The hangar of the Glorium had fallen quiet after the frenetic activity of earlier. Swan’s fighters were gathered around their respective launch tubes, while the others sat waiting to be moved into position.
The Dream sat ostracized from the rest, close to the outer hangar doors. A few of the deck crew trotted by, but most gave the ship a wide berth.
From her perch atop the Dream’s starboard wing, Flurry gazed out at the expanse of the hangar bay with disinterest. She had been sitting up there for the past hour, trying to distract herself from the shock of what she saw in the briefing room.
Twilight.
Just the thought of that mare was like hot coals being dropped onto her heart. Flurry’s wings bristled uncontrollably at her sides, and she could feel the familiar searing rage lingering beneath the surface.
Flurry had wasted all this time playing Twilight’s games, no doubt being watched and reported on by her stooge Oakheart. How could “the director” just hide away in the shadows while Nyx, her own daughter, was in trouble? Why all the secrecy? Why did Oakheart play along with this charade?
The questions kept repeating in her mind over and over again, feeding her frustration. She should be resting for the battle ahead, but her restless mind gave her no respite. There was, of course, an obvious answer, but she didn’t want to admit it to herself.
Whammy lay in front of her, his body tilting to one side with the curve of the wing.
“Nopony asked your opinion,” Flurry grumbled, resting her head on her forelegs.
The plushie simply sat there.
“Don’t defend her, this is exactly how she likes to do things,” she snapped. “All smoke and mirrors while she pulls at the strings from the shadows. She must be laughing her ass off at me right now.”
At Whammy’s impassive stare, she relented. “I know she’s got to be worried about Nyx, but she had no right messing with me like that. If she had just let me do my thing, we’d be with Nyx by now.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right—if I was Oakheart, I’d have been wary as well.” She let out a snort as she looked into his expressionless bobble eyes. “Okay! Fine! I admit it. If I’d known Twi was involved, I would have caused more trouble for everypony and slowed everything up.”
Whammy seemed satisfied, at least. One of his antennae shifted in the breeze flowing through the hangar, suggesting he was.
Damn that plushie. He always takes their side, she grumbled to herself.
Still, he was right. She couldn’t let her feud with Twilight get in the way of saving Nyx. For now, they were enemies with a common goal.
The thought brought a sad smile to her face. Just like me and Swan Song.
She looked down to see a few of Swan’s aerie mingling with Flint’s marines on the flight deck below.
The mission to help Nyx had brought together quite the disparate bunch of former enemies and even volunteers from Equus. Perhaps there was something to this Harmony business after all.
With the mission planning over, and all their individual roles studied, there was little else for either side to do. The deck crews had all their ships ready while the marines’ equipment was checked and prepared.
In the end, curiosity had gotten the better of the younger pegasi, and in ones and twos, they had gathered around the open ramp of the Dream. Even Swan Song had eventually joined them, watching while her partner engaged the kirin in a friendly hoof wrestle.
Flurry could have gone down there to join them, but she wasn’t in the mood for more fearful stares. She hadn’t exactly made a great impression with her little display in the briefing room, and she really needed some alone time. It was better to just watch from up here.
Things were getting a bit lively down there, with both groups rallying around their prospective contender.
“Come on, Firey, you’ve got him!” A magenta-coloured earth pony shouted excitedly, her strong Manehattan accent easily recognisable over the crowd. “Show that pillow-stuffer who’s best!”
“Come on, Blitz! I’ve got twenty bits on this!” One pegasus shouted.
Blitz was straining, sweat running from his brow, while the kirin had a predatory grin on her face. Her tail was coiled around his hind leg like a snake, evidently trying to throw him off his game.
Flurry couldn’t help but smirk at the mare’s ploy. She would have to remember that one next time she visited Broken Bow.
“Looking a bit red-faced there, champ,” Fire goaded.
“You think your little tricks are going to distract me, but you’ve got another thing coming!” Blitz growled, making another attempt to force the mare’s foreleg down.
“Aww, I do so love it when stallions try their best,” Fire taunted, her tail creeping up higher.
Blitz tensed and then let out a tiny squeak before a dreamy expression formed on his face. His grip slackened, and with a victorious whinny, Fire slammed his hoof down to cheers from the crowd.
“Hey, that’s cheating!” Blitz cried.
“You enjoyed it didn’t you?” Fire asked, sticking her tongue out.
“I-I want a rematch, no tricks,” Blitz demanded, his cheeks a bright shade of red.
“I can do this all day, stud.”
Flurry’s eyes turned to Swan Song, who had been watching the spectacle from a distance. The pegasus had been talking quietly with her pilots during most of it, huddled together, away from the main group. Given the fearful looks that drifted up in Flurry’s direction, she had no doubt what their talk was about.
She sighed softly, looking down at Whammy. “One step forward, two steps back, eh Whammy?”
Her little display had no doubt spooked everypony present, the pegasi worst of all. Getting them to see beyond Last Shadow and trust her was always going to be an uphill battle, and now she’d gone and made the climb that much harder.
Swan Song looked up to her and their eyes met, the pegasus wearing a deep frown on her face. There was uncertainty, maybe even a little fear in those eyes—the worries of an officer going into combat. Flurry had seen it a hundred times on the eve of a hundred battles. She flashed the pegasus a smile, but the mare simply looked away.
“She’s a stubborn one,” Flurry commented, only to scowl at Whammy. “Shut up, we are not alike at all. I still don’t know if she’ll try and put a bullet in my skull once this is over. I’d like to think not, but ponies always find a way to disappoint you.”
She rested her chin on her forelegs. “She’s been through a lot—they all have—they deserve a little helping hoof.”
Whammy simply sat there.
She grinned mischievously. “Oh, bringing Merry Weather down a peg or two is the icing on the cake. But first, we have to deal with the immediate problem.”
Her gaze drifted back to her black-stained wings. Even now, she could feel that invisible mass pressing against her magical core.
“Nyx’ll be able to crack this spell, I know it,” she continued. “And once she has, we can help everypony else.”
She shifted, knocking the plushie onto his side and rattling his googly eyes.
“If she can’t, I’ll just have to improvise,” she muttered, letting out a snort. “And no, I’m not asking Twilight for help.”
Her eyes narrowed. “It’ll be a cold day in Tartarus before I ask her for anything. I’ll sort this out myself, one way or another.”
Whammy’s eyes eventually settled and fixed on her.
“If nothing works…?”
A cold shiver went through her body at the mere thought of being at that bloated fool’s mercy, paraded around like some mystical beast to entertain his lackeys before being offered up on a plate to the Emperor of the Republic. Face to face with Stratos, after all this time? She shuddered at the thought. Then there’d be the nice public show trial for the holo-vids, followed by execution. Maybe they would get Swan in to pull the trigger.
Flurry shook her head and dismissed those dark thoughts. “It won’t come to that. Nyx will fix this, I know she will.”
That was, of course, if the mare would even speak to her. Nyx wouldn’t hesitate to help any other pony in need, but helping her? A part of her doubted the alicorn would be so generous.
A thick knot of anxiety formed in the pit of her stomach at the thought of meeting her cousin again. Her emotions rose up and crashed against her like storm-driven waves beating against a cliff.
She reached out and pulled Whammy close. “What should I say to her, Whammy?” She squeezed him tightly. “It’s not like I can turn back the clock to how things used to be.”
She felt a soft tear trickle run down her cheeks before chuckling to herself. “You’re right, we’ve still got to help rescue her first. There’s plenty of time for worrying about all of this once everypony is safe and sound.”
Wiping her eyes, she arched her back and stretched her wings.
“You know, maybe you’re right. Moping up here isn’t helping me right now,” she stated, fluffing her wings. “Maybe I should get in on the hoof wrestling action? Stir the pot a bit between Swan and Blitz, am I right?”
Whammy’s antennae were still partly pressed against his head by the force of her hug.
“Pfft, you’re no fun.”
She was about to hop off the wing of the Dream when she felt a change within the carrier. The gentle rumble of the engines shifted pitch, becoming deeper. That meant the ship was speeding up.
Her ears perked as the ship’s PA system crackled to life and a stallion’s voice boomed over the hangar. “Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill. I repeat…”
The quiet calm of the flight deck was shattered in an instant by the alert. The effect on the crew was instantaneous, the pegasi leaping into the air and heading to their ships and stations. Swan and her pilots rushed to the fighters and began donning their flight gear.
What had happened? Was Nyx under attack? A hundred questions fought to be heard inside her head, and a hundred terrible scenarios spawned from them. Her heart began to pound in her chest as fear of the unknown threatened to overtake her.
She had to go. She had to go now.
Flurry rushed towards the forward airlock of the Dream and went inside. Lights flickered on as the ship stirred from her slumber, the automated systems reacting to Flurry’s presence.
“Prepare for departure,” she ordered, tapping a few commands into her holo-brace.
“Affirmative. Beginning Nexus core ignition sequence,” the Dream’s golem responded, a faint hum beginning to reverberate through the ship. “Pilot link established.”
She felt the slight pull on her thaumatic reserves as the ship’s Nexus core began drawing power from her horn. Her body moved on autopilot, going through the same motions she’d done a thousand times before. At least by focusing on preparing her ship, her emotions were kept in check, though they were still screaming from the back of her mind.
As she trotted down the corridor of the upper deck, her holo-brace buzzed.
Tapping on it, a small window appeared before her eyes with Oakheart at its centre. In the background, she could see the bridge crew already at their battle stations.
“What’s going on, captain?” she asked.
“We finally picked up the Orion’s distress beacon a few minutes ago,” he said, his voice calm and professional. “But it was cut off almost immediately.”
“And?” Her voice trembled with emotion.
“The signal was very weak, but we received a data packet indicating they’re under attack,” he replied grimly. “The communications officer is currently trying to clean up the sensor data for us, but it’s heavily corrupted.”
“Then I’m preparing the Dream for launch,” Flurry announced, heading quickly towards the flight deck.
“Ms. Flurry, wait.”
“No. No more delays. I have to get there now,” she said, desperation creeping into her voice.
“I understand, but we’re still an hour from our launch point,” he explained. “Sabre squadron won’t—”
The display vanished as she cut off her connection with Glorium comms, a frustrated hiss escaping her muzzle. She couldn’t just sit here while Nyx was under attack! She had given up so much already, and now, she was about to lose everything just when her cousin was within reach.
Flurry cycled through the squadron comms channels she’d been given, prior to the briefing, until she found the one for Swan Song.
“Lieutenant, do you read me?” she called.
There was a brief delay before Swan Song responded. “Yes, I copy.” She sounded surprised, a mixture of fear and anticipation in her voice as she spoke.
“How long before you’re ready to launch?” Flurry asked, keeping her own voice level so as not to alarm the pegasus.
“Wait, I thought we had over an hour before we were supposed to launch.”
“It’s just…” Flurry began, trying to sound innocent. “Something’s come up. Oakheart said we need to leave early. Can you make it happen?”
“What? No. We’ve got just enough flight reserves for the trip plus a half-hour engagement at best. If we leave early, we’ll be running on sparks when we get there and be useless if there’s a fight.”
Damn it, Flurry cursed to herself. “Alright. Thanks anyway, Swan. I’ll be in touch. Flurry out.”
She slammed a hoof into the nearest bulkhead, her wings bristling as her frustration boiled over. It was just one thing after another with these ponies! Now physics was conspiring to get in the way of her machinations!
She cast a glance at Whammy, whose eye wobbled in disappointment.
“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled.
Flurry pointedly ignored the frantic flashing on her holo-brace as she silently fumed.
“Ms. Flurry, please answer your holo-brace,” the muffled voice of Oakheart reverberated from the Glorium’s PA system outside.
She looked down at the accursed device for a second, letting the stubborn earth pony stew for a moment before answering. “What.”
“Ah, have you got it all out of your system? Or should I wait a few minutes and we can try again,” Oakheart asked with the weary tone of a parent taking their filly out of time-out.
“I’m listening.”
“I may have a solution to our launch window problem,” he said. “If you’re willing to wait and let me explain.”
“Fiiiine.”
“I’ll be down in a few minutes,” he said before adding, “Once I find the elevator.”
Flurry let out a sigh, feeling some of her anger subside. She still wanted to blow a hole in the Glorium and speed off towards the Orion, but the urge was less pressing. She cast a glance at Whammy, whose pupils had finally stopped spinning in their plastic sockets.
“Are you happy? I’m waiting for him, okay?” she huffed.
Whammy sat there smugly on her shoulder.
“Okay, okay, I’ll call Swan again,” she grumbled.
“Lieutenant Swan, do you read me?”
Another delay and then the comms clicked on with an angry sigh. “I copy. What is it?”
“I just spoke with Oakheart. He has an idea that could buy us some more time. Can you get the deck chief on the line? Also, can you have him bring Rapier squadron up to ready status as well? I’ve got a bad feeling we’re going to need them with us.”
“Did you actually speak with him this time?” came Swan’s sardonic response.
“I overreacted, okay?” Flurry said. “Listen, they’ve picked up the Orion’s distress beacon. They’re definitely under attack. I don’t think we can wait.”
“Yeah, but Flurry, we need to know what we’re up against. You know that.”
“Oak says the comms team is working on it. But he seemed pretty sure we can launch early. Can you be ready?”
“Yeah. I mean, no. I mean… Flurry, I’m sorry but it’s just not going to work. You saw the launch window. You know we just don’t have the CAPS for that kind of operation.”
Flurry wanted to blurt out some kind of irrational reason why it would work, but she knew Swan was right.
“Let’s… okay, let’s just assume that Oak has found some miracle that can make it work. Can you be ready?”
More hesitation. She could hear Swan speaking softly with somepony nearby for a moment.
“Okay, Flurry. I’ll do it, but this had better not be another one of your games,” Swan warned.
“This is legit, I promise.”
“It had better be. Swan out.”
As she trotted down to the cargo bay, she realised that her anxiety had faded—not gone completely, but it was more manageable. Her heart was still racing, but it was no longer trying to escape from her chest.
As she opened the door to the Dream’s cargo bay, she heard Flint’s voice barking orders to his squad.
“Alright fillies and colts, get the lead out! We’re on the clock here!”
Flurry spotted him standing on a crate, clad in a slim suit of armour she wasn’t familiar with. She had been expecting a full exosuit, similar to the ones they had used during the war. Instead of thick armoured plates completely enclosing his body, the dark-blue armour was made up of a large carapace, covering his body with smaller segmented plates over a black augmented bodysuit. It looked advanced and sleek, but it felt like he’d accepted a joust with a Yak, wearing a tutu.
“Hey, Flurry, I just got the word from the captain,” he said as she trotted up to him. “Don’t you worry, we’ll be ready when the time comes.”
“Wearing that stuff?” she commented dismissively as she looked over his attire. “What, Harmony going cheap on your equipment or something?”
He chuckled. “We’re cops first, not soldiers. Besides, I don’t think those Orion folk would appreciate an armoured division tearing up their ship, now, would they?”
She gave him a skeptical look.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not the hardware but the pony using it that makes the difference,” he said with confidence. “Besides, the corridors on the Orion will be tight, and I’d like some room to maneuver.”
It made sense. Exosuits were not what you would call restrained by design. They tended to make their own entrances onto starships, regardless of collateral damage. With civilians in the way, she understood the need for something a little more subtle.
“Besides, you know what a cautious fellow I am,” he grinned, motioning to the small pulse cannons folded away on each of his shoulders. The rifle holstered at his side looked equally formidable—definitely military issue. “Don’t you worry, Flurry, we MAWS ponies are ready for anything.”
“We’re the problem-solvers, right Chief?” Fire Hawk grinned, adjusting her armour.
The kirin’s armour was different from the others, probably due to her unique physiology. A long series of vents ran down her spine, and the armour plates looked to have an extra layer of ceramics to handle a lot of heat. She had no weapons to speak of, but if there was any truth to her bragging, she didn’t need one.
“If you’ve got time to make jokes, Fire Hawk, you’ve got time to help the others,” Flintlock said. “Whoever is last has to do a lap of the station in full kit, so move it!”
The threat had the desired effect, as the few that had been slacking found a new burst of energy while their squadmates rushed to help.
“Just like old times,” Flurry commented. “I just hope it goes better than most of the battles we had back then.”
She pawed at a rusty old red stain on the decking that no amount of scrubbing had been able to get out. A deep pit formed in her stomach at the thought that a few of these ponies might not be coming back from this mission.
Flint’s brow furrowed slightly, but he gave a gentle smile. “I wouldn’t worry about that. We all volunteered for this. When we signed up with Harmony, we knew what we were getting into.”
She felt her heart swell at those words. It had been a long time since she had been amongst ponies willing to risk themselves for something more than a reward.
“Thank you, my friend,” she said humbly, bowing her head to him.
“Just doin’ my job. Now you just need to get us there in one piece,” he replied with a modest shrug. “And preferably with my breakfast still in my stomach. I know how you fly.”
“I’ll leave some sick bags out if you’d like.”
He let out a sigh, his eyes drifting back to his marines. “Now, neither of us has time for a chat. We’ve got a ship to save. I’m going to go and motivate these ponies some more.”
“Have fun.”
He grinned before trotting over into the mass of ponies. “Come on, you fillies! You’re embarrassing me in front of Flurry Heart! Officer Gum Drop, are you wanting to stay behind?”
A lime green stallion barely out of his teens straightened. “Sir, no sir!”
“Good, Flurry is getting twitchy and she might just feed your sorry flank to her pet monster if you take any longer!” Flint growled before giving her a wink.
Some things never change, she thought to herself as she headed to the flight deck.
<=======ooO Ooo=======>
“Where did you get that thing?” Flurry remarked as the deck crew was heaving a long metal box with blue arcanite crystals arranged in rows along its top into the Dream’s cargo hold. It was trailing a long line of cables behind it like a grisly streak of entrails.
“It’s the Glorium’s reserve battery,” Oakheart replied.
Flurry gave a whistle. “Damn, how’d you convince them to part with this?”
“The usual way,” he snorted. “I bought it.”
“Should have told me, I’d have ripped it out for you,” she commented as the technicians hurriedly connected the CAPS bank to a tangled mess of wires. “Now, not to sound ungrateful or anything, but why are you giving this to me?”
“We’re connecting a recharge emitter onto the Dream’s dorsal section. It will allow Sabre squadron to refuel in-flight,” he explained, ignoring her angry frown from seeing ponies messing with her ship without her permission. Again.
Flurry walked slowly around the new addition to her cargo bay. This close, she could feel the hairs of her coat stand on end with the energy in the air.
“Also, we managed to clear up what we could from the beacon’s data.” He tapped on his holo brace, and a hazy image appeared. “It seems to be some kind of drone.”
The image was a blur, with most of the frame broken by static, but Flurry recognised the silhouette of a drone streaking by the camera. It was roughly conical in shape, with a bulging drive section towards its rear. Although most of the details were lost, it sent a chill down her spine.
“We’re going to need more ships,” Flurry uttered.
“Ms. Flurry, from the size of the ship, it looks to be barely a threat,” Oakheart assured.
“You’re wrong, that’s a Syndicate Shuriken,” she warned. “Those things are fast, and worse, there’ll be a lot of them. We’ll be outnumbered and outgunned. We need Rapier squadron to even the odds for us.”
“And how do you expect them to do that? This CAPS bank here will be barely enough to recharge one squadron, let alone two,” he said.
Flurry paused to think for a moment. With at least an hour between the fighters arriving on-site and the Glorium showing up with reinforcements, they were going to need every last spark of power. More power had to come from somewhere… Flurry glanced around her cargo hold, her mind racing. Suddenly, it came to her.
“I can help with that,” she declared with confidence. “Have the technicians hook the CAPS bank up to the Dream’s Nexus core. I can top everyone up when we arrive as well as during the fight.”
“Hold on, isn’t that going to be too much of a drain on you?” he asked with a concerned frown. “This is only a corvette sized ship.”
“Oh, I’m a big girl, captain. I should have plenty in my tank to keep them going,” she said, flashing him a confident smile despite her apprehension.
Of course, she hoped to have as much power in reserve as she could for the mission. Experience had taught her to always be prepared when going into a fight. She just hoped it would be enough.
“Very well,” he said. “Now, I need to get back to the bridge. I need to brief Lieutenant Swan on this new development.”
“Need a lift?”
“No, thank you,” he replied, wincing. “I managed to find the elevator.”
“Aww,” she grinned, as he trotted away.
Flurry looked over to Flintlock and his squads, currently trying to stay out of the way of the technicians and the large piece of equipment sitting in the cargo hold.
“Are you going to be okay sitting in with this thing?” she asked.
Flintlock shrugged. “Shouldn’t be a problem. Our equipment is shielded, so it won’t hamper the mission.” His tone hardened as his gaze fell on Fire Hawk, who was currently reaching a tentative hoof to prod the new arrival. “Provided somepony doesn’t start poking at it.”
“Tingly,” the kirin murmured before being dragged away by her squadmates.
“I’d best get up to the flight deck and get us ready,” Flurry said. “Might as well see what these techies are doing to my ship.”
<=======ooO Ooo=======>
They were ready.
In the Dream’s hold, Flintlock’s marines were lined up, now fully armed and armoured, their faces and manes hidden beneath pressure-sealed helmets. Only the cutie marks or personal insignia painted on their flanks distinguished one pony from the other.
Flintlock was going through a final briefing with them before they set off. The airlocks and other entry points to the Orion were covered again and again, to ensure everypony knew exactly what to do.
Flurry watched through the Dream’s cameras from the flight deck as they went over their plans. Now linked to her ship from the flight couch, she could see everything, inside and out. She hoped to go aboard the Orion herself with Flintlock’s marines when they docked, but it all depended on how much resistance they faced. As much as she hated it, she was just a glorified bus driver for this job.
Flurry flicked to the exterior sensors to watch what was going on outside. Swan Song and her flight were waiting in their ships, their engines idling on their launch catapults. Behind them, the rest of her squadron as well as Rapier waited for their turns. The air rippled with heat coming from their propulsion systems, and the whine of engines was deafening.
All preparations were made, and now, all she could do was wait for Oakheart to set them loose.
She checked the clock. It had been twenty minutes since Oak had signalled the alert. Her heart was screaming at her to just launch now, but she held it in check. This was a group effort now, and everypony had a part to play.
Suddenly, the comms system lit up and Oakheart appeared before her.
“Have you heard anything?” she asked, the hope and fear in her voice surprising her.
He shook his head. “We’ve not been able to raise the Orion.” There was an edge to his voice, and his jaw clenched. “We’re now cruising fast through highly compressed space between stars. From here, you can take your pick of several routes if you know the way. You’ll take off along with Sabre and Rapier squadrons and get to the Orion as fast as you can.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Relax, captain, I know Dragon’s Head like the back of my hoof.”
“The Glorium will continue at best possible speed, but you’ll be on your own out there until we can catch up,” he continued.
She smiled. “I’ll try and leave you something to do when you arrive.”
“I don’t doubt it,” he said, smiling slightly. “Good luck and good hunting. Launch when ready.”
He gave her a sharp salute, before the window closed and she was left alone once again. She felt elation to be finally setting off, but it was tempered by the uncertainty of what she would face when they arrived.
Outside, the ground crews were clearing out of the Dream’s path as the carrier’s bay doors began to slide open.
She spoke into the intercom, and her voice crackled over the cargo hold’s PA system. “Okay, everypony… we’re launching now, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Our inflight entertainment involves staring at the sparkling box.”
Flintlock looked up to one of the nearby cameras and gave a nod before hunkering down with his ponies.
With a gentle beat of her wings, the Dream lifted off its landing gear and angled itself towards the Glorium’s open maw and mirrorspace beyond.
“Here we go, Whammy,” she said, tilting her wings and bringing them down slowly, earning a deep rumble from the Dream as its engines roared to life.
The docking bay streaked by and was soon replaced by the swirling, inky mass of mirrorspace. She pulled away from the carrier, getting a fair distance before turning to face it.
Flurry watched as Swan’s fighters roared out like missiles from ports in the leading edges of the Glorium’s wings. It was like watching a flock of birds preparing for migration as each ship formed up in a broad V formation behind her. They were soon joined by a second wave launched from the Glorium, making for an impressive sight.
Twenty-four Swallow fighters gathered in two parallel V formations. For a bunch of semi-green pilots, it was quite a feat of precision flying. Swan had taught them well.
“Sabre lead, this is the Fleeting Dream, do you copy?” she called over the radio. She might as well keep things professional.
“I copy,” Swan Song replied, her helmeted face appearing in a small vid window. “Sabre flight, form up around the Dream. Rapier flight, take up position behind us.”
Flurry spun the Dream around, turning to face their distant destination. Even at this distance, she could feel the faint ripples in mirrorspace from the nearby star systems. She quickly cycled through the gravitational data held in the Dream’s navigation golem, selecting the steady pulse linked to the Huerth system’s star.
Now, all she had to do was plot a course. It was very much like navigating an ocean covered in whirlpools, each one generated by a star. She would have to be careful to keep her distance, lest they get caught in the gravity wells and lose speed. They couldn’t afford any delays.
With her trained senses, she felt every ripple and current, seeking out the winding path of highest compression between stars, which would shorten their travel distance.
She swallowed. “I’ve found us a path. I’ll take the lead and start correlating nav data for the Glorium.”
“I copy,” Swan replied.
With a quick beat of her wings, she pulled to the head of the formation and set a course for the Huerth system, following the star’s steady heartbeat. The Dream surged forward, the deep rumble of the engines rising to a higher pitch. Her ship felt lighter and more responsive than before, a sign of the work they’d carried out on her. One engine was no longer slightly lagging behind the others, and a vibration that had been bugging her for weeks was gone.
“Not bad,” she commented, keeping herself off the radio. “Looks like Amby has some competition. Just glad I’m not footing the bill for it.”
She could almost feel an ‘I told you so’ emanating from Whammy.
Through her sensors, she could see Swan and her group lagging behind. “Best hurry up, slowpokes.”
“Damn, I didn’t think that rust bucket was that fast,” Blitz said through the comms.
“Don’t let her looks deceive you,” Flurry replied. “She might be old, but the Dream still has some legs on her.”
The Glorium was soon lost in the gloom as their formation ploughed on into the murk. There was only a flitter of nervous chatter amongst the formation, with everypony focused on traversing the immaterium as quickly as possible. Mirrorspace was a dangerous place, especially for a ship with no means of getting out again, so they stayed as close as they could to the Dream.
As they neared the Huerth system, her sensors began to pick up faint gravity shadows in the currents of mirrorspace. To the untrained eye, these shadows were a blurred mess of flickering peaks and troughs, but to a navigator, these were planets and moons.
Lighting up her horn, Flurry sifted through the data, creating an image of what lay beyond in realspace.
There were several massive shadows, each creating whirlpools of energy which she knew to be the planets that made up the Huerth system. Nyx’s distress signal had originated from within a dense patch surrounding the fifth planet of the system. Stretching her senses, she could feel the crowded asteroid field up ahead, like grains of sand in her hooves, shifting in the current.
And sitting right in the middle of it all, was the Orion.
The Orion was certainly massive, creating a far deeper shadow than most of the surrounding asteroids. Flurry tried to sense the other ship which Nyx had mentioned, but the readings weren’t clear enough to find it. The smaller ship would be easily lost amongst the turbulence created in the asteroid field.
Now that she knew where the Orion was, she just had to find a safe place where they could jump in.
This was what separated your average guilder from a master. With her trained senses, she could feel the faint current passing between each rock. It was like looking for stones hidden beneath the surface of a river before jumping in, with only the water’s flow as a guide. Most navigators spent all their time stuck to gates or open space because of the risks of collision, but Flurry wasn’t your average navigator.
“So… Flurry Heart, you’ve done this a lot, right?” Blitz asked.
“Sabre Two, stay off the line,” Swan warned.
“Come on, it’s our necks on the line here,” he retorted, a little trepidation in his voice.
“Oh, I’ve done this plenty of times and into places a lot more crowded than this,” Flurry assured. “Why do you think I’m so hard to catch?”
“And it’s never gone wrong?” he continued.
“Nope,” she lied.
“That’s a relief,” he said with a sigh. “The sooner we’re out of here the better.”
“Maybe if you stopped distracting her, we’ll get out faster,” Swan grumbled. “And preferably not with a face full of asteroid.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Flurry replied, with a smirk as she found what she was looking for.
There it was. A decent sized gap sat between several asteroid shadows, maybe fifty kilocanters wide in realspace, a fair distance from the Orion. More than enough for the squadrons to slip in.
She carefully catalogued her readings before transmitting the tactical situation back to the Glorium.
“Okay, everypony, come get yourselves topped up before we jump in,” Flurry announced. “Momma cow is waitin’ for ya.”
“Form up into groups of four,” Swan said. “We’ll refuel one group at a time. Remember, we’ve got a limited amount, so take sips, not gulps.”
There was a chorus of acknowledgements from her wingmates, and soon they were maneuvering into position around the Dream.
It was awkward at first. They had to get close to be in range of the recharge emitter, but they quickly got the hang of it, and soon, things were moving smoothly. Flurry winced as she felt the CAPS bank begin to draw energy from the Dream’s Nexus core.
Soon, every ship had completed its refueling, and they once again moved back into formation.
“Okay, opening a jump point now,” Flurry said, focusing her thaumatic energy into the Dream’s jump drive. “Keep clear of the jump point—I don’t want any of you getting sucked out when the vortex opens.”
“Jump drive charging,” the Dream intoned, the hum growing until it reached a fever pitch. “Ready to engage.”
There was an extra draw for a moment through her link as the drive drew more energy from the ship’s core. This time, keeping the jump portal open long enough for other ships to pass through would require a fair bit more energy than she was comfortable spending.
As the energy buildup reached critical mass, she channeled it to a point a few hundred canters in front of her ship. The spell finished, and a tear opened up in the fabric of mirrorspace, showing the black expanse of realspace beyond.
Thrusting forward, the Dream streaked through the rift, and Flurry found herself deep within the asteroid field.
Immediately, proximity warning alarms filled her displays as a veritable mountain of rock loomed ahead of her. It was almost completely black, cloaked in shadow as it barreled towards her.
Throwing the Dream into a skid, she felt the slight tug of G forces as she fired off her reversing engines to slow her forward momentum. Her eyes widened as she saw the clouds of dust and ice being kicked up by her jets.
She let out a sigh of relief. “That was close, eh Whammy?”
“Sabre flight, brake as soon as you exit,” she warned. “So long as you come out slow, you should be fine.”
“We’re coming through now,” Swan responded.
From the portal, the first six fighters emerged, clouds of evaporating etherium billowing off their wings like steam from a vent. They quickly spun and used the thrust from their engines to slow themselves down.
“You weren’t kidding when you said it was close fit,” Swan commented, pulling up beside the Dream. “Remaining Sabre ships, you’re up.”
It was a tentative thing. like a herd of animals crossing a river. Their fighters came through carefully in groups of six. Meanwhile, Flurry maintained the energy output necessary to keep the jump point open.
As Rapier squadron was making its way through, Flurry kept her eyes open for any company in the surrounding area. They were at their most vulnerable as they were filtering in, which was why she had jumped in behind cover. Even so, somepony could have easily picked up the energy spike by now, and yet nothing came to confront them.
Flurry was thankful for that, as it gave them the time needed for the last of their ships to jump in. Soon, every ship was through, and they gathered in the shadow of a large asteroid.
“Rapier flight, you hang back while we go and check out the area,” Swan ordered, her voice clear and level. “Fleeting Dream, you’re with us.”
Nerves haven’t got to her, that’s good, Flurry mused.
“Right with you,” Flurry said, giving a gentle beat of her wings to join the rest of the squadron as it crested the top of the asteroid.
“Should we try and raise the Orion?” came a mare’s voice that Flurry recognised from the briefing—Cinnamon something.
“I doubt they’d have enough power to respond by now even if they wanted to,” Blitz replied.
“Keep your eyes and ears peeled,” Swan warned. “Whatever attacked the Orion has got to be close by.”
In the distance, off her port wing, the green marble of a massive gas giant loomed in the starry sky, partially illuminated by the sun’s harsh light. It looked almost inviting with its puffy white clouds scattered across its surface.
Several large asteroids obscured their view of the path ahead. A particularly large one had a massive hole bored right through it. The hole was easily big enough to fit an Alliance frigate inside with room to spare. The bore hole was too circular to be a meteor impact, and strange patterns rippled from its edges where the rock had been melted and then quickly cooled. The inside of the hole glistened with shards of black glass, the stone crystallized by whatever force had done this.
Flurry had seen the aftermath of enough battles by now to recognise the effects of an energy weapon, but something of this scale was unheard of, even in the Federation. It had to have come from the Orion. What kind of monstrosity was she commanding, and why?
Surrounding the asteroid was a glittering cloud of metal fragments, mostly hoof-sized or smaller, with only a few substantial chunks no bigger than one of the Swallow fighters. She began to recognise structures within the debris as they approached the field. A portion of outer hull, buckled outward by the explosion. An array of shattered gas cylinders, clinging to a twisted internal bulkhead. Some pieces still sparked faintly with electrical power from dying batteries.
“Sabre Lead, picking up residual radiation sources from the debris—definitely a ship,” a stallion commented, his voice quiet, almost a whisper. “It’s too big to go around. We’ll have to pass through it.”
“I read you, Sabre Four,” Swan acknowledged, her voice a bit shaken at the scene. “Looks like this is what’s left of the Houndrathi ship. Keep it slow and be careful you don’t let that crap clog your thrusters.”
As they passed through, it was like going into a hail storm, only with bits of metal rattling against their canopies and fuselages. Some of the larger pieces were corroded and didn’t even seem to have come from the same ship. This was typical of a houndrathi’s ramshackle starship construction—just a collection of whatever they could find, welded together. Flurry almost felt pity for them being pitted against her cousin like they had. The only solace she had was that the destruction was total and the creatures’ deaths had been swift.
“By the Winds, what do you think did this?” one of the younger pilots gasped.
“If you’re lucky, I’ll introduce you to her,” Flurry joked.
“A pony did this?”
“She’s related to Last Shadow so anything’s possible,” another commented.
Flurry winced. She really hoped they wouldn’t tar Nyx with the same brush as her, especially given Nyx’s… unique appearance.
“Sabre squadron, we’re getting close. Make sure you’re ready for anything,” Swan called out as the field began to thin.
“Copy, Sabre Lead,” came a chorus of replies one by one.
They circled around the asteroid, and Flurry wasn’t alone in gasping audibly when the Orion came into view. Flurry had glossed over some of the schematics prepared for the briefing, but she still wasn’t ready for the sheer size of the ship before her.
The Orion was massive, making even the Centipede bulk carrier she had ‘borrowed’ from earlier seem small in comparison. It was of a radical design, far different from anything she had seen before throughout the colonies.
The bow of the ship was a flattened wedge, connected to the main hull of the ship by a long, slender neck. Three huge forward swept wings flared out from the main fuselage at equal angles, a dorsal wing sitting atop a superstructure with the other two angled down at her sides.
A pair of sleek engine pods were nestled on either side of the rear of the dorsal wing, with another two on the lower hull. Like Harmony, Flurry could recognise the touch of each of the three tribal styles on her, only far more refined. The practical earth pony construction of the hull blended seamlessly into the more dramatic and aesthetic nuances of the pegasus and unicorn tribes.
One feature that drew Flurry’s eye was the aperture built into the Orion’s bow. It was easily wide enough to fit a train car through, and from the empty mountings around it, there was more than enough room for additional weapons to be installed.
Flurry pushed her questions aside as she focused on the Orion’s condition. There were no running lights on the massive ship, and the Orion simply hung haphazardly in space, rotating slightly around its centre of mass. Flurry could see impact dents on sections of the hull from asteroid collisions, but there was no serious damage on the hull. Her drab grey hull was missing sections in places, likely meant to be installed after she arrived at Harmony.
Flurry felt a surge of relief at what appeared to be minimal damage. This quickly faded when she saw something move out from behind the Orion. It was only a fraction of the size of the massive ship, and at first glance, it looked to be the Alliance cruiser they were expecting.
Then, she saw the strange blue-green growths encrusting the cruiser’s boxy hull, giving the vessel a bloated, ungainly appearance, like it was infected with cancerous growths. The cruiser was latched onto the Orion by a multitude of umbilical tubes, shooting into the disabled ship’s hull like the proboscis of some spacefaring parasite.
A swarm of Shuriken drones buzzed around, circling the Orion like a pack of wolves around a wounded animal.
They’ve already started boarding her! Flurry gasped.
For the moment, there were no hostile scans in their direction. Now, if they could only—
“Attention, unidentified vessel: This is Harmony Security patrol,” Swan announced on open comms. “We are responding to a distress call. State your intentions or you shall be considered hostile. Acknowledge.”
Flurry winced as she watched the cruiser’s sensors stir to life and scan in their direction.
It was times like this she hated siding with the good guys.
Curious to hear why Flurry thinks of Twilight this way (inb4 Twilight is taking after 4d-chess Celestia as some people portray her, but death of the author/the curtains are blue/etc.). Wonder if Twilight even knew Flurry was going to be there (unless there was a hint that I forgot about).
It'd be interesting to see what Flurry does if it comes down to deciding between asking Twilight for help or losing her freedom and her life. It'd certainly be a nice feel-good ending if Flurry got to make up with Twilight by the end of the story, but that doesn't seem particularly likely.
Wonder what the failure modes were in those cases.
So there's the other ship on the cover art.
Probably should have agreed on an approach before leaving the Glorium, but it's a bit late for that.
Time to see just how badly outmatched our heroes are. Hope there aren't too many casualties.
Well, here we go
i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/f6/41/bdf6413bd5e47390e33941f2ed4ab51d.gif
10261897
10261904
Yes this i well known, and they are all signs of failure and corruption of the Initiative. How do you think this will look to outside after all is said and done? Flurry Heart came to the station under guaranteed protection and now is bound to slavers who defend it, she had to sell herself to slavery to rescue the child of the Initiatives DIRECTOR!
The whole if the Initiative will become a joke and no one can trust it for safety, security or any reasonable action again. In essence Twilight's failure of action and control will greatly damage the whole project.
After this all comes out who could ever trust it? Flurry Heart despite being wanted mare came under protection to help the child of the Director of the initiative and was forced to do all this to respond to a distress call in proper way?
How could anyone trust the station to be capable of moral and resolute action anymore when this all comes out?
10261926
But I highlighted text which demonstrates that they got something other than what they agreed to. The Republic sent them slaves instead of trained military officers. And they weren't happy about it. And the Director is presently in the capital of the Republic, speaking with the Emperor to get this debacle corrected. That's not corruption within the Initiative, but within the Republic.
That assumes nothing is being done about it. This is how drama works. The impression the story gives is one thing, making it look either hopeless or like things are heading in a terrible direction. But then, through the efforts of the characters, a different path is struck. It is in reading the story which one finds out just how this occurs. That's part of the journey.
There are many factors already given in the story which are ignored in making this statement. Flurry never assumed she needed any "protection". Oak was referring to a legal protection, which would essentially force Merry to leave her alone. But because she deliberately went behind Oak's back to do this, Harmony's laws can't force such a thing. That's not Harmony's fault, it's Flurry's. And Flurry is known for being impulsive and reckless to get something done that she's passionate about. Also, saying "child" here gives very much the wrong impression. It is clear who Nyx is, and she's not some helpless waif who is the subject of reckless whims. Yeah she's the daughter of the director, but she's also one of the single most dangerous ponies in the galaxy on an individual basis.
If the mission fails, I suppose. But that's a curious assumption to take. Again, the entire negative situation was created by bad circumstance rather than bad intentions or bad planning. Also, nobody's perfect, and Harmony station isn't supposed to be flawless -- far from it. That's why there's a dramatic story or five centered around this place.
Except none of this was their fault, as has been demonstrated. One cannot prevent all bad things from happening, nor prevent people from making bad decisions. That's just life.
Lastly, it has been said that the whole point of Harmony station is to bring these disparate groups together. Two of them have just gotten out of a long and bloody war. It is understandable that things are going to be quite unstable for some time until these groups can learn to work together. That's part of the drama of the purpose of the station to begin with.
I get that your main objection is that Twilight screwed up and now who can trust her. But really, has she screwed up? Think about it from her perspective. She wasn't even on station when Flurry showed up. She was off taking care of the whole slave problem while Nyx's ship was attacked and estranged/rogue Flurry showed up out of nowhere. With a grudge against Twilight, no less. What exactly could Twilight have done better under these circumstances?
10261940
Twilight should have made a command hierarchy in the station that follows order of its leader. There appears to be two factions of ships providing support to the station and both of these decided that they will not render aid to distress call due to the personal misgivings of their leadership.
This in itself is a failure of leadership, Twilight has left someone in charge someone who is unable to command those under him, Oakheart is has to resort to BARGAINING with the forces under his command to respond to a distress call the other faction blatantly stated it will not follow his orders. This is not something that should ever be allowed to happen in any hierarchy, position of Flurry Heart be damned. I understand they might have an ability to do so but is that is true Harmony station does not have ability to act, merely be impotent actor who must resort to begging for help.
Even if the mission goes smoothly and all will turn out well the fact remains that in a Harmony station someone who was promised protection was forced to sell herself to slavery to have them respond to a distress call. This kind of shameful display if something that can and will be used against it for long long while, i can just imagine the stories which would be growing more and more about the "Slave Guards of Harmony" long after all the issues of the military command structure have been settled and things move forward.
If the station is all about bringing people together it needs to be able to bite back a bit every now and then, what kind of signal does this whole thing would give to diplomats or refugees seeking protection? Station whose Captain needs to grovel to its own forces in order to get to deploy? You cannot prevent bad things from happening but in this case failure is so profound that in my mind it casts massive shadow on the whole project, even if all things would end up working well.
But well this is just my thinking take it as you may, i still think that my initial assessment was quite correct.
And the battle begins.
10262014
As Recon pointed out, what Harmony Station got was not what Twilight had expected (or presumably asked for). If the Republic had sent a proper military unit with the appropriate orders, sure, Oakheart might have had the authority to order them to conduct the rescue mission and Flurry wouldn't have needed to resort to selling herself into Merry's service as a blackwing. Harmony Station got mercenaries instead, under very different orders. I'm not sure why you think the pegasi sending mercenaries instead of standard military is Twilight's fault.
IIRC the earth ponies/zebra were there to deliver supplies/equipment and chances are they technically don't fall under Oakheart's chain of command.
Alternatively, the pegasi could catch the blame for skimping on their promises and sending greedy mercenaries whose only concern is their own profit.
You really think Twi would've gone to such lengths to try and make it happen if it wasn't?
Oh good, that's still on the agenda. Just making sure. It is, after all, the most important step to take in all of this.
She's going to ask Twilight for help before this is all over, isn't she? Better get started at handing out the parkas to everybody in Tartarus now, then.
Besides...Twi probably noticed her black wings during that incident in the briefing room and might've already put two with two, if not already been informed on what has happened (or asked to be filled in by somepony else), and is probably already working through possible solutions to the problem herself...just in case.
Not an option. Seriously, I will flip a table if that happens, and considering I almost never do that...I think the rest is self-explanatory.
Swan...didn't they run you through on the concept of stealth in space fighting school?
10261868
Ah, fanfiction...it knows what I want.
10262014
You're talking as if all the factions involved have a common hierarchy. They don't. The Pegasus Republic and Earth Pony Alliance just finished a massive and bloody war with one another. Cooperation is nigh nonexistent at this point, and Twi's initiative is desperately trying to give them some common ground to work with. How in the world do you interpret this as a failure on her part when the conflicts are pre-existing? The PR and EPA ships that are both servicing the station at the start of the story would likely much rather be just shooting at one another than doing anything cooperative. But their governments both signed the Harmony Initiative, which means that there are orders in place which give legal authority to the station in its own jurisdiction... but legal authority only goes as far as those enforcing the laws are willing to participate. This is like juggling while walking a tightrope. I honestly have no idea how you're unable to see the tenuous predicament that this causes. If you're going to say "Twilight failed" then you might as well be equivalently saying "Twilight should never have attempted to get these groups to find common ground and work together at all and should have just left them to their own devices and indignation".
Yeah, as I said, the tensions are already quite high. Their misgivings are more against one another than "their leadership". Neither group of ships have unquestioned loyalty toward the station. That's the premise which you seem to have missed. The EPA ships would much rather just shoot Flurry down and don't give a shit about an Equus Commonwealth ship in distress in some other star system. It was even shown that they had to load Flurry's ship onto the carrier in secret to make sure the EPA doesn't catch wind because the Alliance cruiser sitting outside the station delivering its defense grid would quite happily shoot down the PR carrier departing for the mission simply because they have Flurry aboard. That's how high tensions are. The Harmony Initiative is like stepping into a brawl and saying "hey hey let's all get along, okay?" Just because you say that doesn't instantaneously make the brawling parties stop and go "Oh. oh yes, I guess you're right. Thanks for helping us see the light, Twilight". That might work in MLP, but MLP is a kid's show. If you think this is how things work in real life, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's not.
Again, you're failing to realize that neither the EPA nor the PR are under Harmony's authority. You seem to be envisioning this hierarchy which does not exist. They have, at best, secured the peaceful cooperation of these two parties... not their unquestioned pledge of devotion. Their governments signed the contract, and thus the ships are there. Both governments have a very "meh okay we'll try it" attitude and are playing along. But if one of their captains decided fuck it, I'm shooting at that enemy" it's not like Harmony has the authority to penalize the offending ship's government. Honestly, you're taking a weirdly idealistic approach to the idea of hierarchy. You don't seem to understand how things work when you're not dealing with a common authority which all parties are disciplined to remain loyal to and infractions are dealt with using punitive forces that all parties are subject to.
You may have missed the part where "Harmony Station is just starting up". This whole thing is JUST getting established as this story is taking place. It's not like they have been established for years and have their own independent military police that is going to enforce order between all parties. Things are only just now getting to the point of tenuous cooperation. Also, you seem to have missed this part:
It doesn't take a lot to see what is going on here. Merry is not under any contractual obligation to conduct rescue operations in other star systems. That is why Oak resorted to "begging for help". This is a critical plot point you seem to have missed here. IF the emergency was within the Avalon star system, then yes, Merry would have been contractually obligated to give aid. But it isn't.
From Merry's point of view, he's under no obligation at all to jaunt around the nebula, giving aid to whomever Oak declares as needing it. Merry's ultimate authority is the PR emperor Stratos, not Oakheart. From his pov, he's just doing a job. His contract does not stipulate that Merry is under the full and entire command of Harmony control. He never would have agreed to that. And this is where we get back to Harmony getting something other than what was agreed to from the Republic. They were expecting trained military pilots and they got slaves owned by a PR mercenary who is only playing along to the extent that it suits him.
I honestly have no idea how these facts have escaped you, as the story has laid the situation out quite plainly. You seem to be applying rules and assumptions to the scenario which you have made up yourself as if it is a foregone conclusion that all parties would just fall in line and do whatever Harmony control says.
Why is it you are now ignoring facts I have already given you, causing me to have to repeat myself? I have already pointed out multiple times, including quotes right out of the story, that Flurry did this of her own free will. She went behind Oak's back and took on the slave burden. This was not something any sort of "protection" could have prevented. That is made quite clear in the story itself, at least twice. You seem to have a misunderstanding of what the phrase "promised protection" means. It means that she will be treated equally under the local law and not immediately arrested for her crimes against the EPA and PR, both of which are quite eager to take her down. "Protection" means that as long as she doesn't do anything stupid, things should be fine. But guess what? She did something stupid, and now, that protection has been lost.
What? You act like Harmony agreed to having a slaver onboard running his own little harem. It was stated clearly, in the story, that what they got was not what was promised or what was ordered. Your claim here is like ordering a burger from McDonald's and getting a shit sandwich. Then your friends mocking you for ordering a shit sandwich. No... it's not your fault, it's McDonald's. And if while you are parked at the front of McD and stepping inside to complain to Management about it, someone comes along and slashes your car tires, that is not your fault either.
Yeah, and once they finish setting up and getting established, that's exactly what things will be like. But you're forgetting again that this station is still just barely operational. The story has made it clear already that it is even still under construction and most of the security in place is specifically to keep things smooth during the setup phase. You're acting like Harmony is this long-established force in the area and a well-oiled machine. It isn't. It was never depicted as being. Things are still being set up. Your expectations are out of touch with the established premise.
Again, Oak is trying to get Merry to do something which Merry was never contracted to do -- to perform a rescue op in an entirely other star system far away. Why would Merry agree to do this? To put his pilots and equipment in harm's way for something he never signed up for? From his perspective, he is perfectly within his rights to refuse. Though he did see the opportunity to snag the famed brigand Flurry Heart as his own personal slave if they were desperate enough for his help. This is a perfectly plausible scenario, and it takes a deliberate ignoring of the established premise to not see this.
10262341
... I just wanna reply to the last point. No. No they didn't really teach Swan anything beyond "This is your cockpit, this is what this does, this is what that does. Here's how you shoot down the bad guy, you filthy Blackwing. Now Get Good."
10262648
Ha-ha, I could definitely see that.
But in all fairness, I think she does more than know the importance of stealth--various other moments before now in the story suggest that and that she has an appreciation for it and knows of its uses. Instead, I think her need to be "by the book" unwisely overruled at a bad time in this instance.
10262659
Yeah, she really stuck her hoof in her mouth that time.
This is what happens when people follow a procedure they read in a book at some point rather than using their intuition.
10262615
Now let me address part of your response, in no particular order. Just a note this is not aimed against you or the author just some things which quite often annoy me in stories where things like this emerge. I am quite surprised how you fail to see that this is failure of organization and serious blow to the station and Initiatives reputation.
Flurry did not do this under her free will she did it under duress, she was trying to get officials with duty of responsibility to respond to a distress call (unsure about legal burdens, but my guess is that it is similar to naval distress call in which not responding to it is a serious crime) and they failed to do so because the security forces they relied on refused to act. (Depending on legal parts these fleets could be in breach of laws.)
Under this situation not many non-corrupt court systems would find this contract to be binding and in my mind see that Oakheart was negligent when he did not immediately move to strike it. Likely he could also claim he was acting under duress but that would be its own legal action. Twilight is the person finally in charge in this event and she has to bear responsibility of this event. In essence officials who had duty of care failed to act so Flurry heart had to sell herself to slavery to the people who were supposed to act, this is very definition of corruption and Oakheart did not stop it. Flurry Hearts wishes have nothing to do with the responsibility of Oakheart to act, he chose to let it pass so rescue could be initiated.
It could be that laws of your universe do not work in this manner and refusing to answer distress call does not pose problems in that case carry on and i am in the wrong here.
Local law states that the station defenders can push relays of distress calls to slavery in exchange of action, this is understood.
Thank you for clarifying this and since that is the case Twilight has set up a station without defensive fleet that can be reliably controlled. This is a failure of leadership, could be she has an excuse that the station is just spinning up but to not have any emergency power clauses to pull means that defenses of the station were poorly planned. And this can not be anyone else's fault but the Initiatives director.
The station indeed agreed to have slavers onboard the moment they let them set up shop and started to use them as security service. There is plenty of blame to go around on this matter, some of it is on the station. Quite likely this will also be blamed on the Empire, since these apparently are best they are able to send. This however does not mean that it will not look any less bad for the station and its aims.
Could be i have wrong idea of station capabilities. In my mind having ability to project force without selling anyone to slavery would be an hallmark of any competent construction site in space which appears to be less than secure since there are pirates, renegades and slavers running about.
This is well understood, Merry is not doing anything wrong in this case if he has the legal backing to do so and there are no legal matters relating to responding to distress calls (I am unsure what is diplomatic status of Nyx, depending on his diplomatic status failure to render aid could also be in itself large diplomatic incident.) But for him to have a contract that allows him to blatantly state that he will not comply with the station commands requests means that his contract, which Twilight has been part of creating is inadequate. This cannot be anyone else's fault than Twilights in the end. Oakheart as stated earlie should have acted to prevent it.
10262283
I am sure stories about the Empires finest which have been sent to Harmony station will also be mentioned, the whole affair is juicy gossip in its entirety and quite likely will be a galactic news due to Flurry Hearts controversial past.
10263848
One of the few things that gets me upset during a debate is when people ignore what I have already stated and make me repeat myself. It's like you're just arguing for the sake of arguing at that point. I have already explained that the station is just getting started. They do not have the backing of a large and organized authority in what is currently their relatively young and tenuous jurisdiction. I have already explained this, and yet you persist in pretending that I have not. That is upsetting.
Maybe you can explain to me precisely what you think the Harmony station authorities could have done better? Rather than giving criticism based on your interpretation of the local circumstances and hierarchies, go ahead and take a stab at how you think these characters could have done better and still succeeded... Go ahead. Give it a shot. But don't be surprised if I am able to poke just as many holes in it and explain to you precisely why their choices would have resulted in failure.
Semantics. It was still a choice she made without Oakheart's knowledge or approval. She still took the enchantment willingly, and that fact gives it power.
Well that depends on how the enchantment works now, doesn't it? There are many situations in life which you can unwisely choose a path which you are now stuck in and none of your advocates can do anything about it. That is LIFE. And I would think you would be aware of this.
See how you are just making up your own logic and rules here? You think that just because she's the director of Harmony that she somehow has power over these other entities? What exactly is she supposed to do? Do you think the Pegasus Republic gives a shit what she insists they fix? Do you think the Alliance will help? Why would they? No, really, why would they? These are independent factions, not subject to Twilight's demands. The PR could just as easily say "Fuck off then with your contract, we're out" and simply abandon everything she's been working toward. Yeah good idea.
Again, easy for you to say when you haven't offered a better course of action they could have taken.
It all comes back to the same question... What do you think they could have done better in this situation? You really need to answer this. You don't seem to understand that stories are written to depict difficult and tense situations which characters must find a way to work through. Your approach all along is that they should have simply avoided this predicament. HOW?!! How exactly would that have been possible? You can't accuse characters of making poor decisions IF there were not better alternatives to make. And even if you could, you also must consider characterization. Flurry, in this story, is impulsive and cocksure. That is part of who she is. So it is consistent that she behaves in such a manner. How else do you think it could have gone?
That's the first sensible thing you've said during this conversation.
Absolutely none of the parties involved are under any obligation to answer a distress call in a far away star system just because the people at Harmony station want them to.
Is this supposed to be sarcasm? If Flurry chose to take the blackwing enchantment, regardless of her reasons for doing so, that is not something anyone can simply handwave away. There are much bigger powers at play here than the station authorities and local laws. The PR does not give two shits about Harmony's laws, and Harmony does not have the military strength to make them bend the knee.
Yeah well, quite a lot of people said she was crazy for trying. If you recall back in chapter one, Flurry herself notes what she has heard of this Harmony Initiative. Calling them "Those Initiative fools". It is not an uncommon opinion that the project was a bad idea. But again, what is the alternative? The colonies have split into factions and devolved into perpetual conflict. Twilight's vision for ponykind has always been to restore unity. She feels compelled to do this and it is her life's goal to see it through. You have to at least give credit for that. Yes, she began with a defensive fleet that cannot be reliably controlled. Though she did try the contract route. The PR promised trained military pilots and instead offloaded a bunch of extras onto them. You're making me repeat myself again, which is upsetting.
Ever see the movie the Money Pit? It's a rather amusing 80's comedy about Tom Hanks hiring a bunch of contractors to fix up a large house that is falling apart. The contractors show up and just start "working" and the whole movie depicts the clusterfuck that ensues because he's really now in over his head and they have all set up shop in a way that he tries desperately to control.
It's kind of like that. Merry and his crew show up and the Harmony people are like "WTF is this?" With all the construction and thousands of sub-projects going on, it's not like everyone was there asking questions like "Okay so are you slavers? Just making sure." Merry probably put on quite a professional show, making like he was legitimately what Twilight asked for. Then, once he got established and set up his little fiefdom, it was too late. Not everyone is transparent and honest when they show up to do the job you asked them to do. It's a good life lesson to learn this.
Oh they have better they could have sent. But what is their motivation for parting with quality fighters when they can offload a bunch of degenerates that are just a burden on their own system anyway? You're really not seeing the bigger picture here. There is a lot of political play going on, and everyone has their own motives that you're not considering.
More sensible words. It is appreciated. But yes, that is exactly the situation. This is a far more complex and fleshed out story universe than you have given it credit for. We've spent years having 'what if' discussions so maybe just sit back and enjoy the ride.
The entire station was a gambit. Initial negotiations went well enough to give them the confidence that everyone would cooperate. And you know what? For the most part, they have. The station got built, after all. Disparate parties have begun getting along in ways previously impossible. It is mostly working. There are just a few exceptions, such as the situation with Merry Weather.
There you go. See, you're catching on, albeit slowly. Merry is a slimeball and has a talent for generating ire in good honest people wherever he goes. But yeah, in this particular situation, he is under no obligation to send his assets out to perform a rescue operation light years away when that was never part of his job description.
Ahh there you go again with the idealism. And have you thought of how such negotiations would have looked? Twilight says to the PR emperor that the forces he sends must be willing to project their strength to far away star systems and alien jurisdictions just because Harmony says 'go' ??? And what if the emperor said "fuck off, we're not committing to that?" Then what? Twilight's negotiation advisers would likely have said "okay okay just protect the Avalon system." How is this unrealistic?
Again, you're slowly catching on, but you are still using a heavy dose of personal idealism here. You really must consider that in this set of circumstances, you'd be hard pressed to find a better choice of actions anyone present could have done which would have resulted in the rescue of the ship in question.
Consider a real-life situation where someone reports a distress call in the South China Sea to the US Coast Guard (or other suitably distant local authority). Would the local authorities be obligated to respond to a distress call on the other side of the globe?
Merry might see things in a similar way. He has orders to protect the local area, and the distress call is in a distant-enough system that responding isn't a trivial matter.
What exactly would you have had Oakheart do to "strike" an agreement he was never a part of? The story makes it quite clear that Flurry went behind Oakheart's back. He could protest all he wants, but if Flurry and Merry both have come to an agreement there's pretty much nothing he could have done.
This really feels like you're not trying to hold a conversation in good faith. That is not at all what Recon said.
In short, Harmony's laws protect you from others. They won't stop you from going off and doing something (potentially stupid) on your own.
Why do you think that this is intentional on Twilight's part? The pegasi sending Merry instead of a proper military group was explicitly stated to be a surprise, and Oakheart later mentioned that Twilight was at the Pegasi capital trying to get things fixed. What, exactly, about that screams "Twilight is incompetent and intentionally arranged for Merry"?
What, would you rather the station be entirely defenseless? As mentioned earlier in the story, there are ore thieves in the region, and miners need some form of protection. Either you halt operations completely, which may not be possible once construction has started, or you live with what the pegasi sent while you get things hashed out. Twilight took the latter option, which is probably the more practical choice.
You're vastly underestimating just how big and empty space is. It's extremely difficult to cordon off a volume entirely, especially given Harmony Station's very limited resources, and that task becomes nigh impossible if the rabble you're trying to keep out has access to jump drives.
10264523
Could be he could have done nothing that would have had effect, but he is the captain of the station of which these forces are contracted to protect. Even if he does not have direct control over them he has responsibility over their actions as long as he tolerates them as part of the station defense forces.
Protesting likely might have been an futile action to do but failing to do so is sign of consenting to the agreement. If he was not a captain, these forces would not be affiliated with the station and Flurry were not given protection this would not be a problem.
To be honest it could have been said in better fashion but Recon has a way of expressing things in manner which i do not really find proper. Problem here is that the the station command sanctions group of defenders which apparently take bribes in order to act. This is very corrupt practice and it is not something any station, which considers itself lawful, should not support, condone or accept. As i understand Merry breaks no laws in doing this but i see that it is likely that command of the station is breaking laws and sacrificing their credibility when they allow it to happen. What kind of precedence do you think this will set? Can the people of the station be assured that they are protected without extra incentives in the future? I think not, this whole situation in my mind has fundamental problems which can only be attributed to bad leadership.
Like stated previously Merry is not at fault here, he is merely using situation and system in manner that brings him profit. Could be Twilight cannot get PR to make a proper contract with her but this means that she has placed all these people on this station on very precarious position. In my mind any competent leader of this kind of project would not start it unless they would have power to act with freedom. It is not only about the hundreds of lives which have now been periled but also the inhabitants and workers of the station.
This could be where misunderstanding lays, i do not think Twilight has intentionally arranged for Merry, she just headed off to settle the matter before reigning in Merry as she should have. She is likely doing things to best of her abilities but this is situation where her poor planning has left hundreds of lives in danger. There could have been some other kind of situation which threatens the lives on the station itself and thanks to the current arrangement they would not be able to act against that problem either.
It is a tough decision yes, she did have one fleet there already and she decided to accept wildcards and now the station is paying the price for it in form of this scandal. It was a practical choice, and indeed it sets precedence that the Initiative is willing to take make practical choices like this. I am not certain about the plot but quite likely those Mercenaries were send to the station for a reason, to slap and test Twilight, she chose to do the practical thing and left the station without preparations.
Yes, and this is why static defense is not an option, you need to have mobile force that can and will project force to its surroundings. You need to make the people who would want to abuse the vulnerability of the construction site afraid of the retaliation strike which WILL come if they push things too far.
10264441
If you wish to hear what i think would have been proper reaction in this situation it would be as follows:
Take the stations discretionary spending budget and hire outside help. Flurry Heart was stated earlier to be working in the price range of 500k, one assumes that hiring her is on the high side of things due to her experience and fame. Twilight person of high status and likely could be able chip in to the funding too. All in all unless the finances of the station are in tatters they could likely afford sufficient strike force to get the job done, and likely Nyx would be able to repay the costs to the station in due time.
If they for some reason lack funds to get this done Flurry Heart has a Jump Drive in her ship which could be used as collateral (Worth 85 Millions in Black Market) or herself if she wants to be dramatic about it, she is worth 50 million after all. And we do have Flurry stating earlier "Money was the only thing that could buy loyalty out here, and she was sorely lacking in that department." This should not the case of the station or Twilight, and as mentioned there is immediate collateral to provide and Twilight quite likely would have other assets to provide for this as well, and might have access to Nyxes accounts as his next of kin. In my mind it would be well within the Character as she already considered calling in favors but chose against it. Calling in those people with job offer would solve her previous problems of reliability.
This would in turn shame both fleets due to their inaction and at the same time form bonds of mutual trust within freelancers of the area providing future opportunities to the station and its folk to deal with this kind of issues without involving politics.
Edit: Not to mention station leadership (or someone few steps lower if they wished for separation) should already made some initial motions with the local non-criminal power players and made some initial contact with them in event they would ever be needed.
Now that i have provided one of the useless ideas on different ways to solving the problem you wished to hear we could get to the rest of your post, some of it does make interesting points but one was above all and it made me realize the nature of discussion we are having.
This made me see that this discussion should not have taken place in the first place, obviously you have a strong vision of how things are and that there was no other options available this could be so, i am just stating how i feel and see this situation take it as you may.
All the best for you.
10265701
I'm not sure I agree with this for multiple reasons. Merry's presence on the station is almost certainly not Oakheart's sole decision, so even if he wanted to kick Merry out (a) he probably doesn't have the authority, and (b) he probably doesn't have the force.
Second, why would he be responsible for their actions if he has no direct control over them and isn't the one who has the sole power to determine whether they stay on the station?
Say you're the head of facilities for a Wall Street trading firm whose trading desk hires someone for $15/hour (making $75-100+/hour is not to uncommon). You don't have any direct control over the trading desk, you were both installed in your positions by higher-ups, and it isn't your sole choice whether they stay in the building. Are you responsible for the hiring decision?
No, of course not!
So why would Oakheart be responsible for the deal between Flurry and Merry?
Third, if Oakheart did have the authority to remove Merry, and then Harmony got attacked, would he be responsible for the destruction of Harmony Station? And if so, would it be a better decision to leave Merry in place or risk the station being destroyed?
Oakheart made his displeasure quite clear to Flurry before the blackwing ritual took place, so he wasn't exactly silent.
The negotiation between Merry and Flurry also took place entirely off-screen, so it's quite possible that Oakheart mounted vigorous protests at the time, but said protests were ignored by both sides.
If Oakheart were not the captain, someone else would be, and that still wouldn't mean that Merry wouldn't be Harmony's defense force. If the pegasi sent Merry, that's the only option Harmony has for a defense force regardless of who the captain of the station is.
What makes you think Harmony station approves of Merry's presence and actions? It's very clear that Harmony's leadership is not at all happy with Merry's presence or actions, and that his stay there is merely a stopgap to ensure other operations can continue while Twilight sorts things out with the Republic leadership.
And again, the issue is that Merry is under absolutely no obligation to act in this specific case. He's being asked to undergo a potentially dangerous operation in a distant star system. For someone solely concerned with their material possessions, it's quite reasonable to expect to be compensated for taking a risk beyond those you were ordered to take.
I doubt Merry would need a bribe to act if Harmony Station itself were under attack.
I think it's far more likely that Twilight and the Republic came to an agreement that Twilight was happy with, after which the Republic sent a force that broke either the letter or the spirit of said agreement. After all, if sending Merry was acceptable for whatever agreement Twilight made, why would she be on the pegasus capital trying to get a proper military force sent instead?
So if it's the Pegasus Republic's fault for breaching the agreement they made and sending an unacceptable force, why is that Twilight's fault, and how would you have expected her to prevent such a thing?
You can make whatever agreement you want, but it doesn't matter if the other party doesn't act in good faith.
In a perfect world, this would be the case, but I believe you're far too idealistic as Twilight likely cannot have asked for total control over the force sent to defend the station. The politics involved here resemble those surrounding real-life international bodies like the United Nations more than those in a single-nation government. In cases like these, you cannot ask for nations to give up a military force to what is effectively a foreign sovereign --- you have to ask them to contribute a force to do what you ask, and if they're unhappy at any point they can simply pull their force out.
What you want Twilight to do is akin to the United Nations asking member nations to place men and materiel under the UN's sole control for an operation. I doubt any nations, especially those on the security council, would agree to such terms. So why would the Pegasus Republic agree to such a thing?
How exactly would she have "reigned in" Merry? She has no authority to countermand the orders from the pegasus emperor, and there's absolutely no guarantee that Merry would have maintained any good appearances after she left. There's also the threat of Merry just straight up packing up and leaving, and leaving the station defenseless like that is probably far worse than leaving Merry there.
Again, if the Pegasus Republic breached its agreement with Twilight, that's not exactly Twilight's fault, is it?
You're wrong here, since Merry's orders were to defend the Avalon system, which Harmony Station resides in. If Harmony Station were attacked, Merry would be obligated to come to the station's defense.
Again, you're wrong here. The Alliance fleet at the station is only there to deliver a defense grid, and is not permanently stationed at Harmony.
And this is also why it's virtually impossible to prevent piracy and other attacks. No static preventative defenses mean that anyone can hop in at any time and try anything they want, and the best you can hope for is that whatever defensive forces you have are enough to handle the incursion. You're never going to be able to outright remove piracy, only deal with it.
Say a squadron of fighters jumps in, blows up a mining rig, and makes off with several hundred tons of ore. They then take it to Broken Bow where they then sell it on the black market.
What, exactly, would "retaliation" against this group look like? You can't retaliate against Broken Bow itself because the vast majority of its denizens likely have no knowledge that this specific group of pirates staged a raid in the first place, let alone were complicit in the raid. The pirates themselves could be several dozen systems away hitting an entirely unrelated system in the meantime.
It's not like nation vs. nation wars on Earth, where the belligerents are well-known ahead of time and retaliatory targets are easy to identify.
There's multiple reasons this would probably not work:
Losing the jump drive is guaranteed to be a non-starter, since without it Flurry loses basically all of her mobility, which means she can't join in on the operation and loses her freedom after the operation is completed.
The drive isn't something that she can replace, either; the Dream's jump drive is basically one-of-a-kind, and if she has a hard time getting funds now, gathering enough to buy the drive back is going to be actually impossible, assuming the new owner actually wants to sell it.
...So selling herself into slavery/to her death? To get convince someone with no obligation to help to mount a rescue? Just like what she did with Merry?
And keep in mind that even if she turns herself in, whoever she turns herself into won't get that 50 million until she's delivered to the pegasi, and that would take far more time than she has. If she turns herself in to the pegasi, then how is that situation any different than the one she's currently in?
So assuming Twilight has those assets in the first place, there's also a good chance they are worthless in this situation since they're either tied up on a faraway planet or can't be delivered in a timely manner otherwise.
If cold, hard cash is what buys loyalty, that's exactly what you need to have. Not promises of assets locked away elsewhere.
And no, bank transfers or the equivalent aren't a complete panacea either because the funds in them can be frozen, and then the mercenary is out of luck. If the mercenary insists on having the funds transferred and then withdrawing the funds first, then that's valuable time that Nyx doesn't have.
You're way too optimistic here. There's literally zero reason for either fleet currently at Harmony station to feel shame. I don't think Merry is capable of it, for one, and this is strictly beyond the scope of the orders of either fleet.
There's also absolutely no reason for a mercenary to think that they'll get to work with Harmony Station in the future, either. How frequently would they expect a one-of-a-kind experimental ship with an alicorn at the helm to get stranded in the local area and need rescuing? For everything else, that's either outside Harmony Station's jurisdiction or it has its own defense force.
10265701
Uh... that's because we authored the damn story. So that kind of makes us authorities on the situation now, doesn't it?
I've been trying to explain to you facts not theories. Duvet and I are the authors of this entire saga. What we say is what is.
The scenarios have all been carefully constructed, and characters make decisions which are both plausible and "in-character" with each person's given traits.
We strive for certain standards in our storytelling. One is internal consistency because that is one of the most important aspects of any story. It is also one aspect which a large number of highly rated professional stories fail miserably with. Do not self-contradict. Two is that the characters are alive. This means that we impose upon characters two things primarily: (a) their personal characteristics, and (b) their circumstances. From here, the characters write their own lines and make their own decisions based on the traits and characteristics we have given them as their creators. This is in contrast with what a large number of authors practice, which is to generate contrivances and force characters to say lines or do actions which are outside the scope of the plausible, just for the sake of 'effect'. We do not practice this. Everything has a good reason.
What I can say unequivocally is that there is much more going on here than you are aware of and what has been revealed in the story thus far. This is not a simple tale with a small number of critical elements. It is a small part of an extremely large and complex web of stories that all interlink. There is a reason for pretty much absolutely everything that happens. And importantly, not everything that happens will make sense at first, but it will later. That is part of the mystery, and most readers understand this enough to give this weird thing you may have heard of called "the benefit of the doubt" while they sit back and enjoy the unfolding tale.
As you have steadfastly resurrected issues which I have already explained, it makes it fairly clear that you're not engaging in the debate in good faith and are practicing a "gish gallop" debating strategy. I have neither the inclination nor time to waste on such things.
So rather than repeat myself by explaining everything to you again in exhaustive detail (because I have told you multiple times that this upsets me), I will just explain to you that we have the situation well and truly at hand. There is absolutely a reason for everything. It is not a mistake that the characters do what they do. They act plausibly, based on their traits and circumstances. And in this case, with the Orion's rescue, any other choices which the characters (especially Flurry) would have made would also have resulted in the failure of the rescue operation and the loss of a critical ship and crew.
Trust Whammy. He won't let Flurry screw it up.
10265701
I need to make an amendment.
First, and this is not your fault, but I've had some pretty horrific personal struggles IRL which have reduced my frustration tolerance to near-zero.
Second, because of the nature of your insistence that the characters have been making poor choices throughout this discussion, combined with the fact that we have striven as a matter of priority to make sure the characters all act within the scope of their given characterization and fully take into account the bigger picture, it appeared to me that you were simply trolling the comments section by objecting to minutiae rather than pointing out actual flaws in the story.
So I wish to apologize for my comment about "first sensible thing" because the way it was appearing was that you simply wanted a fight. That you were one of those many people who never concede a point and just come up with a torrent of negative assertions, never relenting or being willing to accept a valid explanation for why things are the way things are. This appeared to be the method you have been using because I was very careful and thorough in explaining why things happened the way they did, and still you objected. This definitely rang my "troll" alarm bells. But perhaps I was too quick to judge.
At any rate, I hope you can at least give the story the benefit of the doubt and trust that we have the situation managed and unfolding precisely how it should, and in a way which is certainly plausible enough.
Fair?
10266277
First, I want to thank you for your keen insight and willingness to answer further objections.
Wanted to make a quick comment about this bit you said:
It's easy to forget sometimes how we've covered this kind of thing already in the story, and it takes a keen eye like yours to recall them. Especially impressive since you had nothing to do with making this story and have only gleaned your insight on it from your own personal observations and intuition.
The point in question is actually covered in chapter two when Flurry is en route to Harmony. She is brainstorming possible solutions to the situation. At this point, she doesn't even consider Harmony a viable solution, despite the fact that Nyx requested that she get their help specifically. Recall this moment:
So yes absolutely we made sure that the characters have exhausted all other options prior to the choices they made. This, if anything, was done correctly.
Also...
This is absolutely correct. The scheme going on here is multi-layered. This ship would indeed be extremely valuable to any faction able to capture it. But there are larger forces at work here, and the truth about what is actually going on is still hidden from all our characters' view.
10266334
It is fair, best to let things simmer down. No hard feelings here, internet is full of people who have differing way of seeing things and talking about them. Looking down to our discussion i could have handled it better, i tend to think in things from worst point of view since quite often that is how your enemies (as in enemies of the characters within the story) could spin the stories, and as for minutea goes that is where all the devils can be found.
I will just remain lightly disgruntled towards the management strategies of Twilight and see what happens in the future.
10271041
Sounds like a plan.
In fact, your particular view of Twilight's big project as a whole is likely shared by many prominent characters throughout the colonies. So your view is not implausible, given the information available at this point.
Twilight is, after all, an idealist bent on the reunification of a drastically divided race of people.
Most ponies would consider this an impossible pipe dream.