Board the Canterlot
“You shouldn’t be leaving, Twilight,” Sunset said, from the other side of the docking bay. She might only be looking at her through a thin layer of glass, but it was still more than enough for Twilight to see her disapproval. “Seriously, you’re the captain. There’s no telling what could be waiting over there. You should send me instead.”
Twilight was already wearing her suit, and she didn’t so much as turn around. As the airlock closed behind her, she answered Sunset over the radio. “You’re barely holding together, Sunset. But if something does happen to me, you’re qualified to command the Equinox. You can take over for me. If Spike allows it.”
“We’ll see,” Spike said, before Sunset could answer. His tone was comedic, but his words were anything but. “I might go on a homicidal rampage after my captain dies. That seems like the sort of thing a ship’s computer should do, right?”
“No,” Twilight said, annoyed. “I order you not to go on any kind of rampage. But nothing’s going to happen, because we have a crew already aboard the Signaler ship. They’ll make sure nothing happens to me.”
“Sure will!” Node said. “Or… we can stop the highway relay from grabbing you. We can’t stop you from crashing into a wall, or lighting yourself on fire, or… doing other things organics seem to do.”
Twilight made her way through the Prospector’s interior, wincing at the warped metal and smoke damage to the inside. They’d made enough repairs to make her fly again, though they didn’t have a prayer of escaping the way they had the last time. Whatever trick Rainbow had done to the engines reduced the ship to ‘painfully slow’ speeds.
“Buck if that will happen,” Rainbow answered from the pilot’s seat, already strapped in. Rarity was in the other seat—Twilight’s entire crew for this mission. “I’m a better pilot than anypony else on this crew, metal or meat.”
Node didn’t argue, and neither did Twilight. Rainbow’s last flight with the Prospector had shown enough of that.
“Same as before,” Twilight said, once she was secure. “Nice and easy. We’re not trying to be heroes, just get us down there.”
“I got you, captain,” Rainbow answered. “Nice and easy. Or… as easy as we can fly through a hurricane. Which isn’t very.”
It wasn’t. As they passed into Proximus C’s atmosphere, they were rocked violently back and forth, enough that Twilight immediately felt the motion in her gut. There was no shield like the one on the Equinox, so they were forced to use all the same systems they’d rely on for any in-atmosphere flight. They wobbled and spun, with Rainbow staring straight through the windows with both hooves locked on the controls at all times.
“It sees you,” Node’s voice came through the radio, heavily distorted. “And… bypassed. You know, if you had a modern navigational transponder, it would know your destination and not try to grab you. Just a thought.”
“We’ll take twenty,” Rarity said. She sounded calm, but she had both hooves wrapped tightly around her straps. She barely even looked at the controls in front of her, and whenever she did what she saw there only seemed to make her feel worse.
“We’re approaching the shield…” Rainbow grunted, pointing a wing ahead of them. “Twilight, you better get it to see us, or we’re about to be… dust.”
“All we are is dust in the wind,” Node sung unhelpfully. She has Listener songs now?
There was no time for Twilight to wonder about what other cultural artifacts she might be able to share, they were rapidly approaching the faint barrier of Canterlot’s shield. It was much smaller than it should’ve been, protecting only the lower ‘critical’ decks while the rest of the city had been left open to the storm. But the docking bay was critical, and so they’d need to get inside.
Twilight reached out with her magic, as she’d done hundreds of times before. The shield wasn’t made to keep anything in or out but air, it wasn’t hard.
It was exactly the same as before, in fact. Any hope that this might be a replica, or second ship was dashed as she felt the city respond to her. Its shield had a precise touch, one that she’d long learned to recognize. She met it, and the shield responded, enfolding them as they approached like one cell swallowing another.
The ship stopped rocking instantly, and she could suddenly hear its exterior engines, as they switched to atmospheric mode. She felt gravity too, a distinct downward pull. Canterlot didn’t have artificial gravity, but it wouldn’t need it here. If anything, the station probably had to work hard to keep Proximus C from crushing them.
“Looks busy down there,” Rainbow said, glancing at a little screen beside her showing a lower view. The landing back was positively packed with ships, with barely any room for even the prospector. While in space, thousands more could tether to them through a thin spiderweb of plastic passages—but not here.
“Find us a spot,” Twilight muttered. “I don’t care where.”
“There’s a space, Darling. Pretend we’re an emergency vehicle and park there.”
“Right.” Rainbow put them down roughly, with the engines squealing in protest every moment. It didn’t sound like the prospector would be leaving again anytime soon. When they finally switched off, Twilight heard a distinct gasp of finality from the poor overworked machine. She could practically feel it dying around her.
“Canterlot Station,” Rarity said, glancing out the front window. There wasn’t much to see out there—other than the “WELCOME TO CANTERLOT” mural that looked out over the docking bay, with Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks in faded ink.
“No air out there,” Rainbow noted, tapping the readout with a hoof. “Get your suits on, ponies.”
“We never took them off,” Twilight muttered. “We weren’t sure the seals on the Prospector would hold, remember?”
Rainbow shrugged, pushing out of her seat with a few metallic clicks. “You know what I mean.”
Twilight rose herself, before deciding on their destination. It was obvious, they should start with…
1. Central Computer. No faster way to learn what happened here.
2. The Bridge. We need the ability to make command decisions.
3. The Shields. Somepony is down there, or this ship wouldn’t still be protected. Let’s just ask them what happened.
4. Housing. Nothing is more precious to Equestria than its ponies.
As much as I'd like to go elsewhere, the bridge needs to be the first stop... besides, when boarding another's ship it's only polite to introduce yourself... and in this case if anything important is happening it'll have someone important there or hints as to where they went.
There is a reason after all that everyone always checks the bridge first when boarding an abandoned or wrecked ship.
I'd say bridge is the first place they should go, there is a good chance there may be someone there, and even if not then they could likely contact whoever is keeping the shields up from there. If they can't contact them then, there isn't really much of a crisis either as if they've kept the shield up for so long, another half hour or so won't make much a difference to whatever their condition may be.
I'd say they should bring one of the parked ships up to flight ready. With the prospector offline it isn't smart to have no way back if things go sideways...
"That was one time!"
Hey, they're in a vehicle. This is an emergency. I'd say it counts.
There's a strong argument for the bridge, but I favor the central computer. Data is essential right now. They can say hi to whoever may be at the command post once they properly understand the situation.
Bridge first. All the critical systems should be monitored there, and any survivors would either post someone there or leave a message explaining things.
Bridge. We can (Hopefully if needed) assume control from there, and its possible that there are ponies there.
Central Computer. Let's see what we can learn
Bridge. Secure the station first. No reason to risk running around when BAD THINGS happen and be nowhere near the bridge to fix them.
And if there's surviving communication, it'll presumably be reachable from the bridge. You don't set up emergency comms and leave the old comms routes dead unless you absolutely have to, and this feels like a situation where even if they had to abandon the bridge, they'd have left some channels open.
Bridge and computer would be the two places on the list which, were I sabotaging a ship, I'd put traps all over the place. Whoever's got that shield up clearly isn't out of commission. And the housing area seems like it'd be hard to clear, room by room or possibly building by building. I'm actually going to vote shield on this one. Maybe we'll reunite Twily with Shining or Celestia.
Please don't go a killing spree, Spike.
Organics are just pure chaos, so troublesome.
I'm thinking Shields, it would be good to check on the status of the critical system whose continue to function as necessary for keeping everyone alive.
Presumably the bridge is still inside the shield, so what's with the option? Regardless, command stations would be routed and maintained wherever there are things to control it, so if the bridge is indeed unprotected then shields are more potent.
Welp in for an ounce, in for a pound. Go to the bridge first. Sure its one of the places a sabutor would put traps, but its also one of the very last places security forces would abandon unless they absolutely have to" and considering you can override most sections and control shielding from the bridge then there should at least be something important for them there if they check. He'll if they are lucky there might even be a commander or security individual still manning it
Rule number one when boarding an vessel. Always start with the bridge
That is one of the problems of you own an sapient ship...
Technically they are an emergency vehicle.
And even if not, I doubt anyone would give them a ticket.
Good chapter!
I voted to go to the shields, because they should ask around before touching anything.
But after reading the other comments visiting the bridge instead might have been the smarter option.
Also:
We survived for 111 chapters already! YAY!
I hope Starscribe isn't too frustrated about that. I think the original plan was to make this story about 100,000 words, and we already passed 125,000...
Yee Haw, Pony Kansas confirmed! Well, at least in this universe, lol...
I'm a bit torn where to go.
The bridge might be all connected throughout the ship. But what if this ship got into this situation because the Hunger took over half the ship? If the Hunger was here, then waiting on the bridge might be a great place to leave a trap. We'd also have to consider if the Hunger was here, then fighting would lead to systems being cut off by both sides from getting or keeping control of the ship.
The computer is another great place to leave a trap. Just because it's such a juicy obvious target for anyone trying to figure out whats going on.
Housing doesn't make much sense though. Just because we don't know about the condition of the crew right now or if Canterlot and they can't really do anything with them now.
The shield is an interesting choice, because protecting the crew of the Canterlot sounds like Something the Hunger wouldn't do. Though If the Hunger was here, they might not trust us in this delicate situation. And that might be bad.
Then there's the whole situation involving what could the power grid be like with the beating this place has taken. Any wrong move with any of the systems in this situation might lead to a total power failure on this ship. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
I’m pleased with how relatively well things have been going so far.
Also Node is adorable.
Id pick bridge, you should be able to access both computers and security from there