20 - Knife Edge
Days of Wasp and Spider
by Luna-tic Scientist
=== Chapter 20 (remastered): Knife Edge ===
Chaos flitted through the subterranean polities that wormed through the skin of the world. With its failure to get the servitor to react in the desired manner, it had decided to return to its normal methods of little tweaks and manipulations of individual bipeds.
Everything seemed to be in place; the latest efforts at greater economic cooperation between Baur and Saro Hives had stalled again after Chaos had influenced intelligence analysts on both sides towards distrust of each other's motivations. This, combined with the multi gigasecond history of bad blood each Hive harboured for the other, had pushed both chief negotiators into more hard-line attitudes. Chaos suspected that it would be many rotations of the world before it would have to act again.
Despite its relativistic thought processes and near instantaneous methods of movement, Chaos didn't have complete knowledge of the workings of each Hive. Spending too much time in these cluttered environments risked Guardian involvement, so it was highly selective, remaining close to the seat of political power. This time, however, it chanced upon a meeting between a scientist and one of the Baur decision makers it kept tabs on.
In as of itself, this was not unusual. The odd thing was the sudden sense of familiarity it felt while flitting through the scientist's mind. The automata were operating on it in the same manner as they did on the servitors; a constant, low level modification of its brain function. Chaos stopped for a closer look; there seemed to be a small crystal lodged within the braincase, tied to a chunk of solid state circuitry. It reached out to examine the design of the crystal in detail, rifling through the scientist's memories as it did so.
This new development was unsettling. The crystal interfered with the biped in exactly the same way as it had observed for the servitors. It worked to constrain the biped's thought processes, to force it into certain attitudes or suffer the activation of specific brain areas connected with disagreeable physical sensations. A side effect was to render Chaos' manipulations unworkable; just like with the servitors, any attempt to modify the biped's thoughts would probably result in terminal disorder within the organic network supporting the mind.
Was this aimed at it? Chaos was suspicious; had the bipeds developed this tool to prevent its control of them? Did they know about it? Realistically, there was little they could do to endanger it that didn't involve all six Creation Stones -- but if this was combined with their automata suppression techniques, there was a chance they could render it helpless against a wandering Guardian.
Chaos relaxed as it realised the flaw in this line of reasoning -- if they truly wanted to protect themselves from it, their policy makers would have been the first to receive this modification, and this wasn't so. Curiosity roused once more, Chaos unfolded the copied memories within itself, moving away from the Guardian infested world so it would not be interrupted while trying to discover the reason behind this action.
No sooner had it started, then there was turmoil within the high orbital spaces. Something had the automata stirred up, and they were reordering themselves to focus on orders coming from a distant spot on the planetary surface. Abandoning its half completed examination, Chaos moved to investigate the area, and for the first time in its existence it was stunned almost to thoughtlessness. The servitor that it had tried to manipulate still hadn't been driven to take its revenge on those controlling it, but it had done something extraordinary.
It had managed to remove the automata's influence, and teach Chaos' own techniques, to another of its kind.
The opportunity here was tremendous -- a single pony couldn't hope to do everything Chaos wanted from this high risk project; but to have a pair of such creatures under its influence... It watched, fascinated, as the automata swirled around the pony, even executing Chaos' frivolous orders to alter the appearance of its mane and tail, although with a twist that seemed related to the new pony's particular skill set. It even started to taste the same, that haunting similarity with the Creation Stones -- although that realisation caused Chaos a moment of worry. Always with the Stones were the Guardians.
There was something else, something it hadn't noticed with the first one, but became painfully obvious when it watched the pair together. Both were connected at a deep level with the automata influencing the higher order systems within the bubble -- the Flaw and gravitational constant manipulation. These were key mechanisms within the universe, and Chaos wondered for a moment if had created a new set of problems for itself.
Its concerns about the Guardians proved well founded; all too soon Chaos was forced to move away from the ever increasing density of the aggressive automata. Unwilling to risk another close encounter, it retreated, returning only fleetingly to check on its project.
===
Fusion awoke with a gasp. For a moment she lay there, staring up at the ragged hole in the canopy, and wondered what she was doing here. Confused, she rotated her hips to roll onto her belly, hissing as her back complained and a multitude of aches and minor injuries made themselves known. Then everything came flooding back and she moaned in distress, all the physical pain fading to insignificance.
Climbing gingerly to her hooves, she took one look at the broken branches and leapt upwards. The pain made a quick comeback, jagged spikes in her back, neck and belly that stabbed her with every movement. Gritting her teeth, she cleared the tree-tops, casting around for any sign of her sister. There was nothing there, not a hint of blue, even with her shadow sight. The pain became unbearable and Fusion glided in to a landing, collapsing in an undignified heap when one of her forelegs gave way.
"I should have realised she'd react like that," she said to the empty trees. "What am I going to do now?"
The mare stretched each wing and leg carefully, trying to ease the stiffening muscles. It's all over, Fusion thought, glancing up at the darkening sky and wondering how long before it was filled with black airtrucks. She'll report me, she has to. She tried to plan, tried to think of something she could do to recover from this debacle. Her mind was blank, thoughts galloping off in a hundred different directions at once. What will they do? she wondered. The quickest answer would be to order everypony in the corral to restrain her, but it was still relatively early and there were very few ponies here.
They'd have to fly ponies in, she decided, or blanket the area with one of their thaumic suppressors and send in normal troops. She shivered, feeling sick. Would they even wait? Why not just target her directly with some precision weapon? Gravity would certainly pay a heavy price for doing the 'right thing'; subjected to another Blessing or simply shot out of paw when they decided they couldn't take any chances.
"I should have just followed her," Fusion whispered, "why did I try and grab her?" In the desperation and panic that followed Gravity's rejection of her plan, the mare had thought that if she could just get her sister to stop and listen for a few moments... Could I really have stopped her if I wanted to? she thought. She knows almost everything I know. At that close range the fight would have been nasty and probably ended up killing them both, as a spell could easily carry on operating even after its caster was incapacitated.
The mare realised that she'd been lucky, very lucky. If Gravity hadn't been so upset she might have had the presence of mind to focus her telekinesis, rather than use a crude, wide shove that had all the sophistication of a foal. With all of her sister's skill and newfound power behind it, such a strike could have smashed ribs or broken her back.
Fusion looked down at her communicator and knocked it off her fur with a quick flash of magic. She had no idea what the thing was capable of, apart from being a conduit for work orders. This was the main reason she'd used the sharing as a method to show Gravity her memories, rather than just use an illusion. It took magic to use the little bronze disk -- to actually send messages -- but she was certain it couldn't read her thoughts. Otherwise they'd have caught me days ago.
A nasty thought struck Fusion. There was no guarantee that it couldn't act as a camera or microphone, though; even if Gravity somehow decided not to turn her in, if the mare talked to herself...
She wrapped the disk in a cocoon of magic, watching it through her shadow sight. The little gem flickered and flashed as the device examined the thaumic signature of the field holding it, trying to decide if it was from the right pony. It had probably already sent a signal to somewhere, Fusion realised; removing it wasn't actually forbidden, but there was an expectation that you'd put it back on as fast as possible.
Floating her communicator up to eye level, she examined it closely. I have to know, she thought, manifesting a small force field disk through the plane of the device. The gem went dark and there was the acrid smell of a battery shorting out. Fusion lifted off the upper half of the disk and examined the interior.
The force field cut had left a perfectly smooth surface; if it wasn't for the little wisp of smoke spiralling up from the broken superconducting battery, it would have seemed possible to get it working again just by putting the halves back together. Fusion poked around with her magic, carefully pulling out components until she'd completely emptied the casing. Arranged in the air in front of her, she identified them one by one.
"Superconductor, that's the antenna, so that must be the transmitter, once magical gem--" Another chunk of solid state circuitry, this one attached to the bottom of the little gemstone, rotated as she inspected it. "--neural net simulator to actually activate the gem... and that's it." Fusion breathed a sign of relief. No camera, no microphone, and only one gem. As far as the mare knew, the Master's crystal thaumic technology was single function; one gem, one magical ability. That gem was a telepathic transmitter, so could not operate as, for example, a remote clairvoyance anchor.
"Safe," she said, "for now."
Stacking the components back in the shell as best she could, Fusion repeated what she'd done to the Institute's accelerator, although at a much smaller scale. The pulse of power would undoubtedly be detectable, but she'd planned to explain away her communicator's destruction like that anyway. "Will they believe me when I tell them I took it apart to see what was wrong with it?" she muttered to herself, then shrugged. Against the other risks she'd taken today, this one barely registered.
Fusion spot welded the case back together, hooking the disk back on to the fur at the base of her throat. Staring down at the thing for a long second, she lifted her head and limped away from the corral, determined to get as far from the other ponies as possible.
===
Gravity kept climbing, wings pounding the air while her flight magic damped down her mass to a level that would be unreachable by even the best weather team flyer. She shot upwards through the clear air, trying to escape from the madness below her. Mind in turmoil, she ignored everything until the demands of her body penetrated her confused state.
The air up here was thin, thin enough that, no matter how hard her lungs worked, the mare couldn't seem to catch her breath. Exhausted by a combination of stress, exertion and oxygen deprivation, Gravity stilled her headlong flight, coasting to the peak of her trajectory on half folded wings. She'd never before been this high, and the view was startlingly beautiful. Only the most vague outline of the ground below could be seen, a picture of lakes, mountains and forest, blurred by the sheer mass of atmosphere in the way. The sky above was a deep blue, far deeper than at ground level, and the curvature of the horizon was clearly visible.
Celestia hung in the sky, half way down from the zenith, a blazing disk made harsh by the clear air. Gravity turned away from it, staring instead at the half illuminated shape of the largest moon, Luna. In the dark sky it shone a delicate silver, ready to cast its gentle light when the sun finally set. The blue mare kept her eyes on it as she reached the top of her arc and started to fall, the shape seeing to swim as tears welled up in her eyes.
The distorted world was replaced by the stark memory of her sister's face, mouth stretched into an 'O' of surprise as the pulse of kinetic magic struck her, white body tumbling as she crashed through the branches and out of sight. Gravity felt a pang of doubt. How hard did I hit her, did I hurt-- The thought cut off, replaced by a flash of hate at what Fusion had done to her, changing just as rapidly to despair at the empty feeling inside her own head.
What am I going to do? she thought. She knew what she should do, of course, what she should have done the instant she'd realised that Fusion had betrayed the Maker and the Masters. She turned her thoughts inwards, horn glowing slightly as she activated her communicator. The machine bleeped in her head, indicating that it was ready to record her directed thoughts. Her mind flashed up an image of the big surgical robot back at the institute; the open maw of the thaumomagnetic resonance imager surrounded by its specialised, insectile mouthparts. Memories of her nightmare almost overwhelmed her; the horrible dream of ponies being eaten by the machine.
They'd want to study Fusion in detail.
"No!" she screamed, then killed her magic and dropped the connection. Pulling her wings in she fell towards the ground, teeth clenched as she willed the Maker to punish her for this appalling act of betrayal.
There was nothing, only her own guilt, and her anger at Fusion for what she'd forced upon her. The rapidly building wind matched the howling emptiness in her head.
She'd been falling for a seeming age, watching the ground approach -- at first imperceptibly slowly, then faster and faster, expanding like a well-thrown rock just before impact -- and willing her wings to stay at her sides. It would be so easy to do nothing, to wait until it would be too late. A brief flash of pain and it would all be over.
She couldn't do it. Her traitorous body acted to save itself, wings unfurling a little at a time to turn her plummet into a controlled dive, and then into a gentle arc that swung her back into the sky, trading velocity back into height. What she really needed was time to think without interruptions, as well as time to rest her suddenly aching left wing.
A near-by cloud bank provided for both her needs; it was an outlier of a storm system that was being kept as a reservoir, the clouds destined for distribution to the nearby farms when they needed the rain. She could see part of the area weather team a few kilolengths away, busy carving out one puffy grey cloud for transport, but there was nopony nearby. Gravity settled onto a high point and watched the distant pastel specks flitting around the bulk of the cloud mass.
At least they know exactly what to do, she thought. Weather team work was some of the hardest a pony could do; you could be called on at any time and there was the constant risk of lightning, but there was no doubt in their lives. Gravity rested her head on her forelegs and stared blankly at the hypnotic dance of the distant ponies, wondering what she should do.
===
"Hold still," Spiral Fracture said, "nearly got it..."
Fusion tried to remain still, but the stretching sensation around her left eye was becoming unbearable as something that seemed to be slightly larger than her own head was being forced into her empty eye socket. There was a sudden firm push and the thing slid home, making her face feel puffed up and lopsided after the few days she'd spent without an eye. She winced and Spiral released her, letting the lid slide shut over the prosthetic.
"Let's just give it a wash. Blink when you feel the water. Tell me, what happened to your chest?"
Something filled with cool liquid was cupped against her eye; tilting her head, Fusion rolled her eyes and blinked rapidly, relishing in the soothing sensation while she tried to come up with an answer that would satisfy Spiral. It was too much to ask that she wouldn't notice, she thought. "I flew into a tree."
There was a pause, and Fusion could almost see the disapproval in the other mare's expression. "I thought it might be something like that." Spiral's tone became gentle. "You need to adjust to the reality of the situation, Fusion, and pay much more attention to where you are." Another pause, this one accompanied by odd sparkles of green from her good eye, as Spiral using her magic to inspect her work. "Good."
The cup was removed and Spiral passed her an absorbent pad. Fusion dried her eye and, after blinking a few more times, looked back at Spiral with a wan smile. "Thank you. How do I look?" she said.
"You look a lot better," the green mare said, horn glowing as she crafted the startlingly realistic illusion of Fusion's head in the space to her right. "No longer lopsided."
Fusion stared at her doppelganger and twisting from one side to another, watching as the projection did the same. She'd been intellectually prepared, had seen the globe before it was inserted, but to actually have it in her head... The thing was a featureless white, giving her a genuinely creepy appearance. She closed her eyes and looked away. "Turn it off," she whispered, the sight bringing back memories of a little black knife held in a brown furred paw.
Spiral gave a quiet sigh. "I'm sorry, but this really is the best I can do for now. Talk to Needles when he's off shift. He does good work and will be able to match your other eye so well that you won't notice the difference. I'm sure your Masters will give you the time."
"I'm sure they will," Fusion echoed mechanically.
"It's not connected to your muscles, so you'll need to use your magic to move it in step with your other eye, when you get it coloured."
Fusion nodded, but her mind was on other things. She'd spent kiloseconds out in the most distant orchard groves, waiting for some sort of Security response, but there had been nothing. As much as she'd wanted to, there was no way she could stay away forever; even now it probably looked suspicious that she'd taken so long to report her communicator was broken.
Then there was this appointment at the infirmary.
The return visit to let Spiral insert her prosthetic eye was worse than the first; at least that time she hadn't known the truth about Random's condition. The other mare had heard about her visit to the Security Hub, and had asked after her daughter. Telling her the truth was impossible -- having seen the state she'd been in the day before, there was every chance it would drive her into punishment fugue. So Fusion had spun a tale about conditions at the Hub, how the ponies were well, but being kept isolated while they were being thoroughly tested.
Spiral had smiled, actually smiled, at the news. Fusion had felt almost physically sick at the hope in the green mare's eyes, and refrained from commenting when she'd wondered out loud when her daughter would return.
Finally the painful visit was over and she was able to leave. By this time Fusion had already reported her communicator damaged, and had received a rather terse automated order to remain at her shelter until a replacement could be sent. This seemed promising -- she'd half expected to be met by a gryphon assault team -- but there was still no sign of Gravity, and the waiting was getting to Fusion. The mare paced in circles around the facilities hub at the centre of her family's shelter, wanting desperately to do something, but unable to take the risk of direct action until she knew what her sister would do.
Fusion settled down amid the wood chips and stared out across the corral. The fact that she'd not been detained or otherwise attacked after all this time had to be a good sign; if Gravity had told the Masters what she'd done, they wouldn't have wasted any time in coming for her. They'd know she'd managed to remove the Blessing from one pony, would know the process was fast and could be replicated easily. This would be their worst nightmare; a slave revolt that would spread like a virus through the vital populations of servitors.
Chance would be a fine thing, Fusion thought glumly. If the reaction of Grav was anything to go by, anypony that had been Blessed for more than a few years would be extremely resistant to change. I'm going to have to keep anypony I do this to prisoner until I can be sure they have lost the conditioning. This would be an almost impossible task; even with her strength she'd have trouble holding more than a few without risk of harm. And they'd hate me for it.
Not for the first time, Fusion wished this burden had never passed to her. She could see no way out of this trap that didn't end in mass casualties for pony and Master.
She tried to turn her thoughts away from that unproductive line of reasoning, before she managed to convince herself to attack the Security Hub and spirit away Random and the foals. I could save them, but how many others would die, and where would I hide them? Worse, although the foals would trust her, Random would try to escape. She'd have to stay with her until she could be convinced to stay put. Would I though? The Masters have put her through a lot, perhaps she'd be easier to convince than Gravity?
Gritting her teeth, Fusion looked inwards to her memories of the second accelerator run. Those clear, crystalline thoughts that weren't her own sat in her mind like ice in water. She'd not had the chance to really examine the thoughts -- in truth she'd been a little afraid to, afraid that the mere act of remembering would somehow contaminate her -- but now seemed to be a good time. Nothing left to lose, she thought.
The little kernels of thought were as she remembered them from the beam chamber. Tentatively, she investigated them, growing bolder as nothing untoward happened. They were all magical techniques and methods; some she recognised as order-of-magnitude improvements of things she could already do, some she thought she could interpret based on spells she'd seen other ponies cast, but the rest...
She picked one of the more complex spells, puzzling through the mental patterns that made the casting's structure. Some sections were familiar -- this part, for example, was similar to basic telekinesis, although far more complex and apparently fractal in nature -- others she could only guess at. The pattern was intriguing, though, and had the benefit of distracting her from other thoughts.
Over the next few kiloseconds, Fusion worked through the intricate, interlocking shapes, taking them apart until she had some idea of the purpose of the whole magic. What she found left her stunned, but with no alternative explanation for the spell. "Moving without moving," she said to herself, "a way to shift things from here to there without crossing the intervening space."
Such things had always been theorised, but there had never been any viable experiments to test them. Fusion got to her hooves and wandered to the cold store, deep in thought. Picking out a small apple, she levitated it in the air and stared at it, then placed it on the ground and stared at it some more. The spell was unreasonably complex and highly customisable, with several areas that appeared to be designed to be changed for each casting. There was something familiar about two of the areas, almost like...
"It's another memory," Fusion said, a smile spreading across her muzzle, "it's a memory of a place." Two parts of the same room, each at slightly different locations. It made a crazy kind of sense; all the crystalline thoughts appeared to be related to ways for her to escape the particle beam, this was just the most esoteric. The mare was familiar with teleportation on a quantum scale; even though this wasn't a tunnelling phenomenon, the effect was the same.
Which made the integrated memories the start and end points. Fusion looked at the apple with renewed interest.
===
Fusion blinked as a large blob of apple puree fell from the ceiling to land on her the end of her muzzle. Fortunately, it had been a small apple and the mess was mostly confined to a small patch of the ceiling and floor. She'd been standing between the explosive fruit and the facilities hub, so at least wouldn't have to explain that to Slipstream.
The first test had not gone well. The energy requirements were not enormous, but it did require a lot of concentration. Fusion's control had slipped mid-cast and, while the apple had successfully blinked out to appear a length to the right, it had returned as a rapidly expanding cloud of mush. After she'd cleaned pulverised fruit from the floor, ceiling, and her face, the mare picked out another dozen apples and trotted out to the orchard.
She settled down at the same secluded spot she'd used for her disastrous attempt to convince her sister, placing the apples in a line in front of her. The first two went the way of her initial attempt, blasted to pulp by some inconsistency in the exit coordinates. The third just vanished and never came back; Fusion wondered if some Master was now looking at the piece of fruit in puzzlement. She shook her mane to rid it of clinging fragments of her other experiments and smiled savagely. More likely he'd be trying to get it out of his fur, she thought. Four and five reappeared, but were distorted in unpleasant ways. Number six looked perfect.
Fusion sheared the apple in half, her hopes rising, then slumped back as she saw the interior had been reduced to charcoal. Seven, eight and nine looked perfect, inside and out, as well as tasting fine once the mare worked up the courage to take a bite. She looked at it thoughtfully, tempted to try the spell on herself, but worried about subtle damage to the structure of the plant's cells.
Casting about, she located a small beetle crawling up a nearby tree trunk. "Sorry," she muttered, plucking the insect from the tree and placing it on the ground. She cast the spell and the insect disappeared with a tiny flash of white light, reappearing half a length further way. It paused briefly, then carried on walking, apparently none the worse for wear.
Fusion stared at the little insect in delight; this spell opened up a whole raft of possibilities -- as long as she'd been to a place, she could get back to it. Assuming it works for larger creatures, she thought, well, the Maker-thing thought it would. Everything else it had provided had been accurate, so she had every reason to assume it would.
"Look at it this way, filly," she said to herself, "you want to try this when a security airtruck has you in its sights?"
She called up the basic mental pattern for the spell, carefully modified it to match her experiments, and applied the mental trick everypony learnt in foalhood to convert the pattern into reality--
~~~ discontinuity ~~~
--staggering, the mare collapsed, hitting the leaf-litter with a thump. She took a deep breath, coughing suddenly at the eye-watering stench of burnt fur, closing her eyes to try and stop the world from spinning. A few seconds later her dizziness passed and she took shallow breaths, staring in distaste at the blackened patches of hair on her forelegs. From the spots of fading warmth across her back and flanks, it seemed a safe assumption that the pattern was repeated all over her body.
It works, she thought, but I'd be very vulnerable for far too long if I pop out in the wrong place. Still...
Fusion lay there, letting her heart rate subside back to normal, and thought about what the spell hinted at. How the spell actually did what it did still opaque to the mare, but she did have an idea. Existing physics allowed for tunnels through space-time, shortcuts that by-passed the usual three dimensions and would permit near instantaneous travel. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place for Fusion, if she could find somewhere to send them, she be able to get the foals there with little effort.
"That's a good trick, something else you managed to invent just in the last few days?"
Fusion jumped, turning her head to see Gravity standing behind her. Her ears folded back at the hostility in her sister's voice. "How long have you been there?" she asked, suddenly nervous and desperate to know what the other mare would do.
"Long enough. Exactly how did you develop this spell?"
"They--" Fusion broke off, staring at the ground. "I don't know. Something gave them to me, inside my head. I have memories that aren't mine, I could show you...?"
"I don't think I'll be letting you use magic on me any time soon." Gravity's tone shifted from hostility to genuine anger.
"I-I understand, and I'm sorry." Fusion searched her sister's face for any sign of acceptance or guilt, and found nothing identifiable. "What do you intend to do?"
Now there was doubt in the blue mare's eyes. "As much as I wanted to, I didn't report what you did."
"Thank--"
Gravity flicked her wings to interrupt Fusion. "No," she said coldly, "don't thank me. You are my sister, and I think your recent experiences have caused you to lose sight of why we are here. You have an opportunity to do great things for Lacunae Hive... and I'll be watching you to make sure you do. If I think you are acting against the Masters, I'll stop you myself. Do you understand me?" The mare had stepped forward as she spoke, leaning down until she was muzzle to muzzle with her sister.
Fusion cringed back from the cold determination in Gravity's voice. "I understand," she replied in a small voice. If I can't even convince my own sister, what hope is there for anypony else? She looked away, staring at her hooves where they lay on the leaf litter. "I understand, and I'm sorry for putting you in this position." Even if she hasn't reported me, how long before my secret is out?
This was not what she'd hoped for, but at least it gave her some time, time to work on Gravity and maybe remove the Blessing from another pony or two. Somepony that has suffered enough at the paws of the Masters that they will help. With a sinking feeling she knew exactly who she should approach next. It will hurt her so much, but it's the only chance Random has. Fusion's ears, already lowered, flattened further.
Gravity snorted. "And so you should be." For the first time a little bit of warmth crept back into the blue mare's expression. "Now let's go home."
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New plan! It's just like the old plan, only faster. As an experiment I'm aiming for two chapters a month, posted on the 1st and the 16th. We'll see how it goes...
Poor Celestia...
2436323
Good luck. Don't kill yourself for our sakes.
Now, for the chapter itself... Huh. That's my average reaction. Chaos is understandably concerned over servitor conditioning used on other species, but why would the Diamond Dogs do that to their own? Punishment, perhaps? Meanwhile, Gravity sees Fusion's point, however reluctantly. After all, if she didn't she would've sent her sister to the Masters not just willingly, but lovingly.
As for Fusion, she just got handed teleportation. And nothing else in the universe (except Chaos) knows how to do it. That is potentially huge. I look forward to both to what she does with it and what other escape routes she was given.
reBlessed or simply shot - blessed again sounds better in my opinion, reBlessed sounds weird.
once magical gem-- - one magical gem
That was a rather short chapter, I have to say.
"The crystal interfered with the biped in exactly the same way as it had observed for the servitors. It worked to constrain the biped's thought processes, to force it into certain attitudes or suffer the activation of specific brain areas connected with disagreeable physical sensations." so it's a Blessing-in-a-gem, used for political meddling, or what exactly?
Now to see how Fusion works around Gravity for the time being, I suppose. I think she's made it harder for herself by freeing her sister, hasn't she?
2436705
Actually, it should've been re-blessing.
My day got a little bit better just now. I will go on and assume only chance for Gravity is to let time work its course, she should begin to see things from a different perspective and maybe one day something in her mind will click. Im really unsure of how Fusion will save the foals as magical residue(lets say from teleportation )can be tracked, right? Sounds dangerous. As for Random...I can imagine it, but for sake of possibility of being wrong I shall contemplate it alone.
P.S. That little tidbit about scientist made me chucle. They probably have one in every person whose worked on something crucial.Wonder when we invent something alike o-o.
I really enjoyed how you built up the teleport spell. I'm curious though- what's the basis for fandom saying that early teleport spells set people on fire?
Typo catch : "Nothing left to loose" should be "Nothing left to lose"
Interesting, so the dogs can be chipped too. Also interesting to get confirmation that Celestia and Luna have managed to more directly tie themselves to the workings of the universe, which I'm going to assume is their sun and moon connection.
And there's the difference! Thank you Luna for not being a trusting idiot this time around.
There we go, so Celestia got her eye fixed and it was a prosthetic. I like it, it gives her two working eyes but also a reason to commonly keep one hidden behind her mane.
Teleportation! Now there's a useful edge. Youch, gonna have to work the kinks out though, unless pureed teleportation is the goal of course.
Ah, so there's Luna's decision. Not the best, but far from the worst.
2437249 It's from Ticket Master if I'm remembering correctly. When Twilight teleported away from the crowd of ponies chasing her and Spike they were singed on the other side.
2436323
Looks at phone: Yay! New chapter!
Looks at workbench: 50% larger than usual order for surgical cables. Yay, income!
Decisions, decisions...
Combat just got that much scarier. It seems that once a spell is formed, it will do what it was instructed. This makes sense, considering that all the energy / concentration required to create it is done in the casting stage.
And damn did Gravity become cold. Here's to hoping that she does thaw out in a few later chapters, as she's a flippin' ice queen right now. Quite lenient of her, actually, considering that she could have ended Fusion's life by reporting her. (I do find it interesting that she refused to make the call based on the fact that it would kill Fusion. She didn't consider that they'd likely off her as well.)
Interesting.
I was expecting Fusion to wake up, bruised, battered, all-scared up with broken bones, and paralized (courtesy of falling after being blasted); then enter Salrith with an evil grin on her face.
Oh, and if you were having fusion healed, that should've included her eye; no prostetics as it won't do her crap. She has the use both eyes in the show.
Hahahaaa~! YES! It makes me so happy I don't have to break
youranybodies legs today~!Okay, I can't be the only one who thought the joke chapter was not only really good, but would have been a great direction for the story take. It shattered the audience's expectations and would have been a clever way to solve the whole 'Fusion has to defeat the entire world'. Maybe the author has something else equally clever in mind instead, we shall see...
You taught me a new word in the first sentence.
Also, am I alone in noting the similarities to
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Georg_von_Rosen_-_Oden_som_vandringsman%2C_1886_%28Odin%2C_the_Wanderer%29.jpg ?
All Gravity needs now is a hammer. A big one.
2439184
A meteor hammer, to be exact.
Great Fusion just made a secret enemy of herself. It reminds me of the Phoenix Wright series I've been watching lately like one of those crucial moments where if you make a mistake you lose a lot of health (take a big penalty), meaning that Fusion has to be really careful and be really sure not to make Gravity to angry at her before she makes her move.
More good stuff! I do hope fusion eventually gets that eye fixed properly, though from the tone of some of the comments, I have the sinking feeling it won't be.
I hope Gravity comes around soon, though even with her, you've underlined the stark difficulty of the odds they face in trying to rebel against such omnipresent conditioning.
I'm actually a bit worried about Fusion approaching Random. Yes, the masters are being complete dicks to her, and she has every right to hate them. At the same time, the way they are being dicks to her is via extreme loyalty tests - and so far she's passed.
I loved the teleportation. Neat description, perfectly fitting, and yet another unexpected weapon in her arsenal - and she's going to need every advantage she can get.
Great characterization for Fusion and Gravity; their thoughts and actions were believable and interesting, while still making for dynamic interactions. Chaos was interesting as well, including the bit about some other dog being controlled. I'm not quite sure how that fits in yet - I don't recall a previous mention (though that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one). For now I've filed it away and am waiting to see how it'll fit into the larger puzzle.
I imagine she is going to figure out a way to save the foals, at least temporarily, but I'm dreadfully afraid she's going to tip her hand if she does so.
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Who says that one of those eyes isn't a fake? The prosthetic just has to appear like her other eye, and we'd never know.
2436705,2437210
Fair point, I think I'll switch it to 'subjected to another Blessing'.
'once magical gem' is actually correct, as in 'a gem that was magical, but isn't now because I've just cut it in half'.
A bit shorter than the current average, but then I have been spoiling you all!
2437249
Loose/Lose always gets me, thanks. Twilight's 'emergency teleport' in Ticket Master had that same side effect (considering all the things that could go wrong, that's pretty minor!).
2438180
I've got to give the mare a break sometimes! In this fic, ponies/gryphons fly by lowering their effective mass, thus fall /impact damage isn't as bad (there's an old saying: cats bounce, a man breaks, horses splash... I'm hoping that's not from direct observation!)
2441685
Geronimo!
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Another couple of weeks out of the basement -- makes all the work worthwhile!
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I'm glad you liked it! The downside to following that path would be that I'd have stopped there, and that would have been it. Planning on this story is a bit like driving towards a mountain; I can see the peak above the clouds, but the exact route is hazy. We (me included) shall see...
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Polity is an excellent word. It's been pointed out, yes. Complete coincidence (nothing new under the sun!). Also, I think I can arrange for Gravity to get a hammer -- one big enough to smash a world.
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Interesting point about Random (is it bad of me to admit to not having even thought about what's going to happen there?), although obviously she is aware that they are tests, even if they are causing her to lose track of what's real.
===
Thanks for the comments everyone, double thanks for any speculation -- immensely valuable as always!
2441798
Yay for less stress~!
Well, several months ago (before I registered on this site) I read your story up to chapter 6 and for some reason I thought it wasn't on this site, thought it had been inactive for some time, and didn't try to track it down to make sure. Well, I found out differently; reading binge and here I am! This is some amazing sci-fi interpretation here.
I do confess to one curiosity that has plagued me since I started reading, though: where did you get the title?
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That must have been a nice surprise -- I've had that myself (what do you mean it didn't end at book three!?). How did you find it again, after all that time?
I'll need to reread that bit of #17, but by the looks of it I was thinking hours, so I suspect it should be 'a quarter of a megasec' (one megasec ~11days). I'll fix that; good catch.
So, in order...
There were other ponies in the bunkers, just not many.
Fusion's death: Strictly speaking they don't need her alive, only intact enough to show the World Court audit team, should they come a-knocking; the scientists want the examination (and a brain scan always works better on a living subject).
Lethal force: no matter what the high-ups want, I figure the actual teams on the ground would respond aggressively if one of their own was being stomped. It's probably really hard to quickly stop something as big as a horse with handguns built for human-scale targets (thus the hail of gunfire).
I can see I'm going to have to clarify the bit about Gravity -- she died during the first volley of shots; just unlucky to catch a stray round in a critical place. Considering what would have been in store for her, you should consider it a kindness.
The title: it's a phrase I've had knocking around my head for years, and is actually a metaphor (although one so vague I don't think anyone could work it out from first principles).
It goes like this. In September we're yet to have any frosts, so all the insects have had a whole summer to get big. We get a lot of big wasps and spiders at this time, so this is their 'day' -- but what they don't know is that winter is coming, and it will kill them all. So for the Masters, these are their 'days of wasp and spider'. Make sense?
...it's not a 'spoiler', I tagged it just in case someone wants to try and work it out...
Anyhow, glad you are enjoying the show!
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How I found it again: I forget; if you haven't been featured in the last couple months then most likely I saw it in someone's favorites.
Fusion: That explanation would be perfectly sensible if it was the initial capture, but this was prisoner transport. Surely they'd have weapons appropriately scaled to the prisoner! And most likely nonlethal (along with lethal).
Gravity: What with her useful powers over the satellites (and, for all they know, eventually more), I would have thought she'd be the last pony they'd abandon to the cold ... or torture to death.
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Valid points, and some of that will become clear in the next couple of chapters.
Nonlethals: There was, sort of. I'm sure there was a backup control unit for the shock collar somewhere, but Salrath was arrogant enough to take her away from the main body of the security forces. Ponies have always been totally obedient; there's a certain inbuilt assumption that they will obey and are no threat, producing a certain amount of decision paralysis when she does start stomping Salrath.
As for Grav's possible fate -- although it might seem like torture, it's still research, and as far as they know she's no more talented than any other servitor, except that she may have been 'contaminated' by Fusion in some subtle way. They'd probably never trust her again.
2482174 Well, in reference to the "sun goes out" timeline, when Gravity was confessing everything, I figured that would include her connection with the orbital bodies (unless I'm misremembering the sequence of events), and that her confession would be recorded -- if not, Salrath would obviously have been in no position to tell anyone about it. Once that information filtered up to the decision makers they would want to use her.
I would be surprised if her abilities ('specially in light of their plight) didn't outweigh their concerns about her loyalty; they would obviously want to keep an extremely close eye on her and the status of her Blessing, but they would also have ample ability to do so.
2482235
She would have said that, yes -- although she doesn't really know what that means (never having had the chance to actually do anything), and Salrath certainly wouldn't have believed her.
When the sun went out there would be absolute panic; they would certainly keep Gravity as the only one how might be able to do something. Could she do it? My feeling is probably not, given the extreme pressure (as far as the other Hive s are concerned, this is Lacunae's fault; there would be war) that would be applied and the fact that she has no idea what to do. It wouldn't be a life I'd want to live, I think.
2486737 Being the only one who can possibly save the world -- only you can't? Yeah, that would be rough. [edit: (And my feeling was the same as yours.)] I thought you were implying something else by "death was a kindness" -- I stand corrected.
...Does Korn have a chunk of [whatsit] wand stuck in his head? Oh my gawd. That is brilliant.
Who needs sleep anyway? Overrated stuff, you ask me.
...so you're saying she'll need to practice before trying this on a pony.
Okay, kind of odd the story skip from chapter 18 to chapter 20, hope I'm not missing anything with the missing chapter.
A few things from the last chapter. I really did rather like what was going on with Gravity, her reaction. It makes sense. She's seeing all this, having her world shattered, it's going to cause a bad reaction. But it's not like the older ponies, who are completely incapable of thinking outside the Blessing. Given time to cool down, to actually think it over, she could come around. This is just a shock. Fusion had time to deal with this, she made these observations herself, gradually. Saw these things, worked them out one by one. Gravity has them all thrown at her at once, it was to much. So yeah, now to see what makes her come around.
That said, Gravity connecting to Luna, is odd. And just, really makes me go "huh?" Simply because of how Fusion did it. That it required Chaos to cause the link. It just, seems at odds between the two things. Even more so given my existing issues with what cause Fusions mane and tail to become what they do. And yet Gravity's, just does it on her own. Much like Fusion's, IMO, should have. So just, odd bits that kind of stuck out to me. Though wondering if we'll see something from Chaos' perspective showing he had a hand in that somehow.
And what do you know, right in with Chaos, alright let's see what he did.
Huh, so he really does have a short attention span, which makes sense given what he is and how fast existence passes for him. At least he's done fucking with Fusion, at least till she does something that draws his attention back to her.......
wait, WHAT!? They do this to each other as well? They have ways of placing The Blessing, or at least something similar on anyone? What!? That, that is extremely creepy, twisted, and yet, kind of makes their treatment of ponies just a tiny, itty-bitty, subatomicly small bit less horrid for them. If they simply see this kind of thing as perfectly natural, even to do on other "Masters". Though if they can do this, why not place the tighter control on the Griffons? Or is it simply they don't see the need to? That Griffons are controlled enough through conditioning that they feel safe, as well as a griffon going rogue has nowhere near the ability to fuck shit up as a pony who does? That they simply feel they could easily handle and crush a griffon uprising, while knowing a pony one would end them?
Huh, and of course Chaos thinks it's direct at him because it effects him, which does make sense, he doesn't understand what else it could be for, or why. Also, so their thaumic suppression systems also effect him? Damn.
And also, easily seeing the reason why it isn't, and that's a good one too. Now to find out just what the hell is going on with it.
Orrr not, gee I wonder what is going on?
(And if we'll find out just what was going on with the Master with the control spell on him.) Now to see how bad Chaos fucks with Fusion this time.
Okay a whole lot of really good stuff here. Chaos had no hand in Gravity making the connection to Luna, or gaining the powers she did. The mane and tail.... bleh, yeah you know the drill, but at least it wasn't him doing it personally, just a side effect of his first bit. But, and this is the real
part. Chaos didn't give Fusion her connection to Celestia? And had nothing to do with Gravity's connection to Luna? And, CHAOS, the thing that best understands the fundamental forces of how this verse works, is impressed and worried over just how connected they are? Holy shit! And, you managed to add back some mystery, some, well, magic, to things. Something extraordinary, and beyond understanding. This is getting really good. (Not the story, that's been beyond really good for a long time.) Also... "Chaos wondered for a moment if had created a new set of problems for itself." 
Oh you have NO idea.
Edit: Wait wait wait, rereading this and noticed something " gravitational constant manipulation." WHAT!? Is, is that saying what I think it's saying?
Wait, one more thing I just thought of, he mentions how Luna is a major part of the basic working of the world. And it's role, but, if it's whole roll is that of, well The Moon to us, then, what is the purpose of the other one? We already know there is something odd about it but... this just adds to the 'What?' factor.
And over to Fusion, not Gravity.... really want to get into Gravity's head and see what the hell she's going to do. But, nice to see that while Fusion's hurt, it's nothing serious, just some bruises and sprains.
Yes you should have. But, it's also understandable why you rushed. But yes you should have taken it a lot slower, helped her work through it herself, like you did. Used some different memories. Or better yet, show her the memories, without comment. Just let her see everything you did, without trying to explain, let her come to her own conclusions.
He, hehe...
heh... yeaaaahhhhhh... let's... not go there again.
And yet, even more showing just why Fusion is so damn amazing a character. Yeah she bucked up, big time. She made a mistake, acted without fully thinking it through. Which is great, she's not perfect. And why she did what she did, is perfectly understandable, it's not her holding the Idiot Ball. She was simply to caught up in her emotions, things were happening to quickly for her to have time to think. And yet, as soon as it's over, she immediately sees where she screwed up, what she did wrong, works out what she could have done better. So if something like this happened again she'll have the right answer this time.
Ohhh fuck, and, given how much else they record... though.. if that was the case, thing would be even worse now. There has to be SOME limit to just what they can keep track of. But again, once she's calm and has time to think, she is damn good at coming up with things, figuring out a plan, and working out every possible issue she can come up with and dealing with what she can.
wait....
Well, this is it, good luck passing that off as something you'd do if still 'Blessed'.
Very very short 'now'. Given hard to hide your breaking the damn thing.
Okay then, I underestimated her. Glad to see she has a plan, though, walking away from the Corral, and not reporting right away after something like this, is going to look suspicious. Then again already under suspicion so, yeah you're already screwed, it's just a matter of how long you can hold off. And how long it takes for Gravity to come around.
Aaaand speaking of, finally, let's see what's going on.
And just, that description,
Beautiful. So good.
And, love this. That much emotion, that much inner conflict, all there, and, just how great it's done. She doesn't know how to feel, she cares for her sister, but, is angry. And, it'll all depend on which one wins out, but, the anger will fade, once she has time to get over the shock. Hopefully. But just love how well done her emotional state right now is, so much conflict.. now to see if she's as good as Fusion at calming herself down and thinking things through.
...................................................... NO, BAD PONY!
And, well, that... that is... okay not 'good' per se but.. the fact she'd rather kill herself then betray Fusion. It's... a good-ish.. isgn, that, eventually, she'll get through this, and be there to help her sister. But yes, Time to think is what you need. Work it out, you are smart, you'll see the problems, see she is right.
Well, we've seen how resistant ponies are to that so, just a really messed up mane cut for awhile, no big deal (though yes I'm assuming it's actually worse here.) But that second part... the doubt.. that.. that is. Again you manage to find just the perfect few words to sum up so much. THAT is the biggest issue right now for her. Doubt. And I completely understand it. Everything she knew has been turned upside down. She was so certain about everything, and now.. having to think for herself.. yes it's understandable, and it's why a many ponies might resist being freed, they are just to scared of that. Such an amazing job and showing this, and so simply.
You know.... I wonder.......... are you? Would you? Huh..........
Ummm, yeah. You REALLY need to start fighting back soon, just to stop the freaking stress, worry, and anxiety of when you are going to be found out. Hurry up story!
But seriously, it's good she's taking the time just, really.. stressful, worrying so much, just, wanting the hiding to be over to stop worrying about it being blown. And, getting closer to the end so... soon... but.. how? Will she do it herself? Decide it's time to end this? Or, will it be Korn or Slatrath removing the option for her?
Just.. keep.. twisting that knife.. no no it's okay.. I didn't need that heart.....
One, good thinking. Again, showing how she while she isn't perfect, can and does make mistakes, it is almost never the same one twice, she learns from them, adapts. Plans. So yeah great job there.
But that last bit.
Okay this is passing coincidence here. I know I keep bringing up how much like FOE this is, but, that's because, you keep doing stuff that fits in so WELL with it. Her knowing this. That it's for their own good, that is IS the right thing even if they don't see it, and willing to do it, to do something they would hate her for, because it is right. Become 'The Villain of the Piece' as FOE puts it. Doing what you KNOW is right, not for yourself, but for others. being willing to accept being seen as evil, as wrong, as long as you know you saved lives. That what you did was right.
Again it's great she's thinking this through. Making sure she has a plan, but, there is a limit, eventually, she needs to act or it will be to late.
And good thoughts.
Ohhhhhhh, and this should be interesting.
Okay. So, the spell needs some refining first. Good thing you tried it out on fruit.
And yet she's learning quick. Ohhh if she masters this..... ohhhh fuck yes.
Again, good. take your time, don't rush things again.
Then again.... but...
Well that could be better, but could be worse. Hopefully she comes around soon but, really... Gravity.... hurry up and... just... seriously how much longer....
Alright, another great chapter, and so much better then... well... yeah... even if it did bring it up. But, more mystery, more hints of even more big things hidden from us. Gravity.....
OH COME ON!. Well, she'll snap out eventually.
But, now Fusion has a plan, has a way to save the foals, keep them safe.. and has the ultimate edge on the Masters. Now, can we just start actually ending the constant worry and, and... yeah Like I said it's more about just wanting to stop having to worry about it then anything else. It is still well done. Just, getting to be a bit... to drawn out? The stress and tension, not the actual story. Reaching a point where.. it might just get to be to much and start sliding into not caring so much. BUT things are moving along now, and getting closer to the end.
Plus, this might just be building up to some huge EPIC moment where Gravity realizes what she needs to do and saves the day.
Well, back on track and, why must this liveblogging make reading take so long and just make me so much more tense? want to just devour the whole story ASAP but.. love doing this too.
Just when I thought the Masters couldn't get any worse, we learn they're using the Blessing on their own kind. this just keeps getting rosier and rosier.
There's not a chance in Tartarus Gravity will last. A day, maybe two, and she'll see Fusion's side of things. It's practically impossible for her not to.
I wish I could use the Blessing. There are TONS of things I'd rather not think about.
I don't remember the eyeball being removed. Didn't Spiral Fracture attempt to repair it, then discover it was too late?
Also, am I correct in thinking that even if a pony is Blessed, they still won't be punished if they don't feel guilt? Because that means that any pony who can simply justify their actions to themselves is fugue-proof. The Blessing would be useless if it weren't for the conditioning taught to foals by other ponies.
Also, it might have been a good idea to show
LunaGravity the thoughts that were given toCelestiaFusion by the "Maker" first. Gravity would have gone along with pretty much anything if it was suggested by someone who's had direct contact with God.8732960
The ruined eyeball was removed at her first medical appointment afterwards, and cleaned, ready for the fake eye the next day