Lightning Dust had planned to visit the hospital every few days, to make sure the ponies in charge didn’t find more ways to screw over the filly she’d rescued. At first she managed to keep this up, bringing small gifts of sweets to add a little variety to the filly’s hospital food diet. But less than a week in, wildfires far up north necessitated every available weatherpony (including her) to fly up with as much moisture as they could to stem the flames and protect Equestria’s countryside.
It took two full weeks for the fires to be contained and for everypony to be sent home (with ample overtime bits). Once Dust repaired the incidental damage to her cloud home and squared away everything with the factory, it was back to the hospital to see what had happened to the filly.
The pony at the counter, Welcome Basket, looked up as she entered. The lobby was empty this evening, as it often was. Stormshire was a quiet town, off the beaten path and without any particularly dangerous activities.
“Lightning Dust,” she said, looking up with a smile from the book she’d been reading. Dimestore Daring Do trash, but Dust wouldn’t say as much. “No heroics today?”
“No,” she stopped. “Nopony’s needed saving.” It had been a different story up north. But in more settled areas, there were whole groups of ponies who looked out for those in need. Firefighters, ambulance workers, policemares. Stormshire didn’t have any of those. “I’m just here to check on the pony I brought last time. Did they ever find her parents?”
“Oh, you mean Jaiemes.” Welcome Basket turned away, trotting to the other side of the desk, where there were several large filing cabinets. She picked a folder without hesitating and walked back with it clutched in her mouth.
“Is that her name?” Dust waited patiently, tapping one of her hooves on the cloud-floor.
Welcome Basket shrugged. “That’s what she called herself, according to Healing Touch. I never spoke to her myself.” She trailed off, staring down at the files.
“Looks like… no, they never found her parents.” She frowned. “No cutie mark to search in the registry, and her dental records were nonexistent. All kinds of strange, couldn’t get anything on her. Nothing more about it here, except that she’s been transferred to Family Services’ local orphanage.”
“We don’t have an orphanage,” Dust pointed out, trying not to sound confrontational. She didn’t do a good job. “Where would they take her?”
Welcome Basket shut the folder. “Does it matter? You’ve done your part in saving her life, Lightning Dust. Let somepony else worry about it.”
She remembered pulling her from the water. Remembered her desperate cries. Remembered how helpless she’d been in the hospital. How needy she’d been. Whatever mystery had placed a pony who couldn’t even speak Eoch hundreds of kilometers from civilization, she didn’t know.
Welcome Basket was right, of course. It wasn’t her problem anymore. There were other ponies to worry about things like this.
Yet Lighting Dust remembered her own childhood. Remembered what it was like to be a “difficult” child, passed from home to home because nopony knew how to deal with her. Her problems might not have been so bad (she could speak Eoch for one thing, though she hadn’t been able to read for several years).
More importantly, she remembered how good a job the hospital had done protecting her, when Lightning Dust had left her here. Then she laughed.
“Yeah, maybe it isn’t. Saving ponies isn’t my job either, but I seem to do plenty of that.” I have to repay the debt somehow. “Did that…” she bit back a few obscene words. “Did the mare from Canterlot ever return the filly’s possessions?”
Welcome Basket shook her head, expression darkening a little. “You mean the poison box? No, she didn’t bring it back. Hasn’t been back at all, actually. Just the transfer orders from Family Services…”
“Was it really poison?” Dust asked, unable to help herself. Maybe another pony wouldn’t be able to get away asking questions about confidential information around the hospital. But when you’d saved lives, the ponies became cooperative. It was a nice perk of the business. “Did anypony actually get hurt?”
“Well… no,” Welcome Basket sounded thoughtful. “But Dodge Junction apparently had a few. Some kinda flu, except it made them lose their hair… and skin, sometimes,” she shivered. “Can you imagine? Earth Pony hospital dealing with a magical disease?”
“No,” Dust said, growing resolved. “Thanks for the help.” She left.
It took several hours to track the little pony down. She’d gone to the office of Family Services, then flown to the other end of town, then found the ancillary office closed and had to fly to the pony’s house.
Stormshire was a working, factory town. Whenever services like this were needed, it relied on the settlements below to provide them. Unfortunately, there were no services offered in the Badlands, and Dodge Junction had just as little to offer as Stormshire.
Eventually she discovered the truth: The regional office would eventually send a carriage to transfer the filly to the ground for foster care, but not until the city passed over Appleloosa.
Three months from now.
In the meantime, the filly was being housed in the basement of City Hall, and volunteers would sit daily shifts until she could be brought to proper facilities. In a way, this vindicated everything Lighting Dust had feared. On the other hoof it meant she had to get involved, or else live with the guilt that she had watched something like this happen and done nothing to help.
“I’ll take the rest of the night,” she told Quickfeather, the pony assigned until next morning. Quickfeather barely even hesitated long enough to pass her instructions on, so eager was she to get away before Dust changed her mind.
The basement of City Hall was the closest thing Stormshire had to a public space. Chairs were stacked up near the walls, the same chairs they used for weddings and funerals and anything else that happened in town. Somepony had brought the child a blanket and a small box of old looking toys, along with some straw to eat.
The filly herself looked far more despondent than the last time Dust had seen her. Her possessions had been returned, at least the ones that had survived. She wore the inner layer that had been inside her weird suit.
The suit itself was long gone, along with whatever had been inside it. Penumbra hadn’t expected it to fall right through the clouds of the operating table once he cut the filly free--and why should he have? What kind of pegasus wouldn’t get their clothes enchanted with a basic cloudwalking rune?
The same kind of pegasus who was sent alone through the wilderness, didn’t speak a word of Eoch, and apparently had possessions so dangerous they could make ponies sick just by touching them. Or so everyone said. But Dust wouldn’t believe them until she flew down to Dodge Junction to check it out for herself.
The filly had kept only two of her possessions, which Dust herself had been examining during the emergency surgery. Now those two possessions had dwindled to one, a mysterious block of metal and wood. It sat in front of her on the ground, its markings as inscrutable as when Dust had seen it the first time.
The filly stared at the block as though expecting it to do something. Her mane was deflated, her tail hung limp, and her breathing was slow. This was the other sort of pony; the sort Dust had almost become. A pony who had given up.
If she goes into the system, it’s going to chew her up and spit her out, Lightning Dust thought. Then she cleared her throat, walking through the open door. “Hey! Are you… still doing okay?”
The filly looked up, but she didn’t say anything. There was no clear comprehension in her eyes. “Right. You don’t speak Eoch. I almost forgot.” She felt her own ears fold flat to her head. How could she possibly get to know a pony who couldn’t even understand her?
To her surprise, the little pony spoke. Her pronunciation was very strange, the words halting. But they were words. “I… remember… you…” she said.
Lightning Dust froze. The filly hadn’t exactly demonstrated advanced language skills, and her accent was so thick it was almost impossible to make out. Still, for a pony who hadn’t known a single word of Eoch a few weeks ago, it was an impressive achievement.
Just the sort of determination she remembered in herself. She’d have this little pony making loops and racing the clouds in no time. “Yes, you would,” she said, nodding enthusiastically. She spoke very slowly, enunciating each word. “I found you. Do you know enough to tell me how you ended up alone in the Badlands?”
The pony met her eyes, but there was only confusion on her face. She paused, took a breath. “Need… words-having book. Words-having fix.”
“Words-having book?” Dust stared right back, uncomprehending. “You want me to have a book with…” She froze. “Oh, you mean a dictionary! Is that what you want?”
The filly stared back, confused and frustrated, sinking back onto the ground.
“Hold on, I’ll be right back. The library is upstairs.” Dust turned, hurrying up the stairs. The filly didn’t follow her.
Of course, calling it a library was more than a little generous. There were only two shelves of books, and most of them had been donated by ponies who were about to move to another town on their weather circuit. Dust didn’t do much reading herself, but she’d walked past it a dozen times on her way to collect her paycheck from the town clerk.
She didn’t find a dictionary, but down on the bottom shelf was an old textbook, the same bright blue cover she’d used when she had been a little filly in school. “Intermediate Eoch for the Modern Equestrian,” it said. She took it in her mouth, ignoring the slight taste of mildew as she carried it back down.
By the time she made it back, the pony had moved. She wasn’t staring at her block of wood and metal anymore. Somehow, Dust couldn’t have said how, the pony had transformed her box into a guitar.
It was small, made of the same colored metal and wood of her box. It also looked a little bent and had more strings than Dust was used to. The filly was on her side with the instrument on the ground in front of her, struggling at it with her forelegs. Occasionally she’d make a few awkward twanging sounds, but that was all. Her motions struck Dust like a pony who had suffered a traumatic brain injury, a pony who was struggling to remember how to move. Yet to her knowledge, this filly hadn’t been hurt like that. Something in her past, maybe? Something the doctors hadn’t been able to find?
“You had a magic guitar?” Dust asked, dropping the book on the cloud-floor beside the filly. “Was it somepony else’s? It’s mostly unicorns who play strings.”
The pony looked up and noticed the book. She dropped her instrument back to the clouds, lunging for the textbook like a cat might pounce on a mouse. She opened to the first page with an awkward gesture from her mouth and hunched over it, staring.
Dust backed away. “O-oh. Guess that was what you wanted.” She sat down where Quickfeather had been, frowning to herself. “I don’t think I’ve ever known a pony to just learn a language from a book. You’ve got to talk to ponies. Learn what they know. I’m here if you want a pony to talk to.”
The filly looked up. “Thank.” She grinned, extending one hoof. “Me… is James. James Irwin.” In that moment, she seemed to come back to life. Volume returning to her mane, wings opening a little on her sides, ears perking up.
It didn’t sound like a name, not even one a Diamond Dog or some other strange visitor to Equestria might use. Yet what else could it be? There was no mistaking the pony’s tone. She was apparently referring to herself. Welcome Basket had been right.
“Lightning Dust,” she responded, taking the offered hoof, and shaking it. “You’re doing better than last time. Your time in the hospital must have helped.”
That thought proved a little too complicated for the pony, who only stared at her blankly. Then she turned, looking back down to the book in front of her.
Lightning Dust didn’t disturb her after that. “James Irwin” spent hours looking at the book, rapidly turning pages and marking all over it with a crayon she had stashed somewhere. Dust didn’t correct her. It wasn’t as though any other ponies would be needing a decades-old Eoch textbook.
A few hours later, Dust snuck away for a few minutes to the hayburger stand at the south end of Stormshire and flew back with a pair of steaming burgers. They were still hot by the time she made it back, and the filly was still reading.
“Hey,” she interrupted, pulling a table over from the side of the room and setting the tray down on top of it. “I bought something better than what the city gave you. Why don’t you try it?”
The filly looked up from what she was doing, hunger evident on her face. Dust didn’t know if she had understood the call, or else if she’d been persuaded by the smell. Either way, she hurried over, eyeing the bag like somepony who hadn’t eaten anything but straw in days.
She took one bite from the burger before squealing with pleasure, devouring the rest of it in just a few bites. She grinned at Dust, visibly relaxing. “Guess… can good….” She said more, but that was all Dust managed to understand.
“I… think so?” Dust agreed, though she hadn’t finished with her own meal yet. It wasn’t like she was in a rush. She wouldn’t be going anywhere until the next morning anyway. “Favorite place in town. We’d have to go further to eat better. Los Pegasus has all kinds of different restaurants, and Canterlot has the gourmet scene. Guess you wouldn’t know much about those.”
Only a blank stare was her response, though it was a far less discontent expression than the one she’d previously worn.
The filly kept studying through the evening, occasionally looking up to ask questions, or point at different objects and test their names. She had crayons and a folio of scrap paper into which she apparently made notes of the things she’d figured out, moving in a systematic, measured way.
She doesn’t think her parents are coming back for her. Dust didn’t either—nobody who had parents who cared about them would be wandering through the Badlands alone during a scheduled storm. And if any of what Healing Touch had told her about the filly’s abuses were true, her parents probably wouldn’t want to come back. They wouldn’t want to face justice for mistreating her this way.
“I know you can’t understand me, James Irwin, but this mess is a pile of rotting feathers.” She gestured around the room—“I’ma talk to the mayor tomorrow, tell him how good a job he’s doing. I’ll get you somewhere to live, okay? I’ll do it myself if nopony else is mare enough.”
The filly looked up at her from her makeshift bed, a pile of old blankets set up on a bare corner of floor. As Dust had expected, there was no comprehension on her face. “Thanks,” she said, her voice heavy with tiredness. “For… book…” She yawned, her wings poking out from her sides as she did so.
“Yeah.” Dust patted her on the head, only a little awkward. “No problem.” Dust wasn’t crying when she left the filly behind the next morning. Not even a little.
At least not that anypony saw.
Another great chapter!
I have to wonder, will James ever meet the Mane 6? And will Lightning Dust have a "soft reform," kinda like a soft reset or reboot?
Also, James is misspelt as "Jaiemes" in the first few paragraphs. Edit: Might be a pronunciation thing, so if it's still there, great!
8112484 Pretty sure it's a pronunciation thing.
8112490 I would've thought so too, but I'm just making sure. You can never be too safe, after all!
the system sucks on a good day.
I can see Lighting Dust is, well having a bit of a hard time with memory's and I am really hoping this is heading the way I think it is.
this story is just amazing I love it.
Lighting seems like the kind of mare to believe James once the poor filly learns how to communicate properly. Or, at the very least, Lighting will give her the benefit of the doubt. I am really looking forward to that moment! After all, James deserves someone on her side after the whole Moon Dancer fiasco.
Oh! If only these chapters didn't go by so quickly!
You know, with all this talk about bad parents, I can totally see Lightning Dust running into one of the new, older clones of James, assuming they're filly!James' parent. Ah, miscommunication. The staple of conflict.
Hey, somepony finally got her name right!
I can just imagine Moondancer, frustrated by her inability to do anything to the computer, opening her door and getting arrested for robbery.
8112504 No, there wouldn't be older James'.
James was his only copy, and they're sending less experienced linguists to Equus now.
I could be an editor, if you wanted.
Great chapter. I'm really excited for James to learn more Eoch and start talking with Dust about the situation.
8112524
Quote from the end of last chapter listing the new bodies in incubation. I don't know where you got the idea that only one James could be made. With a digital imprint of his brain, an infinite number of biological brains could be made.
8112534
8112538 There are five names -- one for each of the five fabricators in use. I will admit to reading six names at first, but if you re-read you'll notice there really are only five. All this means is that the sixth fabricator isn't in use, is already growing someone else, or, maybe, it was filly James' pod and needs to be cleaned after her body stank it all up.
Hook me up man Syfy is my awesomeness
8112540 Oh. I stand corrected.
Touché, and good day to you.
Just imagine how weird things are going to get once the new explorers/ponies show up. I do think James is likely to try and convince Lightning Dust to fly him/her back to the badlands to find them before the new spawns start wandering around. James had protocol pretty well memorized so I can bet he/she knows that a new spawn is going to happen and that the newbies will need to be briefed on the issues at hand.
I wonder if the formatting on the chapter titles could mean that filly James wasn't the first, but instead the third one to be sent.
Well glad to see somepony doing the tight thing with James. Now I wonder how Lightning will react when she discovers the truth?
GIVE THE FILLY HER COMPUTER, GEEZ
Did they crack open the casing of a small radioactive power supply? Losing hair and skin sounds like symptoms of radiation sickness.
I really enjoy this story!
Straw? To eat? I hope that's a typo, because otherwise that's crazy neglectful.
Even though it's not a cliffhanger ending, I'm on the edge of my seat here. I almost wish it were next Saturday already.
Ok, I won't leave a comment about it!
Wait... Uhh... Shit...
My bad?
Staaaaar, please, give us more! This is too little too go on with a story like this one! We have a need, a need for publication speed! And beefier chapters. Don't forget the beefier chapters
This got us in the feels. Let's hope those two can connect and come up happier when all is said and done. James will probably surprise her with his learning skills, though
8112504
If she meets one and only one, she might think that, after doing a double take about how similar they appear. If she meets more than one at the same time (pretty reasonable since the point of making multiples because singles were ineffective according to the computer), well, they are all using one template, after all. Invasion of the pod ponies might be Lightning Dust's first or second response, especially if they have the same (visible?) scars from the manufacturing procedure.
8112589 James had at least a week, maybe more before she even left just familiarizing herself with her body and having the computer manufacturing equipment for her, so it depends on how long James takes to communicate. It's been awhile already since she left, hence the computer giving the green light to manufacture more, after all.
Hey, LD finally learned the filly's name. Now to get James' stuff back from freakin' Moondancer.
I volunteer as a tribute. I'd put my hand in the Saw hand-slicer to be a prereader.
I look forward to discovering whether or not souls exist in this universe, and jow cloning affects them.
8113043 I can go ahead and tell you right now that they don't. Souls haven't been mentioned one single time within the story.
This story appears to take the view that the mind is the result of the brain, a purely physical phenomenon. Two clones means two minds, it's as simple as that.
What a bizarre and off-the-wall thing to ask.
Dust, oh how I love and hate you at all time, how I must remind myself you aren't the same Dust in the other fanfic, oh how much it hurt to stop myself from being angry just by hearing your name, and to remember that you aren't an asshole in this fanfic.
Oh why must you writer do this to me, why must I read fanfics about Lightning Dust being an asshole even for a douchebag, then read a fanfic where she is empathetic, sympathetic and overall loveable character.
8112738 Sounds more like they REALLY don't mix well with electromagnetic radiation.
I cant wait for jamie to bring dust back to the probe once shes out, to prove stuff
Fucking, piece-of-shit, thieving, garbage pone, boneheads and mudponies...
i.ytimg.com/vi/xVli9szS0bY/hqdefault.jpg
What I think when I see the "looking for pre-readers" message.
Fun fact: It sounds like the ponies that were exposed to radiation received a dose of about 700 REM (or 7 Sv for the metric types out there). Most (~90%) humans exposed to that much radiation over a short period of time (~24 Hours) will die within around a month. The survivors will live shorter lives, with almost certain cancer, and face a road to recovery lasting years! Also, not sure if it was mentioned, but skin burns, diarrhea, physical weakness, and blindness are par for the course at this dose too!
Source: OSHA certified radiation worker
8113234 Ponies would have to be RIDICULOUSLY vulnerable to radiation for that to be the case. All the information about the subject that I can find suggests that the radiation produced by the average computer is so low as to barely be measurable as being above the background level. If ponies had THAT low a tolerance, natural background fluctuations would be killing them left right and center.
The other possibility, that the computers actually emit radiation levels high enough to cause sickness, raises questions as well. Like why crew would be equipped with something like that to begin with.
It might be of course, that Moondancer was lying so that the medical staff wouldn't question her taking the computer away. It could be a partial lie, in that whoever Moondancer is working for found out that the computers DO emit harmful radiation IF you crack the power supply open, and Moondancer 'accidentally' forgot to mention that, for example. Or maybe the whole thing is a lie that was made up so that nobody questioned why the computers were being taken, and the symptoms of the lie match up with those of radiation poisoning by pure coincidence.
I still feel the ponies are not reacting to this like I would expect. Least with the facts I know. A filly that appeared with a "deadly device" should probably be given a lot more attention and not just shipped away to be forgotten about. It is almost like everything that is happening is supposed to be a cover up. Like the Equestrian government does not want the public to know about species of sapient beings that live on other planets.
8113337
Yes, and No.
IRL, The government recognizes that most people haven't undergone schooling to understand the biological effects of radiation. Learning you shouldn't mess with radiation is sufficient for most people.
This leads to most people being EXTREMELY wary of anything directly labeled as radioactive. Thus, on occasion, radioactive material is moved in shielded containers (like lead boxes) with discreet labels.
That said, you are right that this smacks of a cover up. I just think it is more of a "don't cause needless panic", than a "conspiracy theory" style cover up.
8112738 Exactly my first thought.
I think Moondancer is so OOC because she isn't Moondancer at all.
Am I the only one who thinks that the idea of the power armor being cut off and suddenly, unexpectedly falling through the floor hundreds of feet to the ground is hilarious?
8113094 The properties of souls and their inability to be duplicated by technology is a plot point in one of the author's previous stories. I'm actually reading through that one right now.
8113384
Though I wouldn't take anything in my previous writing as canon in this story.
8113337
media0.giphy.com/media/pCTHTPa2aFByo/giphy.gif
8113288
Hey somebody knows what they're talking about.
8112660
If I remember correctly, the machine that fabricated the body did say that previous attempts at a human form had failed due to the environment. Quite likely it simply refers to that.
8113446
I would say that you have done your homework (or job [I don't know your life]) concerning radiation well. That, or tribal knowledge does a good enough job depicting terminal radiation sickness. Either way works. Also, since I didn't say it, I really enjoy your writing.
Hey Starscribe, long-time fan of your stories here.
Gotta say, so far the story seems weird. My gripes so far:
- the computer thinks it's a great idea to send out an explorer in a child's body. It also thinks it's a brilliant idea to have said child venture out into an unknown territory without even a full-body envirosuit, making them easily susceptible to weather, disease and who knows what else. And I get it that it's not actually an AI, so whoever programmed it is either an asshole with no regard for human life or really didn't think things through. And as far as I know the current NASA at least is full neither of incompetents nor assholes
- Moondancer is, similary, either stupid or an asshole, probably both. Okay, a foal claims to be a representative of an alien civilization, hard to believe, I know. But she's carrying technology not seen before - do you just ignore it? Even if you decide that it's just another example of that other radioactive technology she mentions, do you just leave behind the foal carrying it? Not try to find out where it came from? Not care that the filly has probably suffered exposure as well?
- this one's minor, but why are there no dental records? Sure, James is from off-world, but the body's genetic template must be around somewhere
Not really feeling the story so far, but you haven't disappointed me yet, so I guess I'll hang around for a while at least. Watching... and judging.
Huh. I guess we're gonna see Lightning Dust adopt here. Not many people would want to adopt an older kid that only knows a foreign language in real life, and James would've been kept in limbo for at least three months already anyway, probably a lot more. I imagine that would be pretty bad for anyone.
Well, I'd be happy to see Lightning try to act as a mother for a little while.
8113647
This is the right line of reasoning. The easiest way to misinterpret the probe's actions is to assume it has the same goals as a human would or has the same priorities that a human would.
This claim also relies on some assumptions you're making about Moondancer that are incorrect. I can't tell you which ones those are, because that would be a spoiler, but if you keep with us you'll see some of them.
Because dental records aren't just genetic, they're also a mixture of developmental factors and actions taken by the person. The different kinds of food you eat can have different wear-patterns on your teeth, as well as your brushing habits. Plus keep in mind that it's quite likely the pony she was cloned from was an adult, so they'd have had a whole lifetime to have different wear patterns, as well as having an entirely different number of teeth.
Also remember that Equestria doesn't have computers, so there's no way to exhaustively search through dental history for everyone (though I don't know why you would anyway, your system would probably be setup to take only the most recent record even if you did have computers. There's no reason to expect someone you meet is a clone in a world that lacks that technology.)
Keep going to the end and I promise the motivations and such for the various characters (humans and otherwise) will be clear. At this point, the information that would explain their behavior just isn't on the table.
8113872 thanks for the explanations. Though since the probe is just following its programming, and its motivations are not that of a human, are you implying that it wasn't programmed by humans?
Is this morality dissonance also explanation for why Irwin, a man who died in 1991, is sent on an expedition employing technology decades or centuries ahead of him?
I'm certainly hoping for a good explanation for Moondancer, too. I just really dislike it when characters, especially previously established as reasonable, behave as illogical assholes. I'll trust you have thought this through though.
Good point on dental records there, no further complaint from me on that topic =)
8113895
Well there is one more thing I can tell you. Irwin didn't die in 1991. This one likely wasn't born until many years after that. The name is just a coincidence (or a reference, take your pick).