No, it’s time to be a leader.
Twilight could see the desperation in Applejack’s eyes, the pain and despair. This was a pony on the end of her rope, who had already given so much of herself to save the life of a pony she didn’t even know, who was frayed from sickness and worry over her own death. A pony who had been unexpectedly been returned a member of her own family, only to come so close to having them snatched away again.
“No,” Twilight said, voice flat.
“What do ya mean, no?” Applejack raised her voice, gesturing angerly over her shoulder. “Captain, that’s mah sister in there! She ain’t part a no Equinox crew, she ain’t subject to yer authority. She’s my little sister, and nopony in the universe is gonna stop me from savin’ her!” She probably would’ve kept screaming, if she didn’t break down right then into more hacking coughs.”
“Applejack…” Fluttershy whispered, her voice gentle. She patted her gently on the back with one hoof, offering a bottle of water to the sick pony. “What about yourself?”
It was probably a dirty move to use a moment when the engineer could barely breathe to respond. But Twilight didn’t care. “Applejack, do you want your sister to have the best chance of survival, or do you just want her back quickly?”
Twilight attempts to make a good case. Success
Applejack looked up, blinking away tears. Whether pain from not breathing or actual tears, Twilight couldn’t say. “The best chance, obviously! Here she is, locked up in some… alien laboratory. Suffering all kinda nightmares. Maybe they’re preparin’ her for display in one of those cases!”
“No,” Twilight said firmly. “I know you want your sister back, Applejack. We want to help you. But right now… we don’t have all the resources to help you. You know what pony we should have here to get her out of that pod? Rarity. And we don’t have a clue what pulling her out will do. If we need to fight, it would be really good to have Rainbow Dash here, wouldn’t it? What if that thing on her leg needs surgery to remove? Can’t go to the Equinox right now, not while Spike is working on it.” She wasn’t slowing down now, not giving Applejack even a second to contradict her.
She stopped right beside her, settling a wing over her shoulder. “Applejack, the best way for you to help your sister right now is to get better and make sure our crops come in. Then when we wake her up, we can have the full resources of our expedition to save her. Since we landed on Proximus B, we’ve been rushing from place to place. It’s time to slow down. Time for you to get better, time for us to get the rest of our crew. Then we can save your sister.”
Applejack turned to one side, looking desperately at Fluttershy. “What about you? Don’t you agree with me? What if that was your brother in there?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “My brother wouldn’t want me to work myself to death trying to save him. And I would never wake him from cryo unless I was sure I could wake him up. I wouldn’t gamble on some kit bashed repair that might or might not work.”
Does Applejack listen? Yes.
Applejack glared defiantly at them for a few more seconds, before slumping weakly to the floor. She wept openly now, covering her face with one hoof. “I just want… I just want her to be okay. I know you both… understand. Know you’d do the same for your family.”
“We would.” Twilight agreed. “But right now, the thing we need to do for them is go back to the Prospector.”
That was what they did. Not quickly, not smoothly, and not without taking plenty of pictures and samples along the way. Applejack ended up grabbing the entire control board for one of the other stasis pods to study, along with the pictures. “I’ll be back for you, sis.” She whispered, one hoof on the edge of the pod. “Don’t you worry yerself about it. I’ll have ya’ out before ya know it, I promise.”
Even Node was quiet as they made the trip back.
Twilight helped Applejack settle back in to rest, helped collect and sterilize all the equipment, but there was no quick rest waiting for her. There was a flashing “new message” on the screen by her head—there was only one dragon that could be from.
She pulled up the screen, and sure enough there was the dragon’s message.
Twilight.
Random Event: Spike makes rapid progress towards Equinox repair
Had a breakthrough on the Equinox. I figured a way to sterilize the contaminated sections of the Equinox that wasn’t suggested in any of the manuals. I’ll stay short on details, except that it involves a rapid decompression of the decon foam. It would be a bad idea, except that we’ve got a planet right there with plenty of replacement N2 and O2.
I’m on track to have the Equinox habitable again in two weeks at this rate. Still haven’t fixed the engine, but that’s secondary. I already spaced the irradiated manifold, and I’m fabing a new one now. Applejack can help me install it once the ship is safe.
How are things on Proximus B? Keep me up to date. It’s lonely on the Equinox all alone. When will be waking the others?
-Spike
Twilight replied in brief, not wanting to worry Spike about any of their new discoveries. Instead of lying, she said only that they had “made breakthroughs” and that she would want him there to help as soon as he could to learn about it all. She congratulated him for his ingenuity, then signed off.
Now all I have to do is hold my crew together for long enough for everypony to heal.
How long should Twilight give for R&R?
1. Two weeks—Long enough for Applejack to be working again.
2. A month—Long enough for the first crop of Geneseed, and for the Equinox to be habitable for ponies.
3. Two Months—Long enough for Geneseed and to recover the food reserves, for Spike to come down to the surface, and for ponies to recover their morale. [Applejack refuses to leave the planet without waking her sister, so will not repair the Equinox during this interval]
4. Six Months—Homestead, wake the sleepers on the Equinox, grow a full harvest, and prepare. [these goals might still be achieved with a shorter length; this rest interval only indicates no exploration of the planet or other risky activities will take place during this time.]
(Certainty 210 required.)
Definitely take all the time we can I say. All the things that look to be time sensitive are in stasis besides maybe the signal, but that has already been there for who knows how long. I say we take the full six months.
Six months- they need the break, whether they want to or not. Crisis after crisis wears a pony down to where they can't take another crisis, and mission fails. Be a leader, Twilight!
My theory is we are dealing with two civilizations are this point. One "post human" that sent the signal, the other a "berserker" type species the preemptively eradicates other spacefaring cultures.
One month. get the rest of the crew, let them fully recover and get them up to speed on events and then make a call fore more time or minor excurtions to map the 'secure' area.
After everything that's happened taking as long as needed to stabilize and rebuild would probably be best. Heck thats whats i've been saying and voting for this whole time.
Seriously though I am voting for the 6 month option. There are under no time constraints and this gives them the best option for survival. With Twilight finally "Ponying Up" in the last chapter it would also fit with her behaving in a more conservative and authoritative role.
It's like Twilight said. It's time to slow down. 6 months.
Surprised to see it is splitting between 6 and 1 month. Personally went with 2.
This chapter raised my hopes, the last few chapters felt like entering the rim world death spiral. Hopefully this calm will boost everyone up for the coming storm.
E-yup! Going to go for that whole six months.
They've barely have any more to give. The crew needs the R&R. They obviously need more active crew members. Applejack needs to go over those parts to understand how to safely remove Applebloom. They all need to be healthy so Fluttershy can shift her focus to Applebloom once she's out.
They've been stretched thin. Let's let them them a break so they don't snap on the next stretch of this adventure.
6 months. If we're gonna be dealing with this shit, better have the whole crew to face it head on
Six months, definitively. They need everyone in top shape and plenty of food if they're going to tackle the mystery of what happened to this planet. And also to understand the monument, awake both Applebloom and Sunset, etc.
Six months is the way to go and it appears that the peanut gallery is with us. Assuming things dont go straight to Tartarus (I'm looking at you, Node) then all this R&R will do wonders for everyone.
6 months. We finally have the R&R vote we want. Maximize it, get everyone recovered
Huh, this sounds...well, exactly like what I said should happen in the last chapter. I'm a bit bemused, honestly.
9468087
Sounds plausible to me. I have a feeling that there's some time travel involved somewhere, particularly with the Solstice and now these stasis pods--remember that Twilight specifically said that they used time magic!
Two months for me. Get basically everything fixed, have enough geneseed to wake the full crew, but not so much time that Applejack goes crazy wanting to rescue her sister or Twilight from the lack of doing anything.
Well, this is a pleasant change! And more or less what we tried to do earlier, before that business with the pod.
My only worry is getting greedy with our time and another roll in the background screwing us over before we've gotten situated.
I'd go with Two months - long enough to take a breather, but not so long to lollygag around. Besides, we also have that very important signal to investigate - while a month or two might not be too much considering the the distance of travel required, six month seems like just asking for trouble.
YAAAAAAAS! Finally an all-positive-results chapter! Applejack is being rational, Spike is making breakthroughs, Twilight is proving herself a capable leader, and Fluttershy is even showing the compassion I asked for last chapter! I am PSYCHED!
Definitely voting for the 6 month leave, and I think Twilight/the author made a solid enough argument that it will win the vote. Especially now that it is official that no one knows what the flip is going on with Home Base back in Equestria, the rush to get ready enough to contact home seems less important to me now. Better to take their time, restore the whole crew, heal up, and approach all this steadily and rationally ao they have the best chance of survival and actually figuring out the weirdness. BecUse BOY IS THERE WEIRDNESS
Compared to the amount of time they were flying through space in stasis, 6 months is nothing in comparison. The ring, the signal, all of that can wait for a little bit longer.
Finally! Hopefully she listens to it.
Exhales deeply.
I voted we should wait for 6 months. (It seems the majority aggrees.)
Nothing is running away, and we need to get everyone back in top-condition. The last close-calls were way too close to be comfortable.
Two months is long enough to wake up the rest of the crew and get them up and going. Six months seems overkill. Applejack won’t leave the planet to fix the equinox, so waiting 6 months to start those engine repairs seems negligent.
We need recovery time, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
9468328
"...there is such a thing as too much of a good thing."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
9468285
I agree that two months seems best but Twilight's argument for Rarity and Rainbow Dash getting unfrozen seems good too. Looks like a lot of people are voting the full six months anyway so I'll vote for dissent and pick two months.
9468328
It says the 6 months wakes the rest of the crew. Not sure if two months wakes anyone up or just gives enough geneseed for one crew.
Praise RNGesus! Things goin' well this chapter.
It's definitely tempting to take a six-month break. I won't cry if that wins. It would be fantastic to have a full and fully prepared crew.
But I'm voting for one month.** EDIT: See 9468849, author has confirmed that reviving the full crew will take over two months.
Current priorities are:
1) Full crew
2) Information
3) Full resources
4) Repairing the Equinox
Current risks are:
A) Exploring the dangerous things the scouting trip uncovered
B) Whatever's happening in the background which killed this planet's inhabitants and created GIANT DEATH WORMS
C) Whatever's happening to Equestria which drove Sunset, Bloom et.al. to set out on their own trip
One month is enough to get the geneseed for #1, allows the quickest reasonable head start on #2, and gets #4 done soonest. (Remember, AJ won't go into space without her sister.) Speed on #2 and #4 is still important because we don't know when the shoe will drop on problems B and C or what they will be. Reviving Sunset and/or Apple Bloom will fill in precious context clues that I'd rather have sooner rather than later. I'd rather take time to prepare for a known problem than take time to merely stock up.If it turns out from their intel that there's no immediate danger, then hopefully we can take more recuperation time later while AJ is helping Spike with repairs.
Applejack has wings?
six months let's stop being stupid about this.
9468387 i think i misunderstood your comment. Im not sure if apple jack will recover in a month or not and we cant get her on the ship untill both crew are awakened and focused on reviving AB. and honestly i think AB could prove a critical source of information that paired with what the assistance of what IS still a small library of things we don't yet know on the equanox as well as eventually pulling the prisoner out and either interrogating and spacing or (god forbid) using the prisoner to help the ship.(which btw we still know she is willing to FUCKING DESTROY if we don't do exactly what she want's and since she has proven to be dangerously motivated AND suicidal she needs to be fucking spaced.) with all these things available too us i really don't think now is the time for anything more then a semi relaxed refilling of stores and a more focused agenda on figuring out where the fuck is equus. also remember... the node had FULL ACCESS to our systems data base several million times longer then necesary to edit information that may prove potentially negative for it's goals it is a self serving Artificial intelligence that has not tried to convince the crew of it's sentience. while the crew doesn't yet understand this we need to remember he is NOT on our team. it is giving us limited help while we achieve it's goals.
9468444
Good catch. Fixed!
THOSE OF YOU WHO VOTED 6 MONTHS NEED TO REREAD THE STORY. the equanox is actively being hunted. go to the discorde and reread all the roles. the equanox is on a timer. and there is no way the equanox can defend itself or hide from a super advanced interceptor. I hope this wont kill us and a later point.
9468540
happens again slightly further down. CTRL+F "pegasus" to find it exactly.
9468519
Yeah, the GIANT DEATH WORMS are problem B. I'm pretty sure that them being hunted was resolved when the Prospector took off from the city and left the worm behind. According to Node, nothing is going to bother them here in the greenbelt, but the WORMS are still out there and still a future danger.
The stasis pods are under the awake crew's control. There's no reason repairing the ship would require them to open. (The ship was fully repaired for most of the trip, remember.) And nobody in the crew has advocated for waking Cozy up. She's pretty much a non-issue at this point.
Finally. I suppose they couldn't consider the option until
the event flag triggeredthey got the friendship lesson hammered into their heads.In any case, I'm actually in favor of a shorter break. A month or two seems like plenty of time for psychological and physical recovery from these ordeals. There's a wide spectrum between grueling labor and full shore leave.
@everyonen
9468387
That's pretty convincing...
9468576
ehhhhhhhhh HAHAHA ON THE 29 I QUOTE "Is a distent, Dangerous artifact activated that will hunt out** our heroes--yes- < this is unrelated to the mining drone worm scene that was "ambivalently hostile" nothing ambivalently hostile would "hunt out our heroes" *crows in victory and anxiety*
**the page has a typo :(
6 months seems a bit long. I'd have gone 3 months and then decided if we needed more.
aw man... i wrote a fucking paper on all the things we need to keep cautious of and i fucking deleted it... tldr- the node is not our friend, the worms are not the ancient danger that is hunting us, the fanatic suicide bomber still needs to be spaced, and we NEED the crew to find a damn alien telscope and point it at equus.
9468576
i think i misunderstood your comment. Im not sure if apple jack will recover in a month or not and we cant get her on the ship untill both crew are awakened and focused on reviving AB. and honestly i think AB could prove a critical source of information that paired with what the assistance of what IS still a small library of things we don't yet know on the equanox as well as eventually pulling the prisoner out and either interrogating and spacing or (god forbid) using the prisoner to help the ship.(which btw we still know she is willing to FUCKING DESTROY if we don't do exactly what she want's and since she has proven to be dangerously motivated AND suicidal she needs to be fucking spaced.) with all these things available too us i really don't think now is the time for anything more then a semi relaxed refilling of stores and a more focused agenda on figuring out where the fuck is equus. also remember... the node had FULL ACCESS to our systems data base several million times longer then necesary to edit information that may prove potentially negative for it's goals it is a self serving Artificial intelligence that has not tried to convince the crew of it's sentience. while the crew doesn't yet understand this we need to remember he is NOT on our team. it is giving us limited help while we achieve it's goals.
Dice karma finally let's up a little.
No compromises for me this time, let's do the full six months.
9468576 you haven't had a chance to read ALL the dice rolls have you? its an eye opening expierience and pretty fun for instance when the ship was damaged by the reactor blow out because of dusty( or shady or w/e her name is)'s bomb there was a roll from starscribe to emergency open all cryocasks for safety( ?????????) but didn't because of the radiation. star may decide to roll again once the interior is safe and not irradiated.
Anyone else here read Starscribe's other story, Message in a Bottle? Well I had an epiphany recently that Twilight is like Lucky and Rainbow Dash is like Olivia. Now those of you who remember the story climax and the slaver raid both from part 1 might remember that there was a significant difference in number of casualties.
Now that may be a total shot in the dark since we haven't actually seen this AU's RD, but in a universe where Nightmare Moon had a starship/fleet under her command and where RD's attributes include "military," I think it's a safe comparison. It's time we got Rainbow back.
Hmm are you referring to Applejack here?
If it was a radioactive contamination it was ALREADY sterilized... irradiated as fu*k but 100% sterile...
9468625
Are you quoting spoilers without a censor right now?
Hold on, so if two months is enough to wake the crew then why does two months say:
While six months says:
Six months specifically mentions waking the sleepers on the Equinox, two months only mentions recovering the reserves, Spike coming down, and morale recovery. Six months also mentions growing a full harvest of Geneseed, so if two months produces enough Geneseed to wake everyone then why does six months mention a full harvest at all?
So unless the wording is incorrect or I'm just being dense, then a lot of the people voting for two months assuming all of the crew would be woken are mistaken.
And is Applejack really needed to repair the engines? We don't know if installing a new manifold requires two people or if Spike can do it on his own. He said that Applejack could help him, which doesn't necessarily mean that it's exclusively a two person job.
What I'm worried about with the six months, is if Applejack recovers before time is up. It says that no exploration of the planet or risky activities, and I bet that waking up Applebloom counts as a risky activity considering her state. Could Applejack really wait all of that time to try and wake up Applebloom when she doesn't feel horrible? Sure she sees reason now, but she isn't operating at 100%. Who knows if she'll still feel like waiting is the best choice when she's recovered and had time to think things over?