This is why you should never let ponies play Terraforming Mars

by Petrichord

Chapter 8

“I…” Rarity began.

Then Rarity fell silent. She opened her mouth, raised her hoof, then slowly lowered her hoof as her jaw closed shut again. She blinked. She shook her head, rubbed an eye and sucked in an unsteady lungful of air.

“...How?”

“You mean, how did we die, how did we get in this train car, or how do only some of us exist?”

“...Yes?” Rarity sputtered incredulously.

“Ahh, the mathematician’s answer. I’m not sure whether to be annoyed or amused, honestly. So, for the first question…”

“Violently.” Applejack nodded her head. “ ‘s the only reason why our brains would want t’block it out, ain’t it? If it was really, really bad, our brains’d probably just go ‘nope, we’re gonna shut this whole memory thing down.’ Then they did, an’ so we’re here.”

“Precisely. I don’t think that whatever happened to Equestria killed everything off right away. It didn’t all end at once in the game, which is what I’m using as a tentative model here. But I think what could have doomed everything probably happened right at the start, and everything from then on out was Equestria gradually dying off until...boom.” Starlight gestured with her hooves. “No more ponies. And not long after that, boom, everything’s gone. I’m pretty sure nothing in Fluttershy’s zoo existed on Equestria hundreds of years after...whatever it was.”

“Well, um…” Fluttershy trembled. “What, um...what do you think it was?”

“Honestly? No idea. And I’m not even sure it’s important. Point is, some of us tried to fight against whatever it was that was going to doom Equestria. We failed. And I’d say ‘all’ of us because I think that all of the ponies sitting around this table did, but I don’t think we all physically died at the same time and at the same place.”

Applejack tilted her head. “Why not?”

“Where’s Pinkie? Where’s Twilight? You guys are the Elements of Harmony, and I’ve been on your side for...it’s got to be at least half a decade at this point. At least, half a decade as far as I can remember, or whatever I’m supposed to be thinks it remembers, but that’s not the point. The point is, the Elements of Harmony all fight together. They all win together, or they all fall together. If everypony here actually died, then Twilight and Pinkie would be in here, too, because you all would have died together. But, clearly, that didn’t happen. So at least one of us died without all of her friends by her side, and that’s why they’re here.”

“But you don’t figure it’s all of us that’re dead, right?” Applejack replied.

“I don’t. I’m not sure why I would be partnered up with anypony else here, because I’m not sure how I could make my talents work with anypony else specifically here.”

“So why don’t…” Rainbow Dash faltered. “Why...why don’t you think it’s you? Who died, and the rest of us — ”

“Because if I’m not dead, then what am I doing here? Right?”

“I mean...yeah?”

“I was wondering that, too. I didn’t know the point of having ‘real’ dead ponies and ‘fake’ dead ponies mixed in for a while, which is why I didn’t want to say anything. But…” Starlight Glimmer sighed. “I’m...Rarity, can you take your turn, please?”

“Me?” Rarity held a hoof up to her chest. “Why?”

Starlight gave Rarity a faint smile. “Well, first off, so I can highlight something. Second off, I’m just...tired. Of having to go through all this, explain all this. I need a little bit of fun to break things up, okay?”

Rarity stared at Starlight, not saying anything. Then, slowly, Rarity nodded.

*******************************************

Beginnings lead to ends, and ends lead to beginnings.

But that was not to say that what came between beginnings and endings was mundane. On the contrary, what came after beginnings was often, figuratively or literally, quite explosive.

Aphrodite’s studies did not stop at the cellular level, after all. Certainly, the building blocks of life that they uncovered the mysteries of were as vital to the wellbeing of ponies as they were difficult to fully understand and manipulate, if the perfection of the “miracle cure” of gene maintenance and its subsequent ubiquity was any indication. And, perhaps, Aphrodite’s contributions to Martian society would have been sufficient if they had “stopped there.”

But Aphrodite did not wish to stop there. It wished to uncover more, experiment with more, perfect more, use more. It wanted to play around with energy conversion at a more fundamental level, to dig deeper into the smallest, juiciest little droplets of matter, to bring the greatest potential out of the most humble of universal stock. And, deep beneath Martian soil, they hypothesized. Calculated. Experimented.

Save for the scientists whose very existence was a deep-level corporate secret, nopony really understood how the extractor worked. The extractor didn’t even have a name pronounceable or comprehensible to most Ponies alive on any planets where they still lived. But the extractor, and the amount of energy it produced, cleanly and efficiently, was vast.

And at least some of it was necessary.

Aphrodite’s ponies, without ways to grow their enterprise on Mars, tried to live around Flutterport. But the city, a city built around interplanetary vessels, was not meant to host a burgeoning population of Aphrodite’s ponies. So they struck out west, built infrastructure out west, and as more and more ponies flooded there and opened up more and more jobs for themselves and the ponies around them, the sprawl stretched all the way from Flutterport over to New Manehattan.

In older, less advanced pony societies, there would have been rioting. Combat. Deep, antisocial, xenophobic tensions that built and built between the megacorporations that grew and would never be resolved. But here, they were resolved, with calm voices and calculated plans in the boardrooms of no less than three cities.

And then, the three cities became one. Easily the largest city on the surface of Mars, it was built on the backs of ponies from three different companies and three different cultures who, after a period of unease coupled with intense curiosity, melded into a surprisingly harmonious collective.

It was one of Mars’ strangest and least expected of developments, to be certain, but certainly not an unwelcome one. In fact, with every passing year, it seemed to prove a triumphant example of what Ponykind could accomplish when they came together and worked not simply with their bodies or their minds, but with their open and welcoming hearts.

And so began the story of Grand Manehattan…

*******************************************

Four ponies looked at Starlight Glimmer. Starlight Glimmer looked at Rarity.

Rainbow Dash gestured at the new city that had sprung up between New Manehattan and Flutterport. “Well?”

“That was a perfect example.” Starlight Glimmer smiled, then blinked. “I think.”

Applejack stared incredulously at Starlight. “Whaddya mean ‘you think?’ ”

Starlight Glimmer sighed. The smile vanished from her face, and—briefly—the corners of her mouth twisted in dejection. “...Look, has everypony here read A Hearth’s Warming Tale?”

Everypony except for Rainbow Dash nodded.

“So we’re familiar with the idea of imaginary spirits personally visiting a pony and convincing them, through words and examples, to live their life in a certain manner?”

Applejack raised a hoof. “Uh, sugarcube, that’s kind of a story. As in, y’know, it ain’t real.”

“And you consider the idea of five completely different ponies dying at the exact same time and being shuttled off to the same fate to be somehow more plausible?”

“Um, well, what if—”

“And so help me, if you challenge the notion that we’re dead right now, I’m gonna have to ask you if the idea that ‘something bad happened that we died trying to prevent’ is somehow less realistic than ‘something bad happened, and due to a magical mishap we’re now shuttling off to a completely alien location, with no ability to use magic or escape or affect the world whatsoever except interact with a board game.’ A board game that has consistently been dropping hints about things that may or may not have happened, but which—given our current situation—are very much not out of the picture.”

Starlight gestured furiously at the board, and Fluttershy and Applejack scooted back a couple of inches in their respective seats.

“You’re welcome to think that this is layers upon layers of conjecture. You’re welcome to believe that,” Starlight ranted. “But if you have a better idea as to why we’re trapped in an utterly inescapable situation, completely helpless, and with the only source of implications about information coming from the board game which has been using us as vessels to drop a steady stream of hints, be my guest. Because at this point, I will take any source of potential knowledge as a way of understanding why everything is as it is.”

Silence. Applejack squirmed in her seat, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“...Can I at least point out that the idea of dyin’ an’ somehow bein’ alive don’t sound all that—”

“Which is why I dropped the idea that this ‘Mars’ thing is just in the far future, and went with it being in a different dimension. And maybe we’re not dead, but we’re good and gone from the world we’ve spent all our lives in. And you, personally, said that the most likely reason you can’t remember why we would have forgotten what took us from our world to the next would have been something violent. Magic could have done it too, yeah, but I know about magic. Magic is really part of my thing. I would have sensed it and known about just as much about it as, say, you know about working with the soil, or Rarity knows about beautiful and creative things, or Fluttershy knows about animals. And that’s all stuff that’s been similar enough with what you’ve talked about in the game, what sort of things you’ve seemed to emphasize, that I’m not inclined to believe it’s untrue. That’s the sort of thing that cutie marks can tell you, right?”

Silence. Then, simultaneously, all four other ponies nodded.

As if she was a balloon, Starlight Glimmer deflated. The air went out of her in a protracted sigh as she slumped in her chair, looking utterly defeated.

“I don’t...I don’t like this,” Starlight mumbled. “I don’t like that the idea that makes the most sense after all the thinking I’ve done implies I’m more likely a phantom, or a memory, or some kind of not-really-tangibly-existing sort of spirit. But I don’t know why I would be here otherwise.”

“So, um…” Fluttershy mumbled. “...why would, um, why would you…?”

“Because all the learning we’ve done has been given from each other. All the hints that have dropped have come from the voices speaking through us. But it’s not just been hints about where we are, right? It’s been lessons based around ourselves, too.” Starlight straightened up slightly. “I’m a twofold example: What I’ve been saying to you guys, and what I’ve been doing in the game.”

“So, uh...what have you been saying?” Rainbow Dash said.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “You should know best of all, Dash. I’m the pony who knew the rules and explained it to everypony. I’m the pony that acted as the guinea pig to show that searching for ponies and trying to use magic were bad ideas. And I’m the pony that’s going over all this quasi-mystical stuff with you guys right now, which is probably the hardest part of everything that we’ve been trying to figure out, right?”

“And in game…”

“I’ve been playing to win, don’t get me wrong. But I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to. I’ve been focusing so hard on bolstering my economy that i’ve barely been doing any terraforming at all, which is sort of how you win the game.”

“I dunno what that means,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I’m basically giving two lessons over here. Inside the world the game has, I’m teaching ponies ‘Don’t get so focused on increasing your own standing that you forget to treat other ponies well, even if that involves a bit of self-sacrifice.’ And outside the game world, I’m explaining parts of what we’re doing and why, which is helping everyone figure out the entire deal of why we’re here. Basically, all I’ve been doing is being instructive, like one of those spirits. And…” Starlight sighed. “I can’t imagine why you ponies would be the sort of ponies in particular that would help me learn. No offense, but we’re not really that close, are we? And even on a symbolic level…”

Starlight trailed off, scratching her left foreleg a little harder than was necessary.

“I want to exist. I want to be more than just an example for somepony else.” Starlight’s voice cracked. “But I think that’s all I am, here. A couple of strands of thought. Nothing else.”

“Starlight…” Rainbow Dash reached over and gently rested her hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. Starlight stiffened, then relaxed, and leaned ever so slightly against Rainbow Dash’s hoof.

“I guess I’m gonna disappear once we’re done. Once one or more of you girls knows what you need to know. And I think...I think that’s just that.”

Gently, Rarity rested a hoof on Starlight’s back. “I don’t think that it has to be that way, dear.”

“We’ll see, I guess. One way or another.” Starlight took a breath. “Anyways. I guess...I guess it’s Fluttershy’s turn, then?”

After a couple of moments, Fluttershy nodded and began.

*******************************************

Perhaps Venus would cease to grow, but it could still continue to improve.

Government was one factor. Not that Stratopolis couldn’t manage fine on its own, and not that the University of Aphrodite-Stratopolis wasn’t capable of taking care of itself, but there was always room for improvement. Always officials that could make it easier.

And Fluttershy knew a pony that would do an excellent job of helping manage things. Helping govern them. Help with, um, all the normal financial business and everything.

A-and it was good that Fluttershy didn’t need to spend much time scouting for him, because there was plenty of business on Mars that she, and Ecoline, needed to take care of. They had begun importing nitrogen into the planet in vast quantities, bringing it closer and closer to the sort of atmosphere that Ponies used to have back in Equestria. And the enriching of the atmosphere helped the animals in the Intercorporate Flutterport Zoo—or, um, I guess it was the Intercorporate Grand Manehattan Zoo now—a-anyways, it began to grow and proliferate, and it got a whole lot healthier and bigger! Which was also really nice.

*******************************************

Fluttershy smiled faintly, the froze; after a couple of seconds, she looked over at Starlight and, ever so faintly, nodded. “Th-that’s all the actions I have. It’s, um. It’s your turn, Applejack.”

*******************************************

All things considered, it was a lil’ bit silly for Applejack to, ah...not that they had anythin’ to do with the whole “let’s not improve Venus no more” thing that got real popular on Mars, an’ all that...but anyways, given that whole thing got said, it was a mite silly of her to be focusin’ on stuff that weren’t Mars. But wouldn’t you know it, there was still a lot of stuff that coulda been done off of Mars that woulda been real useful for makin’ Mars a nicer place in th’ end.

So they went, an’ they expanded off the planet. Got a nice base set up on Ganymede, in th’ hope that bringin’ in some stuff from there would set the nice conditions t’help make things grow. An’ for the sake of goin’ over things for some of th’ richer folk on Mars who wanted t’see stuff from Equestria’s history, even if it weren’t gonna go nowhere, they set up a colony for sightseein’ on Luna’s best side.

*******************************************

Rainbow Dash smirked. Fluttershy covered her mouth with a hoof.

“An’ I guess we’re still gonna make butt jokes.” Applejack rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Y’all wanna get in touch with it like I did — ”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy broke out into a simultaneous fit of giggles. Applejack grinned, doing her best to hold in laughter, and a quick glance at Rarity told her that the fashionista was doing the same. Even Starlight seemed to be smiling a little, and it was only after a good fifteen seconds of giggling that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came down from their suppressed laughter and settled for breathy grins.

Then, unexpectedly, Starlight smiled a little wider.

“Y’know what? I don’t regret this.”

“Regret what?” Applejack replied.

“Look, I really believe the stuff I said earlier was true. But even given that I might not be real in the end, this not-real part of me has still sort of enjoyed this.”

“You mean the parts where we were all fearful—”

“I mean the parts where we got to play a game together. The parts where we made silly speeches out of nowhere and worked with and against each other. The parts where we built up our own little corners of the planet. It’s been fun, and...and I don’t regret having fun.” Starlight sighed, but the smile remained. “I can think of worse ways to spend the time I’ve had.”

It was as if, slowly, the train car began to fill with sunlight. It fell into silence, of course, and it wasn’t lit by anything more than the fluorescent lights; but there was something calm about it, this time. It was a silence that soothed, rather than unnerved; instead of chilling spines, it warmed the spirits of the ponies there.

“...y’know what, Starlight?” Applejack said, nodding her head as she broke the silence. “I reckon you’re right. Dead or never-was or whatever the heck we all are, this ain’t a bad way to end things. I figure there’s definitely things I’d like less than this at the end of everything.”

Rarity nodded. “Agreed.”

“Yeah!” Dash added.

Fluttershy didn’t say anything, but the smile on her face didn’t fade in the least.

“Alright, then,” Applejack started again after a couple of moments. “You ready t’do your thing, Dash?”

“Yep!” Rainbow Dash replied.

*******************************************

Helion, at its core, was all about warmth. Distributing warmth, sharing warmth, bringing warmth to cold and unforgiving spaces.

Perhaps the solar reflectors they took to building were excessive. Perhaps, though, they weren’t such a big deal after all. Perhaps it was just in line with what Helion had been doing all along.

*******************************************

Applejack blinked. “That’s it?”

“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “And I’m heating up Mars, too. Nothing really different.”

Rarity tilted her head as she stared at Rainbow Dash in mild confusion. “Are you sure you don’t wish to have a more...involved explanation of the significance of your actions, dear?”

“I don’t really know what I’d say, or why any of it would help.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “So...nah. I don’t really figure it’s necessary.”

Rarity bit her lip. “Rainbow Dash, are you sure?”

“Totally” Rainbow Dash replied, smiling with a bit too much cheer for it to be plausible. “So, uh...Starlight, right? Your move.”

“Yeah, but I’m not really doing anything amazing, either.” Starlight blushed. “Just increasing my mining operations. And I already know that nothing really amazing is going to come out of me, but...I’d kind of rather hear what you guys can do that’s amazing. If that’s okay.”

Applejack chuckled. “Suit yerself. There ain’t been much flashy goin’ on recently, though—Guess things are jes’ a little more quiet this turn. Gettin’ ready for the end.”

“Does it…” Rainbow Dash faltered. “...Does it have to be the end already?”

“ ‘less you wanna put things on hold forever, Dash, I think things are just gonna keep goin’ that way. You said it yourself, right?” Applejack gestured at nothing in particular. “We got to keep going if we’re gonna figure everythin’ out. And I reckon we got a right to know how things end, don’t you? Got to let the dead move on, an’...”

Applejack glanced at Starlight Glimmer, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“...I guess we could wait for a lil’ bit.” Applejack concluded.

Rarity readjusted her cards. “I concur. As for now, though, allow me…”

*******************************************

It was strange to think that, in the hundreds of years that had been spent on Mars, only now was nutritional diversity starting to become an area of concern.

But, finally and to thunderous applause, things were beginning to change. It took immense amounts of effort, but so did many terraforming initiatives on Mars these days. And the efforts undertaken by Aphrodite, here and now, were efforts that were public, transparent and undeniably laudable.

Raising crops, even staple crops, in the “traditional” manner still took an onerous amount of effort. They had to be kept secure, not just from the extremes of temperature but from the battering, withering waves of cosmic radiation. The soil had to be properly treated to allow them to grow. They needed water, specially treated water, to get them to develop properly. And they needed light, and light meant power, and up until recently power had always been scarce.

But, finally the pieces of the puzzle were starting together. And the picture at the end of the tunnel? It was a picture of lush wheat, of gleaming maize, of stretches upon stretches of rice. It was the upright promise of soy, and the semi-hidden hints of lush tubers: All of them, every last plant, waiting to grow beautiful and healthy and strong.

And as more and more agricultural domes were constructed, less and less food was needed to be artificially processed and reconstructed. More and more of it came, for lack of a better word, “naturally.” And this was merely the beginning of the eighth generation of ponies on Mars; as more generations passed, doubtlessly there would be more types of plants, and in greater quantities. No longer would ponies survive off of sustenance; they would eat food.

The fruits of Aphrodite’s efforts were, figuratively and literally, delicious.

*******************************************

Fluttershy blushed a little. “Oh dear.”

Rarity turned her head. “Is something wrong, dear? I hadn’t intended to overshadow any of your efforts, I promise. I didn’t even know that you were interested in crop production, but I suppose I should have asked...”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh, nothing like that! I just feel a little silly that, um. That I never got around to making sure that my animals ate nice food.”

Rarity paused for a moment, then broke out into a smile. “You really are a wonderful pony, Fluttershy. I certainly hope that, well...that if…”

“It’s okay,” Starlight Glimmer cut in. “I think it’ll be okay.”

Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Didn’t you just say that—”

“That some of us are dead and some of us were never real, I know. I don’t think that’s not true. But I think…” A smile returned to Starlight’s face. “The things buried in the ground, ready to grow into wonderful things? How ends come from beginnings and beginnings create stuff that’s unexpectedly amazing and beautiful? And how we’re all here, hurtling towards an uncertain ending for the dead? I think...Well, it’s gonna sound silly.” Starlight blushed.

Applejack peered a little closer at Starlight. “You do sound like you’re feelin’ a little better.”

“Well, not better for me. But better for the dead. I think whatever’s waiting for you at the end of everything else, whatever the heck that is… I think it’s gonna be nice. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be some kind of posthumous reward for whatever you girls did in life or if that’s just the way things are, but… but I don’t think that the end will be terrifying.”

“I...guess that’s good.” Applejack nodded. “I guess I didn’t really think all that extra much about whatall’s goin’ on after everything’s said an’ done, but I don’t reckon that’s somethin’ I’d not want to have happen.”

“Same,” Rainbow Dash agreed.

“Indeed,” Rarity replied. “Well, ah...Fluttershy?”

******************************************

It was sort of amazing just how Grand Manehattan managed to bring everything together.

It wasn’t as if Ecoline was struggling to develop yet more greenery; the hardiest of grasses, for one, had started to spread across Mars’ dusty red surface; certainly it wasn’t beautiful just yet, but it endured, and it wouldn’t belong before it surpassed endurance and climbed upward towards genuine lushness and beauty. Soon, like ponykind, it would spread; soon the desert would subside, and in its place would come the verdant lands that the almost-mythological texts of old Equestria had once promised.

For it wasn’t as if Flutterport was interested in such things, but Grand Manehattan was. The ponies of Helion loved such things, and it almost took the breath away of the ponies of Aphrodite. It was the natural progression, to take the brutish and ugly and necessary, and find ways to provide necessity without sacrificing opportunity; provide beauty without reducing function; create elegance and growth without weakening one’s plans.

It was a work in progress, but it was an intercorporate work in progress, too. Not the most magnificent of steps, but steps nonetheless. It was the first, faltering attempts at grasping true harmony, and judging by the love of the forward tottering, not likely one to be backtracked upon.

Growth had come to Mars. Not material growth, not intellectual growth, not the growth of a society or its ambitions; but, arguably, it was the growth of something far more important.

It was the beginning, for the first time in nearly two hundred and fifty years, of harmony.

******************************************

Applejack blinked. Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped. Starlight Glimmer set her cards down.

“That…” Rarity took a breath. “That was beautiful, dear.”

Fluttershy sighed, looking a little more content than before—but, at the same time, a little more tired. “I’m...I’m glad. I wanted to...I thought it’d be nice. Right now.”

“It certainly was, dear.” Rarity looked at the board, and—gently and affectionately—toyed with the buildings. “It’d be nice to see something like this happen in the real Manehattan, I think.”

Rarity paused.

“Well… happened, I suppose. Unfortunately.” Rarity shook her head. “It’s still a soothing thing to imagine, in any case.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I-I’d hoped it would be. Um…” Fluttershy looked at her cards. “I-I think I’m out of actions, though. Applejack, could you…?”

Applejack nodded and began.

******************************************

Now, see, Applejack an’ her horse buddies, they weren’t never gonna be as good at spreadin’ plants as Fluttershy—an’, uh, an’ Ecoline too I guess, the whole dang company—but they could do their own thing to help everythin’ grow. It just weren’t as pretty, not at all, but it did alright.

The whole Venus business—that was an ugly, ugly thing. It didn’t seem like Mars an’ Venus were gonna get along all that well over what happened on Mars, and could folks really pass blame for what happened there? Not really, they couldn’t. What’s done was done, an’ that may have even been a good thing—but it was a mighty hurtful thing, too.

But Applejack an’ her folks saw that, and they realized that things weren’t right at all with that. So they… they sought to make amends. They couldn’t help the place grow no more, but they did try their darndest to set up a big ol’ talking network, to make it so folks could go about an’ talk to each other pretty quickly between planets.

It weren’t that easy a deal, but it was one of them deals—like what Rarity had—that seemed like a good enough deal at the time. An’ maybe it wasn’t as good as buildin’ the whole thing, but it did help. An’ maybe it was too late, but it weren’t nothin’. Hopefully, it would do.

An’ while they helped things grow a lil’ closer between Mars an’ Venus, they did their own thing for growin’, too, but in a whole different way. Ecoline did their own thing with plants, for sure, an’ Applejack was never gonna be that good. But she did work with the little things, like the tiny things that broke down the weird stuff in the ground an’ make it good. She worked with the fungal things, an’ bacteria that broke down things, an’ she figured “Hey, I could work a lil’ bigger. I could get things real big, an’ do a bunch of real big breakdowns, right? An’ that would be super cool. I jes’ gotta figure out how.”

Then she remembered all them animals an’ stuff—like how Fluttershy got her zoo, an’ how the… the ponies at her big ol’ corporation helped make some of ‘em into pets for some pony folks, more an’ more over time. An’ so Applejack realized that critters weren’t outta the question.

Then she got a real good idea. What if they got critters to help break stuff down? Get all that greenery bein’ a little better by workin’ through the new stuff an’ turnin’ it into new-tree-ants that’d make them things like grass an’ lichens an’ that sorta thing get real big an’ real healthy. So Applejack’s scientists got to workin’, an’ plannin’, an’ thinkin’...

An it weren’t too long ‘fore they had pillbugs an’ worms. An’ they weren’t the prettiest things on Mars, not by a long shot, but they weren’t too bad, neither.

An’ hopefully, that’d help bring everythin’ together, too.

******************************************

Rarity picked through her cards. “That was also pleasant, dear. Would you be offended if I said ‘surprisingly so?’”

“Ehh. Two out of ten, Rares. I’ve heard worse.” Applejack set her cards down. “I’d say you’re off your game if you weren’t just fussin’ over Fluttershy over there.”

“Well, it was a very impassioned description. Are you really going to criticize me for possessing a profound appreciation of the arts? I’d consider that more than a little gauche.”

“Nah. I know you well enough to figure that’s just the sort of frou-frou pony you are. Anyways,” Applejack added while turning towards Rainbow Dash. “You ain’t got enough money left on you t’do much at all, right?”

“Just set up a colony on Io. I’m not sure how to make that descriptive, though.” Rainbow Dash, looking a little nervous, set her cards down and moved some pieces around on the board. “And… and I guess that’s it for me.”

“...You seem a little quiet over there.” Applejack paused. “Are you sure you’re doin’ okay?”

“I’m just kind of… it’s garbage that some of you guys aren’t gonna be around, you know?” Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof at Starlight Glimmer. “I mean, first Starlight’s not gonna be around, but that might not be the end, right? Like, what if all of us disappear?”

Applejack sighed. “Look, darlin’, I don’t figure that all of us disappear. I don’t think anythin’ like this would happen if nothin’ happened to nopony that wasn’t here, there or anywhere at all. It don’t make sense.”

“Yeah, but what if almost all of us are gone? I don’t want any of you to go.” Rainbow Dash’s voice cracked. “And I don’t want to go, either. That’s not fair.”

“Life ain’t fair, darlin’. I guess death ain’t fair, neither. Sometimes, all you gotta do with it is take it for what it is.” Applejack paused. “An’...an’ if it’s any consolation, an’ if what Starlight says is true, I don’t figure I’m makin’ it out of here, either.”

“No.” Rainbow Dash leaned over the game board. “No, that’s not fair, that’s not right—”

“It’s more’n fair and more’n right. I’ve been doin’ a fair amount of explainin’ an’ helpin’ us ponies talk to each other an’ all that. I figure I been the chattiest Celestia of all of us. It wouldn’t make sense if I got out of here, I don’t think.”

“We don’t know—”

“We don’t know for sure. None of us know for sure. Heck, maybe Starlight’s wrong. Speakin’ of…”

“Just building a fuel factory on my turn. Nothing worth talking about.” Starlight looked at Rarity.

“I’m just going to help grass proliferate by Grand Manehattan, dear. Also nothing worth talking about.”

“Fluttershy?”

“Setting up a national park.” Fluttershy blushed. “That’s all. Um, I guess…”

“All up to me.” Applejack sighed. “See? That’s what I been tellin’ you. I’ll be the one talkin’ now, an’ I won’t be the one talkin’ in the end. An’ that’s how it’s gonna be. So…”

“Um…” Fluttershy cleared her throat, but Applejack wasn’t listening. Instead, she was pouring over her cards, then looking back at the colony ships as if calculating her opportunities down to the last bit in her bank account. Then, with the sort of stone-faced resolution common among veteran soldiers told to hold the line, Applejack began to play.

******************************************

Applejack’s work was startin’ to become all-encompassin’. The other different corporation’s all did their own thing, of course; there was Helion with its heat, Thorgate with all its minerals an’ richs, there was Aphrodite with its brains an’ her Venus-y things, an’ there was Ecoline with its plants, animals an’ all that. Every megacorp had its own function, did it’s own thing, an’ that was fine.

An Applejack’s lil’ family did everythin’ else.

These days, they handled Mars on all its levels, or so they liked sayin’ to other ponies. They’d got the Mars beneath, that was the first one; they kept breedin’ their decomposers, kept workin’ on the material, kept processin’ what coulda been waste an’ made into somethin’ useful, Kept doin’ all of that. An’ on th’ third level, that of Mars beyond, they kept settin’ up colonies to do all sorts of useful things for Mars.

On th’ second level? That was Mars around, doin’ the parts of the planet that ponies could see. An’ that bit varied, ‘cause that weren’t the sort of thing that Applejack’s friends an’ her were used to doin’. Eye...Eye-ron-ick-lee, or somethin’.

But here, they could make it work. Here, they finally got enough raw resources scraped together, from all kinds of sources, an’ they managed to make th’ planet even warmer. Wouldn’t be long now before the whole thing actually felt like Equestria used to, all that ways back.

Felt almost nostalgic, an’ it weren’t even complete yet.

******************************************

“An’ that weren’t all bad, I guess. For some of th’ last things I get t’see, that felt almost kind of rewardin’. Like I really did do a good job well done of showin’ everythin’ off.”

Fluttershy coughed.

“Somethin’ on your mind, Sugarcube?” Applejack replied, turning to face Fluttershy. “You ain’t got to make me feel…”

Four ponies at the table had expected Fluttershy to look soft-hearted and tender, trying to make Applejack feel better in the last few minutes before annihilation. Instead, Fluttershy’s face was uncannily rare: resolute, determined, entirely unafraid.

“I don’t think that’s true.” Steely-eyed, Fluttershy grabbed a stack of cards off of the table and began dealing them out to everypony else. “You know how Starlight could tell that she wasn’t here, on top of being the pony to explain everything? It’s because she knew that she wasn’t fighting with anypony else here. She knew that she wouldn’t be trying to do things like that, because she knew that there would be other ways that she would be trying to save everypony. She knew that she wouldn’t have us around her, doing what she was probably going to do with her magic unicorn powers and her own friends. And she knew that she had to be all alone if she was dead and here, but she knew that she couldn’t be here if she was being so instructional to everypony else. Right, Starlight?”

Starlight froze. A few strands of mane drifted in front of her eyes, but she didn’t bother to tuck them away. Finally, after a few seconds, she nodded. “...Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.”

Apparently finished with dealing the cards, Fluttershy began to distribute income to everypony else at the table. “But Applejack, you still could have. It’s possible that you did. I know that you’re the kind of pony who would have tried to help any one of us ponies around here, even if it wouldn’t be possible. I don’t think you could have tried to save Starlight, but I know you would have tried to save everypony else if you could. That’s who you are. That’s how you would have died. So even if you were a pony explaining things to other ponies, it could have been that you were with somepony else when they died, and the two of you are here, trying to explain things to each other. That’s… that’s not impossible. To explain while still needing things explained to you. To try and help, while not being alone when everything ended.”

The table fell silent. Fluttershy finished distributing income and calmly passed the starting player token clockwise.

“I… didn’t figure we were thinkin’ about goin’ down with each other that way.” Applejack paused. “That’s… true. That’s possible, ain’t it?”

“It is.” Fluttershy’s lip trembled, but only for a second. “And… and that’s why I didn’t make it. That’s why I couldn’t have died alone or with anypony else. That’s why I’m not real.”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Now, see, Applejack an’ her horse buddies,

How much should I read into this word choice? This entire story is becoming a fascinating exercise in borderline overanalysis. Also, I'm pretty sure Starlight is half a revelation away from realizing that none of them are real and the entire thing is actually a story on the Internet. And maybe only a few more steps away from inferring the existence of the impending series finale.

In any case, looking forward to more.

[Venerable Ro]

9828123

How much should I read into this word choice? This entire story is becoming a fascinating exercise in borderline overanalysis.

There's also the title to consider, "This is why you should never let ponies play Terraforming Mars". Perhaps this is some kind of shared lucid dream, and Starlight is massively overreacting. Got to remember, Starlight has a real depressive side to her, and she's been known to take an idea and run with it.

[UrsaMajor]

“Um…” Fluttershy cleared her throat, but Applejack wasn’t listening. Instead, she was pouring over her cards, then looking back at the colony ships as if calculating her opportunities down to the last bit in her bank account. Then, with the sort of stone-faced resolution common among veteran soldiers told to hold the line, Applejack began to play.

poring