Chapter 82
Attempt Twilight’s Plan. 94%
Spike barely felt any doubt in his mind about what he had to do next. Cozy’s dominion might seem overwhelming, but they weren’t out yet. That pony was so confident they’d been out mastered that she didn’t seem to care to watch them here in medical.
Her loss. I’m going to teach that pony to threaten my friends.
“Are you sure about this?” Fluttershy asked, as he stomped over to the medical waste disposal and started removing screws. Of course none of the spare parts he removed were wearing magnetic greaves, so they just started floating around in the air, a little cloud around him as he worked. “She doesn’t seem like she’ll hurt us if we do what she says. But if you leave… she tries to kill us. Sunset here can’t take any stress. If anything happens in here, she’ll die.”
“You can seal the airlock, like Twilight said,” Spike muttered. He had the plastic shield just about off, exposing the shiny metal tube beyond. His baby self could’ve slid through with room to spare, but now it was going to be tight. Fortunately, the trash went down in sealed cylinders, or else it would have been unspeakably awful in there. “Fluttershy, this is our only chance of ever seeing home again. I won’t let her destroy it.”
“There isn’t much of home left to see,” she muttered. “The ponies we know will all be gone. But… I guess you’re a dragon. You have dragon friends.”
He shrugged. “It isn’t about that. It’s about our mission. Celestia told us to come back, and I promised her I would make sure we did.” He didn’t bother grabbing makeshift weapons from the medical bay—his own claws would be better than anything he could scavenge here.
“Good luck,” Fluttershy began. “Could you, uh… maybe give me a few minutes to start on the airlock before you… get caught?”
“Yeah,” he sat back. “I can help, even. It shouldn’t take long.”
It didn’t, as soon enough he was crawling back into the tube. He flicked off his greaves, and any suggestion of an up or down vanished from in front of him. He crawled forward, squeezing around the tight bend, with a flashlight in one claw. It didn’t look down, or up, just forward.
Does Spike escape? Yes, and without detection.
He moved slowly, using his claws to inch through the tube without bumping too far in any one direction and making noise. Being a dragon certainly didn’t help in that regard, considering he’d be filling the tube with sound if he jostled even a bit to one side or the other.
Twilight was wrong about the furnace—as he got closer, he could see the bright red of the coils, radiating waves of warm air up towards him. I hope you’re right about this being okay for a dragon.
Is it? Yes.
Heat blasted him as he approached, and servo motors tried to grab his capsule as though it had been slung along by the electromagnets. He backed away, waiting for them to give up. He couldn’t let them come anywhere near him, or else they might report a fault that Cozy could notice. I’m getting my ship back.
Spike emerged at the bottom of the Equinox, slicing through the protective shell of the medical waste chute and emerging into a low-level storage room. In flight these sections of the ship weren’t even pressurized. But now it was, though there were only narrow catwalks between huge machines designed to need little-to-no servicing during their mission.
First step, no more computer control. Spike pushed himself through the air rather than re-engage his greaves, which looked to have survived the brief heat treatment much better than the plastic flashlight that had run through his claws like water.
He reached the elevator leading up, claw hesitating over the ‘car call.’ She’s probably got sensors on that.
Does Spike know a way around countermeasure? Yes.
Spike grinned to himself, floating back to the other side of the room and removing the emergency tools from their clip. You’re in my territory now, Cozy. I was keeping this ship running for longer than you’ve been awake and alive. I know it like the back of my claws.
He pushed back to the elevator, fiddling with a loose panel. The elevator in this section of the Equinox wasn’t airtight, since it relied on the deck 4 airlock. That meant with enough force, he could pry the body right up, and climb in.
True, he’d be crushed to death if anypony called the car to the drive section, but he didn’t predict that happening.
Emergency lights flashed in the elevator high above, indicating the compromised status of the Equinox. He ignored them, pushing up until he reached central computer. Here there were no loose plates, and there was only one way out without setting off an alarm. Spike took his claws, and sliced right through the steel above the door, until it came away in a clean section of metal.
He drifted into the main computer, pushing the metal gently away and floating in.
Is Cozy already there? Critical yes. Was she there to destroy the computer so that even if they retook the ship they would still lose it? No.
He found himself staring down the barrel of a long-rifle, and the reflective glint of metal from within the barrel. Those aren’t plastic bullets. Spike knew he was immune to crowd control rounds. But he’d never been shot with steel before. I’m about to find out what that’s like, aren’t I?
The master console was on, the dot matrix humming quietly. Meanwhile Cozy floated slightly above the ground, her wings flapping every now and then to push her back down. There was no sign of cryosickness on her—this pony hadn’t just woken up. “You’re… Spike, right?” she said. “Why didn’t you just listen to me? Your friend wouldn’t have to die, and neither would you.”
She reached out, but Spike raised his voice, surging towards her. He was now only three or so meters away, almost within reach of his flames. But even if he was close enough, they wouldn’t kill a pony very quickly. “I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” he said flatly. “How much time do you think it will take me to cut your throat?” He bore his teeth, growling dangerously. “I’m ready for a race if you are.”
Spike had to choose his strategy, and soon.
1. Rush her. Fluttershy’s airlock is secure, it’s only me in danger. So long as she doesn’t kill me with the first shot, I win.
2. Try to secure her surrender with promises of amnesty. No one is hurt yet. This can end before it begins.
3. Try to win her over with information learned on the mission. Equestria might already be gone, Sunset is here. She can’t keep fighting for a dead society forever.
(Certainty 225 required)
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Go in for the attack, Spike. She's used up her chances. Time to speak her language- that being one of no compromise. Have at! She won't listen to reason, let her listen to CLAWS and TEETH.
You REALLY shouldn't piss off a dragon...
Option 1: Rush Her.
There is no negotiating with the kind of fanatical crazy required to sign up for a one-way trip the way Cozy did. And she has already caused enough damage and could cause further still. Even if she were to offer to cooperate, I wouldn't trust a word of it and would expect to stab us in the back at first opportunity.
Sparing her once was a mistake already. Let's not make the same one again.
I want to know what dice you're using because I'd kill for rng like this.
No mercy, no compromises, trust your draconic toughness and kill the bitch. Also, get ready because someone didn't freeze her. There's a traitor on the team, and they need to give some answers.
Either that or I don't remember right who put her in there... Or she had it rigged from the beginning.
Better yet, rip off her legs and wings, sear the wounds and shut her mouth. And then comes interrogation time.
This is a very tough one for me. I still think we could learn a lot from Cozy if we have twilight interrogate her with her mind reading powers, but I’m not confident in the success chance of either option 2 or 3. And with option 1, we run a great risk of losing Spike, and even if we don’t than we still lose any chance of learning what Cozy’s mission was or what she thinks she knows.
With option 2, I think the dice roll would probably have a decent chance for her agreeing temporarily in order to try something like this again, but I feel we would have an easier time containing her this time around.
With option 3, I don’t feel the odds are good for any type of resolution, as she seems to already have suspected that Equestria was destroyed and not cared, based on the earlier chapters.
Option 1 I think would probably come down to just one or two dice rolls, each with moderate chances to go either way, for whether or not Spike dies, and I really don’t like those odds.
In the end, I have to go with option 2 and hope that the dice dictates that Cozy realizes this attempt failed and tries to bide her time yet again.
9598446
A random event followed by a dice roll when they first went down to the surface dictated that she had already rigged the system to release her, and had been biding her time since then. No traitors
We do not negotiate with Cozy Glow. We gave her a chance, and look where it got us!
I say Charge Her. I'm confident in Spike's ability to take a shot even from a futuristic super-gun.
Damn, 94% for twilight’s plan. Have we ever had a vote so unanimous?
9598514
I understood that reference.
Giving her updated information could not only win her over, but would also buy time for Flutters to sabotage the airlock.
I repet my statment from last chapter:
thumbs.gfycat.com/UnrealisticSimplisticCassowary-max-1mb.gif
Go Spike! He was BAMFing for a minute there before Cozy stole some of our dice luck.
… Cozy Glow is using ballistic rounds on a starship?
That's actually a huge deal — I just don't know what it means. If she's not in an EVA suit and holding a weapon that can rip through the hull, then she's either monumentally stupid, prepared to die, or bluffing.
9598546
Good point. In the wise words of Genghis Khan, "No shoot fire stick in space canoe. Cause explosive decompression!"
That said, they're in the computer core, which was so centrally located that the crew was able to hole up in it while the rest of the ship's life support went down. I don't think we need to worry about the bullet going all the way through. Hopefully.
In any case, I'm going for Option 1. Cozy has shown time and again that she cannot be trusted. Give her an inch and she takes an astronomical unit. Terminate with extreme prejudice, Mr. the Dragon.
Charge. We've tried reasoning before, and it didn't work. It's time for her to die
I'm going with charge, not to kill, but in the hope that Spike catches her by surprise, or the bullets at best only have minor penetration. That way Spike can quickly disarm and subdue her.
9598533
What the hay!
Twinkle Sprinkle?
Orders:
Devour is out -- that's a last resort option.
Convince her with information -- no, she's already shown that she won't listen to reason.
Offer her amnesty -- no, we can't trust her, we can't lock her up.
Here's a better question for the commentors: What would you do if you could have Spike do anything?
Remember, this is a *comment driven story*. We have to assume that our comments are being read and used to shape the future narratives; that this is not just a vote-driven story.
This Chapter: TGTBTU theme intensifies
"It's high noon."
Rushing her is not dangerous. This is big.
I'm torn between 1 and 3. Death, or Mercy. I want to be merciful and hopefully get some answers out of Crazy Girl (oh sorry, it's Cozy Glow). I also just want to stomp Cozys' face in for all the crap she's put everyone through. So as I said, I'm thinking either 1 or 3.
9598546
Nah, at worst it'll punch a little hole in the hull. I'd be more worried about the central computer.
Anyways option 1 seems most likely to work. Preferably subdue nonlethally , kill if necessary.
There are multiple typos where "greaves" are misspelled as "grieves". Also "le3ft" :)
END HER, she has tried to sabotage this mission at every chance, end the threat
This is going to come down to a roll, isn't it?
That said, I say go with Option 4: use your Intimidation stat.
...
Oh. They're telling me it's only three options. Well then...
9598546
See, something like this tells me Cozy has probably a 0 or a 1 for her firearms trait. Spike raises his claw to block, gets a defensive wound (or maybe just a welt, depending on the roll) and then engages Cozy at melee range. I see moderate-high chance of success at a rush strategy, which is honestly better than I predict for any of the others. Let's use Spike's strengths, not ignore them.
She went into this knowing that equestria was about to go down the drain when they left and shes already comitted herself to violent acts knowibg shed likely die if she failed so he's already proven trying to talk it out with her will likely fail. Its risky obviously, but I say go with option 1 and bumrush her. The fact that his scales are tough enough to make him resistant enough to shrug off rubber bullets with no effect means they should act similar to armor for him. Regular bullets are made of lead, either plain or jacketed in copper (full and total metal jacket rounds) . 100% metal rounds are never made of harder metals like steel or bronze (those would destroy your weapon) and are very rare. While a normal bullet could still hurt him, his scales would likely protect him enough that any shot short of a critical head shot are less likely to do critical damage and hollow tipped rounds will likely only leave a bruise (good against soft unarmored targets, not so much against an armored target)
Nope, she's done. Her usefulness is at an end.
Rolling for insanity. Below 10 is unacceptable...
...17. We're good for now....
Cozy has exhausted all of her chances. This charade ends now.
This is the highest I’ve seen the spooky text go, besides the one that was only spooky text
I’m in the minority’s this time. Cozy is deluded but scrappy. I’ll admit to wanting her to turn his head into a canoe if charge her wins. Bad for the protagonists but it would be nice to see plot armor fail and someone win the stupid prize for playing stupid games.
She’s obviously willing to do some talking or she would have shot him as soon as he put his head through. Which I also would have supported. She deserves not to get lol-pwned after she won out on the rolls and was specifically waiting in ambush.
I’ll be very sad if Zergrush ends up in a flawless victory for Spike.
Normally I'd go for forgiveness of some sort... but it's clear she won't accept anything besides our surrender... and we know that would doom us all, her included. Fat chance of convincing HER though. Rushing her seems the only real option.
Having Spike help with the airlock was a good idea.
Good start.
And the furnace worked out too.
Well, the rolls went well for as long as could be expected.
1 for sure. They're only in this situation in the first place because we unwisely left Cozy alive.
Edit: Oh my Goddesses, that unlisted option. Tempting, but let's not go there quite yet.
Edit 2: I thought I remembered commenting something like this so I went back and looked, and my initial reaction to Cozy was "Oh shit, space her now." and in lots of hindsight I really think that that was the right reaction.
Killherkillherkillherkillherkillherkillher
Yeah I'm not super big on option 1 just because it could turn pretty lethal for Spike. Then again, so could any of the others conceivably, but with a less on guard Spike perhaps. I suppose Spike might be able to pull off some tricks with, say, smoke or fire, regardless of her getting a shot off, ruining her aim or weakening the shot or something. If she's weightless and fires that thing I'm pretty sure at least one of them will be ready for the consequences, possibly both... but I don't know if the voters are considering that gunfire in the main computer room might be very bad.
I don't think it's impossible to talk Cozy down with either of the other methods, but it's hard to gamble that she also wouldn't shoot with any of the given scenarios. At least we know if Spike can withstand the first shot reasonably or win the initiative roll option 1 has a serious chance of working. Not the most friendly method, but well, we are dealing with someone who has made multiple attempts to ruin things, including after getting out of cryo, which was a pretty merciful choice for Twilight to make, really.
I'd imagine most showdowns of this type would try in order 2 3 1, steadily working toward some advantage as you keep her talking (provided the peaceful options don't work). You know, moving closer, creeping toward a means of defense / offense, whatever.
Can everyone please stop being suicidal homicidal maniacs for five minutes and stop trying to get someone killed with every vote? We aren't invincible! Even if talking down Cozy is just used to get her to let her guard down, you don't charge the person who has had time to aim!
9598445
The rolls are coming from a bot in Starscribe's Discord server. You can join the server and read the #equinox channel to see all the rolls being made.
Cozy's critical yes from this chapter had a 5% chance for "critical yes", and a 75% chance for "no" or "critical no".
Holy shit! Those are some good rolls! Hahaha, oh my god. It's happening exactly like I worried it would. Cosmic whack-a-mole. Problems pop up, and the mallet comes down.
9598855
Well, armour piercing bullets are made of hardened metals like tungsten carbide. Although I’m not sure I see the reason for such a mission to have AP rounds onboard. Then again, it’s a big ship, and carrying a couple magazines of AP probably isn’t that big a deal in terms of space or weight. Or maybe Cozy herself brought them onboard. But it’s probably just a regular FMJ.
I don't really think Cozy is evil, just... not totally sane. We've already had two ponies in similar states (although they were admittedly not hostile), but she spent years alone. Spike had trouble with that mentally at points, and Cozy Glow doesn't have the benefit of a dragon's physical and mental fortitude. The last time something happened with her she was pushed back into isolation out of necessity, but even with the way things are going sideways right now, conditions are still significantly better than during the previous confrontation.
I personally think Spike should rush her and attempt to take her down non-lethally and restrain her. Once shes properly restrained to ensure she won't be a danger to herself and others, she should be shown kindness and attempt to be reasoned with. Worst case scenario, they'll ultimately have to kill her. Best case, they gain a new ally (and with the way things are going right now, they need all the marepower they can get).
Edit: also I just think it's more in line with Spike's character to not immediately attempt to kill her, at least partially because Twilight would prefer a non-lethal outcome to this...
Edit 2 because I keep thinking of new stuff...: I also think its important to keep in mind that Cozy Glow, while hostile and misguided, was ultimately doing what she did for the benefit of Equestria. If she can get psychological (and physical) treatment I think it would be possible to gain her loyalty with all of the new information available.
I know that the majority of the comments favor a lethal takedown, and I understand why, but I'm hopeful it won't come to that... We'll see where the rolls take us!
Something Starscribe said in the early chapters is making me have second thoughts: Cozy grew up in space. What happens when she goes down to the planet and enters a 1-G environment for the first time? Seeing her leg bones snap under the weight of her own barrel would be quite satisfying. And even if her bones were strong enough to resist spontaneously fracturing, there's no way her muscles would be strong enough to hold her up. Maybe we should have just let this play out.
YES!!! Give that guy a moustache!
Go Spike, go!
As for the poll:
We had already tried to explain everything to her, so that is out. If she would be interested in an amnesty she would have taken that option a long time ago (she had serveral chances to do so).
In conclusion I voted to Charge her.
Maybe we can D̷͍̟͙̺̘͇͢E̷͔̜̼̤̟̗̫̦V҉̫̙͚͙̭̖O̧͉͇̮͎̭͓͈͉Ù̷̩͎̹ͅṞ͔̟̙͕̲̮̦ her afterwards...Remember people, *comment driven story*.
Lets see some comments along the lines of what we want to do next.
Lets stop re-acting to poll questions, and start acting with what we want to see next
Well, for what it's worth I'm going to try 3. Devouring doesn't seem to be something Spike would do without being possessed by "It Hungers" first, I can't see Cozy being swayed by an amnesty, golly, she's fighting for a cause, don't you know, and charging her isn't without risk. If there is a chance she can be swayed I think it's worth trying, besides even if it doesn't work it might but time to let Spike get into a better position from which to attempt the charge.
9600540
Twilight didn't get much time to explain the new developments, also when they captured her they did it by lying to her so she'd be extra suspicious.
At this point though she's in physical danger while listening so she might actually give them the time of day to understand Sunset and Applebloom's presence indicate there has indeed been another mission.
But there's no way to immediately prove their existence during this standoff, the cameras to the medical bay are destroyed and Applebloom is in the containment.
There's also the new info that the hidden message Cozy's people found was legitimate but it wasn't warning about the signaller's it was warning about what the signaller's were running from. Again though she's not set up to trust that.
At this point it's a toss up I voted to tell her the new info but I wouldn't be opposed to just rushing her cause even if she agrees and joins the team I wouldn't be able to trust her considering how much of a villain she was in the show. Plus you gotta think she's committed treason and attempted regicide several times now. I'm just not happy about putting Spike's life on the table for a couple coin flips.
9598454
Hey, as long as you're giving spoilers, why not tell about the climax of Avengers Endgame?
P.S. Dumbledore dies, and is Luke's father.
Follow the plan. Complete the mission. Take her out. Trust Fluttershy to patch Spike up from anything Cozy could do.
9601073
How is that a spoiler? It was already clear she was out for a long while and had rigged the computer system, and no one had been in a position at any point to let her out without being caught at any point if you actually stopped to think about it.
9601413
Sorry, I don't follow how I could have ruled out treason without the knowledge that it was "a random event followed by a dice roll" as you put it. Can you explain it for me? I agree that the fact that she was out and about for a while already is not in any way a spoiler, as it was spelled out in the text.
I will also say that I think it should not be considered as likely by the reader, but I don't know why you think it can be definitively ruled out without resorting to inside knowledge.
Oh, and for the options: She's holding a gun. I'm not really sure what the benefit is of charging her that can't be done after failing to talk her down. There is genuinely new information he can give her. Worth a try unless he can actually get the drop on her, which didn't seem to be the case in the chapter. Offering a pardon is foolish; she's proven a very determined zealot thus far and the only way to stop her is to convert her or drop her. I just don't see how charging her is going to stop her from getting the first shot off. And if she gets the shot off anyway, might as well try talking.