//------------------------------// // Gauntlet of Firestone, prologue. // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 6 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 6 By TDR Gauntlet of Firestone, prologue. [One month after the royal Canterlot Astrologers Guild went on strike.... again... Mid fall, Ponyville, Seshat] “Alright that looks good. Are you sure the other towers are calibrated?” Sunset asked. “Look I supervised the damn things going up, everything is to the specs you gave.” Aria snapped. “My crews did exactly what you told us, so if there is an error it is on your end.” Saturnia added. “Look can you blame me for being nervous here. Aside from a few tests this will be the first time this has been fired up fully. I've got it routed through the table here as so far I've only been able to build the two PCs with the parts I can get here. My tablet's not powerful enough to be a hubcap. and I've not even got it rigged to use the tablet's frequency just yet anyway.” Sunset offered. “I don't think it's called a hub cap.” Aria pointed out. “Do I look like I had time to go to computer engineering school while I was over there? “Sunset offered.” Hell, with how many years you were there didn't you get a computer engineering degree?” “Field changed too fast and money was always fairly tight for us. I took courses of stuff that was mostly stable. With a different curriculum every month and with how fast computer stuff was changing I didn't have the time or cash to take that many classes. Particularly with how stupid pricey they got.” Aria explained. “School was expensive?” Saturnia questioned. “Not so much public schools for kids, though those were getting there as the people in charge cut funding to them, but college was almost a scam at the end with how expensive everything was and how hard it was to get a grant or a loan.” Aria grumbled.” Just while I was there it went from being able to get a job with minimum wage and pay for your tuition and other things, to needing to work four or five jobs just to afford the books, let alone the classes." "That is ridiculous. How did anyone get the training they needed to to be productive members of society if school was behind a paywall?" Saturnia frowned. "Most didn't, they worked menial jobs until their bodies gave out then either died, had to go on welfare, or became homeless. I met quite a few people like that my first few months there." Sunset frowned. "Any way if we keep talking about all the problems that place has we'll be here for weeks." "Agreed." Aria muttered. "Keep in mind though Sunset what you saw was the end result, we watched it happen real time. That sort of slow building suffering didn't help anyone." "Alright, I've got four things to send through today, a standard text, a file, a image file and a live audio file. Moon Dancer is on the other end and knows to respond back." Sunset offered. "So what's the hold up?" Saturnia questioned. "I'm trying to think of the best line to send through on the first text of this new system." Sunset frowned. "If you do that stupid Wazzzzup thing I will tear the system down myself." Aria grumbled "Tempting but no, this is a momentous occasion. I had several choices, I needed something important and impressive. I was just choosing which one." Sunset hummed as she typed something in. The other two looked at the message and sighed. "So you asked Rahs." Saturnia smiled. "So I asked Rahs." Sunset chuckled as she hit send. [Crystal Empire] Moon Dancer looked at the screen with Cadence, Shining Armor and Chrysalis looking over her shoulders as Sunburst tried to keep the foals from destroying the system. "So what's the message?" Chrysalis asked. "What did Sunset send?" "All the worlds a stage, and all the mares and stallions merely players. They have their exits and entrances; and one in their time plays many parts." Moon Dancer read. "She asked Rahs." Shining Armor confirmed. "Seems so." Moon Dancer replied sending the confirmation message back. [Ponyville] "Alright. they got it. response time is acceptable levels for the Beta test." Sunset nodded. "Alright time for the data dump." "The Sparkle's book?" Aria asked. "Yep." Sunset offered and hit send." Just the prologue though, Moon Dancer has to check through it for errors and that was the quickest thing." The sound of hooves drew the attention of the three to the two mares entering into the room Starlight and Tempest entered and looked around curiously. "Well she's not in here." Tempest frowned." Did you check the lab?" "There is no way in Tartarus I am going near that lab." Starlight shook her head, “Besides I thought she would be here. Have any of you seen Twilight?" Sunset frowned. "Come to think of it no, and she was interested in seeing this set up. Got confirmation on the file. I'm sending the image file now." "Picture of Rahs?"Aria sighed. "Of course. An image immortalized in history." Sunset cackled. "More points to me for this one." "Come to think of it i figured Rahs or Spike would be here to see this, Spike was rather interested in it too." Saturnia offered. ”Something about being able to play O&O with Shining again.” "Hmmm, Seshat have you seen any of them?" Tempest asked. "All three of them left at the same time this morning. About five am. I am not sure where they were going but Twilight was mad about something and Spike almost seemed to be sleep walking. Rahs was simply worried." Seshat offered. "They headed for the train station, but past that i don't know." "That's worrying." Starlight muttered. "Yeah, but this could be a Celestia prank, and i want nothing to do with that." Saturnia offered. "Fair enough." Tempest frowned. "I was going to check in the the Guard post anyway, I over heard talk about a few ponies that were supposedly missing, including a couple of foals." "Hmm. Let us know if you find anything out Tempest." Saturnia offered. "I'll see if we can't put together another Changeling search party if there is an issue." "Right." Tempest offered trotting off. "Okay so this is the last thing, a live audio file. Moon Dancer's going to time the song as she receives it and I'll time it here. That should let us know any lag issues." Aria looked at the record." This is the one you picked? Not much a fan of pop, but it's not bad." "There's far too many similarities between worlds, including the music. The one from the other world was sung by a male, but this one was based off a short lived music career of Spitfire's. But here we go." Sunset smiled clicking the mic on and starting up the record player. "It's nine o five and you're listening to 904FM, some of the hits some of the time. SAVE FERRIS!" Sunset called before she set the record needle down letting the song play.