Chapter 27
Proximus B (Metallic, habitable world, 3 months) 81%
Twilight couldn’t exactly remember the last time she’d caught two members of the crew in the rec room at the same time before. But then—she almost never used the space. Despite the promised two hours personal time in every day’s rotation, Twilight found herself more often gravitating towards getting more of her work done. There were mysteries to solve, data to investigate, and ponies that needed her attention.
But today was different. Today she stepped off the lift, slid past the cargo bay, and emerged into the recreation area to find Applejack and Fluttershy sitting together at a back table. She closed the distance quietly, hoping she might overhear some little snippet of how her crew was really feeling. But they looked up, and Applejack waved her over. “Come on over, ‘cap. We were just talkin’ about you.”
She did, wincing slightly at the patch state of Fluttershy’s mane. It took more than a few weeks to heal from cryosleep. But it was easy to be sympathetic for suffering she could remember vividly. “About me? Can’t be very interesting then.”
She pulled over a cushion, taking a seat across from the mostly-finished puzzle. This one depicted Canterlot Station, the single largest artificial structure in existence. No surprise the ones stocking the Equinox would use a space puzzle. Couldn’t you have picked something with a little more green? Twilight had thought all that steel rotating around in its many independent sections were beautiful, once. But now… now she just wanted to see something alive.
“Yeah, well. We both know that now yer just bein’ humble, cap. You wouldn’t be runnin’ this whole show if you didn’t know what you were about. Alicorn… ain’t another like ‘ya, might never be.
Twilight winced, ears flattening in embarrassment. “I wouldn’t have done it without all of you. The really big accomplishments were yours as much as mine. Nightmare Moon’s Starcarrier didn’t blow itself up, Applejack.”
“And Fluttershy, convincing that dragon to fly back to the asteroid belt—I don’t know that anypony else could’ve done that job. And those… I could go on for an hour. Everypony else waiting there in cryo… we were supposed to be a team. Don’t forget—when we caught up to Cozy, I failed my spell, and you grabbed her ship on the first try.”
“Third try,” Applejack corrected, as though covering her mouth for a cough. “I only said I had her after falin’ a few times. That way if I missed again, I’d be lettin’ you and spike down as well as me. I didn’t wanna let ya’ down.”
Twilight shrugged, then levitated a piece into place in the puzzle. She couldn’t help it—she could see the unfinished parts and feel what needed to go in next. The starry sky part was the hardest, but Twilight had her constellations memorized, and it was easy to see the gaps that had been confusing to Fluttershy and Applejack. “Was it something you wanted to ask me?” Twilight asked, breaking the awkward silence. “You know you can tell me anything. This isn’t a military ship, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t speak your mind.”
Applejack looked to Fluttershy. The doctor winced under the pressure, but Twilight knew how to deal with it. She just watched patiently, until her smile made the pegasus so nervous and uncomfortable that she had to speak. It took over a full minute this time.
“I was just going over your scans,” she eventually said, in a panicked rush that made her impossible to understand. “It looks like being frozen was much harder on you than it was for us. I was trying to get Applejack’s advice about how to tell you.”
“And I told you,” Applejack said, firmly. “You just say it. The truth won’t be different just cuz’ you put a different hat on it.”
“Harder… how?” Twilight asked, reaching up to adjust her mane subconsciously. But none of it came away against her hoof, and no fresh sores sprung up in her skin. She was exactly as healthy as she felt—perfect! “The computer didn’t give me any warning alarms while you were asleep. If you saw my records you saw I didn’t miss a single automated checkup.”
“Oh, yeah,” Fluttershy muttered. “It’s probably nothing.” Her voice trailed away, and she looked like she might get up.
But then Applejack fixed her with a glare, and she seemed to melt. “It’s, uh… look, the autocheckup is really not very smart. You’re breathing, no infections, no broken bones… so that’s it. But what you have… I can show you the x-ray. It’s…” she tapped the side of her head with a hoof. “There’s some scarring, um… around your horn.”
“You mean on my brain?”
She winced, but didn’t give up this time. “Um… yes. If I had to guess… I think maybe you might be impossible to completely freeze. It looks like some part of you might’ve been… awake the whole time. Trapped, helpless, blind…”
Twilight could almost see it. Those words—for an instant, she felt the terrible cold, the endless, dreamless nightmare. She fought, screamed for Discord, Celestia… and no one came.
Then the vision faded, and she was clutching the table with both hooves, sweat dripping down her brow. “H-how bad is it? The damage?”
“I… don’t know yet,” Fluttershy admitted. “Alicorns break all the rules we know about other tribes. But probably you’ll heal. Celestia says she grew back a whole wing once, and I believe her.”
“Is that the only thing that could cause it?” Twilight hesitated—she didn’t even want to ask, but couldn’t stop herself anymore. “I mean—there are memory spells. What if something happened on the way… and a unicorn erased it. Staying awake seems pretty far-fetched to me.”
“Well… yeah, it could be something else,” Fluttershy admitted. “But Cozy Glow isn’t a unicorn, and Rarity doesn’t know dark magic. I don’t think somepony erased your memory.”
They sat in silence together for another few moments. Twilight stared down at the puzzle, levitating a few pieces into place. At least her magic still worked.
“That reminds me, cap. I wanted to ask you about freezing. See… it’s time to plant another crop. We got ourselves a decision to make about that, and you said not to make it for you…”
“I did,” Twilight said, collecting herself. “Of course, Applejack. What is it?”
“It’s about how we manage what we grow next,” she said. “Geneseed, nutrition algae, real food. I’ve put together a few plans. I reakon you should pick one.
1. Stockpile Food. We should be able to increase our stores all the way to eight months if we grow nothing but nutrition. That’s more than half a year to study what we want, and not feel no pressure while we’re doin’ it. And it goes without sayin’ that if there’s land down there, real land… I could plant enough Geneseed to get everypony back all at once. Earth pony magic just don’t work the same on trays and spray-water.
2. Grow nothing but Geneseed. See, that’s enough time to bring back two more of our friends, that’s almost everypony. But the catch is, we’ll only have about a month a’ paste left by the time we get there. That’s about what it takes to get a full crop, so… on paper nopony starves. But granny always taught me never to trust paper for my supper.
3. Balanced approach of nutrient solution and Geneseed. We get one pony back, and there’s not a chance in Tartarus of anypony starving. Still wishin’ our tongues would fall out from eatin’ paste, but… at least we’ll have one more set of hooves on deck for Proximus B.
4. Grow real food. Real veggies and greens just barely keep up with demand, so we’ll only arrive with the same three months of food we’ve got today. Treadin’ water ain’t great, but tell that to me when I’ve got a full belly. See if I care.
(Certainty 160 required)
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Definitely going to need the balanced approach... Even if she has nothing ship based to shoot with I think we're going to need Dash back on her hooves in the not so distant future... we also need food of some kind.
A good sensible compromise between food and getting everypony back on their hooves.
Balanced without a doubt. Also something was damaged in twi's brain? Its a good thing we got flutters back first instead of letting this fester.
Balanced approach seems best here. That way we can be ready for a variety of situations. We will see what the situation looks like when we get to Proximus B, and then decide who to thaw out from there. This also lets us have a decent amount of food, just in case we can't plant on Proximus B for whatever reason.
How the heck do so many people get in so early to vote? Well, at least I’m back as well.
Yeah, might as well split the difference on those crops.
Also, sounds like there’s a reason for Twilight’s supposed incompetence. Not that I really see it- she’s arguably taken more big chances than the others, and I’m not going to hold failing to singlehornedly freeze a spaceship’s momentum on the first try against her.
Tre, Balanse it more hooves and no one starves.
Don't get me wrong I'd love too have a desent meal, but food surpluse and another friend is better.
Did you maybe miss "wreck room" and "reakon"? Although "wreck room" is quite nice. "First one tearing down these structures wins!"
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"rec room" is the usual abbreviation for "recreation room". Yes, "wreck room" is a funny malapropism!
Also "patch state of Fluttershy’s mane" should be "patchy".
Option three. Wake up another pony, and still have a decent supply reserve.
Gotta go balanced on this one.
They need food and they need real food (for their sanity if for no other reason) but they need their friends more.
They can start production on real food when they finally get more ponies up and alive. I wonder if they have room for another hydrophonics room? Better food for healthier living!
Balanced approach. More hands on deck, more minds to bounce ideas off of. The question of who to bring back, though, is an interesting one. We'll see when we get to Proximus B
A lot of people are saying balanced, to ensure there's a decent food reserve...but honestly, I gotta go with all Geneseed. The risks at this point are basically unexpected things happening, and for unexpected things, the best counter is having more people to help.
Balanced, get more ponies up, but make sure you have food for them all.
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I thought a wreck room was something like a mess room, only more.
Hmm... Several possibilities on the brain scarring. Let's just hope alicorn healing extends to the most delicate bits. And it's fascinating to hear those hints of the Mane Six's space-age adventures. That could be a story in and of itself.
Also, getting both more hooves and a food buffer definitely seems like the wisest move. Now might be the time to whip out the wild card.
I vote Balanced Approach. We need more crew, but... it's food. You need food.
As we revive more crew members, we're going to need to produce more food to feed them. But, we'll eventually no longer need feedstock for reviving ponies. Interesting little balance we've got to maintain here.
Reviving two ponies is shooting ourselves in the
foothoof. Stockpiling food is the best long-term option. Striking a balance is, unsurprisingly, somewhere in the middle. And growing luxury food is nothing short of stagnation.9313932
Haha! Good one!
I wonder what Fluttershy thinks of the state of her room? Cozy did a number on it, I recall.
New background on our characters. Sounds like this is an A.U. where Equestria's been spacefaring in the local solar system since before Twilight and the others were born.
For the poll, I am all for more friends! Question is how many. I really want to take the risk and grow only Geneseed, but so many things can happen we can't predict. Once we get planet side, the game changes. Additionally, if we do get two more crew members, we'll also get two more mouths to feed. That will nearly double food consumption at a time when our supply is lowest. I don't want to doubt Applejack, but it's possible she forgot that factor when doing the math of how long our stock will last. It's easy to miss.
Voting balanced.
What if the damage to Twi's brain occurred before they left? Or would Fluttershy have scanned her before they left for comparison? Or maybe Fluttershy would've been given the results of a scan that she didn't do herself, and the results were faked?
Yeah, I wanna read a short oneshot of that happening sometime.
Option 4 just doesn't make sense. We'd be getting nowhere. As nice as it would be for morale, it just can't be justified.
Proxima B is frankly a complete unknown. Almost ajything could happen upon approach. It doesn't seem a bad idea to have extra food stockpiles in case shit goes horribly south or we just get too busy planetside to fully grow crops. Equally though, it wouldn be nice to have more crew to deal with whatever might happen planetside. We can't have all of both though. We can go all crew, all food, or a little bit of both.
So, what's more important considering our approach to Proxima b, getting crew or having extra food?
Yeah, going to have to go with Balance.
With so many unknowns on the planet they will be going to, they might want to observe what the planet is about before making to bi of plans. If things look good, they can plan ahead to get more from the planet besides metal.
did you mean "rec"
patchy
Spike
Just two paragraphs, but I feel like this suggests a wilder retelling of the series premiere than possibly any I've seen.
Yikes. I'm thinking she should consider staying awake with Spike on the trip back.
Balanced sounds good to me.
Hmm. Now we have a sense of the situation befire the voyage. Seems like a space version of the show canon.
Ooh, what's this? And what does it have to do with our story? Voyage of the Equinox isn't the type of story to have something this noticeable be irrevelant to the plot at the same time...
My favorite! Sensible compromises!
Anyway, morale isn't low enough to justify planting real food.
Balanced. It would be nice to have a good amount of both at the same time.
Interesting backstory. Hopefully one day we hear more of it.
Debatable.
I voted for this because it seemed to be the best approach logically. If they awaken the right pony, then growing a mixture of real food and genseed to awaken the others shouldn't be a problem. My suggestion would be rainbow dash since she would be able to help shape the climate for the crops (as good as earth ponies are for growing food, they can't do it without irrigation)
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Oh I'm certain rarity knows far more dark magic than fluttershy realizes
You know what else is good for morale? Pinkie Pie.
Rushing to get everyone awake won't help at this point. Balanced it should be, build up buffers while continuing resuscitation.
Did you really hide a "That's no moon, that's a Starcarrier" reference in here that went undetected all this time?
This scene played itself out in my mind when i read this:
-nightmare moon throws twighlight a light-sword-
(nightmare moon)"Well? FIGHT ME!"
"Is this some kind of starwars reference?"
(nightmare moon)"ummmmmm... no?"
-twilight face-hoofs.-
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"I know there's still good you, Luna! Don't let the darkness consume you!"
"Luna is no more! You underestimate the power of the Dark Magics!"
On a more serious note, I purpose the balanced method.
More crew members means you can accomplish more repairs/duties, but having no food to feed them just sends you into another emergency. Pulling similarly from what I said earlier, it is best to have some food than no food. And then from there I suggest reviving Pinkie so she can use her geology knowledge once we arrive at Proximus B to gather materials to repair the Equinox with.