Perseverance and sleeping ponies 37%
Twilight had a bad feeling about what she was about to do.
There was no arguing with the hunger for information in her gut, the quiet flame that had stayed burning since her first expedition into the Memorial. Twilight had been leading this expedition in ignorance for long enough—it was time to rectify the situation.
She started with a trip to visit Node, in the workshop they’d given the machine more to placate it than because they thought they would get anything useful. Node sucked up more fabricator rations than were allocated to the ship’s captain, and was always dumping huge batches of waste parts into the recycler.
But as tolerant as Twilight could try to be, they needed the machine today. She knocked on the door with one hoof, standing straight. “Node, it’s me.”
There was a brief silence, then Starlight Glimmer’s voice. “I am not sure I can receive visitors today.”
The same as always. Twilight grunted, aiming her horn at the locked door. “I’m not asking permission today. We’re all leaving to the memorial in ten minutes. You’re coming with us, and I’m coming in.” She didn’t force the door right away, though—she could wait politely for another minute or so, so Node could rush and finish whatever those sounds of crumbling plastic and sparking electronics were inside. The building itself was really just one of the underground houses, though Node’s lacked an airlock or a tunnel connection to the other buildings.
Then Twilight stepped inside. The stink of melted plastic was thick in the air, along with the harsh ozone of energy. To her surprise, it wasn’t Node’s voice she heard first, but… Rainbow Dash?
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty good. Not as awesome as me, but I don’t think that was ever the goal.”
Twilight lit up her horn in the gloom. There was light coming from the far side of the room, past a wall of equipment. Custom fabricators, not entirely unlike the things Spike had made. Actually some of these looked like those exact units, complete with dragon claw prints in not-quite-hardened plastic.
“I’m not sure the captain will approve.” Node, sounding… nervous? Why would it be?
Twilight sped up, hurrying around the wall of equipment.
There were two ponies on the other side, Rainbow Dash with her uniform and rifle slung over her shoulder, ready for their mission, and… another one.
She—there was no dying a mare’s outline when she saw one—was almost Rainbow’s twin in basic outline, right down to the contours on some of her “feathers.” The entire pony was made of standard molded plastic, with metal joints near the bottom of the hooves and obviously removeable covers on the torso. Twilight didn’t have to guess what was inside the body there—judging by the removed bits of Node’s frame on a workbench, the central “mind” unit was in there, along with all its “arms” repurposed into… legs?
The two of them were frozen, looking more than a little guilty. Node’s “wings” were solid plastic pieces, not even jointed, and they moved more like an animatronic bird than the real thing. But she was able to take a few steps without too much difficulty. The mouth even moved when she spoke, though having a body made from 3D printed plastic machined to the lowest grade, with deposition lines throughout, made her look more than a little uncanny.
“I have to admit, this was not what I was expecting,” Twilight said. “This is what you’ve been using half our plastic for two months to build?”
“I believed it would be easier for me to interface with organics this way,” Node said. “Your procedural bias has been… increasingly obvious. Isn’t this an improvement?”
“You better say yes,” Rainbow said, glowering. “You may notice some similarities. She wanted the best pony ever to use as a model. Can’t blame her.”
“It’s… I guess it’s fine,” Twilight didn’t even know what to think. Unblinking glass lenses for eyes, a face of off-white recycled plastic in layers, a mouth that opened and closed awkwardly. “Do you think you can deploy with us? We’re going to the memorial in less than an hour. Everypony is coming.”
“Yes,” Node answered. “Rainbow already informed me. I will be putting this body to a practical test in a controlled environment. Better the memorial than combat deployment.”
And so they went.
Everypony was in the memorial now, as far as she knew. They would be reviving Apple Bloom first—but thanks to everything they had learned, Applejack didn’t need her help to get her sister out. What happened after that, Twilight wouldn’t immediately witness. She had her own mysteries to solve.
Of all the members of her crew, she had only two companions: Node and Rainbow Dash. She could hardly blame the rest of the crew for not coming. If she had wanted more company, she could’ve spread their missions apart. But she hadn’t—through most of this expedition, edging her way into one kind of investigation often took so much of their time from then on that other avenues were closed. Not this time. Instead of crowding the room with ponies who weren’t needed, they were going to get things done.
“This glass stuff, it’s really cool,” Rainbow said, as they were nearing their destination. She kept her rifle in her hooves at all times, one magazine of real bullets loaded at every moment. But they hadn’t used it, and apparently didn’t need to. “Like… cloud walking, almost. I bet it works in space.”
“It does,” Node said, conversationally. “Not so much for starships, but convenient for permanent installations. Safe enough for micrometeorite impacts, clear enough for a glimpse outside when there is something to see. Useful material. Beyond your chemistry to produce.”
They reached the chair. Twilight ignored the chorus of alien voices even as Node translated them for Rainbow Dash. She already knew their warnings. Warnings that she intended to ignore. It was time for someone to use the chair…
1. Twilight uses the Perseverance. My mind and magic are the strongest, I’m the one most likely to retain their sanity through this.
2. Rainbow Dash uses the Perseverance. Rainbow’s combat experience has trained her to be resistant to torture and mental magic. What I learned in a classroom, she perfected in the field. She’s the best choice.
3. Node uses the Perseverance. Node is a machine, and she’s already outfitted for communication with her creator species Besides, that body is creepy…
(Certainty 220 required.)