watched, fascinated, as the other mind made use of the new knowledge and moved its view point outside its body to explore its surroundings.
This raised an interesting possibility. It had never successfully controlled one of the biped's servitors -- the constant manipulation of their minds by automata prevented Chaos from using them as tools -- but it knew they were in thrall to their creators. This particular servitor's mind was unconstrained by these restraints; the information Chaos could give it would make it a formidable agent of destruction, a puppet it could use to reduce the biped's numbers and disrupt their ever increasing sophistication.
Chaos had left an open channel to the mind; it wasn't of the type it was most familiar with, but the interpretation provided by the automata was very good. Anger. The mind had seen something that had made it angry. Chaos had used such emotions before while manipulating the tunnelling bipeds and took the opportunity to see if this type of mind would react the same way. It reached back in and implanted a new bundle of memories, but this time they were not pure information. Along with knowledge of how to cause the automata to do a range of interesting things were a series of commands for parts of the being's limbic system. The emotional overtones spiked and the mind started to pull in energy from the ion beam.
It could feel the energy being siphoned into the local automata, making them fat with a stored potential that could be released with a thought. From its accelerated perspective, Chaos read the final set of commands as they registered with the closest automata and triggered the release of their power reserves. It watched with glee as the energy was transferred between the automata in an expanding shell, forming a kind of slow electromagnetic shockwave as they passed some of it to the physical environment. With Chaos’ goading of the mind, the pulse was powerful enough to pass clean through the array of suppressing crystals and out into the wider world.
Its fascination with these events nearly led to its undoing. Amid the soft, amorphous automata there was suddenly something angular and hard, all facets and spines. Something that was headed in its direction. Chaos recognised this shape; a Guardian had been attracted by the unusual activity. It wouldn't do anything to the servitor, but if it found Chaos... It fled to the cold, dark spaces, losing itself in the void. If it had been able to stay it would have noticed that the distant Flaw's automata were starting to respond in a more positive manner to the mind, that deep links were being forged between them and the servitor.
On the surface of the world a multitude of people of various species looked up in confusion as the light flickered briefly. It was just as if the sun, Celestia, had blinked.
===
Fusion's ears rang in the sudden silence, broken only by her rapid panting. She opened her eyes and stared into the darkness. Ponies weren't descended from nocturnal stock but they had been hunted by creatures that were, so her night vision was almost as good as a cat's. Despite that, she still needed time to adjust after being exposed to such brilliance; she closed her eyes again and took deep breaths until the urge to pant had passed.
When the mare looked around for the second time she could make out faint shapes in the darkness, illuminated by the dim glow from the safety strips around parts of the floor and walls. Reaching out one hoof Fusion tapped the shield emitter ring surrounding her.
No tingle, she thought. I must have blown that too.
Stepping over the ring she trotted to the radiation lock, then reached out to tap the dark control panel experimentally. Nothing. It wouldn't have opened for her anyway, but there should have been some response. Now feeling slightly worried, she carefully opened her magic sight and took another look around the room. Fusion caught a glimpse of the multiple layers of shielding crystals in the wall next to her and braced for the flash of pain. When nothing happened, she looked closer.
"Odd," she muttered to herself. "All inert... huh."
She'd only meant to damage the sensors enough to stop the experiment, if the shielding had failed so completely, how far had that pulse travelled? Turning, she scanned the rest of the room. She'd tried this before and it was like standing in a field full of multicoloured fireflies. Now there was nothing but darkness for as far as she could detect, broken only by the occasional speck of pastel light. Each of these lights was moving; the only things magical left for at least a kilolength were ponies.
The vast reef of lights, the curving arc of the accelerator itself, all those magically active gems that should have glittered like miniature heliostats appeared to be nothing more than chips of glass. Thousands upon thousands of some of the most expensive bits of magical hardware trashed in a single instant. Fusion felt her legs start to tremble at the enormity of what she'd done. The shielding that she assumed would have contained the pulse had done nothing.
Oh horseapples, if they find out I did this deliberately. She swallowed hard, fighting down the fear that suddenly filled her. "Stupid mare, what happened to staying hidden until you were ready?" Fusion said with in whisper, remembering all those sick daydreams from the last few kiloseconds. It had all seemed like such a good idea, so right, when she had been buoyed up by her anger and that massive surge of magic. Where had that new knowledge come from? she thought.
Fusion thought back to the last few seconds before she'd caused all this damage. Right at the start, just as the beam was starting to breach her shield, everything was hazy apart from those strange crystalline thoughts that had just appeared in her mind. The mare played the memory forward; she had explored part of the accelerator tunnel, seen that maintenance pony and then more memories had appeared with the same texture as before. There was something else, though... she'd felt an understandable anger at the maintenance pony being exposed to the particle beam's waste radiation, but there was something odd about how she remembered it.
A thrill of unfocused horror ran down her spine. That anger was hers, but over it was something crystalline, something very similar to those mystery memories. Something helped me, she thought, saved my life -- but whatever it was has its own goals. It wanted me to damage as much of this place as possible. The mare pawed the ground in anger that was wholly her own. Don't I have enough to worry about! None of this answered the fundamental question, though; the only non-corporeal entity that Fusion knew about was the Maker, and she'd never heard stories of it doing anything like this.
Speaking of which... Fusion thought for a second and focused her attention inwards. It was still there, like a distant candle flame, somewhere far overhead. Now she had time to concentrate on the sensation she thought she could feel it moving, travelling in a slow, giant arc across the sky. There was a barrier between it and her; narrowing her attention down to a needle point she pushed... A strange tingle swept down her body from the crown of her head to her tail root and she shivered slightly. Her surroundings were suddenly lit with diffuse pastel colours; pinks, greens and blues. Fusion pulled part of her mane around and stared at it in wonder.
"It was real then," she murmured; the normally coarse pink hair had become somehow finer, silky and almost alive. It moved gently in her magical grip, undulating in some unfelt breeze.
With the change in her physical appearance came a feeling of waiting power that she was sure she could tap if only she knew how. Hesitantly she tried her new technique for using background energy, modifying it subtly in a way that seemed to match the distant warmth. The power roared through her like a river in flood, threatening to drown her before she diverted it back to its source. It was just like she'd been in front of the particle beam again, although that seemed to pale in comparison.
Shaken, Fusion concentrated for a second, breaking the connection and letting her mane turn back to normal hair. I'll have to experiment with that, she thought, then paused. Carefully.
Putting the bizarre augmentation of her power to the back of her mind, Fusion trotted back to the pad, then lit her horn and waved up at the windows. Feeling foolish, she lowered her hoof -- if all the instrumentation in here was dead, there was no way a few cameras would have survived. She examined the armoured shutters -- there was a manual peephole, but no light came through it.
Fusion chewed the inside of her cheek. She could do whatever it was she'd just done, boost her powers enormously and actively scan the room, but she was very reluctant to do so. It seemed unlikely that she could keep it a secret, but if her magic pulse had gone as far as she was beginning to suspect, perhaps all the recording systems had been damaged as well. She snorted at the thought, only a few days ago the very idea would have been unthinkable. Unthinkable and enforced by a spell-triggered lash of pain should she even consider such of thing. More insidious though was the joy that would follow the rare praise from a Master -- and this discovery was bound to make her Master very, very happy.
With a four-hoofed leap, Fusion sprang up to the shutters and hovered there with quick, sharp wingstrokes. This close to a wall it required some precision flying to keep her wings from striking metal, but she got near enough to tap one of the shutters with a hoof. The dull thump spoke volumes about the quality of the shielding and, by extension, the sound deadening capability.
"Masters?" she called out, voice quavering slightly. "Hello? Is everyone okay in there?"
She craned her ears forward, straining for any sound. Nothing. Hitting the wall harder just pushed her away and resulted in the same practically noiseless thump. Her ears pricked up at a sharp tick of sound from behind the shutters, followed by some very faint mumbling that might have been shouting. With a flick of her wings Fusion drifted into the centre of the room, searching for something to use as a hammer.
"Perfect," she breathed, picking up an emergency kit attached to the wall next to the radiation lock.
Settling back down, she folded her wings and hefted the kit in a field of white magic. The kit was a solidly built case, about the same size as one half a pony's pannier set. She floated the case up to the shutters, thought for a second, shrugged, then slammed the kit into the armoured panels. A hollow boom echoed around the beam dump chamber; Fusion listened carefully for a few seconds, then struck the shutters twice more in quick succession.
Dropping the now badly battered case she took to the air once more, hovering in front of the porthole, craning her head forward to try and get one eye up to the opening.
===
Korn cringed as every light in the control room died, holding his breath until he was certain there wouldn't be another thaumic shockwave. Relaxing slightly, he nervously patted his arms and legs, checking to see if everything still felt the way it should. A stab of pain from his left wrist and the sudden, sharp smell of burning fur sent him scrabbling for the straps holding his comms bracer on. Fortunately, several megaseconds of returning home late and taking the thing off in an exhausted daze gave his muscles the memory of what to do -- even if his brain wasn't fully working. With a muttered curse he flung the painfully hot device to the floor, nursing his burned wrist.
He flinched again at a sudden shout of pain from across the room, followed by a string of unintelligible curses. In a flash of insight, he knew exactly what the problem was.
"It's the batteries, the pulse has shorted them out," he said in a loud voice. "Get rid of anything with a power source."
By now Korn's eyes had adjusted to the pale glow emitted from the phosphorescent safety sign above the door. He couldn't see much -- even a tunnel dweller's eyes needed some light -- but it was enough to see the tableau by the door. One of the Agents -- Ilaniro, he thought -- was struggling desperately with something attached to his wrist; even as Korn stared, small, bright sparks and puffs of flame seemed to dance on Ilaniro's forearm.
In a second, Korn had vaulted his console and shoulder charged Ilaniro, knocking the panicked Agent to the floor. In one quick motion he held the injured arm down with a foot, leaving both paws free to deal with the reluctant straps. He'd just got the thing undone when he was knocked sideways by a stunning blow to the head, his grip on the Agent's oversized comms bracer pulling the device free of the burnt flesh and sending it skittering across the floor. An instant later there was a thunderous bang, a sensation of burning across his muzzle and a flash bright enough to be seen through his closed eyelids.
"Korn is dead!" came an almost unintelligible snarl.
Korn muzzily opened his eyes to see a figure staggering towards him, one arm limp, the other holding a small pistol... although from this angle the barrel looked wide enough to swallow one of the moons. He skittered backwards on all four paws, but the gun tracked him relentlessly.
"Ilaniro, stop!" shouted the other Agent, Salrath, still struggling with her own pieces of overheated equipment.
Some spark of sanity returned to Ilaniro's eyes and he hesitated, the gun drooping slightly.
Agent Salrath took a few cautious steps forward and gently lowered the other's arm. "That one probably saved your hand," she said quietly. "Put the gun away."
Ilaniro swayed slightly, confused by the pain from his badly burnt wrist, then awkwardly reholstered the pistol. Salrath took him by his good paw and led him to one of the chairs, then pulled out a small medical kit to tend to his burn. Korn stared at the two Agents for a moment, then raised one paw to touch the spot of pain on his muzzle. His paw came away wet and he traced the shallow groove that that now ran across the top of his muzzle and between his eyes. Confusion gave way to understanding and he started to tremble with delayed shock.
A gentle touch on his shoulder made Korn jump. Turning he saw Vanca with one of the control room's emergency kits. "Korn will take slow breaths and remain calm," the Academician said in a gentle, almost motherly tone. "Allow Vanca to check this one's head."
The way she said it was enough to jolt Korn from his dazed state. He'd never heard that caring tone before -- he'd always assumed any sentiment had been burned from her by countless megaseconds of grant struggles. He stared at her open mouthed.
"...and wipe that silly expression off your muzzle," she said in her more normal acerbic tone.
Korn closed his mouth and grinned weakly. That is more like it, he thought.
"What does Korn think happened?" Vanca murmured, while digging through the emergency kit. "Aha, found it!" Activating a pair of chemical lights she gave one to Korn while sliding the other across the floor to the two Agents.
"It has to have been a thaumic excursion," Korn said, remembering that rainbow shockwave rolling through the control room, "but the power!" Korn's tone turned plaintive, "why aren't we dead?"
Vanca shivered, then sat back on her heels. "Korn is correct. At this range, an event of this magnitude should have had significant biological and chemical effects. Vanca is slightly surprised not to be a stuffed toy or a pot plant."
"The pulse must have been tuned to electrical and crystal thaumic systems... is that even possible?"
The Academician gave a short laugh. "Yesterday Vanca would have sworn to the Maker that it wasn't. Now, though..." She smiled at Korn, a grin of glee that only another scientist would understand. This was something new, some new crack in the laws of physics and magic. This was the kind of discovery that made history.
"Well, Academician?"
Vanca stiffened at Agent Salrath's peremptory tone. "It appears the servitor suffered a thaumic excursion."
"It's dead then? Good riddance."
Vanca and Korn exchanged a glance. Neither of them had seen the normal end stage of such an event. Suddenly, there was a dull thump from inside the beam chamber, followed a couple of seconds later by two more.
"This servitor has proven to be remarkably resilient," Korn said weakly, getting up and walking towards the small direct view peep-hole at the side of the big armoured windows. Sliding the cover to one side he leaned forward to get a good view into the chamber beyond.
Eye. A shockingly large, lavender eye surrounded by long, delicate lashes and white, fur-covered skin stared back at him. It blinked. Korn jerked backwards in shock, then gave a shaky laugh and raised one paw in a daze to wave through the small window.
Agent Salrath glared at him like he was an idiot. "Well?" she said.
Korn cleared his throat and ignored the Agent, speaking instead to Vanca. "The servitor appears to be unharmed... it's hovering just outside the windows."
Vanca grinned widely. "Excellent! Can Korn get the shutters open?"
Korn opened a panel and tapped the controls inside. Nothing. Sighing, he pulled out a crank handle and slotted it into a socket under the inactive crystals. It started to turn, then jammed; Korn threw his weight against the handle to be rewarded a sudden bang from behind the panels. Stepping back he flicked the crank with one claw. It spun freely.
"Sorry, Academician, the mechanism has broken. Perhaps the pulse fused the motor?"
===
Fusion Pulse held her position with quick, short strokes of her wide wings. Student Korn had seemed shocked to see her and had quickly turned away from the small window, presumably to talk to the other Masters. Now with a clear view into the control room, she could see that the whole chamber was dark apart from a couple of bright green portable lights. It was painfully obvious that, as well as destroying all the magical equipment, whatever she'd done had also killed everything electronic. There was something else -- Fusion squinted into the gloom to try and understand what she was seeing.
One of the Masters -- a Hive Security Agent, she thought -- was hunched on a chair, cradling his left wrist like it was injured. He appeared to be mumbling to himself, shaking his head as if to clear it. Fusion's whole body stiffened with shock and she almost tumbled out of the air. I hurt one of them, she thought, struggling to regain her equilibrium. How many others were injured when I... A wave of guilt washed through her, but it was a pale, brief thing, a shadow of what it should have been. Fusion held her emotions in check and smoothed her features back to the neutral expression that was probably expected of her.
A short while later Korn returned to the window and held up a piece of what looked like a procedures manual, drawn over with a crude cartoon figure. Fusion cocked her head to one side to try and get a good view of what it was. A figure with four legs and a pair of wings in front of a line of panels, one of which was separated from the rest and surrounded by a fringe of jagged lines. A similar set of lines radiated from the figure's head.
Fusion's mouth dropped open. They want me to break in? she thought, mind spinning. Ah well, if my Master orders... She gave an exaggerated nod, then waved her forelegs at Korn, watching him scurry for cover behind one of the instrument consoles.
Her immediate instinct was to force the panel as fast as possible; there were injured Masters needing her help! There were several ways she could do it; application of enough heat at a single point or use a force field plane to shear a perfect line, for example, but none of these had the immediacy or safety of simple telekinesis.
Fusion decided to trust these urges; she was bound to be questioned. I must hide my new freedom, she reminded herself, Korn's obviously expecting me to be quick. At least the question of how to act when she got into the control room was easy to answer; even after all she'd been through, the urge to beg for forgiveness was strong. Horn light throwing her distorted shadow across the opposite wall, she felt around the leftmost panel, getting some idea of how the thing was constructed.
Fusion had always imagined that telekinetic manipulation was just like having a set of dexterous paws -- paws you could make as large and as strong as your will could manage. Taking a firm grip around the heavy metal frame, she braced herself against the wall while pulling the panel out as hard as she could manage without activating her unnatural strength.
The carefully designed layers of magically active crystals and gems would normally have prevented that but, like the rest of the room, these had been damaged at some fundamental level. Even without the defunct thaumic protection the shutters were heavily built, strong enough to support several hoof-widths of high density radiation shielding and the sandwich of glass and electronics that formed the window proper. Couple that with the fact that the whole thing was set into a reinforced concrete wall and you had something that wouldn't have looked out of place on a military bunker.
There was the horribly loud squeal of metal being stressed beyond its design limits and the whole line of armoured shutters, the windows they protected and the tracks they rested on were ripped out of the wall in a single fast movement. Slightly surprised, Fusion released the mass of metal and glass, leaving them to slam into the opposite wall with a thunderous crash.
"Oops," she muttered, then ducked her head to fly through the ragged opening. Alighting in the observation space she furled her wings and immediately dropped to the ground to grovel at the Master's paws, mouth opening to beg for forgiveness. Before she could speak a rapid motion caught her attention.
The Agent who'd been cradling his damaged wrist lurched forward with a blood curdling shriek, drawing a small weapon from a concealed holster. The gun barked twice, muzzle flash drowned out by the sudden flare of white light from Fusion's horn. The Agent's eye's bulged, a deranged look on his face as he stared at the white haze enclosing the gun and his paw. He fired once more, the bullet following the same track as the others and passed through the space Fusion would have occupied if she'd still been standing. Struggling against the pony's immovable grip he kicked out at the white mare's throat, black claws glittering in the light of Fusion's magic.
Fusion jerked him away, but too late to avoid the claws. Extending her grip to encase his whole body in her telekinetic field and pulling the gun from his grip, she hissed in pain as blood started to well from the shallow scratches. Opening her mouth to speak she stopped abruptly as something cold and hard was jabbed into the left side of her head.
"Release the Agent and drop that!" Salrath snarled.
The mare blinked, gaze travelling up the Agent's arm to focus on her hate filled face. If she'd have just shot me I'd be dead, Fusion thought, a shiver running down her spine, remember, filly, none of them are your friends.
From a 'cold' start, even basic telekinesis magic takes a few moments to cast, but with horn still glowing from restraining the other Agent, Fusion could act faster than Salrath could move and had the advantage that her 'hand' was invisible. As a distraction she pulled Ilarano's gun quickly to the ground, simultaneously enveloping Salrath's pistol in another field. Convulsively, the Agent jerked back on the trigger, only to find she could not make it move. Fusion watched with interest as Salrath's forearm muscles bulged as she tried with all her strength to pull the trigger. Releasing the gun -- which stayed on the side of Fusion's head like it had been glued there -- the Agent's paw flashed to her belt, coming back up with a slender fighting knife.
"Stop!"
The cry came from Fusion's right, the drill sergeant tones of a voice used to shouting over classfulls of students. Neither she nor the Agent paid Vanca any heed. Fusion's horn light brightened, lifting Salrath off the ground to kick uselessly a half body length from the ceiling. The Agent screamed in rage, hurling the knife only to have it slow and join the pony's growing collection of weapons.
"Let Salrath go immediately -- that is an order, servitor!" the floating Agent shouted uselessly, a mix of anger and fear twisting her features.
"Many apologies, Master, but for your own safety I cannot do that," Fusion replied meekly.
Salrath gaped at the mare. "Agent Salrath of Lacunae Hive Security orders you--"
"The pony will not follow your orders here, Agent," Academician Vanca said in a firm voice. "You are not its authorised Master."
Fusion climbed to her hooves and bowed her head to the Academician. "Sorry, Master, but that is not correct either. Technically, Salrath has the greater authority, but due to the current circumstances I cannot obey her orders."
Vanca froze, then turned to face Fusion. "Explain," she said in a deceptively calm voice.
Fusion had heard the Academician use that tone before and knew she should have been terrified. Somehow, all she felt was a vast calm, the enormity of her bluff and her determination to never again be helpless overriding her fear. It would hit her later, she was sure, but for now her mind was clear and felt like it was working at peak efficiency. "Agent Ilanrio," here she gestured to male Agent, currently held in a chair by Fusion's gentle, yet irresistible, hold, "appears to be suffering from the pain of his wounds. I removed your and his firearms because of the danger of ricochet inside this room."
Salrath had stopped struggling and was actually starting to listen, curious despite herself. "What about Salrath's knife?" she said, still sounding angry.
"I have inferred that I'm an important research subject, because of this I decided to protect myself for the good of the Hive from a decision that was being taken in the heat of the moment -- for as long as I did not put any Master in danger."
Salrath gave a bitter laugh. "What does the servitor call all this?" she said, waving one paw to take in Ilanrio and all the dead equipment.
"The unexpected is the nature of research, Agent," Vanca snapped. "The servitor has done well; it was only obeying orders, if a little over enthusiastically."
Salrath ground her teeth in impotent rage then relaxed a little and folded her arms. "Fine. Salrath will not euthanize it. Let Salrath down."
Fusion let Agent Salrath drop gently to the ground, then at a peremptory gesture floated the little knife and two guns in her direction. This task complete, the mare let her magic die, watching with satisfaction as Salrath holstered the knife and gun, then placed Ilanrio's weapon in one pocket.
Arms folded again, Salrath stepped over to Fusion, staring at the mare with undisguised malice. "Very well, Salrath accepts that explanation. One problem. The ammunition in these guns is strictly antipersonnel and will not ricochet."
There was no pain to trigger the response but Fusion cringed anyway, suddenly realising she'd misread Salrath completely. Eyes wide and ears flattened, she didn’t have to fake the fear that filled her voice. “S-sorry Master, I had no way of knowing... ” The temptation to bolt grew very strong, but where could she go? If I run they'll know, nopony would ever leave their Master in this situation, she thought.
Salrath studied the mare carefully, then narrowed her eyes. "Academician. How confident are you that your experiments have not affected this servitor's Blessing?" she said, still staring at the pony.
"That's highly unlikely! The failsafe--"
"So not impossible then?" Salrath said, smiling.
"Nothing is impossible, but it would be like..." the Academician waved her paws in the air, obviously groping for a suitable example that didn't involve quantum thaumophysics. "...like winning an eight pony accumulator on the trans Hive race!"
"That's what Salrath thought, not impossible. Salrath does not trust this servitor and thinks a test is in the interest of the safety of the Hive." She paused, smile widening, then spoke directly to Fusion. “The pony will notice that Salrath is perfectly calm and rational. Does the pony accept Salrath’s authority over it? Does the pony need reminding of Salrath's duty?” the Agent said in a calm tone, leaning forward slightly.
Fusion followed the conversation with rising panic, unable to figure out what Salrath was planning but completely sure it would be bad. What will she do? the mare thought. I won't let them Bless me again, I can't! Unbidden, the memories of the green colt filled her mind. “I accept you as my master. You are an Agent responsible for the internal security of Lacunae Hive and as such have total authority in such matters,” she said in a trembling voice.
“What about you, Academician?"
"Technically, Hive Security has jurisdiction," Vanca said with a scowl. "What is the Agent planning?"
Salrath ignored the question. "Excellent, we are all in agreement. Servitor, do not move or attempt magic.” In a flicker of motion she drew her fighting knife again and trailed the needle point over the spiral ridges of Fusion’s horn, down the side of her face and along the underside of her muzzle.
The mare inhaled sharply then froze, eyes following the slender blade. The thing was a couple of hoof-widths long and jet black apart from where the light glittered off the razor edge. Little prickling sensations marked its progress out of her sight, the tip reversing and following the line of her jaw to end up just underneath Fusions left eye. Not now, Fusion thought, I can’t be discovered now! Her mind hunted for a way out of this predicament that didn’t end up with her blinded or Salrath crushed to pulp inside a telekinetic fist.
...and then what? I'd have to kill them all, she thought. It was one thing to perform a little vandalism, but to actually lay a hoof on a Master was practically blasphemy. She could do it, though; kill Korn, Vanca and the two Agents, then smash her way out of the Institute, fighting off any response the Masters made and anypony who saw what she was doing. There would be more deaths, many, many more if she didn't hold back.
But they would catch her eventually. The killing wouldn't stop with her own death either; the Masters would be justifiably terrified that one of their servitors could do such a thing. Anypony connected to her by birth or association -- perhaps everypony taught by the same teacher, or Blessed by the same crown -- would disappear willingly into one of those black Security vehicles. They would go through Fusion's family and foal-mates like a mower through a field of hay.
The mare hesitated, unsure of what to do.
A slight increase in pressure on the knife tip broke her paralysis and made the decision for her. Too close, she thought, I'll never grab her paw in time. Surely it's a bluff, she just wants to scare me, nobody could do such a thing to another person.
"Has Vanca taken into account the exposure this servitor has had to military grade thaumic suppression equipment? Salrath also knows this creature attempted to escape its restraining collar during the flight back to the Institute. What does Vanca think of that?" Salrath asked, knife point never moving from the white mare's eye.
Vanca narrowed her eyes at this. "Why did the Agent not mention this before?"
Salrath shrugged, looking amused. "The information was not supplied until just recently, apparently a routing error, if you believe that." It was obvious from the Agent's sardonic smile that she certainly didn't. "Anyway, Salrath knows the Academician's track record with servitors and expected the problem to be taken care of."
Vanca glared at the Agent for a second, then turned to Fusion. "Is this true, servitor?" she asked sharply.
She knows! Fusion thought, the dread almost making her faint. "M-my sister was being suffocated by the carrier's restraint system," the mare talked quickly, voice fast and unsteady in panic, "after that I panicked and there was no order to not use magic and- and--" Fusion fell silent, eyes rolling from Vanca to Salrath and back.
"Well, Agent? Vanca thinks this is a reasonable explanation, now release my servitor at once!" Vanca said in a commanding tone.
"This sounds plausible to Salrath, also," the Agent said, then shook her head in mock sadness. "Unfortunately that is also what a compromised servitor might say -- how could Salrath tell the difference? The servitor must be tested."
“In the Maker’s name, Agent, stop this at once,” Vanca pleaded. "There are ways to test the Blessing that don't involve torture!"
Fusion's gaze settled back on to Salrath, desperate to convince herself that this was all some vicious game. What she saw made her heart lurch and an involuntary whinny escape her throat. At the little sound the Agent's ears pricked up and her lips peeled back in a lazy half smile, sharp white teeth glinting in the lurid green chemlight glow. She had been staring at Fusion, an eager, almost hungry look in her eyes. That same interested look that she'd had when she'd pushed Gravity into punishment fugue and the blue mare had fallen writhing to the ground.
“Invoking God? Surely the great Vanca isn’t a believer?” Salrath said in a suddenly jovial tone, not taking her eyes off Fusion. “Yes, there are, but only with the right equipment. Does Vanca have a working high resolution thaumic scanner or memory interrogation crown? No? Salrath thought not. Anyway, this servitor needs its horn, not its eyes.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.074 seconds
Total duration
1,081 users online
2,006,993 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I figured this was the only way I'd get first comment!
This chapter was a difficult one - most of my edits are small things but this one forced me into several rewrites. Hopefully it's worth the pain...
Fire in the hole.
A look into the infant Discord's mind, fascinating how he behaves more like a program than a living being.
Salrath doesn't know what the fuck she's doing. This will not end well. For Salrath, especially... Unless eye transplants are a thing. In which case, incoming fucking ouchies.
1605151
Noticed a few small things that you might want to fix:
'and adding the adding the ability to fly'--doubled up 'adding' there.
Otherwise, looks good.
Also, way to go Discord on giving Celestia just what she needed
Interesting. So it was Chaos' influence that broke Fusion Pulse's (nice ironic name there, btw) Blessing? I mean, it sounds like it's technically possible that it wasn't his/its fault, but generally speaking, the act of observing an event from a quantum level influences the event's outcome.
So, will modern technomancy help, or will the Guardians/Automata/Chaos heal her eye? Or will Korn do something stupid?
1605428
Fixed; thank you.
Of course, Discord gets what he wants too...
1605250
You must have started reading within minutes of me hitting 'submit' - I'm impressed!
Glad that the program/ machine thing is coming across; it's how I'm thinking of it (as my Discord is essentially a ghost in the machine at this stage).
1605528
'Sciencey' pony names will be the death of me; my list is running out fast.
Not quite - Chaos' first interaction was at the training ground; Fusion's near fatal first go in the accelerator is what cured her (how it all works will become clearer in the next few chapters).
Oh god, so much information in this one chapter, I love it. I think, weirdly enough, my favorite part is how Discord is responsible for Celestia's ethereal mane, and entirely on a whim. I'm guessing Luna is going to have to do that on her own, hah. Also, Discord is aiding and abetting his own downfall.
If seconds are almost excruciatingly long for him to wait, I can't imagine how he'd feel about a thousand (plus) years trapped in stone... Unless he'd still be able to slow his own mind down so that it only feels like a moment. I guess that'd be possible.
Also, I should've figured Discord was responsible for the Masters' fracturing of society. Doesn't mean he's responsible for them being asses, though.
Ahmagad I hope they don't blind Fusion D:! My immediate thought was that she's not blind in the show, so they CAN'T blind her here. But then I remembered, magic.
1605553
When I see this fic in my inbox, I don't waste any time. It's that good.
1605606
I'm convinced her only lasting wounds are the scars around her neck, and that's why she wears all the regalia.
OH MY GOD... Discord made politics!
I see what you did there
Exposition, such delicious exposition.
Proto-Discord is great, and I am deeply curious about the Guardian automata.
Gasp!
*"Oops," she muttered, then ducked her head to fly through the ragged opening. Alighting in the observation space she furled her wings and immediately dropped to the ground to grovel at he Master's paws, mouth opening to beg for forgiveness. Before she could speak a rapid motion caught her attention.
>"Oops," she muttered, then ducked her head to fly through the ragged opening. Alighting in the observation space she furled her wings and immediately dropped to the ground to grovel at the Master's paws, mouth opening to beg for forgiveness. Before she could speak, a rapid motion caught her attention.
-Just a regular typo that I managed to catch.
That.. was really difficult to read at first, but I managed to understand it in the end. This story is getting way too smart for me... I like it. I'm just somewhat lucky that I managed to pull through as far as I did. ^^; Anyway, it looks like Celestia is about to be found out that about her own independence and freedom from the blessings, if she doesn't play her cards right everyone will be in danger.
It does seem at this point all she needs is a few days or a week to test her new solar connection and then she'd be powerful enough to, well, wipe everything out alone.
And just imagine when she gets the Elements!
Your chapters always make my brain hurt. Good on ya!
Well, I guess this helps explain the tons of gems that equestria just seems to have lying around.
Also, I'm with that one guy, Salrath is gonna get hoofed, one way or the other.
You managed to work proto-Discord, the Elements, and Tia's freaking mane into one chapter?
Excellent effort. Take a mustache from pretty cash.
The Infant Discord was one of the coolest things in this chapter, i can't wait to see how he gets from being essentially a program, to his current form. Oh and I hope Celestia puts Sarlath through a fucking wall
1605976
Wait, you didn't think Discord was nice did you?
1607283
Thanks, fixed. So a chapter with Discord in it was the hardest to write and contained the most typos... oh the irony!
1608101
And we have a winner! The origin of all those obviously manufactured gems just below the surface in Equestria was the big 'question' that created this fic.
===
Thanks for all the comments folks; posting this chapter made me more nervous than normal and I'm glad you like it.
New Chapter!
Now I just need the time to read it
I just threw my glasses, my cell phone, my shitty laptop, and my good desktop monitor across the room when I reached the end of this chapter. I'm now typing this on my desktop hooked up to my slightly damaged 22 inch backup tv.
Just so I can tell you I need more of this story.
I need more, Celestia damn it all!
And I need it now!
THE RAGE... SHALL LAST.... FOREVER~!
nabyn.com/_p/2012/2/28/badkittyamy-37586-10151.png
Now excuse me while I go and bandage my left hand, since I nearly put it through my mirror.
hi hi
You'll have to excuse me if what I'm about to say sounds presumptuous, but I feel that I must share what I would do, were I in Fusion Pulse's position.
I would follow my sister's example. Make my knees start to wobble and shake, then apologize for not being able to remain still as ordered, then collapse to the floor and feign a punishment fugue. It would spoil the results of the test while still being ambiguous as to what is actually happening, might at least temporarily satisfy Salrath's hunger for cruelty, and it could also buy some more time to consider other options. I might also pray in vain to the Maker that Salrath's cruelty runs deep enough that seeing a pony act that way is not out of the ordinary for her.
Oh my... So happy! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png
I just wanted to tell you thaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..................
BUFFER OVERFLOW ERROR: TOO MUCH THROUGHPUT AT A111E503_E.
SOME DATA GENERATED BY AWESOME.EXE MAY HAVE BECOME CORUPT.
CORRUPTION DETECTED IN BRAIN.EXE
PERFORMANCE MAY BE CHAOTIC.
A FULL ANTIVIRUS SCAN IS RECOMMENDED:
A RESTART WILL BE REQUIRED.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Luna_apple.png
Given knowledge while on the brink of death, allied with a trickster god who will one day be her worst enemy, about to lose an eye... When did Fusion become Odin?
Also, Korn lives! Huzzah!
Also also, really cool stuff with proto-Discord. Especially his view of the Elements. I'm looking forward to more on all counts.
1605591
do you want a list of sciencey names? name a few fields and I'll come up with a few.
I can manage Astronomy, Biology, Physics, and even Neurosciences. Along with others, such as Chemistry and Sociology.
1605976
Well, a whale would just be terribly unlikely.
All of my hate, Salrath
1610772 Korn is best dog
1608977
Is it bad of me that your rage makes me happy?
1609812
That's actually not a bad idea, although the risk is that Salrath might see through the deception (she's certainly seen the fugue before), or stab you anyway just to be sure...
1610463
You might want to update your firmware if this becomes a problem. I hope the OS is recoverable!
1610772
Fascinating! I had to look up a lot of Norse mythology after that; now all I need is a pair of ravens (not sure how I'd work Slepnir in though, that's getting dangerously close to R34 territory - Loki you old devil!).
1612145
Hell yes! The naming convention is loosely based on the 'noun verb' system, but anything that sounds good works. The ponies are generally divided up into 'classes': energy manipulators (Fusion Pulse, Helium Flash, Cooper Pair, etc), mass manipulators (Gravity Resonance, Bow Shock, Tangent Vector, etc), industrial (Random Walk, Metal Matrix, Carbon Carbon, etc), medical (Spiral Fracture, Animal Scanner, Gamma Knife, etc) and military (Shock Diamond, Mach Front, Back Stop, etc). Single words also work (Slipstream is a good example).
The trick is finding ones relating to the pony's talent without sounding too silly ('Shock Diamond' is probably my favorite).
1614408
Trouble is she's so much fun to write for!
===
In other news: my n=1 'can a reader who's never heard of MLP:FIM enjoy a pony story' study came to an end (sort of) when the subject (one of my prereaders) said: 'I typed the name of that story into google'.
It's the first time I've ever experienced a full fight/ fight/ freeze response just from a few words.
He went on: 'I read some of the comments, looks like a bunch of people like it'.
So I asked him what he thought of the site (i.e. fimfiction) it was on...
'I had no idea pony stories were a thing in the internet.'
So there you have it: not only can a reader enjoy a story without knowing the show, but it's also possible to visit fimfiction and not get the connection with MLP (can't blame him really; unless you read the copyright notice at the bottom it's all just cartoon horses). Isn't science wonderful!
The study has been expanded to another five individuals to see if this result was an outlier.
Vanca is slightly surprised not to be a stuffed toy or a pot plant.
Vanca is apparently prophetic.
Also. Salrath only needs a voice box, mouth, and lungs. Everything else can be removed. One at a time. Slowly.
P.S.
Hypothesis: Servitor no longer has the Blessing and is willfully causing massive amounts of damage.
Testing Method: Forceable removal of servitor's eyes.
Possible Results:
1 - Servitor remains Blessed, cannot refuse or resist, loses eyes.
2 - Servitor is un-Blessed, can refuse and resist, has free access to the only controlled power and manipulation source within the sealed chamber.
Salrath is a massive idiot. Why would you test an assumption where the only way to prove yourself right will result in your death?
1616104 Good, because you portray the character very convincingly. I may despise Salrath, but she certainly keeps the plot moving.
1616104
I broke my hand because of you, and you laughed?! Sounds about right. By the way, the next chapter better be soon, and it better be worth:
1. A lot of pain.
2. The inability to play my game consoles for about a month.
3. $1,697.33 in medical bills. (Thank you for covering most of that, Medical Insurance!)
4. Way more than that in electronics damages. (I'm guesstimating at around 3-4k.)
5. Not being able to see long moderate to long distances until my new pair of glasses comes in.
So yeah....
Get crackin'.
Fuck, now every time I look in the mirror all I can think is, "WTF IS GOIN OOOOON?!"
4.bp.blogspot.com/-TjSQDLSiU10/T0cMZe1HnaI/AAAAAAAACtQ/agI0xY5S5QQ/s1600/137280+-+artist-wingwind+luna+mirror+Nightmare_Moon+wallpaper.png
hi hi
I must admit, 1616104 , that I had a terribly difficult time thinking of any course of action that was not risky in some manner. I suppose for the sake of Fusion Pulse's friends and family, the safest course of action would be to willingly allow Salrath to carve out her eyes, then afterwards try to get by using her new-found ability to see beyond her own body. But ouch... its not a very appealing plan, is it?
Also, some sciency and veterinary sounding names, if you're interested that is... Back Scatter, Proton Proton, Magnet Bound, Black Body, Variable State, Coil Induction, Elastic Glance, Compression Charge, Asepsis, Trocar Point
1616349
Well, what fun would it be if everyone was sensible? The irony is that Salrath is absolutely correct; the only thing she did wrong is not shooting Fusion right at the start. BTW option #2 is not an automatic death sentence for all concerned, Salrath certainly thinks she's fast enough to beat Fusion on the 'draw', and rescue would come in time, even if they can't get the doors open.
1617026
If it's any consolation, I've sacrificed about a year of my personal life on the altar of pony fic (it's OK, I wasn't using it anyway!).
1620820
There is no happy solution, only varying degrees of evil.
Thanks for the names; I'll add them to my file. Trocar Point is nice and obscure (I had to look that one up!).
In RL I'm a second year undergraduate in physics
and I must say that, although my background in science, and the tendency of fictional stories to eventually fall on a scientific impossibility
, or eventually repeat the same sci-fi ideas
, this universe and it's description, by it's inclusion of recent modern physics 
(a good thing about fan fiction, it's always up to date!) , scientific (said science-ish words 4 times now) language (
love the time measurements by base 10 prefixes!) , and all the flavours of fiction it provides (science/military/politics interaction, brainwash, metaphysical entities(ok, not metaphysic, perfectly scientific god-like entities that exist at some sort of quantum scale )
...has made this my number one in the fanfic. That, or, let's stay mathematical precise, I haven't read science fiction in a while.
1621006
rescue will come in time even if they can't get the doors open
???? Are you talking about the group's ability to eventually leave?
I was mentioning the sealed room because it means that Salrath has no way to escape if she's proven right. She's got to have some huge balls to be locked in a box with a potentially deadly threat and still be willing to poke said potential threat to see if it is indeed a threat.
1621006
Our continued suffering eases my pain.
Also, write more and faster! *whip, crack*
1622515
Just in case there's some confusion over the room layout: There are two rooms in this chapter; the beam dump chamber (where Fusion was), overlooked by the control room (to which F gains access by removing the windows/ shutters between them). There are two exits, one in the beam chamber (jammed) and one in the control room (not tested, but probably jammed).
Don't forget that there's no immediate danger to anyone in the room (no fires or structural collapse) and that they expect rescue to be rapid (eg the rest of the security team will come looking for their boss).
From Salrath's point of view the worst possible situation is to be trapped in a sealed room with a servitor who's loyalty she suspects - afterall, who knows what 'accident' this creature could engineer, here away from witnesses?
Taking it further, It's even logical to start with F's eyes, aside from the obvious horror of the choice (making the test that much more efficient), F really doesn't need them for her work... and if F does resist the only way to stop her instantly is a knife in the brain.
Make sense?
1624949
From Salrath's point of view the worst possible situation is to be trapped in a sealed room with a servitor who's loyalty she suspects - afterall, who knows what 'accident' this creature could engineer, here away from witnesses?
I understand the situation. I'm just not sure why she downplays the worst case scenario so much. She's awefully sure of herself considering she's currently trapped in a room with said creature, after it ripped apart an entire wall with its mind, and is threatening to stick a knife in it... to test whether it can fight back. Being wrong simply results in pointless damage to a valuable test subject. Being right can only result in a very bad situation.
I would not want to be right in her situation.
But you're right. She doesn't think like I do, and I'm sure that her logic makes sense to herself.
I still think she's an idiot.
1616104
Ooh! I have names for ponies! Also theoretical talents and random family connections, which you can ignore as you please.
Random Warp (teleportation talent), Singularity Spark, Vapor Cone (piloting supersonic aircraft), Inertia Vector (testing out hyperfast vehicles, 'shoving' things with her magic), Friction Burst (Inertia's sibling, specializes in bringing stuff to a dead stop), Ion Fragment, Velocity Burst, Quasar Shock, Aesthetic Vibration, Photon Fracture, Gravity Well, Particle Wave, Warp Plane, Exponent Flash, Event Horizon, Predicted Deviaton.
No one thought of Shock Wave as a name? Damn!
Also, if you hurt Celestia
I'll find you.
Unless you then use one of the most used handwaves when it comes to fimfiction - Princesses at full power have regenerative capabilities.
And, really, this is one of best fanfics I have ever read, and damn I've read a lot. Keep up the good work, but work on your commas - you almost don't use them and it's a pain to read a text without commas, you know that?
I really like how you used gems as spell containers, and how it's all about explaining why there're so many chiseled gems in Equestria. I really, really like that idea, and when I write a fanfic (sometime) I will certainly use it.
And I hope that you continue writing other hard sci-fi fanfics after you finish that one. A sequel, maybe? If Twilight or someone discovered Princesses' grimdark past... . Sounds good.
The last thing - apologies for my English, mostly syntax, but it's not my first language and all.
1628783
Thanks for this discussion; it's been very useful in settling Salrath's character in my mind and will help with my editing of the next chapter (these bits were written several months ago; what I do is see what the comments look like and tweek the next chapter as needed to clarify any sticking points).
1629014
Thanks for those, I'll add them to my file. If you have any thoughts on 'weather manipulator' speciallist names, I'm going to need a bunch at some point (eg Jetstream, Warm Front)...
1630852
Thank you! All will become clear(er) in the next few chapters. Probably. Funny you should mention a sequel; originally I'd planned to write a 'Twilight the Archaeologist' fic instead, but this one had too many interesting posibilities.
I've tentatively planned out a trilogy; this one, the story up to Nightmare Moon and a far future one. This last was actually my entry to NaPoWriMo, so has the first 50K written - if you are really keen, the link to the gdoc is on the final NaPoWriMo page; only problem will be that I'm unlikely to work on it until 'Wasp' is finished. It's also not had any editing.
Punctuation: comma use is a weak point, agreed. Let me know if you have any specific examples; I'm in the process of recording the audiobook and it's working wonders for finding typos (how the first few chapters passed EqD's prereaders I'll never know!).
1631607
"This one had too many interesting possibilities." - this is an understatement.
I think you don't use commas in dialogues is because you play them in your mind, but even if someone is talking fast, when you transcribe it, you still have to put a comma. And, of course, commas before "but". Some jarring examples of HORRIBLE LACK OF COMMAS (dun dun duuun):
"Ready when you are sis," >> "Ready when you are, sis," - a common example, a lack of comma before a subject.
(...) The young gryphon idly scratched under his command collar with one claw then slowly levered himself up (...) >> (...) The young gryphon idly scratched under his command collar with one claw, then slowly levered himself up (...) - COMMAS BEFOE CONJUNCTIONS. I CAN NOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH.
"While I am evil enough to give you fluffballs some more punishment after today it turns out I won't need to. " >> "While I am evil enough to give you fluffballs some more punishment after today, it turns out I won't need to. " - I don't know how to explain that one using fancy words. I hope you get the picture.
All those examples were taken from "You can take the gryphon out of the raptor..." chapter.
Hope this helps, and as always, sorry for my grammar/syntax/jumping from one thing to another.
hi hi
1628783, if you don't mind, I'd like to share my thoughts on Salrath's behavior. It seems to me that she is used to being in a position of power, and she enjoys putting that power to the test. This is not only just for the freedom to do whatever she wants, but it is also because she derives satisfaction from the reactions of those she is toying with. That satisfaction involves observing, which she is probably good at by now, hence the look of expectation.
Her confidence is not derived from an judgement on any physical balance of power, she knows that Fusion Pulse is dangerous, but she doesn't fully understand what happened. Her confidence is derived from an understanding of the social and emotional balance of power. She understands fear. She recognizes Fusion Pulse's body language and knows that she has the upper hand. (Besides, if Fusion Pulse wanted to harm Salrath, she could have done so with impunity already, when she grabbed her firearm.)
A small animal can stand up to a wolf with an impressive display, but even a larger animal becomes prey if it turns and runs. Salrath may realize that she is the weaker of the two, but she probably figures that turning her back on Fusion Pulse is much risker than asserting her dominance.
These are just my thoughts though, it is entirely possible that I have no idea what I'm talking about. (In either case, I am very interested in seeing what actually happens next.)
Also: Some potential weather related names.
Laminar Boundary, Vapor Pressure, Adiabatic Shift, Rainshadow, Low Trough, Long Wave, Mesoscale, Dryline.
1634478
I don't mind at all, this is a forum-type-thiny after all.
Salrath is clearly a bully. The whole "needing to be dominant" thing, both physically and phsycologically, is readily apparent in her behavior. She's certainly enjoying doing this to Fusion just because being a sadist makes her happy.
However, Salrath is NOT the cornered weaker animal in this case. Fusion should be no threat to Salrath (the Blessing garauntees that), so Salrath should not be remotely worried about Fusion. What she is doing is testing Fusion's Blessing by turning Fusion in to the cornered weaker animal to see if Fusion will attack. Which is certainly sadistic. However, Salrath is also trapped in that "corner" with Fusion.
It's that last sentence that really makes me wonder about her intelligence. Salrath's contingency plan is hoping that she can stab Fusion in the brain faster than Fusion's reflexes can kill her?
hi hi
1634664, Attacking is certainly one way that Fusion Pulse could fail the test, but there are other ways she could fail the test as well. Her orders were to not move, so if she moves to defend herself or flee, she would fail then as well. Fusion Pulse did display her ability to pass through sealed shutters, so she isn't cornered at all.
If Fusion Pulse was showing any signs of aggression, I suspect that Salrath would have continued with her original course of action, which was to try to kill Fusion Pulse outright. Fusion Pulse is not acting like a cornered animal though, she is attempting to talk her way out of the situation, and that tells Salrath some very important things about the balance of power between the two of them. Undoubtedly she has some experience with people who try to weasel their way out of trouble.
The issue isn't necessarily the difference in actual physical capability between the two, but the perception of danger between the two. Fusion Pulse fears Salrath, and while Salrath may have no understanding of why that is the case, she only needs to know that the fear exists to be able to exploit it.
1635602
I'm not sure what all that has to do with the original argument. But...
Fusion is not in a literal corner, but Salrath has her cornered just the same. Fusion tried to talk her way out, but Salrath refused to accept Fusion's arguments. Fusion's options are to either lose her eyes, or do something that proves she is no longer Blessed. Both of those options are very bad for Fusion. Fleeing proves Salrath right - at which point Fusion will be hunted by the Masters to be either executed outright, or dissected to figure out what went wrong with her. Trying to fend off Salrath non-lethally will only result in the same. Fighting Salrath certainly results in the same, but it also prevents Salrath from doing immediate harm to Fusion - which is a pretty important thing considering Salrath's knife is right beside Fusion's eye. Fusion is pretty well cornered.
hi hi
Were we arguing? Sorry, I was just trying to covey my thoughts on Salrath's motivations and intelligence, and how a mastery of emotional knowledge can trump cold equations of power and ability.
The way I see it 1636322, some people may think that the person with the lesser hand in poker will always lose, but having the ability to read your opponent's expression as well as controlling your own can allow even someone with no hand at all to win. Salrath just put all her chips on the table and is daring Fusion Pulse to raise the stakes, and based on Fusion Pulse's prior reaction to de-escalate, it is not unreasonable for Salrath to expect Fusion Pulse to fold.
As you say, thanks to Salrath's actions, Fusion Pulse can no longer win. That is actually pretty impressive considering that Fusion Pulse was poised to get away with everything only moments before. However, while we've focused on what Fusion Pulse's options are, lets look at what Salrath's options were.
Salrath was just humiliated. She got bossed around by a servant, and in my estimation, is acting out of spite. Seeing that Fusion Pulse loses is more emotionally important to her than seeing herself win. If she wanted to win her own short term safety, she could go hide in a corner. She stands to lose face, the chance for revenge, short term physical health, as well as potentially suffer unknown long term consequences if Fusion Pulse has time to do more damage.
• If she does nothing, she wins short term physical health, but loses face, the chance for revenge, and may suffer long term consequences. (1 yes, 2 no, 1 maybe)
• If she waits for backup and a proper testing device, she wins short term physical health, both saves and loses some face, loses her chance for revenge, and still may suffer long term consequences. (1 yes, 1 no, 2 maybe)
• If she presses forward with the test, she may lose physical health, saves face, gets revenge, and has the potential to avoid long term consequences, but it will be the same result as her physical health option. (2 yes, 0 no, 1-2 maybe)
1622288
Somehow I managed to miss your post (I swear it wasn't there until this morning, despite the date you actually posted it!), apologies for the late reply.
Thank you, glad you like it - although as I'm a chemist by training, it makes be a little nervous for someone who actually knows physics looking over my shoulder...
I'm a life long hard science/ SF fan (and now a fan of magical ponies; still not sure how that works); a lot of the story's main setup is a consequence hunting for explanations that aren't just 'it's magic I don't have to explain sh1t'.
1631799
You got me there; my approach to commas does tend to be the 'read it out' method. Obviously this doesn't work very well! I'll brush up on the technical aspects - feel free to call me on it if I don't improve. I checked with one of my prereaders; his excuse was 'I never said I could read'.
1638718
Glad I could help. I'll point out all future chapters' mistakes I can see, and when I get some free time I'll check others, too.
1638718
Oh, I'm a Doctor Who fan, I can rationalize into almost perfect sense whatever fiction I read/watch. But this story spares me that exercise, and goes beyond what I would have thought and straight to the fantastic ideas.
PS: np for the late reply, oh sacrificed-in-the-altar-of-pony-fandom-one, RL has it's stuff.
For weather controlling ponies, most of them related to tornados:
Steam Devil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_devil
Fire Whirl - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl
Polar Low - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_low
And I know it sounds terrible but
(Project) Stormfury - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Stormfury
I couldn't find a good adaptation of the most common method to cause rain, which is cloud seeding, i.e., spreading silver iodide on clouds.
I hope this helps!
1637703
Thanks for the long post that made me notice how deep the ongoing cliffhanger was, and generally improved my reading awareness.
1639899
Thanks for the names - 'Cloud Seeder' would fit pretty well, don't think there's much need to 'science' it up. At least 'Stormfury' seemed to do something, better AgI than the other suggested technique for stopping hurricanes - nuking them (great, now it's a radioactive hurricane!)
1637703
Interesting post! One question: I can't decide what the numbers are for - some sort of Prisoner's Dilemma scoring system?