//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - You're Crazy! // Story: From The Tip Of A Comet's Tail // by sunnypack //------------------------------// Chapter 2: You’re Crazy “Am I crazy? I think it’s the only chance we have.” “That’s even more suicidal than my original idea of building the shelters. No way. You’ve lost it.” “Listen. Really listen.” Winter waited for the appropriate time before she continued. “What we have here is a lose-lose situation. No matter what path we pick. Dig in, ask for help, wait it out, whatever, it also ends up with us losing a few.” She winced even saying that. “What we need is a plan that is crazy but could work. We can invest a small amount of money into creating the necessary delivery systems—“ “Small?” Dr. Quark spluttered, for once losing a little of his composure. “You’re asking for a tenth of our current resources.” He slammed his hoof on the table to emphasise the point. “And that’s just for the budget version.” Winter looked to Sunny, but she slowly shook her head. “I don’t see how it could hurt,” she began and Winter perked up at that. “But I also don’t it haven’t much chance of succeeding. It’s simply foolhardy.” A scratchy voice pierced the momentary silence that followed Sunny’s input. Manic fixed Winter with a stare of flaming passion that burned deep within her eyes. “I like this plan,” she cackled. “This’ll do nicely.” Greens opened his mouth, but Manic just steamrolled ahead. “I’ll make sure it’ll work,” she growled. “If it’s designed by me, then it’ll fly, no doubt. I can guarantee a one-way trip.” Greens leaped at that as if he were a snake striking a limping rat. “One-way trip, eh?” he sneered, looking around. “How are you going to convince anypony to take that offer. Are you offering to go, Winter?” “Of course.” That shocked him into silence. Winter plodded on before anypony could interject. “I have the most experience with this type of mission.” She waited for anypony to voice their opinion. When nopony did, she continued. “Being the captain and subsequently the Prime Leader gives me the responsibility that comes with my privilege.” She levelled her gaze at Greens. “That means, picking the best pony for whatever mission, regardless of their position.” Greens broke eye contact again. There was no sign of defiance from him this time, only confusion. The others were silent. None of them had suspected Winter to reply so readily to Greens’ challenge. Her answer spawned a cavalcade of emotions around the table, from tacit approval to shades of awe. Dr. Quark scratched his head with a hoof before pointing it at Winter. “I don’t think this is the right decision, no matter how noble your motivations are,” he said with a sigh. “You should reconsider your position, Winter. Your leadership is needed here.” “And it will be!” Winter snapped. Sunny and Manic drew back slightly from her outburst. She glanced at them and then took a deep breath to steady herself. “It will be,” she repeated in a more reasonable tone. “We’ll work on the shelter, I’ll organise both projects and manage the day to day situation like I usually do. At most, I’ll be gone for a few days. That’s all it’ll take. Once we grab the comet, we’ll have enough hard resources to last us a decade! Think about it. It’s not just to survive the frost. It’s the survive the next year and the year after the next.” Winter surveyed the gathering. Dr. Quark was more receptive and Sunny had a thoughtful expression on. “Alright. The proposed plan is to concurrently run the shelter project and the comet project at the same time. All in favour for this arrangement raise your hoof.” Winter raised her hoof immediately after her announcement. Manic’s immediately followed. Surprisingly, Greens raised his hoof. He eyed the others, meeting their surprised gaze with a flat on of his own. “I got what I wanted, didn’t I?” he muttered. Sunny and Dr. Quark followed soon after. “Then it is unanimous.” Winter turned to the camera recessed in the table. “Let the record show that the agreement by council members was deemed unanimous. Motion passed.” Her hoof striked the table with a resounding bang. Winter smiled. Who needed a gavel when one had hooves? As the others left to tend to their business, Dr. Quark approached Winter, catching her by the withers before she left the room. “Ms. Meadows, would you mind if I had a word with you?” Winter nodded her head warily as she was drawn outside. The trees lining the edge of the garden gave a serene feel close to the Council Complex. The leaves of the deciduous trees had started paving the grass beneath with their colourful brand of oranges and reds. The wind, crisp and cool, belied the fact that in half a year’s time, this place would be buried under leagues of snow. Winter shivered slightly but set her jaw and eyed Dr. Quark as he exited the Complex, shivering sympathetically as Winter had when she first stepped out. “It’ll get worse,” Winter whispered to herself. For now, she squared her shoulders against the cold and faced the scientist as he shut the door with a metallic click. “Ms. Meadows, I must ask. How did you come up with this plan?” he queried, his face bearing the curiosity of a cat. Caught off-guard by his question, Winter threw away her half-prepared response about the organisation required for the shelters. “It came to me when I was thinking about what we had available,” she admitted honestly. “So you decided to use the Air Brake and a comet that happened to be passing by?” Dr. Quark snorted and tossed his head. “This sounds like a plan you’ve already been working on for a while.” For a moment Winter didn’t reply. Should she tell Dr. Quark? Well, it’s been passed, there was no harm in giving him what he wanted. “Yes, actually, I’ve actually been planning this for a while.” She took a deep breath. “It was more as a side project and I wanted to create our own  Air Brake, not hijack a Government one.” “It’s risky,” he interjected, pushing the frames of his glasses up as it slipped down his snout. “Getting up there with our level of technology?” “I know!” Winter shot back, her ire rising. “I know! I was hoping to implement this is five years or ten years when we’d got the world to garden level. I was planning for the comet to be a useful addition to our funding, not be the last resort to a haphazard plan.” Dr. Quark sighed. “Building a spacecraft to nudge an Air Brake into a comet’s path and then hacking the Air Brake to bring it into our planet? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” he muttered. Winter was about to say something but he grinned at her toothily. “But it’s good to know that if this works, everypony survives.” The scientist stamped his hoof. “And that’s worth the risk.”