02 - A Day in the Life of the Average Pony
Days of Wasp and Spider
by Luna-tic Scientist
===
The Pattern had created the bubble's interior with an agreeably high energy level and basked in the electromagnetic glow, the gentle tickle of particle pair formation a restful sensation throughout its volume. While the Pattern rebuilt its strength it examined the space it had created; the subtle shift in dimensions and orders of magnitude reduction in temperature had allowed the formation of particles it had only theorised. These massive things exhibited startling behaviours the Pattern had never seen in all its previous existence. All of their own accord they were grouping together into clusters, then clusters into larger groups, before finally attracting yet another kind of particle to orbit around them. The Pattern grew interested with this new area of research and started to modify some of the fundamental constants; it was possible to build many more than the two basic types of these... atoms than the universe wanted to form from the original quark-gluon plasma.
The vast cloud of the atoms coalesced as space-time expanded and cooled. The Pattern made more adjustments -- this time temporary changes to the local strength of gravity -- and induced the cloud to collapse into a tight ball of hot rock surrounded by a layer of gas. Cooling gradually, the planet floated alone in its dark pocket universe, orbited by a ring of rubble that had almost escaped its influence. On the surface some of the gas had condensed into a fluid phase with intriguing properties, loaded with a variety of atoms linked in simple, yet interesting, ways.
=== Chapter 2 (remastered): A Day in the Life of the Average Pony ===
Fusion Pulse awoke to brilliant sunshine lancing in through the open sides of the corral shelter, a stabbing pain at the base of her horn bringing her to instant wakefulness. She lay partly on her right side, legs curled under her left wing. Something warm and soft lay nestled against her neck and upper back. Fusion blinked, rolled her eyes down to see a fringe of dusky blue feathers extending across her withers, shoulder and upper neck. She felt the soft thing squirm a little closer, primary feathers rustling as the wing stretched slightly. Fusion squinted against the bright light and tucked her head in a little; closing her eyes again she went to sleep under her sister's sheltering wing.
When Fusion awoke for the second time the sun had moved a third of the way round the sky and her sister had gone. She shifted her weight slightly and discovered her right wing had gone numb and most of her muscles failed to respond with anything but complaints. Her sharp in-drawing of breath drew her sister at a trot, wood chips flying from her hooves as she entered the shelter.
"Give me a hoof up will you, Grav? Wing's gone to sleep and I'm aching all over," Fusion said, clearing her throat.
"Sure thing, sis." A haze of navy magic, almost invisible in the light diffusing through the corral shelter's translucent roof, cradled her like a soft, form fitting pillow and lifted her to a standing position. "How are you feeling? You looked pretty bad when the Master brought you in."
A sudden flash of panic made Fusion wobble and she would have collapsed without her sister's quick reactions. Late! I'm supposed to be at the... wait, that order had been rescinded. Sighing with relief, she remembered the medical inspection from the night before and Academician Vanca's sour-faced agreement with Student Korn's assessment of her state. The Masters were good and kind to forgive her weakness; she'd have another chance to prove herself worthy. Her stomach rumbled and she was suddenly aware of how hungry she was.
"That sounded like a good sign. Want some breakfast -- no it's a bit late for that -- an early lunch?" Gravity grinned at Fusion.
"Oh yes, I'm starving!" Not just hungry, she realised, but feeling that special craving that only the Master's food could fully quench.
"I'll get it; you have a bit of a walk to ease those aching muscles."
Fusion watched as Gravity turned and walked away, her eyes suddenly going wide.
"When did you get that!" she said, gesturing with her horn at the inky black patch with pale crescent shape on Gravity's hindquarters.
"You like it? Just a couple of days ago." Gravity swayed to one side so Fusion could see the matching mark on her other hip.
Fusion stared at her sister's labour tattoo with a little bit of jealousy. So soon! She didn't have hers yet, and she was a year older than Gravity. The envy quickly passed, replaced with sadness that she'd missed the event and curiosity as to how it had happened. Gravity came back from the corral's facilities hub with a shallow bowl full of brown pellets and clipped it at chest height to a near-by roof pillar.
"You eat, I'll talk," she said with a grin.
Fusion nodded and gingerly stepped over to the bowl. Taking her first mouthful -- the food supplied by the Masters was nutritious but a little bland -- she rolled one eye in Gravity's direction as her sister began to talk.
"You know I've been going through remote manipulation training? Well, I'd been doing so well that my Master decided I could try my hooves at something a little bigger, so she showed me to a remote viewer and said I should try and move the spot of light."
"What, without actually seeing it properly?" Fusion mumbled around a mouthful of pellets.
Gravity nodded vigorously. "Weird huh? I don't know anypony able to do that -- not without being very familiar with whatever it was, anyway. Obviously if a Master says you can do something, you know you can." Gravity was hopping from hoof to hoof now, caught up in the excitement of her own story. "Turns out the remote viewer was this weird old thing with mirrors and lenses rather than a clairvoyance rig or electronic camera, and I could feel that point of light when I concentrated. It was really hard to do -- but when I pushed it the light moved! Then there was this funny tingling on my haunches and I had my labour tattoo. My Master laughed and said she knew she'd made the right decision."
Fusion stopped chewing for a second, swallowed, and turned her head to look at Gravity with both eyes. "You were always good at remote handling; I'm really pleased for you. Jealous, but pleased."
"Ah don't worry, sis, I know you'll get yours soon. I mean, these things the Masters have you doing look really hard -- and I know they wouldn't ask you if they didn't think you could do it."
"You're right, of course." Fusion chased the last few pellets round the bowl then looked back at Gravity with a frown. "Did the Master tell you what that thing was you moved?"
"She said it was in the debris ring, some dead satellite or something," Gravity called over her shoulder as she turned to rummage through the cold store in the wall of the facilities hub. Various fruits, vegetables and leaves were selected then cut, dressed and arranged on a wide shallow tray. "Ready for some real food?"
===
Fusion spent the rest of the morning alternately dozing, eating and walking stiffly around the square kilolength of the corral's grassland borders. She had a vague hope of bumping into her friends, Packet Switcher or Random Walk, but deep down knew this was pretty unlikely. At this time of day the settlement was very quiet. Packet would probably be somewhere at the reactor complex -- he'd just started an apprenticeship -- while Random would be down at the communal exercise and testing centre with all the other yet to be assigned ponies.
A sudden rush of air and flicker of shadow made Fusion flinch, derailing her line of thought. Looking up, she saw a brief glimpse of a dark grey belly as a pony swooped by only a bodylength over her head. The figure made a clumsy landing, stumbling and almost going muzzle first into the grass, then turned to face a surprised Fusion. The pony was a mare, coat not really grey but so dirty that she was of no identifiable colour, her close cropped mane and tail plastered with dust and matted to the point you couldn't even see the individual hairs.
"You! What's your name?" The voice was harsh and trailed off into a hacking cough. The mare worked her throat and spat something dark and gritty looking onto the grass, then trotted up to Fusion with an uneven gait.
"F-Fusion Pulse TC4668," Fusion recited automatically. "What happened, are you okay?"
"No time, I have new orders for you." The mare reached forward and tapped Fusion's communicator disk with one grubby hoof. "I commandeer you under the emergency requisition rules, you will follow me--" She was interrupted by a flash of red light from the gem at the centre of Fusion's communicator and a synthesized voice in the back of both ponies' heads.
"Permission denied. This servitor is under medical supervision orders, Council level clearance required to override."
"By the Maker! Is there anypony else here I can talk to?"
"It's mid shift, just about everypony is working. There are the teachers...?"
The mare shook her head vigorously. "No, I need fit ponies."
"Ah! On the north side of the corral there's a work crew clearing one of the orchard groves."
The mare nodded gratefully, then turned her back on Fusion, crouched and spread her wings in preparation for takeoff.
"Wait, what's happened?" Fusion cried.
The mare leapt into the air with a mighty downstroke, then shouted back to Fusion. "Accident, reactor seventeen blew. Still searching for survivors."
Fusion stared after the rapidly shrinking shape, shivered, then turned to walk back to her family's shelter. Half way back Fusion slowed her already pedestrian gait and chewed her lip. Reactor seventeen. Packet, a sturdy lemon stallion with a grey and silver mane, was apprenticed to the power distribution centre attached to... She wracked her memory for anything on the layout of the reactor complex... where was that power centre? How many ponies had been hurt -- surely he wouldn't have been near the containment vessel? At least her own father, Helium Flash, was working on number fourteen. That was on the opposite side of the complex, but...
Fusion brought her wings forward and vigorously rubbed the wrist joints across her face, the bone hard under the layer of tiny leading edge feathers. No, the centre was half a kilolength from the six reactors that encircled it; layer upon layer of concrete, composites and magical shielding protecting the central warren of superconducting cables. Unless... had the reactor scrammed as it was supposed to? What if the first set of failures had cascaded down the complex chain of support systems? The energy in the magnetic torus could have been dumped into the momentum extractor, rather than being bled away into the core of soft iron designed to soak it up. From there it was a short step to blow the surge arrestors and... The chain of disasters unfolded at the terrible speed of her imagination.
Shivering, Fusion stretched her wings to their full four body-length span, fanning the big primary feathers to settle them and wincing as the multitude of small muscles in the wing's roots protested. The pain worked, broke the worst of the incipient panic and let her think more clearly. No. Think about it you foalish mare, the chance of that chained failure is so small as to be ridiculous. Fusion refolded her wings and shook her head. ...and we wouldn't be just talking about a few casualties, either. She started walking again, unconsciously chewing on the inside of her lips, the tiny irrational trace of worry sitting in her chest making each step somehow more difficult.
===
Noon found her back at the shelter where Gravity was practicing some fine control exercises with a small pile of food pellets. Fusion settled carefully to her belly -- her burns had been healed, but the memory of the hot metal made her unconsciously cautious -- and watched Gravity move the pellets in slow, careful arcs for a few seconds. She studied her sister, her tongue just poking out the corner of her mouth in extreme concentration. What should I tell you? Would I want to know in your place? It's not like you can do anything but worry. Reluctantly Fusion decided to keep quiet.
"Thanks for staying with me today, Gravity."
"That's okay, sis," Gravity replied, never taking her eyes off the brown ovoids. "Academician Vanca must be pretty powerful among the Masters; mine sent me a revised work order late last night. I'm to stay with you until you are fit to return to the Institute."
Fusion sighed, feeling useless. "I'm sorry, Grav, I never wanted to take you away from your training."
"Don't worry, sis, I need extra practice at fine control anyway, and there's nothing like a bit of solitude to focus the mind. Hey, you know what else was in that work order? My Master says I'm going to start working at the launch site once you are better."
"Doing...?" Fusion felt a pang of unease; more and more ponies had been transferred to the heavy lift launch sites scattered around Lacunae Hive.
"Primary momentum boost for one of the GX10 rapids. That's why I need to brush up on my fine control and multiple handling skills; can't drop one of those kinetic vehicles half way down the tube!"
"I guess not," Fusion muttered, thinking what would happen if a KV touched the tube walls at about half orbital velocity.
===
Celestia was setting by the time Fusion and Gravity's parents returned, the golden orb painting the sky and clouds the colour of molten iron. The first, Plasma Cascade, her cream coat and red mane appearing to catch fire in the light of sunset, flew in from the direction of the Hive industrial zone. She landed smoothly a tenth of a kilolength from the shelter and cantered up to her daughters. Fusion felt a lightening in her chest as some fraction of the irrational fear that had been sitting there evaporated.
"Fusion," she said, nuzzling her neck before stepping back to inspect her elder daughter, her teal eyes shining. "It's so good to see you up and about. How are you feeling?"
"Much better, mother. Still a bit achy, but nothing a few more days won't fix."
"That's fantastic. And you, Gravity... have you been taking good care of your sister?" Plasma turned to face the younger sister with a mock glare, red tail flicking over the curved lines of her labour tattoo.
Gravity giggled. "Yes, ma, although she's been a difficult patient. Fetch this, carry that -- the demands were endless."
Fusion let out an annoyed snort. "That's right, pick on the cripple. When does dad get off shift? I heard something about an accident at one of the reactors?" She ignored Gravity's sudden sharp glance.
"Umm, should be now, really. It's true, there was an explosion, I... I heard one of the Masters talking on his communicator." Here she lowered her head, blushing at the memory of doing something even slightly disrespectful to the Masters, despite the desire everypony had to anticipate their wishes. "It was reactor seventeen, they called all of his shift in to work one of the damage control parties."
"What happened?" Gravity broke in worriedly.
"One of the field crystals fractured and the containment vessel was breached. Unfortunately the fail-safe... failed and one of the engineering bays was flooded."
Fusion winced; with the reactor at full power -- they all seemed to be these days -- and with the fail-safe down the induction heaters would not have shut off... Only a fraction of the full power output, but enough to superheat the air in the engineering bay.
"How many casualties?" she whispered.
"No Masters, fortunately, but five ponies had to be euthanized."
"Only five? Well that's a relief." Fusion sighed, it could have been far worse. "Do you know who they were? I think there's a few from our corral working on number seventeen."
Plasma shook her head. "The reactor crew is still working and the damage control parties are probably still sorting through the wreckage. We'll find out if some ponies don't come back, I guess..." The older mare trailed off into silence, eyes focused on some distant scene only she could see.
Behind her there was a thump as Gravity sprang into the air with a single mighty downstroke. Fusion craned her head around, wings twitching with the unconscious desire to join her sister in the sky. She watched as the dusky blue filly spiralled up to meet the larger turquoise and blue stallion. For a hundred seconds or so the two ponies tumbled through the failing light, chasing each other around the clouds in an impromptu game of tag. Finally it got too dim and both ponies, breathing hard but looking cheerful, came in for a landing.
Helium Flash, flicking sweat from the four joined circles of his labour tattoo, stood next to Plasma, their wings over each other withers. He studied Fusion intensely before nodding to his elder daughter.
"You are looking much better, Fusion," Helium said. He cast a sidelong glance at his mate. "I guess you've told everypony else about your day already, huh?"
Fusion pushed thoughts of the accident to the back of her mind, smiled at her father and started to talk.
===
The following day, Fusion, her sleep patterns thoroughly disrupted by over sleeping the night before, awoke long before Celestia rose. She lay there silently for a few seconds, enjoying the warmth of her family as they all lay together on the floor of the corral. By the dim light of a distant orbital heliostat she carefully extricated herself from under her father's wing -- he'd never been able to break himself of the habit, even though Fusion and Gravity were nearly the same size as he was -- and stepped carefully to the edge of the shelter. Behind her came the quiet noise of feathers sliding together as Helium unconsciously shifted his wings to cover his now exposed flank.
Fusion leaned against one of the composite pillars holding up the edge of the open sided shelter, her breath steaming in the cold predawn air. Looking up, she traced the arc of the debris ring, a dense scattering of twinkling pinpoints, as it tracked across the perfectly black dome of the sky. This time only one of the two moons, Luna, was up. It sat a third of the way up the sky to the east, shedding a cool silver light from the narrow illuminated segment. Fusion stared at the cratered sphere; even without using a simple atmospheric lensing spell she could just make out the geometric shapes of the various installations on its surface.
Off in the distance was the main source of light at this hour; one of the Hive's collection of heliostats adding extra daylight hours to a farm somewhere over the horizon. The big orbital mirrors were invaluable for boosting yield, even if they were occasionally retasked at odd hours and tended to briefly bathe the corral in brilliant sunshine in the middle of the night. She couldn't see where the light was being sent, but some was being reflected back from a collection of giant puffy clouds in unnaturally neat rows just outside the heliostat's light path. Tiny darting points of light marked out ponies of the weather team keeping the small storm system ready for a dawn downpour.
Stepping out from under the roof, Fusion tentatively accelerated to a gentle trot, feeling her muscles complain but knowing this was the quickest way to fully recover. She kept to the perimeter of the corral, away from the normal -- and noisy -- gravel tracks, heading for the Church. This building -- one of only three with actual walls, the others being the facilities feedstock bunker and the infirmary -- was pyramid shaped and made of a stone so dark it seemed to soak up the light even in the middle of the day. With only the silver glow of Luna and the distant heliostat for illumination, it looked like a hole in the fabric of the universe. A portal to some infinitely black dimension.
Fusion walked along one of the twenty length sides of the structure, pausing to run one hoof across the polished surface every so often until she came to row upon row of small grooves. She couldn't read them in this vague and uncertain light, but she knew what they were. Names, hundreds upon thousands of names. All the ponies born in the corral and successful enough to be Blessed and to earn their labour tattoos. Soon, somewhere on that wall, Gravity would be carving her own name. Fusion sighed and stepped back to stare at the triangular silhouette.
===
The forest of legs, each tipped with a sharp hoof, was quite intimidating when you only came up to their knees. Fusion kept between Helium and Plasma, her parent's bodies a shield against the press of excited adults. She reared up, balancing unsteadily on her hind legs and beating her stubby wings in a vain attempt to see over the backs of the crowd. Failing to see any more than the briefest glimpse of the black pyramid, she butted her head into her mother's flank.
"Mommmy I can't see, I want a carry!"
"Oww! Fusion, please don't do that," Plasma moved one cream wing down to rub the spot her daughter had hit. "Your horn is getting quite sharp, you know."
Fusion pouted then hung her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to -- but Gravity is getting a carry and it's not even her day! I want to see!"
"You're too big for a ride -- none of your school friends are getting one, don't you want show them how grown up you are?" Plasma's head swung back up as she looked round the crowd, then came back down to Fusion's level. "There's nothing to see yet, anyway."
Fusion looked up at where Gravity was sitting on her father's back, legs dangling down either side of his wing roots. The little dusky blue filly looked down at her, grinned and stuck her tongue out to blow a silent raspberry.
Fusion turned back to Plasma. "Pleeeaassee?" she said, letting her ears droop and widening her eyes in a normally successful pleading expression.
"No, Fusion, no riding." Plasma's tone had flipped from amused to stern, then she smiled to take the sting from the words. "In the Maker's name, filly, stop looking at me like that, you'll rot my teeth. Tell you what," she said, seeing Fusion's face fall. "I'll keep a look-out, and when the Master arrives I'll lift you up, deal?"
Fusion's frustration faded and she smiled. "Deal! Higher than Gravity?"
Plasma laughed and hugged the white filly to her side with her wing. "We'll see. Now why don't you trot off and find some of your friends -- but come straight back as soon as you hear the music start, okay?"
"Okay!" said Fusion as she dashed away, her fear of the equine forest forgotten with the promise of a good view. She threaded her way through the milling legs, eyes, ears and nose searching for any sign of her friends.
The dozen or so families with foals just starting to come into their magic were all grouped together near the middle of the crowd, so it didn't take Fusion long to catch a hint of the cinnamon-and-burnt-sugar odour of Random Walk. Ears forward and eyes searching she caught a glimpse of a green flank through a gap in the adults, the hip marked with a broken bone labour tattoo.
"Spiral Fracture!" Fusion called out.
A green mare's head appeared above nearest adult's back, ears questing for the source of her name. Seeing the white filly, the adult took a few steps to squeeze past some of her nearest neighbours, then lowered her head down to Fusion's level.
"Hello, Fusion dear, are you lost?" The head cocked to one side, the tightly braided white mane swaying back and forth like a pendulum.
"Naw, I was looking for Random. Can she come and play?"
"Hmm, okay. But mind you come back before the ceremony starts -- it would be a terrible if we kept the Master waiting." Spiral's ears flattened and she shivered at the thought of this horror. She backed up a little, nudging the purple stallion in front of Fusion until he noticed her and side-stepped to let her through.
A few paces further in and Fusion caught a glimpse of a figure her own size. Random had her head down and was staring at the grass with an expression of long suffering boredom. Before they could get any closer Fusion butted Spiral on the flank -- this time with the side of her head rather than the front -- to attract the mare's attention.
"Hold on, I want to surprise her," Fusion whispered.
Spiral's ears flicked up and she grinned, then shuffled to one side to let Fusion pass. The filly walked slowly up behind the tan coated Random, placing each hoof with care, before holding her breath and leaning over the black spiky mane to place her mouth right next to a drooping ear.
"Hi Random, watcha' doin'?" she said in a bright voice.
The response was everything Fusion had hoped it would be. The filly jerked away from her with a shriek, legs going stiff and wings flicking out in surprise.
"Gotcha," Fusion laughed, pushing a wing full of feathers out of her face. "You're it!" she cried, then pranced off while looking over one shoulder.
Random's expression went from shock to joy in an instant, then she pawed the ground with one front hoof and charged after the white filly. For the next few minutes the pair darted through the crowd, much to the good natured annoyance of the adults, the hunter and hunted switching places every few seconds. Along the way they ran into Packet Switcher -- literally, the lemon colt had been watching their progress and had gotten close enough to pounce on Fusion as she swerved to avoid one of Random's lunges. All three ended up in a heap, almost knocking an orange stallion -- too engrossed in a conversation with his neighbour to notice their approach -- off his hooves.
"Sorry, mister," Random squeaked out between gasps, not looking sorry at all.
A look of annoyance crossed his face, vanishing when his ears flicked around to catch the first notes of the great horn booming out over the crowd.
"He's here!" the stallion said excitedly. "You foals better get back to your parents if you don't want to miss the ceremony."
"It's our turn today," Packet said proudly, untangling his legs from the two fillies and standing as tall as he could.
The stallion's eyes widened. "You'd better hurry then. Off you go -- no more playing, go on, shoo!"
The three foals exchanged slightly panicked looks, then split up to head back to their respective parents. Fusion threaded her way to the half remembered location only to find her mother coming the other way.
"Ah, I thought if I headed towards a disturbance I'd find you! Come on, you've nearly missed the Master's arrival," Plasma said, turning and breaking into a trot.
Fusion cantered after her mother's swaying red tail, back to where Gravity was bonelessly slumped on their father's back. The great horn had stopped now, replaced by a more complex melody on small wind and stringed instruments. Fusion caught a glimpse of four objects as they flicked past, just over the heads of the crowd.
"Mommy, you promised!" cried Fusion.
Plasma, gazing off at something Fusion couldn't see with a rapt expression on her muzzle, jumped and turned to her daughter with a smile.
"So I did. Hold still now." Her horn flared with a white nimbus and a similar glow enfolded Fusion, lifting her up level with her mother's head. "Oof, you're getting heavy!"
Fusion snorted; she'd seen her mother lift a whole tree trunk without apparent effort. She opened her mouth to reply, but her mother was already staring back into the distance, her whole body leaning forward in anticipation of... something? Fusion looked in the same direction, but could only see a tiny black dot.
That must be the Master, she thought. She tried to copy her mother, but after a couple of seconds decided she'd rather watch the display team. Now where are they...?
Four ponies swept over the crowd in complete silence, so close that Fusion could have counted belly hairs if they weren't going so fast. She gasped at the skill; the square formation was so tight that their half folded wings almost completely overlapped. Reaching the black pyramid the square abruptly broke apart, the leading pair shooting straight up in a V while the trailers darted sideways at ground level in opposite directions. All four left behind short-lived contrails as careful magic supercooled the air in their wakes.
The four display ponies curved around and darted towards the pyramid again; just over its tip they curled up into a vertical helix, wingtip vortexes blurring their trails into a single thick column of fog. Maybe five hundred lengths above the ground the column met up with the black dot, now grown to a smooth egg-shape a half dozen lengths across. The ponies broke apart in four separate directions before curving round to encircle the hovering vehicle in an intricate aerial dance.
Fusion cheered and clopped her hooves together, her joyful squeaks drowned out by the roar of the crowd. Overhead the black egg started to descend, heading towards a notch cut into the upper surface of the pyramid.
"Are you ready?" Plasma whispered in Fusion's ear, mouth so close it tickled the long, fine hairs around its edge.
Fusion swallowed, throat suddenly dry as she realised she was going to have to go out in front of everypony. "I..."
Plasma nuzzled the side of her daughter's neck. "Don't worry, you'll be fine -- and we'll all be here with you. It's a bit scary at first, but when you are Blessed it's... it's... wonderful." Her voice trailed off and a dreamy look flashed over her face for a few seconds.
Fusion nodded jerkily as her mother gently let her settle back to the ground.
"Come on, let's go," Plasma said, shaking her head to clear it. She draped one wing over her daughter and they both walked to the front of the crowd.
Soon, Fusion was standing with Random, Packet and a dozen other foals of a similar age. All were slightly twitchy, casting nervous glances back to their respective parents. Off to one side, the five ponies playing the array of stringed, wind and percussion instruments reached a crescendo and abruptly fell silent, just as the pyramid's big doors flew open.
===
Fusion's memory rewound back to the present and left her standing in darkness before the wall of names.
"Will I be up there someday?" she said softly into the darkness.
Fusion frowned. There was something odd about that long forgotten memory. She could recall the game of tag before the ceremony and she could recall the party afterwards -- but the actual time inside the Church was nothing more than a blur and a feeling of unfocussed awe and joy.
Brow furrowed, she probed the memory of that day, struggling to remember what had happened inside the black pyramid.
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Ch02 is up. Two minor edits on Ch01: explanation on what a 'length' is (it's the body length of a typical Master) and an extra sentence right at the very end to give it a better finish.
How did a story like this go unnoticed for so long? And then show up on EqD out of nowhere!? Looking promising so far, I like the premise, and the dialogue definitely seems to fit. Keep up the good work!
I really hope that "Ch 2 (v49)" doesn't mean version 49... that's a lot of editing...
Seems like 1984 kinda... They're obsessed with the Masters...
"Plasma Cascade, her cream coat and red mane appearing to catch fire in the light of sunset"
cream coat and red mane? wait a second... Fusion's mother is pony Lauren Faust!
I'm getting a slight Tripods vibe from the Church and the Blessing... And that's a compliment, of course!
Very intriguing story, so far!
Fusion Pulse: White coat, pink mane. She becomes Celestia, named after the sun.
Gravity Resonance: Dark blue coat, crescent moon labor tattoo. She becomes Luna, named after one of the moons.
They're sisters. Fusion is older. Calling it right now.
Wow, that's a lot of alicorns.
I wonder what happened to that other moon.
are the masters supposed to be the diamond dogs? sorry, it might seem stupid, but thats what i thought of when i first read their descriptions.
2443951
I'll never call them that, but yes, they are.
Also: welcome!
wait, that is...
squee I get it! (And now there are so many things to notice, like their names, and their mother's "cream coat and red mane" :D )
Well, that opening stuff. It's quite interesting. It's clear kind of what you are going for though still just a tad confused on just what "The pattern" exactly is. But, interesting enough overall to just make you curious not frustrated.
We've all been there on some mornings. Granted, not many because they spent the day before getting blasted with the high energy discharge of a particle accelerator. Good thing she wasn't supposed to go to work given how had it was just waking up.
And more proof of how evil "The Masters" are. Since THAT kind of panic over this sort of thing, only really applies when there is some kind of really heavy conditioning making the subject think this way. And just, more wondering why? how? Where is this going? (Yes I have a general idea, but still. )
And, more questions. What? Is that how they are controlling them? Is it like the Lysine thing from Jurassic Park? Some other form of control?
Ohhh so they still get cutie marks, even if it is called, well, that... interesting. Also, Gravity's cutie mark story, able to move objects in space, just like that.. while still that young.. her CM.. no not foreshadowing at all. But really well done. And Fusion still a blank flank....
.. then suddenly disaster. Again really nice. Seems that while they do just see them as tools, they do at least take SOME care of them, since the whole medical rest means no work... better then certain other things do "Cough*Navy*Cough*. And really relate to Fusion's worst case scenario anxiety, I'm always doing things like that. Working out what the worst case is, then trying to use logic to prove that isn't what has/will happen.
Same with not telling someone when there is no proof anything worth saying has happened, and noting they could do but worry.
And more world building. More pieces of just what this world is like, but only hints. What are they? Why? How do ponies work with them? More and more hints of something big going on in the world, but the only viewpoint we have is rather small. Though, the little hints will just keep [piling up till the peices come together. Love this sort of thing. Having stuff added so little by little, so casually, it just makes the world feel more real to me for some reason.
Like this, more hints of something odd going on, the "these days" meaning, something changed. But what? Also, again more insight into how the ponies think with this scene. The very thought of maybe some random "master" they'd never heard of being injured, horrible. And that none were was a great thing. Some pony they personally know might be dead. Barely more then a "Well, that's to bad." But still signs of more going on in their heads then just that.
Next bit. So they have a church? That, is really interesting. And getting a labor tattoo makes them "blessed"? Also, seeing that even now Ponies still control the weather. OR at least can exert some control over it. So, why? How? More and more questions bout how this all started.
And it seems even here, we have some version of the Wonderbolts. Nice. Also really nice description of it.
DUN DUN DUN! And, not going to place bets against that being the start of their conditioning. Or having something to do with that,.
Overall, another great starting chapter. Giving us a good look into how the ponies live, think, just seeing their everyday life, as well as more hints of the greater world. Then the flash back, more hints of of just how.. not right.. their lives really are. How the Masters are using them. More mysteries set up, and even bigger desire to find out what's going on. All while setting up a really in depth feeling world.
((And hopefully this isn't to much.tend to get in that habit after doing to many really in depth liveblogs of fics, but, only ones I find a lot worth talking about, such as this. Hopefully next chapter won't be so long before I get to it.))
I have to be a bit contrary and say that I, thus far, don't find the 'masters' to be directly evil. Uncaring to some degree, certainly, but they seem to treat the ponies as beasts of burden, or at best pets, in which context their attitude is not so strange or malicious.
Similarly the ponies reverence for their masters is not dissimilar to how dogs can view their owners, though there is clearly some conditioning going on to have the same reaction in a sentient species.
Maybe it's genetic considering the ponies were manufactured. Will be interesting to see how things progress from here.
I feel like the action details are a bit too... well, detailed. This was most apparent with the aerial display put on by the ponies at the church. Oh well, it's a minor gripe. For now.
Also, I bristled when I saw
CelestiaFusion having to eat out of acanbowl like a regular workhorse, and the idea of being 'blessed,' if it's what I think it is, leaves me sick.Would you rather be in a world run by discord, where you aren't a slave, but absolutely nothing makes any sense? Or would you rather be a slave in a world controlled by rules and discipline?
5436586 How many casualties?" she whispered.
"No Masters, fortunately, but five ponies had to be euthanized."
"Only five? Well that's a relief." Fusion sighed, it could have been far worse. "Do you know who they were? I think there's a few from our corral working on number seventeen
"Well that's a relief." In our world if a police dog dies we treat it as if a prime example of the force had passed, here the ponies are more like light bulbs.
I was expecting this to be a bit more life The Giver or something.
5673232 What is your theory on the meaning of blessed.
6378135 idk about pauls.. but i think they do something. to ensure control.
I feel a disturbance in the force. It must be Fusion.
You know, there is something to say when her intuition automatically compares "commotion" with "Fusion".