Invite her to the meeting 46%
Twilight wasn’t the only one who would be attending the meeting with Apple Bloom in bed. She felt well enough to walk around after a good night’s sleep, but Fluttershy insisted she needed to wait at least one more day before she would be allowed to move again. For Applejack, the time would be far longer.
At least her friend finally seemed relaxed. After all the struggling she’d done, Applejack rested back in the cot, wincing occasionally when Fluttershy arrived to change her bandages. “I guess there’s no chance a’ reattaching the leg, is there?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Didn’t… refrigerate it or whatever…”
“Cutting it off was the whole point, unfortunately,” Fluttershy said, her voice soothing as she worked. “But Spike will have a prosthetic ready by next week. He seems to think you’ll like it—they’ll be using the same designs that Node made for itself.”
“Great,” Applejack said. “That’s great. I’m sure he’ll do… just fantastic.”
The radio on Twilight’s lap squawked, and a familiar voice came in over the line. “We’ve got everypony ready,” Rainbow said. “You medical ponies ready?” Of course on some level the question was really just politeness. She had no better way of silencing their thoughts from her mind than she had the day before. She was too weak to do experimental magical research, but that meant she couldn’t get away from another pony, radiating constant pain towards her every moment.
“Yeah,” Twilight responded, twisting the volume dial all the way up for Applejack’s benefit. “Apple Bloom, your sister is here too. She’s with me in medical.”
She held out the mic towards Applejack, who leaned towards it. “Hey sis. Just… thought you should take the load off yer back and all. Seein’ as I made it. No harm done.”
Apple Bloom’s response was a little delayed, shaking with pain and discomfort. “I… don’t know if that’s quite true, sis. Your leg, uh… finished growin’ in here. I dunno what it is now, but it left about an hour ago. Crawled out. Never seen that happen before.”
“That’s not good news,” Rainbow Dash said. “Everypony, listen up. You’re all armed from now on, all times. Also, full lockdown on every door. I’ll increase security on medical, in case it wants to try and find Applejack.”
“We might not…” But Twilight wasn’t transmitting. And she realized she probably didn’t need to. “Apple Bloom, I’m sorry we need to have this conversation with you remotely. I’m sure we’re working on… something? Fluttershy?”
“Biohazard-3 level protection should do it. We have a few suits of that grade on the Equinox.”
Great, we’ll have to go on a trip. Maybe I’ll go alone as soon as I can walk. No voices up there.
“I dunno if it’ll be necessary,” Apple Bloom said. “I’m pretty sure it was the, uh… cocoon… that got my sister, not me direct. I think if I got real clean, I shouldn’t be contagious no more. But I… don’t know fer sure.”
“You don’t know what it is?” Twilight asked. She tried to keep her voice flat, hoping the pony wouldn’t sense her disappointment. “That’s the first question we need answered, Apple Bloom. Where did your infection come from?”
“Orbit,” Apple Bloom answered. “There’s a ring there, I’m sure you must’ve seen it comin’ down. Facility there is… more advanced than anythin’ Equestria ever saw. Like… hard to even imagine how most of it works.”
She spoke for nearly an hour, describing how she and a small crew had been sent on an incredibly rapid ship of a class she’d never heard of before. Lots of physical description of the ring after their landing, how it lacked even a single occupant but every system seemed to be working perfectly.
“My security pony, Bulwark, he found somethin’ we thought might’ve been a communication device. We were hoping we might be able to talk to the ones who owned the place, but… instead it blasted him in the eyes. He just…” her voice went quiet, shaking. “Melted. Metallic sludge chased us through the station. Posy Bloom went down halfway there, melted just like Bulwark. Iron Horse and I got back to the ship, headed straight down to the planet. Wasn’t hard to pick a landing spot, with this place so pristine…”
“So you don’t know what it is?” Rainbow didn’t even try to mask her frustration. “How’d you know to cut Applejack’s leg off?”
“When we landed—” she went on. “Some of it must’ve followed us. Or… got onto the outside of the ship. It was crumbling all around us. The computer went all crazy, started…” she went silent again for a few moments. “Iron Horse and I made it out in a rover. But it was on his back leg. I… I amputated. We made it into the building. This place.”
“We never found another body,” Twilight said, though of course this story wasn’t what interested her most. Some hint at what waited above them was certainly worth knowing, but not as important as the question burning in her mind. And even if she was here, she wouldn’t be able to see what Apple Bloom was thinking and just know the truth. She was one of the silent ones.
“He, uh… I was never trained in medicine.” She was obviously crying now, even over the radio. “He didn’t make it more than a few days after the amputation.”
Applejack took the headset from her. “It’s okay, sis. You did yer best, I know ‘ya did. I’m sure yer friends wouldn’t blame ‘ya neither.”
“I blame me,” Apple Bloom said, her voice going cold. As cold as a digitally distorted voice could, anyway. “Nothing followed us into the building, but when I buried him… I think there was something in the dirt. Metal slime… got me. But it wasn’t as fast as the others. I… made it up to the place you found me. Opened the stasis chamber, and… well, now I’m this. Whatever this is.”
Twilight took the microphone back. There was one question she needed answered, one that had been lost in Apple Bloom’s eagerness to describe her immediate mission. “You came from Equestria, then?”
“N-no,” Apple Bloom responded, after a few seconds. “Not directly. The Solstice sent us. And the Far Star sent her.”
“Okay…” Rainbow Dash again. “Pretend we’ve never heard of either of those.”
Rarity responded before Apple Bloom could. “What really bothers me, dear, is the timeline. Maybe you can clarify some things for me. You were only a few years younger than your sister, now perhaps you’re a decade or so older. But how is it that Sunset Shimmer’s cryo-pod was underground three and a half centuries? Was she part of your crew as well?”
“Sunset Shimmer? She’s… here? But that’s not possible! The Solstice should’ve been—” she stopped dead, voice sinking into despair. “The captain’s dead, isn’t she? That’s why you’re asking me all these questions.”
“No, dear,” Rarity continued. “She’s still in stasis. She’s the only one on her pod who made it, I’m afraid.”
“Wake her,” Apple Bloom said, voice confident. “I was sent way ahead to scout. I don’t know if Equestria made it or not. She can answer all your questions better than I can.”
“What do you mean, ‘if Equestria made it’?” Fluttershy asked, the first time she’d ever used her own radio during the entire conversation.
“Ask her,” Apple Bloom said, her voice bleak. “I… don’t want to talk about it. Sunset might have good news, so getting it from me… just ask her.”
“Alright,” Twilight said. “We will. In the meantime, I’m going to have somepony send you something to write with. I want a detailed report—everything you remember about your mission. When you were sent, why you were sent, your goals, every member of your crew… every piece of information you remember.”
“Alright,” Apple Bloom said. She didn’t reply again, not even to Applejack’s comforting reassurances. Twilight couldn’t exactly blame her.
Meanwhile, Twilight had to decide on her crew’s immediate priorities.
1. Begin an immediate evacuation. Apple Bloom just informed us of potential danger we’ve been avoiding this entire time. Whatever attacked her might be here right now, hibernating and waiting to reawaken. The Memorial is no longer safe. Time to return to orbit.
2. Wake Sunset and Interrogate She’s not getting any safer frozen like that. Besides, knowing what happened to Equestria is the most important thing. Our deaths are nothing, but if the homeland is danger, that’s what we need to know.
3. Leave Sunset Asleep, don’t overreact. Cozy Glow’s orders came from someone called ‘S,’ and Sunset has always been ambitious. She might be the pony responsible. We can always Lie to Apple Bloom and tell her we need to revive her on the Equinox or something. As soon as I can walk, I’ll visit her and talk through a shield. She’s going to share what she knows.
(Certainty 225 required)
OK who let Starlight use time magick!... again.
So...now Twilight has something on her character sheet just like Pinkie does. And Pinkie broke down. Greaaaat.
Seems odd that there would be a nano plague on this planet, but untainted life as well. Perhaps these nanites might not be as evasive as the ones on the ring?
There are still some big mysteries in that structure still unanswered and these nanites don't sound too dangerous if precautions are taken from ere out. Let's wake Sunset and figure out what's going on.
I still want to know why the Crystal heart is here with some monster that sounds like they could have a connect to the thing that hungers... or from the sound of Twilight's description, a mutated Queen Chrysalis?
Edit: Then again, we've just given Fluttershy a whole lot of work to do with getting Applejack and Twilight back on their hooves again. Not to mention the whole making sure Applebloom is safe to interact with other organics. At this point it might be safer to wake her up on the Equinox. Still, the possibility of learning about the Crystal Heart is tempting. I find myself wondering if Sombra might be who S is? I think I let more decisive minds choose.. that is long as long as choice (1) doesn't get too high.
2, but after everyone recovers because before then it'd be absolute stupidity.
Okay, we're finally getting some answers in this chapter : )
There is some kind of unspecified 'life is bad m-kay' thing that periodically sweeps though space and eats everyone for unknown reasons. If it were on a timer that would be good news because we would be talking about one sweep per billion years (the length of time multicellular life has been around and not killed) and they'd all be in the clear. This thing seems to be awake and talking to twilight and others, suggesting it could show up at any time - not so good.
We now know what likely happened to the planet- they saw this thing coming and uploaded to the ring where they later 'melted' eg, uploaded Applebloom's crew. What doesn't make sense is why they apparently stopped at this point - if they were safe in didgital life they should have expanded and kept growing. The fact that they didn't, and all the dead 'conversion attempts' they found in the lab suggestss that they got killed anyway and being digital didn't help. In this case, the ring's automatic upload equipment would have uploaded the two crew to an empty ring and they're the ones who sent out the ship to meet the Equinox when it first entered the system.
We still are missing a hell of a lot of pieces: why are giant robot worms roaming the ruins and only active some of the time?
If the killer thing can sweep at will, whats stopping it now?
If the two uploaded ponies in the ring have had years to work, wtf have they been doing all this time? If they didn't send the first contact ship, what did?
And perhapse most importantly, why the hell didn't the original occupants of the planet leave some more clear explanations?? They had time to build a damn museum, but they couldn't scrape together a one page summary of whats going on? I get the feeling that if any of them did survive, Twilight is going to beat them into a coma with a dictionary.
Creepy. But I can't say the same as Apple Bloom. My experience with reanimated severed limbs tells me we will be seeing that leg again. For good or ill I can't say.
Voting to wake Sunset.
Definitely option 2. We don't have all the answers yet, and Sunset can provide them.
Wake Sunset. It's time to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
No reason not to keep the exposition train rolling along. There was clearly some kind of major hazard impacting Equestria when the Solstice came into the system. If Apple Bloom refuses to elaborate further, then we need to go to the only remaining source...
Assuming said source hasn't suffered terminal freezer burn.
Option 2. We need more info, pronto
Just remember:
You CANNOT make an informed decision without all the information.
No H̀u͏̘͙̞͓̪̜͕n̠̩͙̲̰g͚͕̪̬͚͡e̗͔̜̘̦̪̩r option?
No choice but 2 then. Especially since it has no danger warning.
:edit:
I'd also like to point out that if Equestria has truly fallen then the threat from Cozy Glow has been greatly reduced... I'm not saying we should thaw her but that if she were thaw'd that she could be useful... If you were crazy enough to trust her.
9503887
I'd say to thaw Cozy Glow after getting the info from Sunset, there is enough knowledge of what is going on to convince her the subtext in the message wasn't warning Equestria about the signaller's but about the Void.
9503614
Wait what? Where did Pinkie break down?
Following AB's advice is a no-brainer. Wake Sunset.
9503946
Oh yeah, forgot that was why she was trying to sabotage us...
It is time... Let us wake the bacon horse for some much needed intel.
9503952
Seems like sometime while everybody else was asleep, and she wasn't in very good mental condition when thawed out.
GODS DAMMIT WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO LEAVE THE NANITE-INFUSED LEG UNATTENDED
This crew really could use someone with an Opsec stat above -2.
At this point, just get Shimmy Shims awake and find out Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is going on.
9503798
Hopefully if it does show up again, Spike's built a chainsaw into AJ's new leg.
9504153
I know, but didn't she get a recovery roll that brought her up to functional over the six month recovery?
Well, the last crew meeting went so well and had said great ideas, let's see how this next one goes. As long as nobody loses a leg from the subsequent consequences I think it will arguably be better.
What. The. Hell. AJ's leg is going to track members of the party down and kick them to death. I really wasn't expecting them to lose AJ's leg for the second time in as many chapters.
A question that occurs to me, was it Bucky McGillicuddy or Kicks McGee that got cut off, and if we vote carefully and have extremely lucky dice will they eventually be joining the party as a new crew member?
Wow, good thing they didn't visit the ring unawares.
Good response.
Also a good question.
2, I suppose. 1 is an overreaction I think, and any plan that includes the words "We can always Lie to Apple Bloom" is probably not a good idea after everything that has happened.
So the expedition didn't know about the building's purpose either...
Well, it's darn fortunate we didn't go to the ring, eh? Though, now we have a converted Bloom things might go differently...
9504416
Neither, those are her hindlegs, this was a foreleg that got chopped off. And yes please!
9504416 9504483
Seriously? You guys are advocating for Thing? Except Thing was just a hand, this is a whole leg!
I can't believe Applebloom, the only one definitely safe to interact with the leg except probably Node, just let the thing leave instead of restraining it. I know she's got a lot on her mind but that's just irresponsible.
Sounds like AB and Sunset were definitely on the same crew until AB's ship left Sunset's at least. I get the feeling that at some point the home world became unsafe and ponies started building colony ships and from those kept trying to build more advanced ships. May or may not have been far into that process, but it would explain things a little.
9504483
Darn!
9504743
Hey, I also speculated that it might track down party members so it could kick them to death. The possibilities are endless!
9504205
I'm not sure which choice to make.
It certainly would help having Sunset Shimmer give a bit more information. But I'm also not sure how safe that would be with Applejack down a leg and Fluttershy already taking care of Twilight near brain scramble and and applejack's leg.
It really makes me wonder if this is going to be a rushed decision by Twilight or will it be a thought out preparation having everything ready before they crack the seal on that slightly damaged cryo chamber?
I wonder if Fluttershy will put her hooves down here? While at this point I could imagine even she could see why questioning Sunset would be a priority. I would imagine her having to split her focus between Twilight, Applejack and Applebloom might make that order a bit much for her.
Not to mention having Applejack there to assist her opening the damaged pod (instead of being a patient stuck in bed) could assist with any technical problems with it.
9504483
Having Applejack's severed leg be its own crew member would be -amazing-. At the very least they need to capture the leg alive, for lack of a better word. For science.
Looks like the void hinger thing may have found Equestria. So Cozy’s mission was ultimately futile; Equestria was found without them having to make contact. Boy this is all a big downer.
Interestingly, at least we now know what we avoided by not voting tk go up to the ring! THAT woulda been traumatic, boy howdy.
9504190
Don't worry, it just felt useless lying around not doing good honest farmpony work and went out to plow the back forty. With mixed results, being a disembodied leg and all, but that's Applejack for you.
9504987
Twilight should be pretty well recovered shortly from her psychic injuries, though the voices might still strain her some it won't be in Fluttershy's hooves. AJ has hopefully learned to stay put for at least a bit. Maybe talk to her sister some and give advice... but you never know I suppose. Point is I think bed rest for those two is the most extreme attention Fluttershy has to pay... she could probably get Pinkie to make sure they stay in bed or something and give them food and water.
As for AB all she has to do is make sure she's properly contained and take her own safety precautions while doing so, right? As long as that Leg doesn't like sneak up on her or something.
Rarity should be well suited to helping with the pod, if only from a science officer standpoint rather than engineering, remember them saying they'd be better off having her for getting Bloom out? Plus in theory Spike or maybe Node could help with engineering issues (maybe advised by AJ as mentioned prior).
All in all if Fluttershy doesn't just insanely try to do everything herself and micromanage she should be alright. Unless Sunset is real janky, but even then it'd be easy to make that her priority.
Ooops...
But really, shouldn't she had said that an hour ago?
Good thing we didn't went there. I think.
I think we should evacuate immediately.
There is nothing we can do on the planet we can't do on the ship. Once we are in Orbit we can wake Sunset and question her.
Should we still need something from the surface we can come back later, probably sending AB. She shouldn't be able to be infected a second time.
Edit: It seems basically everyone (around 95 %) had an different opinion than me in this matter.
Time (or rather Starscribe) will tell if I had been overreacting.
9502750
Ok man... I am perfectly understanding of your point. I just disagree. Think of this... Did you ever play that new sci find game? The one with the glue gun we're you can be a cup? do u think if he hadn't been insane he would have survived?
These options are really dumb. This is just "wake Sunset" or "don't wake Sunset".
9504992
Oh my god yes! I want this so badly now.