//------------------------------// // Chapter 116 // Story: Voyage of the Equinox // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Slow and Methodical 64% If a repair this serious had been on Twilight’s own ship, she probably would’ve jumped at the chance to try something more radical. She had some interesting ideas based on the Signaler tech she’d seen on Proximus B. But in the end, those ideas had to fall away beyond the simple, terrifying reality of what they faced. This was the last of their species. Princess Celestia had apparently died to get this ship here. Luna too, by the sound of it, and Cadence. She could not treat their sacrifice lightly. There was only one way to run a repair like this, and it was by the book. “We’re going to get this life-support system looking better than the day it was made,” she declared. “No matter the cost.” “Fantastic,” Escape Gear said, exasperated. “And I’m going to bring back our dead princesses and give us our home back. Just saying things doesn’t make them happen.” No, but planning does. Twilight Sparkle went to work. Over the next two days, her crew began arriving one by one. By the time Spike reached her, she had a full list of every modification that had been made and how it would be reversed. When Node arrived, it was with dozens of little robots, which certainly didn’t make them many friends with the already-injured shiprats. “This doesn’t look that hard,” Node declared, once she’d convened with Spike for a few silent minutes, turning back towards Twilight. “If we put everything into this, we could get a replacement installed in… two weeks. We’re going to have to completely scrap the exchangers, and of course that does mean fixing the fabricators first. But there’s a ton of scrap material in the docking bay. All those ships are just begging to be used to get our air flowing again. No AIs on them, so they can’t complain.” Spike groaned. “I should probably argue against it on behalf of starships everywhere,” he said, though there was little energy in it. He couldn’t take his eyes from the horrors around them any more than Twilight could. “But I won’t. Mining would make the project take months instead of weeks. I say scrap any ship that doesn’t rhyme with ‘requinox.’” Twilight gasped, covering her mouth in mock horror. “You’re my assistant for all this time, and you try to call that a rhyme?” But before Spike could answer, she felt Flywheel’s grip pulling her aside. He didn’t respond to the others, though he did gesture angerly at Spike when he tried to follow. Twilight shrugged her wings, and let the wisp of a pony lead her way around the corner for ‘privacy’. “What the buck are those things?” he asked, as soon as they were out of earshot. Except that Spike would still have her suit mic and would hear everything, but Twilight didn’t much care about that. “Did you bring aliens onto the Canterlot, princess? The ship we’ve been protecting for centuries?” “One alien,” she admitted. “But that alien has already saved my crew, probably more than once. She’s one of the Signalers. You can’t tell me you trust the signalers to lead us to this system, but you don’t want one on your ship.” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t know or care what the ancient princesses were thinking when they decided we would come here. For all I know, we went this way because it was away from the Hunger and there was a star here. All I know is—the other shiprats aren’t going to like that you have creatures like that in critical areas. Engines, life support, cryo… they’ll probably fight if you bring them near cryo. Protecting the Canterlot is all we have.” “You don’t need to protect it from them!” she called, exasperated. “The other alien is Spike, he’s a dragon! He’s just using another body because his mind is in my ship’s computer now, and it was more convenient for…” But Flywheel didn’t seem the least bit persuaded. “I’m telling you, princess. Maybe in the Equestria you came from, everypony just did what you said without thinking. But here—if you want the shiprats cooperation, then work with us. You might know this station, but it’s our home.” “Fine,” she grumbled. “They won’t go to… cryogenics. But we need to be in life support to fix it, I can’t compromise on that. We have to get the air working before we can fix the rest. You can station your best engineers to watch everything we do, and make sure we’re not going to hurt the ship. I promised, those two are better than I’ll ever be.” “Three,” Flywheel said. “There’s that… plastic pony as well. She could be anything underneath. Keep her away too. The one with the weird leg can go where she wants, we know… our precursors were capable of such feats.” The others weren’t happy about it, that was for damn sure. But repairing cryogenics wasn’t part of their first task, so ultimately the only thing harmed was their pride. The crew works over the next week, making various rolls and accumulating progress towards repairing life support. Is there substantial resistance to the presence of Twilight and the others? Critical yes. Are they interfered with during the first week of work? Yes. Random Event: (Character negative) Twilight Sparkle: The Triumph of Outside Twilight worked alongside her crew for the next week, though there was little she could contribute that the others could not already do. But every set of hooves made the job easier, even if she could only be there to check safeties and levitate carts of spare parts around. It was during that work that she felt the sudden spell—a sudden flash of force, overwhelming her in seconds. She screamed, her horn flashing with a shield spell—but too slow. She was somewhere else. Twilight groaned, moaning with incredible pain. For the moment her mind spun directionless, without memory of where she’d come or how. Then she remembered—the flash of magic, while she was lifting that cart of reaction gas. She needed to make sure the others were okay! Her eyes jerked open, and she sat suddenly upright. Twilight was in the golden oaks, surrounded by the ancient shelves and their real paper books. Her legs hung awkwardly off the side of a bed meant for a unicorn, and her nose was filled with the smell of living wood. The… buck… Twilight paused to consider her options, then… 1. Went to investigate Ponyville 2. Tried to reach the old Castle Relay 3. Went back to bed, she really needs a break from the stress.