07 - Killing Them Softly
Days of Wasp and Spider, Part II: Final Solution
by Luna-tic Scientist
=== Chapter 7: Killing them Softly ===
"Are you ready?" Spiral said, eying the bag of fluid slowly draining into the vein on the underside of Lilac's leg. The young stallion nodded, already looking better for the infusion of water and glucose. "Don't try anything risky; that stuff will make you feel full of energy."
What, like repairing my own gut? Lilac thought, then smiled up at the mare. She'd pulled him out of his hiding place while she ate, both ponies laying down on the hard floor of stall eleven. "No, I'll be careful." He glanced at the intravenous rig, then at the collection of vegetables and greens Spiral was eating. His mouth felt dry and he swallowed, suddenly conscious that he wasn't hungry at all.
"I'll watch you, but you've got all the knowledge you need -- it's just practice and your first bit of work with real consequences to yourself."
Lilac nodded again and closed his eyes, focusing his mind on the patterns required for healing. His own intestinal tract, a coiled mass of snakes, became clear, and he traced the tube until he found the first severed end. Delicate touches of magic shifted the tissue, aligning the walls. The patterns in his head twitched and mutated, changing to match the particular arrangements of cells and blood vessels in that part of his gut.
Good, now fuse the ends to keep everything in place, but leave a barrier separating the sections; at this stage, all you want to do is join the blood vessels and muscle fibres to their partners.
Spiral's thoughts filled his mind, like a quiet voice speaking from somewhere between his ears, and Lilac nodded unconsciously. This really isn't much different from muscle, is it? he thought, tracing one of the dead-end arteries. The thing had flattened in the few days since he'd been shot, and he flushed it with fresh blood before joining it to its partner on the other side of the laser track.
In a way, yes. You just have to watch for more detail... even though the actual structure doesn't have to be exactly the same as before, you still need to be careful. She reached in, guiding his magic to a kink in the newly fused artery. Blood will still flow through this, but it will stall and some might get trapped. Where blood stops, it can clot.
I understand, Lilac thought, mind already finished rerouting the vessel and reaching for the next.
Gradually, Spiral's presence withdrew, until there was nothing more than a faint thread of awareness. Lilac kept working, not even noticing when the mare gently picked him up and placed him back in his hiding place.
===
Spiral moved a few boxes of supplies, then softly closed the store room's door, sealing Lilac in. His magic still danced, but she was too disconnected to really follow what he was doing. What did come through was a sense of satisfaction, the mental taste of a pony stretching himself into a role he was gifted at, yet had been denied any chance to learn. She kept a hold of the feeling, using it to monitor his progress, as well as buoy her own descending emotional state.
Quietly trotting around to the other side of the infirmary, Spiral nosed through the doors and walked the length of the central corridor, head swinging back and forth as she inspected her patients. Normally this would have been a more lengthy process, but everypony here was sleeping the sleep of the heavily drugged. There had been no changes during her brief absence, so she hesitated, then pushed through into Redshift's stall.
The violet stallion was relaxed and sleeping peacefully, a far cry from the muscle spasms and stiffness he'd had while in fugue. Spiral picked him up in a haze of green magic, supporting his body while she worked his legs and wings to prevent any future joint problems from his prolonged immobility. Now, how am I going to do this...? she thought, running through the catalogue of drugs and enchantments she had available.
Magic comprised most of what she did on a daily basis. Generations of pony researchers had extended the reach of thaumic medicine to every part of the body; there was little that couldn't be done by an experienced veterinarian. A sedative, coupled to... Spiral opened a refrigerated compartment at the back of the Infirmary, sorting through the sealed vials until she located the package she was after. Opening the outer container, she extracted the vial of milky liquid, watching as the glass surface turned hazy with condensation.
...this. A synthetic opioid, one she had been prescribing far too frequently, and one that had other, more distressing, uses. Part of the cocktail of euthanasia drugs, enough of it would send a pony into a deep coma, but without actually doing any lasting damage. If I couple it with hypothermia, then I can improvise a spell to stop him thermoregulating and keep him cold for as long as necessary.
She pulled her injection gun from its holster in her panniers, slotting in the sedative and gently using her power to assess how much she'd need for the already drugged Redshift. Magic curled around the stallion's body as she pressed the needle into the big vein in his neck, but the mare paid little attention to the fluid being infused into his blood. Instead, she poured her strength into her magic, casting a little-used spell designed to preserve a pony's life when complex surgery required the heart to be stopped.
The air in the small stall grew warm as her magic drained the heat from the stallion; within moments his teeth started to chatter as great bouts of shivering wracked his body. Quickly, Spiral switched to the euthanasia compound, watching with a critical eye as the electrical activity in his brain started to decay. Not too much... Before long, it was at a level too low for any but an experienced medic to identify, and the regular thump-thump of his heart slowed to isolated beats separated by hundreds of seconds, matched by even slower breaths.
She built her new little spell, a tiny trickle of cobbled together magic that further suppressed his metabolism and ensured that the ultra-slow rhythms were maintained and didn't decay into complete stillness. A few more moments to watch the enchantment and ensure it functioned correctly… Spiral sighed. There you go, Redshift. Sweet dreams. Sorry about the next bit. A length of tubing, slathered in lubricant, was worked up his nose and down his throat, far enough that the end was deep inside his muzzle and invisible without a thaumic scan.
Spiral carefully lifted him up and took him through to the morgue, gently placing him in the compartment next to Slipstream. A touch set the controls for a few degrees above freezing, rather than a deep chill, and the mare finally relaxed. "At least you'll get to come back from this experience... I only hope you can live with it when you finally do," she murmured. He'd be safe as long as no pony disturbed him; the temperature controlled chamber would make his artificially induced hibernation as easy as possible, keeping him stable for several days before it might become too difficult to revive him.
Shifting her weight from hoof to hoof, Spiral stared at the blank steel panel and chewed at her lips. There's no delaying it, she thought, clearing her mind and directing a trace of her power towards her communications disk. The little device awoke with a quiet tone that was only audible within her own head, indicating it was ready for her message. The mare hesitated, making a few false starts before turning the communicator off. Legs trembling, she sank to the ground and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.
"It's got to be done; without this lie the whole plan will unravel. You've already misled everypony who knows you; what do you care about a machine sitting in some tunnel somewhere," she muttered. A machine that is bound to flag this spike in deaths... or maybe not; these are exceptional circumstances."
Before she could lose her nerve, Spiral opened the link once more, quickly dictating the standard death notification message to her handler at the Eugenics Board -- or at least, to the machine that managed all these things. "What's done is done; no turning back now."
Satisfying herself that Lilac was still busy and not doing anything too adventurous with his new-found skills, Spiral pulled more drug ampoules from the cold store and returned to the other part of the infirmary to select her next 'victim'.
===
Spiral had made her sixth trip to stall eleven and was just approaching the seventh pony when she paused and found herself staring at Packet's stall. Pushing the door open with her muzzle, she looked down at the pony, fully asleep in the slender metal armature designed to keep the pressure off his legs and forebody. Wide pads sat under his wingroots, the wings themselves held down with elastic straps to stop him slipping off the supports. A long tube ran from a transparent bag of fluid, vanishing into the fur of his throat.
She checked the liquid flow rate, then shifted the pads that supported Packet's weight, moving them so he'd not suffer from pressure sores. Spiral chewed at her lips, thoughtfully weighing the injection gun, already loaded with the opioid she needed for the first stage. You really do need somepony to look after you, but it is mostly things that Lilac can do. Re-building the pony's ribs and legs from the shattered bones of Fusion's staged accident wasn't a particularly skilled task, but it was time-consuming. Lilac is very good for one with so little formal training; I think he may be well enough to go back with Fusion and Gravity soon.
"The fewer loose ends, the better, I think..." And the explanation? What am I going to tell his parents? "Perhaps it should just be my fault," she murmured, then shivered; it was horribly plausible. I was overworked and desperately tired, forced to treat a wounded pony in the early hours of the morning... it would be so easy to miss something.
"Maker-dammit." The mare sighed and pushed the stall door shut behind her, spreading the yellow fur on Packet's neck and lining up her injector. "Goodbye Packet... I hope you have a better waking next time."
===
Let's get this over with, she thought, hooves dragging in the gravel as she started along the path to the cluster of shelters behind the black pyramid of the church. This close to winter the sun had set already, and the corral was lit by the dim glows of lamps within each open-sided shelter. As Spiral walked, ponies stopped what they were doing to follow her movements, staring at her until they knew she wasn't coming to see them. The mare could practically hear their thoughts: she's not going home, not going to the feedstock bunker, so she must be on her way to see somepony. This close after shift end, there could be only one reason for Spiral to make a personal visit to a family.
Spiral ignored all of this, focusing her attention on what she was going to say to the kin of the 'dead'. Actually selecting those ponies had been straightforward: the cold calculations fuelled by gigaseconds of medical expertise made her decision easy. Telling the mates and friends of those affected, on the other hoof...
In a way I should probably make this hard for them. The thought was horrible, but wouldn't go away. They'd be reunited with whoever they thought they'd lost, but to actually drive a pony into fugue-- Spiral bit off the idea, staring at her first destination.
Doppler, Redshift's mate, must have known something was up -- alerted, perhaps, by the zone of silence that followed Spiral as she walked through the corral. She stood at the edge of her shelter -- and it was truly hers, now -- staring at Spiral. With every step the medic took, Doppler seemed to sag, until her wings dragged bonelessly in the neat grass that edged the clean wood-chip floor.
Spiral lent in close, wrapping her own wings around the unfortunate pony. "I'm sorry, Doppler; there was nothing more I could do."
"I know, thank you for everything." Doppler's voice was a fixed monotone, like she wasn't really thinking about what she was saying.
The fur on Spiral's neck grew wet with the other mare's tears, and the veterinarian inhaled deeply and sighed. Remember to direct your anger at those who really deserve it. The words she'd said to Gravity came back, and Spiral held the image of the Agent in her mind, applying all of her considerable skill to taking her apart while still leaving her conscious. You better hope Fusion catches up with you first; because if I can get a hold of you... Curse you for what you've done, and curse your superiors for letting you do it.
"What... what am I going to tell Shock Diamond when he finally comes home?"
The sudden fury was so unexpected that Spiral's breath hitched and her whole body became tense, tears filling her eyes. Doppler pulled back at the change in the other mare's touch, searching her face for answers to questions that Spiral had been asked many times before. "He went quietly, at the end. I think his first attack must have hurt him worse than I expected, if I'd looked harder, perhaps--"
"No," Doppler said, her voice distorted by tears, "don't blame yourself. Redshift couldn't get the Master out of his mind, kept wondering if she was the one who had Shock--" A wave of shivering passed over Doppler, her teeth clamping together in a rictus that only slowly relaxed when Spiral rested her head against the mare and made comforting noises.
Finally, she calmed enough for Spiral to step back. "I'm sorry, Doppler, but I have to go. There... there are other ponies I have to talk to this evening. Will you be okay?" At the mare's silent nod, Spiral started to back away. "I need to send Red on his way before the start of shift tomorrow, so... so if you want to see him one last time you should come and find me in about ten kiloseconds."
"How many more do you have to see?" Doppler whispered, unable to meet Spiral's eyes.
"Six more tonight, after that... I-I don't really know." Now, do it now. It's the best thing you can do. "Then there's Packet. It was late and he had an accident. A bad one; flew into a tree. I thought I'd got him stable, but I must have missed something. He..." The tears came unbidden, pre-emptive punishment for what she was about to inflict on Packet's parents.
"I was only talking to them a few kiloseconds ago; they are going to be devastated." It was Doppler's turn to hug Spiral. "So many; I didn't know. Do... would it help if I came with you?"
The words came out in a rush, as if the mare was afraid she'd never say them. Spiral blinked in surprise, then nodded. "That would be very kind."
Together, the mares slowly walked towards the next shelter on Spiral's list.
===
Somewhere overhead, slow and careful work was taking place to uncover the remains of the force sent into the Institute; not so down here. Orgon stood at the centre of a little island of calm, the grey bulk of Merlon at his shoulder, while all around there was the frantic bustle of People trying to work as fast as possible, while simultaneously taking great care. The Sector Chief smiled inwardly. It is amazing how much this one's presence can encourage exceptional effort... even if it will probably be for nothing.
The cavern, a rough hemisphere about twenty lengths across, appeared to be about to collapse. Composed of a crazy jigsaw mixture of smashed concrete and metal reinforcing, it looked like exactly what it was: a cross-section through a demolished building. Heavy machinery was arrayed around the perimeter, most of it dedicated to removing the rubble that poured out of a ragged arch on the far side. Past that opening, a snake-like tunnel climbed up from the floor of the temporary chamber, ending with the servitor digging team that was producing all the debris.
Pulverized concrete dust filled the air, staining the once-white hazard suits and masks that the People wore a dingy, ashen gray. The servitors had no such protection, but faint glimmers of light flickered about their muzzles; the signature of magic filtering the air. The same oil-on-water glow surrounded Orgon and Merlon with a zone of clean air, like they were standing inside a shimmering soap bubble, and kept the Sector Chief's fur as pristine as when he'd stepped out of his transport.
The whole place was lit by the varied glow of multiple telekinetic fields, the sourceless polychromatic haze fighting with the pure white glare of the flood lights mounted on the mining vehicles. Servitors lay in a few locations, looking delicate and out of place against the backdrop of fractured support beams and the brutal shapes of machines far larger than they were. As Orgon watched, the flare of magic from one of the creatures died, to be immediately replaced by a different coloured light from the animal laying next to it.
The first servitor, a dust-covered stallion of indeterminate hue, slumped to its side, flanks heaving. The sound of its breathing, interspersed with great, wheezing coughs, was clearly audible over the background noise of the tunnelling operations. The second didn't spare the first a glance, but Orgon could see tendons stand out on the side of its neck in an unconscious effort to bolster its magic. "Should this one commandeer more servitors?" Orgon said, pitching his words for Merlon's ears only. "He has already removed as many as possible from the local factories without it looking suspicious, but would rather not be entombed, if at all possible."
"No, Master." The servitor's ears twitched at the mild rebuke, but she made no other outward sign. "The work is hard, but within the capabilities of the ponies present, especially since the mining team has just broken through to the underside of the beam chamber. It would be a good idea not to delay too long, though."
Orgon nodded, then frowned in the direction of the coughing servitor, relaxing when one of the People jogged in its direction holding a medical bag. A long, conical mask connected by corrugated hose to the bag was slipped over its muzzle, and the creature started to breathe more easily. "This one agrees," he said, striding towards the exit tunnel, just as the Agent-in-charge came over to meet him. "Yes, Agent Kathur?"
Entering the bubble of clean air, the Agent pulled away his mask with one gloved paw, using the other one to scratch vigorously under his muzzle, leaving pale streaks through his dark fur. "Sector Chief, we are ready to open the beam chamber."
Gesturing with his paw, Orgon watched with hidden amusement as the Agent reluctantly resealed his mask, walking ahead of them down the tunnel. The passageway was narrow enough that they all had to go single file, the rest of the width taken up by the hurriedly assembled conveyor unit that was still transporting rubble from the cutting face. A dozen lengths further in, the walls, a curious mixture of rough stone and the perfect, near liquid surfaces of force field cuts, opened out into another large space.
Massive pillars ringed the perimeter, their bases half buried in the collapsed upper floors of the Institute. Overhead was the flat base of the beam chamber, supported by great slabs of concrete held up by struts fanning out from the middle of the pillars. For a moment Orgon paused, struck by a sense of familiarity that should have been impossible in the strange place, then resumed walking. It was a little like being in a forest at night, surrounded by the shadowed forms of huge trees.
Up ahead was a compact lifting platform, its telescoping support at full extension, holding a few of the People. A pair of hovering servitors flanked the machine, responding to orders and gestures given by one of the figures. Planes of pastel light pulsed and flickered in the gap between two of the big ceiling slabs, while perfect cubes and other geometric shapes floated out of the hole to land on a clean sheet of thick plastic on the floor. These were followed by fat metal springs coiled around stubby tubes, then a single square of concrete filled with crystalline inclusions, which was carefully laid on the floor next to the other roof sections.
This done, the servitors dropped to the ground, passing up a corrugated tube almost half a length wide to the People on the platform, who then pushed it up into the opening. A fan roared into life and the tube bucked, blowing air into the beam chamber, releasing a blast of air laden with dust and the sharp smell of incomplete combustion. White light shone down past the edges of the metal square, flashing and fading as the source moved about the inside of the beam chamber.
Kathur, once more rid of his filter mask, trotted over to Orgon. "These ones will have to wait a few moments; the thermobaric detonations have consumed most of the oxygen." At the Sector Chief's nod, he tapped a control on his comms bracer. "Specialist Calung, report." A little video window sprang up from the bracer, and the Agent angled his wrist to give Orgon the best view.
"O2 levels are back up. It's mostly intact, some damage near the radiation lock, but the roof held. No servitors in sight, but this one can see what looks like... is that a power suit?"
No servitors. Orgon's stomach sank and he swallowed heavily, mind suddenly running in circles. No servitors means that the gryphon was right... wait, perhaps they are just not visible from the platform. He laid one paw on Merlon's shoulder, to steady legs that suddenly felt weak. The pony moved close at his touch, supporting the Sector Chief without appearing to do so. Huddled in a corner and dead from dehydration, this one hopes. He cleared his throat and straightened up, ignoring the concerned look from Kathur. "Get the drones in there, sweep the chamber." He gestured to Merlon, pointing up at the underside of the beam chamber. "The pony will carry out an arcane investigation. Find those bodies."
"Yes, Master." Merlon sprang into the air, hovering for a moment as the platform retracted, then folding her wings to dart inside. Disk-shaped machines, each a torus of instrumentation surrounding a central fan, flew in after her.
"This one wants to see for himself," Orgon said, stepping forward as the People hurriedly got off the platform. Kathur joined him -- the thing was barely big enough for the both of them, and the Agent pressed himself to one corner in an effort to avoid touching the Sector Chief's fur with his dusty hazard suit. Orgon ignored him, looking down at the security servitors as the machine lifted him towards the hole. The pair, standing next to the plastic sheet and its collection of blocks, were talking quietly. More witnesses, he thought, how unfortunate. "Those two are not to have any contact with the rest of the servitors," he said, watching as Kathur tapped out the orders.
Short though it was, the ride into the beam chamber seemed to take an age. What is this one going to do if the rogues really have escaped? Nothing will stop a full Audit if that is the case. Orgon winced inside, careful not to let any emotion show on his face. This one will be called to account for all of this. He started to build tentative plans for the horrible possibility that this had actually happened, the mental exercise blunting the unpleasant, and unfamiliar, sensation of being out of control. He has no desire to be subjected to a World Court memory trawl.
The inside of the beam chamber was strewn with the remains of broken instrumentation; lots of odd-shaped pieces of glass and metal, some with the mirror surfaces of precise force field cuts. Despite this, the room was remarkably intact, a testament to the enormously thick shielding and a braced design that anchored the whole structure deep into the bedrock. Towards the collapsed radiation lock was a pool of blood, old and dried, surrounding a clean patch the approximate size of a servitor's torso.
Half buried in the rubble piled up by the lock was a distorted figure with the smooth curves of an armoured suit. The angle was strange and the shape damaged enough that it took Orgon a moment to realise that he was looking into an opening made by the removal of the helmet and pauldrons. He narrowed his eyes. Is that a trail...? Something had disturbed the dust, and Orgon turned slowly, resisting the temptation to spin around.
The sounds of delicate work, matched with the flicker of complex magic, made the Sector Chief's ears twitch, but still he resisted the urge. If it was something that needed this one's immediate attention, the pony would have said. Of course, the Sector Chief could be being stupid. Orgon sighed and gave in, completing his turn. Behind him was Merlon, the servitor's grey bulk half hiding what was on the floor. Magic flickered about her horn, in time with the rapid snakes of light that writhed over the naked body of one of the People.
"Well?" Orgon said, when the grey mare's look of intense concentration faded.
"The trooper has been dead for at least two hundred kiloseconds, Master," Merlon said, levering herself upright and turning to face the Sector Chief without a backwards glance. She kindled a point of white light, sending it floating over the body. "She survived for sometime after the explosions that demolished the Institute." The pin-point hovered over the dead Security trooper's torso. "The blast that trapped her suit also cracked several ribs; despite this she crawled out, only to suffocate when her air supply failed." An emergency air pack lay at her side, gauges reading empty.
"...but no servitors." the Sector Chief said with a frown and a lowering of his ears.
"Sorry, Master. No evidence for any ponies either in the beam chamber or immediate environs," she said, a shiver running through her body.
"It is not the pony's fault," Orgon said absently. Perhaps they were deeper in the Institute, and were caught in their own blasts? His mind filled with the thoughts of what a World Court Auditor would say to that, and his stomach twisted. "There is still doubt," he muttered, gaze turning to Kathur, who was busy setting up a portable data unit. "Pull the memory from that suit," he said. This one must know!
Kathur trotted over to the damaged armour, reaching in to open the panel at the nape of the suit's neck. This spot, part of the thickened 'spine' that held all the computing systems, was the best protected of any on the machine; if the trooper had survived, so would the solid state memory systems. The surface teams are still days away from reaching the transit hub; at least this one had the foresight to tell them to go slow. That had just been luck, and a general desire to not cooperate too much with the World Court; it was never a good idea to be too eager, just in case they thought you had something to hide...
The claw-sized memory cell was slotted into the data unit, its display throwing up a wide, faintly transparent set of windows. A touch of the controls and Kathur accessed the helmet camera records, spooling back through the file. In grainy black-and-white and tilted at a crazy angle, the slumped shape of the dead trooper abruptly twitched and crawled backward towards them, freezing when the Agent muttered something under his breath and started to scroll through the indexing system. The video was overlain by graphs detailing all the various suit parameters the system recorded; hundreds upon hundreds were available, but Kathur wiped them all from the screen except for the accelerometer plots.
Kathur grunted with satisfaction, moving through the data until he had what he wanted -- a spiky set of signals, culminating in a single pulse that dwarfed the rest. The video silently restarted--
A dark, rubble strewn corridor, rendered in shades of grey by the suit's thermal and millilength imagers, and overlain by the ghost of a targeting reticule. More information pulsed at the periphery; laser power and pulse train frequency, comms failure and thaumic interdiction warnings. Ahead, a bright shape spun through the air, and the reticule snapped to it, the video feed blinking as the laser fired. Another shape, glowing brightly in the infrared, darted forwards from a side passage. The laser retargeted and fired again, but the shots went wide and the servitor vanished into the open mouth of the radiation lock.
The camera accelerated towards the opening, the view momentarily obscured by the drive plume of a small missile, then 'incoming fire' warnings flared and the image went crazy. A silent explosion filled the screen with dust and gas, clearing as the trooper charged through the cloud. More fire, this time the near solid bar of light from a rotary cannon, but the radiation lock was now covered by a violet wall that flared brightly under the continuous impacts.
--Orgon sighed, turning to Merlon and ignoring Kathur as the Agent leant forward to study the video feed intently. The servitor was also studying the screen, flicking one ear at the Sector Chief to acknowledge his regard. This is it, he thought, following the pony's gaze as his stomach knotted, this is the only part that matters. On the video, there was a pulse of violet light, then the force field wall vanished, and the view point dived through the radiation lock. There was a moment of stillness, the video darting from one side of the room to the other as the trooper scanned for any sign of life, then the roof fell in.
"At least one servitor was in this room... where did it go?" Kathur said wonderingly, moving the beam of his torch along the walls. Next to him, Merlon stared at the now motionless image, open mouthed.
Leaning heavily against the platform's railing, Orgon tried to control his breathing. Where indeed? he thought, paws balled into fists.
===
In the end, Doppler's presence had made the job a little easier and, as Spiral walked from shelter to shelter, she had accumulated a small herd of her own. Everypony knew everypony in the corral, and they all knew the likely result of the Maker's Test, even if only by reputation. After a few visits, those with friends and relatives in the Infirmary came to her, finding the wait for bad news to be an agony best avoided. On hearing the worst, many were relieved that the suffering of their kin was over.
Packet's parents were the worst; they didn't seem to believe it was happening at first, until they'd looked in Doppler's eyes and seen the sorrow and sympathy there. They had broken down at that point, listening to her fumbled explanation and apology, sinking to the woodchip floor and crying in near silence. The other ponies had comforted them, but Spiral couldn't do it, the knowledge of what she'd put them through filling her with an intense self-loathing. They even forgave her, and the mare had to fight to retain what little she'd had the appetite to eat since morning.
Spiral made the journey in a kind of daze, becoming more and more disconnected from reality. Part of her wanted to weep with the others, weep for the horrible lie she was telling them... the rest wanted to stand there open mouthed with pride at how they were all reacting. By the time it was all over, nearly a dozen ponies wanted to say a final farewell; stall eleven wasn't nearly large enough, so the green mare stood respectfully by while each family took their turn.
The magic and drugs worked faultlessly; no pony suspected that the body they had just hugged or stroked was very much alive.
Finally, she was left alone with a row of bodies on the cold stone floor. The light was fading rapidly as the sun set, so she pulled open the storage bay and poked her head over one stack of supplies to look at Lilac. The young stallion looked dishevelled; tears had run down his face to leave darkened patches of fur on his neck.
He blinked up at her, flinching away from the sudden light. "I didn't think about the ponies they'd leave behind... it's like I euthanized them all. How do you cope with it?"
"Experience, mostly." Spiral lifted Lilac out of his hiding place, holding him up so she could inspect his work. He bore it stoically, using the opportunity to exercise his wings and forelegs. "It helps that they really will see their kin again, and not just as some vague promise of a chance encounter in the next cycle." She frowned, reaching inside Lilac's gut and making a few minor adjustments. "This is me just being picky; you've done a good job."
"How long will they have to wait?"
"Tricky. It all depends on what the... Dogs do next." The word seemed awkward to Spiral's mind, but the logic of its use was inescapable. So long as I don't actually call one of the People that to their face... Spiral snorted and smiled to herself. "No longer than it takes them to discover that there are no bodies in the Institute. Fusion won't tell me her plans, but it would be foalish to let the Dogs take the initiative." There was the gentle tickle of familiar magic, and Spiral lifted her head. "Hello, Gravity. How are you doing?"
Better, much better. I didn't get a chance to say before, but you were right.
"Of course I was... but you did the hard part."
We have some replacements for you; are we clear to come in?
"You are. Let me just..." Spiral formed the right patterns, opening a sharing that encompassed Lilac as well. "There's not a lot of space here; can you take the ponies? They won't wake up, but you need to be careful with them -- there's no blink reflex, for example." Green magic carefully lifted several of the ponies, clearing an area of floor.
Moments later, with a violet flash and a thump of displaced air, Gravity arrived. Dropping lightly to the ground she furled her wings, then nodded to Spiral and shared a quick nuzzle with Lilac. "You can tell me everything later, but how are things?" she said.
"It's been okay, I guess." Lilac, still suspended in Spiral's magic, dipped his head to look at the floor. "I didn't realise how much trouble I'd caused."
Gravity reached out and tickled the end of his muzzle with the primaries on one wing. "Don't worry about it -- I know Fusion was upset, but there's an upside to everything. This gives us a chance to practice on a small scale." She caught sight of a familiar lemon-yellow stallion amid the group. "Packet as well? He's okay to move?"
"He'll be fine for now. Lilac here will be able to help you with him until I can join you. Isn't that right, Lilac?" Spiral said, smiling down at the youngster. "He's got a real skill for this sort of thing."
"How is our dam doing?" Gravity gazed longingly at the wall between her and the rest of the infirmary.
"She's in about the same state as Packet, really. With time and care she'll be back on her hooves without any problems." Spiral frowned and cocked her head thoughtfully. "Did you want to take her as well? Like I said, it's something Lilac can quite easily manage if I'm not around."
The blue mare paused, then shook her head. "No... she's safer here, I think -- and I won't take her away from father."
Agreed. Our sire already thinks he's lost us both, to take his mate as well... when the time comes we'll take them both. Anyway, we should get started. I'm sure getting caught when Trocar gets off shift is an extra complication we don't need.
Lilac cringed, only relaxing when Gravity winked at him. The mare gathered up all the unconscious ponies, arranging them neatly in the air around her head. "On my way, sis." With that, she and all the floating ponies disappeared, leaving the room suddenly empty.
The thunderclap of air rushing in to fill the space taken up by the ponies was loud enough that Spiral winced, thankful for the soundproofing in the infirmary's walls. A few seconds passed, long enough that she started to get nervous, then Fusion appeared with a white flash and another small report.
===
Gravity appeared with a roll of thunder in the darkened clearing, wings flaring as she dropped to the leaf litter behind one of the orchard groves. Fusion looked up from her pacing, reaching out to take the ponies from her sister's magic. "Poor Redshift; at least you'll never have to go through the Test again. Once is enough for anypony," she muttered, placing the violet stallion gently on the ground.
"Any probl--? Oh... Packet as well?" Fusion said to Gravity as the mare finished arranging the pony, carefully checking the armature protecting his front end.
"Spiral said it was okay -- and now we have to move so many anyway, it makes sense to take him with us. He'll be fine if we're careful." Gravity fussed with several of the others, making sure there were no sharp rocks or branches where they lay. "That will do for now. You're good to go. You still want to try this?"
Fusion nodded. "Yes; I'd like to have longer to practice, but the range is short and I'm sure we'll have to do it at some point. Why not now?"
Gravity grinned back. "That's what I like to hear; I can see this being very useful."
"Oh yes. I hate to plan for this, but better a deer than somepony I care about. I'll be gentle." Fusion built the spell, something that was becoming easier with every attempt, then pushed--
~~~discontinuity~~~
--appearing in a room, watched by a pair of ponies just in the process of registering surprise. Over this distance, less than five kilolengths, the velocity difference was small, but still large enough to make her dizzy with the unexpected motion. Fusion turned the stagger into a neat side-step.
"Spiral, what-- oh Lilac, don't look so worried, this isn't something we can't fix." Even if I'd rather not have to do it right now. Fusion flashed the youngster a grin, then focused her attention inwards, calling up the teleport spell's pattern and starting to twist it in ways the Maker-thing hadn't suggested. "What happens next, Spiral?" she said, voice becoming distant as the glowing shapes filled her mind. Gravity was a distant presence at the edge of her awareness, ready to--
"My autoclave has a medical waste setting. It will burn a pony to ashes in a few hundred seconds. They have all been reported to the Eugenics Board... my Master did not request an autopsy, so he must be assuming this is all a result of Security's testing."
"Which it is," Fusion muttered. "In a way, this works in our favour. My parents always did say I should put my trust in the Masters." She laughed, a short, hard sound, completely devoid of amusement. "Stand clear..." Now is not the time to cover the infirmary with exploded deer. The white mare wrinkled her muzzle in concentration, feeling Gravity's senses expand into her own.
The sense of dislocation became strong; her ears flicked in the gentle breeze between the fruit trees, the quiet sounds of night time insects competing with the hum and click of the infirmary's machines. The smell of leaf mould filled her nostrils and Fusion closed her eyes, completed the pattern, and pulled--
Twenty-five hundred kilos of dead deer, stinking of burned fur and seared flesh, materialised in the centre of stall eleven with a white flash. The mass of animals, a melange of cloven hooves and spiky antlers, rotated slowly within Fusion's telekinetic field, surrounded by a diffuse orbiting halo of leaves and dirt. The mare grinned savagely at the sight, ignoring the shocked gasps from the other two ponies, the success of the experiment suppressing her lingering twinges of guilt. There still needs to be a pony at the other end... but it was silent! She'd cast not one, but two, teleport spells; equal and opposite, exchanging the air at each location as well as the target.
Spiral stepped forward, eyeing the mass of dead flesh thoughtfully. Little flickers of magic danced over the deer, and Fusion let her pull one out from the tangled pile. The veterinarian examined the burns on its head. "At least it was quick," she murmured, flicking an ear in Fusion's direction. "An odd mix of blast and thermal wounding; almost like the tissues flash vaporised..." She shook her head, opening the door to the large autoclave and pushing the deer in. The chamber, a narrow slot in the wall with a heavy-looking metal door, wasn't wide enough to fit the animals head with its rack of antlers, so the air was filled with the dry wood sound of breaking bone as Spiral cut them to size.
Fusion kept her eyes on the stallion, who was transfixed by the process. With each crack, Lilac's eyes grew wider and his ears went a little further back. "All because of me," he whispered, so quietly that Fusion could barely hear him.
The white mare took a few careful steps, sitting down next to the youngster. "Yes," she whispered in his ear, while stroking his back with one wing, "but it would have happened sooner or later, if not at this scale. You heard what Spiral said." The veterinarian had finished fitting the deer into the autoclave, closing the hatch and setting the controls with her magic. In the centre of the panel was a small peep-hole; the contents of the machine were mercifully out of sight from the ponies lying on the floor. There was a quiet whump and a lurid yellow light shone out, giving everything in the room a warm glow that turned harsher as the colour shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum.
Before a quarter kilosecond had passed the light went out, replaced with a near subliminal hum. A few seconds later, Spiral opened the autoclave to reveal a shiny interior; the only trace of the deer was a small pile of ash that had been neatly deposited in a tray at the centre. "So little left," Fusion said quietly, "it's hard to believe that's all there is... and so fast."
"There's a lot of power in this machine; the temperatures it reaches are really quite high," Spiral said, carefully sweeping the ash into a small plastic container. "I'm going to have to give this to Doppler tomorrow, and walk with her as she spreads what she thinks are the ashes of Redshift among the trees." Her voice was distant, as if it belonged to somepony else. "I imagine the rest of the ponies whose kin are dead will be there as well. Did you know that they all helped me when I went through the corral to tell them the news?"
Fusion shook her head, mouth suddenly dry. "I wish I could do something--"
"Something, yes." Spiral pulled another deer from the floating pile and pushed it into the autoclave, horn flaring as she broke its antlers with far more force than was necessary. "Is this going to be my future, Fusion? Is it?" She slammed the door shut and started the cremation sequence, wheeling around to stare at the other mare. "Lying to ponies I've watched over for more than a gigasecond, telling them their partners were tortured to death, and that it is all part of the Maker's plan?"
"Not for long; a few more days, at most," Fusion said, standing up and walking towards the veterinarian. "This situation cannot hold and we will have to act. Everypony I care about is here, or held captive in some abominable place. Soon our secret will be discovered, and I cannot afford to let the Dogs make the first move. We have a narrow window of opportunity, a slender period of time within which to operate and get as many ponies free as possible. When I have enough, then--" Fusion stopped, breathing heavily. "It's best if you don't know. Will you be okay for a few days, Spiral?"
The green mare took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out slowly. "Sorry. It-it's been a trying day."
Fusion wrapped her wing about the mare, leaning her head against the other's neck. "I know, I know." She held the position, looking into the yellow glow coming from the autoclave. Is this what the future holds for all of us? Through the little window, the smashed skull of a stag stared back at her, mad flames dancing out of its eye-sockets.
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Oh, the joys of the last minute edit!
You yet again did well in this chapter. I think you balanced the necessity of the actions that Spiral and Lilac took with the Un-Blessed servitors with the pain it caused their familial groupings quite well. Zero hour is approaching quite rapidly for a little band of rebels, and I think they know it. You've provided quite an interesting narrative here, and I'm looking forward to how you will portray the resolution of the various plot lines in the coming chapters.
Oh deer.
4554275
You'll cervidly get into trouble making jokes like that.
Ah, the dreaded last-minute edits.
An interesting detail I noticed, even Merlon briefly shows the effects of the blessing; I'd suspected he might be past that. Of course it could be a show, I suppose.
Just realized: It'd sure be a bad thing if those foals heard of their parents' "deaths" before they could be rescued themselves. Might send them into a fugue of their own...
(Then again, that might be the fastest way to turn them. Crap, that's a cold thought.)
Yup, she thought of it too.
I'm getting the impression that whatever will happen to Salrath once karma finally catches up with her, her fate will give nightmares to little foals for a thousand years. And I'm fine with that.
NOOOO!! Want read but... must go to work to soon... NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Yay! More waiting!
Anticipation makes it all the more delightful.
GAAAA! I have to wait another month for more! Nice chapter title. Nice chapter. You should release once a week so we don't have to wait.
Suspicious to whom? The World Court / Eugenics Board?
Well... it was only a matter of time. Excrement is still on course for the ventilation device.
I wonder if he's afraid/genre-blind enough that he'll try to cover it up. That'd certainly win them more time...
Not sure if I should be relieved she's planning that far ahead, or worried at what she's planning to do.
4554709
Salrath deserves to be the first to decorate the future Canterlot statue garden.
Conscious the entire time.
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Thank you! You are dead right, things are coming to a head, but exactly what happens next you'll have to see...
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Ah, my timing was perfect!
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Would that I could, would that I could. Look on the bright side -- at least you know it's coming!
And so both sides come racing towards another conflict. The tension is building nicely on all ends, from the rebels' clandestine activities to Orgon realizing his worst fears. Eagerly looking forward to more, especially since the rescued ponies will likely react like Packet.
4554647
I find these puns staggering.
4555898
Do you think I'm stuck in a rut?
4556281
As much as I'd love to tie you to a rack, I admit, the wordplay's smooth as velvet.
4556369
There's no need to fawn over me.
With the chapter title and my pessimism I was expecting a whole different target for this chapter. I should have known better considering the building events.
The comatose ponies being safely away is a big weight lifted. And thankfully Fusion seems to know just what to doe.
I know, I know, that was particularly awful.
This fic, with that chapter title.
And then it turns out to be less killing and more suspended animation.
Anyway, this chapter opened up some big questions in my mind, namely in how best to manage blessing removals, both those already performed and those that still need to happen. Is Spiral intentionally managing these "your loved ones are dead" reveals in such a way as to prepare these blessed ponies for the eventual removal? I suspect this is a subject where efficiency and morality may not have have axes that point in the same direction. In a further question of morality, it may work out for the best if Fusion and Gravity can claim ignorance on how this is being handled.
And uh oh regarding the revelation that the masters now know that they didn't die in that chamber. The clock is ticking! *insert appropriate Twilight face here*
Killing Them Softly.
So many ways to take that title, and, why do I suddenly have a very ominous feeling?
So they do have IV nutrients. Good news for him. Not a great replacement for real food. But enough to give him some more time to repair himself.
And really liked the bit of him doing it. Explaining why it is hard to do. Just the level of detail needed. But also easy for a pony that knows what to look for and how to handle it. Though hopefully there's not to much dead, blood starved tissue to deal with. And between the laser, and the other pony's magic fusing. Wouldn't most of those have been cauterized or sealed in some way? Doesn't he have to deal with that as well?
But, nice little bit of showing more of how magic works. Now, is there anything they can do about his spine.
So a random doctor. Just ordinary for her field and nothing to special. Can improvise a long term, semi-cryogenic stasis set up on the fly? Given these are ponies, I can buy it. Plus these ones seem to all be borderline genius, at least in certain fields. So yeah shows just how smart even the ordinary ponies are. If they are allowed to really use their minds. Though why does she need to? Or is it just to fake his death and hold him that way till they can 'dispose of the body'?
Okay so faking the death thing. But why did she 'Switch to the euthanasia compound'? Assuming in her injector gun. Or, just more faking. To make it look like that's what she injected him with? And what's with the tubing? Just to keep his airway from collapsing or something? But, overall, impressive. Now to see if they can make the switch without it going wrong and screwing them over somehow.
plus the whole rebelling thing is still new to her. Still has to deal with all the established programming. But she's doing it quickly. And yeah it's likely someone might notice, but as she said, extraordinary circumstances. And they know the corral has had an upsurge in Fugue cases for a while because of them. So hopefully not a major investigation as long as it doesn't go on to long.
Huh. Well this is another could be good could be bad thing. All her reason were good. Plus he's the biggest threat to them among ponies right now. The rest my not be blessed, but they don't know it, or how. Packet knows all about them. And all it would take is him waking up at the wrong time to ruin everything. So yeah, logical move. Plus, now not all the deaths are Fugue related. makes the upsurge a bit more believable if it's not all the same. Plus her accepting responsibility and being tired simply adds to the illusion of what the infirmary is like. Shows she was overworked dealing with all these cases, and makes some of the uptake in death likely to also be attributed to it. As long as thing calm down in a day or two. Likely be alright... for now.
Spiral... NO! yes it's a nice idea. Other then the horrors of fugue. But you need to take it slow. Let the Sisters get this group converted before sending them new ones. Don't make TO many ponies 'die' to quick.
Sh is good at this. Setting up a solid, believable story, making everything as real as possible. yeah, damn nice job and The Sisters are damn lucky she's on their side. thanks for helping with that Salrath. I hope you get to learn that you are the cause of your races fall before you get atomized.
But yeah she is a damn good actor. hen again she's used to being in control of herself, staying calm, logical. Strong for ponies that need it, empathic for others. Yeah, makes sense.
that image is kind of awesome. Really great job in establishing Orgon and how badass he is. Just so above it all. And screaming 'villain you have to take seriously'. hate him, but still respect him so far. unlike... that OTHER one....
Yeah really hope we see a lot more and lean more about him. Would love to see him talking directly to the Sisters
See and so simply put. A great reason to love him as a character. For a split second I actually thought that maybe he cared about the ponies for their own sake. Simply saw they were struggling, and realized, maybe we should lighten the load a bit. Then, not really he's just worried about hem failing and what will happen to him. And yet he kind of does care. Not in a personal 'they are suffering' way. But simply in a 'They are tools being overworked' type way. He knows they have hard limits that they can't cross. And doesn't treat them like failures for reaching them. Doesn't just whine and scream and blame them for. Realizes the cold hard facts, and works out how to change them. knows he can only push so far, and does take the fact they are living being into account. Still sees them as tools. But actually realizes they can't be treated like machines. he's smart, cold, calculating. Yeah... loving him more and more as we se more.
DUN DUN DUN! Let's hope being ground zero of a thermobaric explosion will create such a mess it takes them a while longer to tell what was or wasn't in there.
How would they be visible? I mean, an explosion that big. How would they be anything that even LOOKS like a servitor? Also holy fuck those beam chambers are tough.
At least he's doing it out of cold pragmatism. Not sadistic glee. He's more likable, and definitely able to respect him a bit. but still evil.
Interesting that he's more worried about the other master's response, and what hey will do. Rather then what two extremely powerful, and highly pissed off Ponies with no inhibitions against slaughtering Masters, and able to free others will do.
And still able to buy some time. Still not fully buying it. So good for the Sisters. Though again, how the hell is the master still in one piece. wasn't one of the bombs inside the beam chamber itself?
Or not. Well they know the Sisters survived. But something this new, going to be a while before they know how to deal with it. And have no clue where to start looking for them.
And now.. I can't wait to see that happening. not Spiral, but any of the free ponies calling them that their face. Just to prove they can and how little they think of the Dogs. Also, damn just DAMN that whole scene with Spiral was amazing. I, I have nothing mroe to add, it was just so well done.
Ummm, ponies. I, okay this is kind of a 'Good news, bad news' type deal. And both bits of news are. 'They already know." So ummm, uh-oh
Took me a moment to figure that one out.
Okay, so why did Fusion show up? And, are we going to be getting something from these two soon?
Oh right, they had to bring back the biomass to fake the dead bodies.
So graceful. nice little touch.
That might be a bit hard to explain, yes. AH so she's using the deer to test long range teleports. Teleporting while self adjusting for the planets rotation and change in relative speeds.
Ummmm, What? How is there a breeze, and what trees? And, how is she hearing insects, when a page or so ago Spiral was saying how greatful she was that the Stall was soundproof? What?
And the burning... oh right. that's how she killed them. Though, could also be from the teleport. Thought that was the issue at first.
Oh so this was just a silent one, not a long range one? But still, quite useful.
Okay so they are planning. And aren't just waiting for the Fogs to do something. And they should have that long. Still need to address just what them being alive means, and deal with the Court, and no clue where to look to find them.
Damn that is one hell of a visual.
Okay... meh. Kind of a.. just there chapter. Some good stuff but, just more set up. Yeah it's building but, was really hoping to see more Fusion and gravity. Not just a quick show up at the end, but actually get more of them interacting, planning, dealing with their new lives. More of THEM as the viewpoint ponies. This was good, and again nice set up but, hope we get something else soon.
4555268 Ohhh I like that one. Able to see he world crumble. Watch as ponies live happy, free lives. Yes yes. this MUST happen
I love it whenever a new chapter for this story pops into my favorites.
Good chapter, seems like we're fast approaching the time when shit hits the fan.
You certainly know how to fuel those nightmares.
That does not bode well.
On the other hand, it does hint that Orgon might want to keep the missing sisters a secret from the World Court to save his own hide, which is advantageous.
(For them, not for the witnesses.)
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And where do you send ponies you don't want talking about what they've seen but might prove useful in other ways? That's right, the nearest eugenics board facility. Where they will spend the rest of their short life wondering why they're being punished for doing what the masters told them to do.
Orgon couldn't be helping the sisters more if he was honestly trying to.
Thanks for all the comments, folks!
===============
4556715
Shall we just let this lie fallow, then?
4556848
It's getting harder and harder to think of good chapter titles; I was really pleased with that one.
4557891
Pony abilities: the way I like to think of it is that they are all savants after a fashion, and very good in their particular field. Also there is a significant selection pressure to be the best possible...
A large dose of certain sedatives is one of the ways to leave the world; in this case he's receiving a less-than-lethal dose (obviously!). Correct, the tube is to keep his airways open (the things you discover during research).
Orgon at the beam chamber:
The deja vu is from the underside of the place looking like a forest at night.
The closest thermobaric was outside the chamber (at least it should have been; I'd have to check).
Fusion at the Infirmary: Not quite right on the teleport front. The test is a 'pull' jump (using the senses of the pony at the other end to 'lock' onto the target), rather than a 'push' (although she's doing both here, thus the silence). Thus the trees and the insects are from Gravity's senses.
Got my chapters mixed up; this was def. more of a 'Spiral' chapter.
4556281 Don't expect me to go fawning over these puns.
4561151 Hmmm, could have sworn one of the charges was inside the chamber with them. But maybe I was just confusing it with the detonator.
Okay, the teleport stuff makes sense though, might want to edit in a line or two about those sensations coming through the link, not Fusion's own senses. And the specification of 'fruit trees' just makes it odder. Since the only Fruit trees' we know of is the orchard in the corral. So that adds to the confusion.
And agree with ponies being savants in fields related to their cutie marks.
4560313
Come to think of it, since that Eugenics Board facility appears to also contain the missing foals, whose recovery is one of their top objectives... right now it might be one of the best places for a pony to be sent.
4564893
My point exactly. Orgon thinks he's getting rid of witnesses but doesn't know that the sisters intend to hit the place. He wants to find the missing ponies before the world court learns of them and blames the whole mess on him. It simply doesn't occur to him that ponies could be thinking in terms of attacking the dogs. And there are also some mighty upset griffons there who would love a chance to get the hell out...
Just wanted to point out that an autoclave utilizes saturated steam at pressures of around typically 17-21 PSI at temps of 121-124 C (sometimes 134 C) to perform nondestructive sterilization for primarily medical or lab equipment, or for rendering biological samples inert and safe for disposal down municipal solid waste drain systems.
While we DO occasionally see debris "ash out" in the autoclaves at the lab where I work, there is certainly no flames burning things to total ash. It's more comparable to a large pressure cooker. I suspect you meant an incinerator, which uses flames to burn it with fire!
4568816
Ah, I knew someone would pick me up on that! The key phrase is 'has a medical waste setting' -- most of the time it is used as a normal autoclave, but sometimes it does duty as a crematorium. It seemed wasteful to have two machines, considering the difference is just one of power (and I like the word 'autoclave'!)
In this mode the thing is operating with a dry heat and pumps in pure oxygen under pressure, which is where the flames come in...
4571191 I thought about the possibility of two modes... But totally had to get my plot to bed so I'd wake up in time to get to my job... where I run autoclaves!
So sweet... we are putting in two more autoclaves... big ones with 5 x 2 x 3 foot chambers. You could pile a couple deer in one of those puppies!
"No Flutters! I never would do that! It was just a reference!"
LOL
Now the TRUE horror story would come from forgetting to use that setting while "cremating" the remains of some dearly beloved pony, recently departed... There is not enough ethanol in the WOLRD to provide the brain bleach to drown that image out of the heads of any pony that witnessed that!
Might leave a Diamond Dog salivating though... All the more reason to topple their global regime of enslavement.
4573475
You do get on well with your co-workers, yes?
"Rich, we've got a problem with one of the heaters. Yes, the one at the back. Just get in, I'll watch the controls, not need for the lock-out..."
Medium rare, wasn't it?
We've got a few in the micro department, but the door marked 'BSL3' keeps me out...
I've been wondering this for a while, but only now thought to comment - are the People pretty much exactly as we saw the Diamond Dogs in the show, or are the Diamond Dogs more of a... devolved version of the People? Maybe it's just me, but the impressions I always got from reading this were of a race that was more physically refined than the Dogs we saw in the show.
4596296
). It always seemed to me that the DDs in the show were several species -- the cat-like 'main dog', aka Rover, and a whole bunch of bulldog-like others. I modeled my lot on 'Rover'. As to where the others come from, that is best left as an exercise for the idle reader...
It's been a while since I made the original design decisions (coming up for three years in August
4557891
Orgon is intelligent, thorough, calculating and ruthless, but he's still one of the Dogs and that colors his perceptions. Two ponies that can teleport and remove Blessings? He takes it very seriously, as we've seen, but he doesn't -- can't -- get it on the emotional level that his entire civilization is facing an existential threat. (Which is probably a good thing for everyone, as an Orgon who really grasped how incredibly dangerous the situation is would either have a nervous breakdown, or do something hasty and excessive.)
4598967 That doesn't mean different species. A chihuahua looks vastly different from a Great Dane but they are both the same species. Just different breeds within the same species.
4612674
This is true(ish); technically those two could breed, but mechanically (and medically), probably not. They are new species in the making, separated by the difference in size.
I always thought 'Rover' looked very cat-like, while the others were more 'doggy' -- down to the choice of breed the individuals were modeled on, no doubt.
Oh boy it updates every 16th i think
Oh boy it's likely to be ~4 times longer
Oh boy that's 2 days
Time to put it on my kindle.
4695029
Eeeeeee, almost chaptertime.
4699225
What is even up with this dude?
"Creepy."
4571191 Somepony beat to comment about the autoclave... probably by a few months. But yeah, autoclave is a funny word ^^
I have a sudden premonition that Lilac won't survive these stories.
I keep noticing how most of the Dogs seem to treat the servitors well and care for their well-being. It's mostly of little things in their thoughts, but it still shows that most of the Dogs aren't bad and they don't deserve to harmed any more than the ponies.
Also, what the heck are Celestia and Luna supposed to do with that many ponies? They don't know a thing about leadership, and most of the ponies will still think that the Dogs are good at first.
And again, what's Chaos up to?
Clever.
4700382
You make very big comments