Wake up Sunset with her magic. 68%
Twilight sat back in the medical bay, surrounded by spent spellcasting ingredients and broken crystal. She’d used more than half the stores of magical supplies on this spell—but just now she didn’t care.
“I still don’t think… it’s reckless to use experimental spells to treat a living patient,” Fluttershy said. “She would probably wake up in her own time.”
“Maybe she would,” Twilight said, shrugging one wing. She was too exhausted to argue, her mane hanging limp and sweat dripping from her face. Medical had far less room than it usually did, with several new cots and life support machines lining the outside. IT was the only way they could have enough room for everypony. “Maybe she never would. I had to do something.”
Fluttershy grunted disapprovingly, but she hadn’t actually stopped Twilight at any point. Once she saw the medical diagrams, even she had to admit they looked real.
“Twilight,” Spike’s voice came in from the radio now, the only place she’d ever hear him from again. “Have you looked at the return signals we got from the probe?”
“No,” she admitted. She rose, turning for the nearest console. “Something interesting?”
Can Spike interpret the probe data? No.
Random Event: Praise of Tactics.
Previously, the following questions were asked: Has Spike found everything Cozy did?
Critical No.
Did Cozy’s well-hidden last emergency stopgap ship destruction plan activate? Critical yes. Destruction of the atmospheric seals and venting all the O2? Yes.
Twilight didn’t hear what Spike said next over the distant rumble from somewhere far away. Glass shattered, metal screamed in protest, and suddenly the wind was rushing past her.
Can Fluttershy seal the airlock in time? Yes.
Fluttershy was on the other end of the room, standing by the door. She jerked to one side, yanking down on a bright red lever above the airlock. It slid abruptly into place, landing with a hiss.
“Hardware failure in engineering!” Starlight Glimmer’s voice shouted. She wasn’t done. “Hull breach detected on deck 1! Hull breach detected on deck 2! Hull breach detected on deck 3! Hull breach detected on—” Twilight whimpered, trying to tune her out. What about the prospector?
She fumbled with the controls, shifting through cameras until she found the feed from docking. The prospector was there—floating slowly away from the Equinox. It moved agonizingly slowly, surrounded by a cloud of rapidly defusing gas and torn bits of docking tube.
At least there was one consolation. There was no obvious damage on the Prospector she could see.
“Celestia that hurts,” Spike said, his voice replacing Starlight’s. Her own faded into the background, repeating the emergency indicators. “Twilight, I… I think something blew up. A lot of somethings. How does it hurt this bad if I’m dead?”
Fluttershy ignored them both, hurrying between her patients. She checked each of them in turn before stopping at the life-support console. “We’re on reserve power again,” she muttered. “But the air is more important. Looks like we’re not connected to life support anymore.”
“No, you’re not,” Spike agreed. “Nowhere is. I’m getting red lines from N2 and O2 reserves. Pressure on every deck is rapidly approaching zero.”
“Cozy Glow,” Twilight whispered. “She somehow… must’ve known we might get her.”
“Wasn’t anything in the computer,” Spike said defensively. “Maybe she had timed bombs. They didn’t go off at quite the same time. Damnit, she knew exactly where to hit us for the most damage.”
It’s okay, Twilight thought, thought of course it wasn’t. We still have the Prospector. We can always pump more air. We can fix this. Cozy hasn’t won.
“How much air do we have in Medical?” Twilight asked, dreading the answer. “How long before we start getting poisoned?”
“Lots of us breathing in here…” Fluttershy whispered, voice grim. “Can you patch us into the scrubbers, Spike? If we can clean the C02, we should have days in here before the O2 drops too far.”
“Maybe,” he answered. “Working on restarting the reactor. No damage there—hull breaches shut it down. But I’m not sure we have any intact life-support… I’ll see what I can find. Still trying to figure out what all these sensors are telling me.”
Twilight watched from across the room as Sunset Shimmer blinked open one eye, then the other. She groaned, her mechanical legs twitching from where they dangled under her. “Great Alicorns before us,” she muttered, her voice cracked and weak. “What did you do to me?”
Twilight made her way over, fighting her own desire to panic. Medical was a large enough space that their air would last—for a while, anyway. She wasn’t going to die in the next five minutes.
“The cryogenics used to preserve you were nearly destroyed,” Fluttershy answered, suddenly beside her bed. Unlike Twilight, she seemed to be keeping her cool perfectly. She already had a clipboard in one wing, and a stethoscope in the other. “Those units give up on your extremities first, then your organs.”
“Fantastic,” Sunset Shimmer’s horn glowed, and she drifted off the seat. She landed on mechanical hooves, standing straight. Looking at her remained uncanny—her body was thin and wizened, her torso seeming much too small to contain all her organs. But she was breathing, and that was something. “Lots of red lights.”
“It hasn’t been great,” Twilight said, her voice exasperated. “You woke up at… the worst time we’ve had so far. My ship just suffered sabotage to every deck. We lost atmosphere, my Prospector is detached and drifting away. Oh, and the rest of my crew are comatose thanks to an alien device we barely understand. Not great all around.”
“You were always quite the captain,” Sunset Shimmer said, rolling her eyes. “Let’s clean up this mess.”
1. Sunset will teleport to the Prospector and fly to the surface to pump reserve atmosphere while Twilight buys time repairing life support.
2. Same plan, reversed roles. I don’t trust a pony who nearly died in cryo to use our only functioning ship.
3. Load everypony into the prospector first, then try to wake them up before any repairs are performed.
(Certainty 235 required)
THAT MOTHERFUCKING - !
Again, I have to ask – what triggers these Random Events?
Hmm, Sunset seems rather… unsurprised by being woken up by Twilight. Why is that?
I vote 2, AND NOT THE SECRET OPTION!
Well. That could've gone better. Damn it, Cozy. At least that was her very final ultimate desperation ploy. Hopefully.
In any case, Sunset teleporting right now seems ill-advised, especially if she has Zalgo hunger to worry about and zero experience with dealing with it. Best to have Twilight make the big jump while Cyberbacon handles local repairs.
9622767
The artificial GM initiates them whenever she feels like it. Any roll has a chance of causing one, though whether or not she decides is a fickle thing. We went 20 chapters without seeing one, and now it seems like we get one or two in every single chapter.
Fuck you Cozy Glow...god-damned terrorist
I say get everyone off the Equinox ASAP. If the damage is not easily repairable, and they're still there, they're gonna die. If they're not there, you have all the time in the world to patch it up, and refill it with air. Fingers crossed RNGesus blesses us with good luck.
Well buck. Time to abandon ship. Don't worry, Spike, we'll be back.
Yeah, but the alternative is leaving the pony who doesn't know the Equinox's systems to repair her, versus doing a more standard operation that's within the normal astropony skill set.
Why can't we have nice things? I would vote to evacuate to the Prospector again, except it's floating away and I'm not banking on Twilight having enough in her to teleport all three of them. Let's go with option 2. Spike can guide Sunset through what she needs to do.
No way should we let New Legs McBarelyAlive teleport yet. She should stay with the doctor and work on repairs. She came on a more advanced ship anyway, should have a better handle on that in theory.
I don't think we want to try to move everyone off the ship right now either... that's a lot of loading ponies that'd require teleporting, who are in iffy condition.
Sunset has at least a grasp on her magic, so working on repairs shouldn't be too bad. It's gotta be option 2. On the dark side of things, if she's a mole akin to Cozy Glow SOMEHOW then no matter where we leave her it'd be bad.
Also- THIS IS WHY WE FIX LIFE SUPPORT PONIES. SEE? THIS IS WHY. Might need some luck to not have them die now, eh?
Wow, I've seen some paranoid characters who can plan ahead, but Cozy is the most extreme of them all. I think at this point "cozy" has graduated to the level of profanity, as in "Oh cozy!" In place of "Oh sh#$!"
pressure's gone... I don't need to...
All our air's gone too
Damn Crazy Glue!
She sure didn't stick around, You know what I mean...
What am I doing?
Rolling for insanity...
...12...
I'd say option 1. We need life support back on the Equinox as soon as possible, and we just got an extra pair of hands with which to do so. Sunset under normal circumstances would need time to adjust and rest, but I think desperate times call for desperate measures. Twilight also knows the Equinox better than Sunset does, but hopefully Sunset knows how to fly a Prospector
I don’t want to surrender the Equinox so abandoning to the prospector is out. Of the other two options, I ask myself ‘if Sunset is bad, what’s the worst case?’ If SS is in the Prospector, the crew gets abandoned and likely all suffocate. If SS is left on the Equinox, at least Fluttershy and the Spikecraft can maybe defend against her actions. Two to the surface it is.
Sometimes it feels like the random events are controlling the story more than the reader votes are. That's not really satisfying for what is supposed to be a CYOA story.
2, I guess.
9622829
From an in-character perspective, this is totally Twilight's fault for being distracted by her epiphany and failing to physically check the ship for sabotage, which should have been the first priority over waking Sunset OR messing with the Contingency.
Oh come on!
Oh COME ON!
9622964
I think having Spike check the ship was a good idea. He is the Equinox now, so he had a better shot of finding anything than Twilight. Twilight would have to physically check one area at a time, and may not have even known what she was looking for. Cozy Glow was just stupidly well-prepared.
I say ....rolls D20 .... Nat.1 (damn)..... IT HUNGERS!
9623032
Spike can check everything on the computer systems. He can't physically eyeball the interior of the ship unless it had full-spectrum surveillance cameras, which is not the sort of thing Equestrians go in for.
9623079
Ah, gotcha gotcha. Twilight hasn't exactly been thinking straight lately, and in-universe, I can understand her excitement to finally wake up Sunset to try and get some answers.
I don't get why Twilight has to go get air immediately after jumping to the Prospector, yes I know they are rather low, but it sounds like they have a small window for Twilight to get to the Prospector and bring it back, then plan with Spike what would be the best way to fix everything. It would also be a small window to judge if Sunset is going to be helpful or just hungry, or something. Oh well, pony logic, I suppose.
9622916
Yay, fellow Hunger roller! I got a 14 and from choices I needed a 6 or above to succeed.
9623109
For me its a 10 or above, and I roll with a 1d20 so I have a half chance to go for the insanity option
9623118
mine changes with the situation, I've had it range from 5-15 depending on the other options
Also, obligatory #TeamCozy. I’m gonna miss that crazy mare.
Spike can probably walk Sunset through the repairs if she stays.
All these bad rolls one after the other, while reading this chapter all I could think of is
9622817
On the other hoof, Sunset was captain of her own ship just like Twilight, and left Equestria at some point after Twilight did, so potentially learned the same systems (regardless of whether Sunset's own ship was more advanced or not).
More importantly, I think, is the risk of having a unicorn that just woke up from cryo and limb replacement surgery fail the teleport to the Prospector.
I'm thinking 2. Give Sunset a bit to acclimate to her new limbs. We don't need to have something happen due to a case of "I feel fine so I'm gonna do things" mentality.
9623381
As opposed to the alicorn who just blew most of her magical reserves with a massive casting, though. There's massive risk either way. . . unfortunately, the dice really, REALLY screwed us over. And I'm beginning to be tempted to just vote for all the HUNGER options just to see how horrible and gruesome things can get. . .
Sunset doesn’t know the Equinox’s systems. Pumping air is simple; repairs are not. Twilight should stay.
9623475
That was literally my first argument. . . .
9623475
The issue is that GETTING to pumping air is quite more problematic than staying and doing the repairs. Moreover on the Equinox you have medical personnel and someone extra knowledgeable of the systems while the supply mission is a solo mission. Sunset is a way greater risk of manageable issues that causes mission failure if alone. A glitch in a leg can render her immovable an so crash the prospector. If she is on the Equinox she can be treated by Fluttershy.
It's too bad they can't remote pilot the Prospector.
Agreed; Sunset on the main ship (Equinox) means Fluttershy can help medical issues.
Does this mean get all the cryo ponies into prospector, and wake them up so we have a big team to deal with the lack of air issue quickly?
They almost died... Again.
Sunset: "Yeah, that sounds bad. But still better than the stuff I went through."
I hope we will soon learn more about her backstory.
As for the vote:
Option 3. The ship itself seems to be safe for the moment. We should safe the crew first.
Sunset should recover the prospector! When Twi teleports, she puts herself at risk due to the Insight, and she’s more familiar with her own ship’s systems!
I don't... Understand how having 1 critical condition pony was more helpful then saving 4 healthy ponies... Jesus christ
After careful consideration, I vote 1. Sunset is new to the Equinox, new to the situation in general, and fresh in magic compared with Twilight. Morale seems good considering her situation. Maybe she's just putting it all in a denial box to open later, which frankly seems like a good survival strategy right now. I don't have reason to think she's covering up a teleport-insanity situation, which is the strongest argument against option 1.
Edit after seeing the vote as it stands now: Oh well, I still like the "one stays, one goes" plan better than the alternative of "hope it's easy and fast to wake everyone up". And Sunset should at least have an excellent source of advice in the form of Spike, who tended the ship for years and now IS the ship. He should know everything that's wrong and most of how to fix it. I'm confident Captain Sunset has the chops to eyeball what Spike's sensors aren't telling him about the damaged areas.
9623796 I thought she got better?
9623476
It wasn’t meant to be a reply, I misclicked your comment. Oopsies?
I'm going to go with three.
Even if they get new air, it's going to take time to make repairs and the prospector can make for a temporary base in the Equinox as they make repairs and refill the air tanks.
I think it's kind of ridicules to do the equivalent of refilling the the bicycle tire while it still has holes that need to be patched and probably needs a full crew complement to make repairs in a timely matter.
9624133
We were told we could do it 1) safely and 2) now. And those are two things that rarely happen in this story. Especially at the same time. Random events come your way, and you have to adapt to them. That means taking every positive event that comes your way and using it to its fullest. Just so happens we got screwed over by a negative event two chapters later.
9624712
This is a good point, and it's also fair to note that what I said Twilight should have done -- focused on checking the ship for sabotage -- wasn't actually available as a voting option at this point.
I have finally caught up. I have so many questions. Like, where can I learn about and download this DM system you're using? And why were some of the options colored at the end of some sections?
9630285
There are links to the discord in the author's notes. It's much easier to get answers there in real time from myself or the other forum members who know.
Finally I have time to catch up... I see it’s been even busier in the story than it has for me.
It may not be optimal, but it’s nice to have Spike and Sunset up in one form or another. Plus I can only guess “Cozy’s last plan” means exactly that, so after this we can be a tiny bit less on edge. For all the good that does now....