//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 // Story: Voyage of the Equinox // by Starscribe //------------------------------// 1. Hydroponics 8/8COMPLETE 2. Repair the prospector 4/4COMPLETE 3. Fully Refuel 20/20COMPLETE 4. Backup Cryogenics 4/4 COMPLETE 5. Replace field equipment 2/2 COMPLETE Mining decouple: complete. 6. Study of communications blackout 2/? “Alright, everypony…” They were stuck having their meeting on the common room table. There were still three prominent empty chairs, and that was part of the reason they were meeting now. Fluttershy had healed enough that she was up and walking now, though her coat still looked faded and some feathers were still missing. She’d taken to wearing a little cap around everywhere, tucking away her ratty mane up inside it. “I’ll go last. Applejack?” The prospector didn’t hesitate. “I done up and did it all. Cryo’s workin’ again, minus not bein’ able to thaw nopony out without the drugs. Fixed up everythin’ I could think of in the landin’ suite that Cozy wrecked. Equinox is topped up with all the gas we would need to turn around right now and go home. If we wanted.” Twilight glanced around the room, but so far as she could tell, none of them did. Even Fluttershy looked neutral at the statement. Her cryo-hangover was apparently over. “How close are we to thawing out somepony else?” “Well…” Applejack’s ears flattened. “Not closer, Cap. I, uh… I noticed we were runnin’ real low on paste, and I alternated crops. I know I should’ve asked, but…” Twilight frowned, but she didn’t actually reprimand her. “How low were we?” “Another month. Enough time that we might’ve been able to grow more before we ran out, assumin’ nothing went wrong. But that just… it didn’t seem like a smart risk, cap.” “Right,” Twilight sat up a little straighter in her chair. “I would’ve made the same call, Applejack. But tell me before you make a judgement like that, please. That’s why I’m here.” There was a brief, awkward silence. Twilight eventually just nodded to Spike. “What about you?” Spike hadn’t been helping with the repairs, not for some time. Twilight just couldn’t look at him mope around any longer, or listen to his constant reminders about the device. “Going good!” he exclaimed, holding up a bit of black plastic in one claw. Twilight could see the glint of little metal prongs on the bottom. “We’re getting our first of these.” “And what the hay is that?” Applejack asked. “Well…” he hesitated. “Something we need to make the next part. I haven’t been able to get it to talk to our computer, even though it should… but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.” “Good work,” Twilight said, doing her best impression of believing it. “Fluttershy? I know you didn’t have as much time as the rest of us. But if you learned anything about Cozy Glow’s Signal translation…” “Yeah,” Fluttershy glanced down at her notes. “Yeah, I have.” She took a deep breath. “The translation Cozy gave you is valid. I, uh… did it my own way, and I…” she winced. “It works.” There was an explosion of sound—mostly from Spike and Applejack. Twilight herself fell into silence, staring down at the table. But Applejack wasn’t willing to just fall silent. “So you’re sayin’ an evil pony who almost killed Twi and Spike and probly me too was right?” “No,” Fluttershy said, but her voice wasn’t nearly loud enough for Applejack to notice. As it was Twilight could barely hear her. “None of our smartest ponies could figure it out,” Spike muttered. “We came all the way out here for something that we shouldn’t… we should’ve stayed home.” “No,” Fluttershy said, a little louder. “We need to pack up and turn around,” Applejack said. “We’re puttin’ everypony at risk. We need to send everythin’ that probe gave us out into space, and fly straight home.” “NO!” Fluttershy rose to her hooves, spreading her wings as wide as they would go. “LISTEN TO ME!” The room quieted. Twilight only kept staring. “First, the message was compressed,” Fluttershy said. “We could be looking at a case of… translation Pareidolia. We like to see patterns and meaning, so we kept trying things until we found some. It might not really be a message. Maybe it really was just spacing, like we thought, and translating into Ponish was just a coincidence.” “So she wasn’t right all along—” But Fluttershy just glared, and Applejack fell silent. “It could be a real message, that’s another option. Maybe it really did mean to say that.” She held up the paper, then read. “Life is not advised. You must changed into constancy. We will perform it.” She settled it back down. “That could mean all kinds of different things. I don’t know how the Signalers learned how to speak Ponish, but maybe they didn’t learn too well. The stowaway pony told you they thought it meant one thing… but it could mean something else. There are lots of ways to interpret that message. Or maybe the Signalers don’t even know Ponish that well, and it’s not what they meant.” “Which do you think is most likely?” Twilight asked. “I’m going to trust you on this, Fluttershy.” “Well…” she hesitated. “I think it doesn’t make sense as a threat. Even if it’s a real message, which I just can’t be sure… why? The Signal taught us how to come here. That means they have their own Starships. You saw a probe that could do things nothing built in Equestria ever could. If they wanted to hurt Equestria, they could’ve just done it themselves. And while we were still weak, without any way to come back and fight if they lost. “In Equestria, we couldn’t translate the Signal. But we did have a behavior profile for the Signalers. The translation doesn’t match their profile.” She pushed the sheets away. “Until I talk to them some more, I’m positive Cozy is wrong. But… that could change all the way around and the next thing they tell us could prove me wrong and really you should just ignore everything I said because the Signal was really just one of my hobbies and—” Twilight silenced her with a wing. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I agree with you.” “Me too,” Spike said. “I’ve been building a Signaler machine for a long time now. They’re really smart—I think they’d beat us in a second if they wanted to. If they did, we wouldn’t be talking.” “I ain’t countin’ us out just yet…” Applejack began. “But yeah, I agree. Cozy’s as crazy as a screen door on a starship.” “Then we continue with our mission,” Twilight declared, and her voice echoed through the little dining room with finality and confidence.