G5.05: Wonderbolts
It didn’t take Lucky that long to figure out Princess Twilight’s message. She sat on her bed in the back of the room reading it whenever she had a spare moment, strumming her guitar absently.
At first, she’d been put off by the dissonance between the words and the princess’s described character. No pony who wrote the way she did was going to send out a letter so full of mistakes. And yet, the last paragraph seemed as though it had been written by someone who knew how to use their own language. Why the discrepancy?
Less than three days later, Lucky had it figured out. Princess Twilight Sparkle had very weakly encoded a single sentence. But who was she hiding it from, and why? Obviously not Lucky herself—the two of them had never met, and the princess had no reason to trust her. She could’ve just not sent it at all.
The message itself was quite vague. It sounded like a location, but what did it mean? Lucky didn’t have a clue, so she asked her mom. “If somepony told you to go ‘north heart leagues 5 west 1’, where would you go?” she asked, before Lightning Dust went to work one snowy Friday.
The mare stopped by the door, considering. “Your class has a scavenger hunt? I wouldn’t go that way, if I were you. It isn’t a very nice place.”
“Really?” Lucky got up, standing as straight as she could, flexing her wings. “I’m not afraid! What if I had to go there? Wherever… it is…”
Lightning Dust walked past her to the window. She reached down, lifting Lucky up with both hooves. How she could do it without falling over, Lucky would never know. But she didn’t resist. Being handled by anypony else was awful, but Lightning Dust was allowed. “See that out there?”
“The castle,” Lucky supplied, nodding. “Where the princess lives?”
“Where the Crystal Heart lives,” she corrected, setting Lucky back down. “I know you’ve heard about it. Ponies up here are crazy about the stupid thing. I mean, I know it’s important to the locals or whatever, but… it’s just a fancy rock, right? It can’t really do anything.”
“Except be used as a point of reference.” Lucky hurried over to her desk, hastily opening one of the map books she still had checked out, and turning to the page that showed the Crystal Empire. “The castle is here… so it would mean going five leagues up, then one to the west…” She took a pencil in her mouth, marking the page at the designated location. “Right here!”
The map showed very little about that space—except that it was past a line marked “U.E.D.”, and that there was apparently an “endless flat plane of even snow suitable for a hoofball field.” Not terribly useful, but that didn’t mean she was wrong. A princess of Equestria would not be sending her out so far away from the city to visit empty space, she was sure of that. “It’s right here!”
Lightning Dust looked down at the book over her shoulder, frowning at it. “Yeah, like I said. Flying over U.E.D. is like flying a race straight west. Only for fillies and fools.” She shook her head vigorously. “Why would you wanna go out there, anyway?”
Lucky gulped, fishing for a suitable answer. Dust didn’t seem to like Twilight, just as she didn’t seem to like many of the authorities in Equestria. But maybe she could use that to her advantage. “There’s something up there, something secret. Somepony who doesn’t want me to tell anyone about it basically told me to go up there and check it out.” She squinted down at the tiny lines again. Above “U.E.D.” by another few dash marks were “E.E.D.”, then a few more before “P.E.D.”. “What do these lines mean?”
Lightning Dust glanced briefly down, and this time she didn’t seem confused. “One closest to the Crystal Empire is as far as unicorns are supposed to go. Past that is for earth ponies… they’re tougher, so they can go further. The last one is for pegasi. Past that line, and it’s almost impossible to fly. That close to the Nibiru, even strong flyers can tumble out of the air like foals on their first day. Not much of a point to go up that far normally, though. Unless you’re in it for the view. It’s too cold to grow anything, and the rocks are so awful even diamond dogs don’t want to live in them.” She stopped, looking abruptly away.
Lucky hardly noticed. “But I’m a pegasus…” she said. “We’ll be way below those other two lines… we only have to pass the one for unicorns by a little. Is it too cold?”
“It’s cold,” Lightning Dust said, practically jumping at the chance to talk about something else. “Not too cold for us. Nice thick jacket, don’t sleep below the clouds… we could make it out that far with one good day of flying. You could do it in half the time if you practiced more and read less.”
“Yeah…” It was Lucky’s time to blush. Lightning Dust never forced her to stop her own studies, but she did seem to have clear priorities about what mattered and what didn’t. Books didn’t qualify. “But that doesn’t matter! We both have jackets! We’d just need… rations for a few days?” That was an astonishing thought. Human arctic expeditions required hundreds of different things. But ponies were more self-sufficient, and pegasus ponies were especially resistant to temperature and weather. Any cloud could be their water, their sleeping quarters, their bath. I still haven’t figured out how any of that works.
“I guess so.” Lightning Dust turned back to the door. “I would like to see you get more flying practice. I know you could qualify for the Junior Wonderbolts if you put in a little more time.” She stopped in the doorway, a smile spreading across her lips. “Tell you what, squirt. You pass your qualifiers, and we’ll go on the expedition. Sound fair?”
The qualifiers were in two weeks. The other pegasus ponies in her class who cared about them had already been practicing for months. “I can’t wait another year to test again,” Lucky squeaked, slumping down onto her haunches. By then, I’ll have to go back to the Forerunner for sure. Even if I get to come back to you, I’ll be a different pony then. “Do you really think I stand a chance?”
“That depends on how much you want it,” Lightning Dust said. “And how much you’re willing to practice. It’s nothing like getting into the real thing, but it’s still hard. You’ll have to fly better than plenty of grown ponies.”
“Every day!” Lucky rose again, saluting with one wing. “If you can train me, I’ll do it!”
Dust turned around in the doorway, returning her salute. “Good. Practice starts right now.” She walked right up to Lucky, flicking her hooves with her tail. “From now on, you’re only on the ground when I say so. Up up up!”
The gesture didn’t hurt—tails were soft, and couldn’t really be cracked like whips. It was still startling enough that she jumped, catching herself in the air with her wings and hovering there. It didn’t take any energy—at first. It was like holding pushup position, in a way. The longer she flapped her wings, the more they started to burn.
“Good. Now, hold that until the first bell. Then you can fly to class.”
“But if I wait that long, I’ll only have five minutes before late bell!” Lucky protested.
Dust’s grin got wider. “Exactly. And I don’t want you to be late. You’re allowed to be tired in class, or sweaty, or out of breath. But not late. We’ll do more when you get off.”
Had Lucky’s incentive been anything less than her expedition, she would’ve cheated as soon as Lightning Dust left the apartment. Well, she still cheated a little—she let herself drift slowly around in a circle instead of holding in place. It was a tiny bit easier than just holding still, and less boring. Flying inside was a challenge, given how low the ceiling was and how close the walls could be. Unlike the buildings in Stormshire, those in the Crystal Empire hadn’t been built with flight in mind.
But she didn’t cheat, at least not until she heard the first bell. Lucky Break landed, caught her breath a second, then galloped down the hall and off the balcony. She flew as though the Forerunner was after her with a fleet of sterilizer drones. No, she flew like whatever had built Equus was after her, and she couldn’t let them catch her.
She was late the first day, and the second. Knowing Look sent her home with an alarm clock that day, apparently thinking that she wasn’t waking up on time.
Her mornings were just a warm-up for the pain that Lightning Dust inflicted in the afternoons. Lucky began to wish she’d taken her instruction more seriously—or hell, that she’d joined the Aerobatics Club instead of the Debate Team. She watched them practicing behind the school with envy as Lightning Dust picked her up each day, knowing she’d be doing much worse than they did. Working until it got dark, and it felt like her wings were going to fall off.
Maybe once, Lucky resented Lightning Dust for imposing this arbitrary restriction on her expedition. Why couldn’t she just go? Lucky Break wasn’t incompetent. She had her armor—she could make it less than thirty kilometers on her own. But then she remembered how she’d done on her first relatively short trip, even protected by her equipment, and she thought better of it.
By the time Lucky finally came home from their workouts, there was just enough time for a (desperately needed) preening before bed. She squeezed in a few lines of report here or there, nothing but lies about how she had invested herself in mastering formal language and it was going slower than expected. But strangely, Major Olivia Fischer didn’t even ask questions. The military pony had been on top of things before, asking all kinds of questions about her life. Yet now, she couldn’t be bothered for more than a quick “Mission progressing well” update every now and then.
Her clone also didn’t message her again, for which she was glad. Lucky Break wanted to spend as little time with her clone as possible. Few things could confront her with the reality of her own disposable existence quite like looking at an identical copy.
No, not identical. Better. Her clone wouldn’t be struggling with puberty, wouldn’t be swimming in a soup of teenage emotions or be so small adults didn’t take her seriously. Everything about her job would be easier if she were an adult. Lucky Break was sure of that. And I might never get a cutie mark. Though come to think of it, she didn’t know that the other crew had them. Olivia didn’t, but she hadn’t spoken to the others very much.
Lucky had no time to ask about things like that when she spent any free second just lying around aching, her back and wings a throbbing, sore mess. It was a great deal like the six months of training she’d been through prior to being scanned. Every day had been another torture, and she hadn’t let any of them wear her down. She had triumphed over all that for the same reason she would succeed in Equestria.
Lucky Break had one advantage on the other young pegasus ponies—she was enhanced. Assuming her pony body had a similar level of enhancement to the human astronauts Forerunners grew, Lucky would have dramatically reinforced bones, better lungs, and significantly accelerated healing. She had heard incredible stories about the lengths testing had gone—astronauts had hiked without stopping up Mount Everest, they’d gone without water for two weeks in the Sahara, and they’d even fought bears.
Lucky Break did not have to fight bears, but even so she found herself thankful every morning she woke up, her body healed to the point where she was no longer sore. She could never actually outperform Lightning Dust, but the longer they practiced together the more impressed she became. And not just because she’s my mom, either.
Two weeks weren’t that long. Soon enough, the day of the Junior Wonderbolt Qualifiers arrived.
“If you pass, you’ll get to go to the party,” Dust had explained. “While you’re there, don’t mention my name. Take credit for everything. You learned on your own… you didn’t need anypony.”
“But… why?” Lucky had asked, confused. “If I pass, it’ll only be because of you! I never would’ve thought of any of the practice techniques you taught me!”
Dust had looked pained, embarrassed. “Because they hate me,” she said. “And if you talk about me, they might take away your certification. Forget the Wonderbolts… they’re a trumped-up joke. But the piece of paper they give you will get you an internship with any weather team in Equestria, even if you never actually join.”
Now Lucky Break was looking down at that piece of paper, reading her own name alongside the signatures of the evaluating judges. She began to realize just what Dust had done. She really is trying to be my mom. She thinks going after Twilight’s message is dumb, but she used it to make me take pegasus education seriously.
Now that she had taken it, Lucky understood why only a handful of ponies from the flight class had passed. She avoided looking across the room at their little clique—whenever they noticed her, they gave her dirty looks.
You shouldn’t be here, those eyes said. Our friends worked hard for months, and you didn’t. One of them should take your place. But none of them said it—ponies were too nice to do things like that. In the Crystal Empire at least, Lucky thought after remembering Stormshire.
So, Lucky sat alone with her new certification, staring at an empty plate and occasionally sipping at her punch. The other students seemed eager to talk to the representative of the Wonderbolts who had attended to judge this year—they crowded around her like a celebrity. But Lucky Break hadn’t ever cared about the organization, and couldn’t have told one of its members from another.
The rented ballroom seemed enormous compared to the twenty or so ponies who had attended this party. How long do I have to stay before I can go home?
“This seat taken?” somepony asked from behind her—she didn’t recognize the voice.
She didn’t even look back, just shrugged her wings. “Sure.”
Someone pulled out the chair, then sat down. Something heavy thumped on the table—a plate of food with much more than Lucky had served herself. It all looked much better than the sorts of things Lightning Dust could afford to buy for them.
“I liked your flying today,” said the pony—an adult mare by her voice, though she also spoke with her mouth full. Not an adult mare very concerned with manners, then. “As fast as you were going, I thought you had a cutie mark in it for sure. But I can see you don’t.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been practicing really hard.” And I have a fiber-reinforced skeleton and GE lungs. But she didn’t say those things. It wasn’t like there was a translation for them anyway.
“Guess so.” The pony went back to eating.
Lucky Break looked up, and her eyes widened as she realized the one beside her was wearing a Wonderbolts uniform. This was one of the judges, the one all her fellow students had been schmoozing for the whole party. “O-oh. You’re…” The pony looked expectant, but Lucky didn’t actually remember her name. So, she trailed off awkwardly and just said, “Sorry, I don’t remember. We didn’t hear about the Wonderbolts much where I’m from.”
“Didn’t hear about the…” The pony repeated, aghast. “I’m Rainbow Dash. Is that familiar?”
She nodded. “You’re a national hero, you and these other ponies. In class, they said you all saved Equestria like… five times now?”
“More like seven,” she said, looking away with a smug grin. “Close enough. But I can’t keep saving Equestria forever. Sooner or later a brave, strong, fast pony is gonna have to take my place.” She pointed across the room with her wing. “All your friends there think that’s gonna be them. They’re going to try for the Wonderbolts in another few years, try and take my place. What about you?”
“I’m a linguist. I don’t have what it takes to do what you do.”
Rainbow Dash looked taken aback, but she recovered quickly. “Oh sure, you say that now. I know what it’s like… I’ve been in your hooves before. Thinking I could do it all on my own. That nopony else mattered. So long as I was the best, it didn’t matter what anypony else thought.” She stuck her face into a little bowl of pudding. “That’s a dead end. Sooner or later everypony who goes that way ends up another Lightning Dust.” She licked her lips clean, then got up. “You don’t want that to be you.”
“Why not?” Lucky asked, her tone becoming suddenly defensive. “What’s wrong with Lightning Dust?”
If the Wonderbolt could hear the sudden change in her tone, she didn’t react. Nopony else was close enough to hear, but apparently some others in the room had noticed Lucky’s body language because several of them were staring.
Not Rainbow Dash, though. She looked blissfully oblivious. “What, you hadn’t heard about that? I thought everypony had.”
Lucky shook her head vigorously. “No, I haven’t.”
Rainbow shrugged one wing. “Well, I guess I’ll tell you the short version. Lightning Dust was trying to get into the Wonderbolts about the same time I was. Real talented flyer… one of the few ponies I’ve ever met who could keep up with me.
“She was a real jerk to the other cadets all the way through training. Didn’t care what happened to anypony else so long as she was the best. Well, one of the last tests for a new trainee is clearing the sky as fast as possible, and she decided it would be a great idea to use a tornado.”
Her expression went from fondly amused to angry, glaring down at the ground. “She almost killed my best friends. If it wasn’t for the Wonderbolts… well, just don’t try to do everything on your own, alright? Wouldn’t want to see another talented pony ruin her life.” She walked away, leaving Lucky Break alone with her thoughts.
Eventually she could sneak away, stashing her newly-acquired certificate into her saddlebags and making her way out onto the streets. Just now, she wasn’t in a terrible hurry to get home.
Even in Earth’s safer cities, a little girl traveling on her own would probably have reason to be worried this late at night—when most of the early-rising crystal ponies had gone to bed and the streets were deserted. Lucky didn’t fly home, though it would’ve been simple. Compared to her training, the test itself had only been a few moments of torture.
“Almost killed my best friends,” Rainbow Dash had said. It sounded like an accident—but the sort of accident spawned by callous disregard for life. Tornadoes were not more fondly regarded in Equestria than on Earth—if anything, what little she’d heard about them was even more worrying. They didn’t just pop up in Equestria, as they did back home.
Rainbow Dash had not been lying to her—what would have been the point? The Wonderbolt pony had only been trying to help her in her own way.
Even so, Lucky found herself taking a detour home, walking as slowly as she could, taking her time to think over what she had heard.
Someone touched down behind her, not far away. “Hey squirt!”
Lucky squeaked and jumped, her heart racing. She caught herself in the air, drifting back down as she looked back.
Lightning Dust held a bouquet of balloons in one hoof, each of which displaying some variant of “Congratulations!” “Sorry I couldn’t go to the party with you. There were…” She trailed off, raising an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
Lucky landed, wiping tears away from her eyes, turning away from Lightning Dust and back to the bridge she was standing on. It rose above a large ravine, and held icy water that flowed through the city but wasn’t needed. It roared and churned in the darkness far below, sounding for all the world like any Earth river. The sound was relaxing—it gave her something else to think about.
“Is it true?” she asked. “What they said about you?”
“Oh,” Dust’s excitement vanished, and she walked up to the bridge beside Lucky. “That depends. Was it about the Wonderbolts Academy?”
Lucky couldn’t even bring herself to speak. She just nodded, letting more tears run freely down her face. She felt Dust’s wing on her back then, and for once she pulled away, withdrawing from her. “Y-you… you cared so little… you almost killed people…”
Dust sighed, slumping across the railing. “I’m not going to lie to you, kid. Wouldn’t be any point—wouldn’t change the pony I was, or the pony I am.”
Several silent minutes went by. Nopony else moved in the dark night—no other travelers walked past them. Above them, the stars moved too quickly, as they always did. And now I know why that is, too. This ring is spinning so fast we make more than one loop each night. How can the natives not see that?
“But I changed,” she went on. “I did my time, Lucky. And I realize…” She spoke very slowly now, quietly, as though each word cost her enormous effort. “I realize what I did was wrong. I’ve tried to be a better pony since then. I guess you’ll have to judge for yourself how good a job I’ve done. You’ve been around me more than anypony else. What do you think?”
Lucky couldn’t imagine a better parent than Lightning Dust. If it hadn’t been for how wonderful she was, learning about her past wouldn’t have phased Lucky at all. Her journal was full of praise for Lightning Dust. Even if she wouldn’t take Lucky with her to work—she knew how hard the mare had to push herself to feed them both in a city with no weather team.
Dust had crossed all Equestria to keep Lucky away from the ponies who knew about technology and wanted to lock her away. She had chosen somewhere so difficult to live so that Lucky wouldn’t be tracked down, even though she could’ve easily gotten herself a job at another weather factory.
Lucky Break embraced her. “N-no, Mom, you… you aren’t a bad pony!” And she wasn’t. She was more of a parent than Lucky had ever had.
Lightning Dust returned the gesture, holding her closer than she had tried to do before. Lucky couldn’t feel the balloons—she supposed Dust had let those go. “You don’t have to stay with me,” Dust said, no longer sounding completely serious. “If you want me to bring you back to the orphanage, I could.”
Lucky shook her head vigorously, burying it deeper in the big mare’s coat. “I don’t want to go back. I already found my family.”
Major Olivia Fischer cut through the jungle twice as fast as a pony could gallop, feeling only slightly disoriented at the reduced size of the trees. Motors whined and servos clicked with each hulking step, keeping her balanced and upright in her Hephaestus Excursion Armor. Wearing its massive bulk, she wasn’t just as strong and fast as a human again.
She was much stronger.
Of course, Hephaestus had nothing on the Ares she really wanted. But the damn Pioneering Committee hadn’t included blueprints for “explicit weapons of war.” Hephaestus was based on the same frame, but was mainly used by engineers in high-hostility environments—deep under the ocean, out in orbit, in one of the belt mines. The mounts she’d used for each of her MARRs were meant for tools, and the armor plates were mainly meant to stop shrapnel, or keep the heat out.
At least the Forerunner could adapt it for me. We need every weapon we can get.
Olivia should probably have been supervising the unloading back in the future city of Othar. But the Forerunner would be doing most of the lifting, and her crew should have been good at things like this. Civilian things like building cities and research were exactly why there were any civilians stored in the Forerunner in the first place. Otherwise, they could’ve simplified the entire process and only recruited from the world’s militaries.
Small shrubs cracked and broke under the weight of her mech, not slowing her down. She could’ve ripped through the trees with equal ease if she wanted, but there was no reason for that. This would be her home, one day. The only home she’d ever have. Might as well keep it looking nice.
She crested the treeline after another few gigantic strides, slowing slightly as she emerged onto a black-sand beach.
Olivia stopped there, pausing at the crest of the hill to admire the clear water, crashing in regular, relaxing waves. This was the end of the island—she had crossed from one side to the other without encountering anything dangerous. All that remained was an examination of the island’s single extinct volcanic cone, and she could call the search complete.
The entire thing was perfunctory anyway—she’d ordered the Forerunner to scour this island for danger weeks ago, and no red flags popped up. Far from that—the more it searched, the richer the island seemed in terms of natural resources. The topsoil was fertile, and below were much of the minerals necessary to build civilization. An arcology built here could house millions, maybe more. And I want those millions to be human. She still wasn’t sure what she had become.
Olivia leapt off the crest of the hill, falling thirty feet before she landed on the sand below. Shock-absorbent fluid around the cockpit swooshed and bubbled, and the knees bent to catch her, before settling down near the sand. She pressed the exit button, then waited as the airlock hissed, equalizing pressure with the outside air.
She emerged wearing only the fluid-filled shock suit, and started stripping that off immediately, tossing it into the still-open cockpit. She took her computation surface in her mouth as she left, making her way out towards the edge of the water. She set it down in the sand, glancing back at her feed of the unloading process. Proceeding as scheduled, as she had expected. The civilians could handle this. “Forerunner, has there been any change to the calculated safety of any of my team since arriving on this island?”
“Affirmative,” the computer responded. “Greater search fidelity has eliminated nearly all sources of danger on Unnamed Island. Success of city Othar has grown to 72%.”
“Call me if that drops,” she said. “Otherwise just take messages until I say. Inform any of the crew who ask that I’m out searching for danger on the island.”
“Input accepted.”
Olivia paused, removing the strap she kept concealed behind her back leg. It held a small caliber sidearm behind her tail, where no one would think to look. She tossed it to the ground—she wouldn’t be needing it here.
Olivia left the computation surface where it sat in the sand, making her way to the water’s edge. It splashed up around her hooves, pleasantly cool, but not cool enough that children playing here would get too cold. I wonder why the natives never built here. Guess they’re too primitive to need beach resorts. The heavy metals buried here would be of no use to the primitive society, and the mainland had plenty of everything else they would need. Beaches back there probably weren’t as nice, though.
When she was done in the water, Olivia stretched out on the sand to enjoy the sun, letting her mottled wings get some much-needed air. They’d started to smell—she couldn’t tell why, since they didn’t hurt. But instinct suggested she probably shouldn’t keep them under her clothes all the time. I wonder if the Forerunner has a chemical for this. Probably not. There weren’t supposed to be any birds on the crew.
Olivia watched the sun progress across the sky, picturing the images her civilians had shown her of the “Earth” star system. We might be doomed. If the builders of this thing are still around, they probably don’t appreciate us landing here and using it for ourselves.
Every resource their Forerunner mined had been brought here by an intelligence. Why’d the Forerunner even bother with this place? Were there not enough planets left that we had to try and land on space rings too?
The civilians had started bickering over it as soon as she gave them a second to talk. But as usual, they never agreed—there was no chain of command between them, where the one who was best informed could shut down their theories. Until they worked it out, Olivia wouldn’t know whether it was likely the builders of the ring were still around or not. She didn’t know what the ring’s purpose was, or how long it had been here.
They would probably work that all out in their own time. They were the best and brightest in their fields.
We’re fleas on the back of a god. If it really wants to get rid of us, we won’t stand a chance. Her Hephaestus glittered in the sun behind her, with the strength to level a whole village of the natives. But it would do nothing against the technology that could build projects of stellar engineering as massive as this.
Maybe they’re dead. I doubt they’d have let the Forerunner land here if they were still around. That was a hopeful theory, and it was the one Olivia was taking as fact for the time being. Or just gone. Doesn’t matter either way so long as they don’t come back. There was an awful lot of land on a ring this size—hundreds of Earths’ worth. We could put ten trillion people on this ring in fifty thousand years, easy. Maybe it won’t be worth getting rid of us at that point.
Eventually the air started to cool, the sun making its way down in the sky. Olivia got up, taking the computer back with her as she walked back to the mech. “Forerunner, give me a status update of the statistical analysis of the habitable surface of this ring.”
“Ringworld ‘Earth’ has enormous surface area. Analysis is still ongoing. Time until completion stands at 3.7 days.”
“Great,” she grunted, struggling back into her suit. “How about the unloading?”
“Complete,” it said. “The Sojourner has already departed for Landfall base. It will return in eight hours’ time with the second load.”
“Fantastic.” She finished with her suit, gritting her teeth a little as she realized she’d gotten sand into her mech. At least the black kind doesn’t stick to me as bad. Or is that the fur? “Are the civilians working?”
“To what definition of working?”
Olivia didn’t need any more. She climbed back into the cockpit, strapped herself into the modified restraints one at a time, then took off at a run towards the mountain. She would still finish her examination before returning to Othar. While she ran, she used the drones to overlay an image of the city on one of her screens, so she could watch her scientists in their work.
Of all the scientists, only Danielle was at work, though not doing what she wanted.
Othar’s structures were being transported in prefab segments, which would be lowered underground and connected. One of those sections was a lab, and Danielle was in that lab, back at work. Well, at least she’s doing something. Instead of preparing a brig, the others were gathered around a small campfire, toasting marshmallows and talking. It wasn’t even fully dark yet.
She resisted the urge to call and chastise them, though had they been soldiers Olivia would’ve done far worse than merely scold them. Can’t hold them to the same standard. They’re stressed after coming here. Can’t put too much pressure on civilians in one night. Give them some time to relax.
Besides, she’d done the same thing. The only thing worse than sloth was hypocrisy. So long as they finish putting the brig together before the Sojourner gets back with the native, it’s okay. They couldn’t keep him locked up on-board forever. Even a primitive could get out of a locked room eventually. It wasn’t a prison ship.
Olivia reached the edge of the caldera after about ten minutes of running—not nearly as fast as the craft could move, but quick enough. She caught herself at the edge, looking down into the opening. There wasn’t supposed to be much to see down there—the Forerunner had judged the volcano long extinct based on the erosion patterns it had observed.
At first glance, it seemed like that initial assessment was correct. There was no heat rising, no lava far below. Not even any toxic fumes, according to her sensors. Yet as she paused, she realized one of her sensors was going off.
“Radio signal detected.”
“Play it!”
The Forerunner complied, and a series of artificial sounding tones and flickering static filled her ears. It was loud and uncomfortable, making her curl up in involuntary fear. Like the feeling of knowing something was behind her, watching her do something she wasn’t supposed to do.
“Shut it off!” she shouted, and blissful silence returned. “Why didn’t you notice this?” she asked, trying and failing to bite back her anger. It was pointless to be mad at a thing that wasn’t alive, or couldn’t understand emotions. But it was hard not to be.
“Long range drones were not equipped with low band receivers,” it answered. “They were exploratory, with no communications purpose. Any additional hardware is complexity and resources best conserved for use elsewhere.”
Could this be why no one has colonized the island yet? Low frequency sound was a form of psychological warfare she was familiar with. Olivia waved a hoof dismissively. “I want to triangulate the origin of this thing. Make a map while I run around the caldera.”
“Command accepted.”
She began to run, dismissing her image of the camp and replacing it with the live-updating waveform of the signal. As she moved away from the opening, it grew weaker, though strengthened again as she restored line-of-sight with the distant stony floor at the bottom.
“Map complete,” the Forerunner said, after she had circled the whole thing, both along the rim and a little way down the mountain. A task that might’ve taken a team of surveyors on foot weeks had taken her less than an hour thanks to the Hephaestus.
The map appeared in her vision, a heatmap centered on the opening. “Statistical analysis of signal suggests a positioning system of some kind. Certainty: 38%.”
“What is it pointing at?”
“There is insufficient data for a meaningful answer.”
Olivia grunted, then turned away, towards Othar. “Send this map and a copy of the signal back to the civilians—the translator. She has the least to do, let her worry about this.”
“Command accepted,” the Forerunner replied.
She took only a few more minutes to return to her city, though she couldn’t use the trail she’d started to make through the thickest underbrush on her way out. It would take many more trips before that path was clear enough for her to use again.
By the time she arrived, she was unsurprised to see the heavy tractors and construction rigs all moving, and the campfire deserted. Her message had been enough warning for the civilians to get back to work.
She passed the single large pile of shipping-container sized segments, four high, four wide, and eight long. Each one had a fresh, glittering appearance to its alloy—on some it seemed like the paint of the Stellar Pioneering Society logo was still wet. But no, that was just ocean spray.
The others were still fuming over her capture of the native, despite what they now knew. What if the aliens are still in touch with whatever built the ring? They might call for momma, and she’ll come back with the raid. Fast kill, low irritant, and we’re dead in the crawlspace.
Olivia wouldn’t let that happen. “Forerunner, use this Hephaestus suit for construction. I’ll remain inside to supervise.”
“Assuming direct control.” Her suit relaxed in its restraints, limbs no longer getting tugged along with arms and legs as the suit approached the stack of containers and slid one off the top of the rack like it was moving boxes in a warehouse.
In a few months, you’ll be safe doing science in Othar’s new petting zoo, and you’ll thank me. Because you’ll still be alive. She could live with their indignation until then.
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Olivia needs a good beating. She will screw everything up I can just tell. She is so paranoid that she is a threat to not only a peaceful contact but any peaceful cohabitation. I know we need a form of conflict to drive the story but she is going all General Ripper here and I hope the civilians mutiny against her soon or the next generation of troop realize she is off her rocker and section 8 her.
8347190
Olivia did almost nothing wrong.
Aside from being an asshole she is doing fine job and in this chapter she kept her assholishness in check. If she keeps this up she'll be the most reasonable person in the crew.
8347190
I'm curious, why do you think Olivia is a threat to everything? She hasn't killed anyone that we can see, and has even helped save Dead Light, even though that might come back to bite them in the butt (all the others wanted this by the way). She has also left Lucky relatively unmolested with instructions and has an open offer to go to her aid at any time.
It's possible a previous instance of her messed stuff up, but this one, while very rough around the edges and disliked by all, hasn't actually done anything unforgivable (I'm not counting poorly worded orders to the probe, because it's a literal genie and you can only really discover what works and what doesn't work with one through experience). The same has often been said of Leslie Richard Groves Jr., who was in charge of the Manhattan Project, but most people afterwards claimed that despite being a bastard, he was their bastard, and not only moved the project forward, but defended it from politicking from above. I wouldn't be surprised in part of her character was modeled after him.
Unless the situation, or the Forerunner's protocols demand otherwise; i really don't see why these hybrid colonist's wouldn't simply be integrated into the population, especially once Lucky actually clues them in on the extent of the remarkable abilities of those Pegasi bodies.
the Forerunner would probably stop making hybrids once (or if) they figure out the problems for adapting Human bodies to conditions on this ringworld; but i suspect the Forerunner probe would calculate that, eliminating or otherwise removing the hybrid colonist's from the population would be wasted energy, and potential, alongside the risk of damage posed by the Hybrid colonists potentially fighting back.
Coded message? Even better!
Why do I feel Olivia's trying to colonize a stablization thruster nozzle?
It sounds like those lines on the map mark the boundary of where the magic of each tribe work. That seems like a pretty decent reason for pony civilisation's lack of curiosity about the rest of the ringworld, if it's almost physically impossible for them to go much beyond certain limits.
Control system for the sun and moon, maybe? That would be a great reason for the ponies avoiding the island, as well as a huge problem once they find out there's someone living there now.
Is there a bit missing here between these two paragraphs? Rainbow's reply seems to be to something exactly opposite to what Lucky actually said. Or was Rainbow just not really listening?
...Or, now that I think about it, that conversation feels like a setup. Like Rainbow was fishing for a reaction, first fishing for the kind of self-aggrandising she expects from Lightning Dust (or maybe somepony raised by her), and then directly for a reaction to Dust's name when Lucky wasn't what she expected. I'm thinking Rainbow was a bit more observant than she appeared here!
8347243
My guess is that Olivia being human mentally, would not expect herself or other humans to treat hybrids as equals and not as half-alien freaks. You can get additional hints of that from her thoughts about filling island and the whole rings with humans. She cares about humanity as a species but she no longer sees herself as a part of it now being a lesser species.
8347279
Yeah, that caught me off guard too. Despite sitting off by herself, there's nothing in Lucky's statement to suggest that she intends to live the life of a lone. Rainbow's reaction might be good advice in general, but it's a bit of a non-sequitur.
What!
Oliva is not only reckless, she also doesn't understand the reason they are on that ring is for the natives! If the mission was just to colonize space like she thinks, they would be in a random uninhabited world somewhere, how is such an important thing not clear to her?
Not only that she doesn't understand what the forerunner is capable of, she doesn't understand that the mission was in fact equipped for the possibility of including birds, and she doesn't see that she is most likely the exception while most of the rest of the crew expect to awaken as a different species and most likely have a better understanding of what the mission is all about.
She seems to also be flippfloping about her perspective objectives in many ways, most notably she seems to have even less regard for the lives of others now than the forerunner! At least the computer is carefully calculating for risks and acting accordingly, while Olivia is just doing what she wants even knowing the danger she isn't intelligent enough to question if there might be better course of actions than the one she takes. She doesn't even consider that being cautious and inoffensive to the envitoment and locals would do far more to avoid conflict than building all the military power she can.
Another thing. Assuming at this point the two groups are now on the same time it would mean that is being about three weeks since the expedition to the island started. They have spent all that time trying to figure out why the locals stay away, why did no one in all that time thought about asking Lucky or the expolorer Dead Light about it? That would have been a lot more pragmatic and safer than to go all around the island literally looking for trouble.
I mean, what if that island is part of the Dragon migration route, what will they do then?
Also is that black sand Olivia is dragging made of nanobots by any chance? If so I can only imagine how badly things are about to get for the Camp.
~Leonzilla
Nice Asimov reference. :D
This radio signal has the potential to lead to a variety of revelations. Anything from a passageway to the other side of the world to a sleeping elder dragon could be down there, and that's exciting.
8347279
I think the author just didn't notice the gap, the whole reason Rainbow Dash came into the story now was to bring up Lighting Dust, so my money is in that Starscribe was so focused on that didn't notice the reason she brought it up seems out of nowhere.
Still if your head-canon is right I will happily eat my words. XD
Tanis wrote:
Other than them all being disposable "use once and throw away" units, identical manufactured clones of a missing-and-probably-dead mare, carrying equipment that has proven deadly to ponies, being ignorant of local culture or history, and in general being alien invaders from another universe who have no desire to integrate... No problem. With numbers as few as they now have, it might still be possible.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/177/563/assumingcontrol.jpg
8347272
my god i'd laugh so hard if that's what it is.
I'm liking Olivia because I there's more on what's going on what we think because she is thinking ahead with what if the builders of this ring are still or come back? Or even when she woke up and force the computer to tell her what happen the human teams, which we still don't know what happened... she could be taking steps to be sure this mission is safe but also an opportunity to work on getting humans to live on this Ring World.
Oh man I wonder what kind of intelligent species that Equestria hasn't discovered yet to be living on the Ring World? I do hope for the EQG world to be on the other side of the ring... maybe they are the answer to get normal humans to live on the ring.
Man, Lucky sure is having adventure over there and we get to see Rainbow Dash which I'm surprised that she thinks Lucky is like her which she isn't... glad she didn't follow her home.
8347224
Olivia has plenty of good attributes and she's clearly portrayed to be well intended and truly caring for her fellow companions. However she is steering the train more and more towards disaster the longer she is in charge. Not due to malice but due to simple incompetence.
She is incompetent at her role at least partially due to not taking her preparation for the mission seriously before having her brain scanned. Her character is also troublesome she is cynical as many military commanders tend to be, thinking of the worst more than she should and making poor choices as a result, and reckless, not thinking thingsthrough before making a move.
Another big trait is how she demonstrates to be homesick and logs for human beings.
She still insist on calling the ring world "Earth" even though she ought to know by now the locals call it Equus. Which is probably the most clear evidence to see that what she wants the most is to make another earth, and everything else is secondary to that.
~Leonzilla
For fucking what? Olivia fully acknowledges that whoever built the ring - or whoever could get rid of them - would be able to sweep them aside with no efforts. What, weapons for the natives? Did she hit her head while in the Hephaestus armor?
Classic authority figure who think they know better. She's dragging down the story from the direction everyone wants to see it develop into and is decisively separating herself from the others, even going so far as to refer to them as civilians when they are all on the same boat. Understandable given her credentials, but she's basically falling back to the original Olivia's wont and not trying to understand anything at all. Her lack of regard for anything outside her scope of understanding is exactly why she's here in the 1st place, because the original Olivia only cared about money and retirement. And that same lack of regard will be her downfall. She's an unabashed military freak who at this point is clearly an antagonist to some extent. I can almost see it now, one of the crew is going to try and rendezvous with Lucky and she'll terminate that someone on the spot. I'm 80% sure the Forerunner will be destroyed by the end of the story, 60% sure that she'll take the crew down with her.
8347576
I mean, there were a few teams prior that died so... Military thinking would suggest weapons would be handy.
Olivia knows that their weapons won't do jack against the Ringbuilders, but there is plenty of things of varying hostility where weapons seem prudent as an option.
Olivia isn't going to win Miss Congeniality ever, but I don't feel like she is stupid. She just wants the mission to succeed, she isn't going for style points.
8347576
I mean, there were a few teams prior that died so... Military thinking would suggest weapons would be handy.
Olivia knows that their weapons won't do jack against the Ringbuilders, but there is plenty of things of varying hostility where weapons seem prudent as an option.
Olivia isn't going to win Miss Congeniality ever, but I don't feel like she is stupid. She just wants the mission to succeed, she isn't going for style points.
I forget, have you already made that asimov reference?
8347576
I would imagine Olivia is more preparing for any potential armed conflict with the natives themselves and not the ringmakers. ...Or it could also be a case of "You'll beat me sure, but at least I'll donkey punch you in the crotch before I go down."
Olivia, they're supposed to bicker. They're scientists; science works best when you have other points of view who can check your theories for holes. You only put forth a theory as being "most likely" once everyone available has had a chance to play devil's advocate. Except right now there's not really enough information and it's too early in the process to hone in on a really good theory, so they're at the bickering stage. A chain of command would be more appropriate if this was an engineering team (not a research team) with clear, concrete objectives on what to build, except the Forerunner didn't decant one.
The episode "Wonderbolts Academy," has never sat right with me:
Spitfire was the officer in charge, she knew Lightning Dust was taking dangerous risks, and not only did she ignore Rainbow Dash's warnings; she explicitly condoned, and encouraged Lightning Dust's reckless behavior. right up until that unchecked recklessness put civilians who where trespassing into the training area in danger; and then Lightning Dust is promptly disgraced and kicked out of the corps...
😠What is this BULLSHIT!?!?! Rainbow Dash has every right to be angry at Lightning Dust; but Spitfire is a hypocrite, who failed in her duty as a training officer!
8347402
I was referring to the eventual human population of that city they are building; and there is a difference between expendable, and replaceable.
What're you up to, Twilight?
Uh oh...
Awww, that was so cute. Also, has anybody noticed that, since the last chapter or two, Lucky's only ever referred to herself as Lucky, not James? Interesting development.
8347279
If Rainbow Dash is actually aware, that Lucky is Lightning Dust's daughter, then her words are intentionally cruel.
I at least can not conceive how else you could describe trying to ruin/besmirch a parent's image towards their child.
I mean:
"Hey Peter, your dad doesn't care about killing people. You can read all about it in the official military records if you want."
Olivia is doing well so far, and Lucky/James needs to bring her armor on her trip
8347224
She is in the wrong position, she sure qualifies as a security chief or military advisor but she don't seem to be qualified to lead the project. For security reasons it is not bad to have a person with military background as an advisor, someone that tells you that and where you should put up defenses, just in case and so on.
But as a leader Olivia seems to intend to solve all of their problems by military means, if the others wouldn't have interjected she probably would have given the order to shoot their now prisoner on contact.
They landed on a space habitat created by someone so advanced that they couldn't even comprehend it and now they are kind of an invasive species there, the worst thing in a situation like this is to also act like one.
If Olivia would injure or kill one of the builders during their first contact, they could only hope that this race is nothing like Humanity.
Just imagine a technological vastly inferior species somehow managing to land on earth, starting to settle and construct military installations on an unused but probably not unowned piece of land and being outright hostile to everything that is not them or brought by them and then imagine how fucked they are after they harm or kill the first human(s).
The whole story seems to be based on the idea of communication and Olivia is not a talkative person.
Her character is by no means bad for the story but i can understand why people don't like her, she is kinda like the captain of the Titanic, she may means well but she acts reckless.
Olivia's part in this chapter got me thinking: what if the Builders left some automated system to purge anything biological that doesn't fit the design set by the builders? The previous humans would get detected as foreign elements then be exterminated by the Caretaker or whatever is in charge. So that's why only pony/human hybrids have a chance of survival: they don't trigger a purge response.
8347794
Do you think the EQG humans are actually human/pony hybrids that has survived on the ring?
8347772
I don't know if she knows but maybe is doesn't since it's Rainbow Dash and takes a few hits in the head to get her to pay attention
So... what's happening with all that DNA? They still need 9999 other samples to start successful civilization with high genetic diversity (well, with artificial combination it could be less). Lucky still haven't gotten her kit? Did Forerunner searched trash for genetic samples, like Olivia asked?
Did she though? She got less egoistical and more self-sacrificing, but her methods are same.
8347972
Care to elaborate? of which methods do you speak?
Lightning Dust certainly needed a solid kick in the posterior throughout the events of "Wonderbolts Academy;" but when Spitfire finally got around to doing her damn job as a training officer, she went full scorched earth on Lightning Dust. Spitfire kicked her out in disgrace; for behaviour, Spitfire herself, had previously condoned, and encouraged.
Through negligence, Spitfire failed in her duty as a training officer; and then she went and compounded that failure, by bypassing anything resembling proportional punishment, and destroying Lightning Dust's life.
No lessons of worth where learned in that episode; and Lightning Dust was casually tossed aside like a used tissue.
Only if she knew that Rainbow was Twilight's friend
Ah, yes, the famous tradition of using power-armor meant for civilian mining and engineering... to arm and armor your soldiers. Sorry, Marines. Possibly even... Space Marines.
You talk like a cancer.
8347759
Magic of friendship. Which, remember, is a palpable physical force on that ringworld. Which may actually cause full-blooded humans to get sick and die, and may be part of what keeps the ponies so healthy and happy.
8347279
Rainbow Dash is... not exactly good at listening.
I mean, in glorious counterpart to the blinding arrogance, Olivia apparently doesn't think the military can build things?
8347772
I find Rainbow 's mention of Lighting kinda contrived. Is there any reason she still remembers and holds a grudge against her former wingmate, or to talk about her to a random colt she just met?
Heck Dash, can you forgive Luna, Discord and Starlight Glimmer despite what they did or tried to do to your friends, but not Dust? What about the time you sabotaged the entire Weather Factory because "muh turtle getting sleepy on winter?".
8348022
My interpretation: Spitfire was simply trying to cover her own flank after her incompetence nearly got a bunch of national heroes, including Celestia 's priced pupil, killed. Dust was an easy target, and hold half of the blame so...
Frankly, in almost every Wonderbolt episode Spitfire and co. they are depicted as jerks, incompetent or both.
Never understood why Dash wanted so badly to join their team.
8347279
300 IQ mastermind Rainbow Dash...
I like it
8347373
For those of you who may have missed the reference, give this a listen! Awesome short story by Isaac Asimov.
8348032
Friendship magic is dangerous to humans. Makes sense. We don't really have a stellar history of being friendly. Kind of a "Friends are just enemies that haven't attacked you yet." kind of mentality for a very long time. XD
8348222
With humans, prisoner's dilemma shows that without any limiting factors (such as possibility of punishment, another deal with the same person in the future, or self-conscience) doing "good" is worse than doing "evil".
But if "magic of friendship", whatever it is, works at this limiting factor - then doing "good" is better.
Afterlife doesn't really fit for this role, as nobody had really seen what happens there. But if some cheater is "friendshipped" every so often and everybody knows that the punishment will come - it is generally a bad idea. Or, better, most ponies don't think about being bad - and those who do, know about "friendship".
8348222
Honestly, I just figured it was a kind of planetary immune system with low-level telepathy. The ponies seem to be able to tell in really obvious ways when and where their magic is able to operate, and they have an extreme habit of staying only within those borders. Even the Crystal Empire is organized chiefly around the Crystal Heart, which radiates powerful love magic.
Remember Hearthswarming? I'd bet that without the Magic of Friendship Field operating in the background, their social psychology breaks down, and they start feeling bad. Like, alienated and bitter. So they get the buck out of those toxic places that make them feel just so miserable and mark them on the maps: the magic doesn't work here.
Look at Lucky Break. She's acclimated. We have a confounder, that being her youth and the neuroplasticity that accompanies it, but she's still adjusted bizarrely well for a little foal who basically fell out of the sky, broke most of her limbs, got thoroughly messed-around by the government, and then just sorta got adopted by the first pony to relate to her personally. She also started out uncomfortable with pony norms about things like clothing, hugs, or cutie marks, and now she's acclimated to all of that too. Here she is, giving Lightning Dust a hug and calling her Mom, when she, Lucky Break, has directly inherited a consciousness many decades old who had their own family, friends, and upbringing. Some of what's happening is the natural shift of her identity to accommodate a new body, greatly increased neural flexibility for forming and reforming mental traits, and the knowledge that her original family and friends are far behind now. Some of it, though, seems to be going unexpectedly well, however much we're rooting for it.
If I had to guess, the Magic of Friendship is some kind of psychoactive something that just generally increases the plasticity and openness of social cognition among ponykind, while also smoothing over conflicts and making friendships easier to form.
8348082
Dash is a criminal, Pinky is a criminal, Twilight would top out our most wanted lists for the smarty pants incident alone... The CMC...
Plot armour and/or being friends of the rulers is a wonderful thing.
8348306
That... Makes a lot of sense when I think about it
I am really curious about what Twilight is up to with that secret message.
It has been confirmed, Lucky is certifiable.
Consequences of not properly preening? Sounds like a good way to eventually stumble into a horrible medical condition.
Seems about right.
I really don't like how Olivia is thinking. She's going to be the instagator of the conflict here.