Chapter 118
Refuse the Bargain 69%
Some part of Twilight was tempted by what the speaker offered. The essence of Hunger? Embodiment of entropy? She was the only princess left to make decisions, and she could guarantee the safety for Equestria’s survivors forever. A powerful temptation.
She probably would’ve taken the deal, if it wasn’t for Node. In her was an echo of their past, their creators. The others like her had sacrificed much to give Equestria life. Could she decide for ponies and griffins and changelings and every other creature to betray those creators? Not a bucking chance.
“Why would you make me an offer like this?” Twilight asked. “You’ve almost won. Equestria only has one ship left, and the creatures on it. When it’s destroyed, you win.”
Buzzing motors roared overhead, scattering dirt around them. Yet her companion’s mane didn’t lift, and no dirt touched him. “You misunderstand what I am and what I desire. This is not surprising—biology does not furnish your kind with the means to comprehend other forms of… complexity. All you need to know is this: this offer is not extended often, and it is not eternal. When you get on that plane, our business is concluded one way or the other.”
The aircraft settled lightly onto rough metal stilts, and gullwing doors opened on either side. There was nopony inside—no pilot, no passengers. Just old cushions ripped and torn.
“Can’t you just leave us alone?” Twilight asked, almost tearful. “We don’t even understand you! We can’t be a threat to you. Just forget we met.”
The pony sighed, exasperated. “So you aren’t interested. A pity. You’re a unique achievement, individuality that will leave the universe poorer once extinguished. Reconsider now, and that need not ever happen.”
“I won’t,” Twilight said, crossing onto the aircraft and spinning to glare at him. “We probably would’ve if you asked before Equestria was lost. But you’re the reason my mentor is dead. The reason that… so many other ponies died. It isn’t Celestia’s fault this planet isn’t here anymore, it’s yours.”
The pony shrugged. “C’est la vie. Enjoy your trip, Twilight Sparkle. It is nearly complete, after all.” The metal door whined as it hissed closed around her. The sounds melted and blurred in her mind, and suddenly she was on her back. She heard the steady beeping of a life-support monitor, accelerating for a moment with whatever heartbeat it was reading, then settling again once she began to breathe regularly again.
She jerked upright, wide-eyed as she looked around.
Twilight had known this hospital well, long ago. She’d got her first immunizations here; been taken here every time a spell surge worried her parents about brain damage.
In those days, urgent care was always filled with other ponies, who’d taken some minor injury or illness. A dozen different doctors would throng about, consulting with the needy.
Only her bed was illuminated now, her body strapped down with the loose plastic meant to keep her from drifting away, or to keep her still if something strange happened to the Canterlot’s orbital path.
A metal door hissed open, and Fluttershy flew through, no longer wearing one of the jumpsuits of the Equinox, but a standard doctor’s jacket. She stopped beside the bed, consulting the medical readings before even saying anything.
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, before she realized that there was a mask on her face. Her body was wired to life support through the inside of her hindlegs, just as she would be if she were going into a cryocoffin. Twilight ripped off the mask, earning herself a glare from Fluttershy. “How long?” she asked, her voice hoarse and grating even to her own ears.
“Almost a month,” Fluttershy said absently. “I was beginning to fear you wouldn’t wake. You didn’t respond to any of the standard drugs, and the supply of magical remedies is long gone. I didn’t know an Alicorn even could be stuck in coma like that.”
Twilight nodded, settling back against the hospital bed. Her whole body was weak and sore, and not even counting the interface between herself and life support. “You’re… not wearing an oxygen mask.”
“No longer necessary,” Fluttershy said, between readings. “Repairs to the Canterlot’s life support have made the air breathable again. Despite… interference.”
“What happened to me?” Twilight asked. “I was…” before being back in Equestria, she’d been… investigating something. A pony had wanted to show her something. Then… then it got hazy.
“You were attacked. One of the shiprat unicorns hit you with some kind of…” Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m afraid he isn’t alive to interrogate, and the Canterlot’s sensors gave us no hints. When they called me in, your suit was shredded, but you didn’t look hurt.”
“It took a whole month to get the air working?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer for a long moment. She crossed to a set of drawers, removing vial and a needle and carrying them over. A mild sedative from the label, or at least mild for an Alicorn’s constitution. She only spoke as she prepared her dose. “The one who attacked you, he had… accomplices. They call themselves the inheritors—group of crazy ponies who think that all the frozen creatures are totems and gods or whatever and that we’re damning them by changing things. Rainbow and Applejack captured a few. I’m not sure if there are others still hiding. But there hasn’t been any other sabotage than the attack that hit you.”
Twilight watched as Fluttershy injected her IV, feeling the rush of cold fluid in her veins a moment later. “Why are you… trying to put me out again?”
“Because you need more sleep,” Fluttershy said. “Now that I know you’re not braindead. I’ll get the crew together for you, and you can be captain again tomorrow. If there are any orders you’d like to pass along first…”
1. Leave the Inheritors to rot in the brig. Once everything is repaired and we’re on our way, maybe we’ll see about rehabilitating them. They’re not worth the trouble right now.
2. Space them. We can’t afford showing weakness, and sabotage of life support is unacceptable. Everypony knows what happens when you buck with the air supply.
3. Try to bring them around now. They might’ve tried to kill me, but there are too few ponies left to sacrifice any. Maybe with some convincing they would change their minds.
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Hooooo doggy ...if we brig them they will escape. if we space them the civis may riot. this is a classic iraq hearts and minds scenario. The problem is that shit still isnt working, Space the fuckers. any one who riots is a terrorist or supporting terrorism and probably secretly members anyway definitely not the kind of aditude we can afford to foster... trying to win them over WILL NOT WORK. I suspect that cozy glow was probably a first generation of what these ponies used to represent.
Oh no! Some of the evil, xenophobic space rats attacked! But don't worry , with the help of the good space rats, we won! Yay!
And now everyone is gonna want to space them. See this is one of the reasons ai was hoping to go evil. Less predictable story that way. Not bad, mind you, just predictable.
If htyere all liek Cozy Glow, then its best to just remove them from the equation permanently
We're looking at one hell of a genetic bottleneck here, and spacing a few rats would only aggravate that problem, but I think that'll end up being outside the scope of this story. I'm tempted to space them, but discreetly. Records can be falsified so that they died of injuries related to rising up against the station's saviors. It's risky, but I think if done well, it may be the best option for short-term success, even if we're shooting our gene pool in the foot long-term.
If this comes down to a roll, we're so boned.
I'm honestly gonna be kind of upset if the 'space them' option wins, because it's so opposite of Twilight's character. Murdering prisoners is already suspect, but murdering INSANE prisoners is just cruel. It would be like going through an insane asylum and killing all of the 'more dangerous' patients. And even aside from that OR from show canon, the Twilight that has developed in this story is very much like show-canon Twilight, caring about ponies and friendship. I just can't see her ever making that choice, especially without at least TRYING to win them over.
Well, we shall see how the vote goes. Good luck to the author either way.
I don't want to speak for the author, but it feels like in this setting messing with the air supply is akin to...I don't think there really is an equivalent that's happened in Pony. Turn to stone levels of punishment as a baseline.
So uhh... if rehabilitate option fails can I have my vote moved to brig?
Because spacing them is the Zalgo option in my mind, it's so far from the pony mindset that it'll break immersion for me.
Totally even voting numbers for brig and rehabilitate, giving spacing a majority? This is interesting.
gee, bring out the firing squad, will y'all. why am i surprised -_-
9959737
Uh... depends on the brand of insanity... If someone is lucid enough to PLAN killing and sabotaging the basic of society well...
Huzzah for friendship?....
Yeah, let's not turn into murderers.
"You could always, you know, not extinguish us."
"If only it were that simple."
"Why isn't it?"
"Your biological minds cannot—"
"Try."
"No." And then he tossed her onto the plane.
Yeah, I'm a bit peeved that Twilight didn't try to eke a bit more information out of the adversary. Ah well, wouldn't be a properly unknown and unknowable cosmic entity if it just read its Wikipedia page to anyone who asked.
As for the Inheritors, I say the best move is to keep them in the brig until some of their gods are awake and moving. Nothing like the object of your worship telling you to knock it off to trigger a crisis of faith. Hopefully it'll be the kind of crisis that makes them quietly rethink their lives and not just lash out at the obvious mockery of all they hold dear.
... Okay, so it's not the best plan, but it's better than sacrificing a significant remainder of the pony population or trying to reason with the fanatics while there's still work to do.
That's a good question.
Unfamiliar ceiling.A month? Dang.
That's not super good.
Well definitely not 2, let's at least try having Twilight talk to them.
Edit: Good god why is "space them" nearly winning, that is nuts and stupid and evil.
Lock them up and weld the key in a box out of sight of the door. They will keep until we have TIME to fiddle with a bunch of nutcases who are close-minded their scratch pads are half an inch wide!
9959922
Because apparently being justifiably afraid of the people working with creepy robots is evil.
Now is not the time to try and win them over. Throw them in the brig, and we can try later.
So Twilight wakes up in a hospital she has memories of? Hmm, I wonder if this is going to be reality or some sort of an illusion, maybe she's being toyed with...
Some very interesting stuff going on with the entity. Good questions but not really any answers beyond the 'The fact that I have this question gives me the answer' type of answers.
This feels like it's the final stretch. At this point, we need to put everything on the table and make sure that we do what needs to be done for the good of everyone. To that end, I was really tempted to space them, but that seems extreme even now. I voted to let them rot. Maybe they can be useful down the line, or if all else fails, we can space them at a later date too. What I'd really like is to put the fear of alicorn in them with some good old fashioned intimidation.
9959867
I'm not arguing about the validity of the death penalty in serious cases, to be clear. That's a complex issue on its own, but still easier to argue for than just murdering people immediately because they MIGHT cause a problem. The one that actually attacked Twilight is already dead, but some of these haven't actually done anything yet besides be part of a crazy cult. And getting into the habit of preemptively killing 'threats to society' is a SUPER slippery slope.
In that case she probably knows every single tile by now...
Normally I would vote 2, but after the shit Cozy Glow pulled I say space them and show who's boss
9959922
Because at this point all they are is an easily manipulatable danger that threatens the entire race. At this point it's either convince them of the reality of the threat the entire race is up against or space them. Leaving them locked away at this point is suicidal and I'm more surprised that option is winning considering that when we took that route with Cozy Glow it lead to Spike's death. With the way the random rolls work any threat left to chance will inevitably be realized on a coin flip.
I'd try to convince them, but the exact nature of how one of their group hurt Twilight so bad and either intentionally or coincidentally sent her to talk to the monster chasing them all has me worried they might be working for it if it was intentionally.
I dunno if I've just been playing too much Stellaris, but the threat they face, reminds me heavily of the Distant Stars, Loop event. There's some ancient force that is messing with us, it's cryptic, it can turn lush worlds of life into worlds of death and it offered to change the ponies, like how your main species can be altered in the Loop event chain.
Normally I would say let them rot for the time being, but how that went with Cozy made me rethink that.
Now I say to try to win them over. Its better then leaving to plan their next attack, or let others free them from their cells. Cause the last I checked Twilight doesn't have enough crew to waste on guard duty.
And I'm not counting the spacerats cause they might take pity on their deluded brothers and sisters.
Normally I would try peace, but in this case I say space them. We can't risk a repeat of Cozy with the Canterlot in such conditions.
9959783
and then star scribe would have been forced to roll for cryo casket recovery and we would have had to watch them all probably die. So how about we eliminate a problem for once and kill some terrorists. Because the terrorist have ABSOLUTELY already made a deal with the hunger to kill the mane 6 for a chance to live for ever. This isnt complicated. Not only are the terrorists they are paranormal terrorists.
Well that's funny because as someone who was a fan from the very beginning of this story and also a science fiction fanatic several of the decisions that have beaten my votes have shattered my immersion and while scribe is a top 4 writer on this website for me and spun the the decisions back into FATHOMABLE if not contextually self evident content it was still dumb at the time. Fo you remember we spent 6 FUCKING MONTHS actually circle jerking and not furthering the plot or reviving crew members while the ancient evil has slowly approached and these ponies have slowly died? I do!! I already contextually assumed we were on a clock and I wanted to rip out my eyes upon seeing the vote results frankly star has had to give these ponies plot armor because we wasted so much time they SHOULD be dead. But then all the little babies would cry that they didn't know they needed to save them and that it wasn't fair
9960269
It's not even a coin flip any more! The chaos level was 7 last I checked you dont ignore problems with a chaos of 7 or hire
Brig seems like the temporary solution, spacing means escalation between ship rats and remaining cultists. Winning them over seems the rational choice - assuming the dice rolls in our favor.
Show them that their attack was an inconvenience, but ultimately worthless. Then extend an olive branch, and bring them to our side.
Im very tempted to space them, but that could very much cause trouble. Lets try and bring them over to our side first.
I hoped the option to take the deal would win. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one quintillion) years was being offered. That's not long enough for the stars to go out, but it's certainly long enough for there to be zero inhabitable planets ever again. That's good enough for anypony.
They've already spent a month in the brig, let's hear what they have to say for themselves...
We're Equestrians not barbarians.
Too much blood is already been spilled. Set up a meeting with the leader, and give it the old Twilight Sparkle Personal Touch.
9960457
The dice decided that they were not in league with the hunger, but that's obviously something they don't know in universe.
9961240
Well I mean isnt it? These ponies fought the sombra creature and twighlight barely survived
Space em. They're doomed anyway
Some combination of A and C makes the most sense. Try to convince them now, and if that fails then leave them to rot until you are able to wake up a few of their gods. Or vice versa, doesn't really matter, since RNG is probably going to fuck everything up and ruin what would otherwise be a neat story.
In other news, Twilight continues to hold the idiot ball. I'm not surprised at this point, but I am disappointed.
You're supposed to be better than this.
Traitors deserve to eat vacuum.
Then again, keeping Cozy Glow around worked so well. She came right around to our side.
... I miss Cozy Glow. #TeamCozy.
So, I have realized something important we should take care of once we are in a position to do so and that is we need to look into cryogenics, reason being is those ponies are the last surviving ponies from Equestria, they have been frozen just as long if not longer than Sunset (and we all see what happened to her) basically unless the technology was improved and they are not critically damaged, those ponies could have already been in there a few times over the maximum safe period or at least getting uncomfortably close.
TLDR: These are the last surviving ponies and they have possibly already been frozen too long as is, maybe we should do something soon to keep it that way/improve their chances somehow?
I'm a bit iffy andy about all this.
Trying to win them over could be very risky. It's not just a potential Cozy Glow problem again. It's multiple potential Cozy Glows that now this ship better than Twilight's crew does. But there is something to be said about how this could effect the two crews having to watch them spacing them.
Then there's Spike himself. He could simply override whatever Twilight chooses and just decide to space them all. Or simply have spaced them quietly while Fluttershy and Twilight were talking here.
And let's not forget potential descendants in this mutinous group. I don't have to remind anyone here what a hit to Applejacks moral would if family was killed of hers. Even if it has been several generations worth.
I think we should keep them in prison for now. It is a bit risky, but the numbers of the ponies might make losing them to much of a blow to the gene-pool.
9962333
I'm pretty sure the problem with Sunset wasn't duration of cryo, but the fact that the pod was damaged. So long as the cryo pods aren't damaged, the ponies inside should be fine (or as fine as ponies can be coming out of cryo).
9969424
It's phonetic spelling to emphasize her accent.