G5.05: Crisis Response
It had been a long time since Olivia had been in Landfall base. She could tell from the way the Forerunner acted that it didn’t want her here—didn’t want anyone here, now that there was somewhere else for people to live.
The less contact people had with Landfall, the less likely it would be destroyed as well, should something catastrophic happen to the rest of their crew. If they all died, the Forerunner could keep trying.
For all she knew, they had been doing this same dance for a thousand years. Generation one and two might have happened eons ago, and it just wasn’t telling her about all the intervening attempts.
It was hard to read an AI that wasn’t sapient. Probably wrong of her to map human emotions onto the way it acted. But there was no other way of understanding its behavior.
In general, the Forerunner didn’t just obey her promptly; it volunteered itself. It provided suggestions, gave information without being asked. Helped her do her job better. But anything she wanted to do to get back to Landfall—it took explicit instructions all the way. The Sojourner flew her much slower than it could have, flying at the absolute limit of its atmospheric reach. Sometimes she had to explicitly request that it open doors.
Doesn’t matter. We won’t have to come back again once we get this new crew out. Othar’s biofabricators would be coming online in just a few hours. Olivia had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to do with them, but she hadn’t filed anything yet. Some part of her still held onto hope that Dr. Born would come up with her cure to the condition they’d dubbed “Catastrophic Prion Accumulation.”
But these five poor souls would be coming to life too late to benefit from that. They might be the last ponies the Forerunner produced.
“Fabrication cycle complete,” said the Forerunner, its voice echoing through the small room of Landfall base. “Final screening in progress.” She could hear motion within each of the chambers—the Forerunner had just woken up her ponies. She still remembered what it was like to wake up in that small space, afraid and alone. Terrified that she seemed to be missing limbs.
Sorry friends. That isn’t going to get better for us. The other crew members had already come up with some clever solutions to that—gyrostabilized claws for holding onto things while they walked, for instance. It was possible waking some proper engineers would let someone invent some claw implants or something.
It isn’t like I need an army. She hadn’t been grown here to defeat the alien culture in a war. She wasn’t going to invade. They weren’t even building their city in alien territory!
I’m just protecting us, that’s all. We’re keeping this island. So far, they had faced no opposition. No hostile wildlife, no sign of a search party come to find Deadlight.
The sound coming from one of the pods changed. The name printed there, Specialist Lei Yong Wang, belonged to the explosives expert of the team. She couldn’t see inside—the glass was polarized as the process neared completion, to protect the privacy of the newly-forming crew. Pointless.
Olivia winced as she heard the sound change to screams, the weak pounding of hooves on metal. “Forerunner, what’s going on?”
“Examination has determined Specialist Lei Yong Wang mentally unable to perform her duties. Alien biosleeve appears to be resistant to anesthetic.”
A rapid string of thoughts flew through Olivia’s mind. Unable to perform her duties translated to a waste of resources. Of course she doesn’t fucking feel like she can do her job! She’s a stupid horse!
Her mind proceeded to the next step in less than a second. Why might anesthetics be required? Because the machine was killing her. Recycling to make another attempt.
“Stop right now!”
“Command not recognized,” the Forerunner answered. “Please wait until cycle is complete to give this fabricator new instructions.”
“Like hell I will.” Olivia lifted the rifle off her shoulder—gas-accelerated, depleted uranium, specifically designed to kill the native “unicorns” before they could use magic as a weapon. She pressed it right to the modular control circuitry on Lei’s pod, and fired three rounds.
There was a shower of sparks, bits of green silicon and glass flew all around her. The grinding machinery wound down.
“What are you doing, Major?” the Forerunner asked, its voice as flat as ever. The first time it had volunteered any sort of communication since she arrived. “The biosleeve was malfunctioning.”
“Irrelevant!” She dropped the gun. Lei’s panicked shouts still came from inside, pounding hooves a little weaker on the metal. “Open the damn door!”
“Command accepted. Critical error. Door mechanism malfunction detected.”
Olivia scanned the room in a few rapid moments, dimly aware of some of the other drawers opening. This was good—she wouldn’t stand a chance of saving more than one of them at once. You aren’t killing a member of my fucking crew today.
There was a tool cabinet on the far wall. Olivia turned, dashed over as quickly as she could and flung the cabinet open. A quick glance found what she was looking for—a crowbar. She took it in her mouth, darting back to Lei’s cell. She didn’t have much time now. Fabricators filled with fluid whenever they were cycling—this one was certainly full of it now.
But that would be working in her favor, if she could beat the mechanism. All that liquid would want to get out. Olivia jammed the blade of the crowbar into the mechanism, hammering on it with a boot until it was as deep as it would go. Then she braced her forelegs on the ground, and bucked it as hard as she could. The mechanism groaned, metal protesting for just a second. But this wasn’t war hardware—it wasn’t meant to resist external force.
The door gave with an explosion of sparks and bits of steel. Sickly yellow fluid went spilling out onto the ground, along with bits of machinery. There was a fair amount of blood in the slime, along with the broken remains of a drill arm. A few chunks of flesh.
On the ground, Specialist Lei flopped up and down for a few seconds, coughing up more of the slime. She was still screaming, but had very little strength left for that.
Olivia settled back on all four hooves, calmly assessing the damage. It appeared the Forerunner had started “recycling” on her lower body. One of her back legs had been badly mangled—it would probably need to be amputated. The rest of her looked intact, though she wouldn’t be if Olivia didn’t step in soon.
She ignored Lei’s protests, grabbing a medkit off the wall and removing what she would need to make a tourniquet. “Forerunner, are those jumpers ready yet back in Othar?” she shouted as she worked.
Olivia ignored another feeling, one she couldn’t explain and wasn’t relevant to the situation at hand. She felt a sharp pain centered on her flanks, one that seemed to be spreading. She couldn’t even guess at its source, but just now she didn’t care. Olivia had ignored gunshot wounds before, ignored the vomit-inducing pressure of a sonic disruptor. She could ignore this.
“Affirmative, Major.”
“Then get Dorothy aboard a jumper immediately. Tell her she should prep for surgery. Amputation of… left leg. Tell her to fit the prosthetic for someone her size.”
“Command accepted,” the Forerunner said, after a particularly long delay.
But there was no time to worry about that. “I order you to send the message immediately, exactly as I have specified.”
“Command accepted,” the Forerunner said again. Was that a hint of resentment Olivia could hear in its voice? No, she was projecting her own anger onto it. Obviously.
“G-god… what… where…” Lei coughed, her whole body shaking with the pain.
Olivia dropped the supplies down beside her mangled leg at about the time the first of her specialists made their way over.
She wasn’t sure which one—he looked exactly like Deadlight, except for a missing tattoo. “Are you our commanding officer?” he asked, taking in the scene apparently without emotion. He was stable enough not to shake where he stood, anyway.
“Yes,” she said, then pointed. “Hold her down, soldier. I need to get this on before she bleeds to death.”
The pain was growing in her own body, and Olivia still couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It took most her will to remain conscious, and even that was a tremendous struggle. She might not be able to keep going for much longer.
The others were just emerging from their pods. Most were still disoriented—she could hardly blame them. If this stallion helped her, she knew who would be her second in command very soon.
“Aye, sir,” he said, in a thick, unidentifiable accent.
“You!” She pointed to the next-nearest pony. “Help us! Get the epidural out of that medkit, and bring it here. Now.”
The pony obeyed without objection, as she should have.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out sooner,” Olivia muttered to herself as she worked, tightening the tourniquet as Lei continued to struggle. “We have a doctor on the way. Just hold on.” Then privately, though she knew the Forerunner would be listening. “No one hurts my crew.”
And that was all she could manage. Olivia dropped her tools, flopping to one side, her whole-body convulsing as the magic spread throughout her body. Her new crew of military specialists was left staring speechless at their commander, now unconscious beside Lei, her flanks covered in sourceless burns.
Lucky knew she was walking on thin ice, not unlike the layer that grew outside the ringbuilder base. Flurry Heart was exhausted, and needed frequent stops. That gave her a little time to speak to her mom without being overheard, if she was very careful. She didn’t want to give the princess the idea that she was trying to keep secrets from her (even though that was exactly the case).
“We need to get away,” Dust had said, when Flurry Heart went off to relieve herself on a nearby cloud.
They wouldn’t have long to talk—particularly if the princess discovered her new suit had very thorough life-support systems.
“Is that a good idea?” she whispered back. “I think the princess likes me. She’d like me less if I abandon her.”
“Think about it,” Lightning Dust said, her voice harsh, urgent. Lucky had never seen her so intense. But then, she’d earned a reaction this serious. “If you go in there, there’s a real chance they’ll lock you up for this. Maybe they’ll lock me up too, just for being connected to it. But forget about that. The way the crown sees this, you foalnapped a princess of Equestria.”
“They’ll learn I didn’t real quick!” Lucky protested, though not very loud. No matter how passionate she felt, she couldn’t speak loudly enough that she might be overheard. “I just convinced her to come with me, that’s all.”
“Celestia is very protective of her relatives,” Dust said. “I would be too. Cadance might be more forgiving—she knows her daughter better.”
“But if we run away, we’re basically admitting we’re guilty, aren’t we? And Flurry Heart knows everything about me…” Well, almost everything. Lucky hadn’t said anything confirming her human past, though there were signs that the princess might’ve noticed she was more than she seemed. There was no way to know until she got back.
“It’s two hours flight at this pace,” Lightning Dust said, quietly. “Unless you think you can get her to claim she went on the trip herself… it’s not a good idea. I know the way the legal system works, kid. They won’t just throw the book at you, they’ll squish you flat. Our only chance is to get away from here. As far away as we can. Probably outside Equestria. If they decide they’re going to hunt us down, then nowhere will be safe. Not now.”
“I know somewhere we can go,” Lucky said, without hesitating this time. “My home. My people could probably get us out in less than…” She did some quick math in her head. “Three hours. Maybe sooner. I don’t know if they finished the parabolic jumpers they were working on or not…”
“Your home,” Dust repeated. She sat back on the cloud a moment, glancing off in the direction the princess had gone. She was flying back, even now. “You could somehow call for help all the way out here? You have the magic for that?”
Lucky nodded, tapping her saddlebags. They hung awkwardly over the lightweight armor the station had given her. “Sure do. I’d need a few minutes. Maybe you could make a map for the princess while I send it.”
“Sure,” Dust said. “I know you’ve got paper in there. But you’re the one who led her out here. You’ve got to own up for this, somehow.”
At least Dust wasn’t still insisting they try to sneak away somehow. If they could separate on good terms, then maybe she would be able to escape the ire of Equestria’s leadership. There was a hope for that, anyway.
“Sorry about that!” Flurry Heart landed on the cloud a few meters away. “Good news, though! These clothes don’t fall through clouds. I just knew they were magic.”
“Y-yeah,” Lucky chuckled, even as she began to work. She had a message in mind already—knew what and how she would send it. She had thought about sending this exact communication many times, even typed it out a few times. It was just that now the message would be true.
She navigated to one of her saved notes, glancing over the text. She wouldn’t have to change much.
“Olivia, Forerunner, whoever. I have completed my mission. Along the way, I have acquired mission-critical information too complex to relay over messages. I require immediate transport, for myself and one native friendly to our mission. Send this transport as quickly and undetectably as possible, as I am located near a population center.”
There was coordinate information at the bottom. Lucky began replacing that even as she met the princess’s eyes. As she worked, she saw Dust ripping out another blank page from Lucky’s book and start scribbling on it with a pencil. “Princess, our apologies. I have to be straight with you.”
“Straight?” Flurry Heart repeated, confused. “I don’t… I don’t understand, Lucky. Is it about what you saw in that… building?”
“No!” Lucky tried to suppress a shiver, unsuccessfully. The last thing she wanted to do was think about what she’d seen there. “No, not that.” She took a deep breath. Lightning Dust probably wouldn’t approve of her being so honest about this. But she didn’t know any other way.
“Princess, I don’t think I can go back with you any further.”
“R-really?” She twitched, straightened, and cleared her throat. “I mean, please explain yourself.”
Lucky winced, finding it hard to even look at the princess for how hurt she seemed. “It’s about two hours back to the Crystal Empire. I’m afraid that… if I go back with you, there might be…” She hesitated again, long enough to press the “Send Message” button.
From her back, the little transmitter whirred, seeking out one of satellites far into the distance. It apparently found one, because it stopped moving, and the tablet flashed. “Message Sent.”
She still had to explain things to the princess. “I want to go back with you and help you explain everything. But I’m afraid if I do the royal family might… punish me. For my commitment to research, I mean. I’m afraid they’ll think I shouldn’t have brought you. Maybe they’ll throw me in jail or something.”
“Oh.” Flurry Heart relaxed a little. Whatever she’d been afraid of, that apparently wasn’t it. “I dunno about my mom, but my dad totally would. I’d explain everything, but… they might not want to listen to me.”
“Exactly!” Lucky exclaimed. “It’s not like I’m running away. If it hadn’t been for the ending…” She shivered, trailing off.
“Yeah,” Flurry Heart sighed. “It was way more fun before that.”
“Anyway—if it’s okay with you, I’m gonna lay low for awhile. Go somewhere else, until everypony calms down and they’re ready to listen to you. Then you can explain you wanted to come, and we won’t have to hide anymore.” Of course, once she went back to the Forerunner, she would have to get Olivia’s permission before she could go back to Equestria. She saw no reason she shouldn’t get it, eventually. But that might not be all that soon.
“You probably don’t wanna see me again, come to think of it.” Lucky muttered. “Probably don’t want to go adventuring again either.”
The princess shook her head vigorously. “Don’t put words in my mouth, Lucky. Maybe it didn’t go entirely the way we thought, but… you’re the first pony who’s ever taken me seriously. I’ve read so many books, played so many of those board-games… but those just aren’t the same! Sooner or later a pony has to go out there and do things! Maybe what we saw was… a little scary… but if ponies end up learning from it, then we’ve done a good job.” She straightened, looking less hurt now, more resolved. “I’ll tell my mom all about what I found out down there. The Crystal Empire will send its best ponies. We’ll learn what happened, make sure it can’t come to Equestria.”
Lucky grinned back at her friend. Somehow, she doubted very much it was going to be that easy. There was still the unanswered question about who was trying to hide all this, and why. If the other Alicorns were, they wouldn’t be happy Lucky had led one of their own directly into something they didn’t want generally known.
But there was no point speculating on that. Those dice would land where they fell. “Thanks.” Lucky grinned back at her. “I hope I get to see you again, Princess.”
“Message received,” the computation surface said, before Flurry Heart could answer. Lucky didn’t look away from the princess even so. This conversation was more important. Whatever the computer wanted, it could wait a moment.
“You’re as skilled as you said you were,” Flurry Heart responded, grinning back. “I’m sorry about your cutie mark, though. I still think that should’ve been me.”
Lucky shrugged. “Just means I have to practice the guitar more again is all.”
“Your cutie mark…” Dust began, but she didn’t press the issue. Lucky didn’t volunteer. That story could wait. “Princess, I’ve made you a map.” She held it out with one hoof. “I’m sure you don’t need it, but just in case.”
“You’re right, I don’t need it,” Flurry Heart said, but she took it in her magic anyway, holding it out. “Just look for Nibiru and go the other way, right?”
“Yes,” Dust answered. “You can get there even in harsh conditions if you’ve got a compass. Just stay dead south until you can see the spire, then fly for that. Another few kilometers and it’s easy to find.”
“And if you get lost while you’re close to us…” Lucky tapped on the side of her helmet. She didn’t know exactly what the range on these were. Didn’t know if they used radio, or some stranger method of information transmission. That was hardly the first thing on her mind just now. “We can talk with these. But I’m sure you won’t. You’ve got all those magical Alicorn senses, right? You can probably feel the Crystal Empire from here.”
Flurry Heart laughed. “You two don’t know much about Alicorns.” She tucked the map away, then turned, pointing with one leg. “That way?”
Dust nodded. “That’s exactly right, Princess. Safe flying!”
“You too.” The princess hesitated one second more, looking back at Lucky. Somehow, she could tell exactly what the pony was waiting for. She hurried over for one last hug. It didn’t last long, but long enough for both of them. It was amazing how close two people could be after exploring some alien ruins together and seeing the end of civilization. “Don’t get caught, Lucky. Even if I tell them not to look for you… they won’t listen.”
“We won’t,” Lucky agreed, waving with her wing. “Wait!” she hurried back over at the last second, lowering her voice. “These suits should let us talk… hopefully it still works even if I get far away. If you can, put it back on at midnight a week from today, alright? Then we can talk, and… figure out what to do next.”
Flurry Heart nodded. “That’s a good idea. I’ll remember!” Then she jumped off the edge of the cloud, descending in a steep arc before she built up enough speed to soar back over the edge of the clouds again. She was moving very quickly now—quicker than she’d flown during most of the journey thus far. Probably showing off for us.
“I feel like crap abandoning her like this,” Lucky said. “Two hours of flying on her own?”
“She could do it in twenty minutes if she keeps up that speed,” Lightning Dust muttered. “We don’t have much choice. There are patrols that way. The only way to make it back without getting arrested would be to get the princess to lie for us. Say we… rescued her from the woods or something. And she doesn’t strike me as a very good liar.”
“No,” Lucky said, honestly. “I don’t think she is.” She hadn’t forgotten the computation surface, though its message hadn’t seemed as important as saying goodbye to her friend. Lucky finally looked down, where the screen still flashed. An unread message waiting for her to see. It wasn’t as though she was terribly eager to read it. Sending what she had would certainly change her life—if not forever, then at least for the next few months. Maybe years.
But it was their best chance to escape. The best chance Lucky had of making sure Lightning Dust didn’t pay for her own stupidity.
I’d probably still have gone, though. Knowing what was out there was too important. We needed to know. And they still did need to know. Though she’d learned a great deal (possibly including the language of the ringbuilders), she had not learned who they were. If anything, what she was bringing back would only make things worse for her kind. She would be giving Olivia new nightmares. There’s something out there that even an industrial civilization couldn’t stop. What chance do we have if it comes for us?
She finally looked down—she couldn’t hide from the message forever. It read exactly as she thought it would—the major had seemed like a woman who kept her word. She’d seemed like a good pony to be friends with, though that might’ve just been the way it had felt like she was Lucky’s only other ally against the world.
“Dr. Irwin—I am otherwise engaged with very serious concerns, so I cannot retrieve you personally. I will send whoever I can aboard one of our new jumpers. It will take approximately three hours to arrive at the coordinates you sent. Stay safe.”
And that was all. No mention of how Lightning Dust would be treated—she would have to see to that herself. They weren’t exactly drowning in choices. I do have those train tickets from the princess. We could ride those almost anywhere. Maybe they could, but if Lightning Dust was right and the princesses did get personally involved… then the further they went, the better. There was no chance even Celestia would be able to track her outside Equestria, she was sure about that.
“What’s it say?” Dust asked, her wings nervously twitching behind her.
“What I thought it would,” Lucky answered, rising again, and stowing the computation surface away in her saddlebags. “They’re sending someone to pick us up. In a…” She hesitated, searching for words. “Like a zeppelin. It should fly us so fast that nopony can find us. We can hide outside Equestria until things die down.”
“That’s… great!” Dust grinned. “I think there might be some dogs looking for me too, after recent events. The further we are from civilization, the better. Plus, I’ve been looking forward to meeting your parents. I still want to have a word over…”
Lucky shivered. They’d been over this before, but her words never seemed to sink in. Lightning Dust always acted as though she was talking metaphorically, or else saying she “didn’t have” parents as her way of denying they had an influence in her life. You’re in for a shock, Mom. More than a few. For the first time, Lucky felt a little self-conscious about that thought. She’d been living with Lightning Dust so long that it was quite natural to think of her as a parent. But those waiting back at Landfall base, or the new human city, or wherever they went, wouldn’t see her that way. They’d see Lucky as a PhD-level translator, one who’d cracked an alien language by herself in less than two years.
They’ll make a neural imprint for sure. Future Lucky Breaks might be made who wake up in human bodies instead of pony ones and go through the whole torture again. But no, she couldn’t waste her time thinking about that. “I told them to pick us up a little ways away from here. There was this open area great for landing I passed on my way up, out of the way from the Crystal Empire’s outer farms. Lots of hills nearby to shield it from view of anypony flying by. We need to make it back there in three hours.”
Lightning Dust laughed. “That shouldn’t be hard. Without the princess slowing us down, the two of us could make it to the Crystal Empire and back if we wanted.”
“Y-yeah.” Lucky wasn’t sure she believed that, but she appreciated the compliment all the same. She appreciated just about anything coming from Lightning Dust, after spending time far away on the ring. Thank God I never had to see the world end like that. “And M-Mom? I’m… sorry I ruined everything. I know we’re still in crisis mode and we’re just trying to survive, but… I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
Dust stood still, looking her over for what felt like a painfully long time. Lucky wasn’t sure what she might be searching for. Did she wonder if Lucky really meant it?
“I’ve been there,” Dust said. “Really ruined things. I was… less ambitious, when I was younger, so maybe not so much. I wish I understood why you were willing to throw everything away over something so… so pointless!” She stomped one hoof on the cloud, sending a little splash of water all around them. “We had things good here, Lucky! I knew we’d have to move eventually, but… why in Celestia’s name did you get the princesses involved? Anything else you could’ve done, and we could just run away and set up somewhere else. Now, though… if they look for us, we’ll have to stay out of Equestria forever.”
Lucky couldn’t help noticing the “us.” She whimpered at the criticism, but didn’t look away. It was all deserved. “I don’t know… how to explain, Mom. Except… when you come with me, you might see. Where I came from is… different from anywhere you’ve seen before.” She lowered her voice. “Mom, there’s a whole country out there. A place filled with ponies, all dead. I don’t know how many…” She was crying again. How had that happened?
“Shh…” Dust rested one wing on her shoulder. She could feel it even through the suit. “You’ll have to tell me about this later, sweetheart. We should get going. Even if we have time, the princess might change her mind and send somepony to look for us. The best place for us to be is anywhere but here.”
Lucky heard it before she saw it—the rapid series of small explosions that signaled the hypersonic craft had begun to decelerate. Even this far from the Crystal Empire, she suspected some ponies would probably hear this. She wondered what they might think.
“Oh Celestia.” Lightning Dust rose from where she rested in the snow, shaking herself out. “They found us already. And they’re mad. We’re going to Tartarus for sure.”
Lucky couldn’t help herself—she giggled. Not for very long, or very loudly. But it was impossible to completely resist the desire. “No, that isn’t a princess,” she said. “That’s our ride. It was going fast, and it needs to slow down. It’s loud when it does that.”
Jumpers were hardly the most comfortable to ride, at least when they were traveling at their full speed. But given the urgency of escaping Equestria just now, Lucky wasn’t going to complain about it.
“Your ponies have something that loud? Are we… riding a dragon?”
“Sort of,” she answered. “It’s made of metal and it goes really fast. Maybe it’s about the right size, too.” Even knowing the approximate direction the jumper would be coming from, Lucky couldn’t see it until the moment it disabled active camouflage and the reflective metal body appeared in the air. It wasn’t far away—impressively small considering what it could do. Carrying six passengers at five times the speed of sound, or a single Hephaestus.
Lucky lifted into the air, waving at the ship with both hooves. “We’re here!” she yelled, though only after a second did she realize she wasn’t using English. She switched to that instead, however awkward it was. “It’s me!” She wasn’t exactly very visible in the suit. She’d kept it on—as much because she hadn’t discovered the release yet as because it kept out the chill weather perfectly.
The little ship’s massive wing-engines angled backward and down, near-transparent hydrogen flames emerging from the tips as the jumper came down for a landing. Lightning Dust retreated a few steps, so that the trees covered her. Her mouth hung open, and she didn’t say anything. Not as Lucky hastily packed away the transmitter and the computation surface in her saddlebags, not as the ship’s engines ramped down to idle.
It had no wheels, but three flat landing struts touched down on the snow, springs stretching and whining against the strain for a moment before it finally fell still.
“Get over here, Lucky! It might see you!”
Lucky turned away from the ship to face Lightning Dust, standing as straight as she could. “Mom, this is the rescue I called for. It’s going to take us out of Equestria until things calm down.”
Lightning Dust’s features were hidden in shadow, yet Lucky could see her hesitation, her discomfort. “Maybe we should’ve used the train.”
The door slid open, and a pony emerged from within. The pony was wearing a G-suit, so not much of her coat was visible. She had the same blue mane though, what little there was. The same coat, same eyes. The only thing that would stop them from looking like twins was that this pony was clearly an adult mare—she stood just as tall as Lightning Dust, as she tossed a pair of G-suits to the ground at their hooves.
“Dr. Irwin and company,” said the voice, a more mature, more confident version of her own. “Please get these on as quickly as possible and get aboard. Radar has detected many objects coming this way—we’d rather not get caught.”
“I’ve already got protection,” Lucky said, remembering the trip back. While wearing the suit, the acceleration had hardly bothered her. Flurry Heart had been able to get up and walk around while they were still accelerating. Lucky hadn’t, but at least she hadn’t gotten the redout again. “I’ll help our guest.” She hoped her accent wasn’t too thick. There was no way to miss it—she didn’t talk the same way as this pony, even if her voice was still strikingly similar.
But Lightning Dust’s fear seemed to have ebbed. Seeing ponies emerge from inside, seeing the hollow interior with its densely padded seats all on one side of the craft—that was apparently enough for her to emerge from the trees. “She looks like you,” Dust said. “Is this your birth mom?”
“No.” Lucky shook her head, lifting the suit in her teeth, carrying it over to Lightning Dust, and unzipping it down the back. “Please, Dust. You need to put this on.
Lightning Dust didn’t resist. She wasn’t wearing anything besides her saddlebags, so there was little to get out of the way. She asked a few questions about the strange fluid-feeling suit, and Lucky did her best to explain. “We’re going to go so fast that you could get hurt,” she said. “Much faster than the speed of sound.”
“Like a sonic rainboom?” Dust laughed, obviously disbelieving. “That’s not possible. Ponies can’t go that fast. Only liars will tell you different.”
She had heard stories about at least one pony who could, but she wasn’t going to bring that up. Dust had strong opinions about that pony. More than that, Lucky had no reason to disbelieve her. It was like those old-Earth dictators who claimed to golf 18 holes in one, or who had learned to drive a car when they were three. Political nonsense.
“Ponies aren’t going faster,” Lucky said. “That is. It’s a hypersonic aircraft that does all its flying in the upper atmosphere. No magic, just aerodynamics.”
Most of what Lucky had said was in English—there seemed to be very little in it that reassured her mom. The pegasus only stiffened, slowing a little as she got the suit on. “We could probably find another way. We don’t have to go with these ponies.”
“Mom, I know it’s not what you’re used to. But if you really think we need to run, then this is the fastest way. Please… I promise it isn’t as bad as it looks.”
A lie, depending on what Lightning Dust was afraid of. Pegasus ponies did quite well with acceleration, better than the other two tribes. But that didn’t mean it was going to be a pleasant ride. As I know from personal experience.
“Hurry!” shouted the pony, who had climbed back into the airship and now waited just inside the doors. Lucky couldn’t tell who it was—though she knew it wouldn’t be Olivia both from the size and the message she had received.
Lightning Dust shook off the snow, picking up her saddlebags by the strap and tossing them onto her back. “Okay, Lucky. This… won’t be the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Living with your ponies can’t be worse than living with dragons. Uh… what did you say they were called?”
“The Stellar Pioneering Society,” Lucky answered, doing her best translation into Eoch that time would allow.
“That sounds friendly.”
They climbed up into the jumper, and the door snapped shut behind them. The interior of the passenger cabin was small, much smaller than the tram Lucky had ridden across the ring. There were two seats, then an opening between them and four against the wall. The seats were made of thick foam, a less advanced version of the same system that had protected Lucky on the tram. Probably less comfortable, but she was less worried about that now.
“Sorry there isn’t time for introductions,” said the pony, as the ground lurched from below them. Lightning Dust’s suit spasmed, probably as she tried to flap her wings and get into the air to stabilize herself. It would do no good. “Something is headed this way. We can’t let it catch us. We’re not allowed to fly directly home—not until we know we aren’t being followed anymore.”
Lucky translated for Dust, cutting away as much of the fat as she could. Then she looked up. “I assume we should get seated as quickly as possible?”
“Yeah.” She gestured into the back of the craft. “We can’t accelerate until you are. Put your things in the cargo crate first.” She yanked on a large plastic drawer with her mouth, near the front of the passenger area. Lucky tossed her saddlebags in without a second thought, and Dust did the same.
“You better hope it isn’t an Alicorn after us,” Dust said. “If that’s who is trying to catch us, we won’t get away. The fastest pegasi can’t outfly a princess.”
The pony only stared blankly. Lucky didn’t wait, making her way back to the seats and helping Dust get buckled in before doing the same herself. Their escort took one of the seats in the front row, apparently speaking into the headset she was wearing. “That’s it, Karl. Get us out.”
The speakers came on, producing a plain Eoch voice. “We welcome the returning translator after her successful mission.”
A real voice soon joined it, sounding tonally almost identical to the pony in the back with them. “Please ensure your tray tables are in their upright and locked position.” With a click, a plastic door above them opened, dropping a mask to hang in front of each occupied seat. “Supplemental oxygen is mandatory. Enjoy your flight.”
The masks had obviously been redesigned for their bodies, just like the seats and straps. Lightning Dust eyed the one in front of her dubiously. “What did the voice say?”
“That, uh… we’re going up where there’s no air,” Lucky lied. “Put your face in here, and you’ll be able to breathe.” Explaining the intricacies of high acceleration and compression injuries to Lightning Dust now would take more time than they had.
“See, like me.” Lucky put hers on—a whole headset more than just a mask. It wrapped around the head, resting little speakers near the ears even as the straps held the plastic parts over the mouth and nose. There was a mic in there somewhere—Lucky could tell that right away from the sound of someone’s voice from the row in front of them.
“It’s good to finally meet you in person,” said the pony, without looking back. “I guess I only saw you a few times. But we’ve been writing for a while.”
All the pieces clicked into place. “Dr. Irwin… senior?” she asked, tentatively.
“Do any of these ponies know Eoch?” Lightning Dust sounded annoyed, even through the com system. “Wait, don’t tell me. You didn’t, so they don’t. They speak…” She moved one hoof through the air in front of her.
“English,” Lucky supplied. “And Mandarin.”
The pony in the row in front of them laughed. “I trying learn,” she eventually said, with a thick accent. “Practicing every day.”
Lightning Dust didn’t get a chance to reply, because at that moment another voice came on. “Brace for acceleration. Burn will last for four minutes.”
Dust squirmed in her restraints, looking slightly to the side. It didn’t permit very much mobility. “Lucky, the suit is squeezing me.”
“Yeah, that’s cuz’—” There was a deafening roar from outside the aircraft, silencing anything Lucky might’ve been about to say. Behind her, she heard the helmet protesting. The fabric kept trying to tense, forcing it onto her face. Her grip on the oxygen mask was too tight. Not that she doubted it would be able to do the same job, but if it did, she wouldn’t be able to hear anypony.
She was the one bringing Lightning Dust into this mess. The pegasus deserved to know exactly what was going on.
But the strain of acceleration was too great—much too intense to talk for the next several minutes. Lucky had a little time to think. Granted, she had to form coherent thoughts over the roar of massive engines.
Until, rather abruptly, they stopped. Not dying down to the steady (and constant) force they would need to stay airborne. Not even the harsh cut of a mechanical failure. It was, rather, as though they had suddenly stopped existing.
Lucky didn’t jerk forward in her seat, but she realized in that instant that she was no longer moving.
Such a sudden deceleration should’ve turned her into a slightly yellowish smear, torn right through the restraints and maybe the ship too, but there hadn’t been anything.
There were no windows in the passenger section—and even if there had been, this high up there would probably be very little to see. Certainly nothing she could use to reckon relative position. So where did that leave her?
“Hello?” she asked, and didn’t hear the slight feedback from the headset. She heard nothing, saw nothing—until Lightning Dust yanked free of her restraints.
“That was awful,” she said. “If that’s what ponies had to do to do a sonic rainboom, I think I know why nopony’s done it.”
“This is wrong,” Lucky said, spitting out her mask. She eyed the lightbars along the top of the ship. Something looked strange about the light, though it was hard for her to place exactly what.
“Dr. Irwin, has this happened before?” Silence. Not even a trace of movement from the pony. Almost as though she couldn’t move.
Something banged on the metal door to her right—a complete impossibility, given both their speed and altitude. Anything that got that close should’ve been thrown miles away by the air gliding along the hull. Unless it was sucked up into one of the engines. But if that had happened, they’d have known about it right away.
Three loud bangs, then silence.
Lightning Dust tensed her whole body, stepping between Lucky’s chair and the door. “I told you,” she whispered. “It was a good try. But nopony can escape the princesses. They found us.”
Lucky struggled against her restraints, kicking and squirming until she could get her hooves onto the ground. That was about the time the door opened.
Of course, the cockpit had safeties in place to prevent that from happening. The pressure alone should’ve stopped the door from opening. But then, it was supposed to glide along its tracks, not swing out as though it were on hinges.
Outside was exactly what Lucky had expected from the upper atmosphere—a few wispy clouds, a darkening to the distant air as it bled onto the edges of space.
Something “stood” in the space just outside the door, its mismatched legs resting on a brightly colored “welcome” mat. “I’m so sorry to drop by on short notice, ponies. I hope you don’t mind if I come in.”
Lucky had seen drawings of this creature, albeit all of them from mythology. Yet she had also seen those eyes and heard that voice in a Crystal Empire nightclub.
“Discord.”
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Now you bring him into this, at a cliffhanger too!... FUCK I'M ANTSY
My guess is that Discord will play a little helper role in this, kinda like a Navi that's just as annoying and infinitely more capable and deadly. The explorers are a change in the status quo, and seeing as this is chaos he isn't causing directly, I'm 90% certain he'll want to have a claw in this. Though he'll likely limit how much he helps, so that Celestia doesn't get angry about him going out of line.
Also I can't wait for Dust to have her mind blown. Hopefully, they won't be with Discord for too long, and Dust's acclimation to Othar and the other Lucky's will feature more.
Not to mention, Lucky has connections to royalty AND a spirit of chaos! Depending on how this meeting with Discord turns out, that's another powerful ally for Lucky.
I was wondering if discord would show up.
Huh. Flurry's a total bro.
Arghhhh! Dammit! Every chapter I just want more!
Well, that explains it.
Well now. I wonder what Discord has to say about Lucky's discovery? After all, it's very likely he knows already.
Man I hope there's a Star Trek fan on the crew.
Now that's unexpected...
dun dun duuuuuuuuuun!
Is discord perhaps one of the builders?
8456175
thats the movie 9. and i don't mean nine, i really mean the movie is just called 9.
Well, damn son. Things are heating up!
Although, I sense potential hostility from Discord. That does seem unlikely, but we can't just assume that he'd be all nice to the humans.
Though the real questions is, how the humans would react to having practically the closest thing to a god on their spaceship.
8457744
In these types of fics Discord is usually helpful, albeit indirectly. After all, he is the spirit of chaos and the humans are going to bring a lot of chaos to Equestria, one way or another.
To be honest, I was kind of expecting this story to dodge the matter of reality-bending chaos magic entirely. Now I'm really curious to see how you reconcile Discord's powers with the sci-fi setting.
Has Dust actually met Princess Twilight?
I really thought a princess was about to come thru that door, cause I was like
Oh fuck. Oh fuck! OH FUUUUCK!!!
Oh, it's just discord. Lololol
Wonder what he's doing there. Obviously he knows most of what's going on, knowing who and probably what lucky is. At this point it's unknown if he's here to help or capture them but I have a strong feeling it's the first, thou discord ideas of help aren't always the best. Xp
I am very excited thou to see lucky and her mom lightning dust going back to her people, was only a matter of time. Xd can't wait to see dust' s reaction to lucky's home and learning with proof that she's an alien. Lol
I gotta say Olivia surprised me, she's that person that is a bitch all the time but when it comes to people under her command, there's nothing she would not do for them.
She has earned my full respect, I knew there had to be some reason why she had been chosen by the program, and her new cutie mark of leadership will express just that. Xd
I can say without a doubt that if I was one of her crew, besides thinking what a bitch she can be at times, I would gladly follow her to hell (tarterus) and back.
Somethings really wrong with that forerunner thou, but it makes sense not being an artificial intelligence, it would act with only hard logic, no morals or a heart, while ok in the short run, it will have very big problems as time goes on.
While Olivia thinks otherwise it seems like the forerunner might be starting to become self aware, if the signs of hearing anger and resentment in its voice is any indication. That could be very good...or very bad, rampant super computers there on equestria will not end well.
Honestly, it should have been an actual AI from the beginning, but I guess they had their reasons. Hopefully this won't bite them in the ass later.
With everything going on as of now in the story.....I SO CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!
8457918
I'm just hoping Dust gets her mind blow about Lucky's identity somehow, whether Discord spells it out for her in this 1st face-to-face meeting next chapter or she finds it out along with having to adjust with living in Othar. Either way it was a good time for a cliffhanger. It can be bad when a story ends at such a high point that I'm left in want of the next chapter too much to do anything else. At least for me it is a bother.
Damn. I honestly didn't expect Dissy to appear in person, at least not so soon. Or ever. If he did, shit got serious. Maybe even asked directly by Fluttershy... Or Twilight
And now we have to wait a whole week for more. You're a big damn tease, Star
Discord.....well, I don't he'll be...unhelpful. As in, I don't think he's going to tell Cadance or Celestia where Lucky and co. are, but he's definitely going to be messing with them. Next week will certainly be interesting, that's for sure. It does get rather difficult to predict things where Discord is concerned.
Oh shi-
8457949
This seems to be at least several years after the Wonderbolts training camp... contretemps. Lightning Dust has had enough time to kick around Equestria a couple of times, and wear out her limited welcome in a lot of towns. Twilight may have outgrown her Dork Age by now.
Oh
My
God...
I can't wait for next chapter xD
~Leonzilla
Dr. Irwin met Dr. Irwin ..
Luck Break said " Mom, my truly name is James Irwin. "
Melody said " my name is James Irwin , too. "
Lighting Dust " My daughter has been doubled. "
And.. Olivia got her Cutie Mark ...
Discord is like, so why are two of the same human using pony bodies of different ages and taking a normal pony for a ride? I want in!
8458125
Yea Olivia gets a monkey wrench on her rump.
Oh dear god, hopefully it doesn't become sentient and malevolent.
No one hurts her crew except Olivia. Though it is cute Olivia is getting her cutie mark.
Ooooooh shit, they got caught.
Considering how much Discord likes to annoy the princesses, this could be a good thing. Though we don't know how he is tied in with all the ponies in the other section of the ring dying.
So the computer clones a body, after only a single genetic sample has been taken? What if the individual it was taken from had an incurable genetic disorder? What if someone happens to stumble upon James and note the resemblance between him and the person his body was cloned from? For that matter, why not simply use a remote controlled drone? Grow a body without the brain, then where the brain would have been, install a transmitter that can receive commands and then translate them into bodily actions, and send sensory information back to the controller (in this case , James). We have drone technology today, and computers than can read brain waves the translated them into commands are already being worked on, so why wouldn't this supposedly futuristic society use them?
So the XE is bulletproof, it has strength augmentation, but the idiots who designed it never thought to include something like an oxygen supply and mask? Or a hood that could enclose the users' head?
A translation spell? Really? Those things have the same effect on drama as sulfuric acid does on chalk.
So why was James carrying around a dangerous amount of radioactive material?
Because it's not like Lighting willingly (and rather psychopathicly) endangered the lives of several ponies on the ground with the tornado... Or that she show zero remorse after almost getting them killed...
This could have been easily avoided if James had been smart enough to, you know, have the transmitter implanted into his tissue, something that we can do today.
As opposed to be build by the crystal ponies who, you know, live there.
How is it that future humanity understands FTL travel, but not pirons?
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been discredited for literally decades.
Because it's not like Equestrians would fight a war so destructive that it results in their original homeland being frozen solid, and then starting it up again one they reach a new land. And it not like ponies are perfectly willing to tread cattle and sheep as property, in spite of being sapient beings.
Oh. Wait.
Because it's not as if Equestria has been repeated imperiled by Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer. Not a all. Honestly, Deadlight strikes me as a determinedly stupid individual. Also, zero of those who did the imperiling were griffons, minotaurs, or dragons, and in fact three of them were ponies. That's right, ponies themselves are the greatest threat to Equestria.
How did they not detect the existence of a Dyson ring in the first place? Given the range that we can spot extrasolar planets today, it makes absolutely no sense that on object as big as it would be mistaken for a planet.
Or perhaps a way of preserving a power structure that favors an elite few?
There are several problems with this story. This first is that it's trying to be hard science fiction, but the failure to extrapolate existing technologies, not to mention the many violations of common sense make it exceptionally difficult to take it seriously. There are very few people who can do hard SF well (Greg Egan and Steven Baxter being a couple of the more notable names). I freely admit that I am not one of them. If your hard SF story keeps running into science-related plot holes (e.g. the lack of extrapolation of future technological developments), then it's probably better to just make it a straight up space opera.
In contrast, take a film like the 1980 Flash Gordon. It pays the barest amount of lip service to the lays of physics. It's goofy and silly, and as a work of fiction, it works exceptionally well, because it doesn't try to pretend that it's not goofy and silly. Message in a Bottle, on the other hand, insists on taking the hard science fiction aspect seriously, yet the plot holes and inconsistencies end up sabotaging it.
Then there is the abrupt shift in the plot. Previously there was a first contact gone wrong, along with elements of corruption in the Equestrian government (who wanted to get their greedy little hooves on whatever tech the aliens have). This was well and good, until the that plot was seemingly dropped with the revelation of the Dyson ring, and only with most recent few chapters has it really picked up again.
The third problem is the choice of a character. Lightning Dust? Really? We're talking about a character who was more then happy to risk the lives of several ground ponies for a stunt, and who showed absolutely no remorse after almost getting several ponies killed. She is not remotely a good individual, and I can count on one hand the number of stories that acknowledge this. Why not use someone like Derpy, Flitter, Thunderland or Bulk Biceps? (Seriously, the lack of attention that Bulk gets from the fandom is almost criminal.)
The characterization is also pretty wanting. Livewire is an ethnocentric idiot, Dust is OCC, James I fails to grasp the obvious, really, the only one who come across well is Flurry Heart.
Oh snap!
There's a few ways this could go...
1. He thinks they're a threat to Fluttershy. Highly unlikely, but if that happens they're toast.
2. He sees them as bringers of Order, due to the tech. Less hostile this way, but no interest in helping.
3. He sees them as bringers of Chaos (the most likely). Assuming #1 isn't the case, they're going to have quite the powerful fan...
Discord seemed pretty in favour of Lucky and Flurry's trip, and seemed to know beforehand what would result from it, and "hiding the past" vs. "information wants to be free" seems like a very order vs. chaos kind of debate. I wonder if that could have been the real disagreement between Celestia and Discord in this version of Equestria, rather than just a desire to cause random chaos?
8458284
Humans DONT have ftl travel in this fic, and drones in a body would be a waste considering you have to be relatively close to make it work, whereas a biological entity doesn't have a range restriction on every action.
8458376
Could be the Dracoequi are the ones who destroyed the builder's civilization. If Celestial and Luna where the only alicorns to survive the war and discord was the only draconequis, well they would naturally be at odds. But after thousands of years the princesses decided to bury the hatchet.
8458427
I wouldn't waste your time with commenters like that. I've seen the type before--fundamentally, they're upset that your headcanon doesn't match with their headcanon. They think they have a better vision of your universe or the future of mankind or whatever than you do. It isn't a rational argument, so there can be no rational response. Trying to help them understand how the story universe actually works is a fool's errand.
Some people just have a different vision for their fiction, and that's fine. You can't write for everyone.
What in the... she just earned a cutie mark for telling Forerunner to fuck itself and die.
8457933
We've kept getting hints that the magic blatantly defies what we understand about physics, no if's, and's, or but's.
ooooooooh shit son!
I am surprised that there was no mention that the Ringworld is wisely split into airtight compartments. Thousand miles high perpendicular walls are hard to miss by the satellite, especially because of the shadows they cast. But thanks to them if there was a "Fist of God" level impact from outer space (or detonation of antimatter or quark bomb able to destroy scrith - matter bound by strong nuclear forces), only one section was depressurized.
So I think that my theory of depressurized city being some spaceport at the rim of the Ringworld, formerly protected by an airtight forcefield, has merit.
Anyway, maybe we will learn who Discord really is.
Poor Wang.
The real mystery of this chapter is what Olivia's cutie mark is about:
- saving lives?
- disobedience?
- decisive action in the face of mortal danger?
What would the symbol even be for any of these?
8457742
Discord's been involved for a while-he was the bartender.
Is Lucky Heart a ship?
Really enjoying this story. It's been a while since one has captured my interest like this.
it's 2:50 AM and I'm tired as hell from a night hunt. Time for some wild speculation because why not.
Discord is actually a sort of.. I dunno, equalizer created by the ring builders to ensure things are always balanced, to stop existence on the ring stagnating. Perhaps the world is due for some of that equalization, maybe he wants the world to know about the ring.
Is it part of a grander scheme, for poners to realize their true technological potential? It's already established that the Alicorns are hiding the truth, maybe discord wants the pones to remove their metaphorical shackles and reach for the stars, the technology's there after all.
or perhaps discord just wants to spread chaos. But authors never do something so simple
8458051
Possible, but even Princess Cadance had issues with flying a great distance in Three's a Crowd, and she was supposed to have ascended from a pegasus. I think there's still a lot of training that needs to be kept up with... being an alicorn means that Twilight can fly, but it doesn't make her better or faster than someone like Dash who has trained for it her entire life without doing the same sort of practice herself. In addition to the whole "Dash winning 100 races in a row" in Castle Sweet Castle, it's pretty well known that Twilight is not the best flyer, and it doesn't seem to be just a phase that she is going to outgrow... she prefers books to flying, and she wouldn't be Twilight if she didn't.
I think Dust just has some ill conceived prejudices about how overpowered the princesses are. If that's what it takes to keep her from doing something stupid in this situation, I'm fine with it.
Oh snap! There is nothing to do but abort mission! Abort Mission!!
I don’t want to wait next week! Discord is going to be so awesome that I want it now!
8458761
Her cutie mark is about social preservation, about keeping the total of ponies she has authority over, intact, healthy, and productive. The Forerunner seems to have suffered some sort of coding issue, similar to the original, fictional, Hal 9000 freakout, and is demonstrating some of the same non-coherent semi-useless behavior traits as poor Hal 9000.
Hmm, why uranium? It's toxic, rare and, unless they are making nuclear weapons, most likely useless for anything else, so they need to mine it specifically for these bullets. If it needed just for density then tungsten is probably better since it's denser and useful in industry, so they probably already have a lot of it.
Also interesting question about U235/U238 ratio in the ring: is it even needed to be depleted?
8458284
I believe you are assuming facts not in evidence when you refer to "The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been discredited for literally decades," and by that I don't mean that the hypothesis has been discredited—I agree that this is the case—but what I believe you are wrongly assuming is that the part of the story you refer to is invoking this linguistic determinism. After all, wouldn't you agree that it would be hard to explain the difference between sleet and hail to someone with no concept of frozen moisture?
From wikipedia:
Can you demonstrate that the story is proposing the former instead of the latter? Can you prove that the story is taking a more extreme stance than simply saying that the cultural and language barrier would be very difficult to overcome in a guidebook?
8458528
Her cutie mark is shaped like John Connor.
8459139
Depleted Uranium is used by modern militaries for armour piercing rounds.