//------------------------------// // Sol 186 // Story: The Maretian // by Kris Overstreet //------------------------------// Equestria never found out the final fates of Angel 3, Angel 4, Angel 5, Angel 6, and Angel 7. Angel 3 made five successful round-trip dimensional hops. This gave the Equestrians a false sense of security, particularly since two of those five were emergency returns from low-magic worlds. The sixth trip ended less than a minute after arrival in the new universe when the local Queen Nightmare Moon sensed an intruder in her eternal night and snuffed it out. Angel 4 likewise returned five times successfully from interuniversal jaunts, only one of which came from an emergency abort. Unfortunately its sixth jump landed it in a universe that had no magic at all in its laws of physics, and it ceased operating instantly, trapped in a solar orbit millions of miles from the nearest planet, never to be seen again. Angel 5 returned safely from its maiden jaunt. On its second trip, unfortunately, it was detected by Empress Twilight Twinkle of that universe, who used her magic to teleport it to herself, deactivate it, and then to carefully disassemble it for proper study. Unfortunately when she reassembled it the probe no longer remembered how to return home, and so it remained in that universe, sparking another Equestria’s exploration of the stars. Angel 6 proved the workhorse of the lot. It returned home seven times, twice due to emergency abort. Once it even detected radio signals from the third planet from the star, but not from the fourth. Sadly, on its eighth voyage it appeared in the midst of a fleet of alien invaders, who swatted the little robot ship like a fly before resuming their campaign of experimentation on humanity. And Angel 7 launched, reached what had been considered safe operating distance from Equus, and took its first- and last- dimensional hop. The ponies never saw it again. Neither did anyone else. It popped back into existence mere meters above the surface of the moon, and a second later it was nothing but metal confetti strewn across the newest of its millions of craters. That was yesterday. Today Princess Twilight Sparkle, Moondancer, and Lemon Hearts of the Equestrian Space Agency sat on one side of a conference table while Queen Chrysalis, Occupant, and Warner von Brawn of the Changeling Space Program sat on the other. “So,” Chrysalis said to begin the meeting, “how long until we get Angel 8 on the pad?” “There isn’t going to be an Angel 8,” Twilight Sparkle said flatly. “What?” Chrysalis slammed a perforated hoof onto the conference table. “We are not giving up on our people, princess!” “This isn’t working!!” Twilight Sparkle shouted right back. “It’s taken us over two months to get reports on twenty-three worlds. Twenty-three. And that’s only if you count ‘this world kills probes’ as a report! If you don’t, make that eighteen. And if you don’t count reports that only say 'too little magic to function', then make it thirteen. One world every three to four days. And only infinity minus twenty-three to go!!” It was Twilight’s turn to hit the table. “I am not wasting our resources on an approach which obviously isn’t going to work!” “Very well,” Chrysalis murmured, a razor edge buried in her candyfloss tones, “and what other ideas do you have?” “We’re just able to use the Amicitas life support link to get an interdimensional vector,” Twilight replied. “But we don’t know the distance along that vector. We need them to send up a beacon- some really powerful spell whose effect will get through the distortion at the dimensional interface and let us triangulate their exact position!” Chrysalis raised her eyebrows. “So your brilliant plan,” she said, “is to have Starlight Glimmer cast a truly powerful spell in a world with almost no magic. That is, of course, the brilliance I’ve come to expect from ponies.” Moondancer jumped out of her chair. “At least we’re trying things!” she snapped. “What have you come up with? What are you contributing to this effort?” “Money,” Chrysalis replied. “Parts. Tools. My subjects. And my piloting skills, which are not insignificant. I am doing my part, Miss Moondancer. And I expect all of you to do yours!” “What- why- why you conceited-“ Occupant leaned over the table, waving his hooves frantically, talking around his buck fangs, “Everybody, please, could we calm-“ “I am conceited because I have earned my conceit, little pony!” “What you’ve earned is a good kick in the-“ And, not for the first time since the loss of Amicitas, inter-agency cooperation broke down, to resume only when all participants were too sore of throat to shout anymore. TRANSCRIPT – WATER TELEGRAPH EXCHANGE, ESA BALTIMARE and ESA SHIP AMICITAS ESA: Baltimare calling Amicitas, over. AMICITAS: Amicitas calling Baltimare, use suit FB for response, over. ESA: Roger, Amicitas. Report on transmutation experiment, over. AMICITAS: DF – SG is lying down. Experiment used one battery, attempted to convert surface of planet within nearby crater to aluminum oxide as per recommendation from Earth. Battery was exhausted after conversion of one-tenth of the crater, and crater reverted to pre-spell composition as soon as the spell ran out of power. Estimate spell will require forty-four batteries at full power to seal the cave plus additional four batteries to make the spell permanent. Our current capacity is eight and a half batteries maximum. By the time we have enough power to cast the spell we won’t need the cave anymore, over. ESA: Understood. Alternatives? AMICITAS: Are there any spells to fuse crystals into a single seamless crystal? Would they require less power, over? ESA: We’ll research it. But can we ask you to repeat the transmutation spell with full power, over? AMICITAS: SG is flat on her back with an ice pack on her horn, Baltimare. Why do you want her to try again, over? ESA: We want a really big spell. We’re hoping it’s strong enough that we can detect it here, over. AMICITAS: CB – We can’t afford to waste magic power on ineffective spells. We need a cave sealing spell that will work with what we can get. Please get back to us on that, over. ESA: Working the problem. Out.