Wake the crew 47%
Twilight still wasn’t fully sure of what Sunset had told her about the end of Equestria, but one thing she wasn’t about to do was take more risks than she had to. Of course, going ‘inside’ the Contingency would be easy in itself. Anytime she neared the strange object, she could feel the gravity pulling her in. The same gravity that had destroyed an army of hostile machines, as well as either killing her crew or just trapping their minds within it.
She didn’t know which it was at first. But once the Equinox’s most severe damage was patched—once everything but the docking ring was sealed and there were no decks open to space, she was free to explore her daring plan.
Does Twilight find another way? Yes.
It started with a basic realization she made while patching small holes in the central computer. She took the time to remove one of the glass covers from the mainframe, and inspect whatever had happened to their core.
Spike was right about the total reengineering that had happened here, because the suspended crystal lattice of microscopic transistors and memory cells was replaced with rows and rows of stacked black chips. She’d seen this technology before, from Spike’s own claws. This was what Node’s brain looked like.
It’s all the same technology. The Contingency was built by the signalers, who also built the virus. Just as all Equestrian technology was on some level built to work together, Twilight realized then that she could make the same assumption for the Signalers, and probably be right. That was what led her to the plan.
“It won’t hurt them,” she insisted, as Fluttershy settled the last portable life-support pod into place. They were all there now, tucked away into the Central computer alongside its most dangerous occupant of all: The Contingency.
This she settled up beside the central interface terminal, newly repaired after Cozy Glow had died here. “It might not do anything, that’s the worst potential outcome. But there’s a good chance we’ll do much more. Not just prevent harm, we could save them.”
Is Spike the solution? Yes.
“Spike could save them,” Fluttershy said. “Spike, I hope you’re okay with this. I don’t like what the captain has done to you.”
“Me neither,” Spike muttered. “But if you’re talking about saving the others, I agreed with her. So far as we know, no one who went into the Contingency ever came out again. But I’m not… alive… anymore. And if I die again, we won’t really be out anything. The Equinox’s computer as you know it is still intact, running perfectly fine in an emulated sandbox of the old hardware. I’ll plug it up to the real ship before I leave, just in case I die horribly. Can computers die horribly?”
“You’re not a computer, Spike,” Twilight said, directly to one of the mainframes. “You’re just living on one, through… no fault of your own.”
“Well that’s true,” he said. “I bravely sacrificed myself, that was supposed to be the end of it. At least we agree I should’ve just died.”
There was a moment’s awkward silence, during which the two conscious ponies shared a nervous glance. Sunset Shimmer wasn’t here, by way of redundancy, but was currently making patchwork repairs where she could. Artificial limbs and organs or not, she was the best engineer they currently had.
Eventually Spike’s voice returned. “Alright, I’ve got a wireless connection to the Contingency. We’re negotiating protocols and… yeah, this is faster than you could understand. If you want some good news, just know that it’s going to go so incredibly fast from your perspective that I’ll probably be right out again even if it takes months. OR… maybe I’ll never come out. You’ll know in a minute.”
“Good luck, Spike,” Fluttershy said. “They’re your friends too. Bring them back to us.”
“I want nothing more,” his voice said, without irony. “Returning control of the Equinox to last-state backup…” there was a brief flicker overhead, and then the lights came back on. Starlight Glimmer’s recorded voice returned, echoing through the cavernous hall. “Hull breach in the docking ring. Depressurization detected in the habitat ring. Please perform repairs as soon as…”
Spike woke in a city.
‘Woke’ was only a roughly analogous term, as he’d known neither sleeping nor waking since the moment of his death. The silicon that was his current substrate didn’t exist completely in either one, shifting smoothly as computational demands changed with the needs of the Equinox.
But where he had once been a Starship, with vaster intelligence and comprehension than he could’ve imagined in his entire lifetime—now he was something small again. A lizard, with two legs, and two wings, and purple scales.
It was the way he remembered himself—tall, alive, single-instanced.
He stood on the wide streets of an empty city, surrounded with flashing lights. Vast parks and gardens shone in the evening light, tended by little mechanical robots that flew or hopped or crawled. The place was pristine, even if it was a little oversized for pony occupants. Perfect for a dragon, though.
He didn’t know where he was going, or even if his path would take him remotely near what he was looking for. The streets were gigantic, made of hexagonal glass plates that reacted to his touch. Caution lines appeared around him, directing vehicles away that never came.
Until he rounded a corner, and came upon… a party?
It looked like the ancient Ponyville fairs he’d visited with Twilight when he was still a hatchling, put on in the old country where many earth pony customs had never completely faded. Brilliant streamers hung from the trees, a distant, unseen band filled the square with folk music, and trays were piled high with sweets of all kinds.
Spike approached a smaller table off to one side, where snacks for gem-eaters like himself were hidden away from ponies who might break their teeth on them. He took one of his favorites—a jade-like cupcake—and took a gigantic bite.
The flavors were exactly as he remembered—so perfect, in fact, that he recognized the recipe. Never thought I’d taste that one again.
“Spike!” Called a voice, from just over his shoulder. “You finally made it!” Something was off about her tone, something that he remembered reading in her psychological profile in the ship’s library. But that information was all severed from him now. He was just himself again.
He turned, and wasn’t surprised to see the pony waiting there. Pinkie wore a maestro’s uniform, like she’d just been directing a marching band. But there was no band in sight—nopony at all was in sight, except for Pinkie herself. “Yep, I’m here. Just, uh… looking for all our friends. Where are the others?”
“Oooh, would you help me find them? I’ve been looking for the others for a long time now… I think they’re hiding from me. That’s not very nice, even if I’m very impressed with their work. Who do you want to find first?”
1. Rarity
2. Rainbow
3. Apples
4. Node
5. Nopony. Escape from Pinkie.
(Certainty 205 required)
find Rainbow and make cupcakes, not rainbow cupcakes
appleblom!! she has been in and out of it several tims during her reserch on it.
Don't run from Pinkie. Remember, Pinkie's brain got frazzled pretty bad during Cryo, she's been a bit off-kilter this whole time and this is nothing new.
I say find Rainbow. She probably knows a bit about search and rescue.
It's Spike... who WOULD he look for? Rarity, who else?
I don’t trust this situation - despite Pinkie seeming fine on a surface appearance, the lack of other ponies raises a few alarm bells in my mind.
Still, given the only other option is to run - which frankly is a terrible idea at this stage - the best course of action would be to go along with Pinkie. Perhaps finding Applejack would be a good idea?
I don't think any of the readers agree with that, but the dice had the final say.
In any case, I'm willing to give Pinkie the benefit of the doubt for now. Let's go find the Apples; more engineering know-how can't hurt, even if this is a bit outside their area of expertise.
Going with the Apple clan on this one. If anything happens and only some can get out then having crew that can keep the ship operating is the best bet.
So Pinkie may or may not have gone insane after an undetermined amount of relative time alone.
Great
Can we be sure this is Pinkie? While I trust her to not endanger us with crazy, I don't trust that this is the real one.
But on the other hand, it might not be a good idea to let her out of our sight, fake or no... so let's go for the Apples. They're likely together, and might be the best help with the rest.
I'm goin' with Apples because it's popular and makes sense. But finding Node might also be a good call. Node is a cyber brain, and from the people that made this. If you want insight on the contingency that's the best bet.
Gonna go with Rainbow. If something's off with Pinkie, Rainbow will have the best chance of apprehending her.
Find Rainbow. If they're not around Pinkie, its probably for a very good reason, and if anyone has the best chance of beating her should it come to it, its Rainbow
9676035
You know what, you're right. It has to be.
Rainbow. She can fly and find the others quickly
Apples. For one, it’s a 2-for-1. For another it’s our engineer who can recheck our systems and structural repairs.
I'm not so sure this is the real Pinkie either. She seems... Too normal to herself. The cupcake was a perfect memory too. I say we try and find Node. He's more Signaler tech. He would be able to understand the processes more than Spike who is new to machines with chips instead of tubes.
Rainbow. Air recon could be a massive time saver, and she'll probably be best at watching Pinkie for anything... off.
Thanks be oh benevolent dice.
Oh no. Or maybe hell yeah? I dunno.
Hey, that worked pretty well so far. Guess we'll see when he jumps in.
Hmn. We literally had a season one episode about how much of a problem escaping from Pinkie can be, so no to that. I think AJ, find the engineer.
"full sure" is a typo for "fully sure", and "sunset" is a typo for "Sunset".
Hmmmm.. I'm gonna say Node. Out of all of them, he might actually recognize where there are and potentially have an idea of what to do.
Rainbow is currently leading, and I don't think that's a bad idea either. Aerial recon could come in handy.
I think I'm going to have to vote for Node.
This is a world made by his/her creators. His potential insight in that regard might make finding the others a faster possibility.
Find Rainbow, and appeal to hey loyalty for the Captain and the crew.
..... SHIT! Pinkie musta gone Cray cray, quick go find RD before she goes all cupcakes on you spike!
9676368
If we are going for knowledge of the contingency, Apples are still my choice. Bloom is also part of Signaler tech now and was the one studying it.
OH MY GOD! PLEASE STOP VOTING RAINBOW DASH THATS LITTERALLY THE SECOND WORSE CHOICE FROM THIS STORY EVER! there is VIDEO EVIDENCE of rainbow dash making rash decisions that have negatively affected pinkies emotional state. choose aj or node. raridrama and rainbow "rash" dash need to be done last.
9676542
That's a fucking terrible idea.
Node should have better translation of what's going on and can interfere with the system more fluidly. If it can break the sandbox there might not even be a need to find everyone else...
... Pinky is definitely affected by the hunger, remember?
I agree that Node is the best of the choices, *IF* we can trust that this "Pinkie" is not some hostile thing that will attack Node given the chance.
How likely is this concern?
9676695
Then find AJ! Or rarity! Or node! Somepony, doesn't matter who!
9676185
Why does it make sense? Applejack's been irrationally antagonistic towards Spike since she woke up and has been a walking disaster of bad judgement for the entire trip. She's the least useful and least trustworthy of the Mane 6 at this point, even including Pinkie's dubious sanity.
9676693
If Rainbow Dash has avoided getting into a fight "for a long time now", I don't see why adding Spike to the mix will change things to make your post accurate. And she's got the training and the speed to disengage at will, probably more so than any of the others.
It's Spike, who do you think he's going to want to check on first? Pinkie is off, the story says, but she's been off since she got out of stasis, and talking with Pinkie some more to make sure it's really her isn't one of the options.
Rarity. Because it's spike.
9677258
AJ has had a rough go but even if she /was/ a negative it would still be worth it for Bloom who has experimented with the contingency for a long time.
9677420 no, my point still stands my point being that pinkie is impressionable as in put in stimulus get out excitement. the ponies aren't together because there scared of trickery. pinkie is delicate and what she needs is a calm explanation and an apology NOT gungho rainbow exacerbating a terrifying situation
9678075
I went back and re-read the early chapters. Applejack was nasty and condescending towards Spike even before anything at all went wrong, wilfully ignoring the fact that he'd spent forty years working the ship and flat out saying he wasn't competent or qualified to even read computer diagnostics. She was aggressively eager to put him down and belittle him at every possible opportunity, and of course immediately blamed him when things went badly.
9678411
Okay, but nothing in your comment tells me how or even why you think Rainbow is going to throw gasoline on the bonfire that is Pinkie.
9678600
And my point is that doesn’t matter. They are stuck in a ball of alien technology and one option is to find somepony who /is made/ of that technology now and was put in charge of /studying it/. One pony has been inside and /left/ this thing before. AJ has been a jerk, sure, and we’ve voted her into doing some dumb, irrational things. Weighing all that negative and putting it with the positive from Bloom still, to my mind, is a net higher benefit to any other option.
We've passed the certainty threshhold, but I'm going to wait another day to write the next chapter. The votes are incredibly close, but hopefully one more day will give us a more difinitive decision on who.
9679083
No, what matters is that with Pinkie's status questionable and possibly that's some kind of memory echo and not actually Pinkie, Spike needs to link up with someone he can trust first, and that's Rainbow Dash. The Apples would be a good choice for second because of their (possible) knowledge of the Contingency, but he can't trust them, especially since Applejack has a chip on her shoulder about Spike and is likely to side with echo-Pinkie over him even if she knows it's an echo, because Applejack is just bullshit like that.
9679054
Agree. Friendly reminder that Pinka-murder Pie is completely fanon (and a disgustingly ignorant misuse of canon material, if you ask me), and “Party of One” actually revealed to us Pinkie’s deep-seated fear of abandonment by her friends. Add to that some lines from her Smile song, (”There’s one thing that makes me happy... That’s when I talk to my friends and get them to smile”) and you see that Pinkamena’s “Pinkie Pie” persona is actually her deliberately trying to make others happy. Take everypony away from her, and yeah, she’ll destabilize pretty quickly. She gets happiness and fulfillment from making others happy; happiness out, happiness in. It’s even possible she’d revert all the way back to rock farm (pre-friendship) levels of sad, except with the added knife twist of having made friends, but having no way to contact them.
As for who they should find, well, Rainbow is (arguably) her closest friend. She had the earliest Pinkie Pie nickname (Dashie), and had a Season 1 episode with Pinkie. Get those two together, let them have a heart-to-heart (hug it out, cry maybe), then back on the road to find the others.
I'm glad Apples seem to have won in the end. Guess my vote did matter after all
Two ponies to help you with one mentally unstable one is a strong call, along with Bloom's possible help with what's going on in general. Beyond that RD and Node are probably not the best emotionally to help with Pinkie provided that's an option. Too self involved and invested in actions rather than feelings. Rarity would be a gamble, she's one that's generally a little harder to read, particularly in this story though as we've had little interaction with her comparatively.
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