Invite her to the meeting 46%
Twilight wasn’t the only one who would be attending the meeting with Apple Bloom in bed. She felt well enough to walk around after a good night’s sleep, but Fluttershy insisted she needed to wait at least one more day before she would be allowed to move again. For Applejack, the time would be far longer.
At least her friend finally seemed relaxed. After all the struggling she’d done, Applejack rested back in the cot, wincing occasionally when Fluttershy arrived to change her bandages. “I guess there’s no chance a’ reattaching the leg, is there?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Didn’t… refrigerate it or whatever…”
“Cutting it off was the whole point, unfortunately,” Fluttershy said, her voice soothing as she worked. “But Spike will have a prosthetic ready by next week. He seems to think you’ll like it—they’ll be using the same designs that Node made for itself.”
“Great,” Applejack said. “That’s great. I’m sure he’ll do… just fantastic.”
The radio on Twilight’s lap squawked, and a familiar voice came in over the line. “We’ve got everypony ready,” Rainbow said. “You medical ponies ready?” Of course on some level the question was really just politeness. She had no better way of silencing their thoughts from her mind than she had the day before. She was too weak to do experimental magical research, but that meant she couldn’t get away from another pony, radiating constant pain towards her every moment.
“Yeah,” Twilight responded, twisting the volume dial all the way up for Applejack’s benefit. “Apple Bloom, your sister is here too. She’s with me in medical.”
She held out the mic towards Applejack, who leaned towards it. “Hey sis. Just… thought you should take the load off yer back and all. Seein’ as I made it. No harm done.”
Apple Bloom’s response was a little delayed, shaking with pain and discomfort. “I… don’t know if that’s quite true, sis. Your leg, uh… finished growin’ in here. I dunno what it is now, but it left about an hour ago. Crawled out. Never seen that happen before.”
“That’s not good news,” Rainbow Dash said. “Everypony, listen up. You’re all armed from now on, all times. Also, full lockdown on every door. I’ll increase security on medical, in case it wants to try and find Applejack.”
“We might not…” But Twilight wasn’t transmitting. And she realized she probably didn’t need to. “Apple Bloom, I’m sorry we need to have this conversation with you remotely. I’m sure we’re working on… something? Fluttershy?”
“Biohazard-3 level protection should do it. We have a few suits of that grade on the Equinox.”
Great, we’ll have to go on a trip. Maybe I’ll go alone as soon as I can walk. No voices up there.
“I dunno if it’ll be necessary,” Apple Bloom said. “I’m pretty sure it was the, uh… cocoon… that got my sister, not me direct. I think if I got real clean, I shouldn’t be contagious no more. But I… don’t know fer sure.”
“You don’t know what it is?” Twilight asked. She tried to keep her voice flat, hoping the pony wouldn’t sense her disappointment. “That’s the first question we need answered, Apple Bloom. Where did your infection come from?”
“Orbit,” Apple Bloom answered. “There’s a ring there, I’m sure you must’ve seen it comin’ down. Facility there is… more advanced than anythin’ Equestria ever saw. Like… hard to even imagine how most of it works.”
She spoke for nearly an hour, describing how she and a small crew had been sent on an incredibly rapid ship of a class she’d never heard of before. Lots of physical description of the ring after their landing, how it lacked even a single occupant but every system seemed to be working perfectly.
“My security pony, Bulwark, he found somethin’ we thought might’ve been a communication device. We were hoping we might be able to talk to the ones who owned the place, but… instead it blasted him in the eyes. He just…” her voice went quiet, shaking. “Melted. Metallic sludge chased us through the station. Posy Bloom went down halfway there, melted just like Bulwark. Iron Horse and I got back to the ship, headed straight down to the planet. Wasn’t hard to pick a landing spot, with this place so pristine…”
“So you don’t know what it is?” Rainbow didn’t even try to mask her frustration. “How’d you know to cut Applejack’s leg off?”
“When we landed—” she went on. “Some of it must’ve followed us. Or… got onto the outside of the ship. It was crumbling all around us. The computer went all crazy, started…” she went silent again for a few moments. “Iron Horse and I made it out in a rover. But it was on his back leg. I… I amputated. We made it into the building. This place.”
“We never found another body,” Twilight said, though of course this story wasn’t what interested her most. Some hint at what waited above them was certainly worth knowing, but not as important as the question burning in her mind. And even if she was here, she wouldn’t be able to see what Apple Bloom was thinking and just know the truth. She was one of the silent ones.
“He, uh… I was never trained in medicine.” She was obviously crying now, even over the radio. “He didn’t make it more than a few days after the amputation.”
Applejack took the headset from her. “It’s okay, sis. You did yer best, I know ‘ya did. I’m sure yer friends wouldn’t blame ‘ya neither.”
“I blame me,” Apple Bloom said, her voice going cold. As cold as a digitally distorted voice could, anyway. “Nothing followed us into the building, but when I buried him… I think there was something in the dirt. Metal slime… got me. But it wasn’t as fast as the others. I… made it up to the place you found me. Opened the stasis chamber, and… well, now I’m this. Whatever this is.”
Twilight took the microphone back. There was one question she needed answered, one that had been lost in Apple Bloom’s eagerness to describe her immediate mission. “You came from Equestria, then?”
“N-no,” Apple Bloom responded, after a few seconds. “Not directly. The Solstice sent us. And the Far Star sent her.”
“Okay…” Rainbow Dash again. “Pretend we’ve never heard of either of those.”
Rarity responded before Apple Bloom could. “What really bothers me, dear, is the timeline. Maybe you can clarify some things for me. You were only a few years younger than your sister, now perhaps you’re a decade or so older. But how is it that Sunset Shimmer’s cryo-pod was underground three and a half centuries? Was she part of your crew as well?”
“Sunset Shimmer? She’s… here? But that’s not possible! The Solstice should’ve been—” she stopped dead, voice sinking into despair. “The captain’s dead, isn’t she? That’s why you’re asking me all these questions.”
“No, dear,” Rarity continued. “She’s still in stasis. She’s the only one on her pod who made it, I’m afraid.”
“Wake her,” Apple Bloom said, voice confident. “I was sent way ahead to scout. I don’t know if Equestria made it or not. She can answer all your questions better than I can.”
“What do you mean, ‘if Equestria made it’?” Fluttershy asked, the first time she’d ever used her own radio during the entire conversation.
“Ask her,” Apple Bloom said, her voice bleak. “I… don’t want to talk about it. Sunset might have good news, so getting it from me… just ask her.”
“Alright,” Twilight said. “We will. In the meantime, I’m going to have somepony send you something to write with. I want a detailed report—everything you remember about your mission. When you were sent, why you were sent, your goals, every member of your crew… every piece of information you remember.”
“Alright,” Apple Bloom said. She didn’t reply again, not even to Applejack’s comforting reassurances. Twilight couldn’t exactly blame her.
Meanwhile, Twilight had to decide on her crew’s immediate priorities.
1. Begin an immediate evacuation. Apple Bloom just informed us of potential danger we’ve been avoiding this entire time. Whatever attacked her might be here right now, hibernating and waiting to reawaken. The Memorial is no longer safe. Time to return to orbit.
2. Wake Sunset and Interrogate She’s not getting any safer frozen like that. Besides, knowing what happened to Equestria is the most important thing. Our deaths are nothing, but if the homeland is danger, that’s what we need to know.
3. Leave Sunset Asleep, don’t overreact. Cozy Glow’s orders came from someone called ‘S,’ and Sunset has always been ambitious. She might be the pony responsible. We can always Lie to Apple Bloom and tell her we need to revive her on the Equinox or something. As soon as I can walk, I’ll visit her and talk through a shield. She’s going to share what she knows.
(Certainty 225 required)