Don’t stop Applejack. Interrogate Apple Bloom for what she knows before moving forward 38%
“You shouldn’t do that!” Fluttershy called, from the other side of Apple Bloom’s bed. Much too far away to make a difference. Twilight reached out with her magic, but hesitated.
Does Pinkie’s Insight warn her to stop Applejack? No.
About 38% of her will was paralyzed with indecision.
Just long enough for Applejack to embrace her sister on the cot, brushing away metal fibers as she went. “I’m so glad to see you, sis,” she muttered. “This whole thing… it’s been a real mess. But yer alive, and that’s what matters.”
Is Apple Bloom’s condition contagious? Critical yes. This infection requires only physical contact with an infected person to spread. No fluid transfer is required.
Is Applejack infected by hugging her sister? Yes.
“Get away…” Apple Bloom muttered, her voice weak. She pushed Applejack a few steps away from her with surprising strength. She was an adult Earth Pony. She used to be.
Not soon enough. The metal fibers of the cocoon clung to Applejack’s leg where she’d brushed them aside. Twilight could see them wrapping around her leg, digging in deep. “Everypony back!” Twilight yelled, her voice taking on a little of the Royal Canterlot. “Right now! Fluttershy, get back! Node, you’re probably okay. Everypony else, behind me.”
As usual lately, Applejack ignored the instruction. She hadn’t even noticed the change. “What’s wrong, sis? Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Course I am…” she croaked, pushing herself upright into a proper sitting position. “That’s why I want ye to get away. What the hay were you thinkin’ getting so close?” Her eyes jerked immediately to her leg. “You’ve got about thirty seconds before it gets into the blood! Is there a… there!” she pointed at the operating table, and Fluttershy’s surgical saw. “Twilight, captain! You can amputate her leg! Do it, or she’ll end up like me! Less… dead than I thought, but… do it!”
“That isn’t my choice to make,” Twilight said, lifting into the air and hovering just a little bit closer. She took the saw in her magic, along with the emergency field medicine kit. She might not be a doctor, but she could knock someone out for an emergency surgery. “Applejack, this is your choice. I need my engineer. Do you need your leg?”
Will Applejack allow her leg to be amputated? Yes.
Applejack nodded, eyes widening with desperation. “Cap, I had no idea—. Family… you know how it is. I haven’t been thinkin’ straight since I woke up on this damn mission.” She looked down at her leg, wincing as the fibers dug in deeper. “Do it.”
Twilight pushed out the sea of thoughts with her focused will. Magic coursed through her, pushing her off the ground, melting the textured floor. Time seemed to slow around her as she flew across the room to Applejack. The medical kit exploded as she searched it rapidly, removing the nitrogen needle with “critical painkillers” inside.
Fluttershy would do a better job here in every way. She even had a makeshift operating room to do the procedure. But there just wasn’t time. Twilight blasted the needle up against Applejack’s neck, then aimed her horn far enough up Applejack’s leg that there was no more trace of the spindly metal fibers. She could only pray to Celestia it would work.
Does the infection get her too fast for Twilight to stop it? No.
She didn’t use the saw—that was too slow. Poor Applejack would probably be feeling all of it—she started screaming. Twilight held her rigid in her magic, blasting at the joint with the same focused lance of energy she might’ve used to eviscerate a changeling Interloper that had boarded her ship. Viscera sizzled and popped onto the ground, then the infected leg fell away.
Twilight’s surge of power was draining fast—her own body had been badly damaged too, and even a little weakness let the thoughts back in. Those thoughts were now dominated with Applejack’s scream of agony. With her last gasp of strength, she applied a tourniquet to the wound, tightening it with the latch. Then she set Applejack down, some distance away from her severed limb. Fibers continued to lace across it, eating through the floor and the discarded saw. But whatever they were doing, they seemed content to remain in place just like Apple Bloom had done.
Twilight didn’t see what happened next. Her energy was finally spent. Not long after she set Applejack down on the ground, she collapsed, and the world turned black.
Does Twilight see the hunger in darkness? Yes.
There were no restful dreams for Twilight, or even the restful dreamlessness of oblivion. Instead she saw the alien memories play before her in an endless loop. Nonlife swept across the stars, turning planets barren and causing activity on every station and ship to stop.
Numbness is peace, it said to her. You will find your way here in time. Join me. It called to her.
Does Twilight resist its pull? Yes.
No. Not today. She woke up.
Twilight was back in camp, in the medical building. Applejack lay on the bed beside her, unconscious and covered with a blanket. Even through it she could make out the obvious absence from her side. And just beside that, Sunset Shimmer’s stasis pod hummed unobtrusively. At least there was no window to see her accusing face.
“Captain,” Fluttershy said from beside her, voice sensitive. “No, don’t get up. It’s a miracle you were moving as long as you were. I’ve never seen such serious nerve-damage outside of mind-magic attacks before. I have you on regenerative therapy, but it works best if you rest.”
Twilight winced, then lay back in the cot, closing her eyes. “I see Applejack is still alive. And not… metallic.”
“Yes,” Fluttershy said. “That butchery you called an amputation saved her life. Spike is working on a prosthetic for her now, should be ready by the time the wound is closed. But she won’t be on her hooves again for a few weeks. And… she’ll never be as strong as she was. Earth pony magic comes through their hooves, you know.”
“I know,” Twilight groaned. “What about…”
“The mechanical pony,” Fluttershy supplied. “I quarantined her and the entire preservation lab until we get your order. We left her a radio and some rations… not that I think she’ll need them.”
And for once, Applejack won’t be able to override me. Not in bed with one less leg. “Alright, Fluttershy. I think…”
1. We should leave Applejack in a medical coma for a bit. She’s become more and more difficult to control ever since we first discovered her sister. We can wake her up once we have a better idea of what’s really going on with Apple Bloom.
2. Tomorrow we’ll have a meeting with Apple Bloom, remotely. Her sister deserves to be part of it, even if she’s in bed. Losing her leg will have taught her all the lessons she needs.
3. Buck it, wake up Sunset right now. I don’t even care anymore. I’m dumping all the pieces out onto the board. We’ll see how they land.
4. The voice of desperation and fatigue suggests Twilight should infect herself with the mechanical virus intentionally. At least then the pain will probably stop.
(Certainty 230 required)
Heh. What an oddly specific number.
Oh. Well. My face is red. And, if I were in this situation, about to be eaten by nanomachines.
At least she acknowledges it. Though, to be fair, she was doing well until they went planetside. A bit unfair towards Spike, but that was just professional discourtesy.
That being said, I think it's best to keep Applejack under for a bit. She's going to need one heck of an adjustment period after losing a quarter of her magic output. It's best that they resolve the Apple Bloom situation without an engineer who's unstable in every sense of the word muddying the waters.
Also, there's the matter of Twilight's continued sanity, which now seems subject to a roll every time she shuts her eyes. We may be one natural 1 away from Nightmare Quiescence wreaking havoc on the rest of the crew. Hopefully there will be some way to deal with that. Transformation might be an option, after we get a grasp on how Apple Bloom's doing.
ETA: Also, important notes from the updated resource page: While Twilight has one dot in Zalgo Hunger, Pinkie has three. Also, Twilight's Insight is... upside down, as opposed to Pinkie's. Not sure what that entails, but I suppose we'll find out in time.
Oh. Look at that. The exact moment our luck ran out.
Honestly and truly? I vote we infect ourselves with the mechanical virus on purpose, even though the option's listed on the poll as 'buck everything up'. We saw with Apple Bloom it's not just 'apocalypse gray goo'. Whatever 'Hunger' is sweeping across the stars kills organic life. Time to replace the frailty of biology with the perfection of metal.
If nothing else, it might get the voices to stop...
At least they could probably clone AJ a new leg at some point down the road. The tech can't be that difficult if they were able to be a intersolar society.
9498189
The only issue i have with uploading a whole society is how would procreation work? Sure it is trivial at that point to make a new body, but what about the mind? Do we just copy existing ones? Do we manufacture new minds, along with the implications that has? Or do we leave artifical wombs to do it, and upload the biologicals at a set age?
9498198
Those are all problems that can be solved, with a myriad of solutions that you pointed out. Avoid the omnicidal hunger now, figure out babies later.
Probably going to go with option 2 here. I would hope that AJ would know Applebloom better than anyone else present. Also, Element of Honesty(?). She should hopefully be able to tell if something isn't right (besides the obvious). We can always put her under afterwards.
Put her in coma. AJ is becoming more of a danger then is accaptible.
The word is spelled 'tourniquet', not 'tunicate'. Aside from that, very exciting chapter! And I got interested enough in Mythic to buy the GM emulator. It's going to take some time to fully digest, but the possibilities intrigue me.
she applied a tunicate to the wound
That should be 'tourniquet', Star.
Other than that, I'm hanging on for the wild ride!
I don't regret saying that.
Applejack's been getting in the way so much that I am tempted to induce a medical coma on her. But that just seems morally questionable. Hopefully next time she tries to do something stupid she'll look at her leg stump and think twice. I'm giving her a chance to be better.
Fluttershy is a lot more tell-it-like-it-is than I'm used to. I don't hate this. Makes me think of a nurse that still genuinely cares for her patients, but has seen so many people admitted to the hospital for stupid things and disobeying a doctor's orders that she's jaded, sarcastic, and drinks heavily after work.
Ah yes, the thing that I figured would happen happened. I figured this would be where our rolls might turn against us.
Anyways. Since AJ is clearly just...not being right, 1 might be a good idea. I also might be in the minority here, but we should consider waking Sunset up soon. If not this set of choices, then the next time it pops up as an option. If 1 wins, having another member might help.
I'd only pick 2 since it seems getting infected finally seemed to make AJ realize how much of a shit she's been.
Coma. Applejack needs time to recover. We can fill her in later. Not putting Apple Bloom in quarantine immediately was a terrible idea
This is exactly what I warned against in my comment last chapter, to the specifics of "we might not have tested physical contact contagiousness yet". Fuck it, quarantine for everyone. And possibly medical comas. 1.
Have you guys ever stared straight into the jaws of an anomaly in Stellaris and realized that maybe you should've brought some better scientists? Have you ever thought about the evil RNG in the background in Pathfinder: Kingmaker and what it might do to your next attack roll? Heck, have you read Starscribe's own Message in a Bottle? Are you properly paranoid? No, I would venture that you are not.
So far, Twilight Sparkle's brain was half-fried, Apple Bloom's been converted into a pony-bot with as-yet unknown consequences, and poor AJ has gotten pneumonia had her leg blown off, and that's just the most recent in a long, long string of disasters, including sabotage conducted by a stowaway, a reactor breach that rendered their interstellar vehicle uninhabitable except for Spike, and nearly getting eaten by a giant whatever. Do you guys really want Applejack up and about the day after her amputation? Put her in a coma. Put everything on hold. Stop playing with fire unless you want the whole crew killed and/or critically demoralized to the point of taking their own lives. Do you see vote option 4, there? That's suicidal thinking.
This isn't Equestria. This is one of Starscribe's hellish existential nightmare worlds. Anyone can die. Before you vote, I want you to imagine that, right in the first paragraph of the next chapter, a large tiger could leap from the bushes and tear half of the team to ribbons before Twilight finally puts it down. That's the level of reality we're operating on here.
9498189
The conversion nanotech seems like an emergency measure, with no guarantee of success. It's probably a coin toss whether it kills you or not, but whoever created it deemed even a fifty-fifty chance of survival acceptable compared to letting this "soul eater" thing get them.
Twilight Sparkle can hear voices from living people after she used that chair, but she can't hear AB's. From the previous chapter:
This is enough information for me to infer that the over-arching antagonist is some sort of goddamn C'tan/Photino Bird/Boltzmann Brain, and it can pick up psychic emanations from living individuals, home in on them, and eat your mind right out of your head. The only way to survive is through mind-uploading to a non-living substrate, but there's no way to tell if that strips you of your soul or qualia. For all we know, AB is a P-Zombie right now. As in, she has no internal experience of reality. Hopefully that's not the case, and her consciousness is intact, otherwise, the conversion process basically killed her.
Also, whatever Twilight did with the Insight thing has painted a giant bullseye on her brain. For mister "I eat civilizations and leave empty buildings". At this point, she may as well jump in the damn nanites and roll around in them.
9498268
Suicidally stubborn. And yeah it's been a little annoying. I'm starting to think Starscribe and the dice hate AJ or something. She has consistently made the stupidest decisions and gotten the worst rolls. She's almost more of a saboteur than Cozy Glow. Sowing doubt in Spike, missing the traps, getting Twilight hurt with her spell idea to catch Cozy, etc. The only things I remember her doing right are a couple of rolls to save herself, catching Cozy with the harpoons and the critical repairs she got when she felt guilty.
This is why I voted to isolate her.
Dangit, messed that one up. I didnt think itd be contagious. Maybe overconfidence since we had a few successful rolls there plus just didnt make sense to me. Congrats on a world with realistic probabilities for good and bad results!
I voted for waking sunset but I think I will change it to medical coma. I dont want applejack down permanently, but she has seen her sister is kind of alive and lost a leg. Let her sleep for a bit.
EDIT: So apparantly you CANT change your vote. Unfortunate.
Wow, Applejack is completely and totally out of control at this point. She really needs to be examined for brain damage before they trust her to do anything; her behavior has been steadily but rather consistently decaying since she was thawed, and this whole thing with AB has clearly shoved her all the way off the deep end.
At this point, she's way past the line of, "She's not just stubborn and opinionated; she's openly insubordinate, grossly reckless, and harming the expedition way more than we need her skills; if she doesn't start getting better after a medical coma and enforced bed rest, she needs to be put back on ice."
Some of it's the dice, sure, but that's the fun of a story like this: you build based on what happened.
Guys, why did we need to interrogate Applebloom right away after she had just turned into a cyborg? THERE ISN'T ANY RUSH.
Use common sense. We should have made sure she wasn't contagious before doing anything else. Because proper safety procedures weren't observed Applejack lost a leg. We can't be so reckless.
Maybe take a breather and make reasonable decisions that aren't of the RUSH RUSH RUSH WE NEED TO FIND THIS INFO NOW variety.
And if you've read the past few chapters, it seems there are "right decisions" that can be made. Quarantining Applebloom was the most sensible choice, probably the choice that a captain should have made. We can't rely on good rolls alone - Applebloom getting a critical yes on being contagious for example.
Just because you think Applebloom wouldn't have been contagious, it's still common sense to quarantine her and confirm that rather than taking a risk.
Applejack admitted she was out of line, but I'm unsure if she could behave when in a meeting with her sister... and waking Sunset is way too soon after all of the shit Twilight and crew just went through.
9498344
Quite so. Which leaves 3 that are more or less in sane order, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie was damaged during the trip, Twilight as well, then she got WORSE, Spikes currently so highly dosed in radiation that if theyve never tested it on a dragon before, theyve got plenty of data now
ZZZZZZZZ stop voting to waste time. (The six months not including waking up sunset doesn't actually make any since, but w/e) It was a mistake then and waiting till tomorrow is a mistake now Twi WONT have healed from her injuries and she SHOULD NOT be doing any thing except recovering. If Twi is needed to save sunsets life with magic then SHE IS ALREADY DEAD giving the hunger another role on twis sanity is THE WORST IDEA. So in case I'm not being clear. Twightlight needs to heal at least three points of damage and In that time flutters should wake up sun set.
Viscera is the term for the internal organs in the abdomen/torso... if they are sizzling Applejack is only good as compost...
tourniquet
9498344 Going by the Stellaris analogue, why shouldn't we? If the Unbidden are bearing down on your core worlds and the only thing that can save you is to embrace the Worm, then I'm jumping in the black hole head first.
9498578
Except the option to wake up Sunset says "Buck it, wake up Sunset right now. I don’t even care anymore. I’m dumping all the pieces out onto the board. We’ll see how they land." - So Twilight wouldn't be getting any rest. When it says "Wake up Sunset right now" it probably does mean right now.
We don't need to rush to wake up Sunset. If Twilight is needed to save Sunset's life then we shouldn't ensure Sunset dies by rushing in half-cocked when we have the option of waiting for Twilight to recover before waking her.
Hell, just waiting a day or however long it takes for the crew to clear their heads would be infinitely better than waking Sunset up at this exact moment.
At least wait until after the meeting... maybe Applebloom might have some idea on how to wake her up safely (something?) Equestria must have advanced their tech since the Equinox was first constructed. She might know information that could assist in Sunset's revival.
After all, what doctors considered "state of the art" in the 1800s would be considered barbaric and primitive by today's standards. The Equinox and crew (knowledge-wise) might be considered "primitive" from a technological standpoint when compared to the technology that Equestria produced before it went dark.
Rainbow Dash already made the point that Sunset and crew likely had a ship that was "way better than ours" considering they learned much since the Equinox's construction, they probably advanced in other fields too. Probably really optimistic of me though - Unless Equestria really surpassed all of the tech that went into the Equinox, there might not be a technological knowledge McGuffin that could greatly increase Sunset's chances.
I see Fluttershy is already not calling Applebloom by her name.
I'm going to vote for allowing Applejack to be part of the meeting.
Hopefully this fixes her insubordination streak. But I'm also concerned about putting her body through more then it needs. A forced coma probably shouldn't be used unless Applejack really needs it with all the other health problems she's had this trip.
Also talking with Applebloom might give us some insight to what's happening back home. Also, give us some insight to just how safe Cozy Glow and the group that she was a part of are. And maybe even give us a safer way to precede in regards to Sunset and the Crystal Heart... And maybe their ship and the ring in orbit
No reason yet for Twilight to take a dip, or for them to rush to wake up Sunset until they are all informed and rested for those next hurdles.
9498206
Being an element of Harmony doesn't necessarily mean she's a lie detector.
This is exactly what I feared! Maybe NOW AJ will reign herself in in the future...
Facepalm
I knew the damn thing was contagious...ah well, whats done is done. We should take a break from annihilating our luck, so Option 1 for a break
As Emperor Palpatine once said, "Young fool. Only now at the end do you understand..."
Applejack isn't so much holding the idiot ball as much as she has become the idiot ball. A while longer under incapacitation will not be a bad thing.
Also:
Applejack has hindered more than helped almost invariably.
Put her in a coma.
I think folks are being a little harsh on Applejack. Not that she hasn't been damn thick at times, but she's far from useless and this is probably the biggest personal crisis she could have faced short of picking between like Big Mac or Apple Bloom living or something.
That said, after consideration, I think her resting and everyone else having a little more peace for awhile might be good. I'm sure AB will want to talk to her sister a lot and all, but it's not like they'll be separated anytime soon. Unless things take a wicked twist. She also doesn't really... have a reason to lie to us or be too unreasonable. Not as far as we know.
9499104
Pain is the most effective teacher, how can she learn if she is unconscious?
9499432
AJ is smart enough to understand that if you’re put in a medical coma when it isn’t strictly neccesary medically, then you fucked up real bad.
If she isn’t, then it would explain a lot of her incompetence but also make me question what she’s even doing as a part of the crew.
AJ is delusional, sure. You have to be to not notice something literally constricting your foreleg to the point of cutting. After all that, I can still at least see the flawed reasoning and broken logic that drives her. She’s had an insubordinate streak since she was thawed and it can be assumed she doesn’t respect the chain of command as highly as she should at as level deeper than just her miserable rolls.
That said, can we take a moment to appreciate just how much of a [REDACTED] Fluttershy is? She’s already denying AB her equinity and the first words she utters to her patient when they wake up is a backhoofed compliment and accusation. She hasn’t shown any real care for the crew. She hasn’t done anything to protect her patients. When AJ tried to leave her hospital bed and run to the pyramid, did she try to stop her? No, she rolled her eyes and got snarky on the radio.
AJ is overly emotional and goes off half cocked but I still think the results of her actions are less damaging, to the crew’s plight and morale, than Fluttershy’s inactions.
9499466
Completely missed what I was talking about, she was reckless, lost a limb for it, how will she learn the lesson on recklessness if she’s too unconscious to learn?
9499565
I see your point, but won’t change my vote.
9499573
Fair enough
Welp, shit just hit the fan and is now covering literally everything. Let's wake Sunset to add to the pile of manure!
Well, better late than never.
But a bit sooner would have been great, too.
Thorax: "Woah, hold your horses! Maybe try to talk to him first?"
The best option would be a combination of 1 and 2:
Keep AJ asleep, but talk to AB.
Since this is not possible choosed option 1, the next best (and probably safest) option.
Found a typo(?):
Better: Since I know not everypony reads the comments
Also: I'm not sure which scene we can see in the picture. Does someone recognize it?
949870
9498706
I disagree twilight needs to be taken out of action. And forcefully mended. It could be that once the psychic damage is healed she will stop being vulnerable to the hunger. She may even regain the ability to teleport. And iether way it doesn't make since that we still haven't woken up sunset after six fucking months.
9498706
But we do need to rush THE. SPACE SHIP. STILL. ISNT. FIXED. I tried making this point a while ago and no one cared even too see my point and offer counter argue because they didn't want me to be right. Do you know how far in space you can see an object that has been stationary for SIX light months? For instance it takes light 8 minutes to get to earth from the sun.
9499774
Well actually a planet isn't really known to stay still unless it was the ponies home planet. So the Equinox is far from standing still.
Also with those memories from the chair, it doesn't sound like this great Lovecraftian horror is much faster then the Equinox itself. The chairs memories seem to suggest they slowly and steadily consume life and relentlessly allow their prey to run out of energy, rather then speed to it at such a rate to overcome their prey's own speed.
I think the biggest thing to warn them of an oncoming threat will be the Ring itself. Whether it's an orbital defense platform. Or an orbital space dock. It's obviously made with more advanced tech and was here for what happened to the planet. It hasn't done anything yet, but I assume it will as this thing that Hungers gets closer to system and becomes a credible threat.
9499534
Yeah, I'm honestly amazed at how much of a brat Fluttershy is being. While AJ is being a stubborn, defiant mule (though arguably this is much more in character for her, and at least she seemed to suffer a brief moment of clarity in the last chapter that will, hopefully, stick), Fluttershy is taking every opportunity on her end to be a maximally unhelpful, passive-aggressive cunt. The only reason it's not as noticeable is because AJ has been overshadowing her in the bad behavior department.
Compared to these two, It was honestly refreshing (and, dare I say, unexpected) how normal Rainbow was behaving. At least one of Twilight's "friends" seems to be behaving in a manner that would make them seem like someone you would actually want by your side when crash-landing on an alien world, unlike those two.
Am I the only one who thinks giving Twilight the nanites might make her more resistant to the Void’s call?
9500743
I'm almost positive that's what the intent is in the first place, immunity. However... it also seems like nobody has succeeded in killing the thing so far. And I'm going on a limb and saying if she went robot she'd lose out on her magic and her new psychic ability. Not worth it. Not yet at least.
9500888
That’s a fair call.
But in interest of testing our theory, I recommend submitting Apple Bloom to the device as soon as we have the option and have extracted information from her. That way, we can test the interaction on non-essential personnel. Leave Applejack behind on that one, though, and shove her into stasis when they get back if it goes bad so she never finds out, heh. Bring Twilight, Rainbow, Node and Fluttershy in case you need to subdue her or heal her afterwards.
Thoughts?
That's an understatement. Applejack has been the closest this fic's had to an antagonist aside from Cozy Glow with how much harder she makes everything and her stupid decisions. Keep her plot asleep as long as you can.
9498274
Eh, wait at least till we hear what AB has to say about things.
9498416
Yeah, the only thing AJ hasn't fucked up in some way so far is fixing stuff, and even then Spike is doing a damn good job of that as well.
9498495
Agreed, but at that point, Twilight was too mentally fried to really be trusted to think straight, and AJ has done little this story beyond make things worse through stubborn idiocy. As above, her only real value to the crew has been fixing things, and Spike is doing a damn good job of that. If AJ wants to stupid herself to death at this point, the crew has better things to do then waste time and energy trying to protect her from herself.
9499534
Agreed, Fluttershy has been a huge bitch, Aj's been an stubborn idiot beyond any rationality even for her, Pinkie has been mopey and depressive, and Twilight's been a waffling, indecisive wimp. Even outside of role issues. So far the only character that's actually been doing a good job consistently and who feels like themselves has been Spike. And yes, what we've seen of RD. At least Pinkie and Twi have the excuse of some kind of brain damage caused by whatever the buck happened in flight. Aside from Spike, I'm finding it hard to care about any of the characters at this point.
Oh no! The binge reading has come to an end. Now I have to actually wait for the chapters. Such peril.
While it's true in canon that Twilight can focus if she needs to, and has something to actively concentrate on, we have seen Twilight go over the top as well. I think she's about due for a bit of an existential crisis so I'm going with 4. Probably not the best choice, but that's the fun thing with this game, they never are.